Dangerous Ramifications of Recent Ghar Wapsi Efforts

Abstract

The political theology of Hindu nationalism seeks not just political indoctrination but has also expressed itself religiously through reconversion practices, principally knows as Ghar Wapsi. Ghar Wapsi is a growing practice proselytizing the message of Indian identity as inexorably associated with a Hindu element. After first exploring the association between Ghar Wapsi and Hindu Nationalism historically, this paper explores the harmful methods of Hindu nationalists intended to mediate the process of reconversion. These efforts are geographically pointed along religio-cultural divisions and economic class. Violence has been used with growing frequency in conjunction with threats of land seizure, business foreclosure, and withholding of food rations. Given the ever-escalating unethical methods of inciting reconversion among Indians, there is a very real concern of Hinduphobia denoting a macro-oriented stereotyping of Hinduism in general at the behest of acts committed by Hindu nationalists specifically.