CHAPTER -III

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AND MISSION STATIONS IN SIMLA AND PANJAB HILL STATES

The spread of Christianity and the first preaching of Gospel in the western

Himalaya region of India is barely 150 years old. The Christian missionaries who

were eager to spread Christianity in the Himalayas tried to attract the people by

establishing schools, colleges, dispensaries and orphanages. This work is not

only an outward expression of their ideology but it also needs to be understood

that all missionary activity was dual in character. It had both proselytizing and

political overtones associated with the work of empire building and its

preservation.

The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.), London and

other societies from the West, established Mission Stations in various parts of

Kotgarh, Simla, Kangra, Chamba, Lahaul and Poo,; in the erstwhile Simla and

Panjab Hill States, now parts of Himachal Pradesh. At about the close of 1840,

a meeting of some English residents was held at Simla to consider how the

truths of Christianity could be made known to the Pahahs.^ They raised

subscriptions amounting to Rs.6,000/- and applied through Bishop Wilson to the

Church Missionary Society inviting them to establish a branch of Mission Station

in the Himalayas. This period was, however, a time of great financial crisis for

the Church Missionary Society and it was compelled to close some of its

missions elsewhere. The Simla Committee undertook upon itself the

responsibility of mobilizing resources for the Society. Captain Jackson agreed to

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contribute Rs.600/- per year for life, while Charles Gorton, B.C.S., who left

Rs.25,000/- in the hands of the Church Missionary Society, were among the

major contributors.'* The Rev. Dr. J. Prochnow and A. Rudolph, commenced the

Mission at Kotgarh in 1843. They occupied the premises which used to be the

Mess House of the army garrison earlier stationed there.®

A lady living in England offered the Society in 1843, a sum of £ 25 a year

for ten years towards supporting two missionaries to be stationed at Simla and

Kotgarh. She proposed the name of Rev. Michael Wilkinson and he was

accordingly sent out as the head of the new Himalaya Mission.^ After the

conquest of Panjab on 24 March 1849 by the British, the v^ole of the North­

western Himalayan region became accessible for evangelistic work. The Rev.

Robert Clark,® who was appointed incharge of the Church Missionary Society in

1851 had a vision of a great chain of Mission stations in the North-Western

Himalayas. He spent the rest of his life in the fulfillment of this vision. While the

great uprising of 1857, brought about a crisis in the fortune of the British in India,

the number of missionaries from all other nations increased considerably.

Among them were American and German missionaries, Methodists,

Congregationalists, Scottish and Canadian Presbyterians, Moravian missionaries

of the Church Missionary Society and the Salvation Army. Christian missionary

activities in Simla and Panjab Hill States can be divided as per Mission Station

as follows:

I. a) The Himalaya Mission station at Kotgarh (1843).

b) The Himalaya Mission Station at Simla (1845).

c) The Simla Baptist Mission (1865).

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II. Church Missionary Sodety Mission Station at Kangra (1854), and the Missionary Society of Church of Canada (M.S.C.C.) Mission Station at Kangra (1912).

III. The Moravian Missions at Lahaul (1854), and Kinnaur (Poo, 1865), or among the tribals and Simla (1900).

IV. Mission Stations in Ani, Chamba (1863) and Sirmaur (1895).

1. a) The Himalaya Mission Station at Kotgarti (1843)

Kotghur or Kotgarh or Gurukot, as it is called by the natives was a small

village situated on the slope of Hattu or Whartu, at longitude 70°29'30" east and

latitude 31°18'30" north. It is about 3,500 feet above the level of Satluj.^ It v as

here that the Kotgarh Mission, the oldest Mission of the Church Missionary

Society in the Panjab v /as established in 1843. The Rev. J. D. Prochnowand A.

Rudolph commenced the Mission at Kotgarh in 1843.""°

The Mission was visited in July 1844, by the Bishop of Calcutta and his

Chaplain, the Rev. J. H. Pratt, when Rev. J. D. Prochnow was admitted to

Priests Orders. ^ The Rev. J. H. Pratt, during his visit, made a tour of the area,

accompanied by the Rev. Prochnow, partly with a view of becoming better

acquainted vA{h the area and people, and also to make known the existence of

the Gorton Mission School Kotgarh (founded In 1842), to the inhabitants of the

numerous villages scattered along the mountain sides and in the valleys.

Rev.J.D. Prochnow also undertook extensive tours and distributed Christian

literature during 1845. In Kinnaur, one of the tribal areas, Prochnow met with

many wandering Tartars from Central Asia who were willing to receive and able

to understand the Tibetan Tracts. Rev.J.D.Prochnow reported that "there v^re

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many visitors here in our solitude during this season-among them, His Royal

Highness Prince Waidermar of Prussia, coming from the borders of Tibet, spent

a Saturday and Lord's day here, saw the school and attended divine service."^^

After the dissolution of the Himalaya Corresponding Committee in 1846

the Himalaya Mission Committee at Simla ceased to work. ^ The Mission was

placed under the Calcutta Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary

Society, and was made a branch of the Panjab Church Missionary Society in

1852.'''* This Mission was divided into two parts with Rev. M.Wilkinson and his

son being stationed at Simla and the Rev.J.D.Prochnow having charge of the

original Mission Station at Kotgarh.''

Rev.J.D.Prochnow, however, was impeded in his vw)rk early in 1847 by

sickness in his family. He v^s, therefore, obliged to take his family to Simla and

returned to Kotgarh only at the beginning of October 1847. The Gorton Mission

School at Kotgarh had the advantage of a resident European teacher, Mr.Voss.

The school progressed very satisfactorily during all these years from April 1847

onv^rds. And the number of boys increased from seven to twenty seven. The

giri's school had nineteen girls. Many excursions were made during the year to

villages like Melan, Dalan, Mangsu, etc., in the neighbourhood of the station,

with the objective of can7ing their message to local people.

With the death of Rev.M.Wilkinson, on 5 November 1848, Simla was

abandoned as a station. Rev.J.D.Prochnow was the only missionary who

continued at Kotgarh with the assistance of Voss. Even Voss was compelled by

failing health to return to Europe. In the Kotgarh Mission the main concerns were

the two boarding schools for boys and girls and it seems that Rev. Wilkinson was

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successful in the conversion of two girls of the girls school, aged sixteen and

twelve years, who were admitted to baptism. ®

The importance of Kotgarh lay in it being an advanced post for the

excursions of Rev. Prochnow. He made two tours, one along the banks of the

Satluj, and another along the banks of the Beas. He advocated a joint Panjab

Mission for Kangra and its neighbourhood with Kotgarh. It would form, most

appropriately, a second station of the Himalaya Mission, and the missionaries

could reside alternately here and at Kangra. ^

Archdeacon Pratt wrote upon the same subject on 8 August 1849, that:

"Kotgarh has risen much in importance since the Panjab has been added to our

territories. Its value will be great as a centre from which other stations in the

plains may be commenced." ® The paucity of missionary labourers not only

prevented the Committee from making much progress, it in fact hindered and

even nullified the success v\/hich had been actually obtained.

After Rev.J.D.Prochnow had to proceed to Europe and the responsibility

of running the mission fell on Rev. J.N.Merk from Calcutta. He was

unacquainted with the language and could not do much till he acquired a working

knowledge of the local language for communicating with the Natives.""® He was,

therefore, mainly occupied in the study of the local language. He first visited

three schools in Kulu at varying distances from Kotgarh. After having been

accustomed to crowded school rooms in Bengal, he found in this area no more

than twelve or sixteen boys in a school.^ In the month of May 1852, he visited

Rampur and some other parts of the Bushahr State. He preached and spoke to

the inhabitants of small villages as he travelled. In June Rev.Merk made another

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excursion in this area and it seems that he was well received. Certainly, the

poor mountain folk might have wondered why a European was travelling from

hamlet to hamlet for no other purpose than that of speaking to them about God

and their salvation.^^

Rev.J.D.Prochnow returned to the Kotgarh Mission Station from Europe in

April 1853. Soon after this Rev.J.N.Merk was shifted to the new station of

Kangra. Before moving to Kangra, Merk baptized Kadshu, the first adult, and in

fact, the first native of this place.^ Rev.Prochnow, after his return in restored

health, undertook a missionary tour into Tibet and Chinese Tartary along with

Mrs.Prochnow and a lama as his guide. He could not obtain permission to enter

the Chinese empire and returned through Leh or Ladakh, Kashmir, Chamba,

Lahaul and Kullu.^

The work at Kotgarh station seems to have been carried on by the Rev.

Dr.J.D.Prochnow in a quiet way amidst much indifference of the people, and

opposition on the part of the relatives of those who offered themselves for

baptism. On the first Sunday in Advent, Rev.Prochnow baptized two adults, one,

the wife of his Catechist and the other, a youngman of the same station.^"*

Towards the end of 1857 Rev. Prochnow was compelled to accompany his vAfe

to Europe for medical treatment. He left India in 1858 and died at Berlin in

1888.^

After the departure of Rev. Prochnow the Kotgarh Mission underwent

many changes. This mission was supervised by many missionaries including

Rev.J.N.Merk (from Kangra, 1853-1873), Rev. Hermman Hoemie in 1858, and

Rev.Keene( 1853-1882).^ During this period there were about ten or twelve

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native Christians, two schools at Kotgarh, one at Theog, and two at Simla. At

each of these places there were European schoolmasters supported by the

Gorton Fund. Rev. Keene spent six months at Simla before he moved to

Kotgarh.2^

After a very careful discussion in the Calcutta Corresponding Committee

in 1859 felt that the Kotgarh station should be placed under the supervision of

the missionaries at Kangra; that a catechist of the Church Missionary Society

also be maintained at Kotgarh, in addition to the Government schoolmaster.^

Throughout 1860, the Kotgarh station had a resident European schoolmaster

and a catechist called Somnitz who was formerly an assistant of Rev. Prochnow.

Rev. J.N. Merk, who visited the Kotgarh mission station from Kangra in February

1861, found that the "work was being carried on by Somnitz and the native

catechist James Kadshu".^ The Kotgarh mission suffered a setback in the

death of Somnitz in August 1861. Thereafter, the mission work was carried on

by James Kadshu, who endeavoured to keep the little congregation together.^

In 1862, Rev. W. Rebsch was appointed to look after the work of the

mission. He remained there for almost two decades from 1862 to 1881. Besides

Kotgarh, he looked after the work at Simla. Rev. W. Rebsch, also attended large

melas at Rampur Bushahr, that were held twice a year. Rev. W. Rebsch

appeared to have derived encouragement mainly from the success of a system

of schools established in villages within a few miles from the station. During the

winter of 1864-65, he had eleven youths from the upper reaches of Kinnaur, who

were lodged and boarded to read the Bible, which they took vwth them on their

return to their homes. v In many of the villages scattered over the surrounding

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hills and valleys, Christian schools were established. These schools were in

Dalan (1865), Bhutti (1865), Shawat (1866), Pamlahi (1866), Shatia and

Baragaon (1873). Rev. W. Rebsch had a plan of building a Church, the funds

for which he tried to raise chiefly from amongst the summer visitors at Simla. In

1871, Beutel, a young German schoolmaster was appointed to assist the

resident missionary at Kotgarh.^ Rev. W. Rebsch received much

encouragement from the visits and the visitors expressed sympathy of both the

Governor-General, Earl of Mayo, and the Bishop of Calcutta for his work. But

the Church progressed rather slov^y ovy ng to the difficulty in finding workmen.^

Rev.W.Rebsch was looking after a branch mission among the fluctuating

and migratory native community of Simla. Towards the close of 1875,

Rev.James Kadshu, pastor of the Church Missionary Society Congregation at

Lahore, was brought to be pastor of the Simla congregation. But unfortunately, in

November 1876 he died. Mr. Hooper of the Lahore Divinity School (who visited

Simla for the sake of health), visited Kotgarh and Rampur, the capital of the

Bushahr State and was sufficiently impressed by the importance of these areas

as a field for missionary effort. However, the Calcutta Corresponding Committee

did not propose to continue the maintenance of these two hill stations by

European missionaries. It was hoped that native pastors would be provided for

the congregations. Rev.W.Rebsch, however, continued to reside at Kotgarh,

and also regularly visited Simla, where there was a community of native

Christians— mainly the servants of English visitors. Rev. W. Rebsch died at

Simla in 1895. The committee received emphatic appeals against the proposed

withdrawal of European missionaries from Kotgarh and Kangra.^ It, accordingly,

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sanctioned the stationing of the Rev. A Bailey (who was released from Dera

Ismail Khan by Rev. Thwaite's return) at Kotgarh in 1881. Upon taking of his

post at Kotgarh station, Rev. A. Bailey travelled hundreds of miles on foot and

preached the Gospel in a large number of towns and villages. His dispensary

was, particularly, of great help in attracting people. Bailey laboured for long at

Kotgarh with only a short interruption after his wife's death, when he was

assisted by Mr. Bateman in his work.

In 1890, the Church Missionary Society appointed Rev. H.F.Beutel to the

work connected with the Kotgarh Mission Station. At that time there was a school

at Kotgarh in which orphans were provided shelter and trained by the mission.

With the assistance of a few local helpers, mission work was carried in different

ways, not only through schools, but also by the direct preaching of the Gospel to

the people.* Extensive tours were occasionally undertaken into the

neighbouring towns of Bushahr, Jubbal, Keonthal, Kumarsain, Sangri, Suket,

Mandi and Kulu. Though, on the whole there were not many converts, the

Baptismal Register shows "184 names, of whom sixty were adults".*

The Bishop of Lahore visited Kotgarh in 1891, and confirmed three

candidates.Thirty two communicants received the Lord's supper on the Sunday

morning of the Bishop's visit, and the same afternoon he baptized a man, with

his wife and two children. Four catechists v^re engaged during a considerable

part of the year for touring the district. One was engaged in this manner for 135

days, and preached in 366 villages. Another spent seventy days within a radius

of twenty to fifty miles from Kotgarh, and visited some 240 villages. While the

third preached in 615 villages in the hill states of Kotgarti, Kumarsain, Khaneti,

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Sangri, Keonthal, Kotkhai, Kulu, Bushahr, and Delat. The latter calculated that

he had preached to about ten thousand people. ^ The fourth catechist visited

190 villages. In October 1891 Rev. Beutel, Mrs.Beutel and the catechists went

together through parts of Kulu and Bushahr, travelling over two passes 10,000

and 11,000 feet high, and crossing the river Satluj on inflated ox-skins

(mashaks)^ They were present at the annual fair at Rampur, as they were in

1890, and on five successive days they preached to the thousands of people in

the bazars, on the maidan, at the rivers bank, and in the Raja's courtyard. They

proceeded beyond Rampur to Sarahan, preaching in the villages en route.^

Again in 1893 a preaching tour was taken into Kulu, as far as Sultanpur. They

also visited the annual fair at Rampur.

In October 1894, Rev. Beutel toured for several weeks through Kulu, as

far as the Moravian Mission Station at Kyelang, in Lahaul. In the Jalori Pass he

and his party had to wade for four miles through snow twelve inches deep.

Beutel described his work at Kotgarh as "ploughing and sowing in patience, in

afflictions, in labours and also in tears"."" The Rev. Robert Clark, and also the

Rev.W.Rebsch (who occupied the station at Kotgarh from 1862-1881), also

visited Rev. Beutel at Kotgarh in May 1894." ^ After his ordination at Lahore in

December 1894. Rev. Beutel had a trying return journey from Simla to Kotgarh,

having to wade through knee-deep snow for several miles. He made a short tour

into KuLu to a mela at Dalash.'' In the autumn of 1895, Rev.H.F. Beutel had a

severe attack of fever, and a visit to Europe was ordered. He and Mrs.Beutel left

Kotgarh early in 1896, after tv^^nty five years of continuous service in India.**

During their absence Mrs.Paul, an honorary worker, taken temporarily into local

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connection, was stationed at Kotgarh. Rev. Dr.H.U.Weitbrecht also visited the

station in September 1896 when, in addition to administering the Sacraments, he

lectured to a large gathering of Christians and Hindus v^om the energetic

catechist, Munshi Jaswant Singh, had brought together. Rev.H.F.Beutel and

Mrs. Beutel returned to Kotgarh in November 1896. Rev.Beutel mentioned, "a

considerable degree of scarcity prevailed during the famine period in 1897 at

Kotgarh and the hill district in general".'*^ He opened relief works and employed

for a time, from fifty to eighty people in recovering waste land. We also learn that

he planted about a thousand fruit trees. The Christians it is said, contributed from

one-tenth to one-sixteenth of their incomes towards welfare v^rk. Several

catechists were at the same time engaged in touring the area and one of them

visited 314 villages.'^

According to Church records, Rev.H.F.Beutel, at Kotgarh, carried on the

work of pastor, preacher, teacher, doctor, judge, builder, farmer, gardener,

accountant, and correspondent; etc."*® But the main interest of his work lay in the

journeys which he and his native helpers made to the surrounding district. At the

beginning of 1898, the native agents, headed by Munshi Jaswant Singh, who

spent three months at Lahore, preparing for ordination, had a remarkable

experience of having preached God's word to a large gathering at the Raja's

court at Rampur Bushahr where he was specially invited by the Raja.'*

The work on Kotgarh was continued on the old lines by Rev.H.F.Beutel.

The Week of Prayer was duly observed in January 1899, and monthly meetings

were held for the native agents, though two of them had to be suspended for

constant quarrelling. Besides going to a number of villages in the neighbourhood

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of Kotgarh, Rev.Beutel paid a visit to Ani in Kulu, where there was a little

congregation of about fifty, and who for eighteen months had no one to look

after them. He also went to the Rampur mela, at which the attention to his

preaching of the gospel was more marked than ever before. Amongst the

congregation one evening was the Raja of Bushahr. The Rev. Jaswant Singh,

who was ordained deacon in December, again paid a visit to the Raja who

received him with much kindness."*

It was under the care of Rev.H.F.Beutel that a flourishing orchard came

up at Kotgarh and the sale of apples helped forward the mission work. Among

those who visited the station during the summer of 1901, was Bishop La Trobe,

from Herrnhut, Germany, who was on his way to the Moravian Mission stations

in the Himalayas.'® Rev. Beutel refered to several itinerating tours taken by

himself and the native evangelists. Describing his travels he wrote, "Travelling

with two native companions we again preached the 'word' in some villages, and

also to some travellers resting in the shade of a Pipal tree, to whom we showed

and explained some Bible pictures, one of them 'Daniel in the Lions Den."^

Rev. Beutel also mentioned a young man, a former pupil, who confessed Christ

in the hour of death, and though not baptized died as a true believer. ^

Rev. J.Tunbridge, the successor of Rev. Beutel, for a while spent most of

his time on tours, covering more than six hundred miles on foot in a year, over

roads varying in elevation from two thousand to thirteen thousand feet above sea

level. His account of the ordeal of travel repudiates the general impression

about the luxurious lifestyle of missionaries.^ He states "Constant marching

and climbing these rocky mountain sides, av\^y from the beaten tracts, played

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havoc with our footgear, vA^\ch ranged from English Boots to string shoes, and

sometimes blistered feet made moving a painful business. Our tent

accommodation was limited, there being seven of us for tvwD small shoulderies (a

sort of palanquin used in the hills and carried by two people). Where possible,

some took refuge at night in the villages, but caste restrictions, constantly made

this difficult. We had rain every few days, occasionally in torrents. More than

once I had to fix my umbrella over my head at night to keep dry. At other times a

fierce May or June sun, without any shade in the camp made the wearing of a

pith hat in the tent an inconvenient necessity. We had to learn how to endure

hardness in the matter of food too. In many parts fowls are not to be had, as the

higher castes, which predominate in the hills consider them unclean and do not

keep them, and our party was too small to afford a sheep, except as a very rare

treat, but we could nearly always get milk and lentils, and rice often did good

service".^

While on his way to Kulu he made a few converts while crossing into the

Waziri Rupi valley in Kulu. Tunbridge made his way to Malana, a village at an

elevation of nine thousand feet. We have from him one of the earliest description

of the village and its devta (local deity) system.^ Rev. J. Tunbridge, who

devoted himself especially to itinerating work, paid several visits to the country

district around Kotgarh. At Rampur, the old Raja showed great friendliness, and

invited the missionaries to proclaim the Gospel to the people of his court, but

they were opposed by the Raja's house priest, who is mentioned by records as

being a "bigoted Brahman". The annual mela in Kulu was visited by Rev.J.

Tunbridge, who spent a good part of the year at Simla. He noted that Malana

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had three outlets, two passes at 13,000 ft and 11,000 feet above sea level, while

the third was down a steep precipice scaled by a wooden ladder. The peasants

grew two kinds of crops only, cultivated rent free temple lands exclusively. The

villagers allowed no cases to go into British courts, levied tributes on several

other villages miles away in the name of their god {Jamlu Devta); and had most

exclusive marriage customs. There were some 700 inhabitants, mostly of one

caste. "Superstition and ignorance", said Tunbridge, "vied with each other for

ascendency."^ Their language differed from that of other parts of Kulu.

Tunbridge believed that they may have immigrated from Bushahr State and were

also said to possess a idol of gold. This, supposedly, had some connection with

Akbar, the Mughal ruler, as their saaifices were slain in Muhammadan and not

in Hindu fashion. Moreover, Muhammadan and Europeans could venture nearer

their temple than iow-caste Hindus and others. Strangers were escorted about

their village, and all contact with temple houses, sacred trees, etc. was jealously

guarded against.^

A medical mission was started in May 1903, in Kotgarh by the Church

Missionary Society, to which Dr.A.Jukes was appointed. The cost of maintaining

the medical mission was met by voluntary contributions. Dr. A. Jukes was

transferred from Abbottabad to commence medical work. He was soon to be fully

occupied, because a month or two after his arrival an outbreak of cholera

occurred. ^ Since there was no rest house in Kotgarh at that time dharamsala

(sarai) was also started in the mission dispensary. Even amidst this difficult

time, missionary activities were kept in mind. It is noted in the Church records

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that a Brahman at Kotgarh who brought his son for treatment "showed a real

desire to learn about Christ."^

A great deal of the time of the Rev.W.J.Abigail in the year 1915 and 1916

at Kotgarh was taken up with the management of large orchards belonging to the

Church Missionary Society, from which it was hoped that a considerable income

would accrue. Rev.Abigail also superintended the everyday work at the station

and toured as and when he had opportunity. Rev. J.Redman, after thirty-six

years of service in India, v Drked at the Simla station. He also supervised the

Kotgarh Mission, where he welcomed, for a time, the cooperation of a former

member of the Cambridge Mission, Delhi, who had felt called to adopt the garb

of a sadhu. The hill folk were attracted by the novelty of seeing a European thus

dressed, and many opportunities were gained for religious conversations. The

Bishop also gave an address to non-Christians on "Immortality", Archdeacon

Warlow delivered one on 'The Resurrection", and Dr.Glover of St.John's

College, Cambridge, gave tv^ courses of lectures.® Between the two World

Wars, Rev. Philip David and Rev.Dhan Singh laboured at the Kotgarh Mission

Station.

One person who not only made immense contribution to the spread of

Christianity but also made an impact on the socio-economic life of the region

was Samuel Evans Stokes. Stokes, a great horticulturist was born in

Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania U.S.A., on 16 August 1882, in a rich

and illustrious American family.®' Some of his ancestors had participated in the

Boston Tea Party. A conscience which could not compromise with freedom was

part of his family heritage.-An ancestor named Ranulphus de Prairs had come to

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Britain with William the Conqueror, was made Lord of the Vil of Stok near

Chester and given fifteen Lordships. A descendent, Thomas Stokes of Lower

Shadwell, London, man-ied Mary, daughter of John Bernard in 1668. Being

Quakers, Thomas and his wife accompanied William Penn to America in 1677,

to avoid persecution. Thomas Stokes became one of the proprietors of Western

New Jersey. Williams Penn and his Quakers later founded the colony of

Pennsylvania, where a later Stokes built Harmony Hall in 1743, and the family

came to be known as the Stokes of Harmony Hall.®

Young Samuel Stokes had felt no attraction to the pursuit of the usual

achievements. He had read about India, and had heard stories from friends of

his father who had lived in the Orient. When Samuel Evans Stokes came to India

in January 1904, he was tv/enty-two years old. He began working in the leper

colony at Subathu adjoining Simla. While working in Subathu an earthquake

devastated Kangra. He volunteered for relief work among the victims of the

earthquake. It was in 1904 that Stokes first visited Kotgarh and was moved as

much by the extreme poverty of the villagers and the bleakness of their lives as

by the scenic beauty of the region.^ At that time evangelical work was at its

peak in Kotgarh, where almost all the converts came from the higher castes in

this area.

By the turn of the nineteenth century, the Kotgarh station of the Himalaya

Mission had become an important centre of missionary activity. Sadhu Sundar

Singh who was baptized in St.Thomas Church at Simla by Rev. Redman on 3

September 1905, came to Kotgarh in August 1906 vAth Samuel Stokes.® Later

Sadhu Sundar Singh and Samuel Evans Stokes were to go together on a tour of

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KishtNA r in Jammu and Kashmir. Stokes came quite dose to Sadhu Sundar

Singh and developed great interest in Indian spirituality. In the autumn of 1910, a

boy belonging to the Gorton Mission School Kotgarh was baptized at Karnal.®^

Stokes had advised delay but the youth, v^o was sixteen years of age left

Kotgarh on his own initiative and went to Karnal for the purpose of getting

baptized. Stokes went to fetch him back. And on the return journey the boy's

uncle with other villagers attacked and seriously wounded Samuel Evans Stokes

and Father Masih of St.Stephens College, Delhi.^ The uncle and the others

were arrested by the police for grievous hurt and riot, but at Stokes intercession

the Government withdrew the prosecution.^

Shortly thereafter, Samuel Stokes left for Subathu. He wandered about for

seven years in different parts of India but v\/as repeatedly drawn to the beautiful

valley. He eventually decided to make India his home, and purchased the

property of Mr. Bates at Baro Bagh. ^ The house he built there he called

Harmony Hall. Stokes married Agnes Benjamin (Priya Devi), a local girl in 1912.

He lived among the people of Kotgarh as one of them. He accepted their life­

style, customs and traditions as his own, and shared equally in their joys and

sorrows. Samuel Stokes and Agnes Benjamin, had four sons and three

daughters. When his third son, Tara Chand, died at the age of eight, Stokes

founded a school in his memory for the children of Kotgarh and named it Tara.^

As Stokes had lived on an apple orchard in the United States of America,

he found a similarity in the environment of Kotgarh with America. His library was

already well stocked with books about apple trees and orchards. He brought

delicious varieties- of apples, almost at the same time that they were being

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introduced in the United States, in 1919. He planted a number of varieties -

Winter Banana, Jonard, Summer Queen and Golden Delicious etc.® Stokes

began the scientific and commercial cultivation of fruits, especially apples-an

endeavour which has today revolutionised the entire economy of Himachal

Pradesh and earned for it the title of the 'Apple State of India'.

Stokes, later, decided to renounce Christianity and converted to Hinduism

on Sunday 4 September 1932 and came to be known as Satya Nand Stokes. He

also converted his wife Agnes Benjamin and gave her the new name Priya Devi.

His children who were all baptized Christians were also converted to Hinduism.

This brought the missionary activities in these regions to a halt.

1 . b) The Himalaya Mission Station at Simla, (1845 A.D.)

The Himalayas seemed to present one of the most promising fields for

missionary activity. Leading English residents at Simla, such as Charles Gorton,

Captain Jackson, Dr. Laughton, Captain Graham, General Smith, Dr. Dempster,

Major Boileau and Captain Rainey, contributed largely towards the support of the

Himalayan Mission.^ But the Church Missionary Society, had been compelled

to refuse their application for a missionary on account of its peculiar difficulties.

Finding that there was hardly room for two European missionaries at Kotgarh, it

was decided to give greater attention to missionary work at Simla, where most of

the chief subscribers stayed. Even otherwise Simla was a relatively populous

town. Therefore, the Christian Protestant Mission in Simla was started in 1845

as a part of the Himalaya Mission, with Michael Wilkinson as the head of this

mission.^^

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Wilkinson and his family arrived at Simla on the 30 March 1845, and

proceeded immediately to Kotgarh. After working for a few months there he was

compelled for medical reasons to move to Simla. Upon his return to Simla

Michael Wilkinson immediately commenced his missionary work by building

schools. One of these was the Municipal Board School which v^s established

for the purpose of educating the sons of hill chiefs and others. He also erected a

school house and rest house for travellers at Theog close to the fort of the

Thakur.

Upon his first residence at Simla, Wilkinson established three schools.

But some difficulties soon were encountered in the management of those located

at a distance from his residence. Therefore, as Wilkinson wrote, "the two

schools at Simla are merged into one at my own residence. A school-house has

been built, and also a dwelling house. This is decidedly an advantage, especially

as the location is far away from the bazar and very retired. I have usually had

from 10 to 12 boarders, there are now 16. All support themselves and are under

my own immediate charge, assisted by a youth brought up in the Kotgarh school,

and who was sometime employed therein as a Monitor.Those who can read and

v/rite understand attend daily worship and Lords day service. To this no objection

has been made, and it is now even coveted. The work at this station consists of

schools, and preaching in the bazar." ^

Michael Wilkinson was constantly engaged in making missionary tours.

He preached the Gospel not only to the lower-classes but also to the chiefs and

other important people of the various native states of the hills. When Wilkinson

came to Simla he was one of the oldest missionaries in India and worked here

165

tirelessely till he breathed his last on 5 November 1848. He lies buried in the

cemetery below the Bullock Train Office(Khalini).^ Michael Wilkinson's reports

reflected his disappointment about the missionary prospects of Simla. He states

that "owing to peculiar circumstances, the local land owners were opposed to the

establishment of schools." "* Simla was, therefore, abandoned as a station, and

the operations of the society were concentrated at Kotgarh. Archdeacon Bally

started a Native Pastorate Fund in 1874 to provide a good native pastor which

he considered was greatly needed. The Chaplain at that time agreed to

supplement his pay by a contribution of Rs.50/- a month out of Church funds.

The mission staff consisted of the missionary in charge, the native pastor, a

catechist, and a village reader. Towards the close of 1875, the Rev.James

Kadshu was brought from Lahore to be Pastor of the Simla congregation. He

unfortunately died in November 1876. The Simla congregation seems to have

fluctuated with the arrival and departure of European visitors. As regards the

Church Missionary Society's work, Simla strangely was the outstation for

Kotgarh. About this arrangement Hooper of the Lahore Divinity School who

visited Simla in 1879 v^ote: "I am decidedly of the opinion that Simla should if

possible be taken up more vigorously and not (at any rate v^ile the Supreme

Government is here) be treated as a mere branch of Kotgarh. The Native

Christians at Simla are most of them in great need of pastoral superintendence.

But, besides this, Simla attracts during the season a number of educated and

influential Natives and some of these are seeking after the truth and there should

be some one at hand to meet and by God's help to guide them. Thomas

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Edwards, honorary District Catechist, C.M.S., now lay pastor is full of zeal, but

he cannot undertake the work to which I have referred.'^

About Simla, Rev. Dr. H.U. Weitbrecht reported that "there was a

congregation of eighty six souls. The Indian native Christian Thomas Edwards,

acted for long as honorary lay - pastor and entered the service of the Panjab

Church Council. He later entered the Lahore Divinity College for receiving some

theological training before beginning his regular work". ®

Rev.Thomas Edwards a South Indian Native Christian^ formerly clerk at

Christ Church was in charge of the Simla mission in 1883. The native

congregation at Simla numbered 150 souls in the season. At Simla, a new

Church was built for the native congregation. The management of the Church

was administered by Rev.Thomas Edwards. The first stone of this Church was

laid on 8 September 1884 by Lady Aitchison, wife of the Lieutenant-Governor of

the Panjab. The new Church of St.Thomas (near Western Command

Headquarters) was consecrated by Rev.French, Bishop of Lahore on 9 August

1885. A congregation of 110 was present that included Lord and Lady

Dufferin.^ The Viceroy and Lady Dufferin received the Holy Communion with

the native Christians and other friends. At this time Thomas Edwards gratefully

acknowledged the help of Christian people among the Anglo-Indian official

community.' The Church was plain but well furnished with sitting

accommodation for over one hundred and fifty. Services were held in Urdu and

also in English for the benefit of the Bengalis who understood the latter language

better than Urdu.^

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At Simla, as Thomas Edwards observed, the number of worshippers at

the mission services increased largely during the seven years since the Church

was opened in 1885. In addition to the Sunday services and Sunday school, a

children's service was held on Wednesday, a Bible class in English on

Thursdays, and one in Urdu on Fridays. The School was raised from the upper

primary to the middle standard. A library and reading room were opened in

1895, chiefly through the efforts made by Thomas Edwards. Thomas Edwards

died suddenly on Sunday 28 January 1894 and some of his friends presented

the lectern and brass mural tablet which can still be seen in the St.Thomas

Church.They also erected a brass mural tablet to his memory in the Christ

Church at the Ridge. A Church Pastorate Endov mient Fund was started in 1896.

Rev. Dr. H. U. Weitbrecht was shifted from Batala to Simla in the spring of

1896 in order to take up the work of completing the revision of Urdu New

Testament. Weitbrecht's time was largely taken up in this work in which he was

assisted by Lala Chandu Lai, a native Christian from Lahore. Each portion of the

New Testament, when completed, was printed, and copies were sent to some

150 persons, natives and Europeans, and the notes received from them were

carefully collated and sifted.®^

Rev.P.Ireland Jones took residence in May 1899. His work was both

pastoral and evangelistic. The latter work was carried on by means of preaching

and visiting the bazar, and by discussion meetings for educated non-Christians.

A number of these gatherings were arranged in private houses for those who

spoke English.®^ Rev.F.Papprill took over the charge of the work at Simla from

P. Ireland Jones early in 1900.There was a permanent Hindustani congregation

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at Simla of about seventy which increased to one hundred and seventy during

the eight warm months of the year. An English service was held during the

season for Bengali Christians, a good number of whom were employed in

Government offices. With the Bishop's permission a Bengali service and Sunday

schools were started and conducted by one of these Christians for their fellow-

country men.® In this regard, Rev. G. T. Manley v^ote that 'In Simla there are

several hundred Indian clerks in high government positions, away from the

cramping and conservative influence of their homes, the mixture of races and

creeds makes them specially open to Christian influence, and altogether there

seems a very open door here.'^ Christian servants were visited by a catechist

and a reader, and the same workers preached in the bazars and visited the

neighbouring hamlets. Evangelistic meetings were addressed in the Young

Men's Christian Association (hereafter Y.M.C.A.) hall by the Bishop of Lahore,

and the Rev. Dr. H. U. Weitbrecht. Rev.G.T.Manley also spoke on four

occasions on The Religion of the Twentieth Century', 'Atheism', 'Christianity and

Evolution', and The Ressurection*. Rev.Manley also gave a lecture in the Town

Hall on 'The Views of Modern Science', which was attended by over five hundred

people. The Lieutenant Governor of the Panjab and the Commander-in-Chief of

the Armed Forces v^re among the audience.®^

The Christians of Simla, it seems, were the cause of much anxiety for

Rev. F. Papprill because of their drinking habits and lack of spirituality. The

transfer of the native pastor, Rev.Jaswant Singh from Kotgarh to Simla v«s

expected to make some improvement in the situation. Meetings towards this end

were also organized and addressed in English by the Bishop of Lahore, Major-

169

General Scott, and others. Monthly gatherings of the missionaries took place at

Simla. Besides, his other duties, Rev.F.Papprill was given the additional work of

the Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. Though he undertook the additional duties

somewhat reluctantly, he discovered that the missionary work progressed better

by doing so as he came into contact with a number of men and in this process

misconceptions about his work were corrected.®^ In June 1903 the 'Keswick'

meetings were held in Simla for the benefit of the missionaries. Amongst the

speakers were Sir Andrew Fraser, F. Papprill, J.P. Haythornwaite and I.W.

Chariton.^ Papprill had the assistance of the Indian clergyman, Rev.Jaswant

Singh at Simla for a few months before the latter was transferred to Batala.®^

Rev. J. Redman succeeded Rev. F. Papprill at Simla. The congregation at

Simla numbered about seventy in winter and hundred and thirty four in summer

and was composed of three classes. There were clerks, most of them being

English-speaking Bengalis, who were engaged in the Government offices, and

among whom were some earnest, spiritual-minded men. Then, there were men

employed in the Government Press, most of whom were Urdu-speaking, and

who were regular in attendence at the services, but not so aggressive about

Christianity. Then, finally, there were the servants, of some of whom were by

their masters spoke in high terms. Rev. J. Redman took some part in the work

of the Y.M.C.A., for the sake of the opportunities which it afforded him of coming

into contact with non-Christians as well as Christians. Bazar work was carried on

throughout the year, and occasional visits were paid to the hamlets scattered on

the hills.®^

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Serious damage was done to the Church at Simla by the earthquake in

April 1905. Apart from contributions made by the European residents, the local

Christians contributed liberally for the erection of a new building. Rev. J. Redman

continued his missionary work by means of bazar preaching, the distribution of

tracts to Bengali clerks, and lectures in English for the benefit of educated

Indians.®^ A well-known member of the Christian community, Babu R. R. Raha,

passed away at Simla in July 1910. He had for many years been the manager of

the Panjab Bible and Religious Book Depot in Lahore, and he was thoroughly

respected by both Europeans and Indians for his sterling goodness.

Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, laid the foundation stone of a new Church

of St.Thomas, Simla, on 29 June 1912. Among those present on this occasion

were Sir Louis Dane (Lieut-Governor of the Panjab), Rani Harnam Singh,Sir

Robert Carlyle (Member of the Governor-Generals Council), Sir Spencer

Harcourt Butler (Foreign Secretary to the Government of India), General Sir

Robert Scallon (in command of the Burma Brigade) and a large gathering of the

Indian Christian community.^

The annual Simla convention was held from 3 to 8 June 1912 in the Tov^

Hall. Rev. H.B.Durrant, Principal of St. John's College Agra, conducted the early

morning meetings. On the eighth a largely attended missionary meeting was

held at Barnes Court, the residence of the Lieut-Governor of the Panjab, at the

kind invitation of Lady Dane.The Bishop of Lahore presided and several people

spoke on the occasion. Perhaps the most interesting amongst them was the talk

by Commissioner Booth Tucker on, "What the Salvation Army is doing in the

'Reclamation of the Criminal Tribes of India."®^

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The Viceroy and Lady Chelmsford were present at the anniversary

service at Simla, in 1916, as Lord Hardinge had been in 1915. Many leading

officials, including members of the Viceroy's Executive Council were also

present. The Bishop of Lahore, Canon, H.B.Durrant, preached the sermon. The

v ork of the Simla Zenana Mission which was carried on by the two deaconesses

of the Cambridge Delhi Mission included a School for Bengali girls at Simla.^

1. c) The Simla Baptist Mission (1865 A.D.)

The Simla Baptist Mission was begun by the Rev. Gulzar Shah in South

Colinga Street, Calcutta in 1865.^ His employment as a clerk in the Public

Works Department of the Government of India brought him to Simla for the first

time. This Mission was carried on with the help obtained, as regards work, from

a few Bengalis and, as regards money, chiefly from officials of the Government

of India, from the Simla Union Church, and from the Baptist Missionary Society.

The Mission did not belong to any Church or Society till the year 1880. It was

during this year that Rev. Gulzar Shah, fearing further complications that could

arise after his death, made over the Mission property to the Baptist Missionary

Society. The choice was made in consideration of their being the largest

subscribers to the mission for some years and, especially, of their help for the

new Chapel.

Gulzar Shah commenced Sabbath services for native Christians of all

denominations. There was no such service held in any other place in Simla at

the time. He preached to the Hindus and the Muhammadans who came up from

the plains as well as to the hill people in their villages. In 1866, two male and

one female teachers were appointed, but there were no direct conversions, and

172

no addition to the Church. In 1868, the first Chapel was built and two new

converts were obtained. The total number of converts (Hindus, Muslims and

Sikhs) baptized by the mission from its commencement till 1883, was one

hundred and thirty four.^ A new Chapel on the Cart Road was opened in June

1879. The number of the congregation increased v^th larger numbers of Indian

Christians who came to Simla year after year as employees of the Secretariat

and other Government offices. Separate services were held for Bengali and

Hindustani congregations.^

After the death of the Rev. Gulzar Shah in 1886 the work of the Simla

Mission was carried on by European missionaries of the Baptist Missionary

Society. Rev. James Smith v^o was well-known for his work at Delhi and

elsewhere, spent the last eleven yeas of his life in the Simla Mission. During this

period, the work on the foothills of Solan and Kalka area was felt to be important

enough to require the services of an additional missionary. George Smith, the

son of James Smith tookover charge of that work. In 1899, the Kalka outstation

also became independent and was placed under the charge of a European

missionary.^ After the death of the Rev. James Smith in 1899, several

missionaries held charge of the Simla work for a short-time. No residential

missionary was appointed till 1901, when the Rev. J. G. Potter and his wife

occupied the station. In 1904, the mission staff consisted of the missionary in

charge, a missionary and two local evangelists, two teachers, a colportem and

two Bible women. ^

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2 a) Church Missionary Society's Mission Station at Kangra, (1854 A.D.)

After the annexation of Kangra (part of Panjab) by the British in 1849,

Donald Macleod, the Commissioner of the division and afterwards Lieutenant-

Governor of the Panjab urged the Church Missionary Society to establish

missions at Kangra and Dharmsala. Kangra, was first visited by Rev. John

Nepomuk Merk from Kotgarh in the year 1851.^ In the spring of 1852,

Archdeacon Pratt strongly recommended the Church Missionary Society to

adopt it in connection with the Kotgarh station. It was on the arrival of Rev. Merk

at Kangra on 15 December 1853,^ and subsequent action by the Church

Missionary Society that the mission commenced functioning here in the

beginning of 1854. °° Almost immediately after his arrival he commenced

preaching the gospel in the bazars of Kangra, and in the surrounding villages.

He often met with opposition because Kangra and the neighbouring town of

Jav^lamukhi, were important centres of Hinduism in that part of the country.

The beautiful and richly-decorated temples were strong proofs of this fact.

Inspite of this. Rev. Merk was able to baptize a Brahman in September 1854

who for several years was a teacher of a Boys School at Jav^lamukhi. His

baptism was a solemn and joyful event for Merk. Most of the Europeans who

resided at Dharmsala, a hill station opposite Kangra, about eleven miles distant

from it, had shown a warm interest in the Mission, and given it their liberal

support. °

Kangra, was a place of pilgrimage and of passage and there were many

opportunities for missionary work amongst strangers. There was a small

Christian congregation of thirty-two converts, eleven of whom had been baptized

174

in 1855. ° A school was opened, but did not function well according to Merk for

want of an efficient European teacher. The residents nevertheless, continued to

provide for the incidental expenses of the station. Among the baptisms Rev.

Merk noticed the case of a Brahman from South India, who had been travelling

for fifteen years from shrine to shrine, and had a great repute for holiness, but

who he said, "found at last, in Christ, the only true rest for his soul". °^ Alongwith

this Brahman a Muhammadan fakir, v^th his wife and two children was also

baptized. Regarding the native converts. Rev. Merks wrote, "Their infirmities

and shortcomings show me that there is yet but a beginning of a work of grace in

their hearts". °^

In the early part of 1857, the year of the Mutiny, J. N. Merk was engaged

in preaching tours and spent some time at Chamba, where he encountered

much violent opposition. At Kangra, though much excitement prevailed during

the Mutiny, no outbreak occurred. The small native flock of twenty-nine

remained faithful. °^ His school, subsequently, recovered from the depression

which it had suffered during the Mutiny, and Merk was able to engage the

services of an efficient native-Christian schoolmaster. Even though the number

of students in the school increased, but the shortage of efficient teachers

persisted. °^ Merk had to draw largely upon his own time and strength. Mrs.

Merk ran a girls school with ten to fifteen pupils. Still Merk was unable to report

any cases of baptism or even of promising enquiries. The congregation slowly

started diminishing. In 1860, Rev. Merk spent four months touring the district but

met with no encouragement beyond attentive audiences. An European

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schoolmaster was also stationed at Kangra in the hope that the branch would

become more effective.

The number of native adult Christians v /as only ten, and no additions were

made during 1862. Rev. Merk also visited those parts of the valley in which there

were tea plantations. The planters consented most willingly that the Gospel

should be preached to their labourers. Whichever plantation the missionaries

went to, they found at eariy dawn several hundreds of labourers assembled,

listening quitely to their preaching before they went to work. Merk was hopeful

that a great movement could begin in these tea-plantations, where a large

number of people were collected.

Merk also found Dharmsala suitable for preaching as it was the

administrative centre of Kangra v^ere the concentration of people was in large

number because of the courts and other offices. Therefore, Merk located the

head catechist in the lower bazar at Dharmsala to see what opening he might

find for missionary work. The result, according to the Church records, was

satisfactory.^°^ Much of Merk's time was spent in touring the district, especially

among the coolies in the tea plantations. He also.engaged in the construction of

a Church for the use of the native Christians, which he hoped would serve to

make the Christians more noticeable to their Hindu countrymen. Merk was

greatly helped by Kadshu, a native of Kotgarh baptized by him at Kotgarh in

1853, in undertaking a long preaching tour to Mandi, Kulu, Lahaul, Pangi and

Chamba. For several years in the past Merk had visited Mandi regularly, and

had found it a good place for preaching.

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Rev. J. P. Menge was transferred from Lucknow in 1867 to Kangra to fill

the vacancy created by Merk's visit to Europe.^°^ James Kadshu was also

transferred and appointed a native Pastor in Lahore during this year. Menge

could not take missionary v^rk any further. He found little discipline and order in

the mission. His deteriorating health also proved detrimental to missionary

activities.

J.N. Merk returned to Kangra after several months' absence on 1 January

1870. He received a kind reception from the people on his return to the station.

Several youngmen, teachers in the mission school-who had themselves been

educated there and were respectable local residents expressed a desire to

convert to Christianity. But they faced considerable resistance. The case of

these new young converts caused considerable restlessness amongst the

population of various towns and villages of the district. Some baptisms did take

place. In all there were four adult baptisms, in eariy 1871. Even as Merk

reported favourably of the tiny native congregation (thirty six) they were unable in

any measure, to bring other people into the fold. Mrs.Merk and her daughter had

after their return from Europe engaged themselves with work in the Zenanas.^^

The Annual report from Kangra for 1874, was written by Mrs. Merk after the

death of J.N.Merk in October 1874. The Report spoke highly of him and his

work.^^°

After the death of J.N. Merk, Rev. C. F. Reuther was transferred to

Kangra from Faizabad in March 1875. At that time the native Christian

population of Kangra numbered forty and there was a congregation of twenty-

seven native Christians at Dharmsala. The number of native Christians however

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began to decrease. Several families left partly due to ill-health, and partly in

search of employment. One young man went with his family to the Lahore

Divinity School to study theology. There were, nevertheless, some additions as

well. Five members, one adult and four children were added to the Church by

baptism. With these baptisms the Christian congregation grew to forty-three

members, of whom the greater part were at Kangra, and the rest at Dharmsala.

Rev. Reuther was an energetic missionary, and had journeyed Palampur-east of

Kangra, Nurpur in the west, Jawalamukhi, Nadaun, and Sujanpur to the south of

Kangra. After her husband's death in 1879, Mrs. Reuther had taken charge of the

girls' orphanage at Amritsar for a time. She later came back to Kangra, and

virtually superintended the mission. Mrs. Reuther also died on 5 July 1885 and

her death was a big loss to the Kangra Mission.

Rev. R. Bateman who took charge of the Kangra Mission after Reuther,

stayed in the district during the hot weather of 1879. According to Bateman, the

inhabitants of Kangra, to judge from their demeanour at street preacfiing, v re

more opposed to the Gospel than those of any other place with which he v^s

acquainted. The school at Kangra did reasonably well during this time as an

educational institution and even gave some religious results. The headboy v^s

baptized by Bishop French in July 1879. In keeping with its decision, mentioned

earlier, the Corresponding Committee proposed to discontinue the management

of the hill stations of Kotgarh and Kangra by European missionaries. It was

hoped that native pastors would be provided for the congregations.

Kangra, an important centre of Hinduism and called "the Benares of the

Panjab","^ was visited by a large number of missionaries in the course of 1881.

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They wrote warmly of the work done in the school there. At Dharmsala, where an

honorary catechist connected with the Panjab Native Church Council was

working, the majority of the Christians were bandsmen in the Gorkha regiment.

At Kangra, where Mrs. Reuther and her daughter resided, evangelistic work was

carried on by catechists. Mrs. Reuther desaibed a preaching tour made by them

in response to an invitation from General MacNeill as follows; "A retired officer.

General MacNeill, who resides at Rylee, a village in the Kangra district had

written to me and asked for a married catechist to be located near him, with a

view to proclaiming the Gospel to the villagers in his neighbourhood, and had

offered to pay Rs.20/- a month towards his maintenance. No men being

available to be sent there, the next best thing seemed to be for the catechists to

visit those villages on their journey to Nadaun and Hoshiarpur. They had

considerable difficulty in finding them, as no proper road leads to them, and they

had to travel over pathless fields and climb over steep hills in search of them.

They were, however, well rewarded for their trouble by the eagerness with which

the people listened to the story of Christ's coming into the World to save sinners.

In one village the men gathered around them and begged with joined hands to

stay and tell them more about Jesus. The catechists talked to them till the

evening, and when they at last said that they must go back to the place where

they have left their things, and cook their food, the men entreated them to

remain, and offered to cook for them. Having supplied them with an ample meal,

they accompanied them to the village where they had arranged to spend the

night. The villagers near Rylee are small and scattered but in every one of them

the catechists met with a kind reception. The people are simple and apparently

179

unprejudiced, and willing to listen to the Gospel. They said they had never seen

native Christians and never heard of Jesus Christ. The catechists returned from

this tour much cheered by the encouragement they had met with in these out-of-

the-v\/ay hamlets. They had been in forty-seven villages, and had preached to

over a thousand persons."^^^

Rev. T. Holden was transferred to Kangra in 1887 from Muttan on account

of his v^fe's health. The boys school in Kangra by this time had 103 names on its

roll. T. Holden specially aimed at reaching the villagers and the numerous melas

held at Kangra gave him the opportunity for doing so. Holden mentioned the

baptism of a young Muhammadan native of Oonah (Una) on 7 September 1887.

Holden travelled over the greater part of the Kangra district during 1888,

preaching and selling books, and finding what he calls appreciative audiences in

most places.

Rev.Carl Gustav Dauble, a veteran missionary who had spent thirty six

years of missionary service mostly in the North-West Province (1857 - 1889

A.D.), was assigned to Kangra by the end of 1889. Upon his arrival, Carl Dauble

successfully appealed for help to the local fund and as a result, the staff was

increased by a Christian Headmaster for the Boys School, a catechist, three

readers, three colporteurs, and four Bible-women. One of the readers was

educated at Secundra and at the Allahabad Divinity School, and his wife was in

the Gorakhpur Orphanage. This man had a talent for music that was found

helpful in the bazar preaching. Mrs.Dauble found it easy to interact with the

women because of her medical knowledge, acquired at Secundra. This was of

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great help whenever an unusual amount of sickness was experienced. Several

of the out-stations were occupied by catechists and four adults were baptized.

Carl Dauble, described his second year at Kangra as an eventful one. He

baptized twelve adults. Some of these were the first conversions made at the

outstation at Palampur. A man named Udmi, a Sikh along v\/ith his wife, his aged

parents-the father being over 80 years and his four children v\/ere also among the

converts. They were baptized in Rev. Dauble's tent-Chapel while he was on tour

southv\/ard from Kangra. This tour was undertaken by Dauble and his wife on

camel-back. Udmi accompanied them on this tour and the former hoped that

many of his old disciples would follow his example and seek baptism.

Carl Dauble died in May 1892. During the three years of his residence at

Kangra the number of native Christians increased from 71 to 151.^^^ Fifty-one

adult converts were baptized during this period, four of them being lepers in the

asylum at Dharmsala. The increased number of catechists and Bible women of

the schools and outstations seems to suggest the fair success of Carl Gustav

Dauble and his wife in the Kangra station. '* The Bishop expressed his

happiness at the progress made by the Boys School under Rev. Brij Lai Datt.

Mrs.Dauble,"^ the widow of Carl Dauble however, continued to reside and work

at Kangra.

Rev. J. Tunbridge and his wife were transferred to the Kangra Mission

Station from the North-West Province and took up residence at Kangra in the

autumn of 1894. Tunbridge walked the entire distance of 170 miles from

Kotgarh to Kangra. A woman and her son belonging to Dhamnsala were baptized

at Kangra where they had shifted to receive instruction from Rev. T. R. Wade in

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August 1894. A leper in the Leper Asylum at this place was also baptized by

Wade earlier in the year. Rev. E. Rhodes, too, joined Tunbridge in Kangra at the

close of 1896. The native Christians, including unbaptized adherents, at this

point of time numbered 147. The schools, six in number v ith 277 boys and 34

girls, passed all the candidates presented for the Anglo-Vernacular Middle

Examination, and the grant earned was the highest on record. The States of

Kulu, Bushahr, Suket and Mandi were also visited by J. Tunbridge in the course

of a long tour of some 400 miles.

J. Tunbridge and E. Rhodes worked together at Kangra throughout 1897.

A special ten-day mission was conducted for the native congregation by Rev.

Ihsan Ullah in August and October 1897. Mr. B. Herklotes of Children's Special

Service Mission held services which were mainly attended by the young. The

inadequate supply of Christian teacher compelled the missionaries at Kangra

and other stations to employ non-Christian teachers. This disturbed Tunbridge

who felt that sometimes such teachers actively discouraged any leaning that

may have been perceptible among the scholars towards Christianity.^^^ At this

point of time Brij Lai Datt, the blind head-master of the boarding school resigned

and was replaced by a graduate of Lahore University. Two adults, one a blind

Muhammadan and the other a Rajput leper in the asylum were also baptized. '

It may be mentioned that E. Rhodes spent three months in evangelistic tours.

The main opposition to his efforts came from the Arya Samajists, and in one

place they even covered him with feazarfilth in their anger against his preaching.

At Dhamnsala, in the autumn of 1896 an unusual incident occurred. A

native clergymann, the Rev. Ihsan Ullah was invited to conduct a special mission

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for the English residents in English. Most of the residents, including civil and

military officers, attended some of the services. Urdu services were also held for

the native congregation and some differences of opinion were patched up. A

new Church in memory of the late Rev. Carl Gustav Dauble was opened in

September, 1897^^° Mrs. Dauble made a tour southward from her station at

Dharmsala, and also visited Palampur, Mandi, Hamirpur, and Nadaun. Her

previous visit to some of these places had been in 1891 and she was impressed

to find people who remembered it. Some school girls still knew the bhajans

which she had taught to them then.

J. Tunbridge reported that during 1898 Church committees were

established at Kangra, Sidhpur and Dharmsala v^ich undertook the upkeep and

repair of all Churches, and steadly aimed at self-rule, self-support and self-

propagation. E. Rhodes made two itinerating tours during the course of which

he visited many small towns, and distributed several hundred copies of Urdu

translations of Spurgeon's sermons as well as other forms of Christian literature.

The Bible classes in Dharmsala were well-attended. The men met in turn, in

each other's houses, and the women were taught by Mrs. Sage (formerly Miss

Dixie, of the C.E.Z.M.S.), the wife of then commanding officer at the station.

Confirmations were held at three centres in October, and twenty candidates

were presented. Three of these were the inmates of the Leper Asylum. There

were five adult baptisms during the year including a Mohammedan. One of them

was a policeman. The relatives of this policeman nearly succeeded in

kidnapping his little boy, but the baptism which took place soon afterwards

practically destroyed any hope they may have had of preventing the man from

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converting to Christianity. ^® Mrs. Dauble who was in her thirty-first year of

service in the mission-field made several tours in the district. Though she was

seriously ill during August and September she was successful in school among

Gurkhas. For the year 1899, E. Rhodes reported that the upper primary and

middle classes of the school were larger than ever before. He recorded the

words used by the Inspector, an old man, whose visit was the last before

retirement. He was himself an old mission school boy and said that he owed his

success in life, not so much to the education gained, as to the moral training. All

the highest and most trusted native officials he knew were educated by

missionaries.

The Rev. and Mrs. J. Tunbridge left Kangra in April 1900 to take a

furlough. Rev. E. Rhodes, too, was absent from the station for six months of the

year, first studying for Deacons Orders, at the Lahore Divinity School, and then

assisting for three months in famine relief work among the Bhil community of

Central India. In their absence Rev. Brij Lai Datt conducted the services and

took part in evangelistic work. The bazar preaching was frequently addressed to

people from distant areas such as Kulu, Ladakh, and Tibet, and to pilgrims from

Central Panjab and the North-West Provinces. Brij Lai Datt mentioned that "the

chief-citizens of Kangra did not attend the open-air preaching, but they cheerfully

welcomed evangelists who visited them at their houses he also learnt that a

Hindu judge, after an illness of some months, sent in the night for the Christian

Headmaster of the mission school to pray for his recovery. This the latter did in

the presence of many Hindus. The judge it is argued, afterwards openly

attributed his recovery to the Christian prayer."^^ Datt also observed that "a

184

Brahman pleader in Kangra had published a work of fiction which included

numerous quotations from the scriptures. This was taken to suggest the

increasing familiarity of local people with Christianity. During this period no long

tours were undertaken, but the villagers within a radius of ten miles of Kangra

and its outstations, Sidhpur, Palampur, and Nurpur were visited." ^^

Rev. H.F. Rowlands succeeded to the charge of Kangra when the Rev. E.

Rhodes and his wife went home in March 1902. At Jawalamukhi, which Rhodes

had described as the "most idolatrous place in the Panjab", and where temples

were extremely numerous, six adults were baptized - three brothers and their

wives all cultivators of their own land. At Barwana, near Palampur, a barber and

his family were baptized. In February 1901, Rev. E.F.E. Wigram and students of

the Lahore Divinity School accompanied a missionary party in the district. They

were joined in March by Dr. A.H. Browne of Amritsar, and the Rev. J.A. Wood, in

their tour of the Mandi State.^^ In appreciation of the good work done the

Lieutenant-Governor, Sir W. Mackworth Young enthusiastically declared, "I have

known the Kangra Mission for forty years, but never before have I seen

symptoms of prosperity as they are today (1902)."^^

In November 1902, Dr. 8. W. Sutton was transferred from Dera Ghazi

Khan to Kangra. Sutton, had commenced medical work at Kangra on the

departure of the Rev. Rov\/land for England in March 1903. As the general

superintendence of the work fell on Sutton, the medical mission had to be left in

abeyance. "* Much time was spent over the school which had received an

adverse report from the Government Inspector in May and therefore required

thorough re-organisation. A fresh staff of masters was engaged and were

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placed under Rev. Brij Lai Datt, the former headmaster, who had retired from the

work, but came to the rescue in the emergency.

A terrible earthquake took place in the Panjab on the morning of 4 April

1905 in which 16,000 persons lost their lives.^^ Kangra and Dharmsala suffered

the most, and in the former town the Society's mission house was levelled to the

ground. Rev. H. F. Rowlands, Mrs. C. G. Dauble and Miss M. Lorbeer were

killed. The last named was a member of the Berlin Ladies Society, working

under the auspices of the CMS., who had just been transferred temporarily

from Agra to Kangra.^^ Several other missionaries and Indian agents of the

Society had a narrow escape. Sutton, with his children, was buried under a

mass of debris, but mercifully was not seriously hurt. Rev. Brij Lai Datt, the blind

Indian clergyman was unharmed and Paras Nath, another Indian clergymen,

was injured, and his wife and several children were killed. At Dharmsala Miss M.

Michaelis, of the Berlin Ladies Society, who was in charge of the little C.M.S.

School, was buried in the ruins for several hours, but all the fourteen children lost

their lives. Later Miss Michaelis went to Dalhousie for six months, but returned

to the district in autumn. In all, forty-six persons were killed in the mission-

compound, and even the Leper Asylum was levelled to the ground.

Relief measures were carried out by missionaries who came to Kangra

from outside. Among them were Rev. E. Guilford of Tarn Taran, Dr. AH.

Browne of Amritsar and Mr. S. Gillespie of Clarkabad. There were also

Government officials v\4io hurried to the spot. But their difficulties were

increased by the bands of men from the plains who joined the criminals in the

hills in a general loot. A kind of lawlessness ran riot for weeks/^^ In the autumn

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of 1905 Rev. J. Tunbridge again took up his residence there. He found the

people more friendly than ever before.

The widespread ruin caused in Kangra district by the earthquake of April

1905, posed a difficulty for the missionaries in their efforts to minister to the little

groups of Christians and to try and make conversions. Both Rev. J. Tunbridge,

who was in charge at the beginning of 1906 and Rev. J.F. Snee, (who was

afterwards temporarily transferred there from Amritsar), suffered in health from

having to live in tents and the exposure to the severe cold in winter and the

scorching heat in the summer, apart from the constant journeys and the

occasional shortages of provisions. The former became seriously ill and had to

return home. ^®

2 b) Missionary Society of Church of Canada, Mission Station at Kangra, (1912 A.D.)

At the beginning of 1912, the work of the Church Missionary Society, at

Kangra was handed over to the Missionary Society of Church of Canada

(M.S.C.C), which it was hoped, would be able to make greater progress among

the 1,000,000 inhabitants of the district. Because of its various and extensive

commitments the Church Missionary Society had not been able to do much in

the Kangra mission. The Church of Canada Mission was governed by a local

Governing Board, of which the Bishop of Lahore was ex-officio Chairman.

Rev. R.H.A. Haslam, of Missionary Society of Church of Canada made

some very interesting observations that may be worth quoting extensively. He

noted: "Many have attempted to explain the cause of the unrest of the last few

years, but the root, as also the remedy, is difficult to decipher. Mighty forces

187

have been at work for the past fifty years which have disintegrated many of the

habits of thought and many of the practices which before then were regarded as

unchangeable and invulnerable. With increase in education has come the desire

to shake off the shackles of caste and custom.... Ancestor and rightful ruler are

alike held in little esteem. Independence of action and thought dominates. The

liberation, unfortunately, has only been intellectual, the result of western

education, and lacks thus'' the balance which can only come with the freedom

of the truth, by which alone both they and we can be made free. Even secular

officials in India today are feeling that had the Government been courageous at

the outset and given religious teaching in Government supported Schools, today

would tell a different story of loyalty and administrative power through the

enlighted and sympathetic support of India's sons. Political reforms are in the

air-today, but political reforms cannot take the place of inward moral reform of

life and character whereby alone India shall ever be in a position to be self-

governing. We do not fear mutiny, though a year ago it looked like it. The wiser

heads in the land are getting control of the youth and we hope for better things. I

cannot quite say what the results of the unrest has been or is on our mission

work. In some ways, I think, it makes for hope, in others it destroys hope, that

India will soon accept Christ. The independence will break away from bonds of

caste and custom and make acceptance of another faith easier, but in as much

as Christ is identified v^th the West, as such. His faith will be unpopular".^^

Rev. R.H.A. Haslam of the Missionary Society of Church of Canada

worked as a quasi-chaplain at Dharmsala among military and civil officers. This

v^s a considerable addition to his normal duties. But it was also that part of his

188

work which gave him recognition from the officers, who regularly supported the

mission with their donations. A significant addition to the work here was a small

dispensary below the Church, and to the west of the rest bungalow built by

Tunbridge, as a temporary mission house soon after the earthquake that rocked

Kangra in 1905. This dispensary, made of stone and dhajji \NorK provided an

opportunity to Mrs. Haslam for using her medical knowledge among many local

women and children.^^

In May 1909 Haslam spent a month touring through the native state of

Mandi and in British administered Kulu. It was the first opportunity he had to visit

Mandi, and the impression he gathered seems to have given him hope of making

some conversions. He was accompanied by Dr. G. B. Archer of Doyabah, a

place in the Nadia District of Bengal. About his visit to Mandi Haslam wrote:

"These sturdy, simple, straight-forward hillmen should make strong Chhstians if

won to Christ. In Mandi city there was a gathering estimated at from seven to

sixteen thousand people. A durbar had been held the day before and the

Commissioner and representative audiences in the city itself... Not withstanding

the excitement the crowd listened to the Gospel for two days with manifest

interest. I took a hundred gospels and gospel portions with me for sale. They

were brought up on our route and on my first-appearance in the streets of Mandi.

I cannot be satisfied to leave these 15,000 people and more without the gospel.

They must have it. The Kangra Mission must be better manned and that soon,

we passed from Mandi to Kulu, where I visited last year. The Mission has no

established work there, but I found a small congregation of Christians, seven in

all, consisting of a retired Indian with his son and son's wife and child, a Lahauli

189

and his wife, and a Ladakhi, the latter of whom are in the good to see these few

meeting together for worship." ^^

From the beginning of 1912, by agreement with the Parent Committee

and with the concurrence of the Bishop of Lahore, the Missionary Society of the

Canadian Church agreed to undertake the entire responsibility for the Kangra

Mission. It was hoped that the Canadian Church would be able to develop the

Mission in a way that the Society, owing to many urgent claims elsewhere, could

not possibly have done. Haslam of the Canadian Church wrote from Kangra

that, "we leave the dear old Church Missionary Society with sincere regrets, for

our fellowship in the gospel with her workers has been very happy, but we

believe that for the larger interest of the Kingdom we are doing what is our duty

in assisting to establish a Canadian Church work in India and are assured of the

prayerful interest and support of our brethren in the carrying out of the plan "^^

At an ordination in Lahore Cathedral on the fourth Sunday in the Advent

(St.Thomas Day), the Bishop of Lahore admitted W. A. Earp and F. S. Ford of

the Canadian Mission in Kangra to Priests Orders.^^ Haslam saw great

opportunity in spreading Christianity in Kangra as he stated, "We held service of-

intercession in Upper Dharmsala for the English residents, a Parsi merchant

came and listened throughout with keenest attention. In the Arya Samaj Hall

around 200 Indians were present and were most reverent, standing throughout

the offering of the prayers and paying the closet attention to an address on 'Our

grounds for believing that God will hear Prayer". The gathering is remarkable for

being held in the hall of neo-Hindus sect which is violently anti-Christian. At the

close of the service several members of the sect thanked us for the service. May

190

I in closing appeal to members of the Church that this wonderful opportunity be

redeemed. There is a strategic element in opportunity. Iron must be struck when

hot, clay moulding when plastic Now is our special opportunity for striking and

moulding pray as never before for us and them that we may be enabled for the

work, and send us outmen and women."^^

He further stated that "Because of its primitive form of Hinduism, the

Kangra district is the most difficult field for evangelism, as there is a

comparatively small number of Christians, and the whole of the work is an

outreach to the non-Christians. The effects of Christian education upon the

culture of India can not be over estimated. Many of the social changes that have

taken place are due to the impact of Christian education upon the minds of the

leaders of the country, and one cannot over estimate its importance".^^

St. Paul's High School, Palampur was founded in 1923 under the

principalship of the Rev. F. S. Ford.^^ It v^s started as a high school with only

two senior classes. It developed over the years into a middle and high school

\Mth classes from primary upto matriculation. From 1934, until the time of his

death in 1947, Rev. Geoffrey Guiton was the Principal. St. Anne's Girls School

in Palampur and St. Hilda's Girls School in Kangra, were started by Miss

Elizabeth Giovetti,^^'' The emancipation of the women of India in general and

women of hills, in particular, was one of the greatest tasks sought to be

accomplished and the contribution, that v^s made in these Christian schools for

girls played a reasonably important role.

The Church Missionary Society and the Canadian Mission also

established the Maple Leaf Hospital at Kangra, St. Luke's Hospital, Palampur,

191

and Lady Willington Hospital at Manaii. The Manali hospital was a remote

outpost of the Canadian Mission at the far end of the Kulu valley on the road

leading to Leh and Ladakh. It grew from a rural dispensary into a small hospital

with twenty-four beds/'"® Dr. Florence Haslam was in charge of the Maple Leaf

Hospital at Kangra, for many years. It was first started as a small dispensary in

1912 by her mother Dr. Jean Haslam, whose husband Rev. R. H. A. Haslam,

was the first Canadian Secretary of the Kangra Mission.^^ The 'Palampur Leper

House', was also the centre of much activity and short courses in treatment were

given periodically to groups of new doctors.

Work amongst groups classified as 'criminal tribes' was a prominent part

of the activities of the Kangra Mission. An interesting case is that of such a tribal

having being given training at Industrial School at Palampur. He was Samuel

Akhtar, who later served in the Royal Indian Navy and ultimately on his return to

Palampur became a trained teacher at St. Paul's High School.^''° These 'tribes'

were usually wandering groups of people v^o made their living by various

means, some of which may not have been honest work. According to

administrative reports they indulged in thieving, sorcery, and snake-charming'.^"*^

Such people were considered troublesome by the Government which sought to

segregate them in settlements. One such colony was established near

Palampur and the inmates were put to work in the neighbouring tea fields. In

1930 the settlement was closed and an endeavour was made to rehabilitate the

inmates by settling them on the land under the supervision of landovi/ners. It was

a difficult task to make them give up their wandering habits.^''^

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3. The Moravian Missions Among The Tribals At Lahaul, Spiti, Kinnaur And Simla

Bohemia and Moravia were once two independent kingdoms situated in

Central Europe. Later they became provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the First World War they formed part of the kingdom of Czechoslovakia.

Bohemia, now the northern province of the Czech Republic, lies to the south

east of Germany. Moravia is the eastern province lying between Bohemia and

Slovakia. "^ At one time (1275) both Bohemia and Moravia were fiefs of the

German Empire. Later (1345-78), the Bohemian king, Charles IV, was elected

the German Emperor. Originally a Lutheran community, the Moravians broke

away from the Lutherans in 1727, and started a new community called, 'Unitas

Fratrum' or The Unity of Brethren'. ' The 'Unitas Fratrum', known as the

Moravian Church, originated in a village in Kunwald ** in Moravia and is

remarkable for its missionary work. The Mission began life in 1457, and passed

through a period of persecution in Bohemia before it migrated to Saxony. It was

a small Church, but the congregations of the Mission fields abroad numbered

three times as much as those at home, and every member took some part in the

Mission work. The tenents of the Church are Evangelistic, Protestant and

Episcopal. There were three provinces of the Mission, Great Britain and Ireland,

the United States of America and Canada, and Germany with several continental

countries.''''

The Moravians laid great emphasis on preaching, which they made lively

by their ardent zeal and earnestness, and always led a life after the primitive

model. The general synod meeting held after ten years control led the policy and

193

funds of the Church as a whole and appointed a Board to Control the missions.

The Board was composed of an elected Bishop from each province and a

finance member. Each province had its ovwi legislative synod and executive. ''®

Inspite of their small size, the Moravians were also among the foremost pioneers

of the protestant missionary movement. In 1732, they sent their first missionary

to preach to the black slaves in the West Indies. Within a few years others set

out for Greenland, Labrador, North-America, Central Russia, Persia, Central-

America, Surinam, Canada, Tanzania, South-Africa, Ceylon and even the

Nicobar Islands. The Moravians, or United Brethren, made an attempt in 1740, to

establish a mission in Ceylon. ''

In 1777, two Brethren came to Bengal from Tranquebar at the request of

the Danish Asiatic Company. The Moravian Brethren worked for a period of

fifteen years (1777-1792) in Serampore (then belonging to Denmark and called

Frederiksnagar). Moravians also tried to obtain a foothold in Calcutta and Patna.

But as no success w^s obtained in this they lost heart and returned to

Tranquebar in 1791 .^^

The Moravian Mission was established much later at Kyelang (presently

headquarter of Lahaul & Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh) in 1854. '® The

founders of the Himalayan Mission originally set out to preach not to the Indians

or to the Tibetans, but to the Mongols. From the beginning Moravian

missionaries' objective was to reach the Mongol tribe of Central Asia. The first

two missionaries appointed in 1852, were to Keu>«.'*)ni,b^ European Russia and

Siberia into Central Asia.^^ But after repeated applications had been made, the

Russian Government refused to let them pass through their territories. The route

194

through China being, then, still obstructive to missionary enterprise had also to

be abandoned because of the refusal of the Chinese Government. A third way

via Ladakh was chosen. From Ladakh the missionaries were to penetrate to the

Mongolian tribes that inhabit the northern part of Eastern Turkistan. ^^ On 13

July 1853 the two missionaries, Wilhelm Heyde and Edward Pagell set out in the

company of Rev. Rebsch, who was returning to India. They went first to London.

Then on 3 August 1853, they embarked at Portsmouth, England, and landed at

Calcutta on 23 November 1853. ^ Wilhelm Heyde^^ and his companion spent

their time in pursuing their studies in the Mongolian language, determined in their

plan to reach Mongolia by crossing the barely known Tibet from Northern India.

Wilhelm Heyde and Eduard Pagell arrived at Kotgarh on 4 April 1854 and

stayed with Dr. Prochnow.^^ They decided that the best thing to do was to

establish themselves on the frontier of the forbidden country. To them the valley

of Lahaul seemed quite appropriate for setting up their establishment. They

informed the Mission Board at Herrnhut of their project at Kyelang, and on 3

March 1856 they received the authorization. On 18 April 1856 the British

Government also granted its permission with assurance of support. The

government further promised to furnish v^thout charge, the wood and stones

necessary for the construction of the mission house.^^ The Brethren had

bought a piece of land in the vicinity of Kyelang. With the founding of the

Kyelang Mission Station the Mongolian mission turned into the Tibetan or the

Himalayan Mission. Heyde and Pagell could not spend the first two or three

v\/inters at Kyelang. They used to return to Kotgarh by the end of October. A third

missionary Rev. Heinrich August Jaeschke, joined them in the month of March,

195

1858. Already forty years old, he was to be the Superintendent of the mission

with the special responsibility of studying Tibetan. He was .committed with

leading the direction of this mission work in Tibet. Once the mission house or

building was completed and the mission securely established it was decided that

the missionaries required wives. Arranged marriages, which are still common in

India, were then familiar enough in Moravian missionary circles. The Mission

Board in Herrnhut duly selected three brides and despatched them to

Calcutta.^^ In November, Heyde and Jaeschkes conducted each other's

wedding ceremonies before an enthusiastic congregation of Kyelang villagers.

Jaeschke's bride was Emilie Rosenhauer and Heyde's was Maria Hartmann. ^^

The Kyelang Mission Station rapidly took shape. Heyde spent the winter

of 1858 at Simla, learning the printer's trade. He purchased the material

necessary for printing. In 1858, Wilhelm Heyde obtained a lithographic printing

press from Simla and thus was published the first of many mission publications.

Berth's Bible Stories translated into Tibetan by Jaeschke. In the autumn of 1862

Heyde decided to leave Kyelang to establish a new mission elsewhere. His wife

was ill at that time and he had to send for a physician. On 24 October 1862,

they left Kyelang woth their little daughter Elly, aged two years, and with a

servant. After they had crossed the Rohtang Pass, at Dshaga (Jagat) Sukh, a

little Hindu village, a child was prematurely born but it did not survive. In the

spring of 1863, the Heydes settled at Dshaga sukh.^^ This transfer was made in

order to reduce the mission budget. In 1863 Rev. Rechler, arrived in Kyelang

and became Superintendent so that Jaeschke could concentrate on the

linguistic work. In April 1864 the Heyde left their hut at Dshaga sukh in order to

196

begin a station planned for Munsala. However, on 14 May 1864 they were

recalled to Kyelang to take the place of Jaeschke, who was leaving for Simla to

devote more time to the study of the language. ®

The Moravian mission in Kyelang, during most of this period, was

represented by Heyde and Pagell, who along with their families resided in the

well-built and substantial mansion that they had themselves erected and fitted

out in German style. ^^ Rev. Wilhelm Heyde remained at Kyelang for half a

century continuously, and returned to Germany to spend the last two years of his

life. His record "was one of absolute devotion to the work of the mission. He and

his v^fe left lasting effects of their life, and labours among the people of Lahaul".

Rev. Rechler, was followed by Friedrich A.Redslab (1892-1913), Kurt

Fichtner (1894-1905), Ernest R. Schnabel (1895-1920), Friedrich A.Peter (1935-

1940), and Otto Gerhard Hettasch (1900-1911). ®^ However, Kyelang in the

nineteenth century was famous, above all, for being home to Wilhelm Heyde,

who was based there till 1898.

As far as conversion was concerned, the success of the mission in these

remote parts was not very encouraging. The presence of these selfless

missionaries did not, however, go futile. The local people resorted to them for

advice and assistance, both in cases of sickness and adverse circumstances. In

the mission house at Kyelang an apartment v^s set aside as a guest-room, and

all who passed through Lahaul received the genuine kindness and generous

hospitability of the Moravian missionaries. There were few converts from

Kyelang. The first converts in 1865, were two Ladakhis, Sonam Stobgyes and

his son Samuel Joldan from the village Stok near Leh/®^ The first male Lahauli,

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Dewazung, was baptized in 1872, and the second, Pal Trashi, only in 1909.^^

Almost all of the few converts of the Kyelang congregation were Ladakhis rather

than Lahaulis. The former, came to Lahaul as traders or as workers seeking

employment. Being outsiders the Ladakhis were less susceptible to local social

pressure not to associate with the mission. Such pressure came from the

families of potential converts. Resistance also came from the local monks and

from the thakurs, who were the leading landov^ers and who probably used their

influence against the mission. As early as 1870 the missionaries believed that

thakurs were plotting against them out of fear that their traditional predominance

would be underminded by the mission. The mission's relations v^th the thakurs

remained strained. In 1938, the Kyelang community imposed a boycott on the

Christians refusing to sell them any goods. ^ On any one who ever talked to

them, a Rs.50/- fine was imposed. The boycott was lifted after the intervention of

the District Commissioner but relations remained tense.

With the founding of the Leh Station in 1885, the Mission Board, several

times, discussed the possibility of closing the Kyelang station or at least

withdrawing European missionaries in order to concentrate the mission's limited

resources on Ladakh. Rev. Ernst R. Schnabal and his wife were at Kyelang for

about ten years and in the autumn of 1915, were repatriated to Germany.

During, and just after, the First World War, Kyelang actually was left without a

missionary. In 1921, Joseph Gergan, one of the first two Ladakhi priests to be

ordained arrived to take over and stayed until 1926, when he returned to Leh.

He was replaced by Rev.Walter Asboe. The last European missionary at

Kyelang, Friedrich A. Peter, served there with his sister from 1935 to 1940/®^

198

Friedrich A. Peter and his sister were forced to leave Kyelang after the

outbreak of the Second World War because the British Government suspected

them of Nazi sympathies. Although they were Swiss citizens, the government

wished to remove them from this sensitive area. It appears that the main reason

for the government's suspicions was that their parents were then residents in

Herrnhut in Nazi Germany. They spent the duration of the Second World War at

the Church of Canada Mission station in Palampur. Friedrich Peter, developed

his skills here as a 'rural uplift' worker for which he was subsequently awarded a

'Kaiser-i-Hind' medal. After the war, he briefly returned to Leh to review

proposals for an irrigation project there but subsequently moved to western

Panjab v\/hich by then had become part of Pakistan. Before he left, Friedrich

Peter had the dismal task of closing dov^ the Kyelang mission station and

selling the farm land, though the Christians were allowed to keep the Chapel and

burial ground. ®^

Several traces of the missionaries presence however are still to be found

in the tribal areas in the Western Himalayas. Many of the crops and plants the

missionaries introduced still flourish. The mission introduced potatoes, oats,

hops, and rye on their farm. In particular, potatoes and hops, first brought to

Lahaul by the mission have become a major and profitable export aop to the

rest of India.

The Moravian missionaries, for a long time had Kyelang as their main

base of work covering all the neighbouring valleys. Because of their building

skills Kyelang has the best houses, and a fine belt of poplar trees-another legacy

of the mission. Rye is cultivated by the people chiefly for the sake of straw,

199

though oats have all but disappeared. The mission kept statistics of rain and

snowfall at Kyelang for the Meteorological Department.

There were two Moravian mission stations in Upper Kinnaur in the

erstwhile Bushahr State. The first was at Poo (Pooh, a village in the upper Satluj,

and presently Sub-Divisional headquarter of Kinnaur district of Himachal

Pradesh) some fifteen miles from the Chinese Tibetan frontier. Poo was selected

as a mission station by Eduard Pagell, who desired to work and wait there until

Tibet was opened to the Christian Mission. ^^ The Poo mission station was

started in 1865 and for eighteen years Eduard Pagell worked patiently among

the people at Poo and the neighbouring villages where Tibetan is understood.

With the passage of time Pagell became popular because of his medical skill. By

1875, he recorded an average attendance of forty to sixty at his Sunday

service. ® However, there v\/ere few baptisms. The most notable in 1872 was

that of a high ranking Lama from Lhasa called Zodpa Gyaltsen, who was the son

of a member of the Dalai Lama's cabinet. ®®

The Rev. Eduard Pagell and his wife Friederike Machtle, died suddenly of

typhus, in January 1883. That summer they were replaced by Friedrich A.

Redslab, who stayed until 1885, when he moved to Leh. He was succeeded by

Julius Weber. Weber was much discouraged by his time in Poo as he felt that

the people had become Christians only for the sake of the benefits they could

get from the mission. When Eduard Pagell died in 1883, the Christian community

only consisted of a few converts, but the fmits of his unobtrusive work appeared

after his death. Theodor Schreve, who succeeded Weber in 1891, was more

successful. On Easter Sunday 1897 he baptized twenty-five Tibetans, and the

200

congregation increased to about fifty/^ Theodore Schreve set up a wool

industry by introducing handloom from Europe and teaching the people to make

blankets. The mission also employed twenty to thirty women in spinning. ^^ In

the 1890s and the early years of the twentieth century the Poo congregation

expanded comparatively. By 1908, there were sixty-four members/^ and it was

the largest of the Himalayan congregations among the tribals. Theodor Schreve

was aware of the danger of 'rice-Christians'— people who were converted for the

sake of material gains provided by the mission. But he thought of them as

potential Christians who would come under intense and effective pressure from

their employers to abandon their new faith unless he provided some form of

alternative employment. He, therefore, set up a small wool-industry (weaving of

blankets) as a means of raising the economic standards of the villagers and thus

making them independent of their former creditors.'''^

A second means of assisting the poorer Christians was to sell them cheap

grain. The major cause of trouble at Poo was that most, if not all, of these people

entered the congregation for a material motive rather than a search for the

saviour. In these circumstances pastoral care proved exceedingly difficult here

just as the Kyelang congregation. Further, again as in Kyelang, social pressure

from the relatives of the would-be converts was very great. Moreover, the

existing converts were mostly low caste persons belonging to the iron-smith

fraternity and this may have caused men of higher status to regard Christianity

as an inferior religion. In the face of all these difficulties the mission considered

closing the Poo station after the First World War. But Bishop Arthur Ward gave it

a reprieve during his visit to Poo in 1920. '* The difficulties of transport and

201

general expense continued to make it unworthwhile to maintain. Friedrich Peter

finally closed Poo mission station in 1924.^^ It was hoped that some other

Christian body might supervise the congregation or that the remaining Christians

might continue meeting, helped by occasional visits from other Moravian

stations. In fact, the congregation lapsed when the missionaries left. Tibet

remained the ultimate goal of the Moravians.

The second station in the erstwhile Bushahr State, was opened at Chini

near Kalpa (headquarter of district Kinnaur), also on the Upper Satluj valley. The

mission compound was just above the Hindustan-Tibet Road. The people of

Chini were Hindus and spoke a dialect called Kanawari (Kinnari). But, as it also

represented a place where Buddhism and Hinduism meet, the people of Chini

adopted many Buddhist customs. About 1850, the Church Missionary Society

had hoped to establish a mission station at Chini, but soon abandoned the idea.

In May 1900 Rev. Julius T. Bruske and his wife arrived and at once began work

by erecting two small houses which were finished before the v\/inter. In

December 1900, a school was started at Chini, and was pretty regularly attended

by twelve boys. ''® All of Mrs. Bruske's efforts to win over the girls and women,

however, proved in vain. The Chini station was manned by Julius T. Bruske for

eight years and was subsequently handed over to the Salvation Army. Bruske

also opened a school at Poo, but it was closed when the Moravian missionaries

left Poo, selling their entire property to the Salvation Army.^^

The Moravian mission in Simla was started in 1900 to look after all those

who spoke Tibetan/"^ In Simla, there was a permanent Tibetan population and

this number was considerably augmented in the winter by Tibetans seeking work

202

from October to April. Some of them came from the districts in which Moravian

stations were established. The work was begun by opening a school for boys in

Sanjauli, the attendence at which varied from thirty to thirty-five. The boys

received rudimentary instruction, but religious teaching was not neglected. Most

of the boys who attended this school also attended the Sunday school v\/here

Bible stories were read and explained. There were also meetings for men only in

which the fundamental truths of Christianity as compared vAih Islam were

explained. The Simla mission formed a base for the Moravian stations in the

interior, especially those at Kyelang, Poo and Chini in Kinnaur. The mission

acted as treasurer for all the stations and assisted them in several v\/ays. In

1902, it acquired Murryfield in Chotta Simla, as a residence for the missionary in

charge of the Simla work and as a home for the missionaries in the interior who

might require rest. '

The Moravians had always placed great emphasis on education. In

Lahaul, as elsewhere in British India, the government supported the mission's

educational activities with special grants. The mission farm in Kyelang was

Heyde's speciality. He had several reasons for setting it up. First he wished to

establish a modern farm to demonstrate new and more rational ways of farming,

to introduce new crops and to, thus, raise the material standards of the Lahaulis.

The most important, and in the longer term the most controversial, purpose of

the farm was to provide employment for Christian converts who were likely to be

ostracised from their own community. ^ The British Government was happy to

encourage new farming techniques and provided 190 acres of land. But before it

could be put to use, the mission had to dig ten miles of irrigation channels

203

through stony soils and rocks. In doing so they were able to demonstrate another

western technique— the use of blasting explosives. ®^ Once the farm was

established, it did make a valuable contribution to the Lahauli economy. The

Moravians introduced new crops such as turnips, lettuces and, best of all

potatoes which have today become a major cash crop of Lahaul. They also

improved the quality of the local sheep by cross-breeding with other strains. ®^

Quite evidently, many of the missionaries were men of considerable

intelligence and academic ability. In the course of their long periods of residence

among the tribals in the Himalayas they were able to acquire a knowledge of the

tribal culture that v^s rivalled by few Europeans. Much of this knowledge is

hidden in the mission reports and archives or has been lost altogether. The

Moravian community life was based on the principles of self-support. They

remained in daily personal touch with people and sought to instill in them values

that they held dear, such as, honesty, obedience, industry and loyalty to the

Government.

4. Mission Stations In Ani, Chamba And Sirmaur

There was no eccelesiastical administration in Kulu or Saraj. The Ani

mission station was founded by Rev. Marcus Carleton, an American missionary

who lies buried at Ani.^^ Marcus Carleton was born in Marshfield Vermont and

graduated from East Windsor Presbyterian College in 1854. From then on he

worked in the mission field for forty four years, never once returning to America

on furlough. Carleton's work in India seems to have been one long fight against

the making of what used to be called 'compound Christians', that is Indians who

were given work and homes on mission property. Marcus Carleton and his wife

204

came to Ani from the plains during a terrible famine with several convert Panjabi

boys who married local Pahari girls and settled down to farm on land bought for

them by the mission. The Chapel had originally been one of the out-buildings

attached to the house. But after, selling it to the Rana of Sangri, Raghubir Singh,

the Christians built themselves a stone Chapel. ®^ They were upset because

some of the Seventh Day Adventists from Simla had established their own

mission at Ani and had built a little stone Church nearer the village. The last

eleven years of Marcus Carleton's life were spent at Ani, in Outer Saraj, with his

second wife Eliza Calhoun, his first wife having died in 1881. His whole life was a

sort of protest against plans and methods v^ich he felt to be deterimenal to the

true interest of a self-supporting and self-propagating Church.''®^

But Rev. Marcus Carleton's methods were not always approved of by the

Mission Board and his letters are full of usually unsuccessful efforts to get

money. In April 1887 he wrote, "I therefore, fulfil my promise to tell you of my

Koolloo work. I have bought a good deal of property in several places for a rural

mission. The Ludhiana Mission made an honest attempt to take up Koolloo and

lent me Rs.300/- to buy confiscated property, old buildings etc. I did so, but the

Board ordered all such sums to be paid back to the Mission and Rs.300/- were

cut from my allowance at once. I then took up Koolloo vigorously and got help

from America".^^ Marcus Carleton was often called the 'jungle missionary',

because he preferred to live constantly in the open air and to eat only the

simplest food. His second v\ fe, Eliza Calhoun, remained for a little over a year in

charge of this remote Christian settlement after her husband's death in 1898.

Evidently no Presbyterian was subsequently found to supervise the work at Ani.

205

But in 1907, the Salvation Army took it over, by which time the orange groves

and orchards planted by the Carleton had begun bearing fruits. The new

missionaries started a flourishing local industry making jam and marmalade

v/hich found a popular market among the British families in Simla. ^

The Christian Mission in Chamba State was founded in 1863 by Rev.

William Ferguson, a minister of the Church of Scotland and was carried on by

him as an independent mission for ten years. In 1864, a valuable site was

granted by Raja Sri Singh for the headquarters of the mission.^^ In 1870, on

Ferguson's departure to Scotland on furlough, his place was taken over by E.

Downes, an officer in the Royal Artillery, who had resigned his commission for

the purpose of engaging in mission work. William Ferguson, had been a

chaplain for some years in the Crimean war and during the time of the Indian

Mutiny. He returned to Chamba in 1872 but again had to leave India. The

mission was transferred to the Church of Scotland in 1872, and Dr. J. Hutchison

was sent from Sialkot (now in Pakistan) to take over charge. ®® In 1875, the

mission staff was reinforced by the arrival of Weilesley C. Bailey. He was,

however, transferred to the plains in 1879. In 1884, the charge of the mission

was assumed by Rev. William Walker, who continued to hold it till 1894.^^ From

that year till the beginning of the twentieth century. Dr. J. Hutchison was again in

charge. The mission carried on preaching, educational and medical missionary

work. The native Church had a membership of a hundred in 1907, including

children, and was presided over by its own pastor. A beautiful Church was

erected at his own cost by Raja Sham Singh, and gifted to the mission for the

use of the Christian community in Chamba. Regarding the adequacy of

206

missionary occupation Dr. J. Hutchison wrote; "In a mountainous country like this

it might take a missionary a whole day to reach a single village, and there are

thousands of them in these hills. Our bazar preaching has reached many who

could not otherwise have been influenced, and many come to us in the hospitals.

Still this is only very poor provision for such a vast area. What shall we say of

the greater unreached tracts around us? To the north-west the nearest Mission

stations, are Jammu, v^ich is nine days journey, and Anantnag (Islamabad),

which is fourteen days journey, to the south-east Simla, which is twenty days

journey, to the south Pathankot, which is three or four days journey over the

road, to the north Leh in Ladakh, which is thirty six days journey. Even Kyelang

in Lahaul, the nearest Moravian station, is ten days journey, with a pass of

17,000 feet between to negotiate. The Jammu district of the Mission has an area

of 20,000 square miles between the Ravi and the Jhelum and only one

missionary". ^

In 1895, the American Presbyterian Mission of Ludhiana took up mission

work in the State of Sirmaur but the actual work was carried out by Indian

evangelists. The American missionaries from Ambala paid occasional visits to

inspect the work of the Indian missionary at Nahan(Sirmaur).^^ The Sirmaur

mission was managed by a Board of Control composed of both Indian and

American Ministers. The American Presbyterian Mission started work in 1895 at

Nahan, and this work was carried on intermittently until 1902.^^ In that year, it

was handed over to the Scandinavian Alliance Mission Society which placed

two missionaries there.^** They settled down in Nahan but did not stay long. In

1911„ the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission took over the management of the

207

mission work. One Indian missionary with one lady missionary were stationed at

Nahan. From time to time, the work was inspected by European missionaries

coming from Jagadhari now in Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana State/*^ The

mission continued and flourished noticeably for some years. The Church which

was situated near the Chaugan in the town contained only one room and was

located in a building which belonged to the Kanwar Randip Singh of Nahan. The

Mission did not flourish much. All the Christians in the Sirmaur State were

immigrants. The Church was managed by the United Northern Church of India

with its head office at Jagadhari. The census records reveal that the number of

Christians was never large in the State. There were only 46, 37, 44 and 52

Christians in Sirmaur state in the year 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1931 respectively

(see Appendix V).

The above survey of the Christian missionary activities In the important towns

or areas of the erstwhile Simla and Panjab Hill States or the present Himachal

Pradesh reflects the zeal with which missionaries undertook their work, and also the

hardship they suffered. It is obvious that conversions to Christianity were not many,

except at Simla and Kangra, despite the efforts of the missionaries in the various

parts of North-Westem Himalayas. The most obvious contribution of the

missionaries was in the field of education including female education and medical

relief. We may also note the introduction of apples in Kotgarti by Rev. Beutel and

the later delicious varieties by Samuel Evans Stokes; potatoes, hops and the art of

knitting in Lahaul valley by Rev. Wilhelm Heyde and Maria Hartmann. These were

small beginnings in the direction of modernising horticulture and introducing a cash

connection in the life of the isolated hill folks.

208

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Church Missionary Society was established in 1799, by Church of England, Independent and Presbyterian ministers to strengthen missionary activites in Africa, Indian Sub-Continent, Middle and Far East.

2. J. E. Wilkinson, The Parochial History of Simla, 1830-1900. (Simla, Thacker Spink & So., 1903), p.69.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid, p.70.

5. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1843-1844, (London, 1844), p.64.

6. Gazetteer of the Simla District, 1904, Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol. VIII-A. (Lahore, 1908), p.48.

7. J.E. Wilkinson, op.cit., p.71.

8. Rev. Robert Clark, was the third son of Rev. and Mrs. Henry Clark, and was born on 4 July 1825, at Harmston Lincolnshire. In 1842, young Robert Clark entered a merchant's house in Liverpool, and resided with the Vicar of one of the city Churches. In 1847, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge and threw himself whole-heartedly into studies. A remarkable movement was going on just then in the University. Cambridge was astir on the subject of foreign mission. Undergraduates interested in the evangelization of the world produced eventually a noble band of missionaries who went forth from Cambridge to fight the battles of the cross. Robert Clark became one of this circle and some of these men became his colleagues later in distant lands. In 1850, Robert Clark was ordained priest by Bishop of Lincoln and was appointed as a curator for a year in the Church of his Baptism and confirmation among his own people. In 1851, the young Clergymen received his appointment from the Church Misionary Society. Thus one of the most successful missionaries who worked and served in the North-Western India was moulded and sent out for preaching the 'Good-News' baptizing many and establishing a number of Mission centres. It was during his first tour of Kashmir valley in 1854, that Robert Clark first conceived the vision of a great chain of Mission stations in the Himalayas. And he spent the rest of his life in the fulfillment of this vision. His journey to the Frontier through Trans-Indus regions resulted in outlying two other chains of Missions which were to be connecting links between the Frontier, the Central Panjab onv\/ard through Sindh to the sea. Robert Clark not only served and laid the foundation of a number of Mission centers in Panjab and North-Western Frontier, vA^\ch

209

are now important parts of the Diocese of Amritsar (now Church of North India) and Lahore (now Church of Pakistan). Robert Clark died on 16 May 1900, at Kasauli.

9. Gazetteer of the Simla District, 1904, Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol.VIII-A., op.cit., p.1.

10. 7/76 Ctiurchi Missionary Intelligencer, Vol.111. No.2, November 1852. A Monthly Journal of Missionary Information, (London, 1852), p.243.

11. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1844-1845, (London, 1845), pp.55-57.

12. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1845-1846. (London, 1846), p.74.

13. Church Missionary Record, for April 1847, (London, 1847), pp.73-80.

14. Gazetteer of the Simla District, 1904, Vol,VIII-A, (Lahore, 1908). op.cit, p.48.

15. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1847-1848. (London, 1848), p.ci.

16. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1849-1850. (London, 1850), p.cxxxvii.

17. Ibid., p.cxxxviii.

18. Ibid.

19. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1850-1851, (London, 1851), p.clvi.

20. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1852-1853, (London, 1853), p. 104.

21. Ibid.

22. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1853-1854, {London, 1854), pp.91-92.

23. Ibid., p.93.

24. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1856-1857, (London, 1857), p.98.

210

25. Ibid.

26. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1858-1859, (London, 1859), p. 114.

27. Ibid, pA 14.

28. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1859-1860, (London, 1860), p.115.

29. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1861-1862, (London, 1862), p. 133.

30. Ibid.

31. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1865-1866, (London, 1866), p.115.

32. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1871-1872, (London, 1872), pp. 103-04.

33. Ibid.

34. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1881-1882, (London, 1882), p. 102

35. Gazetteer of the Simla District 1904, Vol.VIII-A, op.cit, p.48.

36. Ibid.

37. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1891-1892, (London, 1892), pp. 117-118.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1894-1895, (London, 1895), p. 178.

41. Ibid.

42. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1895-1896, (London, 1896), p.220.

43. Ibid.

211

44. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1897-1898, (London, 1898), p.244.

45. Ibid., p.245.

46. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1898-1899, (London, 1899), p.236.

47. Ibid, p.237.

48. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1899-1900, (London, 1900), p.267.

49. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1901-1902, (London, 1902), p.255.

50. Ibid

51. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1902-1903, (London, 1903), p.242.

52. Ibid

53. Ibid

54. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1902-1903, op.cit, p.243.

55. Ibid

56. Ibid, see also Church Missionary Society, Kotgarh Mission, Report, 1903, pp. 1-15.

57. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1903-1904, (London, 1904), p.243.

58. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1908-1909, (London, 1909), p. 140.

59. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1916-1917, (London, 1917), p.63.

60. CM. Kashyap and Edward Post, Yankee in Khadi, The Story of Samuel Evans Stokes, article published in 'SPAN', (January, 1969), p.2.

61. Ibid, p.3.

212

62. Ibid.

63. Friedrich Heiler, The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh, Abridged translation by Olive Wyon. This edition is jointly published by Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Delhi and the Christian Institute for Sikh Studies, Batala, Panjab, (Delhi, 1989), p.54. First published in German in 1924 under the title, Sadhu Sunder Singh Bin Apostel des Ostens and Westens.

64. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1910-1911, (London, 1911), p.140.

65. The Church Missionary Society Gazette. November 1, 1910, Monthly Periodical, (C.M.S. House Salisbury Square, London, B.C.4), p.336.

66. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society, 1910-1911, op.cit., p.140.

67. CM. Kashyap and Edward Post, Yankee in Khadi, op.cit., pp. 3-4.

68. Ibid., p.4.

69. Ibid., p.5.

70. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1843-1844, op.cit., pp.63-64.

71. Ibid.

72. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1846-1847, (London, 1847), p.73.

73. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Afnca and the East, 1848-1849, (London, 1849), p.cxxiii.

74. Ibid.

75. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1878-1879, (London, 1879), p.63.

76. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1881-1882, op.cit., p.^Q2.

77. J.E. Wilkinson, op.cit., p. 73.

78. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1885-1886, (London, 1886), pp.113-14.

213

79. J.E. Wilkinson, op.cit, p.73.

80. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1896-1897, (London, 1897), p.230.

81. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1899-1900, op.cit, p.268.

82. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1901-1902, op.cit., pp.254-55.

83. Ibid., p.255.

84. Ibid.

85. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1902-1903, op.cit, p.2A^.

86. The Church Missionary Intelligencer- A Monthly Journal of Missionary Infornriation, August, 1903, (London, 1903), p.618.

87. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1903-1904, op.cit, pp.242^3.

88. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1904-1905, (London, 1905), p.243.

89. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1906-1907, (London, 1907), p.205.

90. The C.M.S. Gazette. September 2, 1912, Monthly Periodical, Church Missionary House, Salisbury Square, (London, 1912), p. 274.

91. The C.M.S. Gazette, October 1, 1912, Monthly Periodical, Church Missionary House, Salisbury Sqaure, (London, 1912), p. 308.

Gazetteer of the Simla District, 1904, op.cit, p.49. 92. Gazetteer <

93. Ibid., pp. 4!

94. Ibid.

95. Ibid., p. 50

96. Ibid.

97. Ibid.

214

98. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1853-1854, op.cit, pp. 93-94.

99. Ibid.

100. Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol. VII, Part-A, Kangra District, 1924-1925, (Lahore, 1928), p.213.

101. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1854-1855, (London, 1855), p. 100.

102. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1855-1856, (London, 1856), pp. 104-105.

103. Ibid.

104. ibid.,p.W5.

105. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1857-1858, (London, 1858), pp.126.

106. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and The East, 1859-1860, op.cit., p.^^9.

107. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1862-1863, (London, 1863), pp. 117-18.

108. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1867-1868, (London, 1868), p i 11.

109. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1873-1874, (London, 1874), p.96.

110. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1874-1875, (London, 1875), p.97.

111. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1881-1882, op.cit, p.W2.

112. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1884-1885, (London, 1885), p.116.

113. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1892-1893, (London, 1893), p. 125.

114. Ibid.

215

115. Mrs. Dauble (as Miss Stoephasius), had reached India as a missionary of the Berlin Ladies Society in 1868. In 1882 she was married to the Rev. Carl Gustav Dauble, who had joined the Society's staff twenty-five years earlier. After her husband's death in 1892, she continued her connection with the Church Missionary Society, residing at Dharmsala, and spending much of her time in itinerating.

116. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1897-1898, op.cit., 243.

117. Ibid.

118. Ibid, p.244.

119. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1898-1899, op.cit., p.235.

120. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1900-1901, (London, 1901), pp.299-300.

121. Ibid., p.300.

122. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1901-1902, op.cit., p.256.

123. Ibid.

124. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1903-1904, op.cit., pp.244^5.

125. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1904-1905, op.cit., pp.229, 244-45.

126. Ibid., p.229.

127. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1905-1906, (London, 1906), pp. 199-200.

128. Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society For Africa and the East, 1906-1907, op.cit, p.206.

129. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 2 August 1909, (London, 1909), pp. 241-42.

130. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 1 September 1909, (London, 1909), p.274.

216

131. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 1 October 1909, (London, 1909), pp. 306-07.

132. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 1 February 1912, (London, 1912), p.50.

133. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 1 January 1914, (London, 1914), p.80.

134. The Church Missionary Society Gazette, 1 January 1915, (London, 1915), p. 19.

135. C.R.H. Wilkinson, Thirst of India, p.32-40, (place of publication and year n.d.).

136. Ibid, p. 40.

137. Ibid, p.44.

138. Ibid., p.54.

139. Ibid, p.55.

140. Ibid., pp.42-43.

141. Ibid., pp.74-75.

142. Ibid., p.75.

143. Edward Langton, History of the Moravian Church, (London, 1956), p.29.

144. Ibid., p.7.

145. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church in India, article published in The Himalaya Mission, Moravian Church Centenary, 1885-1985, (Leh, Ladakh, 1985), p.27.

146. Gazetteers of the Kangra District, Part ill, Lahaul, 1917, (Lahore, 1918), p.205.

147. James Hough, The History of Christianity in India, From the Commencement of the Christian Era, Vol. Ill, (London, 1845), pp. 358-363.

148. Julius Richter, A History of the Missions in India, Translated by Sydney H. Moore, (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 131.

217

149. Gazetteer of the Kangra District, Part II to IV, Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, 1897, (Lahore, 1899), pp. 21-22.

150. Ibid., p.22.

151. Ibid.

152. Gerhard Heyde, Fifty years Among the Tibetans, The Story of \Mlhelm and Mane Heyde. A Translation of the French edition by Douglas L. Rights, (Winston-Salem, N.C., 1953), p.5.

153. It was the summer day in the year 1837, in the Moravian village of Gnadenfrei, Silesia, a twenty year old boy was perched on a large farm wagon. His mother, a peasant woman, was tearfully bidding him goodby. The boy was August Wilhelm Heyde. He was leaving home to learn a trade. His parents were poor, and they had a large family to support. Their little home, which they had bought near Gnadenfrei, had been destroyed by fire. The Pastor of the village had found the boy a position as apprentice with a tinner at Herrnhut. Wilhelm Heyde had two great desires v^ich he was unable to realize, to possess a violin and to obtain an education. His learning was confined to what he could acquire by himself. His apprenticeship, which lasted six years, was very hard when his apprenticeship terminated, he did not wish to leave Herrnhut, for it had become a second home to him. Ibid., p.5.

154. Ibid., p.8.

155. Ibid., pp.8-9.

156. Periodical Accounts Pertaining to the Missions of the Church of the United Brethren, 23 {^860),p.343.

157. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church in India, op.cit., p.33.

158. Gerhard Heyde, Fifty years Among The Tibetans, op.cit., p. 16.

159. Ibid, p. 17.

160. A.P.P. Harcourt, The Himalayan Districts of Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, (London, 1871), p.87.

161. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church in India, op.cit., p.33.

162. Ibid., p.35.

163. Ibid.

218

164. Moravian Church House (London), Tibet Reports: Letter from F.A. Peter, 31 July, 1938.

165. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church in India, op.cit., p.35.

166. Ibid.

167. Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol. Vlll-A, Simla District, 1904, op.cit., p.51.

168. Periodical Accounts Pertaining to the Missions of the Church of the United Brethren, 30 0875-76), p.^^.

169. Periodical Accounts, 29 (1873-74), p.157.

170. Gazetteer of the Simla District, 1904, op.cit, p.51.

171. /Jb/d., p.35.

172. John Bray, Christian Missionaries on the Tibetan Border, The Moravian Church in Poo (Kinnaur), 1865-1924, (Unpublished paper), p.8.

173. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church of the United Brethren, op.cit., p.37.

174. Ibid.

175. Ibid

176. Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol.VIII-A, Simla District, 1904, op.cit., p.51.

177. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Church of the United Brethren, op.cit, p.38.

178. Panjab District Gazetteers, Vol. Vlll-A, Simla District, 1904, op.cit, p.51.

179. Ibid, pp.50-5^.

180. John Bray, A History of the Moravian Chruch of the United Brethren, op.cit, p.51.

181. Ibid

182. Ibid.

183. Penelope Chetwode, Kullu the End of the Habitable Worid, (London, 1972), p.30.

219

184. Ibid.

185. Ibid.

186. Ibid.

187. Ibid.

188. Gazetteer of the Chamba State, 1904, Panjab State Gazetteers, Vol. XII-A, (Lahore, 1910), p. 199.

189. Ibid., p.200.

190. Ibid.

191. Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India, A Missionary Sun/ey, (London, 1931), pp.70-73.

192. Sirmaur State Gazetteer Pari-A, 1904, (Lahore, 1907), pp. 56-7.

193. Alexander Mcleish, op.c/f., p.97.

194. Ibid.

195. Gazetteer of the Sirmaur State, Part-A, 1934, (Lahore, 1934), pp. 48-9.