Politician Mahua Moitra’s contention has been this: Her [version of] Goddess Kaali eats meat and accepts alcohol. The TMC (Trinamool Congress) MP was duelling those criticising a film poster of the goddess, which showed her smoking. Moitra has a point: Not just this particular goddess, but all of Hinduism has as many interpretations and versions of the gods as the number of deities themselves. This make-it-up-as-you-go-along and a-god-by-any-other-name… theism is the crucial difference between Hinduism and monotheistic Abrahamic religions.

And if any god were to take to tobacco, it would most likely be Maa Kaali—a primal, ruthless, raging, killing force. Her tongue drips blood, she wears a girdle of human arms and her open hair whips about in the winds of time. She holds the khatvanga or skull-topped staff in her hand and is ready for war. Her name literally gives away the colour of her skin, and she is connected to Shiva’s Mahakaal version, the one who is beyond time and death. A far cry from the beatific, smiling Goddess Durga, from whom she is said to have sprung.