Poles Apart: The Debates on Religious Conversion in Post-independence India

This dissertation is an historical analysis of the ideological and religious debates over conversion to Christianity in India since its Independence in 1947. In particular, the study focuses on how these debates have played out within various forms of proposed and enacted anti-conversion legislation at the state and federal levels of government. The study identifies the key poles of the conversion debate, first set forth in Indiaâ s Constituent Assembly Debates, and which have remained remarkably uniform through 70 years of legislation, rhetoric, and scholarship. Chapter One situates the study within the context of existing scholarship on both conversion and Christianity in India, with a focus on emerging scholarly views of the manifold ways in which conversion can be defined. Chapter Two examines India as a secular nation and attempts to identify the status of religious minorities within a conceptual space which, while secular, reflects a predominantly Hindu worldview. Chapters Three, Four, and Five provide an extensive primary source analysis of the conversion debates preceding the patriation of the Indian Constitution, government reports, High Court rulings, and legislation proposed and enacted between 1947 and 1981. Chapter Six examines a second tranche of anti-conversion legislation enacted at the state level between 2002 and 2008, following the rise to power of the Hindu nationalist political parties at various levels of government in India. Chapter Seven examines contemporary expressions of the debate over religious conversion in India, with a focus on court challenges to existing anti-conversion legislation. Chapter Eight concludes the study, arguing that what is at stake for India as a secular state with constitutional protections for freedom of religion, is how both conversionâ s critics and proponents understand the diversity of motivations for converting, and how this knowledge is applied to ensure religious freedom for all of Indiaâ s citizens. Without understanding the motivation which underlie the debate, conversion will remain a contested and at times violently contested issue.Ph.D