VARANASI, India — Hindu priests stand on the banks of the Ganges, performing an evening prayer to the river. They wave fire as the sun sets, ring bells and tap on drums. Thousands watch, clap and chant along from boats crammed in the water. They're here because this is Varanasi, a city deeply holy to Hindus, as holy as the Ganges River, which many reverentially call ma — mother.
It's also the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi is not from here — he was raised in a town in Gujarat, in western India — but representing Varanasi, in India's north, is important because Modi and his party have pledged to remake India as a Hindu nation. That poses a sharp turn for a country whose constitution enshrines secularism and equal rights.
