My dissertation project is based on the relationship between the Lutheran–Pietist mission in Tranquebar (1706–1845) and similar locations, and the other Christian denominations, particularly the Roman Catholics, that also promoted their faith in southern India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first documented reference by a Lutheran to other Christians is found in the letters of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719), who was the first Pietist missionary to work in India and translated the Bible into Tamil. The German missionaries sent from Halle were able to establish themselves in Tranquebar thanks to the support of the Danish King, Frederick IV (1671–1730). Most of the Lutheran missionaries prepared for their missionary work at the educational institutions in Halle founded by August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). To explore this topic, I use the communications of the Tranquebar missionaries, which are known as the Halle Reports (Hallesche Berichte, 1710–72) and the New Halle Reports (Neue Hallesche Berichte, 1776–1848).
Continue reading The Danish–English–Halle Mission (1706–1845) and its Connection to the Society for Promoting Christian KnowledgeTag: India
Germany–India Entanglements in the Scientific Racialization of Caste
This blog post marks the launch of the latest monograph in our series, Publications of the German Historical Institute London:
by Thiago P. Barbosa, winner of the 2023 Prize of the German Historical Institute London and the Frobenius Research Promotion Award 2023

The idea of ‘race’ has shaped our understanding of human diversity. As an idea that became a key concept in different sciences dealing with the variation of human form and life, race has been part of the discourse since the nineteenth century. Following the movements of scientists, books, and technologies, the idea of race travelled around the globe. As Germany intensified its racial frameworks in science and politics, several students from different nations, including India, trained within the German school of racial anthropology, a tradition of anthropology that reached its political apex at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A) in Berlin. One of these international students was Irawati Karve (1905–70), a prominent Indian anthropologist who trained in the late 1920s and early 1930s at the infamous KWI-A.
Continue reading Germany–India Entanglements in the Scientific Racialization of CasteMuseums Under Construction: On Loss, Disorder, Destruction, and Objects in Storerooms
Archaeological artefacts from the Ottoman Empire have only recently attracted attention in current debates over decolonization and restitution. Mirjam S. Brusius of the German Historical Institute London is researching the excavation of objects, the role of the local population, and why certain items have languished for decades in the storerooms of European museums.
Continue reading Museums Under Construction: On Loss, Disorder, Destruction, and Objects in Storerooms