'Confessions Of A Secular Fundamentalist'

The Hindu : Metro Plus Delhi / Publishing Books : Mani unplugged: "These days Mani Shankar Aiyer is in confession mode. Admitting to wearing his secularism on his sleeve Mani has set some of the most difficult questions that Indian polity is facing in his book 'Confessions Of A Secular Fundamentalist' and has come out a winner. In this Penguin publication Mani reasons that only a determined and inflexible adherence to secularism can counter communalism."

"Muslim conquest should not be seen as Islamic conquest. There was a difference of more than 250 years between the time Mohammed Bin Qasim invaded India and Mahmud of Ghazni's first raid. In between, where was the sword? Islam thrived on the inherent anomalies in Hinduism." He says musawwat - the Islamic concept of equality before the Lord - provided a section of Hindus who were not allowed entry in the place of worship an opportunity to redeem their status in the society. In his view British rule did much more damage to us than the Moghul rule. "They robbed us off our self-esteem in a planned way. First they translated our traditional knowledge into Latin and then taught us the same. Max Mueller has borrowed heavily from our scriptures." He keeps frequenting the past and present . From Asoka to Nehru and Tagore to Mahatma's experiments with secularism to capturing the wider external dimension of the concept in countries like Pakistan, Israel and erstwhile Yugoslavia, Mani goes on.

However, what beats all is his incisive and intellectually hilarious conversation with his fellow St. Stephanite Arun Shourie destroying his arguments to pieces. "This kind of cerebral communalism is most dangerous for the society."