Samuel Martin: founder of Martinpur/village in Pakistan
Samuel Martin “Mark of a Missionary Soldier”
“God’s Abramic Covenant Post 9/11”
© 2010 Shabnam Hadassah Lal Chowdry
Photos above from left to right.
Young Samuel Martin & Lydia Mossman Martin before sailing
for India (now Pakistan in 1867).
Mary, Jane and Josephine Martin (Daughters of Samuel and
Lydia Martin).
Matt: 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Nearly a year after the events of 9/11, the Lord had called me into the ministry. Little did I know the path my life would be taking or lengthy the journey would become. Four years after 9/11, I began writing more poetry and songs and found my heart’s desire to minister to our Armed Forces who were fighting the war on terrorism. I also delved into my past family history and discovered that my life was inextricably linked to that of Samuel Martin who was instrumental in bringing the message of the Hope of Jesus Christ to my family four generations ago in the late 1860s. Now my question was answered as to why I felt compelled to write and send encouraging posters and cards to our troops. The seeds of the Gospel that Samuel Martin had planted on Pakistani soil were now ready to become a harvest for a new generation of soldiers on America’s soil post 9/11. God did not forget the efforts of another soldier four generations ago.
Thanks to the efforts of Samuel Martin, my great-grandfather became a Minister because of his evangelistic efforts. My familial village in Pakistan (Martinpur) actually came to be named after this great man of God for his love and service to the people of Pakistan. He was affectionately called “Chuhrea’n da’ Pir” meaning “Father to the Poor.” You see the Chuhras were poorest of the poor. They lived outside the village proper, and performed the most menial tasks for the village. His daughter E. Josephine Martin shares a story by Miss Mary J. Campbell, “In the Shadow of the Himalayas, p.55, that gives an account of a beautiful story. “A high caste man in the district of Zafarwal (now Sialkot), whose name was Nathu, was baptized by Dr. Barr in 1872. He went out and won to Jesus Christ a dark little man, lame in leg, quiet and modest in manner. This man was thirty years of age and his name was Ditt. He was considered an untouchable. One day Nathu took Ditt to Sialkot to meet Doctor Martin and presented him as one ready for baptism.” Miss Kate A. Hill who first went to India as a missionary in 1896 was closely associated with the Martin family. She and Josephine Martin made their first journey to the Mission field together. Miss Hill gives a story of Ditt’s baptism as she heard it from Dr. Martin: - “No one from this caste had been baptized. There had been much discussion. Some said of a low caste man (or an outcaste) be baptized, no high caste will ever come. Others said; if you want to cut down a tree begin at the roots. If the caste system is ever to be destroyed begin with the outcaste.” Therefore, Ditt came asking for baptism. Dr. Martin hesitated. Mrs. Martin, with a woman’s love and intuition said, ‘Baptize him.’ Dr. Martin did, and sent him back to his own village to live among his own people. In a few months, Ditt returned with relatives and friends to be taught and to be baptized. Thus, the Mass Movement in the Punjab region began that brought thousands of low caste to Christ, and the Punjab Church was established. Dr. Martin lived to see the Punjab Synod organized, self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.
A Civil War Soldier
Samuel Martin was a former Civil War soldier who fought in the Union Army to end the sin of slavery on American soil. 1Ti 1:10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates, and nearly died had a brother not rescued him. The brother died and Samuel Martin made a decision to serve God. A lawyer friend of the family once remarked it is strange how some people waste their talents! The Martin brother had brains, and might have made their Mark in the world, but John wasted his in little mission and country congregations, and Samuel buried himself in India. He along with his wife the former Lydia Mossman went to what is now Pakistan in 1867. They suffered much and persevered from 1867 to 1910. His life of sacrifice (44 years) resulted in the conversion of over 15,000, amongst them my great-grandfather, who went on to became a Presbyterian minister. Four generations later post 9/11, the mantle of ministry has been passed to me as a daughter of my father. 9/11 is said to have been perpetrated by Muslims (Mohammedans) tied to Wahabism. Ironically, in February 1872 there were indicators of growth of a particularly violent sect of Mohammedans tied to Wahabism who were responsible for the assassination of Lord Mayo, the Viceroy according to a letter written by Lydia Martin to her family. Through the Ministry of IJNHope it is clear that Samuel Martin did indeed make his mark in the world as the river of Truth never stops flowing even after 140 years and it is now flowing through the ministry of IJNHope post 9/11 bringing the message of Hope full circle to Jew and Gentile alike.
According to the article “A short History of Martinpur Schools” by my brother in law Yaqub Masih, my familial village of Martinpur was established in 1898. It was name, “Martinpur” in honor of Dr. Samuel Martin. He was a United Presbyterian Church Missionary who secured that plot of land and selected 72 families from different parts of the Punjab to come and live in that new canal area. The people he chose were amongst the first generation of Christian converts. Dr. Martin not only gave them the message of salvation through Jesus Christ but also helped them to stand on their fee. He gave great emphasis not only on the religious instruction of these new converts but also on their secular instruction until they learned to value education properly. In his judgment, their influence upon other people would be dependent to some degree upon their intelligence, and nothing would prove more forcibly to other people, the Divine power of Christianity, than its power to educate and advance these people, which other systems of religion had abandoned. I have taken the following story of Samuel and Lydia Martin from an article by Julia Cass the great-granddaughter of Samuel and Lydia Martin. This story can be found in the Reunion Issue “Martinpur Schools Magazine” issue of March 2003.
The Story of Samuel and Lydia Martin
Early Presbyterian Missionaries in the Punjab
By Julia Cass, Alabama
History and Contribution of Martinpur Schools
Just after the Civil War ended, in 1867, Samuel and Lydia Martin sailed to India to join a small band of United Presbyterians who had set up a mission in the Punjab, a region that is now part of Pakistan. Except for occasional furloughs back to the U.S., Samuel spent his entire adult life in the Punjab. He was known for converting and working with the untouchables in the Hindu caste system. He founded a village – named Martinpur after him – so that ostracized converts would have a place to live and work. His wife Lydia was a partner in mission work until she died in 1886.
Samuel and Lydia had seven children; one of them was my grandfather, Alfred Martin.
Three of their daughters, Josephine, Mary and Jane, also became missionaries in India. Josephine taught at the Girl’s Boarding School in Hajipur Road in Sialkot, Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore and she was principal of the Girls’ Boarding School in Pathankot. Jane worked as an evangelist at the Christian Hospital in Taxila. Mary was best know for writing a book that set the Psalms, translated into Urdu by a local poet, to native tunes, since Western music was foreign to Indian ears. A book published by the church in the 1940’s says the Martin family devoted a total of 162 years to a mission and a people far away from their home in Steubenville, Ohio.
Both Samuel and Lydia came from Scotch-Irish farming families. He attended Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, Pa. and then, through the influence of a local pastor, went to a United Presbyterian theological seminary. After a year, he enlisted in a company of Ohio Volunteers to serve in the Civil War. He fought in Western Kentucky and Tennessee, contracted typhoid fever and was put in a hospital that was captured by the Confederates, making him a prisoner. His brother Howard came down from Ohio to nurse him and contracted typhoid fever. Samuel recovered but Howard died, and the family story has it that his death gave Samuel a sense of obligation to be of service, since he though his life had been spared for some reason.
“Invalided out” by the Confederates in 1863 – this meant he could go home but could not fight again – Samuel finished theological school and decided to go the churches’ new mission in India. Lydia was a math teacher also interested in the India mission and through this mutual interest, they met and decided to get married and to India together. They were both in their late 20’s at the time.
Why would talented young people choose to go to a remote area of the world as Christian missionaries? The 1850’s and 1860’s were a time of “mission fever” related to the fervor of the Abolitionist movement – the idea that Christians had a duty to help the oppressed and ignorant. Far-away missions had not been practical earlier because they required the communication that came with mail, steamships and railroads.
The Journey to India
When Samuel and Lydia set sail for India 134 years ago (as of the writing of this article in 2003); they had their photographs taken in New York before they left, to send to their parents in case they never came back. Just getting to India was an ordeal. They took a steamship from New York to Glasgow England. There they booked passage on a cargo sailing ship that went around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The captain was abusive and dishonest. He saved all the fresh food for himself, and Lydia got scurvy. At one point, the ship was becalmed and the sailors broke into the liquor cargo. For a week, Lydia and Samuel were the only sober people aboard.
Finally, they arrived in Bombay, six months after leaving New York. They took a train to New Delhi, and after that, human-drawn darts like rickshaws, one for them and one for their luggage. They had to change and reload every ten miles because the rickshaw drivers would go no further from home. When they got within 25 miles of Sialkot where the United Presbyterians had started a mission ten ears earlier, Samuel hired a horse-drawn carriage. He wanted, my mother said, to arrive in style.
At first, they stayed in a tent near the missionary compound and concentrated on learning the language and building a home. Lydia proved to be a gifted linguist. They had a man teach them Urdu, but he was an opium user and not very reliable. Therefore, Lydia went to the river where the women washed their clothes, listened to them talk and learned the language. Every missionary who came after them stayed a while with Samuel and Lydia to learn the language from Lydia.
Judging from their letters and books written about the mission, the early missionaries were safe from being attacked or thrown out of the country because of the protection of the British. They physical dangers were the heat, disease and insects. It was HOT! in Sialkot in July 1888. Temperatures averaged 107 degrees in the shade. Worse was the humidity during the rainy season. The first summer Samuel and Lydia were not able to escape to the mountains and in August, Lydia wrote, “Mr. Martin was completely covered with prickly heat, like measles and it finally gathered into boils.” She also wrote that they had killed in their house during the summer, seven centipedes, more than one hundred scorpions and a large poisonous snake.
Preaching and “Intinerating”
In the early days, there was no clear idea of what the mission should be doing. In general, the goal was to establish an independent self-sufficient United Presbyterian Church in the Punjab. This meant, first of all, the development of a Christian community and then the establishment of schools, colleges, theological schools and a governing apparatus to institutionalize a self-standing church. Starting this from scratch in the late 1860’s, with a total of three couples and two single women, was an immense task. Many letters from Lydia and Samuel describe the difficulties and often end with a statement of faith that “God will accomplish all in His own time.”
Neither the Hindus nor the Muslims were receptive to the message of Christianity. In Samuel’s view, “With the great mass of people here, religion is a mere form…As a rule, the Muslims are more troublesome than the Hindus, whose principle care is for worldly goods. The Hindus hardly ever dispute; they do not appear to care enough about religion to dispute any statement made. For this reason, I often prefer to preach to the Muslims, for although they are more boisterous and rude, they appear to care for religion.” The missionaries tried to get the word out by preaching in bazaars, by traveling to different parts of the Punjab in tents, which they called “itinerating,” and by establishing boys and girls schools in the towns and villages.
In a letter home in 1873, Lydia wrote, “Mr. Martin preaches in the bazaar every morning, except Sabbath. He also teaches Bible lessons an hour in the school. He sometimes preaches in the bazaar in the evenings. He preaches to a congregation of about 200 on Sabbath mornings and gives a sermon to the Christians on Thursday evening. He also has General and Station Treasury business, Industrial School and reading with the munshi in Urdu, Persian and Arabic. You will know that he can have little leisure time.”
During part of his time in Pakistan, Samuel was in charge of the Zarfarwal (District Sialkot) station, preaching, teaching, administering and working with inquirers. When the author of “Our India Mission” visited him there in the mid-1880s, he sad Samuel oversaw a flock of 1,000 Christians in more than 100 villages with 32 village schools, 10 Sabbath schools and 2 organized churches.
At another point, Samuel was in charge of the Sialkot district and served as Senior Theological Professor at the theological seminary, which at the time was located in Sialkot. When the Christian Training Institute (CTI) was founded in 1881, it was placed under the supervision of the Senior Theological Professor since “its main object was to afford a literary and religious training to promising Christian boys preparatory to their admission to the Theological Seminary.” According to “Our India Mission.” Samuel held this position for several years.
To reach the women, who lived behind the walls, first of their parents, and then of their husbands’ compounds, Lydia went to their houses to talk to them, when they could get permission. In a letter written not long after they got to India, she wrote, Laborers among the women are one of the great wants of the country. The great mass of them are not and cannot be reached except by women. These women about us are ignorant and degraded but the grace of God is sufficient for them.”
Lydia also taught arithmetic, writing and Bible study at the Girl’s Boarding School on the Hajupur Road in Sialkot, and one of the buildings where is said to be named after her.
The two missionary couples who preceded Samuel and Lydia hand converted some people, and more came into the fold when my great-grandparents joined them. A big problem then was ostracism. Converts often lost their families, property and livelihoods; some were beaten and threatened with death if they continued their religious folly. They had to begin life all over again. The missionaries, who were constantly begging the Mission Board for more resources, took them in at first but eventually could not support them and did not want to – since this led to criticism and concern that, some of the converts were becoming Christian just to be taken care of by the missionaries. (In China missions, the term for this was “rice Christians” – meaning people who converted in order to be fed).
A Father to the Poor
Converting Hindus of caste was slow. A big breakthrough was the decision to convert the untouchables. This became Samuel’s mission. Although a few untouchables had been baptized by the missionaries before Samuel and Lydia came, this had been done reluctantly. The missionaries feared that if they converted the outcasts, no higher caste Hindus would ever come, and they reasoned that the more educated higher caste Indians would have the leadership qualities needed to carry the church forward.
The untouchables were worse than low caste; they were below and outside every caste recognized as in any way respectable. They worked primarily as landless laborers, scavengers and city sweepers. They did the dirtiest work Hindus considered defining-removing dead cows from fields, skinning the animals, removing bodies of the dead who had no family to take care of them take excreta from latrines. Other castes would not allow even the shadow of a passing untouchable to fall on them. “Our India Mission” describes a group of higher caste boys sitting on the carpet in the house of one of the ministers, listening to him preach, when an untouchable unexpectedly stepped into the room, setting his foot on the same carpet. Though the higher caste boys were seated quite a distance away, “instantly these lads jumped up and ran out of the house as abruptly as if they had seen a cobra approaching.”
The missionaries compared the untouchables to the lepers in the Bible and did not feel they should ostracize them too, even though they were concerned about alienating the higher caste Hindus.
Another book about the missions, “Life and Work in India” published in 1899, says that by 1881, the native Christian community in Punjab numbered 4762. By 1891, it had grown to 20,729. There were also 29 Christian schools and an orphanage. The author goes on to say that, converts included more villagers than city dwellers, more poor than rich, more illiterates than educated. “The great bodies of our Christians are common coolies or weepers and earn a precarious livelihood as hired laborers in a kind of perpetual serfdom. Probably not more than one family in 100 makes even a respectable living.” He goes on, “Such has ever been the history of Christian missions. The Gospel, in permeating society, has almost always filtered up instead of down, from the early days of Christianity.
Martinpur
With more converts, the problem of dependency became more acute. How were the new Christians – the desperately poor untouchables and the ostracized Muslims and other Hindus – going to make a living and how could they possibly create a self-supporting church? The mission created industrial training schools to teach tailoring, cooking, shoemaking and masonry so the converts could get better wages than they had as coolies and sweepers. It was hard to get good instructors, though, because of the native guilds.
Martinpur was created out of the need to develop economic self-sufficiency for the new Christians. In the late 1890’s the British government began a project of constructing canals, bringing thousands of arid acres under cultivation. The Presbyterian mission conceived the idea of asking for a grant of land for the Christian community. Samuel was appointed to apply for the grant.
The new colonists named the village Martinpur (Martintown). Actually, the word “pur” means “village” and it was of course named after Dr. Martin. Samuel selected the settlers for the project. There were many more applicants than land available. Each one was to receive a square of land containing about 28 acres. Samuel divided some squares to accommodate a greater number of applicants. The settlers had little or no capital. Land had to be cleared of shrubs and rocks. They built temporary houses. Winds, malaria and homesickness plagued the experiment, and Samuel, who knew farming from his childhood, expressed frustration that the settlers, who had been sweepers and scavengers, not farmers, killed some of the animals as soon as they got hungry and ate the seeds rather than planting them. Nevertheless, the village survived and a congregation was organized.
A Wrenching Separation
Samuel and Lydia derived great satisfaction from their mission but it involved a personal sacrifice for them and their children. After they had been in India for 11 years, they returned to the US for a furlough that lasted two years. They lived in New Concord, Ohio, and Samuel taught math at Muskingham College, a United Presbyterian college. They had five children by then, and my grandfather was born while they were home. Lydia and Samuel never considered staying in the US. They felt their work was in the India mission.
They also felt they had to leave their four oldest children behind, with relatives in New Concord, so they could go to school and then Muskingham College. For the early missionaries, there was no school in India for their children. The leaving was very hard on the children and on Lydia. The youngest child left behind – Alice – was just 5 and she had heart set on returning with her mother. Josephine, one of their older daughters, later wrote that Lydia “tenderly reasoned with Alice but failed to dissuade her from her desire to go back to India. Lydia wrote in beautiful gold letters the word STAY and in the small slating letter, the word GO and asked Alice to make her choice. She at once pointed to GO.”
When the parents and their two younger children left on the train to Philadelphia, from which they would embark this time, the children who were to remain in New Concord, including little Alice, did not go to the stations. They waved goodbye to their parents as the train passed by the house where they were staying. This was the last time these children saw their mother. And this was the last time she saw them because she died of pneumonia in India in 1886. She wrote an almost heartbreaking letter to the children in New Concord from Philadelphia. It begins, “You will be looking for a letter from Mama but I feel so sad and lonely without you that I can scarcely write it.”
After she died, Samuel brought my grandfather, the other two children back to New Concord, and he returned to India. The older sisters were teenagers then and, along with an aunt who, I gather, was not every effective, more or less raised my grandfather and his two younger siblings. My mother says my grandfathers' growing up left a lot to be desired, being bossed around by a teenaged sisters who did not know or understand growing boys, including how much they needed to eat.
My grandfather lived nine years in India but my Uncle Bill said he rarely talked of that time of his life. He sometimes would tell stories about scorpions, snakes and leopards and amused his children by counting in Urdu, but he seemed to have put the India years behind him. Perhaps the death of his mother was so overwhelming he did not want to go back that far in his memory; not that he repudiated his parents’ work: he became a minister, though not a missionary.
Howard Martin Joins the Mission
When Samuel Martin was in Ohio bringing the remainder of the children back after Lydia’s death, he had long talks about the mission in India with his nephew Howard Martin, who was attending the Presbyterian theological school in nearby Zenia. Howard became interested and decided to go to India after student groups in five colleges got together and raised the money to send someone to the mission there. They selected Howard.
Howard and his wife Elizabeth worked in developing a Christian community in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). Howard also taught at the Christian Training Institute in Sialkot. He directed the Institute at a time when new buildings were being constructed. Howard’s son, John Gregory, founded the Christian hospital in Taxila. So this other branch of the Martin family added their contributions to the mission field.
Final Years
By the turn of the century, Samuel’s apparently splendid physique began to show the effect of his years in Indian. After an attack of pneumonia, he came home for what would be his last furlough. He could have stayed in the US but wanted to go back to India, where he felt more at home than he did in Ohio. He returned to India in 1907 and died three years later, in December 1910. His three missionaries sang the closing song at his funeral. For days after the funeral his three daughters (Josephine, Mary, and Jane Martin) sat on the verandah of the bungalow to meet the man Christians who came from Zafarwal, Sialkot, and Pasrur to mourn for the one they called ‘Father,’ and not only members of the Christian community, but officials of city and district of Punjab came as well. He encountered numerous discouragements and problems anywhere there are attempts to introduce Christianity into a population of non-Christians. The problems were more perplexing when trying to integrate believers from a low-caste people into a church. Dr. Martin encountered all of these hindrances, and at times felt them keenly, but always closed his letters with an expression of his faith in God during his forty (40) years as a missionary. He believed in God’s work and did God’s will. It has been estimated as between 7,000 and 15,000. Of the 15,000 people whom Dr. Robert Stewart estimated that Dr. Martin baptized, thousands of them were ancestors of the present Punjab church. (United Presbyterian, July 18, 1955, Page 6.).
His wife preceded him in death. After twenty years in the mission field, she caught a cold and it developed into pneumonia. She was unable to fight off the disease and died December 3, 1886. Miss Mary J. Campbell who had been assigned to the Martin home for language study for a period of one year had this to say about her after her death. “I wish to pay tribute to that most devoted and brilliant missionary of those early days - Mrs. Lydia Mossman Martin. Her beautiful life should have been written and published in book form for our United Presbyterian family long ago. She was pioneer worker among the untouchables. She was wholehearted in her belief in this movement. When the camping season came, she was willing to do her share; yes, far more than her share.
References
The Missionary and Western Influence
One of my main reasons for sharing the preceding story of my personal spiritual roots is to make certain that the importance of American missionary work is never underscored. The missionaries that followed the “great commission of Mat 28:19” to propagate the message of Jesus Christ/Yeshua Messiah were highly educated and sacrificed much to bring souls into the kingdom of God. It was not an easy task, it never is. Missionaries raised the standard of living in what is now Pakistan by bringing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and educating the poorest of the poor. The missionaries accomplished much in their service to the people of Pakistan.
The influence of mission schools is prominent in the lives of many people from Pakistan including the Muslims as well as the Christians. In fact, many Muslims prefer to send their children to Christian schools, as the education curriculum is better.
I wept as I read Julia Cass’s visit to Martinpur for the Centennial celebration of Martinpur. I had no idea that this story of revisiting my not so distant past would have upon me. When she visited Pakistan in 1999, she wondered what had become of the seeds that her great-grandfather Samuel Martin had planted. When she got to Pakistan, she was met by David Francis, the administrator of the Presbyterian Church and its institutions in Pakistan and my brother in law Yaqub Masih. Her first day was spent at a literacy program in a Christian slum. The trainers told her that many Christians in Pakistan toady are, like their ancestor, near the bottom of the economic scale. In contrast, I personally feel so blessed to be living here in America. My father Chowdry Kundan Lal was a wise man who sacrificed a great paying job as a teacher at Don Bosco High School in Lahore Pakistan and brought his young family to America. He had contemplated the UK but felt the weather was too damp and there was already too large of a Muslim population and influence-taking root. His goal of bringing us to America was to give all of us a better future as Christians. My father was a strong man of faith. Sadly, I lost him to leukemia in 1990.
She received a hero’s welcome when she arrived at the village. Here words follow from the article: “A Martin returns 100 years later.”
“What an entrance! I have never experienced such a welcome before and doubt I will again. Ahead of us were two dancers in horse costumes, raising their “heads” and “tails” to the music of a bagpipe, drums and a lute. Fireworks shot up into the air from the fields nearby. The streets were lined with children waving paper pennants clinging fragilely to whittled sticks. Soon we passed under an entrance gate made from branches and leaves with a big sign that read, “Welcome Julia Cass, great-granddaughter of Samuel Martin, founder of Martinpur.” When we turned a corner to head towards the church, I was stunned by the number of people in the street-so many the oxen could barely get through.
We got down near the church, leis of scarlet roses were hung around our necks, and we were presented with bouquets of roses. In front of us stood schoolgirls, some with paper wings, holding little sticks with stars on the end. They sang, in English, “Welcome, welcome, welcome to all of you. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Martinpur.” We were charmed.
A tent top made of brightly colored cloth panels had been set up on the grounds next to the church and it was packed with people. I will never forget the sight of the women in brightly colored shawls, the beautiful brown-eyed children in their blue school uniforms
And the handsome men sitting on mats under the tent and looking at us on the stage-especially me, the great granddaughter of Samuel Martin.
We feel that Samuel Martin has come back.” Rev. Khokhar remarked. A photograph of Samuel Martin hangs on the wall of the Martin Memorial Church, and children obviously are taught about him and village history. I was amazed that they would remember and honor him after 100 years. In their speeches made in the next several hours, Martinpur leaders used Samuel’s story and memory to encourage unity, education and spiritual rebirth. Qualities that had made Martinpur the successful village it is but appears to now be in decline. At that point, I was too struck by how far the village and its people had come to appreciate their sense of decline. In his welcoming address, Joseph Mall, the retired high school superintendent, spoke about the difficulties of their ancestors, and the first settlers faced. They had no capital and they hadn’t been farmers but sweepers “doing the small and lowly jobs in the households of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. They had dealt with unleveled land that was full of thorns, bushes, wild animals and snakes. Water was not available. Some people left and returned to their villages but some worked hard and were successful. First, a well was dug to get water. Then the people built a church. The third endeavor was the establishment of a school. Their efforts were not in vain.
As Mall said in his address to the assembly that day: “I can say with pride that this village is one of the most educated villages in the Punjab. There are families in this village which have five graduates and many people occupy positions of distinction.”
He read a list of accomplished Martinpur people – Dr. Samuel Burke, a man who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, two judges, a railway superintendent, five Army majors and captains, six lawyers, a national senator (Qaisar) and a provincial deputy, 11 doctors, one the administrator of the Christian Hospital in Lahore, two bankers, the head of the theological seminary (James), the Bishop of Lahore, the executive secretary of the National Council of Church in Pakistan, and too many ministers, teachers, college professors and nurse to name.
These accomplishments are very impressive, especially considering the lowly status of the initial settlers and the continued prejudice against Christians in a Muslim society. Other descendants of the untouchables educated in the Presbyterian schools and colleges who are not from Martinpur also have become part of Pakistan’s professional class. However, Martinpur seems to have been the home of an impressive number of the most accomplished. Yaqub Masih said that Martinpur has a much higher literacy rate (56 percent) than Pakistan in general and proportionately more children attend school (77 percent).
While Mall attributed their educational progress to the schools in the village and mission colleges where the students were sent with the help of the missionaries. “Yaqub Masih, in his remarks, said the emphasis on education can be traced back to Samuel Martin. “The families who settled here had very humble beginnings – spiritually they were in darkness, socially and economically they were oppressed. Their new faith in Christ gave them new life and lifted them up spiritually, socially and economically. At the very beginning they heeded the advice of their founder, who said about these people: ‘Their influence upon other classes will be dependent to some degree upon their intelligence, and nothing will prove more forcibly to the higher classes the Divine power of Christianity than its power to educated and advance these outcast classes, which other systems of religion have abandoned.
I was very moved by the realizing the impact of Samuel Martin on the lives of these people right in front of me in the hot tent. The moment I really lost, felt tears welling my eyes and running down my cheeks, was when Rev. Khokhar announced that were going to sing the 150th Psalm to music transcribed by my great-aunt Mary Martin, who had written down the notes of local tunes so converts could sing the Psalms in familiar music. The thought that Mary had died more than 70 years ago but people on the other side of the world are still singing her songs really got to me.
The next day, Sunday morning, I was guest of honor at the service at the Martin Memorial UP Church. The church is quite an impressive red brick building, built to replace the original church constructed a few years after the village was established. I was seated in a chair at the front, facing the women’s side. Rev. Khokhar and Arthur James read the Scripture and many psalms were sung. Jim Crank, a missionary from the US, gave the sermon. He talked about faith and said that Samuel Martin’s “heart was in evangelizing in the villages.” Later we had another service in the evening. More of Mary’s songs were sung. I noted that several of the singers were young girls. Yaqub Masih, who was sitting beside me, said that Christians make more effort than other groups to teach leadership to women. I had visits with many people.
When I left, a crowd came to see me off – hugging me and then waving as our van left town. One woman was actually crying, and she made me promise that I or someone in the Martin family would come back to Martinpur some day.
When I returned home, other Martins asked me: What legacy did Samuel and Lydia Martin and their three missionary daughters leave in Pakistan? I said that although the Presbyterian institutions in Pakistan today still need financial aid from the Presbyterian Church USA, the early missionaries had succeeded in creating self-perpetuating institutions that have made a difference in the lives of thousands of people. I came away with the conclusion that the missionaries’ greatest legacy are the Pakistanis like David Francis, Veeda Javaid, Arthur James and other Christian leaders who continue the mission with persistence and grace. When I think about the legacy of the missionary Martins, I think of what Pakistani Christian leaders are doing today because of their efforts. The village of Martinpur and its people are Samuel Martins’ legacy. I have never felt more welcomed anywhere or more proud to be a Martin.
The influence of democratic ideals in the political structure of both Pakistan and India can be attributed to the influence by many westerners who brought democratic ideals and the ideas of a “republic” to the shores of what is now Pakistan. For this section, I have elected to use an article written by by DilNawaz Latif taken from the Reunion Issue of Martinpur Schools Magazine 2003.
Elements of History of Christianity in India and Pakistan
DilNawaz Latif, Illinois, USA
Christianity in Indo-Pak subcontinent is as old as Christianity itself. According to legend, in 58 A.D., St. Thomas, the doubting Apostle of Jesus, who put his fingers into the wounded hands of our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, was recruited by Gad (Bedi) to build a palace for his brother King Gundaphorrus who ruled Southwestern part of India. Instead of building the palace, St. Thomas was reaching and winning the poor people for Christ. The money he was receiving from the king to build the palace, he was giving to the poor people. When the king heard this, he became very angry and ordered that Thomas should be arrested and beheaded. Gad (Bedi), the same brother who brought Thomas to India, became very sick. The king called Thomas from jail to pray for Bedi who was at the verge of death. According to the legend, St. Thomas prayed for Bedi’s health and Bedi became well. Later on, Bedi told his brother, King Gundphorrus, that when he was dead and taken to heaven, he had seen a huge palace being built for the king. The king was so happy that he ordered the release of St. Thomas from jail.
The Christians from Kerala affirm this story. There is a strong Orthodox Church in Kerala India, and many Churches and people there are named after St. Thomas such as “Mar Toma” and “Thomas” respectively. More than 30% of the population in the state of Kerala consists of Christians today and it has the highest literacy rate in India or Pakistan.
India has a history of foreign invaders who entered India from her Western Passes such as Khyber Pass near Peshawar-Pakistan. In the 8th century, Mohamad-bin-Qasam invaded India and spread Islam in the South-Western region of India. In the 13th century Mahmood-Ghaznavi, invaded India and Mohammad ben-Gouri established a Muslim Empire in India. Baber defeated Ibrahim Lodhi (1526 A.D.) and started the Mughal dynasty. The Mughal dynasty lasted until 1857 when India came under the direct rule of British Queen Victoria.
The second phase of the arrival of Christianity in India began with the arrival of East-India Companies. In 1498 Vascode-Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who was commissioned by King Emmanuel of Portugal reached Calicut on the Malabar coast of Indian. After the exploration of this sea route to India, there began an inflow of trading companies from Holland, France and Britain. It was a common saying in Europe that “a handful of Cloves is a handful of Gold.” All these companies wanted to dominate the Indian market. In 1757 Lord Robert Clive, a British general of British east India Company, defeated general Duplex of France in the battle of Palasey in South India. These companies were not interested in converting people to Christianity; rather they discouraged any missionary work to convert any Hindu or Muslim or Sikh to Christianity. Referring to British East-India Company, Steve Neill, in his book titled Colonialism and Christian Missions writes:
“The tender care of the Company for Hindus did not extend itself to the Hindu who became a Christian. Such a convert automatically lost all claims to any share of the family property to which he would have been entitled had he remained a Hindu. Furthermore, he was debarred from appointment to any public office under the Company. And, if an Indian convert deserted by his wife decided to remarry, however long the interval, he would find himself liable to prosecution for bigamy.”
The Christian evangelistic work began after William Carey’s arrival in 1793. Carey a teacher and cobbler in Britain expressed his desire to his Bishop to go to India to work among the poor untouchable people of India. His Bishop said to Carey that if God wants to reach these poor people He can do without you. However, Carey said to him, “Sir, we pray, our father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, they kingdom come, thy will be done: What is the will of God on this earth? To help these poor people who live in such a miserable condition.
The tireless efforts of William Carey brought fruit at last when he reached India and established a theological research center at Serampur near Calcutta India. With the help of many local Hindu and Muslim priests, Cary was able to translate the entire Bible into Chinese, Persian, Punjabi, and Bengali. The New Testament was translated into thirty-five (35) different languages.
In the mid nineteenth century, Scottish missionaries Rev. Youngson and Rev. Hunter and American Presbyterian missionary Rev. Samuel Martin worked in the Kashmir valley and in the region of Punjab, especially in Gurdaspur, Siharanpur, Pathankot and Sialkot. They converted many people to Christianity, rich and poor from Hindu, Muslim and Sikh backgrounds. Missionaries who followed them established schools, colleges, and hospitals. Some examples are Gordon College in Rawalpindi, Murray College in Sialkot, Forman Christian College in Lahore, Mission Hospital in Sialkot, and the Mission Hospital Taxila. The Roman Catholic Church established similar institutions in many cites as well. It should be pointed out that most of the leadership, pre and post independence of Pakistan and India in 1947 received their education in Christian Institutions. Independence divided India into three parts on a religious basis: East Pakistan, India and West Pakistan. Land was divided, families were divided and waters were divided. The only thing that did not experience division was the Church of Christ, because the Church belongs to Christ. Christians in India are as loyal to their country as we are faithful to our Pakistan, but the Church still stands united.
It was the Rev. William Carey who translated the order from English to Bengali which stopped the barbaric Custom of Satti (burning alive a young widow) in India. Rev. Carey informed the Churches in Britain about this brutal Custom. It was the Church in Britain and India that favored Ghandi’s policy of non-violence for independence. Hindus were more receptive to Western education. It was Sir Syed Ahemed Khan who motivated Muslims to study in Western or Christian educational institutions. It is true that British East India Company, for its own profitability, created a wonderful infrastructure such as the railway system. This whole development made missionary work also easier. In 1884 when the Indian National Congress was formed, the second session of Congress was presided by a Parsee, Mr. Naoroji. In his presidential address, he mentioned about British rule in India as follows:
“We are thoroughly sensible of the numberless blessings conferred upon us, of which the very existence of the Congress is proof in a nutshell. Were it not for the blessings of British rule I could not have come here today, as I have done without least hesitation and the least fear that my children might be robbed and killed in my absence; nor could you have come from every corner of the land, having performed within a few days journeys which in former days would have occupied months. These facts bring home to all of us at once some of the great and numberless blessings, which the British have conferred, upon us. But there remain even greater blessings for which we have to be grateful. It is to British rule that we owe the education we possess; the people of England were sincere in the declaration made more than half a century ago that India was a sacred charge entrusted to their care by Providence, and that they were bound to administer it for the good of India, to the glory of their own name, and the satisfaction of God.”
As far as satisfaction of God is concerned, missionaries were the people who contributed more towards this goal by educating indigenous people as compared to the British government. People like Rev. Youngson, Rev. Hunter and Rev. Samuel Martin, worked very hard in Sialkot Valley. Beginning in 1820, the Christian missionaries worked very hard to reach the people of Sialkot valley. In 1857, Jang-e-Azadee, Rev. Hunter was killed, and became the first martyr in the name of Christ in the Sialkot region. In 1880, the hard work and prayers of many Christians began to bear fruit at last, and thousands upon thousands accepted Christ as their personal Savior. In the history of Christianity in India and Pakistan, this time is known as “the movement of the Holy Spirit” or “the Mass Movement.” In 1898, Rev. Youngson and Rev. Martin helped to move many Christian families from the Sialkot valley to new sister villages – named after their respective founders Youngsonabad and Martinpur.
References.
A brief History of the Region
The nation of Pakistan was initially a part of India. For a time it was even called Hindustan. Influx of Islam as a religion had its beginnings through routes used by Muslim traders in the region of Southern state of what is now Kerala India, the introduction of Islam Muslim rule in the subcontinent began in 712 CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in what is now modern day Pakistan. This set the stage for several successive invasions from Central Asia between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent such as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.
Mughal rule came from Central Asia to cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. It suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis, Sikhs, and Marathas to exercise control over large areas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company gained ascendancy over South Asia. I recall a visit to the Museum in Lahore Pakistan, with my daddy as a little girl. I was in awe of the various historical art pieces and life size statues of the Mughals. At the start of the mid-18th century and over the next century, India was gradually annexed by the British East India Company. Upon dissatisfaction with British rule, the Indian Rebellion of 1857 came about as a result. Thereafter, India was directly administered by the British Crown. During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and later joined by the Muslim League. The political history of the nations (both India and Pakistan had its beginnings with the birth of the All India Muslim League in 1906 to protect Muslim interests, amid neglect and under-representation. The subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan.
However, the preceding state of events would not have taken place without the prominent influence of “Western democratic ideologies” thus paving the way and setting the stage for the subsequent formation of what is now Pakistan and India. It is clear from the educational backgrounds of both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan that their education in the Western colleges and universities had a profound effect upon the destiny of what is now India and Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam)
Liaquat Ali Khan (Quaid-e-Millat
Due to the astute efforts of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also known as Quaid-e-Azam and Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan became a nation on August 1947. Jinnah became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Liaquat was given the titles of Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation), and posthumously Shaheed-e-Millat (Martyr of the Nation).
As the first Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to lay the foundations of the new state of Pakistan, frame national policies and rehabilitate millions of Muslim refugees who had migrated from India.
Jinnah’s background was of Hindu origins. His grandfather converted to Islam as a result the family now were all Muslims. In 1892, Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja's firm in Karachi. Once he arrived in London however, he decided to study Law instead and at age 19, he became the youngest Indian to be called to the bar in England. He proved to be a brilliant scholar. During his student years in England, Jinnah came under the spell of 19th-century British liberalism, like many other future Indian independence leaders. This education included exposure to the idea of the democratic nation and progressive politics. He later returned to India as a brilliant and skilled lawyer. His panache for Western Ideals and Democracy had become ingrained in his political ideals.
The independent state of Pakistan, created on August 14, 1947, represented the outcome of a campaign on the part of the Indian Muslim community for a Muslim homeland, which had been triggered by the British decision to consider transferring power to the people of India. A controversy has raged in Pakistan about whether Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular state or an Islamic state. His views as expressed in his policy speech on August 11, 1947 said:
HIS IMPORTANT LETTER
There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make. I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish. Indeed if you ask me, this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and independence and but for this we would have been free people long ago. No power can hold another nation and specially a nation of 400 million souls in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste, or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now, there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. The people of England in course of time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their country and they went through that fire step by step. Today, you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist; what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and they are all members of the Nation. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State. Jinnah, August 11, 1947 – presiding over the constituent assembly.
Many say that his statement cannot be taken as an indication that Jinnah wanted a secular state because he also referred to Islam and Islamic principles. However, I beg to differ, as it is clear from the preceding statement that Western ideologies, which are rooted in democratic, though had clearly been entrenched in Jinnah’s political aspirations and idea.
The following was a broadcast talk to the people of the United States of America on Pakistan recorded February 1948.
The constitution of Pakistan has yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. I do not know what the ultimate shape of this constitution is going to be, but I am sure that it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principle of Islam. Today, they are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case, Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims — Hindus, Christians, and Parsis — but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan.
Pakistanis view Jinnah as their revered founding father, a man that was dedicated to safeguarding Muslim interests during the dying days of the British Raj (rule). Despite any of a range of biases, it almost impossible to doubt, despite motive and manner, that there is any figure that had more influence and role in the creation of Pakistan than Jinnah.
The Constituent Assembly adopted it on 29 February 1956, and it was enforced on 23 March 1956, proclaiming Pakistan to be an Islamic republic.
The above in itself serves as an oxymoron in terms of what we now know about Islam.
Liaquat was a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, Oxford University and the Middle Temple, London. He rose into prominence within the Muslim League during the 1930s. Significantly, he is credited with persuading Jinnah to return to India, an event that marked the beginning of the Muslim League's ascendancy and paved the way for the Pakistan movement. Following the passage of the Pakistan Resolution in 1940, Liaquat assisted Jinnah in campaigning for the creation of a separate state for Indian Muslims. In 1947, British Raj was divided into the modern-day states of India and Pakistan.
The idea of a Muslim nation, distinct from Hindu India, was introduced in 1930 by the poet Muhammad Iqbal and was ardently supported by a group of Indian Muslim students in England, who were the first to use the name Pakistan [land of the pure, from the Urdu pak,=pure and stan,=land]. It gained wide support in 1940 when the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, demanded the establishment of a Muslim state in the areas of India where Muslims were in the majority. The League won most of the Muslim constituencies in the 1946 elections, and Britain and the Congress party reluctantly agreed to the formation of Pakistan as a separate dominion under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, which went into effect on Aug. 15, 1947.
Read more: Pakistan: History — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0860200.html#ixzz1SOn70w8b
“God’s Abramic Covenant Post 9/11”
© 2010 Shabnam Hadassah Lal Chowdry
Photos above from left to right.
Young Samuel Martin & Lydia Mossman Martin before sailing
for India (now Pakistan in 1867).
Mary, Jane and Josephine Martin (Daughters of Samuel and
Lydia Martin).
Matt: 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Nearly a year after the events of 9/11, the Lord had called me into the ministry. Little did I know the path my life would be taking or lengthy the journey would become. Four years after 9/11, I began writing more poetry and songs and found my heart’s desire to minister to our Armed Forces who were fighting the war on terrorism. I also delved into my past family history and discovered that my life was inextricably linked to that of Samuel Martin who was instrumental in bringing the message of the Hope of Jesus Christ to my family four generations ago in the late 1860s. Now my question was answered as to why I felt compelled to write and send encouraging posters and cards to our troops. The seeds of the Gospel that Samuel Martin had planted on Pakistani soil were now ready to become a harvest for a new generation of soldiers on America’s soil post 9/11. God did not forget the efforts of another soldier four generations ago.
Thanks to the efforts of Samuel Martin, my great-grandfather became a Minister because of his evangelistic efforts. My familial village in Pakistan (Martinpur) actually came to be named after this great man of God for his love and service to the people of Pakistan. He was affectionately called “Chuhrea’n da’ Pir” meaning “Father to the Poor.” You see the Chuhras were poorest of the poor. They lived outside the village proper, and performed the most menial tasks for the village. His daughter E. Josephine Martin shares a story by Miss Mary J. Campbell, “In the Shadow of the Himalayas, p.55, that gives an account of a beautiful story. “A high caste man in the district of Zafarwal (now Sialkot), whose name was Nathu, was baptized by Dr. Barr in 1872. He went out and won to Jesus Christ a dark little man, lame in leg, quiet and modest in manner. This man was thirty years of age and his name was Ditt. He was considered an untouchable. One day Nathu took Ditt to Sialkot to meet Doctor Martin and presented him as one ready for baptism.” Miss Kate A. Hill who first went to India as a missionary in 1896 was closely associated with the Martin family. She and Josephine Martin made their first journey to the Mission field together. Miss Hill gives a story of Ditt’s baptism as she heard it from Dr. Martin: - “No one from this caste had been baptized. There had been much discussion. Some said of a low caste man (or an outcaste) be baptized, no high caste will ever come. Others said; if you want to cut down a tree begin at the roots. If the caste system is ever to be destroyed begin with the outcaste.” Therefore, Ditt came asking for baptism. Dr. Martin hesitated. Mrs. Martin, with a woman’s love and intuition said, ‘Baptize him.’ Dr. Martin did, and sent him back to his own village to live among his own people. In a few months, Ditt returned with relatives and friends to be taught and to be baptized. Thus, the Mass Movement in the Punjab region began that brought thousands of low caste to Christ, and the Punjab Church was established. Dr. Martin lived to see the Punjab Synod organized, self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating.
A Civil War Soldier
Samuel Martin was a former Civil War soldier who fought in the Union Army to end the sin of slavery on American soil. 1Ti 1:10 for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. He was taken prisoner by the Confederates, and nearly died had a brother not rescued him. The brother died and Samuel Martin made a decision to serve God. A lawyer friend of the family once remarked it is strange how some people waste their talents! The Martin brother had brains, and might have made their Mark in the world, but John wasted his in little mission and country congregations, and Samuel buried himself in India. He along with his wife the former Lydia Mossman went to what is now Pakistan in 1867. They suffered much and persevered from 1867 to 1910. His life of sacrifice (44 years) resulted in the conversion of over 15,000, amongst them my great-grandfather, who went on to became a Presbyterian minister. Four generations later post 9/11, the mantle of ministry has been passed to me as a daughter of my father. 9/11 is said to have been perpetrated by Muslims (Mohammedans) tied to Wahabism. Ironically, in February 1872 there were indicators of growth of a particularly violent sect of Mohammedans tied to Wahabism who were responsible for the assassination of Lord Mayo, the Viceroy according to a letter written by Lydia Martin to her family. Through the Ministry of IJNHope it is clear that Samuel Martin did indeed make his mark in the world as the river of Truth never stops flowing even after 140 years and it is now flowing through the ministry of IJNHope post 9/11 bringing the message of Hope full circle to Jew and Gentile alike.
According to the article “A short History of Martinpur Schools” by my brother in law Yaqub Masih, my familial village of Martinpur was established in 1898. It was name, “Martinpur” in honor of Dr. Samuel Martin. He was a United Presbyterian Church Missionary who secured that plot of land and selected 72 families from different parts of the Punjab to come and live in that new canal area. The people he chose were amongst the first generation of Christian converts. Dr. Martin not only gave them the message of salvation through Jesus Christ but also helped them to stand on their fee. He gave great emphasis not only on the religious instruction of these new converts but also on their secular instruction until they learned to value education properly. In his judgment, their influence upon other people would be dependent to some degree upon their intelligence, and nothing would prove more forcibly to other people, the Divine power of Christianity, than its power to educate and advance these people, which other systems of religion had abandoned. I have taken the following story of Samuel and Lydia Martin from an article by Julia Cass the great-granddaughter of Samuel and Lydia Martin. This story can be found in the Reunion Issue “Martinpur Schools Magazine” issue of March 2003.
The Story of Samuel and Lydia Martin
Early Presbyterian Missionaries in the Punjab
By Julia Cass, Alabama
History and Contribution of Martinpur Schools
Just after the Civil War ended, in 1867, Samuel and Lydia Martin sailed to India to join a small band of United Presbyterians who had set up a mission in the Punjab, a region that is now part of Pakistan. Except for occasional furloughs back to the U.S., Samuel spent his entire adult life in the Punjab. He was known for converting and working with the untouchables in the Hindu caste system. He founded a village – named Martinpur after him – so that ostracized converts would have a place to live and work. His wife Lydia was a partner in mission work until she died in 1886.
Samuel and Lydia had seven children; one of them was my grandfather, Alfred Martin.
Three of their daughters, Josephine, Mary and Jane, also became missionaries in India. Josephine taught at the Girl’s Boarding School in Hajipur Road in Sialkot, Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore and she was principal of the Girls’ Boarding School in Pathankot. Jane worked as an evangelist at the Christian Hospital in Taxila. Mary was best know for writing a book that set the Psalms, translated into Urdu by a local poet, to native tunes, since Western music was foreign to Indian ears. A book published by the church in the 1940’s says the Martin family devoted a total of 162 years to a mission and a people far away from their home in Steubenville, Ohio.
Both Samuel and Lydia came from Scotch-Irish farming families. He attended Jefferson College, in Canonsburg, Pa. and then, through the influence of a local pastor, went to a United Presbyterian theological seminary. After a year, he enlisted in a company of Ohio Volunteers to serve in the Civil War. He fought in Western Kentucky and Tennessee, contracted typhoid fever and was put in a hospital that was captured by the Confederates, making him a prisoner. His brother Howard came down from Ohio to nurse him and contracted typhoid fever. Samuel recovered but Howard died, and the family story has it that his death gave Samuel a sense of obligation to be of service, since he though his life had been spared for some reason.
“Invalided out” by the Confederates in 1863 – this meant he could go home but could not fight again – Samuel finished theological school and decided to go the churches’ new mission in India. Lydia was a math teacher also interested in the India mission and through this mutual interest, they met and decided to get married and to India together. They were both in their late 20’s at the time.
Why would talented young people choose to go to a remote area of the world as Christian missionaries? The 1850’s and 1860’s were a time of “mission fever” related to the fervor of the Abolitionist movement – the idea that Christians had a duty to help the oppressed and ignorant. Far-away missions had not been practical earlier because they required the communication that came with mail, steamships and railroads.
The Journey to India
When Samuel and Lydia set sail for India 134 years ago (as of the writing of this article in 2003); they had their photographs taken in New York before they left, to send to their parents in case they never came back. Just getting to India was an ordeal. They took a steamship from New York to Glasgow England. There they booked passage on a cargo sailing ship that went around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. The captain was abusive and dishonest. He saved all the fresh food for himself, and Lydia got scurvy. At one point, the ship was becalmed and the sailors broke into the liquor cargo. For a week, Lydia and Samuel were the only sober people aboard.
Finally, they arrived in Bombay, six months after leaving New York. They took a train to New Delhi, and after that, human-drawn darts like rickshaws, one for them and one for their luggage. They had to change and reload every ten miles because the rickshaw drivers would go no further from home. When they got within 25 miles of Sialkot where the United Presbyterians had started a mission ten ears earlier, Samuel hired a horse-drawn carriage. He wanted, my mother said, to arrive in style.
At first, they stayed in a tent near the missionary compound and concentrated on learning the language and building a home. Lydia proved to be a gifted linguist. They had a man teach them Urdu, but he was an opium user and not very reliable. Therefore, Lydia went to the river where the women washed their clothes, listened to them talk and learned the language. Every missionary who came after them stayed a while with Samuel and Lydia to learn the language from Lydia.
Judging from their letters and books written about the mission, the early missionaries were safe from being attacked or thrown out of the country because of the protection of the British. They physical dangers were the heat, disease and insects. It was HOT! in Sialkot in July 1888. Temperatures averaged 107 degrees in the shade. Worse was the humidity during the rainy season. The first summer Samuel and Lydia were not able to escape to the mountains and in August, Lydia wrote, “Mr. Martin was completely covered with prickly heat, like measles and it finally gathered into boils.” She also wrote that they had killed in their house during the summer, seven centipedes, more than one hundred scorpions and a large poisonous snake.
Preaching and “Intinerating”
In the early days, there was no clear idea of what the mission should be doing. In general, the goal was to establish an independent self-sufficient United Presbyterian Church in the Punjab. This meant, first of all, the development of a Christian community and then the establishment of schools, colleges, theological schools and a governing apparatus to institutionalize a self-standing church. Starting this from scratch in the late 1860’s, with a total of three couples and two single women, was an immense task. Many letters from Lydia and Samuel describe the difficulties and often end with a statement of faith that “God will accomplish all in His own time.”
Neither the Hindus nor the Muslims were receptive to the message of Christianity. In Samuel’s view, “With the great mass of people here, religion is a mere form…As a rule, the Muslims are more troublesome than the Hindus, whose principle care is for worldly goods. The Hindus hardly ever dispute; they do not appear to care enough about religion to dispute any statement made. For this reason, I often prefer to preach to the Muslims, for although they are more boisterous and rude, they appear to care for religion.” The missionaries tried to get the word out by preaching in bazaars, by traveling to different parts of the Punjab in tents, which they called “itinerating,” and by establishing boys and girls schools in the towns and villages.
In a letter home in 1873, Lydia wrote, “Mr. Martin preaches in the bazaar every morning, except Sabbath. He also teaches Bible lessons an hour in the school. He sometimes preaches in the bazaar in the evenings. He preaches to a congregation of about 200 on Sabbath mornings and gives a sermon to the Christians on Thursday evening. He also has General and Station Treasury business, Industrial School and reading with the munshi in Urdu, Persian and Arabic. You will know that he can have little leisure time.”
During part of his time in Pakistan, Samuel was in charge of the Zarfarwal (District Sialkot) station, preaching, teaching, administering and working with inquirers. When the author of “Our India Mission” visited him there in the mid-1880s, he sad Samuel oversaw a flock of 1,000 Christians in more than 100 villages with 32 village schools, 10 Sabbath schools and 2 organized churches.
At another point, Samuel was in charge of the Sialkot district and served as Senior Theological Professor at the theological seminary, which at the time was located in Sialkot. When the Christian Training Institute (CTI) was founded in 1881, it was placed under the supervision of the Senior Theological Professor since “its main object was to afford a literary and religious training to promising Christian boys preparatory to their admission to the Theological Seminary.” According to “Our India Mission.” Samuel held this position for several years.
To reach the women, who lived behind the walls, first of their parents, and then of their husbands’ compounds, Lydia went to their houses to talk to them, when they could get permission. In a letter written not long after they got to India, she wrote, Laborers among the women are one of the great wants of the country. The great mass of them are not and cannot be reached except by women. These women about us are ignorant and degraded but the grace of God is sufficient for them.”
Lydia also taught arithmetic, writing and Bible study at the Girl’s Boarding School on the Hajupur Road in Sialkot, and one of the buildings where is said to be named after her.
The two missionary couples who preceded Samuel and Lydia hand converted some people, and more came into the fold when my great-grandparents joined them. A big problem then was ostracism. Converts often lost their families, property and livelihoods; some were beaten and threatened with death if they continued their religious folly. They had to begin life all over again. The missionaries, who were constantly begging the Mission Board for more resources, took them in at first but eventually could not support them and did not want to – since this led to criticism and concern that, some of the converts were becoming Christian just to be taken care of by the missionaries. (In China missions, the term for this was “rice Christians” – meaning people who converted in order to be fed).
A Father to the Poor
Converting Hindus of caste was slow. A big breakthrough was the decision to convert the untouchables. This became Samuel’s mission. Although a few untouchables had been baptized by the missionaries before Samuel and Lydia came, this had been done reluctantly. The missionaries feared that if they converted the outcasts, no higher caste Hindus would ever come, and they reasoned that the more educated higher caste Indians would have the leadership qualities needed to carry the church forward.
The untouchables were worse than low caste; they were below and outside every caste recognized as in any way respectable. They worked primarily as landless laborers, scavengers and city sweepers. They did the dirtiest work Hindus considered defining-removing dead cows from fields, skinning the animals, removing bodies of the dead who had no family to take care of them take excreta from latrines. Other castes would not allow even the shadow of a passing untouchable to fall on them. “Our India Mission” describes a group of higher caste boys sitting on the carpet in the house of one of the ministers, listening to him preach, when an untouchable unexpectedly stepped into the room, setting his foot on the same carpet. Though the higher caste boys were seated quite a distance away, “instantly these lads jumped up and ran out of the house as abruptly as if they had seen a cobra approaching.”
The missionaries compared the untouchables to the lepers in the Bible and did not feel they should ostracize them too, even though they were concerned about alienating the higher caste Hindus.
Another book about the missions, “Life and Work in India” published in 1899, says that by 1881, the native Christian community in Punjab numbered 4762. By 1891, it had grown to 20,729. There were also 29 Christian schools and an orphanage. The author goes on to say that, converts included more villagers than city dwellers, more poor than rich, more illiterates than educated. “The great bodies of our Christians are common coolies or weepers and earn a precarious livelihood as hired laborers in a kind of perpetual serfdom. Probably not more than one family in 100 makes even a respectable living.” He goes on, “Such has ever been the history of Christian missions. The Gospel, in permeating society, has almost always filtered up instead of down, from the early days of Christianity.
Martinpur
With more converts, the problem of dependency became more acute. How were the new Christians – the desperately poor untouchables and the ostracized Muslims and other Hindus – going to make a living and how could they possibly create a self-supporting church? The mission created industrial training schools to teach tailoring, cooking, shoemaking and masonry so the converts could get better wages than they had as coolies and sweepers. It was hard to get good instructors, though, because of the native guilds.
Martinpur was created out of the need to develop economic self-sufficiency for the new Christians. In the late 1890’s the British government began a project of constructing canals, bringing thousands of arid acres under cultivation. The Presbyterian mission conceived the idea of asking for a grant of land for the Christian community. Samuel was appointed to apply for the grant.
The new colonists named the village Martinpur (Martintown). Actually, the word “pur” means “village” and it was of course named after Dr. Martin. Samuel selected the settlers for the project. There were many more applicants than land available. Each one was to receive a square of land containing about 28 acres. Samuel divided some squares to accommodate a greater number of applicants. The settlers had little or no capital. Land had to be cleared of shrubs and rocks. They built temporary houses. Winds, malaria and homesickness plagued the experiment, and Samuel, who knew farming from his childhood, expressed frustration that the settlers, who had been sweepers and scavengers, not farmers, killed some of the animals as soon as they got hungry and ate the seeds rather than planting them. Nevertheless, the village survived and a congregation was organized.
A Wrenching Separation
Samuel and Lydia derived great satisfaction from their mission but it involved a personal sacrifice for them and their children. After they had been in India for 11 years, they returned to the US for a furlough that lasted two years. They lived in New Concord, Ohio, and Samuel taught math at Muskingham College, a United Presbyterian college. They had five children by then, and my grandfather was born while they were home. Lydia and Samuel never considered staying in the US. They felt their work was in the India mission.
They also felt they had to leave their four oldest children behind, with relatives in New Concord, so they could go to school and then Muskingham College. For the early missionaries, there was no school in India for their children. The leaving was very hard on the children and on Lydia. The youngest child left behind – Alice – was just 5 and she had heart set on returning with her mother. Josephine, one of their older daughters, later wrote that Lydia “tenderly reasoned with Alice but failed to dissuade her from her desire to go back to India. Lydia wrote in beautiful gold letters the word STAY and in the small slating letter, the word GO and asked Alice to make her choice. She at once pointed to GO.”
When the parents and their two younger children left on the train to Philadelphia, from which they would embark this time, the children who were to remain in New Concord, including little Alice, did not go to the stations. They waved goodbye to their parents as the train passed by the house where they were staying. This was the last time these children saw their mother. And this was the last time she saw them because she died of pneumonia in India in 1886. She wrote an almost heartbreaking letter to the children in New Concord from Philadelphia. It begins, “You will be looking for a letter from Mama but I feel so sad and lonely without you that I can scarcely write it.”
After she died, Samuel brought my grandfather, the other two children back to New Concord, and he returned to India. The older sisters were teenagers then and, along with an aunt who, I gather, was not every effective, more or less raised my grandfather and his two younger siblings. My mother says my grandfathers' growing up left a lot to be desired, being bossed around by a teenaged sisters who did not know or understand growing boys, including how much they needed to eat.
My grandfather lived nine years in India but my Uncle Bill said he rarely talked of that time of his life. He sometimes would tell stories about scorpions, snakes and leopards and amused his children by counting in Urdu, but he seemed to have put the India years behind him. Perhaps the death of his mother was so overwhelming he did not want to go back that far in his memory; not that he repudiated his parents’ work: he became a minister, though not a missionary.
Howard Martin Joins the Mission
When Samuel Martin was in Ohio bringing the remainder of the children back after Lydia’s death, he had long talks about the mission in India with his nephew Howard Martin, who was attending the Presbyterian theological school in nearby Zenia. Howard became interested and decided to go to India after student groups in five colleges got together and raised the money to send someone to the mission there. They selected Howard.
Howard and his wife Elizabeth worked in developing a Christian community in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). Howard also taught at the Christian Training Institute in Sialkot. He directed the Institute at a time when new buildings were being constructed. Howard’s son, John Gregory, founded the Christian hospital in Taxila. So this other branch of the Martin family added their contributions to the mission field.
Final Years
By the turn of the century, Samuel’s apparently splendid physique began to show the effect of his years in Indian. After an attack of pneumonia, he came home for what would be his last furlough. He could have stayed in the US but wanted to go back to India, where he felt more at home than he did in Ohio. He returned to India in 1907 and died three years later, in December 1910. His three missionaries sang the closing song at his funeral. For days after the funeral his three daughters (Josephine, Mary, and Jane Martin) sat on the verandah of the bungalow to meet the man Christians who came from Zafarwal, Sialkot, and Pasrur to mourn for the one they called ‘Father,’ and not only members of the Christian community, but officials of city and district of Punjab came as well. He encountered numerous discouragements and problems anywhere there are attempts to introduce Christianity into a population of non-Christians. The problems were more perplexing when trying to integrate believers from a low-caste people into a church. Dr. Martin encountered all of these hindrances, and at times felt them keenly, but always closed his letters with an expression of his faith in God during his forty (40) years as a missionary. He believed in God’s work and did God’s will. It has been estimated as between 7,000 and 15,000. Of the 15,000 people whom Dr. Robert Stewart estimated that Dr. Martin baptized, thousands of them were ancestors of the present Punjab church. (United Presbyterian, July 18, 1955, Page 6.).
His wife preceded him in death. After twenty years in the mission field, she caught a cold and it developed into pneumonia. She was unable to fight off the disease and died December 3, 1886. Miss Mary J. Campbell who had been assigned to the Martin home for language study for a period of one year had this to say about her after her death. “I wish to pay tribute to that most devoted and brilliant missionary of those early days - Mrs. Lydia Mossman Martin. Her beautiful life should have been written and published in book form for our United Presbyterian family long ago. She was pioneer worker among the untouchables. She was wholehearted in her belief in this movement. When the camping season came, she was willing to do her share; yes, far more than her share.
References
- “Our India Mission” (Andrew Gordon, 1886).
- “Life and Work in Indiana” (Robert Steward, 1896).
- “In the Shadow of the Himalayas” (Emma Dean Anderson and Mary Jane Campbell, 1942).
- “Father to the Poor” (Josephine Martin, no date).
- “People Movement in the Punjab” (Frederick and Margaret Stock, 1975).
The Missionary and Western Influence
One of my main reasons for sharing the preceding story of my personal spiritual roots is to make certain that the importance of American missionary work is never underscored. The missionaries that followed the “great commission of Mat 28:19” to propagate the message of Jesus Christ/Yeshua Messiah were highly educated and sacrificed much to bring souls into the kingdom of God. It was not an easy task, it never is. Missionaries raised the standard of living in what is now Pakistan by bringing the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and educating the poorest of the poor. The missionaries accomplished much in their service to the people of Pakistan.
The influence of mission schools is prominent in the lives of many people from Pakistan including the Muslims as well as the Christians. In fact, many Muslims prefer to send their children to Christian schools, as the education curriculum is better.
I wept as I read Julia Cass’s visit to Martinpur for the Centennial celebration of Martinpur. I had no idea that this story of revisiting my not so distant past would have upon me. When she visited Pakistan in 1999, she wondered what had become of the seeds that her great-grandfather Samuel Martin had planted. When she got to Pakistan, she was met by David Francis, the administrator of the Presbyterian Church and its institutions in Pakistan and my brother in law Yaqub Masih. Her first day was spent at a literacy program in a Christian slum. The trainers told her that many Christians in Pakistan toady are, like their ancestor, near the bottom of the economic scale. In contrast, I personally feel so blessed to be living here in America. My father Chowdry Kundan Lal was a wise man who sacrificed a great paying job as a teacher at Don Bosco High School in Lahore Pakistan and brought his young family to America. He had contemplated the UK but felt the weather was too damp and there was already too large of a Muslim population and influence-taking root. His goal of bringing us to America was to give all of us a better future as Christians. My father was a strong man of faith. Sadly, I lost him to leukemia in 1990.
She received a hero’s welcome when she arrived at the village. Here words follow from the article: “A Martin returns 100 years later.”
“What an entrance! I have never experienced such a welcome before and doubt I will again. Ahead of us were two dancers in horse costumes, raising their “heads” and “tails” to the music of a bagpipe, drums and a lute. Fireworks shot up into the air from the fields nearby. The streets were lined with children waving paper pennants clinging fragilely to whittled sticks. Soon we passed under an entrance gate made from branches and leaves with a big sign that read, “Welcome Julia Cass, great-granddaughter of Samuel Martin, founder of Martinpur.” When we turned a corner to head towards the church, I was stunned by the number of people in the street-so many the oxen could barely get through.
We got down near the church, leis of scarlet roses were hung around our necks, and we were presented with bouquets of roses. In front of us stood schoolgirls, some with paper wings, holding little sticks with stars on the end. They sang, in English, “Welcome, welcome, welcome to all of you. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Martinpur.” We were charmed.
A tent top made of brightly colored cloth panels had been set up on the grounds next to the church and it was packed with people. I will never forget the sight of the women in brightly colored shawls, the beautiful brown-eyed children in their blue school uniforms
And the handsome men sitting on mats under the tent and looking at us on the stage-especially me, the great granddaughter of Samuel Martin.
We feel that Samuel Martin has come back.” Rev. Khokhar remarked. A photograph of Samuel Martin hangs on the wall of the Martin Memorial Church, and children obviously are taught about him and village history. I was amazed that they would remember and honor him after 100 years. In their speeches made in the next several hours, Martinpur leaders used Samuel’s story and memory to encourage unity, education and spiritual rebirth. Qualities that had made Martinpur the successful village it is but appears to now be in decline. At that point, I was too struck by how far the village and its people had come to appreciate their sense of decline. In his welcoming address, Joseph Mall, the retired high school superintendent, spoke about the difficulties of their ancestors, and the first settlers faced. They had no capital and they hadn’t been farmers but sweepers “doing the small and lowly jobs in the households of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. They had dealt with unleveled land that was full of thorns, bushes, wild animals and snakes. Water was not available. Some people left and returned to their villages but some worked hard and were successful. First, a well was dug to get water. Then the people built a church. The third endeavor was the establishment of a school. Their efforts were not in vain.
As Mall said in his address to the assembly that day: “I can say with pride that this village is one of the most educated villages in the Punjab. There are families in this village which have five graduates and many people occupy positions of distinction.”
He read a list of accomplished Martinpur people – Dr. Samuel Burke, a man who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, two judges, a railway superintendent, five Army majors and captains, six lawyers, a national senator (Qaisar) and a provincial deputy, 11 doctors, one the administrator of the Christian Hospital in Lahore, two bankers, the head of the theological seminary (James), the Bishop of Lahore, the executive secretary of the National Council of Church in Pakistan, and too many ministers, teachers, college professors and nurse to name.
These accomplishments are very impressive, especially considering the lowly status of the initial settlers and the continued prejudice against Christians in a Muslim society. Other descendants of the untouchables educated in the Presbyterian schools and colleges who are not from Martinpur also have become part of Pakistan’s professional class. However, Martinpur seems to have been the home of an impressive number of the most accomplished. Yaqub Masih said that Martinpur has a much higher literacy rate (56 percent) than Pakistan in general and proportionately more children attend school (77 percent).
While Mall attributed their educational progress to the schools in the village and mission colleges where the students were sent with the help of the missionaries. “Yaqub Masih, in his remarks, said the emphasis on education can be traced back to Samuel Martin. “The families who settled here had very humble beginnings – spiritually they were in darkness, socially and economically they were oppressed. Their new faith in Christ gave them new life and lifted them up spiritually, socially and economically. At the very beginning they heeded the advice of their founder, who said about these people: ‘Their influence upon other classes will be dependent to some degree upon their intelligence, and nothing will prove more forcibly to the higher classes the Divine power of Christianity than its power to educated and advance these outcast classes, which other systems of religion have abandoned.
I was very moved by the realizing the impact of Samuel Martin on the lives of these people right in front of me in the hot tent. The moment I really lost, felt tears welling my eyes and running down my cheeks, was when Rev. Khokhar announced that were going to sing the 150th Psalm to music transcribed by my great-aunt Mary Martin, who had written down the notes of local tunes so converts could sing the Psalms in familiar music. The thought that Mary had died more than 70 years ago but people on the other side of the world are still singing her songs really got to me.
The next day, Sunday morning, I was guest of honor at the service at the Martin Memorial UP Church. The church is quite an impressive red brick building, built to replace the original church constructed a few years after the village was established. I was seated in a chair at the front, facing the women’s side. Rev. Khokhar and Arthur James read the Scripture and many psalms were sung. Jim Crank, a missionary from the US, gave the sermon. He talked about faith and said that Samuel Martin’s “heart was in evangelizing in the villages.” Later we had another service in the evening. More of Mary’s songs were sung. I noted that several of the singers were young girls. Yaqub Masih, who was sitting beside me, said that Christians make more effort than other groups to teach leadership to women. I had visits with many people.
When I left, a crowd came to see me off – hugging me and then waving as our van left town. One woman was actually crying, and she made me promise that I or someone in the Martin family would come back to Martinpur some day.
When I returned home, other Martins asked me: What legacy did Samuel and Lydia Martin and their three missionary daughters leave in Pakistan? I said that although the Presbyterian institutions in Pakistan today still need financial aid from the Presbyterian Church USA, the early missionaries had succeeded in creating self-perpetuating institutions that have made a difference in the lives of thousands of people. I came away with the conclusion that the missionaries’ greatest legacy are the Pakistanis like David Francis, Veeda Javaid, Arthur James and other Christian leaders who continue the mission with persistence and grace. When I think about the legacy of the missionary Martins, I think of what Pakistani Christian leaders are doing today because of their efforts. The village of Martinpur and its people are Samuel Martins’ legacy. I have never felt more welcomed anywhere or more proud to be a Martin.
The influence of democratic ideals in the political structure of both Pakistan and India can be attributed to the influence by many westerners who brought democratic ideals and the ideas of a “republic” to the shores of what is now Pakistan. For this section, I have elected to use an article written by by DilNawaz Latif taken from the Reunion Issue of Martinpur Schools Magazine 2003.
Elements of History of Christianity in India and Pakistan
DilNawaz Latif, Illinois, USA
Christianity in Indo-Pak subcontinent is as old as Christianity itself. According to legend, in 58 A.D., St. Thomas, the doubting Apostle of Jesus, who put his fingers into the wounded hands of our Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, was recruited by Gad (Bedi) to build a palace for his brother King Gundaphorrus who ruled Southwestern part of India. Instead of building the palace, St. Thomas was reaching and winning the poor people for Christ. The money he was receiving from the king to build the palace, he was giving to the poor people. When the king heard this, he became very angry and ordered that Thomas should be arrested and beheaded. Gad (Bedi), the same brother who brought Thomas to India, became very sick. The king called Thomas from jail to pray for Bedi who was at the verge of death. According to the legend, St. Thomas prayed for Bedi’s health and Bedi became well. Later on, Bedi told his brother, King Gundphorrus, that when he was dead and taken to heaven, he had seen a huge palace being built for the king. The king was so happy that he ordered the release of St. Thomas from jail.
The Christians from Kerala affirm this story. There is a strong Orthodox Church in Kerala India, and many Churches and people there are named after St. Thomas such as “Mar Toma” and “Thomas” respectively. More than 30% of the population in the state of Kerala consists of Christians today and it has the highest literacy rate in India or Pakistan.
India has a history of foreign invaders who entered India from her Western Passes such as Khyber Pass near Peshawar-Pakistan. In the 8th century, Mohamad-bin-Qasam invaded India and spread Islam in the South-Western region of India. In the 13th century Mahmood-Ghaznavi, invaded India and Mohammad ben-Gouri established a Muslim Empire in India. Baber defeated Ibrahim Lodhi (1526 A.D.) and started the Mughal dynasty. The Mughal dynasty lasted until 1857 when India came under the direct rule of British Queen Victoria.
The second phase of the arrival of Christianity in India began with the arrival of East-India Companies. In 1498 Vascode-Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who was commissioned by King Emmanuel of Portugal reached Calicut on the Malabar coast of Indian. After the exploration of this sea route to India, there began an inflow of trading companies from Holland, France and Britain. It was a common saying in Europe that “a handful of Cloves is a handful of Gold.” All these companies wanted to dominate the Indian market. In 1757 Lord Robert Clive, a British general of British east India Company, defeated general Duplex of France in the battle of Palasey in South India. These companies were not interested in converting people to Christianity; rather they discouraged any missionary work to convert any Hindu or Muslim or Sikh to Christianity. Referring to British East-India Company, Steve Neill, in his book titled Colonialism and Christian Missions writes:
“The tender care of the Company for Hindus did not extend itself to the Hindu who became a Christian. Such a convert automatically lost all claims to any share of the family property to which he would have been entitled had he remained a Hindu. Furthermore, he was debarred from appointment to any public office under the Company. And, if an Indian convert deserted by his wife decided to remarry, however long the interval, he would find himself liable to prosecution for bigamy.”
The Christian evangelistic work began after William Carey’s arrival in 1793. Carey a teacher and cobbler in Britain expressed his desire to his Bishop to go to India to work among the poor untouchable people of India. His Bishop said to Carey that if God wants to reach these poor people He can do without you. However, Carey said to him, “Sir, we pray, our father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, they kingdom come, thy will be done: What is the will of God on this earth? To help these poor people who live in such a miserable condition.
The tireless efforts of William Carey brought fruit at last when he reached India and established a theological research center at Serampur near Calcutta India. With the help of many local Hindu and Muslim priests, Cary was able to translate the entire Bible into Chinese, Persian, Punjabi, and Bengali. The New Testament was translated into thirty-five (35) different languages.
In the mid nineteenth century, Scottish missionaries Rev. Youngson and Rev. Hunter and American Presbyterian missionary Rev. Samuel Martin worked in the Kashmir valley and in the region of Punjab, especially in Gurdaspur, Siharanpur, Pathankot and Sialkot. They converted many people to Christianity, rich and poor from Hindu, Muslim and Sikh backgrounds. Missionaries who followed them established schools, colleges, and hospitals. Some examples are Gordon College in Rawalpindi, Murray College in Sialkot, Forman Christian College in Lahore, Mission Hospital in Sialkot, and the Mission Hospital Taxila. The Roman Catholic Church established similar institutions in many cites as well. It should be pointed out that most of the leadership, pre and post independence of Pakistan and India in 1947 received their education in Christian Institutions. Independence divided India into three parts on a religious basis: East Pakistan, India and West Pakistan. Land was divided, families were divided and waters were divided. The only thing that did not experience division was the Church of Christ, because the Church belongs to Christ. Christians in India are as loyal to their country as we are faithful to our Pakistan, but the Church still stands united.
It was the Rev. William Carey who translated the order from English to Bengali which stopped the barbaric Custom of Satti (burning alive a young widow) in India. Rev. Carey informed the Churches in Britain about this brutal Custom. It was the Church in Britain and India that favored Ghandi’s policy of non-violence for independence. Hindus were more receptive to Western education. It was Sir Syed Ahemed Khan who motivated Muslims to study in Western or Christian educational institutions. It is true that British East India Company, for its own profitability, created a wonderful infrastructure such as the railway system. This whole development made missionary work also easier. In 1884 when the Indian National Congress was formed, the second session of Congress was presided by a Parsee, Mr. Naoroji. In his presidential address, he mentioned about British rule in India as follows:
“We are thoroughly sensible of the numberless blessings conferred upon us, of which the very existence of the Congress is proof in a nutshell. Were it not for the blessings of British rule I could not have come here today, as I have done without least hesitation and the least fear that my children might be robbed and killed in my absence; nor could you have come from every corner of the land, having performed within a few days journeys which in former days would have occupied months. These facts bring home to all of us at once some of the great and numberless blessings, which the British have conferred, upon us. But there remain even greater blessings for which we have to be grateful. It is to British rule that we owe the education we possess; the people of England were sincere in the declaration made more than half a century ago that India was a sacred charge entrusted to their care by Providence, and that they were bound to administer it for the good of India, to the glory of their own name, and the satisfaction of God.”
As far as satisfaction of God is concerned, missionaries were the people who contributed more towards this goal by educating indigenous people as compared to the British government. People like Rev. Youngson, Rev. Hunter and Rev. Samuel Martin, worked very hard in Sialkot Valley. Beginning in 1820, the Christian missionaries worked very hard to reach the people of Sialkot valley. In 1857, Jang-e-Azadee, Rev. Hunter was killed, and became the first martyr in the name of Christ in the Sialkot region. In 1880, the hard work and prayers of many Christians began to bear fruit at last, and thousands upon thousands accepted Christ as their personal Savior. In the history of Christianity in India and Pakistan, this time is known as “the movement of the Holy Spirit” or “the Mass Movement.” In 1898, Rev. Youngson and Rev. Martin helped to move many Christian families from the Sialkot valley to new sister villages – named after their respective founders Youngsonabad and Martinpur.
References.
- “Mission in Punjab” by Rev. Youngson.
- “Colonialism and Christian Missions” by Steve Neill.
A brief History of the Region
The nation of Pakistan was initially a part of India. For a time it was even called Hindustan. Influx of Islam as a religion had its beginnings through routes used by Muslim traders in the region of Southern state of what is now Kerala India, the introduction of Islam Muslim rule in the subcontinent began in 712 CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in what is now modern day Pakistan. This set the stage for several successive invasions from Central Asia between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in the Indian subcontinent such as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.
Mughal rule came from Central Asia to cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. It suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Afghans, Balochis, Sikhs, and Marathas to exercise control over large areas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company gained ascendancy over South Asia. I recall a visit to the Museum in Lahore Pakistan, with my daddy as a little girl. I was in awe of the various historical art pieces and life size statues of the Mughals. At the start of the mid-18th century and over the next century, India was gradually annexed by the British East India Company. Upon dissatisfaction with British rule, the Indian Rebellion of 1857 came about as a result. Thereafter, India was directly administered by the British Crown. During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and later joined by the Muslim League. The political history of the nations (both India and Pakistan had its beginnings with the birth of the All India Muslim League in 1906 to protect Muslim interests, amid neglect and under-representation. The subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan.
However, the preceding state of events would not have taken place without the prominent influence of “Western democratic ideologies” thus paving the way and setting the stage for the subsequent formation of what is now Pakistan and India. It is clear from the educational backgrounds of both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan that their education in the Western colleges and universities had a profound effect upon the destiny of what is now India and Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam)
Liaquat Ali Khan (Quaid-e-Millat
Due to the astute efforts of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also known as Quaid-e-Azam and Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan became a nation on August 1947. Jinnah became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Liaquat was given the titles of Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation), and posthumously Shaheed-e-Millat (Martyr of the Nation).
As the first Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah led efforts to lay the foundations of the new state of Pakistan, frame national policies and rehabilitate millions of Muslim refugees who had migrated from India.
Jinnah’s background was of Hindu origins. His grandfather converted to Islam as a result the family now were all Muslims. In 1892, Jinnah was offered an apprenticeship at the London office of Graham's Shipping and Trading Company, a business that had extensive dealings with Jinnahbhai Poonja's firm in Karachi. Once he arrived in London however, he decided to study Law instead and at age 19, he became the youngest Indian to be called to the bar in England. He proved to be a brilliant scholar. During his student years in England, Jinnah came under the spell of 19th-century British liberalism, like many other future Indian independence leaders. This education included exposure to the idea of the democratic nation and progressive politics. He later returned to India as a brilliant and skilled lawyer. His panache for Western Ideals and Democracy had become ingrained in his political ideals.
The independent state of Pakistan, created on August 14, 1947, represented the outcome of a campaign on the part of the Indian Muslim community for a Muslim homeland, which had been triggered by the British decision to consider transferring power to the people of India. A controversy has raged in Pakistan about whether Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular state or an Islamic state. His views as expressed in his policy speech on August 11, 1947 said:
HIS IMPORTANT LETTER
There is no other solution. Now what shall we do? Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make. I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish. Indeed if you ask me, this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and independence and but for this we would have been free people long ago. No power can hold another nation and specially a nation of 400 million souls in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste, or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now, there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. The people of England in course of time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their country and they went through that fire step by step. Today, you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist; what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and they are all members of the Nation. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time, Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State. Jinnah, August 11, 1947 – presiding over the constituent assembly.
Many say that his statement cannot be taken as an indication that Jinnah wanted a secular state because he also referred to Islam and Islamic principles. However, I beg to differ, as it is clear from the preceding statement that Western ideologies, which are rooted in democratic, though had clearly been entrenched in Jinnah’s political aspirations and idea.
The following was a broadcast talk to the people of the United States of America on Pakistan recorded February 1948.
The constitution of Pakistan has yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. I do not know what the ultimate shape of this constitution is going to be, but I am sure that it will be of a democratic type, embodying the essential principle of Islam. Today, they are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case, Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims — Hindus, Christians, and Parsis — but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan.
Pakistanis view Jinnah as their revered founding father, a man that was dedicated to safeguarding Muslim interests during the dying days of the British Raj (rule). Despite any of a range of biases, it almost impossible to doubt, despite motive and manner, that there is any figure that had more influence and role in the creation of Pakistan than Jinnah.
The Constituent Assembly adopted it on 29 February 1956, and it was enforced on 23 March 1956, proclaiming Pakistan to be an Islamic republic.
The above in itself serves as an oxymoron in terms of what we now know about Islam.
Liaquat was a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, Oxford University and the Middle Temple, London. He rose into prominence within the Muslim League during the 1930s. Significantly, he is credited with persuading Jinnah to return to India, an event that marked the beginning of the Muslim League's ascendancy and paved the way for the Pakistan movement. Following the passage of the Pakistan Resolution in 1940, Liaquat assisted Jinnah in campaigning for the creation of a separate state for Indian Muslims. In 1947, British Raj was divided into the modern-day states of India and Pakistan.
The idea of a Muslim nation, distinct from Hindu India, was introduced in 1930 by the poet Muhammad Iqbal and was ardently supported by a group of Indian Muslim students in England, who were the first to use the name Pakistan [land of the pure, from the Urdu pak,=pure and stan,=land]. It gained wide support in 1940 when the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, demanded the establishment of a Muslim state in the areas of India where Muslims were in the majority. The League won most of the Muslim constituencies in the 1946 elections, and Britain and the Congress party reluctantly agreed to the formation of Pakistan as a separate dominion under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, which went into effect on Aug. 15, 1947.
Read more: Pakistan: History — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0860200.html#ixzz1SOn70w8b
