THE DISINHERITED

An illuminating history of religious and political controversy in nineteenth?century Bengal where Protestant missionary activity spurred a Christianconversion “panic” that indelibly shaped the trajectory of Hindu and Muslimpolitics.In 1813 the British Crown adopted a policy officially permitting Protestant missionariesto evangelize among the empire’s Indian subjects. The ramifications proved enormousand long-lasting. While the number of conversions was small—Christian converts neverrepresented more than 1.5 percent of India’s population during the nineteenth century—Bengal’s majority faith communities responded in ways that sharply politicizedreligious identity leading to the permanent ejection of religious minorities from Indianideals of nationhood.Mou Banerjee details what happened as Hindus and Muslims grew increasinglysuspicious of converts missionaries and evangelically minded British authorities.Fearing that converts would subvert resistance to British imperialism Hindu andMuslim critics used their influence to define the new Christians as a threatening “other”outside the bounds of authentic Indian selfhood. The meaning of conversion waspassionately debated in the burgeoning sphere of print media and individual convertswere accused of betrayal and ostracized by their neighbors. Yet Banerjee argues theeffects of the panic extended far beyond the lives of those who suffered directly. AsChristian converts were erased from the Indian political community that communityitself was reconfigured as one consecrated in faith. While India’s emerging nationalistnarratives would have been impossible in the absence of secular Enlightenmentthought the evolution of cohesive communal identity was also deeply entwined withsuspicion toward religious minorities.Recovering the perspectives of Indian Christian converts as well as their detractorsThe Disinherited is an eloquent account of religious marginalization that helps toexplain the shape of Indian nationalist politics in today’s era of Hindu majoritarianism.