Religious Conversion

This book re-examines the issue of religious conversion, a site of conflict in India for several centuries. It analyses cultural background frameworks and the origins of religious conversion and its conceptualisation in Western Christianity, and delves into how Indian culture and its traditions have shaped responses to conversion.

Sarah Claerhout is an independent researcher working within the Comparative Science of Cultures research programme. She obtained her doctoral degree at Ghent University, Belgium, and has published several journal articles and book chapters and given lectures on religious conversion, Gandhi's thought on religion and conversion, religious violence, inter-religion dialogue, and related themes. She has worked as a postdoctoral research and teaching assistant at the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University, Belgium. Jakob De Roover is Associate Professor at the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University, Belgium. He is the author of Europe, India, and the Limits of Secularism (2015). His research concerns the comparative study of politics, culture, and religion in Europe and India. He completed his PhD in the Comparative Science of Cultures. He has been a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and a research assistant professor at Ghent University, Belgium.

Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: The Issue of Conversion in India 2 Conversion, Education, and Reform in Colonial India 3 The Process of Conversio in Christian Europe 4 Gandhi, Conversion, and the Equality of Religions 5 Religious Freedom and the Limits of Propagation Index