Call for Papers: Christianity in India
Call for Papers for a Double-volume Special Issue of Nidān
The bi-annual, peer-reviewed and open access Journal “Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies”, published from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban is pleased to announce a double-volume special issue on Christianity in India, to be published in July and December 2019 respectively. We elicit 8000 to 10,000 word-long original research articles on Christianity in India from scholars of different disciplinary backgrounds, using a variety of methodological approaches or a combination thereof, including anthropological, sociological, historical methods and literary analysis.
Christians constitute approximately 3% of India’s population and self-define their identity and devotional practices in a variety of cultural, vernacular and regionally specific ways. This is not only because Christians are historically dispersed across India and the Indian diaspora, but also because conversions were concentrated around diverse cantonment cities and towns during the colonial period in India, known for vernacular missionary activities. Asserting alternative cultural identities in accompaniment to Christianity such as caste-status and regional or vernacular belonging influenced Christian devotional practices and led to their representation within the public domain as a diverse and hybrid group.
In our present double-volume issue on Christianity in India, we elicit original research papers (between 8000 and 10,000 words) that focus on the emotions of the Christian self and conversion, Christian devotional and identity formation in India and the representation of Indian Christianity within the public domain from an anthropological or historical/ literary perspective. Contributors for the special issue would ideally introspect on questions such as caste and conversion, Indian Christianity within the diaspora, vernacular expressions of Christian devotion, regional identities formed through Christianity (such as in the case of Goa or the North-East) and the representation of Indian Christianity within the public domain (both anthropological and historical). I am also interested in academic introspection about Indian missions and Christianity that emerges from other missions across the world.
Those interested in contributing, please email an abstract of up to 500 words with author institutional details to Deepra Dandekar (deepradandekar@gmail.com) by August 15th, 2018. Once approved, original research articles (8000 – 10000 words) should be emailed to Deepra Dandekar by November 30th, 2018for the July 2019 volume. For the December 2019 volume, the deadline for article submission is April 30th, 2019.
Journal Editor: Professor P. Pratap Kumar
School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban
penumalak@yahoo.com
https://journals.co.za/content/journal/nidan
Guest editor for the special issue: Deepra Dandekar (Ph.D.)
Researcher, Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin.
deepradandekar@gmail.com
https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/en/staff/deepra-dandekar