Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 India and Political Change, 1706–86
- 2 The Tranquebar Mission
- 3 The Thomas Christians in Decline and Recovery
- 4 Roman Catholic Missions
- 5 Anglicans and Others
- 6 The Suppression of the Jesuits
- 7 The New Rulers and the Indian Peoples
- 8 Government, Indians and Missions
- 9 Bengal, 1794–1833
- 10 New Beginnings in the South
- 11 The Thomas Christians in Light and Shade
- 12 Anglican Development
- 13 The Recovery of the Roman Catholic Missions
- 14 Education and the Christian Mission
- 15 Protestant Expansion in India
- 16 Indian Society and the Christian Message
- 17 Towards an Indian Church
- 18 The Great Uprising
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
4 - Roman Catholic Missions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- 1 India and Political Change, 1706–86
- 2 The Tranquebar Mission
- 3 The Thomas Christians in Decline and Recovery
- 4 Roman Catholic Missions
- 5 Anglicans and Others
- 6 The Suppression of the Jesuits
- 7 The New Rulers and the Indian Peoples
- 8 Government, Indians and Missions
- 9 Bengal, 1794–1833
- 10 New Beginnings in the South
- 11 The Thomas Christians in Light and Shade
- 12 Anglican Development
- 13 The Recovery of the Roman Catholic Missions
- 14 Education and the Christian Mission
- 15 Protestant Expansion in India
- 16 Indian Society and the Christian Message
- 17 Towards an Indian Church
- 18 The Great Uprising
- APPENDICES
- Notes
- Select Bibliographies
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
To write the history of Roman Catholic missions in India in the eighteenth century is no easy task.
The contemporaneous decline of Portuguese power and the disintegration of the Mughul empire, together with the endless regional and minor wars to which these gave rise, were exceedingly harmful to Christian work and, while making it difficult even to maintain what had been achieved, imposed almost insuperable obstacles in the way of penetrating new regions and of extending the work to areas where no Christian church of any kind had been established.
There was, in the Roman Catholic church, no central directive power by which the various enterprises could be held together in any kind of unity. The efforts of the Propaganda to achieve this aim had been in large measure unsuccessful. Missionary work was still largely in the hands of the religious orders, which were jealous of their independence and suspicious of any attempt to control them. The picture, therefore, tends to be rather a kaleidoscope of disparate units than an orderly map of experiment and progress, each part making its contribution to the riches of the whole. To some extent this must be attributed to the difficulties of communication in a land where roads were few or non-existent and movement by water was limited to certain favoured areas. But it is also the fact that certain missions liked to have things remain just as they were.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A History of Christianity in India1707–1858, pp. 71 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985