Tuhfat al-Mujahidin

Title: Tuhfat al-Mujahidin – A Historical Epic of the Sixteenth Century

Author: Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdoom II

Publisher: Islamic Book Trust, KL 2009 (First published 2006)

ISBN: 9789839154801

Pages: 139

It is well known that India excelled in arts, mathematics and scientific knowledge in ancient times. The just pride an Indian is entitled to feel is nowadays widely exceeded by flamboyant claims of air travel, advanced surgery and nuclear devices to have been in use in ancient India. Amid this confusion, one fact is quite undisputed – that the Indians were not at all mindful of writing history. The country which boasts of such legendary poets as Kalidasa, or playwrights like Bhasa, and astronomical masters like Aryabhata, has no historian in its bosom to match Herodotus. We have only Kalhana to show off. His Rajatarangini was the first historical work written in the twelfth century about the kings of Kashmir. There is much to be desired in the memoirs and commemorative anecdotes that came afterwards. Tuhfat al-Mujahidin is a historical narrative that originated in Kerala, dealing with Portuguese invasions and consolidation in the period 1498 – 1583 CE. Written in Arabic by a religious scholar, it portrays the incessant warfare between the Europeans and the Muslims on the western coast of India. Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdoom was a writer, orator, historian, jurisprudent and spiritual leader. He was born in the illustrious Makhdoom family at Chombal near Mahe. He did his studies at Mecca for ten years. Returning to Kerala, he took charge as chief mufti in the grand mosque of Ponnani, a position he occupied for 36 years. He is the author of many books, mostly on religion. Written around the author’s death in 1583, the book’s title means ‘Glory to the Victory of the Martyrs’. Its first English translation was done by Lieut. M J Rowlandson, the Persian interpreter to the British army at Madras in 1841. This book is a translation from the original Arabic by Muhammad Husayn Nainar.

The Malabar Coast was the hub of maritime trade that connected the Middle East with the Far East. Except for pepper and ginger, Kerala coast was barren of other spices. The Indonesian islands which had all the spices in the world, made Malabar an emporium for onward trade to Arabia and then to Europe. However, the Hindus in Malabar were averse to cross the seas in search of trade, fearing religious injunction. Consequently, the entire Indian Ocean shipping was handled by Muslims. The sudden appearance of a rival in foreign trade made them the sworn enemies of the Portuguese. Even though the book keeps silent about the disturbed trade monopoly, it extols the battles fought with the Portuguese and its outcome. The heavy setbacks faced by the Muslims because of better organization and tactics of the Europeans enrages the author to no end, who then exhorts his coreligionists to wage jihad (holy war) against the infidels. This constitutes the first section of the book.

There are apologists of Islamic terrorism who claim that jihad really means ‘inner struggle’. However, this blatant lie is exposed in the chapter on jihad which quotes extensively from the Quran and prophetic traditions, and clearly specifies a bloody battle against the enemies of the faith. What counterargument can the apologists offer in the face of the author’s claim that ‘a glorious reward awaits for those who take part in jihad, who suffer martyrdom, and endure with patience all misfortunes’ (p.92)? The author accepts that Islam was spread by the sword in some countries (p.4), but praises Allah ‘who made the religion superior to all other religions’. Sometimes, the author’s hatred surpasses all limits as in his cry to wage jihad against the ‘cross-worshipping Portuguese’. Makhdoom was a religious scholar of great merit and his mastery over its philosophy is clearly evidenced in the numerous references he cites in support of jihad. The author mean it to be a violent struggle, at the end of which, martyrdom is the coveted objective if the enemy can’t be defeated. He claims upon religious authority that the martyr does not experience the pangs of death, but as light as that of a bite. Curiously, this is the psychology imparted by ISIS in its fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Malabar was a land of tolerance which welcomed all religions to its lap, without discrimination or placing hurdles in their path. Makhdoom admits that Hindu kings of Malabar respected the Muslim community and customs because of the trade they facilitated. Even the remuneration of the muezzins (those who call to prayer) and the qadis (religious judges) were paid by the king. Those who neglected the jumah (Friday congregation) was punished or made to pay a fine. The bodies of Muslim criminals, who were condemned to death, were handed over to his relatives for a religious burial, while Hindu criminals were hanged and the body was left there to be devoured by dogs and jackals. Such a permissive society would be like paradise to any group who are favoured so liberally, but the author seems not to be content even with all these privileges. This book is dedicated to Sultan Ali Adil Shah of Bijapur and not to the Zamorin of Calicut who had fought all the wars for the Muslims. Makhdoom’s dedication to the shah is because ‘he takes delight in the struggle against disbelievers and regards fighting to uphold the divine word as a great honour’! The author’s contempt for other religions is expressed in his outburst that Islam’s spread in Kerala was amid ‘the abysmal darkness of disbelief’ (p.32). Besides, the Muslim kings’ names are mentioned with a praise while the others are simply referred matter of fact. Blind communal clashes occurred frequently in the sixteenth century as well. In 1524, a Jew killed a Muslim at Kodungallur on some pretext. The Muslims of Malabar assembled a large attacking force comprising 100 vessels and sacked the place. After subjugating the Jews, they were reported to have turned against the Christians and Hindus as well. This incident looks to me as the first recorded instance of a communal riot in Kerala.

The publishers claim ‘that republication of this anti-colonial manifesto couldn’t have been timelier at a time when Muslims continue to be the only obstacle to the Western imperialistic ambitions’. Tall claim, but entirely unfounded on facts and which animates jihadis worldwide. What we perceive in the book is the reaction of a monopolistic trade cartel against another foreign trading power who intruded upon their sphere of influence. And the author utilizes the tools of religion to counter the newcomers’ superior naval might. Muslim defeat at the hands of the Portuguese is reasoned to be due to deviation of the Muslims to sinful ways and divine retribution. It is a classic case of the invincibility of the truly faithful. If you are defeated, it means your devotion was not completely selfless. Portuguese chroniclers refer to their Muslim enemies as pirates. There is a remark in the book which corroborates this allegation against the Marakkars. Makhdoom argues that the Muslim owners of corvettes were not rich and their ships jointly owned by several people. Thus, they were compelled to seek the means to recover as much money as they had spent when they set out to sea and had to target native vessels also (p.84). This was because ‘they didn’t have a leader with power to pass judgment over them’.

The book contains four major sections – the necessity of jihad and its instructions thereof, history of the advent and spread of Islam in Malabar, some strange customs of the Hindus of Malabar and the story of the battles with the Portuguese. It includes a good number of colour photographs of the places and monuments related to Makhdoom and the Muslim resistance against the European invaders.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

History of the Jats

Title: History of the Jats

Author: Kalika R Qanungo

Publisher: Originals, Delhi, 2013 (First published 1925)

ISBN: 9788184541298

Pages: 226

India is a bewilderingly complex amalgam of cultures, races, languages and customs. Such a large variety of people living cheek by jowl from the ancient times is unparalleled anywhere in the world, especially if you come to learn that each group and sect retains its distinctive characteristics. America is another example of such cosmopolitanism, but the confluence of her people is hardly two centuries old, and the people are expected to gradually melt into the national whole. The Jats are a prominent modern community seen prevalently in Northern India. In fact, they belong to different religions. A third of them are Muslims in Pakistan, one-fifth Sikhs and the rest Hindu. Bounded in the north by the lower ranges of the Himalayas, West by Indus, on the south by a line drawn from Hyderabad (Sindh) to Ajmer and then to Bhopal and on the east by the Ganga, the Jats occupy the heartland of India. These rugged people rose to prominence in the lawless atmosphere obtaining towards the end of the Mughal reign. This book is a history of the sturdy group who call themselves Jats. The origin of this populous society is investigated and then the narrative fast forwards to the eighteenth century when all the action takes place. The Jats are said to be fortunate to have Qanungo as their historian, as the Rajputs had Col. Todd, the Marathas Grant-Duff and the Sikhs Cunningham. Kalika Ranjan Qanungo (1895-1972) was a learned historian scholar from Bengal. He was a professor of the universities of Lucknow and Dhaka. His field of research covered the medieval history of India, various aspects of the Muslim rulers, the Rajputs and the Marathas. His knowledge of Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Oudhi and some other local dialects greatly helped him dig into local sources. This book is a fine example of his erudition.

Royal houses in ascendancy often claim lineage with real or mythical heroes. This custom had been going on even in the medieval period as we come to know of many rulers boasting descent from Alexander or Chingiz Khan. The Jats ascribe Aryan origins to themselves. We must remember that this book was first published in 1925 when the theory of Aryan invasion of India was gaining ground in academic discourse as a result of the immensely successful excavations at Indus civilization sites. Archeologists suggested the invasion of a foreign race as one of the probable reasons for the downfall of the Indus culture. A few others extrapolated it to the references in the Rig Veda to ‘establish’ that it was the fair-skinned Aryans who attacked the pacific, black-skinned Indus people and imposed a culture of their own in India. In the same vein, the mention of a tribe named jartrika or jathara is suggested as an ancestor to modern Jats. However, the Jats themselves believe that they have descended from Yadavas, the tribe of the Hindu god Krishna. Anyhow, a prominent presence of Jats in the region is attested by one of the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni. His seventeenth expedition was said to be undertaken for chastising the Jats, who had attacked the rear of his baggage train which was returning after destroying and looting the temple of Somanath. The Jats have also fought against Qutb ud-din Aibak, Mohammed bin Tughluq and Timur.

With a solid pedigree at their back, the Jats rose to prominence during the reign of Aurangzeb. Having a foolish religious policy that bears more resemblance to that of modern day Jihadis than to the wise and prudent program of his great-grandfather Akbar, he alienated the Hindu states one after the other. The Marathas, Rajputs, Sikhs and Jats rose up in revolt often in sequence and sometimes simultaneously, causing great alarm to Aurangzeb who didn’t get much free time to sit comfortably on his throne at Delhi. For nearly three decades, he followed futile campaigns to suppress enemies. However hard he struck, his rivals soon regained enough strength to hit at a different part of the far-flung empire, which was continuously bled through a thousand cuts. It was during the reign of Aurangzeb that the Jats desecrated Akbar’s tomb at Agra. In 1688, Raja Ram Jat plundered the tomb at Sikandra, carried away its carpets, gold and silver vessels. The Khan-i-Jahan of the place watched helplessly as the invaders damaged the building and even dragged out the bones of Akbar and burnt them. It is unfortunate and ironic that the mortal remains of the most tolerant ruler of the Mughal dynasty was despoiled in this way by the leader of a community he sought to admit into his polity. However, we must be thankful to Aurangzeb for performing a single good deed among the plethora evil ones – for sowing the seed of destruction of the Mughal Empire.

As soon as Aurangzeb breathed his last, the power struggle began in earnest in Delhi. Not long after, Muslim power was visibly in the wane, which couldn’t be boosted up even with the fleeting raids of Nadir Shah Afzar and Ahmed Shah Abdali of the Durrani clan. These two invaders had no more intention of staying back in India than getting away with as much booty and plunder they can wring out in the short time they were here. The country lay open to the Hindu rulers for engaging in their own fratricidal fights for power. Churaman Jat utilized the uncertain conditions to his advantage, allied with both sides when the need arose and plundered both when the opportunity came. Suraj Mal established the Jat principality of Bharatpur and cleverly expanded his domains. We read about a long list of collusions and betrayals between the Rajputs, Marathas, Jats, Rohillas and the Nawab of Oudh. The emperor in Delhi degenerated into a puppet. The contenders in his dominions decided the issues among themselves and simply instructed the emperor to sign on the dotted line. With the ascendancy of Jawahar Singh at Bharatpur, the northern kingdoms trembled at the terrible war machine that came up in his capital city. The Mughals and Nawabs invited Abdali to invade India again to crush the Jat menace, but the tactical alliance he had forged with the British at Calcutta saved him.

The book covers the events of eighteenth century North India in very good detail. The rise and fall of Jat kingdoms are accurately noted. The narration abruptly stops at the death of Mirza Najaf Khan, the chief noble among the Mughals and his conquest of the Jat territory which marked a brief refulgence of Mughal glory. He subjugated the recalcitrant rebels with extraordinary sagacity and showed kindness and consideration to conquered enemies which was quite unlike the norm of those times. The author has relied on the Waqa-i-Shah Alam Sani, Ibratnama, Chahar Gulzar-i-Shujai, Tarikh-i-Muzaffari, Siyar ul-Mutakhkharin and Imad us-Saadat as reference material for the work. The book is gifted with a foreword by the eminent historian Jadunath Sarkar, who was also the author’s teacher and the whole text is thoroughly edited and annotated by Vir Singh. It sports a reasonably good index and a detailed bibliography. The disadvantage of the book is its short span of coverage where the nineteenth century is not even alluded to.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

From Fatwa to Jihad

Title: From Fatwa to Jihad – The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy

Author: Kenan Malik

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 9781843548256

Pages: 266

The publication of a post-Modernist novel in 1988 resulted in the eruption of a Muslim fundamentalist volcano. The fury and violence ejected by the inferno was unmatched and had irrevocably changed the landscape of liberal discourse everywhere in the world. Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ was a game changer for Western democracies. The Rushdie affair, closely followed by the fall of Communism resulted in a clash of civilizations, with ‘the West, with its liberal democratic traditions, a scientific worldview and a secular rationalist culture drawn from the Enlightenment on one side; and Islam, rooted in pre-medieval theology, with its disrespect for democracy, disdain for scientific rationalism and deeply illiberal attitudes on everything from crime to women’s rights on the other’. The Rushdie affair was hence the first major cultural conflict after the two great wars. Immediately after Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie, Islamism spread in the West and its pinnacle was reached on 9/11. Jihadi violence has stunned European cities ever since. This book is an endeavour to take stock of the legacy of the Rushdie affair and its aftermath with special emphasis on the change in fortunes for free speech. Kenan Malik is an Indian-born British writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Trained in neurobiology, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race. Malik is a trustee of the free-speech magazine ‘Index on Censorship’.

The event which escalated the issue with ‘Satanic Verses’ was the fatwa (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader on Feb 13, 1989, which directed the faithful to kill Rushdie. Days later, Hossein San’ei, leader of the 15 Khordad, a Teheran-based charitable foundation set up to uphold Islamic principles in Iran, offered a $ 3 million reward for the murder (or $ 1 million if the assassin happened to be a non-Muslim). The greatest uproar had occurred in Britain and the Indian subcontinent. The hatred the intimidating and violent protests spawned in Europe stoked anger, especially in Bosnia where the Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of ethnic cleansing. The unbridled growth of Muslim population had alarmed the Serbs as their numbers dwindled from 43 to 31 per cent in just three decades while that of the Muslims catapulted from 26 to 44 per cent. Men were forcibly castrated in the horrible communal violence that followed.

What makes this book a notch out of the ordinary is the analysis it provides on the reasons for the growth of jihadism. Like most liberal thinkers, religious fanaticism is not even mentioned as one of the reasons, but multiculturalism is arraigned as the culprit. In the 1980s, the emphasis on various nationalities residing in Britain asserted themselves and wanted recognition of their cultural differences rather than each group fusing into the British mainstream. It treated different communities differently to ensure equality. A kind of tribal mentality was born as a result. Each group was represented by its own leaders who were not democratically elected, with whom the government dealt with all aspects related to the group, akin to tribal elders. Malik also portrays the social skills of the terrorists and comes up with a surprising conclusion that they are not unlike others. In fact, most of them are professionals or semi-professionals hailing from caring, middle class families. The ghetto politics and the ideas of self-organization originated from strategy to combat racism mutated over time into cultural separation. The Asian communities began to live separately in the 1980s. The Council of Mosques was set up, so also the federation of Sikh and Hindu organizations in 1984. However, Malik’s reasoning does not spell out why suicide bombers appear only in Muslim societies and not in Hindu or Sikh communities which are also equally subject to racist abuse and marginalization.

Malik wrestles with novel ideas to explain the rise of extremism in second generation Muslim youths in Britain. He argues that it was not the piety of the first generation that led to the Islamization of many small towns such as Bradford. It was ascribed to the power, influence and money that accrued to religious leaders as a result of the government’s multicultural policies. In another twist, the author claims that radical Islam is a product of Western societies. He even quotes some naïve Western philosophers who genuinely believe that the spirit that animates a suicidal jihadi is the same that fires up the imagination of a radical in a Western country. It is true that Islamists were encouraged by the West to stem the tide of Left-wing revolutionaries. In Egypt, Palestine and Afghanistan, they let loose the demon to counter the Left. The jihadis waged America’s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. As things stand now, it is a global phenomenon that Islamic extremists operate under the guise of Leftist politics.

The Moderates in Muslim societies are an elusive lot. You don’t find them often; as they are silent most of the time and let the hardliners do all the talking. When atrocities come to light in which the extremists are to be blamed such as the assault on Malala Yusufzai in Pakistan or the acid attacks on girls who refuse to wear the hijab, the Moderates maintain a studious silence from which even the sharpest jibe won’t dislodge them. But their loquacity is regained when the slightest offence, actual or imagined, is made on their short-fused religious sentiments. They came up in arms against Rushdie’s novel and when a Danish journal published caricatures of the Prophet in 2005. Even in the so called ‘secular’ India, Haji Yaqub Quraishi, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh state government offered in February 2006 a reward of $ 11 million to anyone who beheaded the cartoonists of the Danish journal. In fact, the offered prize is even greater than Khomeini offered to the would-be assassins of Rushdie. The Moderates, unwittingly or not, have become the handmaidens of terrorists, when they raise false alarms of Islamophobia. Muslims are said to be subjected to police stop and search operations more often than others. This is quite logical, as almost all of the terrorists come from their ranks. But the Moderates make a hue and cry alleging discrimination and upset the law enforcement protocol. Thus, the very laws crafted to preserve the basic freedoms of democracy are prostituted to serve the interests of terrorists and their accomplices. Malik proves by statistical figures that the percentages of each group searched are indeed in proportion to their share of the total population. The most ridiculous part is that the BBC has stopped referring to ‘Islamic terrorists’ after protests from the Muslim Council of Britain. Somebody is genuinely reluctant to call a spade by its name!

The book ends with a grave reminder on the dwindling freedom of expression in democracies. The writers and publishing houses practice self-censorship out of fear of the backlash. The withdrawal of the novel ‘Jewel of Medina’ which is based on the life of Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, was a case in point. Controversial opinion no longer finds support from the administration. The author rues that preservation of diversity under multiculturalism requires us to leave less room for a diversity of views. It has come to the point that argument against offensive speech is the modern secularized version of the old idea of blasphemy, by reinventing the sacred for a godless age. Malik sums up the paranoia of European Muslim communities with a succinct remark that once you begin to hear the echo of jack boots in the high street, once you start believing that your neighbours are really SS guards in waiting, then it is but a small step to imagine that blowing them up on a bus might be a virtuous idea (p.141).

The author makes a frontal attack on orthodoxy by quoting passages from the ‘Satanic Verses’ at the beginning of each chapter. The book is a first-hand experience of the author who lived through the whole episode. His definition of fundamentalism as a thing that even the fundamentalists can’t agree upon is thought-provoking. Many of them are pawns in the game for the leadership of the Muslim world played out between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who are said to be like two dogs fighting over a single piece of bone.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

I am a Troll

Title: I am a Troll – Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army

Author: Swati Chaturvedi

Publisher: Juggernaut, 2016 (First)

ISBN: 9789386228093

Pages: 171

BJP, the party which rules India now, was active in the country’s political arena for a long time under different guises. However, its rise to power was nothing less than meteoric. From just two seats in the 545-member Lower House of the Parliament in 1984, it briefly assumed power just twelve years later. The renaissance of the party was facilitated by two major events that upped the heat in the nation’s political discourse – the Shah Bano controversy and the Ram Temple issue at Ayodhya. In the former, the Congress party’s government amended the laws of the land to overrule a Supreme Court judgment which directed a Muslim husband to pay alimony to his divorced and aged wife. The bigotry and intolerance sparked by the Muslim intelligentsia opened the eyes of the country towards the perils of unbridled minority appeasement to garner a few votes of the community who mostly voted en masse as instructed by the clerics. As a response to this, demands to build a Ram Temple at Ayodhya came to the fore. The temple was to be built at a site where a mosque stood, which was thought to have been erected after pulling down a temple that graced the location prior to it. Riding on a wave of popularity and disgust at the policy of appeasement, the BJP rose to power in a spectacular way. Social media also helped the party to achieve its goals. BJP was the first party to understand the power of social media and the Internet. They set up the party website way back in 1995, whereas the Congress came up with one only in 2005, a decade later. Modi was active in Twitter from 2009 onwards, but Rahul Gandhi followed suit only in 2015. The party was compelled to rely on the social media as it was mostly excluded by the mainstream media. Swati Chaturvedi is a journalist and attempts to focus attention on the highhanded ways in which BJP’s digital brigade is faring on Twitter. With a string of interviews and screenshots of tweets, she tries to expose some of the unsavoury details of the digital battles the party wages against its opponents.

The Internet is a chaotic place where even otherwise gentle folk turn aggressive, capitalizing on the supposed anonymity of the medium. This leads to immoderate replies and comments which are sometimes highly offensive. The mandatory rules that regulate decent behavior allow a victim to alert the authorities against stalking or foul language. But still, there are trolls and abusive messages which narrowly stay clear of the threshold, but upset the victim to no end. Journalists are always at the receiving end of this digital tirade. Nonetheless, the author misrepresents hard criticism as abuse. There is no doubt that genuine abusers must be punished and some samples presented in the text do deserve it. But, her accusation on the entire BJP social media team is a case of ridiculous over-reaction. We should also keep in mind that Chaturvedi herself is also in the accused dock on a defamation suit filed by Tajinder Bagga, who was a spokesman of the BJP, for using slanderous language. She takes up arms against trolls who are persons who saw discord on the Internet by starting arguments (by the author’s definition) or upsetting people by posting inflammatory comments and images. They are declared to be the goons of the online world. The author admits that members of the Aam Admi Party also do their share of trash talk by regularly making topics like ‘Modi and Madhuri’, and ‘Modi’s Snoopgate’ (p.38). An instance of Arvind Kejriwal himself attacking Shekhar Gupta, a former editor of the Indian Express, by calling him a ‘dalal’ (broker) of the Congress is described in the book. The truth of the matter is that all parties indulge in such underhand deals, but the author singles out the BJP to take all the blame.

Chaturvedi’s criticism of her opponents is severe and often stoops to the level of mocking the physical features of people the authors imagine being BJP supporters. She haughtily declares that these people have poor or negligible English speaking skills, are extremely frustrated that they are unable to communicate their views about Muslims and their plan to destroy the country. These people are usually clad in standard issue Allen Solly trousers with a potbelly (Oh! That was a punch below the belt!) and a checked shirt toting a black plastic laptop bag. She arrogantly blurts out that you’d never take a second look at these guys! The interviews presented in the book with people who have worked for the BJP must be fictitious accounts meeting all the prejudices of the liberal media about such people such as right-wing fanaticism and lack of education – like the ubiquitous snake charmers you often come across in western accounts of India. Even the practice of teaching English and Hindi in a few of the organized rural shakhas are also arraigned as brainwashing.

The Left Liberal elite in India are a pampered lot. They sit at the top of the social pyramid on all parameters of affluence – financial, casteist and educational. They scoff at people who cross them or don’t follow their dogma, but none should return or reply to their assault. Even the mildest censure or reprimand would drive them to maniacal rage who’d then accuse their rivals of harbouring intolerance. The author looks askance at the derogatory term ‘sickular presstitutes’ coined to poke the leftist media. The book somehow treats the Dalits as a separate community like the Muslims, in a case of historical déjà vu of the 1930s as a prelude to the demands to partition the country which claimed that both were being dominated by other Hindus. Some of the reports cited in the book are verbatim copies of paid online news channels. She even quotes a tweet by the dreaded Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed made against the BJP to buttress her argument.

The book is a failed attempt that is entirely lopsided and shamelessly partisan. It has no relation at all to popular opinion and the author preposterously assume that a few tweets engineered by the BJP’s social media cell tweaked the results of the 2014 general elections that put Modi in power. Chaturvedi includes reproductions of obscene messages she and other journalists have received in the book. This is highly objectionable. Her naivety in convincing herself that popular sentiment in India can be so easily swayed by Twitter reveals the fragile make-believe world these left liberal elite inhabit. This book is claimed to be the biggest investigation she has done in her career spanning two years after countless interviews. However, the narrative is too shallow and biased that we can conclude it to be a wasted opportunity.

The book is recommended though you can finish it in just under an hour.

Rating: 1 Star