Manu S Pillai

An ambitious and engaging history of how encounters with Christianity have shaped Hindu identity and nationalism in colonial and contemporary India. When European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess—a worship of devils and monsters by a people who burned women alive,...

An ambitious and engaging history of the development of Hindu identity and nationalism in colonial and contemporary India. When European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess. But it quickly became clear that this 'idolatry' was far more layered and complex than...