In a style that is accessible, yet not reductionist, Swamy has successfully shown that most conflicts termed “religious” are anything but that…This work encourages academics and social scientists to undertake similar researches in other areas of religious studies, where many centuries-old constructs have been blindly followed.

Reading Religion

A well-grounded study that raises important questions for the future of interreligious dialogue … I warmly recommend the book for those interested in interreligious dialogue, as well as interreligious relations and lived religion in India.

Studies in World Christianity

A detailed and thorough critique … Swamy's writing style is clear and his overall argument diligently signposted throughout … The book is a salutary and provocative addition to the literature concerning interreligious dialogue, and a good read for those interested in the politics of religion in India (and elsewhere) in all its discursive messiness.

Yana

Stripping away the overgrowth and debris that hid the inherent promise and ongoing potential of interreligious dialogue, and carefully, creatively, provocatively yet committedly using case studies and displaying mastery over a huge amount of literature, the author reopens and interrogates the meaning, limitations, and potential of dialogue in our messy 21st century. Just when one thinks that certain influential ideas and movements have run their course and reached an impasse, mainly because of faulty starting-points and overly simplistic assumptions about that catch-all word “religion”, this is a book which skillfully forces us to confront our suppositions and reboot our commitments.

Jayakiran Sebastian, Dean and H. George Anderson Professor of Mission and Cultures