Malhotra had written several previous books defending various aspects of Hinduism. He states that "Indra's Net" was catalyzed by a 2012 panel at the meetings of the American Academy of Religion to discuss his book "Being Different" (2011). Two panelists based their objections against the book on the "single premise" that no unified Hindu tradition existed. These panelists "regarded any notion of Hindu unity as a dangerous fabrication and saw me as guilty of propagating it." Malhotra had known of several distinct cases of bias