Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700–1900

Cambridge South Asian Studies

by Susan Bayly

South India is often portrayed as a land of Hindu orthodoxy, yet in fact three great "world religions" have interacted in the region over many centuries. This book uses a powerful combination of oral, literary, and architectural evidence to investigate the social and religious world of those large and influential groups of South Indians who came to identify themselves as Christians and Muslims, while retaining powerful links with the religion and culture of the wider society. The author shows how Christianity and Islam spread along the military and agricultural frontiers of southern India, and how certain beliefs and practices derived local force from an ambiguous relationship with the worship of existing Hindu goddesses. The book illuminates not only the meaning and history of religious conversion and the nature of community, but wider processes of social and political change within the sub-continent and colonial societies in general.

Genres: History, India, Christianity, Religion

532 pages, Hardcover

First published January 26, 1990

Reviews

[Arvind Abraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think any other historian has captured the story of the Syrian Christian community's integration and later disintegration with the upper-caste Hindu society in Kerala, better than Susan Bayly, while I may quibble with her analysis of the origin of the Nasrani community, her survey of the the history of the community in Kerala is truly commendable. I think it is particularly useful to understand the consequences of the British Resident, Col. John Munro's interference with society in the Travancore Kingdom, and the the divisions that began to spring up between Roman Catholic Surianis and Jacobite Surianis, and not to mention the emergence of the Mar Thoma Church in 1888. It is a useful book to understand the East India Company's interference with society in South India in the 18th and 19th centuries. She also describes how the Company tried to position itself as the patron of Islamic learning in South India to gain support among the Muslims, through the establishment of an Arabic Madrassa in 1812 and increased recruitment of educated Muslims. Highly recommended for students of history.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a warm companion, I felt, for my recent reading of Dirks' Hollow Crown. What an exciting book to read about the untethered and ever-uncapitulating society of the deep South India. Some may find issue with the book's lack of an overarching argument or a fresh model from the author, but who am I to complain - I was able to create a bunch of Google Maps lists. But there were a few noticeable gaps, the most bared being Islam in Malabar. A fascinating space altogether missing, and there was almost near-nothing about the Tranquebar Mission. Frykenberg was good for the latter.