Description
When European missionaries first arrived in India in the sixteeth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it was a pagan mess. But soon it became clear that Hindu idolatry was far more complex than white men’s stereotypes allowed, and Hindus had little desire to convert. In Gods, Guns and Missionaries, Manu. S. Pillai takes us through these remarkable dynamics. Turning away from simplistic ideas on religious evolution and European imperialism, the past as it appears here is more complicated – and infinitely richer – than popular narratives allow.