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INTRODUCTION
XXV still refused to embrace Christianity and all the while evaded N's insistence for the same. Ultimately N got her forcibly baptised on 1.12.1853! This forcible baptization, even more than her treacherous seizure from her father's home, so much shocked her that she did not survive it even by three days and breathed her last on 3.1.21853.1
Now to turn to the main theme. From the day of
his conversion N dedicated himself His Unique Ser exclusively to the cause of propagavices to Christian
tion of Christianity in India and Jission
spent the remaining forty-seven years of his life in preaching, most zealously and in various capacities, for Christianity and against Hinduism and other faiths. His missionary activities were not confined to one place but lay at Banaras, Bombay, Poona, Mau, Indore, Ahmednagar, Kanpur, Calcutta, Jubbulpore, Nagpur, Chanda, Ranchi, Panchahaud, Pandharpur, Sholapur, Delhi, Amritsar, Dehra-Dun, etc., etc., in an age when many of those widely distant places of the country were not connected with each other by railways. He also crossed swords on behalf of Christianity with promulgators of new Indian faiths like Dayānanda Sarasvati of the Arya-Samāja, Keshaya Chandra Sen of the Brahmo-Samāja, several leaders of the PrarthanaSamāja, etc. In the early years, the fact that N prior to his conversion belonged to the learned Pandit society of Banaras immensely enhanced the attraction of his
1. All these dates are taken from the Hindi biography and they indirectly confirm the story of the tragic demise of Lakşmi Bai and other details gathered from various well-informed aged persons of Banaras and other places.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
