Believer’s Dilemma marks the conclusion of Abhishek Choudhary’s landmark two-part study of Atal Behari Vajpayee (1924–2018), the visionary RSS propagandist who carved a path from fringe politics to the mainstream, establishing the Hindu Right as a dominant force in India’s political landscape. Published by Pan Macmillan India, this second volume combines meticulous archival research with revealing interviews to present an unsentimental history of contemporary Indian politics.

Choudhary traces the trajectory of India’s political upheavals—from the short-lived Janata coalition and Vajpayee’s tussle with Morarji Desai over foreign policy, to Indira Gandhi’s ad-hoc decisions in Assam, Punjab, and Kashmir, and Rajiv Gandhi’s strategic turn toward the Hindu vote. He analyses Vajpayee’s attempts (and failures) to secularize the nascent BJP, the Sangh Parivar’s careful orchestration of the Babri demolition, and the broader ideological currents that shaped the nation.

The book also offers a nuanced portrait of Vajpayee’s tenure as Prime Minister (1998–2004), detailing his pragmatic diplomacy with Pakistan and China, his emotional resilience in managing a thirteen-party coalition, and his role in embedding capitalist aspiration within India’s socio-political imagination. Choudhary explores the patterns of Vajpayee’s unwavering loyalty to his ideological family during crises, from the 1983 Assam riots and the 1992 Babri aftermath to the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, culminating in his poignant last public act in 2008, voting against the Indo-US nuclear deal he had helped initiate.

A decade in the making, Believer’s Dilemma is a definitive and psychologically insightful study of the Hindu Right and India’s first RSS Prime Minister. It provides readers with a fresh, incisive understanding of the forces, personalities, and ideological currents that have shaped modern India.