By studying the history and sources of the Thomas Christians of India, a community of pre-colonial Christian heritage, this book revisits the assumption that Christianity is Western and colonial and that Christians in the non-West are products of colonial and post-colonial missionaries. Christians in the East have had a difficult time getting heard—let alone understood as anti-colonial. This is a problem, especially in studies on India, where the focus has typically been on North India and British colonialism and its impact in the era of globalization.
This book analyzes texts and contexts to show how communities of Indian Christians predetermined Western expansionist goals and later defined the Western colonial and Indian national imaginary. Combining historical research and literary analysis, the author prompts a re-evaluation of how Indian Christians reacted to colonialism in India and its potential to influence ongoing events of religious intolerance. Through a rethinking of a postcolonial theoretical framework, this book argues that Thomas Christians attempted an anti-colonial turn in the face of ecclesiastical and civic occupation that was colonial at its core.
A novel intervention, this book takes up South India and the impact of Portuguese colonialism in both the early modern and contemporary period. It will be of interest to academics in the fields of Renaissance/Early Modern Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Religious Studies, Christianity, and South Asia.
Acknowledgements; Chapter One - Introduction: The Anti-Colonial Turn; Chapter Two - Prester John of India: Imagination First, (Con)Quest Next; Chapter Three - The Narratives of Gama and Joseph: Unsettling the Global Early Modern Period; Chapter Four - The Jornada: Why a European Travelogue Labelled Anti-colonial Christians as Heretics; Chapter Five - Conclusion and Beyond
Biography
Clara A.B. Joseph is Associate Professor of English and Adjunct Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, studies in Christianity, literary theory, and literature and ethics.
Christianity in India received Honorable Mention in the History category at the 2020 Book Awards of the Catholic Press Association (CPA) of the United States and Canada.
"Clara A. B. Joseph has the splendid gift of asking challenging questions. In her sweeping study of Christian history in India, she overturns so many familiar assumptions about the rise and growth of Christianity. In particular, she forces us to see the story of Indian Christianity on its own vigorous terms, not as some latter-day import from the imperial West. The book offers a bracing reassessment of our standard ideas about empires, colonialism, and faith."
Philip Jenkins, Baylor University, USA
"Clara A. B. Joseph has provided a critical and thoughtful analysis of South Indian Christianity that is routinely absent in many studies of postcolonial and global Christianities. Too long have interpreters of religion, whether political demagogues in India or liberal scholars of culture and religion in the West, simplistically assumed that Christianity in India is yoked to modern European colonialism. Joseph’s book provides the stunning insight that Christians in India fought against European colonialism as Christians."
Susan Abraham, University of California, Berkeley
"Christianity in India: The Anti-Colonial Turn, authored by Clara A.B.Joseph is a post-colonial reading of the history of Christianity in India, where the author emphasizes the Christian presence in the Sub-Continent during the last two thousand years. The strong argument running through the pages is that St. Thomas Christians of India attempted an anti-colonial turn in the face of the ecclesiastical and political domination of the Portuguese that was colonial at its core. The contribution of the author is unique as she analyses the Portuguese presence in India as avaricious colonial and not ecclesial, and thus an anti-colonial turn is given to the resistance of the St.Thomas Christians."
Francis Thonippara, Dharmaram College
"A robust riposte to mainstream and nationalist representation of Christians of India as products of Western colonialism. This smart and penetrating volume looks at the story of the Thomas Christians whose heritage goes back to pre-colonial times and at their valiant resistance to efforts to stifle, revise or curb their traditions, customs, language, and literature. Clara Joseph’s research is compelling, her analysis is acute and the style is serene. It is a fine example of restorative hermeneutics and its daring and controversial insights will be much studied and long scrutinized."
R.S.Sugirtharajah, University of Birmingham
"A riveting read. Clara Joseph compels us to reconsider at a fundamental level the relationship between Christianity, colonialism, and India. More broadly, she convincingly dismantles certain commonplace assumptions of both postcolonial studies and histories of world Christianity."
Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University
