India's Nonviolent Freedom Struggle

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"In her exhaustive and comprehensive study of the nonviolent struggle of Thomas Christians in India, Clara Joseph challenges the commonly held belief that India's freedom movement excluded Christian communities. Engaging and accessible, this book explores the opposition of the Thomas Christians to the racist colonial discourse and defies the general public's misperception of the dissenting experience of Christians of India in the period of Portuguese and Dutch colonialism in this country. Calling for a serious rethink on the very nature of Christian anti-colonial discourse and struggle, Clara Joseph throws a new light on the legacy of India's nonviolent freedom struggle and its far-reaching implications for the minority narratives in India today."

-Ramin Jahanbegloo, Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University, India

"This timely, theoretically sophisticated, and empirically informed study of the Thomas Christian community exposes important but long obscured 17th and 18th century precursors to 20th century non-violent anti-colonialism movements. Dr. Joseph deftly refutes the longstanding and pernicious practice of treating Christianity and Colonialism as synonymous, and thereby opens up fresh possibilities to reconsider relationships between religion and nationalism in India."

-Douglas M. Peers, University of Waterloo, Canada

"Joseph has done a great service by filling an important lacuna in the history of both Christianity in India and colonialism in India. This book succeeds at its goal of contributing to the fields "of World Christianity and Postcolonial Studies."[... Joseph] cogently challenges the common conflation of Christianization with colonization, insists that decolonization and de-Christianization are not synonymous, and shows that the history of the Thomas Christians' Non-Violent Freedom Struggle clearly demonstrates "that anti-colonialism can be Christian and based on traditional theology." This is especially important given that contemporary Hindutva polemic-similar to much secular ideology in the West-condemns Christianity as inherently colonial and un-Indian. The history of the Thomas Christians refutes this facile slander. Joseph's handling of extant primary sources is magisterial. [...] this is an important book, though one aimed more at graduate students and professors than readers with merely a casual interest in colonialism or Christian history. I highly recommend it."

--Joshua Robert Barron, Association for Christian Theological Education in Africa in Religious Studies Review (50,3, Sept 2024).

"India's Nonviolent Freedom Struggle is a seminal work by Clara A. B. Joseph that reinterprets the Indian freedom movement, focusing on the Thomas Christians, a South Indian Christian community that engaged in nonviolent resistance against European colonization from 1599 to 1799. [... It] emphasizes the need to revisit and include minority narratives in the broader history of India's independence movement. This brings to light the intricate relationships that exist between religion, colonialism, and resistance. This book provides the reader with a historical treat about the history of the Indian Church, particularly the Thomas Christians, as well as the legacy of the Indian nonviolent freedom struggle. The book challenges the misconception that traditional Christians did not lead the freedom struggle against European colonization in India. [...] The text highlights the importance of re-examining colonial documents and policies, such as mandatory clerical celibacy, as products of colonization that need decolonization. It emphasizes the need for ecumenical dialogue to include decolonial perspectives, replacing colonial interpretations of resistance with decolonial critiques. By studying the nonviolent resistance of Thomas Christians, the book seeks to redefine India's freedom struggle, highlighting the unity of religion and state during colonialism and the persistent socioeconomic inequalities in postcolonial societies. This scholarly and scientific work is deserving of special appreciation and I strongly recommend this book to all who have a passion for history, particularly those who are scholars of Indian History, World Religions, and Postcolonial Studies. May people benefit from this edifying work of Joseph."

-- Joby Jose Kochumuttom, Asian Horizons, vol. 18, no. 3, Sept. 2024, pp. 652-654.

"[Joseph] demonstrates that nonviolent resistance to colonization and the work for self-rule in India are older and more diverse than normally stipulated. The history of Thomas Christians shows the very real ways Christianity cannot be necessarily conflated with colonialism. [...] Joseph is to be commended for this excellent historical, cultural, and literary study of the Thomas Christians in the early modern period. Her analysis offers key insights for anyone interested in the history of Christianity, Indian Christianity, nonviolence, and/or postcolonial, decolonial, and subaltern studies."

-- Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier, Horizons, vol. 51, no. 2, Dec. 2024, pp. 413-414.

"Each of the three case studies that make up the core of Joseph's study are well-developed, carefully contextualized and compelling. One gains a vivid sense of the interplay of diverse actors on all sides. [...] Whatever one ultimately concludes about the contribution of Thomas Christianity to the centuries-long Indian struggle against the European colonization, readers can expect to gain enormous insight from the patient, insistent analysis and argument of India's Nonviolent Freedom Struggle. Joseph continues to break new ground in the study of South Asian Christianities, and her attention to the literary record is exceptional. Her monograph will, I hope, deeply inform our thinking and writing in this area for decades to come."

-- Reid B. Locklin, Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, vol. 37, 2025, pp. 105-107