Why I am a Hindu

The Shashi Tharoor book Why I am a Hindu is completed and I thought to light it through a review here. Although I do not know how many of you have heard of it or are planning to read it.

Synopsis

Why I am a hindu is a book which describes and glorifies the Hinduism to a very great extent. The book starts with the oldest of the Hinduism known and comes to an end to the Hinduism of 2018. The book has covered every important person, book or reference in Hinduism. The book also gives you the insights of what actually hinduism is and what you think it is. Dr. Tharoor has made every attempt with proper references for how great Hinduism is and how flexible it is. From all the famous of some Gods to the hinduism which led to Babri Masjid riots, everything is covered in this book with proper contexts.

My Opinion

Although the book is called Why I am a Hindu, it is not for Hindus entirely. The book is not about Why you should be Hindu like most religious texts except Hindu's portray such as Quran. The book is about What is hinduism? What is so great about it and why it is the most respectful and the oldest religion of the world. The book describes how Hinduism never demands anyone to actually convert to Hinduism but other religious texts do. The book makes it clear that Hinduism is the most flexible and tolerable religion of this world who forces nobody to convert and is the only major religion of this world which does not consider itself as the "only true religion" like Islam, Christanity etc. 

    Apart from the Hinduism, Dr. Tharoor also mentions about what a religion should be and Why he is a hindu as he chose himself to be. The book has some great lines which might become controversial if written or heard like this.

   The only thing I did not like about the book is the so much bashing and thrashing of the leading party of India BJP which relates to RSS and Hindutva. Although, every account of the flaw mentioned is perfectly justifiable and true but targeting the single party did not seem fair. I cannot believe that Dr. Tharoor's party INC never said anything against Hindus or favouring to Muslims (which it is all the time). It felt like a cheap stunt for me to only targeting the single party which by the fact is currently ruling India. Other than that, the book is great and highly recommendable from my side.