What motivated you to write this book now?
The way in which popular Hinduism has entered our public discourse makes it a topic impossible to ignore. We have now got ourselves a ruling party which has officially propounded Hindutva as its doctrine. What is more, the way in which that doctrine has been politically articulated has brought it, if you like, in your face. When a minister in the council of ministers says the country can be divided into "Ramzade and haramzade", you have a clear-cut view of what the ruling party believes is the place of the Hindu religion in the national discourse. Now I've grown up as a Hindu but I've also grown up in Nehruvian India. In an India where those values and assumptions seemed secure but are now being hotly contested. More than contested, one would argue that to some people those values and assumptions are being discarded. The reference, for example, to "pseudo-seculars" is a way of saying that there is nothing authentic about the ruling ethos of India in the past. And that, really, not only is this a Hindu country but that only a certain kind of Hindu can dominate.
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