Evangelicalism and the Civilising Mission

Vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, figures, and historical developments related to Evangelicalism and its impact in colonial India.

Evangelicalism

A Protestant Christian movement that emerged in England in the late eighteenth century, emphasizing moral improvement, personal conversion as a 're-birth', individual reading of the Bible, and virtues such as work, frugality, and perseverance.

Clapham sect

An influential Evangelical group founded by John Shore and Charles Grant alongside Wilberforce, Zachery, Macaulay, Henry Thorton, and John Venn, which campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade and the opening of India to missionary enterprise.

Charter Act of 1813

British legislation that provided a large measure of freedom for Evangelical missionary activity in India.

Observations On the State of Society Among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain

A treatise written by Charles Grant condemning Indian society as superstitious, barbaric, and despotic, and proposing proselytising through education to liberate Indians from Brahmanical priesthood.

Serampore missionaries

A group of missionaries who sought to end the degeneration of Indian society quietly while respecting Indian traditions through the 'cultivation of friendship.'

Sati

A practice grounded in an extreme form of 'self-renunciation' where women burned themselves on their husbands' pyres, which was targeted by Evangelicals and suppressed under Bentinck using Sanskrit scripture interpretations.

'Angels in the house'

The Victorian ideal of female moral purity and self-sacrifice at home, contrasted by Metcalf with women becoming 'victims upon the pyre.'

Group-conversions in the 1860s and 1870s

An upsurge of Christian conversions among 'untouchable' castes in India driven by famine relief and the restoration of dignity, self-respect, and equality offered by Christian patrons.