Activities of the Christian Missionaries during British Rule: Christianity is reported to have entered India in the first century A.D. when St. Thomas landed on the Malabar Coast. By the 3rd century A.D. the Syrian Christians had emerged as a body in the state of Kerala. During Akbar’s reign, in 1580, a Baptist Christian mission was set up at Fatehpur Sikri and its missionaries participated in the religious discussions at the ‘Ibadat Khana’. The Jesuit Missionaries are reported to have opened a Jesuit College at Agra in the times of Emperor Shah Jahan.
A new phase in East-West relations began when Vasco da Gama
landed at Calicut in 1498. Vasco had explained the motive behind his visit
thus: ‘We have come to seek Christians and spices’. The Portuguese Roman
Catholic missionaries like Francis Xavier and Robert-de-Nobili, did some
notable work in the field of opening some elementary schools and some
orphanages.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Directors
of the English East India Company and the English authorities in India adopted
contradictory postures, sometimes encouraging missionary activities and at
other times limiting missionary activities in India. In the 18th
century in particular the English East India merchants and officials, looked
upon the Salvation Army (Christian missionaries) as a threat to their profits
(they had in view the Mughal antipathy to the Portuguese Jesuits as a
cautionary precedent) and put all sorts of restrictions on the entrance of
missionaries in the Presidency towns.
The Seramur Missionaries – The Baptist missionaries from
England – the trio, Joshua Marshman, William Carey and William Ward – wanted to
start their activities from Calcutta. Lord Wellesley, the Governor General (1798-1805)
considered them so ‘subversive’, ‘a menace to tranquility’, that they were
banned from entering Calcutta, these missionaries were compelled to settle in
the nearby Danish Settlement at Serampur. The Serampur trio did some useful
work int eh field of education, setting up a printing press, translating the Ramayana
and Mahabharata into English, besides attempting social reform.
The Evangelical movement in England added to the missionary
influence and their popularity in London; it did influence the thinking of the
Company’s Directors and the members of Parliament. As a result, the Charter Act
of 1813 lifted the Company’s blanket ban on missionary activities in India, and
missionaries from the UK could enter, reside, and openly preach. The Charter
Act of 1833 went a step further and threw open India to missionaries of the whole
world, who are free to preach and even settle in India. Consequently, many Germans
and much funded American Protestant missionaries came to India. The Roman
Catholic Missions also became more vigorous and their missionaries from all parts
of the world poured into India.
Missionary comments on Hindu Socio-Religious Practices –
The primary motive of the Christian missionaries was to convert the Indians to
Christianity. In particular, they decried Hindu religion and their religious
practices like idolatry and image-worship. To hammer their point, the Christian
missionaries praised the tenets and practices of their religion. This evoked a
sharp reaction in orthodox Hindu circles, though the missionaries did succeed in
having some converts from the lower classes and in backward tribal and hill
areas. All the same, the social and educational activities attracted the notice
and praise of the newly western educated class.
The missionaries crusaded against the discrimination
against women in Hindu society; social evils like infanticide, child marriage,
polygamy, sati, forced widowhood, came under sharp condemnation. Practices like
purdah, dowry system, the Devadasi practice (Bengal) and denial of proper
education to women, also received their attention.
The rigidity of the caste system and untouchability were
the other targets of the missionary attack. Though conversion amongst the lower
castes were moderate, the inequality based on the caste system received the
careful attention of the leaders of the various socio religious reformers.
The missionaries also turned over their attention to the
neglected and primitive tribes like Santhals in Southern Bihar, the Marria-gonds
in Madhya Pradesh and the numerous tribals in Garo hills and other areas in Northeastern
state. The missionary efforts did attain some success in conversions.
In the field of social service, the missionaries were very
active, though their humanitarian approach was an adjunct to their primary aim
of conversions to Christianity. The missionaries opened many medical dispensaries,
some hospitals and some medical institutions to win the hears of the weaker
sections of Indian society. Similarly, they opened some orphanages for the
physically handicapped and blind. Service centers were also opened during
epidemics, famines, droughts, floods, etc. The missionaries won notable success
in the field of education, production of vernacular literature, setting up
printing presses and publications. In this field, the missionaries worked as
pioneers, when they opened modern elementary schools, made provisions for teaching
English language, set up teachers training institutions, set up special schools
for girls, which provided vocational education also. The missionaries did
valuable work in the field of adult education and carried on novel experiments
in rural education in their schools at Moga, Salem, Madak, Ankaleshwar, Dernakal
and at several other places. During 1936-37, there were 14,341 missionary
institutions, with a total student strength of 1,118,200 on their rolls. The total
expenditure involved was over Rs, 38 million.
In the political field, the missionary activity,
particularly in the fields of political awakening and development of
Nationalist outlook was only marginal.
An overview: Many Western scholars and apologists of
missionary activities in introducing the modern printing press in India, opening
of Westernized type of schools, commenting on the rich cultural heritage of the
Indian classics, focusing attention of socio-religious evils in the Indian set
up and popularizing humanitarian values in society. The missionary’s
condemnation of deficiencies in Indian religious practices evoked reactions
among Indian leaders, who earnestly turned their attention to socio-religious reforms
in Indian society. Taken in this light – both in action and reaction – the missionaries
become heralds of modernization in India.
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