I write these words in the wake of the release of my newest book, The Sage Who Reimagined Hinduism, by the Vice-President of India at the Sivagiri Ashram established by the peerless Sree Narayana Guru more than a century ago. In the pantheon of India’s spiritual and social reformers, few figures shine with the quiet brilliance of Sree Narayana Guru, whose life, lessons and legacy are the subject of my book.
A philosopher, poet, mystic and social revolutionary, Guru’s life was a testament to the transformative power of wisdom rooted in compassion, and action grounded in moral clarity. Yet, despite the profundity of his teachings and the magnitude of his impact, his name remains unfamiliar to many outside his native Kerala—something that this book seeks, in part, to address.
At the turn of the millennium, a major public poll in Kerala conducted by the daily Malayala Manorama in 1999, invited readers to vote for the most influential Malayali of the previous thousand years, and Sree Narayana Guru emerged as the overwhelming choice. It was no mere gesture of regional pride. It was recognition of a man who reshaped the moral and social landscape of Kerala, challenging caste hierarchies, redefining spiritual practice and offering a vision of human dignity that transcended religion, ritual and race. His call—‘One caste, one religion, one god for man’—was not a slogan, but a seismic reimagining of Indian society, delivered with the quiet authority of a sage and the fierce urgency of a reformer.
Guru’s achievements were manifold. He consecrated temples open to all, wrote philosophical treatises in lucid verse in multiple languages and lived a life of austere integrity that inspired generations. He was not content with metaphysical speculation; he demanded ethical transformation.
His teachings bridged Advaitic philosophy and social justice, offering a rare synthesis of spiritual depth and civic responsibility.His life made possible nothing less than an expansion of human freedom. In a Kerala fractured by caste and colonialism, he became a unifying force—respected by peasants and poets, revolutionaries and rulers. Today, there is a shrine to him in practically every neighbourhood in the erstwhile Travancore, where he is revered as a quasi-divinity. He was a sage for the ages.
And yet, outside Kerala, his legacy remains largely unexplored and unsung. In the broader narrative of India’s intellectual freedom struggle and spiritual renaissance, Sree Narayana Guru is too often a footnote when he ought to be a substantial chapter. My biography is a modest attempt to correct that imbalance. It offers an introduction to his life, his essential teachings, and the enduring relevance of his message in today’s India—an India still wrestling with divisions of caste, creed and community.
In an age of noise and fragmentation, Sree Narayana Guru’s voice offers clarity. In a time of exclusion, his vision offers inclusion. In a nation searching for unity, his legacy offers a path.
It was only fitting that he was chosen the ‘Malayali of the millennium’ among the panoply of giants who had bestridden the state since the tenth century. Indeed, the extraordinary sage, metaphysician and social reformer was a giant, and for all the considerable achievements of others, it is difficult to imagine any rival in the impact he had on the people of Kerala in the millennium – and beyond.
Like most Malayalis, I grew up hearing his name. But it was only in the early 1980s, when I was asked to address a birthday commemoration of his life in Singapore, that I seriously began reading about Sree Narayana Guru. For one thing, the Singapore event itself spoke to Guru’s rare appeal, because it was to be addressed by Kidangoor Gopalakrishna Pillai—the Indian high commissioner, more famous as the general secretary of the Nair Service Society for many years—in Malayalam, and by myself in English. That a prominent Nair (and a then a much less prominent one, myself) would do the honours was ample confirmation of how Sree Narayana Guru had completely transcended caste.
And yet, when Sree Narayana Guru first pursued enlightenment and began to preach, many from the higher castes had sought to deny him the right to do so because of his Ezhava birth.
The more I read about Guru, the more impressed I became with his remarkable life. His immortal line—“Mathamethayilum, manushyannannayaalmathi” (whatever the religion, it is enough that a man be good)—is one I have never tired of quoting since that day in Singapore more than four decades ago. It is a principle I practice in my daily life. And as a new entrant into politics, I often find myself paraphrasing it to say, “rashtriyamethayilum, rashtramnannayaalmathi” (whatever the politics, it is enough that the nation does well). I believe it is a sentiment of which the great Sree Narayana Guru would have approved.
Yet, as Prof J Indira and Rajeev Srinivasan have written: “For unclear reasons, Guru's extraordinary achievements have not received their full due outside Kerala. One can only hope that over time, the life and times of this extraordinary humanist, reformer and saint becomes more accessible to the general public. For, he was one of the greatest sons of India, in the lineage of the Buddha and Adi Sankara.”
It is to fulfil that hope that I set out to write this work. My book is not a comprehensive chronicle (many exist, particularly in Malayalam), nor a scholarly treatise. It is, instead, a tribute—a small offering at the feet of a towering figure whose light continues to guide us, if only we choose to see it. And it seeks to bring to non-Malayalis some awareness of a figure whose greatness of mind and heart continues to offer lessons to an increasingly divided nation, and a Hindu community at risk of being hijacked by forces of intolerance at another turbulent time. Lessons we would do well to heed again.
Shashi Tharoor | Fourth-term Lok Sabha MP, Chairman of Standing Committee on External Affairs, and Sahitya Akademi-winning author of 24 books
(Views are personal)