CAREY'S CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
The Danish charter--The British treaty--Growth of native Christian
community--Lord Minto's concession of self-governing privileges--Madras
Decennial Conference and Serampore degrees--Proposed reorganisation of
College so as to teach and examine for B.D. and other degrees--Appeal
for endowments of Carey's Christian University
Attention has already been directed to the far-seeing plans which Carey
laid down for Serampore College. It is a pleasure to record that while
this volume is in the press (1909), a scheme is being promoted by the
College Council for the reorganisation of the College on the lines of
Carey's ideal, with a view to making it a centre of higher ministerial
training for all branches of the Indian Church.
It will be remembered that in 1827 the College received from Friedrich
VI. a Royal Charter, empowering it to confer degrees, and giving to it
all the rights which are possessed by Western Universities. Under
Treaty dated the 6th October, 1845, the King of Denmark agreed to
transfer to the Governor-General of India, Lord Hardinge, G.C.B., for
the sum of £125,000, the towns of Tranquebar, Frederiksnagore or
Serampore,[30] and the old factory site at Balasore. Article 6 of this
treaty provides that "the rights and immunities granted to the
Serampore College by Royal Charter, of date 23rd of February, 1827,
shall not be interfered with, but continue in force in the same manner
as if they had been obtained by a Charter from the British Government,
subject to the General Law of British India."[31]
For lack of an endowment sufficient to maintain the teaching staff
required, and to establish the necessary scholarships, the College has
never been fully developed on University lines. Since 1883 it has been
used as a training Institution for preachers and teachers for the
Bengal field of the Baptist Missionary Society. Meanwhile in the
century since Carey's statesman-like ideal was sketched, under the
providence of God there have been two notable developments in the
conditions of Indian life--(1) the educated Christian natives of India,
from Cape Comorin to Peshawar, have grown, and continue to grow, in
numbers, in character, and in influence, with a rapidity pronounced
marvellous by the official report of the Census of 1901; (2) the three
hundred millions of the peoples of India have, by the frank concession
of the Earl of Minto and his advisers, and the sanction of Viscount
Morley and Parliament, received a virtual constitution, which
recognises their fitness for self-governing rights under the benevolent
rule of King Edward VII. and his Viceroy in Council. Christianity, and
the leaven of the more really educated Christian natives, will alone
moralise and loyalise the peoples of India, and prepare future
generations for a healthy independence, material and political.
As they have watched the lines along which these developments have
proceeded, the leaders of the missionary enterprise have become more
and more convinced that the realisation of Carey's ideal has been too
long delayed, and that the influence of the Christian community on the
great movements of Indian thought has suffered in consequence. In
particular, while the need for highly-equipped Indian preachers,
evangelists and leaders, is far more urgent now even than it was in
Carey's day, the most experienced missionaries of all societies are far
from satisfied with the present level of theological education in the
Indian Church. They are convinced that the time has come to reorganise
the whole system of ministerial training, and to secure for the study
of Christian Theology in India that academic recognition which it has
enjoyed for centuries in Western lands. Since the British Government
is pledged to neutrality in religious matters, it is unable to sanction
the establishment of Divinity faculties, in any of the State
Universities, Hence the Decennial Missionary Conference, representing
all the Protestant Missionary Societies working in India, meeting in
Madras in December 1902, appointed a Committee "to confer with the
Council of the Serampore College, through the Committee of the London
Baptist Missionary Society, to ascertain whether they are prepared to
delegate the degree-conferring powers of the Charter of that College to
a Senate or Faculty, representative of the various Protestant Christian
Churches and Societies working in India."
The College Council (of which Meredith Townsend, Esq., is Master, and
Alfred Henry Baynes, Esq., F.R.G.S., is Secretary), has taken this
request into careful consideration, and after being assured by the
highest legal opinion that the Charter is still valid, has resolved to
do everything in its power to carry out the suggestions of the
Decennial Conference. They realise, however, that if the
degree-conferring powers of the Charter are to be used, the College
itself must be raised to the highest standard of efficiency as a
Teaching Institution, and its permanence must be guaranteed by an
adequate endowment.
The Council has felt that the attainment of these two objects is
possible only through a union of the forces of the various Protestant
Christian Churches working in India. The result has been the adoption
of a wise and catholic project of reorganisation, under which it is
hoped that Serampore will become a great interdenominational College of
University rank, giving a theological training up to the standard of
the London B.D., conferring its own divinity degrees, and maintaining
an Arts and Science department, for the present at least affiliated to
the Calcutta University. It is justly claimed that such a Christian
University at Serampore will both unify and raise the standard of
theological education in the Indian Church, helping to build the
Eastern structure of Christian thought and life on the one Foundation
of Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
The scheme which the Council has sanctioned contemplates the permanent
endowment of the requisite professorships and scholarships. The
College building will provide sufficient class-room accommodation, but
it will be necessary to secure additional land, and to erect houses for
the staff and hostels for the students. An immediate endowment of
£250,000 is aimed at with a view of establishing a well-equipped
theological faculty, with a preliminary department in Arts and
Sciences. The Council, however, is not without hope that in due time
Carey's noble vision of a great Christian University at Serampore
conferring its own degrees, not only in theology but in all branches of
useful learning, may powerfully appeal to some of the merchant princes
of the West. It is estimated that the sum of £2,000,000 would be
required for this equipment and endowment of the University on this
larger scale. The great missionary Churches and Societies look
favourably on the proposal, initiated by their own missionaries, to
co-operate with Carey's more immediate representatives in realising and
applying his ideal which is bound to expand and grow as India becomes
Christianised.
The members of the College Council maintain that, in view of the
world-wide influence of the modern missionary movement, inaugurated by
William Carey, a movement that has been so beneficial both to the
Church at home and to non-Christian nations, there is no institution
that has greater historical and spiritual claims upon modern
philanthropy than Serampore, and they believe that there are large
numbers of men and women in Great Britain, America, India and other
lands who will consider it a sacred privilege to have their names
inscribed with those of Carey, Marshman and Ward on the walls of
Serampore College as its second founders.
The Council is doing all within its power to reorganise the College on
the broadest possible basis, believing that an institution with such
inspiring traditions and associations should be utilised in the
interests, not merely of one denomination, but of the whole Church in
India and the nation. Up to the present, the Council, though legally
an entirely independent body, has worked in the closest association
with the Baptist Missionary Society's Committee. But now with the
fullest sympathy both of the Baptist Missionaries on the field and the
Committee in England, it is also inviting the co-operation of all
evangelical Christian bodies in the work of Serampore College. It is
prepared to welcome as full professors of the College, in Arts and
Theology, representatives of other evangelical missions, who shall have
special superintendence of the students belonging to their respective
denominations, and be free to give them such supplementary instruction
as may be thought necessary. All professors without distinction of
denomination will share equally in the local management of the affairs
of the College. The final authority must, in accordance with the
Charter, remain in the hands of the College Council, but in order to
admit of the due representation upon the Council of the various
evangelical bodies which may co-operate, the present members of Council
have, with the hearty concurrence of the Baptist Missionary Society's
Committee, approved the suggestion that application should be made to
the Indian Legislature for powers to enlarge its membership.
The Honorary Secretary of the College Council, A. H. Baynes, Esq., 19
Furnival Street, London, E.C., will be glad to supply further
information, or to receive contributions towards the Fund for the
endowment and equipment of the College.
In view of the conditions at present existing in India, this appeal
should be of interest not only to friends of Christian missions, but to
philanthropists generally, for a Christian University, conducted on the
broad and catholic principles laid down by Carey, supplementary but in
no way antagonistic to the existing Universities, will be a most
effective instrument for permeating the political and social ideals of
the youth of India with the spirit of Christ. This is a matter that
deeply concerns, not only the Missionary, but also the statesman, the
merchant, and all true friends of India of whatever race or creed.
In all the romance of Christian Missions, from Iona to Canterbury,
there is no more evident example of the working of the Spirit of God
with the Church, than the call of Carey and the foundation of Serampore
College under Danish Charter and British treaty, making it the only
University with full powers to enable the whole Reformed Church in
India to work out its own theological system and Christian life.