The Background
In the beginning, the rulers of the East India Company
did not show much enthusiasm for missionary activity. The
Company recognised that the people of India were
peculiarly sensitive in the matter of religion. In 1781,
evidence before a Committee of the Commons elicited the
unanimous opinion that "any interference with the
religion of the natives would eventually ensure the total
destruction of the British Power". Gradually, a policy of
religious neutrality was evolved. But the Governors and
Governors General privately sympathised with and suported
the Missionary activities in India. The evangelical
party in England was gaining ground and they climaxed
their efforts to win public support for "Christianising
India". They succeeded in their efforts and in July
1813, a clause was inserted in the Charter Act by which
Missionaries of all faiths were allowed to enter India.
Missionary exertions were recognised by the Legislature
and it gave a profound impetus to the movement.
The debate and the ultimate victory of the Party of
Saints served to attract other Western nations to
pastures available in India for the missionary work. The
Charter Act of 1813 opened the gates of India for a
perennial influx of the holymen from Christendom. In
1813, for example,there were six American Protestant
Missions moving in India and in 1910 nearly 1800 American
Protestant Agencies were working in India for propagating
Christianity. Since then there is an influx of
missionaries and theirs was the religion of the ruling
class.
The missionaries were aware that certain elements in
Christian preachings - particularly its intolerance of
non-Christian faiths - have proved disruptive of India's
cultural heritage; yet since their object was to make
this heritage subservient to Christianity they relished
the situation. As a consequence many Hindus felt quite
justified in regarding Christianity as a political as
well as a religious weapon of the West.
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