Abstract
Chandra Mallampalli’s South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim is an impressively expansive and engaging inquiry into the history of South Asian Christianity. By paying close attention to the stories of South Asia’s Christians, Mallampalli examines “South Asia’s Christians [and how they] have profoundly shaped and been shaped by the Hindu and Muslim environments in which they thrived” (2). From the stories of the Thomas Christians and the arrivals of Jesuit and Protestant missionaries to the stories of Dalit Christians and the growth of Pentecostal churches, this monograph covers not only a vast historical time frame going back centuries but also does an incredible job detailing the accounts of tensions, conflicts, and the interactions that took place within the lives of the Christians in South Asia.
With detailed maps and pictures that offer readers a better understanding of South Asia’s context, each of the 10 chapters grapples with a wide spectrum of topics such as colonialism, cultural accommodation, conversion, interreligious encounters, even issues of nationalism, anti-Christian violence, and Hindutva—all pertinent to the academic field of missiology. Chapter 6, titled “Upper caste converts to Protestantism,” and the story of Pandita Ramabai, a Brahmin convert to Christianity who dedicated her life to female emancipation within Hindu society, are prime examples of how this book not only takes heed of the stories of South Asian Christians but also looks carefully at the often-marginalized women’s stories within the world Christian movement. As Mallampalli incisively argues, these narratives of the indigenous expressions of Christianity serve as “checkpoints in our efforts to understand the Church universal” (16). Readers who desire to find more of a theological component will find chapter 9, “Dalits and social liberation,” intriguing as Mallampalli lays the basic contours of understanding Dalit Theology and its socio-historic entanglement.
As a historian whose scholarship has delved deep into the complex religious and socio-political history of South India, Mallampalli’s work presents both an accessible and an incisive investigative tool into not only the interactions between Christianity and other religions but also interactions between cultures, languages, beliefs, practices, and identities. Readers may want to take into consideration that although the title of the book refers to “South Asia” and considers various South Asian contexts, Mallampalli dedicates significant focus to the contemporary nation-state of India, encompassing periods that predate the establishment of national boundaries. With both the general audience and academics in mind, South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim makes a valuable contribution to multiple academic discourses (Missiology, World Christianity, South Asian Studies) and is a must-read for anyone who is interested in surveying a panoramic history and analysis of Christianity in South Asia.