Political Hinduism opens up new and productive lines of inquiry, gesturing at
forms of public religiosity that are not bound to the fanaticisms with which
religions today are increasingly associated. It includes essays by leading
scholars in the fields of anthropology, history, linguistics, politics, and
religion such as Madhav M. Deshpande, Roby Rajan, J. Reghu, Julius J. Lipner,
Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Jyotirmaya Sharma, Ajay Skaria, Paula Richman, and Ronald
Inden. They explore the relationship of Hinduism to literature and cinema, and
revisit familiar figures to arrive at fresh and even radically new readings.
Political Hinduism thus addresses issues of tremendous topical relevance: the
transmission of Hinduism to the