Religion: Reconversion in India

GRAND HISTORIC MASS-CONVERSION CEREMONY, proclaimed posters in a town by the Ganges. Loudspeakers blared that "many Christians tonight will perform a mass return to the religion of their souls."

Only a few reconverts turned up. They sat cross-legged on the grass before pig-tailed Brahman pundits for half an hour's chanting of the Vedas, washed themselves with water from the sacred Ganges, and dropped incense on a fire of camphorwood and herbs. "You are again pure," said a swami. "You are once again Hindus."

Trickle into Stream. In such local campaigns India's nationalist Mahasabha Party...