India, Nov. 12 -- In the 1990s, when the Ram temple movement was at its peak, people took serious offence to derogatory public utterances about Hindus having several gods and goddesses for the simple reason that worshipping multiple gods and goddesses was never a contentious issue. Regardless of many Hindus having a specific "aradhya dev" (beloved or tutelary deity), they revered all gods-Ram, Krishna, Shiva and Maa-who were often called by different names in different regions.

It was, therefore, shocking when the head priest of the Bageshwar Dham, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, drew a divisive contrast between Lord Ram and Lord Krishna during a religious discourse in Madhya Pradesh recently. Shastri not only framed Ram as "hamare (our) Ram"...