Shashi Tharoor’s latest book The Battle of Belonging: On Nationalism, Patriotism, And What It Means To Be Indian (Aleph Book Company; Rs 799) is an erudite attempt at understanding the nuances of political thought that has led to the need for such a book at this hour. Every day when your Indianness is questioned, oftentimes within the gamut of 140 characters on Twitter, who or what defines the meaning of being an Indian?
Drawing instances from history and quoting ideas of stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, B.R. Ambedkar, Sardar Patel and Chandrasekhar Azad, Tharoor delves deep into the definitions of these terms that are being redefined in common parlance in the current political climate. The discussion about this book and the thoughts that went into it was the highlight of the session organised by Kitaab Books in association with Prabha Khaitan Foundation and Aleph Book Company.
The speakers and guests on Zoom for the evening of November 20 included poet, professor and director of IIAS Shimla Makarand Paranjape, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, former vice president of India Hamid Ansari, diplomat and former MP Pavan K. Varma and publisher and MD of Aleph Book Company David Davidar.
Cover of Shashi Tharoor's 'The Battle of Belonging: On Nationalism, Patriotism, And What It Means To Be Indian'. Sourced by the correspondent
Ansari, who was the chief guest, referenced the ‘us against them’ narrative that can be rampantly found around the country. He said: “His (Tharoor’s) book contains over three dozen essays of ideas and ideologies on imagined criteria of us and them. He has dilated on the essential elements of Indianness as understood in the freedom struggle and the seven decades of the Republic of India subsequently. He concludes his book by urging the youth to revert to the core values of the constitution and its diversity.
“Enlightening is the world I would use about this book and the last section on ‘reclaiming India’s soul’, where he writes about ‘a Hindu rashtra dividing India’s soul’ was particularly disturbing. His idea of a liberal, democratic India rooted in the idea of civic nationalism is clearly to be preferred.”
The book has been launched at a time when labelling someone ‘anti-national’ is a frequent occurrence. Said Davidar: “Remarkably learned and, even more importantly, even-handed and lucid study of foundational ideas, concepts of national value, is how I would describe the book. I have been a publisher for over 30 years and, over the course, I have published several thousand books. Some were good, some were bad, and some were books. However, there are few that I would deem essential and this book is one such — anybody who is ill-informed would wish to read (it).”
The author admitted to the book being a culmination of decades of reading and arguments on issues of nationalism and patriotism, which are not just theoretical and academic concepts for him, but personal too. This was the first time that Tharoor chose to send copies of the first manuscript to scholars he respects to seek their learned comments. He thanked the likes of Bhanu Mehta, Shruti Kapila, Pradeep Chhiber and Manu Pillai.
The virtual book launch was followed by an interesting conversation among the minds who have all contributed to shaping India’s history. Justifiably flattering words from them about the work ensured that we pick up a copy of The Battle of Belonging to revisit our idea of nationalism.