Jesuit Circular to Missionaries India (1704)

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“Jesuit Circular to Missionaries India ” was a document circulated among Jesuit missionaries in early 18th century southern India. The document was circulated by emissaries sent by Father Guy Tachard . At the time, Tachard, a French Jesuit missionary, was the vice-provincial of the India missions.

The Jesuit order, or Society of Jesuit, was founded in the 16th century by a group of Spanish, Basque, French, and Portuguese clergymen in Paris. Among the founders was Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. Xavier spent time in India, and other parts of Asia as a missionary.

By the early 18th century, the Jesuits, who are also known for their activities in the Americas, were based in southern India. The Portuguese Indian colony of Goa and the French colony of Pondicherry served as bases for these missionaries. Modern European settlement in India began with the arrival of Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama at the end of the 15th century.

In the 17th century, Portuguese dominance as the major European power in India was challenged by the Dutch, and then by the French and English. In the 18th century, the French and British competed for dominance in India, with Britain ultimately prevailing. Over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries Britain gradually extended its control over the subcontinent. British India was ruled by the British East India Company until the mid-19th century, when it came under direct British Imperial rule.

Abrahamic faiths had arrived in India long before da Gama and the Jesuits. In ancient Roman times some Jews and Christians are thought to have settled in what is now Kerala, in southern India. St. Thomas, an apostle of Jesus, is said to have arrived in 52 A.D. and baptized several converts.

In this 1704 circular, Father Tachard, advised the Jesuit missionaries in India to follow certain local customs and cultural practices in order to attract converts. For example, the circular advised the missionaries to adhere to local customs of caste discrimination. Members of the lowest caste- the “Untouchables”, “Pariahs”, or “Dalits”, the circular said, should be segregated from members of higher castes in Christian worship.

The circular also advised the missionaries not to challenge other local customs, such as coming of age celebrations for when a family’s daughters reached puberty, and the breaking of a cocoa-nut during marriages.

The circular was signed by the main Jesuit missionaries in India at the time- Jean Venant Bouchet, Peter Mauduit, Philip de la Fontaine, Peter de la Lane, and Gilbert le Petit. Peter de la Lane is remembered as the author of some letters that provided a description of India in the early 18th century.