Missionaries and their medicine : a Christian modernity for tribal India / David Hardiman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hardiman, David, author.

Series:

Studies in imperialism (Manchester, England)

Studies in imperialism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Missions--India--History--19th century.

Missions.

Missions--India--History--20th century.

Missions, Medical--India--History--19th century.

Missions, Medical.

Missions, Medical--India--History--20th century.

Bhil (Indic people)--Missions--History--19th century.

Bhil (Indic people).

Bhil (Indic people)--Missions--History--20th century.

Bhil (Indic people)--Health and hygiene--History--19th century.

Bhil (Indic people)--Health and hygiene--History--20th century.

Medicine--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Medicine.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 261 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

MSI edition

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In November 1880 the Reverend Charles Thompson arrived at Kherwara, Rajasthan, India, to establish the first Anglican mission to the Bhils, a primitive tribe, by going amongst them as a healer. This book sets out the history of the interaction between the missionaries and the Bhils, a history of missionary medicine, and how certain Bhils forged their own relationship with modernity. During the 1870s, the Church Missionary Society declared its intention to open more missions 'among the non-Aryan hill-people', and the Bishop of Lahore wanted more missions to work amongst the 'aboriginal' Bhils. A great famine that began in 1899 brought radical changes in the mission to the Bhils. After the famine, many of the Bhagats, a local sect, became convinced that the sinless deity was the God of Christians, and they decided to convert en masse to Christianity. The missionaries working amongst the Bhils believed that Satan was in their midst, who was constantly enticing their hard-won converts to relinquish their new faith and revert to their 'heathen' ways. It was argued that 'heathen' beliefs and culture could be attacked only if female missionaries were required to work with native women. Mission work had always been hampered by a lack of funds, and at one time, the hospital at Lusadiya had to dissuade many would-be inpatients from coming for treatment due to lack of beds. The book also deals with the work of the mission in the post-colonial India, which laid more stress to healing than evangelism.

Contents:

List of illustrations

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Glossary

1. Introduction

2. The Bhils

3. The mission to the Bhils

4. The great famine

5. The conversion of the Bhagats

6. Christian healing

7. Fighting demons

8. Woman's work for woman

9. A little empire

10. Medicine on a shoestring and a prayer

11. A mission for a postcolonial era

12. Medical modernity

13. Closure

14. Conclusion: Mission medicine and Bhil modernity

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Apr 2026).

ISBN:

0-7190-7802-4

OCLC:

1524096959