I am saying very little here because my main review is on my Substack. Go read it over there:
Summary: I don't I am saying very little here because my main review is on my Substack. Go read it over there:
Summary: I don't even consider this to be a story at all, let alone a good story. I consider it to be dehumanizing Hinduphobic propaganda with narrative choices resulting in queer erasure of trans identity. Therefore, transphobic in impact, intentionally or unintentionally. Remember: Impact over Intention!
The author claims it's a "retelling" of our Hindu epic "Mahabharata" but it's more like a mockery of it. It's more like a Greek story in "Hinduface", made for the Hinduphobic Western Gaze.
The gist of it:
DEHUMANIZATION: Dehumanizing language including the use of the words 鈥渁nimals鈥� 鈥渕onsters鈥� and 鈥渦ncivilized鈥� to describe characters from the major Hindu epic "Mahabharata". This is literally a colonial portrayal, the same portrayal that the British Christian colonizers portrayed us Indigenous Hindus as.
And Yes! Back then too, they used self-hating colonial agents for this. Remember that there were Hindu soldiers who fought for the British Christian colonizers even back in the day. Today we call them 鈥淏rown sepoys鈥�.
DEHUMANIZATION happens in 3 different ways: 1. Demonization/Villainizing: Almost all male characters are described using essentially hate speech: 鈥渕onsters, 鈥渁nimals 鈥� and 鈥渦ncivilized 鈥� "violent" bloodthirsty warmongers.
Even our major deity Shiva is villainized as 鈥渢rapping鈥� and 鈥渃haining鈥� a Goddess in his hair. This is at best a shallow childish understanding of the original source material. At worst, it's Hinduphobia.
Imagine if an author wrote a similar portrayal of Allah or Mohammed! The Western left would be up in arms!
2. Exoticization: This is the other side of the same coin in the "Demonization Exoticization False Binary", a subset of the "Good Evil False Binary" within "Black-and-White-Morality". First of all, most of the amazing women from the Mahabharata are completely erased. The handful of remaining female characters are sidelined, downplayed and/or reduced to the Victim Hero trope. Showing people as only having positive Qualities (and even those very limited) is a form of dehumanization too because it reduces a multidimensional human being into just a trope or archetype. I call this 鈥淓xoticization鈥� or 鈥淓xotifying鈥�.
3. Infantilizing: She turned a powerful Goddess Ma Ganga into her main character but repeatedly portrayed her as more like petulant child and a 鈥渧ictim鈥� than the Goddess with agency she actually is! This is essentially infantilizing her.
CALL FOR G*N*CIDE?
鈥淲ould the world be better off without the Kuru line? If my son died, he would come home to me. And the rest of them鈥� I did not believe them worth saving, worth ruling鈥� (from Chapter 24).
This seems like an open call for our g*n*cide?!
QUEER ERASURE and TRANSPHOBIC NARRATIVE CHOICES:
Then there's the queer erasure and misgendering of the character Shikandhi from the Mahabharata. The author has changed his story and completely removed his queer trans identity as a trans man. This is openly transphobic.
I know why she did it of course: because this is not written for us Indigenous Hindus but for the Western gaze, she doesn't want the Western reader to have even the slightest hint that ancient Hindus had trans people and accepted trans people or were aligned with modern-day 鈥減rogressive鈥� values.
For this reason, Arjun's genderfluidity story is also completely erased. Even Queen Draupadi's polyandry was hardly mentioned but King Shantanu's marriages to multiple women was mentioned repeatedly.
The agenda of all this erasure is of course Hinduphobia but unfortunately, queer erasure of trans identity is also transphobic, even if not 鈥渋ntentional鈥�. Hence, there's nothing 鈥減rogressive鈥� about this choice. Impact > Intention.
(And using people as props for your propaganda by reducing them to tropes and archetypes is dehumanizing and therefore counts as bigotry. Doing it to trans identities is therefore also transphobic in impact)
INVERTED NARRATIVE and INVERTED MESSAGING:
Much of the original Mahabharata is inverted to its OPPOSITE to fulfill the author's Hinduphobic agenda. Please be careful when you read it because much of what she wrote here didn't even happen in the original Mahabharata.
PROJECTION of CHRISTIAN SUPREMACY onto INDIGENOUS HINDUS:
It's hinted that us Indigenous Hindus did 鈥渨itch hunts鈥� and were afraid of women with special abilities. It's actually what the Christian Colonizers did to us Indigenous Hindus and other Indigenous people all over the world. This inversion of history itself is insulting to our women ancestors who suffered at the hands of these Colonizers and Imperialists.
At one point, one of the main male characters is literally given a line taken straight from Genesis 1:28 (without crediting the source of course). He is portrayed as saying men should have 鈥渄ominion over Nature鈥�. This is Christian Supremacy and Abrahamic Supremacy projected onto us Indigenous Hindus.
It's yet another inversion of history because we love, respect and even worship Mother Earth as 鈥淢a Bhumi鈥�, a Goddess.
In fact, we are portrayed repeatedly as hating, 鈥渦sing鈥� and destroying Nature.
CONCLUSION: Skip this Hinduphobic mockery of the largest largely intact Indigenous culture and people left Earth: us Indigenous Hindus. (There are over a billion of us).
In addition, both the Ramayan and parts of the Mahabharata are sacred to some of us Indigenous Buddhists too. (500 million+ global population) The author's previous book "Kaikeyi" also made a mockery of the Ramayan. So she has a pattern of writing bigoted stuff ....more
Huge issues with this ridiculous book: 1. Glorifying pedophilia. 2. Full of the Demonization Exoticization False Binary, a subset of the Abrahamic SupreHuge issues with this ridiculous book: 1. Glorifying pedophilia. 2. Full of the Demonization Exoticization False Binary, a subset of the Abrahamic Supremacist Good Evil False Binary. 3. Full of the White man's fear of retaliation projected onto Indigenous people.
Typical predictable New Age colonial nonsense! Don't waste your time with this!Typical predictable New Age colonial nonsense! Don't waste your time with this!...more
This book, especially the title essay, is an essential read to learn the truth about how colorism actually came to India and to debunk colonial narratThis book, especially the title essay, is an essential read to learn the truth about how colorism actually came to India and to debunk colonial narratives masquerading as 'social justice" and "Decoloniality", ironically.
We didn't have colorism before British Christian colonialism and Isl*mic Colonialism. In fact, we actually considered the color black to be the most beautiful color. The proof is in our ancient vedas and even in Marco Polo's writings.
Please read it to deprogram and decolonize yourself from Hinduphobia and self-hate. Especially if you claim to care about "justice". Then you should care to know the truth....more
The very fact that an entire BOOK had to be written with the title "Caste is not Hindu" shows the level and depth of Hinduphobia in the world.
And now,The very fact that an entire BOOK had to be written with the title "Caste is not Hindu" shows the level and depth of Hinduphobia in the world.
And now, in at least 4 states in the United States, these bigoted Hinduphobic false narratives are being used to try to criminalize the largest largely intact Indigenous culture and people on Earth, us Hindus!
Caste is NOT Hindu. Caste is a creation of the Christian British, Portuguese and Spanish Colonizers.
This book clarifies exactly where "Caste" comes from while also clarifying our Indigenous Hindu terms "Varna* and "Jati".
And no, "Varna" and "Jati" are NOT "Caste" either. For example, Varna was horizontal, NOT hierarchical. Nor was it based on birth. And people could change their Varna. And most importantly, it was just a philosophy, NOT ground reality.
"Jati" WAS ground reality but it's not "Caste" either. Read the book to learn all this in detail!
This is a very necessary book for our times, especially if you truly want to "decolonize " instead of ironically always falling for ironically colonial narratives masquerading as "Decoloniality ", bigotry masquerading as "social justice ". Yes, Western Imperialists have ironically colonized "Decoloniality" itself! Lol. So cunning!
If you have not read the book yet, what are you doing?! Read it ASAP. Especially if you want to stop being Hinduphobic! Just read it!...more
Who it's for: 1. People who like to read diverse mind-bending science fantasy stories about ConsciousnI am writing this review in the following format:
Who it's for: 1. People who like to read diverse mind-bending science fantasy stories about Consciousness, past lives and reincarnation centered around the topic of climate change, climate justice and difficult relationships.
2. People who like to read about marital conflict in which the conflict is not because of adultery, violence or abuse but around our visions of the future, especially about the very planet itself, and how it impacts your relationship. That said, there is a power play move near the beginning that shows domination that might be triggering for some.
3. People who want to read about intricate magic systems in which the story is deeply tied into the magic system itself and the relationship conflict that creates. I say this because in some fantasy stories, the magic feels like just an afterthought, like you could have told the story without the magic system at all. This is not that kind of story. The magic system is deeply embedded into this story.
4. People who want to decolonize from the Abrahamic Supremacist Good Evil False Binary and the Savior Complex.
5. People who don't mind reading with absolute focus, attention and presence because otherwise it might get confusing for you. That is, it's not the story to listen to if you are driving and you just want to "zone out".
Who it's not for: 1. People who want to read easy cozy stories that don't require much attention.
2. People who want to read about every detail of a character such as their hobbies and what they eat, etc..yes it's a character driven story but not THAT kind.
3.. People who to read "diverse books" but still want it to be Abrahamic Supremacist or Imperialist, just with Black or Brown faces. I call this "diversifying oppression" instead of actually dismantling it.
4. Westernized people with colonial mindsets and epistemological privilege who find it hard to read non-Westerm non-Abrahamic stories.
Overall, this is a wonderful read but definitely NOT for everyone....more
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