Miles Bronson (July 20, 1812 – November 9, 1883), was one of the first American Baptist missionaries who worked in the state of Assam in northeastern India.
In 1835, David Scott, the Agent to the Governor General in the North-East Frontier invited American Baptist Missionaries working in Burma (now Myanmar) to come to Assam to spread Christianity and education.
Brown and Cutter, along with their families,[2] had landed at Sadia with the objective to go to northern Burma and southern China through Sadiya.
[1] At the time, Joypur, with its location on the bank of the Burhi Dihing River, was an important strategic point for the Company Government because of its road link to Burma.
Bronson spent his time studying languages of the surrounding tribes, including that of the Noctes and Wanchos.
The Noctes at the time were concentrated in Namsang, Khonsa and the Liju area in the Tirap district of present-day Arunachal Pradesh.
During this time the Bronsons had six daughters,[3] including Sophie Bronson Titterington, who wrote several books including a short biography of her sister Maria;[4][5] Maria went on to work at the school her mother had founded and was part of the Women’s Baptist Missionary Society of the West until her death from cholera at the age of 33.
At first, the villagers took him for a spy for the British East India Company, sent to collect information before annexing their territory.
The climate of Namsang was not favorable for Rhoda; frequent attacks of fever forced Bronson and his sister to return to Joypur on October 2, 1840.
Afterward, Bronson was no longer eager to work in Namsang, moving to the plain areas of Assam.
He worked with Nathan Brown and Cyrus Barker, organized and founded the first Baptist church at Panbazar in Guwahati on January 25, 1845.
In his accounts he referred to dress, jewelry, customs, and language usage as well as the economy and political system of the tribe.
The water was drawn from deep wells by buckets made of leaves, which was poured into large wooden troughs nearby for the purpose of boiling.
Bronson thought the key to creating material progress for the Noctes was to introduce the concept of tea plantation.
Bronson’s letters to different British officials regarding the Namsang mission reveal his intense desire to uplift the Noctes from what he saw as utter backwardness, keeping in mind the goal of spreading Christianity.
In reality, the American Baptist missionaries had come to Assam at the invitation of the Company Government, with patronization from the British officials.
The British administration and tea planters like C. Bruce had invited them, having political and economic ends, and aided the missionaries both with financial and moral support.
[9] When he moved to Joypur for the first time, Bruce gave half of his residence over to Bronson for temporary settlement.
I conceive that by a proper cooperation with that gentleman (Bronson) and the encouragement of the Nagas to cultivate the products of their hills and tea in particular, we may hope ere long to see civilization greatly advanced among these Nagas, and our supremacy gradually extend over the hills, without which, and the consequent suppression of the constant feuds amongst the tribes, there seem to be little hope of effecting any great change in the habits of the people, or of our being able to avail ourselves of the great natural resources of the fine tract of mountainous country.In this letter, Jenkins requested the Secretary to give him permission to allow him to spend 100 rupees in aid of the mission.
In the same letter, Bronson informed Jenkins that the Noctes suspected the expansion policy of the government (or the "Onward March").
In his letter, dated August 24, 1840, Bronson wrote to Jenkins that he had informed the Noctes about the tea plantation proposal of the Company, but they did not give consent about the implementation of the plan.
Bronson realized that nothing important would ever be effected among the Naga tribes - either toward their education or civilization - until they were made less independent.