This book revolves around progressive couples who get into the mission of distorting history for scoring ideological points. Raziya and Amir, two professional filmmakers are touring Hampi to decide on a script for a documentary funded by the government. Amir being the director sets up his aim to harmonize the society amid communal clashes in the country. The story initially revolves around the paradoxical lifestyle of Marxist intellectuals and exposes phony views that they believe to be true in their utopian world. The initial context transparently showcases their selective hatred towards the Hindu religion and their perpetual struggle to corner the civilisational values of Hindus. Later on, Lakshmi (Raziya’s premarital name) gets stuck into the dilemma of forcefully following a particular religion in her husband’s home even after they both agree to live a progressive life.
Author SL Bhyrappa adequately elaborates the dilemma of Lakshmi and clearly demonstrates how the Marxist ideologies hasten the fall of gullible Hindu women into the trap of conversion. Also, this introductory story exemplifies the present situation of Kerala. After her Hampi tour, there arises a situation for Lakshmi which initiates her to fall in guiltiness; the death of her father Narsimhe Gowda who refused to accept her marriage and conversion with Amir. She visits her village for his last rites. She gets surprised after seeing a huge stack of books that her father had acquired during the 28 years after she had left her home. The self-made notes of her father on many intriguing topics build inquisitiveness in Lakshmi, after which she realises that the version of history sold by the Marxist nexus led by Prof Shastri and his comrades are filled with irreconcilable lies.
Unravelling of historical Negationism : The process of self-realisation and introspection begins, and then she encounters many barbaric acts of Muslim rulers in the past. This book is a great example to narrate the struggles of present-day millennials and their dilemma to explore the righteousness in this enclosed mass psychosis. Later on, Lakshmi finds out about the destruction of temples and barbaric genocides of Tipu and Aurungezb which was delicately wrapped by left intellectuals as a freedom fighter and as an icon of fortune. As Koenraad Elst pointed out in a YouTube video, “if India were a Muslim-majority nation, Babri Masjid would become the national monument showcasing the victory of one-true-religion over infidels. This was a systematic activity carried out by every pious Muslim king (with an exception of Akbar who earned the ire of traditionalists for this reason) and can be traced to the very origin of Islam in Arabia.”
Right in the middle of the story author takes us on a catastrophic and exasperating tour where he narrates a story of a Hindu king who sees his men getting butchered by Aurangzeb’s army, he hears the cries of their women committing Jauhar and sees his Kingdom’s chief deity Lord Vishnu’s idol being broken to pieces. The author here portrays the helplessness of the Hindu king, and how victoriously Muslim kings took the young women as their slaves.
To note down here, we need to understand that present-day Muslims in no way are responsible for what these barbarians did. As a matter of fact, many Indian Muslims were born Hindus who converted to Islam. They’re the primary victims of forceful conversion. Present-day Germans are not condemned for atrocities committed by Nazis, they disassociated from their past and condemned it and have moved on. Unfortunately, Indians got no chance to know about their authentic history which was frequently buried in distortion.
The beauty of this literary work is every detail and the behaviour of the characters described are backed by evidence without violating the boundaries of artistic freedom. The dilemma of Lakshmi and the cognitive dissonance of Amir are lucidly laid out by the author. This book is a whistle blower in exposing the systematic activity which is carried out by urban naxals to break India within. Also one can easily know the modus operandi of these intellectuals which actively deny, twistor re-frame the facts to fit their ideological template while ignoring facets that stand distinctly out from their narrative. The question with which author of this book leaves you is – can you disconnect yourself completely from your collective past? Communities with a tumultuous past, can they live without that past walking in? “We cannot truly comprehend our selves or the history of our nation or, indeed, the history of the entire world, unless we unshackle ourselves from the bonds of false knowledge, desire and action, and elevate the intellect to a state of detached observation.”
Also surprisingly Marx says, “The question of whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question of theory but is a practical question.” – Marx, Theses On Feuerbach: Thesis 2 (1845)
Navaneeth Joshi 