ABSTRACT
The nationalist critique of western missions has been so successful that many Indian Christians seek to legitimize their experience as a subcontinental minority by exaggerating the nationalist credentials of their forebears. The indigenous missionary movement was influenced by growing nationalism, and the Christian missionary enterprise itself helped fuel growing self-awareness of caste, ethnic, regional, and even national identities among Indian converts. Contrary to Hindu nationalist charges that Christian missionary work in India was unpatriotic, Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah argued that conversion to Christianity promised national as well as individual salvation. Azariah’s leadership helped produce in the Indian Missionary Society (IMS) and National Missionary Society a remarkable example of a movement that achieved independence from and equality with western missionary societies without developing any major hostility in working relationships. The constitution of the IMS specified that its ‘chief aim is to foster missionary spirit in the Indian Church by indigenous efforts and propagate the Gospel in India or other countries.’.
