Hindu-Christian interaction in

This paper focuses on the interaction between the Hindus and Christians of Pondicherry between 1700 and 1900, showing how Christianity gained a foothold among the Hindus. On the one hand, pressures, preferences and persuasion were used by the French to induce conversions, while on the other hand certain cultural, social and moral aspects of Hinduism, like vegetarian-ism and the caste system, made conversions difficult. The high-handed methods of some French colonisers and missionaries also slowed down the conversions. The paper brings out both the legendary tolerance of the Hindus and Hinduism, and the intolerance exhibited by egalitarian ideologies like Christianity, which pay scant regard to diverse cultural, moral and religious traditions and beliefs. The paper also rejects the theory that there is a symbiosis at work between the Hindus and Christians and affirms the distinctive existence of a Judeo-Christian-Islamic, and a Hindu-Buddhist, world. In a recent paper, I have traced the story of the evolution of Islam in the ex-French enclave of Karikal, located on the Coromandel coast of south India, bringing out the various factors that impeded or favoured the growth of Islam and, to some extent also, of Christianity (More 1993: 65-82). In the present paper, I focus exclusively on the interaction of the Hindus with the French and Indian Christians of Pondicherry, especially during the 18th century. Situated on the Coromandel coast, about 100 miles south of Madras city, in the Tamil country, Pondicherry was the headquarters until 1954 of the small French possessions in India. According to the Census of 1948, conducted by the French, the total population of Pondicherry was 222,572 persons, among whom were 194,997 Hindus, 6,382 Muslims, 21,137 Catholic Christians and 56 Protestants. ’ i The principal aims of this paper will be: (a) to examine the expansion of Christianity in Pondicherry and the problems met by the early Christian missionaries in Pondicherry in converting Hindus to Christianity; (b) t