ABSTRACT
Though proportionally small, India’s Christians are a populous and significant minority. According to the 2011 Census of India, 27,819,588 people (or 2.3 percent) of India’s one billion plus population are Christian, making Christianity the third most popular religion in India after Hinduism and Islam.1 Roman Catholics make up the majority of India’s Christian population at somewhere between 17-20 million people.2 Most of these Christians are situated in the southern-most Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This study focuses on the Catholic shrines of Chennai, Tamil Nadu (Figure 1.1). Drawing on extensive ethnographic field work, it examines renewal and revivalist strategies associated with selected Catholic shrines and sacred sites. In so doing, it adds to the small but growing body of research into Indian Christianity.
