Evangelism

On June 24, 1806, Claudius Buchanan, Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William, having visited Oriya speaking tracts, dreamt and foresaw to turn the entire land of Oriya-speaking districts into Christ land; accordingly, after returning to England, he influenced the public opinion in favour of organised missionary activity in Orissa. East India Company brought all the tracts of Oriya districts under its control by 1822. Around the same time, William Bampton and James Peggs were sent to Orissa with the specific purpose of spreading Christianity among the Oriyas. Prior to that, by 1813, the British parliament through legislation, had allowed the missionaries to undertake educational activity in Company territory. As a result, the missionary societies formed in Britain sent their representatives to various parts of India—after William Bampton in 1822, Charles Lacey came to Orissa in 1823, Amos Sutton in 1825, and Nois and Jeremiah Phillips in 1835.^[12]

The evangelical movement in Britain, by the end of 1700, argued that one's commitment to Christ should be reflected in action, primarily to proselytize or seek converts among heathen and abolish slavery in the British empire. Initially, English East India Company had prohibited Christian missionaries from living within their territories and seeking Indian converts in order to prevent unrest or opposition to the Company's trade and political control. In 1813, when the British parliament was considering the renewal of the charter that authorized Company's trade and political control in India, Members of Parliament who were evangelical Christians, especially Methodists and Baptists, induced[forced] the Company to permit missionaries to settle in their territory. Once in India, Protestant missionaries[denominations and groups], namely, General Baptists Mission Society; American Free Will Baptists; Particular Baptist Missionary Society; Evangelical Missionary Society; and German Evangelical Lutheran Missionaries; and alike, criticized native religious practices such as idolatry, and social customs such as early marriage and sati, especially in Bengal and Orissa, as superstitious and barbaric.^{[4][6][8][9][12][13]}

The first activities of the missionary, like starting a chapel at Cuttack, evoked little response and appreciation from the Hindus. Among the important contributions of the Christian missionaries in Orissa was the spread of modern education. The missionaries, in fact, laid the foundation and were the pioneers of present modern education in Orissa. Missionaries considered education "as auxiliary to preaching" [sic]. Their aim was to evangelize the entire country and they believed that by the spread of education, superstitions, beliefs, blind faiths, and idolatry could be erased from the native mind and thereof the circulation of sacred scriptures would be feasible. Indirectly, took education as a tool for gradual destruction of Hinduism and replace it with Christian religion.^[5]

Missionaries like Peggs were sent to Orissa to undertake educational activity in East India Company territory and also to spread Christianity among the Odias. As part of evangelism and conversion of Odia people, he and William Bampton distributed a thousand copies of Gospel translated into the Odia language who gather at the annual gathering of Juggernaut car-festival in 1823. He published several pamphlets on the miseries of Sati, Pilgrim Tax, Ghaut Murder, Infanticide, and Slavery.^[3][4][5][6]

Peggs, lately returned from Orissa,^[3] attended the Annual Meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society, held at Great Queen Street Chapel, on 22 June to give the following appalling view at Juggernaut:

Having been stationed about 50 miles from Juggernauth's Temple, and having, in connection with my Brethen, established a Missionary station about a mile from it, and been myself at Juggernauth at two of their great Annual Festivals, it seems proper for me to say something of the scenes which are exhibited; and to give you my own testimony, and that of my Brethen, who, as well as myself, have been eye and ear witnesses to the abominations of that dreadful place. The psalmist declares that their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God; and nowhere on earth, perhaps, is this so fully exemplified as at Juggernauth.
At the last Annual Festival, from extreme indisposition i was able to be there only on the last day; but i will read to you a few particulars respecting it, given by my companions, Mr. and Mrs. Lacey. Mr. Lacey says -- This year Jhatra commenced unusually early; In consequence of which it may be presuemed, the number of Jhatrees was unusually great; expecting, no doubt, to escape the rains. The Gentleman who keeps the gate(a native of Norway, in the employ of our Government), and who, in consequence, will be allowed to be the best judge of numbers, told me that not less than 225,000 pilgrims entered the town. The greater part of this immense were women; and, among these, many seemed poor and very old; being turned out by their inhuman children, they came to end a life of wretchedness near their favourite idol, from dying near which they had been taught to expect heaven.
This number of pilgrims raised a sum of money scarcely ever realized before -- 32,500. Thus, while the pilgrimage destroys thousands of live, some reap considerable advantage. You would have felt your heart moved to hear, as i did, the Natives say -- "Your preaching is a lie: for, if your Saviour and Religion are thus merciful, how do you then take away the money of the poor, and suffer them to starve!" I often had to do with objections like these; however, i endeavoured as well as i could, to clear the character of Him who died for the poor and the sinner.
I think, from the number of the poor, that many must have perished without the gate; and also think so from the great number of bodies beyond.
A gentleman arrived at Cuttack, who addressed a Letter to us, requesting our aid in the distribution of some money which he was authorised to give. We accepted the proposal; and Mr. Bampton and myself set out from Pooree, furnished with rupees, clothes, medicines, and books, and intended to spend two days on the road. We did so; but i cannot particularize what we saw -- scenes the most distressing -- dead, dying, and sick. They had crept into the villages, into the sheds, and under the trees, to avoid the rain; and thence many were removed. The dead principally lay in the water, whence the materials from raising the road were taken; they were drifted by the wind to the next obstruction where they lay in heaps of from eight to twenty together. For the first two coss from Pooree, i counted about three hundred dead; and i must necessarily have overlooked many; having to observe both sides of the road. I saw one poor creature partly eaten, though alive; the crows had made an incision in the back, and were pulling at this wound when i came up; the poor creature, feeling the torment, moved his head and shoulders for a moment; the birds flew up; but immediately returned, and recommenced their meal.
On the first and second days we had some rain, and the three following days the rain descended without intermision; till the poor pilgrims were to be seen, in every direction, dead and in the agonies of death -- lying by fives, tens, and twenties; and, in some parts, there were hundreds to be seen in one place. Mr. Lacey counted upward of ninety; and, in another place, Mr. Bampton counted a hundred and forty; the former i saw myself, though i left it to Mr. Lacey to count them. I shall avoid seeing so degrading and shocking a scene again. In the Hospital, i believe i have seen thirty dead at once, and numbers more in the agonies of death; and even living using the dead bodies for pillows!^[2]

While in England, having returned from Orissa, James Peggs published the book India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India in 1832, when British parliament was reviewing the charter of the Company. He also sought to induce Parliament to give firm instructions to the Company to exert greater control over Hindu social customs and religious practices that he considered evil and barbaric. Peggs also claimed that "self-immolation" continued among Hindu widows, and that the Company must take more vigorous measures to enforce the prohibition of sati. The image (Burning a Hindoo widow), the first page of Pegg's compendium of sources and commentary on "Suttees" [Sati] in India’s Cries to British Humanity, Relative to Infanticide, British Connection with Idolatry, Ghau Murders, Suttee, Slavery, and Colonization in India, was frequently reproduced again and again as ritual of sati, to influence Britons and whereby British parliament to garner support for enforcing prohibition of sati as a ladder for extending Charter extension for Company's reign and also Missionaries Translational activism.^{[6][7][8][9][12]}