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Of the one million strong Hindu population in Britain, a fraction of 1 per cent convert to Evangelical Christianity. As a minority within a minority, they experience various levels of marginalization. This chapter explores the journey of geographical and ideological shifts that culminate in the religious conversion of British Gujarati Hindus. Individual converts from Hinduism to Christianity are challenged by the ongoing implications amongst their extended family, the British Hindu and British Evangelical communities and broader British society. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations from monolithic stereotypes created by dominant western culture produce an articulated authority of the British Evangelical subculture. These formulate what constitutes the British Hindu as a subordinate group with a subordinate identity. The Convert is obliged to disengage with their former subordinate group identity once entering the dominant British Evangelical community as a minority. The result is a further subordination that narrows, essentialises, isolates and marginalises the Convert as a muted subordinate with diminished belonging in all communities. This article begins with an overview of ‘muted group theory’ (MGT) followed by a brief explanation of the geographical and ideological shifts of the conversion experience. This is followed by a deeper examination of the societal, communal and individual tensions that occurs between the dominant British Evangelical culture, the subordinate British Hindu culture and the ‘Convert culture’. The description of the religio-cultural practice of Rakshabandan is then analysed with MGT as a lens. This offers an opportunity to imagine a broadening of religio-cultural practices beyond the confinement of defined Hindu religious practice. The boundaries of belonging are thus extended across cultural bridges amongst British Evangelical, British Hindu and British Gujarati extended family communities within British society. Thus, the binary of the dominant and the subordinate is blurred and pliable giving way to the possibilities of belonging and negotiating locational and ideological shifts.

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Unmuting the British Gujarati Christian Convert Experience Through Contextual Cultural Celebration of Rakshabandan

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Usha Reifsnider

摘要

Of the one million strong Hindu population in Britain, a fraction of 1 per cent convert to Evangelical Christianity. As a minority within a minority, they experience various levels of marginalization. This chapter explores the journey of geographical and ideological shifts that culminate in the religious conversion of British Gujarati Hindus. Individual converts from Hinduism to Christianity are challenged by the ongoing implications amongst their extended family, the British Hindu and British Evangelical communities and broader British society. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations from monolithic stereotypes created by dominant western culture produce an articulated authority of the British Evangelical subculture. These formulate what constitutes the British Hindu as a subordinate group with a subordinate identity. The Convert is obliged to disengage with their former subordinate group identity once entering the dominant British Evangelical community as a minority. The result is a further subordination that narrows, essentialises, isolates and marginalises the Convert as a muted subordinate with diminished belonging in all communities. This article begins with an overview of ‘muted group theory’ (MGT) followed by a brief explanation of the geographical and ideological shifts of the conversion experience. This is followed by a deeper examination of the societal, communal and individual tensions that occurs between the dominant British Evangelical culture, the subordinate British Hindu culture and the ‘Convert culture’. The description of the religio-cultural practice of Rakshabandan is then analysed with MGT as a lens. This offers an opportunity to imagine a broadening of religio-cultural practices beyond the confinement of defined Hindu religious practice. The boundaries of belonging are thus extended across cultural bridges amongst British Evangelical, British Hindu and British Gujarati extended family communities within British society. Thus, the binary of the dominant and the subordinate is blurred and pliable giving way to the possibilities of belonging and negotiating locational and ideological shifts.