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Indian and Christian: Historical Accounts of Christianity and Theological Reflections in India
This collection of very thoughtful essays presents to the public the mature reflections of a premier missiologist of Indian Christianity. The work is thoroughly researched and deeply insightful. With clarity of thought and language, Dr. Pachuau argues persuasively for fresh interpretations of critical issues in the study of Christian missions in India.
198 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
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April 1, 2022
I read this book for my Global and Indigenous Theologies course under Dr. Susangeline Patrick at Nazarene Theological Seminary. This book was interesting but had much more to say about the history of politics and missionaries in India than Indian Theology, which I was hoping for. Not a huge criticism, I just personally didn't find the book super engaging. His critique of Gandhi in chapter 1 was quite interesting and a perspective I had never heard before. Here is a reflection I wrote for my class on the second half of the book (chap. 4-7):
Pachuau’s Indian and Christian is a collection of separate but related essays compiled into one book. In chapter four, he delineates between the two primary readings of scripture in India, the “religious reading” and the “social reading.” He then focuses on the “religious reading” which refers to how the scriptures have interacted with traditional Hindu scriptures, philosophy, and culture. Significant attention was given to how major figures and movements received the Christian scriptures and oftentimes incorporated them into their preexisting Hindu systems. Chapter five was a case study on the Mizo people. Pachuau gave attention to the term “religion” as translated to "sakhua" for the Mizo people, which he argued did not fully capture what is meant by “religion.” He then detailed how the missionary efforts amongst the Mizo were both very “successful” and fraught with issues due to translation. Chapters six and seven focus on Christianity in Northeast India as it relates to the development of nationhood and ethnic identity. In chapter six, he gave significant historical background, particularly emphasizing how Christianity was received more readily by the “tribal” peoples through native converts as opposed to the “non-tribal peoples.” In chapter seven, Pachuau explained how the ethnic diversity of India and a general striving for identity led to numerous nationalist movements from relatively homogenous subgroups. He critiqued the language of “tribal” as a descriptor for peoples and explored how the process of Sanskritization affected Northeast India, connecting how cultural imperialism motivated ethnonationalism.
Given how little exposure I have had in my life to Indian culture, I was surprised by the strong division that is found among the people of India. I did not realize the ethnic variety that existed in the country. In this conversation, I found myself most intrigued by the significant differences in receptivity to Christianity between the more Indic peoples and less Indic peoples of Northeast India. Additionally, I was struck by the complexity of communicating Christianity, a “religion” with strong truth claims (like Jesus as sole savior), into a Hindu culture where “religion” is not segmented out from the rest of culture. The openness of Hindu “religion” to a multiplicity of scriptures, teachers, and gods—while an opening for the gospel some ways—makes establishing monotheistic worship and adherence to historically orthodox Christian doctrine particularly problematic. This is where my questions arise out of. With Hindu culture, how can Christianity be accepted as authoritative and central while still maintaining culturally meaningful practices, symbolism, and ways of thinking that do not clearly contradict the Christian message? This seems to be the challenge that Pachuau is exploring in much of this book. As it pertains to his discussion of ethnonationalism, where does an Indian from one of the Northeastern people groups draw the line between resisting harmful Indic dominance and focusing their attention instead on conformity to one’s citizenship in the kingdom of God which supersedes ethnic or national identities?
Pachuau’s Indian and Christian is a collection of separate but related essays compiled into one book. In chapter four, he delineates between the two primary readings of scripture in India, the “religious reading” and the “social reading.” He then focuses on the “religious reading” which refers to how the scriptures have interacted with traditional Hindu scriptures, philosophy, and culture. Significant attention was given to how major figures and movements received the Christian scriptures and oftentimes incorporated them into their preexisting Hindu systems. Chapter five was a case study on the Mizo people. Pachuau gave attention to the term “religion” as translated to "sakhua" for the Mizo people, which he argued did not fully capture what is meant by “religion.” He then detailed how the missionary efforts amongst the Mizo were both very “successful” and fraught with issues due to translation. Chapters six and seven focus on Christianity in Northeast India as it relates to the development of nationhood and ethnic identity. In chapter six, he gave significant historical background, particularly emphasizing how Christianity was received more readily by the “tribal” peoples through native converts as opposed to the “non-tribal peoples.” In chapter seven, Pachuau explained how the ethnic diversity of India and a general striving for identity led to numerous nationalist movements from relatively homogenous subgroups. He critiqued the language of “tribal” as a descriptor for peoples and explored how the process of Sanskritization affected Northeast India, connecting how cultural imperialism motivated ethnonationalism.
Given how little exposure I have had in my life to Indian culture, I was surprised by the strong division that is found among the people of India. I did not realize the ethnic variety that existed in the country. In this conversation, I found myself most intrigued by the significant differences in receptivity to Christianity between the more Indic peoples and less Indic peoples of Northeast India. Additionally, I was struck by the complexity of communicating Christianity, a “religion” with strong truth claims (like Jesus as sole savior), into a Hindu culture where “religion” is not segmented out from the rest of culture. The openness of Hindu “religion” to a multiplicity of scriptures, teachers, and gods—while an opening for the gospel some ways—makes establishing monotheistic worship and adherence to historically orthodox Christian doctrine particularly problematic. This is where my questions arise out of. With Hindu culture, how can Christianity be accepted as authoritative and central while still maintaining culturally meaningful practices, symbolism, and ways of thinking that do not clearly contradict the Christian message? This seems to be the challenge that Pachuau is exploring in much of this book. As it pertains to his discussion of ethnonationalism, where does an Indian from one of the Northeastern people groups draw the line between resisting harmful Indic dominance and focusing their attention instead on conformity to one’s citizenship in the kingdom of God which supersedes ethnic or national identities?
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