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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism
South Asia is home to more than a billion Hindus and half a billion
Muslims. But the region is also home to substantial Christian
communities, some dating almost to the earliest days of the faith.
The stories of South Asia's Christians are vital for understanding
the shifting contours of World Christianity, precisely because of
their history of interaction with members of these other religious
traditions. In this broad, accessible overview of South Asian
Christianity, Chandra Mallampalli shows how the faith has been
shaped by Christians' location between Hindus and Muslims.
Mallampalli begins with a discussion of South India's ancient
Thomas Christian tradition, which interacted with West Asia's
Persian Christians and thrived for centuries alongside their Hindu
and Muslim neighbours. He then underscores efforts of Roman
Catholic and Protestant missionaries to understand South Asian
societies for purposes of conversion. The publication of books and
tracts about other religions, interreligious debates, and
aggressive preaching were central to these endeavours, but rarely
succeeded at yielding converts. Instead, they played an important
role in producing a climate of religious competition, which
ultimately marginalized Christians in Hindu-, Muslim-, and
Buddhist-majority countries of post-colonial South Asia.
Ironically, the greatest response to Christianity came from poor
and oppressed Dalit (formerly "untouchable") and tribal communities
who were largely indifferent to missionary rhetoric. Their mass
conversions, poetry, theology, and embrace of Pentecostalism are
essential for understanding South Asian Christianity and its place
within World Christianity today.
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