“Role of Christian Missionaries in Jammu and Kashmir”

Abstract

When the Dogra’s became the rulers of Kashmir, Christian Missionaries were attracted to it, Kashmir’s salubrious climate, its beauty and location promised it to become a great Christian centre amid China, Tibet, Samarkand, Afghanistan, Turkistan and Bukhara. Missionaries held the prejudice that people of Kashmir would be converted easily, as they had first converted from Hinduism to Buddhism and vice versa and finally to Islam in 14th century. These missionaries knew the deplorable condition of the people of Kashmir, their mass illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, diseases and their oppressed and tortured condition. The missionary cherished the hope that if the people of Kashmir were converted to Christianity. The arrival of Christian missionaries has heavily contributed. The present paper raises a good number of such queries as howthe Christian missionaries played any significant role in the state Jammu and Kashmir.