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Title: Rebels and Outcasts: A Journey Through Christian India by Charlie Pye-Smith ISBN: 0-670-85974-5 Publisher: South Asia Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $36.00

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Average Customer Rating: 1 (1 review)

Rating: 1
Summary: Neither Rebels nor outcasts
Comment: The title is very interesting and you open the book hoping to find heroic tales of rebellion and persecution. Unfortunately, the pages between the covers do not live up to the title. It comes across as a poor attempt at glorifying the mission work in India.

The narrative concerns the author's travels through India, where he meets some interesting people. Most of them are converts to Christianity, who are leading fairly comfortable lives as heads of Christian missions or working in other Christian-supported organisations. They offer their view of the Christians in India -- which the author accepts uncritically. he makes no attempts at meeting people from the 'other side' who could offer a different perspective. He also makes typically naive remarks, such as why the monkeys in Shimla should not be neutered to control their population.

The narrative does make an attempt at being even-handed, but this is mostly cosmetic. For instance, when talking of the mission's villification of Hinduism and Arun Shourie's defense of Hinduism, the author conveniently dismisses both as 'belligerents of both sides'. Even so, the real missionary keeps popping up throughout the narrative, as for instance when writing about the Assembly of God School in Kolkata: '...students do have to attend morning prayers, but these are broadly spiritual in nature, rather than explicitly Christian....They never try to convert, although some Hindus do become Christians.' This kind of apologia is a hallmark of the book. It almost makes it seem as if the book was sponsored by the mission.

The book also suffers from two key problems: Firstly, in an attempt to make the narrative racy, key facts are missed and important arguments left incomplete. The second is the pining for Raj days. The readers get an impression that India was largely an uncivilzed country, occupied by barabrians, when the British came here, and the British departure after 250 years was the most unfortuante thing for India.

The book also provides some useful information. For example, few know that one of Rabindranath Tagore's relatives (Gyanendra Mohan Tagore) was converted to Christianity on 10 July 1851. Or that during the British days, local converts were not allowed to attend service at Christchurh, Shimla, which was reserved for the whites.

All in all, a book marred by fatal flaws. However, you could buy it for amusement.