{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 72,
  "chapterName": "1815-1816. Abbe Dubois on the State of Christianity in India",
  "pageFrom": 90,
  "pageTo": 91,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 90,
      "ocrText": "90\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nof the Church Establishment within the East Indies and parts\naforesaid; any Law, Charter, or other matter or thing to the\ncontrary notwithstanding.\n72. ABBE DUBOIS ON THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY IN\nINDIA (1815-1816 A.D.)\nThree of the letters written by Abbe J. A. Dubois, a Roman Catho-\nlic missionary serving in Mysore, describing the condition of Chris-\ntianity in India in his day have been preserved. These letters are\nmarked by an extreme pessimism concerning the state of Christianity\nin India and its future prospects. They thus reveal the effects on\nthe Indian missions of the Roman Catholic Church of the Enlighten-\nment and related developments in Europe. The first letter, from which\nthe following passage is taken, was addressed to Rev. W. J., Mysore,\nand is dated August 7th, 1815. The second and third letters are\naddressed to Rev. G. B., Bombay, and are dated December, 1815,\nand November 16th, 1816, respectively. All three letters may be\nseen on Microfilm in the Archives of the United Theological College,\nBangalore, V. P. 36. Abbe J. A. Dubois, Letters on the State of\nChristianity in India, pp. 1-14.\nThe question to be considered may be reduced to these two\npoints: First, Is there a possibility of making real converts to\nChristianity among the natives in India? Secondly, Are the means\n\"employed for that purpose, and above all, the translation of the\nHoly Scriptures into the idioms of the country, likely to conduce\nto this desirable object?\nTo both interrogatories I will answer in the negative: it is my\ndecided opinion, first, that under existing circumstances there is no\nhuman possibility of converting the Hindoos, to any sect of Christi-\nanity, and, secondly, that the translation of the Holy Scriptures\ncirculated among them, so far from conducing to this end, will,\non the contrary, increase the prejudices of the natives against the\nChristian religion, and prove in many respects detrimental to it.\nThese assertions, coming from a person of my profession, may to\nmany appear bold and extraordinary; I will therefore support\nthem by such arguments and proofs as long experience and practice\nin the career of proselytism have enabled me to adduce.\nBefore I go farther, it will not be amiss to say a few words\nabout the manner in which the Christian religion was first brought\ninto the country; and on the industry with which its interests were\nmanaged by the first preachers.\nThe Christian religion of the catholic persuasion was introduced\ninto India a little more than three hundred years ago; at the epoch",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 91,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n91\nof the Portuguese invasions... (the writer goes on to describe the\nintroduction of Roman Catholic Christianity).\nSuch is the abridged history of the rise, the progress, and the\ndecline of the Christian religion in India. The low state to which it\nis now reduced, and the contempt in which it is held, cannot be\nsurpassed. There is not at present in the country (as mentioned\nbefore) more than a third of the Christians who were to be found in\nit eighty years ago, and this number diminishes every day by frequent\napostacy. It will dwindle to nothing in a short period; and if\nthings continue as they are now going on, within less than fifty\nyears there will, I fear, remain no vestige of Christianity among the\nnatives.\nThe Christian religion, which was formerly an object of in-\ndifference, or at most contempt, is at present become, I will venture\nto say, almost an object of horror. It It is certain that during the\nlast sixty years no proselytes or but a very few have been made.\nThose Christians who are still to be met with in several parts of the\ncountry, and whose numbers (as I have just mentioned), diminishes\nevery day, are the offsprings of the converts made by the Jesuits\nbefore that period. The very small number of proselytes who are\nstill gained over from time to time, are found among the lowest\ntribes; so are individuals who, driven out from their castes, on\naccount of their vices or scandalous transgressions of their usages,\nare shunned afterwards by every body as outlawed men, and have\nno other resource left than that of turning Christians, in order to\nform new connexions in society; and you will easily fancy that\nsuch an assemblage of the offals and dregs of society only tends to\nincrease the contempt and aversion entertained by the Hindoos\nagainst Christianity.\nIn fact, how can our holy religion prosper amidst so many\ninsurmountable obstacles? A person who embraces it becomes a\nproscribed and outlawed man; he loses at once all that can attach\nhim to life. A husband, a father is forthwith forsaken and deserted\nby his own wife and children, who obstinately refuse to have any\nfurther intercourse with their degraded relative. A son is un-\nmercifully driven out of his paternal mansion, and entirely deserted\nby those who gave him birth.\nBy embracing the Christian religion, therefore, a Hindoo loses\nhis all. Relations, kindred, friends-all desert him! Goods,\npossessions, inheritance, all disappear !\nWhere is the man furnished with sufficient stock of cynical\nfortitude to be able to bear such severe trials?",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}