Providence & the Raj - Imperial Mission and Missionary Imperialism

Author: Gerald Studdert-KennedyPublisher: Sage PublicationsYear: 1998Language: EnglishPages: 273ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170367360 DescriptionThe interconnection between British Christianity and British imperialism in India is a widely acknowledged historical fact. This study provides a pioneering investigation into the Christian component of British imperialism, its complex roots in British domestic politics, and its pervasive significance for the evolution of the Raj.Despite this, there are as yet only a handful of books which study this phenomenon. Informed by an essentially Gramscian analysis of colonial discourse, the book identifies fundamental religious and ideological commonalities, both at the level of political elites and at the grass-roots, that linked British politics in the domestic and imperial arenas and throws fresh light on the construction and collapse of the Raj. This analysis is developed against the backdrop of the imperial religiosity of the British; its diversit