The Christian community in India emerged from an Indian rather than a foreign or an imperial context. Its internal dynamics were shaped far more by Indian social realities than by missionary designs. This book presents a comprehensive social history of Christianity in north-west India, comprising Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, the Union Territories of Delhi and Chandigarh, and the Pakistani Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. The book discusses significant events in the history of the north-west up to 1947, after which it focuses only on India. These events left a lasting impact on Christianity and shaped its future course, culminating in the transfer of churches’ power from foreign missionaries to Indians and proliferation of churches, and the ongoing struggles of the Christian community. The author pays special attention to the Christian community’s caste composition—how caste status and social mobility affected intra- and inter-community relations—religious diversity, uneven demographic distribution, and development, as well as Christianity as a religious movement in the region.

This comprehensive study is the first scholarly account explaining how the British and Indian armies adapted to the peculiar demands of fighting an irregular tribal opponent in the mountainous no-man's-land between India and Afghanistan. It does so by discussing how a tactical doctrine of frontier fighting was developed and 'passed on' to succeeding generations of soldiers. As this book conclusively demonstrates this form of colonial warfare always exerted a powerful influence on the organisation, equipment, training and ethos of the Army in India.