Alexander Duff (25 April 1806 – 12 February 1878), was a Scottish missionary in India; where he played a large part in the development of higher education. He was a Moderator of the General Assembly and convener of the foreign missions committee of the Free Church of Scotland and a scientific liberal reformer of anglicized evangelism across the Empire. He was the first overseas missionary of the Church of Scotland to India. On 13 July 1830 he founded the General Assembly's Institution in Calcutta, now known as the Scottish Church College. He also played a part in establishing the University of Calcutta. He was twice Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland in 1851 and 1873, the only person to serve the role twice.
Early life Alexander Duff was born in Auchnahyle, Scotland, and raised parish of Moulin, Perthshire and was brought up at Balnakeilly. His parents were James Duff, gardener and farmer at Auchnahagh, and Jean Rattray. 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 University of St. Andrews.Emmott, D.H., "Alexander Duff and the Foundation of Modern Education in India", British Journal of Education Studies, Vol.13, No. 2 (1965): 167. He was greatly influenced by the teaching, missionary fervour, and personality of Thomas Chalmers, then Professor of Moral Philosophy.
He graduated with an M.A. (Hons) in 1824. Subsequently he was licensed to preach by Presbytery of St Andrews in April 1829. Duff was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh on 12 August following as first (official) missionary of the Church of Scotland to India. Travelling to there, he left Edinburgh on 19 September and sailed 14 October 1829.
Mission in India
After an adventurous voyage during which he was twice shipwrecked, Duff arrived in Calcutta on 27 May 1830. After inspecting the Bengali schools, he concluded that students were not receiving an adequate education in a broad range of subjects and secondly, that he would instruct his students using English instead of the local dialects. He at once identified himself with a policy which had far-reaching effects. Christian missions in India had been successful only in converting a few low-caste groups from a poor socio-economic background. The upper caste Hindu and Muslim communities had been practically untouched. Duff shrewdly assessed that these affluent communities could not be accessed by traditional evangelical methods. He recognised that holding out the prospect of upward mobility, by offering a western education, would bring the children of the affluent classes into his range of influence, which could then be extended to encompass religion. Duff devised the policy by using a western system of education to slowly convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. The success of his work had the effect: of altering the policy of the government of India in matters of education; of securing the recognition of education as a missionary agency by Christian churches at home; and, of securing entrance for Christian ideas into the minds of high-caste Hindus.
By teaching biblical courses as well as courses in the physical sciences, Duff hoped that students would logically come to realise the contradictions and impracticality of Hinduism and embrace wholeheartedly the truth of Christianity. Even as his educational and academic work is prospered, the remarkable conversions were no longer so obvious. 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.Emmott, D.H., 168
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 British government in India should be the promotion of European science and literature among the natives of India, and that all funds appropriated for purposes of education would be best employed on English education alone. His views influenced Peter Percival, a pioneering educator, linguist and missionary who worked in Sri Lankan Tamil dominant Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka.
Within the British Indian community of that era, there were not lacking those "Orientalists" who saw value in the traditional learning of India and wished to support and encourage it. They opposed Duff's policy of stringently disregarding the same while assiduously promoting the spread of western education, culture and religion. In 1839, Lord Auckland, the governor-general of India, yielded to them and adopted a policy which was a compromise between the two perspectives.
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.Sangwan, Satpal., 85
The Institutes
Shortly after landing in India in 1830, Duff opened his institution in a house located at upper Chitpur Road in the Jorasanko neighbourhood of Calcutta. The house was made available to him by Feringhi Kamal Bose, an affluent Hindu. The school soon began to expand into a missionary college, known as the General Assembly's Institution. The location was a source of controversy for the Missions Committee who wanted to remain at the heart of Bengali society in the city of Calcutta. In 1834, Duff returned to Britain broken in health. During this sojourn, he succeeded in securing the approval of his church for his educational plans, and in arousing much interest in the work of foreign missions. His struggles were described in a speech at Exeter Hall on 8 May 1837 that called for hundreds of thousands of new teachers for India.Speech of the Rev Dr Duff at the anniversary of the Church of Scotland missions at Exeter Hall on May 8, 1837 (London, 1837)
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 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 Disruption of 1843, Duff sided with the Free Church. He gave up the college buildings, with all their effects, and with unabated courage set to work to provide a new institution, which came to be known as the Free Church Institution. In 1857, when the University of Calcutta was established, the Free Church Institution was one of its earliest affiliates, and Duff would also serve in the university's first senate.A Tradition of Notable Firsts
These two institutions founded by Duff, i.e., the General Assembly's Institution and the Free Church Institution would be merged in 1908 to form the Scottish Churches' College. After the unification of the Church of Scotland in 1929, the institution would be known as Scottish Church College. He had the support of Sir James Outram and Sir Henry Lawrence, and the encouragement of seeing a new band of converts, including several young men born of high caste. In 1844, governor-general Viscount Hardinge opened government appointments to all who had studied in institutions similar to Duff's institution. In the same year, Duff co-founded the Calcutta Review, of which he served as editor from 1845 to 1849.
Several important Indian figures were products of Duff's Institutions. Most notably, Rev. Lal Behari Dey, who wrote two books (Folk Tales of Bengal and Bengal Peasant Life) that were widely distributed among Indian schools, and Krishna Mohan Banerjee, who became registrar of Calcutta University .Edward Thompson and G.T. Garratt, Rise and Fulfillment of British Rule in India (1935): 310.
Later years
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. He was asked by Lord Granville to testify to the House of Lords, in which he hoped to influence the Wood's Educational Despatch of 1854.Duff sent a Brief Memorandum to Wood in 1853 in which suggested a Committee on Indian Educational reform. R. J. Moore, Sir Charles Wood's Indian Policy, 1853–66, (Manchester University Press, 1966) pp. 109–122. This led to an important despatch by Viscount Halifax, president of the Board of Control, to governor-general the Marquess of Dalhousie, authorising an educational advance in primary and secondary schools; the provision of technical and scientific teaching; and the establishment of schools for girls. In 1854, Duff visited the United States, where what is now New York University gave him the degree of L.L.D.; he was already D.D. of the University of Aberdeen. While in the USA, he addressed Congress and spoke to many congregations; he also visited Knox College in Toronto, Canada, and spoke at meetings in Montreal and other cities.
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.