Jyotirmaya Sharma

I must say that this is a most enlightening book. This has caused me to think about Swami Vivekananda in a completely different light.

It is difficult, when more than a century has passed, to go back into the mind of someone, and that too, someone like Swami Vivekananda. At one level, I would say that the book is the result of a risky endeavour, as the good Swami is deified by many.

The choice of Muslims as ‘the enemy’ is interesting, given the fact of the rather rapacious attitude of the British in India. He found something to admire in them, and therefore it seemed easy to cast the Muslim community as ‘the enemy’, especially since they could not make an adequate rejoinder.

Swami Vivekananda’s insistence on Sanskrit is interesting, especially since it is a somewhat dead language. He does indeed show that, for all his admirable and formidable qualities, the Swami was indeed as flawed as many of us are.… (mais)

This book was an eye opener for me. There was much about Swami Vivekananda and Shri Aurobindo that came as completely new information for me.

I had no idea about Swami Dayananda, and I am glad that all this was covered.

Similarly, for VD Savarkar.

Their different approaches to the idea of Hinduism, and their attempt to cast into a monotheistic (almost), narrow, muscular, masculine and aggressive form. This, as we know, is playing out in the politics of today.

The influence of writers like Mazzini is explored, and this is interesting.

This book gives a very good overview of the main actors who have played a role in defining Hindutva, even though it is being subjugated to self-interest today.… (mais)