The History of Christian Contributions in Bengal
by Abanti Adhikari
The contribution of Christians in Bengal is a broad subject, and I would like to point out that the Europeans, who entered India as traders during the period of European colonialism, were mostly Christians. Their contribution may be divided into two parts – the administrators who affected far-reaching changes in India, and the Christian missionaries who helped to spread education in Bengal and other parts of India.
It was emperor Akbar who dreamt of creating a secular state in India, and accordingly he received the Christian missionaries with utmost honour in his court. A look at Akbar’s religious policy indicates that, he formulated the concept of Suhl-i-Kul, and created an Ibadaat Khanna, where different religious groups met together and discussed various precepts. This term has been at times translated as `hall of worship’; but it might be more accurately be rendered, `debating hall’. The Christian missionaries even thought that Akbar might be converted to Christianity, but Akbar created `Din-e-elahi’ instead.
In the attempt to penetrate the obscurity which at many points rests on the story of the first coming of Christianity in India, Stephen Neil in his book, The History of Christianity in India The Beginnings to ad 1707 , examines the contemporary developments in politics, literature and religion which form the background of the later penetration of the Indian world by the Christian gospel.
Don Francisco de Jassu Xavier, better known to the English-speaking world as Francis Xavier, was born on 7 April 1506 at the castle of Xavier. In 1525 he left his home to study at the University of Paris. Stephen Neill clearly understands the conditions under which Xavier went to India, who had been commissioned by the King of Portugal, who had a personal regard for Xavier. At all times he had access to the king, and was able to write to him on a number of occasions with considerable freedom. He had been appointed by the Pope as legate to all the countries of the east of the Cape of Good Hope.
The society was very new. The constitution of the society was not clearly drawn up until 1555, and Xavier had already been dead before these rules reached India. But organization was not his greatest talent, and it is at least possible that the stability of Jesuit work in the East would have been greater, if he had spent more time at headquarters and less on his bold wanderings about the western world. To a considerable extent, the shape of Xavier’s missionary work was determined by this kind of authority. Personally the most modest of men, his imagination was fired by the progress of Portuguese discovery and Portuguese discovery and by the thought of lands and empires to be brought within the kingdom of Christ. He had not gone out to be the supervisor of a handful of Jesuits in a small corner of India. There was an element of charity in his restless temperament, which led him to contain within a single glance India and the Moluccas, and, even beyond Japan, China. The works of the Chinese missionaries in different areas of the Far east, and particularly in China, is a very significant chapter, and the trade relation between China and India, through Britain, has raised much controversy among historians.
Voyages from Lisbon to India at that time were always terrible. That on which Xavier sailed was worse than most; it was not till 6 May 1542 that he finally landed at Goa. The voyage gave him and his companions every opportunity to manifest themselves as true servants of the Christ in their ceaseless care for the sick and the dying. According to Neill, it is easy both to sympathise with the first enthusiasm of Xavier and to admit that he had to learn in many respects his first impression had been mistaken. Even in the city of Goa itself, there were many Hindus and Muslims. And he was to learn that the level of Christian life among both the Portuguese and recent converts was very low.
Xavier spent the greater part of the years 1549 to 1552 in Japan. Before setting out on the last voyage, which led to his death in the island of Sinican, he had one further brief period of residence in Goa. In the year 1552 Xavier left Goa on his last eastern journey, accompanied by a small number of companions – Balthasar Gogo, who gave many years of service in Japan; Alvaro Ferreira, a Jesuit postulant not yet ordained; an excellent Chinese Christian who had studied for eight years at the college of St Paul; and Christopher, a Christian from Malabar, who was Xavier’s personal servant. Neill points out that, everyone who came in contact with Xavier seems to have agreed that he was a saint.
The Christians came to India mainly as merchants, as officers working in the English East India Company. However, they first made their presence felt in different coastal areas of Gujarat, west and south India, and Bengal. They circumscribed Africa and entered Indian coasts as traders, and often they went into some trading relations with the Mughal emperors and received `Farman ‘s as trading rights. The `Farman ‘ of emperor Farrukh Shiyar has a distinct place in Indian history, as well as the history of Bengal. The English East India Company also received the Dewani in 1765, so that they may enjoy some special privileges in the Bengal `subah’. However, the most important contribution of the English East India Company, was the Permanent Settlement of 1793, that has been much criticized by Dr. Ranajit Guha in his book, A Rule of Property for Bengal: An essay on the Idea of Permanent Settlement.
Christianity came to Bengal initially with the Portuguese again in the 16th century A.D.
The Jesuits remained in Bengal until their suppression by the Pope in the late 18th century. For over 450 years Jesuit priests and brothers have lived an amazing story serving the Church in new and unexpected ways. Men and women on the move to Bengal, were ready to change place, occupation, method.
But it was the Augustinians who were responsible for the major part of Christian activity.
The Portuguese had been able to settle at Chittagong in the 16th century under the auspices of the King of Arakan. The Augustinians established themselves there in 1621, and baptized thousands who had been captured in the piratical raids in the Ganges delta area. Later in the 17th century Nagari became an important center, following the conversion of about 20,000 mainly low-caste Hindus by Antonio de Rozario, son of the raja of Bhushna (Jessore), who himself was converted to Christianity. By the 1690s there were 13 Augustinian Churches in Bengal, but the majority of Christians received only rudimentary instruction and tended to migrate to new centers as they rose in importance – including the English settlement at Kolkata from 1690, where the Augustinians built a chapel. In 1696 the French appointed a Jesuit to serve the Christians at Chandannagar.
The works of the officers of the English east India Company, the Governor General and others, led to a total transformation of the revenue system in Bengal. Before 1793, they tried to experiment with the different land revenue systems, such as, the Decennial system in Bengal and the ryotwari or Mahalwari systems outside Bengal. The old zamindari system, was totally abolished and a new-born educated `babu’ class came into existence, who owed their allegiance to the British. The Permanent Settlement, according to Dr. Ranajit Guha, was modeled in accordance with the British laws, and it was thrust upon the Bengal rural society, where it was said that the revenue had to be paid within a scheduled date and time. The sunset law was obeyed by the comprador class in Bengal, the allies of the British rulers. The Permanent Settlement left a definite mark in the history of Bengal, and it was no doubt a crucial work of the British.
Apart from textbooks, the Serampore Baptists made other contributions to the development of the Bengali language. These included a dictionary and grammar; a translation of the BIBLE , subsequently improved upon by others; and the periodicals Digdarshan and Samachar Darpan , which represent the beginnings of the Bangla press. They also founded The Friend of India , ancestor of The Statesman .Another area in which William Carey made a lasting contribution was botany and agriculture. He created a botanical garden at Serampore, obtained seeds from abroad and acclimatized new plants. He also took a leading part in the establishment (1820) of what became the Agri-Horticultural Society of India. The Serampore Baptists also sought to influence public opinion and government against the cruel practices which existed in contemporary Hinduism, such as infanticide at Sagar island and `sati’, on which they undertook a survey which indicated its frequency.
Other Protestant missionary societies followed the Baptist Missionary Society to Bengal after 1813, notably the London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society and the Church of Scottland. The Christian Missionary Society, an Anglican society, provided the initial support, from 1821, for Mary Anne Cooke, a pioneer in the establishment of girls’ schools. Then in 1830 the Church of Scotland missionary Alexander Duff arrived in Kolkata and proceeded to set a new standard for Christian education. He founded a school, that achieved a rapid and lasting success, developing eventually into Scottish Church College. Duff stressed the vital role of the teacher in evoking the interest and understanding of the pupil. He also believed in developing the whole person and made provisions for exercises and games. His insistence on English as the medium of instruction left a more debatable legacy. His example was one factor in causing the government in 1835 to decide to devote its funds to western education through the medium of English.
So far as the thought-process is concerned, the Christians left a definite mark on the young Derozians in the nineteenth century, and they transformed the religious culture of the English-educated Bengali intelligentsia. It is a well-known story that Krishna Kumar Mitra greeted Godess Kali as, `Good Morning madam’. Ramtanu Lahiri o Tatkalin Bangashamaj , written by Shibnath Shastri, gives the story of the forsaking of sacred thread by a `Brahmin’. Therefore, the Christian influence on the Bengali youth had a definite landmark in the conservative Bengali society.
The missionaries’ linguistic and educational work represents their main contribution to the development of modern Bengal. Other than the missionaries, the British administrators in the colonial rulers were successful bureaucrats, one of whose major work was the foundation of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, by William Jones. When the Asiatic Society was established on 15 January 1784, its founder Sir William Jones(1786 – 94), began his work with a dream, that visualized a center for Asian studies, including almost everything concerning man and nature within the geographical limits of the continent. Most of the mysteries of this vast land, like its old inscriptions in Brahmi, were still undeciphered.
Sir William Jones, an outstanding scholar from Oxford, arrived in Calcutta on 25 September 1738 as a Puisne Judge of the Old Supreme Court. He prepared a memorandum detailing his plan of study. A history of Asiatic Society points out that, while others were thinking in terms of individual study and research, Sir William Jones was the first man to think in terms of a permanent organization for Oriental Studiesand researches on a grand scalein this country. He took the initiative and in January 1784 sent out a circular letter to selected persons of the elite, with a view to establishing a society for this purpose..
Source : http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bguizzi/bangladesh/engmissbd/hist.htm
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