In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India
Book Specification
| Item Code: | IDE897 |
| Author: | Sebastian C.H. Kim |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, New Delhi |
| Language: | English |
| Edition: | 2005 |
| ISBN: | 0195677129 |
| Pages: | 261 |
| Cover: | Paperback |
| Other Details | 8.5" X 5.5" |
Book Description
From the Jacket :
This important volume examines the major arguments on conversion between Hindus and Christian, and also among Christian theologians in both pre-Independence India. It reveals and interprets the arguments for and against conversion and seeks to understand and seeks to understand them within a historicity and contemporary perspective.
Engaging and immensely relevant, this book will interest policy-makers, journalists, academics, and lay readers, besides being indispensable to researchers and students of sociology, religion, theology, history, politics, and law.
About the Author :
Sebastian Kim is a Professor of Theology and Public Life at York St. John College, York, UK and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Excerpts from reviews
'Very few books have. ...discussed [religious conversion] in a pan-Indian context. ... This book both promises and delivers this very perspective. ... a landmark in studies on conversion...'
- Seminar
'The vital importance of this timely and extremely well - written book cannot be stressed enough. ... Kim offers us a sober, carefully researched and painstakingly documented book on the emergence of the conversion issue during the last one hundred and fifty years in pre-and post-independent India. ... [T]he book... offers us a fine basis to continue the exploration of conversion and its discounts.'
- The Book Review
'Kim seeks to reveal arguments for and against conversions, wherein lies the appeal of his book. ...By highlighting contesting philosophies, Kim focuses on crucial conversion issue.'
- Hindustan Times
'... Kim's work ... prove[s] to be handy reference both for policy-makers and scholars.'
The Telegraph
| 1. | Introduction: Christian Mission and the Problem of Conversion in India | 1 | |
| 2. | Debate on Conversion under the British Raj | 13 | |
| I. | Debate on conversion in Bengal in the first half of the nineteenth century | 14 | |
| II. | M.K. Gandhi and the debates on conversion, 1931 - 1937 | 23 | |
| 3. | Debate on Conversion in the Indian Constituent Assembly, 1947 - 1949 | 37 | |
| I. | The issue of conversion in the emerging politics of swaraj | 38 | |
| II. | The debate on conversion in the Constituent Assembly | 42 | |
| III. | Religious freedom and the secular state | 55 | |
| 4. | Debates on Missionary activity and freedom of Religion in Independent India, 1954 - 1979 | 59 | |
| I. | The debate over the report of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry Committee (Niyogi Report), 1954-1957 | 60 | |
| II. | The debate over 'freedom of religion' legislation, 1967 - 1979 | 73 | |
| III. | Hindu tolerance, law, and conversion | 84 | |
| 5. | The Debates on Conversion Among Protestant Theologians in India, 1966 - 1971 | 88 | |
| I. | The Protestant debates on conversion in the 1960s and 1970s | 89 | |
| II. | Conversion, secularization, and community | 103 | |
| 6. | The Catholic Debates on Conversion in the 1980s. | 109 | |
| I. | The theology of inculturation and the debate on the Hindu-Catholic approach to conversion | 111 | |
| II. | Liberation theology and the debate over mass conversion in south Tamil Nadu | 121 | |
| 7. | World Evangelization, Hindutva, and the Debate Provoked by Arun Shourie, 1994 - 1995 | 132 | |
| I. | Christian campaigns for evangelization of the world | 133 | |
| II. | Nationalist Hindu responses to world evangelization and the campaign of Hindutva | 139 | |
| III. | Debate between Arun Shourie and Christian leaders | 142 | |
| IV. | The past and present of Hindu and Christian understanding on conversion | 151 | |
| 8. | The Debate on Conversion Initiated by the Sangh Parivar, 1998 - 1999 | 155 | |
| I. | Hindu-Christian tensions over conversion | 156 | |
| II. | Conversion from the perspective of Hindus | 163 | |
| III. | Christian rethinking of conversion in the context of Hindutva | 170 | |
| IV. | The problem of conversion as symptomatic of a clash of religious frameworks | 175 | |
| 9. | Conclusion: Human Rights, Tolerance, and Religious Conversion in India | 180 | |
| I. | Christianity and human rights | 184 | |
| II. | Hinduism and religious tolerance | 187 | |
| III. | Towards a theology of conversion for Christian mission in India | 190 | |
| Appendices | |||
| I: | The Proceedings of the Debate on Conversion in the Constituent Assembly, 1947-1949 | 201 | |
| II: | Summary of Recommendations of the Report of the Christian Missionary activities Enquiry Committee (Niyogi Report) | 204 | |
| III: | The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 (Orissa Act II 1968) | 207 | |
| IV: | The Madhya Pradesh Dharma Swatantrya Adhiniyam, 1968 | 209 | |
| V: | The Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Indigenous Faith Act, 1978 | 211 | |
| VI: | Freedom of Religion Bill Introduced in the Parliament | 213 | |
| Bibliography | 215 | ||
| Index | 240 | ||
