Tamil Nadu govt to observe Robert Caldwell bicentenaryB Sivakumar, TNN | May 5, 2014, 04.55PM ISTCHENNAI: The bicentenary of Tamil scholar Robert Caldwell willbe observed as a government function. An order to this was issued by chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday.

In a statement, Jayalalithaa said: "Based on a request from Tirunelveli diocese bishop J J Chisthodoss to celebrate the bicentenary of Caldwell in a fitting manner, the government has accepted his request."

The bicentenary celebrations will begin at the tomb of Caldwell at Idayankudi in Tirunelveli district on Wednesday. The chief minister has directed her ministerial colleagues to participate in the function and also garland the statue of Caldwell on the Marina Beach on that day.

Caldwell, a native of Ireland, was born in 1814 and entered the Church services at the age of 23 and made Idayankudi his home. He was proficient in various European languages as well as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu and other Dravidian languages.

He published a book titled 'A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages' which in later days became an important book for Tamil researchers, the statement said.

Caldwell was honoured by the Asiatic Society and Madras University. He died in 1891 at Kodaikanal and was buried at Idayankudi.

DMK chief M Karunanidhi and other senior leaders, including K Anbazhagan and M K Stalin, would garland the statue of Caldwell on Marina Beach on May 7, said a press release issuedby the party. The release also asked the Chennai unit of the party to gather in strength to honour the late Tamil scholar on his bicentenary.

Robert Caldwell

Contributed by David Gore

Robert Caldwell in South India

Young RobertRobert Caldwell was brought up as a Presbyterian Scot. He became an Evangelist missionary and linguist who worked for over fifty years ministering to 'the poorest of the poor' in Tinnevelly, the southernmost and one of the hottest districtsof India. He arrived first at Madras in 1838 as a non-conformist minister under the auspices of the LMS (London Missionary Society). There he learnt Tamil and was so attracted by the beauty of the language that he also explored

its rich literature and poetry and became familiar with some of the other languages of the region. He even learned German so that he could study the work of Schwartz, Rhenius and other Lutheran missionaries of the past. Like them, he felt that he could do more good by ministering not to the privileged higher castes in the towns and European settlements but to the poorest and most isolated communities.He therefore transferred to the Anglican SPG (Society for thePropagation of the Gospel) who sent him to Tinnevelly. He walked the 800 miles south to the village of Idaiyangudi where he established his mission station: it was to be his home for the next 36 years. That was until 1877 when this erstwhile Presbyterian was consecrated an Anglican Bishop.

His life story and saintly qualities are still remembered in India, and the influence of his name and the schools that he and his wife, Eliza, founded echo today in the lives of the men and women of South India whatever their faith. Many of them are the beneficiaries of the Tamil revival and the Non-Brahmin movement as a whole to which Caldwell was an important stimulus. His role as "a pioneer Dravidian linguist" was acknowledged in 1968 when his statue was erected on the Marina Beach in Madras. The Indian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, editor of the recent biography of the Bishop, commented that Caldwell's "contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region is unmatched during the last two hundred years". In "The Hindu" newspaper's review of that biography one gets a modern view of Caldwell from a Hindu perspective: they call him a "pioneering champion of the downtrodden", and "a model for modern social workers everywhere"! In 2010the government of Tamil Nadu paid this 19th century 'foreign'missionary the considerable compliment ofissuing a postage stamp in his memory:

At the end of Robert Caldwell's last visitto England when friends tried to persuadethe old missionary to remain at home, hisreply illustrates his affection for thepeople of Tamilnad: "I wish to die amongstthe people for whom I have lived", and in1891 after half a century of labour, hiswish was fulfilled. He and Eliza are buried Tamil Nadu Stamp

beneath the chancel of Holy Trinity, Idaiyangudi, the church which he took 33 years to build. The strands of Caldwell's life and work in India are well summarised on his memorial tablet in St George's Cathedral in Madras:-

"Excelling as a Scholar and Philologist, intimately acquainted with the Tamil people, their history, language and customs, a ready and elegant Writer, he attained a wide reputation, bringing honour thereby to the Missionary's calling, and strengthening the cause of Missions in the Church at home. But all his attainments and fame did not divert him from his great purpose and the simplicity of his Missionary life. He continued to be an earnest, sympathizing, vigilant watcher of souls. By his Apostolic labours and example, he trained many native agents, brought thousands of heathen into the Church of Christ, raised the character and status not of the Christians only, but also of those without the Church, and won their attachment and reverence."

A detailed account of Bishop Caldwell's life and work in India begins at: Faith and Family

Robert CaldwellFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the bishop. For the Master of Corpus Christi, see Robert Caldwell (academic). For the American politician, see Robert Porter Caldwell. For the Australian politician, see Robert Caldwell (Australian politician).

Robert Caldwell

Born 7 May 1814Clady, County Londonderry

Died 28 August 1891 (aged 77)

Nationality British

Occupation missionary

Bishop Robert Caldwell (7 May 1814 – 28 August 1891) was an Evangelist missionary and linguist, who academically established the Dravidian family of languages. He served as Assistant Bishop of Tirunelveli from 1877.[citation needed] He was described in The Hindu as a 'pioneering champion of the downtrodden' and an 'avant-garde social reformer'.[1] The

Government of Tamil Nadu has created a memorial in his honour and a postage stamp has been issued in his name.[2][3] On the Madras Marina, a statue of Caldwell was erected as a gift of the Church of South India in 1967.

Contents

1 Early life 2 The Dravidian languages 3 Archaeological research 4 Life's work 5 Works 6 Notes 7 Further reading

Early life

Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, then in County Antrim, Ireland, on 7 May 1814 to poor Scottish Presbyterian parents. The family moved to Glasgow and there he began work at the ageof nine. Mostly self-taught, he returned to Ireland aged 15, living with an older brother in Dublin while studying art between 1829-33. He then returned to Glasgow, probably as a consequence of a crisis of faith, and he became active in the Congregational church.[4]

Caldwell won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford only to find it rescinded when the authorities discovered that he had been born in Ireland. He responded by joining the London Missionary Society, who sent him to the University of Glasgow for training. There Caldwell came under the influence of Daniel Keyte Sandford, a professor of Greek and promoter of Anglicanism whose innovative research encouraged Caldwell's liking for comparative philology and also theology. Caldwell left university with a distinction and was ordained as a Congregationalist minister.[4]

At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on 8 January 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). To further his missionary objectives, Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to proselytise the masses andhe began a systematic study of the language. He was

consecrated Bishop of Tirunelveli in 1877. In 1844, Caldwell married Eliza Mault (1822–99); the couple was to have seven children together. She was the younger daughter of the veteranTravancore missionary, Reverend Charles Mault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Nagercoil and Tirunelveli proselytising the vulnerable, especially Tamil-speaking women.

The Dravidian languages

Robert Caldwell used the term Dravidian to separate languages prevalent in South India from other, more Sanskrit-affiliated languages of India. Apart from the main South Indian languagesof Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, Brahui in Afghanistan is considered to belong to the Dravidian language family. A few more languages have been identified as such. Scholars in the 19th century prior to Caldwell considered Tamil and other South Indian languages to be rooted in Sanskrit and affiliated to the Indo-European language family. Many linguists have accepted and confirmed Caldwell's work butcritics such as Charles E. Gover, author of The Folk Songs of South India, have disagreed with his findings.

Archaeological research

While serving as Bishop of Tirunelveli (alongside Edward Sargent), Caldwell did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature in his search, and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of the Pandyan Kingdom.[5] This work resulted in his book A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevely (1881), published by the Government of the Madras Presidency.

This book has been described as being on occasion "... pejorative, outrageous, and somewhat paternalistic. But on thewhole his studies represent a pioneering effort to understand religions completely foreign to the British mind". It remains a respected work today.[6]

Life's work

Caldwell’s mission lasted more than fifty years. The publication of his research into both the languages and the history of the region, coupled with his position in both Indian and English society, gave stimulus to the radicalisation of the Non-Brahmin movement.[7]

Meanwhile, on difficult ground for evangelism, Caldwell achieved Christian conversion among the lower castes. He had adopted some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries of earlier times, having learned German purely in order to study their practices.[8]

In summary, Caldwell the Tamil language scholar, Christian evangelist and champion of the native church,[9] remains today an important figure in the modern history of South India. He is still remembered there, and his statue, erected eighty years after his death, stands near the Marina Beach at Chennai.[10] The Indian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, recently commented that Caldwell’s "contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening ofthe region is unmatched during the last two hundred years".[11]

A commemorative postage stamp on him was issued on 7 May 2010.[12]

Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814 - 1891)  

 

    Robert Caldwell was born near Belfast, Ireland on may 7,1814. He was born in a poor family. His family moved over to Glasgow, Scotland when he was young. He began working in Glasgow when he was nine in

order to supplement the family income. He educated himself by reading voraciously. Then he went to Dublin where he underwent training as an artist. He accepted Christ when he was sixteen. He moved over to Glasgow when he was nineteen. In 1834, he joined the congregationalChurch and decided to go as a missionary to India. He applied to the London Missionary Society (LMS) which accepted him a missionary. On the advice of the LMS, he entered the Glasgow University where he had Daniel Sanford as his tutor, who was a pioneer of comparative philology. Caldwell studied Latin, Greek and Theology.

      Caldwell excelled in his studies, and soon after completion of the University education, he was ordained in the Congregational Church. Then the LMS appointed him as a missionary and sent him to serve in Madras on January 8, 1838. he engaged himself in learning both Tamil and Telugu. He concentrated on spoken Tamil as he desired to work among ordinary people. He read a lot including those on Hinduism. He had a good rapport with missionaries of other missionary societies such as John Anderson of the ScottishSociety. He interacted with other missionaries mainly to widen his knowledge. Indeed a scholarwas born. 

      He worked as a LMS missionary for three years. Though he was based in Madras (now knownas Chennai) he went on mission tours to Telugu speaking areas too.

CALDWELL JOINS SPG 

       Caldwell while working in Madras as a LMS missionary, began to feel that the AnglicanChurch was more nearer to the teachings of the New Testament and so got attracted to it. He, after much thinking and praying, decided to join the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). The Madras District Committee (MDC) of the SPG accepted him as a missionary and postedhim to Idaiyangudi. The SPG had not appointed any new missionary in Tinnevelly

(Tirunelveli) for the last couple of years. There were two other missionaries in Tirunelveli and they were India - born Europeans. As the SPG wished him to be a full-fledged SPG missionary, his connection with LMSceased from June 30, 1841. He proceeded to Ootacamund to meet Bishop G.J.T. Spencer, with whom he spent a month or s, during which time he was made aware of the tenets of the church of England as well as the responsibilities of amissionary. On September 19, 1841 he was ordained by Bishop Spencer at St. Stephen's Church, Ootacamund. Then he started for Tirunelveli, and most of his journey was on foot. He made much use of this journey to studyHindu beliefs, customs, worship and the like. He visited a couple of famous Hindu temples too. At Playamkottai he met the CMS Missionary Petit and at Nazareth, the SPG missionary A.F. Cammerer.

AT IDAIYANGUDI

         From Nazareth Caldwell went to Mudalurand then Idaiyangudi, which was ten miles from Mudalur. Walking on the sandy tracks was an experience by itself to him. He conducted the first divine worship at Idaiyangudi on Sunday December 11, 1841. 

   Caldwell found Christians scatteredin about twenty villages around Idaiyangudi. He found the local people to be hard working, unlettered

and poor. Most of them were either Palmyra climbers or agricultural laboureres.

         Caldwell settled down in Idaiyangudi. He wished to convert the 'theri' into a beautiful place of living. He found the villageto be in a disorderly fashion. There were no streets. The houses had no ventilation and theywere not in any order. He wished to bring changes there and make Idaiyangudi a model village. He realised that unless the village belonged to the mission, no change could be brought in. In 1842, he began to take steps to buy the lands but he had to face a lot of problems. He found it to be a difficult job, yet he did not wish to abandon his dream. He had to pay quite sum of money to acquire ownership of the lands.

          Though people did not initially approve of his plans of an orderly village, he by himself drew up the plans as to where the Church building had to be, the location of houses, streets, cross-roads, wells etc. He planted trees in rows - infact, he continued  planting tress till the end of his life. We cansay that he was very much ecologically concerned.   

CALDWELL'S FAMILY

        Caldwell married Eliza, a daughter of the senior most LMS missionary at Nagercoil,

Charles Mault. The marriage took place at Nagercoil on March 20, 1844. Caldwell spoke spoke very highly of his wife. She was a great source of strength and encouragement . She concentrated on woman's work. Their oldest was Robert Caldwell who in 1860 was helped to Caldwell in his educational and other missionary activities.Their other children wereIsabella (1847), Martha Louisa (1849), William (1852), Mary (1854), Addington (1857) and Arthur (1862). Isabella and Louisa were of muchhelp in educational ministry. Isabella married J.L. Wyatt, a SPG missionary at Idaiyangudi on February 19, 1868. Both of them were a great source of strength in Caldwell's ministry throughout his life. Caldwell's second daughterLouisa was married to an Army Engineer by name F.S. Shepherd on February 9, 1870 at Idaiyangudi. She gave birth to twin sons, who died the same day, and she died the following day, i.e. October 8, 1872. This happened at Idaiyangudi, and it was a great blow to Caldwell.

CALDWELL THE EVANGELIST

         Caldwell was basically an evangelist. He had a burning desire to propagate the Christian faith and to establish the Kingdom ofGod on this earth. He made frequent and regularvisits to the villages around Idaiyangudi and in  the area assigned to him. As he was adept

in Tamil language, he was able to communicate well to the ordinary people. He made it a pointto preach the Gospel to the non-Christians in the villages he visited. He stayed in Idaiyangudi  for two or three days in a week. By 1844 he was superintending twenty-one congregations and nine schools. There were about two thousand enquirers by that time. Theywere organized into a proper catechumenate.

        Caldwell was in close contact with the CMS missionary, JohnThomas of Meignanapuram. Hehad described him as a man of many gifts and accomplishments. He consulted him often on manymatters, shared with him the problems he faced especially in his missionary endeavors and asked for his advice. He had John Thomas as a model in his evangelism. 

          Having realized the important role the catechists played in evangelism, he starteda 'Preparandi' school for the catechists in 1842. He personally gave them training. He met the catechists at Idaiyangudi on every Wednesday, during which time he received their reports, gave a model sermon, gave them a passage from the Bible for preparing a sermon and listened to their sermon. To improve their caliber further, he conducted a yearly test forthe Catechists. This was to test their grasp ofthe Bible as well as the doctrines of the Church. He awarded prizes to the catechists,

which was called Monckton prize named after thedonor. Those who received it were known as 'Monckton catechists' who were respected more and treated honorably.

            Caldwell felt the need for Indian clergy as no new mission workers were forthcoming from England. One of the early Indian helpers was Rev. A. Masillamani, who wasordained as a deacon in 1856. He was the secondIndian to be ordained in the Tirunelveli SPG area. The third one was G. Gnanamuthu who was ordained as a deacon in 1857. D. Samuel was ordained in 1862. The CMS missionaries in the Tirunelveli area, Edward Sargent, Tucker and John Thomas also were in line with the thinkingof Caldwell. They proposed to the Bishop of Madras that they be permitted to train Indians and recommended them for ordination. As a result, an ordination sevice took place at Palayamkottai on January 31, 1869 for such Indians trained by the above mentioned missionaries. Out of the twenty-one persons ordained as deacons, six were trained by Caldwell. They were G. Peter (Idaiyangudi), S. Christian (Taruvai), G. Yesudian (Pettaikulam),S. Swamiyadian (Pudur), S. Joseph (Jacobpuram) and P. Swamiyadian (Aanaikudi).

           Caldwell encouraged the locals to take up on them the resposibility to share the gospel with their neighbours and to those in

the unreached areas in Tirunelveli. In 1860 or so the Idaiyangudi Native Association for the propagation of the Gospel was started. It was known in short as "Sangam". It had its own annual meetings. This respect of self-propagation was in the director of Devolution. During 1875-76 an intensive evangelistic campaign involving the locals was conducted.

CALDWELL AND EDUCATIONAL MINISTRY

          Caldwell knew very well the importance of imparting knowledge. The earlier missionaries who worked in Tirunelveli, especially the SPCK missionaries, had started elementary schools in almost all the villages where they had formed Christian congregations. When Caldwell arrived in Idaiyangudi in 1841, he found the schools in a pitiable state. They were dwindling and the attendance was very poor. So, he had to coax the children to come to school. As the students were from poorer background, he gave one paise per day per childfor attending the classes. Very soon the parents of the pupils, especially the Christians came to realize the value of education and so willingly sent their wards to the schools. These elementary schools taught the pupils how to read, write and do the sums (arithmetic). The intention of the mission in general was to enable the convents to read for themselves the Bible.

             Caldwell started a school for girls also, but his efforts were ridiculed by asub magistrate, who visited the village. Eliza Caldwell got into girls' education from the time she landed in Idaiyangudi (1844). She started a Girls' Boarding School in May 1844. Eight joined in the beginning, but within a fewyears its strength rose to more than one hundred. She used education as a tool to changethe attitude of girls about themselves. She wanted them to grew in grace and maturity, and to bring change in their husbands and fathers. Eliza Caldwell started Lace-making classes for the girls of the villages. It was intended to make them stand on their own legs by earning through the lace-making. Eliza arranged for thesale of the finished products both within Indiaand outside, especially in England.

           Caldwell's daughters too got involved in girl's education. They took steps to collect money from their friends in England for the support of the girls in the Boarding schools. Though Caldwell did not throw cold water on their efforts, he did not wish them tocontinue that fund-raising since he did not wish the young church to become dependent on the Mission. He felt that the parents should come forward to meet the cost, at least to an extent, of educating their children.

            When Eliza Caldwell moved to Tuticorin (Thoothukudi) as Biscopina (wife of abishop), she started Day Girls' schools for high caste Hindu girls. In 1884, there were twenty-three girls in the Day school at Thoothukudi Melur and twenty-four at Thoothukudi Keelur. Out of these forty-seven, twenty five were married. Eliza Caldwell was concerned about the women who were not able to get the chance to attend Such Day Schools, and so appointed two Bible women to meet such womenin their own places of stay. So this ministry came to be known as "Zenana" ministry. 

            During the second half of the Nineteenth century, most of the missions in India began to rethink their policy towards educational ministry. SPG too faced such a question. Some schools in the Tirunelveli area were either closed down or merged with nearby ones or lowered down as elementary schools. Yetthere were a few SPG missionaries who supported  the idea of starting higher educational institutions. The Sawyerpuram institution (known earlier as Sawyerpuram Seminary) was raised into a college in 1880 andRev. T. Adamson became its first principal. This move was not well received by some missionaries themselves, notable of whom was Arthur Margoschis. There were difference of opinion between J.A. Sharrock the SPG missionary who succeeded T. Adamson as

principal of Sawyerpuram institution and A. Margoschis. This affected their missionary activities too. The Madras District committee (M.D.C.) suggested the shifting of the Sawyerpuram institution from Sawyerpuram, a village to Tuticorin, a town. after consulting Bishop Caldwell, the MDC shifted it to Thoothukudi and named it as "Caldwell College".This happened about the beginning of 1883 or the end of 1882 and very soon at the suggestionof the Metropolitan  Bishop E.R. Johnson, Caldwell's residence changed from Idaiyangudi to Thoothukudi. 

 

 CALDWELL AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO TAMIL LANGUAGE

           Caldwell understood the necessity tolearn and master the local language if he had to be an effective missionary. This was a legacy of Pietism. He very soon came to be recognized for his mastery of Tamil language. So when the Bible society felt the need to revise the Tamil Bible, Caldwell was requested to serve in the revision committee, for which Henry Bower was the convener. This Revision Committee met from April 1858 to April 1869 at regular intervals. Caldwell took part in all its meeting and his contribution in the Bible Translation was much appreciated. This new

translation known as 'Bower Version' came out in 1872.

            The Anglican Church in Tirunelveli felt the need to get the Book of Common Prayer retranslated and so a committee was formed. Bishop Spencer (Bishop of Madras) decided that Caldwell should be in that committee. This committee began its work in 1842 and completed the revision in 1844. This revised edition began to be used in the Tamil congregations from January 1, 1845. The English hymns found in the Tamil Hymnal were translated by Caldwell.

         Tamil scholars and Tamil people consider him as a legend. They remember him forhis great works of scholarship, particularly the book titled 'A comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of languages',the first edition of which was published in 1856, and a second edition, revised and enlarged in 1873. This still remains a standardauthority. His work proved invaluable in the revival of Tamil literature and culture after 1940. The second World Tamil Conference held inChennai acknowledged his contribution to Tamil and the then Tamilnadu Government honoured him by erecting his statue on the Beach Road, Marina, Chennai. In 1866 Glasgow University honoured him by conferring a Honorary LLD

degree on him in recognition of his monumental work. 

             Caldwell's two other major works of Scholarship are : 'A Plitical and General History of the district of Tirunelveli from theearliest time to AD 1881' and 'A Record of the Early history of the Tirunelveli Mission of theSociety for the Promotion of Christian knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel'. Both these books came out in 1881.

              In 1849 he got  a book titled 'Nadars of Tirunelveli' published in England but it created opposition and much controversy.   He tried his level best to explain the purpose of it, yet he faced  problems. It was later withdrawn (may be in 1881.

CALDWELL AND THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, IDAIYANGUDI

                Caldwell is much remembered also for the monumental construction of a vast cathedral-like Church at Idaiyangudi. The Church building, which was raised earlier got much damaged in 1845 in a cyclone. He planned to rebuild it but on a much larger scale. The foundation was laid in the early days of October  1848. He thought of raising the new building within three of four years. But due to

various reasons it took thirty-two years for completion. D.A. Christudoss in his book 'Bishop Caldwell' (Tamil 1980) gives a graphic description of the newly built church, which was of the Gothic style. It was dedicated on July 6, 1880 as the 'Holy Trinity Church'. His and his wife's mortal remains were buried inside that church building.

               Caldwell built St. Peter;s Church, Kodaikanal, which served as a private chapel for his retirement home.

CALDWELL AS BISHOP

             The Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli) mission area was growing and it was felt as early as 1861 that a suffragan bishop should beappointed for Tirunelveli. It was suggested to appoint an Indian but there were too many opinions, for and against. So it was shelved for that time. Bishop Gell of Madras suggested in 1873 to raise Edward Sargent (CMS) and Caldwell (SPG) as suffragan bishops. Caldwell was eminent for learning and held in high honour both in Eangland and India. On March 11,1877 Metropolitan Bishop Johnson consecrated inCalcutta, Caldwell and Sargent as assistant bishops of Tirunelveli.

                 Though Caldwell was getting old he visited the congregations under his careas bishop quite regularly. There were other

difficulties too. Some of hisbrother missionaries considered him as one among the missionaries, and not as a Bishop, Caldwell didnot seem to mind it. The death of Bishop of Bishop E. Sargent in 1887 affected him too.

                 Bishop Johnson persuaded him to leave Idaiyangudi in about 1881 in order to take charge of a theological school at Thoothukudi. Many considered it as a mistake. Age was telling upon him. In January 1891, he was persuaded to resign, and he retired to the hill station of Kodaikanal where he died on August 28, 1891 at the of seventy-seven. His body, as per his wish, was taken to Idaiyangudiand buried there.

      The following lines are inscribed on his grave-stone.

     Scared to the memory of

                The Right Reverend Robert Caldwell D.D., L.L.D.

    Fellow of the University Madras

                 Who for 53 years devoted his eminent talents to the

     furtherance of the Gospel and the building up of Christ's Church among

                 the Tamil people in Tinnevelly, the last 14 of those years 

     as Assistant Bishop to the Bishop of Madras.

                  Excelling as a Scholar and Philologist,

     intimately acquainted with the Tamil people, their history

                  language and customs, a ready and elegant writer,

     he attained a wide reputation, bringing honour thereby to the

                  Missionary's calling and strengthening the cause of

     Missionaries in the church at home. 

CONCLUSION

             Caldwell can very well be said to be a multi-faceted missionary. He had faced good times and bad times in his long period - fifty three years of ministry in India. He underwent serious illness, yet we see him emerging as a true servant of God and a man of faith. During one of his visits to England, while doing deputation work for SPG he extendeda call for serving as missionaries in India, and the one young man who responded to that call was Arthur Margoschis, who too is remembered very gratefully for his ministry in the Tirunelveli SPG area. He selected some bright students from his elementary schools andsent them to Sawyerpuram for higher studies. Some of those students became pastors later. Heencouraged Indian leadership. Yes, Caldwell is still legend among the Tamil people.

BISHOP ROBERT CALDWELL[Born : 07 - 05 - 1814]

Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814–1891) was an Evangelist missionary and linguist, who academically established the Dravidian family of languages. He served as Assistant Bishop of Tirunelveli from 1877. He was described in The Hindu as a 'pioneering champion of the downtrodden' and an 'avant-garde social reformer'. The Government of Tamil Nadu honoured his 'historic contribution to Tamil' with a memorial and issued a stamp in his name. On the Madras Marina, a statue of Garrett Caldwell was erected as a gift of the Church of South India in1967.

Early life

Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, Northern Ireland, on 7 May 1814 to Scottish parents. Initially self-taught and religious, young Caldwell graduated from the University of Glasgow and was fascinated by the comparative study of languages. At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on 8

January 1838 as a Presbyterian missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). To further his missionary objectives, Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to proselytise the masses and he began a systematic study of the language. He was consecrated Bishop ofTirunelveli in 1877. In 1844, Caldwell married Eliza Mault (1822–99); the couple was to have seven children together. Shewas the younger daughter of the veteran Travancore missionary,Reverend Charles Mault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Travancoreand Tirunelveli proselytising the vulnerable, especially Tamil-speaking women.

The Dravidian languages

Robert Caldwell used the term Dravidian to separate languages prevalent in South India from other, more Sanskrit-affiliated languages of India. Apart from the main South Indian languagesof Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu, Brahui in Afghanistan is considered to belong to the Dravidian language family. A few more languages have been identified as such. Scholars in the 19th century prior to Caldwell considered Tamil and other South Indian languages to be rooted in Sanskrit and affiliated to the Indo-European language family. Many linguists have accepted and confirmed Caldwell's work butcritics such as Charles E. Gover, author of The Folk Songs of South India, have disagreed with his findings.

Archaeological research

While serving as Bishop of Tirunelveli (alongside Edward Sargent), Caldwell did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature in his search, and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of the Pandyan Kingdom. This work resulted in his book A Political and General History of

the District of Tinnevely (1881), published by the Government of the Madras Presidency.This book has been described as being on occasion "... pejorative, outrageous, and somewhat paternalistic. But on thewhole his studies represent a pioneering effort to understand religions completely foreign to the British mind". It remains a respected work today.

Life's work

Caldwell’s mission lasted more than fifty years. The publication of his research into both the languages and the history of the region, coupled with his position in both Indian and English society, gave stimulus to the radicalisation of the Non-Brahmin movement.Meanwhile, on difficult ground for evangelism, Caldwell achieved Christian conversion among the lower castes. He had adopted some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries of earlier times, having learned German purely in order to study their practices.According to the Church of South India, the "SPG stronghold, Idaiyangudi ... was ... entirely a product of the labours of Dr. Caldwell. ... With such devotion and wisdom did Rev. Caldwell apply himself to his task that his rewards were phenomenal. Entire villages accepted Christ, churches and schools sprouted up so fast that Idayangudi soon became a model Christian settlement." In summary, Caldwell the Tamil language scholar, Christian evangelist and champion of the native church, remains today animportant figure in the modern history of South India. He is still remembered there, and his statue, erected eighty years after his death, stands near the Marina Beach at Chennai. The Indian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, recently commented that Caldwell’s "contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region is unmatched during the last two hundred years".

Tamil Scholar Bishop Caldwell's House now a Memorial

IDAIYANKUDI: English Protestant missionary Bishop Robert Caldwell's house at Idaiyankudi, a small hamlet situated about70 Km from here, is now a memorial. The 19th century house hasbeen renovated at a cost of Rs.18.50 lakh by the State Government. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi through videoconferencing on Thursday.

Bishop Robert Caldwell

Addressing the function from Chennai, Mr. Karunanidhi said that though several foreigners such as G.U. Pope and Beschi were enticed by the beauty, ancient nature and strength of Tamil, Bishop Caldwell was the foremost among all of them, as he came out with an authoritative work – ‘Dravida Mozhigalin Oppilakkanam' (a Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages) in 1856 which established the uniqueness of Tamil. He had learnt Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu, during his stay at Idaiyankudi between 1841 and 1882.

Former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai had earlier honoured Bishop Caldwell by installing his statue on the Marina Beach on February 2, 1968, on the occasion of Second World Tamil Conference. The statue was unveiled by multi-lingual scholar Appadurai.

Mr. Karunanidhi recalled the release of a special stamp of Bishop Caldwell during the World Tamil Classical Conference held in Coimbatore on June 17, 2010. The Chief Minister also listed the contributions of Rev. Fr. Constantine Joseph Beschi, popularly known as ‘Veeramaamunivar', Henry Alfred Krishna Pillai, Vedhanayagam Pillai, Samuel Pillai and others in enriching Tamil with their contributions.

Apart from releasing Rs. 1.26 lakh for installing a bronze bust of Bishop Caldwell at the entrance to the memorial, the State government also sanctioned Rs. 30 lakh for constructing a new residence for the priest, who was hitherto living in thehouse of Bishop Caldwell. A cheque for this amount was handed over to CSI Bishop of Tirunelveli Diocese Most Rev. J.J. Christdoss at the function.

Bishop Caldwell first came to Madras on January 8, 1838 from Clady, Northern Ireland, at the age of 24 as a member of the London Mission Society. A graduate from the University of Glasgow, Caldwell, who joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG), was fascinated by the comparativestudy of languages. Caldwell served as the Bishop of Tirunelveli along with Bishop Sargent and did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of Pandya Kingdom.

Robert CaldwellBishop Robert Caldwell (1814–1891) was a Colonial Era Evangelist Missionary whoused native languages as a tool to proselytize

the Colonised in Southern India. To aid his mission, he nativised Christianityby adopting a teleological approach to re-classifyIndian languages inspired by scientific racial theories thatwas popular amongstthe European intellectuals in the 19th century.His works revolve around the missionary work in Tinnevelly (Thirunelveli)district in Tamil Nadu and it laid the theoreticalfoundation for the political and academic 'revivalist' movement that came todominate Dravidian nationalism in Tamil Nadu andracial polarisation in Sri Lanka. Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, NorthernIreland, on May 7, 1814 to Scottish parents.Initially self-taught and religious, young Caldwell graduated from theUniversity of Glasgow and was fascinated by thecomparative study of languages. At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on January 8,1838 as a missionary of the London MissionarySociety and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission(SPG). Caldwell was married in 1844 to ElizaMault (1822–99), by whom he had seven children. She was the elder daughter ofthe veteran Travancore missionary, Reverend CharlesMault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For morethan forty years,Eliza worked in Travancore and Tirunelveliproselytising the vulnerable, especially the Tamil women. Tofurther thatattempt, Caldwell realised that he had to be proficientin Tamil to proselyte the masses and he began a systematic study of thelanguage.He controversially coined the term 'Dravidian languages' andproposed that theSouth Indian languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,

Malayalam and Tulu formed a separate language family, affirming their antiquityand literary history, and their independencefrom Sanskrit and the Indo-Aryan languages. There is no definite philologicaland linguistic basis for asserting unilaterallythat the name Dravida also forms the origin of the word Tamil. His work wasinfluenced and congruous with the defunctAryan-Dravidian race theories proposed by Max Müller the German linguist. Hespeculated that speakers of the proto-Dravidianlanguage entered India from the northwest. However, Robert Caldwell's languagegroup theory has come under several criticism,and that the fundamental tenets of the nascent phase of the Dravidian ideologyproposed by Caldwell were essentially linked tothe political and cultural legacies of the British attempt to demilitarise,despiritualise and fragment Tamil society.Caldwell served as the Bishop of Tirunelveli (along with Bishop Sargent) and didmuch original research on the history ofTirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature in hissearch, and made several excavations, finding thefoundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblemof the Pandyan Kingdom. This work resulted inhis book A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevely (1881),published by the Government of the MadrasPresidency. Caldwell’s mission lasted more than fifty years.The publication ofhis research into both the languages and thehistory of the region, coupled with his position in both Indian and Englishsociety, gave stimulus to the radicalisation of the

Non-Brahmin movement. Meanwhile, on difficult ground for evangelism, Caldwellachieved Christian conversion among the lowercastes. He had adopted some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries ofearlier times, having learned German purely in orderto study their practices. In summary, Caldwell the Tamil language scholar,Christian evangelist and champion of the native church,remains today an important figure in the modern history of South India. TheIndian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, Visiting Fellowat the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, recently commentedthat Caldwell’s "contribution to bothChristianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region isunmatched during the last two hundred years".The Government of India paid a signal honour to Caldwell on 7th May 2010 byissuing a stamp in his name. The background to hishead on the 5 Rupee stamp consists of examples of four of the Dravidianlanguages of South India – Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam andTelugu. D.P Sivaram popular Tamil Journalist, proposes that the aims ofCaldwell's study was to show that the fundamental tenetsof the nascent phase of the Dravidian ideology were essentially linked to thepolitical and cultural legacies of the Britishattempt to 1) demilitarise Tamil martial communities 2) Destabilise thespiritual challenge put forward by the Brahmins which wasobstructive to his missionary work. "Apart from concerns shared with the BritishGovernment, the Bishop’s hostile attitude towardsthe Maravar arose from the bloody violence they unleashed onthe Shanar, largenumbers of whom were embracing the Protestant faith.

For him, if the idolatry and the Sanskritic culture of the articulate Brahminswas a spiritual threat to the propagation of theGospel, the violence and misdeeds of the Maravar against thefaithful was a direphysical threat. In his scheme of Tamilianhistory, the culture and ethos of the classes through whom the Britishgovernment and the Anglican Church sought to consolidatethe gains of Tamil society’s demilitarization were seen by Caldwell as the truecharacteristics of the Tamils. The martialhabits of the Maravar and the Sanskritic culture of the Brahmins were alien tothe social order and moral ideals of the ‘true’Dravidians." Thus Caldwell’s teleology assumed that Tamil revivalism would helpconsolidate the Protestant ethic and theallegiance to English rule among the non-military castes in Tamil society, bygiving expression to the moral and religious ideaswhich he assumed were immanent in their ancient Dravidian culture and language.Charles E. Gover, in his book The Folk Songs of South India,heaps criticism onCaldwell and exposes some glaring mistakes inhis deductions. Gover, in particular, refutes Caldwell's theory that Tamils area Turanian people. He says that recentresearches conducted by German writers have proved this theory wrong. He alsodemonstrates how most of the Tamil words,which Caldwell, in his book, asserts to be of Scythian origin, had Indo-Aryanroots. He gives the example of the Dravidianroot pe- from which the Tamil word Pey meaning "devil" is derived, whichCaldwell proclaims to be independent of Sanskrit,and shows how it is related to the Sanskrit pisacha.

Even while acknowledging that Sanskrit was never a spoken language and thatBrahmins in different parts of India spoke the localvernacular, Caldwell asserts at another place that all Brahmins descended fromthe same racial stock which spoke Sanskrit.Throughout his book Comparative Study of the South Indian orDravidian family ofLanguages, Caldwell accuses Brahmins ofspreading lies and of not practising what they preach. The most strikingcriticism however, can be seen in context of its affinityand reliance on the now defunct Aryan Dravidian racial theories proposed by MaxMuller. Kamalika Pieris , a Sinhaleseintellectual, in his article, 'Ethnic conflict and Tamil Separatism,' examinesthe origin of the conflict and traces it to therace theories proposed by the missionary-scholars: There developed the notion ofan 'Aryan race' consisting of anybody who spokean Aryan language, the Dravidian race consisting of anybody who spoke aDravidian language, and the Jews who spoke neither.Robert Caldwell had spoken of Dravidian languages in 1856. The Portuguese andthe Dutch brought into Sri Lanka the prejudicesavailable in their countries. Notably the Christian antagonism to Islam andother 'heathen' religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. But the concept of 'race'was introduced to the country during the British period, in the 19th century.The British labelled the Sinhala community as 'Sinhalese race' and 'Tamil race'in 1833 or 1871. 1833 saw the first communal representation in the LegislativeCouncil and 1871 was the year of the first British Census ofCeylon.

But it is the consequence of his theories and thoughts that makes an analysis ofhis work more relevent in present context. Sometheorists argue that the racial polarization of Sri Lanka began as early as1856, when Robert Caldwell, in his A ComparativeGrammar of the Dravidian South Indian Family of Languages , argued that therewas 'no direct affinity between the Sinhalese andTamil languages.' Max Muller, meanwhile, weighed in with hisLectures on theScience of Language (1861), in which he declaredthat after 'careful and minute comparison' he was led to 'class the idiomsspoken in Iceland and Ceylon as cognate dialects ofthe Aryan family of languages'. Though contrary views were expressed by otherscholars, Muller's Aryan Race Theory was lentsupport by a number of prominent European scholars, and the theory thereforeheld sway.

But due to various reasons it took thirty-two years for completion. D.A. Christudoss in his book 'Bishop Caldwell' (Tamil 1980) gives a graphic description of the newly built church, which was of the Gothic style. It was dedicated on July 6, 1880 as the 'Holy Trinity Church'. His and his wife's mortal remains were buried inside that church building.Caldwell built St. Peter’s Church, Kodaikanal, which served as a private chapel for his retirement home. Abundant

During the second half of the Nineteenth century, most of the missions in India began to rethink their policy towards educational ministry. SPG too faced such a question. Some schools in the Tirunelveli area were either closed down or merged with nearby ones or lowered down as elementary schools.Yet there were a few SPG missionaries who supported the idea of starting higher educational institutions. The Sawyerpuram institution (known earlier as Sawyerpuram Seminary) was raisedinto a college in 1880 and Rev. T. Adamson became its first principal. This move was not well received by some missionaries themselves, notable of who was Arthur Margoschis.There were difference of opinion between J.A. Sharrock the SPGmissionary who succeeded T. Adamson as principal of Sawyerpuram institution and A. Margoschis. This affected theirmissionary activities too. The Madras District committee (M.D.C.) suggested the shifting of the Sawyerpuram institutionfrom Sawyerpuram, a village to Tuticorin, a town. After consulting Bishop Caldwell, the MDC shifted it to Thoothukudi and named it as "Caldwell College". This happened about the beginning of 1883 or the end of 1882 and very soon at the suggestion of the Metropolitan Bishop E.R. Johnson, Caldwell'sresidence changed from Idaiyangudi to Thoothukudi.