Christianity in India : the anti-colonial turn / Clara A.B. Joseph.

Includes bibliographical references.

1 Introduction: the anti-colonial turn -- Colonialism is Christian: where the East and the West meet -- The Thomas Christians: a response -- Were they colonized? -- Overview and arguments -- Methodology and significance of the project -- 2 Prester John of India: imagination first, (con)quest next -- Imagining a non-Christian India -- Prester John of India and the discourse of sameness -- Prester John: a Nestorian heretic? -- “Which India?” and the discourse of difference -- The archdeacon of All India -- 3 The narratives of Gama and Joseph: unsettling the global early modern period -- Painting empire at the turn of the fifteenth century -- Fear of “the Moor” -- Gama and the Indian Christian connection -- Three readings of Gama -- “The narratives of Joseph the Indian”: a proto-national account -- Joseph, the Indian -- Joseph, the agent -- On exposing colonial aspirations -- “Not my cup of tea” -- 4 The Jornada: why a European travelogue labelled anti-colonial Christians as heretics -- The other Christian -- Nestorianizing the Thomas Christians -- De-Nestorianizing -- “Let them dress Portuguese” -- Interpreting the sacrament of confirmation as colonial capitulation -- Strategizing at the feet of the other -- A slap in the face -- Sacrament or strategy -- Brother-in-arms: expediency versus Christianity -- Amok: a colonial and postcolonial discourse -- The Jornada on the amok: Christianizing or colonizing -- 5 Conclusion and beyond -- The beyond -- Conclusion -- Index

By studying the history and sources of the Thomas Christians of India, a community of pre-colonial Christian heritage, the 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. The book analyses 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, the 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, the 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.