SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is a study, against the background of Protestant missionary thinking and activities in Bengal from 1840 to 1872, of the career of the Rev. James Long, a controversial Protestant missionary, educationist, linguist and social reformer, and a figure widely respected among Indians. Initially, attention is focussed on Long's educational background, on his motives in becoming a missionary and on his reasons for joining the Church Missionary Society in 1832. His early experience of missionary work in Calcutta, which largely accounts for his reaction against Dr. Duff's system of education through English, is considered. Particular attention is paid to Long's career from 1850 to 1861. During this period his originality clearly emerges: he became involved in the indigo and other controversies and work was crowned with considerable achievement. His Activities in vernacular education, his concern with the training of converts and the development of Bengali churches, his literary and social activities and his enthusiasm for social reform are all discussed in the broad context of Protestant missionary thinking and policy; and an attempt is made to show how his activities and particular point of view affected his relations with other missionaries, as well as with other Europeans and the Bengali community. The significance of the indigo dispute, the events leading up to Long's trial and imprisonment in 1861 and reactions to the Nil Darpan case in India and England have also been considered. In the latter part of the thesis closer attention is paid to Long's basic objectives. In the 1850's he became increasingly involved in activities which he regarded as preparation for missions rather than in evangelism itself. His philosophy of missions had, in fact, been changing ever since the 1840's and, by 1872, his concept of the missionary's task in India was somewhat different from what was generally accepted by other missionaries, who paid greater attention to evangelism in their own day and generation.