Bareilly: Looking at the towering structure in shining red bricks, it is difficult to imagine that the Free Will Baptist Church of India in Bareilly holds a grim story of the 1857 mutiny.
As it is the oldest church of the city, it used to attract British army men then. However, the revolutionaries during the first revolt believed that British soldiers used to prepare strategies against them here and hence, they burned the church.
The incident claimed the lives of 40 British subjects, including the then pastor, his wife and their eight-old-son, whose graves are still in the churchyard. The church still has benches of 1838 which are equipped with rifle holders.
According to historians, Bareilly was the headquarters of Rohilkhand region which included districts of Bareilly, Moradabad, Badaun, Pilibhit, Bijnor and Shahjahanpur during the first revolt of Independence against the British in the May of 1857. Back then, Khan Bahadur Khan, grandson of Hafiz Rahmat Khan, was one of the most important leaders of the region.
“On May 31, 1857, freedom fighters attacked the Free Will Baptist Church of India and set it on fire. As the British army men would carry their rifles inside the church, the freedom fighters decided to target the religious structure,” said historian AK Sinha.
The British buried the bodies of the victims in the churchyard. “The bodies of then pastor, his wife and their eight-old son were buried in the backyard of the church premises, while the bodies of other army men were buried inside a well. Though three graves are still present, the well was covered with plantations,” said Sunil C Lal, pastor in-charge of the church.
It took an entire year for the Christian community with help from the British army to renovate the church. “The benches here did not catch fire somehow. The rifle holders still remind of army men who came here for prayers,” added Lal.
The church was set up in 1838 by the East India Company and British bishop Daniel Wilson from Calcutta was called here to take charge as the head priest. However, after it was renovated in 1858, the church was renamed as Anglican Church.
After India got independence, the church was transferred to the Christian community under the Indian Church Act of 1927 in April 1948. The community took charge of the structure and started taking care of administrative and maintenance work.
“As the church was in a dilapidated condition it in 1960, I collected donation from locals and some of my friends abroad for its renovation. It was renamed Free Will Baptist Church of India in 1976,” said Dr E M Lal, moderator of the church.
Source: The Times of India