A friend recently sent me yet another YouTube video of a Hindu who had become a Christian ‘CONVERT’ and now runs his own ministry. I did not watch it. After decades of interacting with missionary organizations and observing their methods, I already know the genre. It follows a familiar pattern: a dramatic conversion story, a selective interpretation of Hinduism, and the presentation of Christianity—not Christ—as the only answer. Such testimonies are then circulated enthusiastically within Evangelical networks as though they possess universal appeal.
My observation, however, has been quite different.
Most of this literature, these testimonies, and these videos rarely travel beyond the missionary ecosystem that produces and consumes them. They are created primarily for those who already share the same theological assumptions and missionary agenda. Outside that circle, they generate little lasting interest. Among ordinary Hindus, they are usually dismissed as yet another form of religious propaganda.
This is not merely because Hindus disagree with their conclusions. It is because Hindu civilization has traditionally been shaped by a very different religious instinct. Hindu traditions have lived with multiple paths, diverse philosophies, and forms of devotion for centuries. Consequently, the claim that one must reject one’s entire civilizational inheritance in order to become acceptable to God simply does not resonate with the Hindu mind.
Ironically, many of these ministries are based in the West or depend heavily on Western Evangelical funding, strategies, and audiences. Their narratives may succeed within those networks, but they seldom take root in the wider religious landscape of India. They remain confined not only by geography but also by the theological and institutional boundaries of the missionary enterprise itself.
I write this on the basis of my own bhakti to the Lord while remaining rooted in the Hindu tradition. My devotion has not required me to join the religion called Christianity or to reject the civilization into which I was born. For that reason, I find the conversion industry profoundly unconvincing. It mistakes propaganda for persuasion and institutional success for spiritual transformation.
Perhaps someone with the time, interest, and resources will one day undertake a serious study of the actual reach of these missionary narratives. My own suspicion is that they circulate vigorously within their own ECHO chambers while making remarkably little impression beyond them. If that proves to be true, it would explain why, despite enormous investment over many decades, the rhetoric of conversion continues to speak mainly to those who are already listening.
Ashram
July 23, 2026
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