Marble Correspondence: A missionary letter that challenged America’s view of 1971

An aerogramme written from India in January 1972 by a missionary couple, Reverend R V Marble and Martha Marble, reveals interesting facts about the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh and its aftermath. More than fifty years later, the letter survives as a witness to one of the most defining moments in our history and South Asian politics.
Finding the Marble letter
Letters from the past are often considered important sources of information by historians. They serve not only as windows into times gone by, but, by analysing their contents, it is often possible to reconstruct the thought processes of the writers, their psychology, and the effects of the prevailing circumstances on the collective psyche of the people.
For students of social philately, the branch of stamp collecting that deals with postal ephemera and their connections to society, letters with interesting contents are eagerly sought after.
The aerogramme featured in this article was acquired a few months ago when it was offered for sale at an online philatelic auction. As a collector of memorabilia related to the 1971 war, my primary interest in this item was the Indian “Refugee Relief Tax” stamp affixed to it. Burdened by the mass migration of 1971, the Indian government had imposed a five-paisa tax on almost all letters, with a few exceptions. However, once I received it a few weeks later, the joy of acquiring it became even greater.
The letter was addressed to Mr and Mrs J W Jacobs Jr, of South Main, Fayette, Missouri, USA, and was written by the Marbles.
Initially, I could not find any trace of a priest named “R V Marble” living in Delhi around 1972 through readily searchable online records. The search results mostly returned unrelated modern businesses and legal references rather than information about a person. The name Jacobs yielded no significant search results either.
So, I decided to delve deeper into the material. I contacted the United Methodist Church in the USA and requested information about the Marble couple. This finally revealed a deep-rooted connection between the writer, the Liberation War of Bangladesh, and South Asian politics.
 

The missionaries
My research revealed that Reverend Robert V Marble was born in Conway, Arkansas. He grew up in Neosho, Missouri, received his higher education at Central College in Fayette, Missouri, and completed his divinity studies at the prestigious Yale Divinity School.
Martha Marble, his wife, was also a graduate of Central College. She was from Salisbury, Missouri, received a Master of Arts degree from Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee, and later became a missionary.
It is not clear when they married or moved to the subcontinent, but records show that between 1945 and 1966, the couple worked among tribal communities in villages across Central India. During that period, they were deeply involved in running mission schools, boys’ hostels and mission farms, and also conducted church services in villages.
After 1966, the nature of their work changed somewhat. Until 1982, Rev R V Marble directed the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in India. Working with other organisations, including government agencies, his responsibilities involved disaster relief programmes and development projects. It was during this tenure that the Liberation War of Bangladesh broke out.

An analysis
The letter begins with “Many friends from the USA have asked questions...”, a classic opening sentence in missionary correspondence.
The letter was written only weeks after Pakistan's military surrender in Dhaka on 16 December 1971 and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation. At the time of writing, the world was still debating the meaning and profound consequences of that historic event.
The Marbles were writing at a time when the historical narrative of the war was still being contested in the West. While India had emerged militarily victorious and was bearing the economic burden of hosting millions of refugees, the United States and many other countries had yet to formally recognise Bangladesh.
Besides setting the backdrop to the prevailing political situation in South Asia in January 1972, the letter makes some interesting observations.

One of its central arguments is that the Bangladesh crisis was not fundamentally a war between India and Pakistan. The Marble letter presents it as a democratic struggle by the people of East Pakistan, which was tragically crushed by the Pakistani military dictatorship.