When European missionaries arrived in India in the 16th century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess. But it quickly became clear that Hindu ‘idolatry’ was far more layered and complex than European stereotypes allowed. Nonetheless, missionaries became a threatening force as European power grew in India. Western ways of thinking gained further ascendancy during the British Raj. 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. This is at once a political history, an examination of the mutual impact of Hindu culture and Christianity upon each other, and a study of the forces that have prepared the ground for politics in India today.