ABSTRACT

This book highlights the transformative potential of democratic Church and Christian community in India. In the light of both ongoing and, also to some extent, foregone sociopolitical and theological challenges confronting Indian Christianity, this book invokes the need to democratize Indian Christianity in terms of its theology, liturgy, teachings, practices, resources, leadership roles, and institutional power relations/sharing by keeping contemporary “social realities” of Indian Christians at the core of its approach and discourse. It explores internal challenges – of caste, class, gender, and regional contestations – and external forces of communalism and majoritarianism confronting Indian Christianity today. Further, it underlines the importance of dignity, equality, fraternity, freedom, and responsibility emerging at an organizational level through strong mechanisms of deliberation, decision-making, and execution. A major contribution to religious studies in India, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of religion, especially Christian theology, South Asian studies, politics, and sociology.

chapter |28 pages

Introduction

Indian Christianity, Categorical Inequalities, and the Need for Democratization

part Section I|46 pages

Indian Christianity, Democratization, and Modernity – Past to Future

chapter 3|9 pages

Democratization of Indian Christianity

Reclaiming Church in the Context of Empire

part Section II|51 pages

Gender and Democratization – Forms of Resistance against Hegemony

chapter 4|14 pages

The Feminization of Telugu Christianity

An Instance of Democratization of Indian Christianity

part Section III|59 pages

Democratization and the Marginalized – Politics of Accessibility and Hegemony

chapter 7|24 pages

The Christian Churches, Democratic Developments, and People at the Margins

Case Studies from Rajasthan and Odisha

chapter 8|15 pages

Divided Church as a Democratizing Space

Contending Hegemonic Practices in a Village in Northeast India

chapter 9|18 pages

Divided Churchyards as Contested Democratic Space in Tamil Christianity

A Sociology of Caste Geography and Social Stigma in Southern India

part Section IV|54 pages

Everyday Life, Democratization, and Indian Christianity – Unfolding Prospects and Challenges

chapter 10|21 pages

Prayer as an Instrument of Resistance

Contextualizing Prayer and Everyday Life of Dalit Christians in Kerala

chapter 11|14 pages

Via Food Ways

Challenging Ideas of Christian Equality and Democratization

chapter 12|17 pages

Naming the Unspoken

Domestic Violence and the Church *

chapter |9 pages

Afterword

Christianity, Democratization, and Indian Culture