ABSTRACT
Relations between Indian Catholics and Protestants and the wider Christian world have long contributed to perceptions of Christians in India as an “alien” or an “anti-national” presence on Indian soil. The Catholic connection to Rome and the Protestant connection to ecclesiastical structures based in Europe or North America not only affected their status under the imperial Government, but also pushed them to the margins of “the Indian nation” as this was conceived by Gandhi and other nationalist leaders.1 Within the climate of Indian nationalism, an allegiance to the Pope or to the Anglican establishment, or membership in the YMCA, suggested an alternative national identity that stood at odds with a genuinely “Indian” one – a perception that Indian Catholic and Protestant elites took great pains to refute.2
