Playing with the gods is no ordinary thing. Author Meera Nanda has dared to put the gods in the global market in order to critically examine the rise of retrogressive Hinduism (Hindutva) behind the deceptive screen of secularism, and the galloping poverty that exists in society despite the 'hyper-capitalism' that is the pride of the privileged classes.

While rising in Forbes' global reckoning of billionaires, India is 'sliding back' in the United Nations' global ranking of human welfare. In the Human Development Index (HDI) which focuses on health, education and redistribution of national wealth, India figures amongst the world's most impoverished countries (number 128), just a notch behind Equatorial Guinea (127) and ahead of Solomon Islands (129).

Nanda argues that the era of Nehruvian socialism is all but over, and that 1991 had been a watershed year with Prime Minister Narsimha Rao and his finance minister Manmohan Singh throwing the country headlong into the global market economy. She says that the market economy has all but replaced the state in its primary role to provide relief to the masses in terms of distributive justice.

Public investment in agriculture was slashed drastically at the altar of the gods of globalisation and commercialisation, resulting in 16,770 farmers committing suicide in the period between 1997 and 2005 in Andhra Pardesh alone.
The 'reigning ideology' of the period was a neo-liberalism sort of malignant laissez-faire that left it to the market forces to redefine and, in effect, reduce drastically the function of the state as the supreme source of the common wealth.

For the first time India found itself trapped in 'strings-attached' IMF-World Bank loan. As per the author, the loan became the pretext for a 'total overhaul' of the state-economy relationship.

The impact of the quantum jump from the government as the epitome of the people's will, to the market independent of the people's will was deeply felt.

The market view of freedom ignores the aspirations for equal opportunity, justice and fair play which are often thwarted by the logic of profit-making. India, Nanda claims, is becoming increasingly Hindu as it 'globalises'.

Resigned to its minimal role in economic affairs, the state is now aspiring to or actually playing a 'maximal role in the propagation of Hinduism.' The dominant mantra is 'if poverty makes people pray, so does prosperity' and history is being re-written to project India as the homeland of the Aryans and promote an 'Indic model' of education.

All Indians, regardless of their religious beliefs and traditions, are asked to accept 'scientific spiritualism' as part of their own 'ancestry'. What exactly is scientific spiritualism? Difficult to define in scientific terms, it is a call to return to Vedic India with its panoply of all the gods and goddesses.

Hindu middle classes are becoming more religious while the texture of Indian society is more distinctively Hindu than ever before — all with the blessing and backing of the so-called 'State-Temple-Corporate Complex'.

Hindu nationalism today is another name for Hindu religiosity, and the 'cultivation' of dharma and discourses on the Vedas and Bhagavand Gita at political meetings is becoming the norm. According to the author, 'overall it seems fair to say that economic prosperity is bringing with it a new rush hour of the god.'

The term 'rush hour of the god' was first used by social scientist H. Neild Macfarland in 1967. Yet another western scholar, Christopher Fuller in his 2003 monograph Renewal of Priesthood, testifies to the emerging reality of Hindu temples 'inventing' new traditions to cater to worshippers with 'a growing disposable income'.

Gentrification of the gods is yet another emerging craze, in which gods and goddesses are given a 'complete makeover' and given new homes in swanky malls and multiplexes. It's a sort of ongoing Diwali festival with the deities in permanent rather than seasonal business.

Hindu 'missioners' are all over the place. One Swami Dayananda Sarsvati runs a seminary in Pennsylvania imparting instruction in the traditional study of Advaita Vedanta, Sanskrit, yoga, Ayurveda and astrology all drawn upon the ancient texts.

Amongst the prominent 'management gurus' are Deepak Chopra, Mahesh Yogi and (the late) Bhagwan Rajneesh. The last named left behind a huge fleet of some 55 to 60 Rolls Royce luxury cars.

They have mastered the rare art of 'packaging prosperity with spiritualism', ready to be bought and sold like any other consumer products.

It would be interesting to see if the book inspires a Pakistani author to write about Islam and Pakistani society in a similar context.

The God Market How globalisation is
making India more Hindu
By Meera Nanda
Random House, India
ISBN 9788184000955
230pp. Indian Rs395