From the shaping of identities and belongings through to current reconfigurations of nation, governance and state under a Hindu-Right dispensation, this book tracks the sentiments and structures that sustain the nation and nationalism in India. Nation, Nationalism and the Public Sphere: Religious Politics in India provides wide-ranging accounts of the growth and transformations of the nation, focusing especially on the intimate interplay of nation-state and nationalism with dominant religion. Drawing upon the perspectives of history, politics, anthropology, literature, film and media studies, this book explores key themes such as the appropriation and impact of western concepts of religion and the modern in postcolonial India and Pakistan, corporate bids to foster faith by erecting temples, formations of contemporary cosmopolitan religious imaginaries, the politics of cow protection, the rise of Narendra Modi as a national hero, and the fetish of the national in news channel debates. The book provides important insights into the success of the Hindu-Right, the discourse of religious–cultural nationalism, and their ramifications for democracy and citizenship. Contents: Acknowledgements Ishita Banerjee-Dube and Avishek Ray Introduction: Nation, Religion, Identity—Crisscrossing Concerns Mark Juergensmeyer The Clash of Religious Politics in India Tabinda M. Khan Women’s Rights between Modernity and Tradition: ‘Modernizing’ Islam Shobna Nijhawan Journeying in the Vernacular: Pilgrimage, Tourism and Nationalism in Hindi Travelogues Sayori Ghoshal Race, Religion and the Politics of Counting: Historicizing Hindu Nationalism Anne Hartig Temple Construction and the Coming of a Nation: The Birla Mandir in Delhi Himani Kapoor Guru-led Faith Movements: The Case of the Art of Living Foundation Ridhima Sharma Rethinking Cow ‘Protection’: Gender, Caste and Labour at a Gaushala Manjima Chatterjee The Nation and the Hero, or the 56 Inch Paradox Sreya Mitra The Question of Minority Citizenship: Shah Rukh Khan as the 'Global Indian' Maribel Elliet Alvarado Becerril Screening Hindutva: Religion and Television in India Prithibi Gogoi Sacred Spaces and Gendered Sites: The Daikho of the Dimasa Index