Bishop Robert Caldwell



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.

Early life

Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, Northern Ireland, on May 7, 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 January 8, 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). He was consecrated Bishop of Tirunelveli in 1877.

 Caldwell was married in 1844 to Eliza Mault (1822–99), by whom he had seven children. She was the elder daughter of the veteran Travancore missionary, Reverend Charles Mault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Travancore and Tirunelveli proselytising the vulnerable, especially the Tamil women. To further that attempt, Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to proselyte the masses and he began a systematic study of the language.

Classification of Dravidian languages

He coined the term 'Dravidian languages' and proposed that the South Indian languages of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu formed a separate language family, affirming their antiquity and literary history, and their independence from the Indo-European language family. Before this discovery, the Dravidian languages were thought to be related to Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages

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 the whole 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 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. 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".

Works

The best means of promoting an interest in missions among our congregations : being a speech delivered by ... Bishop Caldwell at the Diocesan Church Conference on Thursday the 20th March 1879. 1880 (Madras : S.P.C.K. Press)
Christianity and Hinduism. A lecture addressed to educated Hindus, etc. : S.P.C.K.: London, [1879.]
A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages. Harrison: London, 1856.
Evangelistic Work amongst the Higher Classes and Castes in Tinnevelly. Rev. Dr. Caldwell’s Third Journal. [1876.]
The Inner Citadel of Religion. S.P.C.K.: London, [1879.]
The March of the Unsaved. [A religious tract.] G. Stoneman: London, [1896.]
Narkaruṇait tiyānamālai = A companion to the holy communion. Madras Diocesan Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1871.
The Prince of Wales in Tinnevelly, and “From Delahay Street to Edeyengoody.”. London : S.P.C.K., 1876.
Observations on the Kudumi. J. J. Craen: [Madras?] 1867.
Report of the Edeyenkoody District for the year ending 30 June 1845. London : Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1847.
On reserve in communicating religious instruction to non- Christians in mission schools in India : a letter to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Madras. Madras : S.P.C.K. Press, 1879. The Relation of Christianity to Hinduism. R. Clay, Sons, & Taylor: London, [1885.]
Records of the Early History of the Tinnevelly Mission, etc. Higginbotham & Co.: Madras, 1881.
The Tinnevelly Shanars : a sketch of their religion and their moral condition and characteristics : with special reference to the facilities and hindrances to the progress of Christianity amongst them. London : Clay for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1850.
The Three Way-marks. Christian Vernacular Education Society: Madras, 1860.
A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevelly, in the Presidency of Madras, from the earliest period to its cession to the English Government in A.D. 1801. Madras : E. Keys, 1881.

Criticism

Charles E. Gover, in his book The Folk Songs of South India, heaps criticism on Caldwell and exposes some glaring mistakes in his deductions. Gover, in particular, refutes Caldwell's theory that Tamils are a Turanian people. He says that recent researches conducted by German writers have proved this theory wrong. He also demonstrates how most of the Tamil words, which Caldwell, in his book, asserts to be of Scythian origin, had Indo-Aryan roots. He gives the example of the Dravidian root pe- from which the Tamil word Pey meaning "devil" is derived which Caldwell proclaims to be independent of Sanskrit, and shows how it is related to the Sanskrit pisacha.

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