William Miller

William Miller (13 January 1838 – 15 July 1923) was a Scottish educationalist and Free Church of Scotland missionary to Madras. He was also a member of Madras Legislative Council for four terms—in 1893, 1895, 1899, and 1902.

He was chiefly notable for transforming Madras Christian College into an ecumenical enterprise and imbuing the minds of Madras Province South Indians with Fulfilment theology, with an idea of "Christ the fulfiller"—in a sense, he is considered not only the pioneer of Fulfilment theology, but also of Hindu Renaissance by making Indian converts to think Christianity in Indian context. He was the recipient of Kaiser-i-Hind Medal and the first LL.D, honoured by the Madras University.

Biography

Miller was born in Thurso on 13 January 1838, and was educated at Aberdeen University and Edinburgh University.

He not only erected great buildings for the college, chiefly by his own gifts and those of his brother Alexander Miller, but also garnered support and sponsorship from a group of loyal and able men, both Indian and British. His college hostels were first of their kind in South India—he used these to train future government officials and members of municipal and local boards in the art of conducting public business and running democracy. The alumni of the college, occupied prominent positions in all fields, including national movements, politics and government offices.

Miller is credited for opening hostels, several academic and cultural associations, that ultimately shaped Madras Christian College into a premier educational institution in South Asia. He later opened up the institution for Hindu students to a Christward direction through education, rather than just conversion of their faith – Vengal Chakkarai Chetty, P. Chenchiah, and many more were in fact attracted to Christianity under the influence of Miller.

A biography on William Miller entitled Dr. William Miller was written and published by O.Kandaswami Chetty in 1924, which was earlier published in the Madras Christian College Magazine in 1923. (see Joshua Kalapati and Ambrose Jeyasekaran, Life and Legacy of Madras Christian College, Chennai, 2010)

Works

Scottish Missions in India, 1868. Indian Mission and How to View Them, 1878. Lectures for Educated Hindus, 1880. The Christian College for Madras, a printed memorandum to the Free Church Foreign Mission Committee (FCFMC), 1874. Our Scandinavian Forefathers The Least of All Lands: The Topography of Palestine Gideon The Plan of History Christianity and Education in South India Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Present Day Indian Politics

Theology

Miller argued that the Hinduism could not be excluded from the plans of God, and believed that Christianity and Hinduism could work in concentric circles to fulfill the master plans of God. Miller, who is considered as the pioneer of Fulfillment theology, in his Scottish Missions in India published in 1868 noted that:Hinduism is emphatically a system, a mighty mass, a living unity and power, not only embracing, but wielding into one, the unnumbered millions by whom it is professed, as no other faith in the world does now, or probably has ever done. It is this feature in it that has chiefly determined the nature of our Missions. It must largely effect everything that can be wisely done for the liberation and enlightenment of India. A bronze statue during his lifetime was erected in Madras. The Miller Endowment Lectures were established at the University of Madras in 1926 by Diwan Bahadur Sir R. Venkataratnam Naidu, Vice Chancellor of the University, in Miller's honor. Many major figures in philosophy from India and abroad have been invited to deliver them. Among the Indian scholars invited to give the lectures are: S. Radhakrishnan, T.M.P. Mahadevan (1953), S.S. Suryanarayana Sastri (1936–37), V.A. Devasenapathi (1962), P.N. Srinivasachari (of Pachaiyappa’s College) (1940) and C.T.K. Chari (of Madras Christian College), from Madras; S.S. Raghavachar (1965) and M. [Mysore] Hiriyanna (1940-1) from Mysore; and R.K. Tripathi (1977) from Banares Hindu University. Foreign scholars, such as Fernand Brunner (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland), William Sweet (St. Francis Xavier University, Canada), and Klaus Klostermaier (University of Manitoba, Canada), have also given the lectures.