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published in 1827. His later intensive work on the grammar and
dictionary of the Malayalam language clearly betrays the influence
of the new method of comparative linguistics. Similarly, his surprising
zeal in collecting 'pagan myths and traditions- not quite the kind
of occupation a missionary was supposed to devote himself to—
stemmed from the new and burning interest for the comparison of
cultures which was prevalent in Germany at the time.
It is easily understandable that these activities could lead to
conflicts, both with the Basel Mission because they overstepped the
instructions of the mission, and within Gundert himself. After all, it
was his duty to convert the 'heathen' and to help them to transform
themselves into responsible Christians. He therefore spent much of
his energy in founding schools and improving basic education. But
his own interest pushed him as much towards understanding the
people and their culture and prompted him to learn from them as
much as he could. It was this relation of mutual esteem and
exchange which secured him the sympathy of the people of Kerala
and which, in retrospect, made him one of the important builders
of cultural bridges between South India and Europe. The genuine
love he felt for the people of Kerala and their culture, the interest
he took in their language and literature as well as the great and
successful effort he made to improve their school education, make
him one of the great missionaries who, even a hundred years after
his demise, is still remembered in South India with respect and
appreciation.
It is not easy today to imagine the fervour of enthusiasm
which, in the early 19th century, led people to see in language the
most reliable carrier of cultural identity. In 1836, when Hermann
Gundert boarded a ship which was to bring him from England to
India — three months were required for the passage at that time—
the new comparative science of languages had already shown that
languages were capable of preserving, over thousands of years,
some of the basic features of a people's culture, in particular the
characteristic structures of their thinking and emotive forms of
expression. It was through the analysis of languages that scholars
began to understand more clearly that different peoples can indeed
think differently, feel differently, and act differently, and to understand
why this was so. What had already been suggested in the period of
