{"pages":{"332":{"imagePath":"H:\\web_projects\\corpus-web\\electron-app\\data\\5e07978430078cb56ea89a104e5a0c0e50b3aa1618e48c486c8af005ae015143\\raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp","width":1170,"height":1680,"segments":[{"text":"332","box":{"x":108,"y":140,"width":56,"height":18}},{"text":"HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA","box":{"x":333,"y":146,"width":481,"height":18}},{"text":"161. GANDHI ON CONVERSION AND THE INDIGENOUS","box":{"x":108,"y":223,"width":922,"height":24}},{"text":"IDENTITY OF INDIAN CHRISTIANS (1925 A.D.)","box":{"x":210,"y":258,"width":721,"height":27}},{"text":"Writing on the subject of conversion and the life style and attitudes","box":{"x":197,"y":313,"width":784,"height":27}},{"text":"of Indian Christians, Mahatma Gandhi appeals to them not to equate","box":{"x":160,"y":337,"width":824,"height":28}},{"text":"Christianity with denationalization. Young India, August 20, 1925.","box":{"x":161,"y":362,"width":823,"height":29}},{"text":"Cited in A. T. Hingorani, ed., The Message of Jesus Christ, pp. 25-28.","box":{"x":161,"y":389,"width":823,"height":29}},{"text":"When I was a youth, I remember a Hindu having become a","box":{"x":153,"y":446,"width":878,"height":34}},{"text":"convert to Christianity. The whole town understood that the","box":{"x":109,"y":472,"width":922,"height":31}},{"text":"initiation took the shape of this well-bred Hindu partaking of","box":{"x":109,"y":500,"width":924,"height":34}},{"text":"beef and brandy in the name of Jesus Christ, and discarding his","box":{"x":108,"y":530,"width":922,"height":35}},{"text":"national costume. I learnt in later years that such a convert, as","box":{"x":111,"y":558,"width":918,"height":32}},{"text":"so many of my missionary friends put it, came to a life of freedom","box":{"x":111,"y":587,"width":919,"height":32}},{"text":"out of a life of bondage, to a life of plenty out of the one of penury.","box":{"x":109,"y":614,"width":924,"height":34}},{"text":"As I wander about throughout the length and breadth of India,","box":{"x":108,"y":640,"width":924,"height":34}},{"text":"I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, cer-","box":{"x":109,"y":669,"width":922,"height":34}},{"text":"tainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The","box":{"x":111,"y":696,"width":922,"height":32}},{"text":"aping of Europeans on the part of Anglo-Indians is bad enough,","box":{"x":111,"y":724,"width":919,"height":35}},{"text":"but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to","box":{"x":108,"y":753,"width":924,"height":31}},{"text":"their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion. There is","box":{"x":109,"y":781,"width":922,"height":32}},{"text":"a verse in the New Testament to bid Christians avoid meat, if it","box":{"x":109,"y":808,"width":919,"height":34}},{"text":"would offend their neighbours. Meat here, I presume, includes","box":{"x":105,"y":835,"width":925,"height":36}},{"text":"drink and dress. I can appreciate uncompromising avoidance","box":{"x":108,"y":865,"width":924,"height":35}},{"text":"of anything evil but where an ancient practice may be even desirable,","box":{"x":111,"y":893,"width":921,"height":34}},{"text":"it would be a crime to part with it when one knows for certain","box":{"x":112,"y":920,"width":921,"height":29}},{"text":"that the giving up would deeply hurt relatives and friends.","box":{"x":111,"y":947,"width":829,"height":34}},{"text":"What Conversion should Mean","box":{"x":368,"y":1033,"width":418,"height":25}},{"text":"Conversion must not mean denationalization. Conversion","box":{"x":158,"y":1087,"width":875,"height":29}},{"text":"should mean a definite giving up of the evil of the old, adoption","box":{"x":112,"y":1115,"width":922,"height":34}},{"text":"of all the good of the new and a scrupulous avoidance of every-","box":{"x":112,"y":1145,"width":919,"height":32}},{"text":"thing evil in the new. Conversion, therefore, should mean a life","box":{"x":111,"y":1171,"width":922,"height":32}},{"text":"of greater dedication to one's own country, greater surrender to","box":{"x":111,"y":1199,"width":921,"height":32}},{"text":"God, greater self-purification. Years ago, I met the late Kali","box":{"x":108,"y":1228,"width":924,"height":32}},{"text":"Charan Bannerjee. Had I not known before I went there that","box":{"x":108,"y":1252,"width":924,"height":32}},{"text":"he was a Christian, I should certainly not have noticed from the","box":{"x":111,"y":1283,"width":921,"height":32}},{"text":"outward appearance of his home that he was one. It was no diffe-","box":{"x":113,"y":1311,"width":918,"height":32}},{"text":"rent from an odinary modern Hindu home, simple and meagre","box":{"x":112,"y":1341,"width":921,"height":32}},{"text":"in furniture. The great man was dressed like an ordinary un-Euro-","box":{"x":113,"y":1368,"width":919,"height":34}},{"text":"peanized Hindu Bengali. I know that there is a marvellous change","box":{"x":110,"y":1396,"width":922,"height":34}},{"text":"coming over Christian Indians. There is on the part of a large","box":{"x":112,"y":1424,"width":921,"height":32}},{"text":"number of them a longing to revert to original simplicity, a longing","box":{"x":112,"y":1452,"width":922,"height":35}},{"text":"to belong to the nation and to serve it, but the process is too slow.","box":{"x":116,"y":1481,"width":919,"height":35}},{"text":"There need be no waiting. It requires not much effort. The","box":{"x":115,"y":1506,"width":918,"height":32}}]}}}