Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818-1940.

• Author: Diamond, Jeffrey M.
• Position: Book Review

Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818-1940. By JEFFREY COX. Stanford: STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2002. Pp. ix + 357. $55.

The study of Christian missionary activity in British India has been transformed in recent years, as researchers increasingly challenge and revise the established dominant narratives about the beneficial work of white male missionaries. Social historians recently have focused on the convoluted relationships and interactions of missionaries, the imperial government, and Indians before and after 1857. Historians of gender have also begun to trace the central role of female missionaries and the opportunities provided to them by their work in India. However, there have been few attempts to place these emerging studies coherently into a larger picture, especially for northwest India. The book under review incorporates recent research in order to examine the complexity of missionary activity. In this book, Jeffrey Cox has concentrated on northwest India, mainly the Punjab region and Delhi, where missionary activity was both significant and influential. Before the 1830s, there was little missionary presence in the Punjab. Yet, by the 1930s the region had numerous mission schools, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions, and over 300,000 Indian Christians. Although Indian Christians never amounted to more than two percent of the Punjab population, many Muslim and Hindu Punjabis utilized missionary institutions as well, illustrating the larger impact of missionary work in the region.

One of the strengths of Cox's work is his attempt to explain the rise of the missionary presence in northwest India, mainly focusing on the Church of England's Church Missionary Society, the American Presbyterian Mission, and smaller Protestant missions. As Cox illustrates, the growth of missions was due not only to the work of the lonely white male missionary, but to the vital efforts of Indian Christians as well as European, American, and Indian women. Indeed, Indians and women constituted the majority of missionaries in the Punjab. Another important aspect of this book is Cox's desire to evaluate the influence of Christian missions on Indian society, within the larger imperial context. Several themes emerge from his exploration of these issues.

One theme is the significant role of Indians in mission efforts in northwest India, where Indians occupied various positions in missionary institutions and administration...