Missionaries used phrenology to frame Indian Muslims as lower-caste converts

Evidence

Reverend John Takle—a New Zealander working as a missionary in Bengal—used the most recent “scientific” evidence of phrenology that tracked intermarriage between Muslim and native races to supposedly prove a long-standing conclusion. In 1911, he stated, “The anthropometric survey made by government proves conclusively that the vast majority of the Mohammedans in India are converts from among the depressed Hindu communities.” — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 152

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the ‘scientific’ cover given to missionary bias — connects to chapter territory on how the fearer projects onto the feared religion.