Mark R. Hatlie

Mass Religious Conversion

This research project entails the comparative analysis of cases of mass religious conversion in colonial settings. An article has already been published and presented at the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies in 2006:

Hatlie, Mark R: Crisis and Mass Conversion: Russian Orthodox Missions in Livonia, 1841-1917. In: Keul, István (Hg.): Religion, Ethnie, Nation und die Aushandlung von Identität(en). Regionale Religionsgeschichte in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa. Berlin 2005, 115-146.

Work so far focused on the case of mass conversion of Latvian and Estonian peasants from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy in the 1840s in comparison with colonial cases in general and the case of Anglican missions converting lower-caste Hindus in the Trichinopoly district of southern India in particular. As the study expands, a third specific case may be added, and all the cases will be explored in further detail.

Most research on religious conversion is centered on individual conversion, not mass conversion. Literature on these particular case studies is sparse. In the Baltic case, it has not yet been explored in the wider context of Russian Orthodox imperial conversion efforts nor from a Latvian perspective at all. The southern Indian case has hardly been looked at.

The study will:

explore these case studies with relation to the most plausible and popular theories of mass religious change
compare the conversion drives in terms of social and religious practice at the ground level
investigate mass conversion in the context of shifting the colonial power relationships of the societies in which they took place: the role of empire and the imposition of imperial order, the dissolving and atomization of traditional societies, the role of religion in socio-economic and political systems and their stability

The case studies are chosen based on the diversity of social structures and religions involved. They share in common the time period under consideration (complex agrarian societies from the mid 19th to early 20th centuries) and the presence of shifting ethno-religious/socio-political hierarchies. Cases of failed mass conversion in imperial contexts may be included. The net will be caste very wide for consideration in a review of cases based on the secondary literature. Research based on a fresh look at the primary sources will be limited to two or three cases only, however.

The table below summarizes the structural similarities between the two main cases so far.

Baltic

India

colonial power =>

Russian

(Orthodox)

British

(Christian)

indigenous society =>

dominant local strata =>

German nobles and pastors

(Lutheran)

Brahman castes

(Hindu)

local caste hierarchies

(Hindu)

subordinate strata =>

Estonian and Latvian peasants

(Lutheran)

Sudra castes (Hindu)

outcastes, tribes

(Hindu?, Animist)

		Baltic	India
colonial power =>		Russian (Orthodox)	British (Christian)

indigenous society =>	dominant local strata =>	German nobles and pastors (Lutheran)	Brahman castes (Hindu) local caste hierarchies (Hindu)
indigenous society =>	subordinate strata =>	Estonian and Latvian peasants (Lutheran)	Sudra castes (Hindu) outcastes, tribes (Hindu?, Animist)