Paradise and peril: Representations of the Brahmaputra valley in American Baptist missionary writings
Author(s): Hemango Akshay Hiwale
Abstract: This paper examines how American Baptist Missionary writings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represented the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam through a dual lens of paradise and peril. Drawing upon letters, hymns, travel accounts, and institutional reports, it explores how missionaries initially portrayed the Valley as a lush, abundant, almost Edenic landscape, only to later frame it as a region spiritually burdened and in need of redemption. These representations are contextualized within the broader colonial discourse of tropicality, which cast tropical regions as simultaneously beautiful and threatening. By analyzing how missionaries mapped the Valley through moral, theological, and sensory frameworks, the paper argues that these texts were not mere reflections of experience, but strategic acts of knowledge production that justified missionary intervention. Ultimately, the study demonstrates how the ABMs’ writings functioned as tools for constructing place, moral authority, and institutional legitimacy in the colonial encounter.
DOI: 10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i6a.438Pages: 50-55 | Views: 49 | Downloads: 23Download Full Article: Click Here
How to cite this article:
Hemango Akshay Hiwale.
Paradise and peril: Representations of the Brahmaputra valley in American Baptist missionary writings. Int J Hist 2025;7(6):50-55. DOI:
10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i6a.438
