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Before Hinduism: Missionaries, Unitarians, and Hindoos in Nineteenth-Century America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Michael J. Altman
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Abstract

American interest in and knowledge of religion in India began before Americans imagined Hinduism as a coherent world religion. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Americans used a variety of terms to describe, represent, and imagine the religious culture of India: Gentoos, Hindoos, religion of the Hindoos, Hindoo religion, Brahmanism, heathenism, and paganism. Each term meant different things to different writers at different times. But there was no Hinduism, a world religion originating in India and comparable to others, in America prior to the late nineteenth century. Americans read and wrote about “Hindoos” and “Hindoo religion,” something altogether different from Hindus and Hinduism. This article analyzes two examples of American representations of Hindoo religion before Hinduism. First, it examines American missionary reports about “Hindoo heathenism” written by American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions missionaries and published in American missionary journals in the early nineteenth century. Second, it examines the Unitarian interest in Rammohun Roy and his growing popularity in New England during the 1820s and 1830s. Unitarian interest in Roy and ABCFM missionary reports exemplify the ways Protestant questions and interests shaped the American understanding of religions and the eventual construction of “world religions” such as Hinduism to suit American Protestant concerns.

Keywords

HinduismRammohun RoyUnitariansAmerican missionariesIndia
Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , Summer 2016 , pp. 260 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 2016

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References

Notes

1. Mather, Cotton, India Christiana. A Discourse, Delivered unto the Commissioners, for the Propagation of the Gospel among the American Indians Which Is Accompanied with Several Instruments Relating to the Glorious Design of Propagating Our Holy Religion, in the Eastern as Well as the Western, Indies. An Entertainment Which They That Are Waiting for the Kingdom of God Will Receive as Good News from a Far Country (Boston: Company for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the Parts Adjacent in America, 1721)Google Scholar.

2. Ibid., 22. Emphasis in the original.

3. Mather, Cotton, The Diary of Cotton Mather, II, 1709-1724, vol. 8, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 7 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1912), 365–66Google Scholar. Throughout his writing about the Danish mission Mather refers to the “Malabarian mission” and the native Indians there as “Malabarian.” This is odd because the Danish mission was in Southeast India, while the Malabar coast is on the southwest side of the peninsula. It is most likely that “Malabarian” was Mather's term for all native peope living in South India.

4. Ibid., 8:366. Emphasis in original.

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8. Ibid., 28. Emphasis in original.

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10. Mather, India Christiana, 29. Emphasis in original.

11. There is a great deal of debate about the origin of the terms “Hindu” and “Hinduism” in the West and in South Asia. For my purposes, I am focusing on the coinage and use of the terms within the American context. For more on the South Asian history of the terms, see Pennington, Brian, Was Hinduism Invented? Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 168–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sharma, Arvind, “On Hindu, Hindustān, Hinduism and Hindutva,” Numen 49, (January 1, 2002): 1–36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lorenzen, David N., “Who Invented Hinduism?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, (October 1, 1999): 630–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Frykenberg, Robert Eric, “The Emergence of Modern ‘Hinduism’ as a Concept and Institution: A Reappraisal with Special Reference to South India,” in Hinduism Reconsidered, ed. Sonthheimer, Gunther-Dietz (New Delhi: Manohar, 1989), 29–49 Google Scholar.

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16. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? 3–4.

17. Ibid., 171.

18. Ibid., 169.

19. I use the “Hindoo” spelling with colonial double o to emphasize the fact that Americans are constructing a representation of the South Asian other that they label “Hindoo.” There is no Hindoo or Hinduism in American culture until someone labels something as such. For more on this, see Altman, Michael J., “Hindoos, Hindus, Spelling, and Theory,” Religion in American History, accessed September 4, 2014, http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2014/09/hindoos-hindus-spelling-and-theory.html Google Scholar.

20. “Fragment of a Vision,” Massachusetts Missionary Magazine 5 (November 1807): 225.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. I use the term “evangelical” to indicate Trinitarian Protestants with an actively outward focus. Such Protestants were attracted to revivalism and missionary societies. Also, many missionary societies used the word “evangelical” in the titles of their periodicals. I use the term not as a substantive definition but in order to distinguish one sort of New England Protestant from others. In this sense, some New England Protestants thought of themselves as “evangelical” in order to distance themselves from other Protestants. This difference is most pronounced in the subtitle of Robert Baird's 1844 book, Religion in America: or an account of the origin, relation to the state, and present condition of the evangelical churches in the United States : with notices of the unevangelical denominations.

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26. For Buchanan's role in British evangelical and missionary culture, see Davidson, Allan K., Evangelicals and Attitudes to India, 1786-1813: Missionary Publicity and Claudius Buchanan, Evangelicals and Society from 1750, no. 4 (Oxfordshire: Sutton Courtenay Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? 85–93; Oddie, Geoffrey A., Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793-1900 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2006), 75–83 Google Scholar.

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29. Buchanan, “India,” 136.

30. Ibid.

31. Ibid. 32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? 90.

35. Buchanan, Claudius, The Works of the Reverend Claudius Buchanan, LL.D. Comprising His Eras of Light, Light of the World, and Star in the East; to Which Is Added Christian Researches in Asia. With Notices of the Translation of the Scriptures into the Oriental Languages, 6th American ed. (Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1812), 106 Google Scholar.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid., 105.

38. Ibid., 101.

39. Ibid., 106.

40. Ibid., 104.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid., 195.

43. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? 91.

44. Ibid., 69.

45. Ibid., 92.

46. “Work in Press,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 4, (August 1811): 143.

47. Buchanan, Claudius, “Two Discourses Preached before the University of Cambridge, on Commencement Sunday, July 1, 1810; and a Sermon Preached before the Society for Missions to Aftica and the East, at Their Tenth Anniversary, July 12, 1810: To Which Are Added Christian Researches in Asia,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 4, (September 1811): 174–78Google Scholar; Buchanan, Claudius, “Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 4, (October 1811): 221–29Google Scholar; “The English Reviewof Buchanan's Researches,” Connecticut Evangelical Magazine and Religious Intelligencer 4 (October 1811): 382–93; “The English Review of Buchanan's Researches,” Connecticut Evangelical Magazine and Religious Intelligencer 4, (November 1811): 429–35; “The English Review of Buchanan’s Researches,” Connecticut Evangelical Magazine and Religious Intelligencer 4, (December 1811): 458–70; “Review of Christian Researches,” The Adviser; Or, Vermont Evangelical Magazine 4, (May 1812): 147–59; “The English Review of Buchanan's Researches,” The Adviser; Or, Vermont Evangelical Magazine 4, (June 1812): 173–83; “The English Review of Buchanan’s Researches,” The Adviser; Or, Vermont Evangelical Magazine 4, (July 1812): 200–206.

48. Ibid., 59–61.

49. “On the Ruinous Effects of Ardent Spirits,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 5, (February 1813): 416–17.

50. For more on the history of the ABCFM see Andrew, John A., Rebuilding the Christian Commonwealth : New England Congregationalists and Foreign Missions, 1800-1830 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1976)Google Scholar; Corr, Donald Phillip, “‘The Field Is theWorld’: Proclaiming, Translating, and Serving by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 18101-40” (Ph.D. diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 1993)Google Scholar; Phillips, Clifton Jackson, Protestant America and the Pagan World: The First Half Century of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810-1860 (Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1969)Google Scholar; Shenk, Wilbert R., ed., North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004)Google Scholar; for a larger history of American missionaries in India, see Pathak, Sushil Madhava, American Missionaries and Hinduism (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1967)Google Scholar.

51. While at sea on their way to India, the Judsons and Luther Rice had an awakening and became Baptists. Rice returned to America to organize a Baptist missionary movement, and the Judsons established a Baptist mission in Burma.

52. Elsbree, The Rise of the Missionary Spirit in America, 110–14.

53. Newell, Harriet, “Letter from Mrs. Newell,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 5, (April 1813): 515 Google Scholar.

54. Ibid.

55. “Juggernaut and His Worship,” Monthly Paper of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, no. 11 (May 1833).

56. For the history of hook-swinging and colonial attempts to suppress it, see Oddie, Geoffrey A., Popular Religion, Elites, and Reform: Hook-Swinging and Its Prohibition in Colonial India, 1800-1894 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1995)Google Scholar.

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58. Hall, Gordon, “Journal of the Rev. Gordon Hall, Missionary at Bombay,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 12 (December 1816): 571 Google Scholar.

59. Hall, Gordon and Newell, Samuel, “Journal of the Mission at Bombay,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Herald 14 (February 1818): 79 Google Scholar.

60. Hall, Gordon and Newell, Samuel, “Journal of the Bombay Mission,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 13 (December 1817): 560 Google Scholar.

61. Ibid.

62. Hall and Newell, “American Missionaries,” 324.

63. Jackson, Carl T., The Oriental Religions and American Thought: Nineteenth-Century Explorations (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981), 90 Google Scholar.

64. Bardwell, Horatio, “Mission at Bombay and the Vicinity,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Herald 16 (October 1820): 457 Google Scholar.

65. Hall, Gordon and Newell, Samuel, “Journal of the Bombay Mission,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 13 (November 1817): 526 Google Scholar.

66. Hall, Gordon, “American Missionaries,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 12, (November 1816): 507 Google Scholar.

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68. Ibid., 505.

69. Hall, Gordon, “Journal of the Rev. Gordon Hall,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 13 (January 1817): 35 Google Scholar.

70. Hall, “Journal of the Rev. GordonHall, Missionary at Bombay,” 571.

71. John Nichols, “Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Nichols at Salsette,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Herald 16 (August 1820): 374.

72. Stone, Cyrus, “Extracts from Mr. Stone's Private Journal,” The Missionary Herald 25 (September 1829): 266 Google Scholar.

73. Ramsey, William, “Journal of Mr. Ramsey: Heathen Worship–Hindoo Indolence,” Missionary Herald 28 (May 1832): 148 Google Scholar.

74. Hall, Gordon and Newell, Samuel, “Extracts from the Journal of Messrs. Hall and Newell, at Bombay,” The Panoplist, and Missionary Magazine 13 (August 1817): 371 Google Scholar.

75. Ibid.

76. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, “Extracts from a Joint Letter of the Missionaries, Dated January 1829,” Missionary Herald 25 (November 1829): 340 Google Scholar.

77. Hall, Gordon, “Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Hall,” Missionary Herald 18 (July 1822): 220 Google Scholar.

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79. Ibid., 24.

80. Phillips, Protestant America and the Pagan World, 273.

81. Pennington, Was Hinduism Invented? 96.

82. Ibid.

83. Robertson, Bruce Carlisle, Raja Rammohan Ray: The Father of Modern India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), 12 Google Scholar.

84. Ibid., 19.

85. Roy, Rammohun, Translation of an Abridgement of the Vedant, Or, Resolution of All the Veds (London: T. and J. Hoitt, 1817), iii–iv Google Scholar.

86. Singh, Iqbal, Rammohun Roy: A Biographical Inquiry into the Making of Modern India, vol. 1 (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1958), 88 Google Scholar.

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89. “A Remarkable Hindoo Reformer,” Christian Disciple 5 (April 5, 1817): 123–26; “Account of Rammohun Roy,” Boston Recorder 2 (April 29, 1817): 69.

90. The Missionary Register article was itself a reprint of an article from another British magazine,Christian Observer.

91. “A Remarkable Hindoo Reformer,” 123; “Account of Rammohun Roy,” 69.

92. “Account of Rammohun Roy,” 69.

93. “A Remarkable Hindoo Reformer,” 124; “Account of Rammohun Roy,” 69.

94. “A Remarkable Hindoo Reformer,” 124; “Account of Rammohun Roy,” 69.

95. “Account of Rammohun Roy,” 69.

96. Ibid.

97. “A Remarkable Hindoo Reformer,” 126.

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99. Jackson identifies Tudor as the author of the anonymously published article, see his Oriental Religions and African Thought, 34.

100. Tudor, “Theology of the Hindoos, as Taught by Ram Mohun Roy,” 386.

101. Ibid., 387.

102. “Rammohun Roy: The Celebrated Hindoo Reformer,” Boston Recorder 4 (September 18, 1819): 156.

103. Roy, Rammohun, The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness, Extracted From the Books of the New Testament Ascribed to the Four Evangelists. To Which Are Added the First and Second Appeal to the Christian Public, in Reply to the Observations of Dr. Marshman of Serampore (New York: B. Bates, 1825), xviii Google Scholar.

104. Ibid., xxv.

105. Collet, The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, 55–77; Jackson, The Oriental Religions and American Thought, 33; Killingley, Dermot, Rammohun Roy in Hindu and Christian Tradition: The Teape Lectures 1990 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Grevatt and Grevatt, 1993), 138–43Google Scholar; Robertson, Raja Rammohan Ray, 39–42; Singh, Rammohun Roy 1:216–43.

106. Smith, Southwood, “Rammohun Roy,” Christian|Register (November 23, 1821): 57 Google Scholar.

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109. “Reply of the Baptist Missionaries at Calcutta, to Rammohun Roy,” Christian Watchman 4 (March 29, 1823): 61.

110. Ibid.

111. “Rammohun Roy,” Christian Watchman (November 29, 1823): 202; “Unitarianism in India,” Boston Recorder 8 (December 6, 1823): 193.

112. “Rammohun Roy,” Missionary Herald (September 1824, 301): The use of “Hindooism” here is interesting. The term is uncommon in the American sources and used here by a Briton in Calcutta. Roy himself used “Hindooism” in 1816 and “Hinduism” in 1817. Lorenzen notes that despite its use here and there, the term Hinduism did not come into common British use until the second fourth of the nineteenth century. As I argue here, it did not come into common American use until much later. Lorenzen, “Who Invented Hinduism?,” 631–632.

113. “Rammohun Roy,” The Missionary Herald (September 1824): 301.

114. “Rammohun Roy,” Christian Watchman (September 11, 1824): 159.

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120. Ibid.

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132. Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions; King, Orientalism and Religion.

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