Composer, nominally a heathen in India (8)
I believe the answer is:
paganini
'composer' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'heathen in india' is the wordplay.
'heathen' becomes 'pagan' (both can mean an irreligious person).
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'pagan'+'in'+'i'='PAGANINI'
'nominally a' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for paganini that I've seen before include "Famous violin virtuoso" , "One on the fiddle" , "Devilish performer" , "Niccolo _; Italian composer" , "Old bower" .)
