Working on three primary projects:

In researching my book, Among the Original Dwellers (2019), I went on a journey to discover my lost heritage.  The book is about the first generation of missionaries in India..The book oortrays the life of my great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Hahn, a German missionary in 19th century British India. In the process I discovered a lot more than my personal ancestry. My encounters with the Adivasi of Chotanagpur, especially Christian Adivasis, transformed my whole focus on life. Since then I was awarded a Fulbright Nehru Scholarship to study the folklore of the Adivasi of Jharkhand, to learn how write more authentically about the Adivasi. This has lead to three main projects: Heritage Hospital History, Colaborate Digital Archiving of Adivasi oral literature, and the history of the GEL (Gossner Evangelical Lutheran) churches.

Each project might seem unrelated to the other since they bring me into the medical world, the digital world and the christian world, but they actually in many ways overlap. What I learned so far in my research about these hospitals is that each generation worked alongside Adivasis from Chotanagpur, even in western Odisha and central Chhatisgarh. My writing in this blog and elsewhere, though it be about my heritage, will always focus on the story of the people and their role in India. My ancestors were merely catalysts and I continue to play that role to feature the voices and interests of those people whom my ancestors devoted their lives to.

Heritage Hospital History

Ferdinand Hahn was the first of four generations of missionaries to India. Following him was his daughter, Louise who married KW Nottrott; then her daughter, Marie, married Herman Feierabend, and their son, my father, married Jane Hein. What I learned was that they all encountered the needs of the people in health. Ferdinand Hahn encountered those suffering from Hansens Disease (Leprosy) that was widely spreading, often due to famine. He contacted the Leprosy Mission (then known as the Mission to Lepers) based in Britain and through their funding the Leprosy Asylum, as it was called, was founded in Purulia (West Bengal) in 1888. It became one of the largest leprosy hospitals in Asia. He was living in Lohardaga (Jharkhand) at the time, and also provided shelter for those suffering from the disease there. His wife, Doris, was also keenly interested in helping people with Epilepsy and so they also ran a small clinic for  them.

Those medical facilities in Lohardaga no longer exist, but the legacy of hospital work continued. After her marriage to KW Nottrott, Louise contacted her father for assistance to start a leprosy hospital in Chandkuri Chhattisgarh in 1895. Their daughter, Marie, wanted to become a doctor for this reason, but was only able to go to attend Deaconess Nursing School in St Louis, MO. When they opened a mission station in Khariar, Odisha they came realised that there were doctors in the area for the Raja, but nothing for the people. When my grandfather toured the area preaching, he always had to address the physical needs of the people. Not knowing anything about medicine, Marie set up a trunk for him that had all the medicines they were able to get at the time, labeled by the ailment that they would relieve. Soon their little dispensary was established as a hospital in 1930. My father would go with his father to visit the villages, and saw how his father treated people; he thought this is no way to treat people. So at a young age he decided to become a doctor. He returned immediately after medical school to run a mission hospital in Tilda, Chhatisgarh. In the 1960s the India government said they would only renew his visa, if he had a specialty to offer the country. So my father returned to the US to do a plastic surgery residency and then returned to Ludhiana, Punjab wher he started the first plastic surgery department in north India at CMC Hospital.

During my Fulbright (2023-2024) I visited all these hospitals and for the first time it struck me that this was indeed a great legacy. I never wanted to go into medicine, and I never became a missionary. But I could carry on the legacy by writing about how their endeavors have survived the test of time, and these hospitals continue to be critical to providing much needed health care to the poor in rural areas.

Colaborative Digital Archiving (CoDA): preserving Adivasi oral literature

Another thing that I learned during my Fulbright, was that Adivasi (tribal) cultures and languages were under great threat. Ferdinand Hahn had done much towards preservation by writing the Kurukh Grammar and Kurukh Folklore. I was humbled and honored that so many recognized him still for these efforts. My research into Adivasi folklore also revealed a pressing need: while local youth were actively recording their traditions on mobile devices, they lacked a formal system to store and protect these digital assets.  Adivasi students and community organizers wanted resources to continue pursuing their efforts to preserve their language, culture and wisdom. So upon returning to the US I began working with Dr. Shobhana Chelliah of CoRSAL (at Indiana University), on how to bridge the gap between digital documentation and cultural preservation by and for Adivasi communities. CoRSAL had already done training on digital archiving in the Northeast and other parts of India. So now we are organizing to spread that effort to Jharkhand (and surrounding areas) and Tamil Nadu. The Colaborative Digital Archiving (CoDA) initiative will begin in Fall 2026 in Ranchi.

History of the Gossner Evangelical Church

From the time I began researching the life of Ferdinand Hahn, I have cultivated a close relationship with the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran churches that are across India (though it all began in Ranchi in 1945). I have been invited to provide the history of the contributions of the missionaries to the establishment of the first Autonomous church in India (1919 - well before Independence from the British). It is still a predominantly Adivasi church. In May 2026 a book entitled Threads of Indigeneity in Central India edited by Joseph Bara and Anjana Singh. I have contributed a chapter "Revitalization of Adivasi Language and Culture: Missionary Grammars" that describes how Ferdinand Hahn and my great great uncle, Alfred Nottrott, contributed to the preservation of Adivasi languages.