Heed the Caution Lighs in India

The Monday editions of Sightings, which I write, usually focus on “public religion” in the United States, while Thursday’s postings, written by various contributors, frequently “go global.” Through the years, however, I have learned that treating American religion in isolation skews perspectives, because my battered majority faith—Protestant Christianity—is prospering outside the North Atlantic zones, in many parts of the Southern world. Similarly, as anyone who tries to make sense of domestic politics can point out, politics here is in no small measure often shaped by “everywhere else.” Think: “Benghazi, ” “Israel-Palestine,” “Russia-Ukraine.”

This week the Asian sub-continent dominates the prime-time media as headlines point to India’s general elections which were held over the weekend. The landslide victory of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party attracts and forces attention in ways that are both overdue and urgent.