The Hindu Right and India's Religious Diplomacy

India is investing more in religious diplomacy, arguing that the world might learn lessons from that country’s extraordinary repository of philosophical and spiritual traditions. This diplomacy has an increasingly Hindu character, reflecting the present government’s conviction that India is essentially a Hindu civilization. This article examines the drivers of India’s contemporary religious diplomacy, its target audiences, its practitioners within and outside the government, and its likely influence. It argues that India’s religious diplomacy is unusual in terms of its target audiences and the message aimed at each of them, and in terms of its messengers, which include several Hindu nationalist social movements and elements of the Indian diaspora. It argues too that the impact of these efforts remains unclear.