Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-cultural Communication Since 1500, with Special Reference to Caste, Conversion, and Colonialism

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Robert Eric Frykenberg, Alaine M. Low
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003 - Religion - 419 pages
This interesting volume challenges the long-held assumption thatChristianity in India is nothing but a colonial or Western imposition. Leading experts here chronicle the histories and cultures ofIndia's many Christian communities and show that local Indianleaders were the real agents of religious change in the subcontinent.

These chapters range widely over various facets of Indiansociety and its religious developments. Of crucial importance isthe fact that in exploring their subjects the contributors take painsto avoid the Eurocentric nature of most studies of India and represent Christianity from a genuinely Indocentric perspective. Theresult is an entirely new vista from which to view the history, features, and influence of Indian Christianity.Contributors: Peter B. Andersen
Michael Bergunder
MarineCarrin
Penelope Carson
Gunnel Cederlof
Robert Eric Frykenberg
E. M. Jackson
Heike Liebau
Iwona Milewska
Geoffrey A.Oddie
Indira Viswanathan Peterson
Avril Powell
Paula Richman
Jayeeta Sharma
Harald Tambs-Lyche
Richard Fox Young

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Contents

Introduction Dealing with Contested Definitions and Controversial Perspectives
1
Christians in India An Historical Overview of Their Complex Origins
33
First European Missionaries on Sanskrit Grammar
62
Country Priests Catechists and Schoolmasters as Cultural Religious and Social Middlemen in the Context of the Tranquebar Mission
70
Tanjore Tranquebar and Halle European Science and German Missionary Education in the Lives of Two Indian Intellectuals in the Early Nineteenth ...
93
Christianity Colonialism and Hinduism in Kerala Integration Adaptation or Confrontation?
127
Constructing Hinduism The Impact of the Protestant Missionary Movement on Hindu SelfUnderstanding
155
Receding from Antiquity Hindu Responses to Science and Christianity on the Margins of Empire 18001850
183
Missionaries and Print Culture in NineteenthCentury Assam The Orunodoi Periodical of the American Baptist Mission
256
The Santals Though Unable to Plan for Tomorrow Should Be Converted by Santals
274
Christian Missionaries and Orientalist Discourse Illustrated by Materials on the Santals after 1855
295
Glimpses of a Prominent Indian Christian Family of Tirunelveli and Madras 18631906 Perspectives on Caste Culture and Conversion
315
Social Mobilization among People Competing at the Bottom Level of Society The Presence of Missions in Rural South India ca 19001950
336
From Pentecostal Healing Evangelist to Kalki Avatar The Remarkable Life of Paulaseer Lawrie alias Shree Lahari Krishna 19211989 A Contribution...
357
Praising Baby Jesus in Iyecupiran Pillaittamil
376
Index
398

Pillar of a New Faith Christianity in LateNineteenthCentury Punjab from the Perspective of a Convert from Islam
223

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