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Class and Christianity in South India:Indigenous Responses to Western Denominationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Lionel Caplan
Lionel Caplan
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies
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Extract

Sociologists of western religion have devoted much time and effort to delineating the principal characteristics of the denomination. The discussion has emerged very largely from the distinction drawn in 1912 by Troeltsch between church and sect. The latter is represented as radical and egalitarian, at odds with the society of which it is a part, and demanding total commitment from its followers. By comparison, the former is hierarchic and conservative, at one with its social surroundings, and generally less concerned about the varying extent of members' adherence to the corporate body. There has ensued considerable discussion regarding the adequacy of this dichtomy, and a number of refinements and alternative schema have been proposed.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 1980 , pp. 645 - 671
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

Fieldwork in Madras City during 1974–75 was sponsored by the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the Social Science Research Council, to whom I am much indebted. I am also grateful to Drs. Brian Underwood and Patricia Caplan for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.Google Scholar

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4 For example, Johnstone, R., Religion and Society in Interaction: The Sociology of Religion (Englewood Cliffs, 1975), pp. 114–15.Google Scholar

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12 In India, as elsewhere, no comity obtained between Protestants and Catholics, nor, indeed, did sectarian groups accept such constraints.Google Scholar

13 Jones, J., ‘How Western is the C.S.I.?’ Guardian (Madras), 29 11, 1962.Google Scholar Although comity arrangements no doubt made such denominational distribution more likely in India and other missionized countries than in the west, this kind of religious map was not unheard of in Europe. McLeod, for example, notes how in many parts of Northern England in the nineteenth century ‘the local religion was Methodist or none at all’. See ‘Class, Community and Region: the Religious Geography of Nineteenth-Century England’, in M., Hill (ed.), A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain (London, 1943), p. 33.Google ScholarJohnstone also points out that comity was not unknown in the U.S.A., particularly in expanding communities (Religion and Society in Interaction, p. 262).Google Scholar

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17 Quoted in Gehani, T. G., ‘A Critical Review of the Work of Scottish Presbyterian Missions in India, 1878–1914’ (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1966), p. 438.Google Scholar

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26 See Sherring, M. A., The History of the Protestant Missions in India from their Commencement in 1706 to 1871 (London, 1875), pp. 354–5.Google Scholar Also Richter, , History of Missions in India, p. 159.Google Scholar

27 Estborn, S., The Church among Tamils and Telugus (Nagpur, 1961), p. 14.Google Scholar

28 Sharrock, J. A., South Indian Missions (Westminster, 1910), p. 58.Google Scholar

29 Sherring, , Protestant Missions in India, p. 365.Google Scholar

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31 See Bhatty, E. C., ‘Religious Minorities and the Secular State’, in Chandran, J. R. and Thomas, M. M., (eds.), Religious Freedom (Bangalore, 1942);Google ScholarBoyd, R., ‘The Place of Dogmatic Theology in the Indian Church’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1967);Google ScholarThomas, A. V., Christians in Secular India (Rutherford, 1974).Google Scholar

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33 Gehani, , ‘Scottish Presbyterian Missions in India’, p. 435.Google Scholar

34 ibid., pp. 380–1. The Rev. Sharrock's attitude to the question of granting Indians positions of influence in the Anglican Church was probably typical: ‘So long as the Indian Church can neither support itself nor govern itself, the consecration of Indian bishops would only throw the Church back, as the Indians themselves know. While English missionaries are a necessity, Indian bishops are an impossibility’ (South Indian Missions, p. 280).

35 See Ballhatchet, K., ‘Some Aspects of Historical Writing on India by Protestant Christian Missionaries during the 19th and 20th Centuries’, in Philips, C. H. (ed.), Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (London, 1961).Google Scholar

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37 Thomas, , Christians in Secular India, p. 103.Google Scholar

38 Church of South India, p. 35.Google Scholar

39 The SIUC confederated the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed Churches; the CSI created an even more integral union of Methodists, Anglicans and the SIUC. ‘Conversations’ are still proceeding with Baptists and Lutherans in the hope of creating an even wider union.Google Scholar

40 By stressing the division of the Protestant community into clearly demarcated denominational units in the early years of missionary expansion I do not mean to imply that these boundaries were never crossed. There were, as I have already noted, instances of transfers from one mission station to another, which not only gave a number of converts the experience of more than one tradition, but left the impression on a much larger population of the possibility of altering allegiances. Secondly, the fact that the great majority of converts in South India came to Christianity not singly but in ‘mass movements’ of low caste groups meant that religious conviction was generally outweighed by expectations of economic and status improvements. Thus it was not unknown for converts, if their hopes remained unfulfilled, or if they felt dissatisfied with their missionaries, or found the discipline of one mission too onerous, ‘to change their views on denominational questions, and to seek connections with other missions….‘ Inexperienced missionaries were therefore advised to investigate carefully all cases of Christians from one mission asking to be received by another. (See Murdoch, Indian Missionary Manual, p. 498). Indeed, groups of prospective converts occasionally entered into correspondence with several mission societies with a view to comparing the potential benefits each could offer; the most attractive would then be invited to set up a station in their area! (Pickett, Christian Mass Movements in India, p. 324). Finally, we have to note that attitudes of missionaries towards caste practices sometimes led to denominational changes. Oddie points out that some Anglicans in Madras and Tanjore joined Lutheran missions ‘because the latter adopted a conciliatory attitude toward caste’.Google ScholarOddie, C., ‘Protestant Missions, Caste and Social Change in India, 1850–1914’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 6 (1969), p. 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Neill, S., The Story of the Christian Church in India and Pakistan (Madras, 1970), p. 168.Google Scholar

42 Caplan, L., ‘Social Mobility in Metropolitan Centres: Christians in Madras City’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, II, pp. 193–217.Google Scholar

43 Hollis, M., Paternalism and the Church: a Study of South Indian Church History (London, 1962), p. 14.Google Scholar

44 Anglican missions of the CMS had converted a number of Syrian Christians from their traditional Orthodox beliefs in the first half of the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

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53 This took the form mainly of grants from the British government in India out of its revenues for the upkeep of the Anglican Church, which served primarily the European military and civilian community in the country. Missionaries were financed almost wholly out of the contributions of their supporters. (See Warren, The Missionary Movement from Britain, p. 74.)Google Scholar

54 After 1833, with the arrival in India of American and other non-British missionaries who did not recognize such a hierarchy, the missionary pecking order, such as it was, all but disappeared. See Frykenberg, R., ‘Conversion and Crises of Conscience under Company Raj in South India’ (unpublished paper read at the Sixth European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies held in Paris in July 1978), p. 3.Google Scholar

55 Sundkler, , Church of South India, p. 13.Google Scholar

56 Porter implies that the British hierarchy of denominations was re-created in Freetown, Sierra Leone (quoted in Steady, ‘Protestant Women's Associations’, p. 224).Google Scholar

57 Pickett, , Christian Mass Movements in India, pp. 56, 316 Fuller notes that Protestant Churches in Kerala are regarded as low in status ‘because almost all their members are converted Harijans’.Google Scholar‘Keral Christians and the Caste System’, Man, II, p. 61.Google Scholar

58 Caplan, ‘Social Mobility in Metropolitan Centres’.Google Scholar

59 One, St Mary's in Fort St George dates back to 1680, making it the oldest Protestant Church in India.Google Scholar

60 See Penny, F., The Church in Madras (London, 1904).Google Scholar

61 Appavoo, M. D., The Effect of Migration on the Churches of Bangalore, 1965), p. 21.Google Scholar

62 ibid., p. 22.

63 Devasundaram, A., ‘The Cathedral as a Centre of Communication’, The Indian Journal of Theology, 24, pp. 16–20.Google Scholar

64 There are, of course, a number of members from outside the State who are unable to read Tamil and so can only worship in English.Google Scholar

65 Paul, , The First Decade, pp. 207–8.Google Scholar

66 Thampan, K. M., ‘A Study of Factionalism in the Church, with Special Reference to the CSI Dioceses in Kerala’ (unpublished B.D. thesis, Union Theological College, Bangalore, 1968), p. 46.Google Scholar

67 ibid., pp. 47–8.

68 I have discussed other aspects of this ‘competition’ elsewhere. See ‘Morality and Polyethnic Identity in Urban South India’, in Mayer, A. C. (ed.), Culture and Morality (London, Delhi, forthcoming).Google Scholar

69 See Watson, W., ‘Social Mobility and Social Class in Industrial Communities’, in M., Gluckman and E., Devons (eds), Closed Systems and Open Minds (Edinburgh, 1964), p. 149.Google Scholar

70 Paul, , The First Decade, p. 232.Google Scholar

71 Since Paul wrote these words the situation has improved somewhat; far fewer congregations would nowadays be so intransigent. Nevertheless, to overcome this problem, many non-episcopally ordained ministers have been sent by the diocese to theological centres where they are prepared for episcopal ordination.

72 There is some dissatisfaction with the method of electing bishops throughout the CSI. One observer, writing in the Church's own magazine, points out that ‘to expect a Diocesan Council to vote for more than one person with a two-thirds majority is tantamount to saying you have no right to choose your own Bishop’. Chinniah, J., ‘Groupism and Elections in the Church’, South India Churchman, 1973, p. 10.Google Scholar

73 An obvious choice for the Cathedral would have been St John's in Vellore Fort, an Anglican Church built in 1844 for the Europeans stationed in the Arcot area. The congregation, which still worships in English, is composed very largely of senior medical staff of Vellore Christian Medical College and Hospital, most of whom are recent migrants from other parts of the South and other denominational traditions.Google Scholar

74 The failure of the CSI to achieve financial independence means that support in the form of funds and personnel must still be sought from western missions and churches, which, still, not surprisingly, promote their own versions of Christianity. Somasekhar quotes one former Moderator of the CSI as remarking that ‘the unity of the CSI is seriously threatened by the disunity of its related missionary societies’. Somasekhar, R., ‘The Missionary Societies and the CSI’, South India Churchman, Silver Jubilee Issue, 1972, p. 51.Google Scholar

75 In the interests of brevity and at the risk of over-simplifying the issues I have avoided discussion of other expressions of division within the diocese, such as caste or region.Google Scholar

76 Wilson, B. R., ‘Religion in Secular Society’, p. 25.Google Scholar

77 See Luckmann, T., ‘The Invisible Religion’, in Robertson, (ed.), Sociology of Religion, p. 147;Google Scholarsee also McLeod, , ‘Class, Community and Region’, p. 61.Google Scholar

78 The significance of endogamy for the maintenance of sectarian boundaries has been emphasized by a number of sociologists of religion. Isichei, for instance, seems to suggest that once out-marriage began English Quakerism was no longer able to operate as a sect, but became a denomination. Isichei, E., ‘From Sect to Denomination among English Quakers’, in B., Wilson (ed.), Patterns of Sectarianism.Google Scholar