Hugh Findlay - Mission

Mission

Findlay and Willes arrived in 1851, seeking to build on reports from early members of the Plymouth Brethren that India would be a fertile ground for proselytization. However, almost immediately they were met by opposition from the established Protestant denominations, the press, and military officers and chaplains. Findlay labored first in Bombay (now Mumbai); Willes travelled up the Ganges to Simla.

It took Findlay six months to baptize his first six converts. While in Bombay, he was restricted from all military areas (cantonments) and was forbidden to preach to military personnel. In April 1852, he moved on to Poona, 90 miles distant, where he was eventually granted permission to proselyte. The local cantonment commander reasoned that "the less these people are opposed the less harm they would do." Findlay was eventually able to organize a branch of twelve members in Poona by mid-September 1852, a mixture of "European, Eurasian, and native." However, in October Findlay was asked to leave the cantonment. He found new quarters in a small shelter in Poona, where he continued to hold meetings with the branch. Several months later, he completed a chapel directly across the street.

After being banished from the cantonment, Findlay focused his efforts almost exclusively on the native population. He studied the Marathi language and spent considerable time discussing religion with a group of Brahmin intellectuals.

Findlay's brother Allan joined him as a missionary in India. Allan McPherson Findlay, a baker by trade, was born in New Milns, Scotland, in 1830, and was baptized in November 1846. He accepted Findlay's urgent request to join him in Bombay and Poona, without any official call from the church. He arrived on September 7, 1853, about two years after Findlay.

Hugh Findlay and his fellow missionaries ultimately found little success in India. He served in Poona and Bombay for several years, most of it alone. Brigham Young ordered the mission closed in 1855. Historians have concluded the mission's significance lies is in its failure to secure more than a handful of converts, in contrast with other missions at the time (in Scandinavia and the British Isles) that were extremely successful.