Paper short abstract:

The talk deals with the effects of the laws on conversion in several Indian states which define exclusive religious boundaries implying a potential loss of belonging on various levels. Drawing on fieldwork in Central India I highlight strategies of Christian leaders to reduce the costs of belonging.

Paper long abstract:

One way to inquire into what means the belonging to religious communities in India is the study of conversion. As a highly contested issue in India triggering public outcry and debates, conversion commonly involves a new range of attachments, but it also might challenge different forms of belonging like families, castes or ritual communities of neighborhoods. Additionally to a social bias against conversion we find legal restrictions in several states of the Indian Union. Laws like the Freedom of Religion Acts institutionalize and legalize decisions on what is a correct or an undue conversion. Moreover, they allow organized groups to check events which they perceive as threatening and to put a regime of scrutiny on the potential converts and the people who perform rites of community transgression like baptism. By reverence to conversion to Christianity I aim to explicate how the legal setting effectively not only defines religious boundaries but also severs bonds of belonging while ruling out their combination with the newly acquired religious affiliation. These provisions force the concerned parties to calculate the risks of conversion. Drawing on fieldwork in central India I demonstrate the strategies of lowering the costs of belonging maintained by Christian leaders when faced with the legal requirements.