Om School

You could easily use history to argue for almost any position in contemporary India: that Hindus have been vegetarians,and that they have not; that Hindus and Muslims have gotten along well together,and that they have not; that Hindus have objected to suttee,and that they have not; that Hindus have renounced the material world,and that they have embraced it; that Hindus have oppressed women and lower castes,and that they fought for their equality. Through history,right up to the contemporary political scene,the tensions between various Hinduisms,and the different sorts of Hindus,have simultaneously enhanced the tradition and led to incalculable suffering,” writes Wendy Doniger in her book The Hindus: An Alternative History. This is not a history of Hinduism. It is a history of Hindus. It is an alternative history of Hindus and the choice of the indefinite article is deliberate. There can be no one singular history. Truth,and history,may have been one,but the wise have spoken of it in various ways.

Doniger’s is an amazingly breathtaking book in its sweep. Indeed,before this,one would have thought that such a book could never be written. The time span is from 50 million BCE to the present,with a chapter on Hindus in America too. While writing the book,if Doniger had access to the work on the decoding of the Indian gene,she would have thrown that in too and perhaps rethought the imponderable of how we factor in the Indus (or Saraswati) Valley Civilisation into a linear view of history. Not that this book is linear in any sense,apart from the time continuum. Quite the contrary,and that’s what distinguishes it from most conventional history. The book begins with references to Rorschach tests and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon and,therefore,non-Sanskrit and non-brahmana traditions are also drawn on. Women,lower castes,outcastes,outcasts and animals figure prominently. To be fair to the author,it is pointed out that Sanskrit texts,apparently authored by brahmanas,also have such elements.

There is an introduction and an inconclusion (this is not a typo). Other than these,23 chapters take one down 50 million to 50,000 BCE,Indus Valley,the missing link of 2000 to 1500 BCE,Rig Veda,Brahmanas,Upanishads,the four aims (dharma,artha,kama,moksha) of Hindu life,Ramayana,Mahabharata,Dharmashastras,early Puranas,Tantra,Delhi Sultanate,later Puranas,the Mughals,the British Raj and the present. Given this sweep and the breadth of reading and scholarship,it is understandable that this book should be as thick as an Indus Valley brick.

She writes with sympathy and empathy and with humour and wit. It’s the humour and easy style of writing that makes such a heavy tome bearable. Those who wish to be offended will find plenty to be offended about. In 2003,an egg was thrown at her. Eggs and much more will probably follow the launch of this book. How dare a non-Hindu and foreigner write such a book,even if she knows Sanskrit,history and Hindu religion far better than most Indians do? Good question. Why couldn’t an Indian have written such a book? As far as I am concerned,four books from my bookshelf have now been dislodged (A.L. Basham,Agehananda Bharati,Percival Spear,Romila Thapar) to make room for this one and this is reflective of the content. It is a great book.