The Disinherited

A richly nuanced narrative…It is undeniable that the work presents a multidimensional and compelling portrait of nineteenth-century social, religious, and cultural dynamics in India. – Tanika Sarkar * Anandbazar Patrika *
Offers a provocative, meticulously documented reassessment of conversion in 19th-century Bengal. Rather than treating conversion as private, Banerjee shows it to have been a public, juridical process that produced legal disinheritance and social exclusion…she situates her study within a continuum of communal violence…The Disinherited is thus a major contribution to the histories of religion, law, and empire. – Yasir Masood * Asian Studies Review *
Allow me, therefore, to end this review as I began it, by underscoring what a formidable work of history, and what an important contribution to the field, Banerjee has given us. The Disinherited is readable, compelling, and erudite, and scholars from a variety of disciplines will find much in it of interest and worth. – Chad M. Bauman * Church History *
A compelling account of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Bengal by placing Christianity and religious conversion, rather than Hinduism or Islam, at the center of its social and political life…will become essential reading not only for historians of Bengal but also for scholars of religion, law, and political thought in South Asia. – Ahona Panda * American Historical Review *
A fantastic read and a must-buy for anyone seeking to understand the historical origins of communalism or the marginalization of Christians and Christianity in South Asia. – Abhinandan Banerjee * Religious Studies Review *
A careful and exacting study of the history and nature of apologetic debates and the ‘Christian conversion “panic”’ in 19th-century South Asia…an insightful reorientation of historiography. – Bennett Comerford * Reading Religion *
Reconstructs the politics of Christian conversion in colonial Bengal by tracing legal disputes, inheritance conflicts and public apologetic battles that brought the convert into sharp visibility and social peril. – S. M. Tanveer Ahmed * South Asia *
With this book, Banerjee denaturalises settled notions of religion and its relationship with nation, tracing the lives and times of Christian converts with inimitable empathy and courage. – Nidhin Donald * Frontline *
A highly nuanced analysis of the complex histories of Christian conversion, religious polemics, and political identity in colonial India…offers valuable insights for scholars engaged in the fields of history, religion, law, and colonialism. – S M Tanveer Ahmed * Economic and Political Weekly *
Brings to light fascinating accounts that make for a compelling argument, complicating the traditional binary narrative of Hindu-Muslim opposition. – A. M. Wainwright * Choice *
Banerjee weaves an excellent historical narrative…a rich and original contribution to the growing literature on religious conversion debates in India. – Abhishek P. John * International Bulletin of Mission Research *
A brilliant, socially textured, rich, and empirically grounded account of Christian conversions in colonial Bengal. Beautifully written and convincingly argued, this book addresses one of the most emotive and politically charged issues in contemporary India. – Seema Alavi, author of Muslim Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Empire
Bridging the gulf in the history of ideas between elite and subaltern, Hindu and Muslim, town and country, west and east Bengal, The Disinherited offers new insights into contestations over personal faith and their impact on converts to Christianity. It is a brilliant and elegantly written contribution to the study of religious conversion in colonial India. – Sugata Bose, author of Asia after Europe
In this theoretically astute and richly documented book, Mou Banerjee sheds new light on the legal, familial, and political displacement of Indian Christian converts. Her account reveals nationalism’s deep history of disinheriting its Christian other, caught in the crossfire of missionary polemics and Hindu and Muslim counter-movements. – Chandra Mallampalli, author of South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim
A poignant and powerful book, capturing the profound loneliness of Bengali converts to Christianity in colonial India. By showing how conversion panics hardened Hindu and Muslim identities during the late colonial period, Mou Banerjee gives us an important prequel to interreligious conflict in India today. – Mitra Sharafi, author of Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia
In this innovative and original account, Mou Banerjee shows how the authenticity of Indian Christian conversions became a contested subject for Hindus, Muslims, British officials, and Christians themselves. Deftly tracing an intellectual history of religious thought, she reveals how these debates informed the emergence of a putatively secular liberalism in India. In the guise of religious freedom, the right to practice religion freely was disrupted in deeply intrusive ways. – Durba Ghosh, author of Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919-1947

Mou Banerjee is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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