Robert Caldwell

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Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814 -1891) was an orientalist who pioneered the study of the Dravidian languages with his influential work Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875). Robert Caldwell was born on May 7,1814 to Scottish parents. Initially self-taught and deeply religious, young Caldwell graduated from the university of Glasgow and was fascinated by the comparative study of languages. At 24, Caldwell arrived in Madras on January 8, 1838 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society and later joined the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Mission (SPG). Caldwell realised that he had to be proficient in Tamil to preach to the masses and he began a systematic study of the language.

He proposed that the South Indian languages of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada formed a separate language family, which he named the Dravidian languages, affirming their antiquity and literary history, and their independence from Sanskrit and the Indo-Aryan languages.^[1] He speculated that speakers of the proto-Dravidian language entered India from the northwest. Thomas Trautmann writes of this book: "Caldwell showed the full extent of the Dravidian family, and demonstrated the relations among the languages in a richness of detail that has made it a classic work, still in print. The real significance of what Caldwell accomplished was not the first conception of the Dravidian family, but the consolidation of the proof."^[2]

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Caldwell served as the Bishop of Tirunelveli (along with Bishop Sargent) and did much original research on the history of Tirunelveli. He even studied palm leaf manuscripts and Sangam literature in his search, and made several excavations, finding the foundations of ancient buildings, sepulchral urns and coins with the fish emblem of the Pandyan Kingdom.^[3] This work resulted in his book A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevely (1881), published by the Government of the Madras Presidency. According to Robert Eric Frykenberg, this "book, drawn from archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, was perhaps his most comprehensive single work”.^[4]

Caldwell’s mission lasted more than fifty years. The publication of his ground-breaking research into both the languages and the history of the region, coupled with his influential position in both Indian and English society, gave a vital stimulus to the revival of the Tamil people and the growth of the Non-Brahmin movement, which has been so marked a feature of the intervening years in South India.^[5]

Meanwhile, on difficult ground for evangelism, Caldwell achieved levels of Christian conversion among the lower castes almost unheard of in India. He had adopted some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries of earlier times, having learned German purely in order to study their practices.^[6]

In summary, Caldwell the Tamil language scholar, Christian evangelist and champion of the native church,^[7] remains today an important figure in the modern history of South India. He is still revered there, and his statue, erected eighty years after his death, stands on the Marina Beach at Chennai.^[8] The Indian historian Dr M.S.S. Pandian, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, recently commented that Caldwell’s "contribution to both Christianity in South India and the cultural awakening of the region is unmatched during the last two hundred years".^[9]

Caldwell was married in 1844 to Eliza Mault (1822-99), by whom he had seven children. She was the elder daughter of the veteran Travancore missionary, Reverend Charles Mault (1791-1858) of the London Missionary Society. For more than forty years, Eliza worked in Travancore and Tirunelveli in the cause of female education and the empowerment of women in India.^[10]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

Primary Reference in English

• Kumaradoss, Y. Vincent, Robert Caldwell: A Scholar-Missionary in Colonial South India, Delhi: ISPCK, 2007. ISBN 9788172149581

Other Modern References in English or Tamil

• Christudoss, DA, Caldwell Athiatcher (Tamil), Danishpet: Bethel Publications, 1980.
• Dirks, Nicholas B, 'Recasting Tamil Society: The Politics of Caste and Race in Contemporary Southern India', in C J Fuller (ed.), Caste Today, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• O'Connor, Daniel (ed.), Three Centuries of Mission – The USPG, London and New York: Continuum, 2000.
• Ravindran, Vaitheespara, 'The Unanticipated Legacy of Robert Caldwell and the Dravidian Movement', South Indian Studies, 1, Jan-June 1996.
• Sethupillai, RP, Caldwell Iyer Saritham (Tamil), Chennai: Palaniappa Brothers, 1964.
• Sivathamby, K, 'The Politics of a Literary Style', Social Scientist, 6.8, March 1978.
• Trautmann, Thomas R, 'Inventing the History of South India', in David Ali (ed.), Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Faith and Family in South India (2007) http://www.britishempire.co.uk/article/faithandfamily.htm

Early References in English:

• Hermitage Day, E, Mission Heroes, London: SPCK, 1896.
• Pascoe, CF, 200 Years of the SPG 1701-1900, London: SPG, 1901
• Sharrock, JA, Bishop Caldwell: A Memoir, Calcutta 1897. [Rev Sharrock was a close colleague of Caldwell and his Memoir is almost the only reference with personal reminiscences of him.]
• Smith, George, Twelve Pioneer Missionaries, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1900.
• Wyatt, JL (ed.), Reminiscences of Bishop Caldwell, Madras: Addison & Co, 1894.