WORK FOR THE John F. Goueher Numbet................... DEPRESSED CLASSES IN INDIA. BY REV. E. W. PARKER, D.D. Methodist Episcopal Church Mission, Lucknow. Written for the Decennial Missionary Confer- ence, Bombay, 1892-93, at the request of the Conference Committee. -LUCKNOW: METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, STEAM PRINTING WORKS. 1892. ~ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2023 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/workfordepressedOOpark John F. Goucher Num bevr............. WORK FOR THE DEPRESSED CLASSES, Sa I suppose that the subject refers to those tribes and peoples who are usually known as Low-caste or Qut-caste classes. They belong to no one of the reg- ular castes of the Hindus, though they nearly all have castes of their own. ‘hey have for centuries been de- pressed and held down by those belonging to the regular castes. As in their castes they are not, strictly speak- ing, Hindus, so also in their religion they are usually outside of Hinduism, having deities and gurus of their own. Still they are generally classed and spoken of as Hindus. Many of these peoples are found living in separate mohallas or wards in the towns and_ villages all over the country, and many more are found in tribes living by themselves, or occupying separate districts in various parts of India. Those scattered through the towns and villages of Northern India earn their living in vari- ous WayS: some as farmers, some as weavers, some as village watchmen ; many as shoemakers ; many more as coolies and day-laborers on farms; and many others do the conservancy work in cities and larger villages. In many places some of them earn a good living, while others are very poor. Formerly many were almost slaves, and some no doubt were quite so ; and even now the oppression of some of the people of these classes would be called slavery outside of India. The English Government has, however, actually set them free and opened their way torise toa better life, though it is very difficult for them to assert their manhood, or for the higher castes to learn that the have any rights. Still everywhere in the North of India they are learning the lesson though but slowly. These peoples have never been educated. Very few among them have even learned to read or write. Their number in India is very large, probably more than 50,000,000. They are divided into many castes and classes, and are quite as distinct from one another and are subject to their dis- tinctions of higher and lower in caste, quite as much as the regular Hindus are. These peoples are more access- ible to Christian workers than others, for various reasons ;— ll 1. Their religion is not, as a rule, the orthodox Hinduism : but some side issue that is much less firmly established and tenaciously held, and hence has no such stronghold on the people as Hinduism has upon the regular castes. It is not so difficult for these to change their religion. The gurus of Kabir and Nanak in North- ern India have led multitudes of these people to give up their old religion—what little they had —and become fol- lowers of these two reformers. 2. They have not the pride of caste that raises them in their own estimation aboye all other people, and they readily receive the Christian teachers, Besides, whatever is done for these poor people, is usually considered as a kindness—a favour ; and it isseldom resented. If schools are opened for their children, while they may not at once fully appreciate the education offered, they do generally appreciate the kindness of the effort, and say, ‘‘ No one ever thought of doing this for people like us before.” 3. Many of them have an idea of “ moving on,” In many places they have broken away from their old tradi- tions to some extent, and are doing work their fathers did not think of ever attaining. Being thus willing to rise, they will take hold of those who may seem able to aid them: hence the way is open to teach and lead them. While there is encouragement in this point, there is also danger to be guarded against, lest the benefits of being raised socially become the motive that draws them to Christianity. But whatever the reasons, we are sure that these are at present the “‘ accessible classes.” Sir William Hunter has given his opinion on this point. He says :— “J should not be candid if I left the impression that I expect, even with the improved missionary methods, any large accessions from orthodox Hinduism or Islam to the Christian Church. It is rather from the lower castes, and the so-called aboriginal peoples, that I believe direct conversions will chiefly come. At this moment there are fifty millions of human beings in India, sitting abject on the outskirts of Hinduism or beyond its pale, who within the next fifty years will incorporate themselves into one or other of the higher faiths. Speaking humanly, it rests with Christian Missionaries in India, whether a great proportion of these fifty millions shall accept Christianity iil or Hinduism or Islam.” I am fully convinced that Sir William Hunter is correct in his statements concerning these lower castes, and the responsibility resting upon mis- sionaries is therefore very great. These masses can readi- ly be gathered in. How can we work efficiently for these classes ? In answering this question I shall give some account of the work among these peoples in our own Mission, that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Northern India. Qur Mission was established in the North-West Provinces and Oudh immediately after the Mutiny. Very soon after our work was commenced in the Moradabad Zila, several persons came to our missionary there, as a de- legation from their people, saying that they had heard something of Christianity at a mela on the Ganges, and they wished to know more. These people lived in vil- lages about twenty miles from Moradabad city, and they were at once visited without any thought of what their caste might be; and after consultation it was thought best to open a school for their children in a central village where the largest number of the enquirers lived. The teacher of this school also became pastor of the people, calling them together each evening in the school-room for instruction and:prayer. As the inquirers increased, an- other central village was soon selected and another school opened, six miles from the first, and there also each even- ing people gathered for instruction and prayer. As often as possible a missionary or native preacher went from Moradabad on Saturday and spent the morning of Sunday with one village and the evening with the other, teaching the people. After some months the first converts were baptized, and as the openings increased, a good native preacher was appointed to live in one of the villages and direct the entire work. In spite of our many mistakes in trying to colonize these people, and do the work in some way that would give us care of their secular affairs, the work went forward gradually, on the plan first introduc- ed, of little schools at various centers with Christian teachers, who were also evangelists and pastors, and with more experienced native preachers at the more important centers. As some of the bright boys completed the simple course of the village school, they were promoted to 1V the central stations and aided in securing a more advane- ed education. Thus we raised up preachers and teachers. This work was known among us as our “ Sikh work,” as _ the people were said to have come many years ago from the Punjab. Nearly the entire class in those districts has become Christian. In the early days of the Mission a native Christian, who had formerly been a fakir among the Chamars, came to us from the Meerut side. He had been baptized by the Rev. Mr. Lamb, C. M. 5S., and he came to us, as his dis- ciples were mostly on our side of the Ganges, and he asked to be set apart to work among his old disciples. He was soon set to work as an evangelist among his own people; but in addition to the evangelistic work, from village to village, a few lads were taught to read, and through them schools were opened at some half a dozen centers, where regular meetings were also held. Another fakir was soon converted, and other converts followed. The school first opened was in Moradabad and numbered nearly fifty Chamar boys. Nearly all of these were con- verted as they grew up, and a very large number became teachers or preachers—being first trained in our higher grade schools or in the Theological School. As this work thus gradually progressed, of course many others were baptized and gathered into the Church. This is known.as our ‘ Chamar work.” | Very early also in the history of our Mission an “ effec- tual door’ was opened in the zila of Budaon, into another large class of low-caste people. Here also we seemed pro- videntially led; and no one thought of caste, or planned at all for the great work that followed. Those in charge were led to establish little evangelistic schools at certain centers, and as anacn were raised up, they were placed over the work at the most important points, and especial attention was paid to selecting the brightest lads for a more thorough training under the missionary, The ‘Budaon work spread more rapidly than it did in Mora- dabad, and soon wehad an opening among this class in nearly every zilain the province of Rohilkhand. As the inquirers in these different classes increased we realized the need of many more schools for these people, with the pastor-teachers or evangelist-pastors to teach the parents Vv as well as the children. A friend in America came to our aid with one hundred schools supported by himself, and with one hundred and twenty scholarships for the brightest pupils from his schools to be educated in the higher grade schools at Moradabad. This gave this entire work a wonderful uplift. Meantime, our Theological Seminary and Normal School had been opened at Bareilly, and was turning out the trained men needed as teachers and preachers, thus meeting the great demand as itarose. This is the brief history of our work for these acces- sible classes from the beginning of our Mission. The work is not a new work. It did not grow up in a night ; but has grown up gradually through some thirty years. The following statistics will show the growth of our North India Mission, and the larger number of the con- verts were from among these classes : In 1859 we had 2 native preachers, 5 communicants, 4 Christian boys and 8 Christian girls in our schools, and no baptisms were report- ed that year, In 1868 we had 30 native preachers, 665 communicants, 297 Christian boys and 168 Christian girls in school, and 187 were baptized that year. In 1878 we had 73 native preachers, 2,526 communicants, 424 Christian boys and 715 Christian girls in school, and 787 baptisms that year. In 1888 we had 168 native preach- ers, 7,944 communicants, 2,027 Christian boys and 1,327 Christian girls in school, and 1,958 baptisms that year, with some 400 Christian teachers in our schools. By this date, 1888, many of the children in these evangelistic schools had been converted, and they, with the pastors’ aid, had drawn in their parents, and these in turn had gone for their family friends and brought them in, and a very general interest was being awakened among these classes, All were talking of this work, and of receiving this new religion. In this way work had spread outside of Rohil- khand into Meerut, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Muttra, Etah, and Agra zilas, and there were converts in some 500 villages, and we had about 200 centers of work, with schools and pastors and alarge number of Christian young people, and more than three thousand Christian chil- dren, and several thousand children of inquirers, in our schools, Hence, with these preachers and teachers, with v1 our work opened over such a large area, with a large number of centers of work ready, and many Christian young people from which to draft more helpers, a native Church becoming more and more aggressive in spirit and work, and with thousands of inquirers talking of {this new religion, — we were ready for a more rapid advance along the family and caste lines in which we had been providentially, as we believed, led. | Hence districts were studied in which these people lived; calls of the friends and relatives of our people were listened to, special evangelists were appointed, new centers of work where these peoples were not being saved, were opened, and our work commenced to spread much more rapidly than it had done before, so that during the past four years many more accessions have been made, until some have consid- ered that we were going too fast. But we have believed that with our force of preachers and teachers, etc., as men- tioned above, we were prepared for this advance. It would be too much to suppose that in such a work no mistakes have been made, Men who work and bring things to pass, will make mistakes. Only those who have no courage to move make no mistakes, except the one great mistake of accomplishing nothing. — Our plan of work from the beginning has been very nearly the same. In each center where there are Chris- tians or inquirers, a pastor-evangelist is placed, who teach- es the children to read, and the parents to pray and live Christian lives. Each of these centers usually has several villages connected with it, if it be a village center, instead of a larger town. We can hardly hope to make of the converts advanced in years just such Christians as we would like, but we try to thoroughly teach and drill just as many children and young people as we possibly can. In connection with these lower grade helpers are placed trained native preachers, who go everywhere preach- ing the Word, and over several of these is the missionary or native minister in eharge. For example, some years aco a native preacher was sent to a new center with one little school and one teacher. He commenced his work, and as inquirers came, he opened new centers; teachers and preachers were raised up and supplied, until in 1888, at the time when our more rapid advance commenced, he had vii Christians living in over 100 villages. He had 14 small evangelistic schools and had his work divided into seven sub-circuits under seven native preachers. Besides the workers mentioned above, he had one leader selected in each village where Christians resided who should act as assistant pastor. These one hundred leaders were of course volun- tary unpaid assistants. This constitutes one of our circuits; in charge of a native minister. Our system places a Presid- ing Klder over a number of these circuits as superintend- ent, auditor of accounts, and general adviser. On his visits he calls together these preachers, teachers and leaders for a “ Quarterly Conference” of workers, for receiving reports and giving counsel about work, and at thesame time teachers and schools are examined. TKach Presiding Elder has an average of about fifteen of these circuits. Once each year a “* District Conference” and Christian Mela is held in each Presiding Elder’s district, when all the workers and two or three laymen from each circuit come together in the Conference forcounsel, and for prayer concerning the work, and larger numbers of men, women and children come for the mela. The Bishop, who is superintendent of the entire work, presides at this meeting if present, During these Quarterly and District conferences and melas, religious meetings are held daily, and usually three days at least are given up entirely to special relig- ious services, designed to bring all the workers into more complete harmony with the wind of Christ, that they may be filled with the Spirit and go out again to their work with greater zeal for God and a fuller consecra- tion to His work, and also to lead all the Christians and young people present into a clearer experience of the spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Many of our best people date their spiritual conversion from these meetings. We have often had over two thousand persons at these meet- Ings, remaining encamped on the ground for a week, and constantly attending meetings from early morning till late evening, There can be no doubt that these meetings have proved a great blessing to our work and to our people. They are increasing in number and in effectiveness year by year, and are becoming more and more seasons of great spiritual awakening and power. Besides these large gatherings, we have special evan- vlil gelists who go from place to place gathering the ci verts and inquirers together and holding services design- ed to bring the people to more intelligently and more fully receive the Lord Jesus, and gain by faith a personal experience of sins forgiven and of a new birth. We thus use every means to teach, train and save the people. The converts themselves are often our best helpers, as in their first love they go to their relations and friends and try to lead them also to Christ. In baptizing converts we often. ask them of their relations, and try to impress upon them the importance of trying to save their friends ; and many a convert, as soon as he tastes of the love of Jesus, goes out to tell his brother. Andrew goes for his own brother Simon, and Phillip finds Nathaniel, and they in tura are brought to Jesus, Thus the work goes on, following the caste and family lines. In such a work the schools and all the other work will for a time follow these lines very closely. Our experience, however, is that this special family and caste work does not in the least hinder us in work for higher castes. We have many very excellent men and women converts from the higher castes, and more than one hundred converts from Islam. Perhaps I should add one more remark concerning these converts, namely, that we are in no way whatever involved financially for these thousands of Christians, They all live in their old villages and in their own homes, and are all taught to give trom their earnings for the sup- port of their pastors, The above statement of organization and plan of work through the preachers, evangelists, pastors, schools, ana unpaid assistant pastors, and Christian converts working for their friends, with our workers’ conferences, and special religious meetings, shows the best plan that our experience has found, both for teaching the heathen and bringing them to Jesus, and fcr training the converts after they have come within the Church. | This advance movement, that has taken place since 1888, caused by a deeper interest and more earnest zeal, born, as we believe, of the constraining love of Christ and love for souls in all our preachers and converts, has brought forth greater results, so that at the end of 1891 our statistics show 261 Native preachers licensed as iX preacner s, 381 exhorters or preachers of a lower grade, and 736 Christian teachers, male and female; about 600 schools for Christians and i inquirers, with 10, 261 Christian young people and Christian children, and at least 5,000 children of inquirers in these schools, ‘making more than 15,000 children on the Christian side. The number of regular ly received members in the Church was 9,487, with - 16,913 baptized probationers, and many thousands of in- quirers. We had 1,164 Sunday-schools, 45,531 pupils and a Christian community of 36,055, living in more than a thousand towns and villages. The accessions by baptism during 1891 were 17,038, including children. During 1892 the accessions were quite as many as in the pre- vious year ; so that the Christian community at this date iS something over 50,060. Our most encouraging success perhaps is in the large number of native workers who have been raised up in this work and who are, as a rule, men and women devoted to their work and happy and enthu- siastic init, believing that they are called and separated to it by the Holy Ghost. Hence there is almost perfect har- mony between the different grades of Hindustani workers and between them and the foreigners. Asthey rise in grade they have equal rights with us in all the counsels eccle- siastical and financial of the Church, and they have borne the responsibility well. No fixed scale of salary prevails among us, but a committee, made up of both natives and foreigners, fixes the salaries of all workers, European or Hindustani, who join us in India. Next to the encourag- ing success shown in these preachers, teachers, &c., our most encouraging success is found in our large number of intelligent Christian young people. These in all our principal stations have their “Epworth Leagues” for mental and spiritual improvement, and they do much volun- tary work by singing and witnessing for Christ. The 15,000 Christians and inquirers in our schools form no mean com- pany from which to recruit an aggressive self-supporting Church in the near future. We believe that we realize something of the responsibility of gathering in such large numbers ; and with our large army of workers we are do- ing the best we can to carefor them. Our object is not baptisms, but the salvation of the people, and we try to be careful in using this sign wisely, though mistakes may »4 have been made. I have myself examined in my visitations as a presiding elder hundreds of converts, and have almost invariably foand them well instructed, and that they were intelligently renouncing idolatry and sin, and were re- ceiving Jesus Christ as their Saviour to the extent of their spiritual understanding, and that they unreservedly placed themselves under the Christian teachers for future guidance in religion. In some new centers greater haste may have been made in order to secure an opening and to bring the disciples more fully under the influence of the teachers at once. In some rare instances some en- thusiastic brother may have exercised his office impru- dently, and have baptized unworthy persons, The above plans with their organizations and results are not given as examples for others, but as the best that we have learned. We believe that we were providentially led in every case in entering this work, and that God is still - leading us forward. Believing this we can but go forward, The statements inthis paper refer only to the work now included in our two North India Conferences—the county ~ north and west of Benares. We have three other Con- ferences in India ; and this kind of work is spreading in other partsas well. We trust that before another Decen- nial Conference shall meet we may have much more en- couraging results to report. h ; ce b4 * - as, aed ° a an Pe Sle ob 3 eee ots sel Py