Missionaries and a Hindu State: Travancore

Title: Missionaries and a Hindu State: Travancore 1858-1936
Author: Koji Kawashima
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000 (First published 1998)
ISBN: 9780195655346
Pages: 252

The reformation of Kerala society, sometimes denoted by the more grandiose term of ‘renaissance’, was as thorough as well as far reaching. Human development parameters of present-day Kerala are more in the company of those of the developed western nations than other states of India where pace has picked up only recently. This social progress of Kerala is directly related to the renaissance, but what caused it in the first place? Of the three geographical entities of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar that comprise the Kerala state, Travancore excels the other two, but closely followed by Cochin. This book shows how Travancore changed itself into a modern state, how they used Christian missionaries during the process of state building and how the British authorities were concerned in this process. It also explains how the state encountered, assimilated, utilized and resisted westernization and imperialism in the period 1858-1936. Koji Kawashima teaches political science and economics at Kokushikan University in Tokyo, Japan. He is not well known in Kerala for his scholarship on its society and I guess this book is the thesis of his research work. There is precious little about the author in the book.

Travancore was a Hindu state right from the beginning but it still permitted the missionaries to work and propagate their religion. They did not put any obstacles in the missionaries’ way in converting Hindus to Christianity. No other country in the world other than native Indian states was this liberal and tolerant in the nineteenth century. Travancore never came under Muslim rule in its history and therefore retained its ancient Hindu type and character. This was further reinforced by King Marthandavarma by surrendering the state to Lord Padmanabha, an aspect of Vishnu. The state made huge expenditures from the treasury for temples and maintaining feeding houses for Brahmins. The relationship between the missionaries, Travancore state and the British government which was the paramount power, changed greatly over time from the late-nineteenth century onwards as a result of the growing influence of Indian nationalism, Hindu revivalism and the growing awareness of self-identity among the depressed castes and communities.

Kawashima brilliantly captures the spirit of missionary work in Kerala and how its effectiveness and aggressive nature changed over the decades. The Protestant missions of London Mission Society (LMS) and Church Mission Society (CMS) were the most prominent and more powerful than Catholic missions. The East India Company officially prohibited missionary activity through its charter, but was ‘curiously inconsistent and self-contradictory in practice’. The company forbade missionary activity in Bengal where a large Muslim population held sway and were opposed to it. On the other hand, they encouraged the missionaries in South India where the Hindus were in a majority who would tolerate anything. The first British Residents of Travancore, C Macaulay and John Munro were zealous evangelists. State funds were granted to missionaries to carry out their conversion work. It was Munro who took over the administration of Hindu temples and thereby obtained the right to control its wealth. The missionaries resented any hurdles in their work. In 1857, Rev. John Cox warned the Maharajah that the only way of avoiding annexation of the kingdom to British provinces was to remove the current Resident and Dewan who were not supportive to the missionaries. Their insolence must have been maddening to native officials! After the Revolt of 1857, the British changed their policy of ‘civilizing’ India and decided to honour the social customs and rights of the native rulers. But these right envisaged in Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 took effect very gradually in Travancore, by the 1890s. The rise of patriotism and nationalist feeling in India also prompted the British to display religious neutrality. By the 1930s, the missionaries’ position had become very weak indeed.

The book narrates several instances when the funds of the Hindu state were diverted to missionary work of converting Hindus to Christianity. Munro even appointed Charles Mead, a missionary, as the civil judge in Nagercoil. This was the first time an evangelist was given such high powers in a native state. But Resident W. Cullen was hostile to them and resented the unconstitutional authority of the missionaries. The Maharajahs were also generous to the missionaries and liberally allotted funds for what was in effect cutting the branch they were sitting on. The LMS was given a bungalow in Nagercoil and rupees five thousand for purchase of paddy fields. CMS was gifted the land for Kottayam college worth rupees twenty thousand besides thousand rupees as grant. They were also granted a tract of land near Kollam ‘at least seven miles in circumference’! The raja of Cochin presented five thousand rupees to LMS for building the Nagercoil church.

The author also finds the answer to the question of why the Hindu state permitted the missionaries to carry on general education of the public along with religious study. The state compromised with the missionaries for the purpose of ‘modernization’ by utilizing their educational and medical activities. Bible was taught in several government schools too. The educational institutions run by the government had only a tenth of the students’ strength of the missionary schools. Religious education was forcefully imposed on Hindu students. A missionary recorded that ‘the heathen children at first stoutly refused to learn any Scripture lessons like Christian children. They were however obliged to do so by the rules of the school’ (p.87). When missionaries targeted higher castes for conversion, they had no hesitation in opening schools exclusively for them to avoid pollution by mixing with the lower castes. Several Nair schools sprang up. A M Blandford of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society started schools for Nair, Kshatriya and Brahmin girls. A school opened inside the sacred enclosure of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. Bible was taught in this school and students had to mandatorily attend Christian prayers at the close of the morning and afternoon classes. This supreme manifestation of tolerance and accommodation was repaid by the missionaries with contempt and derision. J. Knowles, a prominent LMS missionary, noted that ‘medical work will enable the mission to touch the hearts of classes who otherwise are likely to remain shut up in their heathenism. It is also a great help with Christian adherents in the struggle against demonism and superstition’ (p.138). But gradually, the state realized the true colours of the missionaries. In 1902, it prohibited religious education during school hours.

Around the middle of the nineteenth century, missionaries were instrumental in facilitating many social reforms of which the Breast Cloth Disturbance is one. The women of lower castes were to keep their breasts bare in public which was resented by them. A few of the converted women started to dress like upper castes which led to the disturbance. Intervention by the missionaries enabled their flock to dress up in public. However, caste discrimination among the converted Christians existed in as severe a measure as in the Hindu fold. It was the inability of the missionaries to control this menace in their church that finally closed the tap of conversion. The book describes several such instances. The growth of communal identities among the Syrian Christians and the lower castes was a decisive factor that made the state reform its administration and adopt democratic measures, however limited it might have been. Definite change came with Hindu revivalism and the rise of national feeling. The British were also compelled not to intervene too forcefully. In 1901, the British decided not to intervene in the missionaries’ demand for the division of the Hindu Undivided Family (tharavad) and provide inheritance share for the converted. It is to be noted that after the 1880s, the missionaries did not influence any social reform. The Education Code of 1909 threw open government schools to all castes. The process was culminated in 1936 by the Temple Entry Proclamation.

There are people who credit the missionaries for Kerala’s top spot in literacy and education. The truth is that they had a part in it but not as big as is usually made out. Moreover, they were not much interested in medical care as compared to education. Kawashima finds a credible reason for this lack of enthusiasm. This was because medical missionaries were operating in other parts of India, especially NWFP. This was largely because ‘the other methods of diffusing Christianity were inefficient or impossible due to the fierce fanaticism of the Muslims living there’ (p.138). Whether education or medicine, what mattered most to them was how to spread their religion. On the other hand, the support and initiative of enlightened maharajahs and dewans in the medical field helped the state prosper in every parameter of personal health. The rajahs encouraged the introduction of western medicine and provided it freely to the people. This was in sharp contrast to British Indian provinces where medical priority was given to the army and jails only. The hospitals were much more egalitarian also. The lower castes were treated in government hospitals much before they were admitted to schools.

Even though the book has relied upon several impeccable reference sources, the author does not seem to be well conversant with the social conditions in Kerala apart from his academic exposure to it. He has heavily leaned on Left scholars who never miss a chance to peddle their partisan agenda. Unfortunately, the author has become an unwitting accomplice in their maneuvering. In the 1920s, the American Rockefeller Foundation extended help in improving the sanitation of Kerala. After noting down its contribution in enhancing public health, Kawashima unnecessarily and irrelevantly guesses the cause of the Foundation’s philanthropy and regurgitates the Marxist line thus: “improving the public health of people in developing countries was considered important for neocolonialism or the informal empire which supplied raw materials to the developed world and also provided consumers for western commodities” (p.123). Each chapter in the book has an introduction and conclusion which are essentially a summary of the contents of the chapter in repetition. A great advantage of the book is the chapter on Cochin which surveys the conditions in Travancore’s neighbour state and brings out the similarities and differences.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star