The idea for this book, has been germinating in my mind for a very long time, indeed. Perhaps sub-consciously. It started off as a moltey collection of odd scraps of information pertaining to the rise of Hindutva in India; news clippings, snippets from various article and journals, and opinion pieces written by eminent scholars and experts of religious, politics, and the history of india. During the writing of this very short – I hasten to add deliberately short book, I’ve learned on these wise men and women, considerably. Without them, this effort would not have been possible; much less, legible. They deserve my unstinting gratitude and admiration for this.
In this process, I have tried to present facts and figures, timelines and statistics – rather than rely on overly voluminious reasoning and rationale – to put across a certain point of view.
If at times, I have strayed towards being emotional and impassinated, I seek the reader’s kindness in overlooking these, as a consequence of how deeply I’m convinced that we stand at a truly definiting moment in times, when it comes to what is currently happening across the boarder, in India.
Fouad Hafeez
Islamabad,
10th January 2022
