The Conversion Of India Or Reconciliation Between Christianity And Hinduism

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon. This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.

Hindu and Christian debates over the meanings, motivations, and modalities of ‘conversion’ provide the central connecting theme running through this book. It focuses on the reasons offered by both sides to defend or oppose the possibility of these cross-border movements, and shows how these reasons form part of a wider constellation of ideas, concepts, and practices of the Christian and the Hindu worlds. The book draws upon several historical case-studies of Christian missionaries and of Hindus who encountered these missionaries. By analysing some of the complex negotiations, intersections, and conflicts between Hindus and Christians over the question of ‘conversion’, it demonstrates that these encounters revolve around three main contested themes. Firstly, who can properly ‘speak for the convert’? Secondly, how is ‘tolerating’ the religious other connected to an appraisal of the other’s viewpoints which may be held to be incorrect, inadequate, or incomplete? Finally, what is, in fact, the ‘true Religion’? The book demonstrates that it is necessary to wrestle with these questions for an adequate understanding of the Hindu and Christian debates over ‘conversion.’ Questioning what ‘conversion’ precisely is, and why it has been such a volatile issue on India’s political-legal landscape, the book will be a useful contribution to studies of Hinduism, Christianity and Asian Religion and Philosophy.

'Very few books have...discussed [religious conversion]in a pan-Indian context...This book both promises and delivers this very perspective... a landmark in studies on conversion...' -- Seminar'The vital importance of this timely and extremely well-written book cannot be stressed enough...Kim offers us a sober, carefully researched and painstakingly documented book on the emergence of the conversion issue during the last one hundred and fifty years in pre- and post-independentIndia...[T]he book...offers us a fine basis to continue the exploration of conversion and its discontents.' -- The book Review'Kim seeks to reveal arguments for and against conversions, wherein lies the appeal of his book... By highlighting contesting philosophies, Kim focuses on crucial conversion issues.' -- Hindustan Times'...Kim's work...prove[s] to be a handy reference both for policy-makers and scholars.' -- The TelegraphThis important volume examines the major arg uments on conversion between Hindus and Christians, and also among Christian theologians in both pre- and post-Independence India. It reveals and interprets the arguments for and against conversion and seeks to understand them within a historical andcontemporary perspective.Engaging and immensely relevant, this book will interest policy-makers, journalists, academics, and lay readers, besides being indispensable to researchers and students of sociology, religion, theology, history, politics, and law.

This book re-examines the issue of religious conversion, which has been a site of conflict in India for several centuries. It discusses wide-ranging themes such as conversion, education, and reform in colonial India; the process and practices of conversion in Christian Europe; Gandhi, conversion, and the equality of religions; perspectives from Hindu nationalism, secularism, and religious minorities; religious freedom and the limits of propagating religion; and conversion in constitutional law, commissions, and courts, to chart new directions for research on religion, tradition, and conversion. Tracing developments from the 19th-century colonial era to contemporary times, the book analyses cultural background frameworks and the origins of religious conversion and its conceptualisation in Western Christianity. It further delves into how Indian culture and its traditions have shaped responses to conversion. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of critical humanities, religion, cultural studies, sociology of religion, comparative religion, philosophy, anthropology, theology, Indology, history, politics, postcolonial studies, critical theory, and South Asian studies.

It is often said that the real confrontation between Christianity and the great religions of the world is only just beginning. Bishop Kulandran's book on the pivotal religious doctrine of Grace marks the first stage in the new encounter between Christianity and Hinduism. The result of considerable research and theological reflection, Bishop Kulandran's book is an objective and scholarly appraisal of Christianity and Hinduism, their similarities and differences, and of the two different worlds in which they move. Hinduism's uncertainty about the character of God and Christianity's dogmatic certainty are examined in detail. The sense of man's need of God's grace in Christianity, and Hinduism's rejection of any act of reconciliation are seen by Bishop Kulandran as central to the dialogue between the two religions. As Dr. Hendrik Kraemer says in the foreword, Bishop Kulandran's book is animated by the desire for fair presentation and understanding and is a new and important contribution to the subject and not merely a repetition of what has often been said before. The author belonged by birth and experience to the Indian world and as a Bishop of the Church of South India knew the power as well as the limitations of the Christian mission in the world of Hinduism. This scholarly work is a valuable contribution to comparative religion and is an illuminating exploration of two of the world's most important religions.

This volume offers insights into the current ‘public-square’ debates on Indian Christianity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork as well as rigorous analyses, it discusses the myriad histories of Christianity in India, its everyday practice and contestations and the process of its indigenisation. It addresses complex and pertinent themes such as Dalit Indian Christianity, diasporic nationalism and conversion. The work will interest scholars and researchers of religious studies, Dalit and subaltern studies, modern Indian history, and politics.

From dust jacket: "Christian missionaries have been operating in India since the 1st century AD when Thomas the Apostle supposedly first set foot in Kerala. The quest of the Christian missionaries to convert the Indian masses to Christianity has been a long and tedious one. They have succeeded in some places and utterly failed in others. . . . This book tries to understand the reason for the relative failure of Christianity to take roots in India." The book also provides in detail exchanges between Christian missionaries and prominent Indians such as Gandhi.

Christianity has been present in India since at least the third century, but the faith remains a small minority. Even so, Christianity is growing rapidly in parts of the subcontinent, and has made an impact far beyond its numbers. Yet Indian Christianity remains highly controversial, and it has suffered growing discrimination and violence. This book shows how Christian converts and communities continue to make contributions to Indian society, even amid social pressure and violent persecution. In a time of controversy in India about the legitimacy of conversion and the value of religious diversity, Christianity in India addresses the complex issues of faith, identity, caste, and culture. It documents the outsized role of Christians in promoting human rights, providing education and healthcare, fighting injustice and exploitation, and stimulating economic uplift for the poor. Readers will come away surprised and sobered to learn how these active initiatives often invite persecution today. The essays draw on intimate and personal encounters with Christians in India, past and present, and address the challenges of religious freedom in contemporary India.