Christian conversions in rural India

Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India’s Christians:

The Christians were mid-hymn when the mob kicked in the door.

A swarm of men dressed in saffron poured inside. They jumped onstage and shouted Hindu supremacist slogans. They punched pastors in the head. They threw women to the ground, sending terrified children scuttling under their chairs.

“They kept beating us, pulling out hair,” said Manish David, one of the pastors who was assaulted. “They yelled: ‘What are you doing here? What songs are you singing? What are you trying to do?’”

The attack unfolded on the morning of Jan. 26 at the Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra Christian center in the city of Indore. The police soon arrived, but the officers did not touch the aggressors. Instead, they arrested and jailed the pastors and other church elders, who were still dizzy from getting punched in the head. The Christians were charged with breaking a newly enforced law that targets religious conversions, one that mirrors at least a dozen other measures across the country that have prompted a surge in mob violence against Indian Christians.

Pastor David was not converting anyone, he said. But the organized assault against his church was propelled by a growing anti-Christian hysteria that is spreading across this vast nation, home to one of Asia’s oldest and largest Christian communities, with more than 30 million adherents.

The article makes it clear that this is mostly a feature of the “Cow Belt” and due to the conversion of Dalits and the like. This is The New York Times so I view this skeptically, but if this is happening it seems likely a large proportion of Dalits will convert to Christianity since the Hindu reaction here is depicted as literally reactive.

One thing that does cross my mind is that the Hindus in the piece are depicted as aggressive. But the Christians have an ambition of converting most of the population, and once and if they became the majority they would surely not be the gentle flock they are now. It’s sad, but true.

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thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Jason
Jason
2 years ago
Reply to  thewarlock

“Hindu SC children were forced to eat beef and read the Bible… They were compelled to learn the bible and anyone who refused had their necks choked till they agreed. It is alleged that cattle are being slaughtered inside the campus.
This is a classic case of how Christian missionaries deceive people and take advantage of their poverty.”

Well this article sounds totally unbiased and legit. Also, why did a Hindu dad place his kids with a Christian orphanage if he didn’t want them reading the bible and eating delicious steaks?

Maybe I’m missing something but the whole article reads like crazy rabble rousing.

Pandit Brown
Pandit Brown
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason

Eh, lots of Indians, especially in the middle and upper classes have been going to schools run by Christian missionaries (of various denominations) since the 19th century. Not because they wanted to be converted to Christianity but because these schools offer the best modern education in the country. And it’s not much to ask that schools (or orphanages) stick to their core mission while generally abiding by the local society’s standards. I think you are comparing this situation to, say, a Hare Krishna place in the US. It isn’t. Christian domination of educational and charity institutions has been going on for a while, and society implicitly allows them to do so on condition that they don’t serve as the Christian equivalent of madrassas.

Jason
Jason
2 years ago
Reply to  Pandit Brown

Well that’s greedy and psychotic. You can have your religious school but you can’t have your religion, and we’re going to take advantage of your services but you can’t tell people about your faith.
Sorry but that attitude reflects super poorly on Hindus.

Imagine a free private Hindu school in Canada or the UK that wasn’t allowed to teach the Puranas, Itihasa and Vedas or customs, because it would offend Christians taking advantage of the education there.
Do you realize how stupid that sounds?

Janamejaya
Janamejaya
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason

Christian mission schools in India are not free. They are often the most expensive private schools in the area.

H.M. Brough
H.M. Brough
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason

The schools he is talking about offer paid services to an elite/subelite clientele. In that light, this becomes similar to an environmental regulation on a nickel mine. The company does business and makes money in the area while limiting the spread of things that people find unsavory.

Shashank
Shashank
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason

You got few things right and few wrong.
You don’t know the Indian secularism so get ready for the legal lesson
1) Under Indian constitution, the Article 26 allows all religious denominations to administer the religious matters and own and transact in religious properties. But there is a caveat for the Hindus under Article 25 where the Hindu religious institutions are under the guise of “removing caste based issues” the State has undertaken the administration of the temples from the community. Essentially, what we donate or the property that the temples owned in 1950 are now administered by the State not the Hindus. So you know jack shit why “hindutvadi” are being so angry all the time.
2)Under Article 15(5), the State can make rules for “private unaided educational institutions except owned and administered by the minorities”. It applies to the Hindu owned and administered private educational institutions. We have something called RTE which says 25% of economically backward (essentially poor) children have to be admitted into the “private unaided non minority educational institutions” with zero fees. The State will pay their share (25% poor students). This law is in force since 2010, as of today the outstanding amount is ₹63,459 crore translating to $9 billion. 4,000+”private unaided non minorities educational institutions” have pleaded for bankruptcy in the Delhi High court. You know jackshit what problems were are facing
3)The best part Article 30 which is called as “Cultural and linguistic minorities” and their rights to preserve their culture and language. Any institution opened by the minority or administered by the minority (minorities in India administer State built schools and colleges)shall have the freedom to decide what to be taught, how to be taught and whom to be taught. The General Education Rules don’t apply. Social justice goes out of toss in this institutions. The private unaided non minority educational institutions have rules like – Reservations in admissions, fee capping and curriculam compliances.
And now coming to your ignorance, the Hindu father has no option because the minority educational institutions have better economic health which translates into better educational outcomes.

H.M. Brough
H.M. Brough
2 years ago

Skeptical of this article given that it’s the NYT. I mean I’m sure thuggery and lawfare happen, but I am skeptical that it is an omnipresent phenomenon.

—-

Not sure about a high proportion of Dalits converting. To my knowledge, the major, high-proportion conversion events have occurred in tribal belts (eg parts of Jharkhand, Dangs in Gujarat) and peripheral areas that aren’t really Hindu to begin with (eg Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh). If I were a betting man I’d assume that this trend will continue (smaller, peripherally Hindu areas converting to Christianity), but there is a hard ceiling on how high this can go.

—-

I am anyways skeptical about the long-term prospects of Hinduism, its dismal fertility and the apathy/defections of its elites will doom it. But Christianity won’t be a major player in this issue.

H.M. Brough
H.M. Brough
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Wut??

AK
AK
2 years ago

At least in South India, most Dalit conversions to Christianity have very little to do with things like caste discrimination or wanting to be a priest or whatever. It’s mostly due to lack of pastoral care. Someone loses their job, a family member dies, someone has health problems, someone is in debt, and the church comes in and provides social support. It’s like why Latin Americans are leaving Catholicism and joining Pentecostal/Evangelical Christianity.

In other parts of India, this religious vacuum is taken over not by Christianity, but by different neo-Hindu or organized Hindu groups like ISKCON, Swaminarayan, Art of Living, Sai Baba, or Sadhguru. It’s also why various Babas and Gurus are becoming popular.

Bhumiputra
Bhumiputra
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Christian missionaries have been running schools and other social support activities since British times. Earlier only Dalits were vulnerable. With increasing urbanization and breakdown of rural support and power structures, landless OBCs are also becoming vulnerable to lure. Lot of converts don’t change their religion in official documents in order to continue receiving government benefits. Expect this to change when it hits critical mass.

Scorpion Eater
Scorpion Eater
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

“make them step on a cross to prove they’re not christian. man up!”

why stop there? lash them up till they confess that they are crypto-christians. burn them at the stakes! throw them to lions!

in fact hindus are in such a state of siege that they need an office of inquisition. a hindu inquisition for a hindu rashtra!

seriously, while competitive proselytization is a real problem, solutions proposed are shockingly reprehensible. the level of discourse in the this blog is sinking to new lows.

Pandit Brown
Pandit Brown
2 years ago
Reply to  Bhumiputra

Lot of converts don’t change their religion in official documents in order to continue receiving government benefits.

You know this how?

Bhumiputra
Bhumiputra
2 years ago
Reply to  Pandit Brown

I personally know a few folks (maids) back in India. Usually it is a case of only 1 or 2 individuals in a family who “convert” while rest of the family is either apathetic or opposes. Growing up in rural north KA (90s), there was an entire village of SC/STs which went to the methodist church that had sprung up. Due to extended family being in government, it was known that on paper the village was still predominantly Hindu.

Enigma
Enigma
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Hindutvaadis are just North Indian Supremacists, their game plan is to subsume the South with their Demographic&Economic power. Calling South “Christian” is just a way of rationalizing the disdain they have for S.Indian Hindus, who don’t share their Victim/Siege Mentality or their Mughal-Hindu hybrid culture/history.

Shashank
Shashank
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

It’s economics razib, State administering and controlling Hindu temples, donations go for political parties personal spending, Temple properties auctioned to build churches and mosques, moneys funnelled and used for political parities funding. In the end, the Hindu community suffers because the temple doesn’t do anything for them. Coupled with the bad monsoon, conditions worsen, Foreign funded NGOs supported missionaries in the name of relief enters the area, tell them to convert for a bag of rice/wheat and in some cases alcohol. For a few years, the “new” Chrisitians get economic benefits from the NGOs and minority rights. Once the funding of the evangelicals stop they start becoming poor again. The evangelicals then in their churches create another frustrated group of christians to pressurize regional governments to get reservation benefits. Political parties oblige because the Evangelicals and Muslims are same in character- vote blocks, dirt poor controlled by 2% rich and strong Ashraf class. In the end, hindu suffers from both the sides- land gone, donations gone, government job opportunities gone. And you will be surprised that “educated” southern states take a lead here because the people don’t have the guts to say Periyar was wrong, communism is wrong.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Shashank

“And you will be surprised that “educated” southern states take a lead here because the people don’t have the guts to say Periyar was wrong, communism is wrong.”

Whaaa! My beloved, greatest of all Hindu Dravidians are secretly commies?

Oh my Periyar!

Shashank
Shashank
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Yeah. Communism and Periyarism are essentially same thing. Communism means grouping up 10 beggars against 1 merchant and looting him in the name of “inequality”. Periyarism is grouping up 10 dumb people against 1 brahmin in the name of “social justice”.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago

For the Hindu right, it does not matter if South is Christian or not, for them anything outside of Hinduism is anarchy. On that terms, both TN and Kerala are already ‘Christian’, while Andhra has a Christian CM. That makes 3 of the 5 states of S-India.

Contrary to the article, dalit conversion to Christianity depends on Hindu-ness of the region. So success of Christianity, North/East> South> Punjab. The dalits of cow belt are sufficiently configured to Hinduism, for them to really take to Christianity in a big way. One needs to just look at the biggest political leader of N-Indian dalits, and how even though she has threatened multiple times to convert out of Hinduism, she doesn’t. Forget Dalits converting to Christianity, they aren’t converting to even ‘mild’ Buddhism.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/well-convert-to-buddhism-mayawati-warns-bjp-rss/article21386755.ece

The only folks in the North converting to Christianity in a big way are the tribals. Who like their N-East counterpart where minimal Hindu to begin with. Outside of that most OBC/UC hindu converts are Bongs, Dravidians and Punjabis.

Violet
Violet
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Nobody brought this up, so it might be worth pointing out. Andhra CM is Christian but he didn’t win because he is Christian. He won because he is Reddy.
If his children stop referring to their Reddy caste, they will be immediately irrelevant in state politics.
Even “YSR” contains “Reddy”. So, there won’t be any difference in caste politics no matter which religion label one slaps on.

Religion is also like caste in South. Caste trumps religion in identity hierarchy. One can’t treat religion as a higher order category than caste.

td
td
2 years ago

“this is happening it seems likely a large proportion of Dalits will convert to Christianity since the Hindu reaction here is depicted as literally reactive.”

@Razib, you are forgetting an important point here, and that is – Indian law doesn’t recognize scheduled caste category among Christians and Muslims, which means that a scheduled caste person will lose the reservation benefits and other incentives if he/she formally converts to Christianity or Islam. This is why we will never get formal census data on scheduled castes becoming Christians or Muslims unless there is a constitutional change.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Don’t think that test would work in india.

Middle of road Hindus won’t step on a Koran ot a cross as well. The pew survey showed that even among BJP supporters there is a strong undercurrent of “ respect all religions”

girmit
girmit
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Many of the same folks I know who’d rail against muslims as a community, would also give their kids a good smack for desecrating or even insulting islam in a vulgar way. Religion is a proxy for ethnicity/tribe. What makes elite hindus distrust muslims and christians is that they are ceding ecclesiastical authority to foreigners. There are similar, but subtle, intra-hindu dynamics. I think we attribute too much to faith per se.

thewarlock
thewarlock
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

Some American dharmics I know, including my own Dad, add pictures of “other gods” in our home pantheon. While we are Jain historically, my Dad is essentially a practicing Hindu. He has a photo of Jesus in his pantheon next to Ganesha, Shiva, Guru Nanak, and Laxmi. When I asked him as a teenager about how jainism is supposed to atheistic or at least non theistic, he always gave ambiguous replies. He once even went with some Catholics at work to get ash on his forehead for Ash Wednesday out of respect. He truly embodies the “pluralistic” Hindu

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Razib Khan

The current head of VHP ( universal Hindu council) is a Jain.

Brown
Brown
2 years ago

karnataka assembly yesterday passed a bill restricting conversions. congress opposed it. ironically it was congress who had drafted a similar bill 5 years earlier, but did not put it to vote ( as is hinted to please sonia gandhi).
goolihatti shekhar a minister from bovi community (s c) who alleged that his mother was converted, informed the assembly that older churches are not doing this but the newer ones are very active. he also informed that ‘fathers’ from lingayat, kuruba and bovi communities are converting.
in the short run reconversion to their original castes might happen.
in the long run cross marriage with these communities will ‘control’ the situation.

Pandit Brown
Pandit Brown
2 years ago

All the idiots who are hyperventilating about conversions and condoning not just anti-conversion laws but general mob violence of the kind that’s portrayed in this article (be it true or not) would do better to address why people are susceptible to being converted so easily. Put your money where your mouth is. Advocate for total Dalit integration into Hindu society. Promote large scale intermarriage. Heck, marry a Dalit yourself or (if you are into arranged marriages) get your son or daughter to marry a Dalit.

sbarrkum
2 years ago

As far as I know, Evangelicals do not funnel much into SL. My maternal grandparents converted to Evangelical Christianity (from Anglicans and Methodists) and built the first Evangelical Church (AOG) in the deep south (Galle) around mid to late 1930’s before WW2. American and Swedish missionaries in the 40’s were dirt poor and quite a few were supported by my grandparents.

Its only after the 50’s that one saw semi funded Evangelicals from the West. The Westerners mostly come here make some big gospel meetings and collect funds (10% tithes). As far as I see the money is trickling up. The mega church Evangelical church pastors are filthy rich. No different from Hindu and Buddhist Priests of large temple. A current right wing, all things good from the west unelected Minister of Parliament Eran Wickramaratne, is the son of Colton Wickramaratne, the Pastor of biggest Evangelical church in Sri Lanka.

First AOG church in Galle (in Cripps Road)
https://imgur.com/gallery/h6hEwAG

The Tillekeratnes
https://imgur.com/gallery/FaqiuCu

My cousin Ranjan Perumal in the Deep South attacked some where around 2014
https://www.christiantoday.co.in/news/pastors-get-death-threat-after-monks-led-ransacked-two-churches-in-sri-lanka.html

Rose
Rose
2 years ago
Reply to  sbarrkum

BTW, is Jesus depicted as a White man or a Brown man among Sri Lankan Christians?

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Rose

Depicted as a Dravidian invading Sri Lanka.

Sumit
Sumit
2 years ago

On a related note my 100% BJP supporting, mostly gujju, extended family had a lot of “Merry Christmas” messages today in our family’s WhatsApp group.

I feel it’s a bit weird since none of us are Christian.

In this case it’s not so much conversion as cultural appropriation / influence of Santa Claus and Christmas trees.

I think this must be happening a lot in India.

Meanwhile all my western Christian friends wish me a timid “Happy Holidays” at best. Lol.

phyecon1
phyecon1
2 years ago

caste is not the primary reason today for conversions. even in kerala, under extremely regressive, most caste supremacist times under british period, about 20 % converted to chrisitanity. It still is 55% Hindu and rest muslim, so conversions out of Hinduism while significant was not that big. It is poverty, avenues of upward mobility, pastoral care/ , western influence of status etc are the reasons including caste inequity and discrimination. But more importantly, it is due to govt taking over of many H temples and their unwillingness to give back the autonomy to community by political parties that had hindered hindus the most.

Congress before sonia gandhi was mildly hindu at the top even as they denied autonomy, since sonia, it has been pro christian even in mainland India. It was under sonia gandhi that rajashekar reddy became cm of andhra and went about openly using govt funds to support churches while coming to temple for photo ops . In 2014 elections, even ndtv journalists grumbled about conversions during election survey ( measure of how far they can go in their polite circles). In North east India, missionaries flourished a lot after Independence, under congress. So, the correlation of congress and missionaries along with dmk, ysr congress(son of rajashekar reddy after leaving congress, now is cm of andhra ) and few other parties is very robust. some Party ministers under ysr congress came out to speak of this issue to public, print news published article how local govt offices at night are turned to support evangelical activities. A party minister of bjp in karnataka also said of this in assembly.

My view has been that competition should be fair, the way i see it, christians made India poor during colonialism and are now here to reap the harvest of under development they induced in the country. And a lot of this under development has to do with their support and education of Indian elite in leftwing economics etc. Indian elite made a complete champion of mother teresa. They only look for getting petted on their back by those west. They are incapable of thinking otherwise. They call themselves liberal, secular etc, but go beyond words and everything is fake. Best way to understand them as colonized puppets still looking upto western masters for praise. They have no principles they are willing to apply to themselves.

BJP/rss neither has the iron of japanese or islamists, which is fine, but neither do they have common sense of building institutions beyond themselves. Hence the likes of J saideepak and others are taking the legal route to fight the state to free temples , inpart to give hindus institutional autonomy in parity to compete. Right now, bjp/rss do not want to give autonomy , as they are the prime beneficiaries of insecurity of Hindus, whether it be conversions or terrorism etc. Powers that be can solve problems if they want to, but if the way they come to electoral power is by funneling insecurities, is it in their best interest to stop this? or to let it gather more pace and try to reap the benefits of further polarization?. Modi/shah politics of last 7 yrs has been precisely this, to let issues fester till it turns into riot and benefit out of polarization and make themselves seem indispensable to voters.

Unlike moron bjp supporters, modi is pragmatic, he recently met the pope and hopes it can help him somewhat in kerala.Infact there are videos of christian pastors in talkshows in usa claiming that bjp ministers themselves call on them during election rallies, in north to get votes. In the long run, institutional autonomy is the only way forward for Hindus. Their capacity for violence is bad anyway, but are too stupid to even value institutional autonomy to compete fairly as well. And the reason they dont want institutional autonomy is fear of priests eating away the money( they cant seem to realize that they can have boards to elect leaders to check on this and other issues) , consequence of being dependent on political organizations like bjp/rss is that , actions only come if they see it fit to their benefit and not for faith or anything like that. BJP/RSS knows, all they need is to build one or two temples like ayodhya and support rabble rousers during elections and they have ticked the box of being pro Hindu to win the next elections. If tomorrow a significant % change faith, bjp will court their votes too like in goa. There is an intrinsic conflict between politics and faith. each trying to use each other for their own gain. As to bjp wanting to turn India as hindu rastra, this so far has been complete bs. There is zero evidence for this thus far. Infact a true rightwing supposedly fascist party already has everything it needs to take over the country as it is . State looking other way to thugs is an Indian reality irrespective or political parties(sadly). It tells you nothing else like nyt here lies .

saurav should realise that his less hindu more hindu idea is bs. Stop wasting your mind on useless idea and do something better. I say this not out of love but out of recognition that i too believed in many bs ideas earlier.
sorry for this long post razib.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  phyecon1

It’s alright. Everyone comes around to my theory. It takes time to warm up. Especially for less Hindu region folks who think I have some animus against them, and they take it personally. I sympathize with their “Hindu” irrelevance in their own states.

After all, N-Indian Hindus have political power. S-Indian Hindus have podcasts, book deals and brown pundits.

We are not the same 😉

phyecon1
phyecon1
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

your position is to sit around and justify ” do nothing attitude” as opposed to bring accountability and autonomy. wrong on basis of precautionary principle. wrong on basis of making bad bet with out of whack position size, wrong on basis of probability, wrong. At no point do I mention region. I am mostly not that kind of person. I try to apply the same yardsticks and standards across all people and all faiths and region. I reject your explanation as it is based on zero evidence ,logic and analysis. If you insist, you should show the exact mechanism of which I am sure that you have no data to even go about trying to even formulate a meaningful hypothesis. And I speak from personal experience on this as 2 of my family members have shifted and I fit the general profile of brown pundits visitors. Fool lives with surety that it wont happen to me and live in ignorant bliss, wise live with recognition that it could happen to us too and prepare . south atleast has some degree of prosperity. North does not even have that luxury.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  phyecon1

Again back to the ‘prosperity’ argument. As if S-India is some Scandinavia.

Be that as it may, I have multiple times said that the North can be both more-Hindu and poor. While the South can be less Hindu and be more affluent. Just like the American coast and their Hinterlands. These are 2 separate issues, and i hope that one can process both these things simultaneously.

phyecon1
phyecon1
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

You are not giving any explanation to anything. You at once are questioning the quality of economy south of India and comparing to usa , all in same paragraph. Same with bhimrao, you have one fixed explanation, not a menu of options in case it fails. It does not matter what your explanation is, what matters is do you believe in precautionary principle and accept the uncertainty of future and hence need for autonomy and institutions or not. I dont take anyone seriously who does not factor in uncertainty of future. What ever your theory and explanation is, think of it as a bet. How much are you willing to invest in that bet?. Is it worth investing only in that one bet, or can you see the wisdom in hedging and making multiple bets. I dont know the future. I am pretty sure that no one in the world knows the future either. It is one thing to have an explanation that is psychologically comforting. It is another to invest everything into that one idea. In absence of number crunching data, which no one has, is it not wise to hedge and support autonomy and institutions? as to inter caste marriages, govt should give political quota to them among other goodies.

can we not agree on issues of autonomy, hedging, institutions among others even if we dont agree on ultimate explanations is what I am saying?

Enigma
Enigma
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

It’s easy to deny reality when you’re far away from the cowbelt. The infant mortality rates in U.P is higher than Sudan. Bimaru states are not just “poor”, they’re embarassing.

“South can be less Hindu and be more affluent.”
I’ll do you a solid. South is not Hindu at all, you guys can keep the identity all to yourselves. It was an identity made up by post colonial Indians, anyway.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

Hindu Asabiya ☝️

Enigma
Enigma
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

lol Mahabharata shits on the concept of Hindu Asabiyyah. Islam is the brainchild of a marauder, his cult demands Group Conformity. Hinduism isn’t a stupid cult and any attempts to turn it into one will be a failure.

Rose
Rose
2 years ago

I have been noticing widespread anger, extreme dislike & genocidal tendency among Normal & Common Indian netizens against some particular ethnoreligious/religious group for several years which is why I am pretty sure that a nationwide genocide & ethnic/religious cleansing in India against a particular group will take place sooner or later.

1. But I am curious to know from common Indians living in India if they can predict when will this genocide take place?
2. And will Christians, Dalits, Sikhs & others be also targeted for genocide just as a particular group will be targeted?

Please be precise. Thank You in advance.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Rose

There won’t be genocide and doomsday scenarios the left /west peddles. The reality is the Hindu right wants the pot simmering so that they get the votes. Yes, there will be times when it will blow up, but it would be localized.

The Hindu right main aim is to normalize “hindutva” as the default mode of india , as secularism was for for the last few decades. Till that is achieved, u will see these conflicts. Once that’s achieved, u will have relative peace. But like how in Pakistan/ Bangladesh no one really counters the role of Islam in the state. That’s what is Hindu right final destination.

H.M. Brough
H.M. Brough
2 years ago
Reply to  Rose

0% chance of anything more than a local riot happening.

Don’t worry too much about what people say online. Indians express themselves through bombast, vitriol, and hyperbole, much as Whites express themselves through snark, condescension, and faux-neutrality.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
2 years ago

This is a complete non issue. In school we were occasionally taken to the church for Bible study but no one cares. In Christmas week our school teachers especially the nuns/sisters but including Hindu teachers, led by the church ‘father’ would come to our colony carrying a Christian idol/tableau, and sing Hindi Christian devotional songs for Christ, playing dholak+harmonium+Guitar and seeking donations for Christmas celebrations. The whole singing was not different from Hindu kirtan and Christ/Mary idol looked not very different from baby Krishna. All of us children would invite the group (especially our class teachers) to come sing in our houses and our parents would give donations. Some converted but rarely the whole family. Intermarrying with Christians is not that big a deal too and Christian Indians don’t insist their spouse to convert. The whole mistrust between Hindus-Christians thing is a non-starter. Christians being Abrahamics do consider Hindus as inferior/deluded but Christianity just isn’t cancerous like Islam. Plus except Hindus anyways everyone thinks everyone else is inferior.

Catholic schools charge very high fees for ‘English’ education (but still below the new ‘international’ or even good ‘public’ schools), the teachers are mostly Kerala/Mangalore-folks who can’t speak Hindi well so English speaking for students is doubly emphasized. The more prestigious ones like Loreto take humongous ‘donations’ to admit students. They are nice folks, no one really bothers them, in the case of my Catholic school a Hindu had donated the land.

In conclusion,
(a) NYT + Hindu = 🤮
(b) Statistically irrelevant. Best days of Christian conversions are behind us. No one has died and no riots have happened. Chill.
(c) UC/OBCs will almost never convert. Now that they have started looking into this they will overwhelm Christianity with wealth, connections, effort. RSS/VHP already does a stellar job at helping out people, they are not camera savvy like the Sikh-munde.
(d) Religion/Racism/Casteism don’t matter. Separatism and trans-national loyalties matter. Christian converts shit on Hinduism because it suits them but they do not shit on India.
(e) Intermarrying will solve the whole thing once and for all.

Saurav
Saurav
2 years ago
Reply to  Bhimrao

U are the 2nd person to note that intermarriage will “solve” this problem. I don’t get it.

What is the solution u r referring to ?

Brown
Brown
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

well marrying ‘new christian girls’ into hindu families. it is easier for the new converts to get married into their former castes.
the ‘ new christian’ boys will get ‘hindu’ brides of their earlier caste, if they reconvert.
in addition, as the case in india is, girls are performing better than boys in colleges. same with christian communities. when the christian girls go to work, they find boys from other hindu castes acceptable. this has already started happening in many cases, and the girls generally tend to merge into hindu fold.

Brown
Brown
2 years ago
Reply to  Saurav

well marrying ‘new christian girls’ into hindu families. it is easier for the new converts to get married into their former castes.
the ‘ new christian’ boys will get ‘hindu’ brides of their earlier caste, if they reconvert.
in addition, as the case in india is, girls are performing better than boys in colleges. same with christian communities. when the christian girls go to work, they find boys from other hindu castes acceptable. this has already started happening in many cases, and the girls generally tend to merge into hindu fold.

Bhimrao
Bhimrao
2 years ago

Going to the Church to watch tableau(jhanki) on Christmas is something that has happened in my family since at least when my father was a little boy. Christmas has a Durga-Puja/ Janmasthami like vibe for city folks. There just isn’t animus between Hindus and Christians.

Brown Pundits