What could have been a scholarly text on Hindu religion or Hindutva has been unfortunately reduced to a rant against a political adversary.
The author goes into great depth of origins of Hindu religion, philosophy, Hindu traditions; their origins in the Vedas and Upanishads. The understanding and explanations are profound and would be treat for every Hindu and a student of Hinduism.The philosophies of Vivekanand, Savarkar, Golwalkar and Deen Dadayal Upadhyay have been explained in minute detail and are praise worthy. The birth of RSS and their ideology is superbly explained.
The later part of the book, once it touches the political arena- is when the book falls apart. The author is caught in his own contradictions. It sounds as if he has been commissioned to write a book by his political masters!
Mr. Tharoor tells us exactly what he likes about the Hindu way of life. Most notably that it encompasses all ways of worships, atheism, idolatry and even all rituals. (unlike Abrahamic religions) You can have your own way of reaching the ultimate truth. And he hates all the wrongs that are being done in the name of religion by the zealots and the bigots or bhakts as he would address them.
But he forgets one thing. It is this same faith and religion which he is a product of, which has whole heartedly embraced the political leadership of his adversary. Brandishing them as all wrong and taking a moral high ground that only he stands for the Hindu way of life is incomprehensible.
It is this same faith which he praises in the book, which has in its collective wisdom chosen this leadership. So he should be more gracious and acceptable of choice of the majority of the followers of this faith.
This is where his political optics kick in and had he stayed clear of it, the book would have become a scholarly text on the subject. But alas, the author chose to use it for his political ambitions.
