A tale of American philanthropy efforts in Colonial India

American missionaries, in the hope of securing funds in India for feeding the hungry, portrayed the country as replete with evangelical opportunities and used famine relief efforts to consolidate their mission work

“Not more than others I deserve,

The earnest appeals of the Indian missionaries, early in the spring of 1897, moved George Lambert, an American Mennonite missionary and compelled him to establish the organization “Home and Foreign Relief Commission” (HT PHOTO)

Yet God hath given me more;

And I have food, while others starve,

Or beg from door to door.”

The “Christian Herald”, an American weekly newspaper reporting on topics related to Evangelical Christianity, emphasising humanitarian causes at home and abroad, thus appealed to American Christians to donate generously to the famine relief efforts of Mrs Carrie Bruere in Poona. “The sour scourge of famine which has passed over India has opened doors of a special opportunity to missionaries in casting upon Christian charity the care of thousands of starving waifs”, it wrote.

Mrs Carrie and Rev William Wynn Bruere were missionaries with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Poona. Rev William was in sole charge of the Poona Marathi Church and Circuits. He was instrumental in helping build the Mukti Mission of Pandita Ramabai, which ministered to homeless girls and widows. The famine relief efforts of Pandita Ramabai and the evangelical work associated with it have been much discussed in Maharashtra. However, the relief activities carried out by American missionaries like the Brueres are not widely known.

The years from 1895 to 1899 were memorable in India for the combined miseries of famine and plague. The region of famine was in the central and northern provinces of the country, and a population of seventy million was more or less affected by it. The officials at Bombay and Calcutta did not recognise a condition of famine so long as the revenue continued to come in from the rural districts, and no effort was made by the government at first to prevent the inevitable result – the great mortality for want of food.

Indian leaders vehemently tried to draw the government’s attention towards the plight of the people, but the famine was not met by organised assistance. People migrated, or wandered, from place to place, hopeless and helpless, in the vain search for supplies. Later, the British rulers of India developed emergency famine relief programs as a way to strengthen the legitimacy of their rule. But these efforts were not enough. Also, the government was reluctant to accept full responsibility for saving lives and feeding people. This resulted in the emergence of a parallel system of charitable relief with American missionaries playing a vital role in the activities.

A vivid conception of the beneficent work accomplished by missionaries during the famine could be obtained from their descriptions in personal communications and published accounts. In many instances, this service included the “rescue of the helpless and dying – those who, either through desertion or weakness, were “unable to save themselves”.

At Narsinghpur near Poona, Rev JO Denning and his wife, of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, rescued nearly seven hundred children and put them into mission schools. Almost all of them were orphans, having been made so by the famine. They were taught carpentry and shoemaking, and after the rains arrived, the Reverend started orange and banana orchards. He erected a poultry yard and a wheat farm and later planted vegetables on a large tract of ground near the church.

However, missionaries in India lacked funds for relief work. The famine relief work of the American missionaries was largely supported by American donations. The goal of the missionary movement in India was to win “heathens” to Christianity. The first American missionaries arrived in Bombay in 1813. They soon discovered that it was very difficult to attract new members to its Christian community. The conflation of educational and evangelistic work was staunchly contested by Indian communities who protested against the conversions of pupils and teachers in missionary schools. This made Americans tighten their purses for helping evangelical activities in India.

American missionaries, in the hope of securing funds in India for feeding the hungry, portrayed the country as replete with evangelical opportunities and used famine relief efforts to consolidate their mission work. According to Dr Joanna Simonow, the author of the brilliant book “Ending Famine in India: A Transnational History of Food Aid and Development, c 1890-1950”, American Christians had in the 1890s gravitated towards donating to “special funds” instead of supporting foreign missionary movements. These “special funds” covered missionaries’ philanthropic activities.

Philanthropy was an important marker of social standing in Colonial India and the famine efforts of the American missionaries boosted their popularity among Indians. It also helped assert America’s moral and religious superiority.

The earnest appeals of the Indian missionaries, early in the spring of 1897, moved George Lambert, an American Mennonite missionary and compelled him to establish the organization “Home and Foreign Relief Commission”, the object of which was to collect funds for India’s “suffering millions”. A circular, calling attention to India’s need, was issued and at once responses were received. Lambert visited several congregations and bishops in the Western states. Soon, arrangements were made to send a large cargo of grain free from the Pacific Coast to India. Contributions, as high as $1200 per day, were collected.

The question then arose: To whom shall the grain and money be sent? Owing to casteism in India, Lambert was worried that the British government would be obliged to employ many natives of various castes to distribute means among those of their own caste and some castes would be left behind. He had reports of some missionaries using relief means to build their schools instead of feeding people. Other missionaries who were not actually in the famine districts likewise received funds from America for the famine-stricken.

At a meeting of the Relief Commission at Elkhart, upon the request of many contributors to the famine fund, it was decided that someone be sent to India to personally supervise the distribution of money and grains. Since Lambert had earlier spent some time in India, he was chosen for the purpose. He reached the shores of Bombay on May 7, 1897, with $5000 for immediate disbursal.

According to him, in some parts of Bombay, in the European headquarters, one would not think that plague and famine were devastating the country. This might be one reason why the officials, shut up in their environments, and seeing no particular want and suffering there, were very slow to recognize the true state of affairs.

Lambert travelled across the famine-stricken regions and made arrangements for the distribution of funds. He sent regular reports to his country that helped secure more money at regular intervals. He met Mrs Bruere at Poona who had been inspired by him and had written to several American newspapers asking for monetary help.

The work done by Lambert, Brueres, and Pandita Ramabai significantly and permanently altered the mission work in India. More about this next week.