This paper critically examines Nathaniel Roberts’ book, To be Cared For. It argues that by discussing the “unique moral problems and cultural contradictions” that surround the everyday life-world of low caste Dalit Pentecostals in a slum in Chennai, Roberts provides a rich ethnography of caste, Christianity and care in India. In particular, the book makes several contributions: first, it provides a nuanced, contextual understanding of the “pluralities” of Indian Christianities; second, contrary to Gandhian view of “religion as spirituality”, it shows (by questioning the hierarchy of the religious world) how materiality or worldly benefits occupy a central role in the life-world of believers; third, it discusses “pastoral innovation” and shows how Pentecostal pastors are constantly innovating new ways of interpreting and reinterpreting doctrines to address the everyday social problems and anxieties of believers, and also how pastoral innovation needs to be understood in the context of pastoral competition and rivalry; and finally, it discusses a notion of belonging that goes beyond territoriality and religious affiliation and shows how “relationality”, shared values, and real/imagined connections are essential to belonging. Discussing these four aspects, what the paper shows is, how through careful observation and in-depth ethnographic narratives of everyday religiosity and morality of the slum dwellers, Roberts makes an important contribution to the anthropology of Christianity in India. PENTECOSTAL Christianity is one of the fastest growing religions of the world and has spread to almost all nations. A 2004 data source mentions that there are 135 million Pentecostals/Charismatics in Asia, 80 million in North America, 141 million in Latin America and 38 million in Europe (Anderson, 2004: 123). This shows that Pentecostals are concentrated largely in the global south and in India their numbers have grown significantly. According to another data source, India now has the fifth largest number of Pentecostals in the world behind Brazil, the United States, China and Nigeria (see Burgess, 2002:118). Given this, one may ask: what is the nature of Pentecostalism and amongst whom is it spreading? What does it offer to people that has made it so popular compared to “mainline” churches? While Pentecostalism has a much longer history, its beginning is generally associated with the Sarbeswar Sahoo is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Erfurt (Germany) and Charles Wallace Fellow at Queen's University Belfast (UK). He received his Ph.D from the National University of Singapore. His recent publications include, Pentecostalism and Politics of Conversion in India, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2018, and Civil Society and Democratization in India: Institutions, Ideologies and Interests, London, New York: Routledge, 2013. 1 Sahoo: Caste, Conversion, and Care:Toward an Anthropology of Christianit Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2019

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Caste, Conversion, and Care:Toward an Anthropology of Christianity in India

This conversation attempts to critically map out the field of sociology/anthropology of religion as it is practised in select institutions of learning in India. The focus is not merely on the class...

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2393861720975160

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