ABSTRACT
Catholic–Hindu relations have played out variously over the centuries, as enacted by clergy, religious, and lay people, Western and Indian. Within that frame, the longevity of the Hindu–Jesuit encounter from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries, and the availability of pertinent writings in multiple languages, make that encounter the preferred focus of this essay. Vital and varied, at times problematic, how the Jesuits encountered Hinduism sheds light on fundamental issues related to India and the West, colonialism and evangelism, (mis)understandings of the religious other, and shifting attitudes toward religious exchange.
