Converting Women

Abstract

This book explores the conversion of Indians to Protestant Christianity in the 19th century. It is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the social, religious, ideological, and historical backgrounds of south Indian, Tamil-speaking converts, and the British and American missionaries who endeavored to convert them to Christianity. Part II examines how Tamil Christian women engaged with 19th century American and European gender categories.

Sacred Genealogies of Development: Christianity and the Indian Modern

“…They were just too porous, lacking proper boundaries between inside and outside the home. 58 Reports frequently mention the disruption to missionary teachers in such homes-apart from crying babies, the presence of animals is a frequent candidate for censure. As part of the effort to bring techniques of "home management" into Indian homes, model homes were built "according to Western standards of privacy, hygiene and order, with separate rooms for different functions and human inhabitants separated from nonhuman inhabitants."…”

“…One example in particular stands out for my purposes from Kent's account-a tract written by Anna Satthianadhan, a Tamil woman who belonged to the fourth generation of Indian converts. 61 Satthianadhan's home, unlike the "chaos" of lower-caste homes, is described with approval by European visitors as having "tokens of refinement" such as chairs, sofas and tables, and offering "quiet comfort and a place of welcome for friends." 62 In 1862, Satthianadhan wrote Nalla Tāy, possibly the first mothering manual written in south India.…”

Redeeming Indian “Christian” Womanhood? Missionaries,Dalits, and Agency in Colonial India

“…Zenana missions declined toward the end of the century, primarily because the idea of female education began to take root among India's elites, but also because many mission agencies began to focus more on rural and lowercaste India, where the seclusion of women was a much less common practice (purdah was most common among Muslims and upper-caste Hindus). 14 Disciples and Evangelical missionaries worked primarily among Satnamis, who rarely secluded their women; nevertheless, they continued to view the "plight" of Indian women, as did most missionaries in India, through the lens of their experience with the women in purdah. When comparing Satnami-Christian attitudes and behaviors toward women with those of Indians in general, missionaries often took the purdah to represent the average Indian woman's experience.…”

“…15 This symbiosis resulted in a fluid, synthetic amalgam of values and practices that Eliza Kent has called, in the context of her work on the Nadars of South India, a "discourse of respectability." 16 Satnami-Christians did not merely accept missionaries' notions of femininity and domesticity, but assimilated them selectively and in a way informed by upper-caste Hindus' own notions of "respectable" womanhood. These dual ideals were in many ways compatible.…”