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When Gods Collide: An Unbeliever's Pilgrimage Along India's Coromandel Coast
Still wrestling with her own experience of growing up in India as the child of Australian missionaries, Kate James is haunted by the story of murdered compatriot Graham Staines. Along with his two young sons, the manager of the mission at Baripada (who helped establish the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home) was burned alive by Hindu fundamentalists in Orissa while asleep in his car. In search of the man behind the 1999 headlines – and the context behind the conflict in a country known for its religious tolerance – Kate returns to the subcontinent where she grew up. She travels from the hill station of Ooty to Darjeeling via the steamy Coramandel Coast, visiting Catholic shrines, an atheist ashram, a temple to Hindu missionaries and the Kolkata slums, as well as Staine’s Home and her own childhood school. Part detective story, part personal journey, Kate’s engrossing reportage explores India’s complex tapestry of religion and mysticism, assessing its Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and athiest heritage as she comes to terms with the faith she has rejected.
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First published February 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 10, 2013
Kate told half a story and inflicted her lack of identity upon her readers, "her people" are still undecided....
July 29, 2012
Just wish it had been more about the country and less about the author....
May 10, 2023
Just finished this honest and raw account, and feel that I want to say thank you to Kate James. I don't normally read anything about India but Kate hooked me in, right from the start. What an engaging way of writing about a fascinating topic.
Kate gives credit to someone who suggested the title of the book. Fair enough. However, I don't believe the title does justice to the substance of the book at all. It is more like a very frank and personal journey with a young woman who is sharing her life and reflections with us, yes, in India but also as an Australian. The tricky thing is that she is the daughter of Christian missionaries, who she clearly admires and loves, but whose outlook she no longer supports. Rarely do we read or hear an atheist from such a strong Christian background who is not basing her/his position upon bitterness/irrationality. Well done, Kate, congratulations for your thoroughly thoughtful and balanced point of view.
Kate gives credit to someone who suggested the title of the book. Fair enough. However, I don't believe the title does justice to the substance of the book at all. It is more like a very frank and personal journey with a young woman who is sharing her life and reflections with us, yes, in India but also as an Australian. The tricky thing is that she is the daughter of Christian missionaries, who she clearly admires and loves, but whose outlook she no longer supports. Rarely do we read or hear an atheist from such a strong Christian background who is not basing her/his position upon bitterness/irrationality. Well done, Kate, congratulations for your thoroughly thoughtful and balanced point of view.
September 19, 2017
When Gods Collide by Kate James, is more her diary, rather than the rich culture of India.
When I picked the book, I expected to read about the experiences in witnessing the secular practices in India. The author however, chooses to put down India based on the murder of the christian missionary being killed in his car with his family, which was repeated so many times in the book. Though sad and unjustifiable, it was the act of one extremist group.
When I picked the book, I expected to read about the experiences in witnessing the secular practices in India. The author however, chooses to put down India based on the murder of the christian missionary being killed in his car with his family, which was repeated so many times in the book. Though sad and unjustifiable, it was the act of one extremist group.
January 16, 2014
This book is neither a travel guide per se, nor a theological treatise on the beliefs of eastern India. Instead, the focus is on Kate's personal beliefs and experiences in her journey through India. I expected to feel as if I was following in her footsteps, and the book did not disappoint. I have to say that I am biased because I went to the same school and the same class as Kate where the story begins, so a lot of the book was full of reminiscences and nostalgia, and I thank Kate for these. The book immerses the reader in contemporary India, but the reader gets to understand a lot about the nature of the Missionary in India, as well as the nature of relationships between them and the communities they live in.
Kate was careful to balance both sides of the discussion surrounding the murder of a missionary and his children in India (the journey to their graves was the last station in the book), as well as the explanations of beliefs (both hers and those of the people she encountered)
Although the 'revelation' Kate wanted to feel at the end of the journey is perhaps one which many readers feel is 'obvious', it was enjoyable to take the journey to that revelation through the book, because it is the journey that teaches the reader, and not the relevation itself.
Kate was careful to balance both sides of the discussion surrounding the murder of a missionary and his children in India (the journey to their graves was the last station in the book), as well as the explanations of beliefs (both hers and those of the people she encountered)
Although the 'revelation' Kate wanted to feel at the end of the journey is perhaps one which many readers feel is 'obvious', it was enjoyable to take the journey to that revelation through the book, because it is the journey that teaches the reader, and not the relevation itself.
January 19, 2016
Here are many journeys tangled into one. Kate James presents the parallel experiences of India of a seeker of journalistic truths beyond the distanced journalist, the family historical reconstructor of shifting perspectives, and the questioning human being who has unsettled their own space and place as much as anyone else’s.
There are facts. There are events. There are specific and less specific places and descriptions and multiple people within them. And each is given its relationship to the others in such a way that we not only journey along with her, but out beyond each other’s edges to the vastness of possibility that tradition alone will not provide for any of us.
The title gives the sense of a new world in the process of preparation for creation. We are all hoping it is neither big bang nor whimper. But just what it could be is still to be revealed.
Kate James gives us some conversational pieces to get us started, or to move us along a little from wherever we may have already been. It is not about reaching each other’s conclusions, but merely finding a way for inclusion of the many views. See what you think.
There are facts. There are events. There are specific and less specific places and descriptions and multiple people within them. And each is given its relationship to the others in such a way that we not only journey along with her, but out beyond each other’s edges to the vastness of possibility that tradition alone will not provide for any of us.
The title gives the sense of a new world in the process of preparation for creation. We are all hoping it is neither big bang nor whimper. But just what it could be is still to be revealed.
Kate James gives us some conversational pieces to get us started, or to move us along a little from wherever we may have already been. It is not about reaching each other’s conclusions, but merely finding a way for inclusion of the many views. See what you think.
March 7, 2013
This is a book about things I know next to nothing about (India, religion, travel) and yet it kept me hooked, even in the midst of reading a million other work-related books. Disclosure: the author sent me a review copy of the book.
It is a deeply personal book, but the author's descriptions make it easy to enter her world and her experiences while traveling through India. She touches very lightly on a very painful subject, the murder of a Christian missionary and his two sons in India, from the viewpoint of a former evangelical who has since given up the faith. Despite the horror of the story, she never seems bitter about India, merely aware of the complexities and imperfections of all societies and religions.
The narrative winds rather softly, bringing in pieces of the Staines' story interspersed with small, sometimes awkward, sometimes touching incidents along her travels, including a few laugh-out-loud moments that come as much-needed comic relief near the end of the book.
It is a deeply personal book, but the author's descriptions make it easy to enter her world and her experiences while traveling through India. She touches very lightly on a very painful subject, the murder of a Christian missionary and his two sons in India, from the viewpoint of a former evangelical who has since given up the faith. Despite the horror of the story, she never seems bitter about India, merely aware of the complexities and imperfections of all societies and religions.
The narrative winds rather softly, bringing in pieces of the Staines' story interspersed with small, sometimes awkward, sometimes touching incidents along her travels, including a few laugh-out-loud moments that come as much-needed comic relief near the end of the book.
January 30, 2013
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is written in a style that made me sink into and become part of the author's travel world. I think this is because the author shares her thought processes and emotions along the way.
It was also refreshing to read a non cliche version of Indian spirituality.
It was also refreshing to read a non cliche version of Indian spirituality.
June 24, 2013
Another book club book. I didn't warm to the narrator at all. Her hardly earth shattering conclusion seemed to be that people are as they are whether they have religion or not. She grew up the child of missionaries in India and she seemed quite judgemental about everyone and everything from the spiritual seeker to 'pretty useless white girls'. I imagined her as a matronly figure who assumes she knows best in every situation. It should be a good discussion at book group!
January 23, 2016
I enjoyed this book as the author has a style that is easy to read and very descriptive as she has worked as a guidebook author for Lonely Planet as well as a journalist. There is a lot to take in when she talks about the spiritual side of India. This is a personal journey for her and at then end she does come to 'the closest thing to an epiphany'.
November 8, 2014
I was concerned when I read the blurb it was another grim true story but there is very little despair in the book. I enjoyed the journey of the author from believer to non-believer but found the end of the book almost abrupt
July 18, 2014
This is good writing - clear, frank and with refreshing personal honesty. I'm enjoying Kate's book. Her interaction with the people in her journey-search is detailed with insight and clarity.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews