Many recent studies have sought to critically re-examine the place of missionaries during recent centuries. These have often challenged the assumption that missionaries were simple advocates of imperial policy, and have traced many of the complex inter-relationships between missionary and secular thinking. Within this whole debate, Oddie has consistently been one of the most sophisticated revealers of missionary attitudes. Here, Oddie turns to another angle of this debate, the theological work of missionaries picturing and describing Hinduism. This rather neglected subject, has nevertheless, also been the subject of some recent studies (such as, K. Cracknell, Justice, Courtesy and Love: Theologians and Missionaries Encountering World Religions, 1846-1914 [London: Epworth Press, 1995], and Paul Hedges, Preparation and Fulfilment: A History and Study of Fulfilment Theology in Modern British Thought in the Indian Context [Bern: Peter Lang, 2001]). Positioning himself against much of this debate, Oddie adds a new facet in this field.
The work begins with a very useful introduction which summarises and comments upon much previous missiological research and provides some useful guides. One such is a discussion of the way missionary and imperial agendas entwined, and he provides three ways this happens (21-24): 1) missionaries were influenced by the writings of officials; 2) imperial and Colonial policy often dictated what aspects of Hinduism were highlighted - though, as Oddie argues, it was often what was allowed or condoned by the East India Company that created a context for missionary reaction against this; and, 3) the presence of other Europeans and missionary associations with them helped enforce an "us" and "them" mentality, which was further bolstered by a sense of superiority in Western ability, both from the fact of imperial control as well as from science and technology. He also gives a useful summary of what might be, across the ages, certain key presuppositions of the missionary. These he categorises as four points, though he adds a fifth that affected some missionaries. The first is aversion to idolatry (24-26), the second an antithesis to sexuality (26-28 ), the third a belief in reason and science (28-30), and the fourth being the principle of inner religion (30), the fifth, belief in democracy and republicanism, as noted affected a few missionaries (30-32).
Part I of the book includes three chapters on how Hinduism was imagined within India in the period 1600-1800. However, the heart of the book is Part II. Here he looks at the way the dominant thinking on Hinduism developed, envisaging a brahmanical tradition with a debased popular form alongside it (chapters 5 and 6). This part is a useful original contribution, important not just for missionary studies, but to many within Religious Studies concerned with debates surrounding orientalism and post-colonialism. Chapters 8 to 10 show how attitudes changed within the period 1850-1900. In particular, he usefully shows how missionary attitudes started to break through the old model of a monolithic Hinduism to see it as a diverse system of contrary traditions, and discusses how the older model relates to Hindu self-identity. This covers many areas within the work of Cracknell and myself, but Oddies strong emphasis upon missionaries provides a further layer to this. Chapters 4, 7, and 10 are also very useful contributions looking at the questions, respectively, of Hinduism in missionary training, Hinduism in missionary periodical literature, and gender issues, specifically relating to women missionaries.
In conclusion, this is a valuable work adding a lot that is useful to the debate. My criticisms are, on the whole, relatively minor matters. Finally, I should perhaps say something on the title which places this work in relation to the growing body of work on orientalism and post-colonial criticism. Unlike some work in this field which decries all missionary thinking as inevitably biased, his work, I believe, adds to a growing number of studies which have pointed out how, for their time, missionary attitudes and thinking could be quite advanced and helped push forward new ideas and shape public opinion and scholarly attitudes. As such, this book should be of interest to anyone involved in debates not just on missionary thought, but the construction of the terms "religion" and "Hinduism" as well as the broader range of debates around orientalism and post-colonial thinking.
Paul Hedges
University of Winchester