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The Man who came to destroy Hinduism – 2

The headquarters of thePropaganda fide in Rome
(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-Â  ed to keep this country in darkness.” What he wants toÂ see established is “a more liberal and enlightened system ofÂ  instruction, embracing mathematics, natural philosophy,Â chemistry, anatomy, with other useful sciences.” This, heÂ urges “may be accomplished with the sums proposed, byÂ employing a few gentlemen of talent and learning educatedÂ  in Europe and providing a College furnished with neces-Â sary books, instruments, and other apparatus.” [The life and letters of Raja Rammohun Roy]
Mohan Roy’s letter to Lord Amherst did not get an answer. By then the fight 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.
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.

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 find 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 flood of people and had to build a home for the new converts. Â 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 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 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 first 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 andÂ  Macaulay, English became the language of the educated people, replacing Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. Also due to this Western literature and scienceÂ  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:Â  the decision to impose English had reasons other than the economics of text books and the need for educated employees. Though he only had a superficial 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 thoughtÂ  it would be dangerous to try it. He did not want education to create a “spiritual barrenness”, but instead address the whole personality.Â  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 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.

  1. Alexander Duff, pioneer of missionary education, by William Paton
  2. The Life of Alexander Duff by George Smith.

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