By focusing upon aspects of the life and work of Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, the first protestant missionary to India, this book offers an insight into a little-known corner of South India’s cultural history. The author reflects on the nature of south Indian Society when Ziegenbalg arrived there and the way and extent to which his work changed it. The book explores what happens when people of different faiths, cultures, and races come together with a view to exercising influence, power, or control. It looks at the relationship between the missionary endeavour and colonialism, at Ziegenbalg’s methods of language learning, at the kind of education that his schools provided, and at his interaction with and interpretation of Hindu society. Ziegenbalg was a humane missionary who tried to understand a culture foreign to him. His was a brief, intense life and he is revealed to have been a flawed but gifted man with literary, cultural, educational and, above all, religious pursuits, who made a home with Tamils and laid the foundations of an indigenous Church. This very readable and informative book will be enjoyed by people interested in south Indian history, religious studies and missionary work, and anthropology.
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