Religious freedom and mass conversion in India

by Jenkins, Laura Dudley

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Title Statements

Full title :Religious freedom and mass conversion in India / laura Dudley Jenkins.

Summary

In Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India, Laura Dudley Jenkins examines three mass conversion movements in India: among Christians in the 1930s, Dalit Buddhists in the 1950s, and Mizo Jews in the 2000s. Critics of these movements claimed mass converts were victims of overzealous proselytizers promising material benefits, but defenders insisted the converts were individuals choosing to convert for spiritual reasons. Jenkins traces the origins of these opposing arguments to the 1930s and 1940s, when emerging human rights frameworks and early social scientific studies of religion posited an ideal convert: an individual making a purely spiritual choice. However, she observes that India's mass conversions did not adhere to this model and therefore sparked scrutiny of mass converts' individual agency and spiritual sincerity. Jenkins demonstrates that the preoccupation with converts' agency and sincerity has resulted in significant challenges to religious freedom. One is the proliferation of legislation limiting induced conversions. Another is the restriction of affirmative action rights of low caste people who choose to practice Islam or Christianity. Last, incendiary rumors are intentionally spread of women being converted to Islam via seduction. Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India illuminates the ways in which these tactics immobilize potential converts, reinforce damaging assumptions about women, lower castes, and religious minorities, and continue to restrict religious freedom in India today.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:2019.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):University of Pennsylvania Press
Place of Publication:Philadelphia
Language:eng
Publication Date:2019.

The Physical Object

Description:1 online resource (320 pages)

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780812296006, 0812296001
oclc:on1201197909
LC Classification:JC571-628
Dewey Decimal:323

Subjects

Conversion -- Government policy -- India Conversion -- Politique gouvernementale… Dalits -- Civil rights Dalits -- Civil rights -- India Freedom of religion Freedom of religion -- History -- 20th … Freedom of religion -- History -- 21st … Histoires de vie -- Inde History Inde -- Tribus spécifiées India India -- Scheduled tribes Intouchables -- Droits -- Inde Liberté religieuse -- Histoire -- 20e s… Liberté religieuse -- Histoire -- 21e s… Narrative inquiry (Research method) Narrative inquiry (Research method) -- … Prosélytisme -- Politique gouvernementa… Proselytizing -- Government policy -- I… Religious minorities -- Legal status, l…