Book Review: Why I am a Hindu

Why I am a Hindu
-- Shashi Tharoor

As expected from Shashi Tharoor and the Title of the book, considering his political affiliations, the book is more about politics of a religion, than the religion itself. Despite that, he did a good job of presenting evolution of millennia of Hinduism into Hindutva of the last few decades. 

Being an irreligious person, I don't identify myself with any of the 3 types/sections of Hinduism that the author presented.  The first one being, the Hinduism that many people I know (my parents, friends and relatives) follow, which is not hostile towards any other religion and doesn't mandate them to be very serious about their religion itself. A typical example would be something like follows; A Hindu friend of mine, who is religious (strictly fasts on particular days of week, totally honours sacred thread that he wears etc.,), was surprised to know a couple of weeks back that Rama (he does worship Lord Rama) was not an incarnation of Lord Shiva, but of Lord Vishnu. They just vaguely follow what their parents passed on. Some are more intense than others.

Next type that the author discussed was, Hinduism of the great souls of Hinduism, from Adi Shanakara to Vivekananda. It includes interesting compilation/modification/re-invention/expansion done by these great souls, as they felt was good or the need of the hour in their times. Adi Shankara's Advaita, Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita, more liberal and reformist movements by Sri Narayana guru and Basava, more nationalistic movements by Vivekananda and Gandhi are some of the things that makes it a good read.

The final section takes the cake - Hindutva of Sangh Parivar. The divisive, militant and extreme religiosity proposed and promoted by Savarkar, Golwalkar, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya etc., all associated with RSS. The main criticism that the author had against the philosophy of this section of people is, coming up with random and imaginary lines in the history and evolution of society, and claim ownership of land/culture based on that, where as the land and culture themselves have borrowed and imbibed so much from different religions and cultures for thousands of years (I could totally identify myself with that line of logic).

What makes the book worth reading is, it presents a good overview of Hinduism of ancient times, Hinduism of yesteryears and today's Hinduism/Hindutva. Though some of the arguments that the author presented may sound politically motivated, there are facts and figures in the open for readers to cross-check, ponder, and make their own informed opinions. 

Book Review: Sapiens

Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind

-- Yuval Noah Harari

It's the story of thousands of years of Human evolution, from the days of fights between Homo sapiens and other species of Genus:Homo - like Home erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, till today, the day of making bionic arms that can be controlled by thought, the day of growing organs of our choice on organism of our choice, the day of playing almost The God. While telling the story, the author had maintained a constant thread in the backdrop that explores whether a particular change/progress turned out to be for the larger good - reduction of human/animal suffering! 

The author presents several turning points in human history. The first one being, the day sapiens figured out that "a large number of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths". The myth that not all are born equal, whether the comparison is between different sapiens, or between a sapiens and a neanderthal, or between a sapiens and a Tiger. The day sapiens found the mythical glues for a group/religion, they found the way to be the masters of creation. He presents a parallel between the role of an alpha male in a group of Chimps and Catholic alpha male - The Pope.

There is an interesting take on Agricultural Revolution. Though domestication of wild animals and plants is a game-changer in several ways, author argues that it's a grave miscalculation by sapiens. As per that argument, it's not the man that domesticated wheat, but it's the wheat that domesticated man. Wheat made an extremely hardworking man out of a forager, a hoarder out of a nomad. And, sapiens fell in the trap of luxury.

Once Agricultural Revolution gave sapiens enough to eat, their hunger expanded beyond food. They started growing in numbers, as there was enough to feed more and more. They also grew in terms of density. As higher density needs more glues to hold them together, sapiens started imagining more and more orders. Imagined hierarchies were claimed to be natural. Even Aristotle argued that slaves have slavish nature. A single priest could do what a thousand soldiers couldn't, to keep peace. In the imagined order, sapiens in the upper echelons often maintained that, "There is no god. But, don’t tell my servant. He may murder me". Religions, religious missionaries and evangelism helped in spreading these imaginations. 

Sapiens needed a universal trust system to work with other sapiens from remote corners of the earth. They invented money, the only trust system created by humans that bridges almost everything. 

Scientific revolution, that followed Cognitive revolution, Agricultural revolution and Unification of Humankind, was the latest turning-point. Acceptance of ignorance opened the doors for exploration. Money facilitated the research, marriage of science and empire laid the foundation stone for scientific expeditions. Empires funded explorations, explorers paid back in terms of new lands to expand the empires, new opportunities to expand trade. This led to an even bigger alliance - The Military-Industrial-Scientific complex, that was behind the dominance of Europe during colonial period. Sapiens invented credit, and growth that's tied to credit, and in turn Capitalism.

The author ends with larger questions like, whether millions of years of evolution as community members is leading to alienated individuals? After so much of evolution and so many revolutions, have we found the path to happiness? Is delusion happiness? With the fruits of scientific revolution, whether Intelligent Design is going to be real? By man, the God!