AI Overview

Welsh people went to South Asia to teach English primarily for religious and cultural reasons, particularly through missionary work, which included establishing schools and promoting the Welsh language as a tool for evangelism .

Another motivation was to act as a bridge between the British administration and the local population, leveraging their non-English identity to understand both sides more effectively, though this was intertwined with justifying their place within the British Empire.

Missionary work: The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission established a significant presence in Northeast India (modern-day Assam, Meghalaya, and parts of Bengal), with missionaries like Thomas Jones playing a key role in local education and the development of the Khasi alphabet.

Cultural bridge: Some Welsh individuals viewed themselves as a distinct group within the British Empire who could mediate between the English administration and the colonized people more effectively than the English themselves could.

National identity: This role was also a way for Welsh people to assert their own national identity by contributing to the British Empire, which they saw as a visible source of global power and influence.

A Welsh Vision of Empire? Welsh Imperialists and the Indian ... Apr 15, 2024 — They had an advantage in being able as a people who were not English to stand between as it were the English administr... Edinburgh University Press Journals

Exploring the history of the Welsh relationship with India Apr 11, 2024 — The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission was the most well-known and enduring image of the Welsh-Indian relationship. T... Nation.Cymru