Abstract
A central thesis of this book presents Christianity stamped as “Made in India, for India, and by Indians.” Contrary to popular allegation in India that Christianity is a western religion, this timely resource affirms that the Christian faith is not an imported faith of a few elites, nor is it a religion of former colonial masters or a mere expansion of the church resulting from the western missionary enterprise. It is now thoroughly Indian, inside and out.
Author Paul Joshua makes a compelling case for indigenous Indian Christianity using examples from his extensive fieldwork across the nation for his doctoral research to narrate the origin, development, and distinctiveness of these local Indian Christian movements, what he calls the “Indian-initiated churches (IICs)”—similar to African and other regionally initiated or instituted Christianities of the world. He features seven grassroots-level movements, namely revivals under the leadership of J.C. Arulappan (Tamilnadu), Pandita Ramabai’s Mukti Mission (Pune), the Indian Pentecostal Church of God (Kerala), the Bakht Singh Assemblies, the India Bible Mission Bakti movements (Andhra Pradesh), Yesh Darbar (Allahabad), and New Life Fellowship (Mumbai), spanning from the late 19th (1860) to the early 21st century (2008).
By taking and comparing often ignored local-led mission work during the colonial period as well as contemporary revival movements, the author distills many lessons for churches and mission agencies today in India and around the world. This religio-sociocultural-historical analysis of Indian-led revivals brings out many themes and insights that are pertinent to all Christian leaders. The extensive footnotes of Indian resources, commonly unfamiliar to western academia and scholars, are invaluable. This is an excellent addition to the growing literature on World Christianity and further accentuates the fact that Christianity is local everywhere. Indian Christianity is Indian and is firmly rooted in the Indian soil. Christianity has been “remade” in India just as it has been done elsewhere.
The history and development of Christianity in India are very complex and multilayered, ranging from apostolic St Thomas Christians to Syrian Christians to Portuguese Catholic missions to Protestant missionary work of the Dutch, German, Danish, English, Scottish, American, and others, to Pentecostal and the rise of indigenous Christianity. The diversity of language, culture, spirituality, and personalities further complicates such study. Besides, none of these strands remain isolated from each other, and all of them have influenced and contributed to the making of IICs to a great extent, which could have been expounded further.
This book is an adaptation of a doctoral dissertation on indigenous Indian Christian movements done over a decade ago and does not deliberate on the impact of these IICS on other Indian religions, especially on Hindutva ideology or the growing persecution against Christians in India today. Nonetheless, I am grateful to Dr Joel Carpenter for his meticulous work in making this dissertation widely available and not letting it be confined to a library shelf in Europe.