Alexander Duff (missionary)

Alexander Duff (25 April 1806, in

Alexander Duff was born in the heart of Scotland, at Auchnahyle, in the parish of Moulin, Perthshire and was brought up at Balnakeilly. His parents were James Duff, gardener and farmer at Auchnahagh, and Jean Rattray.^[2] Alexander had 5 siblings. Margaret, William, Findlay, John and Jean. After receiving his initial schooling at the Moulin and Kirkmichael Schools, and Perth Academy (where he was dux), he studied arts and theology at the

After an adventurous voyage during which he was twice shipwrecked, Duff arrived in

1. of altering the policy of the government of India in matters of education;
2. of securing the recognition of education as a missionary agency by Christian churches at home; and,
3. of securing entrance for Christian ideas into the minds of high-caste Hindus.[5]

By teaching Biblical courses as well as courses in the physical sciences, Duff hoped that students would logically come to realize the contradictions and impracticality of Hinduism and embrace wholeheartedly the truth of Christianity. While a few students converted, Duff seems to have widely miscalculated the resilience of Hinduism as well as its ability to adapt itself to western knowledge. Whereas Duff and many of his fellow evangelists saw Christianity and Hinduism as diametrically opposed, Hindus did not generally consider the knowledge either tradition provided as mutually exclusive with the other.^[6]

Education in English

Duff opened a school in which all kinds of secular subjects were taught, from the rudiments upwards to a university standard, alongside the Bible. The English language was used as the medium of instruction on the grounds that it was the key to Western knowledge. Alexander Duff proposed a theory which he called the "downward filter theory" in which he believed that by catering to the middle and upper social classes, the knowledge of Christianity would eventually filter down the social ladder. Although he promoted the teaching of English in schools, he still viewed the vernacular as an important language for spreading Christianity among "the masses" but deemed it inferior to the English language because it was not progressive. Duff wrote a pamphlet on the question, entitled A New Era of the English Language and Literature in India. A government minute was adopted on 7 March 1835, to the effect that in higher education, the object of the

Regardless, English became the tool through which Indians were able to understand and advance themselves through the British institutions of government. This opportunity to share in governance established one of the foundations on which eventual self-rule was built.[8]

The Institutes

Shortly after landing in India in 1830, Duff opened his institution in a house located at upper Chitpur Road in the

In 1836, the Calcutta institution was moved to Gorachand Bysack's house in the Garanhata neighbourhood. On 23 February 1837, Mr. MacFarlon, the Chief Magistrate of Calcutta, laid the foundation stone for a new building belonging to the mission itself. The building was designed by Mr. John Gray construction was superintended by Capt. John Thomson, both of the East India Company. The construction of the building was completed in 1839.

Duff returned to India in 1840, by which time The Institution had expanded to 600 Indian pupils from five to nine years old. At the

In 1849, Duff returned to Scotland.

He was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1851, in succession to Nathaniel Paterson.

He gave evidence before various Indian committees of parliament on matters of education. This led to an important despatch by

In 1856, Duff returned to India, where the mutiny broke out the following year; his descriptive letters written during this period were collected in a volume entitled The Indian Mutiny - its Causes and Results (1858). During this stint in India, Duff gave much thought and time to the University of Calcutta, which owes its examination system and the prominence given to physical sciences to his influence. In 1863, Sir Charles Trevelyan offered him the post of vice-chancellor of the university, but his health compelled him to leave India. As a memorial of his work, the Duff Hall was erected in the centre of the educational buildings of Calcutta.^[5]

In 1864, Duff visited South Africa, and on his return, became convener of the foreign missions committee of the Free Church. In 1870 he was the principal force in founding the Anglo-Indian Christian Union (an alliance of Protestant churches to minister to scattered British communities in India), of which he became the first President, and sent Rev.

By his will, he devoted his personal property to found a lectureship on foreign missions at New College (now part of the University of Edinburgh) on the model of the Bampton Lectures.^[5][15][16]

Friendships and other achievements

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By the age of thirty he was already a remarkable preacher. Joining the

Family

He married 30 July 1829, Anne Scott Drysdale, Edinburgh (died 22 February 1865), and had issue –

• Rebecca Jane, born 24 June 1830 (married 5 May 1852, John Watson, East India merchant), died at London, 7 November 1896
• James Murray, born 26 September 1831, died 5 June 1832
• Alexander Groves, physician, born 19 July 1834
• Ann Jemima, born 5 August 1836, died 26th May 1841
• William Pirie, merchant, Calcutta, born 9 November 1838, died at Edinburgh, 31 January 1899.^[4]

Legacy and influence

Alexander Duff was incredibly influential in Indian education and government and set several precedents. Almost as soon as he arrived his evangelising changed Indian education: in 1832 another Scot,

The top-down theory of education described above typifies Duff's evangelical elitism, one of the main elements of his legacy in the subcontinent. Duff seems to have believed that there was a direct relationship between education and missionary work. Not only was the education of the Indian people critical to his goal of dispelling "Hindu ignorance" but it was in fact the duty of evangelicals to modernize and instruct Indian society using Western ideals and texts. While Duff was a highly skilled scholar who was devoted to India, his evangelistic ideals and western prejudice may have influenced his students in ways that he did not anticipate. Instead of initiating a mass conversion to Christianity he may have instead provided another catalyst for Hindu reform movements.[20]

Duff hoped that through a western education in a time of enlightenment, Indians would be able to see the flaws in their religion and be compelled to convert to Christianity, but he did not consider the resilience of the Hindu religion and his efforts proved to be fairly unsuccessful on the broader scale.^[21] Educations of the Christian bible was accepted by Hindus because they were confident in their own religion and were not worried that their children would lose their faith. Hinduism was not only a religion but a culture, and the occupation of the British and their ideas was not drastic enough to change this. Because Alexander Duff was regarded well, his character served as a model to his students and friends and his teaching did eventually lead to some reformist movements within Hinduism. In fact, Duff's work led to the acceptance of more Indians into public official positions in government.^[21] This experience was critical to the transitional Indian government after Independence in 1947. A Church was established in 1848 and named as Duff Church in 1910 in memory of Alexander Duff.^[22] Another church, in Kirkmichael, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, is named Duff Memorial Church in his honour.^[23] Duff attended primary school in the village.^[24]

Works by Dr Duff

• 'The Church of Scotland's India Mission,’ 1835.
• 'Vindication of the Church of Scotland's India Missions,’ 1837.
• 'New Era of English Language and Literature in India,’ 1837.
• 'Missions the end of the Christian Church,’ 1839.
• 'Farewell Address,’ 1839.
• 'India and India Missions,’ 1840.
• 'The Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ,’ 1844.
• 'Lectures on the Church of Scotland,’ delivered at Calcutta, 1844.
• 'The Jesuits,’ 1845.
• 'Missionary Addresses,’ 1850.
• 'Farewell Address to the Free Church of Scotland,’ 1855.
• Several sermons and pamphlets.
• 'The World-wide Crisis,’ 1873.
• 'The True Nobility – Sketches of Lord Haddo and the Hon. J. H. Hamilton Gordon.'
• Various articles in the 'Calcutta Review.'

Further reading

• Works by or about Alexander Duff at Internet Archive
• In Memoriam, Alexander Duff (1878)
• Life by George Smith, CLE., LL.D., 2 vols, (portrait) (London, 1879, abridged edition, 1899)
• Alexander Duff by Thomas Smith, D.D. (London, 1883)
• Recollections of A. D. by Lai Behari Day (London, 1879)
• Maratt's Two Standard- Bearers in the East (London, 1882)
• J. N. Ogilvie's The Apostles of India, 380–431 (London, 1915)
• Memorials, by W. Pirie Duff (1890)
• Duff Watson's [grandson] Self Lost in Service (portraits) (London, 1926)^[4]
• Paton, W. (1923). Alexander Duff.
• Mayukh Das, Reverend Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyaya (in Bengali), Kolkata:Paschimbanga Anchalik Itihas O Loksanskriti Charcha Kendra (2014)
  ISBN 978-81-926316-0-8
• Sangwan, Satpal (1990). "Science Education in India under Colonial Constraints". Oxford Review of Education. 16: 85.
  doi:10.1080/0305498900160107
  .

Sources

• Blaikie, William Garden (1888). "Duff, Alexander". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 125–128.
• doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8167. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• Duff, Alexander (1877). Disruption worthies of the highlands. Edinburgh: J. Greig & Son. pp. ix-lix. this edition also has Duff's signature in the "Autographs of Moderators and Others" section
• Holcomb, Helen H. (1901). Men of might in India missions; the leaders and their epochs, 1706–1899. New York, Chicago [etc.]: Fleming H. Revell company. pp. 213–239.
• Hunter, Robert (1873). History of the missions of the Free church of Scotland in India and Africa. London ; New York: T. Nelson.
• Macfadyen, Dugald (1911). "Duff, Alexander". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 643–644. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Marrat, Jabez (1882). Two standard bearers in the East: sketches of Dr. Duff and Dr. Wilson. London: T. Woolmer.
• Scott, Hew (1928). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 7. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. pp. 690–692. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Smith, George (1879). The life of Alexander Duff. Vol. 1. New York: A.C. Armstrong.
• Smith, George (1882). The life of Alexander Duff. Vol. 2. New York: A.C. Armstrong.
• Smith, George (1879). The life of Alexander Duff (3rd English, revised & abridged ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton.
• Smith, George (1900). Twelve pioneer missionaries. London: Thomas Nelson and sons.
• Smith, Thomas (1883). Alexander Duff. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
• Walls, Andrew (1998). "Duff, Alexander (1806–1878)". Boston University, History of Missiology. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
• Wylie, James Aitken (1881). Disruption worthies : a memorial of 1843, with an historical sketch of the free church of Scotland from 1843 down to the present time. Edinburgh: T. C. Jack. pp. 215–222.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Duff, Alexander". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 643–644.

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