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REFOCUSING ON MGRANASTASIUS HARTMANN 641 Jesuits for a college he wished to found in Bombay. With the minutiae apart, it would be the same story over again 28 • 5. Carme!ite missionaries make their bow If it was too bitter a pill to swallow for the Carmelite missionaries to be reminded time and again that they were neither accredited educationalists nor native speakers of English, they were ever cognizant of the fact that they had creditably exercised responsibility for the Bombay Vicariate for a century and a half and that they had, therefore, the perfect credentials for the job. They ar– gued that if in the days bygone their being raw hands did not in the least obsta– cle them in their ministration, the all-round practical experience and the lin– guistic proficiency they had acquired by then doubtlessly rendered them into still more capable missionaries. Even in the area of education the Carmelites had already proved their mettle. Not without reason they questioned the wis– dom of going English and believed that it would not be to the best of interests of the Vicariate to aim at being fully in tune with the ruling British ambience in India. The Catholic youth were not interested in acquiring higher education in English. Time and time again the Carmelite Fathers said that their faithful in Bombay were not interested to go beyond the three R's and would easily settle for any odd clerical job. They, therefore, held on to the view that the estab– lishment of a university college in the Vicariate would not much alter the con– dition of its members. But others like Mgr Hartmann looked to the foundation of the college as the single patiacea for the Bombay Catholic community's ills, without, however, upsetting in any way the then status quo 2 9. 28 B. Vadakkekara, Capuchins in the Bombqy-Poona Vicariates: Their entrance and exit (1854- 1858), in Co!!ectanea Franciscana 62 (1992) 249-294, documents these events, which tell their own tale. 29 MonumentaAnastasiana, I, 573-574, Mgr Hartmann to the Prefect of the Propaganda, Cardinal Fransoni, Bombay 3 August 1850: "Porro collegium mihi aliisque res quam maxime necessaria videtur, tum, ut iuventuti bona ac scientifica educatio detur, tum, ne parentes cogantur, filios suos in protestantium collegia mittere. Collegium ac seminarium rev. Patribus Iesuitis traderem. Sed opus est ad evitandas omnes collisiones inter regulares diversi ordinis nimis frequentes, ut duo r.mi pp. Generales Carmelitanorum ac lesuitarum bene combinent; et ut vicatius apostolicus seminarii ac collegii, sicut totius missionis, sit superior. Cum expe– rientia constet, nationalismum Hibemorum nimis quantum activitati sacerdotum alterius na– tionis obesse, satius rr. Pp. Iesuitae ex Anglia, Gallia vel Alemannia pro Bombaim destinar– entur".