Being Hindu: Understanding a Peaceful Path in a Violent World

Journalist Sengupta (Recasting India) introduces non-Hindu audiences to the world’s third largest religion using a practitioner’s perspective in this quick but substantive text. To Westerners, Sengupta writes, Hinduism is normally seen as a series of sensational clichés about cow worship or funeral pyres. But the reality is much more complex, as depicted here in a mix of personal memoir, general history, and speculation about where the faith community is headed. Sengupta’s summaries are succinct and knowledgeable, and his expertise is evident. He includes scholarly analyses of Indian nationalism and a literature review of Hindu religious works, with some especially interesting discussions of Hindu takes on recent religious debates, such as the tensions between religion and science. This summary approach, however, can mean that certain topics—such as the history of India and how Hinduism developed in competition with other religions—don’t get the detailed attention they deserve. Sengupta’s personal experiences—particularly his years getting a master’s degree in New Delhi and tangents on poets and philosophers who inspired him—detract from the more in-depth analysis of cultural practices that he attempts to make the focus of the book. But for readers with little knowledge of Hinduism but a strong interest in it, Sengupta will be a welcome guide. (Oct.)