Looks to provide an analysis of religion as a dynamic factor in Indian society. Not only is the ritual, economic and power status of the missionaries examined but also such effects on their converts as social status and mobility.

The subtle complexities of Christian missionary activity in India from the 16th through the 20th centuries are discussed in 16 articles by scholars of religion, history, and anthropology in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, France, Australia, India, and the US. An introduction and an overview to the diverse Christian groups in India are provided by Frykenberg (emeritus, history, U. of Wisconsin-Madison). Other topics include the first European missionaries on Sanskrit grammar, the Tranquebar mission, the German missionary education of two 19th- century Indian intellectuals, two articles on the Santals, and several papers that describe missionary interference in traditions of caste.--From publisher's description.

A bible theological didactic is not principally reduced to learning and teaching Bible alone but rather extended to understanding and interpreting Bible in one's own religious and pedagogical context. Bible didactic, moreover, does not circumscribe itself only to biblical knowledge in virtue of deducing some abstract and moral principles, but it rather prospects to strengthen and reconstruct one's identity within the choices offered by culture and context. This book aims to engage in an intercultural interpretation of the parables and the miracles of Jesus by dialoging with the culture of Tamils. This comparative study subsequently proposes an alternative synchronic hermeneutic in biblical didactics replacing a deep-seated diachronic model in Tamil land. It also develops a model of sync-culturation superseding fossilised model of inculturation. This book capitalises Tamils' texts and narratives of masses reflected in the archives of Tamil literatures and legends in the process of theologisation. Bearing on the aesthetics of parables and miracles and contextual reading of them, this study brings forward ‘the world in front of the text' leaving behind the conventional exegesis of `the world behind the text’.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction Approaches to an Intermediary Group -- Chapter 1 History of the Tranquebar Mission -- Chapter 2 Local Mission Workers -- Chapter 3 The Hierarchical Structure of the Mission Organization -- Chapter 4 Dialogue and Conflict -- Chapter 5 The Role of Local Mission Employees in Education -- Chapter 6 Women in the Tranquebar Mission -- Concluding Observations: Indian Mission Employees and European-Indian Cultural Contact -- Biographies of South Indian Country Pastors -- Abbreviations -- Maps, Illustrations and Tables -- Note on the Spelling of Indian Terms -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Sources -- Name of Persons -- Name of Places

This academic inquiry attempts to explore the state of relations between the German Christian missionaries and the Christian English government before and after World War I in India; the unpleasant consequences on German Missionaries and their families by the unwarranted attack of the German Cruiser SMS Emden on the Madras Presidency, aggravated further by the act of a former soldier in the guise of a missionary. It uncovers the involvement of the German military, Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient (NfO) and the Hindu revolutionaries in causing unrest in India to derail the economy and tarnish the image of the British Government. It exposes the joining forces of diametrically opposite ideologies, the German Christian Government, German Christian missionary in NfO and the Indian Hindu revolutionaries, on a common platform. Likewise, it uncovers the manipulation of the selfsame Scripture by the doctrinally similar Christian denominations to whip up their clashing nationalistic passions. Further, this research narrates the bitter experiences of separated missionary spouses, scattered family members, the plight of children, deportation, gruelling voyages, seasickness, experiences of missionaries as Prisoners of War (POW), etc. The following three methods were combined for this research: a World War I historiographical approach coupled with a collective biographical approach and an entanglement approach. I used archived and published English, German, and Tamil sources. The main archives were the Political Archives of the Foreign Office (PAAA) in Berlin, the archives of the Franckeshe Foundations in Halle, the Mission Society in Leipzig, the British Library in London, and the United Theological College Bangalore, the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai and Avanakappakam (National Archives), Chennai, the materials in the Political Foreign Office (PAAA) in Berlin concerning the correspondence between the Intelligence Service for the Orient and the Indian revolutionaries; the archive of the Franckeshe Foundation in Halle contained in the two-volumes in one file from the Indian Mission during the war (1914 -1916) and The Leibniz Centre for Modern Orient archives Berlin.

The narrative of this book is built around the historical experiences of the Paraiyars of Tamil Nadu. The author traces the transformation of the Paraiyars from an ‘untouchable’ and socially despised community to one that came to acquire prominence in the political scene of Tamil Nadu, especially in early 20th century. Through this framework, the book studies a number of issues: subaltern history, colonial ethnography, agrarian systems, agrarian bondage, land legislations, and the interventions by missionaries and social and political organizations.

Vols. 1-64 include extracts from correspondence.