Kumaradoss has written a valuable supplement to Geoffrey Oddie's outstanding Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant missionary constructions of Hinduism (2006). Oddie traces the emergence, through the nineteenth century, of a ‘dominant paradigm’ describing ‘Hinduism’ for the missionary world as an essentially Brahmanical, caste-driven system of social oppression. Drawing on the Tamil scholarship of G. U. Pope in particular, he explores the uncovering of an alternative ‘Hinduism’ in Tamil texts and traditions, sources which document the existence of authentic indigenous religious insights, by no means the exclusive property of a priestly elite, and promising a missionary foothold in the prospect of ‘fulfilment’, through religious experience accessible to individuals and groups of believers, even of the lowest social standing. Robert Caldwell, himself a distinguished Tamil scholar, followed Pope's lead in the direction of the practice of German missionaries such as the Bible translator Benjamin Schultz. A man of phenomenal energy and practical imagination, whose powerful personality emerges very clearly in Kumaradoss's engrossing account, Caldwell dedicated his mission to the poorest of the poor, for the most part low caste Shanars. He was, throughout his career, careful in times of famine to open his relief funds unconditionally to those in need, and he left no legacy of mere ‘Rice Christians’ to burden his successors. Caldwell's strategy from the outset was based on a fundamental transformation of Shanar material circumstances, for Caldwell himself planned the exploitation of commercial opportunities afforded by toddy-tapping of the indigenous palmyra tree, a lowly occupation that had been ceded by caste condescension to the Shanars. Kumaradoss explores in lucid detail the development of Caldwell's plan for the creation of orderly Christian communities of the very poor, with the assistance of trained and closely supervised native catechists. His schools were initially vernacular, with the addition, in the longer term, of Anglo-vernacular schools in towns. These last were successful in attracting pupils of higher caste, though conversions at such caste levels were very rare. Despite the poverty of his original communities, Caldwell raised money to build substantial churches, such as Holy Trinity, Idayangudi, which vied in size with substantial Hindu temples in the region, bearing witness to the significant presence of Christian mission in south India and feeding Shanar self-esteem. Criticism of the bishop in the missionary networks led inevitably to confrontations, from which Caldwell was the last man to back away. The most inveterate hostility towards his projects seemed to him to radiate from diocesan functionaries back in Madras, who were, in addition, suspicious of the influence on Caldwell himself of his enterprising wife Eliza, who contributed significantly to their school-building projects and established lace-making in the district as a supplementary source of income for their communities.