Gods, Guns and Missionaries — exploding the myth of a singular, ‘true’ Hinduism

Manu S Pillai’s deft exploration of four centuries of the faith reveals its underlying complexities 

Hindu devotees offer prayers during Laksha Deepotsava, the festival of hundred thousand lights, at the Shri Panchalinga Nageshwara temple in Bengaluru in November © Getty Images

A book about Hinduism which begins with a maharaja’s cows sounds a little like a Rudyard Kipling tale, replete with spices, mystery and “backward” traditions. But in the hands of Manu S Pillai, Madho Singh II’s journey from Jaipur in the west of India to imperial London for Edward VII’s coronation in 1902 becomes the gateway to a deft exploration of what Hinduism actually means as a faith. Drawing on the lives of missionaries, maharajas and men of the Dutch, French and British East India Companies, Pillai builds the story of a system marked by adaptability, dynamism and compromise rather than ossified archaisms.

Hinduism is often imagined as a monolith of arcane and ancient rituals, in spite of the efforts of external invaders. In India itself, the image of a “faith under siege” is a core part of the Hindu nationalist rhetoric wielded by the Bharatiya Janata party — a party that has now led the world’s most populous nation for more than a decade.  

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He argues that even before the arrival of imperial powers, Hinduism was hardly a settled affair, emerging instead from “[Brahmins’] negotiations with a bewildering variety of counter-thoughts and alternate visions”. India’s priestly class was not unified, adds Pillai, adapting to local traditions ranging from sun worship to matrilineal succession as needed.

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The message throughout is that Hinduism is a living tradition defined more by variation than a singularity of thought and that those who would come to call themselves “Hindus” were more than passive subjects. Priests and potentates reshaped their beliefs in ways deemed more acceptable or sophisticated, consciously rewriting older texts to remove imagery considered embarrassing for the mores of the time. Their discussions with colonial powers were not merely those of vassals lapping up to masters, but of reflective thinkers adapting to a shifting world.

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