JOIN USHostility towards others not Hindu way, Vivekananda's Hinduism all-inclusive, says Tharoor
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said hostility towards others was not the Hindu way, pointing out that his favourite Hindu icon Swami Vivekananda's Hinduism was all-inclusive.
The author-turned-politician, who has written two books on Hinduism, said on Thursday that many right-wing politicians have been trying to appropriate Swami Vivekananda by selectively quoting him while ignoring "the totality of his message".
"We are seeing some in the BJP selectively quoting Swami Vivekananda to show they are following his path... (but) anyone who has read the totality of his message will understand that he is talking of an all-inclusive and all-embracing faith," Tharoor told PTI.
He added that Vivekananda's vision was "not of a Hinduism which is intolerant", while speaking of the "attempts" by the right wing to "appropriate" the late 19th-century religious reformer as an icon for their political movement.
The 160th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission, was celebrated earlier this year.
Tharoor said he was shocked to see people "weaponising their faith" in the name of Hinduism in a manner that is "hostile and aggressive towards others".
He stressed that "is simply not the Hindu way". The Lok Sabha MP and best-selling author, who wore a plaster cast on an injured left foot, was speaking on the sidelines of an event organised as part of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival.
"That is not what most of us Hindus were taught as we grew up in this country," Tharoor said.
He went on to assert that the majority of Hindus did not see their faith as one which could be "brandished as a weapon against people of other faith".
His 2018 work – Why I am a Hindu – was written to contrast the faith he says he grew up with "the narrow-minded faith of the Hindutvawadis". He followed it up with The Hindu way: An introduction to Hinduism the next year.