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Literary Review
Matters of choice
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Dominated by historians rather than theologians, Religious Conversion is empirically rich without imposing tendentious theoretical speculations, says PRATAP BHANU MEHTA.
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THE study of religious conversion often labours under the shadow of some canonical myths associated with conversion. Conversion is often associated exclusively with Islam and Christianity. The texts of these religions give conversion theological significance. Unlike Hinduism or even Judaism, the argument goes, these religions do not treat kinship as a central category, thus making available the idea of religion as something chosen rather than being something one is born into. And these religions have a history of evangelising that is unique in scope.
But, as the papers in this historically rich volume show, this canonical myth hides more than it reveals. For instance, although Indic religions are normally not thought to have evangelising traditions, why is there is such fierce competition amongst Indian religions and sects to gain adherents? Why isn't a Hindu adopting Jainism an instance of conversion? Why isn't the process by which "adivasis" are acculturated into Brahaminical ideology also an instance of conversion? Why isn't the competitive bidding within Indic religions a quest for getting converts? Many papers in this volume raise these questions. One traditional answer is that these are not instances of conversion because there is no ideology of exclusivity, between these sects or religions. So one could be, in a manner of speaking, Jain and Vaishnav or Hindu and Sikh. But as, this volume reminds us, there are numerous instances of such "non-exclusivity" between Islam and Christianity on the one hand and Indic religions and sects on the other. If the claim is that the ideology of conversion is intrinsic to Islam and Christianity, this claim has to be mitigated in light of the actual practice of these religions. As Richard Eaton points out in his essay, some Muslim states expressly discouraged conversion, and were equally benefactors of Hindu and Muslim religious centres so long as they could be incorporated into political power structures. If the claim is that Indic religions spread by "acculturation", this is often true of Islam and Christianity as well. Most converts to these religions in India did not become converts as a result of state power, they were converts because of a diffusion of ideologies.
Precisely what is the object of conversion? When for instance, a caste Hindu converts to Christianity, what do they have to give up? Conversion is, as the editors point out, both a sociological and a theological category. But the tricky thing is to decide what falls under the theological or the sociological. As Rowena Robinson argues, even Christian theologians themselves, are unsure of the domain of each category. Is caste simply a sociological fact? If so it can be made compatible with conversion as some Roman Catholics argued. If, on the other hand, caste is of theological significance, then it too has to be overcome in the process of conversion. Although the editors of the volume point out rightly that theology and sociology need to be brought together more often, the conclusion that emerges is that the boundary between the theological and the sociological is precisely what each religion or sect constructs in its own way. Despite the book being collaboration between a theologian and a sociologist, the outcome is decidedly sociological in flavor. Historians, rather than theologians, dominate the volume. Those looking for religious insights into conversion, the psychological motives, the dissonances of being, the moments of epiphany that produce conversion, and the light conversion sheds on the divine, will be disappointed. But those looking to find out more about the different forms conversion have taken, the different frames of reference within which conversion is legitimised, and the ways in which religious boundaries come to be consolidated, will be treated to a feast. The volume is empirically rich and does not impose any tendentious theoretical speculations on the diverse material collected.
The book is divided into four sections. The first section, on Islam, has four papers. Dominique Sila Khan looks at the Nizari Ismaili model of conversion and the impact of Shia-Sunni competition. Stephen Dale argues that trade and a diffusion of ideas led to the expansion of Muslim community in Kerala. Eaton argues that the Islamisation of Bengal had little to do with state power and Sikand looks at the rise of Tabligh in response to Arya Samaj proselytisation.
Section Two deals with conversion to Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Dundas makes a historically rich case that there is such a thing as conversion to Jainism. Louis Fenech argues that conversion to Sikhism is a late phenomenon that emerges only after an exclusivist Sikh identity is consolidated in the 19th Century. Brekke looks at the process of conversion, while Tratakov argues that Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism was less of a conversion to classical tenets of the religion but an attempt to create a new ideology of equality using materials from Buddhism.
Section Three has two interesting essays. Saurabh and Ishita Banerjee Dube argue that transformations of caste and sect can usefully be studied within a conversion paradigm, while David Hardiman's characteristically informative essay argues that movements for Vaishnaivite reform amongst the Bhils can also be seen as a form of conversion. Section Four has papers on the regional variations in conversion to Christianity: Rowena Robinson (Goa); Sathianathan Clarke (Tamil Nadu); John Webster (Punjab) and Fredrick Downs (The North East). It is often argued that that those who convert to change their social status, Dalits for instance, are often disappointed, because many elements of the status hierarchy that subordinated them are reproduced in the new religion. Nevertheless, Clarke argues, conversion, even if it does not bring lead to social equality, can often provide the space for an alternative social imaginary and the importance of this ought not to be underestimated.
Robinson and Clarke have brought together an unpretentious collection of essays that will unsettle easy assumptions we make about conversion, call into question the boundaries we impose upon religious identities, and remind us of the abundant and multifarious ways in which the peoples of India have imagined religious ways of being. Hopefully it will contribute to an altogether more calm and informed discussion of the matter than we are used to.
Religious Conversion in India: Modes, Motivations and Meanings, edited by Rowena Robinson and Sathianathan Clarke, Oxford University Press, 2003, p.420, Rs. 695.
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