Sarbeswar Sahoo’s Pentecostalism and Politics of Conversion in India is an excellent volume, a welcome addition to the existing few research-based literature on debates related to Pentecostalism, politics centring on conversion and anti-Christian violence in the Indian context. Sahoo begins with a note that scholarly writing on Hindu–Christian violence, unlike that of the Hindu–Muslim violence, has been rare or ‘almost nothing’ (p. 2). That could be due to, according to him, the fact that Hindu–Christian violence is a relatively recent phenomenon or that Christian population is so small that it is politically insignificant or that the violence has been largely small scale or dispersed (p. 3). However, the shift that occurred around the 1980s in the increase of violence against Christians along with the political ascend of the Sangh Parivar is generating many studies today. Among a few such well-articulated studies,11
For example, the volume by Chad M. Bauman, Pentecostals, Proselytization, and Anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) deals with the phenomenon of Indian Pentecostalism and anti-Christian violence primarily from an embedded Christian optic, and the volume by Nathaniel Roberts, To be Cared for: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum (New Delhi: Navayana Publishing Pvt Ltd, 2016), though focusing upon the reality of care as emerging from Pentecostalism, does discuss the issue of conversion within the frame of nationalism. Sahoo’s volume focuses specifically on the neo-Pentecostals, who are working among the tribal people in south Rajasthan. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among the Bhils of southern Rajasthan since 2005 and most specifically from 2011, this book provides detailed ethnographic narratives of Pentecostal conversion, Hindu Nationalist Politics and anti-Christian violence. The new dimension that the book brings to the debate on the subject is the ethnographic narratives from different others who are, in some way or other, the stakeholders of the phenomenon of conversion. Thus, the narratives of those who undergo conversion and face violence on account of it, stances of Christian missionaries, grievances of Hindu nationalists and of the Hindu adivasis are brought together to shed light on the phenomenon more holistically. And the book becomes holistic also by arguing that it is not mere antagonism between Christian missionaries and Hindu nationalists that causes anti-Christian violence, but an array of issues such as ‘competing projects of conversion between Christian missionaries and Hindu nationalists, politicisation of identity in relation to competitive electoral politics, and the dynamics of the (BJP-led) development state’ which ‘are integrally related to the production of anti-Christian violence in India’ (p. 7).

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Sarbeswar Sahoo，五旬节教派与印度的Conversion依政治

Sarbeswar Sahoo的五旬节主义和印度的Conversion依政治这是一本极好的书，是对印度五旬节教派，以悔改为中心的政治和以印度为背景的反基督教暴力相关辩论的现有研究性文献的不受欢迎的补充。萨胡（Sahoo）首先指出，关于印度教徒-基督徒暴力的学术著作与印度教徒-穆斯林暴力不同，但很少见或几乎没有（第2页）。据他说，这可能是由于以下事实：印度教徒和基督教徒之间的暴力行为是一种相对较新的现象，或者基督教徒人数如此之少，以至于在政治上无关紧要，或者该暴力行为在很大程度上是小规模的或分散的（第3页） 。但是，在1980年代前后发生的转变是，针对基督徒的暴力增加以及Sangh Parivar的政治崛起，今天引起了许多研究。在一些这样明确表达的研究中，1
例如，乍得·鲍曼（Chad M. Bauman）的《五旬节派，宗教化和反基督教的暴力行为》一书（纽约：牛津大学出版社，2015年）主要探讨了印度五旬节主义和反基督教的暴力现象。基督教的眼镜，以及纳撒尼尔·罗伯茨（Nathaniel Roberts）的著作，《被照顾：印度贫民窟中归属的Conversion依和异化的力量》（新德里：Navayana Publishing Pvt Ltd，2016），尽管着重讲述了五旬节教派出现的护理现实确实讨论了民族主义框架内的conversion依问题。Sahoo的书专门针对在拉贾斯坦邦南部的部落人民中工作的新五旬节派。该书基于自2005年以来，特别是2011年以来在拉贾斯坦邦南部的比尔人之间进行的人种志田野调查，详细介绍了五旬节派conversion依，印度教民族主义政治和反基督教暴力的人种志叙述。这本书带给这个主题辩论的新维度是来自其他人的民族志叙事，这些人以某种或其他方式是转化现象的利益相关者。因此，那些经历了conversion依并因此而遭受暴力的人们的叙事，基督教传教士的立场，印度教民族主义者的不满和印度教徒的拥护都被整合在一起，以更全面地阐明这一现象。