Reconversion to Hinduism: a Hindu nationalist reaction against conversion to Christianity and Islam

From the broader debate on the phenomenon of conversion, it becomes clear that conversion to Christianity and Islam generates discomfort in Indian society. Moreover reconversion to Hinduism, which often goes unnoticed in this controversy, also exists. What kinds of phenomena are labelled as reconversion? What meanings do they have? Based on fieldwork and interviews, alongside analyses of media coverage and archival research, this article gives an overview of the different kinds of reconversion from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present and analyses its conceptualisation by both its critics and its promoters. From these analyses follows the conclusion that reconversion is mainly a tool to arrest Christian and Muslim conversions

Revisiting the NRI 'genre': Indian diasporic engagements with NRI and multiplex films

As a nodal point in the global presence of Indian cinema, films about Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have become a cherished object of textual analysis. Research on this topic has challenged diasporic representations in the NRI ‘genre’, but at the same time has linked them up with actual diasporas. Based on the results of an audience study conducted through in-depth interviews, this article critically reviews the consumption of NRI films by diasporic audiences. The responses of diasporic Indians to such films in Antwerp (Belgium) revealed that this audience related neither to the implied diasporic spectator nor to the actual audience nor to the diasporic representations in these films in a straightforward way. Therefore, the article equally assesses the diasporic Indian consumption of ‘multiplex films’ and the preference for realism related to the latter

Representing Rajasthani roots : Indian gypsy identity and origins in documentary films

Over the past three decades, a series of documentary films featuring performing artists from Rajasthan have been produced. Extending the scholarly notion that the Roma historically migrated from India, these documentaries often portray present-day Rajasthani communities as descendants of Roma ancestors in India, and therefore as “Indian Gypsies.” These “realistic” films have greatly influenced public perceptions on Gypsy cultural representations and express identity politics of Gypsy unity, but have hardly been studied so far. To gain insight into both the portrayal of Rajasthani artists as Gypsies and the representation of the Indian background of the Roma, this article presents the results of a contextualized content analysis of the films, complemented by ethnographic research. It shows that the image of the Indian Gypsy is grounded on the discursive interplay between Roma politics, commercial music industries and self-exoticizing marketing by Rajasthani artists