FOREWORD
For the first time in this blog, I write a post about a book after reading its reviews (a lot of them in this case). The reason being that this is a book that is rooted in the debate and discussion of issues that have been brought out a number of times in various places at random but do not have a unified line of argumentation. While most of the reviews of this book have been rave (probably due to the commonality of ideology among those who even choose to read this book), one harshly critical review of the book I found in The Mint very succinctly, yet perfectly described this book as an 'ideological treatise'. "Aavarana- The Veil" by SL Bhyrappa is precisely that, except that it is factually top-class, which makes those who disagree with the said ideology either cave to the facts or dispute irrelevant portions. Aavarana is a truly masterful book, the merits of which must be engaged with by all Indians.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Razia, a progressive middle-aged documentary filmmaker, and screenwriter based in metropolitan Bengaluru, is reminded of the early chapters of her life in which she was Lakshmi from Narasapura. This sudden flash of olden memories is incidentally accompanied by a personal loss forcing her to reconnect with a part of her life she had willfully rejected.
This book like most others has three acts. The first one introduces a plethora of characters, each character being a representative of a section of people having to do with today's dispensation of political hinduism. Each of these characters express their problems with the Hindu religion and their people. The second act takes a completely unexpected turn and goes into pure history by creating a second and completely different plot altogether. This other plot is set in 17th century Mughal India and the life of a young prince who gets captured by the invaders who completely tore down his kingdom and the life that follows. The author beautifully paints a picture of 17th century India, its Islamic rule and the daily lives of the royalty and its depraved subjects.
The book goes back and forth with the two plots in this second act where some parallels between the plots and characters may be drawn. While one plot places the readers into the times of the actual destruction of the most important Hindu temples such as Ayodhya and especially Kashi, the other plot through various dialogues and situations tell us to not view the past based on the illusions of the present and that the past exposes itself primarily through sources of its own time and not by what we think of it today. Speaking of Kashi, there is a brilliant depiction of how Kashi as a city has always stood for inclusivity and was in a way the spiritual capital of Bharata and how the destruction of the Vishwanath temple was to plunge into the heart of the Hindus.
The third act does the job of levelling the issues raised throughout the book into a simple list of takeaways merged well into the story. An issue today might have its roots in history and history must be viewed purely by its merits and nothing else. One might wonder while reading the book that this book is intending to break the already withering integration between communities in India. The end of the book answers it quite well in my opinion. The book posits that for any true integration between communities where one of them has oppressed the other, it is extremely important for the community which oppressed to acknowledge and express remorse for the same. To achieve true integration among castes in India, it is important that the Privileged Castes acknowledge the historic atrocities committed on the Oppressed Castes. Shouldn't the same apply for religion as well? The book says that is not right to pin down the blame of the sins committed centuries ago on their descendants today but the onus is on them to acknowledge what happened instead of basking on institutional methods to whitewash the same.
Like mentioned earlier, Aavarana is an ideological treatise in a lot of ways and there are many small instances throughout the book that remind you of the same. Starting from beef to the demolition of Babri Masjid, there is an immense number of smaller dialogues and subplots which provide answers to a lot of rhetorical questions put forth against it. Some of which I accept and some, I don't, but it is important that such exchanges exist. One issue I had with the book was that it did not delve with the issue of caste hierarchy and oppression as much as a neutral reader would have liked as answering questions on that is generally the most difficult. But all said, this book is the only time I sat and read every single reference given in the bibliography of the book to check out the sources and I can confidently say that its historical accuracy is even sharper than the actual limited academic historical books that I have come across.
WHY IS AAVARANA IMPORTANT? VIEWING THROUGH THE LENS OF INDIAN POLITICAL POP-CULTURE-
In today's world, we see tons of conflicts in social media and the real world that are in one way or the other related to Hinduism, its principles, its people, and their emerging intolerance. Many a time we might have felt that it makes absolutely no sense and at the same time, have empathized for those against whom these Hindu groups outrage starting from artists, intellectuals, Muslims, Christians, Dravidians, etc. Indian pop-culture since the 1980s (and very much so, today) has increasingly given high-quality movies, books, songs, drawings, stand-up comedy sets, and other forms of art that have subtly or overtly voiced out the concerns of the latter-mentioned groups. When I watched Pa Ranjith or Vetrimaran movies I genuinely felt for the plight of Dalits and oppressed classes of society. Movies like Gully Boy, My Name is Khan, and Mulk gave me a magnified view on the lives of lot of innocent Muslim people and the various difficulties they face. Movies like Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan, Aligarh, Paava Kadhaigal, and good number of foreign movies and shows have made me realise the pain queer people undergo in trying to be who they want to be. A major reason why I end up feeling the way these artists who make all these content want me to feel is because THEY MAKE GOOD CONTENT.
In Indian politics (electoral and social) all of the above-mentioned identities are clubbed together to fight against two identifiable entities- Hinduism and Capitalism. And these are two ideologies that are not backed by Indian popular culture. At least for the latter, you have a towering number of American biopics and other content glorifying capitalism to an extent where we root for even the Ray Krocs and the Jordan Belforts. This leaves us with Hinduism, its concerns, and its lack of promotion. Now, we as decent human beings want to understand the issues of all the above-mentioned identities to be as neutral and sensitive as we possibly can, but at the same time are not willing to put in hours of research on the same. This is why pop-culture or mass media plays a huge role in sending important social messages across. Hence, an average Indian consumer of mass media is naturally going to put Hinduism and Nazism in the same level, as you don't find movies addressing the concerns of Nazis as well!
But reality looks to be a little different. Hindus and Hinduism does seem to get harmed constantly right from temple demolitions, murder on religious lines, public insults, etc. to an extent which deserves at least one decent movie speaking about the same without obstruction. Between the day I finished reading the book and the day I wrote this (one week), I found a number of such cases given here, here, here, here, and here. Whether it's fear of violence or the audience who are not accepting these as legitimate problems or a non-confrontational attitude, the blame ultimately does lie on the Hindus themselves for not taking up their own issues and promoting it via means of popular art. This is not to pin one community against others as each and every community has its own grievances and issues.
The reason why Aavarana is a very important book is because it has an entertaining story, a non-linear narration, highly detailed plots and sub-plots, all brilliantly mixed with actual Indian history. This story would really make a good web-series or movie. There are a number of non-fiction purely fact-based books out there. But no one is going to read them. Quoting a particular dialogue from the very same book, "Imagine if all artists immerse in research. Art will wilt and wither.". The content has to be enjoyable, engaging, and entertaining whilst addressing social issues at the same time. Aavarana was exactly that and more and was probably the first time I had experienced something so engaging that represented a certain point of view.
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