{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 81,
  "chapterName": "1824. Raja Rammohun Roy on the Prospects of Christianity in India",
  "pageFrom": 107,
  "pageTo": 107,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 107,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n107\n81. RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY ON THE PROSPECTS OF\nCHRISTIANITY IN INDIA (1824 A.D.)\nThis material was written in a letter to the Rev. Henry Ware\nof Cambridge, Mass., in reply to a letter from him. It is dated 2nd\nFebruary, 1824. It deals with the manner in which Christianity should\nbe promoted in India. The English Works of Raja Rammohun Ra Roy,\npp. 875-877.\nSir,\nWith no ordinary feelings of satisfaction I have the honour to\nacknowledge the receipt of your letter of April last, which together\nwith the queries it enclosed, I had the pleasure of receiving by the\nhands of my friend Captain Heard. I now beg to be allowed, in\nthe first place, to express my gratitude for your kind notice of a\nstranger like myself, myself, residin residing in a remote country and, secondly,\nto return my sincere thanks for the most acceptable present of\nbooks with which you have favoured me.\nI should have answered your letter by the ship Bengal; but I\nregret to say, that my time and attention had been so much\nengrossed by constant controversies with polytheists both of the\nWest and East, that I had only leisure to answer by that oppor-\ntunity a short letter which I had the pleasure of receiving from\nMr. Reed of Boston, and was obliged to defer a reply to your\nqueries until the present occasion. For this apparent neglect I\nhave to request your pardon.\nI have now prepared such replies to those questions as my\nknowledge authorises and my conscience permits; and now submit\nthem to your judgment. There is one question at the concluding\npart of your letter, (to wit, Whether it be desirable that the in-\nhabitants of India should be converted to Christianity, in what\ndegree desirable, and for what reasons?') which I pause to answer,\nas I am led to believe, from reason, what is set forth in scripture,\nthat in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness\nis accepted with him, in what ever form of worship he may have\nbeen taught to glorify God. Nevertheless, I presume to think, that\nChristianity, if properly inculcated, has a greater tendency to\nimprove the moral, and political state of mankind, than any other\nknown religious system.\nIt is impossible for me to describe the happiness I feel at the\nidea that so great a body of a free, enlightened, and powerful people,\nlike your countrymen, have engaged in purifying the religion from\nthose absurd, idolatrous doctrines and practices, with which the\nGreeks, Romans, and Barbarian converts to Christianity have\nmingled it from time to time. Nothing can be more acceptable",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}