"Conversions Are a Part of Hinduism, Too"

[krsna]

 

http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?

newsid=47071&headline=Conversions~are~part~of~Hinduism,~too

 

UK, May 20, 2005: Sooraj Ratnakumar of the UK writes in Express India:

 

"Many Hindus pride themselves on account of their secular ideal of

non-proselytism. They believe that Hinduism has never indulged in

converting people of other religions to its own, and some go further to

demonstrate the unwillingness of many of today's saints to accept

followers of other religions into their fold. Amongst adherents of the

non-proselytising history of Hinduism, there exist, on the one hand,

those who wish it to remain so owing to the secularist principle of the

ideal. On the other hand, there are also those who sincerely believe

that Hinduism should transform into at least a passively proselytizing

religion to survive the onslaught of the, not only actively, but

aggressively, proselytizing Abrahamic religions. On reading many

accounts in Indian history of conversions from Hinduism to other

religions and re-conversions as well as original conversions from other

religions to Hinduism, I find it hard to believe that Hinduism has been

a non-proselytizing religion. While I agree with the self-evident fact

that Hinduism is not militant in its evangelistic zeal as contrasted

with the forced and threatened conversions by Islam or the deceitful

and bribed conversions by Christianity, Hinduism, on many instances in

the past, has indulged in active proselytizing mainly by means of

dialectics."

 

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