Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
To begin missionary activity in India was not a simple matter. The missionaries there had to face a great deal of opposition not encountered by the missionaries to the South Seas and Africa. In the latter areas the really serious difficulties did not arise until the mission fields had actually been entered. In the case of the Indian missions the missionaries found the first line of osbtruction in England itself, in the London offices of the East India Company. The Company was resolutely opposed to the introduction of missionaries into its own territories, or into any part of India.
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12. The Church Missionary Society, led by such important parliamentary personages as William Wilberforce, could not indulge in such illegal practices, and did not enter India until 1814, when it was legal.
13. L. M. S. Home Office Letters, Box II, Folder 5, Envelope A. July 17, 1810. Andrew Fuller of the Baptist Missionary Society to the directors of the L. M. S., advised ‘Gov't seems to be influenced by mere worldly policy; as I suppose must be expected. Hence they are friendly to missionaries out of their territories more than to those within them; and to those who are already settled within, more than to newcomers.’
14. India Office Library (hence I.O.L.), Secret Letters Received from Madras, Secret Committe to Court of Directors, February 17, 1807.
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20. L. M. S. Home office Letters, Box II, Folder 4, Envelope B. J. Dyer, Admiralty, to Directors, January 10, 1809.
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29. L.M.S. Minutes, December 27, 1796. Draft letter to the East India Company.
30. L.M.S. Home Office Extra, Box I. East India Company to R. Haldane, D. Bogue and G. Ewing, January 13, 1797.
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32. L.M.S. Minutes, May 25, 1797.
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36. Ibid., June 27, 1805.
37. Ibid., July 12, 1805.
38. Ibid., July 14, 1805.
39. Ibid., July 18 and 20, 1805.
40. L.O.L. General Records, Public Letters from Madras, February 12, 1806.
41. L.M.S. South India, General, Box I, Folder 1, Envelope B. G. Cran and A. Des Granges to Directors, October 16, 1805.
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46. L.M.S. South India, Journals, Box I. Journal of J. Hands, February 20, 1810.
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55. L.M.S. South India, General, Box I, Folder 3, Envelope D. J. Thompson to Directors, June 13, 1812.
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59. L.M.S. Home Office Letters, Box II, Folder 6, Envelope A. Directors to S. Perceval, April 26, 1812.
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63. Soon to be created Lord Hastings.
64. L.M.S. Minutes, January 23, 1813.
65. L.M.S. Minutes, February 8, 1813.
66. L.M.S. South India, General, Box II, Folder 2, Envelope E. J. Dawson to Directors, October 4, 1815.
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69. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box II, Folder 4, Envelope C. W. Campbell to W. Orme, October, 1829.
70. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box III, Folder 1, Envelope B. W. Reeve to Directors, October 23, 1830. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box III, Folder 2, Envelope B. W. Taylor and W. Beynon to W. A. Hankey, May 11, 1831.
71. Ibid.
72. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box I, Folder 4, Envelope C. W. Campbell to W. A. Hankey, July 30, 1825.
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77. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box I, Folder 1, Envelope A. W. Reeve to G. Burder, January 29, 1818. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box I, Folder 1, Envelope B. W. Reeve to G. Burder, August 27, 1818.
78. Gleig, G. R., The Life of Sir Thomas Munro (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831), II, 114–120Google Scholar. A minute, dated November 15, 1822, while Munro was governor of Madras.
79. L.M.S. South India, Tamil, Box II, Folder 2, Envelope B. H. Crisp to W. A. Hankey and G. Burder, February 23, 1826. L.M.S. Travancore, Box I. Folder 1, Envelope A.C. Mead to G. Burder, January 19, 1818.
80. I.O.L. General Records, Secret Letters Received from Madras, July 26, 1825.
81. Ibid., July 18, 1828.
82. Unlike the South Sea islands, which the missionaries tried to keep as isolated as possible from European contact.
83. L.M.S. Home Office Extra, Box I. L.M.S. to E.I. Co., December 20, 1796.
84. L.M.S. South India, Canarese, Box II, Folder 4, Envelope, B. “Admonitory Hints by the Directors of the London Missionary Society to its Missionaries in the East Indies,” 1828.Google Scholar
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88. L.M.S. North India, Bengal, Box III, Folder 1, Envelope D. J. D. Pearson to H. Townley, April 7, 1831.
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90. Ibid. Most missionaries consistently missed the point of the contention of the East India Company, which was not that Christianity itself was dangerous, but that the fear of forceful conversion to Christianity was.
91. Ibid., p. 43.
92. Ibid., pp. 42–43.
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96. Ibid., October 3, 1832.
97. The diwan was the prime minister and head of the administration.
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103. L.M.S. Travancore, Box I, Folder 1, Envelope A. C. Mead to G. Burder, October 25, 1818.
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110. L.M.S. Travancore, Box I, Folder 3, Envelope D. “A Report of the Neyoor Mission”.
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid.
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119. The somewhat inflated estimate of the Serampore missionaries found in the Epilogue of Potts, British Baptist Missionaries in India, is typical of their primacy in the public eye.