 "Book Review")
GODS, GUNS AND MISSIONARIES: The Making of the Modern Hindu Identity
Author: Manu S Pillai
Publisher: Penguin India
Pages: 664
Price: Rs 999
The second chapter of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching speaks of the interplay of opposites: “For being and nonbeing arise together; hard and easy complete each other; long and short shape each other; high and low depend on each other; note and voice make the music together; before and after follow each other.” So it is, and has been, that to define is to exclude; to unite is also to separate.
Manu Pillai’s Gods, Guns and Missionaries rests on this truth:
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