We may have read - but the reality!' Narrating Baptist missions in Bengal, 1800-1855.

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This project examines the ways in which missionary periodicals served as a vehicle for ideas about India in the first half of the nineteenth century. Focusing on Baptist missions in Bengal, it traces the parallel themes of ‘the family’ and ‘the heathen’ in published missionaries’ accounts and explores how they served pragmatic and rhetorical functions throughout the period. By reconstructing these narratives and following these themes over time, we can get a better sense of the role they played in developing the connections between missionaries and converts, metropole and periphery. Beginning with the establishment of the Serampore mission in 1800, I utilize the parallel stories of the

‘Serampore mission family’ and two families of converts to show how these concepts

underpinned the structure and organization of the mission and were incorporated into the

missionaries’ narratives. As the years progressed, these themes—often closely

interrelated—assumed more rhetorical value as missionaries became more conscious of

the role of their own narratives in generating support among their home audiences,

especially women and children. From Serampore I broaden the perspective from

individuals to communities. With the establishment of ‘Christian villages’ for converts

and the development of what I call ‘spotlight’ mission stations, many missionaries

became keenly aware of the central role of their narratives in the maintenance and

extension of missions. From communities I shift to institutions, examining the

increasingly rhetorical nature of these themes in connection with the Baptists’ schools in

Calcutta The study ends with the 1855 conference of Baptist missionaries in Bengal,

which represented a turning point in both management and narration as both became

more centralized, and as these themes had fully evolved from structural to rhetorical.

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School o f Oriental and African Studies

‘W e may have read— but the reality!’:

N arrating Baptist M issions in Bengal, 1800-1855

A Thesis by Jonathan Brooke

Submitted for the Degree o f D octor o f Philosophy

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Jonathan Brooke

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Abstract

This project exam ines the ways in which m issionary periodicals served as a vehicle for ideas about India in the first h alf o f the nineteenth century. Focusing on Baptist missions in Bengal, it traces the parallel them es o f ‘the fam ily' and ‘the heathen’ in published m issionaries’ accounts and explores how they served pragmatic and rhetorical functions throughout the period. By reconstructing these narratives and following these themes over time, w e can get a better sense o f the role they played in developing the connections between m issionaries and converts, m etropole and periphery. Beginning with the establishm ent o f the Seram pore m ission in 1800, I utilize the parallel stories o f the

‘Serampore m ission fam ily’ and two families o f converts to show how these concepts underpinned the structure and organization o f the m ission and w ere incorporated into the m issionaries’ narratives. As the years progressed, these them es— often closely interrelated— assumed m ore rhetorical value as m issionaries becam e m ore conscious o f the role o f their own narratives in generating support am ong their hom e audiences, especially w om en and children. From Serampore I broaden the perspective from individuals to com munities. W ith the establishm ent o f ‘Christian villages’ for converts and the developm ent o f what I call ‘spotlight’ m ission stations, many missionaries becam e keenly aware o f the central role o f their narratives in the m aintenance and extension o f missions. From com munities 1 shift to institutions, exam ining the increasingly rhetorical nature o f these themes in connection with the B aptists’ schools in Calcutta. The study ends with the 1855 conference o f Baptist m issionaries in Bengal, which represented a turning point in both managem ent and narration as both became m ore centralized, and as these themes had fully evolved from structural to rhetorical.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to a num ber o f individuals and institutions for their kind assistance in the research and writing o f this thesis. My supervisor, Avril A. Powell, provided expert guidance, a critical eye, and steadfast support from its inception to its com pletion. The staff at the SOAS library and Council o f W orld M ission Library, the Oriental and India O ffice Collection at the British Library, the C enter for the Study o f the Life and W ork o f W illiam Carey, D.D. at W illiam Carey U niversity, and the Angus Library, Regents Park College, Oxford, provided incalculable aid and service. The m em bers o f the South A sia sem inar at SOAS, the Imperial H istory sem inar at the Institute o f H istorical Research, and the H enry M artyn Seminar at W estm inster Theological College, Cam bridge, heard several portions o f this research, and offered valuable com m ent and criticism. Thanks are due to SOAS for an A dditional Award for Fieldwork, and to the U niversity o f London’s Central Research Fund, for funds toward travel and research in India. W hile there I enjoyed the kindness and hospitality o f the faculty, staff, and students o f Seram pore College and B ishop’s College. Friends in London and the U.S. provided m uch-needed support and encouragement. Especial thanks go to m y wife, Kim, for her unw avering love, patience, and grace.

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Illustrations

Figure Page

1. M ap o f Baptist M ission Stations and Villages 8

2. A Field L abourer’s W ife 51

3. The H indoo M other 55

4. A W hole H eathen Family Taking Offerings to Hindoo Gods

56

5. Krishna Pal 85

6. W illiam W ard 85

7. Baptism o f K ristno, A Hindoo Convert 89

8. Christian V illagers at Serampore 117

9. K alinga N ative Chapel 129

10. A N ative Indian V illage 130

11. Chapel at Khari 137

12. Providential Deliverance— Floods at M ukherjea-M ahal, 1833

139

13. Baptist Chapel at Lakhyantipore 147

14. N ew Chapel at Lakhyantipore 151

15. Chapel at D handoba 163

16 Chobikarpar Chapel, Backergunge 166

17. D enonath Bose: ‘I am a C hristian’ 173

18. N ative G irls’ School— Intally 179

19. N ative Y outh o f India Pleading with the Church for Education

197

20. Interior o f the B enevolent Institution 198

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Abbreviations

B C M Baptist Children ’s M agazine

B M Baptist M agazine

BMS Baptist M issionary Society

CMS Church M issionary Society

E M Evangelical M agazine

F O I F riend o f India

JM H Juvenile M issionary H erald

JM M Juvenile M issionary M agazine

LMS London M issionary Society

M C M issionary Chronicle

M M M issionary M agazine

M H M issionary H erald

PA Periodical Accounts o f the Baptist

M issionary Society

SPA Serampore Periodical Accounts

SPG Society for the Propagation o f the

Gospel in Foreign Parts

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B i l l AF

Sew n m Oihva

Dmajpoie Monsaiu

Malda

SyU iel .

♦ Dliaka

• < luttaaona Sei mnpoie *

Johnn-agar C a k u t t 3

^ Howrah. UstaBy. Chifport,

™ S b b p o rt. Kalsnga

Baiqiore • _ Lakhv antipoie

/ { n A j ?

M ukhencam aha! y / \ _ , .

Jtxsoi e

• Chnstsanpor**.

Kadaw, Bh*r«5«pcre>

B a i l s a!

t>haridob%

K otoaipar*.

Cbtsbtkarpai

Figure 1— Principal Baptist M issionary Society Stations and C hristian V illages in Bengal, ca. 1800-1854.

A dapted from K.P. Sen Gupta, The Christian M issionaries in B engal, 1971.

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Especially in their early days, the m issionary societies in Britain faced great logistical challenges in spreading aw areness o f their cause and w ork and in garnering support for it.

Organized for the m ost part along denom inational lines, societies organized their support networks through a series o f local associations and by m eans o f quarterly and annual meetings and conferences. Finding significant support initially in the industrial north and the suburban southeast o f England, 'th e missionary movement* became ‘increasingly a London based m ovem ent in both inspiration and grow th’. 1 This did not preclude, however, the desire for and necessity o f a reliance 011 a broad-based dem ographic o f support throughout the country. The central challenge, how ever, to appealing to such a wide audience w as creating ‘a sym pathy that did not naturally exist precisely because their objects were so far rem oved from local concerns’.2 To that end, the missionary magazine w as created. ‘M issionary intelligence’ provided a direct connection from the periphery to the m etropole, though ‘direct’ is a bit misleading. The journals and letters o f m issionaries, periodically sent to the com m ittees o f their parent societies, w ere edited, excerpted, and annotated to reflect the societies’ views and to achieve their desired responses. The Baptist M issionary Society, for example, utilized a General Committee o f around fifty people to m anage and dissem inate all such m aterial and to prom ote the Society’s interests throughout B ritain.3 The periphery was therefore refracted through m issionaries and their societies, but was not always distorted so m uch that it did not reflect som ething o f the m etropole. All the larger m ission societies as well as m any o f the sm aller organizations had their own periodical new sletters and m agazines, through w hich ‘m issionary intelligence’ was circulated and discussed, and— just as im portantly—

financial support encouraged and reported. One has only to brow se the ‘Contributions’

1 Stephen M intzM P riso n o f E xpectations: The F am ily in Victorian C ulture (N ew York, 1983), 22-28.

2 Steven Maughan, ‘Mighty England do G ood’: the major English denominations and organization for the support o f foreign m issions in the nineteenth century’ in Robert Bickers and Rosemary Seton, eds., M issio n a iy E ncounters: Sources a n d Issues (Surrey, 1996), 11-37.

3 In 1826 this number was increased to eighty. Brian Stanley, H isto iy o f the B aptist M issio n a iy Society (Edinburgh, 1992), Chapter VII, ‘Domestic Life and Genera! Policy o f the Society, 1817-1906', 208. See also E.A. Payne, The G reat Succession: L eaders o f the B aptist M issio n a iy Society D uring the Nineteenth C entw y. (London, 1938).

9

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pages in these m agazines to get a sense o f the breadth and variety— as well as the m ake

up— o f m issionary and education associations and other philanthropic outlets among evangelicals.

By the m iddle o f the nineteenth century circulation o f religious periodicals was

‘vigourous and healthy’ and held ‘an im m ense pow er for good’, w hich depended largely on its readers’ w illingness and ability to increase that circulation and consum ption.4 To some there w as a kind o f freem asonry associated with the value o f such periodicals.

‘Such as have never had [them] to read, cannot be expected to appreciate them aright’, explained one article, ‘but he who is a constant reader o f such publications, knows full well their value to h im self and to the w orld’.5 Readers o f religious periodicals were esteem ed ‘the m ost intelligent, benevolent, high-m inded, and the m ost active in every good word and w ork’ and w ere ‘conversant with the state o f religion throughout the w orld’. Indeed, the same article asserted, religious periodicals w ere the vessels by which

‘pure and undefiled religion’ w ould be spread and ‘the instrum ents, in the hands o f God, o f preaching the G o sp e l.. .to the inhabitants o f every quarter o f the globe’. They and their supporters w ere if nothing else ambitious. They were seen as not only edifying pastimes, but the best m eans o f w idely dissem inating beliefs, ideas, and opinions among the evangelical populace.6 As Bernard Porter has reminded us, m issionary publications were

‘a prim e source o f inform ation’ about the w ider world and its people, and

if any m iddling V ictorian, therefore, w as ignorant about Indian religion[,] A frican society, the quaint and thrilling custom s o f the South Sea islanders... then he or she had only him - or h e rse lf to blam e. T he infonnation (o f a kind) was there.7

4 'Our Periodical Literature’, E va n g e lic a l M agazine, volum e 25, 1847, 630-1.

5 ‘On Religious Periodicals’ (excerpted from the Boston C hristian W atchman), B a p tist M a g a zin e, volume 33, 1 841,555.

6 Between 1780 and 1820 over a hundred new religious periodicals were established. Often these were the main vehicles o f literacy and culture available to people. See Leonore D avid off and Catherine Hall, F am ily F ortunes, M en a n d Women o f the E nglish M id d le Class, 1780-1850 (Chicago, 1987), 75. One pamphlet on

‘Periodical Literature’, published in India, explained that the success o f periodicals, compared to books, lay in their incorporation o f ‘the very age and body o f the tim e’ and argued that the growth o f periodical literature had been almost organic. ‘England required it; England favoured it accordingly; and under the maternal auspices o f Britannia, the child has grown strong and lusty.' P erio d ica l Literature: E nglish and A nglo-Indian, In Two L ectures (Serampore, 1859), 4-6.

7 Bernard Porter, The A b sen t-M in d ed Im perialists: Em pire, Society, and Culture in B ritain (Oxford, 2004), 86. This echoes lan Bradley’s assessment o f two decades earlier: ‘When the British people thought about Africa and India they thought in missionary terms’, he writes, ‘as was only natural when it was the activities o f missionaries which had given them an interest in these areas o f the world in the first place’. The C all to Seriousness: The E vangelical Im pact on the Victorians (New York, 1976). 80. For an excellent survey o f these missionary m agazines, see Terry Barringer, ‘What Mrs. Jellyby might have read: Missionary Periodicals: a neglected source’, Victorian P eriodicals R ev iew , 37/4, 2004, 46-74.

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This study relies on m aterials like these in an attempt to trace several o f their m ost central and significant themes. By following and reconstructing m issionaries’ serialized reports and accounts published in religious and m ission-oriented journals and periodicals, we can develop a clearer idea o f their activities, their ideologies, and ju st as im portantly the ways they affected those people at hom e w ho followed their progress and contributed to their ongoing labours.

Pity, Pence, and Participation

In their efforts to capture the attention (and funds) o f individuals, congregations, and the public, m issionaries and other w riters often com posed highly stylized and formulaic accounts and studies o f ‘heathen’ cultures and practices to em phasize the spiritual darkness w hose only rem edy was the light o f Christianity. They provided vivid images o f

‘gross idolatry’, hum an sacrifice, sati, infanticide, and other ‘depraved practices’— often exaggerated— that w ere intended to excite their readers’ em otions, and as Ian Bradley says, ‘their exploits had all the romance and excitem ent o f good adventure stories’.8 Yet for early m issionaries in India, social critique was only one part o f understanding and describing their new surroundings and ‘subjects’, and ‘reflected a diverse range o f assum ptions and influences’.9 In his essay ‘M issionaries as Social Commentators: The Indian C ase’, Geoffrey Oddie places ‘missionaiy social com m ent’ into three classes according to nature and purpose: general com m entary, inform ative research, and specific appeals, the three o f w hich often overlapped. Citing W illiam W ard’s watershed View o f the History, Literature, and M ythology o f the Hindoos, Oddie explains that even ‘m uch o f the general com m ent’ on India and its people available to readers o f the tim e came from m issionary sources and w as ‘specifically designed to influence the European public and to encourage greater support for Christian m issions’, rather than to sim ply inform or educate.10

8 As Frederick D ow ns has pointed out, much o f m issionaries’ writing was designed to show, on the one hand, ‘how great the need for missionary work in India w as’, and on the other its successes ‘or, at least, how signs o f an imminent breakthrough were everywhere to be seen’. E ssays on Christianity in N orth-E ast India. (N ew Delhi, 1994), 2; I. Bradley, The Call to Seriousness, 11-9.

9 N icholas Thomas, ‘Colonial Conversions: difference, hierarchy, and history in early 20th century evangelical propaganda’, in Catherine Hall, ed., Cultures o f Em pire; A R ea d e r (N ew York, 2000), 315.

10 Geoffrey Oddie, ‘M issionaries as Social Commentators: The Indian C ase’ in Bickers and Seton, eds., M issionary E ncounters: Sources and Issues, 201-5. William Ward, A View o f the H istoiy, Literature, and

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In narrating various aspects o f their labours and attem pting to describe and explain the com plex world w ithin w hich they lived and operated, m issionaries provided intimate glimpses into their own lives and those o f their converts. A t the same tim e they also were (often painfully) aware o f their dependence on the liberality— and participation— o f their countrym en and fellow Christians for the continuation o f their work. W hile the cry to

‘Come over and help usP resonated through letters, reports, speeches and sermons alike, it was w ith that awareness, and in m any cases millenarian anxiety, that m any m issionaries and other supporters o f the enterprise began to develop m ore sophisticated approaches to narration. W hile narrative prim arily served to engage hom e audiences and allow them to follow and feel a part o f the m issions, m issionaries’ reports began to include more rhetorical content as the century progressed. M ore efficient m eans o f com munication and transportation m eant that w ider audiences could be reached (and reached out to) and that appeals for m oney and m anpow er could enjoy better chances o f success.

Fund-raising w as certainly a significant puipose o f m issionary literature, and it would be a simple thing to reduce its authors’ m otives to money. The regular appearance o f such essays as ‘An appeal to rich Christians on behalf o f the H eathen’ would suggest that were so, but m any contem poraries w ere adam ant that such literature— and publicizing m issions in general— was about m uch m ore.11 ‘W hen I see M issionary affairs taken up as a sort o f religious entertainm ent, in lieu o f those polluting am usem ents which our principles forbid us to resort to ’, railed J.A. James, ‘[and] w hen I hear it said that money m oney money, is the lifeblood o f the m issionary cause— I cannot but believe there is still m uch to be done at h o m e’.12 Similarly, the editor o f the Baptist M issionary Society’s Periodical Accounts clarified that the aim o f publications like his was

not that o f m erely draw ing forth the pecuniary aid o f those w ho need them. This w ere a low and sordid aim, and quite unw orthy o f the cause itself. B ut should they excite the faith, should they anim ate the hope, and above all, so affect the heart tow ards the perishing heathen, as to secure the supplications o f the people o f God, the highest end is gained.13

M yth o lo g y o f the H indoos: Including a M inute D escription o f their M anners and Customs, and Translations o f Their P rin cip a l W orks, 2 vols. (Serampore, 1815. 1818).

11 EM , new series volume 23, 1845, 513.

12 J.A. James, Ju v en ile A dvantages an d O bligations in R eference to the C ause o f Christian M issions Stated an d E nforced (London, 1828), 28.

13 P eriodical A cc o u n ts o f the B aptist M issionary Society, European Series, 1827-1834, iv. As early as 1802, Andrew Fuller, the Secretary o f the BM S, noted that ‘the P eriodical A cco u n ts have had a great effect in

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One o f the goals o f this study is to explore how m issionary narratives w ere constructed and presented to generate feelings o f sympathy, encourage giving, and inspire others to becom e m issionaries them selves. I have sum m ed up these anticipated responses into what I call ‘the three P 's ': pity, pence, and participation. A small tract b y the American m issionary John Scudder, entitled The C hristia n’s D uty to the H eathen laid out these expectations.14 Scudder challenged readers to becom e aw are o f their own feelings, to tap into the em otions o f religious jealousy and com passion tow ard the ‘wretchedness and degradation' o f the heathen, and to channel that em otion first into prayer, then into more material responses. Readers w ere urged to calculate both their ‘ability and obligation’ to contribute to m issions— to consider their circum stances, their ‘influence’, even their property— but were sternly rem inded that ‘ability’ and possibility w ere not to be correlated with convenience.15 An article in the Evangelical M agazine in 1852 likewise rem inded pious supporters o f m issions that the sympathy sought by m issionary literature was not ‘that romantic or sentim ental feeling w hich is dissolved in tears and breathed in sighs, w ithout dictating one effort to assist or encourage’, but lay instead in ‘practical effort and prayerful zeal’.10

W ithin this discourse w om en and children played a significant role— both as subjects and as audiences— engaging them in what Patricia Hill calls ‘a special and limited m ission’.17 A t the turn o f the nineteenth century British w om en w ere already becom ing

stirring up the minds o f som e to contribute, and others to offer them selves as m issionaries’. Fuller to J.

Marshman, 26 N ovem ber 1802, BM S M SS H2, Home O ffice Correspondence A, Andrew Fuller, Correspondence.

14 John Scudder, The C h r istia n ’s D uty to the H eathen (Philadelphia, n.d.). See also Dr. Scudder's tales f o r little readers, about the heathen (N ew York, 1849). Scudder (1793-1855) was an American medical missionary to Ceylon and Madras from 1820 until his death, and was known especially for his numerous essays, tracts and pamphlets, many o f which were published or excerpted in the M issio n a ry H erald and other journals.

15 Stuart Piggin points out that the view o f India presented in missionary literature not only influenced readers to contribute their ‘pence and prayers’, but also influenced men and women to offer themselves as missionary candidates. M a kin g E vangelical M issionaries 1789-1858: The So cia l B ackground, M otives and Training o f B ritish P rotestant M issionaries to India. Evangelicals and Society 2 (Oxford, 1984), Introduction 1.2. As Bradley adds, ‘Those people w hose compassion and converting zeal were fired by the terrible stories o f native superstition and suffering brought home by the missionaries, often took it upon themselves to organize schem es o f relief and betterment. The Call to Seriousness, 77. See also Allan K.

Davidson, E vangelicals and A ttitudes T ow ard India 1786-1893 (Oxford, 1990), Chapter 5.

10 ‘The Claims o f the Missionary on the Sympathy o f British Christians', E van g elica l M a g a zin e, volume 30, 1852, 248.

17 Patricia Hill, The W orld Their H ousehold: The A m erican W oman's F oreign M ission M ovem ent and C ultural T ransform ation, 1870-1920 (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985), 2-5. Though D avid off has repeatedly warned against ‘the unspoken assumption that the family is about women and children’ in the case o f

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the objects o f that ‘high esteem 1 and ‘influence’ which came to characterize the Victorian period, and they w ere placed as models for their ‘heathen’ counterparts. A lm ost im m ediately there began to em erge essays, books, even entire journals and associations directed especially at involving them in the greater m ission effort.18 General appeals for m issionaries and m ission funding had usually been m ade with m en in mind: they w ere the m ajor m onetary contributors to the family, and thus to m issions. But for all o f their publicity and clamoring, it was woman, in her role as guardian o f the hom e (and purse), who could devote the ‘tim e and quiet energy’ required to m ake a definite contribution to the support o f m issions— and m ission publicists w ere well aw are o f th is.19 As wives and pursers, they often held sway over the finances required to m aintain and expand the m ission enterprise; as m others, they w ere the guardians and teachers o f a coming generation o f potential m issionaries.

The em phasis on the character and position o f w om en was central to the em ergence o f a collective evangelical identity at the turn o f the nineteenth century, and as affirmation o f British w om en’s ‘influence’ becam e popularized the m ission press were not lacking in their own efforts to take advantage o f the m ovem ent. This em phasis played a key function in m issionary ideology and practice, especially in directing w om en’s considerable

‘influence’ tow ard the m ission enterprise. A s one w om an noted, ‘Our reverend fathers and brethren m ay em brace in their com prehensive view the gigantic w ork o f evangelizing the w hole world, but our m ore limited gaze and our deepest sympathies m ay be concentrated upon the helpless daughters o f the E ast’.20 M ary Pearce, the w ife o f a Calcutta m issionary and a passionate publicist o f the cause o f Indian women, appealed in 1846 for her ‘beloved sisters’ in England to pray fervently for their ‘degraded sisters’ in India. ‘But though we begin with prayer’, she added, ‘we m ust com bine with practice:

there is m uch to be done w hich females can do— they have an influence which they can and m ust exert’.21 W om en w ere praised for being precisely the opposite o f m en, and it

missionary literature— especially o f the early nineteenth century— this is precisely the case. The F am ily S to iy , Blood, C ontract a n d Intim acy, 1830-1960 (London, 1999), 5.

18 Hill, The W orld Their H ousehold, 62.

19 Ibid, 25.

20 F em ale A g en cy A m o n g the H eathen. A s recorded in the H istory a n d C orrespondence o f the Society f o r P rom o tin g F em ale E ducation in the East. (Founded 1834). Introduction by Rev. Baptist Noel. (London,

1850), 4-5.

21 "An Appeal to the W omen o f England for the Women o f India’, M issionary M agazine, August 1846.

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w as because o f their very nature that w om en thus becam e a significant audience for religious and m issionary-oriented m aterial, and m uch o f it becam e oriented toward them.

Literature directed at w om en em phasized a particularly em otional reaction to encourage support for m issions. Patricia Hill has explained that w om en 'responded to graphic portrayals o f concrete dilem m as m ore readily than to abstract argum entation', and appeals to their hearts, rather than their m inds, w ere thought to be the m ost useful.22 'W ho but a woman can understand the heart o f a w om an’, Baptist N oel explained in his introduction to the 1850 volum e Female A gency A m ong the H eathen, ‘and bestow the tender consideration and the appropriate direction she requires?’23 Indeed, the B aptist M agazine in 1844 called upon ‘British Christian females o f the nineteenth century’ to resort to the

‘finer feelings o f the fem ale sex’ to becom e involved in various means o f supporting missions, where they could be 'extensively useful in perfect accordance with [their]

tender and sensitive character’.24 These m eans, the L M S ’s M ission aiy M agazine clearly spelt out, included ‘affectionate sympathy, fervent and united prayer, liberal funds [and]

efficient agents’.25

At the same tim e, childhood was increasingly recognized as a distinct part o f life, and children and young people w ere increasingly catered to by w riters and publishers as influential in their ow n right. Just as images o f the strong Christian m other and w ife w ere contrasted with the idle or degraded H indu woman, so w ere evangelical children confronted with their own identities vis-a-vis ‘heathen’ children. ‘H eathen’ children were to be pitied and prayed for, and in m any ways represented the m ost practical hope for the Christianization o f India. ‘The M issionary Cause will soon be in your lap’, warned one author, rem inding his young readers that m issionaries everyw here echoed the cry, ‘Come over and help u s!’ ‘W ar, com m erce, and science’ recruited ‘agents’ with little effort—

22 Hill also em phasizes that missionary literature ‘played on w om en’s fear and guilt’ to elicit responses from them. The W orld T heir H o u seh o ld , 66. In the second o f a series o f essays on ‘Heathen Female Education’, J.C. Thompson, an LMS missionary in South India, resolved to ‘not say much; and if that little is not felt, I cannot urge weightier claims, how many words so ever 1 might add’. M M , March 1837.

23 ‘Who can read the descriptions drawn by eye-w itn esses...w ith out the deepest com m iseration’ the author continued, ‘and what English-wom an but must gratefully acknowledge and adore the wondrous goodness which has made her to differ?’ F em ale A g en c y A m o n g the H eathen, 3; 6.

24 ‘The Special Duty o f Females to Promote the Advancement o f M essiah’s R eign’, B M , volume 36, 1844, 607. The author also gave special attention to the ‘home heathen’ in the ‘rural and manufacturing districts' as w ell as the Irish and negroes. Patricia Hill explains that women were not only ‘pinching pennies and arranging fundraisers’ for m issions, but they also provided ‘em otional’ and ‘spiritual’ support for the enterprise. The W orld Their H ousehold, 62.

25 ‘Heathen Female Education, part IV ’, M M , May 1837, 186.

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why not m issions? It was thus all that m ore im portant for the m ission press to reach out and secure the support o f ‘the rising generation’.26

Even before periodicals geared specifically tow ard ‘ju v en iles’ and m issions emerged, the m ajor evangelical m agazines featured regular content designated for younger audiences as well as including m aterial indirectly related to them , like ‘intelligence’ from m issionary schools and sim ilar institutions. Though children m ay not have represented a substantial econom ic dem ographic, they certainly were the key to the future expansion and continuation o f the m issionary enterprise itself. By the tim e the Baptist M issionary Society and its counterparts turned tow ard children as a new audience— and source o f funds— the w ork o f establishing and legitim ating foreign m issions had been accomplished a generation before, and children and young people had ‘only to support that w hich others had set u p .. .to m aintain in public esteem that w hich is already a favorite’P Beginning in 1827 with the Baptist C hild ren ’s M agazine and Sabbath S c h o la r’s Rew ard28, a host o f evangelical juvenile periodicals em erged in the second quarter o f the nineteenth-century, peaking in the m id 1840s, m ost w ith a decidedly m issionary b ent.29 It seemed that the key to drawing funds from children, especially w here periodicals w ere concerned, was volume. The editor o f the L M S’s Juvenile M issionary M agazine rem inded its readers that ‘the pow er o f the M agazine lies not in size or cost, but in readership’, and that

20 James, Ju ven ile A dvantages a n d O bligations, 36; B aptist C h ild ren 's M agazine a n d Sabbath School R ep o sito iy, January 1827.

27 James, Ju ven ile A dvantages a n d O bligations, 34.

28 A s one review put it, the B C M was ‘w ell adapted for the moral and religious instruction o f children, and are pleasingly diversified by anecdote, tale, and dialogue, so as to keep up the interest o f the work, and secure the attention o f the infantile m in d ...W e are informed...that it w ill be a decidedly a Baptist publication. We hope it will be successful’. B M , volum e 19, 1827, 22. Ten years on, another review reminded readers o f the B M that ‘the numerous woodcuts, anecdotes, and pieces o f sim ple poetry in this little volume, are highly calculated to interest and delight the junior members o f our families, and at the same time to produce the best impressions on their m inds.’ B M , volum e 29, 1837, 43. Likewise, the B aptist M issio n a iy R ew a rd B ooks, a series o f eight eight-page booklets by one o f the BM S Committee members, were ‘adapted to promote attachment to that institution among the young’, though the Committee itself was

‘not in any way responsible’ for their publication. These booklets also included woodcuts illustrating

‘specimens o f missionary work’, and as one reviewer noted, ‘em bellishm ents [are] o f the highest importance’ in reaching their target audience. Reviewed in BM , volum e 36, 1844, 520. The B C M was changed to the Baptist Youth's M agazine a n d M issionary Intelligencer in 1859 and subsequently absorbed after 1861 into the B aptist Reporter.

29 Each o f the major denominations featured at least one periodical devoted to young audiences, often under the auspices o f the various mission societies, and like their ‘adult' counterparts, all borrowed liberally from each other and other periodicals, including American and Continental ones, contributing to the creation and maintenance o f a pervasive evangelical sense o f identity and purpose. Andrew Thom pson's recent The E m pire Strikes B ack? The Im pact o f Im perialism on B ritain fro m the M id -N ineteenth C e ntuiy (Harlow, England, 2005) briefly touches on juvenile missionary periodicals in his discussion o f women and children’s involvement in the imperial project.

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im pressionable young m inds would m oreover be ‘trained to future usefulness by these m eans’. ‘Thousands o f subscribers are lost’, he added elsew here, ‘because they are not sought after— thousands o f pounds, because they are not collected’.30 Despite the best efforts o f the m issionary societies and the publishers, how ever, juvenile missionary m agazines them selves hardly cleared any profits. W hen an 1855 investigation by the BM S into the JM H 's popularity revealed a mediocre reception, they offered ‘some new im provem ents in the new y ear’ like a coloured w rapper and m ore illustrations.31

M uch like the m aterial directed at women, this juvenile literature also utilized simple themes and a regular stock o f im agery as well as appeals for m onetary aid. The use o f poem s and hym ns was m ore w idespread than for women, particularly because o f their use in Sunday Schools and m ission-oriented clubs and societies for young people.32 These were especially significant for their regular and repetitive content, intended to

‘indoctrinate’ children into the m indset o f m issions. This new genre o f juvenile m issionary literature m aintained the goals o f eliciting the three-fold responses— pity, pence, and participation— from its readers, as ‘such accounts as these are calculated to awaken the tenderest feelings in your heart for the poor H indoos’ w hile encouraging children to feel com passion for ‘their w retched condition’ and to obey G od’s command to spread the G ospel.33 W orks like W illiam Brodie G urney’s Lecture to Children and Youth on the H istory and Character o f Heathen Idolatry m ore often than not rested on various descriptions o f the ‘heathen’ world and its inhabitants, only afterwards adjoining descriptions o f m issionary w ork itself.34 Besides being ‘interesting’, one reviewer pointed out, G urney’s lecture had ‘also been the means o f producing perm anent im pressions o f

30 JM M , volum e 1, 1849, 64-67; 44-45.

31 What more could readers expect for a mere half-penny, the editor o f the B a p tist M agazine wondered, pointing out that the Society had actually been steadily losing m oney on the m agazine. BM , December

1855.

32 One editor noted the influence o f the genre in reviewing a collection o f M issio n a iy H ym ns for the E va n g elica l M agazine in 1847. ‘These hym ns’, he pointed out, ‘have made their appearance very opportunely, at a time when the attention o f young people is happily drawn, by a variety o f methods, to the missionary cause'. Review o f M issio n a iy H ym ns, f o r the use o f children (London, 1847), EM , new series volume 25, 1 8 4 7 ,4 2 7 .

33 B aptist C h ild re n ’s M agazine a n d Sabbath S ch o la r's Reward, January 1827; M M , July 1837. From this

‘ju ven ile’ periodical literature also sprang a secondary literature o f books and pamphlets 0 1 1 missions.

34 Gurney’s title continued ‘with som e references to the Effect o f Christian M issions' and advertised ‘thirty wood engravings’ (London, 1848), 48.

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the most salutary character in num erous instances’ and had illustrated the influence o f the press draw ing not only young people, but the British public in general, tow ard m issions.35

Idealised Visions: The Heathen and the Family in Missionary Writing

M issionary depictions and discussions o f the non-C hristian world were neither complicated nor particularly sophisticated, and sim ple categories and tropes w ere quickly developed and relied on to create a view o f a w orld full o f darkness in need o f the light o f the Christian Gospel. Early w riters needed but to turn to Scripture to define their

‘O thers’. A ccording to the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the R om ans, ‘the heathen’ were filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, m aliciousness; full o f envy, m urder, debate, deceit, m alignity; w hisperers, backbiters, haters o f God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors o f evil things, disobedient to parents, w ithout understanding, covenant breakers, w ithout natural affection, im placable [and]

unm erciful.36

Holy Scripture defined them thusly, and thus they were, and w hat had been sufficient descriptors for the ‘heathen’ o f eras past could ju st as easily be applied to the modern world— they w ere the opposites o f Christians themselves. This list o f negative qualities m irrored those positive qualities supposed to be the m arks o f true Christians, and were therefore applied w holesale to non-Christians around the w orld and even at hom e in Britain.37 Just as the passage in the B ook o f Psalms, ‘The dark places o f the earth are the habitations o f cruelty’ became a catch-all for describing the non-C hristian world and its inhabitants, P aul’s definition became a simple rubric by w hich ‘the heathen’ and their cultures, societies, and religions could be form ulaically explained away with relative ease.38 The contrast betw een ‘heathen’ and ‘Christian’ behaviours and identities is one o f the central them es in m issionary narratives, and though A nna Johnston argues that this approach was part o f ‘an attempt to “know ” and thus “m anage” the colonial heathen’, it

35 The reviewer also included a gentle reminder— to parents— that all the profits from the sale o f Gurney’s book would go to BM S-snpported schools abroad, for those children who ‘still sit in darkness’. BM , volume 40, 1848,288.

36 Romans 1: 29-32 (KJV).

37British Christians had been for some time in the habit o f styling their forebears— as w ell as their contemporaries— as heathens, and the image o f ‘the home heathen’ became a powerful incentive to social reform and missionary rhetoric around the middle o f the nineteenth century.

38 Psalms 74:20 (KJV).

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was also a rubric b y w hich m issionaries could evaluate their converts— and, indeed, them selves.39

M uch o f this kind o f rhetoric rested on the concept o f textual identities— that is, idealized notions that m ay or m ay not have had any bearing on reality, but nevertheless wielded great pow er and influence over readers— and their purses. Often, however, the identities built up around ‘the heathen’ were qualified w ith caveats. As one LMS m issionary explained,

Paul did not m ean to say that all the heathens w ere guilty o f all the crim es there named, but that their general character was such as he described, and that all these w icked things do take place am ong th e m ...T ru ly the heathen have changed very little since the tim e o f Paul.40

But even these occasional qualifications often merely served to ‘refresh’ the rhetorical value o f such broad definitions. Indeed, rather than looking for exceptions in the discourse on ‘the heathen’ (which naturally do appear, and serve their own purpose), in this study 1 rely on the continuity o f descriptions and im agery to build a sense o f the scale, nature, and purpose o f m issionary rhetoric and ‘propaganda’ based around the identity o f ‘the heathen’. M issionary narratives have been criticized as shallow and bigoted propaganda, with no basis o f accuracy or truth, but as texts their descriptions o f

‘the heathen’ offer m ore than ju st benchm arks o f Eurocentrism. The topics they revolve around first reveal m uch about the authors’ own values, and perhaps m ore im portantly their visions for the nature o f the Christian mission. They are im portant markers o f developing and shifting identities, both in Britain and in India, and reveal m uch about the early developm ent o f m ission strategy.

A second them e central to m issionary narrative and rhetoric— and to the m issionary enterprise itself—was that o f the family. Throughout the nineteenth century, the hom e was the site o f m uch attention from evangelicals at hom e and m issionaries alike, and it occupied a significant proportion o f their discourse on ‘the heathen’, especially in India.

Thus, by 1899, we find in James D ennis’ w ell-know n Christian M issions and Social

39 Anna Johnston, M issionary W riting a n d Em pire, 1800-1860 (Cambridge, 2003), 31-2. Johnston cites Thomas Richards' thesis that ‘the nineteenth-century imperial imagination was obsessed with collating and controlling information about the colon ies’. See Richards, The Im perial A r c h iv e : K now led g e a n d the F antasy o f E m pire (London, 1993).

40 ‘L.B., Seroor, 20 July 1859’. Juvenile M issionary M agazine, volume 18, 1861, 212-214.

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Progress passages like "In In d ia...th e utter neglect o f family training seems to be the feature m ost to be noted’; "The “jo int family system ” ...is a dangerous one to family peace, and attended with practical disadvantages which are objectable from m any points o f view ’; and ‘The O rient under the culture o f Christianity w ill som eday be a paradise o f hom es’.41 But such language and im agery had appeared even before the first British m issionaries had m ade their way to India, and it w ould be over the next decades that ideas about ‘the heathen’ and about ‘the fam ily’ w ould com bine to contribute to such specific ideology. Familial im agery was crucial to m issionaries’ own identity as well as their understanding o f India and its people, and m issionary texts them selves presented criticism s o f every aspect o f the Indian family in order to m ake it diam etrically opposed to the Christian family; thus Indian parents w ere either unloving or indulgent, and their children w ere ignorant, w illful, and disrespectful. Other, less specific ‘criticism s’ o f their families involved their tendency tow ard quarreling and the general Tack o f unity found within them ’:

T here is no bond o f union am ong th e m ...In this country sin seem s to have given the fullest sam ple o f its disuniting and debilitating power. T he children are opposed to their parents, and the parents to the children; brother totally disregards brother’.42

A ntony Copley suggests that such criticisms did not function solely as rhetoric, but also reflected som ething o f m issionaries’ own social anxieties and ideals.43 On the one hand, asking why the Indian fam ily featured so prom inently in m issionary discourse is certainly valid, and the m otives o f authors, editors, publishers, and readers are rather straightforward to evaluate. But on the other hand, the question o f how such themes came to prom inence— and rem ained there—reveals ju st as m uch about those m otives and

41 Volum e 1 (N ew York, 1899), 127-8; 270.

42 Joshua Marshman, quoted in Andrew Fuller, A n A p o lo g y f o r the L a te C hristian M ission to India (London, 1808), 26.

43 In response to F.M.L. Thom pson’s theory o f a Victorian ‘crisis o f the fam ily’, Antony Copley has questioned whether that thesis explains ‘that almost pathological missionary critique o f the extended Indian family so different from their ow n’ asserting that ‘missionaries surely projected onto Indian society [their]

anxieties about shoring up social structures’. R eligions in Conflict: Ideology, C ultural Contact, and Conversion in L a te-C o lo n ia l India (Delhi, 1997), 10. F.M.L. Thompson. The R ise o f R esp ecta b le Society.

Fontana Social History o f Britain Series (London, 1988), 85-89; 164. See also Mintz, A P rison o f E xpectations, 29-30; 196: ‘V ictorians... emphasized the stabilizing influence o f the family as an antidote to individualistic and democratizing pressures’. Janaki Nair suggests that the ‘idealized fam ily...served as a means not only to critique the colonized but emerged as a response to the ‘threats’ to the English family posed by the w om en's movement. ‘Uncovering the zenana: visions o f Indian womanhood in Englishw om en’s writings, 1813-1940', in Catherine Hall, ed., Cultures o f E m pire: A R eader. C olonizers in B ritain and the E m pire in the 19,h and 20rh C enturies (N ew York, 2000), 225.

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m ethods, and sheds light on the broader picture o f the m issionary m ovem ent. The qualities attributed to ‘heathen’ families by evangelical m issionaries in their w ritings served a num ber o f rhetorical purposes, but also revealed m uch about their own concepts o f the fam ily and its roles. Order and hierarchy w ere the cornerstones not only o f m issionaries’ own domestic ideals, but o f their m ission practices and relationships with converts as well. A s Sally G allagher writes, ‘arguing about w hat the family should b e ’ allows us to ‘take the tem perature o f our larger society’, and as we shall see, for missionaries and other evangelicals this ‘discourse o f dom esticity’ served ju st that purpose.44 M oreover, their perceptions o f ‘heathen’ families largely influenced the ways missionaries interacted w ith converts and attempted to structure convert com m unities. At the same time as m issionaries were describing the ‘evils’ o f Indian fam ilies to a hom e audience, the realities o f the m ission field were forcing them to re-exam ine their own conceptions o f fam ily in order to provide a model for their converts, who in turn had to synthesize ideas o f the fam ily in order to fit into such a model. But how long did such

‘m odeling’ last in the field? Though Leslie Flem m ing argues— quite rightly— that ‘the exam ples o f their own domestic arrangem ents., .were powerful civilizing forces’, how far did those exam ples actually go in effecting converts’ lives?45 As M argaret Jolly counters, any ideas m issionaries m ay have had about replacing or rearranging those ‘native’ family structures more often than not reflected ‘idealised visions rather than realistic m em ories’

o f their own familial structures and mores, especially in representing them to audiences back hom e.46 ‘Fam ily’ then, functioned as an elem ent within m issions (and missionary narratives) through w hich we can approach various aspects o f the subject: not only logistical, but ideological and rhetorical as well. This study attem pts in part to frame evangelical ideas o f—and rhetoric about— the family against a m ore specific context o f m issionary motives and an expanding worldview in which m any o f those ideas and identities were still being defined. As we shall see throughout this study, these ‘idealised visions’ were significant indicators and influences on m issionary strategy and rhetoric, even if they w ere never w holly realized in practice.

44 Sally K. Gallagher, E vangelical Identity and G endered F am ily L ife (N ew Jersey, 2003), 3.

45 Leslie A. Flemming, ed., W o m e n ’s Work for W omen: M issionaries a n d S o cia l C hange in A sia (Boulder, Colorado, 1989), 3.

46 Margaret Jolly and Martha Macintyre, F am ily a n d G ender in the P acific: D om estic C ontradictions and the C olonial Im pact (New York, 1989), 9. Quoted in Johnston, M issio n a iy W riting a n d E m pire, 53.

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Methodology and Sources

The stories o f various m issions and m issionaries had to engage hom e audiences and hold their attention for years, sometimes even decades. B eginning w ith the establishm ent o f the Seram pore M ission in 1800, 1 follow in turn the developm ent o f several m ission stations, Christian villages, and schools in Bengal in order to provide a clearer sense o f the ways in w hich their narratives and descriptions developed over time. This has relied on a com bination o f two forms o f prim ary sources: m issionary periodicals and the correspondence, journals, and reports from which their m aterial w as drawn.

W hile a num ber o f scholars have acknowledged the value o f m issionary periodicals as

‘prim ary sources', relying on them in that way does present a num ber o f potential pitfalls, not least o f w hich was the loose hand with which editors som etim es approached their source m aterial, freely excerpting and annotating. As discussed above, m uch o f the content o f these periodicals was edited, annotated, and often presented with little regard to either chronology or provenance. W hen compared with the original m anuscripts o f m issionaries’ letters and reports, published accounts som etim es presented glaring dissim ilarities and replacem ents and omitted seem ingly pertinent and significant inform ation.47 This was m ore the case with more inform ative and form ulaic m aterial than w ith m ore straightforward narratives and appeals, but it nevertheless raises the crucial question o f the criteria o f interest that authors, com m ittee m em bers and editors used to determine what would be published.

The character o f m issionaries’ reports and narratives, in both m anuscript and published forms, reflected shifting criteria o f interest w hile holding fast to several key central them es, images, and approaches. Besides provenance and reliability, m aintaining consistency in m issionaries' narratives is com plicated by the irregularity o f reports, either from tim e lag or as a result o f those shifting interests. Inconsistencies with nam es, o f both people and places, by m issionaries and editors alike also detract from the sense o f connection and continuity intended to maintain readers’ attention. Throughout this study I attempt to reconstruct this complex and sometimes confusing series o f narratives from the pages o f the im portant Baptist m issionary journals and periodicals in order to m ore

47 See Johnston, M issio n a iy W riting and E m p ire, 33.

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clearly analyse those central them es, images, and approaches and form conclusions about the nature o f m issionary ideology and publicity.

The Periodical Accounts o f the B aptist M issionary Society, begun in 1800, provided inform ation on the activities o f the BMS and other m ission societies in various parts o f the world, and w as the prim ary outlet for such inform ation until 1819, when the M issionary H erald w as introduced. Distributed by itself to subscribers, but often also attached to the B aptist M agazine, the H erald was devoted alm ost solely to Baptist m issions.48 Content for the journals was drawn from the official reports and the correspondence o f m issionaries abroad, which was collected and collated by the B M S ’s General Com m ittee (m entioned above), then passed along to the editors to be cut down, annotated, clarified, or otherw ise prepared for printing.

As publicizing m issions w as their prim ary aim, such m agazines presented m aterial from other m issionary societies as well— news from LMS m issionaries appeared in Baptist journals; CMS activities were noted in LMS papers, and so on. In m any ways this sort o f quasi-ecum enicalism , w hether or not in actual practice in the field, at least provided m uch-needed m aterial illustrating the spread and successes o f m issionaries around the w orld— and m oreover reinforced the im agery being constructed about that world. In tim e the m ain outlets like the M issionaty H erald (and its counterparts) w ere supplem ented by a num ber o f different periodicals and journals in both Britain and India.

The Calcutta B aptists’ own M issionary H erald and the O riental B aptist, for example, were aimed at a local audience and w ere focused alm ost solely on ‘local’ m issionary w ork.49 A nother development, which I discuss m ore at length in C hapter Five, was the introduction o f m issionary m agazines for children and young people, w hich contained anecdotes and stories o f exotic locales, ‘heathen superstitions’, and encouragem ents to fundraising for the societies.

M issionary periodicals were also supplemented by an em erging ‘secondary literature' that built on the same themes and images. Initially represented by poetry and hym ns inserted into periodicals, this secondary literature utilized the same rhetorical devices and

48 P eriodical A cco u n ts R elative to the B aptist M issionary Society, Volumes I,II. (Clipstone, 1800, 1801);

Volume III (Dunstable, 1806); Volum e I V (London, 1810); Volume V (Kettering, 1813); B aptist M agazine (London,1809-1904). The BMS shifted to selling the M issionary H erald in 1840.

49 The Baptist M ission Press in Calcutta published its own M issionary H era ld from 1822 until 1847, when it was absorbed into the new O riental H era ld , which ran until 1879

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themes, and often attem pted to echo or im itate some m issionary’s experience or else some

‘heathen’s ’ perspective. It also consisted o f essays and letters intended to draw the attention o f readers to specific m ission-related issues and needs— besides the standard calls for funding and personnel. Such ‘external perspectives’ on missionary rhetoric provide a fascinating exam ple o f the effects o f ideas transm itted from India and the rest o f the m ission world. Though m any o f these w ere directed specifically at men, a m uch greater proportion o f them drew on the growing attention in Britain being given to the role and influence o f wom en, while yet other writings w ere specifically directed at children and youth. Soon this ‘secondary literature’ o f m ission rhetoric developed into sub-genre o f their own, separate from periodicals but ju st as successful— in both circulation and effect.

All o f this, however, contributes to the overall sense o f constructed narratives, that is, that the contents o f these periodicals w ere selected and shaped tow ards particular ends, and towards presenting a m ission field only in a certain light, regardless o f contrary

‘facts’ or ‘tru th ’. As discussed above, the correspondents, authors, and editors o f m issionary periodicals m anipulated at some level or another m uch o f the inform ation they presented for a variety o f reasons— its narrative or rhetorical value— often resulting in obscured (or non-existent) sources and skewed facts, and thus w e can safely assume that the elements and them es discussed here w ere not accidental, nor casually inserted, but part o f a system atic effort to shape the w orldview s o f evangelical readers.

W as this, then, as John M acK enzie and Bernard Porter have debated, a form o f propaganda?50 M acK enzie defines propaganda as ‘conscious and deliberate’, and to this I would add two further key elements: sim plicity and repetition, especially for younger audiences.51 Simple descriptions or dialogues, for exam ple, enabled the reception o f information and ideas and reinforced im portant concepts, w hile a handful o f stock phrases and images ensured the continuity o f the m issionary m essage. In their discussions o f im perialism , how ever, M acK enzie and Porter have also questioned how far people really

50 John M acKenzie, P ropaganda an d Em pire: The M anipulation o f B ritish P u b lic O pinion, 1880-1960.

(Manchester, 1984); Bernard Porter, The A bsent-M inded Im perialists: Em pire, Society, an d Culture in B ritain (Oxford, 2004).

51 M acKenzie, P ropaganda and E m pire, 2-3. Geoffrey Oddie also identifies sim ple and direct imagery and language as key elem ents o f missionary ‘propaganda’, especially in periodical literature, in his Im a g in ed H induism : B ritish P rotestant M issio n a iy C onstructions o f H induism , 1793 -1 9 0 0 (New Delhi, 2006). See

179-80 and 207.