The East India
Company and Religion, 1698-1858
Penelope Carson
Boydell & Brewer £65
(978-1-84383-732-9)
Church Times Bookshop £58.50 (Use code CT734
)
THERE is a story that when
the Evangelical Henry Martyn went out to Calcutta as a chaplain to
the East India Company in 1805, he was appalled to discover that
the recitation of the Magnificat at evensong had been banned. Any
suggestion that "He hath put down the mighty from their seat" might
stir up opposition to British rule!
Whether or not that is true,
the fact is that, throughout its history of representing Britain's
interests in India, amassing great fortune from trade with the
East, and becoming a quasi-imperial authority with its own largely
sepoy army, the Company had an uneasy relationship with
Christianity and anything approaching proselytism.
It is not true, as it
sometimes said, that the Company prevented any missionary activity
until forced to allow it in the renegotiation of its Charter in
1813: from the start, it had affirmed the Roman Catholic presence
in former Portuguese territories and accepted the German
missionaries supported by SPCK. It was not opposed to the Anglican
episcopate established in 1814. What it feared was any religious
activity that might disrupt trade by alienating the Hindu and
Muslim population.
This is a very
well-researched book, based on primary reports and letters, showing
the uneasy path that the Company had to tread. In 1793, Parliament,
led by William Wilberforce, called for more work on the "religious
and moral improvement" of the Indian people, and, as the
Evangelical movement in Britain grew, so did the pressure on the
Company to allow more overt missionary activity. To Western eyes,
certain customs, such as suttee and the caste system, were signs of
Indian "depravity"; but for Hindus such criticism was a direct
attack on their religion, and the Great Uprising of 1857 was the
beginning of the long journey towards independence.
For the more general reader,
this may be a disappointing book. It does not enter into the more
ethical issues raised by the conflict between commercial activity,
respect for indigenous people and their religion, and so-called
Western "improvement", either at the time, or as they continue to
be featured with the multinational companies that are in many ways
the successors of the East India Company.
It also stops when the
Company was nationalised in 1858, before the full flowering of
British imperialism and its missionary movements. But, for the more
specialist student of missiology and imperial history, its drawing
on such precise historical material will make it an invaluable
resource.
The Rt Revd Michael Doe is a former General Secretary of the
USPG, and is the Preacher to Gray's Inn.