This is a 40-year journey from secular to Hindutva.
You need to cross a certain mental Lakshman Rekha in order to call yourself a Sanghi, given the negative associations the label attracts in ‘secular’ media. But Rahul Roushan has never been afraid to put himself out on a limb in his voyage of self-discovery and pursuit of political incorrectness.
He has repeatedly been in the line of ‘secular’ fire for calling out their hypocrisies, first in Faking News, a satirical portal, and later in OpIndia.com, the digital platform he was instrumental in founding. In this book, Roushan mixes the personal with the political to document both the nation’s and his own journey away from Nehruvian secularism to Hindutva.
It encompasses 30 tumultuous years of the Republic, starting with the first stirrings of change in Hindu society after the Mandal agitation and the movement to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and culminating in the rise of Narendra Modi as Bharat’s prime minister.
Today, many Hindus no longer see Hindutva as a communal slur, just as Rahul no longer sees the term Sanghi as a handicap, even though he has no illusions about the RSS’s strengths and shortcomings. Many Indians have become covert or partial Sanghis; that is, they are in the process of rediscovering their Indic roots.
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand changing India, and emerging Hindutva.
Remarks by R. Jagannathan
This is a 40-year journey from secular to Hindutva.
You need to cross a certain mental Lakshman Rekha in order to call yourself a Sanghi, given the negative associations the label attracts in ‘secular’ media. But Rahul Roushan has never been afraid to put himself out on a limb in his voyage of self-discovery and pursuit of political incorrectness.
He has repeatedly been in the line of ‘secular’ fire for calling out their hypocrisies, first in Faking News, a satirical portal, and later in OpIndia.com, the digital platform he was instrumental in founding. In this book, Roushan mixes the personal with the political to document both the nation’s and his own journey away from Nehruvian secularism to Hindutva.
It encompasses 30 tumultuous years of the Republic, starting with the first stirrings of change in Hindu society after the Mandal agitation and the movement to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and culminating in the rise of Narendra Modi as Bharat’s prime minister.
Today, many Hindus no longer see Hindutva as a communal slur, just as Rahul no longer sees the term Sanghi as a handicap, even though he has no illusions about the RSS’s strengths and shortcomings. Many Indians have become covert or partial Sanghis; that is, they are in the process of rediscovering their Indic roots.
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand changing India, and emerging Hindutva.
R. Jagannathan (Jaggi)
Senior journalist and Editorial Director, Swarajya magazine
More remarks on the book by other dignitaries
Bibek Debroy
The book is evocatively written and portrays India’s metamorphosis beautifully.
Sanjeev Sanyal
Many a newly minted ‘Sanghis’ will identify with this journey.
Amish Tripathi
Read this book, and get a microcosmic understanding of the massive social changes taking place in India.
Anand Ranganathan
Roushan has written something that is unputdownable.
Vivek Agnihotri
This is not just the story of Rahul, it’s the story of modern India and it is about you.
Smriti Irani
Story of the coming of age of an average Indian who dared to break the shackles of a Nehruvian past.
T.V. Mohandas Pai
The book is an eye-opener for all of us.
Anupam Kher
Very interesting and quite relevant to our times.
Kanchan Gupta
It offers a post-mortem report on the causes that led to the unmourned demise of pseudo-secularism.