ABSTRACT
One of the most striking aspects of Christian missionary activity in India throughout most of the nineteenth century was the continued failure of missionaries to convert significant numbers of the brahman class. This was in spite of the fact that missionaries sometimes placed considerable emphasis on the need to win over brahmans (whom they regarded as the religious élite) so that other castes would follow. 1 While harijans and other castes at the base of the Hindu hierarchy begged and clamoured more and more loudly for admission into Christian churches the brahmans in general remained aloof.
