I am glad that Koenraad Elst picked up on Meera Nanda’s hypocrisy which I followed for over a decade, including in meetings and interactions with her. During my online debate with Vijay Prashad on OutlookIndia.com (which you can read in their archive), Vijay suddenly brought in Meera
to boost his team because she is a scientist by training and he is not. So Meera and I had a side email debate after which she backed down from taking the debate pubic citing that she was not prepared.

At that time Nanda was unemployed and desperate to get funding from somewhere – a mercenary and not ideologically driven. If i had the funds I could have engaged her if I chose. Thats when I suggested to her that Templeton people have lots of money to throw away at scholars who say
the right things. Next thing I now she was selected for Templeton grant and given a high visibility as an “indian/hindu” voice on sience and religion. She used the platform to lambast anything to do with dharma on grounds of “scientific inquiry”. On the other hand, she spares Protestantism (because the Templetons are Protestants) and tries to argues that they are very rational and scientific, while Hindus are superstitions and dangerous.

So my sense of Nanda is that she did not convert to Protestantism as Elst inquires, but that she merely joined the mercenary army. Sepoys for hire!

I also know that her hatred with hinduism started early in life when she felt that her hindu in-laws ill treated her. Like many other psychotics (some of whom are Hindu extremists who are obsessed with attacking me personally), she finds it hard to get put of a mental groove once she is stuck in it.

The academy, Church, and other “Breaking India” forces find her useful to cite as a reference in works that get widespread readership in college classrooms.