INDIAN CHRISTIAN IDENTITY: RELIGIO-CULTURAL INTERACTION TO MINORITY FRAMING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47743/asas-2021-2-662Keywords:
Indian Christianity, identity, minority.Abstract
Indian Christianity has been an interactive community, living out its faith and traditions in an ambience of spontaneity. It implied moments and dynamics of acceptance, rejections, hesitations, and criticism from the outside others, even while Indian Christianity itself involved in dynamics of exclusions and inclusions towards others. All these religio-cultural dynamics took place in a vein of spontaneity, interactivity, and creativity. However, in the recent past, it has been made to become self-conscious of its identity as the majority’s ‘other’ through a process of ‘minority framing’. From being an ancient religious community, which went about its life and activities in an ambience of freedom, the Indian Christian community is now made to become a ‘communally conscious minority’, concerned about its vulnerable communal identity. This essay narrates the contours of the changes.
References
• Kymlicka, W. (2005). Multiculturalism in Asia. Oxford Scholarship Online.
• Robinson, R. (2012). Minority Studies. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Thappar, R. (2003). Cultural Pasts. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Lal, V. (2009). Political Hinduism – The Religious Imagination in the Public Sphere. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Oddie, G.A. (2006). Imagined Hinduism – British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793 – 1900. New Delhi: SAGE.
• Jaffrelot, C. (2013). Hindu Nationalism – A Reader. Raniket: Permanent Black.
• Katju, M. (2017). Hinduising Democracy – The Vishva Hindu Parishad in Contemporary India. New Delhi: The New Text Publications Pvt Ltd.
• Fernando, L. & Gispert-Sauch, G. (2004). Christianity in India. New Delhi: Penguin Random House India.
• Nedungatt, G. (2008). Quest for the Historical Thomas Apostle of India – A Re- reading of the Evidence. Bangalore: Theological Publications in India.
• Hambye, E. R. (1997). History of Christianity in India, Vol. III Eighteenth Century. Bangalore: The Church History Association of India.
• Jeyaraj, D. (2006). Bartholomaus Zieganbalg: The Father of Modern Protestant Mission. New Delhi: ISPCK & Chennai: Gurukul.
• Massey, J. & John, T.K. (eds.). (2013). Christians of Scheduled Caste Origin in India – A Study of their Socio-Economic, Cultural and Political Status. New Delhi: Centre for Dalit / Subaltern Studies.
• Mundadan, A. M. (2001). History of Christianity in India, Vol. 1 – From the Beginning up to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century. Bangalore: Church History Association of India.
• Thekkedath, J. (2001). History of Christianity, Vol. II. Bangalore: The Church History Association of India.
• Meenaskshisundaram, K. (1974). Contribution of European Scholars to Tamil. Madras: University of Madras.
• Ingleby, J. C. (2000). Missionaries, Education and India – Issues in Protestant Missionary Education in the Long Nineteenth Century. New Delhi: ISPCK.
• Wilfred, F. (2014). Christians for a Better India. New Delhi: ISPCK.
