Missionaries who traveled to India - alongside the East India Company - were involved in proselytising, and oftentimes, the means used to do so - reviled local Indian, Hindu customs. There is ample documentation of their methods used in the writings of Rammohun Roy:
It is fitting that we also consider the other side of the picture of how native print that was made use of by the Britishers; by the early nineteenth century, missionaries had started to try to convert Hindus by distributing free pamphlets. Rammohun Roy wrote about this phenomenon in 1821 in The Brahmanical Magazine or The Missionary and the Brahmun:
… But during the last twenty years, a body of English gentlemen, who are called missionaries, have been publicly endeavoring, in several ways to convert Hindoos and Mussalmans of this country into Christianity. The first way is that of publishing and distributing among the natives various books, large and small, reviling both religions…
if they were true missionaries, they would preach in countries like Turkey and Persia, … In Bengal, where the English are the sole rulers, and where the mere name of Englishman is sufficient to frighten people, an encroachment upon the rights of her poor timid and humble inhabitants and upon their religion, cannot be viewed [as a justifiable act][1]
In order to transmit the ideas of Christianity, knowledge of native languages was needed, alongside the complete establishment of native fonts. This was but one of the central reasons as to why there was so much immediate efforts taken by the Baptist missionaries to fund the formation of native fonts
The Srirampur Missionary Press played an important
role in cultivating and establishing print for the natives. The history of the
Baptist Mission and its publishing endeavor is intrinsic to any description of
how print in Calcutta was democratised. This history also reveals the workings
of the Company, and their deep fears. Initially, Bengali letterpress technology
was mastered by Charles Wilkins who worked for the East India Company.
Eventually, this technology was transferred to the Baptist Mission Press.
Baptist missionaries had a zeal to interact with the Hindus and proselytize,
permission for which was refused by the British government in order to prevent
antagonism from the natives. It was, after all, only with the collaboration
with the natives that the East India Company could rule in a fashion that did
not lead to open rebellion. William Carey (1761-1834), a Baptist missionary,
was a pioneer of sorts in his efforts to print a large number of texts in
Bengali. Carey was working in Malda, in north Bengal, when he translated the
Bible into Bengali. His teacher, Ramram Bose, helped him with the translations.
In order to print it, Bengali fonts were needed. Reading an advertisement in
the newspaper, Carey got in contact with Panchanan Karmakar, where he learnt of
a foundry in Calcutta. Carey purchased a printing press for forty pounds and he
set it up in Malda. His request to the London Missionary Society asking for
more missionaries was granted, and he was joined by others in 1799, who urged
him to reside in Srirampur, a Danish enclave and outside the East India
Company’s jurisdiction. Carey, along with the other missionaries, formed the
Baptist Mission in 1800 and in order to make a functional printing press, was
joined by Karmakar in the same year. Karmakar was assisted by another craftsman
and a pupil of Charles Wilkins, Manohar. He made punches of more than twelve
Indian languages, and also of Chinese. It was here that the New Testament was
printed in 1801. Biblical texts were translated and printed, and tracts were
disseminated among the people. They were assisted in these works by pandits.
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