Becoming Hindu

Nick-H

Some Christians in lots of places in India. Plenty here in Chennai. And such shrines to be seen, yes, also big lit-up stars outside houses at Christmas.

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kristinm

http://business.smh.com.au/hed-rathe...0502-2ac8.html

Not relevant to the OP but definitely relevant to the topic... what an interesting guy! I guess he's very famous in Chennai Nick?

Nick-H

Well, I never heard of him before, but his ideas seam to make sense!

kristinm

Looks like he converted... all the way

federica

Hey, this topic is quite interesting... I am learning about the legal aspects of the Indian society.

mazha

The church is encouraging this shtyle...

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080512&fnam e=Church+%28F%29&sid=1

Nick-H

India makes everything Indian!

And it has to be remembered (it often isn't) that Christianity belongs to India as much as to anywhere else in the world: its been here for just as long.

Of course, the politico-religious mythmongers will accept or deny all this and promulgate their own versions to suit their own agendas, all backed up with suitable learned academic research. Just like they do in the other religions too!

mazha

True, but this is a concerted effort by the church to extend that, and make Christianity more Indian, hoping that would make it more attractive. From a marketing viewpoint, Christianity in India is caught in a difficult branding situation. If it keeps the western image, it has a USP distinct from Hinduism, but then very few people are interested. When it is Indianised, that waters down the distinction between it and Hinduism, which lowers the USP -- it looks too much like a kind of Hinduism!

It is worth noting that a similar localisation strategy was adopted in Latin America, and that gave rise to the Evangelical churches, which are now threatening to overshadow the traditional churches. The same could happen in India, where the "Indianisation" creates something else. I also suspect the church strategists haven't thought too deeply about the nature of the metaphysical Boa! :-) Would be worth watching how this turns out.

capt_mahajan

Christianity was made more 'Indian' 2000 years ago, during the St. Thomas trip.
I understand there are some old churches in Kerala with Hindu god images alongside those of Jesus, from that era.

It's the fire and brimstone types in all religions which are concerned about assimilation, not the normal folk, though I take the point that a stance may be taken to sell any religion.

Lets face it, without the sale all organised religions would die.

madan80

i just saw a newspaper piece (lying on the road) which talked about a russian couple converting to hinduism in varanasi. Its in the deccan chronical dated 8th march 2008, page 10 - chennai edition.

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lovish

architecture of the catholic churches is very cool, i just their architecture

bokya

Its possible to become a Hindu.

If you are interested in converting to Hinduism, then In Mumbai there is a organization called ' Masurashram' , in Goregaon East,( in a locality called Pandurang Wadi , near Goregaon Railway station ) It was established by a yogi named Parulekar, he was a contemporary and friend of babasaheb ambedkar,he tried hard to persuade babasaheb not to convert to buddhism,but the latter did not listen. he travelled to goa and re-converted several hundred goan christians to hinduism.( Goans were forcibly converted to christianity by portugese jesuits during their 450 yr rule in goa).

this organisation is approached on an average by around 100 muslims and christians a year who want to convert.

there is a commonly held misconception that one cannot become a hindu, one is only born a hindu. that is not true.
If that was true how did hinduism spread to burma, thailand , cambodia, malaysia , indonesia , bali ? the worlds largest hindu temple is in angkor wat in cambodia. this would not have been possible without mass conversions taking place, isn't it ?

grikoo

New here, but been lurking for a while. Just found this thread today.

Surprised no one has actually answered WHY one cannot become a Hindu. The reason is simple- the caste system. If you're not born into it, you're an outsider regardless of whether you 'convert'. This is the sad truth of it- If you're non-Indian, and thus a 'foreigner', you'll always be an outsider. Even Indians from abroad have a hard time with it. Of course, with modernisation and the official laws against caste descrimination, one would expect this to slowly change, and it seems from the info in this thread that clearly efforts are being made to accommodate potential converts. May take a while for the laws to catch up though.



Grikoo

ranjan154

Converting to hinduism, I often feel the dilemma .. which caste he/she will go in..? Not so easy I guess.

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Jangar

I think you will find that legally you have to be born a Hindu

There may well be away around it But which ever way that is will it be legal