missionary activity interfering with commerce by alienating the native population. The Company’s reluctance to institutionalise missionary activity was also partly owed to the experience of the Vellore Mutiny in 1806, which resulted in the death of 200 in a garrison of 370 due to a revolt of Indian soldiers against their officers.24 The revolt was triggered by apprehensions among the soldiers that the Company was intent on converting them to Christianity by force.
