“Wherever I wander, wherever I stay, my heart is in India, in deep sympathy with its multitudinous inhabitants, and in earnest longings for their highest welfare in time and in eternity.” Alexander Duff
Few Christians have shaped modern India as profoundly as Alexander Duff. Yet for his influence, he remains comparatively unknown to the church. On what must have been a typically rainy day in Perthshire, Scotland, Alexander Duff was born to James and Jean on April 25, 1806. Alexander grew up hearing his father read Scripture and Christian literature, which would influence his later call to India.
In 1829, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland as its first overseas missionary to India. Shortly before setting sail, he married Anne, with whom he would raise several children. In 1830, after suffering two shipwrecks en route, he and Anne arrived on Calcutta’s shores. Having lost a library of 800 books to the seas, they arrived with only a Bible and Psalter in hand.
After arriving in May 1830, he founded the Scottish Church’s first institution in India, the General Assembly’s Institution by July and a predecessor to today’s Scottish Church College in Calcutta. With the assistance of the social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, he devoted the next four years to educational ministry.
Duff’s Educational Philosophy
Duff’s educational philosophy had two main convictions undergirding it. His first conviction was that education was not only for the poor but also for the wealthy, as they will influence society, government, and future education.
Duff’s second conviction was that an education that integrates Scripture is the best educational philosophy. Thus, in the classroom his mission was to teach people literature, science, philosophy, and history from a biblical vantage point that reveals the glory of the Creator and the love of Jesus. In doing so, he encouraged his students to exercise their strictest intellectual inquiry into Christianity from various fields of human learning.
A Disruption and a Fresh Start
In 1843, a significant rupture within the Church of Scotland gave birth to the Free Church of Scotland. This led Duff to relinquish the property of the General Assembly’s Institution to the Church of Scotland.
Duff and his colleagues had to start from scratch for strategic relationships and finances to continue their work. Nonetheless, in 1843, the Lord had blessed them with just enough support. Duff founded the Free Church Institution under the oversight of the newly formed Free Church of Scotland.
Such was Duff’s influence on Indian education at the time that, when the University of Calcutta was founded in 1857, the Free Church Institution became one of its earliest affiliated colleges. In 1863, as Duff was set to leave India for the last time, the institution was renamed Duff College in his honour.
Back in Scotland, the tensions had dissipated enough to consider merging the two educational institutions founded by an educationist who was part of both their histories. In 1908, the merger of the colleges formed Scottish Churches College, which was renamed Scottish Church College in 1929, as it is known today.
Lessons for the Church Today
As the best of Christians are marked by faults, so the best of mission endeavours are marked by faults, too. Our duty in reflecting on history is to praise God for the good God did through Alexander Duff. And to learn critically from his weaknesses as well as his strengths.
1. Necessity of Education for Transformation in India
In the field of educational reform, Duff modelled the use of English as the medium of instruction, preparing India for a future in which English would be the commercial language.
Though Duff encouraged his students to learn and use Bengali, his emphasis on English as the medium of instruction strongly influenced the University of Calcutta and the birth of the many English-medium schools and colleges today (though they also adapted his model by adding other Indian languages as subjects of study).
For Duff, Christian educational institutions were necessary because they looked at humans as body-soul unions with their respective needs. What people need is an education that cultivates them as intellectuals who are moral and spiritual agents of society.
2. An Education Persuasive in Witness
The idea of Christian education raises eyebrows today as it did back then, due to suspicion of forced conversions. Duff’s institutions modelled instruction in all subjects through the lens of Christianity. As a result, many turned to faith in Jesus, such as Lal Behari Dey, who would become a Free Church of Scotland minister and an educator in his own right, while others did not, such as Surendranath Banerjee, founder of the Indian National Association, which merged with the Indian National Congress. Many other alumni may be mentioned, such as Swami Vivekananda, Chandramukhi Bose (one of the first two women to graduate in British India), and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Duff’s educational philosophy sought to make leaders of a nation, grounded in Scripture as the true revelation of the Maker of all mankind. Today’s Christian institutions can take fresh courage from Duff’s example. They can stay true to their witness by grounding their education on Scripture, as whole-person spiritual formation. They can do so humbly, faithfully, and persuasively, creating the best learning environments for people to think deeply and holistically about all things.
Limits of Duff’s Educational Vision
Another aspect of his educational philosophy was a focus on educating the wealthy and influential. This meant that the high-caste Indians of the day made up the student body almost exclusively. An unintended consequence of focusing on educating the upper-caste elites was that it kept large swathes of India from accessing quality English-language education.
However, the Lord’s hand of providence would guide Indian history and overcome the limitations of Duff’s educational vision. Many alumni would go on to bring about social reforms, and today’s Christian institutions have rightly veered away from such demographically focused education.
Duff’s Love for India and the Indian Church
Duff had a deep, passionate love for India. Duff’s aim was not, first and foremost, education but a desire to make disciples of Christ through a persuasive, pervasively gospel-centered education. So he recruited help as often and as passionately as he could during his visits to Scotland. A historian records for us Duff’s rebuke to the Scottish Church, “When Queen Victoria calls for volunteers to India, hundreds of young men respond; but when King Jesus calls, no one goes.”
The love that propelled him on an educational mission in India was his love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Duff had surrendered himself to the will of his Master, saying, “O Lord, silver and gold have I none. What I have I give. I offer Thee myself. Wilt Thou accept the gift?”
The single greatest factor that moved Duff to do anything was his keen experience of God’s mercy to him in Christ and his sincere desire to communicate this message to as many as possible (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Helping form the students into productive citizens, many of whom would go on to advocate and fight for Indian independence from British rule.
Duff’s legacy is more than education or the reform of Indian society through education. He wanted the classroom to be a place of learning, but more than anything, he wanted the glory of Jesus to be treasured by all. Thank God for Duff, a man of clay, whom God used to reshape Indian education while staying committed to the truthfulness of Scripture.
