CHAPTER I II

FROM CONVERSION TO· EVANGELIC PREPARATION: CHANGING PERSPECTIVE OF CHRISTIAN

HIGHER EDUCATION, 1872-1893

L. 'I

The relative position of the Protestant mission~in the educational

system in India and the Madras Presidency in general, and their efforts

to retain the dominant position during the post-1854 period in particular,

were examined in the earlier chapter. It was seen how in the context

of the cautious and unsympathetic attitude adopted by the Government

and the serious rivalry posed by the Departmental Institutions after

the Revolt of 1857, the missionary hopes of retaining the dominant

position were getting belied progressively. Further, it was also noted

how the Protestant missions were being relegated from first to the third

position between 1858 and 1900.

Looking at the nature of issues debated and the educational

activities of the Protestant missions till 1900, one may observe two

important trends, namely, (a) a post-facto realisation of the loss of·

influence, leading to a feeling of frustration and reaction among the

missionary rank and file and an acute debate regarding the future line

of action; and (b) a plea for readjustment to the new situation advocated

by advanced missionary opinion. As will be evident in the course of

next three chapters, the opinions of those who urged a modification of

approach in the context of the new situation appears to have influenced

the pattern of activities of the Protestant missions till the first

decade of this century. What happened in the educational activities of

the Protestant missions until about 1900 is a case in point.

{_() ~· (j

The mission schools for imparting Western learning through the

medium of English were started initially as an effective instrument of

evangelising the Indian higher classes and castes. The educational

activities of the Protestant missions started with this aim and came to

be known as "educational missions .. considerably expanded between 1830

and 1854. The hopes raised by the Educational Despatch of 1854 about the

State withdrawal in favour of and active support to private educational

enterprise, wh1ch then meant missionary enterprise, were belied by the

unsympathetic attitude adopted by the Government after 1857. The

missionary complaints and grievances during the post-18b7 period against

the circumstances which hindered the object of educational missions were

gradually turning into a serious debate and, in fact, culminated in a

decided opposition to educational missions themselves. The culmination

of the controversy in a decided opposition necessitated a new apologia

for educational missions and Christian education.

It was in 1872 that both the purpose and role of Christian

education were modified from direct proselytism to diffusion of Christian

values ana ideas and made it to play a preparatory evangelic role. The

period between 1872 and 1893 witnessed the course and resolution of this

controversy from provincial to national levels. This chapter is devoted

to an examination of the emergence of controversy over educational

missions and its resolution at the provincial and national levels during

1872-1893.

The first section of this chapter is devoted to a brief overview

of the emergence of the educational missions as the brain child of

~ L . ..., -· u

Alexander Duff since 1830 and the criticisms it faced during the post-

Duff period. The second section highlights the cul mination of the

controversy in a decided opposition to educational missions in 1872.

While the third section deals with the new role assigned to educational

missions and Christian education, the last section traces the acceptance

of the modified purpose of the educational missions from the provincial

to the regional and national levels. The endorsement of the Home

Churches in Europe and England which preceded the acceptance of the

changed objects of educational missions at the national level in Bombay

during 1892-93, is treated as an indication of regional recognition.

Emergence of Educational Missions

In the annals of modern missions, the nevi branch of .missionary

educational activity called "educational missions 11 owes its inception . 1

to Alexander Duff (1806-1878) of the Free Church of Scotland. It

was Alexander Duff who, for the first time in India, showed that

Western education and values imparted by missionaries through their

English medium schools could be used as an effective instrument of

evangelism. In order to understand why Duff's educational missions

seemed so revolutionary and almost overshadowed every other branch of

missionary activity for a time, it is necessary to grasp the importance

attached by Duff to education, especially English education.

1. Julius Richter, op.cit., 1992-93; Sherewood Eddy, Pathfinders of the World Missionary Crusade, pp.96-97; Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik , op.cit., p.172.

Soon after his arrival in lndia in 1830, Duff discovered that

there was something grossly inadequate or defective in the prevalent

methods of evangelism which failed to make any real impact on Hinduism.

This became evident from the fact that the accession to the ranks of

Christianity in India was from the lower strata of society, the out-

castes and untouchables, who did not form a part of the Hindu social

fabric. Therefore, Duff felt that a direct assault on Hinduism was

possible only by undermining its hold upon the Brahmins and high-caste

Hindus who were its custodians. Duff also came to believe that such an

assault was possible only through the introduction of Western English

education and the dissemination of Christian principles to the Brahmins

and high-caste Hindus.

For this purpose, Duff decided to establish schools for the

children of Hindu parents in order that the schools themselves might

be the instruments of pioneer missionary work. In this way, he hoped

to achieve three ends, viz., (i) to gain access to the first circles

of Indian Society; tiiJ to establish the superiority of Western

civilization and culture as permeated by the principles of Christianity

over those of the East, the embodiments Hinduism and which according

to Duff was a gigantic system of error; and (iii) to win converts to

Christianity from the elite of the Indian Society. 1

1. Julius Richter, op.cit., p.175; M.A. Laird, Education and Missionaries in Bengal, p.213; William Paton, Alexander Duff: Pioneer of Missionary Education, p.61; Robert Smith Wilson, The Indirect Effects of Christian Missions in India, pp.127-28; Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp.173-74.

This seemed to him all the more desirable not only because all

the methods hitherto adopted had failed to gain such access, but also

because these classes were the sole possessors of higher culture and

of an already advanced intellectual life. Secondly, through his

English schools, Duff hoped to effect a wide dissemination of a general

knowledge of Christianity and Christian views of life, so that Christianity

would become the centre of public interest, and, at the same time, a

matter of universal concern. In this way, it would prove to be the

mightiest spiritual force in existence, and capable of entering into

conflict with the ancient Indian spirit and ideals. 1 Thirdly, Duff

believed that from his schools would grow up, if not numerous, but

for that very reason, a more brilliant body of truly converted young

men, all of them belonging to the very best families and equipped with

. complete Western and Christian education. A contingent of Christians

of this calibre seemed to him the more 11 devoutly to be wished 11 because

of the humble origin of the majority of Christians at that time. 2

The most pressing question to Duff at this time was how to make

his schoois specifically Christian as well as popular in order that

the elite of th~ youth of India would flock to his schools and his

Christian education. It was here that Duff struck out in an entirely

new direction by resolving to make the English language the vehicle

for the Western civilization, learning and culture as well as the

1. M.M. Thomas, Acknowledged Christ of Indian Renaissance, pp.253-54; Julius Richter, op.cit., p.175-76.

2. J u 1 ius Richter, o p. cit. , p. 1 7 5-7 6 .

. . 1 f c . t• •t 1 pr1nc1p es o hr1s 1an1 y.

'C\ h J' ~N

It was Duff's conviction that just as his own country, Scotland,

was linked by means of English language with the great civilized world,

so was English to be to Bengal, to all India, the channel for the

Christian learning of-the Western world. Duff was also convinced beyond

doubt that the English would retain their own language and it would be

absolutely necessary for Indians to learn English for employment in

the Government. Further, since to make English the language of the

universal trade was also the aim of the English commercial world, Duff

came to believe that

2 have a great future.

thorough cultivation of English in India must

1. Schools with English language as the medium of instruction was a new phenomenon. For, the period immediately preceding Duff's arrival witnessed a no small controversy among the officials of the East India Company regarding the type of education as well as the classes to be educated. At least two distinct schools of thought dominated the educational policy of the Government. One school of thought known after and dominated by, the Orientalists, advocated the encouragement of the learning of the East, Sanskrit and Arabic or Persian, and the other, the Vernacularists, pleaded for the development of modern Indian vernaqJlars. To give . solid education in the vernaculars for the sake of training and the intellectual uplift of the natives was an idea which never presented itself to the English and the latter tried to evade the issue by declaring that none of the modern languages of India was sufficiently developed to become an effective vehicle and agent for the dissemination of the culture of the Christian West. The missionaries working in Bengal at this time also were using either Bengali or other Indian languages as the medium of instruction. Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp.107-11; Julius Richter, op.cit., pp.176-77.

2. Harlan P. Beach, The Cross in the Land of the Trident or India from a Missionary Point of View, p.85.

The only question was whether those castes and classes which

had so far given lead in matters would welcome it for the sake of

increasing material advantages accruing from a knowledge of it. For

this purpose, it was important to Duff to make his first experiment in

Calcutta which was then the intellectual centre of India. In spite of

the dreary prophesies of failure, Duff's first school met with such

unqualified success that within a few years his example became of the

most radical importance to missionary educational activities as well

1 as the development of the Indian educational system. By this experiment,

Duff, demonstrated that there existed a simply insatiable hunger for .

knowledge of English among the younger generation of the better classes

in Calcutta. At the same time, Duff gave the Bible and Christian

teaching such a peculiar and commanding place in his school programme

that before long permanently Christian influences were radiating from

his highly spiritual personality. 2

Among the effects produced by Duff's educational mission, four

may be noted here. Firstly, the onrush of Western culture into India

had the immediate result of shattering the Hindu conceptions of life,

and turning into objects of ridicule its curious ideas of the world

and the elementary forces of nature. 3 Competent witnesses and

contemporaries testified that so long as Duff remained in India upto

1. Harlan P. Beach says that the group of five students, studying on the first day under a banyan tree, was followed by three hundred other applicants before the week was out, and Duff's "college" soon numbered one thousand students. Ibid.; Julius Richter, op.cit., pp.177-78. --

2. Julius Richter, op.cit., p.178. 3. Harlan P. Beach, op.cit., p.85.

1857, the Christian presentation of life held its own against the onrush

of the atheistic and agnostic influences. 1 Secondly, Duff's influence,

as noted in the previous chapter, was of great importance in the development

of the English education system, especially between 1835 and 1854. Thirdly,

Duff's example incited very many missions to tread in his steps. Lastly,

Duff's theology of educational missions left a permanent imprint upon the

thinking and activities of the Protestant missions in India. 2

Duff's thesis of the conversion of the higher classes and castes and

through them, the conversion of India en masse, seemed very revolutionary

for a time and did, in fact, produce some significant results. It seemed

axiomatic to the Duff era that the conversion of the higher classes and

castes was the surest methods to the eventual conversion of the whole of

India.· For instance, a contemporary of Duff, Sir Charles Trevelyan, said

in 1838;

Many people mistake the way in which the conversion of India will be brought about: I believe it will take place at the last wholesale, just as our ancestors were converted. The community will have Christian instruction infused into it in every way by direct missionary education and indirectly through books of various kinds ... in all conceivable ways in which knowledge is communicated. Then at last, when society is completely saturated with Christian knowledge and public opinion has taken a decided turn that way, they will come over by thousands.3

1. Julius Richter, op.cit., p.184 and pp.192-93; For similar op1n1ons see Dennis Osborne, India and Its Millions, p.184; James M. Thebourn, The Christian Conquest of India, P~173.

2 • J u l i us R i c h te r , o p . c it . , p . 1 8 3 .

3. Quoted by the Rev. T.H. Dodson in the Offic1al .Report of the Missionary Conference of the Anglican commun1on, 1894, p.388.

Transition from Duff•s Era

Duff•s vision did not meet with complete success. It was

true that a handful of significant co~ersions followed as a result

of the Christian higher education. 1 And it was equally true that r,

the educated Hindus began losing faith in Hinduism and caste.~

However, neither all the educated Hindus became totally indifferent

to Hinduism, nor even-those who lost faith in Hinduism went'over

to Christianity automatically. They stopped at "half-way houses"

like the Brahmo Samaj. The point to be noted i~ that Hinduism

did not crumble as Duff believed it would but showed symptoms of

tremendous adjustment and even absorption of the atheist or the

agnostic trends. In fact, the question which the latter generation .

of missionaries had to face was how to approach the "educated classes"

and not the question which Duff had to face, viz. how to approach

"the highest castes". 3

1. Harlan P. Beach~ The Cross in the Land of the Trident or India from a Missionary Point of View, p. 85·.

2. Julius Richter, op.cit., p. 184 and pp. 192-93; Dennis Osborne, India and Its Millions, p. 184; James M. Thobourn, The Christian Conquest of India, p. 173:

3. The Rev. T.E. Slater, "Educated Hindus: Their Attitudes towards their own Religion and Christianity .. , The Missionary Conference of South India and Ceylon, 1978-77, Vol. I, p. 115

Secondly, there also emerged certain other developments which

combined to conspire against the missionary expectation of rapid

progress to Christianity and rendered the widespread copying of

Duff's method of direct evangelic work in educational institutions

more difficult, if not impossible. As discussed in the previous

chapter, these included the numerous hardships which the missionaries

faced, firstly, as a ·result of the Government's attitude towards the

missions after the Revolt of 1857, and secondly, as a consequence of

the introd~tion of the secular Western education.

More specifically, the policy of strict religious neutrality

adopted by the Government after 1857, radically reduced the mission

influence in education, which they used earlier in good measure for

evangelic purposes. Besides, as laid down in the Educational Despatch

of 1854, reports of annual visits and examinations conducted by

inspectors of schools determined the grants-in-aid to the mission

institutions. The excessively cautious approach adopted by the

Government after 1857, in the appointment of school inspectors, many

of whom were indifferent and some even hostile to the missions, often

placed them in a state of virtual dependence upon inspectors and the

Government. Further, examinations were the most important thing of

all to the authorities and they were also the most important thing

'h.. 'l e..,. ....

1 to scholars to get employment under the Government. Larger and~ ·

larger classes, the shortage of educational missionaries, the employment

of non-Christian teachers, a rigid examination system and the imposition

of a fixed syllabus of secular studies, had all combined to push the

purely Christian objectives of colleges into the background.

Consequently, the entire teaching was geared towards the preparation

of secular subjects for examinations, leaving neither any time and

energy to the educational missionary, nor any inclination with the

scholars, for religious instruction. In other words, the direct

Christian teaching formed little more than an episode in a day of secular

teaching and the whole time of the missionary educator was taken

up with work having no apparent connection with the Gospel. 2

But the most important of all the factors was the mixed reaction

among missionaries regarding the cause of Revolt of 1857 and the

solutions they proposed to avert the possibility of its recur~ence.

As a result, quite a few distinct lines of thought emerged among

missionaries during 1858-1872. One view favoured the continuation of

Alexander Duff•s aggressive evangelism in their education as assiduously

as possible, in spite of all the hardships involved in the alliance

with the Governmental system of secular education. Other views converged

1. Eric Sharpe, Not to Destroy But to Fulfill, The Contribution of J.N. Farquhar to Protestant Missionary Thought in India before 1914., pp.79-80; Phillip G. Altback and Gail P. Kelly, Education and Colonialism, p. 17; Martin Carney, Education as Cultural Imperialism, p. 103.

2. Julius Richter, op.cit., p. 308 ..

on a variety of approaches such as (i) to continue to remain, if

possible, within the governmental system but to place the Gospel at

the centre of mission schools; (ii) to withdraw from the governmental

system altogether in order to concentrate on the native Christians

alone; and (iii) to radically reduce the number of msision schools for

want of missionary resources and personnel.

One extreme view, slow to emerge, but.very powerful when appeared,

was the opposition to educational missions, and in fact, to any deviation

from conventional or orthodox missionary methods like the direct pro-

clamation of the Gospel. However, till 1872, Duff's concept of direct

evangelism continued ta be the main theme of the educational missions in

all parts of India and also with the Home churches.

For instance, the Conference of Missions held in 1860 at Liverpool

accepted that 11 teaching. the Gospel 11 was an 11 equally missionary work 11 as

11 preaching the Gospel 11, if only it was wisely conducted. 1 Similarly,

the Rev. C.W. Foreman, declared at the Punjab Missionary Conference, held

just two years later, that 11 Schools based on the Bible are mighty engines

in undermining the whole fabric of Hindu and Muhammadan superstition 11•2

1. Col. Levie, Conference on Missions held in 1860 at Liverpool p. 114, (to be referred to hereafter as Liverpool Conference).

2. The Rev. C.W. Foreman (A.P.M.) Lahore, 11 Schools 11, Punjab Missionary

Conference held at Lahore in December-J-anuary 1962-63, p.31. (To be referred to hereafter as Punjab Missionary Conference.)

In fact, the main agenda of this Conference was on how mission schools

11 for the education __ of heathen youth can be made in the highest degree

an auxiliary to the work of evangel ising the country ... 1 The arguments

which Alexander Duff had adduced in defence of educational missions in

his days were current even in the 1860s in both these conferences. 2

More importantly, even the general effect of English education as

11 Stirring the mind, and cultivating all its faculties and powers•• was

considered to be .. a legitimate method and a great ouject of missions ... 3

In fact, some missionaries were prepared to go further. than Duff on the

historical role of Christian education to the evangelization of India.

11 I have never met any one who has not admitted 11, declared a missionary

from Ca 1 cutta, .. that if the mi 11 ions of Indian fema 1 es are to be .

Christianized at all, it must be to a great extent by means of educational

operations ... 4

. Thus, one sectio~ of missionaries were prepared to continue within

the secular educational system of the Government for direct evangelistic

efforts it afforded in their schools and colleges. But even if it failed

1. Ibid., p. 32.

2. Briefly, they were: (a) the preaching missionary in his daily prea­ching has no access to the youth and the Gospel can reach them only in schools; b) higher education in mission schooJs in towns and cities is a special means of attracting those who come for the sake of the secular English education but inaccessible to the vernacular schools; and c) Christian higher education serves to train the educated native Christian agents -evangelists -who will help defend Christianity from the Pandits and the Maulvis and extend it among the natives. The Rev. C.B. Leupolt, Liverpool Conference, pp. 111-12; The Rev. Thomas Smith (Free Church of Scotland, Calcutta), Ibid., pp. 118-129.

3. The Rev. Thomas Smith in Ibid., p. 119 4. Ibid.

on that end, they were not parti~ularly unhappy because the general effect

of English education still promoted the great object of the missions

by stirring the mind and cultivating all 1ts faculties.

There was, however, another section of missionaries to whom it

was unthinkable to conceive of mission schools without the Bible in the

centre of the curriculum. To them, collaborating with secular Eng.l ish

education in the changed circumstances, which differed co~siderably from

those during Duff•s period, seemed to hinder the main object of missions.

In this, they heralded an era of departure from Duff when doubts and

complaints were to turn into positive suspicion and open hostility to

educational missions. But this position was slow to emerge and the

decade following the Revolt of 1857 was still a transition period from

Duff•s era, when the anxiety to preserve the aggressive evangelism was

still the dominant theme. This was best illustrated by the resolution of

the Ootacamund Missionary Conference in 1958. It was also evident from

the universal demand of the Protestant mission~ ·· _ to make the Bible

the centre of missionary education with the sole motive being the

.. establishment of the Kingdom of God in this land ... 1 One missionary

implored the Queen of England to 11 follow our plan and base the instruction

in all her institutions on the Word of God .. as the sole guarantee to the

benefit of India. 2 Others deplored the negligence and failure of a

1. The Rev, J.H. Wyckoff, 11 The South Indian Missionary Conference .. , The Harnest Filed; July 1899, p. 256; Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik, op.cit., pp. 246-47; Julius Richter, op.cit., pp. 207.208.

2. The Rev. C.B. Leupolt, Liverpool Missionary Conference, p. 116.

Christian Government to provide the Bible to Indians. They could not

resist from pointing out the consequences of this failure. For example,

one missionary asked

What has young Bengal become? They have become the middleman of India ... they have become the stewards of the estate ... they have become an immense wall to separate the governors from the subjects to bury love, sympathy, and hope in the dust and to do great injustice to the people.1

The regrets were profound, but the declaration of what these were

all due to was more emphatic:

... if the Government there had given to the people the Bible and the worship of the living God they would have counteracted these evils, who [the educated young Bengalis] created this rebellion, and who have rendered Bengal the Ireland of India.2

These criticisms came as a result of the deep conviction on the

evangelistic value of mission schools. It was also because the I

missionaries were not prepared to reconcile to the changed rigid attitude

and policy of the Government which made the educational situation vastly

difficult from Duff's period. In fact, they appeared to be very agitated

against the circumstances which affected the Christian character

of mission schools and Christian education. But it is important to

note that these criticisms did not amount to hostility to educational

1. The Rev .s, Hislop, Nagpur, in Ibid., pp. 137-38; For similar op1n1ons of the un-Christianlike attitudeofthe British rulers in India, see the Rev. J. M'kee of Guzerat (Gujarat) in Ibid., pp. 130-31.

2. The Rev. C.T. Hoornle (C.M.S., Agra), in Ibid, p. 113.

education. The earlier optimism of the evangelic potential of secular

English education, surcharged with Christian principles and evangelic

fervour, had not paid rich dividends. In fact, despite increased outlay

of missionary resources; the visible results were on the decline .. Doubts ft.

about the utility o·r the Christian value of secular education turned to

positive suspicion and complaints reached very near to total hostility,

so that 11 SOme missionaries started constantly casting their teeth on

educational missions ... 1 The Home Chu.rches, which watched educational

missions at work had become seriously critical of the wisdom of continuing

to invest in such enterprises whose evangelistic potential and value

had totally waned. 2 To those of them, the Allahabad Missionary Conference

offered the first opportunity to speak out.

The spate of criticism against educational missions that came up

there was unparallelled in the annals of missions, for, it qualitatively

differed from the criticisms voiced earlier. Educational missions were

subjected to a deep heart-searching about their evangelic value. Worse·

still, secular education 1 was.declared ito be no part :of.miss~ionarywork

no matter how high was its indirect Christian value, so long it did not lead

to the direct conversions. The main question this time was on whether

Christian higher education should be supported for its indirect value of

1. Dennis Osborne, op. cit., p. 193.

2. Eric Sharpe, op. cit.,p. 79.

promoting Christian influence or for being a direct evangelic agency.

To those who were optimistic of preserving the Christian character

within the governmental system of secular education, the experience of

the ten years preceding the Allahabad Conference came as a bitter

disappointment. The much-too-talked of Christian value of secular

education to which missionaries came to be tied with getting crowded out

with the increasing craze for secular education. And to those who

hoped and advocated that the Bible must be the centre of the curriculum

and that instruction in Christian principles should gain precedence over

secular teaching, the experience prior to the Allahabad Conference

appeared to be a dismal failure. Even for those who believed that the

spread of Christian influence would gradually ~ap the roots of Hinduism,

the Allahabad Conference could not be the occasion for a thanks-giving

celebration. Fears that the demands of secular education would swamp out

what little Christian influence and value there was in mission education,

proved not only true, but alarmingly on the increase. In such a situation,

the differences of opinion regarding the place and the future role of

Christian higher education became wider and clearer in the Allahabad

Conference than before.

As witnessed in the Liverpool and Punjab Conferences in this

Conference too, there were those who believed that if fhristian education

did not serve the evangelic purpose, it should belong not to the first

stage of missionary labour but to the second. 1 In other words, 11 it should

be the out-growth of the Churches .. and not a means to build it. 2 There

were also others who, while approving of the missionary education,

nevertheless, could not reconcile to the fact that too much attention

was given by missions to a work with too little religious results. 3

The complaints and criticism of both these groups were primarily

pertained to the diminishing evangelic returns, on the one hand, and

the manner in which they were compelled to labour for bestowing 11 mental

culture 11, on the other. But it was another group whose criticisms really

symbolised the opposition to educational missions.

1. The Rev. J.G. Gregson, Agra, Report of the General Missionary Conference held at Allahabad, 1872-73, pp. 119-20 (To be referred hereafter as Report of the Allahabad Missionary Conference) .

2. The Rev. J. Smith (B.M.S. Delhi) and the Rev. C.N. Banerjee (L.M.S. Calcutta), in Ibid., p. 120.

3. One missionary, for example, asked: 11 Have not the Churches devoted too much of their strength to the schools of the larger kind?.. The value of .. Christianizing .. the heathens, which educational missionaries were boasting of, other contended, had only resulted in a 11 mental culture .. and was not in the least helpful to evangelization. These missionaries were emphatic that 11 the higher education of the heathen minds by a missionary agency .. must be discarded and 11 moral and spiritual influences should be worked from below upwards and not vice versa ... The Rev. Jewans. (Allahabd), in Ibid~, pp. 121.22.

Such work as educating the heathens, according to the Rev. Gillan, was

no missionary work. 11 As far as I have been able to see 11, he declared,

11 there is not a trace of it in the records of Apostolic action ... He did

not understand that .. if St. Paul who was competent enough to teach

metaphysics or oratory did not open a school to put the heathen in a better

position for receiving the Gospel, ..• why we should deviate from

St. Paul ... 1 Missionaries, he was firm, 11 0ught to devote themselves

principally and directly to Christianizing the people".2

The Rev. Gillan may be taken as a fair representative of this

opinion, which was found with marginal difference in others. 3 Their

understanding of the history and growth of Christianity was that its

conquests were won with spiritual weapons, not carnal. No missionary

at any time past had gone out with anything but the Gospel in his hands;

missionaries preached only the Gospel, and did not lecture on arts and

sciences. They expounded Moses and St. Paul and not the textbooks of

any university. Their seat of instruction was the pulpit and their

teaching was preaching. The issue of the .. indirect value .. , therefore,

1. Ibid., pp. 122-23. The Rev. G. Gillan (A. P.M., Ambala) was a preaching missionary.

2. Ibid.

3. See for instance, the views of missionaries like the Rev. G. Gregson, the Rev. D~ Wilson (Free Church Mission of Scotland, Bombay), in Ibid., p. 123. For a detailed account of the opposition to the educational missions see also Julius Richter., op. cit., pp. 313-315; Eric Sharpe, op. cit., 80-81.

._, 'l . '-"' ~

should not crowd out the other means, direct and powerful, which should

engage the energies of the missionaries. 1 Such were the arguments

of the opponents of the educational missions.

There was yet another group which advocated a reorientation of

Christian higher education, with the express purpose of conversion.

According to this opinion, the success of any missionary agency was

to be measured primarily from the number of conversions that it led to.

Similarly, missionary educational enterprises must be judged by how much

they achieved for the conversion of its pupils either in the school or

at school-leaving age. When this primary purpose - the sole reason

for its existence - was not achieved, it would be better to abandon that

venture and concentrate upon other fields with more promising results.

This would be desirable, all the more because the missions were virtually

dependent upon the dominant partner, the State. The State used the

missions for the attainment of its own ends, some of which were alien

to the objects of the missions, and some of which were indeed antagonistic

to those objects. 2 Christia~ higher education in India had drawn to

itself too large a proportion of mission resources while direct evangelism

was progressively in the decline, if not totally stagnant. On the

contrary, mass conversion -movements which did not need so much resources

1. The Rev. G. Gillan, Report of the Allahabad Missionary Conference, p. 123.

2. Julius Ricther, op. cit., p.314.

and so elaborate an organisation, were showing better results. Therefore,

the unwarranted waste of educating the heathens could more profitably

be redirected to fields of surer prospects. Such were the arguments of

those who did not value the indirect value of Christian higher education

very highly. 1

Amidst all these criticisms and attacks, not only did mission schools

and colleges grow rapidly, but there were also fresh attempts made to

tap the evangelic potential of Christian higher education through what

came to be known as 11 independent evangelism .. , or 11 mission to the educated ..

(classes). This was partly because of the support of a large number of

missionaries towards continuing and expanding Christian higher education.

Even more importantly, this was due to the apologia by the Rev. William

Miller, the first and the most articulate representative of this opinion.

It was Miller who piloted the defence of educational missions in this

Conference. While the 11 independent evangelism .. of which Miller was also

the pioneer will come in the next chapter, his defence of the educational

missions could be seen here.

III. Resolution of the Controversy

(a) Christian Higher Education with a New Role

The Rev. William Miller, who was the main speaker in favour of

2 Christian higher education, began his paper by admitting that

1.. Eric Sharpe, op. cit., p. 81; Julius Ricther, op. cit., p. 315.

2. The Rev. William Miller [ (1838-1923), Free Church Mission Society of Scotland, Madras ], 11 The Place of Education as a Missionary Agency .. Report of the Allahabad Missionary Conference, p. 105-14.

.. ,., ......... v"

the situation apparently left a great deal to be desired and, as a

~esult, there was "considerable questioning about the utility of

missionary education" 1 He also stated quite bluntly that 11 the additions

made to the visible Church by means of these institutions are fewer

than they once were ... But he did not propose a solution; nor did he

attempt to lay the blame on any of the circumstances of the post-1857

period, which the opponents of ed~cat~onal missions adduced. On-the·

other hand, he proposed to put forth what he thought ought to be 11 the

light in which missionary educational institutions should be regarded .. ,

or 11 the exact effect they should be expected to produce ... 2 Miller had

to begin on this point because educational missions till then were

forced to accept th~t their raison d'etre was direct evangelism. This

was why Miller proposed to offer an alternative perspective for missionary

higher education.

The Rev. Miller recognised that the object of the Christian Church's

investment of 11 SO much money, so much thought, so many lives .. in India

was "to bring India to Christ ... For Christianity to strike deep roots

in the thoughts, feelings, character and life of the nation, the idea

of being content with the accession of a certain number of individuals,

even if it be reckoned in thousanands, was not only too narrow a view,

1. Ibid., p. 105.

2. Ibid.

but in fact, a wrong view of the Church•s mission. Miller stated

If the sole object of Christian efforts be to bring the greatest number of human beings, irrespective of race, or creed, or country -simply the greatest possible number of men, into heartfelt knowledge of divine truth, then I at least should join the enemi~s of Indian missions and should denounce them as an immoral waste of strength .•. 1

But on the other hand, the purpose of the missionary enterprise,

according to Miller, was the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ

and his Church in India, a task greater, wider and more enduring than

that of adding as many numbers as possible~ to the rolls of the

disciples of Christ. 2

In this task, the contribution of Christian higher education was

not direct but indirect, subordinate and secondary, in the sense that

it was preparatory. This preparatory work was to be attempted by the

diffusion or spread of Christian ideas, as it were, in concentric circles

from the focus of the college. Thus, Miller assigned to Christian

higher education a role of preparatio evangelica - to prepare the minds-

to be receptive to Christian principJes. The main result of Christian

higher education, which Miller aimed at was 11 a change of thought and

feeling, a modification of character and formation of principles tending

in a Christian direction ... to leaven the whole lump of Hinduism ...

1. Ibid., p. 106.

2. Ibid., pp. 106-07~

'I I

Miller hoped to leaven the whole lump of Hinduism first through scholars,

and then the entire society through the educated, especially the alumni

of the Christian colleges.

To mould the character and direct the tendencies of the young aright,

Miller said, 11 iS the service that educational institutions are fitted

to render ... and in point of fact, the only service that the Church has

a right to expect from them ... 1 Direct Christian teaching and other

services, whether more or less, Miller said, should be the result and

not the cause of the first and primary function of educational institutions.

Needless to say, this was a total reversal of the views of the

opponents who saw the validity of educational missions only on the

basis of direct results. 3

The work of Christian higher education, according to Miller was,

metaphorically speaking, a sowing and not harvesting: others will reap

the harvest. Similarly, the province of Christian higher education

11 iS not directly to save souls, but to make the work of saving them

more speedy and more certain than it would be without it 11•4

Miller explained the reasons for such a role of christian education.

He said that mission schools and colleges attracted students for the

1. Ibid., pp. 107-08.

2. Ibid., p. 110.

3. G. Patterson, op.cit., p. 257.

4. Ibid., p. 112.

best secular English education they offered. But if missionaries

were to convert their institutions into places of preaching to those

who would not come under preaching otherwise, that course, Miller

contended, would be 11 dangerous 11• For, 11 it comes very near to representing

them as got up on false pretences. It comes very near to giving

education as a bribe to induce the recipients to submit to exhortation••. 1 _

On the other hand, Christian higher education, Miller explained, which

undertoo-k the preparatory process, must embrace the man as a whole, his

intellect, mind and spirit. Only if such a preparatory process was

gone through, direct evangelistic work in educational institutions could

be thought of, and it should decidedly be the next stage. And only when

the community as a whole had become receptive to the Gospel, Christian

higher education could become secondary, whereas 11 right now the work of

preparing the minds is the immediate work ... 2 ·Therefore, .. as matters stand

at present .. , Miller said, 11 t_he Church should devote, I do not say by

any means the whole .. , but 11 Very considerable portion of her energies ..

for educating the Indian higher classes. For, .. education is indeed by

no means the only way df preparing for it, but it is certainly the

most important of all ...

1. Ibid., p. 110.

2. Ibid. See Miller•s reiteration of the same position in a more lucid manner in his 11 Indian Missions and How to View them: A Lecture delivered in Edinburgh, 1878 11

, quoted by G. Patterson, op.cit., p. 360 .. Also see Sherwood Eddy, op.cit. especially the section: 11 Hill iam Miller \and the Christian College .. , pp. 94-104.

, I '/:;

The gain of such a preparation was obvious to Miller: "the

reception of the Gospel would be easier when young minds were already

trained and influenced by Christian principles". 1 Miller pleaded for

Christian higher education not merely for its preparatory evangelic

value but also for its potential for a spiritual regeneration. He was

convinced that

... the condition of a nation or a community is far more hopeful when its youth, ... and especially those who will afterwards guide the thoughts of many, have their intellect trained, their feelings directed, their character formed under Christian influence, than when they grow up under influences, leading them away from God and Truth.2

Having advocated (i) a preparatory evangelic role to christian·

education, (ii) having explained the advantages of such a preparatory

role for spiritual regeneration and (iii) having cautioned against the

dangers inherent, in treating it as a field of direct proselytism,

Miller also touched certain other issues. One such issue was whether

an educational missionary, in his preoccupation with secular education

and indirect Christian teaching, would be indifferent to direct results.

•Miller answered this question in other way round: If the educational

missionary runs after immediate results, he would be a traitor to his doty.

Regarding its proportion, he considered that neither Christian higher

1. Ibid.

2. Ibid., See also 0. Kandaswamy Chetty, Or-William Miller A BiEgraphy, p. 31.

'i [. - ....

education should be viewed as a substitute for the simple proclamation

of the Gospel, nor should it absorb the Church's whole energy or activity;

educational work was not an independent kind of missionary effort, but a

work at best inferior, or subsidiary to the grand work of actually

bringing souls into life in Christ. But he was also convinced that

11 it is a work that is greatly needed a kind of work if it be wisely

conducted, will help on every other and without which no other will

produce its full effect 11•1

It must be remembered that Miller was addressing an audience in

which many were doubtful of the evangelic potential of, and in fact, some

were decidedly opposed to, missionary educational work. And to convince

them, Miller had to show that.he was not indifferent to many important

and practical problems viz., a) the excessive attention given to

educational missions; b) the fact that Christian higher education could

be carried on by Christian laymen; c) fhe question of enhancing the '

Christian c~aracter and atmosphere of mission schools and colleges;

d) the neglect of native Christian community; and e) the question of

follow-up work with the alumni of mission institutions. Miller felt that

these were 11 important problems .. that could be properly dealt with only

if the place and function of Christian education - a point which was

primary, .fundamental and, in a sense, preliminary -was recognised.

1. Ibid., p. 112.

In settling the question of the place of Christian higher education

in the scale of importance of missionary efforts to win India to

Christianity, Miller set out a new role to Christian education 1md relieved

~he colleges of the burden of conversion. Insi;cC:, C.hr.istian .ldgher

education was assigned the role of preparing the minds and setting them

in a Christian direction. And the salient points of Miller's apologia of

Christian education may be summed up; i) The object of the missions in

India is not simply to increase the number of converts to Christianity

but to establish the Kingdom of Christ on a wider and more enduring

basis; ii) For this task, a variety of agencies - direct and indirect,

the front-line ones, like preaching missions, as well as the rear ones,

like the educational missions, each playing its role best fitted for

the situation in which it is placed but contributing equally to the

object of the missions1 are necessary; iii) Educational mission is not

a direct evangelistic agency; it is an indirect or an auxiliary agency;

iv) Christian higher education plays a preparatory evangelic role through

the diffusion of Christian ideas among scholars and setting their minds

in a Christian direction so that they would become receptive to Christian

principles later in life; diffusion of Christian principles and

preparatio evangelica are the twin tasks of Christian education;

v) Christian schools and colleges must become the focus of radiating

Christian influences, first through the person of their scholars and then

through their alumni; this process of diffusion is the most certain

method of leavening the lump of Hinduism and the evangelisation of India

' ' ... ~ I ..... ......

at large; vi) In the circumstances in which they are placed in India,

the role of educational missions and their Christian education can

only be diffusion of Christian principle$ and a preparation for later

evangelisation; the Church cannot expect any other service than these

from them; vii) Not only the history of the Church but also an analysis

of the conditions prevalent in India testifies to the wisdom of doing

such a preparatory work among Indian higher classes through education as

well as warns of the danger of attempting direct evangelism in

educational institutions; and viii.) Direct results from educational

institutions, follow-up evangelic work among those educated in mission

institutions, the educational and spiritual care of the native

Christian students,.etc., are indeed important problems which can be

properly tackled only if the primary function of Christian education

is understood and appreciated.

Thus, once Miller had delineated the role of Christian higher

education as that of preparing of minds through the diffusion of

Christian principles, and not being a centre for recruiting disciples

to the ranks of Christianity, the place a~d·importance in the scale of

missionary methods became clear. The debate that ensued only pertained

to specifics and details and not to basic principles. Christian

education was accepted as an evangelic agency like any other branch of

mission work like the Gospel preaching. It also became clear that just

as missionaries were under an obligation to preach the Gospel to Indians,

/ '/

they were also under an obligation to impart education to Indians. In

other words, Christian education to Indians was accepted as an integral

part of missionary efforts towards evangelization of India.

III (b) Po ular Acce tance of Christian Education as Evangelic Preparation 1872-1893)

Even in the Allahabad Conference, missionaries who had experience

in educational work, coming from the three Presidency cities, Calcutta,

Bombay and Madras, supported Miller•s views on Christian higher

education. For instance, the Rev. S. Dyson from Calcutta, spoke of

the value of Christian higher education as an ••indirect agency", and

jusitified missionary schools and colleges for their two-fold objects,

viz., securing converts to the Christian faith and imparting Christian

knowledge with a view to the formation of character. 1 Dyson felt, wit~

a_change of approach it would be possible to achieve the immediate

results without sacrificing the indirect value of secular teaching.

He added :

The educational missionary who sets before himself the formation of character of his students according to the mind of God ... as his ideal, while he will necessarily regard the various subjects as different among themselves in every possible degree of importance, will regard none as falling outside his sphere of duty or as "common or unclean".2

1. Rev. S. Dyson, "High Mission Education", Report of the Allahabad Missionary Conference, pp. 89-95. The Rev, S, Dyson (C.M~S.) was the Principal of the Cathedral Mission College at Calcutta.

2. Ibid., p. 93.

The Rev. Dr. Bishop Cotton went into great details of the

peculiar circumstances obtaining in India necessitating Christian

higher education, such as the importance of the Indian higher castes,

the exclusive effectiveness of this method, the absence of any

other method to approach these caste~, etc. 1 He also refuted the

view that submission to the Government system of education was not

advantageous to the missions. He felt that 11 just because missionary

influence is not allowed a major say in the university educational

system, withdrawing, and much worse, abandoning it would be like

effectually putting our light under the bushel 11•2

Other missionaries who spoke after Miller and Dyson, or

participated in the ·subsequent di.scussion, supported and elaborated

the points already made. Some of.them openly spoke of their agreement

with Miller by saying that 11 Miller•s bold policy .. for the future role

of missionary higher education, as well as the necessity of shifting

the original position and design of miss~onary education 11 Should be

impressed upon the Home Churches ... 3

1. Ibid., p. 86. As early as 1958 the advocates of missionary higher education advanced these arguments: The school was a preaching place where an audience could be got, different from, and in many cases of a higher order than, any that could gather elsewhere. G. Patterson, op.cit., p. 355.

2. The Rev. Bishop Cotton, in The Allahabad Missionary Conference, p. 86.

3. See for example, the views of the Rev. Hastings (Wesleyan Missionary C.M.S., Madras) and the Rev. Dr Murray Mitchel, (Free Church of Scotland) in Ibid., pp. 124-25, p. 130.

The General Conference on Foreign Missions met in London in

1878. The perspective in which the question of·christian higher

education was viewed may be seen from the observations of the

Rev. Dr. Murray Mitchell, who began by viewing 11 the effect of education

on the spread of Christianity in India 11• He prefaced the whole

discussion by affirming its importance: 11There is nothing of greater

importance in the world-wide range of Indian administration than this

matter of education ... 1 Convinced, thus, of the importance of English

education, Mitchell urged 11 men of high place .. , the British rulers of India,

to 11 See that education has a bearing, direct and vital both on the

well-being of the people and the continuance of our Eastern dominions ...

But at the same time; he was constrained to warn that 11 if we go

seriously wrong in the educational system we set up, the error may

2 soon be irretrievable and the consequences fatal ...

Many missionaries preferred to underline the .. Christian Government's

indifference .. more sharply than Dr Mitchell did. The Rev. Dr. Doland

Matheison, for example, said that the experience of the quarter of

a century of secular education disproved the Government's hope that

adherence to religious neutrality would ensure Indian loyalty to the

Raj. On the other hand, according to Matheison, the educated Indians

had only become disloyal to the British. 3

1. Ibid.

2. The Rev. Dr Murray Mitchell (Edinburgh), 11 The System of Education Pursued in India .. , Proceedings of the General Conference on Foreign Missions, London, in October 1878, pp. 124-34.

3.The Rev. Dr Donald Matheison in Ibid., p. 135.

In view of this, he wondered .. whether something should not be done 11•

That .. something .. was religious instruction, which he believed would

have kept Indians loyal. Theref_ore, he asked, 11 has not the time come,

when the missionary societies, and indeed the whole of their constituents

in the country should rise and ask the Government whether some change

should not take place?111

But none agreed with this view that the Government should openly

aid the evangelization of India by regulating religious instruction

and introducing the Bible in the curriculum. There was wide agreement

among missionaries about 11 the evil consequences of irreligious [secular]

education as creating a monster which is turning upon itself .. , and the

educated intellect w~ich, without a religious belief, being 11 in a ferment

and restlessness 11•2 However, the Conference did not, as Matheison

preferred, propose that the Government should introduce instruction in

Christianity in their schools and colleges. Instead, the Conference !

felt that it "ought to urge upon them [Government] to retire as soon 3 as possible from the direct control of higher education altogether ...

1. Ibid., p. 136.

2. The Rev. J. Barton (Cambridge, and an educational missionary in India for 15 years) in Ibid., pp. 136-37.

3. Ibid.

It was mainly this feeling among missionaries that led to

the creation of the Missionary Education Committee in 1876 and whose

representation to Lord Ropon led to the appointment of Indian Education

Commssion in 1882.

Seen in relation to the points raised by Miller in the Allahabad

Conference the proceedings of this Conference appear significant in two

respects. First, the opposition to educational missions, as witnessed in

1872, was conspicuously absent in 1878. But on the question of the role

of Christian education, this Conference went completely with Miller.

Secondly, this Conference went a step further than Miller did, in holding

that Christian education was vital for the well-being as well as the

continuance of the British eastern dominions. The only note of discord .. was the view that the Government Institutions must also introduce

instruction in Christianity, to which, of course, the Conference did

not agree.

The Missionary Conference of South India and Ceylon which met

during 1878-79, marks a departure both from the Allahabad Conference

or the earlier ones in two respects. First, the "higher education

and its value as Christianizing agency" became a subject on which

there was no disagreement. 1 Secondly, in view of their large number

in the South, the importance of Christian higher education for the

1. This would appear even more significant as (i) three out of the eight days of the conference were devoted to a discussion of Christian education, and (ii) the conference was attended by 188 delegates from 26 mission Societies working in South India and Ceylon.

§2

training of native Christians, was more keenly felt here than elsewhere.

But this time, however, the defence of Christian higher education did not

come from Miller, but it came from missionaries working in Ceylon and

Bangalore, belonging to Societies like the American Missions and

Wesleyan Missions which is an evidence of the. impact of Miller•s views.

The Rev. Hastings, who addressed the Conference on the subject

of Christian higher education, emphasized its need as against the evils

of secular education. He contended that (i) if higher education

unsettled the belief in religion without offering a substitute, (ii) left

the mind enlightened but wholly adrift as regards religion, (iii) liberated

the mind from idolatry and superstition, but left it unrestrained and

impatient!; and (iv) prompted men to reject all religious truths, and

fall into scepticism and infidelity, then, it would undoubtedly be a

power for evil. On the contrary, leavened with Christian truth, if it

was able to divest the minds of old superstitions, errors and

prejudices and supply a religion adequate to meet all the demands of

the soul, 11 it would be an inestimable blessing 11•1 Thus, Christian

education was seen to be the cure for the evils of secular education.

The need for influencing the Indian youth by Christian religion

was obvious to Hastings just as it was to missionaries like Miller and

1. The Rev. R. Hastings. [American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.) Ceylon], 11 Higher education and its value as a Christianizing Agency .. , Missionary Conference of South India and Ceylon, 1878-79, Vol. I, pp. 71-72.

')r" Uv

others. "Because education gives those possessing it a controlling

influence in any community", Hastings had no doubt that "the educated

would eventually form ·and control in a great measure, public opinion".

Knowing that, "if the influence is exerted on the side of immorality and-

irreligion .. , Hastings said that, "eduation is disastrous", and added that

he 11 knows but one and the only way to prevent higher education becoming

a power for evil, and that is permeating it with Divine Truth" . 1

The impact of Miller•s views was further evident when Hastings

said that the value of Christian higher education should not be judged

simply by the number of conversions it effected, but, "by how much it

contributes to the future of the Church, to its character, permanency and

efficiency". 2 Therefore, "it would be a shortsighted policy", he

declared, "to discard any agency because immediate results are not seen

in conversion, and because retaining it is attendant with great

difficulties and present discouragements". 3

Like Miller, H~stings did not feel it right to compare the

evangelic utility or Christian value of mission education w'ith that

of a direct evang~lic agency. He was only concerned with that sphere

1. Ibid., p.72.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

') .. uS:

of society, the higher classes, that this agency aimed at influencing.

And considering the importance of this class he asked :

Shall we allow this agency to pass altogether into anti-Christian or irreligious hands, or shall we endeavour to retain a hold upon it and as far as possible and give to it a Christian direction? If by a Christian education the influence of those entering other professions can be secured on the side of Christianity and their aid enlisted on ·its.propagation, it will be a great gain.

Far better an educated class in some measure governed by Christian principle~, with the prejudices removed and nominally on the side of Christianity th.an a class of educated infidels or deists.1

Hastings concluded by posing another question:

Is there not a necessity laid upon Christian bodies to do all io their power to retain, as far as they are able, the training of those of the rising generation who ... are to become the governing class? And in this point of view, has not higher education a value, as an indirect Christianizing agency, far above that generally attributed to it? 2 · ·

Next, the Rev. J. Hudson of the Wesleyan Mission from Bangalore,

took up the defence of Christian higher education for promoting

3 evangelistic purposes. Hudson believed that those who were influenced

by Christian principles and, thus, won over from opposition to sympathy,

friendship and belief, all short of conversion, would help to create

1. Ibid., pp.77-7 . Emphasis added.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., pp. 81-82. The Rev. J. Hudson also addressed the Conference on the same subject as Hastings, viz., 11 Higher Education and its Value as a Christianizing Agency ...

' a public opinion and narrow down the gap between hostile Hindus and

foreign missionaries. He added further that those who received a

Christian higher education and had become sympathetic to Christianity

played a historical role in neutralizing the active hostility and in

laying the foundation to make it easier for the missionary approach to

the heathen higher classes and castes. 1 Hence, the severance of the

connection from the system of university education, Hudson warned,

.. would automatically and immediately deplete the mission institution

of its students .. , and deprive the missionary of all the advilntages ..

mentioned above. 2 Hudson concluded on a note similar to that of the

Rev. Miller's, on the role of Christian education:

In concluding this paper, I would record my sense of the great value of higher education. I came to India with a decided preference for other modes of labour, but from year to year the conviction has been growing •.• and now that I am engaged in other work it is strong as ever ... that no agency may under God's blessings be made more effectual than this, not perhaps to produce quick results, but to turn India into a Christian land.3

Miller, who spoke after Hudson, reiterated all the arguments he

advanced at the Allahabad Conference with even greater force and

conviction. He concluded by observing that 11 the value of higher

education as a Christianizing agency is small to the man who walks

by sight. For the man who walks by faith, it is great everywhere

and indefinitely so in India ... 4

1. Ibid., pp. 85-86.

2. Ibid., pp. 85-86. 3. Ibid., pp. 89-90. 4. Ibid.

us In the discussion that followed, speakers, one after another,

acknowledged the truth of Miller's views as borne out from their own

experiences. 1 The Rev. W. Stevenson, while summing up the feeling of

the deliberations on education noted as "gratifying" the .. unanimity

with reference to the importance and the necessity of higher education

as a missionary agency, not merely to those engaged in education but

to all". Amboldened by such unanimity, he declared, .. this vexed

question may now be said to be decided ... 2 But, at the same time, he

deplored that 11 this stage has not yet been reached by the Ch1:1rches at

3 home". Therefore, he pleaded that "some expression of the mind of

the Conference be communicated to the mother Churches .. in order that

"the detractors of educational missions would see the necessity of

bringing to an end the waste of time and energy involved in the

controversy as to the superiority of one mode of mission work over

another . 4 11 The mind of the Conference", to which Stevenson referred was

evident from the resolution on Christian higher education:

This Conference desires to express its full appreciation of the value of high class Christian education as missionary agency, and it is hoped that the friends of Indian missions will sympathise evangelistic work in this country.5

1. Ibid., p.91: See, for example, the Rev.M. Rathnam, a student of Noble's school and Principal of a High School in Bezwada(Andhra reg~on of the Madras Presidency), speaking of the great changes taking place there; similarly see the v1ew of Rev.Stevenson (F.C.M.) and Rev. William Burges (W.M.S., Madras) in Ibid., pp.97-101.

2. Rev.N. Stevenson (F.C.S., Madras), was the Chairman of the session on "Christian Education ... See his observations in Ibid., pp.101-02.

3. Ibid., p. 103. 4. lbid.

!). Ibid.

Higher class education was thought essential also because:

')'I u ..

The Native Church in India needs at present and will still. more need in the future, men of superior education to occupy positions of trust and responsibility as pastors, evangelists and leading member-s of the community, such as can only be supplied by our high class Christian Institutions.1

The resolution, also noted with satisfaction "the powerful effect in

favour of Christianity which these institutions are exercising throughout

2 the country" through the influence of the educated in rural areas.

Clearly this was an emphatic confirmation of Miller's view of the

influence of Christian education in leavening Hinduism.

When the subject of missions in India, Ceylon and Burma came up

for discussion ten years later, at the Centenary Conference on the

Protestant Missions held at London in 1888, missionaries working all

over India spoke of the high value of Christian higher education.

Hitherto, secular English education was feared for its harmful atheistic

and irreligious effects. It was only the intervention of missions and

the Christian orientation given by them which averted the menace of

atheism from secular education. This conference, perhaps for the first

time, viewed secular education in itself being helpful to the object of

the missions, regardless of the agency, missionary or Government.

Ever since the missionary conference discussed the ways and means

of evangelising in India, i.e., from the 1850s, each branch of mission

work, including the educational activities, won support in proportion

1. !bid., pp.103-04.

2. The Rev. Dr.-Donald Matheison in Ibid., p.135.

to its contribution to evangelisation. Education by itself and especially

the secular English education was never considered helpful for the

purpose of evangelisation except perhaps by Alexander Duff and a few of

his successors. In this Conference, speakers one after another, began

to take a positive view of the role of education as well as the secular

English education as helping the missionary. 1

Especially on the question of the more explicit indirect Christian

value of secular English education, some missionaries were inclined to

take a broader view. As Alexander Duff did, they drew a parallel between

the later 19th century India with the early European situation. As the

Greek and Latin literatures exercised a heathenising influence over the

Christian nations of Europe, 11 SO will the Christianity of English

literature exercise a Christian influence in India". 2 They believed that

1 . Prof. Rev. Robertson, "Mission Work", Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant Mission of the world held in London, 1888, Vol.l.pp. 192-93. tHereinafter referred to as ~eport of the Centenary Conference;. The Rev. Prof.Robertson was former Principal of Free Church Mission College, Calcutta. The Rev.Prof. RobertsoD for instance, said that "for mission work, i.e., of evangelising the heathens ... even secular education, education of the Three R's 1s useful in the sense that it is not absolutely antagonistic to the Gospel". "Without education", he went on to add, "it would be meaning­less and a total waste to distribute tracts and scriptures to the heathens". Secondly, education was seen essential for,/~elf-propagating Church is impossible". Thus, education was recognised as "a part of the ordinary means tb be used for bringing under Gospel influences those that are outside" and as "a necessary preliminary to the introduction of certain parts of m1ssionary work". f*wihtout education a

2. The Rev.S.Summers1for instance, believed that as a ~esult of the solid,a

evangelicial potential of secular English education, "9U per cent of the Hindu youth trained in Government colleges have ceased to believe in Hinduism and have become sceptics". He added: "God be praised for such a beneficient result and He lead them on through scepticism to a reasonable faith in Christ". The Rev.S.Summers, (B.M.S., Serampore), "Collegiate Education as a means of Evangelistic Agency", in Ibid., p.237. --

even the secular education given in Government colleges "is doing a

work for the evangelization of that country which the promoters do

not contemplate and their opponents do not suspect". 1

The second important aspect of this Conference was its perception

of the changes in the intellectual-philosophical attitudes and beliefs

of the educated Indians as a result of the English education and its

consequences for the educational missionary. The morru and spiritual

unrest found among the educated was discerned as the symptom of a "new

India" or a "new situation" which witnessed the educated Hindus moving

from the old, toWlrds the light·. The missionaries were determined to

intervene and evangelize this new situation. One of the expressions of

the "new movement" was said to be the Brahmo Samaj and other such

reform movements within Hinduism, which they saw as the result of

Christian influence. "Though not the same result the missionaries wishes

to see 11,2 yet they were happy, as "the Samaj declared a vigorous

crusade against idolatry, pronounced caste as a base thing and ctlls

for its abolition". 3 Even those who were inclined to look for positive

results were hopfel that even if direct conversions did not result from

mission schools, the educated youth would come out so changed mentally

1. Ibid., pp.23.7-38. Also see the views of Mr. Henry Morris lHon.Secretary, Christian Vernacular Education Society for India) in Ibid., p.197.

'·The Rev. J.P. Ashton (L.M.S., Calcutta), "Engl1sh Education in Mission Colleges and Higher Schools as an Instrument of Christian Effort", in Ibid., pp.143-44.

3. Ibid., p.238.

1 and morally that they could not fail to influence those around.

A third significant aspect of this Conferen~ence was the awareness

of the danger in withdrawing from secular education or restricting it

to only the native Christians, a feeling similar to that expressed in

the two conferences during 1878-/9. lt was realised that such a policy

would not only keep the Hindus and Muslims beyond access to the missionary

but would also isolate the native Christians. 2 On the contrary, if all . .

the castes were educated together, the Conference was convinced> that "no

place which has a more levelling influence than the colleges .. , and that

the spread of English as the lingua franca, would 11 be a powerful means

for the extension and consolidation of Christ's kingdO!l\ 11• While

summing up all the advantages of Christian education the Rev. Ashton

said: .. Providence seems to call aloud for the maintenance and extension

of this work 11•3

In the discussion that followed, the maintenance and extension

of educational missionswer·eurged on the grounds that (i) the bulk of

Christian converts in south India, drawn mainly from the lower castes,

1. Ibid.

2. Ibid. The Rev. A5hton observed: 11 lf the converts and sons of converts are trained entirely apart from the rest of the community, they are made more than ever a caste by themselves, and the missionary too is cut off from the sympathies of the people, and especially from the ever-increasing English speaking portion of the native community ...

. 3. Missionaries with considerably long experience in South India testified this. See for instance, the Rev.R. Caldwell, "The Manner and Customs of Western Christianity - How far to be Enforced on Converts to the Faith", Authorised Report of the Missionary Conference held in London, 1875, p.69-71; J.A.Sharrock, South Indian Missions, p.217-18; See also M.A. Sherring, The Histor~ of the Protestant Missions in India from their Commencement irl 170 to 1881, p.32l.

were not Hindus, 1 thus, leaving Hinduism unaffected; and lii) every

convert in the entire mission area was the product of mission schools.2

Thus, it became clear that "when you have converted thousand upon

thousands of the low castes in India, you may not have touched Hinduism

one bit". 3 the Indian higher classes and castes were determined to

have higher education, a determination which acquired almost the

dimension of an organized movement, and an education not only non-religious

but, in fact, anti-religious. 4 The question before the missionaries,

therefore, was \<Jhether they would have this secL•lar English education

or the education that "we can give them, an education not merely

evangelical, but evangelistic, an education which ought to, at every

step, deal with the conscience of men, and to persuade them, by all means

and instrumentalists to embrace the Gospel which alone can bring

salvation". 5 It was concluded that whether viewed from the angle of

1. lhe l<ev. William E. Padfield, (C.M.s., Masulipatnam, Madras Presidency) Report of the Centenary Conference, 1888, p.246.

2. The Rev. Prof. Robertson, tF.C.s., Calcutta), Report of Centenary Conference ... pp.200-01; The Rev. E.S. Summers (B.M.S., Serampore), Ibid. •:· pp.237-38.

3. lhe Rev. Judson Smith, "Educational Missionary Work- I, Principle", in Ibid., p.188; The Rev. Prof. Robertson in !bid., p.201.

4. The Rev. P. Ashton in Ibid., p.245.

5. The Rev. Judson Smith, in Ibid., p.188.

the advantages or the dangers of withdrawing from the educational system,

"providence seems to call aloun~ for the maintenance and extension of

this work 11•1

The opinion of the Conference seemed final when the Rev. R.Wardlaw

Thompson concluded the proceedings by saying: 11 I am more and more

convinced every year that the work which the educational missionary in

India is doing for the future of India is far greater than the most

sanguine supporters have ever imagined ... The day is gone by with most

of us discussing whether higher education is part of Christian work 11•

2 The issue in the 1880s, as he perceived, was 11 how best to do it 11•

He was referring to what the Rev. Miller so persuasively argued for.

viz., cooperation and collaboration in the missionary educational

efforts. 3

Within another four years, in 1892, an all-India Missionary

Conference was held in Bombay. While near unanimity was achieved at

the end of the Conference, the proceedings give an account of very

forceful arguments, full of convinction, to establish the legitimacy

-of Christian education. The subject of missionary education was

introduced as 11 the most burning one ... on which strong feeling and

strong language have been used on either side 11•4 The arguments in favour

1. The Rev. P. Ashton, Ibid., p.245.

2. The Rev. Wardlaw Thompson, Ibid., p.248. (The Rev. Wardlaw Thompson was the Secretary of the L.M.S. in London).

3. The Rev. William ~1iller, "The Place of Higher Education, as an Instrument of Christian Effort", Ibid., pp.231-36.

4. Report of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference held at Bombay, 1892-93, Vol.II, p.412.

of educat1onal missions were not new but the reiteration brings out

certain new dimensions of the theology of educational missions~specially

in the light of the emerging "new India", a point on which considerable

thought was given in the Conference in 1888. 11 lt would be putting the

clock back a whole generation 11, said the Rev. W.B. Findlay, who read the

first paper on this subject, 11 tO raise in an assembly of the Indian

missionaries the question whether or not education is a proper and valuable

missionary agency" 1 He went on to point out that education was 11 approved

by the hearty and authoritative declarations of successive conferences,

and adopted as an integral part of the operations by all larger and more

experienced socieites, Protestants and Romanists, English, American and

German, so that among us who are gathered here a debate whether street-

preaching is a legitimate and valuable method would be no more out of

date and academic than a similar debate concerning missionary education 11•2

Findlay observed that the purpose of the Conference, therefore, was

11 to take counsel together for the great task 11 and 11 to set forth principles,

processes and results of our work to the Churches in other lands which

from afar are supporting and watching missionary operations 11•3 In

other words, perhaps, the Indian experiment was to be a model for other

1 ands.

The Rev. Findlay explained the reasons for the prevalence of

1. I he Rev. W.B. Findlay, 11 Education as a Missionary Agency 11, Ibid.,

pp.414-415. (Findlay [W.M.S.] was the Principal of a School Grade College at Mannargudi, Tanjore District).

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., p.415. Emphasis original.

doubts and suspicions about the value of missionary education. The

value of an agency, like Christian higher education, was not evident

to those looking at it from a distance, like the Home Churches and

non-educational missionaries. "Its manifold influence·~ Findlay said,

11 WOrk for the most part imperceptibly. The operation proceeds like the

seed and the leaven, from the inward to the outward, from the hidden

to the manifest" . 1 Only skilled observers on the spot could trace the

chain of cause and effect of its potency. To the superficial gaze, on

the contrary, the casual connection between the manifold influence and

the effect it led to was not evident. Consequently, when in due time the

effects of these influences like open profession to Christ appeared, these

were put down as due to other causes and labours, entirely outside and

unconnected with educational operations. 2

Touching upon the objections to education, Findlay wondered why

when ready approval was accorded to medical missions and "social schemes ..

which in their scope combined the soul and the body, educational

missions which similarly combined soul. and mind sould elicit such

grudging support and even encounter positive suspicion. 3 Convinced that

a sound mind was as desirable for the reception of the Gospel as a

sound body or health, Findlay asked:·

Does it promote the glory of God more to banish disease than to banish ignorance? Is it a task more remoter than the calling of the missionary to diffuse physical well-beingl If the medical missions and the famine kitchen testify the glor1ous fact ...

1. Ibid.

2. Ibid.

j. Ibid.

that the salvation offered in Christ is a salvation of the whole man, is not a min1stry to the mind intellect from the the bondage of supersitition and error, and to endow it with knowledge and power?1

lf it was agreed on all hands that cultivating the mind and the

intellect was an integral part in the whole gamut of the missionary

work, Findlay argued that every nation and every generation had a claim

to learning, wisdom and culture~ and also to the message of Christ,

the light of life. 2 Therefore, he argued:

Let the religious and the secular be regarded as allies instead of opponents and the benefit of either is the benefit of both. Let the educational missionary recognize that the tasks assigned him by Christ is to transform by all means the school affords the ~nole nature of the pupils committed to his care.3

Findlay was confident of its rewards:

..• then in the day when the history of the Christianization of India comes to be written, it will be manifest beyond a doubt that in the great process, missionary education has rendered splendid and valuable service.4

None would deny, Findlay presumed, that the Gospel without which

all other methods and agencies would be as a body without soul, alone

would save India. At the same time, it also remained indisputable that

auxiliary agencies like education, for which India offered abundant

opportunities, would help further the highest aims of Christian missions.

1. Ibid.

2. Tbid., p.416.

3. Ibid., p.4L4. Emphasis added.

4. Ibid.

Thus, Findlay cautioned that if auxiliaries like educational missions

were abandoned for want of "results", it would change the whole future

f I d . M. . 1 o n 1an 1ss1ons.

Findlay·s defence of secular education may be ·noted last. He

pointed out that secular education had come to receive a bad connotation.

The same secular truths as offered in Government schools and colleges,

when associated with a permeated by relig1ous teaching and influences,

he declared, "not only ceased to be pernicious" but were positively

beneficial". In Findlay's opinion:

Western knowledge which is so eagerly sought after in india search the sources of our modern culture, our science and philosophy and arts; and it will appear that the impulses, the tendencies and the quali~ies of mind and character to which it must be traced, are themselves directly due to the all transforming influence of Christianity.2

What the Rev. Wardlaw Thompson had said in London in 1888 was

echoes in the Bombay Conference also. Perhaps the Rev. Miller's-

observations at the end of the d1scussion on education serves as a good

perspective to perceive the tone of the entire conference. "I am most

thankful to find", Miller said, "how completely the subject of

missionary education got out of the number of controverted questions",

unlike "in the Allahabad or even in Calcutta Conference ten years before".

"The tone of every speech today", Mi 11 er went on to say, "puts it

beyond a doubt that the m1ssionary body is practically unanimous ...

as to the place of Christian colleges in the whole range of the Church's

1. Ibid., pp.416-17.

2. Ibid., p.417.

2'!

work. There is not one who any longer doubts that the disappearance of I

the colleges would be in every point of view a great calamity". 1

Conclusion

It would be useful to sum up the different strands of missionary

opinion regarding the place and role of Christian education in the scheme

of evangelisation of India as witnessed during 1830-1893. In the

history of the Protestant missions in India, it was Alexander Duff, who

for the first time attempted to use Western education through the

medium of English, as an instrument of evangelising the Brahmins and

high-caste Hindus, as the best method of bringing about the eventual

conversion of the whole of India. Alexander Duff•s method was prompted

by the motive of pulling down Hinduism and planting Christianity in its

place. Duff considered that the dissemination of Western education as

well as the principles of Christianity through the medium of English

to the Indian higher classes and castes were the best means to attain

this object. Education imparted by Alexander Duff with this motive

made it "Christian education" and his educational institutions became

"educational missions" like any other branch of missionary activity,

aimed at the conversion of Indians.

The educational missions of Alexander Duff as the key to the

conversion of India seemed revolutionary for a time and let to wide-

spread copying by other mission socieites. But after the Revolt of

1857, the situation was radically altered. Marginalising their influence

1. The Rev. William Miller in Ibid., p. 473.

in education as well as their instruction in Christianity, the post-

1857 period witnessed the educational missions being reduced to a

virtual dependence on the Government for its grants-in-aid.

The question that was uppermost in the minds of one section of

missionaries during the 1860s was how to cope up with these difficulties

in order to safeguard the evangelic character of Christian education.

Another section of missionareis began to question the wisdom of

continuing the educational missions whose evangelic potential was being

seriously eroded in the changed circumstances. The controversy over

educational missions reached a climax at the Allahabad Missionary

Conference in 1872, when a fresh apologia for Christian education and

the educational missions became inevitable.

This apologia was put forth by, perhaps, the then most outstanding

missionary thinker in India, the Rev. William Miller from Madras. Miller's

apologia centred on a modification rather than a negation of the

theology of Christian education as advocated by Alexander Duff. This

modification was deemed extremely crucial as it was feared that without

this, the very object of the missions would become shortsighted, narrow

and dangerous in the changed circumstances of the post-Duff era. The

modififed or re-defined role of Christian education was the evangelic

preparation through diffusion of Christian ideas and principles and

not direct evangelism in mission schools and colleges.

The Rev. Miller's definiton of Christian education, as an

auxiliary agency, playing a preparatory evangelic role through diffusion

of Christian principles to eventually leaven the whole lump of Hinduism,

became a distinct theology of the Protestant missions. It gained wider

recognition in one conference of missions after another from provincial

to national levels between 1878 and 1893. This became evident from an

ana1ysis of the deliberations of the four conferences after 1872, viz.,

the Conference at London in 1878, at Bangalore during 1878-79, at London

again in 1888 and at Bombay during 1892-93. In fact, some of these

conferences went into greater details on many points put forth or implied

by Miller in his plea for Christian education. Among others, these

included (iJ the danger of withdrawing from the field of education;

(ii) the irreligious charar.ter of secular education and the need to

intervene with a Christian orientation given by missionaries; (iii) the

impact of Western education and Christian influences in unsettling the

belief of the educated Indian in Hinduism and giving rise to reform

movements within Hinduism, etc. These were more in the nature of

elaboration and reiteration of the need for Christian education.

Two points which Miller raised in 1872 received convincing

endorseme~ts over the years. The first was the diffusion principle

of Christian education with its preparatory evangelic role. The other,

the evangelisation of the educa~d . Indians, was a point which Miller

only hinted at as the second stage of missionary efforts. As was evident

from the proceedings of the conferences from 1878, it was the evangeli-

sation of, or the mission to the educated, which appeared to exercise

the minds of the missionaries as the most pressing problem. It was

actually this emerging concern that shifted the focus of missionary

attention from educational mission towards the mission to the educated.

How did the Protestant missions view this task and its scope in relation

to the evangelisation of India will be taken up in the next chapter.