Christian History Home > Issue 36 > Ministry in the Killing Fields
Ministry in the Killing Fields
Infanticide, widow burning, assisted suicide—Carey and other missionaries battled these accepted religious practices
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar is lecturer in theology and ethics at Serampore College, the institution founded by William Carey, in West Bengal, India. | posted 10/01/1992 12:00AM
William Carey and fellow missionary John Thomas were riding near Malda, India, in 1794 when they saw “a basket hung in a tree, in which an infant had been exposed; the skull remained, the rest having been devoured by ants.” This “holy” act of infanticide had been committed with religious fervor by a Hindu mother.
Infanticide was not uncommon in India in Carey’s day. But the British government in India ignored such sacrifice of infants—it didn’t want to interfere in religious matters of the people. The Indian masses were ready to sacrifice their lives (and their infants’) for the sake of salvation and to escape the karma-samsara cycle. The people were intensely religious and were following (though sometimes misinterpreting) written religious laws.
William Carey strongly protested these crimes against humanity. He was one of many who prodded the apparently passive government to halt or regulate a variety of harmful social practices.
Killing Infants
In 1802 Carey’s colleague William Ward studied ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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