Good Word from India by N. Z. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 28, 1916

Good Word from India

By N. Z. T.

ELDER J. S. JAMES sends us the following cheering word regarding the literature work in the vernaculars of India. Speaking of the progress that has been made in southern India, he writes:—

“Four years ago this month we started our Tamil quarterly, and put our first colporteur force into the field. Since then our Tamil literature has gone over all south India, and has also found its way into many parts of Ceylon, Burma, Straits Settlements, Sumatra, Java, and even South Africa. In fact, it has gone everywhere that the Tamil people have gone, and they are to be found in nearly all the Eastern tropical countries. We have kept hammering away on this line steadily during these four years, and have had from seven to twelve men in the field all the time. In the meantime we have been developing a larger class of literature, so our men could do more toward supporting themselves from their commissions.

“We are just now beginning to see the results of some of this work. In all quarters scores of people who have read our literature or have talked with our colporteurs are sending us letters asking for more light. Some of these people have even left their homes in remote parts of the country and have searched us out to learn more about the truth. Our most substantial converts have come to us through reading our literature. We have received scores of letters highly commending the Tamil journal as the best of its kind in India, and some have said, ‘Write me down as a subscriber for life.’

“It was by the Tamil paper circulated among the Malayalam people of Travancore who read Tamil that the truth got its foothold in that new language area scarcely a year ago. Today we have a good, strong company of baptized believers among these people, and in a few weeks’ time Brother Knight and Brother Thomas will be holding an institute in Travancore to prepare our first colporteurs in that new field. This means that six million more of the people of needy India will be brought in direct touch with the message. A Malayalam paper is now passing through the press in Madras, and will be ready for these men by the time their institute is over, and just as fast as we can we are getting out pamphlets and small books.

“Simultaneously we are getting out a quarterly journal in the Telugu language, the tongue of twenty millions of people; and as soon as the Malayalam institute is over, we expect to hold another for some workers in the Telugu country. I think we have about a dozen men to take up work in that section. Thus we shall have a twenty-four-page illustrated paper being printed in three languages,—Tamil, 16,500,000; Telugu, 20,000,000; Malayalam, 6,000,000,—with an average quarterly circulation of 15,000 copies, besides a vast amount of small tracts, pamphlets, and books bearing on the message.

“This work at present is not self-supporting, although we are working to that end just as fast as we can. Our literature work first started with small tracts and pamphlets, but these would not afford sufficient profit to support the colporteur; but when we get out some larger literature and get our men better trained in the art of selling it, I feel sure we shall become self-supporting. I feel there is a great future for this line of work in India, if properly handled, and there certainly is no better way of reaching the people of this country with the truths we have.”

N. Z. T.