Missionary activity in India in the 19th century

Content Warning
Historical resources referred to in this post reflect the racial prejudices of the era in which they were created, and some items include language and imagery which is offensive, oppressive and may cause upset. This is not condoned by The University of Manchester, but we are committed to providing access to this material as evidence of the inequalities and attitudes of the time period.

Black and white photograph of a missionary couple with a group of Indian men, women and children, c. 19th/20th century. From the Brethren Lantern Slides disseminated at missionary conferences

From around the turn of the 18th century, Protestant Christian missionaries had been travelling through India setting up Christian communities throughout the Indian Subcontinent. These missionaries primarily belonged to the Lutheran denomination, but from the 19th century other Anglican and Nonconformist missions began to establish a presence in India. Christianity has a long history in India, with the country’s first Christian community believed to have been established in the 6th century AD. However, moving into the second half of the 19th century, Christian missions to India were part of a broader programme of western intellectual and cultural ‘civilisation’. These ‘civilising’ missions intersected with the commercial and military expansionism pursued by the western colonial powers during this period.

The lives and works of the individuals below help to give a sense of what missionary activity in 19th century India involved.

W. M. Carey

A painting of Carey seated writing in a book, accompanied with the text: ‘William Carey in India, aged 60’. The handwritten label on the front of the slide states: ‘W M Carey. 1791 to India, Died 1834’

W. M. Carey was a Baptist missionary who is widely considered the ‘father of modern missions’. In 1791, he went on mission to India. He settled in Serampore, where he set up schools teaching the Christian faith — as well as reading, writing and accountancy — to deprived children in the local area. He also set up a university of divinity in Serampore and campaigned to end the practice of sati (in which a widowed woman would sacrifice herself upon her husband’s funeral pyre). He also translated the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Hindi and Sanskrit and the Hindu epic the Ramayana into English.

Anthony Norris Groves

Portrait of Anthony Norris Groves. Caption reads: ‘your affectionate friend and brother’.

Anthony Groves was a dentist and prominent member of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian religious group who believe that the early church represented in the New Testament should serve as a model for the modern church. After completing a mission to Baghdad in 1829, Groves went on to establish a missionary team in Madras and a missionary settlement in Chittoor during the 1830s. Groves went on mission without the backing of the State or Church, in line with his belief that if called to mission in faith an individual should not delay their journey regardless of a lack of funds. He is remembered for establishing the first Brethren group in India in 1833. This group later took root in Kerala, calling themselves the Kerala Brethren.

Titus Close

Rev. James Heaton, ‘Memoir of … Titus Close, Wesleyan-Methodist minister, and for some time Missionary in India’ (London: John Mason, 1836), p. 68.

Titus Close was a Wesleyan-Methodist minister and later a missionary in India. This excerpt from James Heaton’s memoir of Close summarises the qualities which he was perceived as possessing, and which it is recommended should be present in any individual wishing to make a faith mission to India. Whilst in India, Close was based in Madras and the surrounding region.

For the full memoir of Titus Close, please see the digitised copy here.

The majority of historical sources on missionary activity in India which have come down to us are from a western perspective. However, The History and Diaries of an Indian Christian (J. C. Aroolappen), although written and compiled by Englishman G. H. Lang, presents us with the perspective of an Indian Christian missionary. Throughout his diary entries, Aroolappen documents his travels through India urging his fellow countrymen to ‘seek their salvation before death approaches’. In a diary entry on December 31st 1853, Aroolappen expresses his regret at not being able to convert more people:

We are sorry that we did work very little for the Lord. The harvest is great, and the labourers are few; and we see that many are still ignorant of their heathenism; but we ought to pray the Lord to open their eyes to the truth of the gospel.

The full diary of J. C. Aroolappen is available for request at the Special Collections (Main Library).

A missionary home in Ooty, India. From the Brethren Lantern Slides disseminated at missionary conferences

The Brethren Lantern Slides in this blog post (as well as further photographic material, correspondence and other administrative records) can be found in the Echoes of Service Archive.

Discussion points

1. Looking at the pictures and texts above, what sort of image do you think Christian missionaries wanted to project of themselves to wider society?
2. The majority of historical sources on missionary activity in India which have come down to us are from the viewpoint of white men. The diaries of Aroolappen help us to gain an Indian perspective. What do you think other Indian citizens at the time might have thought about these missions?
3. Do you think Christian missionaries made a positive or negative (or both) contribution to life and culture in India?

Further resources

Heaton, James. Memoir of … Titus Close, Wesleyan-Methodist minister, and for some time Missionary in India (London: John Mason, 1836): https://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Manchester~19~19~3139~178271?qvq=q:Titus%20close&mi=0&trs=1

Lang, Henry George. The history and diaries of an Indian Christian, J : C.Aroolappen. [With extracts from the diaries] (London: Thynne & Co., 1939)