Christianity and the Government of India

An important historical study of the relationships between the Government of India, that of Great Britain (and others), and Christian mission in India. My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for providing a copy of this public domain title for digitisation.

Arthur Innes Mayhew [1878-1948], Christianity and the Government of India. An Examination of the Christian Forces at Work in the Administration of India and of the Mutual Relations of the British Government and Christian Missions 1600-1920. London: Faber & Gwyer Ltd., n.d. Hbk. pp.260. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

• Preface

1. Wilberforce and the Charter of 1793
2. Schwartz, the East India Company and Other European Powers in India
3. Public Opinion in Church and State at Home
4. Carey and Serampore and the Government of Bengal
5. Signs of Grace. The Company and Trusteeship
6. The Vellore Mutiny and Reaction
7. Final Triumph of Wilberforce
8. Public Opinion at Home
9. Bishop, Chaplains and Governors-General of India. Heber, Duff and Wilson
10. Advance on Christian Lines. Bestinck ad Dalhousie
11. Reactionary Influence
12. Mission Influence on Education. Duff and Wilson
13. Further Educational Problems
14. The Mutiny in its Religious Aspect
15. Harmonious Co-operation
16. The Fruits of Co-operation

• Epilogue: Things Present and to Come
• Books Consulted

Chapter 1: Wilberforce and the Charter of 1793

England in 1793 was anxious and perplexed. With the Bank of England suspending payment, Jacobins at work on either side of the Channel, and ‘The Rights of Man1 ‘ spreading poison over the countryside, men’s hearts were failing them for fear. No one who knew William Carey would have dared to accuse him of despair. But when that ‘ consecrated cobbler ‘ and his co-mate in enthusiasm Thomas, late surgeon of the East India Company Fleet, watched from Plymouth Hoe the East Indiaman, which should have conveyed them and their Bibles to Bengal, hull down on the horizon, there can have been few more troubled minds in that troublous year. For Captain Smyth, who had yielded so far to the persuasive tongue of Thomas as to smuggle them on board at Gravesend, had capitulated at Plymouth to the stronger coercion of a pseudonymous letter. To embark a passenger for John Company’s domain in India without a licence from that Company involved on discovery alarming penalties. But unlicensed passengers who were also ‘missionaries and schoolmasters ‘! It was as much as his place was worth….

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