Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
the translation of a Welsh book. Rev. Jones used the Roman script. He was aided in his work in the next
few years by a other Welsh missionaries and the first two Khasi converts were baptised in March 1846.
In the same year a station was opened at Jowai in the Jaintia Hills. In 1846, Jones established the first
church in Meghalaya in Sohra. But soon after that, tragedy struck and his wife, Anne, died in childbirth.
He fell out with the missionary and established his own mission and church in Pomreng. He married
again, but this caused him even more trouble with the mission as his new wife was only 15. He then
condemned the malpractices of a local businessman who came from Europe who was powerful enough
to have him barred from the area. He returned to Calcutta, where he contracted malaria and died on 16th
September 1849. At the age of 39.
Here is his grave which says "In loving memory of Rev. Thomas Jones I, the founding father of the Khasi
alphabets and literature and the pioneer of the Welsh Presbyterian Mission in Khasi Hills. Died 16th
September 1849."
The Christian Church grew slowly since Khasi converts were ostracised by their communities. By 1866
there were 65 schools with some 2,000 pupils and ten churches with 307 members. Because of the
sharp difference between the local religious practices intertwined with culture, it became necessary to
insist upon higher standards for those who are converted. In addition to renouncing heathen practices
candidates had to be able to read. 1891 there were 2,147 communicants with four ordained Khasis. The
New Testment was translated into Khasi by 1891 and all the Christians were literate. In 1895 the
growing Church was organised into five presbyteries. Medical work in the region commenced in 1878
with the arrival at Mawphlang of the Rev Dr Griffith Griffiths and his wife. Here a medical dispensary was
set up to be followed by a hospital in 1883. Griffiths preached every Sunday in Laitlyngkot in East Khasi
Hills while his wife, Annie Phillips, set up a tea stall to encourage people to give up liquor and drink tea
instead. After the great earthquake of 1897 when every building in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills was
destroyed and many lives lost, medical work was transferred to the neighbourhood of Shillong. Here in
1922 the “large and well-equipped Presbyterian Hospital” was opened. As a tribute to Griffiths, the
villagers in Laitlyngkot and Nongshken have named portions of the hills as Lum Griffiths (Griffiths Hills).
Griffiths left Khasi Hills in 1906 and the Welsh mission to India ended in 1966.
In 1864 a General Assembly and an Executive Committee were set up to which the direction of mission
affairs was transferred. The Rev John Roberts was the first Secretary of the Mission who was succeeded
in 1866 by the Rev Josiah Thomas.
The years 1905-06 saw a great revival in the Khasia Hills, when an estimated 8,000 persons were
converted. The revival movement was particularly spectacular among the Mizo people of the Lushai Hills
where, it is estimated that there were 27,720 Christians by 1921.
(http://themathewz.blogspot.com/2010/09/thomas-jones-of-cherrapunji-meghalayas.html)(
http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/51/1042.htm)
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