Based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this book presents a social history of Sat Tal Christian Ashram (STA), an Ashram in the Kumaon foothills of northern India. This book explores how some Christian missionaries have sought to inflect Christianity with Advaita Vedantic undertones in a number of Indian contexts; it then analyses how STA draws upon, but also differs from, existing practices of inculturation.

 In demonstrating the distinctions of STA, this book offers new ethnographic data on the topics of Indian Christianity, Christian missiology and Hindu-Christian relations. This book also contributes to emergent discussions of multiple religious orientation, existential belonging and the negotiation that occurs as individuals and communities seek to invite or belong alongside individuals whose proclaimed faiths are different than their own. It is written in a clear and accessible style, making it suitable for undergraduate students, while also offering specialists new qualitative data and insightful theoretical reflections.

Nadya Pohran is an applied anthropologist based in Canada.

Table of Contents:

Image list
Forward by Ankur Barua (University of Cambridge, UK)
A Note on Translation and Transliteration
A Note on Pseudonyms and Titles
Introduction
1. Foreignness or Indianness? Indigenisations and Representations of Christianity in India
2. The Origins of Sat Tal Christian Ashram and E. Stanley Jones's 'Ashram Ideals'
3. The School of Evangelism and Its Challenge to the Ideal of 'Truly Christian and Truly Indian' (1990s)
4. The Negotiations of Belonging: Relational Dynamics of World Amrita and Sat Tal Christian Ashram
5. Conclusion
Appendix 1: Key Hindi Terms and their English translations
Appendix 2: Social Mapping of STA
Bibliography
Index