International Journal for Indian Studies

Call for Papers for a Double-volume Special Issue of Nidān Christianity in India

 

The bi-annual, peer-reviewed and open access Journal “Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies”, published from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban is pleased to announce a double-volume special issue on Christianity in India, to be published in July and December 2019 respectively. We elicit 8000 to 10,000 word-long original research articles on Christianity in India from scholars of different disciplinary backgrounds, using a variety of methodological approaches or a combination thereof, including anthropological, sociological, historical methods and literary analysis.

Christians constitute approximately 3% of India’s population and self-define their identity and devotional practices in a variety of cultural, vernacular and regionally specific ways. This is not only because Christians are historically dispersed across India and the Indian diaspora, but also because conversions were concentrated around diverse cantonment cities and towns during the colonial period in India, known for vernacular missionary activities. Asserting alternative cultural identities in accompaniment to Christianity such as caste-status and regional or vernacular belonging influenced Christian devotional practices and led to their representation within the public domain as a diverse and hybrid group.

In our present double-volume issue on Christianity in India, we elicit original research papers (between 8000 and 10,000 words) that focus on the emotions of the Christian self and conversion, Christian devotional and identity formation in India and the representation of Indian Christianity within the public domain from an anthropological or historical/ literary perspective.

Contributors for the special issue would ideally introspect on questions such as caste and conversion, Indian Christianity within the diaspora, vernacular expressions of Christian devotion, regional identities formed through Christianity (such as in the case of Goa or the North-East) and the representation of Indian Christianity within the public domain (both anthropological and historical).

We also elicit 1000 – 1200 word-long book reviews of the following academic books for our two volumes on Christianity in India:

July 2019 volume:

• Jeyaseela Stephen (2008): Caste, Catholic Christianity and the Language of Conversion: Social Change and Cultural Translation in Tamil Country 1519-1774. New Delhi: Kalpaz Publications
• Chandra Mallampalli (2006): Christians and Public Life in Colonial South India 1863-1937: Contending with Marginality. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

December 2019 volume:

• Deepra Dandekar (2018): The Subhedar’s Son: A Narrative of Brahmin Christian Conversion from Nineteenth-century Maharashtra. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Nathnial Roberts (2016): To Be Cared For: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum. New Delhi: Navayana.

Timeline and Submissions:          

Those interested in contributing, please email an abstract of up to 500 words with author institutional details to Deepra Dandekar (deepradandekar@gmail.com) by August 15^th, 2018.

Once approved, original research articles (8000 – 10000 words) and book reviews (1000 – 1200 words) would have to be emailed to Deepra Dandekar by November 30^th, 2018 for the July 2019 volume.

For the December 2019 volume, the deadline for article submissions and book reviews is December 31^st, 2018.

If you are interested in writing book reviews for the list enumerated above, then indicate this to us (deepradandekar@gmail.com) by August 15^th, 2018 as well. After receiving the book, reviewers would typically have a three-month period for submitting their reviews.