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India, and so he suggests that both Hindus and Christians should search for a
‘common identity, while also affirming self-identity.’ 10
There is a general perception that the majority religion in India is attempting to
absorb the minority religions. The recent actions by the Hindu dominated BJP
government in the state of Gujarat is an example. It is reported that the Gujarat
Assembly took the decision on 19 September 2006 to make an amendment to the
Freedom of Religion Act by equating Jainism and Buddhism with Hinduism for
certain purposes. The BJP spokesperson, Prakash Javedkar, explained that this
decision was important in order to form a Hindu Civil Code, which would tie
Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs together with Hinduism. However, the minority
religions, especially Jainism and Buddhism, see it as a new threat from the Hindu
majority. 11 On the other hand, Christians see it not as a fresh effort, rather as a
Hindu tendency to absorb the minority religions. They argue that the aboriginal
tribal religions have lost their individual identity through a practice called
sanskritization, a process by which tribals and Dalits were assimilated into the
Brahminical Hindu fold, 12 and were brought under the broad category of the
majority religion, Hinduism. The term sanskritization was coined by the Indian
sociologist M.N. Srinivas, and for him, ‘sanskritization is the process by which a
“low” Hindu caste or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology
10 Kim, Search of Identity, 199.
11 Special Correspondent, ‘Gujarat Faces NCM Fire on Law: Minority Communities React
Strongly, Congress Hits Out at Modi Government,’ The Asian Age, 21 September 2006, 2.
12 For further discussion on the Sanskritization of tribes, see Henry H. Presler, Primitive Religions
in India (Madras: CLS, 1971); Ebe Sunder Raj, National Debate on Conversion (Chennai, India:
Bharat Jyoti, 2001), 132-35; Ashish Chrispal, ‘The Sanskritisation of the Tribals,’ in Tribes in
Transition: Indian Christians Reflect on the Original Inhabitants of the Land, ed. Hrangkhuma F.
(Bangalore, India: SAIACS, 2004), 67-76.
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