William Carrey

I'm reading Tim Chester's Good News to the Poor: Sharing the gospel through social involvement.

Wow, quite a good read, I've extracted something interesting about William Carey here. Truly he was a missionary, and much more in India.

"Two hundred years before, in 1793, William Carey arrived in India. Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi begin their appreciation of Carey with a fictional quiz. They imagine a competition for Indian university students in which the question is asked: 'Who was William Carrey?' The first reply is that William Carey was a botanist who published the first books on the natural history of India, introduced new systems of gardening and after whom a variety of eucalyptus is named. Next an engineering student says William Carey introduced the steam engine to India and began the first indigenous paper and printing industries. Another student sees Carey as a social reformer who successfully campaigned for women's rights. Another as a campaigner for the humane treatment of lepers. An economics student points out that Carey introduced savings bank to combat usury. Carey is credited with starting the first newspaper in any oriental language. He conducted a systematic survey of Indian agricultural practices and founded the Indian Agri-Horticultural Society, thirty years before the Royal Agricultural Society was established in England. Carey was the first to translate and publish the religious classics of India and wrote the first Sanskirt dictionary for scholars. He founded dozen of schools, providing education for people of all cases, boys and girls. He pioneered lending libraries, wrote the first essays on forestry in India. To a significant degree he transformed the ethos of the British administration in India from colonial exploitation to a genuine sense of civil service.

And so it goes on with Carey's contribution to science, engineering, industry, economics, medicine, agriculture and forestry, literature, education, social reform, public administration and philosophy all being celebrated. Yet most of us know William Carey as the cobbler from Northamptonshire who became a pioneer missionary and evangelist. Who was the real William Carey? The answer is that Carey was all these things and more."