Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the ways that the Rev. Ishwari Dass, a pioneer 19th-century North Indian Presbyterian leader, adapted and presented Reformed theology in his "Lectures On Theology" for a religious audience that included both Muslims and Hindus.

Paper long abstract:

In 1860 the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta published a prize-winning essay, "Lectures On Theology, Adapted To The Natives Of India," written in the 1850s by a Presbyterian minister and teacher from Uttar Pradesh, the Rev. Ishwari Dass. A cursory reading of the theology leaves one with the impression that it is simply a presentation of the Princeton theology of Dass' American missionary mentors and colleagues. However, upon closer examination the text yields surprising results. Dass is well aware of important religious ideas in his North Indian context, and at critical junctures in his work he adapts the strict Calvinism being taught at Princeton Seminary (which he had visited as a young man) so that it coheres with Hindu and Islamic thought that he knows. The text thus periodically harmonizes Hindu, Muslim and Christian thought. Dass also strongly opposes some religious ideas that he sees prevalent in his milieu. Throughout the text, he aims to handle his material so that it both makes sense to a North Indian reading public, and garners the approval of the missionary community to which he was responsible. The conference paper will examine Dass's theological work, showing how it was indeed a Protestant Christian theology adapted for the natives of North India, but also adapted for European Protestant missionaries working in North India who were, after all, providing the prize of Rs. 500.