Jul 012014
 

WILLIAM PATON AND J. Z. HODGE

Closely associated with the Bishop of Dornakal, in the period between the two World Wars, were notably two British church leaders who consecutively served as secretaries of the National Christian Council of India, Burma  and Ceylon. Following World War I, with a changing mood among Indian Christians, the N.C.C. took on increasing importance. The years „1923-1941 might well be described as the ‚Paton-Hodge era‘ of the N.C.C, after its two leading secretaries, William Paton (1923-27) and J.Z. Hodge (1929-1941).“159 These same three Church leaders, Azariah, Paton and Hodge, were the prime movers and the persevering men, who most assisted the German missionaries interned again in British India during the Second World War.

William Paton’s immense resourcefulness and sagacity were already found in an earlier period of his training in India. „William Paton had come to India in 1921 as Y.M.C.A. secretary.“160 The few years which he served as the first full-time Secretary of the N.C.C, instituted an „excellent administration of the Council, … (and) under his leadership the N.C.C became, what it had never been before, a leading force of the Church.“161 As World War II broke out, Paton’s knowledge of the missions scene in India rendered him to be exceptionally well-qualified and discerning. The intrepidity and courage in his approach to Whitehall, the Colonial Office, the Home Department in New Delhi and other agencies, were the traits of a church statesman, and moreso a fearless prophet speaking to the secular authorities regarding the gravity of Christian Missions and the plight of German missionaries in their defencelessness.

The Rev. J.Z. Hodge, Paton’s successor and similarly a Scotsman, arrived in India in 1900 and „belonged to the ‚Regions Beyond Missionary Union‘.“162 He laboured in Champaram in the most northern district of the State of Bihar bordering Nepal. One of Mahatma Gandhi’s first significant strides, the indigo problem of 1917 in the Champaram District drew the attention of the entire country and the British Empire. It seems that „most of the arable land in the Champaram District was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and worked by Indian tenants. The chief commercial crop was indigo.“163 Gandhi arrived to support the Indian peasant; and the „official inquiry assembled a crushing mountain of evidence against the big planters.“164 Hodge, who „had a long career behind him as a missionary in Bihar and as secretary of the Bihar Christian Council,“165 „observed the entire (indigo) episode at close range.“166

A further undertaking of the Bihar Christian Council arose from the complicated situation regarding the Gossner Mission Church. During World War I, when in 1915 the entire Gossner Mission’s personnel were removed and then transported to Germany, the Anglican Bishop of Chota Nagpur, Foss Westcott, supervised the German Mission with great compassion and dedication.167 There then arose the complication,

… when, towards the end of the war, the (British) authorities made it more or less evident that the German missionaries would not be allowed to return and that consequently the German missionary property would either have to be taken over by another mission or to be confiscated.

In this situation the Bishop proposed a union of the Anglican and the Gossner Lutheran Churches.168

The circumstances would not have been quite so critical and vulnerable were it not for the Lutheran Christians

… still remembering how in 1869 the S.P.G., in defiance of all Comity rules, had entered the field and accepted about one third of the Lutherans into the Anglican fold, saw in this proposal an attempt on the part of the Anglicans to swallow up the whole Gossner Church.169

This was the appraisal made in a report by a specially appointed Commission of Enquiry, consisting of Dr. S.K. Dutta, Prof. S.C. Mukerjee, Dr. Felt and Hodge.170

Following Paton’s departure for England in 1927 and the brief interim period of service rendered by Nicol Macnicol, Hodge became the new Secretary of the N.C.C. in 1929, coinciding with the selection of Bishop Azariah as its President. As an Indian bishop and a Scottish secretary they formed a unique and balanced team for the Indian scene. Together they were one of the reasons for the awakened „revival of the Evangelistic Forward Movement“171 of the 1930’s. It manifested itself in the outgrowth of two major and Both Azariah and Hodge added greatly to a revitalized Christian spirit in movements: 1. Christian Higher Education in India172 and 2. Christian Mass Movements in India.173 Both Azaria and Hoge added greatly to a revitalized Christian spirit in India, enhanced by their articles and books on Christian Evangelism, Christian Giving and Christian Education.174 Their endeavours also nurtured a growing consciousness of the National Christian Council, rising above the individual mission churches and serving as church leaders in the interests of the entire land and for all branches of the Indian Church.

The Tambaram World Missionary Conference of 1938, held near Madras, signified an identity with one of the vigorous younger churches and with the oldest mission work among Protestant societies. The spirit of Tambaram, or „the Wonder of the Church“,175 was truly symptomatic of the mood in India and attested to the Council and the Church’s growing influence in the universal body of Christ. The Proceedings of the N.C.C. of April 12-13, 1939,176 with the subsequent overtures of July and August with the Home Department,177 and the working relationship with the secular powers, were to some extent motivated by the knowledgeable N.C.C. leaders. Two better-qualified men, than Bishop Azariah and Hodge, could scarcely have been found to handle the question of the German Missions.