Missionaries converted mostly the castes Muslims supposedly seized

Evidence

Christian missionaries in India tended to have the most success among the very groups they alleged Muslims to have converted: the lowest ranking castes and most impoverished classes. — Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon Fear, 103

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the irony that Islam in India grew among the same lower-caste, low-status groups where Christian missionaries later found their only converts — a parallel worth chasing in conversion studies more broadly. — connects to: Christian missionaries in India tended to have the most success among the very groups they alleged Muslims to have converted: the lowest ranking castes and most impoverished classes.; While these Americans and Britons avoided any suggestion that someone, drawn by a positive characteristic of the religion, might willingly accept Islam, others argued that, if there had been a good reason for South Asians to convert, it reflected less the value of Islam than the deficits of Hinduism, specifically caste prejudice and the proscription of widow remarriage. Reverend John Takle – a New Zealander working as a missionary in Bengal – used the most recent ‘scientific’ evidence that tracked intermarriage between Muslim and native races to supposedly prove a long-standing conclusion. In 1911 he stated, ‘The anthropometric survey made by government proves conclusively that the vast majority of the Mohammedans in India are converts from among the depressed Hindu communities.’; Caste explains Hindu neglect that risks aborigines converting to rival faiths.
• QUESTION: Worth investigating: what made the lowest castes the constant target population across both Muslim and Christian proselytizing movements?

Broader Connections

• While these Americans and Britons avoided any suggestion that someone, drawn by a positive characteristic of the religion, might willingly accept Islam, others argued that, if there had been a… #corroborates (0.95)
• Caste explains Hindu neglect that risks aborigines converting to rival faiths. #expands (0.70)