01562nam a22001577a 4500 9780670093656 ENG 294.5 MAN Manu S. Pillai Gods, guns and missionaries : the making of the modern Hindu identity London, Allen Lane, 2025 xlvii, 570 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm From publisher's description: When European 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 it quickly became clear that Hindu ‘idolatry’ was far more layered and complex than European stereotypes allowed, surprisingly even sharing certain impulses with Christianity. Nonetheless, missionaries became a threatening force as European power grew in India. Western ways of thinking gained further ascendancy during the British Raj: while interest in Hindu thought influenced Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire in Europe, Orientalism and colonial rule pressed Hindus to reimagine their religion. In fact, in resisting foreign authority, they often adopted the missionaries’ own tools and strategies. It is this encounter, Manu S. Pillai argues, that has given Hinduism its present shape, also contributing to the birth of an aggressive Hindu nationalism Hinduism History Hindus Identity Missionaries India BK 0 0 0 0 HMI HMI GEN 2025-09-22 Kohinoor Book Distributor 999.00 0 294.5 MAN 26007 2025-09-22 2025-09-22 BK 23567 23567