インド初期プレス史に果たした「セランポール・トリオ」の役割

抄録

The onset of modern newspapers in many countries of Asia involved the participation in one form or another of Christian missionaries from the West. This paper considers the press activities in India of William Carey (the "father of modern missions") and his two colleagues, Joshua Marshman and William Ward. These three early-nineteenth-century missionaries were known as the Selampore Trio. India was the first Asian country visited by Christian missionaries following the discovery of sea routes from Europe. This paper will first take a general look at press-related activities of missionaries to India who preceded the Serampore Trio. Then, the important place of press activities in the Trio's "Five Principles of Missions" ; their missionary work under the missions ban imposed by the Governor General of Bengal ; their development of a font in the Devanagari alphabet in Serampore, which was under Danish control ; and their use of this in the printing of the Bible in the more than 20 languages of India was discussed. The author has presented materials to support his argument that the Bible printed with moveable metal type in Serampore was printed slightly earlier than Robert Morrison's Chinese tranlation which also was printed on moveable metal type in Amoi. Additionally, the weekly newspaper Sunchar-Durpan and the monthly Gig-Dursan (both published by the Trio), the press regulations in Bengal of the time, and articles in the Trio's English-Language quarterly, Friend of India, against the practice of sati and on Japan-related matters will be examined. In general, the present article shows that the Trio's press activities as part of their missions policy weere the forerunner of such activities in other countries of Asia, and presents their work as a typical case of such activities.