The session on `Why I am a Hindu', the book written by Shashi Tharoor at the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters opened to a jam-packed audience where the author narrated what prompted him to pen the book to counter Hindutva.

He said penning the book resonated from his upbringing. Mihir Bose, journalist and author, tried to open the discussion questioning Tharoor on soft Hindutva which he outrightly rejected. When Mihir wanted to know if the book was written for special purpose, inorder to keep the top post of prime minister in mind, Shashi dismissed it saying he is not running for any post.

Shashi Tharoor said Hinduism has now been reduced to a contemporary political distortion. It has now been distorted to a faith of delirious fanaticism. The time has come to say to the public that what you portray is not Hinduism but pseudo-'sick'ularism, which is the famous term of abuse by trollers.

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Photo: M Praveen

On why Hindutva has come to the mainstream now, Shashi Tharoor said it was because power has an embracing effect to command a larger audience.

"The prime minister has made a speech in which he said the sight of Ganesh's head on the body is proof to show that India was an expert in plastic surgery. But the irony is that while India was an expert in plastic surgery, anybody who knows the approximate size of the imaginable head of an elephant and the largest imaginable human head can understand that the former cannot be inter-fixed through plastic surgery." All scientifically verified facts become discredited by absurd fantasy.

On why Britishers were anti-Hindu, the two-time MLA from Thiruvananthapuram said that the British played a dirty game when in India and their form of governance was divide and rule. Shashi Tharoor asks not to take it very seriously. There is no question that a lot of Hindutva chauvinism comes from a deep-seated inferiority complex, a perception of having been subjugated from the humiliation not just by the British. "When I talked about 200 years of foreign rule in subjugation, the prime minister himself spoke of 1200 years of foreign rule in subjugation. That's not right. The Muslim rule was a different story than that of the British."

Tharoor said that Nehru himself was not a believer of any religion and was not interested in any religion too but at the same time he was never hostile. Another example to show Nehru's attitude towards religion was smashing of coconuts at the launching of Indian ships, which is purely a Hindu culture. Shashi said Nehru had secularism in his mind.

As long as India was a secular state, many great leaders fought for representation of every religion. Everyone, every state has equal rights to religion. On the question of his party opposing the Triple Talaq, Shashi Tharoor dismissed it and said it is not vote bank politics and the party was never against the bill. It was drafted very hastily and the party had only questioned the civil offence leading to a criminal punishment.

On the question of rise in intolerance that is presently seen everywhere, he mentioned the film Padmaavat and said he was foolish enough to stick his neck out and oppose it. The truth is that we live in volatile times and there is a perception that if a film on a work of art is likely to incite riot, then it is better to take it out of the way.

Winding up the session, Shashi Tharoor reiterated once again that his book is not on Hindutva but on Hinduism. It is saying that Hindutva is not Hinduism which is a religion of acceptance, a religion of ahimsa and satya.

The session was thrown open for the public at the end and questions on temples and the book being devoted to politics was taken up by the writer.