BOOK DISSEMINATION OF WHY I AM A HINDU?

1. BOOK
DISSEMINATI
ON
OF
WHY I AM A
HINDU
- SHASHI
THAROOR
BY: PRAGATI
SRIVASTAVA

2. SHASHI THAROOR
Shashi Tharoor is the bestselling author
of sixteen previous books, both fiction
and non-fiction, besides being a noted
critic and columnist. His books include
the path-breaking satire the Great
Indian Novel (1989), the classic India:
From Midnight to the Millennium (1997)
and most recently, An Era of Darkness:
The British Empire in India, for which he
won the Ramnath Goenka Award for
Excellence in Journalism, 2016 for
Books (Non-Fiction). He was a former under secretary-
general of the United Nations and a
former minister of state for human
resource development and minister of
state for external affairs in the
Government of India. He has won
numerous literary awards, including a
Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was
honoured as New Age Politician of the
Year (2010) by NDTV. He was awarded
the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India's
highest honour for overseas Indians.

4. But what’s in a name?
Of course, “Why I Am…” is a title format that has been used by many an
author. Why I Am Not A Communist, by Karel Čapek (1924), Why I Am Not
A Christian, an essay by Bertrand Russell (1927), Why I Am Still A
Christian, by Hans Küng (1987), Why I Am Not A Muslim, by Ibn Warraq
(1995) are well known globally. Closer home, we have Bhagat Singh’s Why
I Am An Atheist (1930), and the explosive Why I Am Not A Hindu by
Kancha Illiah (1995). In fact, the title of Tharoor’s book seems like a
purposeful inversion of the last one, and consequently perhaps, even of
the subject.

5. A brief history of Hinduism
The current state of brazen religious
politics led by a chest-thumping
menagerie of leaders has been a cause
of mortification for many Indians, Hindu
and otherwise. When Hindutva is often
mistaken for or sold as Hinduism, it is
time to set the record straight.
Why I Am A Hindu, running close to 300
pages, is divided into two sections, the
first of which offers a brief history of
Hinduism. The first chapter is titled “My
Hinduism”, presented in what can be
called the Devdutt Pattanaik mode. It is
a clever and necessary disclaimer
underscoring subjectivity – especially
useful for times when religious
sentiments are easily hurt. Tharoor
acquaints us with the kind of Hinduism
he was raised with, and, along with a
sprinkling of anecdotes, gives an

6. The second chapter, titled “The Hindu
Way”, deals with common Hindu concepts
such as paramatma, brahman, dharma,
karma, maya, mukti, varna, ashrama and
yugas. Tharoor describes the six
philosophical traditions of Hinduism (shad
darshanas) and its textual tradition,
starting from the Vedas, Upanishads and
Puranas, to the Agamas, Sutras and
Shastras. Moving on from the esoteric to
the ritualistic, he briefly explains the ideas
of utsavas, yatras, pujas and even the
relevance – or the lack of them – to
vegetarianism and alcohol in the Hindu
way of life.
He writes”
“Every Hindu may not be conscious of the
finer points of his faith, but he has been
raised in the tradition of its assumptions
and doctrines, even when these have not
been explained to him. His Hinduism may

7. The third chapter, titled “Questioning Hindu
Customs”, gets into the sticky territories of caste,
superstition, and “godmen”. Tharoor’s career as a
politician enriches his perspective on these subjects,
for nowhere else do the three converge so vividly.

8. In the fourth and last chapter of section one, titled
“Great Souls of Hinduism”, Tharoor profiles some of the
greatest spiritual personalities, who either created,
challenged or transformed the religion. From the sages
Vyasa, Yagnavalkya and Patanjali to Mahavir Jain and
Gautama Buddha; from Adi Shankaracharya and
Ramanuja to the Bhakti saints; from Kabir, Nanak and
Mirabai to Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Osho, the author
tells the stories of many of the major religions of India in

9. Religion and politics
The second part of the book is
titled “Political Hinduism”.
This is where Tharoor’s
meticulous context-building
through the history of
Hinduism is particularly useful.
He starts building his case
with the idea of secularism,
which becomes a moot point
when viewed through the
prism of Western political
theory. The right term in the
Indian context, he argues, is
“pluralism”, for India is and
has long been a land of many
religions. Further, he says,
religion when defined as

10. The author explains the BJP’s brand of Hindutva politics as being
based on a victim-turned-avenger complex, a narrative of failure
and defeat, and hatred for the Muslim community. Even if one were
to turn a blind eye to the clear lack of Muslim representation (at
least in the Lok Sabha) in this government, one can hardly ignore
visible and worrying trends such as lynching and cow vigilantism.
Ideas like ghar waapsi and love jihad, and groups like gau
rakshaks and “Anti Romeo squads” operate and thrive under the
aegis of the ruling party, and Tharoor correctly echoes the alarm of
peace-loving Indians in this context.

11. Notwithstanding the last
chapter, titled “Taking Back
Hinduism” which reads as
though it was written in a hurry,
Why I Am A Hindu is as balanced
a book on religion as one can
hope to write in these
tumultuous times. It is also a
necessary reminder to all
Hindus that plural is the way
they were, and plural is what

12. Hinduism and Hindutva are two different things.
In the present era, the definition of religion has
been construed in a very different way from
what it actually is. Be it Ram Chandra Guha or
Dr Tharoor, people need to open their eyes and
understand the concept of secularism
propounded in the Constitution of India. Until
and unless this definition is made clear,
tensions of communalism would be on the rise.