Contrarian Lives: Christians and Contemporary Protest in Jharkhand

This paper is a preliminary attempt to assess the impact of Christian social activists on issues facing adivasis in the state of Jharkhand in contemporary India. This has been prompted by a few factors. One that academic studies gauging the contemporary interplay of Christian institutions and actors with socio-political issues are relatively few. Recent studies have, for instance, dealt with the indigenously framed cultural authenticity of Indian Christians; have tackled the sociology of belief and Christian organisation or reviewed the status of Christians in the making of the Indian Constitution and the internal (theological) debates within the community linked to conversion, the relationship with the dominant Hindu culture and its outlook towards pressing issues of caste and poverty.