Pankaj Mishra, writing in the Boston Globe, claims that “Hinduism” is largely a nineteenth-century cobbling-together of a variety of largely disconnected indigenous Indian religious practices, seen through the eyes of Western monotheists. Now that the BJP seems to be riding sectarian violence to political dominance — with little or no audible objection from the United States, happy to have India as an ally against radical Islam — Misra’s account of Hindu nationalism makes grim reading.
It’s amazing how often “ancient religious hatreds” turn out to be relatively recent inventions.
[Another find on Arts and Letters Daily.]