St. Mary’s Church

Voiceover Model

By Akshinta Das

Existence

The St. Mary’s Church is inspired by Victorian Style Architecture and was built by Col. A.H. B Hume of the Royal Engineers. This Catholic Church is nestled near the Tip N Top Point in Lansdowne, Uttarakhand. This Church was constructed in 1895 and was completed in 1896.

The Church was functioning properly in the 18th century, but post 1947, it started deteriorating rapidly, due to which preaching was stopped. Later, the church was renovated and converted into a museum by the Garhwal Rifles Regiment Centre. This museum houses interesting photographs of Garhwal before Independence, exhibits praising the Garhwal regiment and an audio visual section that takes tourists through the history of Lansdowne.

Comparison with Other Sites

From a distance of 2km from Lansdowne Market, St. John’s Church is a Roman Catholic Church which is located at the Mall Road near St. Mary’s Church. St. John’s Church is the only running church in Lansdowne and was established in 1936. It was supervised by Agra Diocese.Its beautiful interiors as well as its surroundings attract a lot of pilgrims and tourists. The construction of this church was completed in 1937.

After 1947, the Church was left abandoned for years and eventually it was handed to the Government of India in 1951. In 1977, Rev. Gratian Mundadan wanted to start a new mission station at Lansdowne and gave the responsibility to Fr. John Chakkanatu.

It was in1980, the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and granted permission to handover the church to the diocese. The re-erected St. John’s Catholic Church was blessed by Rt. Rev. Dr. Paulinus Jeerakanth CMI, Bishop of Jagdalpur on 28th April1983. Ever since then, daily prayers, have been offered at the church.

St. John’s Church is designed in colonial architecture. The church is spread over a wide area which encompasses several sections which were used for different purposes by the Church administration.

Life

The Protestant Church is situated in the Upper Mall through private subscription and government grant is obviously the Britishers. The required amount of subscription was obtained mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Rundall who is the wife of the then captain Frank Montague Rundall of the 39th (The Garhwal) Regiment of Bengal infantry.

During pre-independence era before 1947, a church Committee was formed and regular church services were held. During 1927, interestingly the Reverend E Souther, acting Chaplin of Roorkee used to visit Lansdowne, Garhwal and services held on Sunday and special services are also held on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

On 14 June 1936, the Bishop of Lucknow unveiled a tablet in St Mary’s Church in the memory of Late Major Batten 2/3 (Queen Alexandra’s own) Gurkha Rifles. On 5th October, 1940 acting Captain L R Binham of Second Battalion The Garhwal Rifles married Miss Marcia MacDonald at this St Mary’s Church in the presence of limited number of friends and relatives in immaculate while tradition Christian attire.

Sociological Aspects

The East India Act 1813, also known as the Charter Act 1813, which is the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a renewed charter issued to the British East India Company and continued rule in India. The Act asserted the Crown’s sovereignty over British India, allotted 100,000 rupees annually for the improvement of literary and scientific knowledge, and permitted missionaries to propagate English to preach their religion in Company’s territories.

Prior to the 1813 legislation, the British Parliament and the East India Company had refused to countenance missionary activity in India and proscribed the Bible and forbade religious education, in support of a policy of religious neutrality and on the basis that, if exposed to Christianity, Indians may have felt threatened and thus would have posed a threat to British commercial ventures. The lifting of the prohibition, when it occurred, was not however a victory for missionaries, and did not precipitate official support for their activity; instead, they were subject to stringent checks.