 Book Reviews / CHRC . () –

Robert Eric Frykenberg, in . From Beginnings to the Present [Oxford History of the Christian ]. Oxford University Press, Oxford , xxi +  pp. ISBN . .

In Christianity in India, the eminent historian Robert Eric Frykenberg has set out an ambitious task: to write a history of Indian Christianity that engages substantive issues in the historiography of while still remaining accessible to those who know little about the cultures of the Indian sub- continent. In this effort, Frykenberg has succeeded quite remarkably. Chris- tianity in India is a work that will remain indispensible for any serious scholarly discussion of Indian Christianity. Frykenberg progressively telescopes his discussion in the first three chap- ters by introducing the reader to Indian civilization as the social and cul- tural context in which Christianity takes its indigenous form. The discus- sion begins by sketching a theoretic framework for understanding Christianity that emphasizes its inherently evangelical dynamic. Interestingly, Frykenberg speaks of Christianity’s special affinity with “primal religions” that reflect a basic human effort to understand the relationship “between the Transcendent and the World” (p. ). This category represents a revaluation of the term “prim- itive” without pejorative connotations and Frykenberg’s point is that Chris- tianity has found its most fertile soil among cultures with a strongly “primal” religious component. Chapters Two and Three contain overviews of and Islam that will be helpful to readers unfamiliar with either tradition. The next three chapters successive examine the origins of Christianity in India, the advent of Catholicism with Portuguese colonialism, and the impor- tance of evangelical as “conduits of cross-cultural communication” (p. ). Chapter Four, which examines Christian origins in India, is especially engaging in its discussion of the various narratives surrounding St. ’s arrival in India. While Frykenberg is certainly not credulous when it comes to evaluating the historicity of such narratives, he nonetheless makes a plausible case for considering the narrative as something more than legend or myth. In any case, Frykenberg quite compellingly demonstrates that India has its own that is at least as old as Europe’s. ThepivotinFrykenberg’sdiscussioncomesinChapterSeveninwhichhe discusses the emergence of India’s raj as a “hybrid entity” (p. ), both British and Indian. While some might challenge such an interpretation, it does set the stage for Chapter Nine which is perhaps the most attractive section of the entire monograph. After reviewing the history of conversion movements among Untouchables in Chapter Eight Frykenberg examines how Christian

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden,  DOI: 10.1163/187124110X545380 Book Reviews / CHRC . () –  missionaries were often brought under colonial control. Along with the dis- placement of missionaries who were acculturated to environment in which they lived and worked, such efforts to develop “ecclesiastic dominion” (p. ) brought to the fore the contentious issue of caste and the impossibility of erad- icating it. Helpful here is Frykenberg’s brief discussion of how “secularism” evolved in an Indian context to mean “non-interference” and “neutrality” with regard to religion, not a complete governmental separation from it as in the West (p. ). But what Frykenberg diagrams most effectively in Chapter Nine is the diversity of many efforts, many of which were explicitly anti- colonial and anti-imperialistic. In this way, he returns attention to issues of “indigenous agency” (p. ) in the discussion of missionary activity in India. The remaining chapters bring the history of Indian Christianity into the modern era. Chapter Ten examines the multi-faceted relationship between Christians and the “Hindu raj” and gives special attention to issues of pub- lic space as points of caste and religious conflict. After examining the effects of missionary educational institutions in Chapter Eleven, Frykenberg turns his attention to disentangling various Indian Catholic ecclesiastic develop- ments including jurisdictional conflicts between Rome and Lisbon, the effects of the suppression and rehabilitation of the Jesuits, and the creation of the autonomous Syro- as Indian Catholicism’s third hierarchy, along with those of the Roman and Syro-Malabar rites. Chapter Twelve exam- ines prominent Indian Christian converts such as Krishna Mohan Banerjea, , Maulvi Imad ud-din and, most extensively, Pandita Ram- abai. Here Frykenberg wishes to convey how the journeys of these “trophies of grace” reflected an “indigenous discovery of Christianity,” to use a term that owes much to the work of Lamin Saneh that Frykenberg cites often (p. ). Chapter Thirteen focuses on the development of Christianity among tribal (adivasi) communities in . Given the explosive rates of Chris- tian growth in Mizoland, , and , Frykenberg’s discussion is particularly welcome. Most interesting is the extensive analysis of the trajec- tory of Naga culture and social action in the wake of conversion to Christianity. Frykenberg gives special attention to the role of tribal Baptist church associ- ations. Some Naga , like Karen Baptists in neighboring Burma, have resorted to arm struggle to gain independence, while others have supported the modern Indian state and become members of the Legislative Assembly and the government of Nagaland. In concluding this far ranging study, Frykenberg argues that “Christian movements seem to have been most successful when least connected to domin- ion or empire” (p. ). Frykenberg maintains that a central aspect of being