p. 11 | The Millions and the Message in South India

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

The Millions and the Message in South India

By J. S. JAMES

J. S. JAMES

A VISITOR in India is impressed continually with the density of the population, which to the casual observer seems to spring up from nowhere. One may ride on the train for hours, and with the exception of the large cities and villages along the road, see little or no evidence of human habitation, apart from the cultivated fields and bands of laborers working here and there; but any hour of the day or night he will find the train loaded to its utmost capacity, with multitudes coming and going. It is no uncommon sight to see a train pull into a station at night with pairs of legs hanging out of many windows, and every apartment jammed with travelers, like sardines in a tin, and the aisles crowded so that entrance is impossible. The railroad platforms swarm with people, and the stillness of the night air is thrown into a tempest by their excited cries as they surge hither and thither. The continual press and jam of these throngs, together with the noise and confusion, is trying even on the nerves of a strong man.

This congestion of humanity is evident not alone to the train traveler. Go into the bazaars of the city, and into the streets, temples, and sacred bathing ghats, and the same congested condition is to be seen. There the people are in numbers that bewilder, in all stages of dress and undress, rich and poor, ignorant and educated, debased and refined, sick and well; and as you gaze, you wonder whence they come and whither they are bound.

One thought is continually in the mind of the gospel messenger as he sees these surging masses. They are as sheep without a shepherd, judgment bound, yet with no warning voice to tell them of their danger, no hand to guide them into the right way. And one question hangs continually upon the lips of the observer, and is never satisfactorily answered: “How shall we reach this great sea of humanity with God’s message for today?” And as the question is repeated in deep earnestness, the echo seems to come back from the surrounding darkness, “How? How?”

Of all the known means of disseminating knowledge and truth, none seems to excel that of the circulation of the printed page. This medium more nearly answers the question than any other.

“But how,” you ask, “can we carry the message to them by this means when only one in ten of the men and one in one hundred and forty-four of the women are able to read?”

Photo by J. S. James
WORKERS AT COLPORTEURS' INSTITUTE, TRICHINOPOLI, SOUTH INDIA — Photo by J. S. James WORKERS AT COLPORTEURS' INSTITUTE, TRICHINOPOLI, SOUTH INDIA

While it is true that the majority of the people are illiterate, yet it is marvelous how the knowledge of anything new or strange is spread throughout the cities and villages. Allow a bit of news to fall into the hands of one living on the outskirts of a village, and in less than an hour all the village is talking about it.

Suppose one of these villages is visited by one of our colporteurs with a variety of suitable literature for sale and free distribution. He begins his work by visiting from house to house. The “house” in India may contain from one to twelve families, all of whom are more or less related. Nearly all the men in each house, and some of the women, are able to read in their own vernacular.

Naturally these are the first ones sought by the colporteur with his printed message, and around them gather the rest to hear what is read or spoken. It is a common sight to see a group of people gathered in the shade of some building or tree, with the leader in the center reading from a newspaper or tract, telling stories, or reciting mythical tales of the gods which delight and fascinate the crowd. This is a common village experience in India, varied somewhat by location, education, and environment.

When it is remembered that nine tenths of the population, which numbers three hundred and five million, live in villages of fewer than five thousand inhabitants, and four fifths in villages of one thousand; that two thirds of the whole number of villages have less than two hundred inhabitants, while five hundred villages have from five hundred to two thousand inhabitants, something of the extent and nature of our responsibility of reaching them with the message can be grasped.

The task before us is made still more difficult by the fact that one language does not form a common medium for reaching the people. There are two hundred and twenty languages spoken by the population of India. These can be classified in two main sections,—the Aryan group of north India, such as the Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, and Punjabi, each of which varies greatly from the others; and the Dravidian or Turanian group of south India, such as the Telugu, Tamil, Kanarese, and Malayalam.

Here in south India God has laid upon us the responsibility of carrying the message to sixty-five million. We dare not think of undertaking such a task without a plentiful supply of literature setting forth the truth in the vernacular languages of these multitudes.

Already an encouraging beginning has been made in the Tamil, the important tongue of sixteen million; and in 1915 we began to print in the Telugu, which will reach twenty million, and in Malayalam, a language spoken by six million. In these two latter languages we already have a working force in training, while among the Tamils the canvassing work has been a success for more than three years. Our Tamil quarterly, Present Truth, has a good circulation among the educated Indians who speak that language, and a rich, prosperous class of subscribers throughout Madras Presidency and as far east as Ceylon, Burma, and the Straits Settlements.

The accompanying picture shows a group of Tamil canvassers in attendance at an institute held in July, 1915, at Trichinopoli, south India. These are men who are helping to carry the printed page into thousands of villages and towns, and tens of thousands of homes, of but one language area. We must have similar or larger forces in the four other main languages of this division to do a like work. In this way only shall we be able to reach the masses who perhaps will never hear the voice of the living minister of truth.