a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

facilities; we do not have money to go to private hospital in the far away cities.
Jesus is healing us freely, then how can you say that we cannot turn to Jesus. 120
History has witnessed a number of counter-devices used by Hindu extremists to
check conversion by Muslims and Christians. The early approach to protecting
Hindus from religious conversion was the implementation of Hindu personal laws
against those who were converted to other religions from Hinduism. 121 The
converts were expelled from the Hindu community, and various benefits and
privileges of converts from a Scheduled Caste and Tribal background were
withdrawn. Another approach was the criticism on untouchabiltiy. 122 Following
many socio-religious reformers, Savarkar criticized the practice of untouchabiltiy,
as he believed that favours for untouchables were necessary to counter the
conversion attempts by Muslims and Christians. However, McKean’s research
reveals that others reacted against Savarkar’s policy to please untouchables. 123
There are untouchables who argue against Hindutva ideology. 124
One of the most effective tools to check conversions from the Hindu fold has been
the Hindu counter-conversion movements. Although active reconversions of
Christian or Muslim converts are taking place in a well organized way, this
conversion was practised by the Arya Samaj, and the practice was called shuddhi
120
Kanakam Bai (pseudonym), interview by author, Udaipur, Rajasthan, 23 May 2006).
121
Kim, In Search of Identity, 140.
122
There was a social practice among the Hindus in the pre-independent India to consider people
of lower castes as well as outcastes as impure, and so the people of higher castes were not willing
to have contact with them. For more details of the practice, see Valerian Rodrigues, ed. The
Essential Writings of B.R. Ambedkar (New Delhi: OUP, 2002). See pp.95-98, 114-118, 321-406.
123
For more details of the discussion, see McKean, Divine Enterprise, 84-87.
124
For example, see Kancha Ilaiah, Why I am not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva
Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, 2 nd ed. (Calcutta, India: Samya, 2005).
212