A Financial Times What to Read in 2025 pick

When European missionaries arrived in India in the 16th century, they found a world that was both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan chaos: a worship of demons and monsters by people who were capable of burning women alive, performing strange rituals, and sacrificing children to crocodiles. It quickly became clear that the 'idolatrous' worship of Hinduism was much more complex and profound than European stereotypes allowed, even fatally sharing some common elements with Christianity.

However, the missionaries became a threatening force as European power increased in India. Western ideas gained further ground during the British Raj: while the interest in Hindu thought influenced Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire in Europe, orientalism and colonial rule pressured Indians to reconstruct their religion. In fact, in resistance against foreign authority, they often adopted the very tools and strategies of the missionaries.

The work of Manu S. Pillai, Gods, Guns and Missionaries, examines these remarkable dynamics with an impressive range of characters – maharajas, poets, gun-toting revolutionaries, politicians, warriors, philosophers, and clerics. Clear, bold, and provocative, it is at once a political history, an examination of the mutual influence of Hinduism and Christianity, and a study of the forces that have prepared the ground for politics in India today. It moves away from simplified ideas of religious evolution and European imperialism, as the past that appears here is more complex – and infinitely richer – than previous narratives allow.

Pages: 624, Dimensions: 16.3x16.3cm