Gospel Encounter with Subaltern India

Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 5-1-2016 Gospel Encounter With Subaltern India Stanish Stanley Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/phd Part of the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Stanley, Stanish, " Gospel Encounter With Subaltern India " (2016). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 23. https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/23 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GOSPEL ENCOUNTER WITH SUBALTERN INDIA INDIA EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH CHRISTIANS OF TRAVANCORE 1911– 1956 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of Historical Theology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Stanish Stanley May, 2016 Approved by Rev. Dr. William Schumacher Advisor Rev. Dr. Timothy Dost Reader Rev. Dr. Victor Raj Reader © 2016 by Stanish Stanley. All rights reserved. ii To my father I am following a [Confirmation] course covering approximately two years of instruction. I despair of ever being able to make some of them intelligent Lutheran Christians. Rev. W. A. Luedtke, Lutheran missionary Report about work in the Luthergiri area, Trivandrum, 31 March, 1933. Comes a little voice from the bed, merely a mat on the floor, “Weep not, Mother, but pray…Mother, Father, Brother, pray, because I am going to Jesus, of whom I learnt in school and church.” Rev. Eric Knoernschild, Seven year old boy’s dying words quoted in Report of work in the Luthergiri area, Trivandrum, 29 April, 1931. iv CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................................................ x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... xi ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................... xii CHRONOLOGY......................................................................................................................... xiii GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................................... xiv ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. xv CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 CHRISTIAN CONVERSION AND CONCERNED INDIANS .......................................... 1 HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE INDIA EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH ....................................................................................................... 5 CHRISTIANIZING MISSIONS AND REASONS FOR CONVERSION IN INDIA....... 10 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER OUTLINES ...................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................... 26 THE LIFE OF SUBALTERN MALAYALEE SAMBAVARS OF SOUTH TRAVANCORE IN THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY.......................................................................................................................... 26 THE SUBALTERNS .......................................................................................................... 27 THE LOCATION AND GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF SOUTH TRAVANCORE 29 SOCIETY AND LIFE IN SOUTH TRAVANCORE IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY.......................................................................................................................... 31 Political Context of the Early Twentieth Century ..................................................... 33 Religious, Social and Economic Context in the Early Twentieth Century................ 37 v Caste Practice and the Resultant Oppression in South Travancore ........................... 43 THE SAMBAVARS OF SOUTH TRAVANCORE .......................................................... 50 Sambavar Socio-Economic Situation ........................................................................ 52 Sambavar Religio-Cultural Situation ......................................................................... 63 SUBALTERN AWAKENING IN TRAVANCORE IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY ................................................................................................. 72 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 76 CHAPTER THREE ..................................................................................................................... 78 GOSPEL WORK AMONG THE SUBALTERNS OF TRIVANDRUM: THE MISSOURI EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN INDIA MISSION (MELIM) COMMUNITY, 1911–1956. ............................................................................................................................................ 78 MELIM IN INDIA.............................................................................................................. 78 SUBALTERN SAMBAVARS OF SOUTH TRAVANCORE AND MELIM WORK IN THE REGION..................................................................................................................... 80 Gnanamuthu Jesudason and the Tamil Sambavar Initiative for Christianization...... 81 MELIM’s Acceptance of the “Call” and Beginnings of Work in South Travancore 83 MELIM Entry into Malayalam Areas ....................................................................... 84 LMS Congregation at Paruthipally and the Malayalee Sambavar Invitation to MELIM ............................................................................................................. 85 MELIM Missionary’s Enthusiasm to Expand into Malayalam territory .......... 88 Establishing MELIM among the Malayalee Subalterns of South Travancore .......... 92 MELIM Work in Trivandrum from 1911–1916 ............................................... 92 MELIM Contact with Other Communities in the 1917–1925 Period .............. 96 MELIM Consolidation and Expansion among High Caste Communities............... 101 MELIM Outreach into Nadar and Ezhava Communities ............................... 102 MELIM Expansion around Earlier Areas of Work ........................................ 106 vi Subaltern Rumblings in the Midst of Continued MELIM Advances ............. 109 Preparing the Natives for Administration of the Lutheran Church in the Malayalam Areas: 1950–1956 .................................................................................................... 114 FEATURES OF MELIM WORK IN SOUTH TRAVANCORE ..................................... 119 American Lutheran Missionaries ............................................................................. 120 Native Workers ........................................................................................................ 123 Education ................................................................................................................. 127 Literature and Gospel Work .................................................................................... 130 Lutheran Worshipping Community ......................................................................... 132 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 134 CHAPTER FOUR ...................................................................................................................... 136 AMERICAN LUTHERAN MISSIONARY AND NATIVE SUBALTERN CONVERTS: A GOSPEL-CULTURE ENCOUNTER .......................................................................... 136 AN ANALYSIS OF MELIM WORK IN THE MALAYALAM LANDS ...................... 136 MELIM Missionaries............................................................................................... 137 MELIM Missionary Goals ............................................................................. 137 MELIM Missionary Emphasis ....................................................................... 143 MELIM Missionary Challenges and Concerns .............................................. 152 SUBALTERN NATIVE CONVERTS .................................................................... 170 Goals of Subaltern Native Converts ............................................................... 170 Concerns of the Subaltern Native Converts ................................................... 180 ENCOUNTER BETWEEN THE MISSIONARY AND SUBALTERN CONVERTS ... 186 Cross-Cultural Encounter at the Margins of Village Life and in Mission Constructed Spaces ...................................................................................................................... 186 Personal Village Experiences: Subaltern

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