Hindutva is modern India did not come from Hinduism. That is why orthodox Hindus see it to be incompatible with Sanatan Dharma (Eternal Tradition). Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar sought to uplift the downtrodden. because they were inspired by the book that William Carey injected into India's soul. The British East India Company fought the Mughals, the Marathas and the Maharajas to protect and grow its income. It had no interest in transforming oral dialects into literary languages to educate "low" caste persons to become scholars like Brahmins, govern as maharajas, or run businesses like merchants. Self-sacrificing, hardworking, visionary missionaries like William Carey created modern India because they believed the Bible that God loves India and is committed to bless it with His light.
He was an industrialist. An economist. A medical humanitarian. A media pioneer. An educator. A moral reformer. A botanist. And a Christian missionary. And he did more for the transformation of the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries than any other individual before or since.
Many know of William Carey. Some know about the specifics of his work and ministry. But few understand the profound contemporary significance of his life. Few realize how much we owe the increasing globalization of Christianity to the silent revolution he initiated. Fewer still are aware of his legacy of sensitivity to the variety of issues confronting true gospel witness in any culture.
This biography about the central character in the story of India's modernization and transformation will help you understand Carey's impact. But The Legacy of William Carey is more than a biography. It is a charge to all Christians to respond in kind within our own cultures, and to use Carey's example as our model for taking the light of the Gospel into every corner of society. If we follow in his footsteps, not only will lives be bettered this side of heaven, but hearts will be changed for eternity--and entire cultures transformed for Christ.
