3-056-696 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

'Missionary Influence or How to Make Converts', 1815. A procession of Christian priests, led by a bishop holding an image which radiates down the words 'Intolerance, Bigotry, Injustice, Oppression and Vice', advances on a group of Hindus and Muslims. A monkey pours powder into a cannon marked 'Bible Society'. "Infidels. Barbarians! We are come to convert you to the european faith by Order of the great Authority whose Image I bear on this Shield, the benignant beams of whose countenance enliven the ignorant inhabitants of this country, therefore destroy your Gods burn your books, be converted and be saved". A naked sadhu says "Wah! Wah! Topywalla", and a Brahmin priest holding a pot of Ganges water replies: "Master, you very fine Gentleman got very fine Topy [hat] - but not speak too much good sense- Master I'm poor people all black fellow poor Man, all Master slave - What for burra sahib behauden send Master for black man not become Christian -? Got one God already - What can I say more?" The Indians speak broken English, but say quite justifiably that they already have their own god. From "The Grand Master Adventures of Quiz in Hindoostan. A Hudibrastic poem in eight cantos by Quiz", a satire directed against Warren Hastings, then Governor General of India.