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Pentecostal Movement. 102 Bergunder acknowledges that India had a significant
role in the global revival in the initial decades of the twentieth century and lists a
few Indian revivals, including the Mukti Revival. However, his hesitation to
acknowledge the significance of the role of the Mukti Revival in the origins of
Indian Pentecostalism is very clear when he argues, ‘the Mukti Mission became a
vital link for the global Pentecostal network that was to be established and it
helped create Pentecostalism; but it was not the Pentecostal beginning in India.’ 103
Nevertheless, the recent celebration of the centenary of the Pentecostal Movement
in India challenged this argument because as stated, it shows that most
contemporary Indian Pentecostals consider the ‘Mukti Revival’ to be the
beginning of Pentecostalism in India. Although Bergunder and others neglect the
significance of Mukti on the basis of its failure to make any lasting impact,
Anderson’s recent research challenges this. His study reveals that the Mukti
Revival had a long lasting impact in north India, and its legacy continues, even
though the Mukti Mission is regarded only as a philanthropic institution today. A
number of Mukti products went out as missionaries to several parts of north India,
including Rajasthan, and thus, according to Anderson, ‘Mukti was often the first
port of call for Pentecostal missionaries ….’ 104
The third approach argues that Indian Pentecostalism began with ‘Pentecostal-like
Movements’ before and after the Mukti Revival. The NIDPCM opens the account
of the Pentecostal story in India with ‘Pentecostal-like phenomena’. It insists that
102 See for example, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth Place
of Global Pentecostal Movement (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 250-256;
Bergunder, ‘Constructing Indian Pentecostalism’; Bartleman, Azusa Street.
103 Bergunder, ‘Constructing Indian Pentecostalism,’ 187.
104 Anderson, Spreading Fires, 99. For more details of the discussion, see pp.75-108.
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