VARNAM

A blog on Indian History

The Man who came to destroy

Hinduism – 2
 by जयकृ णः | ജയ ൻ  August 18, 2009

The headquarters of thePropaganda de in Rome

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 (Read Part 1)

It would be wrong to say that at that point in time Indians of the 1830s hated
English. At the Hindu college, which was established by Indians, the British
themselves admitted that the English education was as good as any school in
Europe. When the Government decided to establish a new Sanskrit college in
Calcutta, Ram Mohan Roy was disappointed. He wanted Indians to learn
European math, science, chemistry instead of “grammatical niceties and
metaphysical distinctions”.

After further objections to the “imaginary learning” of Hindu

schools, he [Ram Mohan Roy] summarily assures Lord Amherst
that “the Sanskrit system of education would be the best
calculat-  ed to keep this country in darkness.” What he wants
to see established is “a more liberal and enlightened system of 
instruction, embracing mathematics, natural
philosophy, chemistry, anatomy, with other useful sciences.” This,
he urges “may be accomplished with the sums proposed,
by employing a few gentlemen of talent and learning educated  in
Europe and providing a College furnished with neces- sary books,
instruments, and other apparatus.” [The life and letters of Raja
Rammohun Roy]

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 Mohan Roy’s letter to Lord Amherst did not get an answer. By then the ght
between the Anglicists and Orientalists had reached a point where a decision
had to be made. Macaulay arrived on the scene in 1834 and he had a clear idea
about the future direction. Also Duff’s independent efforts had convinced
Macaulay that an Anglical education system would succeed.

Macaulay was of the opinion that there was no point in perfecting

the vernaculars, since there was nothing intelligent, but
falsehood in them. In his Minute, he noted that he had no
knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic, but was convinced that a single
shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native
literature of India and Arabia. On the other hand, whoever learned
English had access to the vast intellectual wealth of the wisest
nations of the earth and the literature available in English is
valuable that the literature of all languages of the world together.
[Macaulay’s Education Part 3: The Minute]

Lord William Bentinck signed Macaulay’s draft into law. While the goal of
British Government was to promote European literature and science, the
Oriental schools were not to be closed. Instead it was decided not to subsidize
the students. The large amount of money spent on printing Oriental books
were to be stopped and the money instead was to be used for promoting
European literature.

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 Duff had already done this without any Government support and had solved
many problems which the administration would face later. When a medical
college was established in Calcutta there seemed to be a problem since Hindu
shastras prohibited touching a dead body for anatomical purposes. To nd a
way out, the education commission visited Duff’s school. The students told the
commission that it was a fact that shastras prohibited handling of a dead body,
but they did not care. They wanted to take up the medical profession. Later
orthodox priests told William Bentinck that there was no prohibition against
touching a dead body for learning, but Duff was praised for showing that
modern science was compatible with traditionalism.

Duff’s work continued and Bengalis from high castes, ignoring opposition from
their families, converted. The conversion process was dramatic: people would
leave their families and take refuge in Duff’s house where he would baptize
them. Soon he could not handle the ood of people and had to build a home
for the new converts.  He gave Sunday classes to clerks, weekly lectures for
students who kept in touch with him and theological lectures for the converts.
Duff’s converts became Indian missionaries and pastors and some of them
went abroad and served in foreign missions. The ones who stayed India also
hit the jackpot; soon the Governor General Sir Henrey Harding opened

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 Government service to English educated Indians and Duff looked like a
visionary.

Due to bad health, Duff often left India for Scotland for rest. After one such trip
he arrived back in 1856 – a crucial year in Indian history. There were agrarian
revolts and revolts by the aboriginals and soon the First War of Independence
broke out. Duff was in Calcutta which was not a site for the revolt, but he lived
in panic.

From Bengal, Duff expanded his activities. He started a mission for the Santals;
his disciples too started spreading around starting missions in Jalna, which
was part of the state of Hyderabad. It bothered Duff that missionaries were ill-
educated and fanatical and this was not the quality he wanted in people for his
missionary enterprise, which for him was the heart of the Gospel. He wanted to
create an army of educated and experienced men and for this training he

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 wanted a Missionary Institute to be set up in Scotland similar to the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome.

His campaign worked and the institute was set up with Duff as the rst
Professor, but unlike his mission in India, this turned out to be a failure.He had
become old and could not connect to the younger people with his lengthy
speeches. Besides this, he was not keeping well. The Indian weather was not
agreeable to him and he had returned often due to jungle fever and dysentery.
He died on Feb 12, 1878.

The Duff Effect

Due to the efforts of Duff and  Macaulay, English became the language of the
educated people, replacing Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. Also due to this
Western literature and science  became accessible to the educated. It has also
been argued that nationalism was a consequence of English education, but
that would be ignoring the fact that the Vellore mutiny and First war of
Independence happened without the infusion of English language.

Duff’s work highlights a less mentioned part of Indian history:  the decision to
impose English had reasons other than the economics of text books and the

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 need for educated employees. Though he only had a super cial knowledge of
the religion, Duff sincerely believed that Hinduism was an evil darkness from
which people had to be rescued. During one of his trips to Scotland, he lectured
on his technique – spreading Western education linked with Christian teaching
– and thought it was the best way to preach to Hindus without antagonizing
them.

Duff hated secular education; in a spiritual country like India, he thought  it

would be dangerous to try it. He did not want education to create a “spiritual
barrenness”, but instead address the whole personality.  Duff’s concept of
teaching Christian truths in educational institutions had a great effect. Soon
there were many such schools, not just in Bengal, but also in Madras, Bombay
and Lahore; about 1/4th of the educational institutions were missionary
schools. Members of the Indian Christian Community became highly educated
and started occupying positions of power in the Government.

If the success was measured in terms of the number of converts, probably Duff
was a failure. His success was in making Christian thought very popular in
India and in spreading those ideas among the educated. When Duff had
started his school, it was considered sacrilege to even touch the Bible, but he

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 was able to change that attitude. Duff legacy lies in creating a favorable image
of Christianity among the educated which continues even to this day.

References:

1. Alexander Duff, pioneer of missionary education, by William Paton

2. The Life of Alexander Duff by George Smith.
3. Clive, John. 1973. “Indian Education: The Minute” and “Indian Education:
The Consequences”. Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian , 342 – 426.
Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

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Published by जयकृ णः | ജയ ൻ

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12 Replies to “The Man who came to destroy Hinduism – 2”

Pingback: VandeNikhilam Information » Blog Archive » The Man who came to destroy
Hinduism – 2 | varnam

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 KN
August 19, 2009 at 10:31 am

You are such a bigot. Get over your xations and accept that people are free
to choose their religions.

Kedar
August 19, 2009 at 11:12 am

Seems a lot like the early christian history in Roman Empire. The Christians
were persecuted, but since most of them were educated, they held important
government positions.
Get hold of the educational sector and harvest the souls!

svat
August 22, 2009 at 9:47 pm

Illuminating and informative posts. The title is unfortunate, though: does

“The Man who came to destroy Hinduism” mean that he came with that
purpose, or does it mean that he happened to do so? 🙂

jk
August 22, 2009 at 10:05 pm

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 When he arrived in Calcutta as a 24 year old, one of the declarations he
made was that he had found a unique way to destroy Hinduism and hence
the title. Those exact words are quoted in his biography.

Vinay
August 24, 2009 at 4:52 am

RR Roy , did he willingly participate in this? What were his motivations to do

so and did he not object to the Conversion of the masses ?
Thanks for the post.

jk
August 25, 2009 at 7:02 am

Vijay, At that time Hindus of Calcutta believed that you would get converted
if you touched the Bible. Ram Mohan Roy wanted to put an end to such
superstitions among Hindus.

Atanu Dey
September 1, 2009 at 2:52 am

Thanks, JK. Most informative and enlightening post.

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 jk
September 1, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Atanu, thanks!

Chandra
March 21, 2010 at 4:10 am

JK, I missed this before!

Vinay, Ram Mohan Roy was educated in Koran, in Persian and Arabic, and
Bible, rst, when growing up, and only then did he read about Hinduism – so
his formative sense of religion and Hinduism was based on Abrahamic
religions. Since then tried his best to t the square peg of Abrahamic
religions in a round hole of Hinduism and hence his formation of Brahmo
Samaj which promoted apparent Hindu monotheism as opposed to
Hinduism practiced by Hindus themselves, which he considered inferior to
Abrahamic religions. The whole venture has less to do with reforming
Hinduism, as we are frequently told, and more do with inferiority complex. He
himself dressed as an Arab/Persian.
But Samaj itself probably helped retain lots of Hindus in Hinduism fold
instead of making them converts with a sense of inferiority.

jk
March 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

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 Chandra,
Here is a paragraph from a recent article by Rajiv Malhotra which helps
understand what Ram Mohan Roy was thinking

I have an unpublished monograph that shows the history of

this shift in Indian consciousness concerning Tantra. It was
under British rule that certain Indian leaders (such as Ram
Mohan Roy) started to condemn (as part of their “reform” of
Hinduism) those aspects of Hinduism that bothered puritan
Christian values. It must be noted that Christianity has had a
very negative posture towards the human body starting with
the Biblical episode of Origin Sin. This is why female priests
(called “witches”) got demonized by the Church in its very
o cial genocide of several million practitioners across
Europe. This Church prosecution was called the Inquisition
and was widespread for a few centuries. The use of shakti
and anything concerning the body as a spiritual resource was
considered not only immoral but also demonic, and was
outlawed with draconian enforcement. The term “occult” was
used to refer to a vast assortment of such practices and was
heavily condemned by the Church as the work of the Devil.
[Nithyananda]

Sampathkumar

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 April 20, 2010 at 2:31 am

Excellent article and excellent site as well. I have always found study of
history fascinating since only by understanding it we will learn how not to let
it repeat. When seen in hindsight now that a whole lot of westerners are
nding refuge in oriental philosophies apparently recognising the barrenness
of their beliefs,it is really amusing to see Duff’s claim to extricate Hindus
from the darkness of their faiths.
I agree, Abrahamic religions are simple in that they worship a single God and
hence they nd it di cult to comprehend Hindus worshipping a medley of
Gods. After having studied Abrahamic Philosophies and Oriental
philosophies, I nd it easier to relate myself to Hindu tradition as every
aspect of life is glori ed by worshipping the nature.

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