(See also Page School Reports sent to British Army and within that I make several references to Christians and Christianity.
I write this post as a secular individual although I classify myself as Hindu. In order to demonstrate my secular credentials, I can say
- I have been to Bethlehem, to the alleged spot where Christ was born
- I have been through the route that Christ allegedly took, Via Doloroso
- I have visited Nazareth, from where Christ’s father Joseph hailed
- I have payed my respect at the Western Wall (more popularly known as The Wailing Wall), the holiest shrine of the Jews
- I have paid my respect at Al-Aqsa Mosque
- I have paid my respect at Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai
- When working in the City of London, I visited St Paul’s Cathedral almost every working day (Sir Henry’s statue is in the basement)
- I have visited the Dilwara Jain Temples in Mt. Abu
- I have visited the Parsee Agiyari in Mumbai ( not allowed into the main hall, only the Zoroastrians are allowed)
- I have visited the Sikh Gurudwaras in Southall England and Makindu, Kenya.
The one place I haven’t been to is a Hindu Holy City.
I can also say categorically that growing up with my Christian classmates and indeed classmates of other religions, I developed a deep affection and love for them. I would happily have married any one of the beautiful and talented Christian girls I grew up with.
With that in mind, I can say that there was a heavy Christian bent at Lawrence School Lovedale. This, despite that fact that 80% or more of the pupils were Hindus. Nothing wrong with Christianity but this wasn’t what parents signed up for!
Within the School premises there was a Protestant Church, not too far away was a Catholic Church, mainly Christian hymns were sung and prayers recited at Assembly. Other religions were simply not catered for. There was no mosque, there was no temple, there was no Gurudwara, there was no Agiyari. Cursory Hindu prayer meetings were held in the Large Hall (built originally as a Church) on a Sunday morning. There was, of course, hymn singing during daily assembly which included a few hymns in regional languages such as Tamil and Bengali. Such hymns were forced down the throats of everybody although most, including Muslims, Christians and others didn’t understand a word of what was being sung! Religious matters were overwhelmingly veered towards Christianity.
Thus, Easter was celebrated with enthusiasm. I recall Christian boys returning with Palm Crosses and acting as if this was something important and desirable to have. An Easter egg was something we were made to feel was a luxury item to look forward to. Diwali however, was a mere holiday; there was no ‘Janmashtami’, no Eid, no Baisakhi, no Nowruz, nothing! In Prep School, there was a farcical Christmas in early November complete with Santa Clause arriving in a bullock cart. I cannot recall presents being given.
As a little boy, I was taught, as were other little boys, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, whatever, to sing ‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer’ and Jingle bells, jingle bells’ . I resented it then, I resent it more now! Utterly rubbish songs then as now!
When I left Lovedale, the only significant knowledge I had of the Ramayana and Mahabharata was that they were epics which were longer than the Iliad and Odyssey and that too as a result of a General Knowledge quiz. I had never heard of the Bhagwat Gita, nor the Upanishads nor the Vedas.
My parents were under the impression that in a country with a Hindu majority population, ingraining a knowledge of Hinduism was a given. How wrong they were!
If only Mr. Suraj Bhan, the first Indian Principal had remained! Here is an extract from Glimpses of a Glorious Past by Prem Rao:
Mr Suraj Bhan’s tenure was only for a year or even less. However, even during his short stay the first
Indian principal seems to have made an impact and touched the lives of people. This has been captured in
an article, written decades later, in The Lawrencian in November 1980, by Miss Shakuntala Bhalla, the
Headmistress of the Girls School from 1950 to 1975.
“I first heard Dr. Suraj Bhan’s name from Prof. Hamley, Principal and Director of the Institute of Education,
London University, in 1946 – more than two decades after Suraj Bhan’s graduation from there – when I, as a young
girl from un partitioned India, had joined that University for my Master’s degree. Hamley would frequently tell us
that Dr. Suraj Bhan was the first to join the institute and the best Indian student he had encountered in his long
teaching career. He was held up to us as a hero. His thesis on mental health, based upon Upanishadic teachings
and the Gita, had become a sort of a Bible of students.
He had become our intellectual and cultural frame of reference. Prof. Hamley’s home had become our
week-end sanctuary, and a venue for Christmas parties, mainly because Dr. Suraj Bhan had made a remarkable
impression on this professor, we were treated as his descendants and heirs to the legacy of goodwill bequeathed
by him to Indian students.
Prof. Hamley died in 1949. When I met Dr. Suraj Bhan last May, I was touched to know that Prof. Hamley’s
son, Earnest, and his daughter, Margaret, had kept in touch with him all these long years.
I returned to India in 1950 and was appointed the Headmistress of Lawrence School, Lovedale, Nilgiris.
There too Dr. Suraj Bhan, who was the first Indian Principal of the famous schools, used to be mentioned with
affection and nostalgia by what remained of the British staff, the servants and the local people, especially Dr.
Johnson, who was attached to the School as a dentist for almost 40 years and had seen at least six Principals. He
thought Dr. Suraj Bhan was the best human being he had met.
Dr. Suraj Bhan stayed in Lovedale for about a year, but the lead he gave to the public school system was
notable.
The piece above shows that Dr Bhan who had been in London since the 1920s (when K.I. Thomas Thomas was a 6 year old boy) had written a thesis based on Upanishadic teachings and the Gita. One cannot get more Hindu than that! He would most certainly have taken the school on a Hindu path notwithstanding the 70% Anglo-Indian pupil base. The Anglo- Indians may well have been persuaded to take their business elsewhere.
That, however is speculation. What did happen was that Mr. K.I. Thomas, obviously a Christian did take over and a Christian bent did set in. That is emphatically not what my parents signed up for! In the biblical sense, the word ‘bent’ means interests, desires, passions.
I cannot emphasise enough that neither K.I. Thomas nor any other Christian staff IMPOSED their Christian beliefs on the pupils but by the very nature of the boarding school system, with so many Christian boarders one came into daily contact with, a direction towards Christianity is bound to set in. K.I. Thomas absolutely respected and honoured all religions as is evident from the fact that his son Salim bore a Muslim name in honour of the friendship Thomas had with a Muslim while posted in Karachi. Indeed Thomas got the famous Hindu philosopher Swami Ranganathananda to speak at one Assembly and frankly, I have never heard a more erudite and talented speaker. Thomas was assisted by probably the best Bursar in the Country, R.A. Mehta, a Zoroastrian and he had as Senior Master L.A. Vyas a Hindu Brahmin, probably the best qualified such person in the country.
It would have been perfectly acceptable if the staff reflected the population of India; they did not. For example, there was one Muslim faculty, Biology teacher Naeem who anyway took time off to go on some sort of course to USA. He was replaced by a Mr Ahmed who couldn’t speak English and left after fewer than 6 months. There was a Prep School Matron, a Miss Hamida but she didn’t make any sort of impact or last long. There were many pupils who were Muslims as there were many Sikhs. There was never a Sikh teacher, not even in sports in which they excelled. I knew two Zoroastrian staff, the excellent Bursar Rusi Mehta and Geography teacher Nergis Gupta. There were several Zoroastrian pupils among them: Firdaus Dastoor, Percy Thadani, Firoz Nanavati, the Batlivala brothers, Xerxes Aidanwalla, Riad Faizy and others but there was no place of worship nor any religious education for them. There were Muslims: Amin Ismail, his sister Yasmeen, Rafiq Ahmed and his sister Farat Sultana, the Ansari brothers, Mohammed Ali, Anjum Vorha, his brother Arshad and cousin Javed. There were several Sikhs: S.S. Kalha, Kuldeep Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Balvinder Singh, S.S, Thapar, Jasbeer Singh. None of them either had a place of worship nor anybody to teach them about their religion; although sometimes they were taken to the Madras Regimental Centre where due to the Sikh representation in the Army, there may have been a Gurudwara. It was fairly obvious that Christianity took centre-stage!
The rice-bag converts: Particularly pernicious were what in modern parlance would be called ‘rice bag converts’. Some of the rice bag converts were Miss Teressa the matron, and ayahs called Rosie, Anthony (yes a woman called Anthony ayah) and Mary. Among the waiters, (bearers as they would say in India) there was Augustine, and various others. To be fair, Anthony and Mary were not cruel as Teressa and Rosie but they were not sympathetic either. Later on in Junior School, there was an utterly filthy bearer called George; just how one ate the food he served cannot be explained. In Senior School, the waiter serving my House was Jo, the lab assistants were Lincoln and and another Jo, the bookbinder was D’Cruz, the projectionist Roland, the electrician was Frank. I can state categorically that rice-bag converts Teressa and Rosy remain the cruellest women I have ever had the misfortune to come across. It is unlikely they are alive and it is unlikely that any grave exists of these vile characters.
Other Christians were a Miss Ninan who was adept at breaking rulers hitting the calves of young boys, Mrs Fowles who was European and a remnant of Empire, Miss Prince a beautiful lady who had left school as a pupil only a year or two before I joined, Bunty Dudley, who was a contemporary of Miss Prince, the beautiful Dorcus Stokoe, Mrs Zachariah and Mrs Enos., the nurses was Mrs Richtor and Miss Ivy, the doctors were Dr. Shaw and Dr Braganza.
Mrs Enos is worthy of a special mention as she celebrated her 104th birthday when my Pages were being composed. I met her at her home just a few weeks ago. Old Lawrencians have fond memories of her as the lady who taught them ‘Child of Grace with a wooden face’ etc. This is no doubt a romantic recollection of the lady. My memory, and I suggest it is far more accurate, is of a vindictive woman who took a visceral hatred of me (the feeling was mutual and remains so despite the passage of 6 decades), who delighted in humiliating me by making me kneel and apologise for no discernible reason. Although of a darker hue than me, she wore a skirt which put her out of my comfort zone.
To sum up, I have drawn a table of Christians that I came into contact with. This shows that although it was meant to be a secular school, Lawrence School Lovedale was heavily skewed towards Christianity.
| Teaching | Ancillary 1 Skilled | Domestic Ancillary 1 | Domestic Ancillary 2 |
| Headmaster and English Teacher Mr. K.I. Thomas | Dr Shaw | Matron Miss Teressa | Rosy Ayah |
| Prep School English Teacher Mrs. Enos | Dr. Briganza | Matron Miss Highmore | Anthony Ayah |
| General Purposes Teacher Miss Nainan | Nurse Richtor | Matron Miss Wilson | Mary Ayah |
| General Purposes Teacher Miss Prince | Nurse Ivy | Catering Staff Mrs Fowles | Bearer Augustine |
| General Purposes Teacher Miss Dudley | Dentist Dr Johnson | Catering Staff Mrs Parker | Bearer George |
| General Purposes Teacher Miss Dorcas Stokoe | Secretary June Royle | Electrician Frank | Bearer Jo |
| General Purposes Teacher Mrs Zachariah | Lab Assistant Lincoln | ||
| Band Master Mr. D. Prince | Lab Assistant Jo | ||
| Junior School English Teacher Mrs Magdalene Prince | Printer D’Cruz | ||
| Junior School Literature Teacher Mrs Brown | Projectionist Roland | ||
| Junior School English Teacher Mrs Raye | |||
| Physics Teacher Mr. K.C. Jacob | |||
| History Teacher Mr. Abraham | |||
| Maths Teacher Leonard | |||
| English Teacher McMahon | |||
| English Teacher E.J. John | |||
| English Teacher Miss Hensman | |||
| Dance Teacher Mrs Anamma Choudhury | |||
| Biology Teacher Justin Anthony | |||
| Maths Teacher Ian Anderson | |||
| Piano Teacher Dias | |||
| Sculpture Teacher P.E. Thomas | |||
| Art Teacher H.Daniel |
So what? One may ask and the answer is simple. A 6 year old who stays in the school for 11 years and is under the day-to-day influence of a large number of Christians and particularly Anglo-Indian Christians, that latter community being exclusively Christian, cannot but deviate from his inherited religion and way of life. This is where the words of Bishop Grandin manifest themselves:
We instil in them a pronounced distaste for the native life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin. When they graduate from our institutions, the children have lost everything native except their blood.
It also gives truth to what Radha Bhardwaj says: When the slave will whip himself after the master has long gone, the work of colonialism is complete.
Extract From Year Book 1923
The objective of the Institution is to provide for the orphan and other children of British Officers and Soldiers serving or having served in India, a school wherein they may obtain the benefits of a bracing climate, a good and above all a religious education so that with divine blessing, they may be consistent CHRISTIANS and useful citizens of the Empire.
Extract from my Page: Lawrence Schools – a questionable foundation
These institutions were certainly not founded as schools but ASYLUMS. An asylum is defined as a safe or inviolable place of refuge especially as offered by the CHRISTIAN Church.
Extract from Circular to be sent (By order of then Major Henry Lawrence) to the Commanding Officers of all her Majesty’s and Honourable Company’s regiments, brigades, and battalions, on the Bengal Establishment: c. 1845
Paragraph 4:
As many misconceptions appear to be afloat, I may remark, that I do not design the institution should be restricted to any particular division of CHRISTIANS, or to any one arm of the service. I propose that all children, the offspring of EUROPEAN father and EUROPEAN mother, both of her Majesty’s and the Honourable Company’s army, whether CATHOLIC or PROTESTANT, be eligible for admittance.
The following is an extract from a rough draft of a proposal to start the first Lawrence Asylum drawn up by Sir Herbert (then Lieutenant) Edwards 1847
‘the Bible -the common text-book of Christians of all denominations- will be read in open school by all the children, but not commented on.’
Extract from a Letter dated July 1 1854 from Sir Henry Lawrence, writing from Mount Aboo to Rev. J. Parker
‘That the Bible must be read by all, and Bible instruction given to all.’
Extract from Circular to be sent (By order of then Major Henry Lawrence) to the Commanding Officers of all her Majesty’s and Honourable Company’s regiments, brigades, and battalions, on the Bengal Establishment: c. 1845
Paragraph 4:
As many misconceptions appear to be afloat, I may remark, that I do not design the institution should be restricted to any particular division of CHRISTIANS, or to any one arm of the service. I propose that all children, the offspring of EUROPEAN father and EUROPEAN mother, both of her Majesty’s and the Honourable Company’s army, whether CATHOLIC or PROTESTANT, be eligible for admittance.
The following is an extract from a rough draft of a proposal to start the first Lawrence Asylum drawn up by Sir Herbert (then Lieutenant) Edwards 1847
‘the Bible -the common text-book of Christians of all denominations- will be read in open school by all the children, but not commented on.’
Extract from a Letter dated July 1 1854 from Sir Henry Lawrence, writing from Mount Aboo to Rev. J. Parker
‘That the Bible must be read by all, and Bible instruction given to all.’
Extract from my Page: Articles of War
The object of the Institution is to provide for the orphan and other children of British Officers and soldiers serving or having served in India, a school wherein they may obtain the benefits of a bracing climate, a good and above all a religious education, so that with divine blessing, they may be consistent Christians and useful citizens of the Empire.
Lawrence had to familiarise himself with these Articles
In Section 1 observe: ‘All Officers and Soldiers, not having just impediment, shall diligently frequent Devine Service; such as wilfully absent themselves, or, being present, behave behave indecently or irreverently, shall, if Commissioned Officers be brought before a Court-Martial there to be publicly and severely reprimanded by the President; if Non-Commissioned Officers or Soldiers, every person so offending shall, for his first offence forfeit six Annas, to be deducted from his next pay; for his Second Offence, he shall not only forfeit six Annas but be laid in Irons for Twelve Hours, and for every like offence, shall suffer and pay in like manner.
Whatsoever Officer, Non-Commissioned Officer or Soldier, shall presume to speak against any known Article of the Christian Faith, shall be liable to be punished by the Civil Magistrate, according to Law.
Note how what in this day and age would be considered a minor offence could lead to severe physical punishment, and that too by a joint stock company! Lawrence carried out such punishments with enthusiasm.
Imagine in this day and age ANY joint-stock Company, anywhere in the world, having the power to lay anybody in Irons merely for being absent from Church service!