Kashmir in Sickness and in Health

The likes of Clarks, Elmslie, Neves, and a number of other dedicated and proselytising men and women of Christian faith were despatched to Kashmir to convert the simple-minded, uneducated and backward masses of Kashmir to Christianity. For that to happen they needed a strategy. Distributing Christian literature was fine but there was no one in Kashmir who was able to read. The way to achieve the goal was to somehow get into close contact with the populace, and Medicine was one of the tools to accomplish that with ease. The phrase sowing the seed was often used in missionary activities, but the first task for the missionary was to make the ground fertile, and then sow the seed. Offering relief from pain, disease and disability – physical and mental – provided an opportunity to win the trust and confidence of the individual, develop and boost a gratuitous relationship, gain access into the emotional milieu of the individual, and follow that up with a sermon about Christianity, and then hope for a change. Kashmir provided a perfect scenario for healing with preaching, because in the middle and late nineteenth century in Kashmir Valley healthcare was conspicuous by its absence and the suffering of the populace was intense. The CMS had successful experiences in Africa summarised elegantly by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa as follows: “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, Let us pray. We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”(85) The missionaries had similar outcomes in South India, and hoped to achieve swift results in Kashmir too. However, the visitors soon realised that Kashmir was a different ground altogether. Elmslie’s inability to induce conversions was in fact a source of great frustration for him. During the second year of his stay in Kashmir he wrote to his mother, “As to spiritual fruit, I wish I had something more definite to say. The people listen more attentively to our expositions, and receive our religious books gladly.”(86) “But the ground is very dry and thirsty, and although the seed that has fallen has been very abundant, nevertheless it has sunk without producing any apparent spiritual vendure.”(87) The missionary worker Irene Petrie also found missionary work in Kashmir a difficult task and remarked, “Missionary work must be slow and uphill toil. There is so much to get the people to unlearn as well as to teach them.”(88) Ernest Neve touched the same theme. “The fight with Mohammedanism is a stern one. The work goes on day after day and year after year, not only in Kashmir but in other Mohammedan countries, with very little out-ward sign of progress.”(89) However, he provided an explanation for the failure. “ . . . the Church of Christ is in contact with three great groups of peoples – the Hindus, the Mohammedans and the Depressed Classes. It is very common knowledge that the last group is very accessible to Christian teaching. Many thousands have been baptised both in the South . . . Both Hindu and Moslem religions are peculiarly resistant to the impact of Christianity.”(90) He hit the nail on the head – Muslims of this sufi-land were not the same as the depressed classes of India – Harijans and Shooders (the untouchables). Hindus of Kashmir were Pandits – Brahmins who occupied the highest position within the caste ladder of Hindu society. The very few who the visitors were able to convert were individuals who made a living by doing menial jobs, like cleaning public latrines. One of them by the name of Gaffara used to work as a sweeper at one of the District Hospitals in the State during my brief posting there as a doctor. In fact his whole family was employed at the Hospital and their job was to clean the Hospital including the latrines. I knew Gaffara as a child from many years before; he used to sweep the Government quarters where my dad used to live during his posting as a Revenue Officer at an adjacent town. On hearing about his wife’s death, because of my previous acquaintance I went to Gaffara’s home to offer my condolences. It was news to me when I found out that he and his family were actually Christians; apparently his father had converted to Christianity many years ago. I had assumed, albeit wrongly, that he was a Muslim because Gaffara was a Muslim name. I was all the more amazed to learn from him that even though he called himself a Christian, he still offered salaat – the Muslim form of worship – and went to a masjid regularly on Fridays for Jumma prayers, but he also attended the congregation at the local church on Sundays on a regular basis. Therefore it is not surprising to read Ernest Neve’s observation that, “Of those who have been baptised in Kashmir, several have sooner or later apostatized.”(91) It must also be said that poor successes by Christian missionaries on the evangelic front were not due to lack of trying on their part. Whether it was through Medicine, or education, or through bazaar preaching or through teaching to ladies in their homes, no stone was left unturned by the visitors. Perhaps they failed to listen to and understand the local populace. But Kashmiris must never underscore and forget the enormity of service that the visitors offered to the poor and downtrodden masses of Kashmir and further afield. They worked day and night to relieve men, women and children of suffering and pain.