Robert Caldwell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 7 May 1814 |
| Died | 28 August 1891(1891-08-28) (aged 77) |
| Resting place | Idaiyangudi,Tirunelveli District,Tamil Nadu,India |
| Citizenship | British |
| Occupation(s) | Missionary, Linguist |
| Known for | Bishop in South India |
| Spouse | (D/o. Rev. Charles Mault) |
Robert Caldwell (7 May 1814 – 28 August 1891) was a Britishmissionary and linguist.
A missionary for theLondon Missionary Society, he arrived inBritish India at age 24, and studied the local language to spread the word of the Bible in a vernacular language, studies that led him to author a text on comparative grammar of the South Indian languages. In his book, Caldwell proposed that there areDravidian words in the Hebrew of theOld Testament, the archaic Greek language, and the places named byPtolemy.[1]
Caldwell married Eliza Mault, the daughter of another missionary Rev. Charles Mault posted in India. He served as assistant bishop ofTirunelveli from 1877.[2]
TheGovernment of Tamil Nadu has created a memorial in his honor and a postage stamp has been issued in his name.[3][4] A statue of Caldwell was erected in 1967 near toMarina Beach,Chennai, as a gift of theChurch of South India.
Robert Caldwell was born atClady,County Tyrone,Northern Ireland. on 7 May 1814 to poorUlster ScotsPresbyterian parents. The family moved toGlasgow and there he began work at the age of nine. Mostly self-taught, he returned to Ireland aged 15, living with an older brother inDublin while studying art between 1829 and 1833. He then returned to Glasgow, probably as a consequence of a crisis of faith, and he became active in theCongregational church.[5]
Caldwell won a scholarship toBalliol College, Oxford only to find it rescinded when the authorities discovered that he had been born in Ireland. He responded by joining theLondon Missionary Society, who sent him to theUniversity of Glasgow for training. There Caldwell came under the influence ofDaniel Keyte Sandford, a professor ofGreek and promoter ofAnglicanism whose innovative research encouraged Caldwell's liking for comparativephilology and also theology. Caldwell left university with a distinction and wasordained as a Congregationalist minister.[5]
At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on 8 January 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). To further his missionary objectives, Caldwell realized that he had to be proficient inTamil toproselytize "the masses?" and he began a systematic study of the language. He was consecrated Bishop ofTirunelveli in 1877. In 1844, Caldwell married Eliza Mault (1822–1899) inCSI Home Church, Nagercoil,[6] with whom he had seven children. Eliza Mault, born inNagercoil, was the younger daughter of the veteranTravancore missionary, Rev. Charles Mault (1791–1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked inIdaiyangudi and Tirunelveli proselytizing the people, especially Tamil-speaking women.[7]
Robert Caldwell wroteA Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages. He identified south Indian Brahmins withIndo-Europeans, which was partly based on his belief that the Indo-Europeans had "higher mental gifts and higher capacity for civilisation".[8] Caldwell asserted that the low-casteChanar were not merelyTamil speakers but an "indigenous Dravidian" people, distinct ethnically and, most critically for him, religiously, from their high-caste oppressors, whom he referred to as "Brahmanical Aryans" (in this case "Aryan" as an ethnic signifier for foreign and "Brahmanical" to signify the "Hinduism" of the high-caste).[9] These wildly speculative claims, well outside the scope of linguistics, were intended "to develop a history which asserted that the indigenous Dravidians had been subdued and colonized by the Brahmanical Aryans". However, the first edition of Caldwell's grammar was "met with firm resistance" by the Chanars precisely because they "did not like the idea of being divorced from Brahmanical civilization", the very division Caldwell was hoping to exploit.[9]
The 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". In the domain ofDravidian linguistics though, it remains a respected work today.[9]
While serving as Bishop of Tirunelveli (alongside Edward Sargent), Caldwell (who was not a trained archaeologist) did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He studied palm leaf manuscripts andSangam literature in his search, and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of thePandyan Kingdom.[10] This work resulted in his bookA Political and General History of the District of Tinnevely (1881), published by the Government of theMadras Presidency.
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 revival of theNon-Brahmin movement.[11]
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.[12]
Caldwell theTamil language scholar, Christian evangelist and champion of the native church,[13] 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.[14] 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".[15]
A commemorative postage stamp on him was issued on 7 May 2010.[16]
Citations
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