ABSTRACT
This chapter asks why it has become increasingly difficult for scholars to engage with the Indian connection of Prester John when the period preceding European colonialism was marked by the West’s expectation of reaching a Christian India. It points to the problem postcolonial studies and its narratives-as represented in the works of V.S. Naipaul, Pramod K. Nayar, and Christopher Taylor, among others-have sustaining colonial discourse in imaginings of a non-Christian or heretical India. This chapter investigates the ideological reasons for labelling Prester John of India a heretic and the alleged uncertainty of "which India" he was linked to. The historical figure of the archdeacon of the Thomas Christians is proposed as a prototype of Prester to the extent that this figure can encourage much-needed discussion on the Thomas Christians in the age of discovery and colonization.
