{
  "book_metadata": {
    "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
    "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose",
    "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
    "published_on": "2011"
  },
  "chunks": [
    {
      "chunk_index": 1,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      "chunk_title": "Dubois Letters on Indian Christianity",
      "chunk_data": "Three of the letters written by Abbe J. A. Dubois, a Roman Catholic missionary serving in Mysore, describing the condition of Christianity in India in his day have been preserved. These letters are marked by an extreme pessimism concerning the state of Christianity in India and its future prospects. They thus reveal the effects on the Indian missions of the Roman Catholic Church of the Enlightenment and related developments in Europe.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1816,
        "end_month": 11,
        "end_date": 16,
        "time_display": "1815-1816"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "Mysore",
          "India",
          "Europe"
        ],
        "event": "Abbe J. A. Dubois's letters describe the condition and prospects of Christianity in India.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "History"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 2,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "Dating and Sources of the Letters",
      "chunk_data": "The first letter, from which the following passage is taken, was addressed to Rev. W. J., Mysore, and is dated August 7th, 1815. The second and third letters are addressed to Rev. G. B., Bombay, and are dated December, 1815, and November 16th, 1816, respectively. All three letters may be seen on Microfilm in the Archives of the United Theological College, Bangalore, V. P. 36. Abbe J. A. Dubois, Letters on the State of Christianity in India, pp. 1-14.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1816,
        "end_month": 11,
        "end_date": 16,
        "time_display": "August 1815-November 1816"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois",
          "Rev. W. J.",
          "Rev. G. B."
        ],
        "places": [
          "Mysore",
          "Bombay",
          "Bangalore"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois dates his three letters and identifies their archival source.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Sources",
          "Missions"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 3,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
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      "chunk_title": "Questions About Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "The question to be considered may be reduced to these two points: First, Is there a possibility of making real converts to Christianity among the natives in India? Secondly, Are the means employed for that purpose, and above all, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the idioms of the country, likely to conduce to this desirable object?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois frames two questions about the possibility of conversion and the effectiveness of Christian missionary methods.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 4,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "Dubois Rejects Conversion Prospects",
      "chunk_data": "To both interrogatories I will answer in the negative: it is my decided opinion, first, that under existing circumstances there is no human possibility of converting the Hindoos, to any sect of Christianity, and, secondly, that the translation of the Holy Scriptures circulated among them, so far from conducing to this end, will, on the contrary, increase the prejudices of the natives against the Christian religion, and prove in many respects detrimental to it.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois argues that Hindoo conversion is impossible under existing circumstances and that translated Scriptures may harm Christianity's reputation.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 5,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00114-8831099e65601fa0fce8.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Dubois Supports His Assertions",
      "chunk_data": "These assertions, coming from a person of my profession, may to many appear bold and extraordinary; I will therefore support them by such arguments and proofs as long experience and practice in the career of proselytism have enabled me to adduce.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois states that his missionary experience provides the basis for his arguments.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "History"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 6,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00114-8831099e65601fa0fce8.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Origins of Christianity in India",
      "chunk_data": "Before I go farther, it will not be amiss to say a few words about the manner in which the Christian religion was first brought into the country; and on the industry with which its interests were managed by the first preachers.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois introduces his discussion of Christianity's arrival in India and the work of its earliest preachers.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "History"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 7,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        90
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00114-8831099e65601fa0fce8.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Portuguese Introduction of Catholicism",
      "chunk_data": "The Christian religion of the catholic persuasion was introduced into India a little more than three hundred years ago; at the epoch of the Portuguese invasions",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1500,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1515,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1500-1515"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Portuguese missionaries"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Roman Catholic Christianity was introduced into India during the period of the Portuguese invasions.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "Colonialism"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 8,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "Decline of Christianity in India",
      "chunk_data": "of the Portuguese invasions... (the writer goes on to describe the introduction of Roman Catholic Christianity).\n\nSuch is the abridged history of the rise, the progress, and the decline of the Christian religion in India. The low state to which it is now reduced, and the contempt in which it is held, cannot be surpassed. There is not at present in the country (as mentioned before) more than a third of the Christians who were to be found in it eighty years ago, and this number diminishes every day by frequent apostasy. It will dwindle to nothing in a short period; and if things continue as they are now going on, within less than fifty years there will, I fear, remain no vestige of Christianity among the natives.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1865,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "1815, with a projection to before c. 1865"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois describes the severe decline of Christianity in India and predicts its disappearance among the natives within less than fifty years.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Missions",
          "Decline"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 9,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00115-c4b6ca09d1229f1d4fde.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Christianity Viewed with Horror",
      "chunk_data": "The Christian religion, which was formerly an object of indifference, or at most contempt, is at present become, I will venture to say, almost an object of horror. It is certain that during the last sixty years no proselytes or but a very few have been made.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1755,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "c. 1755-1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois claims that Christianity became an object of horror and that very few converts were made during the preceding sixty years.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Missions"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 10,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00115-c4b6ca09d1229f1d4fde.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Descendants of Jesuit Converts",
      "chunk_data": "Those Christians who are still to be met with in several parts of the country, and whose numbers, as I have just mentioned, diminishes every day, are the offsprings of the converts made by the Jesuits before that period.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1755,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "c. 1755-1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Jesuits",
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois attributes the surviving Christian population largely to descendants of converts made by Jesuits before the preceding sixty years.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Jesuits",
          "Missions"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 11,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "Low-Caste and Outcast Converts",
      "chunk_data": "The very small number of proselytes who are still gained over from time to time, are found among the lowest tribes; so are individuals who, driven out from their castes, on account of their vices or scandalous transgressions of their usages, are shunned afterwards by every body as outlawed men, and have no other resource left than that of turning Christians, in order to form new connexions in society; and you will easily fancy that such an assemblage of the offals and dregs of society only tends to increase the contempt and aversion entertained by the Hindoos against Christianity.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois claims that recent converts largely came from low tribes or people expelled from their castes, reinforcing Hindoo contempt for Christianity.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Caste",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 12,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00115-c4b6ca09d1229f1d4fde.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Social Costs of Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "In fact, how can our holy religion prosper amidst so many insurmountable obstacles? A person who embraces it becomes a proscribed and outlawed man; he loses at once all that can attach him to life.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois argues that conversion makes a person socially proscribed and deprived of his former attachments.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Caste",
          "Society"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 13,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00115-c4b6ca09d1229f1d4fde.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Families Reject Converts",
      "chunk_data": "A husband, a father is forthwith forsaken and deserted by his own wife and children, who obstinately refuse to have any further intercourse with their degraded relative. A son is unmercifully driven out of his paternal mansion, and entirely deserted by those who gave him birth.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois describes husbands, fathers, and sons being rejected and expelled by their families after conversion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Family",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 14,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00115-c4b6ca09d1229f1d4fde.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Loss of Property and Kinship",
      "chunk_data": "By embracing the Christian religion, therefore, a Hindoo loses his all. Relations, kindred, friends-all desert him! Goods, possessions, inheritance, all disappear!",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois states that a Hindoo convert loses family relationships, friendships, property, possessions, and inheritance.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Society",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 15,
      "chapter_name": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
      "page_numbers": [
        91
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "The Fortitude of Converts",
      "chunk_data": "Where is the man furnished with sufficient stock of cynical fortitude to be able to bear such severe trials?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1815,
        "start_month": 8,
        "start_date": 7,
        "end_year": 1815,
        "end_month": 8,
        "end_date": 7,
        "time_display": "August 7, 1815"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Abbe J. A. Dubois"
        ],
        "places": [
          "India"
        ],
        "event": "Dubois questions whether any convert can endure the severe social and material consequences of conversion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Society"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}