Alexander Duff (missionary)
Alexander Duff (25 April 1806, in Edinburgh – 12 February 1878, in Sidmouth), was a Christian 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.[1]
Alexander Duff
25 April 1806
Anne Scott Drysdale (m.1829 - 1865)
Rebecca (b.1830), James (b.1831), Alexander (b.1834), Ann (b.1836), William (b.1838)
Missionary, Teacher
Early life[edit]
Alexander Duff was born in the heart of Scotland, at Auchnahyle, in the parish of Moulin, Perthshire and was brought up at Balnakeilly. His parents were James Duff, gardener and farmer at Auchnahagh, and Jean Rattray.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]
Education in English[edit]
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.[5] His views influenced Peter Percival, a pioneering educator, linguist and missionary who worked in Sri Lankan Tamil dominant Jaffna peninsula in Sri Lanka.[7]
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.[5]
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.[8]
He married 30 July 1829, Anne Scott Drysdale, Edinburgh (died 22 February 1865), and had issue –