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Unit 1: Indian Society

well argued ideology of religious pluralism on the basis of the religions of India awaits serious Notes
and competent attention. The emergence of state sponsored religious pluralism, summed up in the
slogan “Sarva Dharma Sambhaua” (equal respect for all religions) and presented as Indian (in
contrast to western) secularism is a case in point. “Contrary to the assumption of many modernists
that religious faith is necessarily exclusive and therefore results in communal conflict, there is
considerable historical and ethnographical evidence that the common people of India, irrespective
of individual religious identity, have long been comfortable with religious plurality...... Needless
to emphasize, the two pluralisms - the people’s and the intellectual’s - are different in several
crucial respects. For example, and most notably, the former is wholly spontaneous -the lived social
reality - but the latter is ideological, and, in that sence, self-conscious or constructed.” Even otherwise
the relationship between Religion, Civil Society and the State form the three dimensions of modern
reality.

Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are all considered inferior varieties of Hinduism.

In any narration of religions and religious communities in India the lesser known and lesser
studied are Islam, Christianity and Sikhism as religious ideologies and their followers as religious
communities. Hence, they have been dealt with in more details in an exclusive chapter on ‘Religious
Minorities’. There is hardly any Jew population left in India, Parsees or Zoroastrians being a
microscopic minorities and Bahais being too defused have been left out from this narration.
Religious Conversions
The issue of religious conversion in India has always been a highly emotive issue. Simply stated,
conversion may be a process including a personal decision, taken alone or as part of a group to
enter into another religion or religious system other than one in which one is born. Conversion has
been opposed from various perspectives: historical, sociological and psychological. Factors
preceding conversion include socio-political upheavals, psychic factors of anguish, turmoil, dispair,
conflict, guilt and self-realization. In the Indian context, religious conversion has taken place
mainly from Hinduism to other religions such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism and also
within the larger universe of Hinduism, that is, from one Hindu sect to the other. As far as the
conversion from Hinduism to Islam, Christianity and Buddhism is concerned it is largely from the
lower Hindu castes - mainly untouchable castes. Obviously this was the result of the highly
oppressive and exploitative caste system and the lower Hindu castes found conversion to Islam
and Christianity as emancipatory movements. Moreover, conversion of Dalits empowered them
socially, politically and ideologically.
The Christian missions have been the main agency of religious conversions but their appeal was
addressed more directly to untouchables. “However, it would be untrue to think that the
missionaries who arrived in India were fired by sentiments of social justice and equality. On the
contrary, they quickly realised that if they were to show too much interest in the lower castes, they
were liable to be assimilated to these groups and find themselves totally cut off from the majority
of the population. The first missionaries therefore concentrated on the higher castes” (Robert
Deliege, 1999). But high caste people were particularly resistant and reticent; in the end, the
missionaries encountered a more favourable reception among the lower castes, and throughout
India an impressive number of untouchables swelled the Christian ranks. Talking about the response
of the dalit converts, Deliege (ibid) comments that the Vellars of south India were promoted by the
Catholic church to the rank of priestly caste within Catholocism. But the caste barriers were
reinforced, and the untouchables who had joined the church found themselves marginalized: the
Nadars, for example, would not allow Paraiyars in their Chapel. Thus, Catholic untouchables
found themselves very bitter. They stress the contempt shown by most religious authorities and
invariably say that it was no use becoming Christians. Their knowledge of religion is very limited

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