If the 1981 mass conversions of Dalit Hindus in Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu—where as many as 300 people converted to Islam in a single day—shocked the Hindu conscience and catalysed the Ayodhya movement, the recent conversions of indigent Hindu girls to Islam by Chhangur Baba aka Jalaludin, with the ultimate aim of marrying them off to Pakistani ISI agents in return for monetary allurements, have revived the debate on proselytisation. He reportedly has a rate card offering the highest inducement of Rs 16 lakh for Brahmins, and investigation agencies have uncovered evidence of his active links with banks in Islamic nations, chiefly Saudi Arabia.

The Hindu religion, though not admittedly monolithic, does not believe in proselytisation, which, crudely put, amounts to brainwashing disgruntled people of one religion into switching to another. Christianity and Islam make no bones about their proselytising proclivities. That said, there are adherents to Hinduism, particularly in the US, attracted by the Hare Krishna movement of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Gravitation toward Hinduism or its subsets, then, is not on the back of........

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