A Tale of Three Priests

We often look at historical monuments and wonder how generations of people must have walked through them, leaving behind both physical and intangible marks. Had the Old Dutch Church of Chinsurah survived, you could almost feel an invisible palimpsest of memories etched on its walls, the oldest layers reminding of the eighteenth-century Dutch Governors, the newest of 1980s college students observing animals in glass jars. And in between these two were numerous others who gave this monument purposes ranging from a space of worship to that of community. An interesting and lesser studied angle to this monument comes to light through the eyes of missionaries and priests across centuries.

I

Rev. Johann Zachariah Kiernander, a Swedish Lutheran, famously Bengal's first Protestant Missionary, originally began his work in Cuddalore. When the mission work fell apart due to conflicts with French, Kiernander recieved a ray of hope from Calcutta. Robert Clive invited him to Bengal in 1758. Calcutta was on its way towards recovery after battles had finally come to an end post Plassey. Kiernander began his enthusiastic missionary activities in a house given rent for free by the Governor, because the former protestant church lay in ruins since the capture of Calcutta by the Nawab. In 1767, Kiernander purchased land to build a permanent church at his own expense, which was finally completed in 1770. Originally named Beth Tephillah, it is the oldest existing protestant church of Kolkata, and is today known as the Old Mission Church.

Portrait of Rev. Kiernander | Bengal Past & Present V-11

Age hadn't however been kind to Kiernander. His time in Calcutta had been characterized by economic hardships, loss of loved ones, and also being embroiled in a case against James Augustus Hicky. Old, bankrupt and visually impaired, Kiernander finally retired to the Dutch settlement of Chinsurah in 1787. Here, he acted as a chaplain in the Dutch Reformed Church (Old Dutch church- pic 3) for Rs 25 a month, till 1795, when Chinsurah was briefly taken over by the English. He returned to Calcutta, and died in 1799.

While Kiernander passed away, both the churches continued to dominate their respective towns for the next few decades. In the fast growing city of Calcutta, the Mission church expanded into a magnificent structure. So did the church of Chinsurah, when it finally came under English rule (the aisle being added later).

The spire of the Old Mission Church of Calcutta being demolished
after the earthquake | Bengal Past and Present V-11

Sadly their days of glory came to an end unexpectedly. A destructive cyclone brought down the Chinsurah church's tower crumbling to the ground in 1864. The Assam earthquake of 1897 led to the partial collapse of the tower of Mission church as well. Both the churches were restored, but sadly without their towers, robbing them of their domination of the town skyline.

The Dutch Church of Chinsurah was sadly demolished in 1988. The old Mission church thankfully still exists, although now with its quaint existence, hidden behind multiple buildings.

 II

 
A portrait of Rev. Lacroix | Wikimedia Commons

Rev. Alphonse Francois Lacroix reached Chinsurah on behalf of the Netherlands Missionary Society in the early 19th century, a dying Dutch settlement, with an ever-reducing European population. Corruption, conflicts with the Brits, and constant economic setbacks had irreversibly reduced the prominence of this once great trading post. Among the notable monuments that stood in it, and remained of utmost importance to Lacroix, was the Old Dutch church on the banks of Hooghly.

Historically, the faithful have blamed economic progress for moral degeneration, the latter in return contributing to economic decline. This was perhaps most evidently expressed in accounts of the Dutch church. Even in its heydays, the church lacked a proper priest, wedding and christening done by a hired priest from Calcutta.

In the Chinsurah of early 1800s, this perceived faithlessness took the proportion of immorality and infidelity in the eyes of Lacroix. “(T)here had been a few men in the settlement whose simple and genuine piety burned brightly amid surrounding darkness.” There were not yet any newspaper publication in town, few books available to his taste, and the chief source of news was female servants. Lacroix had his work cut out. He began learning Bengali, teaching in schools and running them, while embarking on his project of bringing prominent Dutch families back to faith. Despite many supporters of this, sceptics remained, even among his close friends— “infidels” in his eyes.

In 1825, when Chinsurah was handed over to the British, the church too went to the Anglicans. “The missionaries, who had gratuitously supplied religious instruction within its walls for twenty years…and the Dutch inhabitants… were compelled to leave a building which they regarded as their own...” Rev. Lacroix, however, shifted to the London Missionary Society to continue his work in Bengal, living in Chinsurah for the next 4 years.

III

A picture of the overgrown Old Dutch Church. Probably clicked in the
1980s | Hooghly Jelar Purakirti- Narendranath Bhattacharya

Amost a hundred and sixty years later, another priest in Chinsurah, Hriday Ranjan Haldar, was fighting in court alone to save the church from its demolition. Partly damaged, serving as a zoology laboratory for the adjacent Mohsin College, the land was now demanded for expanding the departments of the college.

Haldar, who had settled in Chinsurah in 1954, was a poor old man, taking care of his bedridden wife, paying lawyers who were hardly interested in his cause.

Faith alone wasn’t enough for this battle. Christians of Chinsurah had abandoned this monument years ago and thus found no reason to support Haldar’s crusade. Moreover, in his resolve to write to bishops across the country and rebuild the church like that of Jerusalem, one crucial point was missed that could have protected the church— the fact that it was more than 200 years old, qualifiable for protection as a historical monument. The Calcutta High Court set aside the injunction in 1980, and the PWD wasted no time in demolishing the structure.

Today, Christmas lights adorn the surroundings, but the site of the Dutch Church, now housing a Circuit House, remains dark, oblivious to the many priests who made it a spot to fight for their faith in their own ways.

References~

Bengal, Past and Present: Journal of rhe Calcutta Historical Society, Vol XI.

Kiernander's Church- http://www.kiernander.com/kiernanders-church/

Notable Swedish Christians: Johann Zachariah Kiernander- https://thesimplepastor.co.uk/swedish-christians-johann-zachariah-kiernander/

Old Mission Church, Calcutta, by Rangan Dutta- https://rangandatta.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/old-or-mission-church-calcuta-kolata/

Mullens, Joseph. Brief Memorials of the Rev. Alphonse Francois Lacroix: Missionary of the London Missionary Society in Calcutta. James Nisbet & Co., 

Majumdar, Diptosh. PWD vandals destroy historic church. Calcutta Times, Oct 11, 1988. (dutchindianheritage.net/)