MISSIONARY PAMPHLETS:
The Alexander Duff Collection of Missionary Pamphlets

Publisher's Note

Alexander Duff was born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1806 and educated at the University of St Andrews.  A brilliant student with a strong religious calling, he volunteered for mission work when he graduated and became the first overseas missionary of the Church of Scotland in India.

He sailed for India in October 1829 in the Lady Holland, an East India vessel, and survived a shipwreck near the Cape of Good Hope in February 1820.  He eventually arrived in Calcutta in May 1830.

He identified both a problem and an opportunity with regard to missionary work in India.  The problem was that Christian missions were gaining very few converts and mainly from low-caste groups.  The opportunity was the prospect of introducing an English educational system in India, with the explicit intent of attracting children of the middle and higher classes who saw this as a path to success and employment within the Raj.  At the same time that they learned about English Literature and European History, they were also taught about Christianity and it was hoped that many would convert.

He was supported by the Government, which saw the value of creating an English-speaking educated elite, and by mission groups, who saw his educational work as a form of ‘Christian imperialism.’ 

Many of the pamphlets in this collection document this work.  For instance:

• Reverend Duff’s letter on subject of native education
• Education as a missionary agency in India
• Memoir on the education of natives of India
• Converts from the Government and Missionary Colleges and Schools
• Principles of historical evidence and the paramount importance of the study of history to the educated natives of India
• Hints on Government education in India with special reference to school books
• Present state and results of Government Public Instruction in India
• A new era of the English language and English literature in India
• The King of the world or Christian imperialism, 1899

Duff was also very keen to promote the teaching of practical science in India and this is reflected in pamphlets such as ‘Scientific principles of agriculture considered as a branch of public education in India.’

There are also more general works on Indian mission history and on the culture and history of India.  Examples include:

• India and its Evangelization
• Indian Missions: their modes of operation
• Claims of the missionary enterprise on the medical profession
• Origin of Gossner’s Evangelical Missionary Society
• German Lutheran Mission
• Letter by Rev Dr Duff on the present state in India
• Caste in its relation to the church
• Cave-temples and monasteries
• Research in the West of India and adjoining countries
• Six schools of Indian philosophy

Duff played a part in the foundation of many schools in India and even in the creation of the University of Calcutta, whose Duff Hall is named for him.  He also co-founded the Calcutta Review and helped to encourage Indian Reform movements.

Duff spent over twenty years in India between 1830-1834, 1840-1849 and 1856-1863.  His first absence was largely caused by ill health.  The second was principally due to his increasing influence in Church and Politics.  In 1851 he was made the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland and in 1853 he was examined before a House of Lords Committee on Indian Affairs.  He was also given honorary doctorates by both the University of Aberdeen and by the precursor of New York University when he travelled to America in 1854.

His continuing interest in Government policy with regard to Empire is shown in pamphlets such as:

• England’s East African Policy
• New Hebrides – Is France or Britain to annex them?

When he returned to Britain in 1864, he took up a new role as the Convener of Foreign Missions of the Free Church.  This enabled him to expand his knowledge of other mission territories and he helped to establish missions in Lebanon, Natal, Syria and Nyasaland.  His interest in world mission is again documented thoroughly in the pamphlet collection, with titles relating to:

• The Gospel in Spain
• The Evangelical Church of America in Turkey
• The French Canadian Missionary Society
• A sketch of the Buxton Mission and Elgin Settlement, Raleigh, Canada
• The proposed mission to Lake Nyasa by A Duff
• Proposed mission at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, Central Africa
• Borneo Church Mission
• Century of Protestant Missions
• Mission to the Mohammedans of Arabia and Somaliland
• Report on the Keith Falconer Mission, South Arabia

In 1867 he was made the first Professor of Missions in a Protestant Institution (New College, Edinburgh) and it is here that he left his magnificent collection of over 650 pamphlets.  In addition to the themes already noted above, there are also many pamphlets dealing with world religions and the interaction of faiths.   For instance:

• The Bible in India
• Relation of Islam to the Gospel
• Evangelistic Theology
• Evidences of Hinduism examined
• The Zend-Avesta and the religion of the Parsis
• Hindu religion
• Salvation and faith viewed from Christian and Hindu standpoints
• Thoughts on idolatry
• Theism examined

There is also much excellent material on Women and Mission Work, such as:

• Female Education in India and South Africa
• Missions to women in India
• Women’s work in India

This collection will fuel much new research in a variety of fields including the methodology of missions; the role of educational and medical work in missionary practice; the contribution of missionary work to the modernization of India; interchanges between major world religions; and history and culture of India.

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