Some Challenges for Scholarship on Protestant Translations of the Bible: The Tamil Context

Abstract

This article reviews the available secondary sources on Bible translation in India with special reference to the Tamil language. The article focuses on 20th-century scholarship on the translation of the Bible into the Tamil language with some reference to critical discussions of Bible translation in other Indian languages. The article reviews critical material in Tamil and English, grouped into four broad schools of thought: (a) the biographical and narrative accounts; (b) scholarship focusing on the Hindu–Christian dialogue; (c) scholarship focusing on the assimilation of Christianity and (d) critical approaches to the translated Bible. The article compares and analyses the critical approaches of each school and argues that the fourth school of critics have produced the most constructive scholarship on Tamil Bible translation. In conclusion, the article draws the reader’s attention to the paucity of material on Bible translation in India and presents areas for further research and critical scholarship.