Hindu and Christian debates over the meanings, motivations, and modalities of 'conversion' provide the central connecting theme running through this book. It focuses on the reasons offered by both sides to defend or oppose the possibility of these cross-border movements, and shows how these reasons form part of a wider constellation of ideas, concepts, and practices of the Christian and the Hindu worlds.It draws upon historical case-studies of Christian missionaries and of Hindus who encountered these missionaries.

Ankur Barua is Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK. His articles have been published in journals such as the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, the Oxford Journal of Hindu Studies, Sophia, the International Journal of Hindu Studies, and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

1. Prologue

2. Locating the Debates

3. The Ideologies of Empire: Christian Missionaries in a Victorian Age

4. The 'Heathens' and their 'Idols': Christian Missionaries and the Edifice of 'Hinduism'

5. Preaching the Kingdom: 'Caste' and 'Conversion'

6. Christian Orthodoxy and Hindu Spirituality: 'Particularity' versus 'Universalism'?

7. Donning the Saffron Robe: The Many Meanings of 'Mission'

8. The Bounds of 'Toleration': Hindus and Christians in 'Secular' India

9. Conclusion