ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Rev. Lesslie Newbigin

COLLECTION: 4700.0604

IDENTIFICATION: Britons in pre-Independence India

INTERVIEWER: Frank De Caro, Rosan Jordan

PROJECT: British Voices in South Asia

DATES: 6/21/78 FOCUS DATES: 1930s-1950s

Tape 884, Side A

Rev. Lesslie Newbigin worked in Indian missions; De Caro states the purpose of the interview is to talk to him about why he went and the kind of work he did; unlike other interviewees Newbigin not of Anglo-Indian origin, but rather his interest in India began at Cambridge University; in 1936 Newbigin went to South India as Aold style@ District Missionary and was there 12 years before Indian independence in 194; lived in city of Kottur Puram, one of the most distinctive Hindu cities, untouched by western influence; duties were teaching in high school, village schools, and congregations; Brahman boys in high school; spent Wednesday evenings in the Rama Krishna mission discussing Hindu and Christian gospel; tension in city because of transition to independence; British social remoteness from Indians especially in rural areas, but not in the Christian College where his colleagues worked; although the number of British civil servants was low, they were Astill a kind of a ruling race@; rode his bike to school and boys shouted AWhite dog, get out!@; realized that resentment of white foreigners dated to the Crusades--they called him APeringhee@ which is a Tamil term that means AFrank@; he camped out in Indian village mud huts, fell in love with India, and decided to stay for the rest of his life; hostility not personal, but rather official;story about students chanting AQuit India@ but telling a colleague at Christian College Ayou didn=t think we meant you, sir did you?@; missionaries allowed in country on condition that they didn=t partake in political activities, but he and his colleagues sympathized with the national movement; immediate consequence of independence was an increase in British population in India; British who interacted with Indians included ICS officials, merchants, and missionaries; levels of Anglo-Indian interaction differed; he stayed in the Indian pastor=s home two days a month, friendship grew; he was looked up to as a powerful person (ASahib@) in the villages; difference between district missionaries in the 1970s and 1930s-- he was AMonarch of all he surveyed@ and had more responsibilities and authority; district missionaries in the 18^th century established schools; no preparation before going to India although his wife had a year in a missionary college; undergraduate course in Cambridge from 1928-1931, two years in Glasgow, three years of theology on his return to Cambridge; language training, becoming a child in order to master Tamil; because of a bus accident, he had two years of language study rather than requisite one; Indian colleagues argue that most education should be from Indians Ain the field@; contemporary pre-training includes programs to educate people about cultural diversity and interacting with different world views; Long-standing British-Indian relationship--British were in Madras over 300 years before he arrived, deep love-hate relationship; the culture shock of moving to India was not as intense as when he worked three years in Geneva, Switzerland for the World Council of Churches; in 1930s and 1940s missionaries were more culturally cushioned in mission compound; differences between south Indian states and north Indian states; South Indian languages are non-Aryan, Muslim influence in north but remote in south, and British connection is longest in the Bengal and the south;Tamil poster that read AEnglish alone is the language of rule@, but English is rejected in the north; 18^th Century Moghal Empire and British Empire had established trade relationship, men married Indian women, and not much culture change occurred so as not to affect trade relations; 19^th Century-- Opening of Suez Canal strengthened British-Indian ties and evangelical women and Achildren of the Enlightment@ influenced India; the British in India, Macaulay Education Minute of 1834, the rise of the national movement, and decolonization; two stages of decolonization--rising native leadership throws out the invading culture with tools of the aggressor, then revitalizes society with native culture; 1947 to 1956 were Ahoneymoon years@ of independence; Suez ruined friendship; he was made one the first bishops of the United Church; in 1947, he was in extreme south of India in where business men and some ICS stayed on, but most British left;

Indian Mutiny of 1857 had traumatic consequences for British; British and Indian culture blended on familial, economic, and political levels; British and Indian reaction to the Hindu world view that regards outsiders, such as the British, as @untouchables@