Charles Stewart Thompson

Charles Stewart Thompson (17 August 1851 – 19 May 1900) was the first medical missionary in Kherwara Chhaoni in Rajputana, the Bhils region of Central India. His schools, famine relief centers, and medical service transformed care in the region.

Born and raised in Easington in County Durham, England, Thompson attended the College of Islington for brief medical training and was later accepted as a missionary by the Church Mission Society. He was deployed to Kherwara, India, where he spent nearly 20 years living and working, ultimately dedicating his life to the plight of the Bhils.

As a doctor, teacher, reverend and philanthropist, Thompson worked to treat cholera, leprosy, the Bubonic plague, ophthalmia, malaria, rheumatism and fever. During his medical missionary career, Thompson laid the foundation for later medical missions in the Bhil region by establishing primary schools, dispensaries, relief centers and orphanages, pioneering Christianity to the Bhils, and training several Bhils in medicine. Besides his medical work, Thompson was also interested in diminishing the communication gap between the Bhils and the Europeans, which eventually led him to publish the first grammar and vocabulary book in the Bhili language as well as a prayer book.

Early life (1851–1880) Reverend Charles Stewart Thompson was born on 17 August 1851, in Easington in County Durham, England, as the fourth of six children. Thompson grew up in a middle class environment. His father, George Thompson, was a farmer, and his mother, Elizabeth Thompson, was a stay-at-home mother. His family was in the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church and attended their local village church, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, on Sundays.

After three years of training at the College of Islington in London, he was accepted as a missionary by the Church Mission Society (CMS). In June 1880, he was ordained as a deacon and in October 1880, he was ordained as a priest.

Thompson was not married when he left for the Bhil mission and never married. An urgent request from Mrs. Rundall, daughter of Bishop Bickersteth, had been sent for a missionary after Rundall saw the poor conditions of the Bhils. With a £1000 donation from Bishop Bickersteth, Thompson was sent by the Church Mission Society (CMS) of England to head a new missionary station in Kherwara. He first stayed in Udaipur under Dr. James Shepard of the Rajputana Presbyterian Mission in order to learn Hindi, and a year later, moved to Kherwara, a small village in Rajasthan 80 kilometers south of Udaipur, on 27 November 1880 to officially begin his mission.

Pioneering the medical missionary Charles Thompson's mission was to establish the first Anglican mission to the Bhils, a "primitive tribe" inhabiting this Indian region.

Thompson had planned to use his medical work as a way of connecting with the Bhils in order to further his religious message. He had taken rudimentary medical training in England and in his time in Udaipur, he had observed Dr. James Shepard in his medical work just for this purpose. This clearly did not go to plan, as he was viewed with similar suspicions from the Bhils. When he went into the village, the Bhils hid and fled out of fear.

In addition to this lack of trust in European medicine, a major Bhil revolt occurred in March 1881 due to census operations being carried out, making Thompson's mission even more difficult to carry out. The Bhils saw the counting of their people as a bad omen, understanding that this counting would open the door to greater surveillance and control, which also implied higher taxes. In response to this revolt, the army of Mewar marched through the rebellious villages and slaughtered the Bhils and burned their homes down, worsening the reputation of the Europeans to the Bhils.

Educational work Thompson established 12 schools in total. in the Bhil dialect.

Work in and near Kherwara Thompson's first establishments were in Kherwara. He had collected material to build a school and dispensary there. The mission school was initially run by a catechist, Masih Charan, the same interpreter who helped Thompson make his breakthrough in Obri. Of the 7 Bhil pupils that were the school's first students, 3 dropped out. However, the remaining four went on to become very promising. One became the schoolmaster and the second Thompson's medical assistant. This second pupil, a young man, sometimes accompanied Thompson on his travels to Bhil villages. Initially illiterate, the young man not only learned medicine, but also was able to learn enough to read the New Testament. The third pupil became Thompson's house servant and the last became the mission errand runner.

By December, Thompson had established a school building and hospital in Lusadiya. 45 young boys were registered to attend the school. The Lusadiya mission school was a success. When the chief minister of Idar visited, he was greatly impressed by the schoolmaster and the Bhil pupils. He was amazed by the pronunciation, accents and fluency of the young scholars. The minister even suggested that Thompson open a school for girls. The first converts were an older man named Sukha Damor, his wife Hirki, and their four children. Sukha had accompanied Thompson on a few of his tours and had actually helped Thompson make his initial contact with the Kherwara villages back in November 1881. Sukha had been told by his fellow Bhils and friends that if he converted, he would be disowned, but he was firm in his Christian beliefs and sought baptism anyway. While in England, he desperately attempted to persuade the Church Mission Society to send more doctors and nurses to the mission. He claimed that thousands of Bhils were dying in need of medical aid.

Death Charles Stewart Thompson died at age 48 on 19 May 1900, during his efforts to relieve the famine-stricken Bhils from their suffering. He had fallen ill from cholera and in an effort to get him to European aid, Bhil people carried Thompson for 9 hours on the road to Kherwara. He died under a tree at noon and was buried at Kanbai, 12 miles from Kherwara.

Legacy Charles Stewart Thompson's death, while tragic, became a source of inspiration for the Bhil mission. He was acclaimed as the founding father who had laid down his life for the salvation of the Bhil. Inspired by Thompson's self-sacrifice, many volunteers came forward to help with the Bhil mission. Reverend E. P. Herbert, who had replaced Thompson during his furlough, returned once more. Mr. J.C. Harrison of the Gond Mission also volunteered to take up the task of famine relief. Four clergymen and A.H. Bull, a female missionary who eventually ran the girl's orphanage in Kherwara, offered their services as well.

In addition to his 12 elementary schools, dispensaries, relief centers and orphanages, there now exists a school named in Thompson's memory, The Thompson Memorial School, in Kherwara.