ABSTRACT
The revival which commenced in 1905 and lasted well over a year at Mukti Mission in Kedagon near Pune, India, marked a significant, global confluence of Holiness and Pentecostal movements within Methodism. The Mukti Mission was founded by Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), from a Hindu Brahmin family who was baptised as a Christian while studying in England. Upon her return to India in 1889, she launched Mukti, whose name means ‘salvation’, as a refuge, skill-training and evangelistic centre for young Indian women widowed or orphaned. In 1894, Ramabai herself experienced a marked infusion of the Holy Spirit which sparked a close association with the global holiness network. She became friends, for instance, with B. T. Roberts, founder of the Free Methodist Church, and her daughter, Manoramabai, studied in New York at the precursor institution to Roberts Wesleyan University. This network helped to fund her mission and sponsored her speaking tours in Great Britain and the United States. In addition, Ramabai’s experienced assistant from 1898 on, Minnie Abrams (1859-1912), a Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) deaconess missionary who testified to sanctification in 1896, had already been working in India for more than a decade, including four years as a conference evangelist appointed under MEC Bishop James Thoburn.
