Amy Wilsom Carmichael

1867-1951

“Without vision people Perish.”

Amy was a Church of England’s missionary representing the  Zenana Missionary Society. She came to India  in 1895 from Ireland, lived and worked in India till her death on 16 January 1951, three years after independence. She did not return to England even for once since her arrival. Though the English Missionaries as a policy did not interfere with the traditions and social customs of the country Amy’s and Reverend Thomas Walker ’s (Walker Aiyyah (Salutation with respect, elder brother)) work among the temple children put her in the danger of being arrested and imprisoned, eventually her involvement  led to the enactment of a law abolishing the Deva Dasi practice in Indian temples.

The bringing up and maintenance of the children and widows she saved from difficult life circumstances paved way for the founding of the Dhonavur Fellowship in the village of Dhonavur in Tirunelvelli district of Tamilnadu in South India. She became a mother to hundreds of children  and gave them hope and good chance in life. The fellowship was self-sustained with their own farms, cattle, homes, schools, hospital, and workshop for skill development and is spread over 400 environmental and eco sustainable acres of land making Amy one of the pioneering environmentalist of our country. The DF is still active and continues to do Amy’s  good work.

She wanted to be one with the ones she served unlike others who maintained the difference. She dyed her body with coffee to look brown and wore the Indian cotton saree (blue Sheela) and is accredited as one of the first to adopt Indian Sarees among the missionaries.

In 1931 at the age of 64 she had an accidental fall which forced her to remain housebound till her death in 1951. She used the time well to read and meditate and wrote 17 of her 35 books which included her missionary experience, poems, devotional songs, prayers etc. depicting her spiritual evolvement over the years. The last two years of her life she was completely bed ridden after another fall in the house, her mind and intellect remained active till three days before her death when she fell into a coma and died at the sun rise of 16 January 1951.

Her children and the missionaries who have come from different parts of the world and volunteered to work for her without any salary took very good care of her during this period of house boundness and carried on the activities of the fellowship. She wanted her grave to be unmarked but her children put a granite bowl of water for the birds she liked very much with a simple inscription, “Amma 18-1-1951”.