The American Baptist mission among the Telugus was so nearly abandoned that it was nicknamed the “Lone Star.” Then came the catastrophic famine of 1876–78. At Ongole, John E. Clough set converts and enquirers to work for famine wages on the Buckingham Canal, carrying thousands through the disaster; when the rains returned, Telugus of the poorest castes turned to the faith in extraordinary numbers — some two thousand baptised on a single day in 1878, and tens of thousands within a few years. It was one of the first great mass movements of India's most marginalised people, and it grew straight out of famine relief.
John E. Clough, Social Christianity in the Orient (1914) — public domain; baptism figures from Baptist mission records.
സ്രോതസ്സുകളും കൂടുതൽ വായനയും