ABSTRACT
A peculiar aspect of the controversies about religious conversions — leaving aside the absence of any verifiable data about their extent and nature — is the axiomatic assumption that the two major minority religions in this country, Christianity and Islam, are poaching into the ‘exclusive’ territory of Hinduism. While admitting that modern varieties of Hinduism have engaged in proselytization, especially in the West, the argument is that such converts are very few and not comparable to the ‘mass conversions’ into Islam and Christianity. Such are the nuances of conversion into Hinduism among some minority groups in the peripheral region of the country. If only we knew more about such processes in the so-called mainstream areas of the country, there would be less heartburn and manufactured animosities over a very natural process of social and personal transformation.
