What does the religious landscape look like in an emerging India with a rapidly growing middle class? Is better prosperity giving rise to a new form of spirituality, in which new-age Gurus are occupying an increasingly central role?

These were among the questions discussed at this week’s CSWR café by Kalpana Jain, a CSWR resident.  Jain described her own experience of observing an obscure spot in a neighboring park grow into a thriving temple after some people set up a small idol and started praying there daily.  The experience is part of larger picture of India today,...