Summary of Shashi Tharoor's Why I Am a Hindu

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview:

#1 My Hinduism is a lived faith; it is a Hinduism of experience and upbringing, a Hinduism of observation and conversation. It is not anchored in deep religious study, but I have always been curious about ancient Indian traditions and beliefs.

#2 Hinduism is the name that foreigners first applied to the indigenous religion of India. It encompasses an eclectic range of beliefs and practices, from pantheism to agnosticism and from faith in reincarnation to the caste system. But none of these constitutes an obligatory credo for a Hindu.

#3 I am a Hindu because I believe in the ancient genius of my own people. I am proud of the history of my faith in my own land, and I am reaffirmed in this allegiance by the Harvard scholar Diana Eck writing of the sacred geography of India.

#4 Hinduism is a religion that allows its followers to be astika (pious) or nastika (impious). The terms relate more to orthopraxy than orthodoxy, but action proceeds from convictions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669376477

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Shashi Tharoor's Why I Am a Hindu

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My Hinduism is a lived faith; it is a Hinduism of experience and upbringing, a Hinduism of observation and conversation. It is not anchored in deep religious study, but I have always been curious about ancient Indian traditions and beliefs.

#2

Hinduism is the name that foreigners first applied to the indigenous religion of India. It encompasses an eclectic range of beliefs and practices, from pantheism to agnosticism and from faith in reincarnation to the caste system. But none of these constitutes an obligatory credo for a Hindu.

#3

I am a Hindu because I believe in the ancient genius of my own people. I am proud of the history of my faith in my own land, and I am reaffirmed in this allegiance by the Harvard scholar Diana Eck writing of the sacred geography of India.

#4

Hinduism is a religion that allows its followers to be astika (pious) or nastika (impious). The terms relate more to orthopraxy than orthodoxy, but action proceeds from convictions.

#5

Hinduism is a religion that believes in the unknowability of God. It asserts that all ways of belief are equally valid, and Hindus readily venerate the saints and sacred objects of other faiths.

#6

Hinduism is a religion that allows each believer to stretch their imagination and personal notion of the creative godhead of divinity. There is no notion of heresy in Hinduism, because there are no pre-set dogmas from which you can deviate.

#7

The question of who is a Hindu has been asked, and, inevitably, political figures have entered the definitional fray. The foundational theorist of the political philosophy of Hindutva, V. D. Savarkar, asserted in the 1920s that one could be a Hindu even if you did not recognize the religious authority of the Vedas.

#8

Hindus are very accepting of other faiths and ways of worship, and this reflects a traditional unwillingness to succumb to doctrinal absolutism.

#9

Hinduism has no prescriptive tenets, and it is fine with different people taking different routes to the Ultimate.

#10

The Hindu idea of God is both simple and complicated. God is everywhere, a presence and an absence, within us and outside us. God has no beginning or end, but he has no shape or form. The highest form of God is the Brahman, the universal soul that suffuses all creation.

#11

God is everywhere and in everything, and he is nirguna,