Some of the many revivals that spread across India from 1904-1906

Background to this Series of India Revivals
From 1904-1906, revival swept across India, touching every mission station and church, regardless of the denomination. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Brethren, Anglicans, Christian and Missionary Alliance, London Missionary Society, and the YMCAs and YWCAs, wherever the revival was welcome, blessings came. In addition, it fostered significant unity, breaking down previous barriers between denominations.

The 1904 Sialkot, India Revival appears to have been the spark that ignited the sweeping fires. Subsequently, upon receiving reports of the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival, prayer for revival intensified to such an extent that revival in India seemed unstoppable. The outcomes are documented in the following accounts:

1. 1904 Sialkot, India Revival (Over 5 locations)
2. 1905 Khasi Hills Revival (Dozens of Locations)
3. 1905 Mukti Revival (5 Locations)
4. 1905 Revival at Dohnavur (2 Locations)
5. 1905 India Revivals I (20 Locations)
6. 1905 India Revivals II (8 Locations)
7. 1905 India Revivals III (5 Locations)
8. 1906 India Revivals IV (10 Locations)
9. 1906 India Revivals V (8 Locations)
10. 1906 India Revivals VI (8 Locations)
11. 1905-1906 India Revivals VII (9 Locations)
12. 1905-1906 India Revivals VIII (14 Locations)
13. 1906 India Revivals IX (8 Locations)
14. 1906 Aurangabad, India Revival (5 Locations)
15. 1906 Mizo, India Revival (13 Locations)

Background to These Revivals
The eight revivals recounted here occurred among Canadian Baptist missionaries and the Indian believers associated with their mission stations. Surprisingly, their practices resembled early Pentecostal gatherings, which was very similar throughout India at that time.

Influence of the Godavary Delta Mission
In a previous revival account titled 1906 India Revivals IV, we mentioned the Brethren missionaries and their Godavary Delta Mission. It was the revival that was occurring among the Brethren and their associated Indian ministry partners that sparked the revival among the Canadian Baptist missionaries and those around their mission stations.

Location of the revivals was the east coast area of India

Report from the Canadian Baptists
An interesting book about the Canadian Baptists in India, covering the dates 1874-1924, provides fascinating insights into the revival that occurred in 1906. Here is a quote taken from one that book, The Enterprise, and it gives an overview of what was experienced.

In 1906 the Mission was visited by a revival which was part of a larger, nation-wide movement; itself, in turn, directly connected with the great Welsh revival. In our Mission it affected, chiefly, the station churches and boarding schools, though sporadic outbursts took place in many out-villages. This revival was characterized not so much by conversions (though these did take place) as by a quickening and deepening of the spiritual life of those who were already Christians. A new and very searching conviction of personal sin was experienced by all who came under its power, and confession followed. New meaning was put into many a Scripture passage and promise by their experience of the horror and hatefulness of sin. Prayer found a new preciousness. A new vision of redemptive love dawned upon stricken souls. New depths and heights were revealed. God made known His power in a new way. “Behold I will shew you a new thing.” He did. And The Revival, as it is still called, left a new content in the collective Christian consciousness of our people.

Water baptism in Akidu

How the Revival Developed at Akidu
As some of the Canadian Baptist missionaries were traveling to their own conference in Akidu, they stopped along their journey in Chittapetta, where they witnessed the ongoing revival among the Brethren (see 1906 India Revivals IV).

Upon their arrival at Akidu, they reported the revival to their Indian workers, and three of them immediately set out for Chittapetta. One of those three was the Indian pastor of the church from Akidu, who was profoundly blessed by the revival. Upon his return to Akidu, he intended to share what he had witnessed, but before he could do so, a female Bible teacher immediately experienced tremendous conviction of sin.

Akidu boarding school

Another of the three who travelled to Chittapetta told his wife what he experienced, and she too came under deep conviction of her sins, crying out due to the weight she felt. That conviction then spread to others, lasting far into the night and continuing for ten days.

The believers at Akidu all experienced personal revival during the 24 days of revival services. One missionary documented his observations at this time:

Some of the most remarkable things took place that I ever saw in my life. I could understand the day of Pentecost a little different from what I ever did before. A glorious work has been done. Nearly all the workers have been through the fiery process of cleansing: and oh, what a cleansing was needed! The confessions have been with awful demonstrations of sorrow. But our hope is in the very real and deep contrition now manifested for sin, for the first time in my experience in India. Our hearts just cry for joy at the change in these lives, and the hope for the whole aspect of the work now.

Home for missionaries living at Samulcotta

Revival at Samulcotta
There was a seminary at Samulcotta (Samarlakota), and when the revival came, it followed on the heels of a cholera epidemic. During the revival, all 120 students experienced a reviving, which led to the following:
► Services lasting five days, meeting three times per day, three hours per service.
► The services were characterized by “sobbing, agonizing, heart-broken confessions of sin.”
► Peace, joy, and refreshing followed the repentance.
► Quarrels were repaired.

The missionary there gave this report:

Now we have ‘times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.’ And I use those words in their fullest sense, and with an assurance I have never known heretofore.

The Canadian Baptist church in Yellamanchili

Revival at Yellamanchili
At Yellamanchili (Elamanchili), the revival broke out on the 11th of August. It occurred during a prayer meeting when:

The Spirit of God fell, and the worshippers were smitten to the ground, and began to weep and wail under the most awful agony for sin. Truly terrible were the confessions as the Spirit probed into the hearts of the people.

Bible teachers

Results of the Yellamanchili Revival
The proof that the revival was genuine was:
► Restitution of stolen money and property.
► Quarrels of all sorts being settled.
► After confession and receiving joy from the new freedom, the Holy Spirit began revealing deeper things they had not seen as sins before.
► Meetings lasted from 5-10 hours, and sometimes longer, with no one getting tired.
► No order in any meeting except the Divine order of the Holy Spirit.
► Sometimes waves of prayer swept over the meeting, with all praying at once, oblivious to anyone else being present. Then suddenly, the whole place would be shaken with sobs and strong crying.
► Prophetic reading of Scriptures: one would read a verse, then another would read or quote a verse, each reading being a comment on the previous one, without any personal comments being given.
► Song after song would break out, sung with deep feeling.

A missionary at Yellamanchili testified of what he saw:

There has been absolutely no human instrument in this wonderful visitation. We missionaries have taken no part in it except to pray, and, that not in public for the first day or two. We have been restrained and impressed that we must keep our hands off. I bless God He has let me live to see this day. It is worth all the rest of my life to have lived to see what we are witnessing now.

The McLaurin high school in Cocanada, about 1911

Revival at Cocanada
When the revival came to Cocanada (Kakinada), it started first in the girls’ school, when the students:

Were struck down under the most powerful conviction of sin. A day or two later the Christian community in the church was similarly affected.

A missionary at Cocanada described what he saw with these words:

It was like the breaking of the monsoon after a long drought. It was truly the day of the Lord for these people. He chose it, and He did the work. The air at times seemed to be surcharged as the Spirit of God strove with the spirits of evil. No one led the meetings, nor was there a moment lost or anything lacking in the way of order. All felt that they were before the great judgment seat of God, and night after night in God’s own holy presence these hearts were made bare.

The chapel in Cocanada

These meetings went on daily for six weeks, in which there were:
► Visions, as there were in many other locations the revival visited.
► A very quiet girl received tremendous discernment and accurately called out hidden sins in others.
► The whole city was stirred; fear fell on the people, and the street preaching led to a harvest of souls.

Revival at Tuni
It was on August 19 that the Spirit of God was poured out on Tuni. A missionary, commenting on what he witnessed and experienced, said this:

I cannot describe the scenes; they are tremendously significant God is awakening and cleansing His Church and undoubtedly preparing it for the most momentous movements of all the history of the Indian Church. I never had such experiences myself, not to speak of what I saw and heard from others.

The Indian staff at Vuyyuru

Revival at Vuyyuru
The revival at Vuyyuru came on September 5, after their prolonged prayer for revival was answered. It started when a woman confessed her sins, weeping. Another spark for the revival at Vuyyuru occurred when a father of two boys, who were attending the Seminary at Samulcotta, stood up and shared about his sons experiencing revival, while the adults had not yet experienced it. He began weeping, and soon many were weeping as the Holy Spirit’s power to convict of sin fell upon them. This led to “dreadful sins” being confessed.

Two after confessing fell unconscious, one of whom seemed dazed for several days, saying there was a great light before his eyes, reminding of Paul’s conversion.

The following day, the Holy Spirit’s power was even more noticeable. All present were sobbing and wailing as they confessed their sins, both adults and children.

Characteristics of this revival were similar to other locations at this time, with there being no human leader of the meetings:

The Spirit seemed to have control, and to lash the people like the gale lashes the ocean waves. Quarrels were made up, stolen property, books, and money were restored. The conviction of sin reached all; even the very young children in the school sobbed out their sins of lying, stealing, reviling, and backbiting. The revival also broke out in some of the villages in the neighbourhood.

Hindu converts to Christ

Revival in Tekhali
The revival in the Ganjam area began on September 28, and it coincided with the first day of a quarterly conference involving workers from Tekhali and Parlakimedi. It was on this day that the Holy Spirit’s power fell.

One missionary wrote of the spiritual battle that took place during this revival:

A terrible conflict went on for days between the powers of darkness and the great Captain of Salvation. At times it seemed as if Satan had the victory, but suddenly the Spirit came over one of the meetings like the rushing mighty wind, and a flood of awful confession, which Satan had evidently been trying to prevent, was poured out, fairly taking the missionaries with astonishment, as it showed the things in the lives of the workers which had been preventing the spread of the Gospel among the heathen. The humbling was so intense that it verged on despair. But God wrought a great victory, and praise for deliverance rose in volume before the meeting closed.

Village school

Revival at Chicacole
When the revival’s power began spreading to other churches among the Telugu people, the believers at Chicacole (Srikakulam) met daily to pray, anticipating that they too would receive God’s favored shower of blessing.

The believers at Chicacole didn’t have to wait long, because after the missionaries returned from the conference at Tekhali in early October, “the Spirit came on like a flood.”

One of the missionaries described the occurrence in these words:

We had three glorious weeks, which to experience is worth a lifetime. Some were smitten down suddenly, while others only yielded to impelling, compelling power, after days and nights of sleepless agony and fasting. . .

And the missionary continued:

Day after day one woman went into a trance-like state, and gave us messages direct from God. She often told of visions of the Cross and its suffering Sacrifice . . . Language fails to express what it is to live in such conscious relations with the Divine. We know now what it is to stand still and see the Salvation of God, and to realize that the battle is His, not ours.

Primary Source
► An Independent Mission to the Telugus: The Canadian Baptist Mission by Santha Kumari Jetty
► Canadian Baptists At Work in India by M. L. Orchard
► Revival in India by Helen S. Dyer
► The Enterprise by M. L. Orchard

Secondary Sources
► A History of Missions in India by Julius Richter
► Abrams, Minnie F. (1859-1912) by Boston University School of Theology
► Christian Missions and Social Progress by James S. Dennis
► Evangelical Awakenings in Southern Asia by J. Edwin Orr
► Indian Pentecost: Christianity Today by Edith Blumhofer
► Memoir of Anthony Norris Groves by His Widow
► Minnie Abrams: Lessons from the Pentecostal Revival in India by Darrin Rodgers
► Pandita Ramabai: Her Vision, Her Mission and Triumph of Faith by Helen S. Dyer
► Pandita Ramabai, the Mukti Revival and Global Pentecostalism by Allan Anderson
► Pandita Ramabai: The Story of Her Life by Helen S. Dyer
► Scattered Seeds by Mrs. Malcolm Ross
► The Flaming Tongue by J. Edwin Orr
► The High-Caste Hindu Woman by Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati
► The Pandita Ramabai Story by Pandita Ramabai
► They Were Men Sent by God by Eustace Blake Bromley
► Walker of Tinnevelly by Amy Wilson-Carmichael
► World Atlas of Christian Missions by James S. Dennis
► Zenana Missions by Wikipedia

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