{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 147,
  "chapterName": "1910. V. S. Azariah’s Address to the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh",
  "pageFrom": 303,
  "pageTo": 307,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 303,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n303\nThe Assemmbly also declares its readiness to consider proposals\nfor organic union with any other Church in South India or Ceylon\nwhich desires union on the lines of the Basis of Union, and empowers\nthe Committee to enter into negotiations with such.\n2. With regard to federation the Assembly rejoices in the\ncordial response made by so many Churches to the proposals made\nby its Committee in conjunction with the corresponding committee\nof the Presbyterian Church in India. It approves of the proposed\nbasis for a federal union, and instructs its Committee to continue\nto confer with other Churches willing to accept federation on the\nproposed basis...\n3. The Assembly further instructs the Committee to take\nsuch opportunities as present themselves of familiarising the South\nIndian Churches, more especially those which have not approved\nof federation on the lines proposed, with the ideas underlying the\nfederation proposals, and of conferring, whether formally or\ninformally, with representatives of these churches...\n147. V. S. AZARIAH'S ADDRESS TO THE WORLD\nMISSIONARY CONFERENCE, EDINBURGH (1910 A.D.)\nV. S. Azariah was one of the two non-westerners to give major\naddresses at the World Missionary Conference held at Edinburgh\nin June, 1910. His comments on the subject, The Problem of Co-\noperation between Foreign and Native Workers', made a deep impres-\nsion on the delegates. Portions of the address are reproduced here from\nWorld Missionary Conference 1910, vol. IX. The History and Records\nof the Conference together with Addresses Delivered at the Evening\nMeetings, pp. 306-315.\none of the most serious\nThe bridging of the gulf\nattainment of a greater\nThe problem of race relationships is\nproblems confronting the Church to-day.\nbetween the East and the West, and the\nunity and common ground in Christ as the great Unifier of mankind,\nis one of the deepest needs of our time. Co-operation between\nthe foreign and native workers can only result from proper relation-\nship. Co-operation is ensured when the personal, official, and\nspiritual relationships are right, and is hindered when these relation-\nships are wrong. The burden of my message is that, speaking\nbroadly, at least in India, the relationship too often is not what it\nought to be, and things must change, and change speedily, if there\nis to be a large measure of hearty co-operation between the foreign\nmissionary and the Indian worker...",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 304,
      "ocrText": "304\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nThis is not only my own impression, but what I have gathered\nfrom a large number of my Indian brethren, and even a few\nEuropean missionaries.\nThis feeling is stronger and more in evidence in some missions\nthan in others. Some Missionary Societies are in great advance\nin this respect over others. In the Young Men's Christian Associa-\ntion we have a body that stands foremost in having successfully\nsolved the problem...\nI do not deny that there is blame on both sides. That cannot\nbut be so. I do not overlook the fact that hindrances to a proper\nrelationship exist also on the side of the Indian Christians, but\nsince my audience is not composed of these, I feel that it will serve\nno useful purpose to detail them here...\nI. Let us first consider the Personal relationship that ought\nto exist for effective co-operation. For the idea of this relationship\nwe look to our Master and Lord. The relationship between Him\nand His immediate disciples and fellow-workers was not only one\nof Teacher and pupils, Master and disciples but, above all, that of\nfriend and friends...\nCan it be truly said that the foreign missionary has become a\nfriend of his fellow-workers? Can it be said that this has been his\naim? I am afraid in many cases the answer must be in the negative...\nFriendship is more than condescending love. I do not for a\nmoment deny that foreign missionaries love the country and the\npeople of the country for whom they have made such noble\nsacrifices, but friendship is more than the love of a benefactor. I\ncannot do better than quote the words of one who is himself a\nforeign missionary in South India. He writes: 'The popular appel-\nlation in use about missionaries in this country is \"father\"; but\na time comes when children ought to begin and if they develop\nnormally, do begin to think for themselves and to have aspirations\nand plans of their own. That is a critical time for the father in his\nrelation to his children. His continued influence for good, at any\nrate for the greatest good, in his son's life now depends on his be-\ncoming the son's friend... If I rightly regard a person as my friend,\nI respect his individuality and remember that he has peculiarities,\nrights, and responsibilities of his own, which require, in some\nmeasure at any rate, that a feeling of equality and freedom shall\npervade our relations and our intercourse with one another. This is\nthe point where we find ourselves in India to-day.'\nBut while East is East and West is West,' is such a friendship\npossible between two races, that in habits, customs, and modes of",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 305,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n305\nthought are so diametrically opposed to each other? I know in my\nown experience that such friendships are possible...\nI quote another authority, this time from North India, the Lord\nBishop of Lahore. He says: 'With abundance of kind feeling\nfor, and unsparing labour and self-denial on behalf of Indian\nChristians, the missionaries, except a few of the very best, seem to\nme to fail very largely in getting rid of an air of patronage and\ncondescension, and in establishing a genuinely brotherly and happy\nrelation as between equals with their Indian flocks...\nThe pioneer missionaries were 'fathers' to the converts. The\nconverts in their turn were glad to be their children.' But the\ndifficulty in older missions now is that we have a new generation of\nyounger missionaries who would like to be looked upon as fathers,\nand we have a new generation of Christians who do not wish to be\ntreated like children. If the Christian community of the second\nand third generations, through the success of missionary work,\nhas risen to the position when they do not any longer care to be\ntreated like children, should we not be the first to recognise this\nnew spirit and hasten to strengthen the relationship, by becoming\ntheir friends? Is it not such a relationship, and such alone, that\ncan, more than anything else, prevent the growth of the spirit of\nfalse independence, foolish impudence, and flagrant bitterness\nagainst missionaries that we often meet with in Indian Christian\nyoung men to-day?\nThe Bishop of Lahore goes on to make some practical sugges-\ntions. He says: 'If we could get into the way of treating Indian\nChristians with perfect naturalness, exactly as we treat English\nfriends, asking them more frequently to stay with us in our houses,\nand genuinely making friends of them, realising in how very many\nthings we have to learn from them, and how large are the contri-\nbutions which they can bring into the common stock-this, I believe,\nwould do more than anything else to draw us more closely together\nagain... Much more can be done along these lines.\nLet me give some extreme cases of the contrary attitude. I do\nit with the deepest pain in my own heart, feeling that if some of my\nmissionary friends have failed, I am also responsible for it. I can\nnow think of one Indian superintending missionary, for over\nfifteen years in responsible charge of large districts, who said recently\nthat he had never been invited to a single meal at any house of any\nof his European missionary brethren. I think of a pastor, who is\nconfessedly the right hand of a station missionary, who said to me\nthat during the eighteen years he had been a pastor, his missionary\nhad never once visited his humble home. Two men, holding very\nhigh positions in a native state, said to a friend of mine recently that\nH.C.I.-20",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 306,
      "ocrText": "306\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nthough they had been for several years in the city, and even calledi\non the missionary, the missionary never thought of returning the\ncall. I remember two or three younger missionaries who have\ntold me that while they themselves like to go and call on the leading\nIndian Christian gentlemen, their senior missionaries are against.\nsuch innovations. I recall how years ago a young ng missionary told\nme of what he called the impudence of an Indian clergyman, who\nwas a graduate of one of the Indian universities, in going forward\nto shake hands with him. This man,' he said, 'thinks, that because\nhe is a graduate and has put on European costume, I must shake.\nhands with him!'\nI do not want you to think that these instances represent the\ngeneral state of affairs, nor do I want you to think that these are:\nbut solitary instances...\nOn the other hand, I can never forget a sight I saw near the foot\nof the Himalayas, on the borders of Kashmir. At dinner at a\nmissionary's table the British Civil Surgeon of the district, the\nmissionary, an American Secretary of the Y.M.C.A., a native pastor,.\nand an ordinary catechist sat round the table, with the wife of the\nmissionary presiding at the table. It was not a got-up show. The\nperfect ease with which the pastor and the catechist conducted them-\nselves was proof positive that there the relationship was natural\nand customary. I noticed that that mission on the whole was far\nahead in this respect of most others.\nLet me not be misunderstood. I do not plead for returning:\ncalls, handshakes, chairs, dinners, and teas, as such. I do, on the\nother hand, plead for all of them and more if they can be expressions.\nof a friendly feeling, if these or anything else can be the outward\nproofs of a real willingness on the part of the foreign missionary to\nshow that he is in the midst of the people, to be to them, not a lord\nand a master, but a brother and a friend.\nII. The effective co-operation will only be possible with a\nproper official relationship.\nThe official relationship generally prevalent at present between\nthe missionary and the Indian worker is that between a master and\na servant in fact, the word often used in South India by the low\ngrade Indian workers in addressing missionaries is ejaman or\nmaster. The missionary is the paymaster, the worker his servant.\nAs long as this relationship exists, we must admit that no sense of\nself-respect and individuality can grow in the Indian Church.\nThe aim of the Missionary Societies, we know, is to develop\nself-governing churches and to give freedom and scope to indi-\ngenous leadership, and to strive to make themselves unnecessary",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 307,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n307\nin the field. But the Societies have not convinced the natives that\nthis is their aim. Nay, in some missions Indian Christians truly,\nthough I know erroneously, believe tnat the missionaries are against\nany full self-support and real self-government, because that will\nmake them unnecessary in the leadership of the work. It is com-\nmonly supposed that the man of independent thought and action\nis the man least consulted in the administration of the mission.\nI know some instances where independent action in the smallest\naffair has been repressed, and indigenous efforts even indigenous\nmissionary efforts have been looked upon with suspicion and\ndistrust.\nThere can never be real progress unless the aspirations of the\nnative Christians to self-government and independence are accepted,\nencouraged, and acted upon...\nI plead, therefore, that an advance step may be taken by trans-\nferring from foreigners to Indians responsibilities and privileges\nthat are now too exclusively in the hands of the foreign missionary.\nNative Church Councils should be formed, where Indians could be\ntrained in the administration of their own churches. Missionary\nConferences should find a place for Indian leaders, so that the Indian\nand European may consult and work together for the welfare of the\ncommon work. The favourite phrases, our money,' ' our control,'\nmust go...\nIf such an advance is to be made, what should be the relation-\nship of the foreign missionary to the Indian Christian leaders?\nSurely, that of a friend...\nIII. True co-operation is possible only with a proper spiritual\nrelationship.\nNo personal relationship will be true and permanent that is not\nbuilt on a spiritual basis. India is a land that has a 'religious\natmosphere. To the Hindu 'the one and only ultimate is God:\nhis great and only reality the unseen his true and eternal environ-\nment the spiritual.'\nIn such a land, therefore, the easiest point of contact with the\nheart is on the spiritual side. The Indian nature has aptitude to\ndevelop devotional meditation and prayer, resignation and obedience\nto the will of God, the Christian graces of patience, meekness, and\nhumility, the life of denial of self, the cultivation of fellowship and\ncommunion and the practice of the presence of God. These\nelements of Christian mysticism find a natural soil in the Indian\nheart. Not by decrying this aspect of the Christian life, but only\nby cultivating it and developing it in himself can a foreigner win\nthe heart of an Indian. It is then, and then only, the westerner\ncan impart to him what naturally he has not: elements of Christian",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}