Owned and Conducted entirely by the Native Christian Community

The ‚Christian Patriot‘ (Madras/Chennai 1890 – 1929) – a journal „owned and conducted entirely” by Indian Christians – opens new perspectives on the history of Christianity in India. At the same time, it represents a new class of documents for the study of World Christianity “from the other side of history”. This weekly understood itself as mouth piece of the South Indian Protestant community “as a whole” and tried to assert their independent voice in the colonial public sphere. “Christian in tone and patriotic in its aims”, it criticized both missionary paternalism and Hindu fundamentalism. The journal commented critically on the religious and social development of the country and sought to connect the Indian Christian communities in India, South Asia and South Africa. At the same time, the ‘Christian Patriot’ reflects a wide range of transregional networks between different indigenous Christian elites from Asia and the global South (such as Japan or West Africa). Thus, this study contributes significantly to a new and polycentric understanding of Christian globality around 1910, beyond Western missionary endeavours.