First World War and its Impact on German Lutheran Mission Societies in India.

Special Reference to Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission (1914-1916).

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Leseprobe, PDF (250 KB)
Inhaltsverzeichnis, PDF (190 KB)

This academic inquiry attempts to explore the state of relations between the German Christian missionaries and the Christian English government before and after World War I in India; the unpleasant consequences on German Missionaries and their families by the unwarranted attack of the German Cruiser SMS Emden on the Madras Presidency, aggravated further by the act of a former soldier in the guise of a missionary. It uncovers the involvement of the German military, Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient (NfO) and the Hindu revolutionaries in causing unrest in India to derail the economy and tarnish the image of the British Government. It exposes the joining forces of diametrically opposite ideologies, the German Christian Government, German Christian missionary in NfO and the Indian Hindu revolutionaries, on a common platform. Likewise, it uncovers the manipulation of the selfsame Scripture by the doctrinally similar Christian denominations to whip up their clashing nationalistic passions. Further, this research narrates the bitter experiences of separated missionary spouses, scattered family members, the plight of children, deportation, gruelling voyages, seasickness, experiences of missionaries as Prisoners of War (POW), etc. The following three methods were combined for this research: a World War I historiographical approach coupled with a collective biographical approach and an entanglement approach. I used archived and published English, German, and Tamil sources. The main archives were the Political Archives of the Foreign Office (PAAA) in Berlin, the archives of the Franckeshe Foundations in Halle, the Mission Society in Leipzig, the British Library in London, and the United Theological College Bangalore, the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College, Chennai and Avanakappakam (National Archives), Chennai, the materials in the Political Foreign Office (PAAA) in Berlin concerning the correspondence between the Intelligence Service for the Orient and the Indian revolutionaries; the archive of the Franckeshe Foundation in Halle contained in the two-volumes in one file from the Indian Mission during the war (1914 -1916) and The Leibniz Centre for Modern Orient archives Berlin.