K.S. Radhakrishnan performed the launch of the latest book of Devdutt Pattanaik, Bhakti, the Malayalam translation of Faith, on January 5, 2021. The event took place at 6 pm via the DC Books official Facebook page and was followed by a book discussion.
Dr. Priya K. Nair, assistant professor of St.Theresa’s college acted as the moderator of the session. She spoke that Faith talks about the value system of Hinduism and the logic behind this value system. When asked about the opening sentence of the book, ‘Hindus find it hard to explain the logic of their customs and the book is an endeavour to find that,’ Devdutt Pattanaik stated that the problem is that Indians always try to explain logic using English metaphysics. He quoted the 19th century writings about Hinduism and explained that they were linked to the colonial past. “I don’t want the approval of white men. My book is for the young people of India”, says Devdutt. He explained the metaphysical separation between Indian thought and western thought and the big difference was in “re-birth”. He emphasized the need to change the metaphysics, for everything to make sense.
‘I think his books aren’t translations, instead they are transcreations. These books will be a great help to the new generation for knowing more about the culture and can influence them in creating classics,’ states KS Radhakrishnan. He also spoke about Domic Chacko and the legacy of DC books. They discussed the prominence of Devdutt’s other books including Ente Geetha, Shikhandiyum Mattarum Parayatha Apoorvakathakalum, Shivan Muthal Sankaran Vare, Ramayanam vs Mahabharatham, Jaya Mahabharatham and Shyamavarnan.
They also spoke about religion evolving during the pandemic. They asserted that the pandemic will have an impact on religion. ‘It is a setback for millennials. Their first big stress. COVID virus is nature’s way of shaking the throne of Indra,’ said Devdutt.
Through his book, Devdutt tried to answer 40 issues regarding the stature of Hindu culture in India. It argues that ‘rare genders should not be modern, Western or sexual’. It provides insights that can change the views and perspectives of soft Hindus, extremist Hindus, and non-Hindus. The book is translated by Mulakulam Muralidharan.
