Most of the religious proselytizer try to convert people by highlighting the shortcoming in other religion and demonstrating the supposed superiority of his own.
When it is done in a clean, civilised, open way ...in say a forum where a formal atmosphere of debate, introspection and civilised conduct can be maintained then I am all for it. The process should be standardized and made transparent....none of these soul-seeking covert and overt missions should be done especially in areas which have yet to see much economic development and education to begin with.
Do you think hindu proselytizer who are active in western countries don't highlight the supposed superiority of hindu religion and lifestyle over the western christian one?
They don't desecrate things like Jesus, the cross, ridicule holy communion especially transubstantiation or other practices and beliefs while they are explaining their perceived superiority of their belief system (whichever one it is among the myriad under the Hindu/Dharmic umbrella). If they do, they can also be brought to book over hate speech etc. I have no problem with that.
You will also find that Mainstream Hinduism does not believe in the concept of "conversion". You can keep your Christian doctrine and add elements of Hinduism in whichever way you feel be it Yoga, thought process, non-violence, meditation, various deity worship alongside Jesus...the concept of Dharm and oneness with Brahman...you name it....to whatever composition you want. Same goes for any other religion you may be born into. Thats why Buddhism was so powerful in its spread to Asia....it simply added to the existing beliefs. Hinduism essentially says all roads lead to the same destination...it does not matter which one you take....so no one needs to leave their old belief system and practices and replace them 1 to 1 with hindu equivalents (like Christians first did in Roman Empire and then replicated across worldwide during their expansionist age...and Islam likewise did as well).
So Hindu proselytizing is indeed a very different flavour from those of Abrahamic religions on a foundational basis in theory.
Of course in practice you may get people who simply mirror the tactics of the other religions because they themselves do not understand or appreciate what Hinduism stands for in their hearts. Humans are after all imperfect beings.
Unless a religious proselytizer engaged in compulsion or threat you can't say that they are breaching any law.You just ignore them.
Nope sorry. We cannot ignore if he indulges in hate speech of any sort towards entire groups. Why are Hindu people's emotions supposed to be held on a much higher idealistic level over local events ...than say Muslims destroying their own buildings and roads over some cartoons published in a different continent?
Humans beings are human beings and you must respect they come in all sorts of thought patterns, shapes and sizes...whatever their foundational system of belief may suggest. Thats why you cannot automatically assume its a continuous free pass to engage in hate speech and vile behaviour and expect no retaliation because of Ahimsa principles. After all in certain situations Dharm trumps Ahimsa as we see in the Mahabharat. Every Hindu knows this....it is akin to your concept of jihad in the purest form. So if the Pastors and church workers are indeed more educated like they say...then they should know where the line exists. I am not saying they all are like this either....just a certain number of them especially in poorer more backward areas of India.
If you think nobody can say anything against Hinduism or preach other religion to Hindus but Hindus are free to preach to others than I think you should re-examine your attitude.
Even Hinduism says many things against other streams of Hinduism. The mainstream religious component itself has evolved quite significantly over many years and many iterations. All I am saying is that there should be a proper amount of care and concern when engaging in aggressive proselytisation from Christianity and Islam....given the differing perception of what proselytisation should engage in between the two larger worlds (Dharmic and Abrahamic). Why do you think sufism was the more instrumental way for Islam to spread in subcontinent than forced/economic conversion?
Now Hinduism itself has reformed and adapted considerably.....so there are fewer and fewer regular passive avenues for say Christianity to use to seek more converts in India....thats why there is this despserate ongoing attempt by various members of their church to aggressively start attacking local faiths in very despicable ways to inflame tensions and get a few handfuls of converts to "save" and then have a martyrdom complex if they are harmed or killed because of their tension stoking. This process must be recognized and turned off by the Churches...especially the US-sponsored evangelical ones (which are the worst)...then only will the Christian churches be fully secure and safe ...and only isolated purely hate crime incidents (which happen worldwide to whatever percentage correlated with education levels) will happen now and then due to nature of human existence.
