{
  "book_metadata": {
    "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
    "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose",
    "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
    "published_on": "2011"
  },
  "chunks": [
    {
      "chunk_index": 1,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Gandhi on Christian Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "Writing on the subject of conversion and the life style and attitudes of Indian Christians, Mahatma Gandhi appeals to them not to equate Christianity with denationalization. Young India, August 20, 1925. Cited in A. T. Hingorani, ed., The Message of Jesus Christ, pp. 25-28.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 20,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 20,
        "time_display": "August 20, 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "A. T. Hingorani"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi argues that Indian Christians should not equate Christianity with denationalization.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Politics"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 2,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "A Hindu Conversion Remembered",
      "chunk_data": "When I was a youth, I remember a Hindu having become a convert to Christianity.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier in Gandhi's life; recalled in 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "The Hindu convert"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi recalls a Hindu becoming a Christian convert during his youth.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 3,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Conversion and Western Customs",
      "chunk_data": "The whole town understood that the initiation took the shape of this well-bred Hindu partaking of beef and brandy in the name of Jesus Christ, and discarding his national costume.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier in Gandhi's life; recalled in 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "The Hindu convert",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "The convert's initiation was associated with eating beef, drinking brandy, and abandoning national dress.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Identity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 4,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Missionary Claims About Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "I learnt in later years that such a convert, as so many of my missionary friends put it, came to a life of freedom out of a life of bondage, to a life of plenty out of the one of penury.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Later years before 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Gandhi's missionary friends",
          "The Hindu convert"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi recalls missionaries describing conversion as a passage from bondage and poverty to freedom and plenty.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Society"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 5,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Indian Christians and Ancestral Identity",
      "chunk_data": "As I wander about throughout the length and breadth of India, I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Indian Christians"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi observes that many Indian Christians are ashamed of their birth, ancestral religion, and ancestral dress.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Society"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 6,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Imitating Europeans",
      "chunk_data": "The aping of Europeans on the part of Anglo-Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Anglo-Indians",
          "Indian converts"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi condemns Indian converts for imitating Europeans, calling it harmful to their country and religion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Colonialism"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 7,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Christian Conduct Toward Neighbors",
      "chunk_data": "There is a verse in the New Testament to bid Christians avoid meat, if it would offend their neighbours.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Christians"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi invokes the New Testament teaching that Christians should avoid meat when it would offend their neighbors.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Ethics"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 8,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Custom and Religious Sensitivity",
      "chunk_data": "Meat here, I presume, includes drink and dress. I can appreciate uncompromising avoidance of anything evil but where an ancient practice may be even desirable, it would be a crime to part with it when one knows for certain that the giving up would deeply hurt relatives and friends.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Indian Christians",
          "Relatives and friends"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi argues that Christians should avoid evil but should not abandon desirable ancient practices when doing so would hurt relatives and friends.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Ethics",
          "Culture"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 9,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Meaning of Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "What Conversion should Mean\n\nConversion must not mean denationalization.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi defines conversion as something that must not involve denationalization.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Identity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 10,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Renouncing Evil and Adopting Good",
      "chunk_data": "Conversion should mean a definite giving up of the evil of the old, adoption of all the good of the new and a scrupulous avoidance of everything evil in the new.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Converts"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi presents conversion as rejecting the evil of the old faith, embracing the good of the new, and avoiding evil in the new faith.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Ethics"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 11,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Dedication to Country and God",
      "chunk_data": "Conversion, therefore, should mean a life of greater dedication to one's own country, greater surrender to God, greater self-purification.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Converts"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi says conversion should lead to greater dedication to one's country, surrender to God, and self-purification.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Patriotism",
          "Ethics"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 12,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Meeting Kali Charan Bannerjee",
      "chunk_data": "Years ago, I met the late Kali Charan Bannerjee.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier period before 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Kali Charan Bannerjee"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi recalls meeting the Christian leader Kali Charan Bannerjee.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "People",
          "History"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 13,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Bannerjee's Indigenous Home",
      "chunk_data": "Had I not known before I went there that he was a Christian, I should certainly not have noticed from the outward appearance of his home that he was one.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier period before 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Kali Charan Bannerjee"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi says that Kali Charan Bannerjee's home did not appear distinctively Christian.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Culture"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 14,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "A Simple Hindu Bengali Home",
      "chunk_data": "It was no different from an ordinary modern Hindu home, simple and meagre in furniture.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier period before 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Kali Charan Bannerjee"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India",
          "Bengal"
        ],
        "event": "Bannerjee's home appeared like a simple, sparsely furnished modern Hindu Bengali home.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Culture",
          "Identity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 15,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Bannerjee's Indigenous Appearance",
      "chunk_data": "The great man was dressed like an ordinary un-Europeanized Hindu Bengali.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "Earlier period before 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Kali Charan Bannerjee"
        ],
        "places": [
          "Bengal"
        ],
        "event": "Kali Charan Bannerjee dressed in the manner of an ordinary, non-Europeanized Hindu Bengali.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Culture",
          "Identity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 16,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Christian Indians Return to Simplicity",
      "chunk_data": "I know that there is a marvellous change coming over Christian Indians.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Christian Indians"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi observes a remarkable change emerging among Christian Indians.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Society"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 17,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Longing for National Belonging",
      "chunk_data": "There is on the part of a large number of them a longing to revert to original simplicity, a longing to belong to the nation and to serve it, but the process is too slow.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Christian Indians"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Many Christian Indians long to return to original simplicity, belong to the nation, and serve it, although Gandhi considers the process too slow.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Nationalism",
          "Identity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 18,
      "chapter_name": "1925. Gandhi on Conversion and the Indigenous Identity of Indian Christians",
      "page_numbers": [
        332
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00356-3e940bcd6ae209d797bf.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "No Need to Wait",
      "chunk_data": "There need be no waiting. It requires not much effort. The",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1925,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1925,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1925"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Christian Indians"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Gandhi insists that Christian Indians need not wait and that returning to indigenous simplicity requires little effort.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Identity",
          "Nationalism"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}