Encyclopedia of Hinduism

One of the first things that struck me on looking at this massive tome was that none of the editors, and only one of the editorial advisory board appears to emanate from the Indian subcontinent. It would be interesting to review an encyclopaedia of, say, Roman Catholicism compiled entirely by well‐meaning Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi scholars, wouldn't it?

In some ways compiling an encyclopaedia of Catholicism would be an easier business. Catholicism is a religion, with a clearly defined set of beliefs and a single organizational structure. Hinduism is not. “Hinduism” is a loose catch‐all term covering a very wide...