Belgian missionaries and faith-based development work in Ranchi, India. Colonial legacy and present-day relevance.

Faith-based development aid evokes different reactions. It arouses suspicion in our age of secularization and postcolonial sensitivity, but it also remains valuable because religion continues to be an important aspect of peoples daily lives worldwide, especially in those areas in which development practitioners are active. The current project aims to examine the particularities of Christian development aid, analyze how they evolved in the postwar period, and research if and how they affected its effectivity. It will do so by means of the case of Belgian missionaries and their local successors in the Indian city of Ranchi, Jharkhand, one of the most important centers in Belgian missionary history. It will analyze their ideas and practices from a historical perspective and study the present-day relevance by means of the perception among local communities. This interdisciplinary approach, the focus on the postcolonial era, and the attention for the multi-religious environment are important innovations in international scholarship.

Keywords:Belgian missionaries, faith-based development work, Ranchi, India, present-day relevance, Colonial legacy

Disciplines:History