SILVER JUBILEE SOUVENIR 1963 - 1988 Sainik School Campus BIJAPUR - 686102

Making up approximately 20 percent of South India's Protestants, Pentecostals are an influential part of India's Christian culture, yet there is a distinct lack of scholarly focus on this increasingly large group. This careful, well-informed study by Michael Bergunder ably fills that gap. After a brief historical introduction to the worldwide growth of Pentecostalism, Bergunder delves into the history of the South Indian Pentecostal movement in the first section. The second section gives a systematic profile of the current movement in South India, based on a wide range of source materials and on formal interviews with nearly two hundred leading pastors and evangelists. Bergunder finishes his work with prospects for the future. Three appendixes and an extended bibliography offer ample ground for further research.

The Khasi religion, at the levels of both belief and practice (rites and rituals), traditionally, was neither codified nor elaborated uniformly across the Khasi Hills. The Khasi religion is neither church-based nor does it have an established priesthood. This means that, traditionally, it was not an organised religion that could give uniform and standardised rituals to society. Life-cycle events were marked by the performance of rites by an individual’s mother’s brothers. Their absence presents a situation of crisis. The book explains the ways in which such situations of crisis have been resolved. There are events other than life-cycle events that threaten an individual’s life. The book explains the rites performed to thwart evil influences on individuals. The book also highlights the role of the Ka Seng Khasi in preserving and perpetuating the Khasi belief and rites, and the historical conditions leading to its formation.