Seven Arun Shourie Books His Newly Minted Fans Must Read

Arun Shourie, once a leading intellectual on the right wing of the political spectrum in India, is now being embraced by the country’s left wing. His castigation of the Narendra Modi government since its elevation to the centre in 2014 has meant that the left has found much in common with the journalist. But one would hope that the left has read his earlier works, before 2014, in which he takes a swipe at historians, missionaries and others, and takes contrarian views on popular subjects. Here are seven in particular:

1. Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud

In this book, Shourie takes the celebrated, left-leaning eminent historians of India to the cleaners by exposing their fraud. Not just financial fraud – taking millions in grants for works they were supposed to produce but didn't, for instance – but moral fraud too. By playing down the atrocities of Islamic invaders on local Hindu population and continuing with the Aryan Invasion theory despite compelling evidence against it.

Though he exposes the likes of Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra and Satish Chandra, Eminent Historians is very relevant to the new-age Aurangzeb apologists masquerading as historians, like Audrey Truschke. For Shourie cites accounts of court historians of that Islamic zealot of a king, conclusively proving how thousands of Hindu temples were destroyed and how he was hailed for doing this to the infidels.

2. Harvesting Our Souls: Missionaries, Their Designs, Their Claims

In his seminal work, Shourie shows how missionaries are interested only in swelling their flocks. The promises of equality and egalitarianism are just words to achieve that sole objective. Interestingly enough, they promise a religion without caste system, but nevertheless, fight for the converts' right to reservation benefits based on caste! It's a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the designs of missionaries and how they operate in the country – illegally, silently and efficiently.

3. The World Of Fatwas: The Sharia In Action

An eye-opener, this book reveals how Sharia governs almost every aspect of a Muslim's life. Fatwas are not issued in isolation. Shourie finds their origin well-entrenched in Islamic theology. The worldview of Indian Muslims, which led to the partition of the country in 1947, is very much alive even today.

This book, written first in 1995, was much ahead of its time. Today, when the world is trying to understand the Islamic mindset, The World of Fatwas is more than handy.

4. Only Fatherland: Communists, Quit India And The Soviet Union

As Aashish Chandorkar writes here, Only Fatherland explains "how the Communists in India take convenient ideological positions, undermining the national interest and then hiding behind verbosity and slander to counter any opposition."

Communists discredit their opponents using slander and "verbal terrorism", which is also the modus operandi of the left wing today. Through this book, Shourie teaches us "how they can be countered, and his conclusions lead one to feel the need of an improved, vocal and assertive right wing ecosystem in the country", as Chandorkar puts it.

5. A Secular Agenda: For Saving Our Country, For Wielding It

In this book, Shourie talks about the integrity of the country, about how the lack of well-defined terms in the Constitution has led minorities to take more advantages than the fathers of the Indian republic would've ever intended.

The book champions the idea of a Uniform Civil Code and explains how Article 370 is not a commitment to the people of the Kashmir valley. Shourie then warns us all of the demographic invasion of the North East by illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and the successive governments' lackluster approach to a major problem.

Shourie also takes the secular brigade in the media in particular and the establishment in general to task for inventing their own version of truth. Not only have they falsified history, they don't let go of any opportunity to distort truth even in current affairs.

6. Falling Over Backwards: An Essay On Reservations, And On Judicial Populism

As the title reads, this book talks about reservation and the Supreme Court’s judgments on the issue over the years. Shourie searches hard for the roots of the reservation system as it is practiced today, in the Constitution but concludes that what was supposed to be an enabling system has ended up as a mandatory one.

Shourie discusses various aspects of the issue, from the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court, how it is not followed in practice, a few on the top cornering all the benefits, quotas in promotion and so on. He raises a crucial point – how without enough data on caste population we have decided on the percentages of seats reserved for the SC/ST/OBC communities?

This book is a must-read even for those who believe in the importance and usefulness of quotas but want some reform in the system.

7. Worshipping False Gods: Ambedkar And The Facts Which Have Been Erased

Highly contrarian in nature, Shourie in this book discusses the role of B R Ambedkar as a freedom fighter, social reformer and father of the Indian Constitution. His painstaking research ends up showing Ambedkar in poor light on all three accounts. However, many contend that Shourie has been less than honest in this book and has put his subject under various tests but without putting it in proper context. Warts and all, this controversial book by Shourie is a must-read for students of history.