New Research Publication by Dr. Deepra Dandekar

Deepra Dandekar has a new research publication on Baba Padmanji Mulay’s (1831–1906) conversion to Christianity in Bombay Presidency that she argues is located in an evolving intellectual domain of confrontation between missionaries, reformers, and conservatives. Dandekar argues that this competitive atmosphere placed early converts in a state of crisis, squeezing them between British missionaries and Marathi, mostly uppercaste Hindus. Given this context, Padmanji’s rise to eminence is reflected in his ideological writings on women’s emancipation, and in his autobiographical encounter with spirit possession. This new article reads Padmanji’s ideology and spirit possession anecdote as a demonstration of the Indian Christian predicament that saw a move to refashion community identity as masculine and chivalrous.