From Courtesan to King: The Conversion of Farzana, 2024
One of the most interesting and famous women rulers of North India at the turn of the 19th centur... more One of the most interesting and famous women rulers of North India at the turn of the 19th century was known as the Begum Samru. Starting out as a dancing girl in Delhi, she became the sole ruler of the state of Sardhana for 30 years. This essay argues that her adoption of Roman Catholicism after the death of her husband played a key role in the begum's personal and professional transformation into a king, in the mould of Indian sovereigns of the day. Having established herself as a military leader with the security afforded by revenue from a sizable tract of land, Farzana drew not only on the codes of Persian and Sanskritic sovereignty, but also on the affordances of 18th century-Catholicism to consolidate, exercise and expand her power.
While the western Christian missionary desire to ‘civilise’ Christians from other cultures has be... more While the western Christian missionary desire to ‘civilise’ Christians from other cultures has been well documented and researched, the desire of local Christians to appropriate western civilisation in the face of missionary resistance to such appropriation has not been critically studied. This article examines debates in nineteenth-century North India missionary conferences between Indian Christians who wanted to adopt many accoutrements of western civilisation, and missionaries who wanted Indian Christians to retain as much of their Indian culture as possible. The article also looks at parallel cases in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that local Christians were extracting and employing materials from European civilisation and culture to create new religious and social identities for themselves in their own particular contexts. This argument provides a counterpoint to Homi Bhabha's view of hybridity and mimicry as processes imposed by foreign western imperial regimes on subject p...
Asian churches created numerous and vigorous Christian communities that by the seventh century we... more Asian churches created numerous and vigorous Christian communities that by the seventh century were spread from Iran to China, India and Sri Lanka. Over the centuries, Roman Catholic Church, various Orthodox churches from both the Western and Eastern/Southern branches of Christianity, Protestant churches, and most recently Pentecostal and Independent churches have established churches in South and Central Asia. In Central Asia, the smattering of Protestants today mostly belong to various minority ethnic groups such as the German Lutherans and Korean Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. However, converts from other groups are joining Protestant churches. In none of the countries is Christianity the religion of the majority of the population; and among Christians in each country, confessional Protestants and Anglicans consist of a minority of believers. This leaves them socially and politically vulnerable to the majority population and to governments. Confessional Protestant and An...
The history of world Christianity has typically relied on certain binary categories such as Weste... more The history of world Christianity has typically relied on certain binary categories such as Western/non-Western, missionary/native, modern/traditional, and liberal/conservative. Our globalizing context, in which well-established political and ideological borders are constantly being crossed, raises questions about the adequacy of such binaries. Using Christianity in North India as a case study, this article explores the limits of these inherited frameworks for the study of world Christianity.
Asking a historian to speak authoritatively about any kind of future is a potential recipe for di... more Asking a historian to speak authoritatively about any kind of future is a potential recipe for disaster, at least as far as the audience is concerned. For the historian however, the occasion may actually be welcome: I can speak my mind without having to bear the burden of being academically responsible for the substance of my remarks. Perhaps the one obvious point about the future that the historian can make with some degree of confidence is that the future rarely turns out the way we imagine it. Just one century ago, the Christian civilization of Europe, which had been touted by western missionaries for almost a century as God’s greatest blessing to humankind, burst into an unimaginable and horrific fratricidal conflict, a war that was so devastating that when it was over the common consensus was that it was the war to end all wars. Neither World War I, nor its aftermath, were predicted by the seers of the age. So what I offer this evening is less a prediction of the future than my...
In the year 2010, Protestants made up about 5 to 7 percent of the Filipino population, depending ... more In the year 2010, Protestants made up about 5 to 7 percent of the Filipino population, depending on how one defines a Protestant.1 While small in number, Protestants have not been an insignificant presence in Filipino national life. For example, Gen. Fidel Ramos, president of the Republic of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, is a member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, a Filipino Protestant denomination, as is Senator Jovito Salonga, a famed politician and erstwhile opponent of President Ferdinand Marcos.
From Courtesan to King: The Conversion of Farzana, 2024
One of the most interesting and famous women rulers of North India at the turn of the 19th centur... more One of the most interesting and famous women rulers of North India at the turn of the 19th century was known as the Begum Samru. Starting out as a dancing girl in Delhi, she became the sole ruler of the state of Sardhana for 30 years. This essay argues that her adoption of Roman Catholicism after the death of her husband played a key role in the begum's personal and professional transformation into a king, in the mould of Indian sovereigns of the day. Having established herself as a military leader with the security afforded by revenue from a sizable tract of land, Farzana drew not only on the codes of Persian and Sanskritic sovereignty, but also on the affordances of 18th century-Catholicism to consolidate, exercise and expand her power.
While the western Christian missionary desire to ‘civilise’ Christians from other cultures has be... more While the western Christian missionary desire to ‘civilise’ Christians from other cultures has been well documented and researched, the desire of local Christians to appropriate western civilisation in the face of missionary resistance to such appropriation has not been critically studied. This article examines debates in nineteenth-century North India missionary conferences between Indian Christians who wanted to adopt many accoutrements of western civilisation, and missionaries who wanted Indian Christians to retain as much of their Indian culture as possible. The article also looks at parallel cases in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that local Christians were extracting and employing materials from European civilisation and culture to create new religious and social identities for themselves in their own particular contexts. This argument provides a counterpoint to Homi Bhabha's view of hybridity and mimicry as processes imposed by foreign western imperial regimes on subject p...
Asian churches created numerous and vigorous Christian communities that by the seventh century we... more Asian churches created numerous and vigorous Christian communities that by the seventh century were spread from Iran to China, India and Sri Lanka. Over the centuries, Roman Catholic Church, various Orthodox churches from both the Western and Eastern/Southern branches of Christianity, Protestant churches, and most recently Pentecostal and Independent churches have established churches in South and Central Asia. In Central Asia, the smattering of Protestants today mostly belong to various minority ethnic groups such as the German Lutherans and Korean Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. However, converts from other groups are joining Protestant churches. In none of the countries is Christianity the religion of the majority of the population; and among Christians in each country, confessional Protestants and Anglicans consist of a minority of believers. This leaves them socially and politically vulnerable to the majority population and to governments. Confessional Protestant and An...
The history of world Christianity has typically relied on certain binary categories such as Weste... more The history of world Christianity has typically relied on certain binary categories such as Western/non-Western, missionary/native, modern/traditional, and liberal/conservative. Our globalizing context, in which well-established political and ideological borders are constantly being crossed, raises questions about the adequacy of such binaries. Using Christianity in North India as a case study, this article explores the limits of these inherited frameworks for the study of world Christianity.
Asking a historian to speak authoritatively about any kind of future is a potential recipe for di... more Asking a historian to speak authoritatively about any kind of future is a potential recipe for disaster, at least as far as the audience is concerned. For the historian however, the occasion may actually be welcome: I can speak my mind without having to bear the burden of being academically responsible for the substance of my remarks. Perhaps the one obvious point about the future that the historian can make with some degree of confidence is that the future rarely turns out the way we imagine it. Just one century ago, the Christian civilization of Europe, which had been touted by western missionaries for almost a century as God’s greatest blessing to humankind, burst into an unimaginable and horrific fratricidal conflict, a war that was so devastating that when it was over the common consensus was that it was the war to end all wars. Neither World War I, nor its aftermath, were predicted by the seers of the age. So what I offer this evening is less a prediction of the future than my...
In the year 2010, Protestants made up about 5 to 7 percent of the Filipino population, depending ... more In the year 2010, Protestants made up about 5 to 7 percent of the Filipino population, depending on how one defines a Protestant.1 While small in number, Protestants have not been an insignificant presence in Filipino national life. For example, Gen. Fidel Ramos, president of the Republic of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998, is a member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, a Filipino Protestant denomination, as is Senator Jovito Salonga, a famed politician and erstwhile opponent of President Ferdinand Marcos.
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