A major issue that I have had debates on with two sets of people is "religious conversions".
The argument usually made against religious conversions is that while Hinduism does not allow for conversions, Christian missionaries with deep pockets are making serious inroads by converting tribals in India to Christianity. This, coupled with Muslim boys and girls who "bewitch"Hindus to fall in love with them and force them to convert before marrying, will lead to Hindus becoming minorities in this land where Hinduism was born.
There are several arguments against this but i will keep to the logical ones not based on emotions.
First, Hindus in modern India like to co-opt religions as part of the uber-umbrella that is Hinduism when they like. So suddenly Buddha (who was against idol worship and ritualism and priests) is considered a reincarnation of Vishnu; Animists who pray only to nature are Hindus because amongst the thousands of gods and godesses Hindus pray to, there are also fire, earth, wind, peepul tree and so on. So while a person who is an Animist may not think of himself as a Hindu, a Hindu looks on him as a co-follower. While converting, the Animist is now taking to a god with a human interface for the first time. To the onlooking Hindu, he has betrayed Hinduism.
Hinduism believes you can only be born a Hindu never become one. The Puri Jagannath temple even believes that a Hindu can only be born in India and hence recently disallowed i think Hindus from Malaysia to enter the temple. There are tons of examples of some classes of the society still being unable to enter most temples in the country. So on the one hand you want the purity of the Upper Caste Hindu genes to be preserved exclusively. On the other, you want those whom you keep at a distance by brute force or extreme rudeness, to accept the treatment unquestioningly. Is this possible in an enlightened world? Or is that why you would prefer for some people to remain uneducated, unenlightened and oppressed?
Thirdly, the debate is still on about whether the "Varnas" in Hindu society were meant to be permeable or not. Could a Vaishya's son become a warrior and be called a Kshatriya? Did it start that way but then become impermeable? Did the "upper" castes prefer it to be impermeable so that their children could inherit the benefits that accrue to them? Banished people constituted the "untouchables" but did it necessarily mean that their kids would have such bad genes that it would be better to assume he/she should also be banished from the day they were born? If one had to change that aspect of Hinduism, how would one do it? In today's world why does it suit people to continue with these classifications? if one can answer these questions honestly, maybe one could work towards making it a more equitable society.
Fourth, is brute force is an answer at all to stopping conversions? Will some one seeing his or his neighbour's home being burnt down, move from ambivalence to pro-hindu or anti-hindu? Or do such acts just satisfy the hunger for violence in a bunch of people who have adopted this as their pet issue.
I think Hindus should look at this from a brand managers point of view. You had a great brand. Monopoly share - mind share and market share. But now the share is eroding. It is not yet reached serious proportions but the erosion is visible. So what do you do? Run to the government saying stop imports, increase duties, make it essential for government agencies to buy my product or burn down your competitors warehouse or kill your competitors sales man.... or do you relook at the product and say why are people rejecting it? How do I improve it to make it attractive to more people. How do I retain my customers if converting new customers is not an option? Or should i relook at the various segments and decide that the 80% who are happy with the product are better than the 20% who crib the most and let them switch.
What ever the solution, introspection is the first step. If Hindus don't have the courage to do that, they will become minorities in this land in the next 3-5 centuries and will deserve it.
