Archaeology professor Stephen Mithen, in his The Prehistory of the Mind, quotes social anthropologist Pascal Boyer’s The Naturalness of Religious Ideas where Boyer finds common ground in most religions. These include the assumption that a “non-physical component of person can survive after death and remain as a being with beliefs and desires. Second, it is very frequently assumed that certain people within a society are likely to receive direct inspiration or messages from supernatural agencies, such as gods and spirits. And third, it is also very widely assumed that performing certain rituals in an exact way can bring about change in the natural world.”

In India, Hindutva-powered fervour with as few connections to Hinduism as possible finds extra authority for majoritarian chest-thumping from an electoral victory. Pic/AFP