Since PyPi accepts Markdown formatted README.md, there is less reason to use the more complicated syntax of ReStructured Text .rst files. We have converted dozens of README.rst to README.md (even for non-Python repos) with:

1. initial conversion from .rst to .md
   

   pandoc -f rst -t markdown README.rst -o README.md
   

1. slight hand correction: remove most \ that were inserted (find and replace with nothing)
2. replace in Git repo:
   

   git rm README.rst
   git add README.md
   

1. If it’s for a Python repo, be sure that setup.py and setup.cfg are configured for README.md