Open Theology 2015; 1: 175–188 Chad M. Bauman The Violence of Conversion: Proselytization and Interreligious Controversy in the Work of Swami Dayananda Saraswati DOI 10.1515/opth-2015-0006 Received March 2, 2015; accepted April 2, 2015 Abstract: Critics of Christianity in India have frequently accused Christianity of being a predatory, imperialistic religion with absolutist tendencies, and have framed Christian evangelism as an aggressive, uncouth act. More recently, however, and in an idiom that resonates with many contemporary Indians, Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930-) has made the more controversial claim that the attempt to convert another person is itself an act of violence. In three parts, the paper 1) describes Dayananda’s claims, while bringing them into conversation with the arguments of earlier critics of Christianity (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi, Sita Ram Goel, Ashok Chowgule, Arun Shourie), 2) analyzes and critique Dayananda’s use of the term “violence,” and 3) demonstrate how the claim that conversion is an act of violence blurs somewhat easily into a justification of acts of violence against those who attempt to convert others. In the end, I argue that whether Dayananda’s claim that proselytization is a form of violence makes sense depends not only on one’s definition of “violence,” but also on one’s definition of “religion.” Keywords: Hindu-Christian, Conversion, Proselytization, Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930-), Violence, Gandhi, India, Missionaries, Evangelism, Attacks Though in contemporary media reports, we are today—at least in the West—much more likely to hear of violence perpetrated against Christian missionaries, scholars have long recognized violence to be an aspect of the historical Christian missionary movement. Despite its rightful reputation for being a primarily nonviolent affair, there have been well-documented instances of Christians spreading their faith by the actual and metaphorical sword, from at least Emperor Theodosius1 forward, and especially during the so-called “Barbarian Conversion,”2 the crusades, the era of European colonialism in the Americas, Asia, and Africa, and the Inquisition. Pointing to that violent legacy, and to what they perceive to be its contemporary manifestations, critics of Christianity in India have frequently accused it of being a predatory, imperialistic religion with absolutist tendencies, and have framed Christian evangelism as an aggressive, uncouth act. Nevertheless, these critics have tended to focus on moments (e.g., the Inquisition), when Christian evangelists have very clearly employed, encouraged, or benefitted from acts of violence or coercion via the implicit or explicit threat of violence. More recently, however, and in an idiom that resonates with many contemporary Indians, Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930-) has made the more controversial claim that the attempt to convert another person is itself an act of violence. 1 On which, see Kreider, “Violence and Mission”. Portions of this paper draw significantly from material first published in Bauman, Pentecostals. I would like to thank the journal’s two blind reviewers, who provided thoughtful comment on an earlier version of this paper, and helped transform it from its original, suggestive form into something at least a bit more substantive. 2 Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion. Violence of Non-Violence Research Article Open Access © 2015 Chad M. Bauman, licensee De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. *Corresponding author: Chad M. Bauman: Butler University Unauthenticated Download Date | 6/19/15 10:15 PM