Reading a book rarely makes you feel anger, despair, anxiety, hopelessness, and resignation. Strangely, these are the only emotions one experiences while reading Dr. Anand Ranganathan’s latest book - Hindus in Hindu Rashtra: Eighth-Class Citizens and Victims of state-sanctioned apartheid.

If the title of this book isn’t sobering enough for a practicing Hindu, reading through it only makes it worse with every turn of the page. In his characteristic style, self-proclaimed “Darwinian-Atheist” Dr. Anand makes a searing indictment of the judiciary, legislature, and the Indian state itself as he rips apart the “secular fabric” narrative peddled in our country and lays bare harsh truths and the reality of the pathetic nature of existence of Hindus in India, mockingly asking us after every chapter - Is this what you call a Hindu Rashtra?

The book is short and delivers knockout punch after punch, from the State control of temples, ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, The Waqf Act, The RTE Act, the hypocrisy of the judiciary in reforming only Hinduism and appeasing non-Hindus, the Places of Worship Act, and the ultimate debasement of Hindus by continually extolling mass murderers and converters whose atrocious acts continue to live in collective memory to this day. Despite all this, we still patiently went the judicial route, not the anarchic way to reclaim the Ram Janmabhumi, a mere 500-year wait to heal our civilizational trauma.

As Anand rightly mentions, most Hindus of India aren’t even aware of how they’re subject to legal and constitutional subjugation. That an atheist has done a fantastic job elucidating the plight of Hindus in this country makes one hang their head in shame.

This book is an eye-opener and a must-read. Our ancestors fought for millennia to keep Hinduism alive, which is being eradicated in independent India under our noses. Wake up, ye Hindus, from your slumber before it is too late.

Also published here.