FURTHER ADVANCEMENT IN THE BENGALI FIELD

In the latter part of 1949, Gilead graduate Hendry Carmichael made a circuit visit to Bengal. He wrote: “While at Kanchrapara visiting the newly formed congregation, a trip was arranged to Chapra, a village about seventy-eight miles [126 kilometers] north of Calcutta. The clergy and missionaries of Christendom tried all they could to prevent the giving of a public talk at Chapra. But in spite of this, around sixty attended one bright moonlit night in an open-air clearing. Our artificial lighting was from a petromax lamp. After the talk an old Bengali lady said: ‘To think that I have been listening to the clergy all my life and I never knew that all these things were in the Bible!’”

Carmichael further wrote: “While going from house to house at Chapra, I started off with two companions and ended up with about fifteen persons trekking around with me. The houses were erected on sunbaked mud platforms about two feet [.6 meter] off the ground and the palm-leaf thatched roofs sloped right down, overlapping the mud platforms for the purpose of preventing driving rains from spraying the interior. When invited inside, we stooped to enter, stepping up onto the platform, then sat on the floor with all the other fifteen. All would listen and reason on the Scriptures as I discussed them. In this area, many times I would sit up into the early hours of the morning explaining Bible truths, yet be up at dawn to spread the good news farther afield.”

A GLANCE AT THE PROGRESS

By 1949, in India, there was one circuit overseer serving 270 publishers and 23 special pioneers in 29 congregations​—13 Malayalam, 1 Bengali and 15 English.

THROUGH CYCLONE AND AVALANCHE!

On one occasion when circuit overseer Hendry Carmichael was about to leave Darjeeling, a terrible cyclone ripped through the area. It was accompanied by torrential rains amounting to fifty inches (127 centimeters) in two days. This caused innumerable landslides that devastated the whole region, sweeping bustis, or villages, into oblivion and everyone in them to their death. In fact, the house next door to where Brother Carmichael was staying was swept away in a landslide. Rocks and rubble piled up against the place where he was, causing water and silt to pour in. Hearing that Darjeeling was cut off from the world and that it might take months to cut a way through, Hendry Carmichael and pioneer Melroy Wells-Jansz decided to take a chance on getting through on their own. Besides, they were scheduled to conduct a baptism at the next stage of the circuit tour.

“First we climbed a thousand feet [305 meters] up to an old military road that skirted the mountain ridge,” reported Brother Carmichael. “Upon reaching the road we found it in shocking condition we struggled over mounds of rubble and trees and eventually got to Ghoom. From there, dogged by hunger, we struggled wearily along the main road, which often collapsed behind us as avalanches roared down the mountains and swept it away. One avalanche fell between us, but we were able to reunite. At last we were forced to a standstill. Before us was a yawning gap about forty feet [12 meters] across and 2,000 feet [610 meters] deep, with a roaring torrent gushing down the gap into the gorge. All that remained of the former railway bridge were the two rails held together by the sleepers. It was swinging in mid-air close to the roaring waters . . .

“We took refuge that night in a railway hut perched on the edge of the ridge, above which was a great pile of rocks threatening to hurtle down at any moment. After a sleepless night of indescribable hardship, we went outside to face that pair of rails again. . . . The rains were pouring and the wind was swinging the rails, but eventually we were both on the opposite side. However, our troubles were not over, for soon we arrived at Sonada, where we were confronted with another chasm. But this time there was no rail track left. . . . We scaled the cliff edge to a height of 3,000 feet [914 meters], sometimes very cautiously with our backs to the cliff face, inching along perilous ledges until there was no ledge left. Landslides had swept even the ledge away, forcing us to retrace our way till we could find somewhere else to climb. Finally, we crawled over the cliff top, penetrating a forest, the haunt of wild bears. We made our way down to Kurseong after trekking two days and a night. We arrived hungry, covered with mud, with feet blistered and bleeding, but safe and otherwise sound. A Roman Catholic priest who saw our arrival spread the news to the townsfolk. Nevertheless, the purpose of our visit was achieved.”

REWARDING JOURNEY TO SOUTH INDIA

It was decided that Brother Skinner should make a trip to south India and visit the brothers in South Kanara and Travancore. Hendry Carmichael, the circuit overseer, though just recovering from a serious operation, accompanied the branch overseer on this tour. The two brothers left Bombay by coastal steamer and stopped off at Mangalore for a weekend. There they found a group of fourteen interested persons who quite regularly studied The Watchtower in Kanarese. None knew English very well and there was no interpreter. Therefore, the public talk was advertised as an English meeting, with Brother Skinner as the speaker. With only one day to advertise the talk, it was amazing to note that ninety persons attended.

At the next place, Cochin, an assembly had been arranged in an effort to start developing this part of the field. Under British rule, Cochin had been a state separate from Travancore, with its own maharajah and system of government, although the people of Cochin State spoke Malayalam, as did those of Travancore. Up to that point in time, however, most of the work in the Malayalam field had been done in southern Travancore State. The opening session at this Cochin assembly had 210 in attendance. Thirty to forty interested persons had come from Travancore. There were 110 Witnesses engaged in the assembly witnessing activity and the eyes of the people of Cochin fairly bulged as they saw twenty to thirty sisters walking around the town with placards advertising the public talk​—a thing never seen before in Cochin. It is a city saturated with Roman Catholicism, with a resident bishop. Yet there was a final attendance of 1,022 at the public meeting, making it the largest assembly held in India up to that time. It was gratifying to observe twenty-five persons get baptized and to find a group of five English-speaking men desirous of being formed into a congregation.

On October 14, Brother Skinner was scheduled to give the public talk at the Gokhale Hall in a solidly Hindu locality. But a crowd of anti-Christian rowdies broke up the meeting and the brothers had to leave amid the jeering shouts of “Quit India!” Violence was threatened at the same time. Even the police were unable to restore law and order.

All the brothers met at the Poona Kingdom Hall, where they completed the assembly program. Afterward, Brothers Skinner and Carmichael went to the police station and registered a complaint. Then plans were made to hold another public meeting in the same hall on October 31, but this time with police protection. The brothers organized another advertising campaign and distributed 10,000 handbills in both the Marathi and English languages. When the time came for the meeting to begin, there were two police officers and about twelve constables present. Brother Skinner had scarcely got through his introduction when trouble broke out again. The police intervened but quickly were outnumbered and soon great crowds of shouting people gathered, so that it appeared that the assembled brothers and interested persons were endangered.

However, an arrangement was made with a neighbor whose rear gate opened onto the hall grounds that, in the event of trouble, he would open the gate and allow the brother’s to escape. So, as the police were battling against the tremendous odds at the front, the brothers quietly filed out without observation and all escaped injury.