Book Review: Aavarana

Jai Guru Deva,

This book was originally written by S.L. Bhairappa in Kannada and later translated to English by Sandeep balakrishna. I dont know why the book was named as Avarana and the author didn't bother to explain either. Its a historical novel covering a history of 2000 years. The main protagonist of the book is a woman named Lakshmi alias Razia who had converted to islam after falling in love with Amir.  The whole book is how her life changed  after she finds her father's notes about religion, civilization etc.

Two reasons why i was so interested in this book was it starts with hampi and krishna devraya dynasty and second i'm a right wing person and this book suits my political affilation. Major chunk of the book is dedicated to the hypocrisy of the Marxist brigade and their sinister methods to belittle Sanatana Dharma. However, what I am impressed is the research done behind this work to expose the different lies and half truths peddled into the Indian mainstream psyche. In this era of  presstitutes ruling the mainstream historical narrative the findings of the author were mind blowing. The author deserve nothing less than a Gnanapeeth award for the research went into every page of the book. Some of the historical facts that shocked me:

1. Things about the life of prophet mohammed 

2. Tyranny of mughal rule across different parts of the country.

3. In 1659, at Golconda fort 22000 hindu young men were turned into eunanchs to serve the mahalas of mughal concubines.

4. Destruction of Banaras temple and its explanation.

Given the level of Islamic imperialism in India this book would have created a huge controversy. Though the author crossed the lakshman rekha in his criticism towards other religions he had ensured the background justified the strong words. On the other hand the depiction of internal struggle in lakshmi was amazingly done. Particularly when she debates about the purpose of reading history the author proved that he is a master story teller and his intellectual acumen is probably the best around.

Then there was a character called Sastry the Marxist intellectual which is the personification of hypocrisy. This character reminded me of some people who met in my growing up days who used ideals as long as they suited their interests. No wonder Marxism is on tge deathbed now.

Now after reading such an engrossing book i cant help but read the other book of S.L. Bhairappa.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,
-Karthik