One of India’s most accomplished historian makes a vital intervention, about Hinduism that begins with a maharaja’s cow sounds, reptiles with spices, mystery and backward traditions. When Europeans 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, performed outlandish rites and fed children to crocodiles. But soon it became clear that Hindu idolatry was far more layered and complex than European stereotypes allowed, surprisingly even sharing certain impulses with Christianity.  Manu … Continue reading Complexities of Hinduism