Satyananda Stokes: Difference between revisions

In 1904, aged 22, Samuel came to India to work at a [[leprosy|leper]] colony located at Subathu in the [[Shimla]]. His parents were opposed to this move, but he did it anyway because it was a job where he felt happy and satisfied. India was also far away from his parents and other people who looked down on him for not taking over his family business with eagerness. The lepers needed him and adored him and the other local people treated him with great respect because he was a foreign man doing a pious job. Once his parents realized that this job fulfilled some deep emotional need of their son, they supplied him with considerable money, which he used both for the leper colony and for helping local villagers in small ways, all of which further enhanced his respectability. Raised a [[Quaker]], Samuel was drawn to the asceticism that is exalted in Indian spirituality and began living a simple, frugal life among the villagers, becoming a sort of Christian [[Sannyasi]].

A few years later, the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], who was visiting the [[Viceroy of India|Viceroy]] at [[Shimla]] (the summer capital of the [[British Raj]]) heard of the leper colony and was impressed. He encouraged Samuel to form an order of [[Franciscan]] Friars, an order of monkhood committed to living in [[poverty]] and aiding the diseased and dying. Samuel formed such an order, but his membership in this wandering brotherhood of monks lasted only two years.

In 1912, Samuel married a local girl, gave up his life of poverty, purchased a chunk of farmland near his wife's village and settled there. His wife, Agnes, was the daughter of a first generation Christian.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=Asha|title=An American in Khadi: The Definitive Biography of Satyanand Stokes|year=1999|publisher=Penguin Books India|location=New Delhi|isbn=0-14-028509-1|pages=97}}</ref>  Samuel's father had settled a considerable fortune upon Samuel, and the purchasing power of this inheritance was magnified manifold in the remote, beautiful part of India where he settled. He had also by now dealt with the demons of failure that had plagued his growing years, and as a white man in an uncritical rural society, in the company of an Indian wife who was non-judgmental and made few demands on his, Samuel was happier than he had ever been before. The family grew with the birth of seven children.

Stokes was a critic of the [[Christ myth theory]].<ref>[[Robert E. Van Voorst|Van Voorst, Robert E]]. (2000). ''Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence''. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Footnote 28. p. 13. {{ISBN|0-8028-4368-9}}</ref> He authored the book ''The Historical Character of the Gospel'' published by the Christian Literature Society for India, Madras. It was republished in London as ''The Gospel According to Jews and Pagans'' (1913). He argued for the [[historicity of Jesus]] and his [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]].<ref>Sharma, Asha. (2008). ''An American in Gandhi's India: The Biography of Satyanand Stokes''. Indiana University Press. p. 57. {{ISBN|978-0-253-21990-9}}</ref>

Samuel applied himself to improving the farmland he had purchased and was able to access scholarly resources unknown to the other villagers in this endeavour. He identified a new strain of apples developed by the Stark brothers of [[Louisiana]], United States as being suitable to the [[Shimla|Simla Hills]] and began cultivating them on his farm. This was in the year 1916. The resulting bumper crops, coupled with Samuel's access to the white people who ran the export business in [[Delhi]] encouraged the other farmers to do as Samuel was doing, and he helped them wholeheartedly in every way. Indeed, he purchased more land and devoted it to growing apple cultivars which the villagers would use to seed their own farms. The local economy was vastly reinvigorating.

{{History HP}}{{Indian Independence Movement}}{{Authority control}}