The Church Missionary Society

THE WORK OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

THE Church Missionary Area of po^tant Mission in the Telugu country. Mi^sio'n occupied by this Mission tween the two great rivers, the Krishna and the Godavari, and stretches from the coast for more than a hundred miles inland. It lies, therefore, to the north-east of our field, but does not quite touch it, for though the S.P.G. territory extends just up to the river Krishna, so at a point far distant from its mouth. The general characteristics Mission are very similar to those of the S.P.G. Mission. It is mainly carried on in villages, and the bulk of the converts come from the same two classes of the popu- the Malas and the Madigas. lation, the Church has been exhibited by the elevation of these classes from a degrading heathenism to a self-respecting and Christian life ; have been those which we have already described and which we expect to find operating more and more in the future. therefore, it If,

XIII

large and im- Society has a The territory is the country which lies be- it does work the of of this The strength of effects on the the higher castes within the space impossible, of is 184

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

one chapter, to give in any detail the record of so large a work, much that only hinted is reader who the intelUgible to preceding chapters. The work Telugu

C.M.S.

when R. T. Noble and H. W. Fox were sent to Masu- Noble opened lipatam. there caste boys 1843, which began with only two high in The convert from pupils. first four years later, and was followed by two more in 1852, and three more in In 1855. remarkable number of Brahman and other high caste converts as a result of the work of this school. of them were men of unusual worth. baptisms have revealed a great change in the feeling of Hindu society. In the early days a baptism would, for the time being, bring the work of the school almost to but a recent in standstill, Brahman student has taken place without any ruption following either in his own school hfe or in that It may be noticed, again, that this of feUow-students. the work carried on simultaneously among school and the Church lower castes gave the Hindu from society attacking When the the Native Church CouncU first meeting of it was was held 1876, in circumstance, that aU the converts of the Mission were either from the high castes or from the Malas. between. were none from the classes to show whether the great middle the future be won would Hindu society of

185 at wiU be easily gone through has the commenced The first in 1841, "•i.ss'o"- aries, his famous school for 1841. appeared school this later years there were a Many Incidentally these baptism years the a of inter- opportunity the of two different sides. remarked, a singular as There It was for left classes movement by a

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

i86 downwards from above or by a movement upwards from It may be added below. not comparable in numbers with the converts, though others, have yet played an important part in the work of the Mission, especially on the educational side. illustrated by the is there were college staff five sons of Brahman converts. After some years of The Noble was to the Madras University. affiliated College. nearly one hundred University degree the of with attached to it, thousand boys. Itinerating work was commenced by Fox, but Masuli- closed by patam. labours were The work years. This town is now the centre of the most Masulipatam. populous the six of field has been divided. contains no the present time with Christians, five work grows year by year. Two towns other missionaries, in the early days of the Mission, with the hope of finding fruitful ground. 1854, and Bezwada, now an important was opened in railway junction, the northern terminus of the line that our through runs resident missionary in 1858. We will now try to give an account of the events

the here that high caste This fact noted that on the year, last four Brahman converts and its existence the Noble College It now has

B.A.

preparing students the for high the school while ; has more than a branches, its his his death after less than eight neighbourhood began the of in which

C.M.S.

the into districts The Masulipatam at district six thousand less than and hundred the catechumens, by

C.M.S.

were occupied the The Mission at EUore own a received mission district,

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

which led to the great increase of the Church in this

part of the Telugu country.

For the years eighteen first C.M.S. Telugu Mission, as far went, was not conspicuously successful. were but two hundred converts. changed when the Mala movement began. time the experience of the C.M.S. Mission has been like ^ our own, continuous a struggle increasing numbers, and the rejection of thousands for want of teachers. So far as the beginning of such things all, we may say that the movement can be dated at among the Malas in the C.M.S. territory originated with baptism a certain the of We give the story of Venkayya. fully, because a reader may, with the aid of such a life history, derive a truer idea of a mass movement he would from an extensive than taken impersonal but history thet ype of a well-recognised stands for all parts of India where the Gospel has newly who, in come and is being accepted, have been the immediate human instruments to lead their fellow-countrymen to The common characteristics of this class, which Christ. in some of them in a high degree, are that are found they pass through a period, sometimes before they have had their first encounter with after God seeking book, of markable circumstances, they come within the hearing they Gospel that the of ; it the satisfaction of their highest immediately, find in

187 existence the of its as numbers of converts In 1859 there The aspect of things From that Move- '"^"* ^ amongst cope with to ever- the '™*'^^' man, remarkable Pagolu Pagolu this man somewhat y^' behind the real forces For Venkayya alone. class of men preacher or Christian a that, often through re- ; and sometimes quickly,

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

i88 and, finally, that they become leaders to their desires ; own race. The story, then, runs as follows. Mala hving at Raghavapuram, a village about twenty- eight miles from Bezwada. well known for his daring, and was for a time the ring- leader of a band of violent men. forty-seven years of age his renunciation of idolatry took happened place. in It standing with him in the presence him that since he had heard a Christian missionary say idols made by the village carpenter were impotent that things, he had ceased to instantaneously accepted the new light and renounced The same friend told him that the worship of idols. the the subject missionary's of the great God who was the only true God. then made a prayer, which from that time he used, in ' O Great God the form : Show Thyself to me.' Thou ? heard and pondered over fragments of the missionaries' teaching which were carried from hearer to hearer Once, too, a Christian tract was brought the villages. to his own village, and he heard God as the Saviour of the world. and Venkayya, to light ' O great God, the Saviour prayer to One more fragment of the truth he received with me.' Some of friends and fellow-castemen in a his avidity. distant village came upon a band of native Christians. While they were there, the funeral of one of the Christians

Venka3^a was a In his youthful days he was When he was about A heathen wise. this friend, of some idols, told Venkayya believe in them. had been preaching Venkajrya ! Who are Thou ? Where art From time to time he in It spoke of it read. This brought more he changed thenceforth his Show Thyself to !

TELUGU CHRISTIANS, SHOWING MODES OF WEARING

HAIR.

A MISSIONARY S BUNGALOW IN

THP; TELUGU COUNTRY.

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

these men went took place, and they saw and heard they carried back to things that Venkayya because they knew that Especially they told him that the Christians hear them. the dead would believed that Venkayya received this as teaching sent from graves. God. These were the chief Venkayya's search after God. The crisis of his life came in 1859, when he was about The great Siva Rathri festival was being fifty years old. held at Bezwada, and 40,000 people gathered to wash away their sins in the river Krishna, and also had come—not, however, Venkayya gods. their to bathe, but to find, if he could, one of the Christian missionaries, of whose preaching at this festival he had He sat down by the heard. remarkable incident followed. him and asked if he were not going to bathe. replied that water so foul as that of the river had now become could not wash the body, much less cleanse the The Brahman asked soul. Venka3^a answered that he was not, but wished to be The Brahman then showed him the mission bunga- one. low, and bade him go there to be made a Christian. the same time, Venka5rya's friends, wandering among the had actually crowds, fallen preaching, and had as he was himself vitation given to all to come and be taught at his own They hastened back to teU Venkayya, and bungalow. the entire party together went to the bungalow. not long before the whole object of their quest was laid

189 The strange to it. he would wish to again from their rise in three years, of fruits, to worship river-side, and a there A Brahman approached Venka5rya was he a Christian. if At with missionary the in heard the in- It was

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

igo Mr. Darling, the missionary referred to, explained bare. to them the story of the Gospel. Venkayya rose and solemnly said is my Saviour. I have long been seeking for Him So ended Venkayya's search. have found Him.' the men that came with Venkayya, Of one declared that they too believed, and a day was at once the missionary's fixed for There he spent some time instructing the new converts. many had days Before arranged and took place his wife and five children, and sixteen other men, were first to be baptised. the movement in that country. in other villages were Venkayya's own relations. influence of these events, which happened at Raghava- puram, spread Polsanapalle, to where the Ellore in district, ripening towards fruit. gone on growing the till within which the movement started the growth has been such that Bezwada, Raghavapuram, and Khammamett, which were all formerly included in the one district, have each become the centre containing thousands of Christians. so long as he lived, Venkayya bore a noble part as one of the most ardent of Christian preachers. 1891, he died at a great age, the converts of the C.M.S. Telugu Mission, who had numbered two hundred at the time of his baptism, had grown to a band of nearly ten thousand.

When he had finished, ' This is my God, this : ; now I all except to their visit village. was baptism passed their in March Venkayya, 1859. This was the beginning of a Some of the first inquirers The some distance away, the work was already district the work has In that In day. the area present of a separate mission district this work, In all When, in

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

Venkayya's story differs from that that could be told of Indian leaders, mainly in that its are more recorded, details fully a more grander though not His experience is encouraging as showing that most. there are such men among the Indians, and as revealing something of the Divine method working in India. It remains to show briefly how the work developed the mission in different districts. This district, in point of numbers of already spoken of. Christians, comes only just short is remarkable that one lifetime has witnessed almost the Canon Alexander, whose long entire growth of the work. life labours were expended almost wholly in this district, in India in 1857, and landed The number the of Mission, in 1911. when he died had grown to nearly six thousand. The occupation of Bezwada in 1858 has been referred district has nearly four thousand Christians This to. as many catechumens. about with half of the increasing number of converts, now comprises two districts was cut in 1870. The Dummagudem district different history from that of the other districts. Mission was started on the pressing invitation officers of the Government, Sir A. General Haig, and was originally designed for the Kois, a people said to be a branch of the Gonds. One of the most honoured names in begun about i860. this Mission is that the record of

191 of many others he was and a that than intellectual figure EUore. been has Ellore of Masulipatam. It in the service died, still Christians of Bezwada. On account the area which off from Bezwada a somewhat Dumma- has had This

S'*'*^'"-

of two Cotton and Major- Work was I. Venkatarama of

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

192 Razu, a high caste convert, formerly in the service of the Government, who resigned his post in order to carry on mission work, and was afterwards ordained and laboured in the district until 1893, when A certain amount of success was met with to retire. among the Kois, but these converts proved unstable. They were not willing that them as servants as they do elsewhere for the Sudras, should be admitted were many and there great bulk of the Church has here, built up out of the Malas. and prospered, there The Rev. Christians in all. almost continuously since 1874. up a new industry among the women and girls, in the form of lace-making, which is famous throughout South India. Raghavapuram was first occupied as an independent Ragha- vapuram. mission-station in 1870. this part has been described above, and the movement which started fifty years ago has been in flood ever since. Even after the separation from the district of two others still remain over five thousand Christians. there Khammamett is the centre of the most lately formed Kham- mamett. district of the Telugu Mission. For the greater 1888. there was elapsed since remarkable ingatherings. number accessions of resources the strained

ill health compelled him the Malas, who work for Church with the to themselves, defections among The them. as elsewhere, been This side of the work has are now hundred twelve over J. Cain has worked here Mrs. Cain has raised The beginning of the work in It was first occupied in the has period

part

that of without any steady growth Of late years, however, the and has has largely increased, the utmost. the Mission to of

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

The gieatest difficulty has been experienced in providing even those congregations which have been accepted as inquirers with regular instruction. be now well over a hundred congregations in this district without a resident teacher. In nine months of 1910, 241 several classes. and Madigas 310 284 Malas, The number of Christians in instruction. is a little over three thousand, while the catechumens are not far short of the same number. From the references above to the different castes it win be although that inferred draws converts

S.P.G.

Mission, its Malas, yet it is making way among the Madigas and the The progress made among the latter is indeed Sudras. one of the most hopeful and significant facts of carries lessons for workers in other parts of India. among movements the out-castes produce definite effects upon the castes above them, and, though difficulties are met with, they are not than those which the communities become Christians encountered. the most deserves assuredly sympathy on the part of those who have the conversion of India at heart. given the After description CoUege, not a great deal has to be added concerning the educational work of the C.M.S. Noble attached the College, to schools for boys, one at EUore, the other at Bezwada. Both these schools date back a considerable way in the

193 There are said to The inquirers come from Sudras, under put themselves district this hke the the

C.M.S.,

mainly from the all, and The beginning are to greater that have already The new development careful study and warm above Noble the High of schools. Besides the high school two high there are

MISSIONS IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY

194 history of the Mission, for the former was founded in 1854, the latter in 1858. above the standard of the primary examination in the at Masulipatam known as the Sharkey boarding-school A very important Memorial School. Masuli- Training Institution patam receive their special Training Institu- teachers in the Mission. tion. have already done good work as teachers and catechists, are brought to receive the further instruction necessary their admission for the educational work greatest part of in the case the as of carrying on Village of the schools. there are a very large number. similar to those already described describe them in detail. including non-Christians, who are being educated in the C.M.S. Mission, is 5686 The number of Indian clergy in the C.M.S. Mission Indian clergy. is at present twenty-eight. staff of the C.M.S. and occupy missionary are on the of them are engaged in the pastoral spheres, but most oversight of the village congregations. for a long time endeavoured to throw upon the native as early a stage as churches, at providing their own ministry. to the men who are to be ordained. Councils, which Native Church directly with the Bishop of the diocese. recommended to the Bishop by the Church Councils are

Girls can receive an education is the institution Masulipatam, where at students be training schoolmasters to or Here, too, selected men, who to Holy But by Orders. the far the C.M.S., of

S.P.G.

Mission, the consists in village primary schools. Of these As they are, however, is unnecessary to it The sum total of aU the boys, and that of girls, 1723. ; A few of the senior clergy The C.M.S. has the task of possible, It does not give titles This is left to the in these matters deal The candidates

THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

often purely vernacular men, drawn from the same race as the bulk of the congregations, and generally kept up to the limit that the District Church This is the method by which the Councils can support. Indian Church can best obtain an adequate supply of at the same time, most quickly realise clergy, and, duty to become a self-governing branch of the Catholic Church. The total number of Christians in the C.M.S. Telugu is now over twenty-four Mission these there are more than seven thousand catechumens who are being prepared for baptism. year by year, show that the movement towards Christi- anity on the whole has been kind, but has gradually expanded, ways which cannot be expressed by been steady growth.

195 their number is its thousand. Besides The figures, taken of no sudden or spasmodic in many and that figures there has