DUBOIS, JEAN-ANTOINE

DUBOIS, JEAN-ANTOINE (1765–1848), French Catholic missionary. Jean-Antoine Dubois, known as Abbé Dubois, was ordained in the diocese of Viviers in 1792, joined the Missions Etrangères, and then fled the French Revolution to Pondicherry. In contrast to the Madura Jesuits, Dubois dressed like an Indian peasant to identify with local custom, became an accomplished Tamil scholar, and was well acquainted with Sanskrit.

Upon the fall of the Muslim ruler, Tipu Sultan, in 1799, Dubois was asked by Colonel Richard Colley Wellesley to go to Srirangapatana to reorganize the Christian community in Mysore. This was more of a challenge than might be expected, as many Christians had abandoned their faith because of Tipu's brutality in forcibly converting them to Islam. For Dubois this was a scandal. "Not a single individual among so many thousands," he writes, "had courage enough to confess his faith under this trying circumstance" (Dubois, 1982, p. 40). In fact Dubois was so depressed with the state of affairs that he reckoned that the greater number of Christians with whom he had come in contact presented "nothing but ..a hollow mockery of Christianity" (Richter, p. 94). Nonetheless, Dubois did all he could to communicate the compassion of his faith to the local population. He was the first to introduce smallpox vaccination in the state. His own records indicate that 25,432 people were vaccinated in eighteen months, including the members of the raja of Mysore's household. Moreover, he tried to address rural agricultural problems by organizing farming communities. As a result, he was greatly respected by the local population.

Abbé Dubois's most memorable contribution was the publication of his Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. The original manuscript in French was purchased by the East India Company and is now held in the India House Library in London. In 1823 Dubois returned to France totally shattered. He published The State of Christianity in India; During the Early Nineteenth Century, a series of letters in which he related his devastating experiences; the work was severely criticized, especially by Protestant missionaries.

Dubois believed that Hindus were resistant to Christianity in part because the biblical accounts and sacrifical ceremonies deeply offended their sensibilities and prejudices. He was convinced that Hindus were so "peculiarly circumstanced" that it was "next to impossibile to make them real and sincere Christians" (Dubois, 1982, p. 36). In spite of this, Dubois never allowed himself to be drawn into personal confrontation or recriminations against Hinduism. Dubois spent the last years of his life as director of foreign missions. He died in 1848 at the age of eighty-three.

Graham Houghton

See alsoChristian Impact on India, History of

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dubois, Jean-Antoine. Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

——. The State of Christianity in India. New Delhi: Associated Publishing House, 1982.

Hambye, E. R. History of Christianity in India, vol. 3. Bangalore: Church History Association, 1997.

Richter, Julius. A History of Missions in India. London: Oliphant Anderson and Ferrier, 1908.