In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several Catholics from South Kanara in British India, whether as British subjects or Indo-Portuguese Catholics, journeyed across the wider British, Portuguese and Catholic worlds. Wherever they travelled or settled, they often strategically deployed their Catholicism (more precisely, Roman Catholicism), distinctive Anglo-Luso-Brahmin culture and ambiguities about their racial heritage to overcome structural barriers to the mobility and assimilation of South Asians. Catholicism, with its numerous institutions, lay and clerical transnational networks, and doctrinal emphasis on universalism emerged as a particularly valuable tool that some could deploy for the purpose of assimilation. Catholicism would not only facilitate intermarriages with Catholics of other ethnicities, but also enable racial “passing” and other forms of strategic ethnic reidentification. By focusing on the d’Abreu family from Mangalore, members of which journeyed to the British Isles since 1890, this study shall uncover the forgotten history of an Indo-Portuguese Catholic family that embedded itself within the heart of British society. It shall explore how, by strategically emphasizing the Catholic and Portuguese markers of their multifaceted identities and connecting to Catholic institutions and networks, the pioneering d’Abreu immigrant could embed himself within local Catholic society in Birmingham as a successful, presumably Portuguese, medical doctor, while his sons could acquire an education at Stonyhurst, become prominent surgeons, and marry into the British gentry and aristocracy. It shall explore both the transnational practices and networks of Catholicism and investigate the extent to which Catholicism could facilitate migration and aid assimilation.
{"title":"The Curious Case of the Drs. D’Abreu: Catholicism, Migration and a Kanara Catholic Family in the Heart of the Empire, 1890-1950","authors":"D. Menezes","doi":"10.1558/equinox.31741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.31741","url":null,"abstract":"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several Catholics from South Kanara in British India, whether as British subjects or Indo-Portuguese Catholics, journeyed across the wider British, Portuguese and Catholic worlds. Wherever they travelled or settled, they often strategically deployed their Catholicism (more precisely, Roman Catholicism), distinctive Anglo-Luso-Brahmin culture and ambiguities about their racial heritage to overcome structural barriers to the mobility and assimilation of South Asians. Catholicism, with its numerous institutions, lay and clerical transnational networks, and doctrinal emphasis on universalism emerged as a particularly valuable tool that some could deploy for the purpose of assimilation. Catholicism would not only facilitate intermarriages with Catholics of other ethnicities, but also enable racial “passing” and other forms of strategic ethnic reidentification. By focusing on the d’Abreu family from Mangalore, members of which journeyed to the British Isles since 1890, this study shall uncover the forgotten history of an Indo-Portuguese Catholic family that embedded itself within the heart of British society. It shall explore how, by strategically emphasizing the Catholic and Portuguese markers of their multifaceted identities and connecting to Catholic institutions and networks, the pioneering d’Abreu immigrant could embed himself within local Catholic society in Birmingham as a successful, presumably Portuguese, medical doctor, while his sons could acquire an education at Stonyhurst, become prominent surgeons, and marry into the British gentry and aristocracy. It shall explore both the transnational practices and networks of Catholicism and investigate the extent to which Catholicism could facilitate migration and aid assimilation.","PeriodicalId":120752,"journal":{"name":"Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132138038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The chapter deals with Sadhu Sundar Singh and the way his life and experiences have been shaped by multiple influences, co-constructed by himself and his admirers, and made possible by a concept of sādhu that functioned as a key to unlock an “interstitial space” that was not controlled by any authority. In order to delineate the contours of that space it is necessary to go back to Sundar Singh’s early years in India, to re-contextualize his biographical trajectory in the framework of early 20th century revivalist (politico-)religious movements and to consider him in relation with initiatives to delink Christianity from its colonial background. Focusing then on his tour in Switzerland, 1922 – a tour out of which came an impressive number of publications that had a lasting effect – it is argued that the tour’s organizers were both projecting intentions on Sundar Singh, and overwhelmed with the actual performance and its effects. Furthermore, members of several religious movements were equally attending the meetings, producing various kinds of encounters: some leading to creative reconfigurations and some to open conflict. In sum, Sundar Singh is an excellent case study for a “connected religion” framework: since he made himself available for interpretations reflecting the different intentions of his interlocutors, the sources telling us about his biography are often written from very divergent standpoints – making a “connected religion” approach that brings the pieces of the puzzle together particularly appropriate.
{"title":"A \"Christian Hindu Apostle\"?: The Multiple Lives of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929?)","authors":"P. Bornet","doi":"10.1558/equinox.31745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.31745","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter deals with Sadhu Sundar Singh and the way his life and experiences have been shaped by multiple influences, co-constructed by himself and his admirers, and made possible by a concept of sādhu that functioned as a key to unlock an “interstitial space” that was not controlled by any authority. In order to delineate the contours of that space it is necessary to go back to Sundar Singh’s early years in India, to re-contextualize his biographical trajectory in the framework of early 20th century revivalist (politico-)religious movements and to consider him in relation with initiatives to delink Christianity from its colonial background. Focusing then on his tour in Switzerland, 1922 – a tour out of which came an impressive number of publications that had a lasting effect – it is argued that the tour’s organizers were both projecting intentions on Sundar Singh, and overwhelmed with the actual performance and its effects. Furthermore, members of several religious movements were equally attending the meetings, producing various kinds of encounters: some leading to creative reconfigurations and some to open conflict. In sum, Sundar Singh is an excellent case study for a “connected religion” framework: since he made himself available for interpretations reflecting the different intentions of his interlocutors, the sources telling us about his biography are often written from very divergent standpoints – making a “connected religion” approach that brings the pieces of the puzzle together particularly appropriate.","PeriodicalId":120752,"journal":{"name":"Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132434934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter presents a case study of a Scottish exponent of the “simple life”, Dugald Semple (1884−1964), within early 20th-century networks of life reform or Lebensreform. It argues that the underlying thread in Semple’s “life reform” is a non-conformist, anti-clerical religious individualism which incorporated Transcendentalism with a Tolstoyan and Gandhian pacifism. A case study of Semple’s career in dialogue with his English and continental interlocutors demonstrates the value of empirically based transnational enquiry at the level of individuals and networks for understanding the varied inflections of “life reform”, particularly the religious roots of the phenomenon. It also contributes to the historiography of important currents in “alternative religion” which fed the post-world-war-two “new age”, “eco” and commune movements.
{"title":"Religion and the \"Simple Life\": Dugald Semple and Translocal \"Life Reform\" Networks","authors":"S. Sutcliffe","doi":"10.1558/equinox.31742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.31742","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents a case study of a Scottish exponent of the “simple life”, Dugald Semple (1884−1964), within early 20th-century networks of life reform or Lebensreform. It argues that the underlying thread in Semple’s “life reform” is a non-conformist, anti-clerical religious individualism which incorporated Transcendentalism with a Tolstoyan and Gandhian pacifism. A case study of Semple’s career in dialogue with his English and continental interlocutors demonstrates the value of empirically based transnational enquiry at the level of individuals and networks for understanding the varied inflections of “life reform”, particularly the religious roots of the phenomenon. It also contributes to the historiography of important currents in “alternative religion” which fed the post-world-war-two “new age”, “eco” and commune movements.","PeriodicalId":120752,"journal":{"name":"Translocal Lives and Religion: Connections between Asia and Europe in the Late Modern World","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123939390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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