Why I Am A Hindu

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I am disappointed by this book which seemed exciting and promising. The title says 'Why I am a Hindu', and that is what I was looking forward to - a personalised take on Tharoor's Hinduism. But it did not turn out to be so. Though he cleverly begins with one incident from his childhood, which is also what was published in several promotional material for the book, the glimpse into his personal experience of being a Hindu ends there. There are only a handful of other accounts that are there interspersed in the rest of the book. Animal Husbandry- Rajasthan election manifesto of both parties has this. It is interesting to note Madhya Pradesh only Congress promised for Goshalas in every district, not at all promised by the Bjp. One can say that he has done a fine cut and paste job in the first half of the book with his own vague and unclear thoughts peppered with readable prose. If I was to give a rating for the first 138 pgs I would give 4 out of five stars. But the book's as deceptive as the author himself, it has Political approach from 139 pgs nearly 300 pgs. So who knows truly whence this great creation sprang? Who knows whence this creation had its origin?

Finally, Pgno: 247. '' Pluralist and democratic India must, by definition, tolerate the plural expression of its many identities. To allow the self- appointed arbiters of Bharatiya Sanskriti to impose their hypocrisy and double standards on the rest of us is to permit them to define Indianness down until it ceases to be India''. Throughout the decades after Independence, the political culture of the country reflected these ‘secular’ assumptions and attitudes. Though the Indian population was 80 per cent Hindu and the country had been partitioned as a result of a demand for a separate Muslim homeland, three of India’s eleven presidents were Muslims; so were innumerable governors, cabinet ministers, chief ministers of states, ambassadors, generals, and Supreme Court justices. During the war with Pakistan in 1971, when the Pakistani leadership was foolish enough to proclaim a jihad against the Hindu unbelievers, the Indian Air Force in the northern sector was commanded by a Muslim (Air Marshal, later Air Chief Marshal, I. H. Latif); the army commander was a Parsi (General, later Field Marshal, S. H. F. J. Manekshaw), the general officer commanding the forces that marched into Bangladesh was a Sikh (General J. S. Aurora), and the general flown in to negotiate the surrender of the Pakistani forces in East Bengal was Jewish (Major-General J. F. R. Jacob). They led the armed forces of an overwhelmingly Hindu country. That is India.”

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Did Mr. Tharoor not think here the kind of impression of Hinduism, will the mind of a reader form when he quotes all spiritual leaders in the same breath and elaborated on the misdoings of one? Would he do the same when he talks about Indian politicians as a whole and then elaborate only on a few scamsters, which his current party is replete with? Hindutva is an assault on Hinduism: Shashi Tharoor". The Economic Times . Retrieved 25 October 2021. Discovered the link of the existent to the non-existent. And they stretched their cord of vision across the void, This book is all you need if you want to know more about Hinduism. It is full of knowledge, politics, and about ideologies of Hinduism. The book is divided into three parts. Each part has it’s own importance, explaining different aspects. The book begins with the author’s belief in Hinduism, one can reflect so much of their childhood in that part. He delves deep into Hinduism’s most important schools of thought (such as the Advaita Vedanta). In this book Dr Tharoor does not sell Hinduism but calls attention to its egalitarian nature and history. God is in the hearts of the believer ( in Hinduism there are a number of gods - the count varies depending on who you speak to - all the way from 330,000 or 330 million gods …. You choose ). Dr Tharoor opines that Hinduism says “The names do not matter - Krishna/Allah/Jesus - Hinduism allows its believers to choose any mix from this and more but welcomes them all”. This is not a book that speaks about how for political reasons various forces have interpreted the faith to their own advantage. But it is not without its faults. As Dr Tharoor points not only is India the largest democracy but also the greatest hypocrisy.

The Second Part of the novel under Political Hinduism has a three-point approach- 1. Hinduism is great plural and enigmatic, not puritanical. 2. What Hindutva people do wrong. 3. The Bjp is responsible or gives some examples of what the Bjp had done. It is nothing but a political rant using Hinduism as a shield to conquer the masses of readers. Chanda-Vaz, Urmi (18 February 2018). "Shashi Tharoor's 'Why I Am A Hindu' is a timely reminder of why Hinduism must retain its pluralism". Scroll.in . Retrieved 24 May 2018. In Why I Am a Hindu, one of India’s finest public intellectuals gives us a profound book about one of the world’s oldest and greatest religions. Starting with a close examination of his own belief in Hinduism, he ranges far and wide in his study of the faith. He talks about the Great Souls of Hinduism, Adi Shankara, Patanjali, Ramanuja, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and many others who made major contributions to the essence of Hinduism. He delves deep into Hinduism’s most important schools of thought (such as the Advaita Vedanta). He explains, in easily accessible language, important aspects and concepts of Hindu philosophy like the Purusharthas and Bhakti, masterfully summarizes the lessons of the Gita and Vivekananda’s ecumenism, and explores with sympathy the ‘Hinduism of habit’ practised by ordinary believers. He looks at the myriad manifestations of political Hinduism in the modern era, including violence committed in the name of the faith by right-wing organizations and their adherents. He analyzes Hindutva, explains its rise and dwells at length on the philosophy of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, its most significant ideologue. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremist ‘bhakts’, and unequivocal in his belief that everything that makes India a great and distinctive culture and country will be imperiled if religious ‘fundamentalists’ are allowed to take the upper hand. However, he also makes the point that it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy.The exclusion of critical and rational philosophies from Hinduism gives us cause for thought. If a rational, materialistic, empiricist and sceptical philosophical school such as Carvaka had been given prominence in the forging of a Hindu tradition, perhaps India would have escaped being slotted into the spiritual versus materialist dichotomy. India with all its material inequities, communalism and casteism has been stereotyped as exotic and other-worldly. This has not helped us forge an equitable future. Till today our society fails to accept the enormity of rampant inequities, fascinated as we are with the metaphysical spirit. I grew up in a Hindu household. Our home always had a prayer room, where paintings and portraits of assorted divinities jostled for shelf and wall space with fading photographs of departed ancestors, all stained by ash scattered from the incense burned daily by my devout parents. I have written before of how my earliest experiences of piety came from watching my father at prayer. Every morning, after his bath, my father would stand in front of the prayer room wrapped in his towel, his wet hair still uncombed, and chant his Sanskrit mantras. But he never obliged me to join him; he exemplified the Hindu idea that religion is an intensely personal matter, that prayer is between you and whatever image of your Maker you choose to worship. In the Hindu way, I was to find my own truth. Ashwani Kumar is a poet, author, and senior fellow at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His latest anthology is Banaras and the Other Opening with a frank and touching reflection on his personal beliefs, he lays out Hinduism's origins and its key philosophical concepts — including Vedanta, the Purusharthas, and Bhakti — before focusing on texts such as the Bhagadvagita. The 'Great Souls', or key individuals of Hinduism, from Adi Shankara to Vivekananda, are discussed, as are everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste. This is one of the most misleading and dishonest books ever written. Politically motivated and historically miseading is the shortest review one can write. It is quite evident that the author himself is unaware about the fundamentals of Hinduism when he says the following.

More so, I would like to ask Mr. Tharoor, if he feels Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya or Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel was not great enough that any institution or project could be named after them then what about the 500+ project named after the Gandhi dynasty which runs your party? Did Rajeev Gandhi and Indira Gandhi not give India the gifts of emergency, the lynching of Sikhs, caste-based reservation for votes and Bofors Scam? Does that make them great enough?

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The first part as the author asserts are his personal opinions and how he has understood Hinduism and his understanding of the religion. I agree with some aspects as I too had a similar trajectory of conforming as a child followed by rebellion during my high school and college days. And, now I believe in my own terms and pace. Like the author says the book is too small to cover the span and beliefs of Hinduism and how it has evolved. While reading I had to constantly remind myself that it’s the author’s individual opinion rather than an objective approach. Shashi Tharoor is a member of the Indian Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. He previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and as the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. I remember a line from the early days of my reading and it goes like this – ‘If a poet falls in love with you, you will forever be immortalised’. That was the feeling I had when I finished reading this book. On one side are trolls of social media, simply bashing you for any and every point that you express. The validity or otherwise of the point matters the least to them. All that they want is to put you down and insult you. They turn every debate into a bitter argument and leave a bad taste in the mouth. At the other end of the intellectual spectrum are people like Shashi Tharoor. These are the kind of people that you don’t normally mess with, or else they ‘immortalise’ you by writing in reams to prove how dumb you and your opinions are.

Alas, here is where the book lost its charm for me. Granted that Hinduism and Hindutva are like chalk and cheese but the idea behind the book was why one should be a Hindu and not why one should not adhere to Hindutva. Tharoor spends almost 30% of the book describing, decrying and dissecting the political rivals of his own Congress party – the RSS and the BJP. Here too he takes a logical route by going first through the writings of the first leaders of RSS – V. D. Savarkar, M.S. Golwalkar, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. These make for some very interesting studies and viewpoints from Tharoor. https://m.economictimes.com/news/poli...- nation/rakhigarhi-dna-study-questions-aryan-invasion-theory-claims- author/articleshow/71001985.cmsThis guy is so shameless that he wrote 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister' just before 2019 central government election to divert some votes but he failed to do so. Voters have seen the ground reality that BJP government is indeed working for development of India. And i so wished congress stopped doing dynasty politics, they cant even choose congress presidentship outside the family. And as for Shashi Tharoor, why don't you write book on what you did to your wife and what kind of scams your congress party did. He quotes his friend from the tech industry “Hinduism is an open source technology on which any religion structure can be built keeping in mind target human hearts”. So, Congress Goons can do this disgraceful gesture to show their anger, so his party is also narrow-minded and not a substance to vote for. Isn't it? Did Tharoor try to object such bans then? When he was a minister? Why did not such broad-minded people stop banning books as told above? To appease Hindus? Were there any elections nearby? Pg no: 230: There was the Shiv Sena MP, a member of the ruling coalition shoving food down the throat of a fasting Muslim during Ramzan and getting away without the slightest censure from the ruling party. On this matter, according to Tharoor the Bjp has not applied any disciplinary action on the MP. That's wrong. Now, humanity professor Tharoor can explain why Congress wants to form a Government with such people who can't respect others' beliefs? Only opportunism?