Imperial Fault Lines

Jeffrey Cox

Published by Stanford University Press 2002

Imperial Fault Lines

Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818-1940

Jeffrey Cox

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503619722

Overview
Contents

About this book

Imperial Fault Lines tells the history of Christian missionary encounters with non-Christians in a part of the world where there were no Christians at all until the advent of British imperial rule in the early nineteenth century. As British and American missionaries spread out from Delhi into the heartland of Punjab, their preconceived ideas about Hinduism and Islam broke down rapidly as they established institutions requiring the close cooperation of Indians. Two-thirds of the foreign missionaries who entered the Punjab were women, and issues of gender as well as race were central dilemmas in a cultural encounter that featured numerous irresolvable conflicts. The missionaries' commitment to Christian universalism clashed with the visible realities of their imperial privileges. Although determined to build multiracial institutions based on spiritual equality, missionaries were the beneficiaries of an imperial racial hierarchy. Their social encounters with Indians were exceedingly complex, involving intimacy and affection as well as affronts and betrayals. Missionaries were compelled to react to circumstances not of their own making, and were forced to negotiate and compromise with Indian Christians, government officials, Indian critics of the missionary movement, and the many non-Christian students, patients, and staff at large and influential missionary schools, colleges, and hospitals. In villages, university-educated clergymen who had hoped to convert the Hindu and Muslim elite found themselves in the surprising position of advocating the rights of stigmatized and oppressed rural laborers. The history of elite institution-building took surprising turns during the rise of the national movement, as missionaries struggled with the conflict between their own transparent entanglement with imperialism and their attempts to foster new forms of indigenous Christianity that would outlive British imperial rule.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
01. Master Narratives of Religion and Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART 1: The Ecclesiastical Invasion of Punjab, 1818–1890
02. The Empire of Christ and the Empire of Britain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
03. Visible Institutions, Invisible Influence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
PART II : Nonwhite, Nonmale, and Untouchable: Contradictions of the Mission Presence during the High Imperial Period, 1870–1930
04. An Indian Church for the Indian People Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
05. Village Christians/Songs of Deliverance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
06. Gender, Medicine, and the Rhetoric of Professional Expertise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
07. The Many Faces of Christian Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
PART III: Confronting Imperialism/Decolonizing the Churches, 1900–1940
08. Embracing India: Missionaries and Indian Christians Confront Imperial Fault Lines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
09. Christianity and the National Movement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 384

eBook

Published: January 21, 2022
ISBN: 9781503619722