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Why I Am a Hindu: Decoding and Rediscovering the World’s Oldest Religion

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Delving into Why I Am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor and realising the truth about one of the oldest religion in this world and what it has become now has been nothing less than a tryst between our past and present.

I was a part of the Delhi University Theatre Circuit (DUTC) and anyone even briefly acquainted with DUTC knows very well that DUTC is crazy about Hinduism and Hindutva Politics. Ever since the game-changing play – Welcome to the Machine by Ankur, the theatre society of S.G.T.B Khalsa College came in 2014, the Delhi University campus saw conversations about saffronisation being loudly irked in public domain. And so I decided to read more about Hinduism and Hindutva. After a whole lot of research and reading several books, I stumbled upon Why I Am a Hindu by Shashi Tharoor.

Tharoor creates a mind-changing and super-impactful literary masterpiece that not only glorifies Hinduism in its pure form but also raises several questions regarding its current state in the mind of the readers. I, as a literature student, fell in love with the way the book is structured. I actually went over the index multiple times. Section one of the book makes the reader take a walk through parts of several religious books like Vedas, Upnishadas, Mahabharata, etc. It carefully explains truths, myths, rituals, and espoused in the dense religious texts. The second section deals with political Hinduism and sensational topics of Hindutva and cow politics. And then there’s section three, that asserts the hard-hitting truth and the alterations which we need in the current times.

Tharoor also focuses on several aspects to ponder about like Orientalism, Intellectual colonialism, retaining the pluralistic nature of Hinduism, and so on. Each of these aspects can be further elaborated in separate articles.  In times of constant turmoil of religion and politics, arming oneself with knowledge is one of the most impactful ways to contribute to the struggle of orthodoxy and fanaticism.

Feature Image Credit: Manorama Online

Palak Aggarwal

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Journalism has been called the “first rough draft of history”. D.U.B may be termed as the first rough draft of DU history. Freedom to Express.

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