CASTE – MISSIONARIES, CONVERSIONS & SOME INTERESTING INSIGHTS.

ABBE J.A DUBOIS  had been in India, as a missionary under the guidance of the Missions Etrangeres, Paris, from 1792 to 1823. He was ordained in the diocese of Viviers in 1792, at the  age of twentyseven, and left  France in the same year. On reaching India in 1792 he was attached to the Pondicherry Mission; and for the first few years he seems to have laboured in what are now the Southern Districts of the Madras Presidency.

The Abbe in a letter dated Aug 7, 1815 to W.J.Esq Mysore, states that Christianity of the Catholic  persuasion  was first introduced into India a little more than threehundred years ago; at the epoch of the Portugese invasions. ie. early 1500’s. One of the first missionaries was the famous St.Francis Xavier, a Spanish  Jesuit, known under the appellation of the Apostle of India .The Abbe says  that Xavier  ‘is said to have made  many thousand converts,’ which includes the ‘caste of fishermen at Cape Comorin’.After  him, ‘jesuits  were sent from every catholic country to India, to forward the interests of the gospel’.

The Abbe says that these Jesuits ‘insinuated’ themselves into the Hindu society , and ‘made a great number of converts  among ALL CASTES of Hindoos. The Abbe claims that he had seen ‘authentic lists’ made up about seventy years ago, ie lists compiled around 1745, showing the number of native Christians region-wise. In the Marawa region it is about 30,000, in the Madura region  above 1,00,000, in the Carnatic 80,000, and in Mysore 35,000. He informs the readers that by 1815, ‘hardly a third of this number is to be found in these districts respectively’.He further states that (quote)‘ I have heard that the number of converts was still much more  considerable  on the other coast, from Goa to Cape Comorin; but of these I never saw authentic lists.’ From the figures provided by the Abbe, after the first wave of conversions beginning with the  early part of  year 1500, though the Missionaries could win over a sizeable number of converts, all such natives who got converted  subsequently apostatized  and went back to their old faith. Thus the FIRST PHASE of Missionary Enterprise from 1500 to 1800 ended in abject failure.

A note about the word ‘insinuation’. In another letter written on 16^th Nov. 1816, the Abbe has mentioned that like the Jesuit missionaries before him , he himself adopted the tactic of  ‘insinuating’ himself amongst the Hindus. (p.87, 130)“An insinuation is a sly way of saying something, usually something insulting. It can also be a way of worming your way into a group or situation. "You're dumb!" is an insult. An insinuation is different: it's a way of indirectly saying something. Insinuation evolved from the Latin insinuationem, meaning "entrance through a narrow way.” So an insinuation is like an insult that sneaks in the back door. Mentioning that your cousin could try harder in school could be an insinuation that your cousin’s lazy. Another kind of insinuation is when someone, often through flattery, gets herself accepted by others. Both kinds of insinuations are sneaky.” https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/insinuation

In spite of the worming his way into the society of Hindus, and winning their confidence, he could make only a few INFERIOR converts. Amongst the Hindus in S.India , he was like

a Trojan horse. (Trojan horse -( b ) fig. a person, device, etc., deliberately set to bring about an enemy's downfall or to undermine from within.-Oxford Dict.) But, ultimately  his efforts got thwarted, and he came to the conclusion that it is futile attempting to convert the Hindus, and those who got converted and embraced Christianity, had done so not because of any conviction regarding the tenets of that religion, but did so out of ‘material and marriage’ considerations, and such individuals were mostly Pariahs or the scum of society. The Abbe’s own confessional  words are given in the following quote.

  Quote from the book "Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore ":- “The Abbé Dubois makes the following remarks: "During the long period I have lived in India, in the capacity of a missionary, I have made with the assistance of a native missionary, in all between two and three hundred converts of both sexes. Of this number two-thirds were Pariahs or beggars, and the rest were composed of Sûdras, vagrants, and outcasts of several tribes, who, being without resource, turned Christians in order to form new connections, chiefly for the purpose of marriage, or with some other interested views. Among them are  to be found some also who believed themselves to be possessed by the devil, and who turned Christians after having been assured that on their  receiving baptism the unclean spirits would leave them, never to return; and I will declare it, with shame and confusion, that I do not remember any one who may be said to have embraced Christianity from conviction, and through quite disinterested motives. Among these new converts many apostatized, and relapsed into Paganism, finding that the Christian religion did not afford them the temporal advantages they had looked for in embracing it; and I am verily  ashamed, that the resolution I have taken to declare the whole truth on this subject forces me to make the humiliating avowal, that those who continued Christians are the very worst among my flock."—DR. ALLEN'S India, p. 522.

EXCERPT FROM

Robert H. Elliot. “Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore.” iBooks.
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Robert H.Elliot had  cited  the above paragraph (as a footnote), in the chapter titled ‘Caste’ of his book  ‘Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore.”. He informs us that it appeared in Dr.Allen’s book ,India. Originally these words of Abbe is from his book “Letters on the State of Christianity  in India”  first published at London in 1823. (p.134) . (This resource at present is freely available on the net.)

These men, ie.the missionaries, who consider themselves as  agents of God, if we care to notice, are not of pure heart and they do not profess any unconditional love. The word ‘insinuation’ used  by the Abbe, numerous times in his writings and correspondences , constantly reminds us of this fact.