ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with a historical summary of the work of the Danish-English-Halle Mission on the Coromandel Coast in southeast India. It contains a socio-historical analysis of the group under study. Proceeding from statements about the necessity—from the point of view of mission strategy—of recruiting local co-workers the manner in which the missionaries handled the local recruits is dealt with first. The book focuses on hierarchies and relationships of dependence within the mission as well as on processes of negotiation between European missionaries and the Indian co-workers. It deals with relations between the Christian converts and mission workers, on the one hand, and the local population, on the other. The book dedicates to a central area of work carried out by the group under study—the educational system. It explains the position of women in the first Protestant mission in India is examined.
