CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY: ENCOUNTERS, ENGAGEMENTS AND EXPERIENCES IN INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi, INDIA

Invites you to a Seminar on

Christianity in History: Encounters, Engagements and Experiences

Date: 2^nd to 4^th Feb, 2011

Venue: Committee Room, School of Social Sciences – 1

Day 1, Wednesday, 2^nd Feb 2011, 09:30 to 10:15

Introductory address and Welcome: Prof. Tanika Sarkar

Chair: Prof. Kunal Chakrabarti, CHS/JNU

Keynote: Prof. Teotonio de Souza, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (Lisboa) 'Christianity in Asia and its Historiography in the Postcolonial Context: A Review, and Challenges'

Session I: Class, caste and Christianity – 1, 10:20 – 12:00 pm

Chair: Prof Neeladri Bhattacharya, CHS/JNU

David Mosse, SOAS, London, The saint in the banyan tree: Christianity and caste society in south India .

Sanjay Joshi, Juliet Got it Wrong: Naming and the complications of identity among Christian converts in Kumaon, ca. 1850-1930

James Staples, Brunel University, ‘We are one caste, one disease, and one religion’: biographies of Christian conversion in a South Indian leprosy colony.

Tea: 12:00– 12:15

Session II: Class, caste and Christianity – 2, 12:15 – 01:30

Chair: Prof: M.S.S. Pandian, CHS/JNU

John C.B. Webster, New York, Dalit Christian History: Trends and Issues.

Shashi Joshi, IIAS, Shimla, On being a Christian And a Dalit.

Lunch: 01: 30 – 02:15

Session III: ‘Ethnic’ mobilization and Identity construction, 02:15 – 03: 30

Chair: Prof. John Webster, USA

Neena Mahadev, Johns Hopkins University, National, Transnational, or Anti-National?: Perceptions of Religious and National Belonging in the Varieties of Sri Lankan Christianities

Joy Pachuau, CHS/JNU, Christianity in Mizoram: an ethnography

Tea: 03:30 – 03:45

Session IV Heterogeneity in faith and praxis, 03: 45 – 05:00

Chair: Prof. Rajat Datta, CHS/JNU

Savio Abreu, IIT, Bombay, Christianity in Post-Colonial Goa: shifting religious, caste and gender equations and issues of identity

Mahesh Gopalan, St. Stephen’s, DU, The Protestant Catholic relations in the Southern Coromandel and the Fisheries Coast In the mid seventeenth century

Day 2, Thursday, 3^rd Feb 2011

Session V: Roberto De Nobili and cultural dialogue, 09:30 -11:05

Chair: Prof Kunal Chakrabarti, CHS/JNU

Ines Zupanov, CNRS/CEIAS, Paris, ‘I am a great sinner’: Missionary dialogues in India, 16^th-18^th century

Margherita Trento, EHESS, Paris, Roberto de Nobili and the Sanskrit Language. A narrative between Christian faith and Hindu theology

Paulo Aranha, European University Institute, Florence - Warburg Institute, London, Beyond Roberto de Nobili: the first controversy on the Madurai mission from hagiography to context

Tea: 11: 05 – 11: 25

Session VI: Folk traditions and Popular Christianity, 11: 25 – 01: 30

Chair: Prof. Tanika Sarkar, CHS/JNU

Susan Visvanathan, CSSS/JNU, The legends of St. Thomas Christians and some later interpolations.

S. Karmegam, Research Scholar, SAA, JNU, Aho Vaarum! Nilakanda Pillaye, Vaarum! Devasahayam Pillai Cult, New Cultural Practices and Popular Catholicism of Colonial Tamilnadu

M. Christudoss, Research Scholar, Localising Christianity: Conscious Christians and Indigenisation of Christianity in the making in colonial South India.

B.L. Nongbri, John Roberts Theological Seminary, Shillong, Change and Continuity: An Analysis of the Interaction of Ka Niam Tynrai [Khasi Traditional Religion] with Christianity

Lunch 01: 30 -02: 30

Session VII: Local Voices and the expansion of Christianity - 1,

02: 30 - 03: 40

Chair: Prof. David Mosse

Lalsangkima, Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky, USA, ‘Assistants’ or ‘Leaders’?: the contribution of early Native Christian converts in Northeast India.

Anish, CHS/JNU, Itinerant Evangelists and the production of Social Spaces in Nineteenth Century Kerala

Tea: 03: 40- 04: 00

Session VIII: -2, Local Voices and the expansion of Christianity, 04:00-05:10

Chair: Prof. Bhagwan Josh

Jose Kalapura, St. Xavier’s College, Patna, Strategic Interventions for structural changes in a Christian community; a study of purposive action for community development.

Vibha Joshi, Max Planck Institute for the study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Goettingen, ‘The reverberative nature of the global network of Christianity with special reference to the Naga of Northeastern India'

Day 3, Friday, 4^th Feb 2011

Session IX: Missionaries and images of the ‘other’ – 1, 10: 00 – 11:10

Chair: Prof. Radhika Singha, CHS/JNU

Paul Jenkins, Basel, Switzerland, A Lingayat initiative, the Basel Mission in northern Karnataka 1839-1840, and the potential for multi-lateral re-assessments of regional social history buried in the documentation of one Germanophone mission archive.

Sangeeta Dasgupta, CHS/JNU, From ‘Heathen aboriginals’ to ‘Christian tribals’: Locating the ‘Tribe’ in Missionary writings on Chotanagpur (1845-1900).

Tea: 11:10 – 11: 30

Session X: Missionaries and images of the ‘other’ – 2, 11: 30 – 12: 45

Chair: Prof Ines Zupanov, CNRS

John Thomas, CHS/JNU, Politics of gender, debates on caste: some reflections of a missionary novel in mid-19^th century Travancore.

Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh, From Mission to Dialogue? Fr. Bede Griffiths and Indian Christianity in the wake of Independence.

Lunch: 12:45 – 01:45

Session XI: The Inquisition: perceptions and reality, 01:45-03: 00

Chair: Prof. Teotonio de Souza

Pius Malekandathil, CHS/JNU, "Living Religion in Emotional Turbulence: A Study on the Religious Fluviality of New Christians of Cochin and the Inquisition".

Celia Tavares, Brazil, The “Santo Ofício de Goa”: working with a collection of documents of The National Library of Rio de Janeiro

Paulo Aranha, European University Institute, Florence - Warburg Institute, London, A Capuchin on trial: the process of the Goa Inquisition against Fr. Ephrem de Nevers (1650-1651)

Tea: 03:00 – 03:20

Summing Up Session: 03: 20 -

Prof. David Mosse, Prof. M.S.S. Pandian, Prof. Tanika Sarkar

Vote of Thanks: Pius Malekandathil