A social history of Christianity. North-west India since 1800. By John C. B. Webster. (Oxford India Paperbacks.) Pp. xiv + 411 incl. 3 maps and 5 tables. Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press, 2019 (first publ. 2007). £15.99 (paper). 978 0 19 947837 8

Christians of these regions tend to receive less attention than those of South India, partly on account of their smaller numbers, partly due to the challenges of finding a rich supply of source data. In this volume Webster returns to topics addressed in his doctoral work, which include the study of Christians of the Punjab and Northwestern Provinces, their community identity and their interactions with Hindu, Muslim and Sikh environments. Inevitably, these ‘mass conversions’ forced foreign missionary bodies to come to terms with cultural issues associated with the dietary laws and hereditary occupations of these depressed communities (pp. 175–6).