British Rule And British Christianity In India

Front matter

fi ll /

.

*

Preface

tlie highest credentials possible (the conversion of immortal souls to Christ), the ministry and labours of others amongst the Heathen ; and I cannot but think that those who narrow their views, of the progress of the kingdom of Christ in the earth, to the expansion of their own ecclesiastical systems, deprive themselves of much encouragement in missionary labours, and large participation in that holy joy which is felt “in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth,” by angels, and doubtless by “the spirits of the just made perfect.”

The account of my connexion with the subject of the following pages is simply told.

From failure of voice, after sixteen years of continuous and trying ministrations as Chaplain of Pentonville Prison, I was resting from duty on a six months’ leave of absence, preparatory (unless perfectly restored) to the resignation of my Chaplaincy, and I was casting in my thoughts how I might be able, in some subordinate way, to subserve the cause of Christian missions, and to take part in the great struggle going on in the world between the powers of darkness and the kingdom of our Lord ; when the subject of India became fixed in my mind, and I felt that I should here, with God’s blessing, accomplish my purpose, even though I did nothing more than record the errors of our past misrule in that country on the one hand, and the triumphs of truth and humanity, notwithstanding every impediment, on the other ; and especially if I should succeed in fixing the attention of my readers upon the remarkable indications of Divine Providence which have appeared all through the history of our connexion with the country, in favour of British Pule and British Christianity in the East, even when we were chastened as a nation because of our deplorable sins and shortcomings in duty.

I commit the result to God, and under Him to the kind indulgence of my brethren in the common faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose sentiments in the main, I feel satisfied, will be found in these pages fully, however imperfectly, represented.

Chapter I. Rise And Progress Of British Rule In India

Clive — Plassy — Buonaparte’s Designs on India — Colonel Wellesley and the Mysore — Annexation of the Punjaub — Crisis of 1857 — Remarkable Interpositions of Providence — Peelings in Europe and America called forth in the Struggle — Montalembert’s Rebuke of the Prench Jesuit Press — Eulogy of Havelock and the English in India by the same distinguished Prenchman — Bishop of Ohio’s Speech, &c. &c. Page 9

Chapter II. Measures Calculated To Strengthen British Rule In India

National Feeling evoked by the Mutiny — Day of Humiliation — Peace established — Measures of Improvement suggested — Adequate Provi¬ sion for the Observance of Religion amongst Englishmen — Encourage¬ ment to their Increase by Colonization in India — The Exhibition of Justice, Humanity, Toleration, &c., towards the Natives — Illustrations of those Virtues and of the Opposite, from the History of our Con¬ nexion with India ...... Page 29

Chapter III. On The Progress Op British Christianity In India

Number of Natives converted — Loyalty and Devotedness to British Rule of Christian Converts — Constancy to the Faith in the midst ot Persecution — Touching Incidents — Rev. Gopenath Nundy and his Wife’s Noble Confession — Ensign Cheek — Martyrdom of Walayat Ali at Delhi — Treatment of Christianity and Christians by the East India Company — Dr. Carey — The Haldanes — Wilberforce’s Vindication of Christian Missions — Case of the Christian Sepoy Prabhu Din com¬ pelled to leave the Army because of his Christianity — Christian Natives debarred from Education in a Government College — Not employed generally by Government — Mr. Montgomery’s Statement on this Subject— Dr. Duff’s Pacts— Compulsory Christianity not thought of by Protestant Christians — Misrepresentation ol Colonel Edwardes by Abd-al- Wahid in this respect, &c. &c. . . . Page 60

Ylll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER TY.

ON THE POLICY OP NEUTRALITY IN RELIGION.

Lords Ellenborough and Stanley’s Affirmation of the Traditional Policy — Neutrality, Moral Cowardice, and Disloyalty to Christianity — Im¬ possibility of Neutrality — How actually violated by Government — By the Abolition of Suttee, Infanticide, &c. — By the Administration of Equal Justice — By legalizing the Re-marriage of Hindoo Widows — By Education, &c. & c. ..... Page 111

CHAPTER Y.

ON EDUCATION IN INDIA.

History and Present Aspect of Education — Number of Natives in Colleges and Schools of Government — Number in Missionary Schools — Marquis of Tweeddale’s Advocacy of Bible in Government Schools— Sir John Lawrence’s Despatch — Practicability of Bible Instruction in Native Schools shown by Job Anderson’s Schools — Rajah Jaynarain’s Col¬ lege — Godless Despatch of Lord Stanley — Case of the Santhals, &c. & c. ..... . Page 134

CHAPTER YI.

RESULTS OF THE REBELLION AND PRESENT ASPECT OP CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

Threatened Restriction upon the Liberty of Christian Officers averted — Number of decided Christian Englishmen in India — How es¬ teemed by Natives — The Reality of the Eaith of Converts put beyond question — Disposition to employ Native Christians by Government — Queen’s Proclamation— Actual Fruit in some Christian Missions of the Trials and Sufferings of Native Christians — Indications amongst Natives of advancing Christianity — The Bible taught in Schools of two Hindoo Rajahs — Effect of Mutiny upon the People and the Christian Societies of England— Formation of Christian Vernacular Education Society, &c. &c. ..... Page 204

CHAPTER YII.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON EDUCATION, CHRISTIANITY, ETC., IN INDIA.

Description of Indigenous Schools of India, by Dr. Duff — On Religious Neutrality in Government Schools, by Mr. Halliday, Lt.- Governor of Bengal — On the Prohibition of Bible Instruction in Government Schools, by Mr. Venn — Sufferings and Faith of Christians, European and Native, at Futtehghur ; an affecting account by Mr. Sherring — Report of late Committee on Colonization of India, &c. &c. Page 269

BRITISH RULE

AND

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

Chapter I

“ The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to

whomsoever He will.”

What was said of the Monarchy of Spain, by “a brave sort of expression,” as Bacon calls it, that u the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions,” has long become the boast of England. Indeed, no empire of ancient or modern times ever reached so far, or comprehended within its rule so many of the human family. That this little Island Kingdom should be elevated to such transcendent greatness, is in itself a fact most astonishing, and a proud distinction ; but at the same time, it assuredly is a privilege which implies an amount of responsibility which cannot be easily exaggerated, or too seriously laid to heart by the church and nation.

Of all the countries which own Victoria’s gentle sway, India is at the present moment the point of deepest interest to the British public ; not so much in its commercial or political, as in its moral and religious aspect — a circumstance in itself which augurs well for the permanence of British dominion in the East.

B

The gradual development of the British rule in India to its present surprising extent, is one of the most singular facts of history ; and before we go further, it may be useful to give a brief summary of its chief events.

Up to 1583, England had been supplied with the costly products of the East by the Vene¬ tians. In that year, however, the merchants of London originated what was called the Turkey or Levant Company , to secure the advantages of the trade wholly to themselves. Their agents travelled to the East, by way of Aleppo and Bagdad, and thence down the Tigris to the Persian Gulf • and returned by the same route. They had been supplied with letters of recommendation from Queen Elizabeth (under whose vigorous reign the commerce of Eng¬ land received the first great impulse) to the Emperor of Mogul, and the Emperor of China.

This overland route was, however, soon given up for the passage round the Cape of Good Hope ; the advantages of which the Portuguese had previously fully shown. Three ships were accordingly fitted out for the purpose in 1591, one only of which reached its destination ; and this one was lost on its return home. But not disheartened by so disastrous a failure, the merchants of London only proceeded to carry on the trade more vigorously.

The East India Company was formed, and on the last day of the year 1600, a charter was granted to it by the Crown. Thus was commenced the greatest commercial association which the world ever saw, or

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

probably is ever destined to see ; which, beginning with a trade in ivory, and silks, and sweet spices, and tea, and rice, became by degrees one of the greatest political powers of the East.

In 1643, Madras was ceded to the Company by a native prince, and continued for many years to be the seat of its authority in India. Beyond a few miles around its trading depots, however, the Com¬ pany had as yet no possessions, and for this accommo¬ dation it paid an annual rent to the native princes. The French had factories and land on the same conditions.

Not until 1757, was the foundation of the Anglo- Indian Empire laid.

In the year previous, the factories of the Company on the Hoogly had been wantonly attacked by the Viceroy of Bengal ; and those of our countrymen who did not succeed in reaching the ships in the river, perished most miserably, for the greater part, in the infamous “ black hole of Calcutta.”

The warlike spirit of our countrymen in the East was roused by this atrocious act. Retribution was demanded, and Clive, then Governor of Madras, (originally a clerk in the Company’s service, but subsequently raised to the British peerage,) was ordered to take command of a little army raised upon the emergency, and to avenge the wrongs of his countrymen. Nothing could be more agreeable to Clive, who was one of the bravest and most am¬ bitious of men. He was soon in the field ; and by the battle of Plassy obtaining a complete victory

b 2 over the enemy, he dethroned the Viceroy, and made the Company masters of an immense portion of the great Mogul Empire.

Up to this event there was no set scheme of national aggrandizement and conquest on the part of the Company ; but the progress of affairs subse¬ quently, far too frequently assumed this com¬ plexion. The first notion of a European Mon¬ archy on the ruins of the Mogul, originated, in fact, with the French, then the rivals of our trade in India.

In 1784, after years of fierce denunciation of the East India Company’s misgovernment, by Fox and Sheridan and Burke, Pitt established the Board of Control by Act of Parliament, and gave a sort of constitution to the Anglo-Indian Empire ; and Lord Cornwallis became the first Governor-General ap¬ pointed by the Crown. During his beneficent administration, war broke out with Tippoo Sahib, the Sultan of Mysore, who only saved Seringapatam, his capital, by a treaty which gave the Company a great part of his dominion.

In 1798, Buonaparte, aspiring to sovereignty in the East, in imitation of Alexander the Great, sailed with a powerful army and fleet to Egypt, and negociated with the Sultan of Mysore, to effect the ex¬ pulsion of the English from Hindostan. By the victory of the Nile, however, under Nelson, and the gallant defence of Acre by Sir Sidney Smith, his ambition in that quarter was utterly foiled, and he returned discomfited to Europe.

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

It is most interesting to observe, that his future conqueror, then Colonel Arthur Wellesley, was in India at this very time, acting under the govern¬ ment of his brother, the Earl of Mornington ; and was actually only prevented by the seniority of another officer from being despatched to encounter Napoleon in the plains of Egypt. He was compelled to remain ; but proceeding to punish Tippoo Sahib, he took Seringapatam by storm. The Sultan was killed in the terrible encounter, and the Mysore for the greater part was added to the Company’s pos¬ sessions.

To pass over all the other numberless contests and victories, and annexations of territories, which fol¬ lowed, we cannot but mention the fall of the Sikhs in 1849, because of the events of 1857, in which this warrior-race played so conspicuous a part in the defence of British interests in India. These fierce tribes upon our North-Western frontier, having in¬ vaded the British territory, and committed other serious outrages, war was proclaimed against them, and they were driven across the Sutlej. The inde¬ pendence of their country, however, was respected, until, having cruelly murdered two British officers, political residents at Moultan, Lord Gough, then Commander-in-Chief in India, was ordered to ad¬ vance into the Punjaub and to bring them into subjection. This most gallant general, however, encountered the Sikhs with but doubtful success, in the terrible battles of Ramnugger on the Chenab and Chillianwallah on the Jlielum — those classic rivers, which had witnessed the victories of Alex¬ ander, more than two thousand years before ; but in the third battle of Groojerat he so completely crushed them, that the chiefs laid down their arms, and the Country of the Five Rivers was added to the British dominions in the East.

This was the province, and this the people, from which issued forth, so unexpectedly, those numerous and brave battalions without whose timely aid the siege of Delhi must undoubtedly have been aban¬ doned by the British army, heroic as that little army was.

A country like India, then, so long coveted and battled for, and so often won by Asiatic and European ambition, could not be lightly prized by England. For a century it had been our golden province, where commerce reaped its richest fruits, and the British army some of its highest honours : of late years, moreover, the land of desire to Christians, above all heathen lands, where the national religion, although feebly put forth, had already won no despicable triumphs.

Suddenly, however, it seemed, by a dark mysterious providence, to be about to be snatched from us, and given to a base and treacherous foe ; our most gallant little army to be destroyed; and our very religion outraged and expelled.

The astounding incidents of 1857 burst upon the nation like a devastating hurricane, and filled every house and every heart with dismay, anxiety, or grief, from the residence of royalty itself, to the humblest cottage in the land. The sensation was felt far beyond our shores. It reached all Europe, friendly and inimical to England.

The native soldiery of India, long considered by all as essential to the preservation of British dominion in the East, — an army of some hundred thousand men, well disciplined, supplied with all the muni¬ tions of war, and masters of almost all the public treasures, had abjured their allegiance, on grounds, moreover, most likely to attract the sympathy of the whole population of India against us ; had murdered their officers, dishonoured and cruelly butchered our countrywomen; had compelled every Englishman who escaped their blood-stained hands to fly for his life ; had set up a king on the ancient throne of the Great Mogul, threatened the very capital of our possessions in the East, and seemed on the very point of the most complete success.

There was but a handful of British troops to stem the torrent of this terrible revolt. The greater part of our noble army were enjoying a brief repose after the dear-bought victories of the Alma, Inkermann, and Sebastopol. The moment was, in truth, most critical. Had England at last reached the highest pinnacle of her greatness ? and was she now to be ignominiously thrown down, and all traces of

her dominion in the East effaced for ever? It seemed too probable. Many wished it most de¬ voutly ; and not a few, fully believing that the time was come, were already exulting: “ How art thou fallen from Heaven, thou son of the morning ! and how art thon cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations ! ”

The brave and generous, however, of every nation sympathized with us in our sufferings, and beheld with admiration a heroism displayed by our sons and our daughters which has certainly never been surpassed in the history of the world ; while the friends of progress throughout the world, and civilization, and Scriptural Christianity, encouraged us in the fond hope, which never, indeed, forsook the nation, that many and great as had been our sins and shortcomings in duty towards the millions of India, the Lord’s purpose was not to permit the kingdom of darkness, already beginning to crumble before the cross, to regain its ascendency in that longed-for and prayed-for country ; but rather to correct us, that, being taught in the school of affliction and penitence, we should rise to a just sense of our obligations, as a nation so long and highly favoured with the light of revelation, towards our heathen dependencies.

Noble and eloquently expressed are the senti¬ ments of an illustrious Frenchman, on the occasion of the terrible crisis, especially when it is remem¬ bered that he is a sincere Roman Catholic : —

u At the end of last spring,” writes M. de Montalembert in 1858, “ the state of Hindostan, and the issue of the insurrection which had for a whole year been raging in the Northern Provinces of that extensive region, still formed the principal subject of attention in England. How could it

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

have been otherwise ? As for me, I was astonished and alarmed that the English people, after the consternation and anger of the first few months, had so speedily abandoned itself, not, certainly, to a criminal carelessness, but to a premature confidence in the issue of the struggle. I felt desirous to dis¬ cover, in the society of the most competent judges, the true causes for the insurrection, as well as the means which were intended to be employed in order to triumph finally over a danger so formidable, so little foreseen, and aggravated to such a pitch by threatening complications, which from day to day might appear on the stage of European politics. I offered in that investigation an ardent and profound sympathy towards the great, free, and Christian nation from which God exacted so terrible a trial ; and I felt that sympathy redoubled in presence of the inhuman fury of so many of the organs of the Continental press, and, unfortunately, of the soidisant conservative and religious journals, against the victims of the Bengal massacres. I should have wished to inform every individual Englishman whom I met that I had no connexion whatever with the parties whose journals applauded and justified the cut-throats, and whose earnest vows are still daily offered up for the triumph of the Mussulman and Pasran hordes over the heroic soldiers of a Christian

o

people— the ally of France.

“I felt, besides, what every intelligent liberal feels and knows, that the attitude of the Continental press with respect to the Indian question, demonstrates once again the great fact which constitutes the immortal honour of contemporary England. All the apologists of absolutism, whether ancient or modern, monarchical or democratic, take part against her ; with her, on the contrary, are to be seen all those who still remain faithful to that regulated liberty of which she was the cradle, and is, to this hour, the invincible bulwark. That is but natural and right ; moreover, it suffices to cause us to overlook, in the present policy of England, certain sympathies which may be more easily accounted for than justified, and to pardon her some wrongs which, under another state of things, would call for the severest reprobation.” *

Again, this eloquent champion of freedom, pro¬ gress, and humanity, goes on to say : —

u The cruel joy with which the disasters, whether actual or supposed, of the English in India, have been welcomed, the strange sympathies with the murderers of Delhi and Cawnpore, the daily invec¬ tives against a handful of brave soldiers struggling with innumerable enemies, and with a fatal climate, to avenge their brothers, their wives, and their chil¬ dren, immolated alike, and to restore the legitimate and necessary ascendency of the Christian West over the peninsula of India, will constitute one of the darkest pages in the history, already so little edify¬ ing, of the religious press of our time. We regard as revolting those sanguinary declamations, accom-

* Montalembert on Constitutional Liberty.

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

panied by continual instigations to war, between two nations happily and gloriously allied — a war from the dangers and sacrifices of which its pious promoters well know that they will be the last to suffer. And when they abound in the columns of certain journals specially devoted to the clergy, and encouraged by its members ; when they are dis¬ played between the narrative of an apparition of the Virgin, and that of a consecration of a church to the God of mercy and of love, a sentiment of painful repugnance, which may be classed among the heaviest trials in the life of an honest man, is called forth in every Christian soul which has not yet been infected by the hateful passions of a retro¬ grade fanaticism : we can fancy that we hear in a night passed in the East the cry of the jackal between the cooings of the dove and the refreshing murmur of the waters.”*

We give another happy instance of this generous sympathy offered to us in our time of affliction : —

u God will make all this horrible up-rising of Satan’s kingdom praise Him wonderfully,” writes an eminent American Bishop, Mcllvaine of Ohio.

1 c I look upon it as the strong indication how the powers of darkness are alarmed at the progress of light. England’s domain in the East, and her standing in the earth, is, under God, the shield of Missionary work, the opener of its doors, and the protection of its labours, among the nations of

*

Montalembert on Constitutional Liberty.

darkness. All Protestantism anchors and works behind that breakwater. God will not permit it to be broken down. The blood of his people recently poured out in India will be avenged. But how ? On the kingdom of darkness, by the increase of the kingdom of light. I see the spirit of a greater, more bold and wide Missionary work, rising in England for her Indian colonies. And I have no doubt all that denial of Christ and sad bowing to the religions of Mohammed and Brahma will pass away from the policy of Government. God grant it.”

As to ourselves, the sentiment of all Christian England was well expressed by that eminent cham¬ pion for the truth of God in India, Dr. Duff, who, writing from Calcutta in one of the moments of greatest anxiety and alarm to Government, as well as to every patriot and every loving heart, thus speaks : —

u But my own hope is in the God of providence. I have a secret, confident persuasion that, though this crisis has been permitted to humble and warn us, our work in India has not yet been accom¬ plished, — and that, until it be accomplished, our tenure of empire, however brittle, is secure.

“ Here it is seriously proposed, or suggested, that all the Europeans in Calcutta should be immediately constituted into a local militia , for the defence of life and property in Calcutta and neighbourhood.

u Already it is known that the Mohammedans have had several night-meetings ; and when the proclama-

BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

tion of the newly mutineer-installed Emperor of Delhi comes to be generally known, no one can cal¬ culate on the result. But, as I said, our trust is in the Lord. And never before did I realise as now the literality and sweetness of the Psalmist’s assurance, — ‘ I laid me down and slept ; I awaked : for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, 0 Lord ; save me, O my God ! ’ Our son, Alexander, poor fellow, is at Meerut — the very centre and focus of mutiny, — and where already Europeans have been massacred, though no names have yet reached us.”

There were indications, moreover, of a favouring Providence towards us, in the very midst of God’s terrible judgments, which required but little spiritual sagacity to trace.

Had the crisis occurred but a year or two before, when we were engaged in the deplorable campaign of the Crimea, — had the war with Persia not so opportunely terminated, — had the troops destined, for China not been so promptly directed to Hindostan from the Cape, — had our commanders, our soldiers, our civilians, our countrymen of every grade, faltered in courage before the most terrible odds, or failed even in presence of mind, — had some Tamerlane, or Aurungzebe, orHyder Ali, arisen to lead the rebels, — had some native or European Todtleben been found to fortify Delhi against our hostile approach, — had the Punjaub, so lately subjugated, been oppressed, or even indifferently governed, instead of being ruled by men to whom God gave wisdom and firmness, and the spirit of an en¬ lightened humanity, in such high degree, — had its fierce soldiery remained even neutral and quiescent, instead of gallantly coming to our help, Delhi must have been left, beyond all question, in the hands of the rebels ; the prestige of England’s invincibility in India must have been lost for ever ; and the historian might have taken up his pen to indite the mournful records of the decline and fall of the British Empire !

But it was not the will of Providence that the course of liberty, and justice, and humanity in the East should be driven backward, and the reign of tyranny, fanaticism, and abominable superstition again prevail. Therefore he gave no wisdom to the enemy, no engineering skill, no general, no chief worth naming, but confounded their designs, and u made their diviners madB Therefore he raised up the Lawrences, and Edwardes, and Inglis, and Outram, and Havelock, and others, men as remarkable for their faith as Christians as for their prudence, bravery, and patriotism. And therefore He gave the British army a general, in Lord Clyde, of whom it is the highest praise to say that he was, in every respect, worthy of such soldiers, a hero, and a commander.

There were truly no signs of national degeneracy exhibited by Englishmen in that ever-memorable struggle, such as history leads one to expect in an empire doomed to fall ; nor any indications that the r* x cK fLr]

Most High was about to take away the kingdom and give it to another.

“The energy, also, which has, in so many cases,” writes Dr. Duff, “been exhibited by single men, not less than by small assemblages of men, rises positively into the sublime of heroism. I sjieak not now of men in commanding positions, such as General Neill and Sir Henry Lawrence, but of more ordinary men in less conspicuous circum¬ stances. It is only the other day, that in Rewah, an independent State that lies between Mirzapore and the Saugor territories on the Nerbudda, the most of the Rajah’s troops revolted, and went off to join a vast body of rebels under Kuwar Singh, who threatened to visit his country with fire and sword on his way into Central India. The people were seized with panic ; the Rajah himself went to Captain Osborne, the political agent, and begged him to leave the territory, as he could not protect him or the other British officers for an hour. Having already sent off his own zenana, he told the city people to send away their wives, as he could not protect them ; and away he went to a distant fort. The agent, knowing well that on his preventing the host of armed rebels from passing through the Rewah State depended the safety of Nagode, Jubbulpore, Bundelkund, and the Saugor and Nerbudda territories, resolved, with something like a martyr spirit, to stand by his strangely critical post to the very last. Though unwell at the time, and scarcely able to move, his spirit rose to the height of Spartan energy, while it seemed partly to inspire and partly to overawe all around him. Fertile in expedients, as well as brave, he roused the rural population by sending’ amongst them numbers of agents to rehearse in their hearing the multiplied atrocities committed by the rebels elsewhere. He even procured one or two sufferers from their brutality, sent them out as a spectacle among the people, and so worked upon their fears to such an extent, that at last they all united in declar¬ ing that they would oppose the passage of the rebel army. Tidings of all this having reached the traitorleader of that army, he deemed it prudent to pause in his onward career, and eventually to withdraw it altogether, and pass away in another direction. Thus, for a time at least, has Central India been saved — the handfuls of our poor beleaguered coun¬ trymen, with their wives and children in different stations there, have been saved, — by the indomi¬ table energy, the admirable tact and sagacity, of a single man !

“ With other examples on a great scale the British public must by this time be quite familiar : — How less than two hundred British men, though con¬ fronted by three native regiments, backed by myriads of desperadoes, saved Benares ! — How less than two hundred worn-out British invalids held the fortress of Allahabad for several days against five thousand rebels, armed with all the munitions of war ! — How, at Cawnpore, for upwards of twenty days, a few hun¬ dred British men, though encumbered with numbers of helpless women and children, held a small open