Hindu law
- Reconversion to the hindu ethos was codified in the devala-smRti [PVK_IMG1, TW17] and Vignaneswara’s commentary to Yagyavalkya Smriti [S].
Risks from converts
While Hindus get all excited (and rightly so) about foreigners taking to their religion; one must note that foreign converts to Hinduism bring with them significant risks - so, caution is appropriate:
- Malhotran U-turn: The convert learns some Hindu tattva or technique, faces some social pressure to return to original bearings, repackages the H tattva or technique in Christian/ Jewish terms.
- The foreign convert comes with his/ her own cultural baggage which might even include “vishvaguru” attitude (eg. western liberals). They may then try to foist these attitudes on native Hindu sacred spaces and populations (eg. opposition to temple elephant tradition, shabarimala restrictions etc..). In doing so, they may well selectively (mis)use their acquired knowledge and status as apparently sincere practitioners.
- Treachery and activism against the interests of the native population: Prominent examples involve western converts to shinto (“my green shinto rejects jingoist state shinto”) or hinduism (“yogis against hindutva”).
- Crypto-abrahamist sympathies, coming from one’s background, play a part here.
Also related - [neo-]pagan population compatibility notes.
History
- [Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture, by DR Bhandarkar, Rev. JM Anthos, Asian Educational Services, 1989. pp 68.] quotes an incident in 1398-99 CE during the Vijayanagara era, in which 2,000 Brahmin girls of a village were rescued from the armies of Firoz Shah Bahmani and accepted after purification rites [1].
- “The Shuddhi movement of Arya Samaj, carried to many parts of the north in the early decades of 1900s by Swami Shraddhananda, is nothing but a continuation of this long-time Hindu practice.”