I have decided to follow Jesus

ASSAM

also known as
Jisuni ja·man anga ja·rikgen

I.  Assamese Christianity

The spiritual song “I have decided to follow Jesus,” written by preacher Simon K. Marak (1877–1975), has its roots in Assamese Christianity. Considering the common misconception of the hymn being born out of martyrdom, a brief overview of missionary work in that region is warranted here, including an accounting of Assamese and Garo songbooks. The activities of the American Baptists in the area were frequently documented in publications in the 19th century. The earliest converts seem to have been made between 1829 and 1836:

In 1829, at the [insistence] of the then-Agent to the Governor General, North East Frontier, David Scott, a centre of the Baptist Missionary Society was established in Gowahatty under the charge of James Rae. By 1836, six persons were baptized by Rae and a church was organized with 12 members, however none of the Indian members of this first church of the Brahmaputra valley remained faithful.[1]

Later attempts by the American Baptists had tepid results, until 1863:

THE ASSAM MISSION: The Rev. Messrs. [Nathan] Brown and [Oliver] Cutter, from Burmah, arrived at Sadiya, March 23, 1836, having been four months on the journey from Calcutta. A school-house was built in May and a school opened in June 1836. The Rev. Messrs. [Jacob] Thomas and [Miles] Bronson with their wives sailed from Boston, October 17, 1836, taking presses and printing materials, and arrived at Sadiya, July 17, 1837, except Mr. Thomas, who was killed below Sadiya by a tree falling from the riverbank across his boat. Several translations were made and books printed both in Assamese and Khamti. Sadiya was relinquished in May 1839, a disturbance having arisen in which several Khamti chiefs were killed and the Khamtis entirely dispersed. The first Assamese convert was baptized in 1841. Jaipur had been previously occupied by Mr. Bronson, who in 1840 removed to the Naga Hills where he opened work. Sibsagor was adopted as a station in May 1841 by the Rev. Messrs. Brown and [Cyrus] Barker, and Nowgong in October 1841, by Mr. Bronson.

Gowhatti was occupied in 1843. In the same year an orphanage was formed at Nowgong, afterwards discontinued. In 1847, two other missionaries arrived and the work was carried forward more vigorously. In 1848, the second edition of the New Testament in Assamese was printed, and in 1850, the third. In 1851, each of the three stations was reinforced and three separate churches were formed. There were at this time five Native assistants of whom two had visited the United States. Converts were added from time to time, numbering in 1855, 62. About 1857, sickness compelled several of the missionaries to return home, and the churches were somewhat weakened. Other missionaries arrived soon after and new converts were gained. The first Garo convert was baptized in February 1863, and the first Mikir convert in the following September. In April 1864, two Garos, who had been baptized at Gowhatti, were sent to preach to their own people; in 1867, the Garos were first visited by the missionaries, and a church of 40 members was organized, at Goalpara. Schools were established and itinerations made. This field has proven an interesting one: by October 1874 no less than 446 Garos had been baptized in various parts of the Mission, and the work has continued with increasing interest since.

The Orunodoi, a monthly religious newspaper in Assamese, was begun in January 1846 and continued to 1880. A monthly newspaper in Garo was begun in 1880. In 1877, a new mission was opened among the Nagas beyond British territory, and in 1878 a station was formed at Tura, the headquarters of the Garo work. In 1879, a new mission was begun among the Angami Nagas. There are now in connection with the Assam Mission of the Union six missionaries, and 11 ordained Native preachers. The Native Christian community exceeds 4,500, communicants 1,933.[2]

The first Assamese convert in 1841, mentioned in the first paragraph above, was Nedhi Levi, baptized by Miles Bronson at Jaipur.[3] Some additional details about the first Garo converts in 1863 were supplied in another account, in 1878:

The first Garo converts were baptized Feb. 15, 1863. These were two young men belonging to the government army. They asked for a discharge for the sake of preaching Christ to their people. In March 1864, they returned to their own country. At the request of the Garos, Dr. [Miles] Bronson made the first missionary visit in April 1867, when he baptized thirty-seven converts, the fruits of those formerly baptized. He organized a church of forty members, and ordained one of the first two as pastor.[4]

Other sources give the names of these first two Garo Christians as Omed Momin and his nephew Ramke Momin, Omed being the first pastor of the first Garo church, in the west, near Goalpara.[5]

The Baptists were not the only ones to engage in mission work in the area. Welsh Methodists also had an ongoing presence:

The American Baptists, who in 1841 had taken up work in the humid valley of the Brahmaputra, now set their heart upon the broad highlands which hemmed in the deep river valley towards the south, and upon which there was to be found a dense but strangely mixed population of aboriginal tribes; they worked principally amongst the Garos. Side by side with them laboured the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, who had located their first station at Cherrapunji, also in 1841, and who now gave themselves entirely up to work amongst the Khasias, the Jains, and kindred populations; in quick succession they founded a number of new stations amongst the hill folk: Jowai (1886), Shillong (1870), Sheila (1871), Shangpung (1879), Mawphlang (1878), etc.[6]

The first of the Welsh missionaries was Thomas Jones, who is credited with being the first to transliterate the Khasi language into Roman script and translate the Book of Matthew into that language. He helped to build and establish a church in Lower Cherrapunjee at Nongsawlia in 1848 (now called the Nongsawlia Presbyterian Church). The first Khasi Christians were baptized on 8 March 1846.[7]

Part of this missionary work included the development of a Garo hymn book, A·chikni ring·ani, which is attested as early as 1875, possibly earlier,[8] with an 11th edition by 1919,[9] 15th in 1941 (A·chikni ring·anirang aro olakiani kitap), and 18th in 1962. The publication of the Assamese hymnal (Christian Hymns) is less clear, but it dates at least to the middle of the 20th century. The establishment of a printing press in Assam by the missionaries who arrived in 1837 had a significant impact:

The missionaries were the pioneers of the printing press in Assam, with the establishment of the Sibsagar printing press. Over the years the number of books printed in English, Bengali, and later on Assamese from the mission press reached great proportions. The development of literature in Assamese soon became one of the biggest achievement[s] of the missionaries in Assam. However, the role of the missionaries in the development of Assamese language is not only limited to the printing of Assamese books, but they had a more profound effect on the Assamese language, providing Assam its own distinct linguistic identity [apart from Bengali].[10]

II. Simon Kara Marak

Simon Kara Marak was born in 1877 in Baroigaon village, Kamrup, Assam. His father died when he was young, and he experienced additional heartache when as a young man he married and had a child, but his wife and infant died of sickness. A few years later, a second marriage and birth ended in similar circumstances. He attended the Guwahati Government School 1907–1909 and the Government Training School in Jorhat, 1909–1912, after which he was recruited by the Kamrup Baptist Association to be a missionary teacher at the Upper Middle School in Kinangaon village. During this time, he married a woman named Salomi and had two children, James K. and Samuel K., but his wife died after giving birth to the second child. A fourth marriage to a woman named Magdali led to seven more children (Elizabeth, Jesse, John, Merina, Binoy, Onima, Nilima).

After teaching in the Upper Middle School and the Jorhat Mission School, he became Assistant Pastor of Jorhat Baptist Church in 1935. He is believed to have written “I have decided to follow Jesus” around this time. One of his daughters, Onima, who was born in 1938, testified, “From the time I started knowing things as a child, I heard my father singing this song. Therefore, I feel he wrote this song before I was born.”[11] She believed he developed the song to fill a gap in the limited congregational repertoire at the time: “Simon wrote this song so that it could be sung while he was preaching, as there were hardly any songs to be sung during his preaching. So for that reason, he must have written the song to be sung while he was going place to place to preach the gospel.”[12]

Marak wrote the song in Assamese, originally in two stanzas, later expanded to four. It was printed in the Assamese hymnal in 1960, 1972, 1978, and others, credited to him. Simon K. Marak died 16 February 1975.

An example from the Assamese hymnal Christian Hymns is shown below. Here the song is given in four stanzas, and Simon Marak is credited as the author, bottom right. The four stanzas are:

1. I have decided to follow Jesus, (3) I will not turn away, I will not turn away.

2. Leaving the world, I took up the cross, (3) I followed him, I followed him.

3. Though no one comes with me, (3) I won’t go back, I won’t go back.

4. If I walk without him, (3) I shall receive the crown, I shall receive the crown.

According to Sengbat G. Momin (2017), the song was translated into Hindi and popularized via the work of Magdola Garhwall among the A·chik in the Garo hills, who translated it into their own language, “Jisuni ja·man anga ja·rikgen.” A version of this in a recent hymnal, Olakkianio ring·anirang (2021), shows the melody as it is sung by the Garo, which is identical to how it has been transmitted into English. The harmony is probably influenced by western harmonizations (section III below), as in the secondary dominant chord leading into the final cadence. In this hymnal, both words and music are credited to Simon K. Marak.

The song apparently entered English via Garo Christians or Garo resources by unknown means, probably by American missionaries who took it back with them to the States.

III. Publication in the United States

The song “I have decided to follow Jesus” was first published in English in Choice Light and Life Songs (1950 | Fig. 6), a production of the Light and Life Hour radio program, based in Winona Lake, Indiana; the program’s music director, Dr. Lawrence R. Schoenhals, was one of the editors of the collection. In this instance, the song was given in three stanzas, harmonized by Dorothea Hart, and copyrighted by the Young People’s Missionary Society of Winona Lake. The authorship was simply given as “Unknown.” The three English stanzas correspond to the Assamese and the Garo text.

How this song traveled from India to Winona Lake is unclear, but Winona Lake was home to a significant retreat center, which had hosted a conference of the Oriental Missionary Society the previous year, 21–26 June 1949, featuring “missionaries recently returned from South America, India, and China.”[13]

In 1951, the song was included in Salvation Songs for Children, Number Four (Fig. 7), compiled by Ruth P. Overholtzer (1897–1998), wife of Jesse Irvin Overholtzer, founders of Child Evangelism Fellowship. At the time, they were living in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. A foreword to the collection says “The International Child Evangelism Fellowship is operating in fifty-one countries.” Here, “I have decided to follow Jesus” was given in four stanzas, author given as “Unknown,” arranged by Harry Dixon Loes. They appear to have acquired the song independently of the Winona Lake ministry, which would seem to indicate the song’s popularity among missionaries before it was committed to print in the 1950s. Also, the melody here is slightly different than the Winona Lake printing, beginning with an ascending scale (1–2–3) rather than an opening triad.

By some accounts, the song achieved greater popularity via the songbooks of John W. Peterson. The first such appearance in a Peterson songbook was in Low Voice No. 1 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1954 | Fig. 8), using an arrangement by Peterson, without any other attributions. This version used the same three stanzas as had appeared in Winona Lake in 1950, but the melody more closely resembles Overholtzer’s copy. It’s possible, even likely, Peterson learned the song independently of the other printed versions.

One other early publication worth noting—or pair of publications—came from Southern Baptist music editor William J. Reynolds (1920–2009). In 1959, Reynolds published a choir anthem version of the song via Broadman Press (Fig. 9), and a four-part congregational setting in the Assembly Songbook (Fig. 10), which was used for the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville in 1959. The anthem was labeled as being “Adapted from a folk melody,” with words adapted by John Clark (a pseudonym for Reynolds), but the songbook version was labeled more clearly, “Stanzas 1 and 2 as sung by the Garo Christians,” with the third by Clark (Reynolds). Reynolds, then, seems to have been instrumental in acknowledging the song’s origins.

Reynolds called the tune ASSAM when he included it in Christian Praise (1964). After the song appeared in the Baptist Hymnal (1975), he offered the following details in the related Companion to Baptist Hymnal (1976):

This is a folk song that originated in India as a song of new converts to Christianity among the Garo tribe who live in an area which is now the state of Meghalaya, but was until 1970 the state of Assam, in northeastern India. William J. Reynolds discovered the song in 1958 in a small undated collection of gospel songs that had been published in Australia.[14]

The Australian source has not been identified. Reynolds also recorded an encounter with a pastor from Assam in 1960, who recognized the song:

In a conversation with a Baptist minister from Assam at the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1960, this song was mentioned. When the song was sung, Longri Ao smiled in recognition. He confirmed that the song was used with new believers as a statement of their decision to accept Christ and to encourage them in their determination to follow Christ so that there will be “no turning back.”[15]

Some publications have labeled the song as being from an Indian Prince. A dramatic origin story for the song appeared in a book by P.P. Job, Why, God Why? (New Delhi, India: Tortured for Christ, 2000), describing a violent martyrdom, but this story has no known basis in fact and has not been corroborated by any other sources. The story of Simon K. Marak has been carefully documented in an article by Sengbat G. Momin, translated by Amanda Aski Macdonald Momin, in the Garo Baptist Convention Sesquicentenary Souvenir (2017). Marak’s authorship is supported by the consistent credit given to him in Assamese and Garo hymnals, as early as 1960, and the lack of any printed versions of the song prior to Marak’s ministry, especially considering the long history of Assamese hymnals dating into the middle of the 19th century.

IV. Analysis

For an argument in trying to place the melody of the song within Indian musical culture, especially as a form of Christian bhajan, see Dr. Hawn’s article for CDH, but considering the active presence of English missionaries in Assam since the earliest part of the 19th century, a melody modeled on or inspired by gospel hymns with simple chord structures is equally likely.

Textually, at its core, the song is a personal statement of discipleship and commitment. Reformed pastor Brian G. Najapfour equated it with the ultimatum given to the Israelites in Joshua 24:

Much like Jesus called a group of disciples and asked them to make life-altering commitments, Joshua exhorted his fellow Israelites to choose for themselves whom they would serve. In truth, the choice to serve God is not optional, but since God must be served “in sincerity,” as Joshua said in verse 14, our service of God must come from our hearts. As such, “it is God’s will,” explained Puritan commentator Matthew Henry (1662–1714), “that this service should be, not our chance, or a force upon us, but our choice.” We must decide for ourselves whom we will serve.[16]

Pastor Robert Cottrill viewed the hymn through the lens of what it means to be a follower of Christ:

Some form of the word “follow” is found dozens of times in the Gospels. It is particularly used by the Lord Jesus to call His disciples. Of course, in the historical context, physical accompaniment was involved. Those who were called to “follow” Christ left family and jobs and traveled with Him from place to place. However, it was more than that. They were committing themselves to a spiritual pilgrimage. In that sense, Christ still has followers today. A disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is: committed to trust in Him, obey Him, learn from Him, emulate Him, and serve Him.[17]

Regarding the stanza involving carrying or taking up the cross, see especially Matthew 10:38–39, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (also Mark 8:34, 10:21).

The song is sometimes resisted in Calvinist circles, owing to a view of the order of salvation (God chooses us, we do not choose him), but the song does not speak of salvation—instead, it is consistent with Scriptures involving Jesus asking people to follow him or commit to his service, to which they have the opportunity to respond. See, for example, the wealthy man in Mark 10:21–22, who “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions,” unwilling to heed the call of Jesus, or Matthew 23:37, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.” God’s calling on our lives does not negate our responsibility to be faithful and committed to the task. Minister-composer Bryan Jeffery Leach saw this as an ongoing process:

Jesus once polled his disciples about the current “scuttlebutt” and they gave their reports. Then he said to them, “Who do you say I am?” (Mt. 16:15). “What’s your opinion, John? What’s your verdict, Peter?” They had heard his preaching, witnessed his miracles, seen his healings, and scrutinized his private life. On the basis of that close examination, they were asked to use their power of choice. Their first decision (to follow Christ) had been rather mindless. This one was enlightened, based on the evidence, conditioned by personal experience. Like them, we are brought again and again to another point of reinforcing our initial choice.[18]

by CHRIS FENNER
with C. MICHAEL HAWN
for Hymnology Archive
28 March 2023

Footnotes:

1. Anupama Ghosh, “Conversions, education, and linguistic identity in Assam: The American Baptist Missionaries, 1830s–1890,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 72, pt. 1 (2011), p. 863: JSTOR

2. Rev. B.H. Badley, Indian Missionary Directory and Memorial Volume, Rev. Ed. (NY: Phillips & Hunt, 1881), pp. 159–160: Google Books

3. A.K. Gurney, “History of the Sibsagar field,” The Assam Mission of The American Baptist Missionary Union: Papers and Discussions of the Jubilee Conference Held in Nowgong, December 18-29, 1886 (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1887), p. 22: HathiTrust

4. “The Garo Mission,” The Baptist Missionary Magazine, vol. 58 (Boston: American Baptist Missionary Union, 1878), p. 441: Google Books

5. William Carey, A Garo Jungle Book or The Mission to the Garos of Assam (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1919), p. 52: Archive.org; see also Jamesh Marak, “First Church on Garo Soil, Vol-1,” Rajasimla (22 Sept. 2020): https://www.rajasimla1867.com/first-church-on-garo-soil–rajasimla/

6. Julius Richter, A History of Missions in India (NY: Revell, 1908), pp. 216–217: Archive.org; see also M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Missions in India (London: Trübner, 1875), pp. 145–146: HathiTrust; “The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission,” The Assam Mission of The American Baptist Missionary Union (1887), pp. 213–216: HathiTrust

7. Magdalyne Syiemlieh, “Early Khasi response to Christian missions: Challenges, acceptance and assertion,” IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 14, no. 2 (Jul./Aug. 2013), pp. 36–43: PDF

8. M.A. Sherring, The History of Protestant Missions in India (London: Trübner, 1875), p. 148: HathiTrust; by another account, the hymn-book was apparently available prior to Bronson’s arrival in 1867: Archive.org; H.K. Barpujari found documentation of an Assamese hymnal printed in 1850, see The American Missionaries and North-East India (1836–1900 A.D.): A Documentary Study (Guwahati: Spectrum Publications, 1986), p. 167.

9. William Carey, A Garo Jungle Book or the Mission to the Garos of Assam (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1919): Archive.org

10. Anupama Ghosh, “Conversions, education, and linguistic identity in Assam: The American Baptist Missionaries, 1830s–1890,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 72, pt. 1 (2011), p. 869: JSTOR

11. Sengbat G. Momin, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back,” translated by Amanda Aski Macdonald Momin, Garo Baptist Convention Sesquicentenary Souvenir (A·chik Baptist Dal’gipa Krima (ABDK) Sabha, 2017), p. 88.

12. Sengbat G. Momin, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” Garo Baptist Convention Sesquicentenary Souvenir (2017), p. 88.

13. “Mission Conference Opens at Winona,” Kokomo Tribune (21 June 1949), p. 14: JPG

14. William J. Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Broadman, 1976), p. 97.

15. William J. Reynolds, Songs of Glory (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), p. 113.

16. Brian G. Najapfour, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” Hymns & Devotions for Daily Worship (2024), no. 338.

17. Robert Cottrill, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” Wordwise Hymns (14 July 2014): WH

18. Bryan Jeffery Leach, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” Worshipping Church: Worship Leaders’ Edition (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1990), no. 576.

Related Resources:

William Gammell, A History of American Baptist Missions in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1849): Archive.org

Victor Hugo Sword, Baptists in Assam: A Century of Missionary Service, 1836–1936 (Chicago: Conference Press, 1936).

William J. Reynolds, “I have decided to follow Jesus,” Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Broadman, 1976), p. 97.

Sengbat G. Momin, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back,” Garo Baptist Convention Sesquicentenary Souvenir, translated by Amanda Aski Macdonald Momin (A·chik Baptist Dal’gipa Krima (ABDK) Sabha, 2017), pp. 85–90.

“I have decided to follow Jesus”: Hymnary.org

C. Michael Hawn, “I have decided to follow Jesus”: Canterbury | History of Hymns (10 June 2020)