Why I Am A Hindu

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.This book is co-authored by Shashi Tharoor, the intellect, and Shashi Tharoor, the politician. The intellect Shashi Tharoor begins the book beautifully, elaborating on the core tenets of Hinduism and all the things that make Hinduism not just a religion, but the very way of life worth emulating. Briefly delving on the probable origins of Hinduism, the challenges it faced all along its many millennia-old existence, the ways in which it overcame those challenges and the innumerable saints and holy personae that stand as shining beacons for all the virtues that Hinduism is all about. Ironically, Mr. Tharoor makes you feel proud about being Hindu, more than all the antics and assertions of the so-called saviours of the ‘Hindutva’ brigade.The second and final part of the book are used by politician Shashi Tharoor, who uses it as a canvas to paint a poor – many times, correctly so – picture about his political opponents, especially those belonging to the Hindutva brigade. Starting from the patriarchs of RSS, Golwalkar and Savarkar, who used hatred for another religion to fuel the passion for their own, touching upon the somewhat sensible life of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, to the present day leaders of BJP, who rode upon paranoia and hatred of a huge scale to attain their political gains, Shashi Tharoor has ‘immortalised’ everyone with his systematic arguments against their narrow ideologies, setting them against the all-encompassing backdrop of Hinduism.In an age of manipulation through fake-images and messages spread through social media, people have been taught to hate the real soldiers of India’s freedom struggle, forgetting that these ‘Hindutva’ proponents made little or no contribution during the struggle for India’s independence. But Shashi Tharoor is no pushover to let them go easily. His book is a timely and sensible argument against the malady that is ‘Hindutva’, a product of fear and paranoia.Those belonging to Congress will be all praise for this book. Those supporting the BJP will call this book as biased. But any unbiased reader, especially a Hindu who loves his religion, but doesn’t allow that love to become a license to spew paranoia and hatred against practitioners of other religions, will find this book to be a worthy argument. A sensible read!

The media could not be loaded.  This Book is a reasonably good book to be read by those1. Who have not read Gita or Upanishads, Vedanta even once or if have read it then it was like a parrot without grasping or analysing what it means. This book will help them to know a few salient aspects of Hinduism.2. Who have never critically examined their own faith. Very essential for the growth of any religious belief otherwise it stagnates.3. Whose opinions are based on what they have either heard or what they have read on whats app. However, it is better to have views formed on the basis of learning. Its always better to read Vedas rather than saying without reading it ; VED GYAN KA BHANDAR HAIN.However, it could have been much better , had he also included Why the Hindutva ideology has succeeded despite being marginalised for so long. Listen to Video for more comprehensive review.

An amazing book which gives you a deeper insight into Hinduism. You will get to know why it is called "Sanatan Dharma" or eternal faith (Dharma don't mean faith or religion. It means many thing but people generally use this word to describe faith). Also you will learn many different aspects of religion, society and politics. I will highly recommend this book of you're interested in Hinduism. But you can know these stuffs only if you are rational, unbiased and liberal person. I don't think you can appreciate this book much without being any of these and hence I won't recommend to you if you're not these.I have seen few so-called intellectual beings who hate Shashi Tharoor just because he is a politician in Indian Congress Party and because he was accused for murder of his wife, which is not yet proved. For these silly reasons, they say that this book can't be considered as a genuine book for learning about Hinduism. Also they critize this book because it tells about politics of Hindutva, which they say is complete lie or distortion of facts.In my personal opinion, there is no such thing in this book. I'm writing this review after reading it completely. Three are references of the facts mentioned in book. You can check them out if you have any doubt. Also I didn't felt any manipulation while reading it. Also, author clearly mentions that which thing is said by whom and what author feels about it. All the view belongs to author and you don't need to agree with them at all places. I found author's views completely rational, liberal and unbiased.In case if you disagree with any of author's view then please give your own view regarding that and that view should be rational, unbiased and liberal. Don't just start criticizing the book and author if your view doesn't matches with that of author.Thanks for your patience reading.

Mr. Tharoor @ his best !

This needs to be read by everyone who is unsure how to explain their religion or who already thinks they have it figured out.

A great book with points forcefully made. I would like to see a sequel which delves more into social and religious practices of the liberal Hindu society of ancient times. Very many books allude to it, the Cultural history of india by RMIC Golpark details it with academic rigour. We need a Tharoor to bring a storytelling ability to actual paint a vivid picture.

"Why I Am a Hindu" was written in the context of growing electoral victories by the Hindu nationalist BJP political party (which claims to represent "real Hinduism" and to speak for a Hindu India rather than the secular pluralism of Gandhi and Nehru) and so written primarily for an Indian audience.I read it for a different reason: There is no end of English-language literature on Hinduism written from one of two perspectives: either erudite, academic analysis or wit a specifically Christian, and usually missionary, view. (There's a lot of material that amounts to, "How to talk to a Hindu about Jesus" which presumes that Hindus need to be something other than what they are.)I wanted to follow the advice of the late Krister Stendahl of Harvard (in later life the Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala) who said that if you want to understand a religion, talk to its adherents, not its detractors.Hinduism could not have a more articulate proponent than Dr. Shashi Tharoor, who is Hindu both by birth and conviction and also thoroughly at home in the English-speaking intellectual world. For an American reader, a great strength of this book is precisely that it was not written for a Christian audience--since I am not at all sure that someone from an Abrahamic tradition even CAN really grasp Hinduism, in all of its hospitable plurality and avoidance of sectarian certainty.But if you're willing to try and engage Hinduism on its own terms--the only approach with any integrity, after all--then this is a wonderfully helpful book, and one worth reading more than once.Non-Indian readers should be willing to skip around, though, since not all sections will be relevant to their interests.

I am a Hindu by birth. It never occurred to me to oppose the practices by people around me. Like I choose what I want to eat in a cafeteria I practised methods the religion the way I felt comfortable with. It affords me the freedom to see God in away,shape and form that provides me freedom of thought and methods. This aspect of Hindu faith makes it appear disorganized and chaotic to the outside observer of life of people living in India regardless of the religious affiliation of people being observed. The authors brings this point out very vividly in this book.