Paper short abstract:

Based on the history of the Lutheran mission to the Bodos in Assam the paper focus on the role of the Indian priests and catechists in the change of the Christian message from versions grown in Europe and the USA towards Indian interpretations relevant for Indians and Indian society.

Paper long abstract:

There may have been Christians in Assam since the Catholic Capuchins were expelled from Tibet in 1745, but most of the Christian missions started around the time when Burma was forced to cede the areas of Assam to the East India Company in 1823. Here the Lutheran Mission arrived around 1880 in order to create a new Eden on earth for Santals from central India. They extended their mission to the Bodos in the areas surrounding their teagarden at an early point of time and since 1887 when a group of Santals took the initiative they extended the mission towards the Bodos.

In the history of this missionary enterprise the European missionaries felt that they fought with lapses among the Bodos as well as with other Christian missions as the Anglicans and the Catholics who fought approached their converts to join other churches than the onw which had converted them.

On the basis of the history of the Lutheran Mission and yet unpublished short autobiographies of three Bodos collected 1949-1950 (and deposited at The National Museum of Denmark) this paper will turn the view towards the Bodos' own view of the Christian missions and how they integrated them in their own understanding of life and social structure. The argument will focus on the role of the Indian priests and catechists who linked the European missionaries to the local community, hereby extending one argument earlier set forward by Frykenberg.