ABSTRACT
Conversion to Christianity was part of a rising aspiration in India to change status in the caste-dominated South Indian social hierarchy. The Nadar caste community and its strong Christian core were to be key agents of this change. The distinctive work of Protestant Christian missionary societies spurred much of this change. By the end of the nineteenth century, Tinnevelly had more Christians than any district in the Madras Presidency; and, among the Protestants, 95 percent were from the Nadar caste. The position and influence of the missionaries helped Nadars to challenge their indigenous superiors, and Nadar Christian converts became leaders in the movement for social change. Vedanayagam Samuel Azariah’s father’s conversion to Christianity seems to have been linked to his entrance into the British missionary school system. To Azariah’s family, the western missionary first appeared as a larger-than-life judge, and the missionary educational system as an exclusivist society dependent upon the mysterious whims of the all-powerful western missionary.
