Why change religion?

Changing one’s religion or even repudiating all kinds of religious affiliations is not something unique to Nepal. Nor is it an existential threat to the country and culture as many people portray it to be. In Europe, for example, the number of people who identify themselves as Christians—the largest religious group in the region—has been on steady decline and so has been the number of church attendees. Similarly, in the United States—a devout Christian country by any measure—the number of people who identify themselves as atheists or agnostics has increased quite drastically over the past few decades. As more and more people realize that spirituality does not necessarily have to be anchored to any religion, more and more of them leave the religion they were born into and seek spiritual fulfillment in other kinds of secular activities like mediation, yoga, philosophy, humanitarian activities etc. It is very common in the US to see people, both young and old alike, carrying their yoga mats, as religiously as a Hindu saint carries his kamandalu, at all times of the day. It is also not uncommon to see white people dressed up in monk garbs roaming around with bohemian abandon or singing Hare Ram/Krishna in train stations and city downtowns around the country.

So, why do people engage in religious conversion or relinquish one? To understand the answer, it is important to understand the history of various religions and the contingent nature of how religions are established, and often disintegrated, overtime.