Christian missionaries showed the way for growth of Coastal Karnataka: Purushottama Bilimale

Christian missionaries contributed immensely to the growth of Coastal Karnataka and showed the way for the progress of the region, said Purushothama Bilimale, former Professor, Chair in Kannada, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, in Mangaluru, on Monday.

Speaking on ‘Karavali Kattida Bage’ (the way society in coastal Karnataka was built) on the second day of the three-day state-level conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, Mr. Bilimale said that it is the Basel Mission that set up the printing press in Mangaluru through which several old literary works including ‘Jamini Bharata’ and ‘Shabdamani Darparna’ got published. They also brought out the Bible in different regional languages. The Basel Mission was the first to open a school in the region, which paved way for the Christian Missionaries to open several schools where several students from the poor and deprived communities continue to study.

Christian missionaries set up the Government Wenlock Hospital and also set up the first Municipality in Mangaluru. They built roads and gave impetus to cashew industry in the region. Talking about immense contribution of Christian missionaries, Mr. Bilimale said: “They have given a new direction to the growth of coastal region”.

The rich history of the coastal region can be known by reading the works of Polali Seenappa Hegde, Ganapati Rao, Manjeshwar Govinda Pai, historian B. Salethur, Keshav Krishna Kudva and Gururaj Bhat, he said.