Conventional wisdom says that integration into the global marketplace
tends to weaken the power of traditional faith in developing
countries. But, as Meera Nanda argues in this path-breaking book,
this is hardly the case in today’s India. Against expectations of
growing secularism, India has instead seen a remarkable intertwining
of Hinduism and neoliberal ideology, spurred on by a growing
capitalist class. It is this “State-Temple-Corporate Complex,”
she claims, that now wields decisive political and economic power,
and provides ideological cover for the dismantling of the Nehru-era
state-dominated economy.
According to this new logic, India’s rapid economic growth is attributable
to a special “Hindu mind,” and it is what separates the
nation’s Hindu population from Muslims and others deemed to be
“anti-modern.” As a result, Hindu institutions are replacing public
ones, and the Hindu “revival” itself has become big business, a major
source of capital accumulation. Nanda explores the roots of this
development and its possible future, as well as the struggle for secularism
and socialism in the world’s second-most populous country.
