ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a case study on the transformation of secularism projects under the conditions of radicalising social and political struggles in local communities as well as the globalising Cold War. Religion was a neglected field in Cold War studies for a long time. Colonial secularism had so far provided the churches with sufficient space for manoeuvre, which they did not want to put at risk. The cooperation between secular state institutions and transnational religious networks benefited not only the British colonial government and its anti-communist mission of reorganising Malaya's rural and urban societies. Malaya's Emergency exemplifies the historically contingent character of secularism that was shaped by broader political, social, economic, and even military circumstances. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) together with other missionary organisations drew up a catalogue of practical measures that reshaped late colonial state secularism.
