And this at a time when India faced US sanctions after the Pokharan tests, almost a world away from the current New Delhi-Washington engagement.

Between 1999 and 2003, there was not one case of Fulbright visa rejection. No scholar was asked by the NDA government to change his or her research subject except one in 2003-04. Even that was more semantic than anything else: New York scholar Rachel J Anthes changed her subject from “From sacred whore to sex worker” to “The Sacred Feminine.” And she was allowed to do research in the institution of her choice, Sanskriti Pratishthan, New Delhi. US officials say that visa clearances came within the stipulated time-frame of three months or, at worst, four months.

Some of the subjects that the NDA raised no objections to: study of Hindu religious reform movement, ethics of religion and politics, local roots of religious nationalism, Brahma Kumaris and globalisation, religion in campuses, labour diaspora in the Middle-East and Brahmin authority and patronage.

In sharp contrast, between 2004 and 2007 — during the UPA regime — there have been 23 rejections, delays have ranged from eight months to 21 months. Subjects the UPA government didn’t allow include Left politics in Maharashtra, Islamic feminism, Muslim women’s perceptions of the role of women in society, ethno-botany in India; the “many faces of Meenakshi temple,” language ideologies in Mumbai schools and even a film on the life of a Muslim girl. Rejected, 10 scholars didn’t bother to re-apply, seven are still waiting for the government’s approval after they changed their subjects.

Said then HRD Secretary S C Tripathi: “We believed there was no need for Intelligence Bureau to clear Fulbright scholars.” So on content, too, official records show that unlike in the UPA regime, the NDA wasn’t playing the thought police. Consider some of the subjects cleared by the NDA:

1999-2000

• Interface between religion and medicine in Tibetan transformation of Indian medical models

• The production of pilgrimage maps in Haridwar and Varanasi

2000-01

• Modern Indian history

• Periyapuranam and Rise of Tamil Saivism

• Kerala’s labour migration to the Middle-East

• Remembering Nawabi rule and the rebellion of 1857 in Lucknow

• Preservation of historical monuments in India

• Local roots of religious nationalism

• Interaction between Hindu, Jain and Muslim communities in Western India during 1300-1500

• Competing cultures of the Math: New sectarian institutions in the social re-education of Hindu Karnataka

• Beyond Buddhist and Brahmanical activity: The place of Jain rock-cut excavations at Ellora

2001-02

• Celebrating the Living goddess: Durga, Lakshmi, Kali and Saraswati

• Melding of the categories of religion and politics by the Hindu religious reform movement, the Arya Samaj, in the United Provinces and Punjab between 1875 and 1920

• The Jews of India: A documentary film

• Playing in the Lord’s playground: God, Salvation and play-acting the Braj raslila

• Amar Chitra Katha and the construction of Indian identities

• Sacred objects and the making of history: relics in the Sikh tradition

• Gender equality litigation in India: patterns and potentials

• Contemporary commodification of a saint

2002-03

• The three lives of a woman saint

• Academic study of religion in Indian universities

• Sainthood in three Indian religious traditions

• India’s IT explosion: economic engine or digital divider

• Regionalism and nationalism in modern Maharashtra

• Islamic literary tradition in Javanese and Tamil

• Brahma Kumaris and globalisation

2003-04

• Religion and politics, comparative religious ethics

• Women, Religions and Sanskrit in Maharashtra and beyond

• The past and present paths of Rama and Buddha

• Brahmin Authority and patronage in ancient India

• Work and thought of Syed Ahmad Khan