Why We Are Not Hindus

Why we are Not Hindus is a critique of the communal-fascist and Eurocentric understanding of India and the colonization of the Indian mind. In this book Jal claims that "Hinduism" itself is not something indigenous to India, but a colonial import created by the Western Orientalists and the Indian Brahmanical elites, that the Indian nationalists unwittingly used in their political repertoire, post-1857. According to him, the recent attempts to make secular and democratic India into a mythical and phantasmagorical "Hindu Rashtra" is a sign of economic and cultural subjugation, as well as a sign of rising fascism and the complete destruction of the very idea of India. Indian fascism, so Jal claims, has grown from the terrible seed of caste divided society combined with neo-liberal policies that the Indian elites have been pursuing for the last two decades. Caste, according to him, has to be understood as: (1) enclosed and deformed class appearing as a clannish system, even as a type of gang and clique that restricts all forms of democracy, (2) a form of racism that propagates hatred, and (3) as "neurosis-psychosis" which destroys all forms of critical thinking. This book then advances for a radical form of articulating revolutionary politics based on the "Marxist-Ambedkarite" critique of caste that attacks both caste and neo-liberal capitalism. It argues for a different understanding of Indian history based on Marx`s original account of the Asiatic mode of production with caste as the foundation of this mode. This book is a consequent scientific synthesis of Marx and Ambedkar. It claims that if the philosophy of Ambedkar is not understood, then democracy will be impossible in India. Why we are Not Hindus also claims that fascism in India will have to be fought with the philosophy of Marxist-Ambedkarism. It also talks of a new India wherein will bloom the million flowers of real democracy.