03-30-2005, 05:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India.</b>
(Book Review)
International Bulletin of Missionary Research; 1/1/2004; Singh, Maina Chawla
In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India.
By Sebastian C. H. Kim. New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003. Pp. 250. Rs 840.
Identity, Hegemony, Resistance: Towards a Social History of Conversions (1800-2000).
By Biswamoy Pati. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2003. Pp. 57. Rs 90 / $10.
The resurgence of Hindu right-wing groups and rising intercommunal tensions between Hindus and Muslims and between Hindus and Christians in India have brought the issue of conversion center stage in both public political debates and more private discussions among scholars, social activists, and religious groups. Conversion poses a vexing problem in contemporary India, even as the national media continue to report attacks on churches, "reconversions" of tribal communities to Hinduism, and mass conversions of lower castes to Buddhism. These two studies are therefore very timely.
Although the titles do not name a religion, both books focus on conversion to Christianity alone. Sebastian Kim analyzes twentieth-century debates about conversion between Hindus and Christians and among the Christian theologians who have espoused inculturation approaches, as well as promoting liberation theologies, to theorize on mass Dalit conversions. Kim contends that existing Christian studies analyze conversion in sociocultural, rather than theological, terms. He thus seeks to present the theological underpinnings of the arguments both for and against conversion and to "understand these within the historical dynamics of the context" (p. 9). The study also seeks to view these debates as "part of a theological debate in the wider Christian world" (p. 89).
Analyzing the impact of Gandhi, the Niyogi Report, and subsequent anticonversion bills passed by some Indian states in the 1960s and 1970s, Kim argues that Hindu and Christian understandings reveal the limitations of both perspectives. Theologians on both sides have failed to engage each other in dialogue, in any real sense of mutuality, which is an important basis of a productive exchange.
Kim's book is neatly structured, with sections of documentation followed by analysis, in the manner of a methodical dissertation. The study is informative and eminently readable, even for nonspecialists. Kim's presentation is that of a balanced researcher. Personally, though, I missed the assertion of a stronger position on the problematics of conversion, an issue that vexes many of us in South Asia today.
Biswamoy Pati's slim monograph focuses on conversions in coastal Orissa. His study demonstrates how the histories of adivasis (indigenous, tribal communities) of coastal Orissa reveal a gradual but a dearly hegemonic process of conversion and incorporation into Brahmanic Hinduism, albeit as exploited, marginalized groups. Pati draws from historical documents and oral traditions to show how British colonial policies like land distribution schemes created shifting material conditions and shifting social identities. A combination of coercive policies thus led to displacement and also engendered a slow social process among adivasis toward a "brahmanical Hinduisation," in anticipation of elevation in status (p. 6).
Among other issues that evoke a revisionist thinking on conversion, Pati stresses the paradox that the absence of a "system of conversion" within Hinduism coexists with Shudhi (purification rites), whereby one may be "re-converted" to Hinduism (pp. 2-3). Pati thus seriously challenges the pervasive idea that Hinduism is a nonproselytizing religion and therefore more humane and tolerant, arguing that such perceptions, fueled by colonial and postcolonial politics, are more recently rooted in the growing right-wing Hindu fundamentalism.
Maina Chawla Singh, Associate Professor at the University of Delhi, has published on gender and religion, particularly on American women missionaries in South Asia. Other research interests include women's activism and sexuality in South Asia.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Overseas Ministries Study Center<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
(Book Review)
International Bulletin of Missionary Research; 1/1/2004; Singh, Maina Chawla
In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India.
By Sebastian C. H. Kim. New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003. Pp. 250. Rs 840.
Identity, Hegemony, Resistance: Towards a Social History of Conversions (1800-2000).
By Biswamoy Pati. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2003. Pp. 57. Rs 90 / $10.
The resurgence of Hindu right-wing groups and rising intercommunal tensions between Hindus and Muslims and between Hindus and Christians in India have brought the issue of conversion center stage in both public political debates and more private discussions among scholars, social activists, and religious groups. Conversion poses a vexing problem in contemporary India, even as the national media continue to report attacks on churches, "reconversions" of tribal communities to Hinduism, and mass conversions of lower castes to Buddhism. These two studies are therefore very timely.
Although the titles do not name a religion, both books focus on conversion to Christianity alone. Sebastian Kim analyzes twentieth-century debates about conversion between Hindus and Christians and among the Christian theologians who have espoused inculturation approaches, as well as promoting liberation theologies, to theorize on mass Dalit conversions. Kim contends that existing Christian studies analyze conversion in sociocultural, rather than theological, terms. He thus seeks to present the theological underpinnings of the arguments both for and against conversion and to "understand these within the historical dynamics of the context" (p. 9). The study also seeks to view these debates as "part of a theological debate in the wider Christian world" (p. 89).
Analyzing the impact of Gandhi, the Niyogi Report, and subsequent anticonversion bills passed by some Indian states in the 1960s and 1970s, Kim argues that Hindu and Christian understandings reveal the limitations of both perspectives. Theologians on both sides have failed to engage each other in dialogue, in any real sense of mutuality, which is an important basis of a productive exchange.
Kim's book is neatly structured, with sections of documentation followed by analysis, in the manner of a methodical dissertation. The study is informative and eminently readable, even for nonspecialists. Kim's presentation is that of a balanced researcher. Personally, though, I missed the assertion of a stronger position on the problematics of conversion, an issue that vexes many of us in South Asia today.
Biswamoy Pati's slim monograph focuses on conversions in coastal Orissa. His study demonstrates how the histories of adivasis (indigenous, tribal communities) of coastal Orissa reveal a gradual but a dearly hegemonic process of conversion and incorporation into Brahmanic Hinduism, albeit as exploited, marginalized groups. Pati draws from historical documents and oral traditions to show how British colonial policies like land distribution schemes created shifting material conditions and shifting social identities. A combination of coercive policies thus led to displacement and also engendered a slow social process among adivasis toward a "brahmanical Hinduisation," in anticipation of elevation in status (p. 6).
Among other issues that evoke a revisionist thinking on conversion, Pati stresses the paradox that the absence of a "system of conversion" within Hinduism coexists with Shudhi (purification rites), whereby one may be "re-converted" to Hinduism (pp. 2-3). Pati thus seriously challenges the pervasive idea that Hinduism is a nonproselytizing religion and therefore more humane and tolerant, arguing that such perceptions, fueled by colonial and postcolonial politics, are more recently rooted in the growing right-wing Hindu fundamentalism.
Maina Chawla Singh, Associate Professor at the University of Delhi, has published on gender and religion, particularly on American women missionaries in South Asia. Other research interests include women's activism and sexuality in South Asia.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Overseas Ministries Study Center<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->