The larger group consists of priests and politicians. The priests fool the people. The politicians exploit them.
The amazing thing is that people everywhere have been allowing this to happen for centuries, they have paid heavily for it but show no signs of becoming wiser.
Also Read
The smaller group comprises persons whose interest in religion is purely intellectual. They merely seek to explain things in a detached sort of way.
The contrast between the two is stark. In one case, private religious beliefs are made to parade publicly as if the number of adherents not only provides the proof but validates it too. In the other, these private beliefs don't enter the picture at all.
In the past 60-odd years, the world has seen a dismaying surfeit of the larger group. The smaller group pops out its head occasionally, mainly to produce books that are largely ignored because they make everyone uncomfortable, and even angry. The more stupid the opponents of such books, the more uncomfortable and angry they get.
Two such recent books need the small attention this column is able to provide. Both make you think about it all differently.
If nothing else, you need ordinary decency to appreciate these books. This is a quality that, if you go by their activities since 1950, the larger group lacks entirely, especially when the priests join hands with the politicians.
Ghazi Miyan
One book is by someone whom I have known for almost half a century, the utterly scholarly Shahid Amin who believes that history must be of the people and not of the priests and the politicians, the so-called subaltern school. In his latest book, he has written about a warrior saint called Conquest and Community: The Afterlife of Warrior Saint Ghazi Miyan.
Dr Amin's book is not for the faint hearted. He is a historian's historian and writes like one. The book is full of the sort of minutiae that he believes should be the stuff of history. It is drawn from how the people have acted; not official documents and their interpretation by other historians.
He tells the strange story of a strange man called Ghazi Miyan, who smashed temples and protected cows. He fought Hindu kings one thousand years ago and then at some point became a sage or pir with four disciples. Together they are known as the panj pir.
Over the centuries, he acquired a huge following among both Muslims and Hindus right across the Gangetic plain. He was killed in a battle with a Hindu king somewhere near Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh. His shrine is there.
The book details the folklore that has grown around Ghazi Miyan in rural Awadh and other places. Ballads are still sung about him. Many of these are there in this book.
It is a 325-page book and it would be impertinent to try and summarise it in 250 words. Suffice it to say that it is worth keeping on your desk for dipping into when the work flow is slack.
It will serve as a constant reminder of the rascality of priests and politicians.
Kama Sutra
The other book is by Wendy Doniger. I hope to meet her some day for a long and leisurely chat about Hinduism, which she knows more intimately than most Hindus.
Her latest book is a fascinating little analysis of the Kama Sutra. If you are not a silly prude who will not be seen in public with a book of this title, it is what you should take on your next trip - just 182 pages with words printed in generous spacing. It provides an entirely different take on the Kama Sutra, including, aptly for this newspaper, its close fit with Arthashastra.
Dr Doniger takes the Kama Sutra beyond mere postures - which are anyway hard for mere mortals to practice - into the realm of social philosophy, which is easy to follow. For example, she focuses on Vatsyayana's advice to newly married men (take it easy, lest you put your bride off forever) and to adulterous ones (be discreet lest you get into trouble). There is also a full chapter on women and the Kama Sutra.
It is full of little stories and fables from our ancient past, all of which have a moral to impart. But I am not going to describe these things here because, honestly, you should buy it and read it.
Suffice it here to say that moksha or release has another, more enjoyable meaning than is commonly assumed. You know, what the French call la petite mort.
Read this book because, as the line the ad goes: "dimaag ki batti jal jayegi".