Books: I’ve just started ‘Husband of a Fanatic” written by Vassar academic Amitava Kumar, who married a Pakistani Muslim woman in 1999. So far as I’ve read, it’s a nonfiction account of his attempt to explore Hindu fanaticism, but in later chapters he goes to visit his wife’s relations in Pakistan so there might be some exploration of the other side.
Kumar, who grew up in India, wrote some articles about his marriage and later found his name and address had been posted on an Internet hit list of Hindu ‘traitors.’ (a topic that resonates since we’ve been discussing Internet death threats so much recently (here, here and here).
The book starts with him sitting down to interview the man who likely put him on that list, a retired office worker living in Jackson Heights.
Like Mr. Barotia, I was born in the provinces and grew up in small towns. For me, the move to the city meant that I learned English and embraced secular, universal rationality and liberalism. Mr. Barotia remained truer to his roots and retained his religion as well as a narrower form of nationalism that went with it. His revenge on the city was that he also became a fanatic. I do not envy him his changes, but I can’t think of those changes without a small degree of tenderness.
