In God's Name – Lifestyle News

The recently held Delhi Literature Festival 2024 featured Arundhati Roy's Ministry of Happiness, Rashmi Samant's Ram Janmabhoomi: An Inspiration for a Hindu Revival and Anand Ranganathan's Hindu Rashtra. He was on par with the Hindu. Some titles included the nouns Lord Ram, Ayodhya and Hindu.

“We feel that books like this need to be shared with readers because they offer a different story that has never been told,” says festival founder Ajay Sharma. “While previous writing has been largely dominated by left-wing ideology, the new book by Ranganathan and journalist Rahul Shivshankar offers a different story, one that also enjoys a lot of support among readers. “I'm getting it,” he added.'The Hindus of Rashtra' by Ranganathan, a regular on TV debates, is one of the top sellers on Amazon.While, as Sharma puts it, “a new narrative has been taking shape over the past decade,” we are also seeing the lines between what we consider faith, history, and politics blurring. I see it. While literary festivals and literary spaces provide democratic spaces for a wide range of perspectives, they are not immune to such intersections. Perhaps the most famous example is the brutal attack on “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie in 2022, which damaged his eye and one of his arms. Also, at the 2023 World Book Fair, a group of protesting men raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Bharat Mata ki Jai, and 'Free Bible Band Karo'. They are said to have vandalized the stall of a Christian non-profit organization while shouting. Like the Delhi Literature Festival, the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival also discussed topics of faith, from Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas and idol worship to aspects of Jainism. “This is neither the first nor the last time such topics will be discussed at JLF. There is a place for religion in literature, but we will focus more on what lies behind it: spirituality and philosophy. Either because it is a written text and not a myth as it should be, or because religion today is being used for land grabbing and violence. That is not the purpose here, it is to rebel. And how do we do that? It's not about banning it, it's about being able to approach it through knowledge and reflection,” says Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival.・Director Sanjoy K. Roy says:Deepti Talwar, Editor-in-Chief, Penguin Random House India“Recently, there has been an increase in the number of books on Hindu philosophy.'' However, according to the publisher, these mainly fall into the areas of self-development and spirituality. Sachin Sharma, associate publisher at HarperCollins, agreed, saying, “Spiritual self-help and commentary on Vedic scriptures are very popular among readers.” Mr. Chatterjee added: Content drawn from scriptures and epics, as well as retellings of myths and folklore, are also popular. ”

Although both publishers are best known for publishing books across genres, India's largest publisher by circulation is the lesser-known Gita Press. The Gorakhpur-based publishing house was founded in 1921 by two Marwari businessmen and publishes Hindu religious texts, mostly in Hindi, that preach the doctrine of Sanatana and his Dharma. Kalyan, a highly subscribed monthly magazine that has around 250,000 subscribers, according to media reports, will also be published. Although religious texts have always remained popular, the Gita Press often espouses conservative, parochial and patriarchal views, even taking political positions against the Hindu Code Bill. He also distanced himself from social reforms such as improving the status of women and remarriage for widows. Notably, a journalist was awarded the 2021 Gandhi Peace Prize. Alongside religious texts, these fictional interpretations also remain popular. Books by authors such as Amish, Devdutt Pattanaik and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni are very popular in this genre. Divakaruni, who is credited with retelling the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata through the lens of the female protagonists Sita and Draupadi, warns: “Literature is used to present us with complex, human heroes and admirable characters, and when we use mythological figures for propaganda, it is a sad misuse of their potential.” Talking about the role that books play in the growing religious majoritarianism in this country, it is nothing new, books have been used since ancient times in various ways, sometimes to create propaganda, sometimes to spread hatred. The author emphasizes that it has been exploited to collect. “I hope that both writers and readers will recognize the immense power of words and use them for their best purposes: to reflect on our times and to defend our common humanity.” . Readers can have a huge impact on this simply by purchasing such books.”