Book Review: Myth=Mithya by Devdutt Pattanaik

-Akshay Ranganath

I keep looking through the top sellers list on Flipkart and almost always notived the book 'Myth = Mithya: A Handbook Of Hindu Mythology' by Devdutt Pattanaik. I'd seen his video on TED about 'East meets West' http://www.ted.com/talks/devdutt_pattanaik.html. I was impressed by his presentation as well as his depth of knowledge on Hindu traditions and mythology. So I lapped up the book and after reading it, I can say that it was one of the best reads in quite some time.

This book is a very quick exploration about Hinduism, the Gods, the gods (small case 'g'), the Asuras and the Rakshashas - and how they all inter-play. Very profound implications of the Hindu mythologies and deities is presented in a very easy to read fashion. Being a Hindu myself, I felt so illiterate about the religion when I read the book. Our dieties are everywhere, the mythologies are told to us regularly. Despite this, the real reason for something like the meaning of Ganesha's head or the symbolical meaning being told via Brahma's 4 heads or abundance of snake is something that had never intrigued me. Mr Pattanaik brings forth their meaning as well as the reason for significance of each aspect of such symbology.

I was very impressed with the presentation where the author brings differences between two forms of the same thing. For example, between the Devas and Asuras, Kali and Gowri, Krishna in Bhagvatha and Mahabharatha, Lakshmi and Alakshmi and finally, Shiva and Shankara. The stories of Hindu mythology are gripping by itself. When interspersed with the hidden meaning the philosophical significance comes forth.

The other aspect that I liked is the non-partisan presentation, if you can call it so. Most of the books of Hindus have a tilt towards Advaita or Dvita (monism or dualism). Mr Pattanaik presents both points of view and presents a case and its interpretation by Shaivites and Vaishnavites without getting embroiled on which form of Hinduism is better.

After I bought that book almost 4 of my colleagues were intrigued and they too told me it was an impressive book. Now it is my dad's turn :-) A very highly recommended book indeed!

Book Review: India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

I used to browse Flipkart weekly and kept noticing the book, "India After Gandhi" for quite a few months. For some reason, I thought that this was a boring tome on history and scholarly book talking about greatness of Nehru and Gandhi. However, the reviews appeared to be different and when the price came down below Rs 400, I thought of buying the book and I feel that it was a great investment.

In this story of India, Gandhi dies within the first 10 pages. Considering the book is 750 pages, this is a great achievement. We're so used to our school history books that appear to close India's history with independence. However, this book starts where the other books end. And that makes it all the more interesting.

Guha has managed to do a tremendous research and pull information and woven them together into a tapestry of an engaging story. The book evolves by showing India as a baby taking baby steps towards democracy, right after a horrendous pain and followed by an exodus of humankind unmatched at no point in time. This book gives a personalty to each person that we just see as postage stamps and passport size photos in our text books: the ever optimistic and wordly Nehru, the principled and at times quixotic Gandhi, the resolute and stern Vallabhai, the pragmatic intellectual in Ambedkar as well as the scheming and opportunistic leaders of various sectarian populace. These are the personalities who have been elevated to god-like status in the current traditions of India. This book potrays them as genuine humans, fighting and struggling to keep a nation together, a nation that most historians from West and East considered unnatural and impossible.

I liked the way the initial days of India is so well detailed: the formation of states, the first war with Pakistan, Indo-China skirmishes that leads to war, the rise and fall of Nehru and the constant struggle of early nation builders to impart the democratic structures into the Indian tradition culmiating in the constitution.

The subsequent section is about the daughter, Indira and how she schemed and systematically dismantled the democratic principles, the market competition and introduced the systematic corruption that we still see today. It's amazing in that her resoluteness to stay in power could not overwhelm the institutions of democracy that her father had help build. Her emergency backfired and she had to rise back only by winning back the popular support.

Throughout, the book unfolds the other skirmishes, the Hindi language and North-South divide, the Green revolution and the Milk miracle. It brings out the achievements of Indians that has hitherto been never highlighted as it was not related to Nehru-Gandhi. The amazing beuracracy that handled the near impossible task of settling the immigrants, the refugees of war and the humongous task of census & polling as well as the non-partisan & disciplined military arms that ensured India was never under threat of a revolution or dictatorship.

It also talks about Rajiv, his policies of appeasement that still degraded the system and then moves on to the modern issues of terrorism and the Hindu-Muslim communalism and politics of populism. It dwelves into the psyche of Hindu-fundamentalism, the worries of Islamic terrorism and the cost of such division in terms of lives lost and opportunies passed by.

The book ends with a beautiful description of India. Guha compares India to sphagetti. It is a mix of different things; never managing to stay uniform, and yet it is the whole gives it its distinct taste. India is not a state of any one religion nor language. Pakistan tried to build a nation with religion as its core and ended up as a nation marred by political upheavel. Sri Lanka tried to build a nation of a single language and ended up with a deadly civil war. India just amalgamated the differences and ensured that these differences contributed to development. Although slow and corrupt, India as a nation survived all the naysayers and set an example of a free world. And this makes it a wonderful place and one of the most fascinating countries on earth!