Through wide-ranging contributions, John Webster has established himself as a leading historian of Christianity in India. Most significantly, his work has illuminated the experiences of Dalits who converted to Christianity during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The focus of this volume is Christianity in North-West India. This region encompasses the Punjab and other regions that underwent a series of subdivisions (or partitions) under British rule; for instance, the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and other regions located near the India-Pakistan border. Christians of these regions tend to receive less attention than those of South India, partly on account of their smaller numbers, partly due to the challenges of finding a rich supply of source data. In this volume Webster returns to topics addressed in his doctoral work, which include the study of Christians of the Punjab and Northwestern Provinces, their community identity and their interactions with Hindu, Muslim and Sikh environments.

The book is divided between early and late nineteenth-century developments (sectioned off by the Great Rebellion of 1857), the era of Indian nationalism and post-independence (1947) events. His discussion of the earlier period draws from the records of the Church Mission Society (CMS), the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) and the Church of Scotland, which established schools and engaged in evangelism in the north-west. Unlike their Jesuit predecessors, who experimented with strategies of cultural adaptation, Protestant missionaries made few attempts to move beyond their own cultural assumptions and develop a deep understanding of Indian society (pp. 61–2). Converts, who were few and far between, were radically severed from their cultural origins. Collectively, the young Christian community of the north-west experienced considerable alienation from families and castes. This condition of estrangement became all too evident in the events of the Great Rebellion, during which time sepoys (Indian soldiers) attacked Christian converts for their presumed affiliation with their British rulers.

Decades later, Christianity made inroads into low caste communities of the rural north-west. These included the Chuhras, who were largely concentrated in central Punjab, and the Chamars of the Lahore district. As increasing numbers of Chuhras and Chamars embraced Christianity, other missionary societies were drawn to the region, including the Salvation Army, American Methodists and Roman Catholics. Inevitably, these ‘mass conversions’ forced foreign missionary bodies to come to terms with cultural issues associated with the dietary laws and hereditary occupations of these depressed communities (pp. 175–6). Conversion among Chuhras and Chamars was motivated by a desire to escape from the stigma of untouchability and the oppressive labour demands of higher caste landlords. In response to the violent opposition of landlords to Christian conversion, missionaries adopted the roles of patrons and advocates for the rights of converts.

Webster's account of twentieth-century developments tells a familiar story of an attempt to indigenise the cultural expression and leadership of the Church in the context of anti-colonial nationalism. Here, rather than presenting a self-contained church history, he draws connections between the politics of the day and the lives of Christians. In an effort to liberate themselves from ‘missionary Raj’, urban, educated Indian Christians formulated visions for a kind of self-determination. This relatively small group of elites embraced tropes of Indian nationalism – for instance, an emphasis on swadeshi (self-reliance) and advocacy of both moderate and extremist methods for achieving their aims (p. 262). Dalit Christians, who were more numerous, were less politically organised and were largely treated as ‘silent masses who could not speak for themselves’ (p. 271).

This division between disenfranchised, rural Dalit Christians and urban, educated elites who benefitted from missionary schools and other institutions is prevalent in other parts of India. Upon reading Webster's nuanced delineation of their experiences, one receives the impression that this divide is even more prevalent in the north-west. The strength of this volume lies in its ability to bring wide-ranging primary data to bear upon its detailed narration of the social experience of Christians in this often overlooked region of India. Less attention is paid to the emergence of the so-called ‘third stream’ Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that succeeded the mainline Christianity of an earlier day. The book is an excellent resource not only for the student of South Asian religion, but also for those interested in comparing trends (for example, urban-rural, nationalist versus colonial) in India with those in other parts of the Global South.