Talk:Robert Caldwell
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[edit] Bishop Robert Caldwell
Dr Y Vincent Kumaradoss' publication in India of the first full biography in English of this influential missionary has been the impetus behind the recent expansion since 22 September 2007 of the original text on this page (plus notes and references).
This has caused just one correction to the previous text - at the beginning of the second paragraph. As both Kumaradoss and Trautmann point out, Caldwell was not "the first European to propose that the South Indian languages …formed a separate language family", but he was responsible for the "consolidation of the proof".
Footnoter 19:24, 14 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] NPOV
"most comprehensive single work".. "amazing levels of conversion".. the article carries heavy pro-Caldwell POV and should be balanced -Ravichandar 02:39, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Comment on NPOV
The article is strongly and specifically referenced and almost all the statements are substantiated in the Notes and References. The writers/editors also have had the advantage of a detailed biographical study of the subject written by an Indian, Dr Vincent Kumaradoss, the history professor at the Madras Christan College, University of Chennai, and published by ISPCK in Delhi last year. See Footnoter’s comment above.
Ravichandar quotes two phrases to indicate ‘bias’. The first, “most comprehensive single work”, is a direct quotation from an assessment made by Dr Robert Frykenberg, Professor Emeritus of History & South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, one of the leading authorities on Caldwell’s written works, and is referenced accordingly in Notes. The phrase is also preceded by the word “perhaps” and the basis of his assessment – “archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources”.
The other example, suggesting ‘bias’, quoted by Ravichandar is the phrase “amazing levels of conversion”, but the word “amazing” does not occur at all in the piece. The actual phrase indicated reads “…achieved levels of Christian conversion among the lower castes almost unheard of in India”. This is not a general unverifiable statement, but a specific comparison relating to caste and Christianity in India as a whole, which is established in Kumaradoss’ book and elsewhere in the references. The sentence which follows it and which is referenced in the Notes, begins to explain how this was achieved, i.e. by adopting “some of the methods of the Lutheran missionaries …”. Malpus (talk) 13:59, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
