“The Hinduism of Sangh Parivar cheats and distorts the Hinduism that I know," said Shashi Tharoor, MP, at a discussion on his book 'Why I am a Hindu' held at the Press Club here on Monday.   To illustrate the point, he cited some  examples from his life. He shared how his father would never miss his morning prayers, but would never insist on anyone else in the family to take part. "His belief was that  Hindus should seek truth by themselves," said Mr Tharoor. 

The "moral urgency" to reveal this truth and not the imminent elections prompted him to write the book 'Why I am a Hindu.'  That was his first argument, when B. Aburaj, who was introduced as a Left-leaning academic, asked him the "why now" question. He said that many would correlate the publishing of the book with the recent incident of Rahul Gandhi visiting temples. While some see the book as Congress's appeal to Hindu vote banks,  Mr Tharoor argued, "people who know my writing would know it is a consistent line of thinking

He listed the examples of how several of his earlier works have explored the idea of the 'larger Hinduism'  in which even  atheists would find themselves at home.  He said that following the success of ‘An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India,’ the publishers had suggested that he write another book. He then insisted that ‘Hinduism’ would be the subject he would pursue as the times called for it. DC Books have started translating the book to Malayalam.  Mr Tharoor said that the meaning and message of the book should reach as many Indians as possible, and for this reason, translations to native languages was important.