Bicentenary celebrations of advent of American Missionaries to SL

The two hundredth anniversary of the advent of the American Missionaries to Sri Lanka falls on October 16; they arrived in 1816.

It all started with a storm, finally ended up taking the entire Jaffna peninsula by storm. There was a storm in Massachusettes, U.S.A. Five students of Williams College, in the same area, sought shelter in the evening, around a haystack. They were all descendants of the English Puritans who migrated to America in the 16th and 17th centuries and were a pious lot. While they were praying, Divine Revelation came to them, to preach the Gospel in distant lands. It was in keeping with the exhortation of Jesus to his disciples before he ascended into Heaven, ‘Go ye therefore and preach all the nations, baptising them.’(st Matthew’s gospel ch.28;19).

As a result of this, the American Board of Commission for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formed. They sent their Missionaries in 1816, first to Colombo and then to Jaffna. Their sense of purpose and dedication made them form the American Ceylon Mission. Little would they have realised the far-reaching consequences of their religious mission .They based themselves at Tellipallai at first, and then branched out to Vaddukoddai and Uduvil later. The one thing that favoured them apart from their fervency in religion was their similarity of temperament with the Jaffna man. They were the descendents of the English Puritans whose temperament matched the conservative, cautious and ascetic style of life of the Jaffna man. For example, the Jaffna man wouldn’t start dancing the baila the moment he hears some kind of peppy music, nor would he waste his morning hours lazing or drinking on the beach. Apart from everything else, Jaffna was peaceful (at that time), while the South was hotting up for a showdown with the British Government in 1818.

The American Missionaries had a two prong approach. They came for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, but they realized that preaching the Gospel to ignorant people would fall on deaf ears (or like the Tamil simile, blowing a conch shell in a deaf man’s ears). So they felt that education was a necessity to know and understand God’s existence and His love for us. Education was an essential concomitant to understanding the Gospel.

With that aim, the missionaries began to establish schools. The first one was the Jaffna College, at Vaddokoddai, in 1823. The first principal was Rev. Dr. Daniel Poor. Dr. Poor wouldn’t have dreamt that the school for which he was the first Principal would pay rich dividends, many years later. (A library named Daniel Poor has been built at the Jaffna College in his memory). It began as a boarding school, without any day scholars attending it. In 1872, it was raised to university status thereby it became the oldest institution in Asia, with university status.

A girls’ school was founded the following year, in 1824, in one of the strangest coincidences that I have ever known .Uduvil school also originated with a storm. There was a cyclonic storm in Jaffna, during which a father, his daughter and her friend took shelter in the house of the American Missionaries. While they were there, the missionary offered to teach them the English language for free. The father jumped at the idea and very soon the two girls started following English classes at the missionary’s house. Later, other girls began to join and thus began the Uduvil Girls’ school, which later became Uduvil Girls’ college, in strangely similar circumstances as the formation of the ABCFM in Massachusettes, which too began with a storm. It became the oldest boarding school in Asia. The motto of the school was ‘Truth shall make you free.’ My opinion is that our present day politicians should have it as their motto as well.

The first American Missionary Principal was Mrs. Harriet Winslow. Space would not permit me to make a list of the principals who followed the same sacrificial life of becoming the principals of the college. The most remarkable modern principals were the late Miss. Hudson Paramasamy, Miss. Chelvy Selliah and Mrs. Shirani Mills.

Uduvil Girls’ College became a beacon of knowledge all over Jaffna and outside provinces too. It was looked upon as completely necessary for girls in Uduvil, Manipay, Chunnakam and its vicinity to be educated at Uduvil Girls’ College, which was more like an activity school, where the girls were given a sound training in all aspects of womanhood, like cookery, singing (both Eastern and Western) dancing, French Language, social grace and above all, the humility expected of a Tamil woman. For example, they were trained to share their jokes with everybody at a party, instead of sharing it with only one friend and giggling about it. My sister, who had studied at Uduvil, once expressed disgust when she saw two girls giggling between themselves. Of course, they were from a different school. Before leaving school, my sister asked for a character certificate from the then principal, the late Miss. Hudson Paramasamy. What she said was classic and summed up everything that Uduvil stood for. She said ‘Uduvil girls does not need a character certificate. If you say you studied at Uduvil, that is enough.’

Education at Uduvil and other schools for girls resulted in the gradual raising of the marriageage for girls. Hitherto, it was the custom to give away a girl in marriage a few months after she attained puberty. With the spread of education, it became customary for the girls to leave school after their Senior Cambridge exam, thereby delaying marriage.

Many other schools were established at Tellpallai, Pandatheruppu, and Udupiddy, along with a network of primary schools in the peninsula...in each of the big schools, there was a big missionary bungalow and a Church close to it .Education was free in all the American Mission schools. It was funded by Philanthropists from the U.S.

When the American Missionaries began their work of establishing schools and achieving results, it added a new dimension to the social fabric of Jaffna .It was not only the Tamil minorities, but also other racial and religious minorities who benefited by it ,when they joined the schools. I remember a number of Sinhalese, Burghers, and Muslims who studied at the Missionary schools, some of them were from Matale, Kurunegala, Colombo and Kandy, not to mention Tamil students from Malaysia and one Negro boy from Uganda.

They felt that education was a necessity to know and understand God’s existence and His love for us. Education was an essential concomitant to understanding the Gospel

Politically, it had significant results. Since the Official language was English, the Missionaries provided ample opportunities for all communities to learn in the English medium .The result was that the racial and religious minorities began to virtually monopolise employment in the Public service. This was erroneously interpreted by some to say the British gave the plums of office to the minority groups.

The American Missionaries admitted members of the ‘Untouchable castes’ to their schools and that way helped in some measure to gradually develop a sense of equality among the population.

Very soon, an English speaking population emerged in Jaffna. I remember, when I was a little boy, even the bus conductors had a smattering knowledge of English. Fancy our modern conductors speaking English, except to ask ‘Where going?’

Since the Jaffna man was highly motivated towards education, the Missionaries had no difficulties in making them learn. Very soon American Missionary school products began to play a significant part in the social and political arena. Some of the distinguished old boys I can remember are DR.S.L. Navaratnam, Gynaecologist, Justice Sriskandaraja, Supreme Court judge and B.H.S. Jayawardene, editor of the Ceylon Daily News.

Punctuality was one of the qualities insisted on by the Missionaries. If you went late for some meeting or practice, they would announce that the event was to begin at 9 a.m. and not at 9.30 a.m.(those days there were no traffic jams for an excuse!). You would very often find that this quality of punctuality is sadly lacking in many parts of the country. Social niceties were some of the qualities we imbibed from the Missionaries. It is only in Colombo that known people meet face to face, ignoring each other with a grumpy expression. The American Missionaries would greet you with a ‘Hi!’ and a smile. With that, the stage is set for good relations. In some parts of our country, many people are not ready for it and they might even ask you why you are smiling at them!

Whistling at girls was not the one thing where the Missionaries were working. Only rowdies were expected to whistle, it was pointed out. I cannot help reminiscing a humorous incident .There was a Pat Boone hit song entitled ‘Love letters in the sand’ at that time, where there was interlude where Pat Boone himself whistled. When it went on the air once, my puritanical aunt thought that her son was whistling like a rowdy and kept shouting at him to stop it. Finally, she stopped shouting, only after we explained to her. Whistling was, of course, perfectly alright, if done in the washroom.

Birthday cards, sorry I’m late for your birthday, deepest sympathies and Happy Christmas cards were introduced by them. All other aspects of good manners were introduced by them. They never taught us those. They set the example and we emulated them, including standing up if a lady comes to speak to you. The American Missionaries were angel like people .One would never see the like of them again. They did not preach religion to us ; they lived their religion ,in keeping with the Biblical verse, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they see thy good works and glorify your Father , which is in Heaven.’(st. Matthew 5:18) isaackulendran@gmail.com