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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.
Author : Shripaty Sastry
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