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Hephzibah Israel, Religious Transactions in Colonial South India: Language, Translation, and the Making of a Protestant Identity . New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011, xv + 269 pp., hdbk. $90/£58, ISBN 978-0230105621.

Hephzibah Israel, Religious Transactions in Colonial South India: Language, Translation, and the... This well-crafted and highly informative study challenges the notion of Bible translation as an endeavor removed from domains of politics, social movements, or identity formations. It does so by examining key moments in the Bible’s translation into Tamil, a major south Indian language. Contrary to claims made by some that Bible translation validates the universal claims of Christianity or that translation always invigorates indigenous cultures or preserves them from colonial displacement, Hephzibah Israel draws attention to contentious social and political factors that steered the history of the Tamil Bible. Translation was not an antiseptic process engineered by European language technicians and their native informants. On the contrary, translation, she argues, gave rise to different “language registers,” each voicing competing notions of Tamil Protestant identity. This book makes a strong contribution to a growing body of South Asian scholarship that highlights the spoken and written word as a site of cultural assertion and identity formation. 1 It is widely recognized that Protestant missionaries, through their translations, printing presses, and propaganda catalyzed other forms of expression through print, including organized opposition to Christian missions. What is less known is how Bible translation itself, far from being insulated from wider socio-cultural http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Sciences and Missions (preceeded by Le Fait Missionaire until 2006) Brill

Hephzibah Israel, Religious Transactions in Colonial South India: Language, Translation, and the Making of a Protestant Identity . New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011, xv + 269 pp., hdbk. $90/£58, ISBN 978-0230105621.

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
1874-8937
eISSN
1874-8945
DOI
10.1163/18748945-02603010
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This well-crafted and highly informative study challenges the notion of Bible translation as an endeavor removed from domains of politics, social movements, or identity formations. It does so by examining key moments in the Bible’s translation into Tamil, a major south Indian language. Contrary to claims made by some that Bible translation validates the universal claims of Christianity or that translation always invigorates indigenous cultures or preserves them from colonial displacement, Hephzibah Israel draws attention to contentious social and political factors that steered the history of the Tamil Bible. Translation was not an antiseptic process engineered by European language technicians and their native informants. On the contrary, translation, she argues, gave rise to different “language registers,” each voicing competing notions of Tamil Protestant identity. This book makes a strong contribution to a growing body of South Asian scholarship that highlights the spoken and written word as a site of cultural assertion and identity formation. 1 It is widely recognized that Protestant missionaries, through their translations, printing presses, and propaganda catalyzed other forms of expression through print, including organized opposition to Christian missions. What is less known is how Bible translation itself, far from being insulated from wider socio-cultural

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Social Sciences and Missions (preceeded by Le Fait Missionaire until 2006) – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

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