HINDU-CHRISTIAN INTERACTION IN PONDICHERRY, 1700-1900

This paper focuses on the interaction between the Hindus and Christian s of Pondicherry between 1700 and 1900, showing how Christianity gaine d a.foothold among the Hindus. On the one hand. pressures, preferences and persuasion were used by the French to induce conversions, while o n the other hand certain cultural. social and moral aspects of Hinduis m, like vegetarianism and the caste system, made conversions difficult . The high-handed methods of some French colonisers and missionaries a lso slowed down the conversions. The paper brings out both the legenda ry tolerance of the Hindus and Hinduism, and the intolerance exhibited by egalitarian ideologies like Christianity, which pay scant regard t o diverse cultural, moral and religious traditions and beliefs. The pa per also rejects the theory that there is a symbiosis at work between the Hindus and Christians and affirms the distinctive existence df a J udeo - Christian-Islamic, and a Hindu-Buddhist, world.