Introduction

Abstract

In 1864, the Danish Missionary Society (DMS) began a small mission outside the village of Pattambakkam in colonial South India. In one sense, this encounter, which was to span many decades, was both local and rather isolated. Yet, it also reached across continents, and its repercussions may in fact have been greater at home in the Danish public than they ever were in India.

He who fights heathenism only in the hearts of the old is like a man who seeks to wipe out a forest and cuts down the old trees, but lets the undergrowth stand.

-Missionary Carl Ochs, 1870a¹

From Out There. Yes, that is the name of this little book, which comes as a Christmas present from the [Danish Missionary Society] to all the children here in Denmark…. I am certain that many children, when they read this book, will feel how great a mercy it is to us that we are born in a country, where we have been baptized and can hear of Jesus. We do, after all, have so much good here compared to the poor heathen children.

-Carl Asschenfeldt-Hansen, 1910²