On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 1:31 PM, divya manian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 2/29/08, Charles Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I thought much of the objection was to converting to Buddhism? > > Buddhism does not say that only one god is correct and that other gods > > are wrong. > > As far as I know, Hindus consider Jainism and Buddhism as offshoots of > Hinduism and do not object as vehmently as they do to Islam or > Christianity. > > A lot of Dalits convert/converted to Buddhism (that it did not change > their "status" in society is a different matter). I vaguely remember > Mayawati promising to convert to Buddhism (not sure if that really > happened). > > > > For that matter, I've heard that the Buddha is supposedly the ninth > > avatar of Vishnu, so what's the problem with "converting" to Buddhism? > > This is exactly what most Hindus think. So I dont think they consider > that a big issue ( unless they have no other big issues to fight > about).
My impression is that conversion of Dalits to Buddhism is indeed an important issue at least to the BJP. The nominal issue is "forced" or "invalid" conversions. Doesn't the fact that they care at all indicate that there are issues other than the Shiv has raised? What would they be? -- Charles
