Conversion and Social Equality in India: The London Missionary Society in South Travancore in the 19th Century

Conversion in India should not be narrowed down to an individual moment of divine grace or a Gandhian change of heart. It is closely linked with the social aspirations of groups that suffer from discrimination and oppression. Since religion is supposed to cover all aspects of life, the author argues that for untouchable caste communities a change of religion may serve as an idiom of social mobility, in some respects closely resembling the more general process of Sanskritization.From the beginning of the nineteenth century the Christian missionaries' preachings attracted a large number of poor untouchables who tended to understand the Gospel in terms of their immediate needs and interests. These missionaries were in search of 'pure' converts and often felt dis­appointed when they found that material considerations played a large part in conversion movements. However, learning by experience they came to show a growing awareness that concern for the material welfare of the people constituted a legitimate part of their calling.The book analyses the confrontation between Evangelical missionaries from Victorian England and low caste communities in the Hindu social order, in the social setting of Travancore, an Indian native state tucked away in the south-west corner of the Indian peninsula. However, the problems like social stratification and cultural change dealt with by the author in the book concern a much wider field than Travancore or India alone.The author has used an impressive amount of missionary source material hitherto largely unexplored, both in England and India.