87. THE COMPANY'S POLICY IN REGARD TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS The Court of Directors to the Governor of Fort St. George. May 29, 1807. In the whole course of our administration of the Indian territories it has been our known and declared principle to maintain a perfect toleration of the various religious systems which prevailed in them; to protect the followers of each in the undisturbed enjoyment of their respective opinions and usages; neither to interfere with them ourselves, nor to suffer them to be molested by others. When we afforded our countenance and sanction to missionaries who have from time to time proceeded to India for the purpose of propagating the Christian religion, it was far from being in our contemplation to add the influence of our authority to any attempts they might make; for on the contrary we were perfectly aware that the progress of such conversion will be slow and gradual, arising more from a conviction of the principles of our religion itself, and from the pious examples of its teachers, than from any undue influence or from the exertions of authority, which are never to be resorted to in such cases. (Lord Minto in India, 63.) 88. MINTO'S CRITICISM OF THE MISSIONARIES Lord Minto to the Chairman of the East India Company, 1807. 1 Let me recommend to your serious consideration the principal publications which have issued from the Serampore press, in the native languages, the sole effect of which was not to convert, but to alienate, the professors of both religions prevalent amongst the natives of this country. Pray read especially the miserable stuff addressed to the Hindus, in which... without proof or argument of any kind, the pages are filled with hell fire, denounced against a whole race of men for believing in the religion which they were taught by their fathers and mothers, and the truth of which it is simply impossible it should ever have entered into their minds to 1 The Mission Press worked by the group of missionaries, of whom William Carey was the most famous. Their headquarters were at the Danish settlement of Serampore. doubt. Is this the doctrine of our faith? . . . If there are two opinions among Christians on this point, I can only say that I am of the sect which believes that a just God will condemn no being without individual guilt. . . . A total abolition of caste is openly preached. . . . Is it possible that your Government should be required to countenance public exhortations addressed to a Hindu nation to efface at once, not a little spot of yellow paste from the forehead, but the whole institution of caste itself, that is to say, their whole scheme of civil polity as well as their fondest and most rooted religious tenets ? This is to be accomplished by coarse and scurrilous invective against the most revered order of Hindu society 1 and addressed to that order itself. I leave you to form your own judgment on these performances, which will be that of a Christian gentleman. . . . I am no enemy to the progress of Christianity in India. It is the way, I observe, of some who are personally engaged in the work of conversion to confound any little check in correction of their own errors with opposition or hostility to their purpose, and to call out Atheism, Deism, and above all persecution, whenever a slip in their own conduct has required to be rectified. . . . I do not think we should be justified in refusing the dispensation of the Christian revelation to this great country for our interest or security, but I am not equally ready to sacrifice the great interests which are confided to me to a blind principle of complaisance towards every indiscretion which zeal or negligence may commit. (Lord Minto in India, 78.) 89. THE FRENCH DANGER AND BRITISH RELATIONS WITH THE NORTH-WESTERN POWERS Lord Minto to the Directors, February 2, 1808. As long as France might be engaged in continental wars in Europe, the project of directing her arms towards this quarter must be considered impracticable; but if her armies have been liberated by a pacification with Russia,2 and by the continued submission of the Powers of Europe, the advance of a considerable force of French troops into Persia under the 1 The Brahmins. 2 The reference is to the Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and the Tsar of Russia, 1807. This agreement was believed to include a plan for a joint Franco-Russian advance on India. acquiescence of the Turkish, Russian, and Persian powers, cannot be deemed an undertaking beyond the scope of that energy and perseverance which distinguish the present ruler of France. The ascendancy of France being once established in the territories of Persia it may justly be expected that they may be enabled gradually to extend their influence towards the region of Hindostan, and ultimately open a passage for their troops into the dominion of the Company. Arduous as such an undertaking must necessarily be, we are not warranted in deeming it in the present situation of affairs to be altogether chimerical and impracticable under the guidance of a man whose energy and success appear almost commensurate with his ambition. We deem it our duty to act under a supposition of its practicability, and to adopt whatever measures are in our judgment calculated to counteract it, even at the hazard of injury to some local and immediate interests. (Lord Minto in India, 101.) 90. THE EMBASSY TO PERSIA Instructions to Colonel Malcolm,1 1808. (Malcolm's embassy was ineffective. Its chief result was his book on Persia.) First, to detach the Court of Persia from the French alliance; and to prevail on that Court to refuse the passage of French troops through the territories subject to Persia, or the admission of French troops into the country. If that cannot be obtained, to admit English troops with a view of opposing the French army in its progress to India, to prevent the cession of any maritime port, and the establishment of French factories on the coast of Persia. Second, to obtain authentic intelligence on all points interesting to the Government . . . Colonel Malcolm's opinion and advice would also be required by the Government as to the policy to be adopted in either of two contingencies supposed the active hostility of Persia, or her neutrality. (Lord Minto in India, 110.) 1 Sir John Malcolm, special envoy to Persia, afterwards Governor of Bombay, and author of several standard works on India. 91. THE MISSIONS TO AFGHANISTAN AND THE SIKHS Lord Minto to the Board of Control, February 10, 1808. If the views of the enemy should extend to the direct invasion of India by an army proportioned to that undertaking, their march must probably be to the Indus, and must lead through the kingdom of Kabul1 and the territories of Lahore, as well as through the countries of several independent chiefs situated between Persia and the Company's possessions. It has appeared to be extremely desirable to push forward a British agency as far beyond our own frontiers, and as near the countries from which the enemy is to take his departure as possible. (Lord Minto in India, 142.) Minute by Minto, June 1808. The object proposed is to conciliate the Princes who govern the states of Kabul and Lahore, to obtain their consent to the passage of our troops through their country, or their admission into their territories, for the purpose of opposing a French army in their projected invasion of Hindostan; and our hope also is to establish such defensive engagements with those Governments as may obtain their co-operation, or at least their friendly aid and assistance, to our military operations and to our cause generally. I am persuaded that the Commander-in-Chief will agree with me in considering it at least as questionable whether in the event of Kabul and Lahore proving hostile, or becoming so, it would be advisable to penetrate through their countries or to enter them at all. It is well known that the habitual and undistinguishing jealousy which is the personal character of Ranjit Singh, and is said to characterise also the regions in which his territories are situated, has been directed specifically against the British Government. It is the business of the proposed mission of Mr. Metcalfe 3 to remove these suspicions, and to plant in their room the seeds of confidence and union. This must be done in my opinion by a frank, open, and sincere avowal of our ultimate 1 Afghanistan. 2 Capital of the Punjab and of the Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh. 3 Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, afterwards Lord Metcalfe. objects; and the best support which can be given to our negotiation must be a scrupulous and delicate conduct in every point of our intercourse with him. With regard to Kabul the objection is precisely similar. With the King of that country we have never had any intercourse whatever. I hope that a sense of common danger, and a real identity of interests, may in the very able hands to which this mission is committed,1 become a foundation of solid union and of zealous and efficient co-operation. But here the work of confidence is to begin. All is yet to do, and I rely for success-here as at Lahore-only on the candid explanation of our true and real purpose, countenanced and supported by a general sincerity of demeanour and by the absence of all those traces of indirect and collateral design which, while they frequently fail in their own object, are very apt to frustrate and disappoint every other with which they are in any way connected. (Lord Minto in India, 148.) 92. ENGLISH PRIDE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA From the Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the as Your Committee have felt it a part of their duty to offer some account of the nature and history of (the establishments for the internal administration of India) trusting that such an account will be acceptable to the House.. evincing the unremitting anxiety that has influenced the efforts of those to whom the government of our Indian possessions has been consigned, to establish a system of administration best calculated to promote the confidence and conciliate the feelings of the native inhabitants, not less by a respect for their own institutions, than by the endeavour gradually to engraft upon them such improvements as might shield, under the safeguard of equal laws, every class of people from the oppressions of power, and communicate to them that sense of protection and assurance of justice, which is the efficient spring of all public prosperity and happiness. Although . . . imperfections are found in the system of internal government in the Bengal provinces, yet it can, in the 1 Mountstuart Elphinstone, afterwards Resident at Poona and later Governor of Bombay. |