4 CHAPTER 4: ARRIVAL AND ESTABLISHMENT IN TRAVANCORE (1816-1820)

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe the challenges faced by Bailey and his colleagues upon arrival in Travancore

• Explain the initial strategy of working through the Syrian Christian community

• Trace the establishment of the Kottayam mission station

• Analyse the early relationships between missionaries and local communities

4.1 The Voyage to India and First Impressions

The voyage that brought Benjamin and Elizabeth Bailey to India in 1816 lasted approximately five months. Such journeys were tests of endurance. The vessel, likely an East Indiaman, carried passengers in quarters that were cramped by modern standards, with limited privacy and monotonous provisions. Storms in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans were common; the heat of the tropics, oppressive for those accustomed to Yorkshire’s temperate climate, grew more intense with each passing week. Elizabeth, new to marriage and now pregnant with their first child, endured these conditions with a fortitude that would characterise her entire missionary career.

For Bailey, the journey was not merely an ordeal to be survived but an opportunity for preparation. Missionaries typically used the long weeks at sea to study languages, read theology, and discuss strategies with colleagues. Bailey, with characteristic practicality, may also have spent time thinking about printing—about how the technology he had mastered in England might be adapted to an environment where nothing, from type metal to paper to ink, could be taken for granted.

The Baileys landed first at Madras (present-day Chennai) in late 1816. Madras was the administrative capital of the Madras Presidency and an established centre of British power in south India. The city presented the young Yorkshire couple with their first direct encounter with Indian society: the crowded streets, the cacophony of languages, the vivid colours of textiles and spices, the visible poverty alongside ostentatious wealth, and the heat—always the heat. For Europeans arriving from England, Madras was a shock to the senses and to every assumption about how the world was ordered.

From Madras, the Baileys travelled down the Coromandel Coast, likely by sea, around Cape Comorin, and up the Malabar Coast to Travancore. As they approached the coastline of Kerala—a green ribbon of coconut palms and rice fields between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats—they entered a region that would become their home for the next thirty-four years.

Their first destination was the port town of Alleppey (present-day Alappuzha), a thriving centre of the spice trade. Here, Bailey met his first CMS colleagues: Thomas Norton, who had arrived earlier that year, and his wife. The small band of missionaries represented the entire CMS presence in Travancore—a handful of English families surrounded by a vast and complex society they barely understood.

4.2 Initial Stationing at Alleppey

Alleppey in 1816 was a town of commercial importance. Its network of canals, originally constructed for the transport of coconut products and spices, earned it the nickname “Venice of the East.” European trading houses maintained establishments there, and a small British community provided some measure of familiar society for newly arrived missionaries. The Maharaja’s government maintained a customs house, and merchants of various communities—Hindu, Muslim, Syrian Christian—conducted business in the busy bazaars.

For the Baileys, Alleppey was a place of first adjustments. The climate was a constant challenge. The southwest monsoon, which Bailey experienced for the first time in 1817, brought months of heavy rain, high humidity, and the health hazards of waterborne disease. European constitutions, unexposed to tropical diseases, were vulnerable. Missionary correspondence from the period is filled with accounts of fevers, dysentery, and the deaths of colleagues and family members. The Baileys would bury children in Indian soil; they would watch colleagues sicken and die; they would themselves endure repeated illnesses. Missionary life in early 19th century India was a perilous undertaking, and survival was not guaranteed.

Language presented another formidable barrier. Bailey had likely received some basic instruction in an Indian language during his time at Islington, but the Malayalam he encountered in Travancore was a language of considerable complexity, with a script unlike anything in European experience and a phonological system full of sounds that English tongues struggled to produce. There were no textbooks, no grammars designed for European learners, no dictionaries to consult. Bailey would have to learn Malayalam the hard way: by listening, by imitation, by trial and error, by patient instruction from local speakers.

The missionary strategy in these early months was cautious. The CMS had instructed its workers to build relationships, to learn the language, to understand the culture, and to avoid any action that might provoke opposition from the Hindu majority or the Maharaja’s government. Open evangelism among Hindus was politically impossible and strategically unwise. The focus, as planned, was on the Syrian Christian community—a community that shared the name of Christ but, in the missionaries’ view, had fallen into spiritual decay and stood in need of reform.

4.3 Challenges: Climate, Language, and Cultural Barriers

The difficulties faced by the early Travancore missionaries extended beyond the physical and linguistic. They were foreigners in a society that was simultaneously welcoming and resistant, curious and suspicious. British power was visible but not absolute; the Maharaja’s government maintained its own authority, and the East India Company’s policy of religious neutrality meant that missionaries could not count on official backing if their activities proved controversial.

Cultural misunderstanding was pervasive. The missionaries arrived with assumptions shaped by evangelical Christianity and British society—assumptions about the nature of religion, about the relationship between faith and practice, about the meaning of conversion. They encountered a society in which religious identity was not primarily a matter of individual belief but of community membership, in which social customs were inseparable from religious obligation, and in which the idea of “conversion” as a personal decision was largely unintelligible. The gap between missionary expectations and local realities would be a source of ongoing tension throughout Bailey’s career.

The Syrian Christians, in particular, challenged missionary categories. Here was a community that called itself Christian, used the cross as its symbol, and traced its origins to apostolic times—yet its Christianity looked very different from the evangelical Protestantism of Yorkshire. Syrian Christians observed caste distinctions. They used a liturgy in Syriac, a language most could not understand. Their clergy married and passed their positions to their sons. Their worship involved incense, processions, and the veneration of saints. To Bailey’s evangelical eyes, much of this looked less like authentic Christianity than like the “popish” superstitions from which the English Reformation had broken free.

Yet the Syrian Christians were not passive objects of missionary attention. They had their own traditions, their own leadership, their own understanding of their history and identity. They had survived centuries of Hindu rule, Portuguese pressure, and Dutch indifference. They were not about to surrender their autonomy to a handful of English newcomers. The relationship that developed between Bailey and the Syrian Christian community would be one of negotiation, mutual influence, and—eventually—conflict.

4.4 Early Relationships with Syrian Christians

The initial reception of the CMS missionaries by Syrian Christian leaders was cautiously positive. The metropolitans (bishops) of the Syrian Church recognised that association with the British could bring tangible benefits: access to education, protection from Hindu authorities, and resources for the training of clergy. Colonel Munro’s influence helped smooth the way, as did the missionaries’ initial emphasis on educational assistance rather than doctrinal reform.

Bailey, practical by nature, found his niche in this early period through his printing skills. Even before a press was established, his knowledge of book production and his linguistic aptitude marked him as particularly useful. Syrian Christian leaders were interested in printed scriptures and liturgical texts, which had previously been copied by hand in a laborious process that limited their availability. A missionary who could produce books in Malayalam promised something of genuine value.

The relationship, however, was never entirely free of suspicion. Syrian Christians remembered the Portuguese attempt to Latinise their church, and they were alert to any sign that the English missionaries harboured similar intentions. The CMS missionaries, for their part, genuinely believed that the Syrian Church needed reform—that its gospel was obscured by superstition, its clergy ignorant, its people spiritually dead. The question was not whether the missionaries sought change but how aggressively they would pursue it.

In these early years, Bailey adopted a patient approach. He focused on learning the language, on understanding the community, and on building personal relationships. He attended Syrian church services, observing the liturgy and practices with a critical but attentive eye. He engaged in conversations with clergy and laity, listening to their concerns and gradually introducing evangelical perspectives. He began the work of translation that would occupy so much of his life, producing initial drafts of scripture portions and educational materials.

4.5 Establishment of the Kottayam Mission Station

The decision to establish the primary CMS station at Kottayam rather than Alleppey was strategic. Kottayam was located inland, away from the commercial bustle of the coast, in a region that was heavily populated by Syrian Christians. It offered access to the networks of village churches and schools that the mission hoped to influence. And it was the site of the “Old Seminary,” a theological training institution established with financial support from Colonel Munro and the Travancore government.

In 1817, Bailey relocated to Kottayam, taking up residence in a modest house that would serve as the nucleus of the mission compound. The compound, which grew over the years to include a church, a printing press, a school, and housing for missionaries and their families, became the physical centre of Bailey’s world. From this base, he would launch the projects that defined his career: the printing press, the translation of the Bible, the establishment of schools, and the training of indigenous leadership.

Kottayam itself was a town in transition. The presence of the CMS mission attracted Syrians and others interested in education and employment. The Old Seminary, initially conceived as a training college for Syrian Christian clergy, became a centre of theological education and eventually a site of controversy when the missionaries’ reforming agenda became clear. The establishment of the CMS Press in 1821 would transform Kottayam into the birthplace of Malayalam printing, a distinction it retains to this day.

The early years at Kottayam were years of foundation-laying. Bailey and his colleagues built relationships with Syrian Christian leaders, recruited local assistants for language learning and translation work, and began the process of establishing schools in surrounding villages. The work was slow, often frustrating, and punctuated by illness and setback. But by 1820, a pattern had been established that would persist throughout Bailey’s career: the combination of educational work, literary production, and gentle evangelism that characterised the CMS Travancore mission.

4.6 Building the “Old Seminary” and Mission Compound

The Old Seminary, known locally as the “Kottayam College,” was a physical symbol of the alliance between the CMS, the Travancore government, and the Syrian Christian community. Colonel Munro had provided the initial funds, the Maharaja had granted the land, and the missionaries were to provide the instruction. The building itself, constructed in the local style with later European additions, stood as a visible commitment to the project of theological education.

For Bailey, the seminary represented both opportunity and challenge. It gave the missionaries a platform from which to influence the training of Syrian Christian clergy—potentially the most effective means of promoting reform within the church. But it also entangled the mission in the internal politics of the Syrian community, which was divided between factions more or less sympathetic to the missionaries’ reforming agenda.

The mission compound that grew up around the seminary included Bailey’s printing office, which would become the most historically significant building on the site. Here, starting in 1821, the first Malayalam types would be cast, the first pages would be printed, and the technological foundation of modern Malayalam literature would be laid. The press was not merely a tool for producing religious materials; it was a revolutionary technology that would eventually transform every aspect of Kerala’s cultural life.

The missionary residences on the compound housed not only the European missionaries but also the Indian assistants who worked alongside them. These assistants—teachers, translators, catechists, and domestic staff—were essential to the mission’s operation. They provided the linguistic expertise that the missionaries lacked. They mediated between the missionaries and the local community. And they often bore the social costs of association with foreigners who challenged traditional norms. The history of the Travancore mission is as much their story as it is Bailey’s, though their voices are less fully preserved in the archival record.

Daily Life on the Mission Compound

The routine of the Kottayam mission compound followed a rhythm shaped by climate, work demands, and religious observance. Mornings began early, before the heat of the day became oppressive. Missionaries and their assistants gathered for prayers, reading scripture and interceding for the work. Then the day’s labour commenced: translation, teaching, printing, correspondence, administration.

Bailey’s workday was varied. On any given day, he might spend hours with language informants, puzzling over the nuances of Malayalam vocabulary and syntax. He might supervise the training of compositors in the printing office. He might travel to a nearby village to inspect a school or preach to a congregation. He might receive visitors—Syrian clergy with concerns, government officials with requests, converts with needs. In the evenings, he wrote letters to the CMS headquarters and to supporters in England, reporting on progress, requesting supplies, and reflecting on the challenges and encouragements of the work.

Elizabeth Bailey managed the domestic sphere, but this was no small task. The mission compound functioned as a household in the extended sense, with visitors constantly coming and going, meals to be prepared for unpredictable numbers, children to be cared for, and the countless practical tasks of maintaining a home in a tropical climate. Missionary wives also performed pastoral work among women, visiting homes, providing basic medical care, and offering what we would now call social support to families in crisis.

The Baileys’ children grew up in this environment, speaking Malayalam from childhood alongside English, moving comfortably between the missionary world and the Indian society that surrounded them. The experience of missionary children in India was complex: they belonged fully to neither English nor Indian society, yet they were bridges between the two. Some, like their parents, would dedicate their lives to missionary service; others would seek different paths.

The First Fruits: Signs of Acceptance

By 1820, the Travancore mission could point to modest signs of progress. The relationship with the Syrian Christian community, while not without tension, had survived its initial testing. A small number of Syrians had embraced the missionaries’ call for spiritual renewal and biblical literacy. The first Malayalam translations—portions of scripture, hymns, and educational texts—were circulating in manuscript, building anticipation for the printed materials that Bailey was preparing to produce.

More importantly, perhaps, the missionaries had survived. They had endured the first years of climate and disease, had begun to gain competence in the language, and had established a presence that was accepted, if not always welcomed, by the local population. The foundations laid between 1816 and 1820 would support the more ambitious projects of the decades to come.

The stage was set for the achievement that would define Bailey’s place in history: the establishment of the first Malayalam printing press. But before that story can be told, we must understand the context that made printing so revolutionary—the existing modes of textual production in Kerala and the transformation that movable type would bring.

Key Takeaways

• Bailey arrived in Travancore in 1816 after a five-month sea voyage, initially stationed at Alleppey before moving to Kottayam in 1817.

• The early years were marked by challenges of climate, disease, language acquisition, and cultural adaptation.

• The CMS strategy focused on working with the Syrian Christian community, offering education and resources in hopes of promoting spiritual reform.

• The Kottayam mission compound became the centre of Bailey’s operations, housing a seminary, a church, and eventually the first Malayalam printing press.

• Indian assistants played essential but often unacknowledged roles in the mission’s work, providing linguistic expertise and cultural mediation.

• By 1820, the mission had survived its initial establishment period and was poised for the major projects of the 1820s.

Discussion Questions

1. What were the most significant challenges facing Bailey and his colleagues in their first years in Travancore? How did they respond to these challenges?

2. Why did the CMS choose to focus on the Syrian Christian community rather than engaging in direct evangelism among Hindus?

3. What role did Indian assistants play in the mission’s work? Why might their contributions have been less visible in mission records?

4. Consider the Baileys’ daily life on the mission compound. How did the roles of Benjamin and Elizabeth differ, and what assumptions about gender shaped these differences?

Primary Source: A Letter from Bailey to the CMS, 1818

“We are now settled at Kottayam, and I trust that the Lord is opening a door for useful labour among this ancient people. The Syrian Christians receive us with courtesy, and many express a desire for the Scriptures in their own tongue. My time is chiefly occupied in the study of the language, in which I am making some progress, though I find it a difficult task. I long for the arrival of the printing press, that we may begin to supply the people with books. At present, everything must be copied by hand, which is a slow and laborious process. Pray for us, that we may have wisdom and patience in this work.”

(CMS Archives, C I1/M2, Bailey to Secretary, 12 March 1818. Spelling and punctuation modernised.)

Further Reading

Cherian, C. V. (1935). A History of Christianity in Travancore. Kerala Historical Society. (For context on Syrian Christian history and the arrival of Protestant missions.)

Frykenberg, Robert Eric. (2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford University Press. (Chapter on Protestant missions in South India provides broader context.)