Over the past few centuries of interaction and conflict with Islam, Christianity, racism and colonialism, Hindus often withdrew into a shell and refused to understand the adversary - and where he is coming from. Octavio Paz, the late Mexican Nobel laureate and ambassador to Delhi in the 1960s, wrote in his book (In Light of India) that Islam came to India fully formed and armed, and Hindus just could not understand what it was about. Hindus and Muslims in India, despite centuries of coexistence, merely “stared at one another in incomprehension.” Hindus knew only the Indic way of religious conflict, which was more about public disputation and ultimate coexistence, and not the binary good-bad approach of the Abrahamic religions. In Abrahamism, acceptance of one god automatically negates the other. In Hinduism, worship of Durga does not mean some people can’t mourn Mahishasura. There is, of course, a serious effort underway to make Hindus see this in binary terms, so that people are set against one another.

The Hindu rage – whether expressed in social media or by fringe elements in the extended parivar – comes from the sense of frustration and incomprehension of today’s realities with its inherent anti-Hindu biases. If they want to be taken seriously even by Hindus, they need to study what they are up against, and then work out a strategy to gain the upper hand. A successful rejuvenation of Hinduism needs not anger or violence, but an intelligent understanding of the big picture globally, the Indian context in which the culture and religious wars happen, and the super local social realities. It is only by looking at all three aspects that success is possible.

It is best to understand the overall scenario as a marketplace – a marketplace for religious products and consumers. In this market, Christianity is the market leader, Islam the challenger brand (Pepsi to Christian Coke), and Hinduism and other religions the niche players, even though Hindu numbers are not small enough to be called niche. It is niche only because Hindus are concentrated in a small geography in south Asia.

When Coke and Pepsi battle it out, it is the smaller players like Thums Up and Mangola that are squeezed out since market share for the big two can be grown only by focusing on winning converts from the smaller players.

India and China are the biggest markets for growth for Product Jesus and Product Mohammed (Or Allah, if you like). China is a closed market, and growth can happen only surreptitiously, and that leaves only India as the biggest market worth exploiting.

The other reality of the market place is segmentation. Religious products have to appeal to different segments of the market, the high end, the middle end and the low end.

Christianity and Islam, with their emphasis on the less fortunate and justice, appeal to the lowest end of the mass market, while Indic religions, by their high metaphysical content, tend to appeal to the upper end. In the 1980s, Hindustan Unilever’s Surf was detergent market leader, but it was too expensive for the masses. Karsanbhai Patel saw an opportunity for Nirma, and took away large market shares from Surf. To retain share, Hindustan Unilever had to launch a mass-market brand called Wheel, and has not looked back since.

On the other hand, the upper end market is also expanding, which is why the Ariels and Henkos are getting in. In the sphere of spirituality, there is also a growing market for upper-end metaphysics. The rich west is actually the best market for growing Brand Hinduism or Brand Buddha. Reason: it has less of poverty, and once humans are relieved of basic insecurities involving survival and safety, they have a greater need for intellectual stimulation that takes you beyond narrow religious dogma – which was what helped the Abrahamic faiths to spread fast among the masses. The west may be seeking an upgrade, and this is the market Hindu seers need to address.

It is not that Christian theologists don’t know this. This is why they are trying to “digest” Hindu-Buddhist-Dharmic ideas and call it Christianity. Hence you have Christian yoga, and a whole raft of Christian evangelists, theologists and ministers hawking new, improved versions of Christianity which are less dogmatic interpretations of the Bible. They draw a lot from Dharmic metaphysics. For example, Neale Donald Walsch’s various books on “Conversations with God” have none of the core Christian dogmas of virgin birth or the rubbishing of other spiritual traditions. Indians buy his books as though they are new revelations, when it is their own spiritual traditions they have lost touch with.

In order to tackle the “Surf” end of the religion market, new Christian evangelists (or even those like Walsch who are not stuck on Christianity as the only way) use the west’s latest knowledge in marketing, human psychology, sociology, and competitor products to reposition their faith, and target all ends of the market – from the top end to the bottom. For its home market, which has evolved beyond dogma, Christianity uses Indic and other ideas to develop products. For mass markets like India, where social tension and poverty are ever-present realities, the evangelists and even Islamic ulema have different strategies that are more radical, more aggressive, and more socially relevant.

In simple terms, the Indic spiritual/religious products are ideal for the western markets, and the Christian/Islamic products are easier to peddle in the Indian market.

If Hinduism has to hold its own in the home market and also explore new markets, it has to have at least two products – a sophisticated version for the western markets, which modern-day gurus like Sri Sri Ravishankar and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev are clearly delivering, and a Hinduism Lite for India, where the social content (strong anti-caste stand, social welfare, women’s emancipation, etc) is emphasised more than high metaphysics. In a sense, Hindutva is a move in this direction, and has even succeeded to some extent, given that it is now dominated by OBCs and not the upper castes, but it is simply not focused enough to deliver a big ticket mass market product as its prime focus is still on building a temple in Ayodhya or forcing people not to eat beef. These are not the real concerns of the mass market for Hinduism in India. And hence Hindutva in its current form is bound to fail.