Hindutva is scientific way of living in unison with Nature, says author A Neelakandan

Team L&M

A deeply researched, provocative and comprehensive book on Hindutva that provides a critical and holistic view of the historical, social and scientific meaning of Hindutva, by renowned thinker and writer Aravindan Neelakandan was released at the Constitutuin Club in New Delhi yesterday.

Titled Hindutva: Origin, Evolution, and Future, and published by BluOne Ink, the book is a must-read for everyone for understanding Hindutva not just as a political movement but as a cultural and social one. Neelakandan had earlier co-authored the hugely successful Breaking India.

The book release was followed by a thought-provoking discussion on Hindutva in which author K Annamalai (Ex-IPS and President, Tamil Nadu BJP), Tejasvi Surya (Member of Parliament, Bengaluru South and President, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha), Abhinav Prakash (National Vice President, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha), Prof Makarand Paranjape (Professor at JNU, Former Director, IIAS, Shimla, and author), and the author himself participated.

The book brings to light what Hindutva actually is, what it stands for and shatters many a misconception surrounding this ideology. As the panellists remarked, everyone must read this book, including those who don’t belong to this faith, as it will result in breaking many a myth about what Hindutva is all about.

Talking about the inspiration behind writing Hindutva, Neelakandan said that the idea germinated in his mind when he was still a teenager after he noticed how the word Hindutva was wrongly interpreted as an extremist way of life while in actual sense it is the scientific way of living in coherence with Nature. “While Veer Savarkar is called the Father of Hindutva, it was Rabindranath Tagore who first used this word Hindutva,” he said.

‘’This a path breaking book in which Neelakandan proceeds with the assumption that Hindutva is not an ideology, but a historical-civilisational process. This initial epistemic precaution saves him from turning into either a fervent defender of Hindutva or its apologist in the face of the mounting criticism. Instead, Neelakandan shows how Hindu culture and civilisation has found the wherewithal to defend itself not just militarily, but intellectually whenever it faced life-threatening attacks,” said Paranjape.

Visit our YouTube channel LifeMorePlus to hear the full panel discussion