Social Protest in India

This study of British missionary activity in the later nineteenth century India focuses attention on the missionaries' concern with social issues and involvement in agitation for social reform. With no stake in the Indian social system, the missionaries were sometimes more outspoken than the Hindu reformers in attacking social evils. They were also involved in controversies over the status of Hindu women, in campaigns against European abuse of Indian labour, in temperance campaigns, and in crusades for reform of opium system. In the course of his analysis, the author not only raises questions about the nature and ramifications of the missionary movement itself, but also about the attitude of the educated elite and the nature of the forces opposing reforms within Indian society. What, for instance, were the missionaries' objectives and why, if conversion with their ultimate aim, were they so concerned with these social issues? Was their social zeal exogenous in its origin or indigenous? How far were they divided among themselves and why? Again how far did they help to shape Indian views and influence Government policy?