ABSTRACT
In the Indian context, while it is true that the missionaries strongly advocate “cultural discontinuity” in conversion, the question is whether they have been successful in attaining it. The author's fieldwork with the Bhil Pentecostal converts in the northwestern state of Rajasthan suggests that, although Pentecostal conversion has given the Bhil people a new identity and introduced them to various aspects of Pentecostal ideology and milieu, it has not been able to “make a complete break” with the Bhil cultural and ethnic past. In this chapter, the author argues that, while Pentecostalism has insisted on and achieved “discontinuity” in many aspects of everyday social life, social contexts in which the converts are located have often required Pentecostal churches to also support some aspects of “continuity.” Such strategic decision to support both “discontinuity” as well as “continuity” has transformed the nature of Pentecostalism in India and made it a successful and empowering religious movement in India's social, political, and geographical margins.
