Book Talk | ‘Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood’ by Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav

Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav, Assistant Professor, Social Science, NLSIU will talk about her book ‘Being Hindu, Being Indian’ at the Indian Heritage Academy (IHA), Koramangala, Bengaluru, on September 24, 2025, between 6:30 to 8 pm.

The talk, hosted by IHA in collaboration with Azim Premji University, will be followed by a moderated Q&A session with the author. If you are interested in attending the talk, RSVP here.

About the Book

The book contests the dominant interpretation of Lala Lajpat Rai’s nationalism as the precursor of Savarkarite Hindutva and highlights the internally differentiated nature of ‘Hindu nationalism’.  It brings to light the pluralist Indian nationalism Rai once articulated, and shows that, as a Hindu Mahasabha leader in the mid-1920s, Rai organised a Hindu politics in the service of a secular Indian nation-state, a position fraught with internal tension.

Committed to making history accessible without compromising on disciplinary rigour, Bhargav’s book is based on her doctoral research and was published by Penguin Random House India in February 2024. It also covers the themes of religion, majoritarianism, secularism and caste. (Source: IHA)

About the Author

Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav is a historian of modern South Asia. She is interested in nationalism and secularism, and religious and political thought, in general. She was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Multiple Secularities Research Group, University of Leipzig, Germany, and ICAS: M.P., New Delhi, India. Vanya has also taught modern South Asian history to undergraduates at Oxford.

Vanya’s research has been published in leading peer-reviewed academic journals, such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Global Intellectual History, Studies in Indian Politics and Religions. Being Hindu, Being Indian: Lala Lajpat Rai’s Ideas of Nationhood is her first book. (Source: APU)

Her detailed profile can be accessed here.