Proselytisation in India : The Process of Hinduisation in Tribal Societies

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Tribes, conversion and the Sangh Parivar/Virginius Xaxa. 2. Conceptualising religious change amongst Bhils of West Nimar/Kumar Sanjay Singh. 3. Adivasi vs. Vanvasi: the politics of conversion in Central India/Nandini Sundar. 4. Proselytisation of tribal society: a political agenda/Dharmendra Kumar and Noirangthem Prakash. 5. Ordeals and upheaval: a critique of Hindu proselytisation in Manipur/Thingnam Kishan Singh. 6. Conversion in Chhattisgarh: myths and facts/Rajendra K. Sail. 7. The Hinduisation of tribals: a special reference to the Oraons in Chhotanagpur/Joseph Marianus Kujur.

"In the debate on religious conversion in India the focus has mainly been on Christianisation - an agenda pushed forward by Hindu communalism. What has been relatively unnoticed is another kind of proselytisation, equally real and concrete, that is the conversion of faiths of tribal masses by Hindu proselytisers. Such conversion has concretised in the form of processes like Ghar Wapsi (homecoming) along with Shuddikaran (purification), on the one hand and the growing religious bigotry and violence in the form of attacks on minority in tribal society, on the other. This volume brings together various theoretical and empirical studies on the process of Hinduisation in India. This book does not aim at justifying or criticising a particular form of proselytisation. Instead an effort has been made to understand the social and historical constitution of this process and its impacts on the contemporary politics and society in India." (jacket)