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Accepted Paper:
Worshipping with ghosts: historical presence in the contemporary landscapes of Shimla's churches
Jonathan Miles-Watson
(Durham University)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I focus on the way that the landscapes of postcolonial Christian worship in India can act as shock absorbers against the trauma of history. I approach this issue primarily through a narrativization of aspects of my fieldwork with the Christian communities of Shimla, North India.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I focus on the way that the landscapes of postcolonial Christian worship in India can act as shock absorbers against the trauma of history. I approach this issue primarily through a narrativization of aspects of my fieldwork with the Christian communities of Shimla, North India. The voices of Shimla's Christians are largely absent from the emerging debates around the Anthropology of Christianity due to their lack of fit with dominant assumptions about Christianity in India. However, I intend to argue that it is precisely because of their ability to complicate the dominant discourse that these groups offer an important insight into postcolonial India. I redress this neglect here through a particular focus on the way that Christians in Shimla negotiate issues of faith, postcoloniality, rupture and memory in order to help constitute complex and socially important landscapes of worship.
Indiascapes: reflections of contemporary India
Session 1