The Indian subcontinent has historically been torn by religious strife. Its future is at the mercy of the many religions whose fundamentalist members nurse ancient injuries and continue to retaliate for them.

There are 800 million Hindus in India, and 100 million Muslims. The city of Delhi has layer upon layer of archaeological ruins that mirror its history of religious strife. Writer/historian William Dalrymple guides us through the remains of edifices that played a role in religious confrontations. He shows us where the Muslim Turks from south Afghanistan, who came down in 1182 to defeat Delhi's raj, built their mosque from the ruins of Hindu temples. Indeed a new architectural style was born, fusing the two styles. The religions, however, were always at war. Only Sufism, a mystical religion from Persia, was able to span the two religions. Today, there are some Muslims and Hindus who worship together in the Sufi way.

The BJP, the right wing Hindu Nationalist party, threatens warfare against the Muslims. The Central Secretary of the World Hindu Council warns, "We don't forget our forefathers. We were under Muslim reign for seven hundred years." Will India be able to survive in an age of fundamentalism?

Association for Asian Studies, 2001