Basil Scott

Basil was born in England but grew up in China, where he lived for nine years up to the age of 11. His parents were based in west China in the ancient city of Langzhong, which was steeped in Confucian learning and Chinese Buddhism. He went to the CIM (China Inland Mission) school at Chefoo on the sea, east of Beijing. School was interrupted by the outbreak of the Pacific War with Japan in 1941. Then for three years he was in Japanese prison camps for British, US and other foreigners. Basil’s family were shipped back to Britain in 1945.

After school in England Basil spent a year of national service in Kuala Lumpur, and visited Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. He then went on to study history and theology for five years at Cambridge. There he joined the student Christian Union and received God’s call to mission. After being ordained as a minister in the Church of England, God guided him to India with Interserve (then BMMF).

To prepare for mission in India Basil went to BHU (Banaras Hindu University) in 1963 to study Indian philosophy and live in a student hostel. In 1964 Shirley and Basil were married in` Mussoorie. They joined the staff of the UESI in 1965 and moved to Delhi two years later when PT Chandapilla asked them to work with him there. His four years in Varanasi gave him a lifelong interest in Hinduism and seeing Jesus from a Hindu viewpoint.

All their four children were born in India, in UP, Delhi or Punjab. In 1983 they returned to England for the sake of their further education. After 30 years in Asia Basil was not about to turn his back on India. They settled in Leicester, because it had the largest Hindu population of any city in UK with 50,000 Gujarati refugees from East Africa. There they also met Jains for the first time and entered into dialogue with Muslims. Surprisingly Basil learnt more about Sikhs and Sikhism in England than he had learnt in India.He met Hakim Singh Rahi, poet and evangelist, and edited his book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Discovered, which was published in Delhi by Motilal Banarsidass in 1999. Guru Nanak’s devotion to the one and only true God is impressive.

On retirement Basil settled in Cambridge and began research to find out what the New Testament really has to say about the Christian approach to man’s religions. That study gave rise to this book.