Reviewed by: Die Dänisch-Englisch-Hallesche Indienmission des späten 18. Jahrhunderts. Alltag, Lebenswelt und Devianz by Tobias Delfs Frieder Ludwig Die Dänisch-Englisch-Hallesche Indienmission des späten 18. Jahrhunderts. Alltag, Lebenswelt und Devianz. By Tobias Delfs. Beiträge zur Europäischen Überseegeschichte, Band 112. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2020. 286 pp. This book analyses the Danish-English-Hallesche Mission in India from the perspective of values and norms of the mission headquarters in Europe and deviations from them by missionaries in India between 1777 and 1813. It also includes the Moravian Mission in Bengal to supplement the findings. Delfs is particularly interested [End Page 463] in the complex negotiation processes in the various contact/conflict zones. His findings are based on a broad spectrum of archival sources, especially from Halle, Herrnhut, and Copenhagen: applications of missionary candidates, instructions to missionaries, letters, travel journals and newspaper reports, evaluations of the work, books, magazines, etc. He seeks to answer questions such as: What were the norms and unwritten laws? Did they change? When did violations occur and who defined them? Chapter I introduces the basic questions, the scope, and the theoretical approach, using the concepts of contact zones and global biographies; chapter II presents Europe and the pietistic-religious space as a starting point. Chapter III then analyses influences in India—the social environment and norms in a colonial setting, before chapter IV investigates physical conditions and deviances in the tension between individual experiences and norms. Chapter V studies the institutional conditions such as the legal framework in the colonies, and law and politics in missionary practice. Chapter VI presents the conclusion. The “global biographies” of missionaries are at the center of the study—from the application and selection to the journey and the work in India. Delfs focuses particularly on outsiders who deviated from the norms and expectations, such as the DEHM missionary Lambert Christian Fruechtenicht (1772– after 1806) who did not always pay his bills and seems to have been drinking with sailors, or the Moravian Christian Renatus Beck (1754–1793) whose social contacts were also hard to control. This provides a background for research into the social milieus and the habitus of missionaries, the contexts and conditions of their work, the challenges they faced, and the internal negotiation processes. Delf ’s expertise is in global history; the book is a slightly revised version of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Zürich. The research work was connected to a research project on “Alcohol in Danish India” (5). Specialists in the history of mission and world Christianity might question the rather rough way he contrasts his approach with “traditional” historiography. See, for example the references to Percival Spear’s work of 1932/1963 (10); research has become much [End Page 464] more critical and nuanced since then. The “adiaphora-problem” (44) could be elaborated more, especially since it became so important in Indian church history. In the mid-19th century, the Leipzig Mission under Karl Graul (1814–1864) considered the caste system an adiaphoron. Since the sources do not always present a complete picture, the gaps and missing links are sometimes filled with assumptions and speculations, for instance, about the motives of applicants for missionary service (64f.), Beck’s contacts with indigenous women (197), or the death of Fruechtenicht (195). This, however, is done in a transparent and sensitive way; Delfs’ aim is not to discredit, but—following Dipesh Chakrabarty—to look into “ambivalences, contradictions, . . . tragedies and ironies” in order to draw conclusions on the general situation of missionaries’ everyday life and their “Lebenswelten” (32). His book therefore provides insights on the global biographies of missionaries, their pietistic European backgrounds, their relations to the missionary headquarters and to the complex spectrum of the colonial society in India (from sailors to governors) and to other denominations. Most significantly, it also includes case studies and perspectives of Indian Christians. See, for example, the discussion of a letter of complaint against the legal system in Tranquebar from 1797 (214f.), or the “case of Friedrich,” a young Indian who left the house of the missionary John and declared himself independent (219f.). It is an important contribution to the intercultural history...
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Jan 10, 2024
Milen Malakov 
Open Access