[Assam] American Baptists in Assam

[Dilip and Dil Deka]

Does anyone know if there is a book on American Baptist Mission in India and its history in Assam?
I have been curious why ABM chose Assam as a base as early as 1850, right after the Yandaboo treaty and how it ended up being the savior of Assamese language. Did their publications help in conversion of local people to Baptism, the main reason for their being there?
Dilip Deka
Frtom the Assam Tribune
EDITORIAL 

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Remembering William Ward
— Aziz-ul HaqueThe American Baptist Missionaries played a very significant role in the history of Assamese language and literature. Nathan Brown and Miles Bronson are well known for their contributions made in this field. However, a less known is a junior missionary, the Reverend William Ward, who played no less an important role in Assam. It will be worthwhile to remember him on his 187th birth anniversary today. Ward was born on August 28, 1821 at Sheffield in the state of Ohio, USA. He graduated from Madison University in 1848 holding the highest position in the class for his scholarship and ability as a thinker and writer. The American Baptist Missionary Union appointed him as a missionary to Assam. He and his wife, Cordelia, reached Guwahati in April 1851 through waterways. He worked in Guwahati for the first six years and then another ten years in Sivasagar. War’s wife, Cordelia, died in 1859 and he married Susan, a missionary’s widow in 1860.

The darkest period in the history of Assamese language was the imposition of Bengali as the court language as well as the medium of education in Assam by the British rulers in 1836, after the State was occupied in 1826 as a result of the Treaty of Yandabo. The justification of this imposition was that Assamese was thought to be a colloquial dialect and sub-language or Upabhasa of Bengali. Strangely, except for a very few, including Anandaram Dhekial Phukan, the Assamese people by and large did not protest this imposition. It seemed providential that at the same time the American Baptist Missionaries came to Assam to struggle for restoration of its language.

Ward was a linguist par excellence. Very soon he mastered Assamese and appreciated the beauty of this language. He along with his seniors, Brown and Bronson, established that Assamese was the most widely understood vernacular in Assam and that it was a language distinct from Bengali. Moreover, in contrast to the government, the schools founded by the missionaries used Assamese as the medium of instruction. His wife, Susan, was actively involved in teaching in schools at Sivasagar. Ward was deeply involved in translating the Bible and he considered Assamese peculiarly adapted to the expression of scriptural thought. He translated the books of Genesis, Exodus and Psalms of the Bible and published these from the Mission Press at Sivasagar. Brown commented about his translation, “Ward characterizes his style as clear, terse, and Grecian”. Ward revised the Assamese hymn book called Khristio Dharmageet for a new edition to which he added scores of original
 and translated hymns. In the fourth edition of the book published in 1890, sixty three hymns were credited to the work of Ward. Some of his hymns are still sung in churches in Assam.

Ward was actively involved with Nathan Brown in Orunodoi, the first news magazine in Assamese published from the Mission Press at Sivasagar from January 1846. He contributed many articles for this magazine. He shouldered full responsibility for editing and publishing it from 1861 to 1873. The magazine brought news from all corners of the globe. With illustrative articles on science, geography, astronomy, history and many other topics it soon found an encouraging readership among the Assamese intelligentsia and thereby paved the way for Assamese journalism. Many Assamese scholars like Anandaram Dhekial Phukan, Gunabhiram Baruah and Hemchandra Baruah also contributed articles in this magazine that became a launching pad in the struggle for restoration of Assamese language. As per suggestion of Hem Chandra Baruah, Ward changed the system of orthography of Orunodoi from previous and simplified one of Jaduram Deka Baruah that was adopted by Brown, to the
 Sanskrit system as it is used today. Replacing the dental ‘n’ by cerebral ‘n’ of Assamese alphabets, Ward corrected the spelling of Orunudoi in January 1961. This laid a milestone in the development of Assamese language.

William Robinson, Inspector of Government schools, in his book Grammar of the Assamese Language published in 1839 stated that Assamese was identical with Bengali, Robinson asserted, “Assamese was essentially the same as Bengali”. Bronson realised that this book was the greatest obstacle in convincing the British administration to reinstate Assamese. On this issue, Ward was in constant touch with Bronson who spearheaded the struggle for the restoration of Assamese language. Ward was one of the missionaries who along with Bronson challenged Robinson in writing and forwarding the same to James F Haliday, the Lt Governor, advocating the cause of Assamese language. Ward pointed out that, “all our books are in the strict language of Upper Assam– the language which Robinson calls vulgar, uncouth, etc. and the spelling of which he terms arbitrary. If it is so arbitrary as is represented, how is that the natives all read it with such ease and fluency,
 that it is to them like breathing their native air?”

Ward’s wife Susan’s contribution is also praiseworthy. She was deeply associated with the work of Orunodoi and edited a few issues of this magazine. She revised the missionary Oliver Cutter’s wife Harriet Cutter’s work Vocabulary and Phrases in English and Assamese (1841) and added many new vocabularies making it about 4500 entries published Brief Vocabulary in English and Assamese with Rudimentary Exercises in 1864 from Mission Press, Sivasagar. This was the first book of this kind till Bronson’s A Dictionary in Assamese and English was published in 1867. She also authored A Glimpse of Assam (1884).

Ward’s life was completely dedicated to the service for the people of Assam and it was his wish that he would be buried in Assam. At the age of 52 years, Ward died on August 1, 1873 in Sivasagar and he was buried there. The first Baptist Church in NE founded on January 25, 1845 by Nathan Brown and his colleagues at Panbazar, Guwahati, has been named as ‘Ward Memorial Church’ in honour of him. Man’s life is not measured in terms of the span life but in terms of its quality and contributions made towards the society. Ward will be remembered by the people of Assam for his contributions towards Assamese language and literature within his short span of life.
(Published on the occasion of 187th birth anniversary of William Ward)