Don's comment on Christians in India

Submitted by Sujata (United Kingdom), Aug 11, 2008 at 08:50

Dear Don,

Just read your comments on Christian communities in India. Although I understand your frustration about the complaint of conversion to Christianity in India, I also understand the sentiment of a large majority of Hindus at the migration of faith in such large numbers. I feel very sad that so many Hindus were so unhappy with their faith and there was no one to address the issues of social injustice and poverty. Which eventually, led them to leave the Hindu faith altogether.

I was born and brought up in India. I know that there is no comparison between Muslims and Christians (especially in India) as their approaches to other faiths are exactly opposite. There are hardly any problems in Christians and Hindus co-existing in India. Unfortunately though, that is all they do. They co-exist. There is rarely any integration or interaction between Hindus and Christians.

I have been living in England for past 17 years. I celebrate Christmas and Easter same as everyone else, I dress the same as local people and my children ( who were born here) speak English even at home. I also celebrate Diwali, Navratri and other festivals and we are all vegetarian Hindus. We even go to a church for a friend's wedding or baptism or christening. Perhaps Hindus and Christians can try similar things over there to get better understanding of each other.

While I know that Christianity is a great religion with a very strong, united community spirit behind it, I wish Hindus could have united in the same way and supported their own people before they felt isolated enough to leave. Then perhaps we wouldn't have lost so many people to conversion.

Sujata

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".