CONCLUSION

The social history of India underwent a substantially radical change as a result of its

interaction with European culture and politics. Caste as a social phenomenon was

very much in practice even before the arrival of Europeans to India. But it assumed

political, cultural and economic significance under the aegis of colonial

administration and European knowledge system. Each one of the European

communities including the missionaries, East India Company, European intelligentsia,

and the British government contributed in their own way to the proliferation and the

promotion of caste feeling and community consciousness, through cultural assertion

and historical memory. The Company Raj and the Crown compelled by their political

expediency, patronised and promoted caste sensibilities.

The Oriental school of knowledge gave legitimate currency to the prevalence of

clamorous castes. Cataloguing of castes, classifying communities and enumerating

other identity issues were undertaken by the official agencies for administrative

purposes. Census reports, district manuals and other administrative reports

meticulously recorded the plethora of castes with their sub-sections and other

denominations. What was practised as a social idea was given a normative recognition

whereby it became a legitimate concept for political and public claim. The policy of

recruitment from social groups through nomination and other preferential treatments

gave a new impetus to the political mobilisation of people for securing privileges and

rights.

Missionaries who constitute the lower rung of the European order could not influence

the people substantially, as they did not carry the power to reckon with the established

orders and administrative procedures. Their efforts against the abolition of casteism in

the church were intellectual in nature and propagandist in approach and they were

never taken seriously enough, even by their fellow church members and

congregations.

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Caste was one of the major channels through which the colonial authority established

its long lasting influence and found a never failing collaborative community through

which it ruled India. Thus, caste became a social reality in the colonial age through

which every official, administrative or affinnative action was undertaken. The

response of the people was invariably dictated by the existing political reality which

was expressed in the cultural rhetoric of British India.

The Protestant missionaries' attempt at conversion began in about the first half of the

eighteenth century and went on up to the middle of the twentieth century. The

southern tip of the peninsula was fully exposed to the impact of missionaries' social

action. Village after village accepted the new faith for material or partly spiritual

reasons. The new followers of Jesus Christ were mainly drawn from Shanars or

Nadars, a toddy tapping caste and the Paravas, a fishing community of the coast. The

intervention of Christianity invariably brought about a significant social

transfonnation in general and radical difference in the social and cultural life of the

converted believers in particular. The process of conversion is a complex social

mechanism, through which the caste-ridden Tamil society was exposed to the new

aspects of the modern world with regard to life, religion and culture.

It may be argued here that be it the missionaries' pejorative criticism of Hinduism, or

Hindu temples or their constant conflict with devout Hindus; the missionaries did not
seem to have succeeded through their intellectual pursuits. Their efforts to bring about
some visible changes in traditional, cultural and religious behaviour through the

teachings of Christ did not have desired results. This is partly due to the fact that

missionaries' were operating on the basis of their misinformed knowledge, which

invariably led them to misinterpret the culture and partly because of their dealings

with contentious issues of morality and culture.

The missionaries, endowed with an idea of equality, attempted to break the fetters of

differences at all levels i. e., social, economic, and cultural. Their policy of 'Soup-

soap-salvation' aimed at bringing social transformation in the lives of the converts

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created sufficient knowledge infrastructure, to educate the hitherto unlettered masses.

Education as an instrument of social action was put to good use in creating level

playing fields across the spectrum of society. Educating women had been the

fundamental policy of missionaries like that of their male counterparts. Given the

social predicament and cultural taboos, the missionaries had to adopt the most

appropriate social and cultural methods to disseminate knowledge through various

culturally sensitive programmes.

Zanana mission and the Bible women of S.P.G. and C.M.S. carried forward the

message of learning through social interaction, which marked the beginning of

women's participation in knowledge and public sphere. Even though the efforts were

not sufficient enough to bring about a substantial change, it sent out a message of new

possibilities which were indeed carried forward by the Indian intelligentsia, who

voiced concern for the women's education, as part of the national and cultural

regenerative programmes. Empowerment through education, relentlessly pursued by

the missionaries, undoubtedly enabled the women folk to see the realities of world in

new perspectives. The access to education in fact, came for the first time to the

women converts of depressed castes; and from there the experience was further

carried on to the caste Hindu women.

The missionaries' intervention in Tamil peoples' social lives had not only brought
Christianity in this part of the world, but also substantially altered and reshaped the

intellectual and cultural life of the Tamil society in the period. The Tamil language,
the great legacy of its people, gained its true recognition and identity through the

missionary enterprise. The cultural self-sufficiency and the linguistic salience of the

Tamil civilization were aptly brought to the fore by the indefatigable efforts of both

the Catholic and Protestant missions across the European and American continents.
Robert Caldwell's seminal contribution to the advancement of Tamil heralded

unparalleled intellectual growth. According to Irshick the intellectual background to

the Tamil identity question should be linked to the contribution of missionaries'

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efforts through which the Tamil language managed to recover its respectable position

in the world of languages in general and among the classical languages of India in

particular. The Tamil renaissance became a reality, largely because of the resurgence

of interest induced by missionaries, through whom Tamil got the privilege of being

the first among all Indian languages to enter into the portals of print media.

Meanwhile, after the arrival of the missionaries, the local vernacular became the basis

for the formulation of their educational programmes. All sections of the society (with

some exception) and the depressed classes in particular, were largely attracted

towards mission education. When the depressed classes came under missionary

influence and received education for the first time, the difference in cleanliness, self-

respect and capacity for achieving higher things in life were remarkably apparent.

Ever since the depressed class masses started thinking that the only possibility of

competing on equal terms with the Brahmins lie in joining higher educational

institutions of the missions, many non-Brahmins, particularly the depressed class

masses tried to send their children to mission schools. It may be stated that the

vernacular education gave depressed classes a new identity in the form of self-respect,

self-esteem, social justice and self reliance that they never enjoyed before. Vernacular

education introduced by missionaries not only made an impact among depressed class

masses in creating 'native' converts, catechists, clergies and bishops but opened up
new flood gates for the rise and growth of the printing press and Tamil literature,
which in tum played a vital role for the emergence of middle class intelligentsia.

However, the missionaries' primary objective of teaching the people through

vernacular language indirectly helped them to raise a few country priests.

Pertaining to the question of caste, there were difference of opinions and ideas among

the various missionary societies. Missionaries could not and did not come to a
common conclusion to deal with it. On the contrary, one group of missionaries'

'fierce fight' against the caste system and 'tolerant' attitude by the other towards the
same complicated the issue further rather than ensure its condemnation.

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Protestant missionaries as a whole focused much of their attention in establishing

institutions like, churches, schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centres and other

institutions. They did not focus upon the moral wellbeing of their 'newly won souls'

caste feeling, selfishness, greed and injustice towards their fellow converts prevailed.

This happened even among the so-called 'grown up' Christians.

The spread of Christianity among the depressed class people by the Protestant

missions through their proselytisation strategies including their initiatives for

empowering women through various socio-economic measures provoked widespread

opposition among the native Hindus, landlords and other dominant sections of the

society as the conversion seemed to threaten and shake the very foundations of

traditional cultural structure of Hindu India.

As a matter of fact, caste and other cultural practices were not deeply criticised as

long as they did not come into direct clash within the Christian churches of particular

caste congregations. It was realised that lower castes have to overcome debilitating

challenges that emanate from the social and historical prejudices. Caste is deeply

entrenched into the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the Tamil society; it could

sustainably be challenged by offering an alternative identity in which an individual

should feel comfortable.

The early missionaries who came to the southern part of India did not recognise the

cancerous and cascading influence of caste as it was directly linked with the identity

of the individual. Some missionary societies saw caste as a structure of social

grouping which could easily be broken over time with the impact of Christian love of

fraternity. Moreover, the existing socio-political context did not give sufficient space

to the missionaries to launch a vigorous campaign against caste ideology, as it was

directly related to the question of cultural hegemony of the caste Hindus. Further, it

could be argued that the British East India Company and the English Crown, who saw

the political gains in a potential collaboration with the Brahmanical community, did

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not undertake any kind of substantial measures to contain the power of caste elements

in the everyday social life.

It is also a fact that one does not easily come across any cultural ideology, which has

so far substantially weakened the power of caste affiliation in the Indian communal

life; even when an alternative social structure is created. Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam

and other religious ideologies could not escape from the indelible influence of the

Indian caste system in their creation of new religious groups and Christianity was also

no exception. Perhaps, caste is an Indian social reality from which no one can ever

imagine to escape. However, we can nullify its nagging influence by negotiating at

every stage without compromising our fundamental values and rights. The Indian

church has already begun to move in this direction, hoping to create a society in

which caste may lose its relevance and potency.

Historically speaking, the missionaries had lost their battle much before their war

began with the monstrous force of caste. The early Catholic missionaries more or less

recognised the inevitable social differentiation and accordingly social arrangements

were initiated within the premises of church. The high caste converts, low caste

converts, Parava converts, Nadar converts, Pariah converts, and Vellala converts had

become the order of the day in the congregational discourse, giving subtle recognition

to such 'dangerous' social phenomenon.

It may be argued that the abolition of caste under the aegis of colonialism was not

technically possible as the English authority over India was based on the racial

dominance through which the white supremacy reigned without opposition. Caste

system was fundamentally racial, hierarchical and discriminatory, which the

missionaries fought relentlessly to eradicate but in vain. The cancerous impact of

caste cannot be dealt with by any piecemeal, partial or lopsided approach. Total

assault should have been taken recourse to if at all they had wanted to uproot the

inalienable social prejudice of caste. Missionaries who operated under restricted

conditions neither had the power to nullify the practice of caste nor could ban its

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influence in public sphere as the Company Raj and British rule were reliant on it.

Caught up in the web of social--cum-political dichotomy, the helpless missionary

community did not and could not do any thing effectively that would undermine the

very sap of the 'caste tree.'

Nevertheless, missionaries' constant criticism of the institution of caste and its

influence on the church had nothing to do with the making of egalitarian and just

society. On the contrary, their attempt was mainly to attack traditional practices like

idolatry etc. and to create anti-Hindu or anti-Brahmanical sentiments among the

depressed classes to reach their end viz., proselytisation. Over a period of time,

missionaries' scathing attack on Brahminism through their writings, introduction of

vernacular education, and emergence of middle class intelligentsia opened up new

vistas for the em~rgence of anti-Brahmin sentiments among the depressed sections of

the society at large. Undoubtedly, this anti-Brahmanical wave took a historic, crucial

and significant tum in the social and political history of colonial Tamil Nadu, which

in tum paved the way for the emergence of non-Brahmin or Dravidian movements.

This became possible mainly due to the emergence of middle class educated Hindus.

We can conclude in the words of Robert Caldwell, "We have no reason to be ashamed

of the Gospel of Christ or its propagation in India, when we look at its results. Apart
from its direct efficacy in the salvation of souls it has conferred upon the most

influential portion of the native community intellectual and moral benefits of the

highest order. During the last twenty or thirty years a large and rapidly increasing
class of educated Hindus has come into existence through the progress of education-

education partly in Christian schools and to a much greater extent in Government

schools." 1

I Jeel Samuel, "Dr. Caldwell on Hindu Christians," The Harvest Field, March, 1867, pp. 49-56.

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