The Shadow of the Cross

The challenge of Christianity played a very significant role in the resurgence of Bengal in the nineteenth century. The Hindu intellectuals had to reinterpret his theological position to meet this new challenge which also made him aware of his own religious heritage. It thus helped the growth of a religious nationalism which culminated into a political nationalism towards the close of that century. The nature of this confrontation between Christianity and Hinduism is the subject of this book. Christianity appeared in Bengal as a western religion-the religion of her new ruler, and it posed a threat to the very way of life of a Bengali Hindu. The religious movements which grew out of its challenge did not remain confined to theological debates only, but had a wider area of operation and were associated with all other social movements which constituted and regulated the currents of the so called Bengal Renaissance. This book traces the history of the Hindu response to Christianity in its various stages and describes the nature of Hindu religious movements which reflect the complexities and confusions, the aspirations and failures of the Bengali mind in search of a new ethics and a new set of values. The book thus provides a general model of the study of religious confrontation in a colonial situation.