The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814) was a popular children's book written by Mary Martha Sherwood. It was continuously in print for 70 years after its initial publication[1] and was translated into French, German, Spanish, Hindustani (1814; 1873), Chinese, Marathi (1853), Tamil (1840), and Sinhalese.[2] Telling the story of a young British boy who, on his deathbed, converts Boosy, the Indian man who has taken care of him throughout his childhood, the book is dominated by colonial and evangelical themes.
Sherwood's tale blends the realistic with the sentimental and introduces her readers to Hindustani words and descriptions of what she felt was authentic Indian life.[3] As children's literature scholar M. Nancy Cutt explains, "with this work, the obituary tract (which invariably stressed conversion and a Christian death) had assumed the colouring of romance".[3]
Themes
Frontispiece to a later edition of The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (c.1830).
In 1823 Sherwood published a female version of the story entitled The History of Little Lucy and her Dhaye, although this tale was much less popular than Little Henry, going through only four editions.[4] In both books she "presents the children's intimacy with and love for their Indian caretakers as an early impediment to their development of a strong English identity; she then offers Evangelical Anglican Christianity, with its emphasis on the missionary impulse to convert others, as a solution to that problem".[1] As Dara Regaignon explains, in the two stories "conversion 'saves' Henry and Lucy by teaching them that some religions and cultures are right while others are wrong" and the two children end up "civilizing" their caretakers.[1] Sherwood ties together British identity with Christianity. For example, at the beginning of Little Henry, Henry can only speak Hindustani, but as he learns English he also learns the doctrines of Christianity—"the two are identified with one another entirely: the English language is the medium of the Christian education". When Henry in turn teaches Boosy to read English, he also converts him to Christianity.[5]
Threatened by the specter of European children in India being raised by Indian "bearers" and "dhayes", Regaignon argues, Sherwood provides her readers with stories showing the hero and heroine drawing strength and ultimately domination over their caretakers from those very ties—"in Sherwood's hands, threats to imperial identity ultimately reinforce it."[1] Both Henry and Lucy teach their caretakers, reversing the power dynamic initially established in the story. Henry even turns into a Christ figure, sacrificing his life for Boosy's conversion.[6]
In addition, Sherwood's "stories are meant to inspire their readers to missionary action".[1] In Little Henry, Henry's death is what prompts Boosy's conversion. The last line of the book urges its readers to follow Henry's example: "Little children in India, remember Henry L—, and go and do likewise" (emphasis in original).[7] However, as Regaignon argues, Henry's conversion is also "a kind of synecdoche for the shift of British imperial attitudes from orientalism to anglicization that occurred in the first decades of the nineteenth century".[8] At the time that Little Henry was published, evangelicals were gaining political influence in Britain; Warren Hastings, the former governor-general of India, had just been impeached; and the Charter Act of 1813 allowed for the beginning of missionary activities in India. Not only were its readers receptive to its message, it helped to make the conviction that the spreading of Christianity "was a matter of moral truth appealing and persuasive to generations of children".[8]
Using a postcolonial analysis, Nandini Bhattacharya emphasizes the complex relationship between Sherwood's evangelicalism and her colonialism. She argues that Sherwood's evangelical stories demonstrate the deep colonial "mistrust of feminized agency," represented by a dying child in Little Henry and his Bearer. Henry "subvert[s] the colonialist's fantasy of universal identity by generating a subaltern identity that mimics and explodes that fantasy." But, ultimately, Bhattacharya argues, Sherwood creates neither a completely colonialist text nor a subaltern text; the deaths of children such as Henry eliminate any possibility for an alternative consciousnesses to mature.[9]
Publication history
Written in 1810 when Sherwood was living in India and published in England in 1814, Little Henry went through 18 printings between 1814 and 1824 alone.[1] It appeared every three years (on average) until 1883. The book was also popular in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, until 1852 when Uncle Tom's Cabin superseded it. One scholar has suggested that Harriet Beecher Stowe used Henry as a model for "Little Eva" in her novel, but Regaignon argues that racial histories underlying the two countries are too different for this influence to make much sense.
In 1842 Sherwood published The Last Days of Boosy, a sequel to Little Henry. As Regaignon explains, it is "markedly different" in "style, tone, and doctrine" from the previous book. It does not cite the Bible as frequently and God is depicted much less sternly. While Little Henry is part of what Cutt has referred to as Sherwood's "Evangelical period", The Last Days of Boosy is not.[10]
Khorana, Meena. The Indian Subcontinent in Literature for Children and Young Adults: An Annotated Bibliography of English Language Books. New York: Greenwood, 1991.
Plotz, Judith. "Literary Ways of Killing a Child: the Nineteenth-century Practice". Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature. Ed. Maria Nikolajeva. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
Regaignon, Dara Rossman. "Intimacy's Empire: Children, Servants, and Missionaries in Mary Martha Sherwood's 'Little Henry and his Bearer'". Children's Literature Association Quarterly 26.2 (2001): 84–95.
Steel, Flora Annie, "Little Henry and his Bearer". Atlantic Monthly 82 (December 1898): 814–22.
This timeline of Christian missions chronicles the global expansion of Christianity through a listing of the most significant missionary outreach events.
In the field of comparative religion, many scholars, academics, religious figures have looked at the relationships between Hinduism and other religions.
A Christian mission is an organized effort to spread Christianity to new converts. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as educational or hospital work. Sometimes individuals are sent and are called missionaries. When groups are sent, they are often called mission teams and they do mission trips. There are a few different kinds of mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and those that simply help people in need. Some people choose to dedicate their whole lives to mission. Missionaries have the authority to preach the Christian faith, and provide humanitarian aid. Christian doctrines permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion.
Graham Stuart Staines was an Australian Christian missionary, who along with his two sons, Philip and Timothy, was burnt to death in India by members of a Hindu fundamentalist group named Bajrang Dal. In 2003, Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the murderers and was sentenced to life in prison.
Mary Martha Sherwood was a writer of children's literature in 19th-century England, with over 400 books, tracts, magazine articles, and chapbooks to her name. Among the best known are The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814), The History of Henry Milner (1822–37), and The History of the Fairchild Family (1818–47). Sherwood is known mainly for the evangelicalism that coloured her early writings, but her later works explore common Victorian themes such as domesticity. After an uneventful and happy childhood, she married Captain Henry Sherwood and moved to India, converted to evangelical Christianity and began to write for children. Though initially intended for children of military encampments in India, they were well received in Britain, where the Sherwoods returned after a decade. She opened a boarding school and published scores of texts for children and the poor. She has been described as "one of the most significant authors of children's literature of the nineteenth century". Her depictions of domesticity and Britain's relations with India may have influenced many young British readers. However, her works fell from favour as children's literature broadened in style in the late 19th century.
Christianity is India's third-largest religion after Hinduism and Islam, with approximately 27.8 million followers, constituting 2.3 percent of India's population .According to the tradition of Indian Christians, the Christian faith was introduced to India through Thomas the Apostle, who is said to have reached the Malabar Coast (Kerala) in 52 AD. According to another tradition Bartholomew the Apostle is credited with simultaneously introducing Christianity along the Konkan Coast. There is a general scholarly consensus that Christian communities were firmly established in the Malabar Coast (Kerala) of India by the 6th century AD, which were communities who used Syriac liturgies. Starting from European colonisations from 15th century several Western Christian communities like Latin Rite Catholics and Protestants were created in different parts of the country.
The Hindi–Urdu controversy arose in 19th century colonial India out of the debate over whether the Hindi or Urdu language should be chosen as a national language.
Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and sizeable minorities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and various east coast and northern states. Protestants today trace their heritage back through a rich history of Christian and monotheistic faith on the Indian subcontinent.
The following is a list of the published works of Mary Martha Sherwood. Because it relies on M. Nancy Cutt's annotated bibliography of Sherwood's books in Mrs. Sherwood and her Books for Children, this list does not include her many periodical articles, such as those she wrote for The Youth's Magazine. The list follows Cutt's generic divisions.
The History of the Fairchild Family by Mary Martha Sherwood was a series of bestselling children's books in nineteenth-century Britain. The three volumes, published in 1818, 1842 and 1847, detail the lives of the Fairchild children. Part I, which was in print for over a century, focuses on Emily, Lucy and Henry's realization of their "human depravity" and their consequent need for redemption; Parts II and III emphasize more worldly lessons such as etiquette and virtuous consumerism.
Henry Venn was an Anglican clergyman who is recognised as one of the foremost Protestant missions strategists of the nineteenth century. He was an outstanding administrator who served as honorary secretary of the Church Missionary Society from 1841 to 1873. He was also a campaigner, in the tradition of the Clapham Sect, who frequently lobbied the British Parliament on social issues of his day, notably on ensuring the total eradication of the Atlantic slave trade by retaining the West African Squadron of the Royal Navy. He expounded the basic principles of indigenous Christian missions: these were much later made widespread by the Lausanne Congress of 1974.
The Guardian of Education was the first successful periodical dedicated to reviewing children's literature in Britain. It was edited by 18th-century educationalist, children's author, and Sunday school advocate Sarah Trimmer and was published from June 1802 until September 1806 by J. Hatchard and F. C. and J. Rivington. The journal offered child-rearing advice and assessments of contemporary educational theories, and Trimmer even proffered her own educational theory after evaluating the major works of the day.
Characteristic of Christianity in the 19th century were Evangelical revivals in some largely Protestant countries and later the effects of modern Biblical scholarship on the churches. Liberal or modernist theology was one consequence of this. In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed liberalism and culture wars launched in Germany, Italy, Belgium and France. It strongly emphasized personal piety. In Europe there was a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism. In Protestantism, pietistic revivals were common.
Telugu Christians or Telugu Kraistava are an ethno-religious community who form the second-largest religious minority in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. According to the Census of India, there are over seven million Christians in Andhra Pradesh, constituting 1.51% of the state's population, although a decrease from the 1971 census figure which was 1.2%, as a result of low birth rates and emigration. Most Telugu Christians are Protestant, belonging to major Indian Protestant denominations such as the predominant Anglican Church of South India, Pentecostals such as Assemblies of God in India, India Pentecostal Church of God, The Pentecostal Mission, the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Samavesam of Telugu Baptist Churches Bible Mission the Salvation Army and several others. There also is a significant number of Roman Catholics and Evangelicals. Although the Franciscans of the Roman Catholic Church brought Christianity to the Deccan area in 1535, it is only after 1759 AD, when the Northern Circars came under the rule of the East India Company, that the region opened up to greater Christian influence. The first Protestant missionaries in Andhra Pradesh were Rev. Cran and Rev. Des Granges who were sent out by the London Missionary Society. They set up their station at Visakhapatnam in 1805 AD. Regions with significant populations of Telugu Christians include the erstwhile Northern Circars, the coastal belt and the cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The Church in Andhra Pradesh runs thousands of educational institutions and hospitals contributing significantly to the development of the state. Telugu Christians are found in all walks of life and have contributed much to the development of the state. Telugu Christians have one of the highest literacy, work participation figures and most even male-to-female ratio figures among the various religious communities in the state.
Christianity and colonialism are often closely associated with each other because Protestantism and Catholicism participated as the state religions of the European colonial powers and in many ways they acted as the "religious arms" of those powers. According to Edward Andrews, Christian missionaries were initially portrayed as "visible saints, exemplars of ideal piety in a sea of persistent savagery". However, by the time the colonial era drew to a close in the last half of the twentieth century, missionaries became viewed as "ideological shock troops for colonial invasion whose zealotry blinded them", colonialism's "agent, scribe and moral alibi."
The history of Christianity in Mizoram covers the origin and development of all forms of Christianity in Mizoram since the British occupation at the end of the 19th century. Christianity arrived as a consequence of tribal warfare, raids of British plantations, and the ensuing punitive British military expedition called the Lushai Expedition of 1871. The subsequent annexation of the erstwhile Lushai Hills to the British Empire opened the gateway for British Christian missions to evangelise the Mizo people.
Evangelical Anglicanism or evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism" identified by historian David Bebbington as central to evangelical identity. The emergence of evangelical churchmanship can be traced back to the First Great Awakening in America and the Evangelical Revival in Britain in the 18th century. In the 20th century, prominent figures have included John Stott and J. I. Packer.
Scottish Protestant missions are organised programmes of outreach and conversion undertaken by Protestant denominations within Scotland, or by Scottish people. Long after the triumph of the Church of Scotland in the Lowlands, Highlanders and Islanders clung to a form of Christianity infused with animistic folk beliefs and practices. From 1708 the Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) began working in the area. In 1797 James Haldane founded the non-denominational Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home. Dozens of lay preachers, divinity students and English preachers were sent to the region. In the early nineteenth century a variety of organisations were formed to support evangelism to the region.
This is a bibliography of literature treating the topic of criticism of Christianity, sorted by source publication and the author's last name.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
