South Asian anthropology of Christianity is growing, and many sophisticated ethnographies discussing various aspects of everyday Christianity have come into existence. In the Indian context, Christianity appeared in anthropological scholarship primarily through the Hindu notion of caste and conversion (from Hinduism) and similarities (to Hinduism) (Robinson 2014). Largely, these studies on Indian and, to some extent, south Asian Christianity have been concentrated on studying Christianity in villages and slums, which usually have an approximately homogeneous population with less inter-community exchanges or transactions. Moving away from village Christianity, the paper looks at popular Christianity in an urban neighbourhood of Kolkata, where relationships between families, denominations, and neighbours are in flux and often compete and collaborate. The paper asks how do the Hindu women in the prayer meetings grapple with the question of conversion. Why are these women hesitant for baptismal conversion but engage in change of mind, values and belief? What does such engagement reveal about belief, faith and everyday living in a shared, porous Indian neighbourhood? In such a context, the paper also looks into the lives of Hindu women and the intimate spaces of family, marriage, kinship, and neighbourhood relations. Through the women’s narratives, the paper interrogates the binaries between who is and is not a Christian and argues that a focus on ‘baptismal conversion’ only renders the possibilities of other kinds of conversions invisible, which may not lead to a complete overhaul or ‘rupture’ of one’s religious identities. The everyday conversions, including severances from Hindu practices, refusal to attend family rituals, and dismissing Hindu Gods and Goddesses as weak agents of change, become crucial. Yet, the women remain in the confines of Hinduism. Thus, the term conversion begs for multiple anthropological meanings and contexts in such a background.
