The Truth About Us : The Politics of Information from Manu to Modi

India in the present moment has an information space packed with numerous information sources and agents from politicians and activists to profiteers and extortionists all competing for attention and legitimacy in a growing information marketThere are many narratives out there and many narrators. Whom does one believe? The political manipulation and simplification of complex information has fashioned certain truths about India truths that have created social identities that have in turn become the defining features of the countrys politics and history over centuries. Contemporary India is convulsed by contesting claims over history and identity, homogenization and pluralism, Hindutva and Dalit consciousness, patriotism and freedom of speech, renaming things, erasing pasts, and the rights and realities of minorities. These debates rage in an environment of abundant information and misinformation, and deliberate ignorance about the most important social reality that of inequality. The existential debate over whether India is a homogeneous Hindu nation or a plural society of many social identities continues to be framed by the politics of information its simplifications, inventions, denials and lies. This provocative book exposes how information choices have been made over many centuries by those in power at the cost of a deeper understanding of the complexity of Indian society. It is essential reading for every thinking Indian at a time when India is in the throes of an existential debate about its history and the very identity of its people.