- Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu India, 1868–1947 by Chad M. Bauman
As a part of the “Studies in the History of Christian Missions” series, this volume brings fresh insights into the interaction between missionaries and indigenous in their process of accepting Christianity. This study focuses on the Satnamis in the state of Chhattisgarh in India during eighty years of cultural and religious encounters as well as the formation of Satnami-Christian identity. The author argues that in the transformation of their society, Satnami structures of thought, beliefs, and behaviors played a significant role; so this process could be said to be the Chhattisgarhization of Christianity as well as Christianization of Chhattisgarh. Chad M. Bauman carefully examines the sociopolitical, economic, and religious contexts of the people in the conversion process as he constantly asks the questions why and how the people responded to introduction of Christianity in the complex situation of the colonial period and rightly points out that conversion of the Satnamis is not simply a religious matter.
The author has presented a clear methodology in this well-argued volume: an interdisciplinary approach that employs methods of history, religious studies, and anthropology; an emphasis on practice rather than belief in his examination of the process of conversion and Christianization; and an examination of the sources from the perspective of the Satnamis themselves. The monograph first discusses the sociopolitical and religious structures of Chhattisgarhi society. Bauman then examines some economic, social, and religious factors involved in the process of becoming Christians (or rejecting Christianity), the effect of medical mission and its implications, the impact of Christianization on women and social traditions, and the ethnography of five Christians. In addition to this, he discusses the development of Chhattisgarhi Christian-identity in the post-independence era, especially in the contexts of the Christian Missionary Activities Enquiry and the destruction of the Gass Memorial Centre. The author concludes with three key arguments. First, he rejects the idea that conversion was orchestrated by force, fraud, or inducement, but rather sees it as the result of the pursuit of self-interest, both of material and ideal, and as initiated by the people themselves. Second, he insists that all identities are forged and not discovered, and he counters the Hindu accusation of the denationalization of the Christian community by pointing out Hindu attempts to form a pan-national identity within Hindu ideology. Third, he argues for the acknowledgment of the complex nature of assimilation, indigeneity, and the meaning of being a Hindu and an Indian for Christian converts, both as individuals and as a community.
The volume is a very thorough and insightful examination of the formation of the self-identity of Christian converts in the rapidly changing context of the British Raj and post-independence India. In particular, the in-depth examination of the various mixed motivations for conversion and the conversion narratives of five Christian converts are well articulated. Although it focuses on a particular community [End Page 397] in a particular geographical context, the implications of this study are applicable to wider contexts. It provides much needed insights into the complex motivations of any conversion and into the struggle of Indian Christians to affirm their self-identity as a Christian community and at the same time their common identity with fellow Indians in the wider society. This volume is important reading for those who are interested in the topics of communal identity, Christian mission, Christianity in India, and processes of religious conversion.
The International Journal of Public Theology