ABSTRACT
Protestants (as distinct from Orthodox and Catholics) have interacted with Hindus since at least the beginning of the seventeenth century, when representatives of Dutch and British trading companies came to India for commercial ventures. This essay focuses on the encounters of Indian and European Christian leaders with various Hindus and Hindu traditions in India. The encounters of both educated elites and ordinary citizens are examined, even though evidence from the latter is hard to locate. Specifically, the essay surveys the different ways that Christian leaders from four broad streams of Protestantism—Pietist, Evangelical, Liberal, and—have generally engaged Hindus and their religious traditions from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the present. It uncovers interreligious exchanges that have been very diverse, ranging from the intensely conflictual to the deeply cooperative, and that have significantly marked and shaped both Hinduism and Protestantism on the Indian subcontinent.
