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Alexander Duff (1806 – 1878)
Church
of Scotland’s First Missionary to India
 Dr
Alexander Duff was born at Moulin, 1˝ km north of Pitlochry, on 25th
April 1806. As a boy, he
attended local schools in the Pitlochry and Kirkmichael area before
completing this part of his education at Perth Grammar School.
In 1821, he went to St Andrews University where his proficiency in
Greek, Latin, Logic and Moral Philosophy and his interest in languages
earned him an MA degree after only two years.
It was there that he met Dr Thomas Chalmers, Professor of Moral
Philosophy, who later became one of the leaders of the Free Church at the
time of the Disruption in 1843.
By 1827, Duff had decided to become a missionary and he received every
encouragement from Dr Chalmers and his other tutors.
In July 1829 he married Anne Scott Drysdale of Edinburgh. He was
ordained at St George’s Church, Edinburgh in August 1829, and in
September 1829 he and his wife set sail for India in the “Lady
Holland”. They were
shipwrecked near Capetown and after their rescue they discovered that of
the 800 books which had formed their library, only 40 survived.
They transferred to the “Moira” which, after completing the
voyage to India, ran aground on the mud of the Ganges delta.
Fortunately the cargo and their baggage were saved and they began
their visit by meeting the Governor-General, Lord Bentinck who proved to
be very supportive of the plans the young missionary had for his work in
India.
Duff held the view that religious teaching was of primary importance in
general education because all instruction which professed to convey any
kind of truth was regarded by the indigenous people as a species of
religion. He therefore saw
instruction in the Christian faith as an integral part of his education
syllabus and not separate from it. He
also believed that teaching the subjects taught in the high schools and
colleges of Europe should be done in English and not, as was the official
view at the time, in the local language.
An advantage of using English as a teaching medium was that it
avoided the hindrances of the caste system so closely linked to the use of
the local languages. Nevertheless, his students were expected to be
proficient in their local language (here Bengali) so that they could
spread the ideas behind the new teaching to others in the community.
During his three periods of activity in India he founded an Educational
Institute for male students, and a College of Education for Girls,
building on the work of Major Jameson and his Ladies’ Society for Female
Education in the East, started in 1837. He also set up the first teacher training courses. By
the date of the Disruption (1843) when all the Church of Scotland
missionaries joined the breakaway Free Church, there were 900 students in
the Institute and its three branches.
Students and teachers had to move to a new college in 1844, the
year in which the Governor-General opened public service posts to educated
Indians. About this time, a Medical College Hospital was built and the
teaching of medicine, which up until then had relied on Arabic texts, was
revised and based on the principles laid down by Alexander Duff, with
instruction in English. Ultimately
there were 10 hospitals and dispensaries treating around 300,000 patients
a year.
Alexander Duff was Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1851
and 1873. During his time in
Scotland it soon became clear that there was great ignorance about the
situation in India and he travelled the country campaigning vigorously for
funding and assistance for his work there.
On one of his visits he preached in his home kirk of Moulin, in
Gaelic and in English! He was
also invited to the USA where he addressed Congress and spoke to many
congregations. He visited
Knox College in Toronto, Canada, and spoke at meetings in Montreal and
other cities. Although his
purpose was to inform and educate, not raise money, he collected several
thousand pounds which went to build a new college in Calcutta.
His final visit to India began in 1855 and by the end of 1857 the native
Church was 150,000 members strong. He drew up the constitution for the University of Calcutta
and initially was leader of the Senate.
He was the first person there to insist on education in the
physical sciences. He,
himself, had taught chemistry at the Educational Institute.
On returning home in 1864, he set up a professorship of
evangelistic theology, prepared lectures and taught in Glasgow, Edinburgh
and Aberdeen. All monies went
to the Missionary Institute. His
health, which had been poor for many years, finally gave way and he died
on 12th February 1878, almost exactly 13 years after the death
of his wife, Anne.
Information
extracted from "Alexander Duff of India" by A.A.Millar
Canongate Press 1992
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