There are several common approaches to understanding religious conversion and correspondingly various ways of responding to it: as change, as subversion, as atrocity, as freedom. In our pluri-religious society, all of these must be contained in our Constitutional democratic secularism, affirmed both as the Nehruvian dharma nirapekshata, and the Gandhian sarvadharma samabhava, equal distance, and equal respect. These common approaches are often at odds and do not present an integrated or holistic understanding. While religious commitment is essentially a matter of personal conscience and freedom of choice, it inevitably impacts other areas and levels of individual and social life. In attempting a holistic approach here, we distinguish four levels of understanding: the psycho-social, the sociocultural, the eco-political, the socio-religious. Conversion as critique is invariably associated with resistance and rebellion, dissent and protest. It includes a spectrum of possibilities both in analysis and interpretation as well as in response and action.
