Hindus in Hindu Rashtra by Anand Ranganathan

In this one I try very hard not to rant about things.

This book is a quick read. It is not an easy one, but a quick one that you can go through in one sitting if you’re in the ‘right’ mindset for it. But if you want a quicker breakdown of the message Ranganathan attempts to deliver through the 100-odd pages of the book; it is simple: “Hindu khatre mein hai.”

Ranganathan’s central argument for the book is that Hindus, the majority and original dwellers of the land that he calls Bharat, are eighth-class citizens in their own country due to minority appeasement and state-sanctioned discriminatory laws; ‘a state-sanctioned apartheid’ against Hindus. To back this argument, Ranganathan illustrates 8 reasons that according to him have resulted in the degradation of the logical first-class citizens of the country to this abysmal social standing. In his acknowledgements, he announces to his readers that all royalties from this book will go to “this all-accepting, long-suffering, uncomplaining, perhaps to the point of meekness, community”.

As you can clearly see from this description, Ranganathan is the poster child for unbiased opinions!

But that is unfair of me. No matter how much I try to implement the principles of objectivity instilled in me by my Journalism education, even I sometimes find it difficult to stop my biases from clouding my judgement. It is a product of being a citizen of a country with such polarising views. This year was the first time the information that I had a Masters degree from Xavier’s College, Mumbai, immediately got me labelled as a “LeLi: a Left-liberal”. Yuck! While initially this tag made me balk, not for the connotation of it, but the evident disgust with which it was uttered, I have come to the realisation that it is not completely wrong. I have my biases, but I am self-aware enough to know when those biases are blocking my view of the all-round situation.

Ranganathan, however, does not seem to have any such compulsion.

I am going to avoid going on a rant about my existing opinions on the current political climate of India and the terminology Hindu Rashtra. I was accused of not having an open mind when I was hesitant about spending time reading the book and so I forced myself to go into it without being defensive. I read the book in its entirety without giving into my natural instinct of arguing against every point. At the end of it, I am glad I did that because I will be the first to admit that the author does make some interesting arguments that I can see the merit in. However, do I think that this should be a book targeted to the general public who will not take it as a very well-argued book from an author with a very narrow worldview? Absolutely not.

Even though Ranganathan does not specifically mention it, but I am assuming that due to the decades of Muslim appeasement, laws that are in the favour of this particular minority, and not nearly enough steps taken by the BJP to rectify the minority biased mistakes of the Congress: Muslims are the first class citizens in India. (Let me just plug in an interesting read here: *cough cough*. ) The question that arises is; who are the other six class citizens that sit smugly above the Hindus? Christians? (Maybe not...) Sikhs? (That may be a different conversation.)

Strictly speaking about the writing style of the book: it reads like a long rant. Even though he tries to build up his arguments in a logical sequence to back the thesis of his essay, Ranganathan is repetitive. His language is simple to follow but at some points too verbose.

I am not going to poke holes in the facts that Ranganathan mentions in the book. He is a historian and I think he has done a good job of elucidating just why he truly believes the argument he makes in this book. However, I can hold him guilty for having selective bias and a serious case of ‘whatabouttery’. All the things he mentions in this book may be true and it can still be true that Hindus are not the victims and if you look at the broader picture Hindu supremacist ideologies are not the solution to India’s polarised political problems.

Let me just end by saying that I am glad that I read the book, mostly because I keep complaining about most social media and academic peer groups being echo-chambers of views that align with mine. But I may not want to repeat the experience just to avoid the ball of annoyance that was lodged in my throat for several hours after reading the book.