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diff --git a/14294-0.txt b/14294-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bb96e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/14294-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6995 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14294 *** + +NEW IDEAS IN INDIA DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +_A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments_ + + +BY THE +REV. JOHN MORRISON, M.A., D.D. +LATE PRINCIPAL, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INSTITUTION, +CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION, CALCUTTA, AND +MEMBER OF SENATE OF CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY + + +LONDON +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED +NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +1907 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The substance of the following volume was delivered in the form of +lectures in the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh during Session +1904-5. As "Alexander Robertson" lecturer in the University of Glasgow, +the writer dealt with the new religious ideas that have been impressing +themselves upon India during the British period of her history. As +"Gunning" lecturer in the University of Edinburgh, the writer dwelt more +upon the new social and political ideas. The popular belief of Hindu +India is, that there are no new ideas in India, that nought in India +suffers change, and that as things are, so they have always been. Even +educated Indians are reluctant to admit that things have changed and +that their community has had to submit to education and +improvement--that suttee, for example, was ever an honoured institution +in the province now most advanced. But to the observant student of the +Indian people, the _evolution_ of India is almost as noteworthy as the +more apparent rigidity. There is a flowering plant common in Northern +India, and chiefly notable for the marvel of bearing flowers of +different colours upon the same root. The Hindus call it "the sport of +Krishna"; Mahomedans, "the flower of Abbas"; for the plant is now +incorporate with both the great religions of India, and even with their +far-back beginnings. Yet it is a comparatively recent importation into +India; it is only the flower known in Britain as "the marvel of Peru," +and cannot have been introduced into India more than three hundred years +ago. It was then that the Portuguese of India and the Spaniards of Peru +were first in touch within the home lands in Europe. In our own day may +be seen the potato and the cauliflower from Europe establishing +themselves upon the dietary of Hindus in defiance of the punctiliously +orthodox. _À fortiori_--strange that we should reason thus from the +trifling to the fundamental, yet not strange to the Anglo-Indian and the +Indian,--_à fortiori_, we shall not be surprised to find novel and alien +ideas taking root in Indian soil. + +Seeds, we are told, may be transported to a new soil, either wind-borne +or water-borne, carried in the stomachs of birds, or clinging by their +burs to the fur of animals. In the cocoa-nut, botanists point out, the +cocoa-nut palms possess a most serviceable ark wherein the seed may be +floated in safety over the sea to other shores. It is thus that the +cocoa-nut palm is one of the first of the larger plants to show +themselves upon a new coral reef or a bare volcano-born island. Into +India itself, it is declared, the cocoa-nut tree has thus come over-sea, +nor is yet found growing freely much farther than seventy miles from the +shore. One of the chief interests of the subject before us is that the +seeds of the new ideas in India during the past century are so clearly +water-borne. They are the outcome of British influence, direct or +indirect. + +Here are true test and evidence of the character of British influence +and effort, if we can distil from modern India some of the new ideas +prevailing, particularly in the new middle class. Where shall we find +evidence reliable of what British influence has been? Government +Reports, largely statistical, of "The Moral and Material Progress of +India," are so far serviceable, but only as _crude_ material from which +the answer is to be distilled. Members of the Indian Civil Service, and +others belonging to the British Government of India, may volunteer as +expert witnesses regarding British influence, but they are interested +parties; they really stand with others at the bar. The testimony of the +missionary is not infrequently heard, less exactly informed, perhaps, +than the Civil Servant's, but more sympathetic, and affording better +testimony where personal acquaintance with the life of the people is +needed. But of him too, like the Civil Servant, there is some suspicion +that in one sphere he holds a brief. This, indeed, may be said in favour +of the missionary's testimony, that while the Anglo-Indian identifies +the missionary's standpoint with that of the native, the native +identifies him with the Anglo-Indian, so that probably enough he +occupies the mean of impartiality and truth. The British merchant in +India may also offer as evidence, and indeed is "on the spot," and +apparently qualified by reason of his independence. But the interest of +his class is professedly limited to India's material progress; and of +his general views, we recall what Chaucer said of the politics of his +"merchant," + + "Sowninge alway th' encrees of his winning." + +And finally, in increasing numbers, natives of India themselves are +claiming to pronounce upon the effect of the British connection upon +India; and yet again we feel that the proferred evidence must be +regarded with suspicion. That Indian is exceptional indeed whose +generalisations about India are based on observations and historical +knowledge. If the Civil Servant's honour is bound up with a favourable +verdict upon the question at issue, the educated native is as resolved +upon the other side. Nay, truth requires one to say that at this time +the educated Indian is virtually pledged against acknowledging any +indebtedness to Britain. For the reason why, we need not anticipate, but +it is foolish to shut one's eyes to the unpleasant fact, or to hide it +from the British public. + +Where, then, is the testimony that is reliable? Is there nothing else +than the disputing, loud and long, of the six blind men of Indostan who +went to _see_ the Indian elephant and returned, + + "Each in his own opinion + Exceeding stiff and strong, + Though each was partly in the right, + And all were in the wrong!" + +From preferred testimony of all kinds, from all affidavits, however +honestly sworn, we turn again to the ideas now prevailing as they +_betray_ themselves in the lives of the people and the words that fall +from their lips. Carefully studying earlier history, we ask ourselves +wherein the new ideas differ from the ideas current in India a century +ago. Then as progress appears, or is absent, the forces at work stand +approved or condemned. The exact historical comparison we may claim to +be a special feature of this book. + +The writer is not ignorant of the delicacy of the historical task he has +set himself. He claims that during the twenty years he spent in India he +was eager to know India and her sons, read the pamphlets and articles +they wrote, enjoyed constant intercourse with Indians of all classes and +religions, reckoned, as he still reckons, many Indians among his +friends. He claims that during these years it was his pleasure, as well +as a part of his professional duty, to study the past history of India. +Ignorance of Indian history vitiates much of the writing and oratory on +Indian subjects. As a member of the staff of an Indian college, with six +hundred University students, the writer claims to have had exceptional +opportunities of entering into the thoughts of the new middle class, and +of cross-questioning upon Indian problems. In India, students "sit at +the feet" of their professors, but let it not be assumed that the +Oriental phrase implies a stand-off superior and crouching inferior. +Nay, rather it implies the closest touch between teacher and taught. All +seated tailor-fashion on the ground, the Indian teacher of former days +and his disciples around him were literally as well as metaphorically in +touch. The modern professor, successor of the pandit or guru, enjoys +intercourse with his students, as full and free, limited in truth only +by his time and his temperament. + +Judging by the test of the new ideas in India, the writer has no +hesitation in declaring that the British regime has been a great +blessing to India. Likewise, whether directly inculcated or indirectly, +some of the best features of Christian civilisation and of the Christian +religion are taking hold in India and becoming naturalised. Called upon +as "Alexander Robertson" lecturer in the University of Glasgow to +deliver a course of lectures "in defence of the Christian faith," the +writer felt that no more effective defence could be offered than this +historical survey of the naturalising in India of certain distinctive +features of the Christian religion and of the civilisation of western +Christian lands. + +Of this also the writer is sure, whether he possess the qualifications +for the delicate task or lack them--there is a call for some one to +interpret Britain and India to each other. In their helpless ignorance, +what wonder that Britons' views are often incomplete and distorted? On +the Indian side, on the other hand, the terrible anti-British feeling +now prevailing in India must surely be based on ignorance and +misunderstanding, and in part at least removable. + + * * * * * + +The Rev. Alexander Robertson, a probationer of the Free Church of +Scotland, although never in office, died at Glasgow in 1879, leaving the +residue of his estate for the endowment of a lectureship as aforesaid. +As trustees he nominated two personal friends--the Rev. J.B. Dalgety, of +the Abbey Church, Paisley, and James Lymburn, Esq., the librarian of +Glasgow University. These two gentlemen made over the trust to the +Glasgow University Court, and the writer had the honour of being +appointed the first lecturer. + +The Gunning Victoria Jubilee Lectureship in the University of Edinburgh +was founded by the late Dr. R.H. Gunning of Edinburgh and Rio de +Janeiro, in the year 1889. The object of the lectureship was "to promote +among candidates for the ministry, and to bring out among ministers the +fruits of study in Science, Philosophy, Languages, Antiquity, and +Sociology." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE NEW ERA--SOME LEADING WITNESSES 1 + + II. INDIAN CONSERVATISM 11 + + III. NEW SOCIAL IDEAS 21 + + IV. THE CHIEF SOLVENT OF THE OLD IDEAS 39 + + V. WOMAN'S PLACE 50 + + VI. THE TERMS WE EMPLOY 65 + + VII. NEW POLITICAL IDEAS--A UNITING INDIA 72 + + VIII. NEW POLITICAL IDEAS--FALSE PATRIOTISM 88 + + IX. NEW RELIGIOUS IDEAS--ARE THERE ANY? 103 + + X. THE NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS OF INDIA IN THE NINETEENTH + CENTURY--INDIAN CHRISTIANS AND BRAHMAS 120 + + XI. NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS--[=A]RYAS AND THEOSOPHISTS 132 + + XII. THE NEW MAHOMEDANS 144 + + XIII. HINDU DOCTRINES--HOW THEY CHANGE 148 + + XIV. THE NEW THEISM 166 + + XV. JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF 184 + + XVI. JESUS CHRIST THE LODESTONE 194 + + XVII. INDIAN PESSIMISM--ITS BEARING ON BELIEF IN THE HERE AND + HEREAFTER 213 + +XVIII. INDIAN TRANSMIGRATION AND THE CHRISTIAN HERE AND HEREAFTER 223 + + XIX. THE IDEAS OF SIN AND SALVATION 239 + + XX. THE IDEA OF SALVATION 254 + + XXI. CONCLUSION 269 + + + + +NEW IDEAS IN INDIA + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NEW ERA--SOME LEADING WITNESSES + + "The epoch ends, the world is still, + The age has talked and worked its fill; + + The famous men of war have fought, + The famous speculators thought. + + See on the cumbered plain, + Clearing a stage, + Scattering the past about, + Comes the New Age. + Bards make new poems; + Thinkers, new schools; + Statesmen, new systems; + Critics, new rules." + + MATTHEW ARNOLD. + + +India is a land of manifold interest. For the visitors who crowd thither +every cold season, and for the still larger number who will never see +India, but have felt the glamour of the ancient land whose destiny is +now so strangely linked to that of our far-off and latter-day islands, +India has not one but many interests. There is the interest of the +architectural glories of the Moghul emperors, in whose grand halls of +audience, now deserted and merely places of show, a solitary British +soldier stands sentry over a visitors' book. For the great capitals of +India have moved from Delhi and Agra, the old strategic points in the +centre of the great northern plain, to Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and +Rangoon, new cities on the sea, to suit the later over-sea rulers of +India. There is the interest of the grand organisation of the British +Government, holding in its strong paternal grasp that vast continent of +three hundred million souls. Sometimes the sight of the letters V.R.I, +or E.R.I. (Edwardus Rex Imperator) makes one think of the imperial +S.P.Q.R.[1] once not unfamiliar in Britain. But this interest rather I +would emphasise--the penetration into the remotest jungle of the great +organisation of the British Government is a wonderful thing. By the +coinage, the post-office, the railways, the administration of justice, +the encouragement of education, the relief of famine,--by such ways the +great organisation has penetrated everywhere,--in spite of faults, the +greatest blessing that has come to India in her long history. Travelling +by rail from Calcutta to Benares, the metropolis of Hinduism, situated +upon the north bank of the sacred Ganges, we see the British rule, in +symbol, in the great railway bridge spanning the river. By it old India, +self-centred, exclusive, introspective, was brought into the modern +world; compelled, one might say, by these great spans to admit the +modern world and its conveniences, in spite of protest that the railway +bridge would pollute the sacred stream. Crossing the bridge, our eyes +are fixed on the outstanding feature of Benares--city of hundreds of +Hindu temples. What is it? Not a Hindu temple, but a splendid Mahomedan +mosque whose minarets overlook the Hindu city, calling the city of +Hindus to the worship of Allah. For the site of that mosque, the Moghul +emperor Aurangzeb ruthlessly cleared away a magnificent temple most +sacred to the Hindus. Concerning another famous Hindu temple in the same +city, listen to the Autobiography of another earlier Moghul emperor, +Jahangir. "It was the belief of these people of hell [the Hindus] that a +dead Hindu laid before the idol would be restored to life, if in his +life he had been a worshipper there.... I employed a confidential person +to ascertain the truth, and as I justly supposed, the whole was detected +to be an impudent imposture.... Throwing down the temple which was the +scene of this imposture, with the very same materials I erected on the +spot the great mosque, because the very name of Islam was proscribed at +Benares, and with God's blessing it is my desire ... to fill it full of +true believers." These things I write, not to hold up to condemnation +these Moghul rulers, but to point out by contrast the voluntary +character of the influence during the British and Christian period. For +there is in India a grander interest still than that of the British +political organisation, namely, the peaceful gradual transformation of +the thoughts and feelings, the hopes and fears, of each individual of +the millions of India. + +[Sidenote: The nineteenth century in India--a conflict of ideas] + +The real history of the past century in India has been the conflict and +commingling of ideas, a Homeric struggle, renewed in the nineteenth +century, between the gods of Asia and Europe. Sometimes the shock of +collision has been heard, as when by Act of Legislature, in 1829, Suttee +or widow-burning was put down, and, in 1891, the marriage of girls under +twelve; or when by order of the Executive, the sacred privacy of Indian +houses was violated in well-meant endeavours to stay the plague [1895-], +great riots ensuing; or when an Indian of social standing has joined the +Christian Church. At other times, like the tumbling in, unnoticed, of +slice upon slice of the bank of a great Indian river flowing through an +alluvial plain, opinion has silently altered, and only later observers +discover that the old idea has changed. Not a hundred years ago, +students of Kayasth (clerk) caste were excluded from the Sanscrit +College in Calcutta. Now, without any new ordinance, they are admitted, +as among the privileged castes, and the idea of the brotherhood of man +has thus made way. The silent invasion is strikingly illustrated in the +official _Report on Female Education in India_, 1892 to 1897. On a map +of India within the _Report_, the places where female education was most +advanced were coloured greener according to the degree of +advance--surely most inappropriate colouring, though that is not our +business. The map showed a strip of the greenest green all round the +sea-coast. There the unobserved new influence came in. The _Census +Report_ for 1901 showed the same silently obtruding influence from over +the sea in the case of the education of males. Many such silent changes +might be noted. And yet again, the most diverse ideas may be observed +side by side in a strange chequer. In the closing years of the +nineteenth century, the University of Calcutta accepted an endowment of +a lectureship "to promote Sanscrit learning and Vedantic studies," any +Hindus without distinction of caste being eligible as lecturers; and +then, shortly after, agreed to the request of the first lecturer that +none but Hindus be admitted to the exposition of the sacred texts, thus +excluding the European heads of the university from a university +lecture. Perhaps the lecturer thought himself liberal, for to men like +him at the beginning of the century it would have been an offence to +read the sacred texts with Sudras or Hindus of humble castes. According +to strict Hindu rule, only brahmans can read the sacred books.[2] + +[Sidenote: Indian ideas.] + +For in all three spheres, social, political, and religious, the advent +of the new age implied more or less of a conflict. India has still of +her own a social system, political ideas, and religious ideas and +ideals. In the Indian social system, caste and the social inferiority of +women stand opposed to the freedom of the individual and the equality of +the sexes that prevail in Great Britain, at least in greater degree. In +the sphere of politics, the absolutism, long familiar to the Indian +mind, is the antithesis of the life of a citizen under a limited +monarchy, with party government and unfettered political criticism. In +the sphere of religion, the hereditary priesthood of India stands over +against the British ideal of a clergy trained for their duties and +proved in character. The Hindu conception of a religious life as a life +of sacrificial offerings and penances, or of ecstasies, or of +asceticism, or of sacred study, stands over against the British ideal of +religion in daily life and in practical philanthropies. To the Hindu, +the religious mood is that of ecstatic whole-hearted devotion; the +Briton reverences as the religious mood a quiet staying intensity in +noble endurance or effort. + +[Sidenote: Testimony to the change in ideas] + +The nineteenth century has witnessed a great transition in ideas and a +great alteration in the social and political and religious standpoints. +It is easy to find manifold witness to the fact from all parts of India. +The biographer of the modern in ideas. Indian reformer, Malabari, a +Parsee[3] writing of a Parsee, and representing Western India, is +impressed by the singular fate that has destined the far-away British to +affect India and her ideals so profoundly. Crossing to the east side of +India, we seek a trustworthy witness. The well-known reformer, Keshub +Chunder Sen, a Bengali, and representative therefore of Eastern India, +declares in a lecture published in 1883: "Ever since the introduction of +British power into India there has been going on a constant upheaval and +development of the native mind,... whether we look at the mighty +political changes which have been wrought by that ... wonderful +administrative machinery which the British Government has set in motion, +or whether we analyse those deep national movements of _social_ and +_moral_ reform which are being carried on by native reformers and +patriots." All Indian current opinion is unanimous with the Parsee and +the Bengali that a great movement is in progress. The drift from the old +moorings is a constant theme of discourse. Let Sir Alfred Lyall, once +head of the United Provinces, speak for the most competent European +observers. "There may be grounds for anticipating," he says, "that a +solid universal peace and the impetus given by Europe must together +cause such rapid intellectual expansion that India will now be carried +swiftly through phases which have occupied long stages in the lifetime +of other nations."[4] In another essay, in a more positive mood, he +writes of British responsibility for "great non-Christian populations +[in India] whose religious ideas and institutions are being rapidly +transformed by English law and morality."[5] In a third passage he even +prophesies rashly: "The end of simple paganism is not far distant in +India." + +Sir George Bird wood has also had a long Indian career, and no one +suspects him of pro-British bias--rather the reverse. Yet we find him +writing to the _Times_ in 1895 about one of the Indian provinces, as +follows: "The new Bengali language and literature," he says, "are the +direct products of our Law Courts, particularly the High Court at +Calcutta, of Mission schools and newspaper presses and Education +Departments, the agents which are everywhere, not in Bengal only, giving +if not absolute unity yet community in diversity to the peoples of +British India." The modern literature of Bengal, he goes on to say, is +Christian in its teaching; if not the Christianity of creed and dogma, +yet of the mind of Christ. + +It is that transition in ideas, that alteration in social, political, +and religious standpoint which we are going to trace and illustrate. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +INDIAN CONSERVATISM + + "By the well where the bullocks go, + Silent and blind and slow." + + RUDYARD KIPLING. + + +[Sidenote: Indian conservatism.] + +[Sidenote: Is mere inertia.] + +But while acknowledging the potent influences at work, and accepting +these representative utterances, it may yet be asked by the +incredulous--What of the inherent conservatism, the proverbial tenacity +of India? Is there really any perceptible and significant change to +record as the outcome of the influences of the nineteenth century? Well, +the expression "Indian conservatism" is misleading. There is no Indian +conservatism in the sense of a philosophy of politics, of society, or of +religion. Indian conservatism--what is it? To some extent an idealising +of the past, the golden age of great law-givers and philosophers and +saints. But very much more--mere inertia and torpidity in mind and body, +a reluctance to take stock of things, and an instinctive treading in the +old paths. "Via trita, via tuta." In the path from one Indian village to +another may often be observed an inexplicable deviation from the +beeline, and then a return to the line again. It is where in some past +year some dead animal or some offensive thing has fallen in the path and +lain there. Year after year, long after the cause has disappeared, the +feet of the villagers continue in that same deviating track. That is in +perfect keeping with India. Or--to permit ourselves to follow up another +natural sequence--things may quickly begin to fit in with the deviation. +Perhaps the first rainy season after the feet of the villagers had been +made to step aside, some plant was found in possession of the avoided +spot. India-like, its right of possession was unconsciously deferred to. +And then the year following, may be, one or other of the sacred fig +trees appeared behind the plant, and in a few years starved it out. Ten +years will make a banyan sapling, or a pipal, into a sturdy trunk, and +lo, by that time, in some visitation of drought or cholera or smallpox, +or because some housewife was childless, coloured threads are being tied +upon the tree or some rude symbolic painting put upon it. Then an +ascetic comes along and seats himself in its shade, and now, already, a +sacred institution has been established that it would raise a riot to +try to remove. + +Visitors to Allahabad go to see the great fort erected upon the bank of +the River Jumna by the Mahomedan emperor, Akbar. One of the sights of +the fort, strange to tell, is the underground Hindu temple of "The +Undying Banyan Tree," to which we descend by a long flight of steps. +Such a sacred banyan tree as we have imagined, Akbar found growing there +upon the slope of the river bank when he was requiring the ground for +his fort. The undying banyan tree is now a stump or log, but it or a +predecessor was visited by a Chinese pilgrim to Allahabad in the seventh +century A.D. Being very tolerant, instead of cutting down the tree, +Akbar built a roof over it and filled up the ground all round to the +level he required. And still through the gateway of the fort and down +underground, the train of pilgrims passes as of old to where the banyan +tree is still declared to grow. Such is Indian conservatism, undeterred +by any thought of incongruity. Benares is crowded with examples of the +same unconscious tenacity. I have spoken of the ruthless levelling of +Hindu temples in Benares in former days to make way for Mahomedan +mosques. Near the gate of Aurangzeb's mosque a strange scene meets the +eye. Where the road leads to the mosque, and with no Hindu temple +nowadays in sight, are seated a number of Hindu ashes-clad ascetics. +What are they doing at the entrance to a Mahomedan mosque? That is where +their predecessors used to sit two hundred years ago, before Aurangzeb +tore down the holy Hindu temple of Siva and erected the mosque in its +stead. + +[Sidenote: Yields before a persistent obtruding influence.] + +[Sidenote: _E.g._ British influence.] + +But Indian conservatism is more than an indisposition to effort and +change; for the same reason, it is also an easy adaptation to things as +they are found. When a new disturbing influence obtrudes from without, +and persistently, it may be easier to give way than to resist. British +influence is such a persistent obtrusion. In English literature as +taught and read, in Christian standards of conduct, in the English +language, and in the modern ideas of government and society, ever +presented to the school-going section of the people of India within +their own land, there is such a continuous influence from without. The +impression of works like Tennyson's _In Memoriam_ or _Idylls of the +King_, common text-books in colleges, the steady pressure of Acts of the +British Government in India, like that raising the marriage age of +girls; the example of men in authority like Lord Curzon, during whose +vice-regal tour in South India there were no nautch entertainments; the +necessity of understanding expressions like "general election" and +"public spirit," and of comprehending in some measure the working of +local self-government--all such constant pressure must effect a change +in the mental standpoint. The army of Britain in India, representative +of the imperial sceptre, has now for many years been gathered into +cantonments, and its work is no longer to quell hostilities within +India, but only to repel invaders from without. Other British forces, +however, penetrating far deeper, working silently and for the most part +unobserved, are still in the field all over India, effecting a grander +change than the change of outward sovereignty. "Ideas rule the world," +and he who impresses his ideas is the real ruler of men. + +[Sidenote: Indian conservatism overpowered otherwise.] + +Telling against Indian conservatism or inertia are other things also +besides persistent Western influences. Many things Western appeal to the +natural desire for advancement and comfort, and the adoption of these +has often as corollary a change of idea. To take examples without +further explanation. The desire for education, the key to advancement in +life, has quietly ignored the old orthodox idea that education in +Sanscrit and the Sacred Scriptures, _i.e._ higher education as formerly +understood, is the exclusive privilege of certain castes. The very +expression "higher education" has come to mean a modern English +education, not as formerly an education in Sanscrit lore. Had the +British Government allowed things to take their course, the still +surviving institutions of the old kind for Oriental learning would have +been transformed, one and all, into modern schools and colleges. Even in +1824, when Government, then under "Orientalist" influence, founded the +Sanscrit College in Calcutta for the encouragement of Sanscrit learning, +a numerous body of native gentlemen, with the famous Raja Rammohan Roy +at their head, petitioned that a college for the study of Western +learning might be established instead. For a number of years now, the +Sanscrit College, then founded, has actually had fewer pupils on its +rolls than it is permitted to admit at a greatly reduced fee.[6] + +Again, the idea of _public questions_, the idea of the common welfare, +has come into being with the nineteenth century, and is quietly +repudiating caste and giving to the community a solidarity and a feeling +of solidarity unknown hitherto. Upon one platform now meet, as a matter +of course, the native gentlemen of all the castes, when any general +grievance is felt or any great occasion falls to be celebrated. The +Western custom of public meetings for the discussion of public questions +is now an established Indian institution, and daily gives the lie to the +idea that there is pollution in bodily contact with a person of lower +caste. That a special seat should be reserved for a man because he is a +brahman would be scouted. The convenience of travelling by rail or in +tram-cars has been even more widely effective in dissolving the idea. +And if the advantage or convenience of the new ways can overcome the +force of custom, so can the unprofitableness of the old. For +illustrations, I pass from the gentlemen who attend public meetings +where the speeches are in English, to the less educated and more +superstitious and more blindly conservative people. In the Mahratta +districts of the Central Provinces, says the _Census Report_ for 1901, +in recent years an unavoidable scepticism as to his efficiency has +tended to reduce the earnings of the Garpagari or averter of hail from +the crops. In Calcutta the same influence has extinguished the trade of +supplier of Ganges water. The water taps in the house or on the street +are too convenient, and the quality of the water is too manifestly +superior for the desecration from the iron pipes to outweigh the +advantages. A few years ago, in Darjeeling, north of Bengal, the brahman +names upon the signs of the liquor shops were distinctly in the +majority. The sacerdotal caste, new style, had appreciated the chances +of big profits and shut their eyes to the regulations of caste, which +have relegated drink-sellers to a very low place in the scale. Brahmans +are even said to figure among the contractors who supply beef, flesh of +the sacred animal, to the British army in India. "A curious sign of the +changing time," says Mr. Lockwood Kipling (_Beast and Man in India_), +"is the fact that Hindus of good caste, seeing the profit that may be +made from leather, are quietly creeping into a business from which they +are levitically barred. Money prevails against caste more potently than +missionary preaching." + +In this region, where convenience or comfort or personal advancement are +concerned, it may safely be asserted that the so-called Indian +conservatism has not much resisting power. There, at least, it is found +that where there is a will there is a way.[7] + +[Sidenote: The Indian mind awakened.] + +And there is a higher influence at work dissolving and reconstituting +the whole framework of ideas. Upon the Indian mind, long lain fallow, +modern civilisation and modern thought and the fellowship with the world +are acting as the quickening rain and sunshine upon the fertile Indian +soil. That these and similar obtruding influences have had a +transforming effect has already been alleged. But far beyond, in promise +at least, is the revived activity of the Indian mind itself. If the age +of Elizabeth be the outcome of the stirring of the minds of Englishmen +through the discovery of a new world, the multiplication of books, the +revival of learning, and the reformation of religion, how shall we +measure the effect upon the acute Indian mind of the far more +stimulating influences of this Indian Renaissance! What comparison, for +example, can be made between the stimulus of the new learning of the +sixteenth century and the stimulus of the first introduction to a modern +library? It would be an exaggeration to say that the Indian mind is now +showing all its power in response to the stimulus. But it is everywhere +active, and in some spheres, as in Religion and Philanthropy, in +History, in Archæology, in Law, in certain Natural Sciences, individuals +have already done service to India and contributed to knowledge. +Glimpses of great regions, unexplored, in these domains are rousing +students to secure for themselves a province. "More copies of books of +poetry, philosophy, law, and religion now issue every year from the +press of British India than during any century of native rule."[8] Of +course it would be misleading to ignore the fact that reaction as well +as progress has its apostles among the awakened minds of India. Much of +the awakened mental activity, also, is spent--much wasted--on political +writing and discussion, which is often uninformed by knowledge of +present facts and of Indian history. The general poverty also, and the +so-called Western desire to "get on," prevent many from becoming in any +real sense students or thinkers or men of public spirit. + +Indian conservatism, therefore, we contend, is not the insurmountable +obstacle to new ideas that many superficially deem it to be. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +NEW SOCIAL IDEAS + + [_Purusha, the One Spirit, embodied,_] + + "Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. + With Purusha as victim, they performed + A sacrifice. When they divided him, + How did they cut him up? What was his mouth? + What were his arms? And what, his thighs and feet? + The Brahman was his mouth; the kingly soldier + Was made his arms; the husbandman, his thighs; + The servile Sudra issued from his feet." + + From the _Rigveda_, Mandala x. 90, + translated by Sir M. MONIER WILLIAMS. + + +[Sidenote: Caste represses individuality.] + +New ideas in the social sphere first claim our attention. The individual +and the community, each have rights, says a writer on the philosophy of +history, and it is hurtful when the balance is not preserved. If the +community be not securely established, the individuals will have no +opportunity to develop; if the individual be not free, the community can +have no real greatness. Speaking broadly, when Western social ideas meet +Indian, the conflict is between the rights of the individual as in +Western civilisation, and the rights of the community or society as in +the Indian. India stands for the statical _social_ forces, modern Europe +for the dynamical and _individualistic_. In India, as in France before +the Revolution, certain established usages are prejudicially affecting +the progress of the individual, fettering him in many ways. I refer to +caste, the denial of the brotherhood of mankind, the artificial +barricading of class from class, the sacrifice of the individual to his +class--condemned by native reformers like Ramananda, Kabir, Nanak, and +Chaitanya long before the advent of European ideas. Whatever the origin +or original advantages of the caste system, it has long operated to +repress individuality.[9] It is a vast boycotting agency ready to hand +to crush social non-conformity.[10] One can easily understand that if +society is rigidly organised for certain social necessities (marriage +for example) into a number of mutually exclusive sets or circles, +admission to all of which is by birth only, an individual cast out from +any set must perish. No one will eat with him, no one will intermarry +with him or his sons and daughters. It is into such a society that +modern social ideas have been sown, the ideas let us say of John Stuart +Mill's book, _On Liberty_--the _individual's_ liberty, that is to +say--which used to be a common university text-book in India. + +[Sidenote: Caste suggests an imperfect idea of the community.] + +[Sidenote: Nevertheless, a practical solidarity in Hinduism.] + +Besides setting the community too much above the individual, the caste +system is faulty in presenting to the Indian mind an imperfect idea of +the community. The caste is the natural limit to one's interest and +consciousness of fellowship, to the exclusion of the larger community. +According to Raja Rammohan Roy, writing in 1824, the caste divisions are +"_as_ destructive of national union as of social enjoyment." In _Modern +India_, Sir Monier Williams expresses himself similarly. Caste "tends to +split up the social fabric into numerous independent communities, and to +prevent all national and patriotic combinations." Too much, however, may +be made of this, for the practical solidarity of Hinduism, in spite of +caste divisions, is one of the most striking of social phenomena in +India. Whatever may have brought it about, the solidarity of Hinduism is +an undeniable fact. The supremacy of the priestly caste over all may +have been a bond of union, as likewise the necessity of all castes to +employ the priests, for the Jewish ritual and the tribe of Levi were the +bonds of union among the twelve tribes of Israel. Sir Alfred Lyall +virtually defines Hinduism as _the employment of brahman priests_, and +it is the adoption of brahmans as celebrants in social and religious +ceremonies that marks the passing over of a non-Hindu community into +Hinduism. It is thus it becomes a new Hindu caste.[11] Then, uniting +further the mutually exclusive castes, many are the common heritages, +actual or adopted, of traditions and sacred books, and the common +national epics of the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. The cause of the +solidarity is not a common creed, as we shall see when we reach the +consideration of new religious ideas, ideas. + +[Sidenote: New ideas opposed to caste, namely, individual liberty and +nationality.] + +If Hinduism as a social system is to be moved by the modern spirit, we +may look for movement in the direction of freedom of individual action, +that is, the loosening of caste; we may look for larger ideas of +nationality and citizenship, superseding to some extent the idea of +caste. As is not infrequent in India, Government pointed out the way for +public opinion. In 1831 the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, +issued his fiat that no native be debarred from office on account of +caste, creed, or race, and that a son who had left his father's religion +did not thereby forfeit his inheritance. + +[Sidenote: Loosening of caste.] + +To any observer it is now plain that while caste is still a very +powerful force, and even while new castes, new social rings, are being +formed through the working of the spirit of exclusiveness, the general +ideas of caste are undergoing change. In these latter days one can +hardly credit the account given of the consternation in Calcutta in +1775, when the equality of men before the law was asserted, and the +_brahman_, Nanda-kumar, was hanged for forgery. Many of the orthodox +brahmans shook off the dust of the polluted city from their feet and +quitted Calcutta for a new residence across the Hooghly. In 1904, we +find conservative Hindus only writing to the newspapers to complain that +even in the Hindu College at Benares, the metropolis of Hinduism, some +of the members of the College Committee were openly violating the rules +of caste. In the same year a Calcutta Hindu newspaper, the _Amrita +B[=a]z[=a]r Patrik[=a]_, declared, "Caste is losing its hold on the +Hindu mind."[12] The recent denunciation of caste by an enlightened +Hindu ruler, the Gaekwar of Baroda, is a further significant sign of the +times. + +[Sidenote: Offences against caste.] + +What does caste forbid and punish? Freedom of thought, if not translated +into social act, has not been an offence against caste at any time in +the period under review, neither has caste taken cognisance of sins +against morality as such. The sins that caste has punished have been +chiefly five, as follows: Eating forbidden food, eating with persons of +lower caste, crossing the sea, desertion of Hinduism for another +religion, marrying with a person of a lower caste, and, in many +communities also, marrying a widow. The Hindustani proverb, "Eight +brahmans, nine cooking-places," hits off with a spice of _proverbial_ +exaggeration the old punctiliousness about food. The sin of eating +forbidden food is thus described by Raja Rammohan Roy in 1816: "The +chief part of the theory and practice of Hinduism, I am sorry to say," +writes the Raja, "is made to consist in the adoption of a peculiar mode +of diet; the least aberration from which (even though the conduct of the +offender may in other respects be pure and blameless) is not only +visited with the severest censure, but actually punished by exclusion +from the society of his family and friends. In a word, he is doomed to +undergo what is commonly called loss of caste."[13] Now, in respect of +the first three of these offences, in all large centres of population +the general attitude is rapidly changing. In the light of modern ideas, +these prohibitions of certain food and of certain company at food, and +of sea voyages, are fading like ghosts at dawn. An actual incident of a +few years ago reveals the prevailing conflict of opinion, especially +with regard to the serfdom which ties down Indians to India. + +[Sidenote: An actual case.] + +Two scions of a leading family in a certain provincial town of Bengal, +brave heretics, made a voyage to Britain and the Continent, and while +away from home, it was believed, flung caste restrictions to the winds. +On their return, the head of the family gave a feast to all of the caste +in the district, and no one objected to the presence of the two voyagers +at the feast. This was virtually their re-admission into caste. But +shortly after, a document was circulated among the caste complaining, +without naming names, of the readmission of such offenders. The tactics +employed by the family of the offenders are noteworthy. The demon of +caste had raised his head, and they dared not openly defy him. So the +defence set up was the marvellous one that, while on board ship and in +Europe, the young men had never eaten any forbidden or polluted food. +They had lived upon fruit, it was said, which no hand except their own +had cut. The old caste sentiment was so strong that the family of the +voyagers felt compelled to bring an action for libel against the +publishers of the circular. They lost their case, as no offender had +been mentioned by name, and the tyranny of caste thus indirectly +received the support of the courts. + +Of course it would still be easier to discover instances of the tyranny +of caste than the assertion of liberty, even among highly educated men. +In this matter of emancipation also, North India is far ahead of the +South. While minister at the court of Indore, 1872-75, the late Sir T. +Madhava Rao, a native of South India, was invited to go to England to +give evidence on Indian Finance before a Committee of the House of +Commons. _On religious grounds_ he was not able to accept the +invitation.[14] Nor is it generally known that the Bengali nobleman who +represented his country at the King's coronation in London belongs to a +family that is out of caste. If the newspapers are to be believed, an +orthodox Bengali Hindu was first invited to attend the coronation, and +was "unable to accept." Had that gentleman accepted and gone, his +example might at once have emancipated his countrymen. But he did not +know his hour. "There is a venial as well as a damning sin," we may +note, in regard to this crossing of the sea. "A man may cross the Indian +Ocean to Africa and still remain an orthodox Hindu. The sanctity of +caste is not affected. But let him go to Europe, and his caste as well +as his creed is lost in the sea."[15] An orthodox Hindu has never been +seen in Britain. + +It is worth noting also, that in earlier times it involved loss of caste +to go away South, even within India itself, among the Dravidean peoples +beyond the known Aryan pale in the North. Thus, slowly the cords of +serfdom lengthen. + +Towards the fourth of the offences against caste, namely, the adoption +of a new religion, the general attitude has likewise changed, although +to a less degree. In large towns, at least, the convert to Christianity +is not so rigidly or so instantaneously excluded from society as he used +to be, and the Indian Christian community, although small, is now in +many places one of the recognised sections of the community. + +This certainly may be asserted, that the modern Hindus are being +familiarised as never before with non-brahman leaders, religious and +social. Neither of the recent Br[=a]hma (Theistic) leaders, the late +Keshub Chunder Sen and the late Protap Chunder Mozumdar, was brahman by +caste. The great Bombay reformer, the Parsee, Malabari, is not even a +Hindu. The founder of the Arya sect, the late Dyanand Saraswati, was out +of caste altogether, being the son of a brahman father and a low-caste +mother. The late Swami Vivekananda (Narendranath _Dutt_, B.A.), who +represented Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, +was not a brahman, as his real surname plainly declares. While, most +wonderful of all, the accepted leaders of the pro-Hindu Theosophists, +champions of Hinduism more Hindu than the Hindus, after whom the +educated Hindus flock, are not even Indians; alas, they belong, the most +prominent of them, to the inferior female sex! I mean the Russian lady, +the late Madame Blavatsky, the English ladies Mrs. Annie Besant and Miss +Noble [Sister Nivedita], and the American, Colonel Olcott. Which side of +that glaring incongruity is to give way--brahman and caste ideas, or the +buttressing of caste ideas by outcastes, Feringees, like Mrs. Besant? +It would be interesting to hear an orthodox brahman upon Mrs. Besant's +claim to have had a previous Hindu existence as a Sanscrit pandit. What +sin did the pandit commit, would be his natural reflection, that he was +born again a Feringee, and a woman? + +[Sidenote: Unpardonable offences.] + +But the offence of the fifth sin, marrying below one's caste, or the +marriage of widows, seems as rank as ever. Upon these points, rather, +the force of caste seems concentrating. The marriage of widows will be +considered when we come to discuss the social inferiority of woman in +India. To marry within one's caste promises to be the most persistent of +all the caste ideas. The official observation is that "whatever may have +been the origin and the earlier developments of caste, this prohibition +of mixed marriages stands forth now as its essential and most prominent +characteristic. The feeling against such unions is deeply engrained." +And again, a second pronouncement on caste: "The regulations regarding +food and drink are comparatively fluid and transitory, while those +relating to marriage are remarkably stable and absolute."[16] The +pro-Hindu lady, already referred to, also agrees. "Of hereditary caste," +she says, "the essential characteristic is the refusal of +intermarriage."[17] Even Indian Christians are reluctant to marry below +their old caste, and value a matrimonial alliance with a higher. To that +residuum of caste, when it becomes the residuum, one could not object. +The Aryan purity of the stock may be a fiction, as authorities declare +it to be in the great majority of castes and in by far the greater part +of India; but given the belief in the purity of blood, the desire to +preserve it is a natural desire. If one may prophesy, then, regarding +the fate of the caste system under the prevailing modern influences, +castes will survive longest simply as a number of in-marrying social +groups. To that hard core the caste idea is being visibly worn down. + +[Sidenote: Support of caste by British authorities.] + +With strange obliviousness surely, the British officials are lending +support to caste ideas in various ways, while many of the best minds in +India are groaning under the tyranny. The compilers of the _Report of +the Census of India for_ 1901, gentlemen to whom every student of India +is deeply indebted, in their enumeration of castes, give the imprimatur +of government to such Cimmerian notions as that the touch of certain low +castes is defiling to the higher. The writer and condoner of the +following paragraph surely need a lengthy furlough to Britain or the +States. We read that "the table of social precedence attached to the +_Cochin Report_ shows that while a Nayar can pollute a man of a higher +caste only by touching him, people of the Kammalan group, including +masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, and workers in leather, pollute at a +distance of 24 feet, toddy drawers at 36 feet, Palayan or Cheruman +cultivators at 48 feet; while in the case of the Paraiyan (Pariahs) who +eat beef, the range of pollution is stated to be no less than 64 feet." +Some consolation let us even here take from the fact that in an earlier +publication the extreme range of the polluting X-rays of the pariah is +stated to be 72 feet. So there has been 8 feet of progress for the +pariah. But our point is, that interesting as all that table of +precedence no doubt is, it is out of place in a Government report, which +may be quoted against a poor low-caste man as authoritative +pronouncement regarding his social position. Justice and humanity, good +grounds in the eyes of the Indian Government ere now for legislating +contrary to caste ideas, ought to have enjoined the ignoring of caste +ideas here. It is no mere fancy that after an accident one of these +low-caste masons in South India might be brought to the door of a +Government hospital and be refused admission by a native medical officer +because his presence polluted at a distance of 24 feet--has not the +Government Report declared it so? It is no fancy, for a year or two ago +the Post Office reported that in one village the Post Office was found +located where low castes were not allowed to approach. In some +provinces, also, teachers will object to the admission of low-caste +children in their schools; or "if they admit them make them sit outside +in the verandah."[18] What now of the dignity of manual labour which +many a high official has expounded to native youth? Or to take another +instance of un-British countenancing of the caste idea. The Shahas of +_Bengal_ are a humble caste, and the members of higher castes will not, +as a rule, take water at their hands, so the Government Report tells us. +On the other hand, the Shahas of _Assam_, immigrants from Bengal, have +managed to raise themselves high in the social scale. Why, when an Assam +Shaha takes up his residence again in his motherland, Bengal, should +this Blue-book be casting up to him his humble origin? Why this +un-British weighting of those who are behind in the race? Again, at the +very time of the Census, the Maratha caste was in conflict with the +brahman in two Native States of Western India, Kohlapur and Baroda, over +a matter of religious privileges. The brahman contention is that the +Mahratta pretensions to high-caste blood [kshatriya] are groundless, and +now we have the very same statement in the _Census Report_, backing "the +king of the castle" against "the dirty rascal." Not a century ago, +students of kayasth [clerk] caste were excluded from the Sanscrit +College in Calcutta; they are now within the privileged circle, but +their claim might not yet have been made good had a Government Blue-book +of these earlier days been allowed to brand them as debarred from the +College by their caste. At a public meeting the writer heard one of the +most learned and respected Hindus of Calcutta respectfully protest to +the Lieutenant-Governor against the public recognition in the _Census +Report_ of such irrational social grading.[19] + +Similarly in the provision by Government of Caste Hostels for students. +According to the first rule of the Hindu Hostel in connection with the +Government College in Calcutta, "none but respectable Hindu students ... +shall be admitted,... and such inmates shall observe the rules and +usages of Hindu Society." In that rule, "respectable" simply means +_other than low caste_. Now for the _reductio ad absurdum_. A certain +Bengali gentleman of low caste was some years ago entitled to be +addressed as "Honourable," from the high public office he held, yet by +departmental orders the Principal of the Government College would shut +the door of the College Hostel in the face of the Honourable's son. + +[Sidenote: New religious organisations repudiate caste.] + +Of the new religious organisations of educated India, three repudiate +caste, namely, the Protestant Christian community, the Br[=a]hma +Sam[=a]j or Theistic Association, chiefly found in Bengal, and the +[=A]rya Sam[=a]j or Vedic Association of the United Provinces and the +Punjab. These forces of new religious feeling are marshalled against +caste as a social anomaly and a bar to progress. Mahomedanism in its day +was a powerful force arrayed against caste, but its regenerating power +has long ago evaporated, for in many districts of India caste ideas are +found flourishing among the Mahomedan converts from Hinduism. They have +carried over the caste ideas from their old to their new religion.[20] +The Sikhs in the Punjab also repudiate caste, but they too have +forgotten their old reforming mission. Notwithstanding, we repeat, +Northern India owes an immense debt to these two religions, particularly +to Mahomedanism. Let any one who doubts it observe the caste thraldom of +Southern India, where Mahomedan rule never established itself. +Irrational as caste is in Northern India, it is tenfold more so in the +South, as we have already seen. A noteworthy assertion of "the rights of +men," or more literally of the rights of women, against caste may be +noted in that same caste-bound South India. In the Native State of +Travancore, caste custom had prohibited the women of the lower castes +from wearing clothing above the waist. But about the year 1827, the +women who became Christians began to don a loose jacket as the women of +higher caste had been in the habit of doing. Bitter persecution of the +Christian women followed, but in 1859 the right of these lower-caste +women to wear an upper cloth was legally acknowledged.[21] + +But the outstanding evidence of new ideas in regard to caste is +furnished by the Hindu revivalists who, under the leading of Mrs. Annie +Besant and the Theosophists, have established the Hindu College, +Benares, as a buttress of Hinduism. From the _Text-book of Hindu +Religion_ prepared for the College, we learn that these representatives +and champions of orthodoxy defend caste only to the extent of the +ancient fourfold division of society into brahmans, rulers, merchants +and agriculturists (one caste), and servants. What, we may ask, is to +become of the 1886 sub-divisions of the brahman caste alone, all +mutually exclusive with regard to inter-marriage? The text-book actually +quotes sacred texts to show that caste depends on conduct, not on birth, +and refers to bygone cases of promotion of heroes to a higher caste +without rebirth. Its final pronouncement on caste is that "unless the +abuses that are interwoven with it can be eliminated, its doom is +certain." So far has the opinion of orthodox conservative Hinduism +progressed with reference to its fundamental social feature, caste. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CHIEF SOLVENT OF THE OLD IDEAS + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more, + But more of reverence in us dwell; + That mind and soul according well, + May make one music as before." + + TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_. + + +[Sidenote: English education the chief solvent.] + +English education is the chief solvent of old ideas in India and the +chief source from which the new are supplied. English is the language of +the freest peoples in the world. It is only to be expected, therefore, +that with the spread of English education in India the idea of +individual freedom and the feeling of nationality should grow and the +caste idea decline. The beginning of the process is often witnessed +among the boys in Secondary Schools in India. You lay your hand upon the +arm of a boy, a new-comer to the school, and you ask him in English, +"What class?" He answers "Brahman," giving you his caste instead of his +class in school. The boy will not be long in the English school before +he will classify himself differently. In a dozen ways each day he is +made to feel that the school and the modern world have another standard +for boys and men than the caste. Or take another example of the +educative effect of a study of English--I can vouch for its genuineness. +In your house in India you get into friendly conversation with a +half-educated shopkeeper or native tradesman. You ask in English how +many children he has, and his reply is, "I have not any children, I have +three daughters." Just a little more reading in English literature would +have taught him that elsewhere the daughter is a child of the family +equally with the son. + +There, in these two examples, the great social problems of India present +themselves--caste and the social inferiority of women, and in the +English language we see India confronted with ideas different from her +own. Take a third illustration from the socio-religious sphere. Few +Hindus think of Hinduism as a system of religious practices and +doctrines to be justified by reason or by spiritual intuition, or by the +spiritual satisfaction it can afford to mankind. No, Hinduism is a thing +for Indians, and belongs to the Indian soil. The converse of the idea is +that Christianity is a foreign thing, the religion of the intruding +ruling race. It is not for Indians. A vigorous patriotic pamphlet, +published in 1903, entitled _The Future of India_, assumes plainly that +_Hindus_ and _Indians_ mean the same thing. The pamphlet speaks of the +relations of Indians to "other races, such as Mahomedans, Parsees, and +Christians," as if these were less truly Indians than the Hindus. To the +writer, manifestly, Hinduism is a racial thing. To him, however, or to +the next generation after him, further study of modern history will make +clear that only in a slight degree and a few instances is religion a +racial thing, and that there are laws and a science of spiritual as of +bodily health. Once more, how ill-fitting are, say, the Indian word +_mukti_ (deliverance from further lives, the end of transmigrations) and +the English word _salvation_, although _mukti_ and _salvation_ are often +regarded as equivalents. + +To the man instructed in English, such contrasts are always being +presented, tacitly inviting him to compare and to modify. We can put +ourselves in the place of many a youth of sixteen or seventeen, hope of +the village school, going up to enter a college in one of the larger +towns of India. He is entering the new world. Should he be of brahman +caste, it may profit him a little, for he will still meet with many +non-brahman householders ready to find him in food and lodging simply +because he is a poor brahman student. Of course he is looking forward to +one of the new professions, Law, or Medicine, or Engineering, or +Teaching, or Government Service. In _these_ it is patent to him that +caste is of no account. High caste or low, he and all his +fellow-students are aware they must prove themselves and fight their way +up. The leading place at the bar is no more a high-caste man's privilege +than it is his privilege to be exempted from standing in the dock or +suffering the extreme penalty of the law. We have already referred to +the effect of the assertion of the equality of men before the law in +1775 in the hanging of the brahman, Nandakumar, for forgery. Now, +looking back at the dissolving of the old ideas of artificial rank and +privileges, we may reckon also the equality of men in the great modern +professions, foremost in India being Law, as among the chief dissolving +agencies. + +[Sidenote: Extent of English education.] + +[Sidenote: English words naturalised.] + +It is easy to give _figures_ at least for the vast agency now at work in +the spread of English education in India. Higher English education for +natives began with the founding of the Hindu College in Calcutta in +1817; in the year 1902 there were in India five Universities, the +examinations of which are conducted in English; and affiliated to these +examining Universities were 188 teaching colleges containing 23,009 +undergraduates; and preparing for the Matriculation Examination (in the +year 1896-97) were 5267 Secondary Schools, containing 535,155 pupils. +From these Secondary Schools in the year 1901, 21,750 candidates +appeared at the Matriculation Examinations of the Universities +professing to be able to write their answers in English, and of these +nearly 8000 passed. That figure is a measure of the process of leavening +India with modern ideas through English education--8000 fresh recruits a +year. That is the measure of the confusion introduced into the old +social organism. A small number, no doubt, compared with the ten million +of unleavened youth born in the same year, and yet they are the pick of +the middle classes and must become the leaders of the masses. The masses +in China, it is alleged, would not be anti-foreign were it not for the +influence of their literati, and the thoughts of these Indian literati +must also become the thoughts of the Indian masses. It is the mind of +these literati, mainly, which we are trying to gauge. According to the +census of 1901 their total number approached one million, being those +who could read and write English. Descending below the English-reading +literati, I have noted about three hundred English words naturalised in +two of the chief vernaculars of India, an indication, if not a measure, +of the new influence among the masses. + +[Sidenote: Too sanguine prophecies of progress.] + +Yet having tabulated figures, once more, ere we proceed, we enjoin upon +ourselves and our readers a cautious estimate of the progress of ideas. +The European hood and gown of the Indian student may merely _drape_ an +_unchanged_ being. Writing in 1823 about the encouragement of education +and the teaching of English and the translation of English books, the +Governor of Bombay, Mountstuart Elphinstone, declared too confidently +that "the conversion of the natives _must_ result from the diffusion of +knowledge among them." Macaulay, similarly, writing from India in 1836 +to his father, the well-known philanthropist, declares: "It is my firm +belief that if our plans of[English] education are followed up, there +will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal +thirty years hence." Omar Khayyam's words suggest themselves as the +other extreme of opinion regarding English education in India, inside of +which the truth will be found: + + "Myself when young did eagerly frequent + Doctor and saint, and heard great argument + About it and about, but evermore + Came out by that same door wherein I went." + +The lines express the view of many Anglo-Indians. We may reply that +anywhere only a few individuals are positively liberalised by a liberal +education. We must patiently wait while their standpoint becomes the +lore and tradition of the community. + +[Sidenote: Reformers are English-speaking; reactionaries are ignorant of +English.] + +The part played by English education in the introduction of new ideas is +apparent whenever we enumerate the leading reformers of the nineteenth +century. One and all have received a modern English education, and +several of them have made some name by addresses and publications in +English. Of Indian reformers, distinguished also as English scholars, +may be named with all honour: + +1. Rammohan Roy, a great opponent of Suttee and Idolatry, who also dared +to make the voyage to England. He died at Bristol in 1833. + +2. Iswar Chunder Vidyasagar, a great upholder of the right of widows to +remarry and an advocate of education, both elementary and higher. He +died at Calcutta in 1891. + +3. K.M. Banerjea, D.L., C.I.E., an opponent of the caste system, the +greatest scholar among Indian Christians. He died at Calcutta in 1885. + +4. Keshub Chunder Sen, religious reformer, an advocate of a higher +marriage age for girls. He died at Calcutta in 1884. + +5. Mr. Behramji Malabari, an advocate of a higher marriage age for +girls--of the Bombay side of India. + +6. The late Mr. Justice M.G. Ranade, a social reformer of Bombay. + +7. The late Mr. Justice K.T. Telang, C.I.E., an opponent of child +marriages and a social reformer of Bombay. + +8. The late Raja Sir T. Madhava Rao, K.C.S.I., a social reformer, of the +Madras Presidency--died in 1891. + +Pandita Ramabhai, it may be noted, had entered upon her career as a +champion of female education before she began the study of English. + +[Sidenote: Sanguine estimate of progress.] + +In striking contrast with all these in this respect are the men who +represent the extreme conservative or reactionary spirit, who as a rule +are as ignorant of English as the great reformers are the reverse. We +may cite, in illustration: + +1. Dyanand Saraswati, founder of the new sect of [=A]ryas in the United +Provinces and Punjab. Their chief doctrine, the infallibility of the +Vedas or earliest Hindu scriptures, is reactionary, although a number of +reforms are inculcated in the name of a return to the Vedas. + +2. The late Ramkrishna Paramhansa, a famous Bengali ascetic of high +spiritual tone, but of the old type. + +3. The gentleman already referred to, who as University lecturer on +Hindu Philosophy in Calcutta insisted that none but Hindus be admitted +to the exposition of the sacred texts, shutting out the Chancellor, the +Vice-Chancellor, and many Fellows of the University. + +4. Sanscrit pundits, very conservative as a class, and generally +unfamiliar with English. + +New Hinduism in contact with the modern educational influences was most +interestingly manifest in the person of Swami Vivekananda (_Reverend +Rational-bliss_ we may render his adopted name), representative of +Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. The +representative Hindu was not even a member of the priestly caste, as we +have already told. It were tedious to analyse his Hinduism, as set forth +at Chicago and elsewhere, into what was Christianity or modern thought, +and what, on the other hand, was Hinduism. Suffice it to say that as +Narendra Nath Dutt, B.A., he figures on the roll of graduates of the +Church of Scotland's College in Calcutta. While a student there, he sat +at the feet of two teachers representing the new and the old, the West +and the East. In the College classroom he received religious instruction +from Dr. Hastie, the distinguished theologian who afterwards taught +Scottish students of theology in the University of Glasgow. At the same +time he was in the habit of visiting the famous Bengali ascetic, +Ramkrishna Paramhansa, already mentioned, and of communing with him. +Returning from Chicago crowned with the honour which his earnestness, +his eloquence, his power of reasoning, his attractive manner, and his +striking physique and dress called forth, Young India lionised him; Old +India met in Calcutta and resolved that Mr. Dutt of kayasth caste must +drop the brahman title _Swami_, which he had assumed, before _they_ +could recognise him. In 1895, having gone to Dakhineswar, the old +residence of his Hindu master, Ramkrishna, Swami Vivekananda was +actually expelled from the temple where his master had been wont to +worship. The Chicago representative of Hinduism had been guilty of the +sins of crossing the sea and of living like a European, and so he must +be disowned and the temple purged of his presence. After a few years, +Swami Vivekananda bravely settled down to unobtrusive, philanthropic +work, one had almost said _Christian philanthropic work_, in a suburb of +Calcutta, denouncing caste and idolatry and the outcasting of those who +had crossed the sea, and recommending the Hindus to take to +flesh-eating. There, and while so engaged, in 1902 he died. How shall we +ticket that strange personage? Kayasth caste as he was born, or new +brahman? Swami or B.A. of a Mission College of the modern Calcutta +University? A conservative or a reformer? Hindu ascetic or Christian +philanthropist? He stands for India in transition, old and new ideas +commingling. He is a typical product of the English and Christian +education given to multitudes in India to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WOMAN'S PLACE + + "To lift the woman's fallen divinity + Upon an equal pedestal with man's." + + "The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink + Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free." + + TENNYSON, _The Princess_. + + +[Sidenote: Social inferiority of women.] + +Next to caste, the chief social feature of India is the position of +women in the community. Hindus and Mahomedans alike assign to the female +sex an inferior position. In Mahomedan mosques, for example, no woman is +ever seen at prayer; she would not be permitted to take part. Only by +the neglect of female children in India, and the special disadvantages +from which women suffer there, can it be explained why in India in 1901 +there were only 963 females to every 1000 males. In India, as in Europe +and all the world over, more boys than girls are born, but in the course +of life the balance is soon redressed, and in the whole population in +every country in Europe, except Italy[22] and Bulgaria, the females +actually outnumber the males. Why are the Indian figures so different? +Pro-Hindu enthusiasts may glorify the Hindu social system, and wish to +deny the social inferiority of the female sex; average Anglo-Indians may +be suspected of being unsympathetic in their statements; but the Census +figures stand, and demand an explanation. Where are these 37 girls and +women out of every 1000--over five million altogether? Common humanity +demands an answer of India, for we seem to hear a bitter cry of India's +womanhood. As infants, less cared for; as girls, less educated; married +too early; ignorantly tended in their hour; as married ladies, shut out +of the world; always more victimised by ignorance and superstition--in +life's race, India's women carry a heavy handicap, and 37 out of every +1000 actually succumb. + +In the matter of the social elevation of their sex, it appears to the +writer that Anglo-Indian ladies fall far short of what they might do. A +fair number do interest themselves in their Indian sisters through the +lady missionaries and lady doctors, but first-hand knowledge of the +lives of Indian women is very rare indeed. Our late revered Queen's +interest in India and in the womanhood of India is well known, but her +feeling about the duty of Anglo-Indian ladies I have never seen +recorded. Speaking at Balmoral to an Indian Christian lady, a member of +one of the royal families of India--the only lady perhaps who ever +conversed in Hindustani with Queen Victoria--she expressed her regret +that more Anglo-Indian ladies did not get up the native language, +sufficiently at least to let them visit their Indian sisters. Than +Christian sisterly sympathy thus expressed, what better link also could +there be between two communities which many things seem to be forcing +apart? + +[Sidenote: Suttee and female infanticide.] + +It would be unjust to depreciate the influence of mother and wife among +Hindus, and we freely acknowledge that, after custom, the mainstay of +the zenana system is concern for the purity of the female members of the +household. Saying that, we must now also note that modern ideas of the +just rights of the female sex have made little progress in India. Some +progress there has been, judging by the standard already applied; for +although in 1901 there were only 963 females to every 1000 males, in the +year 1891 there were only 958, and in the year 1881 still fewer, namely, +954. But it seems as if in India we had justification of the law of +social progress that woman's rights will not be recognised until man's +have been. The brotherhood of man must be established before men +recognise that sister women too have rights. Translating into Indian +terms, and without professing to have given positive proof--caste +feeling must still further decay before the position of women becomes +much improved. At all events, judging by the past, it almost seems to +have been necessary for the Legislature to intervene to secure any +progress for the sex and give a foothold to the new ideas, glaringly +unfair to the sex as the old ideas were. Thus in 1870 female +infanticide, earlier prohibited in single provinces, was put down by law +throughout India; although there are localities still in which the small +proportion of female children justifies the belief that female +infanticide is not extinct.[23] Nevertheless, let the progress of the +new ideas regarding women be noted; we compare the hesitating +_inference_ of the practice of female infanticide in the _Indian Census +Report_ of 1901 with the voluminous evidence in the two volumes of +Parliamentary Papers on Infanticide in India published in 1824 and 1828. +Kathiawar and Cutch, Baroda and Rajputana, round Benares and parts of +Oude and Madras were the localities particularly infected with the +barbarous custom in the first quarter of the century. But to return to +the recognition of the rights of women in legislative enactments. In +1829 an Act of the Supreme Government in Bengal made Suttee or the +burning of a widow upon the dead husband's pyre an offence for all +concerned. In 1830 similar Acts were passed by the Governments of Madras +and Bombay, and the abolition of Suttee is now universally approved.[24] +Such is the educative influence of a good law. Perhaps a would-be +patriot may yet occasionally be heard so belauding the devotion of the +widows who burned themselves that his praise is tantamount to a lament +over the abolition of Suttee. But the general sentiment has been +completely changed since the first quarter of the nineteenth century, +when the Missionaries and some outstanding Indians like the Bengali +reformer Rammohan Roy agitated for the abolition of Suttee, and the +Government, convinced, still hesitated to put down a custom so generally +approved. In these changed times it will hardly be believed that +Rammohan Roy only ventured to argue against any form of compulsion being +put upon the widow, and that the orthodox champions of the practice +appealed against the abolition not only to the Governor-General, but +also to the King in Council,--the petition having been heard in the +House of Lords in 1832. But once more to return to the emancipation of +women by Acts of the Legislature. By another Act, in 1856, the Indian +Government abolished the legal restrictions to widow marriage. Still +another Act, in 1891, forbade cohabitation before the age of twelve; and +although fiercely opposed in the native press and in mass meetings, the +Act, which expressed the views of many educated Hindus, is now +apparently acquiesced in by all, and must be educating the community +into a new idea of marriage. + +In five aspects the social inferiority of the female sex is still +apparent--namely, in the illiteracy of females, in marriage before +womanhood, in polygamy, in the seclusion of women, and in the +prohibition of the marriage of widows. Excepting the last, no one of +these customs is imposed by caste, nor is the last even in every caste. + +[Sidenote: Their lack of education.] + +The inferior position still assigned to women in Indian society can best +be shown in figures. The indifference to their education is manifest +when for all India, rich and poor, European and native, in 1901, there +were fourteen times as many men as women who could read and write. Only +one female in 144 was educated to that extent, and the movement for +female education has practically been at a stand-still for some years, +in spite of the increase of native Christians, Brahmas, and [=A]ryas, who +all advocate the education of girls, and in spite of fostering by +Governments and missionaries. Taking _British_ India by itself, there +was a higher proportion of educated females, as we should of course +expect, although that only makes the proportion less elsewhere. In +British India, about 1 in 100 [9 per 1000] could read and write; but +even there, less than 1 per cent. The quickening of ideas in cities is +apparent. In the cities there are proportionally more than twice as many +educated females as in the whole country. + +[Sidenote: Premature marriage.] + +The injustice done to the sex by marriage before womanhood is apparent +from another paragraph of the same Report, showing that out of every +1000 girls of the age of 10 or under, 58 are already married, as against +22 boys. Taking Hindus alone, the number of married girls of 10 years of +age or under is 70 per 1000 as against 28 married boys. Even allowing +for those provinces where cohabitation is delayed, these figures mean in +other provinces a cruel wrong to the children of the weaker sex, a +doubly cruel wrong when to premature marriage may be added girl +widowhood. The _Census Report_ declares that in the lower strata of +Hindu society there has been a rapid extension of child marriage and +prohibition of the marriage of widows within the last two or three +generations, although at the low age of 10, fewer girls are reported +married than in 1881.[25] That is to say, the bad example of the higher +castes is lowering the marriage age in the humble castes, while modern +influences are diminishing the number of marriages of mere children,--we +can see both forces in operation. Here again Indian Christians, +Br[=a]hmas, and [=A]ryas are at one in setting a better example and +advocating reform. The educative Act of 1891 for British India has also +been noted above. Native States too are following up. In Rajputana, +through the influence of the Agent of the Governor-General, Colonel +Walter, an association was formed in 1888 which fixed the marriage age +for two of the chief castes at eighteen for the bridegroom and fourteen +for the bride. In the Native State of Baroda, in the extreme West of +India, a new Marriage Act has just been passed by the enlightened ruler +[1904]. In Baroda, except in special cases, the minimum marriage age of +girls is henceforward to be twelve, and of the bridegrooms sixteen. +Exceptional cases had to be provided for, because of the custom in +certain communities within the state of Baroda to celebrate marriages +only once every twelve years, female infants and girls of ten and twelve +being then "happily despatched" together. With that custom and with the +new Act together, it would necessarily happen that girls of eleven at +the general marrying time would have to wait twelve years more, or until +their twenty-third year. Since in some parts of India there is a saying +about women "Old at twenty," that delay would not do. All educated young +men may be said to hold the new ideas in these marriage matters. +Students now regard it with regret and some sense of a grievance when +their guardians have married them in their school or college years. The +only alleviation to their minds is when the dowry which they bring into +the family at their marriage helps to endow a sister who has reached the +marriage age, or to educate a brother or pay off the family debts. Among +educated people too, the idea that the other world is closed to +bachelors and childless men has died, although a daughter unmarried +after the age of puberty is still a stigma on the family. Do British +readers realise that in an Indian novel of the middle and upper classes +there can hardly be a bride older than twelve; there can be no love +story of the long wooing and waiting of the lovers? + +[Sidenote: Polygamy.] + +As regards polygamy, the Census shows 1011 married women for every 1000 +married men, so that apparently not more than 11 married men in every +1000 are polygamists. But polygamy is still an Indian institution, in +the sense that it is at the option of any man to have more than one +wife; in the matter of marriage, the rights of man alone are regarded. +All over India, however, among the educated classes, Mahomedans +excepted, public opinion is now requiring a justification for a second +marriage, as, for example, the barrenness, insanity, infirmity, or +misconduct of the first spouse. The temptation of a second dowry is +still, however, operative with men of certain high castes in which +bridegrooms require to be paid for. The writer well remembers the +pitiful comic tale of a struggling brahman student of Bengal, whose home +had been made unhappy by the advent of two stepmothers in succession +alongside of his own mother. The young man did not blame his father, for +his father disapproved of polygamy, and was a polygamist only because he +could not help himself. It had come about in an evil hour when he was +desperate for a dowry for his eldest daughter, now come of marriageable +age. He had listened to the village money-lender's advice that he might +take a second wife himself and transfer to the daughter the dowry that +the second wife would bring. Then in like manner the lapse of time had +brought a second daughter to the marriage age, the necessity for another +dowry, and a third mother into the student's home. The poor fellow +himself was married too, and one could not resist the conjecture that +_his_ marriage was another sacrifice for the family, and that his +marriage had saved his father from bringing home yet another stepmother. +The redeeming feature of the story--the strength of Indian family +ties--let us not be blind to. + +Polygamy in India is certainly now hiding itself. A couple of +generations ago it was practised wholesale by the kulin brahmans of +Bengal. Several middle-aged kulins are known to have had more than 100 +wives, and to have spent their lives in a round of visits to their +numerous fathers-in-law. For each wife they had received a handsome +bridegroom-price. So declares the last _Census Report_. Except among +Indian Mahomedans, who have the sanction of the Koran and the example of +the Prophet himself, there are now few upholders of polygamy in India. +In a meeting of educated gentlemen in Calcutta a Mahomedan lately +protested against some passing condemnatory reference to polygamy, on +the ground that in a general meeting he expected that his religion would +be free from attack. A learned Mahomedan judge, on the other hand, +writes that among Indian Mahomedans "the feeling against polygamy is +becoming a strong social if not a moral conviction." "Ninety-five out of +every 100 are either by conviction or necessity monogamists." "It has +become customary," he tells us, "to insert in the marriage deed a clause +by which the intending husband formally renounces his supposed right to +contract a second union."[26] + +[Sidenote: Seclusion of women.] + +With regard to the seclusion of women, at some points the custom seems +to be slowly yielding to Western ideas, although it is still practically +true that Indian ladies are never seen in society and in the streets of +Indian cities.[27] A different evolution, however, is still more +manifest at this present time. It almost seems as if at first modern +life were to bend to the custom of the seclusion of women rather than +bend the custom to itself. The Lady Dufferin Association for Medical Aid +to Indian Women is bringing trained medical women _into_ the zenanas and +harems, and every year is also seeing a larger number of Indian +Christian and Br[=a]hma ladies set up as independent practitioners, able +to treat patients _within_ the women's quarters. In the year 1905 a lady +lawyer, Miss Cornelia Sorabjee, a Parsee Christian lady, was appointed +by the Government of Bengal to be a legal adviser to the Bengal Court of +_Wards_, or landowning minors. Zenana or harem ladies, e.g. the widowed +mothers of the minors, would thus be able to consult a trained lawyer at +first hand _within_ the zenana or harem. Missionaries are discussing the +propriety of authorising certain Christian women to baptize women +converts _within_ the zenanas.[28] Long ago missions organised zenana +schools, and now native associations have begun to follow in their +steps. In all Indian Christian churches, women of course are present at +public worship, but they always sit _apart_ from the men, a segregation +even more strictly followed by the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j or Indian Theistic +Association. For the sake of zenana women, the Indian Museum in Calcutta +is closed one day each week to the male sex, and in some native theatres +there is a ladies gallery in which ladies may see and not be seen behind +a curtain of thin lawn. Movement even towards a compromise, it is good +to observe. + +[Sidenote: Prohibition of the marriage of widows.] + +The prohibition of the marriage of widows has already been referred to +as bound up with caste ideas of marriage and with social standing, and +as the most deeply rooted part of the social inferiority of women. By +some at least the injustice has been acknowledged since many years. At +Calcutta, between 1840 and 1850, Babu Mati Lal Seal promised Rs10,000 to +any Hindu, poor or rich, who would marry a widow of his own faith, but +no one came forward.[29] The late Pandit Iswar Chander Vidyasagar of +Calcutta has also already been mentioned as a champion of the widow's +rights. But though legalised in 1856, the cases of re-marriage among the +higher castes of Hindus in any year can still be counted on the fingers +of one hand. The _Report of the Census of India_, 1901, takes a gloomy +view regarding the province of Bengal, the most forward in many +respects, but the most backward in respect of child-marriage and +prohibition of the marriage of widows. The latter custom, we are told, +"shows signs of extending itself far beyond its present limits, and +finally of suppressing widow marriage throughout the entire Hindu +community of Bengal."[30] The actual number of widows in all India in +1901 was 25,891,936, or about 2 out of every 11 of the female +population, more than twice the proportion [1 in 13] in Great Britain. +As in the matters of the repudiation of caste and the raising of the +marriage age, the three new religious bodies, namely, the Indian +Christians, the Brahmas, and the [=A]ryas, stand side by side for the +right of the widow. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE TERMS WE EMPLOY + + "Precise ideas and precisely defined words are the wealth and + the currency of the mind." + + --Introduction to _The Pilgrim's Progress,_ Macmillan's + Edition. + + +[Sidenote: No _Indian_ race or religion.] + +Experience teaches the necessity of explaining to Western readers +certain terms which even long residence in India often fails to make +clear to Anglo-Indians. Let it be remembered then that the terms _India, +Indian_, have only a geographical reference: they do not signify any +particular race or religion. India is the great triangular continent +bounded on the south-west and south-east by the sea, and shut in on the +north by the Himalayan Mountains. Self-contained though it be, and +easily thought of as a geographical unit, we must not think of India as +a racial, linguistic, or religious unit. We may much more correctly +speak of _the_ European race, language, or religion, than of _the_ +Indian. + +[Sidenote: A Hindu religion.] + +The term _Hindu_ refers to one of the Indian religions, the religion of +the great majority no doubt. It is not now a national or geographical +term. Practically every Hindu is an Indian, and almost necessarily must +be so, but every Indian is not a Hindu. There are Indian Mahomedans, +sixty-two million of them; Indian Buddhists, a few--the great majority +of the Buddhists in the "Indian Empire" being in Burmah, not in India +proper; there are Indian Christians, about three million in number; and +there are Indian Parsees. A Hindu is the man who professes Hinduism.[31] + +[Sidenote: Where is Hindustan?] + +_Hindustan_, or the land of the Hindus, is a term that never had any +geographical definiteness. In the mouths of Indians it meant the central +portion of the plain of North India; in English writers of half a +century ago it was often used when all India was meant. In exact writing +of the present time, the term is practically obsolete. + +[Sidenote: Who speak Hindustani?] + +Unfortunately for clearness, the term _Hindustani_ not only survives, +but survives in a variety of significations. The word is an adjective, +_pertaining to Hindustan_, and in English it has become the name either +of the people of Hindustan or of their language. It is in the latter +sense that the name is particularly confusing. The way out of the +difficulty lies in first associating _Hindustani_ clearly with the +central region of Hindustan, the country to the north-east of Agra and +Delhi. These were the old imperial capitals, be it remembered. Then from +that centre, the Hindustani language spread--a central, imperial, +Persianised language not necessarily superseding the other +vernaculars--wherever the authority of the empire went. Thus throughout +India, Hindustani became a _lingua franca_, the imperial language. In +the Moghul Empire of Northern India it was exactly what "King's English" +was in the Anglo-Norman kingdom in England in the thirteenth and +fourteenth centuries. French was the language of the Anglo-Norman court +of London, as Persian of the court of Delhi or Agra; the Frenchified +King's English was the court form of the vernacular in England, as the +Persianised Hindustani in North India. It was this _lingua franca_ that +Europeans in India set themselves to acquire. + +[Sidenote: Urdu literature] + +Continuing the English parallel--the Hindustani of Delhi, the capital, +Persianised as the English of London was Frenchified, became the +recognised literary medium for North India. The special name _Urdu_, +however, has now superseded the term _Hindustani_, when we think of the +language as a literary medium. _Urdu_ is the name for literary +Hindustani; in the Calcutta University Calendar, for example, the name +_Hindustani_ never occurs. + +[Sidenote: Hindi language and literature] + +About the beginning of the nineteenth century another dialect of +Hindustani, called _Hindi_, also gained a literary standing. It contains +much less of Persian than Urdu does, leaning rather to Sanscrit; it is +written in the deva-nagari or Sanscrit character; is associated with +Hindus and with the eastern half of Hindustan; whereas Urdu is written +in the Persian character, and is associated with Mahomedans and the +western half of Hindustan.[32] + +[Sidenote: The Brahmans] + +Another series of terms are likewise a puzzle to the uninitiated. To +Westerns, the _brahmans_[33] are best known as the priests of the +Hindus; more correctly, however, the name _brahman_ signifies not the +performer of priestly duties, but the caste that possesses a monopoly of +the performance. The brahman caste is the Hindu _Tribe of Levi_. Every +accepted Hindu priest is a brahman, although it is far from being the +case that every brahman is a priest. As a matter of fact, at the Census +of 1901 it was found that the great majority of brahmans have turned +aside from their traditional calling. In Bengal proper, only about 16 +per cent. of the brahmans were following priestly pursuits; in the +Madras Presidency, 11.4 per cent.; and in the Bombay Presidency, 22 per +cent. + +[Sidenote: Brahmanism.] + +_Brahmanism_ is being employed by a number of recent writers in place of +the older _Hinduism_. Sir Alfred Lyall uses _Brahmanism_ in that sense; +likewise Professor Menzies in his recent book, _Brahmanism and +Buddhism_. Sir Alfred Lyall's employment of the term _Brahmanism_ rather +than _Hinduism_, is in keeping with his description of Hinduism, which +he defines as the congeries of diverse local beliefs and practices that +are held together by the employment of brahmans as priests. The +description is a true one; the term Brahmanism represents what is common +to the Hindu castes and sects; it is their greatest common measure, as +it were. But yet the fact remains that _Hindus_ speak of themselves as +such, not as _Brahmanists_, and it is hopeless to try to supersede a +current name. Sir M. Monier Williams employs the term _Brahmanism_ in a +more limited and more legitimate sense. Dividing the history of the +Hindu religion into three periods, he calls them the stages of Vedism, +Brahmanism, and Hinduism respectively. The first is the period of the +Vedas, or earliest sacred books; the second, of the Brahman philosophy, +fundamentally pantheistic; the third is the period of "a confused tangle +of divine personalities and incarnations." Sir M. Monier Williams' +standard work on the religion of the Hindus is "_Brahmanism and +Hinduism."_ "Hinduism," he tells us, "is Brahmanism modified by the +creeds and superstitions of Buddhists and non-Aryans of all kinds." + +[Sidenote: Brahm[=a], Brahma.] + +[Sidenote: Br[=a]hmas] + +We are not done with this confusing set of terms. _Brahm[=a]_ is the +first person of the Hindu divine triad--the Creator--who along with the +other two persons of the triad, has proceeded from a divine essence, +_Brahma_ or _Brahm_. Brahma is Godhead or Deity: Brahm[=a], is _a_ +Deity, a divine _person_ who has emanated from the Godhead, Brahma. +_Br[=a]hmas_ or theists, believers in Brahma, are a religious body that +originated in Bengal in the nineteenth century. Repudiating caste, +idolatry, and transmigration, they are necessarily cut off from +Hinduism. The body is called the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, that is, the +Theistic Association. Enough for the present; in their respective places +these distinctions can be more fully gone into. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NEW POLITICAL IDEAS + +I. A UNITING INDIA + + "There are many nations of the Indians, and they do not speak + the same language." + + --HERODOTUS.[34] + + +[Sidenote: The ideas of citizenship and public questions.] + +With modern education and the awakening of the Indian mind have come +entirely new political ideas. That there are public questions has in +fact been discovered; for in India the idea of citizenship, the +consciousness of being a political unit, was itself a new idea. We may +say that it was made possible in 1835, when an Act of Legislature was +passed declaring the press free. In 1823 an English editor had been +deported from Calcutta for free criticism of the authorities, but after +1835 it was legal not merely to think but to speak on public questions. +Before we pass on, we note the strange inverted sequence of events which +may attend on fostered liberty. The right to criticise was bestowed +before any right to be represented in the Legislature or Executive was +enjoyed. In this freedom to criticise the acts of Government, the India +of to-day is far ahead of countries like Germany and Russia. + +[Sidenote: Government exists for the good of the governed.] + +The new idea of citizenship, thus made possible by a free press, is +largely the outcome of three great influences. Christian philanthropic +ideas, disseminated both by precept and example, could not but be +producing some sense of brotherhood, and what Burke calls a "civil +society." Then again, the free and often democratic spirit of English +literature was being imbibed by thousands; and in the third place, +through the newspapers, English and vernacular, the people were being +brought into actual contact with the political life of Great Britain. +Due particularly to the first of these influences, the noblest of the +new Indian political ideas is that tacitly assumed in many of the native +criticisms of the British Government in India--high tribute as well as +criticism--that Government exists for the good of the governed, and +indeed responsible for the welfare of the masses. The British Government +is indeed an amazing network covering the whole continent, ministering +life, like the network of the blood-vessels in our frame. At least, its +apologists declare it _to be doing so_, and its native critics declare +that it _ought to_. The native press, for example, is prompt to direct +the attention of the Government to famine and to summon the Government +to its duty. In India a noble idea of the Commonwealth and its proper +government has thus come into being. Likewise, it ought to be added, +except in times of political excitement, and in the case of professional +politicians, it is generally acknowledged that the conception of the +British Government in India is noble, and that many officers of +Government are truly the servants of the people. It is not suggested +that the policy or the methods should be radically altered. The +politician's theme is that the Government is more expensive and less +sympathetic than it might be, because of the employment of alien +Europeans where natives might be employed. + +[Sidenote: The new national consciousness.] + +[Sidenote: English rule, a chief cause.] + +[Sidenote: The very name _Indian_ is English.] + +Other new political ideas follow the lines of social change. We have +seen how in the modern school, the idea of caste gives way before the +idea of rank in the school, to be followed in College by the idea of +intellectual distinction, and still later in life by the idea of success +in some modern career. In the political sphere, modern life is also busy +dissolving the older and narrower conceptions of life. Atop of the +sectarian consciousness of being a Hindu or the provincial consciousness +of belonging to Bengal or Bombay, is coming the consciousness of being +an Indian. This consciousness of a national unity is one of the +outstanding features of the time in India, all the more striking because +hitherto India has been so unwieldily large, and her people incoherent, +like dry sand. "The Indian never knew the feeling of nationality," says +Max Müller. "The very name of India is a synonym for caste, as opposed +to nationality," says Sister Nivedita, the pro-Hindu lady already +referred to, who likewise notes the emergence of the national idea.[35] +"Public spirit or patriotism, as we understand it, never existed among +the Hindus," writes Mr. Bose, himself an Indian, author of a recent work +on _Hindu Civilisation under British Rule_.[36] And Raja Rammohan Roy, +the famous Bengali reformer of the beginning of the nineteenth century, +we have already heard denouncing the caste system as "destructive of +national union." From what then, during the nineteenth century, has the +national consciousness come forth? Many causes may be cited. The actual +unification effected by the postal, the telegraph, and the railway +organisation, has done much. The omnipresence of the foreign government, +all-controlling, has also done much. The current coins and the postage +stamps with King Edward's head upon them--the same all over India, a few +native states excepted--bring home the union of India to the most +ignorant. The constant criticism of the Government in the native press, +the meetings of the All-India political association called the Congress, +and the fact that modern interests, stimulated by daily telegrams from +all over the world, are international, not provincial or sectarian--all +these things combine to give to the modern educated Indian a new Indian +national consciousness in place of the old provincial and sectarian one. +In short, the British rule has united India, and the awakened mind of +India is rejoicing in the consciousness of the larger existence, and is +identifying the ancient glories of certain centres in North India with +this new India created by Britain. Never before was there a united India +in the modern political sense; never, indeed, could there be until +modern inventions brought distant places near each other. Two great +Indian empires there certainly were in the third century B.C. and the +fourth and fifth centuries A.D., and the paternal benevolence of Asoka, +the great Buddhist emperor of the third century B.C., deserves record +and all honour. Let Indians know definitely who deserves to be called an +ancient Indian emperor, when they wish to lament a lost past; and +descending to historical fact and detail, let them compare that period +with the present. The later empire referred to was an empire only in the +old sense of a collection of vassal states. Turning back to the hoary +past, in which many Indians, even of education, imagine there was a +golden Indian empire, we can trace underneath the ancient epic, the +Ramayan, a conquering progress southward to Ceylon itself of a great +Aryan hero, Ram. But of any Indian empire founded by him, we know +nothing. "One who has carefully studied the Ramayan will be impressed +with the idea that the Aryan conquest had spread over parts of Northern +India only, at the time of the great events which form its +subjects."[37] Coming down to the period of the greatest extent of the +Moghul empire in India in the end of the seventeenth century, we find +the Emperor Aurangzeb with as extensive a military empire as that of +Asoka, but with the Mahrattas rising behind him even while he was +extending his empire southwards. That decadent military despotism cannot +be thought of as a union of India. In truth, the old Aryan conquest of +India was not a political conquest, and never has been; it was a +conquest, very complete in the greater part of India, of new social +usages and certain new religious ideas. The first complete political +conquest of India by Aryans was the British conquest, and the ideas +which have come in or been awakened thereby, we are now engaged in +tracing. As regards the new idea of nationality, we have noted that the +new national name _Indian_ now heard upon political platforms, is not a +native term, but an importation from Britain along with the English +language. How, indeed, could the educated Indian employ any other term +with the desired comprehensiveness? If he speak of _Hindus_, he excludes +Mahomedans and followers of other religions; if he use a Sanscrit term +for _Indians_, he still fails to touch the hearts of Mahomedans and +others who identify Sanscrit with Hindus. There is no course left but to +use the English language, even while criticising the British rulers. The +English language has been a prime factor in evoking the new national +consciousness, and in the English language the Indian must speak to his +new found fellow Indians.[38] Even a considerable portion of the +literature of the attempted Revival of Hinduism is in English, strange +as the conjunction sounds. + +How the thought of Indian unity over against the sovereignty of Britain +may reach down even to the humblest, the writer once observed in a +humble street in Calcutta. A working man was receiving his farthing's +worth of entertainment from a peep-show. His eyes were glued to the +peepholes, to secure his money's worth, for the farthing was no small +sum to him; and the showman was standing by describing the successive +scenes in a loud voice, with intent both to serve his customer and to +stimulate the bystanders' curiosity. Three of the scenes were: "This is +the house of the great Queen near London city," "This is one of the +great Queen's lords writing an order to the Viceroy of Calcutta," "This +is the great committee that sits in London city." He actually used the +English word _committee_, the picture probably showing the House of +Commons or the House of Lords. Thus the political constitution of India +and its unity under Britain are inculcated among the humblest. In the +minds of the educated, one need not then be surprised at the growth of a +sense of Indian unity over against British supremacy. + +[Sidenote: The Indian National Congress.] + +[Sidenote: English, the _lingua franca_ of the Congress.] + +The Indian National Congress, or All-India political association, is the +embodiment of this new national consciousness of educated Indians, the +only embodiment possible while India is so divided in social and +religious matters. Were there only ten or twelve million Mahomedans in +India instead of sixty, the new national consciousness would undoubtedly +have been a Hindu or religious, instead of a political, consciousness. +But in matters religious, Hindu looks across a gulf at Mahomedan, and +Mahomedan at Hindu, neither expecting the other to cross over. +Christianity, third in numbers in India proper, proclaims the Christian +Gospel to both Hindus and Mahomedans, but is regarded by both as an +alien.[39] Nor is any All-India _social_ movement possible while social +differences are so sacred as they are. But politically, all India _is_ +already _one_; her educated men have drunk at _one_ well of political +ideas; citizenship and its rights are attractive and destroy no +cherished customs; and in the English language there is a new _lingua +franca_ in unison with the new ideas. The Indian National Congress is +the natural outcome. There, representatives of races which a hundred +years ago made war on one another, of castes that never either eat +together or intermarry, now fraternise in one peaceful assembly, +inspired by the novel idea that they are citizens. The Congress meets +annually in December in one or other of the cities of India. The first +meeting at Bombay in 1885 has been described as follows[40]: "There were +men from Madras, the blackness of whose complexions seemed to be made +blacker by spotless white turbans which some of them wore. A few others +hailing from the same Presidency were in simplest native fashion, +bareheaded and barefooted and otherwise lightly clad, their bodies from +the waist upwards being only partially protected by muslin shawls. They +had preferred to retain their national dress and manners; and in this +respect they presented a marked contrast to the delegates from Bengal. +Some of these appeared in entirely European costume, while others could +easily be recognised as Bengalis by the peculiar cap with a flap behind +which they had donned. None of them wore the gold rings or diamond +pendants which adorned the ears of some of the Madrassees; nor had they +their foreheads painted like their more orthodox and more conservative +brethren from the Southern presidency. There were Hindustanis from +Delhi, Agra, and Lucknow, some of whom wore muslin skull-caps and +dresses chiefly made of the same fine cloth. There were delegates from +the North-West--bearded, bulky, and large-limbed men--in their coats and +flowing robes of different hues, and in turbans like those worn by Sikh +soldiers. There were stalwart Sindhees from Karachee wearing their own +tall hat surmounted by a broad brim at top instead of bottom. In the +strange assemblage were to be observed the familiar figures of Banyas +from Gujarat, of Mahrattas in their cart-wheel turbans, and of Parsees +in their not very elegant head-dress, likened to a slanting roof. +Assembled in the same hall, they presented a variety of costumes and +complexions scarcely to be witnessed except at a fancy ball." Now and +again, we may add, a speaker expresses himself in a vernacular, and with +the inborn Indian courtesy and patience the assembly will listen; but +the language of the motley gathering is English; the address of the +president and his rulings are in English; the protests, claims, and +resolutions of the Congress are in English. For in the sphere of +politics, the new national feeling _confessedly_ looks to Britain for +ideals. Apologies for India's social customs and for her religious ideas +and ideals are not wanting in India at the present time, for in matters +social and religious, as we shall see, the political reformers are often +ardently conservative, or pro-Indian at least. But in the sphere of +politics it is the complete democratic constitution of Britain that +looms before India's leaders. Britons can view with sympathy the rise of +the national feeling as the natural and inevitable fruit of contact with +Britain and of education in the language of freedom, and even although +the new problems of Indian statesmanship may call forth all the powers +of British statesmen. Like a young man conscious of noble lineage and of +great intellectual power, New India, brought up under Britain's care, is +loudly asserting that she can now take over the management of the +continent which Britain has unified and made what it is. + +Where the "National Congress" and the Congress ideas have sprung from is +manifest when she first presents herself upon the Indian stage. As her +first president she has a distinguished barrister of Calcutta, Mr. W.C. +Bonnerjee, of brahman caste by birth, but out of caste altogether +because of frequent visits to Britain. Patriot though he is--nay, +rather, as a true patriot, he has broken and cast away the shackles of +caste. His English education is manifest when he opens his lips, for in +India there is no more complete master of the English language, and very +few greater masters will be found even in Britain. Further, as her first +General Secretary and general moving spirit, the first Congress has a +Scotchman, Mr. A.O. Hume, commonly known as the "Father of the +Congress." His leading of the Congress we can understand when we know +that he is the son of the celebrated reformer and member of Parliament, +the late Dr. Joseph Hume. + +[Sidenote: Representative Government.] + +Several of the claims of the Congress have been conceded in whole or in +part. Since the first meeting in 1885, elected members have been added +to the Legislative Councils in the three chief provinces, Bengal, +Madras, and Bombay, and new Legislative Councils set up in the United +Provinces and the Punjab. To the Council for all India, the Viceroy's +Council, also have been added five virtually elected members, out of a +council now numbering about twenty-two members in all. Four of the new +members represent the chief provinces, and the fifth the Chamber of +Commerce, Calcutta. Other five the Viceroy nominates to represent other +provinces or other interests. Looking at the representation of Indians, +it is noteworthy that in 1880 only two Indians had seats in the +Viceroy's Council, whereas in 1905 there were no fewer than six. The +Provincial Legislative Council of Bombay will suffice as illustration of +the stage which Representative Government has now reached. Eight of the +twenty-two members are virtually elected. That is to say, certain bodies +nominate representatives, and only in most exceptional circumstances +would the Governor refuse to accept the nominees. And who make the +nominations? Who are the electors enjoying the new political citizenship +of India? We shall not expect that the electors are "the people" in the +British or American sense: no Congress yet asks for political rights for +them. The idea regarding citizenship still is that it is a royal +concession, as it were to royal burghs, not that it is one of the rights +of men. The University elects a member to the Governor's Council, for it +has intelligence and can make its voice heard; the Corporation of Bombay +elects a representative, for in the capital are concentrated the +enlightenment and the wealth of the province; the importance of the +British merchants must be recognised, and so the Chambers of Commerce of +Bombay and Karachi send each a representative. Other groups of +municipalities elect one; the boards of certain country districts elect +one; and finally two groups of landlords elect one representative each. +It comes to this, that the men of learning, the burgesses of the chief +towns, the British traders, and the landowners and country gentlemen, +have now a measure of citizenship in the modern sense of the word. + +The same feeling of citizenship has been given recognition to in 759 +towns, whose municipalities are now partly elected, the right of +election having been greatly extended by the Local Self-Government Acts +of 1882-84. In these Municipalities even more than in the higher +Councils the new educated Indian comes to the front. According to the +roll of voters, it is property that enjoys the municipal franchise; +emphatically so, for a wealthy citizen of Calcutta might conceivably +cast three hundred votes for his Municipality throughout the twenty-five +wards of the city; but they are English-speaking Indians in all cases +who are returned as members. Politically, this is the day of the +English-educated Indians. Such is the stage of the recognition of this +new idea of citizenship in India. The idea represents a great advance +during the British period, although, broadly speaking, it has not yet +reached the stage of British opinion prior to 1832. Nevertheless one +feels justified in saying that in present circumstances the desire of +the educated class for a measure of citizenship has been reasonably met. +Of course at the examination for the Indian Civil Service, held annually +in London, the Indian competes on a complete equality with all the youth +of the Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NEW POLITICAL IDEAS + +II. FALSE PATRIOTISM + + "Now do I know that love is blind." + + ALFRED AUSTIN. + + +[Sidenote: Cleavage of opinion--European _v._ Native.] + +An unpleasant aspect of the new idea is much in evidence at the present +time. On almost every public question, the cleavage of the public +opinion is Europeans _versus_ Natives. Far be it from me to assert that +the natives only are carried away by the community feeling. A case in +point is the violence of the European agitation over the "Ilbert Bill" +of 1883, to permit trial of Europeans by native judges in rural criminal +courts. Our question merely is: How has the new regime affected native +ideas? Given then, say, a charge of assault upon a native by a European +or Eurasian, or the reverse--a case by no means unknown--the native +press and the class they represent are ranged at once, as a matter of +course, upon the native's side. Given a great public matter, like Lord +Curzon's Bill of 1903 for the necessary reform of the Indian +Universities, immediately educated Indians and the native press perceive +in it a veiled attempt to limit the higher education in order to +diminish the political weight of the educated class. The 1904 expedition +into Thibet was unanimously approved by the Anglo-Indian, and as +unanimously disapproved by the native press. Educated India no doubt +joined with the rest of the Empire in wishing success to Japan in the +1904-5 war with Russia, but the war presented itself primarily to the +Indian mind as a great struggle between Asia and Europe. Other lines of +cleavage may temporarily show themselves,--among natives the division +into Hindus and Mahomedans, or into officials and non-officials; but on +the first occasion when a European and a Native are opposed, or when the +Government takes any step, the minor fissures close, and the new +consciousness of nationality unites the Indians. European lines of +cleavage like the division between capital and labour or between +commerce and land have not yet risen above the Indian horizon. + +The Indian Christian community occupies the peculiar position of sharing +in the new-born national consciousness as strongly as any, and yet of +being identified with the British side in the eyes of the Hindu and +Mahomedan communities. + +[Sidenote: Anti-British bias.] + +[Sidenote: India ruled by Indians.] + +Thus, almost inevitably, an anti-British bias has been generated, one of +the noteworthy and regrettable changes in the Indian mind within the +last half-century. Probably many would declare that the unifying +national consciousness of which I have spoken is nothing more than a +racial anti-British bias. At all events, hear an independent Indian +witness regarding the bias.[41] "There is a strong and strange ferment +working in certain ranks of Indian society.... Instead of looking upon +the English rulers as their real benefactors, they are beginning to view +their actions suspiciously, seizing every opportunity of criticising and +censuring their rulers.... The race feeling between rulers and ruled, +instead of diminishing, has increased with the increase, and spread with +the spread, of literary education. That all this is more or less true at +present cannot be denied by an impartial political observer." An +up-to-date illustration of the bias appears in the address of the +Chairman of the National Congress of 1906. "The educated classes," he +says, "... now see clearly that the [British] bureaucracy is growing +frankly selfish and openly opposed to their political aspirations." +While regretting that feeling and the prejudice that often mingles with +it, let those interested in India at least understand the feeling. It is +the natural outcome of the new national consciousness. Even educated +natives are in general too ignorant of India, past and present, to +appreciate the debt of India to Britain, and how great a share of the +administration of India they themselves--the educated Indians--actually +enjoy. For every subordinate executive position in the vast imperial +organisation is held by a native of India, and "almost the entire +original jurisdiction of Civil Justice has passed out of the hands of +Europeans into those of Indians."[42] But the anti-British bias, let us +on our part understand. The attitude of educated Indians to the British +Government of India, and to Anglo-Indians as a body, is that of a +political opposition, ignorant of many pertinent facts, divided from the +party in power by racial and religious differences, and with no visible +prospect of succeeding to office. The National Congress is the permanent +Opposition in India. A permanent Opposition cannot but be biassed, and +its press will seize at everything that will justify the feeling of +hostility. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations of the bias: Famines.] + +An outstanding illustration of the anti-British spirit is the frequently +expressed opinion that the Indian famines are a result of British rule, +or at all events have been aggravated thereby. The reasoning is that +India is being financially drained to the amount of between thirty and +forty millions sterling a year, and that the people of India have thus +no staying fund to keep them going when famine comes. Having said this, +we ought perhaps to quote the opinion (1903), on the other side, of Mr. +A.P. Sinnett, ex-editor of one of the leading Indian newspapers, and, as +a theosophist, very unlikely to be prejudiced in favour of Britain. He +insists "that loss of life in famine time is infinitesimal compared with +what it used to be." "As for impoverishment," he goes on to say, "we +have poured European capital into the country by scores of millions for +public works and the establishment of factories, and we have enriched +India instead of impoverishing it to an extent that makes the Home +Charges--of which such agitators as Digby always exaggerate the +importance--a mere trifle in the balance." Lord Curzon's statement of +three or four years back was that there were eight hundred and +twenty-five crores of rupees (five hundred and fifty millions sterling) +of buried capital in India; and he might have added the easily +ascertainable fact that the sum is yearly being added to. The +anti-British idea was put forward in 1885 by the late Mr. William Digby, +an ardent supporter of the Congress; the Congress adopted it in one of +its resolutions in 1896, and the idea has lamentably caught on. In 1897 +a Conference of Indians resident in London did not mince their language. +In their opinion, "of all the evils and terrible misery that India has +been suffering for a century and a half, and of which the latest +developments are the most deplorable famine and plague arising from +ever-increasing poverty,... the main cause is the unrighteous and +un-British system of Government, which produces an unceasing and ever +increasing bleeding of the country," etc. etc.[43] Such language, such +ideas, do not call for refutation, here at least; they are symptoms only +of a state of mind now prevailing, out of which educated India must +surely grow. + +Nor need it be forgotten that the rise of the anti-British feeling was +foreseen and political danger apprehended when the question of English +education for natives of India was under discussion. A former +Governor-General, Lord Ellenborough, declared to a committee of the +House of Commons in 1852, that England must not expect to retain her +hold on India if English ideas were imparted to the people. "No +_intelligent_ people would submit to our Government," were his words--a +sentiment repudiated with indignation by the learned Bengali, the late +Rev. Dr. K.M. Banerjea. In the same spirit, apparently, Sir Alfred Lyall +still contemplates with some fear the rapid reformation of religious +beliefs under modern influences. He sees that the old deities and ideas +are being dethroned, and that the responsibility for famines, formerly +imputed to the gods, is being cast upon the British Government. "The +British Government," he says, "having thrown aside these lightning +conductors [the old theocratic system], is much more exposed than a +native ruler would be to shocks from famines or other wide-spread +misfortunes." "Where no other authority is recognised, the visible ruler +becomes responsible for everything."[44] Fortunately, "policy" of that +sort has not prevailed with Indian statesmen in the past, and Britain +can still retain self-respect as enlightener and ruler of India. + +[Sidenote: Championing of things Indian.] + +The championing of all things Indian is another recent phase of the same +national consciousness. As the work of Britain is depreciated, the +heroes, the beliefs, and the practices of India are exalted and defended +as such. Idolatry and caste have their apologists. At almost every +public meeting, according to the late Mr. Monomohun Ghose of Calcutta, +he heard the remark made "that the ancient civilisation of India was far +superior to that which Europe ever had."[45] In the political lament +over a golden past, there is glorification by Hindus of the Mahomedan +emperor Akbar, praise of the Native States and their rule as opposed to +the condition of British India, and there are apologies for leaders in +the Mutiny of 1857. Much of that is natural and proper patriotism, no +doubt, and no one would deny the ancient glories of India or the many +admirable characteristics of the people of India to-day. It is the +self-deceiving patriotism, the blind ancestor-worship, of which we are +speaking as a phase of modern opinion. As an instance when Indians +certainly did themselves injustice by this spirit, we may single out the +celebrated trial in 1897 of the Hon. Mr. Tilak, member of the +Legislative Council of the Governor of Bombay. The Mahrattas of Western +India look back to Sivaji as the founder of their political power, which +lasted down to 1817, and have lately instituted an annual celebration of +Sivaji as the hero of the Mahratta race. One great blot rests on +Sivaji's career. In one campaign he invited the Mahomedan general +opposing him to a personal conference, and stabbed him while in the act +of embracing him. It was at one of these Sivaji celebrations in 1897 +that Mr. Tilak abandoned himself to the pro-Indian and anti-British +feeling, glorifying Sivaji's use of the knife upon foreigners. "Great +men are above common principles of law," ... he said. "In killing Afzal +Khan did Sivaji sin?" ... "In the Bhagabat Gita," he replied to himself, +"Krishna has counselled the assassination of even one's preceptors and +blood relations.... If thieves enter one's house, and one's wrists have +no strength to drive them out, one may without compunction shut them in +and burn them. God Almighty did not give a charter ... to the foreigners +to rule India, Sivaji strove to drive them out of his fatherland, and +there is no sin of covetousness in that." Practical application of Mr. +Tilak's language was soon forthcoming in the assassination of two +British officers in the same city of Poona. Mr. Tilak, victim of his own +eloquence and of the spirit of the day, was necessarily prosecuted for +his inflammatory speech, and was sent to prison for eighteen months. But +it is not too much to say that the _unanimous_ feeling of educated India +went with Mr. Tilak and regarded him as a martyr. + +[Sidenote: Boycott of British goods.] + +From the pro-Indian feeling to the anti-British Boycott feeling is only +one step along the road that new-educated India is treading. The boycott +of British goods in 1905 has been the next step. The provocation alleged +by the politicians who organised the boycott was the division of the +province of Bengal. Whether that was cause sufficient to justify the +boycott or a mere pretext for another anti-British step is now of +secondary importance. The plea of encouragement of native industries we +may set aside as an afterthought. The boycott has been declared, and +what concerns us is to see the national feeling now take the form of a +declaration of commercial war upon Great Britain--none the less +disconcerting because some of those concerned clearly have an eye, +however foolishly, upon Boston in 1773 and the war thereafter. It gives +pause to India's well-wishers. "India for the Indians," will that come +next? There no friend of India dare wish her success, to be a possible +prey to Russia or Germany, or even to Japan. But reasoning to the +logical issue, we get light upon our premisses. _India for what +Indians?_, we ask ourselves. For Hindus or Mahomedans; for the million, +English-speaking, or the many-millioned masses? For many a day yet to +come it will be Britain's duty to hold the balance, to instruct in +self-government and to learn from her blunders. + +That the national feeling of Indians may become a main strand in a +strong Imperial feeling, as is the national feeling of Scotland, must be +the wish of all friends of India. But how is the Indian feeling to be +transformed? + +[Sidenote: Remedies.] + +[Sidenote: Instruction in History and Political Economy.] + +[Sidenote: High-minded Anglo-Indians.] + +The new Social Ideas of India have asserted themselves in spite of +opposing ideas, deep-rooted; on the other hand, the new Political Ideas +are in accordance with the natural ambition of educated Indians, and +have had no difficulty in expanding and spreading. In comparison with +the new social ideas, in consequence, the new political ideas are a +somewhat rank and artificial growth, forced by editors and politicians, +and warped by ignorance and prejudice. The widely current idea that, +owing to British rule, the poverty of the Indian people is now greater, +and that the famines are more frequent and severe than in former +dynasties, is the outstanding instance of the rank growth. Neither the +allegation of greater poverty nor the causes of the acknowledged low +standard of living have been studied except in the fashion of party +politicians. Another of the ideas, as widely current, is that every ton +of rice or wheat exported is an injury to the poor. A third is that the +payments made in Britain by the Government of India are virtually +tribute, meanly exacted, instead of honest payment for cash received and +for services rendered. Again, what can be the remedy? In the early part +of the nineteenth century, the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church +of Scotland objected to Dr. Duff, their missionary, teaching Political +Economy in the Church's Mission College, the General Assembly's +Institution, Calcutta. They feared lest the East India Company would +deem it an interference in politics.[46] In 1897, after the Tilak case +already referred to, the writer on Indian affairs in _The Times_ +complained of the teaching of historical half-truths and untruths in +Indian schools and colleges, instancing the partisan writings of Burke +and Macaulay, and many Indian text-books full of glaring historical +perversions. The remedy for such erroneous ideas is certainly not to +withhold the present dole of knowledge, but to teach the whole truth. +The recent History of India and Political Economy with reference to +India should be compulsory subjects for every student in an Indian +University. It ought to be the policy of Government to select the ablest +men for professors and teachers of such subjects. If, along with that +remedy, more Anglo-Indians would take a high view of their mission to +India, and of their residence in that country, much of that regrettable +bias and bitterness on the part of Indians would surely pass away. If +instead of adopting the attitude of exiles, thinking only of the +termination of the exile and how to while away the interval, +Anglo-Indians would take some interest in something Indian outside their +business, much would be gained! The best Anglo-Indians are eager to +promote intercourse between Europeans and Indians, but many +Anglo-Indians, whatever the cause, seem incapable of friendly +intercourse. On the matters that should interest both them and their +fellow-citizens in India, they have in them nothing save unreasoned +feelings. These form the numerous class, of whom Sir Henry Cotton spoke +in an address in London in February 1904, to whom it is an offence to +travel in the same railway-carriage with Indians. These are the +corrupters of good feeling between Britons and Indians, as sympathetic +men are the salt that preserves what good feeling may still exist. In +every Indian sphere the men of the latter class are well known to the +native community, and are always spoken of with cordiality. The writer +remembers trying to have a talk with a British soldier about the +generals of the army, and how the man seemed unable to do more than say, +with enthusiasm, of Lord Roberts and General Wauchope and others, "Yon +was a man!" and as depreciatorily of others again, "Yon was no man at +all." Such sympathetic "men," instinctively discerned, India has much +need of, if this anti-British feeling, so far as it is not inevitable, +is to be checked. In such "men" the new Indian feelings of manhood and +citizenship and nationality will find recognition and response, in spite +of displeasing accompaniments, for such feelings we must look for under +British rule and from English and Christian education. From such "men," +also, the new Indians will accept frank condemnation of social +irrationalities or political exaggerations, as _e.g._ the notion that +those have right to claim full share in the British Empire's management +who would outcaste a fellow-Indian for visiting Britain, even had he +gone to state their case before the House of Commons. To speak of laymen +only, there are no Anglo-Indians more trusted than those who make no +secret of their desire for the advancement of India's welfare through a +religious reformation, who hold that this purely pro-Indian national +feeling is as yet imperfect because divorced from the idea of the unity +of mankind and the concomitant idea of the progress of the whole race. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NEW RELIGIOUS IDEAS--ARE THERE ANY? + + "From low to high doth dissolution climb. + + * * * * * + + Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear + The longest date do melt like frosty rime, + That in the morning whitened hill and plain + And is no more; drop like the tower sublime + Of yesterday, which royally did wear + His crown of weeds, but could not even sustain + Some casual shout that broke the silent air, + Or the unimaginable touch of Time." + + WORDSWORTH. + + +[Sidenote: A Renaissance without a reformation.] + +It would be interesting to speculate what the Renaissance of the +sixteenth century would have done for Europe had it been unaccompanied +by a Reformation of religion. Without the Reformation, we may aver there +would have been for the British nation no Bible of 1611, no Pilgrim +Fathers to America, and no Revolution of 1688, along with all that these +things imply of progress many-fold. What might have been, however, +although interesting as a speculation, is too uncertain to be discussed +further with profit. I only desire to give a general idea of the +religious situation in India at the close of the nineteenth century. +There has been a Renaissance without a Reformation. + +Into the new intellectual world the Hindu mind has willingly entered, +but progress in religious ideas has been slow and reluctant. The new +_political_ idea of the unity of India and the consciousness of +citizenship were pleasing discoveries that met with no opposition; but +that same new Indian national consciousness resented any departure from +the old _social_ and _religious_ ideas. + +[Sidenote: Meaning of the term _religious_.] + +In speaking of the development of religious ideas in India, I use the +term _religious_ in the modern sense. Under religion, in India is +comprehended much that in Europe would be reckoned within the _social_ +sphere. In India all questions of inter-marriage and of eating together, +many questions regarding occupations and the relations of earning +members of a family to idle members, are religious not social questions. + +The case was similar among the Jews, we may remember. As recorded in the +fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, two of the three +injunctions of the Jerusalem Church to the Gentile Church at Antioch +deal with these same socio-religious matters. Blood and animals killed +by strangling were to be prohibited as food, and certain marriages also +were forbidden. + +Perhaps among Europeans the question of burial _v_. cremation may be +instanced as a matter of social custom that has been made a religious +question. But in no country more than in India have customs, _mores_, +come also to mean morals. A halo of religious sanctity encircles the +things that have been and are. Taking "religion," however, in the modern +sense, we ask: Although there has not been any great Reformation of +religion, have religious ideas undergone no noteworthy development? It +is well to put the question definitely with regard to religion, although +in the opening chapter abundant testimony to a general change in ideas +has already been cited. There _is_ no lack of specific evidence as to +religious changes, and the adoption of certain Christian ideas. + +Sir Alfred Lyall's observations let us first of all recall, for he +possesses all the experience of an Indian Civil Servant and Governor of +a Province--the United Provinces. He speaks both for officials and for +Europeans conversant with India.[47] Speaking in the person of an +orthodox brahman surveying the moral and material changes that English +rule is producing in India, he says: "We are parting rapidly under ... +this Public Instruction with our religious beliefs." The old brahman +warns the British Government that the old deities are being dethroned, +and that the responsibility for famines, formerly imputed to the gods, +is being cast upon the British Government. Another official witness +speaks still more plainly. _The Bengal Government Report_ upon the +publications of the year 1899 asserts: "All this revolution in the +religious belief of the educated Hindu has been brought about as much by +the dissemination of Christian thought by missionaries as by the study +of Hindu scriptures; for Christian influence is detectable in many of +the Hindu publications of the year." The writer of the _Report_ is a +Hindu gentleman. The _Report of the Census of India_, 1901, declares +that "the influence of Christian teaching is ... far reaching, and that +there are many whose acts and opinions have been greatly modified +thereby." After these statements from secular and official writers, we +may refrain from quoting from Mission authorities more than the +statement of the Decennial Conference of representative missionaries +from all India in 1902. The statement refers to South India. +"Christianity," we are told, "is in the air. The higher classes are +assimilating its ideas."[48] Thus from East and North and South, from +officials and non-officials, from Europeans and natives, comes +concurrent testimony. There is no declared Reformation, but Christian +and Western religious ideas are leavening India. + +[Sidenote: Variety of religious ideas in India.] + +To the student of Comparative Religion, or of Christianity, or of the +general progress of nations, that testimony from India is particularly +interesting. To the student of Comparative Religion, India presents a +particularly attractive field. Not hidden away in sacred classics or in +the records of travellers, but as elements of existing religions, +professed by men around, are illustrations of most of the types of +religious thought and practice. There are the pantheism of certain Hindu +ascetics, the polytheism of the masses, the animism of aboriginal races, +and the varieties of theism of Christians, Mahomedans, and the new +Hindus respectively. There are the curious phenomena of goddesses as +well as gods, and of distinctive features in the character and worship +of the female deities. There is the whole scale of worship up from +bloody sacrifices and self-tortures and from worship where the priest is +everything, to worship like that of Mahomedans and of Protestant +Christians, where a mediatory priesthood is virtually repudiated. There +is the stage, still farther beyond, at which the worshipper is supposed +to be able to say of himself "I am God." Of the first and last stages, +India may be called the special fields, for probably nowhere else in the +world are so many animals killed in sacrifice as at the temple of +Kalighat in Calcutta; and the last stage, as an observable religious +phenomenon, is peculiar to India. In India there is presented to us +salvation in the attainment of an eternal existence along with God, as +among Christians and Mahomedans and many of the less educated Hindus; +and there is salvation in deliverance from further lives, as among those +Hindus who hold the doctrine of transmigration. In India all these +varieties of religious thought and practice are actual, perceptible +phenomena, ready for first-hand observation by the student of +Comparative Religion. But still more interesting to him is that they are +there in mutual contact, and telling upon each other. For in the sphere +of human beliefs, the student is much more than an outside observer and +classifier. He has his own conception of truth, and is interested in +observing how far in each case there is a convergence towards truth or a +divergence from it. In the sphere of human beliefs he holds further, +that, given opportunity, the nearer to truth the greater certainty of +survival. Given opportunity, as already postulated, the law of beliefs +is the survival of the truest. Truth will prevail. + +[Sidenote: Dynamical elements of Christianity.] + +[Sidenote: Dynamical doctrines in other spheres] + +To the student of Christianity, again, that same concurrent testimony is +profoundly interesting. Certain Christian ideas are being assimilated in +India. Certain cardinal aspects of Christianity are proving themselves +possessed of inherent force and attractiveness. They are showing that +they possess force not from authority, or tradition, or as part of a +system of doctrine, or as racially fitting, but when presented in new +and often very unfavourable surroundings. Borrowing an expression from +physical science, certain elements of Christianity are proving +_themselves dynamical_. For in non-Christian India, ecclesiastical +authority or tradition and the system of Christian doctrine as such, +possess no force. By illustrations from other spheres, let us make clear +what is meant by such dynamical elements of Christianity. The doctrine +of the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection was put before +the world by Darwin in 1859, and within the half century has been +accepted almost as an axiom by the whole civilised world. Undoubtedly +that doctrine has proved itself dynamical. On the other hand, a few +years earlier than the publication of _The Origin of Species_, another +body of new doctrine was propounded to Britain and the world, and +strongly urged by its upholders, namely, the doctrine of Free Trade--the +advantage to the community of buying in the cheapest market. True or +false, that body of doctrine has not proved dynamical among the nations, +for the great majority of peoples still repudiate the doctrines of Free +Trade. Similarly certain elements of Christianity are commending +themselves to new India, and certain others are failing to do so at this +time. + +[Sidenote: Illustrations from the history of Christianity.] + +From century to century these dynamical elements of Christianity may +vary; and it is profoundly interesting to the student of the history of +religious beliefs to observe the variation. In the early apostolic +times, when the apostles and disciples were "scattered abroad," we see +plainly in the Acts of the Apostles that the dynamical element of +Christianity is the Resurrection of Our Lord. It is that which tells, +and His coming reign--with Jewish audiences in particular. It was, +_e.g._, the manifestation of Christ to St. Paul on his way to Damascus +that completed the conversion of his life. And so, repeatedly throughout +the record of the Acts of the Apostles, they are described as +witness--bearers of the resurrection to the outside world. [Greek: +Megalê dynamei], "_with great power_ gave the apostles their witness of +the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them +all."[49] And yet--dynamical elements vary--in the different atmosphere +of Athens (we are twice told in so many words) this same resurrection of +Christ dug a gulf between St. Paul and the Athenians.[50] Passing to a +very different period, the latter half of the eighteenth century, the +period of the rise of Methodism and the revival of religion in England, +the period of new interest in the inmates of prisons, of agitation for +the abolition of slavery, of the foundation of all the great missionary +societies, the period of the French Revolution and the demand at home +for extension of the franchise, all outcome of the same +inspiration,--what was the strong epidemic thought? Reading the +religious history of the time, we feel that the power that passed from +soul to soul was a tremulously intense realisation of the family of God +and the love of God for men, represented in Christ's voluntary death +upon the cross, love for the neglected and the enslaved in their sins +and their sorrows. And again in our own day, when we are tempted to say +that the consciousness of God and the eternal, the primary religious +instincts, are fading, what by common consent is really dynamical among +educated men? Assuredly not the shibboleths of High or Low Church. It is +the person of Jesus Christ that is dynamical; what He was on earth, what +He has been ever since in the hearts of individuals and in the Church. +In a real sense we are starting again from and with Himself. +Anticipating, let us say that these two elements most recently dynamical +in Britain have had force likewise in India. + +[Sidenote: India a new touch-stone of Christianity.] + +India in the nineteenth century has been indeed a new touchstone to the +Christian religion; and, in brief, to make plain how far Christianity +has proved its force and its fitness to survive will occupy the +remaining chapters of this book. What has been the nature and extent of +the impact of Christian and modern thought upon India, and particularly +upon Hinduism? Of course I am thinking particularly of the educated +native Hindu community that has sprung up during the century just +closed. The dynamic of Christianity, which it is our task to test, +implies a measure of conscious and intelligent approval. Japan is +another such testing ground. Indeed the only large fields where +Christianity is presented to bodies of non-Christian men able to yield +approval or refuse it on intelligent grounds, of which they are +conscious, are India and Japan. In China also there are no doubt large +bodies of literati, but as a class they have not yet come into the +modern world and into contact with Christianity. Even down to the Boxer +rising of 1900, the wall of conservative patriotism shut off the +literati in China from the outer civilisation and religions. + +[Sidenote: Indians themselves to be our witnesses.] + +Fortunately for students of India, her new literati are not merely in +touch with the modern world, but express their minds readily in public +meetings and in print. From themselves we shall chiefly quote in +justifying the statements that will be made regarding the former or the +modern religious opinions of India. To non-Christian or secular writers, +also, we shall chiefly go, that the bias may rather be against than for +the acknowledgment of change and progress. Our plan is to pronounce as +little as possible upon either the Christian or the Hindu positions. We +are observers of the religious ideas of modern India, and desire our +readers to come into touch with modern Indians and to see for +themselves. + +[Sidenote: Obstacles to changes in religion.] + +[Sidenote: Education strips new Indians of belief.] + +Truth is great and will prevail, but let us not under-estimate the +difficulties in the way of new opinions in India, where these do not +appeal to the natural desires for power or status or comfort. I have +already referred to the deep-rooted notion that Hinduism is of the soil +of India, and adherence to it bound up with the national honour. I refer +to it here again only to glance at a kindred notion, common among +Anglo-Indians, that the Indian religion is the outcome of Indian +environment, and is "consequently" the best religion for India. That +superficial fallacy, undoubtedly, alienates the sympathy of many +Anglo-Indians from religious and social progress in India. Thrice at +least did one of the most distinguished viceroys, when addressing native +audiences, advise them to stick to their own beliefs, using these or +very similar words. He was addressing Mahomedans at one place, Hindus at +the second place, and Buddhists at the third, and we leave his advice at +one place to contradict his advice at another. Certainly let us allow +for variation in local usage, and in subjective opinion, while we are +insisting on the universality and objectivity of truth. For in spite of +new and strange environment, in spite of that prevailing notion that +religion is a racial thing, of the natural disinclination to change, of +modern agnosticism and materialism when the old ideas do give way--in +spite of these things, some of the cardinal features of Christianity are +commending themselves to educated India. Far from religion being racial, +the recent religious evolution of India suggests that in respect of the +religious instinct and the religious faculty, mankind are one, not +divided. _A priori_, therefore, we might anticipate that the elements of +Christianity which have proved dynamical with new India will be the same +that have proved their dynamic with educated men at home. So far as the +situation in India has been created by the destructive influence of +modern education, and by what may be called the modern spirit, the same +influences are telling both in Europe and in India; they have come from +Europe to India. There is the same unwillingness to believe in the +supernatural, and the same demand that religion shall satisfy ethical +and utilitarian tests. One difference, however, we may note. The +educated men of India may not be living so entirely in the modern +atmosphere as the men of Europe and America; but in India the modern +spirit finds usages and systems of thought more inconsistent with modern +ideas. As a consequence, where in India the modern spirit _has_ come, it +has stripped men barer of belief. Listen to the following curious +conglomeration, showing the influences at work, constructive and +destructive. It is a passage from the pamphlet already referred to, _The +Future of India_; the author is arguing for what he calls "practical +recognition of the Fatherhood of God"--one new positive idea. That idea +he takes to mean that "God is the Father of all nations and religions," +and that _therefore_ "it does not matter much to what religion a man +belongs, so far as the future of his soul is concerned." Does not that +signify that he himself is stripped bare of belief? From which modern +notion, that religion does not matter much, he next argues that a man +ought to deny himself the luxury and "satisfaction of breaking his +religious fetters," _i.e._ of seceding from his own faith and joining +another. He ought to stick to his community, says this writer, and "have +the satisfaction of working for the elevation of his countrymen." There +we have the new political consciousness. The writer, it should be added, +says some plain things about the need of social reform. + +[Sidenote: Three dynamical elements of Christianity.] + +As proved by observation in India, the dynamical elements of +Christianity may be briefly enumerated as follows. Monotheism, tending +more and more to the distinctively Christian idea of God, Our Father, is +commending itself, and being widely accepted. Secondly, in a remarkable +degree, Jesus Christ Himself is being recognised and receiving general +homage. In a less degree, and yet notably, the Christian conception of +the Here and Hereafter is commending itself to the minds of the +new-educated Hindus. In the new religious organisations also, the +Christian manner of worship and of public worship commends itself almost +as a matter of course. In none of these spheres am I describing the +outcome of visible conflict or of any loud controversy. Rather, +Christianity brought close to the religious instincts and the religious +ideas of India has been like a great magnet introduced among a number of +kindred but non-magnetised bodies lying loosely around. In the presence, +simply, of these dynamical elements, or in contact with them, Indian +religious thought is becoming polarised. Towards and away from the same +great points, Indian religious thought is setting. These dynamical +elements of Christianity, and the illustration of their power, will be +considered in the following chapters. + +Of the elements of Christianity that have proved themselves dynamical, +we may note the natural order in which they have come. The order in +which I have stated them is the order in which they asserted themselves, +first "God Our Father," then "Jesus Christ Himself." First, of this +world in which we find ourselves, when our _minds_ awake, we must have +some satisfying conception. The belief in one God, in Him for whom we +can find no better name than "Our Father," approved itself to awakened +India, to the _intellectually_ enlightened, and in the first place to +small groups of enlightened men in the large towns, the centres of +modern education and Christian influence. Then came an advance of a +different nature altogether. To those spiritually minded and more +intense men who needed a religious master, a hero, to whom their +_hearts_ might go out, there came, after certain obstacles had been +broken down, some knowledge of the actual historical Jesus Christ. The +first stage satisfied the _mind_ of modern educated India; the second +stage concerns the highest affections and the lives. We know the step, +when in the Apostles' Creed we pass from "I believe in God the Father +Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth," to the words "and in Jesus +Christ." Thereat we have brought theology down from heaven to earth; or +rather, in these days we would say, in Jesus Christ we have obtained on +earth, in actual history, in our affections, a foundation on which to +rear our system of actual and motive-giving belief. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS OF INDIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +THE INDIAN CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND THE BR[=A]HMAS + + Children of one family. + + +[Sidenote: Two physical changes on the face of a country.] + +When we consider how the face of a country has been altered during the +lapse of time, two great changes may be noticed, both of them due to the +action of man. First we may observe that the whole general character of +the country has undergone transformation. Gone are the ancient forests +of Scotland, which of old in many districts clad the whole countryside, +and with them have gone the wild animals which they sheltered. The +forests destroyed, and the rainfall in consequence less abundant, the +surface marshes and lakes have in many places vanished, taking the old +agues and fevers in their train. Instead of the strongholds of +chieftains in their fastnesses, surrounded by bands of their clansmen +and retainers, has come the sober, peaceful, life of independent +tenants, agricultural or artisan. And so on, down through the general +changes wrought on the face of a land by modern conditions of life, we +might watch the evolution of new features of the landscape. But we turn +to the other kind of change, which is more noticeable at first sight, +and is more directly due to the action of man. Great, laboriously +cultivated, fields now stretch where formerly there was only waste or +forest, or at best small sparsely scattered patches; and the very +products of the soil in these new spacious fields are in many cases new. +Where, for example, even in Britain before the close of the seventeenth +century, were the great fields of potatoes and turnips and red clover, +and even of wheat, which now meet the eye everywhere as the seasons +return? Where in India before the British period were the vast areas now +under tea and coffee, jute and cotton, although the two last have been +grown and manufactured in India from time immemorial? "It might almost +be said that, from Calcutta to Lahore, 50 per cent. of the prevalent +vegetation, cultivated and wild, has been imported into India within +historic times."[51] + +[Sidenote: Two similar changes in the religious thought of India.] + +All that, of course, is a parable. Likewise, in the new India we are +studying, product of new modern influences direct and indirect, two +kinds of religious changes impress us. There is, first, the gradual +change coming over the whole thought of the people, a transformation +like that wrought upon the face and climate of many lands. There is, +further, the religious change, more immediately evident, in the new +Indian religious organisations of the past century, analogous to the +new, cultivated, products of the soil. + +[Sidenote: Four new religious organisations.] + +As change more definite and perceptible, we look first at the new Indian +religious organisations. Within the British period, four organised +religious movements attract our notice. They are: I. The new Indian +Christian Church; II. The Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j and the kindred +Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes; III. The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j; and IV. The +Theosophical Society, which in India now stands for the revival of +Hinduism. + +I. To hear the native Indian Church reckoned among the products of the +British period may be surprising to some. There are indeed Christian +communities in India older than the Christianity of many districts in +Britain, and even excluding the Syrian and Roman Christians of India we +must acknowledge that the Protestant Christian community dates farther +back than the British period. Yet in a real sense the Protestant Indian +Church, and the progressive character of the whole Indian Church, belong +to the century just closed. The Moravians and one English Missionary +Society excepted, all the great Missionary Societies now at work have +come into being since 1793. In 1901 the native _Protestant_ community in +India, outcome of these Societies' labours, numbered close upon a +million souls. + +[Sidenote: The Indian Church.] + +[Sidenote: The Indian Church and the national consciousness.] + +The Indian Christian Church is a living organisation, or congeries of +organisations, over two and a half million souls all told, and growing +rapidly. The exact figures in 1901 were 2,664,313, showing an increase +during ten years of 30.8 per cent. The figures exclude Eurasians and +Europeans; and in Anglo-Indian speech, we may remark, all Americans and +Australians and South African whites and the like are Europeans. The +attitude of the Indian Christian Church to the new ideas introduced by +the British connection and by the modern world can readily be +understood. Cut off, cast off, by their fellow-countrymen, and brought +into closer contact than any others with Europeans in their missionaries +and teachers, their minds have been open to all the new ideas. We know +in fact that Indian Christians are often charged, by persons who do not +appreciate the situation, with being over-Europeanised. It may be so in +certain ways, but, irrespective of Christianity or Hinduism, the +adoption of European ways results from contact with Europeans, and in +certain respects is almost a condition of intercourse with Europeans. +Let those, for example, who talk glibly about Indians sticking to their +own dress, know that gentlemen in actual native dress are not allowed to +walk on that side of the bandstand promenade in Calcutta where Europeans +sit--a scandal crying for removal. With regard to the new national +consciousness, it may be repeated that the Indian Christian community is +almost as alive with the national feeling as the educated Hindu +community. As the Indian Church becomes at once more indigenous and more +thoroughly educated in Western learning, as it becomes less identified +with European denominations, and less dependent upon stimulus from +without, it will no doubt become still more national in every sense, be +more recognised as one of India's institutions, and become a powerful +educator in India. Once within the environment of the national feeling, +the seed of Christian thought and modern ideas will spring up and +spontaneously flourish. The future progress of the Indian Church may be +said to depend upon the growth of that national consciousness within it. +The sense of independence and the duty of self-support and union are, +properly, being fostered in the native churches. But one of the dangers +ahead undoubtedly is that, like one of the other religious movements of +the past century, or like the Ethiopian Church in South Africa, the +Indian Church may become infected with the political rather than the +religious aspect of the idea. + +[Sidenote: The Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j.] + +[Sidenote: Rammohan Roy.] + +II. _The Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j_.--Next to the Christian Church in order of +birth of the issue of the new age, comes the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j or +Theistic Association. It was founded in Calcutta in 1828 by the famous +reformer, Raja Rammohan Roy, first of modern Indians. The Br[=a]hma +Sam[=a]j is confessedly the outcome of contact with Christian ideas. By +the best known of the Br[=a]hma community, the late Keshub Chunder Sen, +it was described as "the legitimate offspring of the wedlock of +Christianity with the faith of the Hindu Aryans." "No other reformation" +[in India], says the late Sir M. Monier Williams, "has resulted in the +same way from the influence of European education and Christian ideas." +The founder himself, Raja Rammohan Roy, was indeed more a Christian than +anything else, although he wore his brahman thread to the day of his +death in order to retain the succession to his property for his son. In +London and in Bristol, where he died in 1833, he associated himself with +Dr. Carpenter and the more orthodox section of the Unitarians, +explicitly avowing his belief in the miracles of Christ generally, and +particularly in the resurrection. In Calcutta, indeed, the origin of the +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j was acknowledged at its commencement. After attending +the Scotch and other Churches in Calcutta, and then the Unitarian +Church, Rammohan Roy and his native friends set up a Church of their +own, and one name for it among educated natives was simply the Hindu +Unitarian Church. It is a secondary matter that, to begin with, the +reformer believed that he had found his monotheism in the Hindu +Scriptures, now known to all students as the special Scriptures of +pantheism. + +Raja Rammohan Roy, the brave man who made a voyage to Britain in +defiance of caste, the champion of the widow who had often been +virtually obliged to lay herself on her dead husband's pyre, the +strenuous advocate of English education for Indians, the supporter of +the claim of Indians to a larger employment in the public service, has +not yet received from New India the recognition and honour which he +deserves. To every girl, at least in Bengal, the province of +widow-burning, he ought to be a hero as the first great Indian knight +who rode out to deliver the widows from the torturing fire of Suttee. + +[Sidenote: Service of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j to India.] + +As its theistic name implies, the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j professedly +represents a movement towards theism, _i.e._ a rise from the polytheism +and idolatry of the masses and a rejection of the pantheism of Hindu +philosophy. Of course, noteworthy though it be, the foundation of the +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j in 1828 was not the introduction of monotheism to +India. In the Indian Christian Church and in Mahomedanism, the doctrine +of one, personal, God had been set forth to India, and in one of the +ancient Hindu philosophical systems, the Yoga Philosophy, the same +doctrine is implied. But in India, Christianity and Mahomedanism were +associated with hostile camps; the Yoga Philosophy was known only to a +few Sanscrit scholars. In Br[=a]hmaism, the doctrine of one personal God +became again natural naturalised in India. That has been its special +service to India, to naturalise monotheism and many social and religious +movements. For in India, things new and foreign lie under a peculiar +suspicion. In the social sphere, the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j repudiates caste +and gives to women a position in society. As Indian _theists_ also, when +their first church was opened in 1830, they gave the Indian sanction to +congregational worship and prayer, "before unknown to Hindus." For, the +brahman interposing between God and the ignorant multitude, the Hindu +multitude do not assemble themselves for united prayer, as Christians +and Mahomedans do; and at the other end of the Hindu scale, the +professed pantheist as such cannot pray. In proof of the latter +statement, we recall the words of Swami Vivekananda, representative of +Hinduism in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, in a lecture +"The Real and the Apparent Man," published in 1896. "It is the greatest +of all lies," he writes somewhat baldly, although one is often grateful +for a bald, definite statement, "that we are mere men; we are the God of +the Universe.... The worst lie that you ever told yourself is that you +were born a sinner.... The wicked see this universe as a hell, and the +partially good see it as heaven, and the perfect beings realise it as +God Himself.... By mistake we think that we are impure, that we are +limited, that we are separate. The real man is the One Unit Existence." +Prayer is therefore irrational for a pantheist, for no man is separate +from God. + +[Sidenote: Its limited membership.] + +The influence of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j has been far greater than its +numerical success. Reckoned by its small company of 4050 members,[52] +some of them certainly men of the highest culture and of sincere +devoutness, the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j is a limited and local movement, +limited largely to the province of Bengal, and even to a few of the +larger towns in the province. But if the taint of the intellectual +origin of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j be still visible in the eclecticism +that it professes, in its rejection of the supernatural, and in its poor +numerical progress, it has nevertheless done great things for India. + +[Sidenote: The Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j and the national feeling.] + +As yet the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j has remained unaffected by the political +aspect of the new national feeling. Early in its history there was, +indeed, a section of the Sam[=a]j resolved to limit the selection of +scriptures to the scriptures of the Hindus, but the late Keshub Chunder +Sen successfully asserted the freedom of the Sam[=a]j, and probably +saved it from the narrow patriotic groove and from the political +character of the third of the new religious organisations, the [=A]rya +Sam[=a]j. + +[Sidenote: Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes or Prayer Associations of S.W. +India.] + +_The Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes_ or Prayer Associations of South-Western +India.--The history of India is pre-eminently the history of Northern +India, that is of the great plains of the Ganges and the Punjab. One may +test it by the simple academical test of reckoning what percentage of +marks in an examination on Indian history is assigned to the events of +the great northern plains. It is the same in the more recent religious +history of India. The southern provinces of Bombay and Madras have +contributed very little in respect of new religious life, organised or +unorganised, compared with the northern provinces of Bengal, the United +Provinces, and the Punjab. The Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes or Prayer +Associations of Bombay and South-western India are monotheistic like the +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, and have their halls for their own worship. But +socially they have not severed themselves from their Hindu brethren, and +do not figure in the Census as separate. Even compared with the +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, they are few in number. The first Pr[=a]rthan[=a] +Sam[=a]j was founded in Bombay in 1867. In Madras there is a small +representation of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS + +THE [=A]RYAS AND THE THEOSOPHISTS. + + "Let us receive not only the revelations of the past, but also + welcome joyfully the revelations of the present day." + + --BISHOP COLENSO. + + +[Sidenote: The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j.] + +III. _The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j_ or _Vedic Theistic Association_--In contrast +to the Sam[=a]jes which are leavening the country but themselves are +numerically unprogressive, are two other organisations--first, the +[=A]rya Sam[=a]j of the United Provinces and the Punjab, and secondly, +the Theosophists, who are now most active in Upper India, with Benares +the metropolis of Hinduism, as their headquarters. These two have taken +hold of educated India as no other movements yet have done. They appeal +directly to patriotic pride and the new national feeling, or, more +truly, are primarily shaped thereby. + +Founded in 1875, the [=A]ryas are the most rapidly increasing of the new +Indian sects. In 1901 they numbered 92,419, an increase in the decade of +131 per cent. What ideas have such an attraction for the educated middle +class, for to that class the [=A]ryas almost exclusively belong? In +certain parts of the United Provinces and the Punjab, it seems as much a +matter of course that one who has received a modern education should be +an [=A]rya, as that in certain other provinces he should be a supporter +of the Congress. + +[Sidenote: Foundation ideas of the [=A]ryas--two.] + +The prime motive ideas are two. One is the result of modern education +and of Christian influence, namely, a consciousness that in certain +grosser aspects, such as polytheism, idolatry, animal sacrifices, caste, +and the seclusion of women, the present-day Hinduism cannot be defended. +Those things the [=A]ryas repudiate,--all honour to them for their +protest in behalf of reason, although in respect of caste and the +seclusion of women, their theory is said to be considerably ahead of +their practice. In the same modern spirit every [=A]rya member pledges +himself to endeavour to diffuse knowledge; and a college and a number of +schools are carried on by [=A]ryas in the Punjab. Repudiating all those +current customs, of course the [=A]ryas have parted company with the +orthodox Hindus. [=A]rya preachers denounce the corruptions of Hinduism, +and in turn, what may be called a Great Council of orthodox Hindus has +pronounced condemnation on the [=A]ryas. At an assembly of about four +hundred Hindu pandits, held in 1881 in the Senate House of the +University in Calcutta, the views of the founder of the [=A]ryas, +Dyanand Saraswati, were condemned as heterodox.[53] + +The second motive idea is the new national consciousness, the new +patriotic feeling of Indians. The patriotic feeling is manifest in the +name; the [=A]ryas identify themselves with the [=A]ryans, the +Indo-European invaders of India, from whom the higher castes of Hindus +claim to be descended. Virtually, we may say, the [=A]ryas claim by +their name to be the pure original Hindus. + +[Sidenote: Infallibility of the Vedas the leading tenet at first.] + +To the first influence we may assign one of the chief doctrines of the +[=A]ryas, namely, their monotheism. Others of their doctrines belong to +the theology and philosophy of Hinduism, _e.g._ the ancient doctrine of +the transmigration of souls, and the doctrine of the three eternal +entities, God, the Soul, and Matter, the doctrinal significance of which +we shall have occasion to consider hereafter. These three uncreated +existences constitute one of the doctrines of the Joga system of Hindu +philosophy. To the second, or patriotic, influence, we may assign +especially the fundamental tenet of the founder of the [=A]ryas, namely, +the infallibility of the original Scriptures, the four Vedas, given, as +he alleged, to Indian sages at the creation of the world. "Back to the +Vedas!" we may say, is the cry of the [=A]ryas. In effect, the cry is +tantamount to the plea that the errors of Hinduism are only later +accretions; and be it acknowledged that no sanction can be drawn from +the Vedas for the prohibition of widow marriages, for the general +prevalence of child marriages, for the tyranny of caste, for idolatry +and several other objectionable customs.[54] Among the [=A]ryas, +therefore, we have the championship of things Indian in its crudest +form. Ludicrous are the attempts to rationalise all the statements of +the Vedas, and to find in them all modern science and modern ideas, +pouring new wine into old wine-skins, in perfect innocence of "the +higher criticism." Thus while animal sacrifices are proscribed by the +[=A]ryas, they are everywhere assumed in the Vedas, and two of the hymns +in the Rigveda are for use at the sacrifice of a horse +(a[s']wamedha).[55] According to an [=A]rya commentator, however, +a[s']wamedha is to be translated not "sacrifice of a horse," but +destruction of ignorance,--sacrifice of an ass, as one may jestingly +say.[56] Offerings for deceased parents, prescribed in detail in the +Vedas, are similarly rationalised into kind treatment of parents in old +age. The ancient and modern condemnation of eating beef was rationalised +by the [=A]ryas as follows: To kill a cow is as bad as to kill many men. +For suppose a cow to have a lifetime of fourteen or fifteen years. Her +calves, let us say, would be six cow calves and six bull calves. The +milk of the cow and her six cow calves during her natural lifetime would +give food for a day to an army of 154,440 men, according to the +calculation of the founder of the [=A]ryas, while the labour of the +other six calves as oxen would give a full meal to an army of 256,000 +men. Therefore to kill a cow, etc., Q.E.D. Modern democracy, the +Copernican system of astronomy, a knowledge of the American continent, +of steamships, and of the telegraph are all discovered by Dyanand in the +Vedas, as no doubt wireless telegraphy and radium would have been, had +death not cut short, in 1883, the discoveries of the founder of the +[=A]ryas.[57] + +[Sidenote: The modern leaven still affecting the [=A]ryas.] + +These specimens of [=A]rya exposition of the Vedas I have given with no +intention of scoffing, although we may be permitted a laugh. I desire to +show the conflict of modern ideas and the new patriotic feeling, and how +the latter has affected the religious and theological position of the +[=A]ryas. It is the prominence of the patriotic feeling in many branches +of the Sam[=a]j that has led some observers to describe it as less of a +religious than a political organisation, anti-British and anti-Mahomedan +and anti-Christian. But the opponents of the Sam[=a]j are always +associated by [=A]ryas with rival religions; _keranis, kuranis,_ and +_puranis_ is their echoing list of their opponents,--namely, Christians +_(kerani_ being a corruption of _Christiani_), and believers in the +Koran, and believers in the Purans, _i.e._ the later Hindu books. And +that there is much more than political feeling is apparent in their +latest developments. The leaven of modern ideas has now led to the rise +of a party among the [=A]ryas which is prepared to stand by reason out +and out, and repudiate the founder's bondage to the Vedas and his _à +priori_ expositions. Popularly, the new party is known as the +"flesh-eaters." At present the Sam[=a]j is about equally divided, but +the more rationalistic section comprises most of the new-educated +members. Should the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j retain, as their chief doctrinal +positions, the perfection of pure original Hinduism and opposition to +every other ism, no great foresight or historical knowledge is required +to predict for the [=A]ryas, despite their vigour, a speedy lapse from +their reforming zeal into the position simply of a new Hindu caste, +reverting gradually to type. Their fate is still in the balance. + +[Sidenote: The Bombay [=A]rya Sam[=a]j.] + +The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j in Bombay does not repudiate caste. One of their +principles is that no member is expected to violate any of his own +special caste rules. Why, one cannot help asking, this invertebrate +character of the new Indian religious associations in Western India? It +is patent that what the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes of Western India are +to the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j of Bengal, the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j in Bombay is +to that in the Punjab and the United Provinces--only feeble echoes. +Bombay Indians lead their countrymen in commercial enterprise, and in +political questions they take as keen an interest as any of the Indian +races. With hesitation and with apologies to Parsee friends, we ask +whether it is the numerous Parsees in Bombay who have made their +fellow-westerns only worldly-wise. For to great commercial enterprise, +the Parsees add a stubborn conservatism in religion. + +[Sidenote: The Theosophical Society and the national feeling.] + +IV. _The Theosophists_ are the only other new religious organisation +whom we can notice.--Them too the new patriotic feeling has very largely +shaped. Founded in America in 1875, the very year in which the [=A]rya +Sam[=a]j was established in Bombay, the Theosophical Society professed +to be "the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity," representing +and excluding no religious creed and interfering with no man's caste. On +the other hand, somewhat inconsistently, it professed to be a society to +promote the study of [=A]ryan and other Eastern literature, religion, +and sciences, and to vindicate their importance; and it appealed for +support, amongst others, "to all who loved India and would see a revival +of her ancient glories, intellectual and spiritual." At the same time +the society professed "to investigate the hidden mysteries of nature and +the psychical powers latent in man." The society naturally gravitated +towards India, and by 1884 had 87 branches in India and Ceylon, against +12 in all the rest of the world. Its career might easily have been +predicted. Inevitably, when transplanted to India, about the year 1878, +such a society came under the spell of the new national consciousness +already referred to. For a time Theosophy shared with the political +Congress the first place in the interest of New India, and crowds of +educated Indians still assemble whenever Mrs. Besant, now the leading +Theosophist, is to speak. One of the rules of the society, however, +saved it from the descent into politics that has overtaken the [=A]rya +Sam[=a]j and tainted it as a religious movement. Rule XVI (1884) forbids +members, as such, to interfere in politics, and declares expulsion to be +the penalty for violation of the rule. + +[Sidenote: [=A]rya period of the Theosophical Society.] + +Consistently enough, when the society was transplanted to India, it +entered into partnership with the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j; for two years, +indeed, Madame Blavatsky, the first leader of the Theosophists, had been +corresponding from America with the founder of the [=A]ryas. The [=A]rya +tenet of the infallibility of the original Hindu Scriptures needed no +reconciliation with the Theosophist declaration of the ancient spiritual +glories of India. But the [=A]ryas are also religious reformers, while, +as enlightened Hindus now complain, the Theosophists are more Hindu than +the Hindus. After three years, in 1881, difference arose on the question +of the personality of God. The [=A]ryas, we have seen, are monotheist; +the Theosophical Society, we shall see, is identified with brahmanical +pantheism.[58] + +[Sidenote: Buddhist period of the Theosophical Society.] + +[Sidenote: Pro-Hindu period of the Theosophical Society.] + +The Buddhist period of the Theosophical Society, which came next, is +best known to general readers, but is only an episode in its history. In +the early "eighties," we find the society pro-Buddhist, and apparently +identifying _Buddhism_ with "the ancient glories of India, spiritual and +intellectual," that the society was professedly desirous to revive. We +associate the period with the publication of _Esoteric Buddhism_, by Mr. +A.P. Sinnett, one of the society's leaders, and with Madame Blavatsky's +claim to be in spiritual communication with Mahatmas [great spirits] in +Thibet, the Buddhist land, now robbed of its mystery by the British +expedition of 1904. Madame Blavatsky claimed to be receiving letters +carried straight from Thibet by some air-borne Ariel. The discovery in +1884 of Madame Blavatsky's trickery ended the exhibition of "psychical +powers," and also apparently the Buddhist period of the society. That +the society itself survived the exposure is proof that it had a deeper +root than any mere cult of Buddhism or Spiritualism could give. Its +appeal, as we have said, was to the new patriotic feeling in the sphere +of religion. To Madame Blavatsky succeeded Mrs. Besant as leading +spirit, and to the cult of Buddhism again succeeded the glorification of +ancient Hinduism and now also apologies of Hinduism as it is; and to +Madras as chief centre of Theosophy succeeded Benares, metropolis of +Hinduism. Mrs. Besant proclaimed herself the reincarnation of some +ancient Hindu pandit, and called upon Hindus to devote themselves to the +study of the Sacred Sanscrit. Supported by many well-to-do Hindus, in +1900 she founded a college at Benares in which Hinduism might be lived +and inculcated as Christianity is inculcated in the Indian Missionary +Colleges. In the beginning of 1904 a great figure of the goddess +Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of Learning, was being erected in the +grounds of the College. The subordination of the Indian Theosophical +Society, at least in the person of Mrs. Besant, to the pro-Hindu +national movement may be pronounced complete. In the sphere of religion, +this new Indian consciousness which has enveloped the Theosophists is a +force opposed to change and reform. The Theosophical Society, which at +the outset professed to be the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood, is +now fostering caste and Hindu exclusiveness, the antitheses of the idea +of humanity. Yet, as we shall see, even in the text-books of Hindu +Religion prepared for use in the Hindu College, Benares, Christian +thought is not difficult to discover. And its meed of praise must not be +withheld from the attempts of Theosophists and the Hindu College, +Benares, to rationalise current Hindu customs and to reduce the chaos of +Hindu beliefs to some system that will satisfy New India. Fain would the +Theosophists propound, as we have already noted in the chapter, "New +Social Ideas," that caste should be determined by character and +occupation, not by birth. That being impossible, they would fain see the +myriad of castes reduced to the original four named in Manu. To quote +again the summing up regarding the caste system in the chief Hindu +text-book referred to--"Unless the abuses which are interwoven with caste +can be eliminated, its doom is certain." That is much from the leaders +of the Hindu reaction. In Hinduism they may often see only what they +wish to see, but they are not wholly blinded. + +The Theosophists, it should be noted, do not figure as such in the +Census. Indian Christians, Brahmas, and [=A]ryas have all taken up a +definite new position in respect of religion, and ticket themselves as +such; the Theosophists are now at least mainly the apologists of things +as they are, and require no name to differentiate themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE NEW MAHOMEDANS + + +[Sidenote: The national anti-British feeling not manifested among +Mahomedans.] + +[Sidenote: Mahomedan religious movements.] + +The Mahomedans, the other great religious community of India,[59] have +been far less stirred by the new era than the Hindus, whom hitherto we +have been chiefly considering. Only a small number of Mahomedans belong +to the professional class, so that modern education and the awakening +have not reached Mahomedans in the same degree as Hindus. Quite +outnumbered also by Hindus, they identify themselves politically with +the British rather than with the Hindus, so that as a body they do not +support the Congress, the great Indian Political Association, and have +no anti-British consciousness. Mahomedan solidarity is strong enough, +but it is religious not national, and so it is only in the religious +sphere that we find the new era telling upon Mahomedans. Two small +religious movements may be noted curiously parallel to the [=A]rya and +Br[=a]hma movements among Hindus, and suggesting the operation of like +influences. + +[Sidenote: The Wahabbi movement analogous to [=A]ryaism.] + +As the [=A]ryas preach a return to the pure original Hinduism of the +Vedas, the first Mahomedan movement inculcates a return to the pure +original Mahomedanism of the Koran. In particular, it urges a casting +off of the Hindu customs and superstitions that the Indian converts to +Mahomedanism have frequently retained,--the offerings to the dead, for +example. In the first instance, the movement came from a seventeenth +century Arabian sect, the Wahabbis, but the movement reached India only +about the year 1820, and therefore is a feature of the period we are +surveying. The movement belongs specially to Bengal and the United +Provinces north-west of Bengal, and is known by a variety of local +names, Wahabbi and other. Significant, as supporting what has been said +regarding the absence of anti-British feeling among present-day +Mahomedans, is the fact that in the first stages of the Wahabbi +movement, both in Eastern and Western Bengal, the duty of war upon +infidels--on the British and the Hindus in this case--was a prominent +doctrine of the crusade. In Mahomedan language, India was _Daru-l-harb_ +or a Mansion of War. In these later years, on the contrary, it is +generally recognised by Mahomedans that India under the British rule is +not _Daru-l-harb_, but _Daru-l-Islam_, or a Mansion of Islamism, in +which war on infidels is not incumbent.[60] It may be noted that the +decree, recently issued from Mecca, that British territory is +Daru-l-Islam, can only refer to India. + +[Sidenote: The Aligarh movement analogous to Brahmaism.] + +Exactly like the Brahmas, the other new Mahomedan sect, in the modern +rational spirit, have refined away their faith to a theism or deism +purged of the supernatural. Mahomed's inspiration and miracles are +rejected. These represent the modern rationalising spirit in religion; +reason is their standard, and "reason alone is a sufficient guide." +According to Sir Syed Ahmad, founder of the movement, "Islam is Nature, +and Nature Islam." Hence the sect is sometimes called the Naturis,[61] +or followers of _Natural_ Religion, the adoption of the English word +identifying them again with the Br[=a]hmas, who are essentially the +outcome of English education and Christian influence among Hindus. The +Naturis, the modernised Mahomedans, have as their headquarters the +Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in the United Provinces. It +ought to be said that they also claim to be going back to pure original +Mahomedanism before it was corrupted by the "Fathers" of Islam. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HINDU DOCTRINES--HOW THEY CHANGE + + "As men's minds receive new ideas, laying aside the old and + effete, the world advances. Society rests upon them; mighty + revolutions spring from them; institutions crumble before their + onward march." + + --_Extract from Mr. Kiddle, an American writer, which occurs in + a letter "received" by Madame Blavatsky from Koot Humi in + Thibet_. + + +[Sidenote: Will the new religious organisations survive?] + +The four new religious organisations described in the preceding chapters +may or may not survive--who can tell? What would they become, or what +would become of them, in the event, say, of the great nations of Europe +issuing from some deadly conflict so balanced that India and the East +had to be let alone, entirely cut off? The Indian Christian Church, +hardly yet acclimatised so far as it is the creation of modern efforts, +would she survive? The English sweet-pea, sown in India, produced its +flowers, but not at first any vigorous self-propagating seed. The +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, graft of West on East, and still sterile as an +intellectual coterie, how would it fare, cut off from its Western +nurture? The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j--what, in that event, would be her +resistance to the centripetal force that we have noted in her blind +patriotism? The reactionary Theosophists--after the provocative action +had ceased--what of them? Would not the Indian jungle, which they are +trying to reduce to a well-ordered garden of indigenous fruits, speedily +lapse to jungle again? We shall not attempt to answer our own questions +directly, but proceed to the second part of our programme sketched on p. +122. How far then have Christian and modern religious ideas been +_naturalised_ in New India, whether within the new religious +organisations or without? Whatever the fate of the organisations, these +naturalised ideas might be expected to survive. + +[Sidenote: Modification of doctrines.] + +[Sidenote: Elements of Christianity being naturalised in India--three.] + +We recall the statements made on ample authority in an earlier chapter, +that certain aspects of Christianity are attracting attention in India +and proving themselves possessed of inherent force and attractiveness. +These, the dynamical elements of Christianity, were specially the idea +of God the Father, the person of Jesus Christ, and the Christian +conception of the Here and Hereafter. For although Hinduism declares a +social boycott against any Hindu who transports his person over the sea +to Europe, within India itself the Hindu mind is in close contact with +such modern religious ideas. The wall built round the garden will not +shut out the crows. Indeed, like the ancient Athenian, the modern Hindu +takes the keenest interest in new religious ideas. + +To comprehend the impression that such new religious ideas are making, +we must realise in some measure the background upon which they are cast, +both that part of it which the new ideas are superseding and the +remainder which constitutes their new setting and gives them their +significance. In brief, what is the present position of India in regard +to religious belief; and in particular, what are the prevailing beliefs +about God? + +[Sidenote: Indian beliefs about God--Polytheists; Theists; Pantheists.] + +A rough classification of the theological belief of the Hindus of the +present day would be--the multitude are polytheists; the new-educated +are monotheists; the brahmanically educated are professed pantheists. +Rough as it is, we must keep the classification before us in trying to +estimate the influence upon the Indian mind of the Christian idea of +God. From that fundamental classification let us try to understand the +Hindu position more fully. + +[Sidenote: No one doctrine is distinctive of Hinduism.] + +Let it be realised, in the first place, how _undefined_ is the Hindu's +religious position. From the rudest polytheism up to pantheism, and even +to an atheistic philosophy, all is within the Hindu pale, like fantastic +cloud shapes and vague mist and empty ether, all within the same sky. To +the student of Hinduism, then, the first fact that emerges is that there +are no distinctive Hindu doctrines. No one doctrine is distinctive of +Hinduism. There is no canonical book, nowhere any stated body of +doctrine that might be called the Hindu creed. The only common measure +of Hindus is that they employ brahmans in their religious ceremonies, +and even that does not hold universally. A saying of their own is, "On +two main points all sects agree--the sanctity of the cow and the +depravity of women." In contrast to Hindus in this respect of the +absence of a standard creed, Mahomedans call themselves _kitabi_ or +possessing a book, since in the Koran they do possess such a canon. In +the words of Mahomed, Christians and Jews likewise are "the peoples of +the book," and have a defined theological position. But regarding +Hindus, again, we note there is no doctrinal pale, no orthodoxy or +heterodoxy. "We Europeans," writes Sir Alfred Lyall regarding Hinduism, +"can scarcely comprehend an ancient religion, still alive and powerful, +which is a mere troubled sea without shore or visible horizon."[62] In +these days of opportunist denunciation of creeds, the amorphous state of +creedless Hinduism may be noted. + +The experience of the late Dr. John Henry Barrows, President of the +Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, may be quoted in +confirmation of the absence of a Hindu creed. After he had won the +confidence of India's representatives as their host at Chicago, and had +secured for them a unique audience there, being himself desirous to +write on Hinduism, he wrote to over a hundred prominent Hindus +requesting each to indicate what in his view were some of the leading +tenets of Hinduism. He received only one reply. + +[Sidenote: Pantheism, Maya, and Transmigration may be called Hindu +doctrines.] + +No one doctrine is distinctive of Hinduism. It is an extreme misleading +statement, nevertheless, to say as some Western writers have done, and +at least one Hindu writer,[63] that Hinduism is not a religion at all, +but only a social system. There are several doctrines to which a great +many Hindus would at once conventionally subscribe, and these I venture +to call Hindu doctrines. In theological conversations with Hindus, three +doctrines very frequently show themselves as a theological background. +These are, first, Pantheism; secondly, Transmigration and Final +Absorption into Deity; and, thirdly, Maya, i.e. Delusion, or the +Unreality of the phenomena of Sense and Consciousness. I find a recent +pro-Hindu writer making virtually the same selection. In the ninth +century, she writes, Sankarachargya, the great upholder of Pantheism, +"took up and defined the [now] current catch-words--maya, karma [the +doctrine of works, or of re-birth according to desert], reincarnation, +and left the terminology of Hinduism what it is to-day."... "But," she +also adds, "they are nowhere and in no sense regarded as essential."[64] +Naturally, then, the inquiry that we have set ourselves to will at the +same time be an inquiry how far Christian thought has affected these +three main Hindu doctrines of Pantheism, Transmigration, and Maya. + +[Sidenote: Commingling of contradictory beliefs--] + +[Sidenote: Polytheism with Monotheism.] + +Nor is it to be imagined that the Hindu polytheism, theism, and +pantheism are distinguishable religious strata. "Uniformity and +consistency of creeds are inventions of the European mind," says a +cynical writer already quoted. "Hinduism bristles with contradictions, +inconsistencies, and surprises," says Sir M. Monier Williams. The common +people are indeed polytheists, at different seasons of the year and on +different social occasions worshipping different deities, male or +female, and setting out to this or that shrine, as the touts of the +rival shrines have persuaded them. Nevertheless, an intelligent member +of the humbler ranks is always ready to acknowledge that there is really +only one God, of whom the so-called gods are only variations in name. Or +his theory may be that there is one supreme God, under whom the popular +deities are only departmental heads; for the presence of the great +central British Government in India is a standing suggestion of +monotheism. The officer who drew up the _Report of the Census of India_, +1901 (p. 363) gives an instance of this commingling of monotheism and +polytheism. "An orderly," he writes, "into whose belief I was inquiring, +described the relation between the supreme God and the Devata [minor +Gods] as that between an official and his orderlies, and another popular +simile often used is that of the Government and the district +officer."[65] The polytheism of the masses may thus blend with the +theism which is the ordinary intellectual standpoint of the educated +classes. + +[Sidenote: Monotheism with Polytheism.] + +Rising to the next stage, namely, the theism of the educated class--the +blending of their theism with the polytheism of the masses is +illustrated in the July number of the magazine of the Hindu College, +Benares, the headquarters of the late Hindu revival and of the +pantheistic philosophy. In answer to an inquirer's question--"Is there +only one God?" the reply is, "There is one supreme Lord or Ishvara of +the universe, and there are minor deities or devas who intelligently +guide the various processes of nature in their different departments in +willing obedience to Ishvara." The Hindu College, Benares, be it +remembered, is primarily one of the modern colleges whence the modern +new-Indians come. + +[Sidenote: Monotheism with Pantheism.] + +Again, the modern theism of the educated, in like manner, very readily +passes into the pantheism of the philosophers and of those educated in +Sanscrit, which I have described as part of the accepted Hindu +orthodoxy. For, whatever its origin, an observer finds the pantheistic +idea emerge all over educated India. The late Sir M. Monier Williams +speaks of pantheism as a main root of the original Indo-Aryan creed, +which has "branched out into an endless variety of polytheistic +superstitions." Whether that be so, or whether, as is now more generally +believed, the polytheism is the aboriginal Indian plant into which the +pantheistic idea has been grafted as communities have become +brahmanised, the pantheistic idea very readily presents itself to the +mind of the educated Hindu. In any discussion regarding human +responsibility the idea crops up that _all_ is God, "There is One only, +and no second." We can scarcely realise how readily it comes to the +middle-class Hindu's lips that God is all, and that there can be no such +thing as sin. The pantheists are thus no separate sect from the theists, +any more than the theists are from the polytheists. The same man, if a +member of the educated class, will be polytheist in his established +domestic religion, theist in his personal standpoint and general +profession, and probably a pantheist in a controversy regarding moral +responsibility, or should he set himself to write about religion. + +[Sidenote: Illustration of polytheism, monotheism, and pantheism +commingling.] + +Take a statement of the mingling of polytheism, monotheism, and +pantheism from the extreme south of India, a thousand miles away from +Benares. "Though those men all affirmed," we read, "that there is only +one God, they admitted that they each worshipped several. They saw +nothing inconsistent in this. Just as the air is in everything, so God +is in everything, therefore in the various symbols. And as our king has +diverse representative Viceroys and Governors to rule over his dominions +in his name, so the Supreme has these subdeities, less in power and only +existing by force of Himself, and He, being all pervasive, can be +worshipped under their forms."[66] + +[Sidenote: Pure pantheism rare.] + +At the top of all is the pure pantheist, a believer in the illusion of +the senses, and generally though not always an ascetic. For life is not +worth living if it is merely an illusion, and the illusion must be +dispelled, and the world of the senses renounced. If "father and +brother, etc., have no actual entity," said the reformer Raja Rammohan +Roy [1829] when combating pantheism, "they consequently deserve no real +affection, and the sooner we escape from them and leave the world the +better." So the pantheist is generally an ascetic cut off from the world +to be consistent in his pantheism. Yet again, we repeat that such pure +pantheists are very rare, and that "in India forms of pantheism, theism, +and polytheism are ever interwoven with each other."[67] + +To one familiar with India, such a medley is neither inconceivable nor +improbable; the debatable question only is, what sufficient account of +the cause thereof can be given. Why is it that Hindu doctrine has never +set? Why this incongruity between doctrine and domestic practice? Why +this double-mindedness in the same educated individual? Much might be +said in the endeavour to account for these characteristic features of +India, the despair of the Christian missionary. I confine myself to the +bearing of the question upon the influence of Christian ideas, and +particularly of Christian theism. + +[Sidenote: Fluidity of Hindu thought; rigidity of Hindu practice.] + +For the student of this special aspect of Hinduism a second pertinent +fact here emerges, namely, that Hindu practice is much more established +than Hindu doctrine. The unchangeableness of Hindu ritual is not a new +idea; it is its bearing on doctrine that has not been clearly +considered. There _is_, then, a distinctly recognised Hindu orthodoxy in +manners and worship, at least for each Hindu community, while there is +no orthodoxy in doctrine. The broad distinctive marks of Hindu practice, +we may repeat, are the social usage of caste, and the employment of +brahmans in religious ritual. With ideas, then, thus fluid and practice +thus rigid, it will be easily understood that Christian and modern ideas +have made much greater headway in India than Christian customs and modes +of worship. The mind of educated India has been Christianised to a much +greater extent than the religious or domestic practices have been. +Perhaps it might be said that all down the centuries of Christian Church +history, opinion has often been in advance of worship and the social +code, that social and religious conventionalities have lagged behind +belief. If so, it is the marked conservatism in ceremonial that is +noteworthy in India. While Hindu beliefs are dissolving or dropping out +of the mind, Hindu practices are successfully resisting the solvent +influences or only slowly being transformed. + +[Sidenote: More progress towards Christian thought than Christian +practice.] + +It is not too much to say that the educated Hindu does not regard a +fixed creed as a part of his Hinduism, but rather boasts of the +doctrinal comprehensiveness of his religion. He joyfully lives in a +ferment of religious thought, surrendering to the doctrine of a +satisfying teacher, but the idea of creed subscription, or a doctrinal +stockade, is utterly foreign to his nature. For him the standards are +the fixed social usages and the brahmanical ritual. Hear a Hindu himself +on the matter, the historian of _Hindu Civilisation during British Rule_ +[i. 60]: "Hinduism has ever been and still is as liberal and tolerant in +matters of religious belief as it is illiberal and intolerant in matters +of social conduct." In a recent pamphlet[68] an Anglo-Indian civilian +gives his evidence clearly, if too baldly, of the fixity of practice and +the mobility of belief. "The educated Hindu," he writes, "has largely +lost his belief in the old myths about the gods and goddesses of the +Hindu pantheon, and has learned to smile at many of the superstitions of +his uneducated countrymen. But Hinduism as a religion that tells a man +not only what he shall eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal he +shall be clothed, but tells him how to perform innumerable acts that men +of other nations never think have anything to do with religion at all, +Hinduism as an intricate social code, stands largely unaffected by the +flood of Western education that has been poured upon the country. He +instances a brahman, one of his own subordinates, college-bred and +English-speaking, who, when away from home with his superior officer, +had to cook his food for himself, because the brahman servant he had +with him was of a lower division than his own, and he could not afford +to hire a man of his own status among brahmans." + +[Sidenote: Thought independent of act.] + +We ask again for the cause of this progress in thought and stagnation in +practice. In India, creed and practice go their own way; thinking is +independent of acting. Listen to the naive standpoint assumed in the +Confession or Covenant of a Theistic Association established in Madras +in 1864. We read in article 3 that the person being initiated makes this +declaration: "In the meantime, I shall observe the ceremonies now in +use, but only where indispensable. I shall go through such ceremonies, +where they are not conformable to pure Theism, as mere matters of +routine, destitute of all religious significance--as the lifeless +remains of a superstition which has passed away." And again in article +4: "I shall never endeavour to deceive anyone as to my religious +opinions." In the revision of 1871, both articles were dropped, but in +the earlier form there was no attempt to disguise that thought was +independent of act. The familiar figure of Buddha in meditation, seated +cross-legged and motionless, with vacant introspective eyes, oblivious +of the outer world, is a type of the separation of thought from act that +seems natural to India or to the Indian mind, type also of the +independence of each thinker. The thinker secludes himself; "the mind is +its own place." To become a thinker signifies to become an ascetic +recluse; even modern enlightenment often removes an Indian from +fellow-feeling with his kind. + +[Sidenote: No Theological Faculties.] + +How is it so? I say nothing of the climate of tropical India as a +contributory cause. The way in which Hindu learning was and is +transmitted, is itself almost sufficient explanation of the independence +and the fluidity of religious doctrine. Hinduism has no recognised +Theological Faculties as training schools for the priesthood. _Buddhist_ +monasteries of the early Christian centuries we do read of, institutions +corresponding to our universities, to which crowds of students resorted, +and where many subjects were taught; but the _Hindu_ lore is transmitted +otherwise. Beside or in his humble dwelling, the learned Hindu pandit +receives and teaches and shares his poverty with his four, five, or it +may be twenty disciples, who are to be the depositaries of his lore, and +in their turn its transmitters. Such an institution is a Sanscrit tol, +where ten to twenty years of the formative period of a young pandit's +life may be spent. Without printed books and libraries and intercourse +with kindred minds, there may be as many schools of thought as there are +teachers. And all this study, be it remembered, has no necessary +connection with the priesthood. Tols have no necessary connection with +temples, or temples with tols. Hereditary priests are independent of +Theological Schools. Recently, indeed, in Bengal these tols have been +taken up by the Education Department, and their studies are being +directed to certain fixed subjects. + +[Sidenote: The twofold priesthood--religious teachers and celebrants.] + +[Sidenote: How doctrine moves independently of ritual.] + +Another feature of the organisation of Hinduism, hitherto insufficiently +noticed, has a still closer connection with this freedom of thought and +fixity of practice. The Indian mind is open to new religious ideas, +while the religious customs of India remain almost unaffected, _because_ +the priesthood of Hinduism is two-fold. One set of priests, called +purohits, are merely the celebrants at worship and ceremonies; the +second set, called gurus, theoretically more highly honoured, are or +were the religious teachers of the people. Among Mahomedans there is a +somewhat similar two-fold priesthood, although among them doctrine is +not divorced from religious worship and ritual. But in Christianity we +have not specialised so far. A Christian clergyman, as we know, holds +both offices; he is both the religious teacher and the celebrant at +sacraments, etc. In Hinduism, with these two sets of priests entirely +separate, it is evident that a change may take place in the creed +without the due performance of the Hindu ritual being affected. A +striking instance of the divergence of guru from purohit is given by Sir +Monier Williams in another connection. In India, he says, no temples are +more common than those containing the symbol of the God Siva--there are +said to be thirty million symbols of Siva scattered over India--yet +among gurus there is scarcely one in a hundred whose vocation is to +impart the mantra (the saving text) of Siva.[69] It has already been +explained how the creed of Hinduism is dissolving while its practices +remain; to restate the fact otherwise now--The hereditary purohits +continue to be employed many times a year in a Hindu household, as +worship, births, deaths, marriages, and social ceremonies recur, but the +hereditary gurus as religious teachers have become practically +defunct.[70] Literally, the _one_ duty of a guru has come to be to +communicate once in a lifetime to each Hindu his saving mantra or +Sanscrit text; periodically thereafter, the guru may visit his clients +to collect what dues they may be pleased to give. The place of religious +teacher in Hinduism is vacant, and Christianity and modern thought are +taking the vacant place. The modern middle-class Hindu is in need of a +guru. For mere purohits, as such, he has a small and a declining +reverence; but holy men, as such, his instinct is to honour--one of the +pleasing features of Hinduism. We can understand it all when we remember +how in the Christian Church, in a crisis like that from which the Church +is now emerging, many come to be married by the clergyman who have +practically lapsed from the faith. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE NEW THEISM + + "The idea of God is the productive and conservative principle + of civilisation; as is the religion of a community, so will be + in the main its morals, its laws, its general history." + + _Vico_ and _Michelet_ (Prof. Flint's _Philosophy of History_). + + +[Sidenote: Polytheism receding before Monotheism.] + +In some measure, then, we understand how Hindu polytheism, theism, and +pantheism are related to each other; we realise in some measure the +openness of the Indian mind, and we now ask ourselves how far the +Christian doctrine of God has impressed itself upon that open mind. Of +the polytheistic masses it has already been pointed out that intelligent +individuals will now readily acknowledge that there is truly one God +only. Further, that the polytheistic idolatry which is now associated +with the masses once extended far higher up the scale, is evident to +anyone reading the observations made early in the nineteenth century. +Early travellers in India, like the French traveller Tavernier of the +seventeenth century, speak of the Indians without distinction as +idolaters, contrasting them with the Mahomedans of India. In the +_Calcutta Gazette_ of 1816, Raja Rammohan Roy, the learned opponent of +Hindu idolatry, the Erasmus of the new era, is called the _discoverer_ +of theism in the sacred books of the Hindus. Rammohan Roy himself +disclaimed the title, but writing in 1817, he speaks of "the system of +idolatry into which Hindus are now completely sunk."[71] Many learned +brahmans, he says in the same pamphlet, are perfectly aware of the +absurdity of idol worship, indicating that the knowledge belonged only +to the scholars. His own object, he said, was to declare _the unity_ of +God as the real thought of the Hindu Scriptures. Across India, on the +Bombay side, we find clear evidence of the state of opinion among the +middle class in 1830, from the report of a public debate on the +Christian and Hindu religions. The antagonists were, on the one side, +the Scottish missionary Dr. John Wilson and others, and on the other +side two leading officials of the highest Government Appellate Court, +men who would now rank as eminent representatives of the educated class. +One of these demanded proof that there was only one God.[72] + +[Sidenote: The beginning of the nineteenth century.] + +[Sidenote: Monotheistic belief a broadening wedge between pantheism and +polytheism.] + +Returning to Bengal, it would seem from Rammohan Roy's evidence that in +1820 the standpoint of the learned at that time was exactly what we have +called the standpoint of an intelligent individual among the masses +to-day, namely, a plea that the multitude of gods were agents of the one +Supreme God. "Debased and despicable," he writes, "as is the belief of +the Hindus in three hundred and thirty millions of gods, they (the +learned) pretend to reconcile this persuasion with the doctrine of the +unity of God, alleging that the three hundred and thirty millions of +gods are subordinate agents assuming various offices and preserving the +harmony of the universe under one Godhead, as innumerable rays issue +from one sun."[73] Turning to testimony of a different kind, we find +Macaulay speaking about the polytheistic idolatry he knew between 1834 +and 1838. "The great majority of the population," he writes, "consists +of idolaters." Macaulay's belief was that idolatry would not survive +many years of English education, and we shall now take note how in the +century the sphere of idolatry and polytheism has been limited. At the +beginning of the nineteenth century, we may now say that Indian Hindu +society consisted of a vast polytheistic mass with a very thin, an often +invisible, film of pantheists on the top. The nineteenth century of +enlightenment and contact with Christianity has seen the wide acceptance +of the monotheistic conception by the new-educated India. The founding +of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j or Theistic Association in 1828 by Rammohan +Roy has already been called the commencement of an indigenous theistic +church outside the transplanted theism of Indian Christianity and Indian +Mahomedanism. Strictly rendered, the divine name _Brahm[=a]_, adopted by +the Br[=a]hmas, expresses the pantheistic idea that God is the _One +without a second_, not the theistic idea of one personal God; but what +we are concerned with is, that it was in the monotheistic sense that +Rammohan Roy adopted the term. To him Brahm[=a] was a personal God, with +whom men spoke in prayer and praise. As a matter of fact the pantheistic +formula, "One only, no second," occurs in the creeds of all three new +monotheistic bodies, Br[=a]hmas, Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jists, and +[=A]ryas, but in the same monotheistic sense. The original Sanscrit of +the formula (Ekam eva advityam), three words from the Chh[=a]ndogya +Upanishad, is regularly intoned (droned) in the public worship of +Br[=a]hmas. Like a wedge between the polytheism of the masses below and +the pantheism of the brahmanically educated above, there came in this +naturalised theism, a body of opinion ever widening as modern education +enlarges its domain. It is one of the _events_ of Indian history. Now, +pantheistic in argument and polytheistic in domestic practices as +educated Hindus still are, they never call themselves pantheists, and +would resent being called polytheists; they call themselves theists. +"Every intelligent man is now a monotheist," writes the late Dr. John +Murdoch of Madras, an experienced observer.[74] "Many" (of the educated +Hindus), says a Hindu writer, "--I may say most of them--are in reality +monotheists, but monotheists of a different type from those who belong +to the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j. They are, if we may so call them, passive +monotheists.... The influence of the Hindu environment is as much +perceptible in them as that of the Christian environment."[75] Professor +Max Müller and Sir M. Monier Williams are of the same opinion. "The +educated classes look with contempt upon idolatry.... A complete +disintegration of ancient faiths is in progress in the upper strata of +society. Most of the ablest thinkers become pure Theists or +Unitarians."[76] That change took place within the nineteenth century, a +testimony to the force of Christian theism in building up belief, and to +the power of the modern Indian atmosphere to dissipate irrational and +unpractical beliefs. For, in contact with the practical instincts of +Europe, the pantheistic denial of one's own personality--a disbelief in +one's own consciousness, the thought that there is no thinker--was bound +to give way, as well as the irrational polytheism. Very unphilosophical +may have been Lord Byron's attitude to the idealism of Berkeley: "When +Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter, 'twas no matter what he said." +But that represents the modern atmosphere which New India is breathing, +and it is fatal to pantheism. + +[Sidenote: The spread of monotheism traced.] + +It is interesting to note how monotheism spread. The Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j +of Madras was founded in 1864, theistic like the mother society, the +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j of Bengal. Three years later the first of similar +bodies on the west side of India was founded, the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] +Sam[=a]jes or Prayer Associations of Bombay. Their very name, the +_Prayer_ Associations, implies the dual conception of God and Man, for +the pantheistic conception does not admit of the idea of prayer any more +than it admits of the other dualistic conceptions of revelation, of +worship, and of sin. These movements, again, were followed in the United +Provinces and the North-West of India by the founding of the _[=A]rya +Sam[=a]j_, or, as I have called it, the Vedic Theistic Association, also +professedly theistic. Polytheism and pantheism alike, the [=A]ryas +repudiate. For the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, the founder +of the [=A]ryas declared there was no recognition in the Vedas. +Demonstrable or not, that is the [=A]rya position. The rejection of +pantheism by such a body is noteworthy, for pantheism is identified with +India and the Vedanta, the most widely accepted of the six systems of +Indian philosophy, and the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j is nothing if not patriotic. +It is above all pro-Indian and pro-Vedic. Their direct repudiation of +pantheism may not be apparent to Western minds. [=A]ryas predicate three +eternal entities, God, the Soul, and Matter,[77] and this declaration of +the reality of the soul and of matter is a direct denial of the +pantheistic conception, its very antithesis. One pantheistic formula is: +"Brahma is reality, the world unreality" (Brahma satyam, jagan +mithy[=a]). The Pantheist must declare, and does declare in his doctrine +of Maya or Delusion, that the soul and matter are illusions. + +[Sidenote: The progress of monotheism seen in the _Text-book of Hindu +Religion_.] + +A very striking illustration of the present insufficiency of the +pantheistic conception of God and of the movement of educated India +towards theism is to be found where one would least expect it--in +connection with the Hindu Revival. In 1903 an _Advanced Text-book of +Hindu Religion and Ethics_ was published by the Board of Trustees of the +Hindu College, Benares, a body representing the movement for a revival +of Hinduism. It was a heroic undertaking to reconcile, in the one +Text-book, Vedic, philosophic, and popular Hinduism, to harmonise all +the six schools of philosophy, to embrace all the aspects of modern +Hinduism, and lastly to satisfy the monotheistic opinions of modern +enlightened Hindus. + +[Sidenote: What is Pantheism?] + +To appreciate the testimony of the Text-book, we must enter more fully +into the orthodox Hindu theological position. Pantheism, or the doctrine +that God is all and all is God--what does it imply? Pantheism is a +theory of creation, that God is all, that there are in truth no +creatures, but only unreal phantasies appearing to darkened human minds, +because darkened and half-blind. As such, its nearest Christian analogue +would be the thought that in every phenomenon we have God's fiat and +God's reason, and that "in Him we live and move and have our being." +Pantheism is a theory of spiritual culture, that our individuality is +ours only to merge it in His, although on this line, the Christian soon +parts company with the Indian pantheistic devotee, who seeks to _merge_ +his consciousness in God, not to train himself into active sonship. +Pantheism is a theory of God's omnipresence, and may be little more than +enthusiastic feeling of God's omnipresence, such as we have in the 139th +psalm, "Whither shall I go from Thy presence? and whither shall I flee +from Thy spirit?" That Oriental mysticism and loyalty to an idea we can +allow for. It is in that aspect that pantheism is in closest contact +with the belief of the new educated Hindu. But in brahmanical +philosophy, pantheism is nothing else than the inability to pass beyond +the initial idea of infinite preexistent, unconditioned, Deity. To the +pantheist, let us remember, there is Deity, but there are no real +deities; there is a Godhead, but there are no real persons in the +Godhead. In the view of the pantheist, when we see aught else divine or +human than this all-embracing Deity or Godhead, it is only a +self-created mist of the dim human eye, in which there play the +flickering phantasms of deities and human individuals and things. "In +the Absolute, there is no thou, nor I, nor God," said Ramkrishna, a +great Hindu saint who died in 1886.[78] In Hindu phraseology, every +conception other than this all-comprehending Deity is _Maya_ or +delusion, and salvation is "saving knowledge" of the delusion, and +therefore deliverance from it. The perception of _manifoldness_ is Maya +or illusion, says a modern pro-Hindu writer. And again, "To India, all +that exists is but a mighty curtain of appearances, tremulous now and +again with breaths from the unseen that it conceals."[79] + +[Sidenote: Maya is implied in Pantheism.] + +[Sidenote: The outcome of Maya.] + +The doctrine of Maya is, of course, a postulate, a necessity of +Pantheism. Brahma is the name of the impersonal pantheistic deity. First +among the unrealities, the outcome of Maya or Illusion or Ignorance, is +the idea of a supreme _personal_ God, Parameswar, from whom, or in whom, +next come the three great personal deities, namely, the Hindu Triad, +Brahm[=a] (not Brahma), Vishnu, and Siva,--Creator, Preserver, and +Destroyer respectively. These and all the other deities are the product +of Maya, and thus belong to the realm of unreality along with +Parameswar.[80] Popular theology, on the other hand, begins with the +three great personal deities. + +[Sidenote: The Hindu Text-book transforms Pantheism into Monotheism.] + +Now come we again to the Text-book. Rightly, as scholars would agree, it +describes the predominant philosophy of Hinduism as pantheistic. The +Text-book, however, goes farther, and declares all the six systems of +Hindu philosophy to be parts of one pantheistic system.[81] The word +pantheism, I ought to say, does not occur in the Text-book. But here is +its teaching. "All six systems," we are told, "are designed to lead man +to the One Science, the One Wisdom which saw One Self Real and all else +as Unreal." And again, "Man learns to climb from the idea of himself as +separate from Brahma to the thought that he is a part of Brahma that can +unite with Him, and finally [to the thought] that he is and ever has +been Brahma, veiled from himself by Avidy[=a]" (that is, Ignorance or +Maya). Our point is that the _Text-book of Hindu Religion_ is +professedly pantheistic, and the above is clearly pantheism and its +postulate Maya. But in the final exposition of this pantheism, what do +we find? To meet the modern thought of educated India, the pantheism is +virtually given up.[82] Brahma, the One and the All, becomes simply _the +Deity Unmanifested_; who shone forth to men as _the Deity Manifested_, +Parameswar; of whom the Hindu Triad, Brahm[=a] and Vishnu and Siva, are +only three _names_. Maya or Delusion, the foundation postulate of +pantheism, by which things _seem_ to be,--by which the One seems to be +many,--is identified with the creative will of Parameswar. In fact, +Pantheism has been virtually transformed into Theism, Brahma into a +Creator, and Maya into his creative and sustaining fiat. The _Text-book +of the Hindu Religion_ is finally monotheistic, as the times will have +it. + +[Sidenote: A Parsee claiming to be a monotheist.] + +As further confirmation of the change in the Indian mind, we may cite +the paper read at the Congress on the History of Religions, Basel, 1904, +by the Deputy High-priest of the Parsees, Bombay. The dualism of the +Zoroastrian theology has hitherto been regarded as its distinctive +feature, but the paper sought to show "that the religion of the Parsees +was largely monotheistic, not dualistic." + +The theistic standpoint of the younger members of the educated class of +to-day is easily discoverable. The word _God_ used in their English +compositions or speeches, plainly implies a person. The commonplace of +the anxious student is that the pass desired, the failure feared, is +dependent upon the will of God--language manifestly not pantheistic. +Religious expressions, we may remark, are natural to a Hindu. + +[Sidenote: The conception of the Deity as female has gone from the minds +of the educated.] + +In the new theism of educated Indians we may note that the conception of +the deity as female is practically gone. Not so among the masses, +particularly of the provinces of Bengal and Gujerat, the provinces +distinctively of goddesses. The sight of a man in Calcutta in the first +hour of his sore bereavement calling upon Mother Kali has left a deep +impression upon me.[83] Be it remembered, however, what his cry meant, +and what the name _Mother_ in such cases means. It is a honorific form +of address, not the symbol for devoted love. The _goddesses_ of India, +not the gods, are the deities to be particularly feared and to be +propitiated with blood. It is energy, often destructive energy, not +woman's tenderness that they represent, even according to Hindu +philosophy and modern rationalisers. We may nevertheless well believe +that contact with Christian ideas will yet soften and sweeten this title +of the goddesses. + +[Sidenote: The new theism is largely Christian theism--God is termed +Father;] + +[Sidenote: Or Mother.] + +The new theism of educated India is more and more emphatically Christian +theism. Anyone may observe that the name, other than "God," by which the +Deity is almost universally named by educated Hindus is "The Father," or +"Our Heavenly Father," or some such name. The new name is not a +rendering of any of the vernacular names in use in modern India; it is +due directly to its use in English literature and in Christian preaching +and teaching. The late Keshub Chunder Sen's _Lectures in India_, +addressed to Hindu audiences, abound in the use of the name. The +fatherhood of God is in fact one of the articles of the Br[=a]hma creed. +In his last years, the Brahma leader, Keshub Chunder Sen, frequently +spoke of God as the divine _Mother_, but we are not to suppose that it +expresses a radical change of thought about God. Keshub Chunder Sen's +last recorded prayer begins: "I have come, O Mother, into thy +sanctuary"; his last, almost inarticulate, cries were: "Father," +"Mother." Where modern Indian religious teachers address God as +_Mother_, it is a modernism, an echo of the thought of the Fatherhood of +God. The name is altered because the name of Mother better suits the +ecstasies of Indian devotion, where the ecstatic mood is cultivated. A +case in point is the Hindu devotee, Ramkrishna Paramhansa, who died near +Calcutta in 1886. "Why," Ramkrishna Paramhansa asks, "does the God-lover +find such pleasure in addressing the Deity as Mother? Because," his +answer is, "the child is more free with its mother, and consequently she +is dearer to the child than anyone else.[84] Another instance we find in +the appeal issued by a committee of Hindu gentlemen for subscriptions +towards the rebuilding of the temple at Kangra, destroyed by the +earthquake of 1905. The president of the committee, signing the appeal, +was a Hindu judge of the High Court at Lahore, a graduate from a Mission +College. "There are Hindus," thus runs the appeal, "who by the grace of +the Divine Mother could give the [whole] amount ... and not feel the +poorer for it."[85] + +[Sidenote: The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j and the name Father.] + +[Sidenote: The Hindu College, Benares, and the name _Father_.] + +The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j, on the other hand, seems set against speaking or +thinking of God as the Father. Specially present to their minds and in +their preaching is the thought of God's absolute justice; and they hold +that His Justice and His Fatherhood are contradictory attributes. Virtue +_will_ have its reward, they assert, and Sin its punishment, both in +this and the following existences. We recognise the working of their +doctrine of transmigration, perhaps also the effect of a feeble +presentation of the Christian doctrine of the Father's forgiveness of +sin. Nevertheless, we may note in a hymn-book published in London for +the use of members of the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j resident there, such hymns as +"My God and Father, while I stray," and "My God, my Father, blissful +name," as if the name were not explicitly excluded. We also read that +the very last parting words of the founder of the [=A]ryas himself were: +"Let Thy will be done, O Father!"[86] The heart of man will not be +denied the name and the feeling of "God who is our home." Turning again +from the [=A]ryas to the new citadel of Benares, and Hinduism, the Hindu +College, Benares, we find that along with the Text-book already +mentioned, there was published a _Catechism in Hindu Religion and +Morals_ for boys and girls. One question is, "Can we know that eternal +Being (the "One only without a second," or "The All," _i.e._ pantheistic +Deity)? The answer is, "Only when revealed as Ishwar, the Lord, the +loving Father of all the worlds and of all the creatures who live in +them." That idea of the loving Father, of divine Law and Love in one +person, is new to Hinduism. The law of God may be only imperfectly +apprehended, but the loving Fatherhood of God, the approachable one, has +become manifest in India--one of Christianity's dynamic doctrines. +Strangest confirmation of all, a Mahomedan preacher of Behar a few years +ago was expounding from the Koran the Fatherhood of God. The name and +thought of the divine Father established, we may leave name and thought +to be invested with their full significance in the fulness of time. + +"It is with Pantheism, not Polytheism, that a rising morality will have +to reckon," says Sir Alfred Lyall.[87] The result of all our observation +has been different. Pantheism is melting out of the sky of the educated, +and if nothing else take its place, it will be a selfish materialism or +agnosticism, not avowed or formulated yet shaping every motive, that the +new morality will have to reckon with. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF + + "Tandem vicisti, Galilaee" + + --said to have been uttered by Julian, the Apostate emperor. + + +[Sidenote: Pantheism does not lead to belief in "the Son of God."] + +Pantheism, it has been said, lends itself to the lead to belief idea of +avatars or incarnations of deity, and Hinduism, therefore, is familiar +with avatars. Observation contradicts this _à priori_ reasoning, nay, it +justifies a statement almost contrary. To the philosopher who is +thinking out a pantheistic system, or to the ascetic who is seeking +after identity of consciousness with the One, the Hindu Avatars are only +a part of the delusion, the Maya, in which men are steeped. To a +pantheist, holding that his own consciousness of individuality is +delusion, born of spiritual darkness and ignorance, the conception of an +avatar or concrete presentation of deity as an individual is only still +grosser delusion. "The name of God and the conventions of piety are as +unreal as anything else in Maya," writes a modern British apostle of +Hinduism, while advocating the realisation of Maya as our salvation.[88] +It does not seem to me justifiable to say that through Pantheism the +Indian mind can approach the thought of Christ the Son of Man and the +Son of God. But pantheism, with its allied doctrine of transmigration, +may encourage the thought that our Lord was a great jogi or religious +devotee, the last climax of many upward transmigrations, and that Christ +had attained to the goal of illumination of the jogi, namely, identity +of consciousness with deity, when he felt "I and the Father are one." +That statement about Our Lord is sometimes made in India. + +[Sidenote: The avatars of popular theology.] + +It is not through the pantheism of the brahmanically learned and of +religious devotees that the Indian mind has come within Christ's sphere +of influence, but rather through the beliefs of the multitude and the +new education of the middle class. And how, we ask, has Christ been +introduced to India by association with the popular beliefs--how, +rather, has the attempt been made to do so? The theology of the people +begins, as has been already stated, with the Hindu Triad, the three +great personal deities, namely, Brahm[=a], Vishnu, and Siva,--Creator, +Preserver, and Destroyer respectively. From these and other deities, but +particularly from Vishnu, the Preserver, there descended to earth at +various times and in various forms, human and animal, certain +avatars.[89] Best known of these avatars of Vishnu, the Preserver, are +Ram, the hero of the great epic called after him, the R[=a]m[=a]yan; and +secondly, Krishna, one of the chief figures of the other great Indian +epic, the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rat; and thirdly, Buddha, the great religious +teacher of the sixth century B.C. Ram and Krishna have become deities of +the multitude over the greater part of India. Buddha, latest in time of +these three avatars, and unknown as an avatar to the multitude, has not +yet been lost to history. Such is the genealogy of certain of the Hindu +gods and their avatars, and the object of setting it forth is to enable +us to see how Jesus Christ has presented Himself or been presented to +the Hindu people. + +[Sidenote: Parallels in Christian and Hindu theology.] + +When Christian doctrine was presented to India in modern times, the +Christian Trinity and the Hindu Triad at once suggested a +correspondence, which seemed to be confirmed by the coincidence of a +Creator and Preserver in the Triad with the Creator and the Son, Our +Saviour, in the Trinity. The historical Christ and the avatars of Vishnu +would thus present themselves as at least striking theological and +religious parallels. "On the one hand, learned brahmans have been found +quite willing to regard Christ himself as an incarnation of Vishnu for +the benefit of the Western world."[90] On the other, Christian +missionaries in India have often preached Christ as the one true +avatar.[91] The idea and the word _avatar_ are always recurring in the +hymns sung in Christian churches in India. Missionaries have also sought +to graft the doctrine of Christ's atonement upon Hinduism, through one +of the avatars. A common name of Vishnu, the second member of the Triad, +as also of Krishna, his avatar, is _Hari_. Accepting the common +etymology of _Hari_ as meaning _the taker away_, Christian preachers +have found an idea analogous to that of Christ, the Redeemer of men. +Then the similarity of the names, _Christ_ and _Krishna_, chief avatar +of Vishnu, could not escape notice, especially since Krishna, +Christ-like, is the object of the enthusiastic devotion of the Hindu +multitude. In familiar speech, Krishna's name is still further +approximated to that of Christ, being frequently pronounced _Krishta_ or +_Kishta_. In the middle of the nineteenth century the common opinion was +that there was some historical connection between Krishna and Christ, +and the idea lingers in the minds of both Hindus and Christians. One is +surprised to find it in a recent European writer, formerly a member of +the Indian Civil Service. "Surely there is something more," he says, +"than an analogy between Christianity and Krishna worship."[92] + +Much has been made by the late Dr. K.M. Banerjea, the most learned +member of the Indian Christian Church of the nineteenth century, and +something also by the late Sir M. Monier Williams, of a passage in the +Rigveda (x. 90), which seems to point to Christ. The passage speaks of +Purusha (the universal spirit), who is also "Lord of Immortality," and +was "born in the beginning," as having been "sacrificed by the Gods, +Sadyas and Rishis," and as becoming thereafter the origin of the various +castes and of certain gods and animals. A similar passage in a later +book, the _T[=a]ndya Br[=a]hmanas_, declares that "the Lord of +creatures, Prajapati, offered himself a sacrifice for the devas" +(emancipated mortals or gods). Of the parallelism between the +self-sacrificing Prajapati, Lord of creatures, and the Second Person in +the Christian Trinity, propitiator and agent in creation, we may hear +Dr. Banerjea himself: "The self-sacrificing Prajapati [Lord of +creatures] variously described as Purusha, begotten in the beginning, as +Viswakarma, the creator of all, is, in the meaning of his name and in +his offices, identical with Jesus.... Jesus of Nazareth is the only +person who has ever appeared in the world claiming the character and +position of Prajapati, at the same time both mortal and immortal."[93] + +[Sidenote: These parallels ineffective.] + +[Sidenote: Christ Himself attractive.] + +But it must be confessed that these parallels, real or supposed, between +Christianity and Hinduism have not brought Christ home to the heart of +India. In themselves, they only bring Christianity as near to Hinduism +as they bring Hinduism to Christianity. Uneducated Hindus feel that the +two religions are balanced when they have Krishna and Christians have +Christ. Educated Hindus, as we shall see, are employing some of these +very parallels to buttress Hinduism. Far be it from me, however, to +depreciate the labours of scholars and earlier missionaries who have +thus established links between Hindus and Christians, and have thus at +least brought Christ into the Hindu's presence. To Indian Christians +also such reasoning has often been a strength, furnishing as it were a +new justification of their baptism into Christianity; for looking back +they can perceive the finger of Hinduism itself pointing the way. But +had no other influence been exerted on the Indian mind, one could not +say what I now say, that Christ Himself is the feature of Christianity +that has most powerfully moved men in India. The person of Christ +Himself has been the great Christian dynamic. I am now speaking of +educated India, the India that is not dependent solely upon the preacher +for its religious ideas and feeling. + +[Sidenote: Christianity identified with Britain and therefore +unpopular.] + +[Sidenote: The anti-foreigner instinct.] + +The grand new political idea in India is the idea of nationality, and +one of its corollaries is the championing of things Indian and +depreciation of things British. The strong anti-British bias among the +educated is one of the noteworthy and regrettable changes in the Indian +mind within the last half-century. It is not surprising then that all +over India the influence of Christ and of Christianity is lessened from +the identification of Christianity with the British. For a native of +India to accept the British religion is to run counter to the prevailing +anti-British and pro-Indian feeling; it is unpatriotic to become a +convert to Christianity. "Need we go out of India in quest of the true +knowledge of God?" wrote a distinguished Indian littérateur a few years +ago.[94] All that feeling is of course in addition to the instinctive +hostility to things foreign that has been nowhere stronger than in +self-contained India--self-contained between the Himalayas and the seas. +The exclusiveness of caste is based upon that feeling. The statement of +the late Rev. M.N. Bose, B.A., B.L., a native of Eastern Bengal, +regarding his youth [1860?] is: "I had a deep-rooted prejudice against +Christianity from my boyhood.... At this time I hated Christianity and +Christians, though I knew not why I did so."[95] We find the instinctive +hostility more bluntly expressed in China in the cry that drops +spontaneously from the opening lips of many Chinamen, as their greeting, +when they unexpectedly behold a European. The involuntary ejaculation +is: "Strike the foreign devil." + +[Sidenote: Christ reverenced; Christians disliked.] + +In the first part of the nineteenth century, along with the great +development of modern missions, and of modern education, we may say that +Christ came again to India. The national and anti-British feeling had +not then arisen to interpose in His path, but, coming as an alien, His +name evoked great hostility. The popular mood was _Christianos ad +leones,_ as many incidents and witnesses testify. Now, in spite of the +old anti-foreign hostility and the new currents of feeling, a remarkable +attitude to Christianity--far short of conversion, no doubt--is almost +everywhere manifest. There is a profound homage to its Founder, coupled +with that strong resentment towards His Indian disciples. Christ Himself +is acknowledged; His church is still foreign and British. Resentfully +ruled by a Christian nation, but subdued by Christ Himself, is the state +of educated India to-day. In spite of His alien birth and in spite of +anti-British bias, Christ has passed within the pale of Indian +recognition. Indian eyes, focused at last, are fastened upon Him, and +men wonder at His gracious words. Again I direct attention to a +significant event in Indian history--the incoming of an influence that +will not stale, as mere ideas may. "Is there a single soul in this +audience," said the Brahmo leader, the late Keshub Chunder Sen,[96] to +the educated Indians of Calcutta, mostly Hindus, "who would scruple to +ascribe extraordinary greatness and supernatural moral heroism to Jesus +Christ and Him crucified?" + +"That incarnation of the Divine Love, the lowly Son of man," writes +another, even while he is rejoicing over the revival of Hinduism.[97] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JESUS CHRIST THE LODESTONE + + "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men + unto myself." + + --ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL, xii. 32. + + +[Sidenote: Instances of Indian homage to Christ, and dislike of His +Church.] + +[Sidenote: Bengal.] + +[Sidenote: Bombay.] + +[Sidenote: Madras.] + +Interesting phases of that divided mind--homage to Christ, resentment +towards His disciples--may be found on opposite sides of the great +continent of India. In Bengal, a not-infrequent standpoint of Br[=a]hmas +in reference to Christ is that _they_ are the true exponents of Christ's +spirit and His teaching. Western Christian teachers, they say, are +hidebound by tradition; and the ready-made rigidity of the creeds of the +Churches is no doubt a factor in the state of mind we are describing. +Looking back as far as to 1820, we see in _The Precepts of Jesus_, +published by the founder of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, that standpoint of +homage to Christ and dissent from accepted views regarding Him. +Illustrative of that Br[=a]hma standpoint, we have also the more recent +book, _The Oriental Christ_, by the late Mr. P.C. Mozumdar, the +successor of Keshub Chunder Sen. But the attitude is by no means limited +to Brahmas. "Without Christian dogmas, cannot a man equally love and +revere Christ?" was a representative question put by a senior Hindu +student in Bengal to his missionary professor. In South India, +Mahomedans sometimes actually describe themselves as better Christians +than ourselves, holding as they do such faith in Jesus and His mother +Mary and His Gospel. The case of Mahomedans is not, of course, on all +fours with that of Hindus, since Mahomedans reckon Christ as one of the +four prophets along with their own Mahomed. In Bombay province, on the +other side of India from Bengal, we find Mr. Malabari, the famous +Parsee, pupil of a Mission School, doubting if it is possible for the +Englishman to be a Christian in the sense of _Christ's Christianity_, +the implication being that an Indian may. What element of truth is there +in the idea, we may well ask? From Indian Christians, be it said, we may +indeed look for a fervency of loyalty to Christ that does not enter into +our calculating moderate souls; and from India, equally, we may look for +that mystically profound commentary on St. John's Gospel which Bishop +Westcott declared he looked for from Japan. But to return. About Mr. +Malabar! himself, his biographer writes: "If he could not accept the +dogmas of Christianity, he had imbibed its true spirit," meaning the +spirit of Christ Himself. "The cult of the Asiatic life" is the latest +definition of Christianity given by a recent apologist of Hinduism, one +of a small company of Europeans in India officering the Hindu revival. +Crossing India again and going south, we find the late Dr. John Murdoch, +of Madras, an eminent observer, adding his testimony regarding the +homage paid to the Founder of Christianity. "The most hopeful sign," he +writes, "is the increasing reverence for our Lord, although His divinity +is not yet acknowledged."[98] And of new India generally, again, we may +quote Mr. Bose, the Indian historian. "The Christianity [of +North-western Europe] is no more like Christianity as preached by Christ +than the Buddhism of the Thibetans is like Buddhism as preached by +Gautama." Take finally the following sentences from a recent number of a +moderate neo-Hindu organ, the _Hindustan Review (vol._ viii. 514): +"Christ, the great exemplar of practical morality ...; the more one +enters into the true spirit of Christ, the more will he reject +Christianity as it prevails in the world to-day. The Indians have been +gainers not losers by rejecting Christianity for the sake of +Christ."[99] + +[Sidenote: Desire to discover Christian ideas in Hindu Scriptures.] + +[Sidenote: Christ and Krishna set alongside.] + +Another phase of that same divided mind, acknowledging Christ and +resenting Indian discipleship, may be perceived in the willingness to +discover Christian ideas in Hindu Scriptures, and Christ-like features +in Hindu deities and religious heroes. To express it from the Indian +standpoint,--they see Christ and Christianity bringing back much of +their own "refined and modernised." In a sense, as a Bengali Christian +gentleman put it, Christ and Christianity have become the accepted +standards in religion.[100] Again we quote from the same page of the +_Hindustan Review_: "A revival of Hinduism has taken place.... It +[Christianity] has given us Christ, and given us noble moral and +spiritual lessons, which we have discovered anew in our own Scriptures, +and thereby satisfied our self-love and made our very own." We have +mentioned how missionaries used to find the doctrine of the atonement in +the name of the Indian God Hari; the argument has now in turn been +annexed by Hindus, and employed as an argument in their favour. Within +the last twenty years, there has been a great revival of the honouring +of Krishna among the educated classes in Bengal and the United +Provinces. Krishna has set up distinctly as the Indian Christ, or as the +Indian figure to be set up over against Christ. A Krishna story has been +disentangled from the gross mythology, and he has become a paragon of +virtue,--the work of a distinguished Bengali novelist. I mean no +sarcasm. From the sermon of a Hindu preacher in a garden in Calcutta in +1898, I quote: "The same God came into the world as the Krishna of India +and the Krishna of Jerusalem." These are his words. From the catalogue +of the Neo-Krishnaite literature in Bengal, given by Mr. J.N. Farquhar +of the Y.M.C.A., Calcutta, it appears that since 1884 thirteen Lives of +Krishna or works on Krishna have appeared in Bengal. Many essays have +appeared comparing Krishna with Christ. There have been likewise many +editions of the Bhagabat Gita, or Divine Song, the episode in the +Mahabharat, in which Krishna figures as religious teacher. It may be +called the New Testament of the Neo-Krishnaite. Perhaps the most +striking of these Neo-Krishnaite publications is _The Imitation of +Sri-Krishna_, a daily-text book containing extracts from the Bhagabat +Gita and the Bhagabat Puran. The title is, of course, a manifest echo of +"The Imitation of Christ," which is a favourite with religious-minded +Hindus. The _Imitation of Buddha_, likewise we may observe, has been +published. About "The Imitation of Christ" itself, we quote from a +Hindu's advertisement appended to the life of a new Hindu saint, +Ramkrishna Paramhansa. "The reader of 'The Imitation of Christ,'" it +says, "will find echoed in it hundreds of sayings of our Lord +Sri-Krishna in the Bhagabat Gita like the following: 'Give up all +religious work and come to me as thy sole refuge, and I will deliver +thee from all manner of sin.'" The notice goes on: "The book has found +its way into the pockets of many orthodox Hindus." + +[Sidenote: Christ and Chaitanya of Bengal.] + +From Krishna we turn to Chaitanya, surname Gauranga, the fair, a +religious teacher of Bengal in the fifteenth century, who is also being +set up as the Christ of Bengal, in that he preached the equality of men +before God and ecstatic devotion to the god Krishna. A Christ-like man, +indeed, in many ways, Chaitanya was, and the increased acquaintance of +educated Bengal with Jesus Christ naturally brought Chaitanya to the +front. The new cult of Chaitanya and his enthronement over against Jesus +Christ are manifest in the titles of two recent publications in Bengal, +the first entitled, _Lord Gauranga, or Salvation for all_, and the +other, _Chaitanya's Message of Love_. Chaitanya and his two chief +followers, it should be said, were called the great _lords_ (prabhus) of +the sect, but the title "Lord Gauranga" is quite new, an echo of the +title of Jesus Christ. With regard to the new power of Christ's +personality, it should be noted that the author of _Lord Gauranga_ +strongly deprecates the idea that his desire is to demolish +Christianity, or other than to extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He +declares that Jesus Christ is as much a prophet as any avatar of the +Hindus, and that Hindus can and ought to accept him as they do Krishna +or Chaitanya. This is in accord with the spirit of Hinduism--namely, the +fluidity of doctrine, and the free choice of guru or religious teacher, +as set forth in a previous chapter--although it is still an advanced +position for a Hindu to take up publicly. + +[Sidenote: Eccentric manifestations of the power of Christ's +personality.] + +Could we observe the course of evolution down which a species of animals +or plants has come from some remote ancestry to their present form, with +what interest would we note the specific characteristics gathering +strength, as from generation to generation they prove their "fitness to +survive"! The whole onward career of the evolving species would seem to +have been aimed at the latest form in which we find it. Yet quite as +wonderful phenomena as the species that has survived are the many +variations of the species that have presented themselves, but have not +proved fit to survive. One species only survives for hundreds of +would-be collaterals that are extinct. The religious evolution that we +have been observing is the growing power of Christ's personality in New +India; and now, as further testimony to its power, a number of +collateral movements, similarly inspired yet eccentric and hardly likely +to endure, attract our attention. In these eccentric movements the power +of Christ's personality is manifest, and yet it appears amid +circumstances so peculiar that the phenomena in themselves are +grotesque. + +[Sidenote: The Punjab--two have set themselves up as Christ come again.] + +[Sidenote: Hakim Singh.] + +[Sidenote: Mirz[=a] Ghol[=a]m Ahmad.] + +Three of these strange movements let us look at as new evidence of the +power of Christ's personality in India. All three occur in still another +province than those named, the Punjab, a province _sui generis_ in many +ways. Within a generation past, at least two men have arisen, either +claiming to be Christ Himself come again, or a Messiah superior to Him. +A third received a vision of "Jesus God," and proclaimed Him, wherever +he went, as an object of worship. Of the first of the three leaders, Sir +Alfred Lyall tells us, one Hakim Singh, "who listened to missionaries +until he not only accepted the whole Christian dogma, but conceived +himself to be the second embodiment [of Christ], and proclaimed himself +as such and summoned the missionaries to acknowledge him." It sounds +much like blasphemy, or mere lunacy; but in India one learns not to be +shocked at what in Europe would be rankest blasphemy; the intention must +decide the innocence or the offence. Hakim Singh "professed to work +miracles, preached pure morality, but also venerated the cow,"--strange +chequer of Hindu and Christian ideas.[101] The second case is the better +known one of Mirz[=a] Ghol[=a]m Ahmad, of Q[=a]di[=a]n, who sets up a +claim to be "the Similitude of the Messiah" and "the Messiah of the +Twentieth Century." As his name shows, he is a Mahomedan, but the +assumption of the name "Messiah" also shows that it is in Christ's place +he declares himself to stand. At the same time, his appeal is to his +fellow-Mahomedans; for he explains that as Jesus was the Messiah of +Moses, he himself is the Messiah of Mahomed. His superiority to Christ, +he expressly declares. "I shall be guilty of concealing the truth," he +says in his English monthly, the _Review of Religions_, of May 1902, "if +I do not assert that the prophecies which God Almighty has granted me +are of a far better quality in clearness, force, and truth than the +ambiguous predictions of Jesus.... But notwithstanding all this +superiority, I cannot assert Divinity or Sonship of God." He claims "to +have been sent by God to reform the true religion of God, now corrupted +by Jews, Christians, and Mahomedans." Doubly blasphemous as his claims +sound in the ears of orthodox Mahomedans, who reckon both Christ and +Mahomed as prophets, his sect is now estimated to number at least +10,000, including many educated Mahomedans. Whatever its fate--a mere +comet or a new planet in the Indian sky--it indicates the religious +stirring of educated India in another province, and the prominence of +Christ's personality therein. Mirz[=a] Ghol[=a]m Ahmad himself +recommends the reading of the Gospels. As to Christ's death, Mirz[=a] +Ghol[=a]m Ahmad has a theory of his own. The Koran declares, according +to Mahomedan expositors, that it was not Christ who suffered on the +cross, but another in His likeness. Mirz[=a] Ghol[=a]m Ahmad teaches +that Jesus was crucified but did not die, that He was restored to life +by His disciples and sent out of the country, whence He travelled East +until He reached Thibet, eventually arriving at Cashmere, where He died, +His tomb being located in the city of Srinagar.[102] According to the +latest report of this reincarnation, he now claims to be at once Krishna +come again for Hindus, Mahomed for Mahomedans, and Christ for +Christians. + +[Sidenote: Chet Ram claimed to be an apostle.] + +The third movement is that of the Chet Ramis, or sect of Chet Ram, whose +strange history may be found in _East and West_ for July 1905. Chet Ram +was an illiterate Hindu, a water-carrier and then a steward in the +Indian army that took part in the war with China in 1859-1860. Returning +to his native district not far from Lahore, Chet Ram, the Hindu, came +under the spell of a Mahomedan ascetic Mahbub Sh[=a]h, left all and +followed him as his "familiar" disciple. How this relationship between +Hindu and Mahomedanism is quite possible in India, we have already +explained on pages 163-4; Mahbub Sh[=a]h's strange combination of +religious asceticism with the consumption of opium and wine, it takes +some years' residence in India to understand. Then Mahbub Sh[=a]h died, +and the disciple succeeded the master. According to one account, Chet +Ram made his bed on the grave in which his master lay; according to +another, for three years his sleeping place was the vault within which +his master was buried. It was at this time that he had the vision of +"Jesus God," already referred to, between the years 1860 and 1865. Like +Caedmon, he has described his vision in verse-- + + "Upon the grave of Master Mahbub Shah + Slept Sain Chet Earn. + + A man came in a glorious form, + Showing a face of mercy. + + Sweet was his speech and simple his face, + Appearing entirely as the image of God. + + He called aloud, 'Who sleeps there? + Awake, if thou art sleeping. + Thou art distinctly fortunate, + Thou art needed in the Master's presence.' + + 'Build a church on this very spot, + Place the Bible therein.' + + Then said that luminous form, + Jesus, the image of Mary: + + 'I shall do justice in earth and heaven, + And reveal the hidden mysteries.' + + Astonished there alone I stood, + As if a parrot had flown out of my hands. + + Then my soul realised + That Jesus came to give salvation. + + I realised that it was Jesus God + Who appeared in a bodily form."[103] + +[Sidenote: The Followers of Chet Ram.] + +[Sidenote: Their indefinite composite theology.] + +Whence came the Christian seed of Chet Ram's vision? His master Mahbub +Shah was a Mahomedan, and Jesus Christ is reckoned one of the Mahomedan +prophets. But it is the Christ of Christianity, not of Mahomedanism, +that Chet Ram saw in his vision of the glorious form showing the face of +mercy, at once the dispenser of justice, the revealer of mysteries, and +the giver of salvation. Whatever the source of the vision, Chet Ram saw +and believed and began to hold up Jesus Christ before other men's eyes, +and Chet Ram himself thus became the guru or religious teacher of what +may be called an indigenous Christian Church. A moderate estimate +reckons the Chet Ramis at about five thousand souls, the religious force +of the sect being represented by the Chet Rami ascetics, who go about +making their gospel known and living on alms. Chet Ram himself died in +1894, and at the headquarters of the sect at Buchhoke, near Lahore, his +ashes and the bones of his master Mahbub Shah are kept in two coffins, +which the faithful visit, particularly on certain Chet Rami holy-days, +on which fairs are held. In keeping with the command of the vision, +several copies of the New Testament and one complete Bible were also on +view when the writer of the article in _East and West_ visited the +sanctuary in 1903. The _Census Report_ for 1901 sums the Chet Ramis up +by saying that "the sect professes a worship of Christ," and that is our +present point of view. But we cannot leave them without noticing also +how Indian they are in their unwillingness to define their thought, and +in their readiness to enthrone a holy man and his relics. Undefined +thought we see expressed in symbol. There are _four_ doors to the +sanctuary at Buchhoke,--the fakiri [Chet Rami ascetics'] door, the +Hindu, Christian, and Mahomedan doors--expressing the openness of the +Chet Rami sanctuary to all sects. Their theology is a corresponding +conglomeration. It includes a Christian trinity of Jesus Son of Mary +[the Mahomedan designation of Christ], the Holy Spirit, and God; and a +Hindu triad of the world's three potencies, namely, Allah, Parameswar, +and Khuda, a jumble of Hindu and Mahomedan names, but representing the +Hindu triad of the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer. + +[Sidenote: Parallel between the nineteenth century in India and the +second, third, and fourth centuries in the History of the Church.] + +[Sidenote: The Theosophists and the Neo-Platonists.] + +[Sidenote: The Neo-Platonists and New India's homage to Christ.] + +[Sidenote: The Neo-Platonists and the Hindu Revivalists.] + +In respect of the phenomenon of the homage shown to Christ over against +the hostility shown to His Church, the second, third, and fourth +centuries in the history of the Church present a striking parallel to +the nineteenth century in India. Steadily in these centuries +Christianity was progressing in spite of contempt for its adherents, +philosophic repudiation of the doctrines of the _superstitio prava_, and +official persecution unknown in British India at least. Then also, as +always, Christ stood out far above His followers, lifted up and drawing +all men's eyes. Such in India also, in the nineteenth century, has been +the course of Christianity; parts of the record of these centuries read +like the record of the religious movements in India in these latter +days. Describing the Neo-Platonists of these centuries, historians tell +us that at the end of the second century A.D. Ammonius of Alexandria, +founder of the sect, "undertook to bring all systems of philosophy and +religion into harmony, by which all philosophers and men of all +religions, Christianity included, might unite and hold fellowship." +_There_ are the four doors of the Chet Rami sanctuary. There also we +have the Theosophical Society of India, professing in its constitution +to be "the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, representing +and excluding no religious creed." Ammonius, founder of the +Neo-Platonists, was a pantheist like the present leader of the +Theosophical Society, Mrs. Besant, and like her too, curiously, had +begun as a Christian.[104] We recall that of Indian Theosophy in +general, in 1891, the late Sir Monier Williams declared that it seemed +little more than another name for the "Vedanta [or Pantheistic] +philosophy." Exactly like the earlier theosophists also, Ammonius, the +Neo-Platonist, held that the purified soul could perform physical +wonders, by the power of Theurgy. In its constitution the Theosophical +Society professed "to investigate the hidden mysteries of nature and the +psychical powers latent in man." Many can remember how, in the eighties, +Madame Blavatsky took advantage of our curiosity regarding such with +air-borne letters from Mahatmas in Thibet. Again Ammonius, we read, +"turned the whole history of the pagan gods into allegory." There we +have the Neo-Krishnaites of to-day. "He acknowledged that Christ was an +extraordinary man, the friend of God, and an admirable Theurgus." There +we have the stand point of the educated Indians who have come under +Christ's spell. For two centuries the successors of Ammonius followed in +these lines. "Individual Neo-Platonists," Harnack tells us, "employed +Christian sayings as oracles, and testified very highly of Christ. +Porphyry of Syria, chief of the Neo-Platonists of the third century, +wrote a work "against Christians"; but again, according to Harnack, the +work is not directed against Christ, or what Porphyry regarded as the +teaching of Christ. It was directed against the Christians of his day +and against the sacred books, which according to Porphyry were written +by impostors and ignorant people. There we have the double mind of +educated India,--homage to Christ, opposition to His Church. There also +we have the standpoint of Sahib Mirza Gholam Ahmad of Qadian. Some, we +read, being taught by the Neo-Platonists that there was little +difference between the ancient religion, rightly explained and restored +to its purity, and the religion which Christ really taught, not that +corrupted form of it which His disciples professed, concluded it best +for them to remain among those who worshipped the gods. There is the +present Indian willingness to discover Christian and modern ideas in the +Hindu Scriptures, especially in the original Vedas that the new [=A]rya +sect declare to be "the Scripture of true knowledge." The practical +outcome of the Neo-Platonic movement was an attempt to revive the old +Græco-Roman religion,--Julian the apostate emperor had many with him. +There we have the revival of the worship of Krishna in India, and the +apologies for idolatry and caste. The most recent stage of the +Theosophical Society in India reveals _it_ as virtually a Hindu revival +society. Finally, we read, the old philosopher Pythagoras, Apollonius of +Tyana, and others were represented on the stage dressed in imitation of +Christ Himself, and the Emperor Alexander Severus [A.D. 222-235] placed +the figure of Christ in his lararium alongside of those of Abraham, +Orpheus, and Apollonius. There we have the modern Indians who fully +recognise Christ alongside of their own avatars. The whole parallel is +complete.[105] In spite of the feebleness and, it may be, unworthiness +of His Church, through the force of Christ's personality, the Roman +history of the second, third, and fourth centuries has been repeating +itself in India in the nineteenth and twentieth, and unless the force of +Christ's personality be spent, the parallels will proceed. + +From new reasonings about God, her new monotheism, New India has been +brought a stage farther to actual history. From theologies she has come +to the first three Gospels. New India has been introduced to Christ as +He actually lived on earth before men's eyes; and to India, intensely +interested in religious teachers, the personality of the Christ of the +Gospels, of the first three Gospels in particular, appeals strongly. To +the pessimistic mood of India He appeals as one whose companionship +makes this life more worth living; for Christ was not a jogi in the +Indian sense of a renouncer of the world. His call to fraternal service +has taken firm hold of the best Indians of to-day. Of the future we know +not, but we feel that the narrative of the first three Gospels naturally +precedes the deeper insight of the fourth. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +INDIAN PESSIMISM--ITS BEARING ON BELIEF IN THE HERE AND HEREAFTER + + "How many births are past, I cannot tell: + How many yet to come, no man can say: + But this alone I know, and know full well, + That pain and grief embitter all the way." + + (_South-Indian Folk-song_, quoted in _Lux Christi_, by Caroline + Atwater Mason.) + + "When desire is gone, and the cords of the heart are broken, + then the soul is delivered from the world and is at rest in + God." + + +[Sidenote: Indian pessimism.] + +Two commonplaces about India are that pessimism is her natural +temperament, and that a natural outcome of her pessimism is the Indian +doctrine of the transmigration of souls. The second statement will +require explanation; but as regards the former, there is no denying the +strain of melancholy, the note of hopelessness, that pervades these +words we have quoted, or that they are characteristic of India. In them +life seems a burden; to be born into it, a punishment; and of the +transmigrations of our souls from life to life, seemingly, we should +gladly see the end. All the same, as new India is proving, pessimism is +not the inherent temperament of India, and the hope of the end of the +transmigration, and of the lives of the soul, no more natural in India +than in any other land. + +[Sidenote: Due to nature?] + +Pessimism is natural in India, say such writers as we have in mind, +because of the spirit-subduing aspects of nature and life amid which +Indians live their lives. Life is of little value to the possessor, they +say, where nature makes it a burden, and where its transitoriness is +constantly being thrust upon us. And that is so in India. Great rivers +keep repeating their contemptuous motto that "men may come and men may +go," and by their floods sometimes devastate whole districts. Sailing up +the Brahmaputra at one place in Assam, the writer saw a not uncommon +occurrence, the great river actually eating off the soft bank in huge +slices, five or six feet in breadth at a time. Something higher up, it +might have been the grounding of a floating tree, had turned the current +towards the bank, and at five-minute intervals, it seemed, these huge +slices were falling in. Not fifty yards back from the bank stood a +cottage, whose garden was already part gone; a banana tree standing upon +one of these slices fell in and was swept down before our eyes. Within +an hour the cottage itself would meet the same fate, and the people were +already rushing in and out. Or pass to another aspect of nature. For a +season every year the unveiled Indian sun in a sky of polished steel +glares with cruel pitiless eye. The light is fierce. Then, arbitrarily, +as it seems, the rains may be withheld, and the hard-baked, heat-cracked +soil never softens to admit the ploughshare, and hundreds of thousands +of the cultivators and field hands are overtaken by famine. At one time +during the famine of 1899-1900, it will be remembered that six million +people were receiving relief. Or, equally arbitrarily, betokening some +unknown displeasure of the gods, plague may take hold of a district and +literally take its tithe of the population. At any moment, life is +liable to be terminated with appalling suddenness by cholera or the bite +of a venomous serpent. + +With French imagination and grace, in his _Introduction to General +History_, Michelet describes the tyranny of nature--"Natura maligna"--in +India. "Man is utterly overpowered by nature there--like a feeble child +upon a mother's breast, alternately spoiled and beaten, and intoxicated +rather than nourished by a milk too strong and stimulating for it."[106] +One cannot help contrasting the supplicating Indian villagers--of whom a +University matriculation candidate told in his essay, how, when the +rains were withheld, they carried out the village goddess from her +temple and bathed the idol in the temple tank--with the English +fisher-woman of whom Tennyson tells us, who shook her fist at the cruel +sea that had robbed her of two sons. As she looked at it one day with +its lines of white breakers, she shook her fist at it and told it her +mind--"How I hates you, with your cruel teeth." + +Can this Indian aspect of nature, one wonders, be the true explanation +of the fierceness of her goddesses as contrasted with her gods, and the +offering of bloody sacrifices to goddesses only? Mother Nature is +malignant, not benign. + +[Sidenote: Indian life estimated by the economic standard of life's +value.] + +The value of life and the little worth of life in India may be gauged in +another way. In the language of the political economist, the value of +human life in any country may be estimated by the average wage, which +determines the standard of comfort and how far a man is restricted to +the bare necessities of bodily life. Again, judged by that standard, +life is probably in no civilised country at a lower estimate than in +India, where the labourer spends over 90 per. cent of his income upon +the bare necessities for the sustenance of the bodies of his household. + +[Sidenote: Indian pessimism only a mood.] + +[Sidenote: Humanlife is rising in value] + +[Sidenote: Pessimism is declining] + +All that is true, and yet the conclusion is only partly true. In spite +of all such reasoning, and acknowledging that the physical +characteristics of India have largely made her what she is, politically, +socially, and even religiously, I venture to think that the pessimism of +India is exaggerated. Not a pessimistic temperament, but a mood, a mood +of helpless submissiveness, a bowing to the powers that be in nature and +in the world, seems to me the truer description of the prevailing +"pessimism." At least, if it be the case, as I have tried to show, that +during the past century in India, human life has been rising in value, +the pessimistic mood must be declining. Let us observe some facts again. +In a Government or Mission Hospital, _there_ is a European doctor taking +part in the offensive work of the dressing of a coolie's sores,--we +assume that the doctor's touch is the touch of a true Christian +gentleman. To the despised sufferer, life is gaining a new sweetness, +and to the high-caste student looking on and ready to imitate his +teacher, life is attaining a new dignity. That human life has been +rising in value is patent. The wage of the labourer has been steadily +rising--in one or two places the workers are become masters of the +situation; the rights of woman are being recognised, if only slowly; the +middle classes are eager for education and advancement; the individual +has been gaining in independence as the tyranny of caste and custom has +declined; the sense of personal security and of citizenship and of +nationality has come into being. Whatever the merits of the great +agitation in 1905 against the partition of the Province of Bengal, and +inconceivable as taking place a century ago, it is manifestly the doing +of men keenly interested in the conditions under which they live. It is +a contradiction of the theory of an inherent Indian pessimism. +Self-respect and a sense of the dignity and duties of manhood are surely +increasing, and making our earth a place of hope and making life worth +living, instead of a burden to be borne. "The Hindus," says Sir Alfred +Lyall, "have been rescued by the English out of a chronic state of +anarchy, insecurity, lawlessness, and precarious exposure to the caprice +of despots."[107] + +[Sidenote: Asceticism is declining.] + +Best proof probably that pessimism is declining is the fact that +asceticism is declining. The times are no longer those in which the life +of a brahman is supposed to culminate in the Sannyasi or ascetic "who +has laid down everything," who, in the words of the Bhagabat Gita, "does +not hate and does not love anything."[108] The pro-Hindu writer often +quoted also acknowledges the new pleasure in life and the religious +corollary of it when she says that the recent rise in the standard of +comfort in India is opposed to the idea of asceticism. Desire, indeed, +is not gone, and the cords of the heart are not breaking. Says the old +brahman, in the guise of whom Sir Alfred Lyall speaks: "I own that you +[Britons] are doing a great deal to soften and enliven material +existence in this melancholy, sunburnt country of ours, and certainly +you are so far successful that you are bringing the ascetic idea into +discouragement and, with the younger folk, into contempt."[109] Welcome +to the new joy of living, all honour to the old ascetics, and may a +still nobler self-sacrifice take their place! + +[Sidenote: Pessimism, asceticism, transmigration are allied ideas.] + +For Western minds it is difficult to realise the close connection +between the doctrine of transmigration and the mood of India, rightly or +wrongly termed pessimism. _Our_ instinctive feeling is that life is +sweet; while there is life there is hope, _we_ say; "_healthy_ optimism" +is the expression of Professor James in his _Varieties of Religious +Experience_; it is "_more life_ and fuller that we want." In keeping +with this Western and human instinct, the Christian idea of the +Hereafter is a fuller life than the life Here, a perfect eternal life. +To the pessimist, on the contrary [and Hindu philosophy is pessimistic, +whatever be the new mood of India], the question is, "Why was I born?" +The Indian doctrine of transmigration comes with answer--"Life is a +punishment: it is the bitter consequence of our past that we are working +out; we must _submit_ to be born into the world again and again, until +we are cleared." "Yes, until your minds are cleared," the Indian +pantheist adds, "life _itself_ is a delusion, if you only knew it; life +itself, your consciousness of individuality or separateness, is a +delusion." But the pantheist's thought is here beside our present point. + +[Sidenote: Transmigration the antithesis of eternal life.] + +To the pessimistic Indian accepting the Indian view of transmigration, +it is therefore no gospel to preach the continuation of life, either +here or hereafter. "To be born again" sounds like a penance to be +endured. _Mukti_, commonly rendered _salvation_, is not regeneration +Here and eternal life Hereafter; it is _deliverance_ from further lives +altogether. If, however, we accept the statement that the value of human +life in India is rising, that life is becoming worth living, and that +the pessimistic mood is no ingrained fundamental trait, we are prepared +to believe that the hopeful Christian conception of the Here and the +Hereafter is finding acceptance. Rightly understood, the Christian +conception is at bottom the antithesis of pessimism and its corollary, +transmigration. To deny the one is almost to assert the other. The decay +of the one is the growth of the other. For the Christian conception of +the Here and the Hereafter--what is it? Life, eternal, in and through +the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. "God gave unto us eternal +life, and the life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the +life."[110] Says Harnack in his volume _What is Christianity?_ "The +Christian religion means one thing, and one thing only--eternal life in +the midst of time by the strength and under the eyes of God." Not that +the new idea in India is to be wholly ascribed to Christian influence. A +marked change in Christian thought itself during the nineteenth century +has been the higher value of this present life. Christianity has become +a vitalising gospel for the life Here even more than for the Hereafter. +But assuming the truth of what we have sought to show, namely, that +within the past century the winning personality of Christ has come to +New India, a new incentive to noble life and service, we have at least a +further reason for believing that pessimism and transmigration are +fading out of Indian minds. The new Advent, as that at Bethlehem, is a +turning-point of time; the gloomy winter of pessimism is turning to a +hopeful spring. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +INDIAN TRANSMIGRATION AND THE CHRISTIAN HERE AND HEREAFTER + + "The dew is on the lotus. Rise, good sun! + And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave. + The sunrise comes! + The dewdrop slips into the shining sea. + + If any teach Nirvana is to cease, + Say unto such they lie. + If any teach Nirvana is to live, + Say unto such they err." + + (Buddha's teaching in Arnold's _Light of Asia_.) + + +[Sidenote: Over against Transmigration, Christian immortality is +continuity of the individual's memory.] + +To appreciate the impact of the Christian idea of the Here and Hereafter +upon the Hindu idea of Transmigration and Absorption, the two ideas must +be more fully examined. Stated briefly, the Christian idea is that after +this life on earth comes an Eternity, whose character has been +determined by the life on earth. The crisis of death terminates our +bodily activities and renders impossible any further action, either +virtuous or sinful, and ushers the soul, its ledger closed, its earthy +limitations cast off, into some more immediate presence of God. If in +communion with God, through its faith in Jesus Christ, the soul is in a +state of blessedness; if still alien from God, the soul is in a state of +utter misery, for its spiritual perception and its recollection of +itself are now clear. That, at all events, seems a fair statement of the +belief of many Protestants, so far as their belief is definite at all. +But over against transmigration, what are the essential and distinctive +features of that Christian belief? Its essentially distinctive feature, +both in the case of the blessed and of the miserable, is a _continuity_ +of the consciousness in the life that now is with that which is to come. +The soul in bliss or misery is able to associate its existing state with +its past. Even on earth, as the modern preacher tells us, heaven and +hell are already begun. Over against the Hindu idea of transmigration, +accordingly, we define the Christian idea of immortality as the +continuity of our consciousness, or the immortality of the individual +consciousness. + +[Sidenote: Transmigration is essentially dissolution of the individual's +memory.] + +Per contra, the distinguishing feature of the Hindu doctrine of +transmigration or rebirth is the interruption of consciousness, the +dissolution of memory, at the close of the present existence. In the +next existence there is no memory of the present. + + "The draught of Lethe" does "await + The slipping through from state to state." + +The present life is a member of a series of lives; there are said to be +8,400,000 of them, each member of which is as unconscious of the +preceding as you are of being I. As a seed develops into plant and +flower and seed again, so the soul in each new member of the series +develops a conscious life, lapses from consciousness, and hands on a +germinal soul for a new beginning again. As the seed transmits the type, +and also some variation from the type, so is the germinal soul +transmitted through unconsciousness, ennobled or degraded by each +conscious existence it has lived. At each stage the germinal soul +represents the totality, the net outcome of its existences, as in each +generation of a plant the seed may be said to do. So far, the doctrine +of transmigration is a doctrine of the evolution of a soul, a +declaration that in a sense we are all that we have been, that virtue +and vice will have their reward, that in a sense "men may rise on +stepping stones of their dead selves." It does not leave hard cases of +heathen or of reprobates to the discernment and mercy of God; it offers +them, instead, other chances in subsequent lives. A not unattractive +doctrine it is, even although the attractive analogy of the evolution of +a plant breaks down. For in the scientific doctrine of evolution, +individuals have no immortality _at all_; it is only the species that +lives and moves on. But in Hinduism, as in Christianity, we are thinking +of the continuity of the _individual_ souls. + +[Sidenote: The end of transmigration is absorption into Deity.] + +[Sidenote: The saint Ramkrishna's obliviousness of self.] + +To proceed with the statement of the doctrine of transmigration. The +climax of the transmigrations is Nirvana or extinction of the individual +soul, according to the Buddhist, and union with or absorption into +Deity, according to the Hindu.[111] Buddhism has gone from the land of +its birth, as Christianity and even Judaism from Palestine, and I pass +from the Buddhist doctrine. The Hindu climax, of absorption into Deity, +is reached when by self-mastery personal desire is gone, and by profound +contemplation upon Deity a pure-bred soul has lost the consciousness of +separation from Deity. The distinction between _I_ and the great _Thou_ +has vanished; the One is present in the mind not as an objective +thought, but by a transformation of the consciousness itself. The words +of Hindus themselves in the _Advanced Text-book of Hindu Religion_ are: +The human soul (the Jivatmic seed) "grows into self-conscious Deity." +Listen also to the words of Swami Vivekananda, in the Parliament of +Religions, Chicago, about his master, Ramkrishna Paramhansa's growing +into self-conscious Deity: "Every now and then strange fits of +God-consciousness came upon him.... He then spoke of himself as being +able to do and know everything.... He would speak of himself as the same +soul that had been born before as Rama, as Krishna, as Jesus, or as +Buddha, born again as Ramkrishna.... He would say he was ... an +incarnation of God Himself." Again Swami Vivekananda tells us: "From +time to time Ramkrishna would entirely lose his own identity, so much so +as to appropriate to himself the offerings brought for the goddess" (to +the temple in which he officiated). "Sometimes forgetting to adorn the +image, he would adorn _himself_ with the flowers."[112] Transmigration +is not necessarily bound up with the pantheistic view of the world, but +in _Hinduism_, transmigration is only a ladder towards the realisation +of the One. + +[Sidenote: Contrasts--"Born again" and a spiritual aristocracy of long +spiritual descent.] + +[Sidenote: Heaven and Hell not necessary ideas in Transmigration.] + +Radical differences from Christian thought emerge. In the Hindu +conception, the acme is reached only by a spiritual aristocracy of long +spiritual descent; for the common multitude there is no gospel of being +born again in Christ, no guiding hand like that of Our Lord towards the +Father's presence. The upward path, according to the Hindu idea, is the +path of philosophical knowledge and of meditation, not the power of +union with Jesus Christ to make us sons of God. Most striking difference +perhaps of all--in the Hindu philosophical system there is no place for +even the conceptions of heaven and hell except as temporary +halting-places between two incarnations of the soul, which practical +necessity requires. For the soul, this world is the plane of existence; +union with omnipresent Deity is the climax of existence that the Hindu +devotee seeks to attain; yet not in a Hereafter, but as he sits on the +ground no longer conscious of his self. "The beatific vision of +Hinduism," says a recent pro-Hindu writer, "is to be relegated to no +distant future."[113] Heaven and Hell are mocked at as absurdities by +the new sect of the [=A]ryas in the United Provinces and the Punjab, who +retain the doctrine of transmigration.[114] + +[Sidenote: Several heavens and hells in popular Hinduism.] + +Hindus are divided as to the existence of these temporary halting-places +between the successive incarnations of the soul. The _Text-book of Hindu +Religion_, already referred to, speaks unhesitatingly about their place +in the Hindu system. The [=A]ryas, on the other hand, hold that the +instant a soul leaves its body it enters another body just born. The +soul is never naked--to employ a common figure. Of course in popular +Hinduism it is not surprising to find not merely the ideas of Heaven and +Hell, but even that each chief Deity has his own heaven and that there +are various hells. In the Tantras or ritual books of modern Hinduism, +there is frequent mention of such heavens and hells, and when the idea +of rebirths is also met with, the rebirths are regarded as stages +towards the reward or punishment of the _individual conscious_ souls. It +is the popular idea of heaven that has given rise to the common +euphemism for _to die_, namely, to become a deva or inhabitant of +heaven. + +[Sidenote: Transmigration, associated with pessimism and pantheism, is +likewise yielding.] + +We have observed the pessimistic mood of India yielding before the +improved conditions of life, and the brahmanical pantheism before the +thought of God the Father. Bound up as the idea of transmigration has +been with the pessimism and pantheism of India, we are prepared to find +that it too is yielding. Of that we now ask what evidence there is in +the ordinary speech and writings of educated India, apart from +controversy or professedly Hindu writings, in which the accepted Indian +orthodoxy would probably appear. + +[Sidenote: Educated Hindus speak of the dead as if their former +consciousness continued.] + +From the ordinary speeches and writings of educated Hindus regarding the +dead, no one would infer that their doctrinal standpoint was other than +that of the ordinary religious Briton, namely, that the dead friend has +returned to God or has been called away by God, or the like. A native +judge in Bengal, one of the most distinguished leaders of the Hindu +Revival, writes as follows: The beatitude which the new +Radha-Krishnaites aspire to "is not the Nirvana of the Vedantists, the +quiescence of Rationalism. Nirvana and quiescence are merely negatives. +The beatitude [of the new Radha-Krishnaites] is a positive something. +They do not aspire to unification with the divine essence. They prefer +hell with its torments to such unification."[115] A few years ago, at a +public meeting in Calcutta, the acknowledged leader of Hinduism, +speaking of a Hindu gentleman whose death we were lamenting, said: "God +has taken him to himself"--certainly not a Hindu statement of the +passing of a soul. Similarly, in 1882 we find one nobleman in Bengal +writing to another regarding his mother's death: "It is my prayer to God +that she may abide in eternal happiness in heaven."[116] Generations of +Hindu students I have known to find pleasure in identifying themselves +with Wordsworth's views of immortality: + + "Trailing clouds of glory do we come + From God who is our home," + +and + + "The faith that looks through death." + +[Sidenote: Transmigration now no more than a conventional explanation of +how misfortunes befell one.] + +Somewhat dreamlike Wordsworth's views may be, but his belief is clearly +not in transmigration. To the educated Hindu, who may not consciously +have rejected the idea of transmigration, the doctrine is really now no +more than a current and convenient explanation of any misfortune that +has befallen a person. "Why has it befallen him? He must have earned it +in some previous existence. It is in the debit balance of the +transactions in his lives." Such are the vague ideas floating in the +air. Upon any individual's acts or plans for the future, the idea of +transmigration seems to have no bearing whatever beyond a numbing of the +will.[117] For in theory, the Hindu's fate is just. In strict logic no +doubt the same numbing effect might be alleged about the Christian +doctrine of predestination. Even when misfortune has overtaken an +educated Hindu, I think I am justified in saying that the more frequent +thought with him is now in keeping with the new theistic belief; the +misfortune is referred to the will of God. As already said, it is a +commonplace of the unfortunate student who has failed, to ascribe his +failure to God's will. + +[Sidenote: Transmigration and Predestination more properly contrasted.] + +[Sidenote: Illustration from actual fact.] + +There is room for the Christian thought of the Hereafter, because in +reality, as theologians know, the doctrine of transmigration stands over +against the Christian doctrine of predestination rather than over +against the Christian doctrine of the Here and Hereafter. Transmigration +is a doctrine of what has gone before the present life rather than of +what will follow. Every educated Anglo-Indian whom I have consulted +agrees that in a modern Hindu's mouth transmigration is only a theory of +the incidence of actual suffering. Here is the doctrine of _karma_ +(works), that is of transmigration or merited rebirth, in the actual +life of India--transmigration and the pessimistic helplessness of which +I have spoken? In the last great famine of 1899-1900, in a village in +South-western India, a missionary found a victim of famine lying on one +side of the village street, and not far off, upon the other side, two or +three men of the middle class. The missionary reproached them for their +callousness. What might be answered for them is not here to the point; +their answer for themselves was, "It is his _karma_." The missionary did +what he could for the famine sufferer, and then when repassing the group +could not forbear remarking to them, "You see you were wrong about his +_karma_." "Yes, we were wrong," they replied. "It was his _karma_ to be +helped by you." The same views of karma and of transmigration, as +referring to the past, not the future, are apparent in a recent number +of _The Inquirer_, a paper conducted in Calcutta for the benefit of +Hindu students and others. I take the following from the question +column: "Do Christians believe in the doctrine of reincarnation? If not, +how do you account for blindness at birth?" The questioner's idea is +plain, and the coincidence with the question put to Christ in St. John's +Gospel, chapter ix, is striking. Hindus thus have room for an idea of +the _future_ of the soul, as Christians, on their side, have for a +theory of the soul's origin. + +[Sidenote: The idea of the Hereafter not dynamical with Christians at +present.] + +The Christian idea of the Hereafter cannot, as yet, be called a strongly +dynamical doctrine of Christianity in the sense that the Person of Our +Lord has proved dynamical. Not that interest in the subject is lacking. +I have referred to questions put by educated Hindus in _The Inquirer_. +Out of fifty-seven questions I find eight bearing on the Christian +doctrine of the Hereafter or the Hindu doctrine of Transmigration. In +the _Magazine of the Hindu College_, _Benares_, out of fourteen +questions I find four bearing on the same subject. The want of force in +the Christian doctrine no doubt reflects its want of force for +Christians themselves in this present positive age. For even Tennyson +himself was vague: + + "That which drew from out the boundless deep + Turns again home." + +[Sidenote: The new sects and the doctrine of Transmigration.] + +[Sidenote: The _Text-book of Hindu Religion_.] + +[Sidenote: A European's place on the ladder of transmigration.] + +Of the sects of recent origin, only the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j or Theistic +Association rejects the doctrine of transmigration avowedly. We have +already said that the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j or Vedic Theists of the United +Provinces and the Punjab hold strongly to the doctrine. It is noteworthy +that _they_ should do so, the Vedas being their standards wherewith to +test Modern Hinduism, for the doctrine of transmigration is scarcely +hinted at in the Vedas, and in the oldest, the Rigveda, there is said to +be no trace of the doctrine.[118] It appears in the later writings, the +Upanishads, and is manifest throughout the Code of Manu (c. A.D. 200). +Mrs. Besant, chief figure among the Indian Theosophists, now virtually a +Hindu Revival Association, preaches the doctrine, and, in fact, lectured +on it in Britain in 1904. At the same time, transmigration is no part of +the Theosophist's creed. As might be expected, the _Text-book of Hindu +Religion_, of the Hindu College, Benares, gives the doctrine of +transmigration a prominent place, although the explicitness with which +it is set forth is very surprising to one acquainted with the way the +doctrine is generally ignored by the educated. I quote from the _Hindu +Text-book_, published in 1903, that Westerns may realise that in dealing +with transmigration we are not dealing simply with some old-world +doctrine deciphered from some palm-leaf written in some ancient +character. After describing--here following the ancient philosophical +writings, the Upanishads--how the Jivatma or Soul comes up through the +various existences of the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms until it +reaches the human stage, the Text-book proceeds to describe the further +upward or downward process. It is declared that the downward movement +(from man to animal) is now much rarer than formerly--that concession is +made to modern ideas--but the _law_ of the downward process is as +follows: "When a man has so degraded himself below the human level that +many of his qualities can only express themselves through the form of a +lower creature, he cannot, when his time for rebirth comes, pass into a +human form. He is delayed, therefore, and is attached to the body of one +of the lower creatures as a co-tenant with the animal, vegetable, or +mineral Jiva [life], until he has worn out the bonds of these non-human +qualities and is fit to take birth again in the world of men. A very +strong and excessive attachment to an animal may have similar results." +Where modern ideas reach in India, one can understand such ideas as +those melting away. A second passage from the Text-book is interesting, +as showing the compiler's idea of the place of a life in Europe in the +chain of existences, although in this case also the statement is made +only about "ancient days." "The Jivatma [soul] was prepared for entrance +into each [Indian] caste through a long preliminary stage _outside_ +India; then he was born into India and passed into each caste to receive +its definite lessons; then was born away from India to practise these +lessons; usually returning to India to the highest of them, in the final +stages of his evolution." In other words, people of the outer world, say +Europeans, are rewarded for virtue by being born into the lowest Indian +caste, and then, after rising to be brahmans in India, they go back to +Europe to give it the benefit of their acquirements; and finally crown +their career by reappearing in India as a brahman philosopher or jogi. +Surely we may laugh at this without being thought unsympathetic or +narrow-minded. We recall Mrs. Besant's assertion that she had a dim +recollection of an existence as a brahman pandit in India. According to +the spiritual genealogy of the _Hindu Text-book_, she may hope to be +born next in an Indian child, and become a jogi possessed of saving +knowledge of the identity of self with Deity. + +[Sidenote: The women of the middle class and transmigration.] + +I asked a lady who had been a missionary in Calcutta for many years, how +far a belief in transmigration was apparent among the women of the +middle class. She could recall only two instances in which it had come +to her notice in her talks with the wives and daughters of educated +India. Once a reason was given for being kind to a cat, that the +speaker's grandmother might then be in it as her abode, although the +observation was accompanied with a laugh. On the second occasion, when +the lady was having trouble with a slow pupil, one of the women present, +sympathising with the teacher, said, "Do not trouble with her; perhaps +next time when she comes back she will be cleverer." The general +conclusion, therefore, I repeat: Transmigration is no longer a living +part of the belief of educated India; the Christian conception of the +Hereafter is as yet only partially taking its place. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE IDEAS OF SIN AND SALVATION + + "Conscience does make cowards of us _all_." + + --SHAKESPEARE. + + +[Sidenote: Recapitulation.] + +[Sidenote: The new Theism.] + +In the new India, as fish out of the water die, many things cannot +survive. We have seen the educated Hindu dropping polytheism, forgetting +pantheism, and adopting or readopting monotheism as the basis of his +religious thinking and feeling. For modern enlightenment and Indian +polytheism are incongruous; there is a like incongruity between Indian +pantheism and the modern demand for practical reality. Likewise, both +polytheism and pantheism are inconsistent with Christian thought, which +is no minor factor in the education of modern India. Further, the theism +that the educated Hindu is adopting as the basis of his religion +approaches to Christian Theism. The doctrines of the Fatherhood of God +and the Brotherhood of Man have become commonplaces in his mouth. + +[Sidenote: Homage to Christ Himself] + +Likewise, the educated Hindu is strongly attracted to the person of +Jesus Christ, in spite of His alien birth and His association with Great +Britain. There is a sweet savour in His presence, and the man of any +spirituality finds it grateful to sit at His feet. That familiar +oriental expression, hyperbolical to our ears, but ever upon the lips in +India to express the relationship of student to trusted professor, or of +disciple to religious teacher, expresses exactly the relationship to +Jesus Christ of the educated man who is possessed of any religious +instinct. To such a man the miracles, the superhuman claims, the highest +titles of Jesus Christ, present no difficulty until they are formulated +for his subscription in some hard dogmatic mould. Then he must question +and discuss. + +[Sidenote: Transmigration forgotten.] + +Again, the educated Hindu finds himself employing about the dead and the +hereafter not the language of transmigration, but words that convey the +idea of a continuation of our present consciousness in the presence of a +personal God. For life is becoming worth living, and the thought of life +continuing and progressing is acceptable. This present life also has +become a reality; a devotee renouncing the world may deny its reality; +but how in this practical modern world can a man retain the doctrine of +Maya or Delusion. It has dropped from the speech and apparently out of +the mind of the educated classes. + +[Sidenote: The ideas of Sin and Salvation by faith in Jesus Christ not +yet dynamical.] + +I have suggested that those features of Christianity that are proving to +be dynamical in India will be found to be those same that are proving to +be dynamical in Britain. The converse also probably holds true, as our +religious teachers might do well to note. The doctrines of Sin and +Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ do not yet seem to have +commended themselves in any measure in India. Positive repudiation of a +Christian doctrine is rare, but the flourishing new sect of the +North-West, the [=A]ryas, make a point of repudiating the Christian +doctrine of salvation by faith, although not explicitly denying it in +their creed. Over against it they set up the Justice of God and the +certainty of goodness and wickedness receiving each its meed. One can +imagine that salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, the outstanding feature +of Christianity, may have been unworthily presented to the [=A]rya +leaders, so that it appeared to them merely as some cheap or gratis kind +of "indulgences." The biographer of the Parsee philanthropist, Malabari, +a forceful and otherwise well-informed writer, sets forth that idea of +salvation by faith, or an idea closely akin. He is explaining why his +religious-minded hero did not accept the religion of his missionary +teachers. "The proud Asiatic," he says, "strives to purchase salvation +with work, and never stoops to accept it as alms, as it necessarily +would be if faith were to be his only merit." The unworthy presentation +of "salvation by faith" may have occurred either in feeble Christian +preaching or in anti-Christian pamphlets. Neither is unknown in India; +and anti-Christian pamphlets have been known to be circulated through +[=A]rya agencies. + +[Sidenote: The ideas of sin incompatible with pantheism.] + +To appreciate the attitude of the Hindu mind to the doctrines of Sin and +Salvation, we must return again to the rough division of Hindus +into--first, the mass of the people, polytheists; secondly, the educated +classes, now largely monotheists; thirdly, the brahmanically educated +and the ascetics, pantheists. It is only with the monotheists that we +have now to deal. As already said--to the pantheist the word sin has no +meaning. Where all is God, sin or alienation from God is a contradiction +in terms. The conception of sin implies the _two_ conceptions of God and +Man, or at least of Law and Man; and where one or other of these two +conceptions is lacking, the conception of sin cannot arise. In +pantheism, the idea of man as a distinct individual is relegated to the +region of Maya or Delusion; there cannot therefore be a real sinner. +Does such reasoning appear mere dialectics without practical +application, or is it unfair, think you, thus to bind a person down to +the logical deductions from his creed? On the contrary, persons denying +that we can sin are easy to find. Writes the latest British apostle of +Hinduism, for the leaders of reaction in India are a few English and +Americans: "There is no longer a vague horrible something called sin: +This has given place to a clearly defined state of ignorance or +blindness of the will."[119] I quote again also from Swami Vivekananda, +representative of Hinduism in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in +1893. It is from his lecture published in 1896, entitled _The Real and +the Apparent Man_. His statement is unambiguous. "It is the greatest of +all lies," he says, "that we are mere men; we are the God of the +Universe.... The worst lie that you ever told yourself is that you were +born a sinner.... The wicked see this universe as a hell; and the +partially good see it as heaven; and the perfect beings realise it as +God Himself. By mistake we think that we are impure, that we are +limited, that we are separate. The real man is the One Unit Existence." +Such is the logical and the actual outcome of pantheism in regard to the +idea of sin, and such is the standpoint of Hindu philosophy. + +[Sidenote: Sankarachargya, the pantheist's, confession of sins.] + +Or if further illustration be needed of the incompatibility of the ideas +of pantheism and sin, listen to the striking prayer of Sankarachargya, +the pantheistic Vedantist of the eighth century A.D., with whom is +identified the pantheistic motto, "One only, without a second."[120] It +attracts our attention because Sankarachargya is professedly confessing +sins. Thus runs the prayer: "O Lord, pardon my three sins: I have in +contemplation clothed in form thee who art formless; I have in praise +described thee who art ineffable; and in visiting shrines I have ignored +thine omnipresence."[121] Beautiful expressions indeed, confessions that +finite language and definite acts are inadequate to the Infinite, nay, +contradictions of the Infinite, expressions fit to be recited in prayer +by any man of any creed who feels that God is a Spirit and omnipresent! +But in a Christian prayer such expressions would only form a preface to +confession of one's own _moral_ sin; after adoration comes confession. +Whether, like Sankarachargya, we think of the Deity objectively, as the +formless and literally omnipresent Being, the _pure Being_ which, +according to Hegel, equals nothing, or whether like Swami Vivekananda we +think of man and God as really one, all differentiation being a delusion +within the mind--there is _no second_, neither any second to sin against +nor any second to commit the sin. + +[Sidenote: The masses and the sense of sin.] + +[Sidenote: Prescriptions for sinners.] + +For the ignorant masses, the sense of sin has been worn out by the +importance attached to religious and social externals and by the +artificial value of the service of a hereditary monopolist priesthood. +These right, all is right in the eyes of the millions of India. When one +of the multitude proposes to himself a visit to some shrine or sacred +spot, no doubt the motive often is some divine dissatisfaction with +himself; it is a feeling that God is not near enough where he himself +lives. But what is poured into his ears? By a visit to Dwaraka, the city +of Krishna's sports, he will be liberated from all his sins. By bathing +in the sacred stream of the Ganges he will wash away his sins. All who +die at Benares are sure to go to heaven. By repeating the Gayatri (a +certain verse of the Rigveda addressed to the sun) a man is saved. "A +brahman who holds the Veda in his memory is not culpable though he +should destroy the three worlds"--so says the Code of Manu. The Tantras, +or ritual works of modern Hinduism, abound in such prescriptions for +sinners. "He who liberates a bull at the Aswamedika place of pilgrimage +obtains _mukti_, that is salvation or an end of his rebirths." "All sin +is destroyed by the repetition of Kali's thousand names." "The water of +a guru's [religious teacher's] feet purifies from all sin." "The man who +carries the guru's dust [the dust of the guru's feet] upon his head is +emancipated from all sin and is [the god] Siva himself." "By a certain +inhalation of the breath through the left nostril, and holding of the +breath, with repetition of _yam_, the V[=a]yu Bija or mystical spell of +wind or air, the body and its indwelling sinful self are dessicated, the +breath being expelled by the right nostril."[122] And so on _ad +infinitum_. Superstition, Western or Eastern, has no end of panaceas. We +recall the advertisements of "Plenaria indulgenzia" on the doors of +churches in South Italy. Visiting Benares, the metropolis of popular +Hinduism, the conception of salvation everywhere obtruded upon one is +that it is a question of sacred spots, and of due offerings and +performances thereat. + +[Sidenote: The signification of sacrifices to the Indian masses.] + +[Sidenote: Description of animal sacrifice.] + +What to the masses is _sacrifice_ even, the word which to western ears, +familiar with the term in our Scriptures, suggests acknowledgment of sin +and atonement therefor? It is a mistake to regard sacrifices in India as +expiatory; they are gifts to the Deities as superior powers for boons +desired or received, or they are the customary homage to the powers that +be, at festivals and special occasions. Animal sacrifices are +distinguished from the offerings of fruits and flowers only in being +limited to particular Deities and pertaining to more special occasions. +An actual instance will show the place that sacrifices hold. In a letter +from a village youth to his father, informing him how he had proceeded +upon his arrival at Calcutta, whither he had gone for the University +Matriculation Examination, he reports that he has offered a goat in +sacrifice in order to ensure his success. What he probably does is this. +In a bazaar near the great temple of Kalighat, near Calcutta, the +greatest centre of animal sacrifices in the world, he buys a goat or +kid, fetches it into the temple court and hands it over to one of the +priests whom he has fee'd. The priest puts a consecrating daub of red +lead upon the animal's head, utters over it some mantra or sacred +Sanscrit text, sprinkles water and a few flowers upon it at the actual +place of slaughter, and then delivers it over again to the offerer. Then +when the turn of the offerer, whom we are watching, has come, he hands +over the animal to the executioner, who fixes its neck within a forked +or Y-shaped stick fixed fast in the ground. With one blow the animal's +head is severed from its body. The bleeding head is carried off into the +shrine to be laid before the image of the goddess, and become the temple +perquisite. The decapitated body is carried off by the offerer to +furnish his family with a holiday meal. With his forehead ceremonially +marked with a touch of the blood lying thick upon the ground, the +offerer leaves the temple, his sacrifice finished. Such is animal +sacrifice; if the description recalls the slaughter-house, the actual +sight is certainly sickening. Yet, far as a European now feels from +worship in such a place, and thankful to Him who has abolished sacrifice +once for all, there is no doubt religious gratification to those who go +through what I have described. Our point is that, as Sir M. Monier +Williams declares, in such an offering, "there is no idea of effacing +guilt or making a vicarious offering for sin."[123] + +[Sidenote: The educated classes and the idea of sin.] + +[Sidenote: The brahma monopoly of nearness to the Deity broken down.] + +The educated classes, breathing now a monotheistic atmosphere, although +in close contact with polytheism in their homes and with pantheism in +their sacred literature, have reached the platform on which the idea of +sin may be experienced. A member of that class, a pantheist no longer, +is in the presence of a personal God, a Moral Being, and is himself a +responsible person, with the instincts of a child of that Supreme Moral +Being, our Father. With his education, he knows himself to be +independent of brahmanical mediation in his intercourse with that Being. +As confirmation, it is noteworthy how many of the religious leaders of +modern times, like Buddha of old, are other than brahman by caste. In a +previous chapter the names of a number of these non-brahman leaders were +given. Even the Hindu ascetics of these latter days are more numerously +non-brahman than of old, for in theory only brahmans have reached the +ascetical stage of religious development. Whatever the reason, the +brahmanical monopoly of access to and inspiration from the Deity is no +longer recognised by new-educated India. + +[Sidenote: The worship of the new sects--its significance.] + +In like manner, the new religious associations seem to feel themselves +directly in the presence of God. Congregational worship, a feature new +to Hindus, is a regular exercise in the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j or Theistic +Association of Bengal, the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes or Prayer +Associations of Western India, and the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j or Vedic +Theistic Association of the United Provinces and the North-West of +India. When Rammohan Roy, the theistic reformer, opened his church in +Calcutta in 1830, he introduced among Hindus congregational worship and +united prayer, before unknown among them and confessedly borrowed from +Christian worship.[124] The public worship in all these bodies is indeed +not unlike many a Christian service, consisting of Prayer to God, Praise +of God, and expositions of religious truth. In a small collection of +hymns, "Theistic Hymns," published some years ago for the use of members +of the [=A]rya Sam[=a]j, we find many Christian hymns expressive of this +personal relationship to God. We find "My God, my Father, while I +stray," and "O God, our help in ages past." Neither of these hymns, +however, it must be noted, contains confession of sin. Curiously +incongruous to our minds is the inclusion among these hymns of poems +like "The boy stood on the burning deck," and "Tell me not in mournful +numbers," and "There's a magical tie to the land of our home," etc.[125] +Even among the Hindu revivalists, judged by that test of the incoming of +public worship, we perceive the growth of the idea of personal +relationship to God. A recent publication of that party is "_Songs for +the worship of the Goddess Durga_." One of them, we may note in passing, +is the well-known hymn, "Work, for the night is coming." All such +personal relationship, we again repeat, is incompatible with pantheism, +and almost equally so with the popular sacerdotalism. Not without +significance do the new theists of Western India call their associations +the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes or Prayer Associations, and give to the +buildings in which they worship the name of Prayer Halls instead of +temples. Let not men say that religion and theological belief belong to +separable spheres. + +[Sidenote: The idea of sin naturally accompanies the new monotheism.] + +Once more, the public worship and prayer attendant on the new monotheism +of the new religious associations are the signs that the stage has been +reached where sin will be felt and confessed. As yet, however, it cannot +be said that the thought of sin is prominent. In the creeds of the +[=A]rya Sam[=a]j and the Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes, the word _sin_ does +not occur. What we find in the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j is as follows. From +the creed of the Southern India Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, of date about 1883, +we quote paragraph 7: "Should I through folly commit sin, I will +endeavour to be atoned _[sic]_ unto God by earnest repentance and +reformation."[126] From the "Principles of the Sadharan [Universal or +Catholic] Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j," set forth in the organ of the body, we +quote a paragraph 8: "God rewards virtue and punishes sin, but that +punishment is for our good and cannot last to eternity." From a +publication by a third section of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, the party of +Keshub Chunder Sen, we quote: "Every sinner must suffer the consequences +of his own sins, sooner or later, in this world or in the next; for the +moral law is unchangeable and God's justice irreversible. His mercy also +must have its way. As the just king, He visits the soul with _adequate +agonies_, and when the sinner after being thus chastised mournfully +prays, He as the merciful Father delivers and accepts him and becomes +reconciled to him. Such reconciliation is the only true atonement."[127] +Even in the last quoted, the expression "adequate agonies" shows its +standpoint regarding salvation from sin to be salvation by repentance, +and not the standpoint of St. Paul, "I live, and yet no longer I, but +Christ liveth in me." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE IDEA OF SALVATION + + "The slender sound + As from a distance beyond distance grew, + Coming upon me--O never harp nor horn + Was like that music as it came; and then + Stream'd thro' my cell a cold and silver beam, + And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail." + + TENNYSON. + + +[Sidenote: Hinduism superseded Buddhism because it offered salvation, +not extinction.] + +Salvation does mean something to every class. The huge fabric of +Brahmanism does not continue to exist without ministering to some +wide-felt need of the masses. It was in obedience to some inward demand, +however perverted, that children were cast into the Ganges at Saugor, +that human sacrifices were offered and self-tortures like hook-swinging +were endured. These have been put down by British authority, but there +still remain many austerities and bloody sacrifices and strange devices +to satisfy the clamant demand of our souls. Even may we not say that, +along with other reasons for the disappearance of Buddhism from India, +some response more satisfying to the human need must have been offered +by the rival system of Hinduism. Hinduism has deities and avatars; +Buddhism had none. Two of the most interesting spots in India, the most +sacred in the world to Buddhists, are Budh-gaya, where under the bo tree +Buddha attained to enlightenment, and S[=a]rn[=a]th, where he began his +preaching. Yet the worship at neither place to-day is Buddhist. At the +scene of Gautama's enlightenment, where he became Buddha or Enlightened, +one of the conventional statues of Buddha is actually marked and +worshipped as Vishnu, the Hindu deity, the Preserver in the Hindu triad. +Even at that most holy shrine of Buddhism, Hinduism has supplanted it, +for popular Hinduism offered salvation, while Buddhism offered +extinction. Turning from the masses to the philosophical ascetic--when +he cuts himself off from family life with all its variety of pleasure +and interest, not to speak of the self-torture he also sometimes +inflicts, he too has some corresponding demand, some adequate motive to +satisfy. His is the resolute quest for salvation of the higher, older +type. But we are dealing with modern, new-educated India, and now we ask +ourselves: What does the modern, new-educated Indian mean by salvation? +Why does the thought of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ fail to reach +his heart? + +[Sidenote: Three ways of salvation in Hinduism: more strictly, three +stages.] + +[Sidenote: 1. Saving knowledge] + +[Sidenote: Or now Beatific Vision.] + +The acute Indian mind, with its disposition to analyse and its +tenderness towards all manifestations of religion, has noted three +different paths of salvation, or more strictly three stages in the path. +The last only really leads to salvation, the other two paths are +tolerant recognition of the well-meaning religious efforts of those who +have not attained to understanding of the true and final path of +salvation. For convenience sake we may roughly designate the three ways +as Saving Works, and Saving Faith, and Saving Knowledge, placing the +elementary stage first. One of the Tantras or ritual scriptures of +Modern Hinduism, the Mahanirv[=a]na Tantra, thus explains the three +stages in the path and their respective merits: "The knowledge that +Brahma alone is true is the best expedient; meditation is the middling +[= the means?]; and (2) the chanting of glories and the recitation of +names is the worst; and (3) the worship of idols is the worst of the +worst.[128] Of the pantheist's "saving knowledge," perhaps enough has +been said. But again, it is the piercing of the veil of Maya or Delusion +which hides from the soul that God is the One and the All. It is the +transformation of the consciousness of "I" into that of the "One only, +without a second." It is the ability to say "Aham Brahman," _i.e._ I am +Brahma. In the _Life of Dr. Wilson_, the Scottish Missionary at Bombay, +we read that in 1833, Dr. Wilson went with a visitor to see a celebrated +jogi who was lying in the sun in the street, the nails of whose hands +were grown into his cheek, and on whose head there was the nest of a +bird. The visitor questioned the jogi, "How can one obtain the knowledge +of God?" and the reply of the jogi was, "Do not ask me questions; you +may look at me, for I am God." "Aham Brahman," very probably was his +reply. That is pantheistic salvation, _mukti_, or deliverance from +further human existences and their desires and delusions. At last the +spirit is free, and the galling chains of the lusting and limited body +are broken. But as pantheism is declining, such cases are growing fewer, +and for the educated Hindus, now largely monotheists, the saving +knowledge is rather a beatific vision of the Divine, only vouchsafed to +minds intensely concentrated upon the quest and thought of God, and cut +off from mundane distractions. This is the union with God which is +salvation to many of the modern monotheistic Hindus. + +[Sidenote: The quest of the beatific vision still implies the +dissociation of religion and active life.] + +[Sidenote: An unproductive religious ideal.] + +What concerns us here is that in the conception of the beatific vision, +we still find ourselves in a different religious world from +ours--religion exoteric for the vulgar, and religion esoteric for the +enlightened; religion not for living by, but for a period of retirement; +a religion of spiritual self-culture, not of active sonship and +brotherhood. Far be it from me to say that at this point the West may +not learn as well as teach, for how much thought does the culture of the +spirit receive among us? How little! However that may be, this +conception of the religious life is deeply rooted in educated India. The +impersonal pantheistic conception of the Deity may be passing into the +theistic, and even into Christian theism; the doctrine of transmigration +may be little more than the current orthodox explanation of the coming +of misfortune; the doctrine of Maya or the illusory character of the +phenomena of our consciousness, it may be impossible to utter in this +new practical age; and Jesus Christ may be the object of the highest +reverence; but still the instinctive thought of the educated Hindu is +that there is a period of life for the world's work, and a later period +for devotion to religion. When dissatisfaction with himself or with the +world does overtake him, instinctively there occur to him thoughts of +retirement from the world and concentration of his mind, thereby to +reach God's presence. Very few spiritually minded Hindus past middle +life pass into the Christian Church, as some do at the earlier stages of +life. Under the sway of the Hindu idea of salvation, by knowledge or by +intense intuition, they withdraw from active life to meditate on God, +with less or more of the practice of religious exercises. Painful to +contemplate the spiritual loss to the community of a conception of +religion that diverts the spiritual energy away from the community, and +renders it practically unproductive, except as an example. Once more we +recall as typical the jogi, not going about doing good, anointed with +the Holy Ghost and with power, but fixed like a plant to its own spot, +and with inward-looking eyes. Time was that there were jogis and joginis +(female jogis) in Europe; but even of St. Theresa, at one period of her +life a typical jogini, we read that not long after her visions and +supernatural visitations, she became a most energetic reformer of the +convents. + +[Sidenote: The jogi, not the brahman, is the living part of present-day +Hinduism.] + +That quest for the beatific vision or for union with God, is the highest +and the most living part of present-day Hinduism, whether monotheistic +or pantheistic. Not the purohit brahman (the domestic celebrant), or the +guru brahman (the professional spiritual director), conventionally +spoken of as divine, but the jogi or religious seeker is the object of +universal reverence. And rightly so. The reality of this aspect of +Hinduism is manifest in the ease with which it overrides the idea of +caste. In theory brahmans are the twice-born caste, the nearest to the +Deity and to union with Him. A man of lower caste, in his upward +transmigrations towards union with God or absorption into Deity, should +pass through an existence as a brahman. In the chapter on Transmigration +we found that the upward steps of the ladder up to the brahman caste had +been clearly stated in an authoritative Hindu text-book. The word +_br[=a]hman_, the name of the highest caste, is itself in fact a synonym +for Deity. But as a matter of fact, men of any caste, moved by the +spirit, are found devoting themselves to the jogi life. "He who attains +to God is the true br[=a]hman," is the current maxim, attributed to the +great Buddha. + +[Sidenote: Saving Faith, or Bhakti.] + +[Sidenote: Bhakti implies a personal God.] + +[Sidenote: Bhakti a genuine feeling because it may override caste.] + +[Sidenote: Bhakti not fit to cope with caste.] + +This brings us to the second of the three paths of salvation, the middle +portion of the upward path to the mountain top of clear, unclouded +vision of the All, the One Soul. In Hindu theory, at this second stage +man is still amid the clouds that cling to the mountain's breast. For +easy reference I have named it _Salvation by Faith_, although the +English term must not mislead. The extract from the Mahanirv[=a]na +Tantra, already quoted, describes this inferior stage as the method of +"chanting of glories and recitation of names" of gods. The Sanscrit +name, _Bhakti_, is rendered devotion, or fervour, or faith, or fervent +love; and in spite of alien ideas associated with bhakti, bhakti is much +more akin to Faith than are many of the features of Hinduism to the +Christian analogues with whose names they are ticketed. For example, +bhakti practically implies a personal god, not the impersonal +pantheistic Brahma. Intense devotion to some personal god, generally +Vishnu the preserver, under the name Hari, or either of Vishnu's chief +incarnations, Ram or Krishna, is the usual manifestation of bhakti. In +actual practice it displays itself in ecstatic dancing or singing, or in +exclaiming the name of the god or goddess, or in self-lacerations in his +or her honour. Lacerations and what we would call penances, be it +remembered, are done to the honour of a Deity; they are not a discipline +like the self-whipping of the Flagellants and the jumping of the Jumpers +of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. "Bhakti," says Sir Monier +Williams, "is really a kind of 'meritorious work,' and not equivalent to +'faith' in the Christian sense."[129] Bhakti is the religion of many +millions of India, combined more or less with the conventional externals +of sacrifice and offerings and pilgrimages and employment of brahmans, +which together constitute the third path of salvation, by karma or +works. That ecstatic adoration is religion for many millions of India, +although the name _bhakti_ may never pass their lips. We judged the idea +of salvation by knowledge, or by intense concentration of mind, to be +_genuinely_ felt, because it could override the idea of caste. Applying +the same test here, we must acknowledge the genuineness of feeling in +bhakti. Theoretically, at least, as Sir Monier Williams says, "devotion +to Vishnu supersedes all distinctions of caste"; and again, "Vishnavism +[Vishnuism], notwithstanding the gross polytheistic superstitions and +hideous idolatry to which it gives rise, is the only Hindu system worthy +of being called a religion."[130] In actual practice the repudiation of +caste no doubt varies greatly. In some cases, caste is dropped only +during the fit of fervour or bhakti. At Puri, _during_ the celebrated +Juggernath (Jagan-nath, Lord of the world) pilgrimage, high caste and +low together receive and eat the temple food, afterwards resuming their +several ranks in caste. As a matter of fact it was found at the census +of 1901, that with the exception of a few communities of devotees, all +the professed Vishnuites returned themselves by their caste names. Hindu +bhakti, like Christianity, is in conflict with caste, and bhakti has not +proved fit to cope with it. + +[Sidenote: Bhakti in other religions.] + +[Sidenote: In Christian worship.] + +Bhakti, then, is simply the designation for fervour in worship or in +presence of the Deity, as it appears in Hinduism. For fervour is not +peculiar to any religion, even ecstatic fervour. We see it among the +Jews in King David's dancing before the ark of the Lord, and we see it +in the whirling of the dervishes of Cairo, despite Mahomedans' overawing +idea of God. May we not say that the singing in Christian worship +recognises the same religious instinct, and the necessity to permit the +exercise of it. Many of the psalms, we feel we must chant or sing; +reading is too cold for them--the 148th Psalm for example, "Praise ye +the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights: praise ye Him, sun +and moon," and so on. + +[Sidenote: Bhakti a natural channel for religious feeling, now being +reconsecrated.] + +We pass over the extravagances and gross depths to which bhakti, +devotion or faith or love, may degenerate in the excitement of religious +festivals--_corruptio optimi pessimum_. Even, strange to say, we find +the grossness of bhakti also deliberately embodied in figures of wood +and stone. Passing that over, we repeat that in bhakti or devotion to a +personal God, or even only ecstatic extravagant devotion to a saint or +religious hero semi-deified, we have a natural channel for the religious +feeling of Indians, a channel that in these days is wearing deep. I +speak of the middle classes, not of the ignorant masses, and my point is +that the middle classes and the new religious organisations including +the Indian Church are reconsecrating bhakti. Here is a portion of a +bhakti hymn of one of the sections of the Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j: + + "The gods dance, chanting the name of Hari; + Dances my Gouranga in the midst of the choral band; + The eyes full of tears, Oh! how beautiful! + Jesus dances, Paul dances, dances Sakya Muni." + +[Sidenote: Bhakti in the Indian Church.] + +Between singing the song and acting it while singing, the distance in +India is little. The explanation of a recent Hindu devotee, Ramkrishna +Paramhansa, is: "A true devotee, who has drunk deep of divine Love, is +like a veritable drunkard, and as such cannot always observe the rules +of propriety."[131] Manifestations of bhakti we would soon have in the +Indian Christian Church were the cold moderating influence of Westerns +lessened; and as the Church increases and becomes indigenous, we must +welcome bhakti in measure. Every religious procession will lead to +manifestations of bhakti. In the Church of Scotland Magazine, _Life and +Work_, for November 1904, we are told of a convert at Calcutta: "She +kept speaking and singing of Jesus.... She appeared to the Hindu family +to be a Christ-intoxicated woman." Again, in the _Indian Standard_ for +October 1905, we read of a religious revival among the Christians of the +hills in Assam, where the Welsh missionaries work. We may contrast the +concomitants of the revival with those attending the late revival even +among the fervid Welsh. At one meeting, we are told, "the fervour rose +at times to boiling heat, and scores of men were almost beside +themselves with spiritual ecstasy. We never witnessed such scenes; +scores of people literally danced, while large numbers who did not dance +waved their arms in the air, keeping time, as they sang some of our +magnificent Khassie hymns." + +[Sidenote: Saving knowledge naturally superseded by Bhakti in the new +monotheism.] + +[Sidenote: An object of bhakti needed for educated India.] + +[Sidenote: Buddha, Krishna, Chaitanya.] + +[Sidenote: Jesus Christ, the supereminent object of bhakti.] + +If what I have frequently repeated in these chapters be correct--that in +the nineteenth century educated India has become largely monotheistic, +it is in keeping therewith that the prevailing conception of religion +should have changed, alongside, from the quest of Saving Knowledge to +that of Bhakti or enthusiastic devotion to a person. Direct confirmation +of that inference, a recent Hindu historian supplies. In a different +context altogether, he declares: "The doctrine of bhakti (Faith) now +rules the Hindu to the almost utter exclusion of the higher and more +intellectual doctrine of gnan (Knowledge of the Supreme Soul)." The +conception of the all-comprehending impersonal Brahma has, indeed, lost +vitality; for the educated also the externals of the popular religion +have lost their significance and become puerile. But for them also, the +objects of popular bhakti, Ram and Krishna, are as much epical as +religious heroes. Hinduism needs an object of bhakti for her educated +people. The fact explains several of the novel religious features of the +past half-century. The great jogi, Buddha, although not a brahman, was +rediscovered as a religious hero for Hindus; at the commencement of the +century he was a heretic to the brahmans. "The head of a sect inimical +to Hinduism," the great Rammohan Roy calls him. So Sir Edwin Arnold's +_Light of Asia_ had a great vogue some twenty years ago. Then Krishna +has had his life re-written and his cult revived--purged of the old +excesses of the Krishna-bhakti. More recently, Chaitanya, the religious +teacher in Bengal in the fifteenth century, has been adopted by certain +of the educated class in Bengal as an object of bhakti. Here, it seems +to me, is found the place of Christ in the mind of educated India. They +are fairly familiar now with the story of the New Testament, and Jesus +Christ stands before them as the supereminent object of bhakti; and I +venture to say is generally regarded as such, although comparatively few +as yet have adopted the bhakti attitude towards Him. The _Imitatio +Christi_, however, is a well-known book to the spiritually minded among +the educated classes. India has advanced beyond the cold, intellectual, +Unitarian appreciation of Jesus Christ that marked the early Br[=a]hma +and Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]j movements and manifested itself in their +creeds in express denial of any incarnation. For Br[=a]hma worship, I +have seen the hymn, "Jesus, lover of my soul," transformed into "Father, +lover of my soul." Hindus of the newer bhakti attitude to Christ would +find no difficulty in singing the hymn as Christians do, provided the +doctrinal background be not obtruded upon them. Sober faith has dawned, +and will formulate itself by and by. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CONCLUSION + + "Draw the curtain close, + And let us all to meditation." + + SHAKESPEARE, _Hen. VI_. II. + + +Sailing, say to India, from Britain down through the Atlantic, close by +the coast of Portugal and Spain, and then, within the Mediterranean, +skirting the coast of Algeria, and so on, one is often oppressed with a +sense of his isolation. We can see that the land we are passing is +inhabited by human beings like ourselves; and those houses visible are +homes; and signs of life we can see even from our passing vessel. What +of all the tragedies and comedies that are daily being enacted in these +houses--the exits and the entrances, the friendships and the feuds, the +selfishnesses and self-sacrifices, the commonplace toil, the children's +play, that are going on the very moment we are looking? We are out of +it, and our affections refuse to be wholly alienated from these +fellow-beings, although the ship of which we form a part must pursue her +own aim, and hurries along. + +The Briton's tie to India and Indians is of no passing accidental +character. Our life-histories are not merely running parallel; our +destinies are linked together. Christian feeling, duty, self-interest, +and the interest of a linked destiny all call upon us to know each other +and cherish mutual sympathy. Not that the West has ever been without an +interest in India, as far back as we have Indian history, in the Greek +accounts of the invasion of India by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. +Writing in the first century B.C. and rehearsing what the earlier Greek +writers had said about India, Strabo, the Greek geographer, testifies to +the prevailing interest in India, and even sets forth the difficulty of +knowing India, exactly as a modern student of India often feels inclined +to do. "We must take with discrimination," he says, "what we are told +about India, for it is the most distant of lands, and few of our nation +have seen it. Those, moreover, who have seen it, have seen only a part, +and most of what they say is no more than hearsay. Even what they saw, +they became acquainted with only while passing through the country with +an army, in great haste. Yea, even their reports about the same things +are not the same, although they write as if they had examined the things +with the greatest care and attention. Some of the writers were +fellow-soldiers and fellow-travellers, yet oft-times they contradict +each other.... Nor do those who at present make voyages thither afford +any precise information." We sympathise with Strabo, as our own readers +also may. The interest of the West was of course interrupted when the +Turks thrust themselves in between Europe and India and blocked the road +Eastward overland. But the sea-road round the Cape of Good Hope was +discovered, and West and East met more directly again, and Britain's +special interest in India began. Judged by the recent output of English +books on India, the interest of Britons in things Indian is rapidly +increasing, and, _pace_ Strabo, it is hoped that this book, the record +of the birth of New Ideas in India, will not only increase the knowledge +but also deepen interest and sympathy. For even more noteworthy than the +number of new books--since many of the new books deal only with what may +be called Pictorial India--is the deepening of interest manifest in +recent years. + +That self-glorifying expression, "the brightest jewel in the British +crown," has grown obsolete, and India has become not the glory of +Britain, but the first of her imperial responsibilities. The thought of +Britain as well as the thought of new India has changed. To the extent +of recognising a great imperial responsibility, the mission efforts of +the Churches and the speeches of statesmen and the output of the press +have converted Britain. India, what her people actually are in thought +and feeling, what the country is in respect of the necessities of life +and industrial possibilities--these are questions that never fail to +interest an intelligent British audience. In this volume, the aim has +been to set forth the existing thoughts and feelings, especially of +new-educated India, and to do so on the historical principle, that to +know how a thing _has come to be_, is the right way to know what it is +and how to treat it. The history of an opinion is its true exposition. +These chapters are not speculations, but a setting forth of the progress +of opinion in India during the British period, and particularly during +the nineteenth century. The successive chapters make clear how wonderful +has been the progress of India during the century in social, political, +and religious ideas. The darkness of the night has been forgotten, and +will hardly be believed by the new Indians of to-day; and ordinary +Britons can hardly be expected to know Indian history beyond outstanding +political events. Not, however, to boast of progress, but to encourage +educated Indians to further progress, and to enlighten Britons regarding +the India which they are creating, is the hope of this volume. Further +progress has yet to be made, and difficult problems yet await solution, +and to know the history of the perplexing situation will surely be most +helpful as a guide. What future is in store for India lies hidden. It +would be interesting to speculate, and with a few _ifs_ interposed, it +might be easy to dogmatise. What will she become? is indeed a question +of fascinating interest, when we ask it of a child of the household, or +when we ask it of a great people rejuvenated, to whom the British nation +stands in place of parent. In the history of the soul of a people, the +century just ended may be but a brief space on which to stand to take +stock of what is past and seek inspiration for the future, to talk of +progress made and progress possible. + + "Where lies the land to which the ship would go? + Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. + And where the land she travels from away? + Far, far behind, is all that they can say."[132] + +But the past century is all the experience of India we Britons have, and +we are bound to reflect well upon it in our outlook ahead. + + + + +[Footnote 1: The Senate and People of Rome--Senatus Populus-que +Romanus.] + +[Footnote 2: In the Hindu College at Benares, affiliated to Allahabad +University, certain orthodox Hindus also objected to sacred texts being +read in the presence of European professors and teachers. Think of it, +in that college preparing students for ordinary modern degrees!--Bose, +_Hindu Civilisation, I_. xxxiii.] + +[Footnote 3: One of the Zoroastrian Persians who fled to Western India +at the beginning of the eighth century A.D. At the census of 1901 they +numbered 94,190. They are most numerous in the city of Bombay.] + +[Footnote 4: _Asiatic Studies_, I.] + +[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., I. iii.] + +[Footnote 6: _Quinquen, Report on Education in India_, 1897-1902.] + +[Footnote 7: For an apparently contrary view, see _Census of India, +1901, Report,_ p. 430: "Railways, which are sometimes represented as a +solvent of caste prejudices, have in fact enormously extended the area +within which those prejudices reign supreme." The sentence refers to the +influence of the fashion of the higher castes in regard to child +marriage and prohibition of the marriage of widows.] + +[Footnote 8: Sir W.W. Hunter, _England's Work in India_.] + +[Footnote 9: The manifold origins of castes are fully discussed in the +newest lights in the _Census of India Report_, 1901.] + +[Footnote 10: Miss Noble [Sister Nivedita], finds herein an apology for +caste. "The power of the individual to advance is by this means kept +strictly in ratio to the thinking of the society in which he lives." +_(The Web of Indian Life_, p. 145.)] + +[Footnote 11: Sir A. Lyall, _Asiatic Studies_, I. v.: "A man is not a +Hindu because he inhabits India or belongs to any particular race or +state, but because he is a Brahmanist." Similarly _Census of India_, +1901, _Report_, p. 360: "The most obvious characteristics of the +ordinary Hindu are his acceptance of the Brahmanical supremacy and of +the caste system."] + +[Footnote 12: _Harvest Field_, March 1904; _Madras Decen. Missionary +Conference Report,_ 1902.] + +[Footnote 13: Introduction to _Translation of the Ishopanishad_.] + +[Footnote 14: _Benares Hindu Coll. Maga_. Sept. 1904.] + +[Footnote 15: _Karkarin: Forty years of Progress and Reform_, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 16: _Census of India_, 1901, _Report_, pp. 496, 517, 544.] + +[Footnote 17: Miss Noble [Sister Nivedita], _Web of Indian Life_, p. +133.] + +[Footnote 18: _Report, Census of India_, 1901, p. 163.] + +[Footnote 19: _Census of India_, 1901, _Report_, p. 163.] + +[Footnote 20: _Census of India_, 1901, _Report_, p. 522.] + +[Footnote 21: _Lux Christi_, by C.A. Mason, p. 255. 1902.] + +[Footnote 22: In Italy, in 1891, the sexes were almost equal, being +males 1000 to females 995.] + +[Footnote 23: _Census of India_, 1901, _Report_, p. 115.] + +[Footnote 24: A case of Suttee is reported in the _Bengal Police Report_ +for 1903.] + +[Footnote 25: _Report, Census of India_, 1901, pp. 442, 443.] + +[Footnote 26: Justice Amir Ali, _Life and Teaching of Mohammed_.] + +[Footnote 27: Sister Nivedita, _Web of Indian Life_, p. 80.] + +[Footnote 28: _Church of Scotland Mission Record_, 1894; _East and +West_, July 1905.] + +[Footnote 29: Trotter, _India under Queen Victoria_.] + +[Footnote 30: P. 428.] + +[Footnote 31: _Hindu_ was originally a geographical term referring to +the country of the River Indus. It is derived from the Sanscrit +(_Sindhu_), meaning _river_, from which also come _Indus, Sindh, Hindu, +Hindi,_ and _India_. The names _Indus_ and _India_ are English words got +from Greek; they are not Indian, terms at all, although they are coming +into use among educated Indians.] + +[Footnote 32: _Hindi_ is also used as a comprehensive term for all the +kindred dialects of Hindustan. See R.N. Cust, LL.D, _Oecumenical List of +Translations of the Holy Scriptures_, 1901. The above account follows +that given in the _Census Report_ for 1901.] + +[Footnote 33: The correct form, _brahman_, not _brahmin_, is employed by +the majority of recent writers.] + +[Footnote 34: Quoted in _Census of India_, 1881.] + +[Footnote 35: _The Web of Indian Life_, pp. 101, 298.] + +[Footnote 36: I. xvi.] + +[Footnote 37: _Ancient Geography of Asia_, by Nibaran Chandra Das.] + +[Footnote 38: For other testimony to the new national feeling, see +_Decen. Missionary Conference Report_, 1902, p. 305, etc.; Sister +Nivedita, _Web of Indian Life_.] + +[Footnote 39: This may not be so in the extreme south-west, where there +have been Christians since the sixth century.] + +[Footnote 40: _The Indian National Congress_, by John Murdoch, LL.D., +1898. (Christian Literature Society, Madras.)] + +[Footnote 41: _Karkaria: Forty Years of Progress and Reform_, 1896, p. +94.] + +[Footnote 42: _The Indian National Congress_, by John Murdoch, LL.D., p. +95. (Madras Christian Literature Society.)] + +[Footnote 43: _The Indian National Congress_, by John Murdoch, LL.D. +(Madras Christian Literature Society), p. 142, etc.] + +[Footnote 44: _Asiatic Studies_, I. iii., II. i.] + +[Footnote 45: _The Indian National Congress_, by John Murdoch, LL.D., p. +153. (Madras Christian Literature Society.)] + +[Footnote 46: Smith, _Life of Alexander Duff_, 1881, Chapter V.] + +[Footnote 47: _Asiatic Studies_, II. I. 7, 37.] + +[Footnote 48: _Report of Madras Decennial Missionary Conf_., 1902, p. +311.] + +[Footnote 49: Acts iv. 33.] + +[Footnote 50: Acts xvii. 18, 32.] + +[Footnote 51: _Statistical Atlas of India_, 1895.] + +[Footnote 52: Census of 1901.] + +[Footnote 53: _Hinduism and its Modern Exponents_, by Rev. C.N. Banerji, +B.A.] + +[Footnote 54: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism_, etc., p. 18.] + +[Footnote 55: Monier Williams, _Hinduism_, p. 38.] + +[Footnote 56: Youngson, _Punjab Mission of the Church of Scotland_, p. +27.] + +[Footnote 57: "The Arya Samaj," by Rev. H.D. Griswold, D.D., _Madras +Decen. Mission. Conference Report_; "The Arya Samaj," by Rev. H. Forman, +_Allahabad Mission Press_, 1902; _Biographical Essays_, by Max +Müller--"Dyananda Saraswati"] + +[Footnote 58: For another explanation of the separation, see Lillie, +_Madame Blavatsky_, chap. vii.] + +[Footnote 59: 62,458,077 Mahomedans at Census of 1901.] + +[Footnote 60: _Census of India_, 1901, _Report_, pp. 371-73.] + +[Footnote 61: Disguised as _Necharis_ in the _Report, Census of India_, +1901, p. 373. See Youngson, _Punjab Mission of the Church of Scotland_, +p. 14; _Madras Decen. Miss. Conf. Report of_ 1902, p. 341.] + +[Footnote 62: _Asiatic Studies_, I. 1.] + +[Footnote 63: Guru-prasad Sen in _Introduction to the Study of +Hinduism_, quoted in _Madras Decen. Miss. Conf. Report_, p. 280.] + +[Footnote 64: Sister Nivedita, _Web of Indian Life_, pp. 175, 179.] + +[Footnote 65: Cf. _Philosophic Hinduism_, p. 27, Madras, C.V.E.S.] + +[Footnote 66: Amy W. Carmichael, _Things as they are in South India_.] + +[Footnote 67: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, p. 54.] + +[Footnote 68: _Indian Missions from the Outside_.] + +[Footnote 69: _Hinduism_, p. 88. _Things as They Are_, iv. by Amy W. +Carmichael.] + +[Footnote 70: _Intellectual Progress of India_, P. Mitter, p. 5.] + +[Footnote 71: _Defence of Hindu Theism: Appeal to the Christian Public_ +(II. 91).] + +[Footnote 72: Smith, _Life of Dr. Wilson_.] + +[Footnote 73: Rammohan Roy, _Appeal to the Christian Public_.] + +[Footnote 74: _Vedic Hinduism_, (Madras C.V.E.S.) 1888.] + +[Footnote 75: Bose, _Hindu Civilisation during British Rule_, i. 95.] + +[Footnote 76: Monier Williams, _Modern India_, 1878, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 77: Plato in the _Timæus_ teaches the eternal existence of +matter as a substance distinct from God. See also p. 134.] + +[Footnote 78: Max Müller, _Ramakrishna_, p. 48.] + +[Footnote 79: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian Life_.] + +[Footnote 80: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, p. 25, etc.] + +[Footnote 81: For the Yoga System, see pp. 127, 128, 134.] + +[Footnote 82: _Text-book of Hindu Religion_, etc., p. 60.] + +[Footnote 83: See _also Life of Rev. J.J. Weitbrecht_, 1830, p. 318.] + +[Footnote 84: Max Müller, _Ramakrishna_, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 85: _Weekly Statesman_ (Calcutta), 14 IX. 1905.] + +[Footnote 86: Rev. Dr. Griswold in _Madras Decen. Missionary Conf. +Report_, 1902, p. 317.] + +[Footnote 87: _Asiatic Studies_, II. i. 11.] + +[Footnote 88: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian Life_, pp. 191, 287.] + +[Footnote 89: Avatar=a descent.] + +[Footnote 90: Lillie, _India and its Problems_.] + +[Footnote 91: Smith, _Life of Dr. John Wilson_, pp. 63, 65.] + +[Footnote 92: Lillie, _India and its Problems_, p. 130.] + +[Footnote 93: _Biographical Sketch of K.M. Banerjea_, p. 79. K.M. +Banerjea, _Christianity and Hinduism_, pp. 1, 2, 11. Monier Williams, +_Hinduism_, p. 36, etc; _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, pp. 4, 14, 17, 33. +Compare Hebrews i. 2, 3.] + +[Footnote 94: _Hinduism and its Modern Exponents_, Rev. C.N. Banerjea, +B.A. Calcutta, 1893.] + +[Footnote 95: _Sketches of Indian Christians_ (Madras C.L.S.), 1896.] + +[Footnote 96: _Lectures in India_.] + +[Footnote 97: P.N. Mitter, _Intellectual Progress of Modern India_.] + +[Footnote 98: _U.F. Church of Scot. Mission Report_ for 1903; _Madras +Decen. Missionary Conference Report_, 1903, pp. 310, 311.] + +[Footnote 99: Farquhar, _The Future of Christianity in India_ (Chr. Lit. +Soc).] + +[Footnote 100: K.C. Banurji, Esq., M.A., B.L., Registrar of Calcutta +University.] + +[Footnote 101: _Asiatic Studies_, I. v. 143.] + +[Footnote 102: _Madras Decen. Miss. Conf. Report_, 1902, p. 345.] + +[Footnote 103: Translated by Rev. J.L. Thakur Das, of Lahore.] + +[Footnote 104: J.N. Farquhar, M.A., in _The Future of Christianity in +India_, Madras C.L.S.] + +[Footnote 105: For a fuller statement, see Farquhar, _The Future of +Christianity in India_. C.L.S., Madras.] + +[Footnote 106: Flint, _Philosophy of History_.] + +[Footnote 107: _Asiatic Studies_, I. i.] + +[Footnote 108: Bhag. Gita, v. 3, quoted by Max Müller in _Ramakrishna_, +p. 3.] + +[Footnote 109: _Asiatic Studies_, II. i. 35.] + +[Footnote 110: John v. 11.] + +[Footnote 111: The term _Nirvana_ is not used by ordinary uneducated +Indians: it is known only to the educated.] + +[Footnote 112: Max Müller, _Ramakrishna_.] + +[Footnote 113: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian Life_.] + +[Footnote 114: Rev. H. Forman, _The Arya Sarm[=a]j_, Allahabad.] + +[Footnote 115: _Madras Decen. Missionary Conf. Report_, 1902, p. 276.] + +[Footnote 116: Hastie, _Hindu Idolatry and English Enlightenment_.] + +[Footnote 117: "The tendency of the doctrine of Karma has been to +promote contentment."--Bose, _Hindu Civilisation_, I. lix.] + +[Footnote 118: Sir M. Monier Williams' _Brahmanism and Hinduism_.] + +[Footnote 119: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian Life_, p. 198.] + +[Footnote 120: Taken from the Chh[=a]ndogya Upanishad.] + +[Footnote 121: Lilly, _India and its Problems_.] + +[Footnote 122: K.S. Macdonald, _Sin and Salvation ... in the Tantras_, +Calcutta Methodist Publ. House.] + +[Footnote 123: _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, pp. 25, 24; _Hinduism_, p. +39.] + +[Footnote 124: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism and Hinduism_.] + +[Footnote 125: _The [=A]rya Sam[=a][=i]_, by Rev. Henry Forman. +Allahabad, 1887.] + +[Footnote 126: _Religious Reform_, Part IV. Madras C.V.E.S., 1888.] + +[Footnote 127: _Religious Reform_, Part IV. Madras C.V.E.S., 1888.] + +[Footnote 128: K.S. Macdonald, _Sin and Salvation ... in the Tantras_. +Calcutta Methodist Publ. House.] + +[Footnote 129: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, p. 63.] + +[Footnote 130: Monier Williams, _Brahmanism and Hinduism_, Chap. V.] + +[Footnote 131: Max Müller, _Ranuikrishna Paramahansa_, p. viii.] + +[Footnote 132: A.H. Clough. Quoted by Lord Curzon at Simla, September +1905.] + + + + +INDEX + + +Absorption into Deity, 153, 223, 226, 230. + +Agnosticism, 183. + +Agra, 2, 67, 82. + +Ahmad, Mirza Gholam, of Qadian, 202-4, 210. + +Ahmad, Sir Syed, 146. + +Akbar, 13, 95. + +Allah, 3, 207. + +Allahabad, 13. + +Ammonius, the Neo-Platonist, 208-9. + +Anglo-Indians, viii, 51-2, 67, 88, 89, 91, 100, 101, 105, 114, 123, 124, +160. + +Anti-British feeling, ix, xi, 88-95, 101, 137, 144-5, 190, 192, 240. + +Anti--Christian feeling, 137, 191-2, 241. + +Anti-foreign feeling, 128, 191-2, 240. _See_ Indian bias. + +Army. _See_ British soldiers. + +[=A]rya Sam[=a]j, 30, 36, 46, 56-7, 64, 122, 132-40, 143-5, 149, 169, 172, +181-2, 210, 228-9, 241-2, 250-2. + +Aryans, 32, 70, 78, 134, 139, 156 + +Ascetics, 12, 47-9, 107, 157, 184, 219, 249, 255. + +Asoka. 77-8. + +Assam, 35, 214, 265. + +Aurangzeb, 3, 14, 77. + +Avatars (descents or incarnations), 184-8, 200, 211. + +Avidya (ignorance). _See_ Delusion. + +Awakening, Intellectual, 19, 76, 118. _See_ New. + + +Banerjea, K.M., 46, 94, 188-9. + +Banyan tree, 12-3. + +Baroda, 26, 35, 54, 58. + +Beef, 18, 136. + +Benares, 3, 13, 54, 132, 142, 246. + +Benares, Hindu College, 25, 142-3, 155, 173, 182, 234-5. + +Bengal, v, 8-9, 35-6, 47-8, 54, 60, 64, 69, 75, 81-2, 84, 106, 127, 129, +130, 138, 145, 163, 168, 178, 191, 194-5, 198-9, 218, 230-1, 250, 267. + +Bentinck, Lord W., 25. + +Besant, Mrs., 31, 38, 140-2, 208, 237. + +Bhagabat Gita, 96, 198-9. + +Bhakti (enthusiastic devotion), 187, 261-8. + +Bible, 111, 194-8, 205-6, 211-2, 233. 247, 253, 263-4, 267. + +Blavatsky, Madame, 31, 140-1, 209. + +Bombay, 2, 44, 46, 54, 69, 75, 81, 84-6, 96, 130-1, 138-9, 167, 172, +195, 257. + +Bose's _Hindu Civilisation_, etc., 75, 160, 170, 196. + +Brahma, 70, 169, 175-7, 256-7, 261, 266. + +Brahm[=a], 70, 176-7, 185. + +Br[=a]hma Sam[=a]j, 30, 36, 56-7, 62-4, 71, 122, 125-31, 143, 145-6, 148, +169-71, 179, 192, 194-5, 234, 250, 252, 264, 267-8. + +Brahman privileges, 6-7, 16-7, 24, 42, 60, 245-6, 249. + +Brahmanism, 69-70, 255. + +Brahmans, 7, 21, 23, 26, 30, 35, 38-9, 49, 60, 68-9, 128, 151, 158, 167, +219, 237, 249-50, 260, 262. + +Breath, Ritual management of the, 246. + +Britain and India. _See_ India. + +British Government, 2, 8, 14, 25, 33-6, 53, 55, 73-6, 79, 92-4, 106, +144, 208, 217-9. + +British Government, a theological illustration, 154, 157. + +British Government, Acts of, 14, 53-5, 72, 254. + +British Government and caste, 33-6. + +British influence, vii, ix, 4-5, 14-15, 42-4, 61, 106, 272-3. + +British merchants, viii. + +British soldiers, 2, 15. + +Brotherhood of man, 102, 239. + +Buddha or Sakya Muni, 161, 186, 196, 199, 223, 227, 249, 260, 264, 267. + +Buddhism, Buddhists, 66, 70, 77, 141, 196, 226, 254-5. + + +Calcutta, 2, 17, 25-6, 36, 43, 45-8, 63, 72, 79, 85-6, 99, 122, 125-6, +181, 192, 198, 230, 232, 247-8, 250. + +Calcutta University, 6, 49, 68, 134, 247. + +Capital in India, 92-3. + +Cashmere, 204. + +Caste, 22, 39, 46, 48, 56, 75, 95, 128, 132, 135, 137, 142-3, 158, 190, +211, 218, 260, 262-3. + +Caste declining, 16-8, 35, 37-8, 218. + +Castes: Brahman. _See_ Brahman; + Kayasth (Clerk), 5, 35, 48, 49; + Kshatriya or Soldier, 35; + Mahratta, 35; + Nayar, 33; + Pariah, 33; + Shaha, 35; + Soldier, 35; + Sudras (the group of lowest castes recognised as within Hinduism), 6, 21. + +Census of 1901, 5, 17, 33-6, 53-4, 57, 59, 61, 64, 106, 131, 154, 207, +263. + +Central Provinces, 17. + +Chaitanya or Gauranga, 22, 199-200, 264, 267. + +Chet Ram, 204-8. + +Chinese--Literati, 43, 113; + Pilgrim, 13; + Anti-foreign feeling, 191. + +Christ. _See_ Jesus Christ. + +Christian civilisation in India, xi, 4, 14. + +Christian doctrine in contrast, 172, 174, 181, 186, 207, 221-34, 238, +241, 253, 261-2. + +Christian influence, 146, 153, 156, 158-9, 169-71, 179, 197, 206, 222. + +Christian religion, The, 221-2. + +Christian worship, 117, 128, 187, 245, 250, 263, 264. + +Christianity in India, xi, 14, 41, 44, 73, 80, 101, 105-9, 112, 115, +125-7, 133, 143, 148-9, 165, 182, 190, 196-7, 241. + +Christians, 151, 163, 203-4, 233-4. + +Christians, Indian, 5, 30, 32, 37, 45, 52, 56-7, 62-4, 66, 89, 122-5, +137, 143, 169, 190-2, 194-5, 264-6. + +Citizenship, Idea of, 24, 72-3, 87, 101, 104, 218. + +Civil Servants, vii-ix, 87, 160, 188. + +Cochin, 33. + +Colleges, Indian, x, 48-9, 74. + +Common welfare, Idea of. _See_ Public. + +Commons, House of, 102. + +Company, East India, 99. + +Comparative religion, 107-8. + +Conflict of ideas, 4, 6, 7, 49, 117. _See_ Christian doctrine. + +Congress, The--the All-India political association, 76-93, 133, 139, +144. + +Conservatism, Indian, vi, 11-20, 46, 49, 83, 142, 158-165. + +Coronation, Bengali representative at, 29. + +Cow, Sanctity of the, 136, 151, 202. + +Creator, 177, 186, 189. + +Cremation and burial, 105. + +Curzon, Lord, 15, 89, 93, 274. + + +Darjeeling, 18. + +Daru-l-harb, 145-6. + +Delhi, 2, 67, 68, 82. + +Delusion, 153, 157, 173-7, 184-5, 220, 241, 243, 257-8. + +Devotee. _See_ Jogi. + +Digby, William, 92-3. + +Doctors, Indian lady, 62. + +Doctrine. _See_ Christian; Hindu. + +Drink-selling, 18. + +Dualistic conceptions, 172, 178, 242. + +Dufferin Association, Lady, 62. + +Durga, the Goddess, 251. + +Dutt, Narendranath, B.A. _See_ Vivekananda. + + +Eating together, 81, 104, 160. + +Educated Indians, The New, v, vii, ix, 44-5, 55, 58, 76, 83, 86-7, 89, +91, 97-8, 112, 115, 117-8, 124, 127, 132, 140, 143, 149, 155-6, 159-62, +167-71, 173-4, 178, 183, 185, 189-92, 196, 211, 222, 230-42, 250, 255, +258. + +Education in India-- + Boys, 5, 43. + Females, 5, 46, 55-6, 62. + Influence of, 15, 39-49, 94, 101, 106, 115, 126, 132, 146, 160, 168. + +Edward VII., 2, 29, 76. + +Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 44. + +English education. _See_ Education. + +English-knowing Indians. _See_ Educated Indians. + +English language, 14-5, 39-41, 44, 78, 81, 83. + +English literature, 14, 23, 73, 179. + +Esoteric religion. _See_ Knowledge. + +Eternal entities, Three, 134, 172. + +Europe, Voyages to, 26-9, 45, 48, 101, 127, 149. + +Europeans. _See_ Anglo-Indians. + +Evolution of India, v. + +Extinction. _See_ Nirvana. + + +Family ties, Indian, 52, 60. + +Famines, 2, 20, 74, 92-3, 94, 98, 106, 215, 232-3. + +Farquhar, J.N., 197-8, 209. + +Females. _See_ Education; Infanticide; Women. + +Females fewer than males, 52-4. + +Flesh-eating. _See_ Food. + +Food forbidden, vi, 18, 26-7, 48, 105, 136-7. + +Future of India, 41, 98, 116, 273-4. + + +Ganges, The, 17, 246, 254, 266-7, 272-3. + +Girls. _See_ Education. + +God, 134, 150, 154-7, 166-9, 172-5, 178-82, 184, 211, 221-2, 224-5, 230, +242-5, 250-1. + +God, Fatherhood of, 116-8, 149, 179-82, 228-9, 239-40, 249-50. + +Goddesses, 107, 178-9, 216, 227, 251. + +Gujarat, 82, 178. + +Gunning Lectures, v. xii. + +Guru (religious teacher or spiritual guide), xi, 163-5, 200, 206, 246, +260. + + +Hari, the God, 187, 197. + +Harnack, Prof., 209-10, 221. + +Hastie, Rev. Dr., 48, 231. + +Heaven and hell, Ideas of, 224, 228-30. _See_ Hereafter. + +Hereafter, The, 117, 149, 213-38, 240. + +Hindu, Hinduism, Definitions of, 24, 26, 66, 69-70, 78, 151-4, 169. + +Hindu doctrines, 144-69, 200, 228. + +Hindu exclusiveness, 6, 30, 47, 75, 80, 142, 149. + +_Hindu Religion, Catechism of_, 182. + +_Hindu Religion, Text-book of_, 38, 142-3, 173-7, 227, 229, 235-7, 260. + +Hindu religious mood, 7, 180. + +Hindu reverence for holy men, 165. + +Hindu Revival, 38, 79, 122, 143, 155, 173, 193, 211, 230, 235, 251. + +Hindu rites, 158-65, 245-9. + +Hindu Triad, 70, 176-7, 185-7, 207 255 + +Hinduism, 7, 112-3, 133, 135, 138, 142-3, 145, 159-60, 163, 173, 182, +200, 202, 206-9, 228-9, 230, 246-7, 255, 260, 263, 266. + +Hinduism and Christianity. _See_ Christian doctrine. + +Hinduism regarded as local or racial, 40-1, 114-6. + +Hinduism, Solidarity of, 17, 23-4, 75. + +Hindus, 106, 128, 133-4, 140, 142, 144, 150, 178, 180, 204, 242, 250. + +Hindus and Mahomedans, 3-4, 89, 137, 144, 204. + +Hindustan, Hindustani, 66-8, 81. + + +Ideas, New. _See_ New. + +Idolatry, 544-5, 48, 65, 127, 133, 135, 166-9, 171, 211, 256, 262. + +Ilbert Bill, 88. + +Illusion. _See_ Delusion. + +Immortality. _See_ Hereafter. + +Incarnation. _See_ Avatar. + +India, Indians (meaning of), 65-6, 78. + +India, Ancient, 139-41, 236. + +India and Britain, xi, 2-4, 78, 91, 95-8, 236-7, 270-4. + +India and Mahomedans, 145-6. + +India, Features of, 158, 202, 204, 206, 212-17, 221. + +India, New. _See_ Educated. + +India ruled by Indians, 91. + +Indian bias, 95-7, 128, 190. + +Individual's rights, The, 21-5. + +Infanticide, 53-4. + +Interest in India, 1-4, 107, 270-4. + + +Japan, 89, 98, 113, 195. + +Jesus Christ, 112, 117-9, 149, 184-213, 221-2, 227-8, 234, 240-1, 248, +253, 255, 258, 264-5, 267-8. + +Jesus Christ and Chaitanya, 199-200. + +Jesus Christ and Krishna, 187-9, 198-9. + +Jesus Christ distinguished from Christians and Christianity, 192-7, +207-11. + +Jews, 104, 151, 203, 263. + +Joga philosophy (the system which specially instructs devotees), 127-8, +134. + +Jogi (a devotee), 185, 212, 228, 237, 240, 257-60, 265. + +John's Gospel, St., 195, 212, 233. + +Juggernath, 263. + +Justice, God's, 181, 241, 252. + + +Kali, the Goddess, 178, 246. + +Kalighat, 108, 248. + +Karachi, 82, 86. + +Karma (works, or rebirth according to one's acts), 262. _See_ +Transmigration. + +Kayasth (clerk), caste. _See_ Castes. + +Keranis (Christians), 137. + +Knowledge, Saving, 175, 177, 220, 244, 256-9, 266. + +Koran, 145, 182, 203. + +Krishna, vi, 96, 186-9, 198-200, 204, 211, 227, 245, 261, 264, 266-7. + +Krishnaites, Neo-, 198, 209, 230. + +Kulin brahmans (Kulin signifies a recognised aristocracy within a +caste), 60. + + +Lahore, 122, 180, 204, 206. + +Law, Profession of, 42, 62. + +Legislative Councils, 73, 84-5. + +Life, Economic value of, 216-8, 221. + +London, 79, 93, 100, 126. + +Lyall, Sir Alfred, 8, 24, 69, 94, 105, 151, 182, 202, 218-19. + + +Macaulay, 44, 99, 168. + +Madras, 2, 46, 54, 69, 81-2, 84, 140-1, 152, 161, 170-1, 196. + +Mahabharat, 186, 198. + +Mahatmas (great spirits), 141, 209. + +Mahomedanism, 36-7, 107-8, 128, 144-7, 169. + +Mahomedans, 3, 37, 41, 50, 59, 61, 66, 68, 78, 80, 89, 96, 128, 137, +144-7, 151, 163, 182, 196, 202-4, 206-7, 263. + +Mahomedans. _See_ Hindus and Mahomedans. + +Mahrattas, 78, 82. + +Malabari (a Parsee reformer), 7, 30, 46, 90, 195-6, 241. + +Mantra (sacred Sanscrit text), 164, 248. + +Manu, 143, 235, 246. + +Marriage, 22-3, 26, 31-2, 55-61, 104, 135. + +Marriage age for girls, 4, 14, 19, 46, 55-8. + +Marriage of widows, 19, 26, 31, 45, 55, 57, 63, 135. + +Mary, mother of Jesus, 195, 205, 207. + +Masses, The, 43, 182, 228, 242, 245, 254-5. + +Matter, 134, 172-3. + +Maya or unreality of the objects of Sense and Consciousness. _See_ +Delusion. + +Merchants, British, viii. + +Messiahs, Indian, 201-4. + +Methodists, 111, 265-6. + +Middle Class, New. _See_ Educated. + +Mission College, 49, 142, 180, 195. + +Missionaries, viii, 52, 54, 62, 99, 106, 123, 124, 158, 167, 187, 189, +191, 195-7, 202, 217, 232, 237, 241. _See_ Scotland. + +Missionary Conference, Decennial, 106, 136. + +Moghul empire and emperors, 2-4, 14, 67, 77. + +Monier Williams. _See_ Williams. + +Monotheism, 107, 117, 126, 127-8, 130, 134, 140, 150, 153-5, 161, +166-183, 239, 242, 252, 258, 260, 266. + +Mosque, 3, 13-4, 50. + +Mother (title of deities), 178-81. + +Mozumdar, P.C., 30, 195. + +Mukti, 40-1, 246. _See_ Salvation. + +Müller, Max, 75, 136, 170, 175. + +Municipalities, 86. + +Murdoch, Rev. Dr. John, 81, 91, 93, 95, 170, 196. + +Mutiny, The, 95. + + +Nanda-kumar, 25, 42. + +Nationality, Idea of, 9, 24, 75, 95, 101, 104, 124, 129, 132, 134, 139, +190, 218. + +Native States, 76, 95. + +Nature, Tyranny of, 214-6. + +Naturis, 146-7. + +Neo-Platonists a religious parallel to New Indians, 207-12. + +New Era, The, 1-10, 19, 76. + +New ideas, v, vi, ix, xi, 4, 6-10, 15, 19, 49, 76, 165, 236. + +New India. _See_ Educated. + +New Testament. _See_ Bible; John; Paul. + +Newspapers. _See_ Press. + +Nirvana, 226, 230, 255. + +Noble, Miss (Sister Nivedita), 22, 31, 32, 75, 153, 175, 185, 228, 243. + +North-West, The, 82, 172, 241, 250. + +Northern India, 2, 28-9, 37, 66-8, 77, 107, 130. + + +Pandit (learned man or teacher), xi, 31, 47, 134, 142, 162. + +Pantheism, 107, 126-9, 140, 150, 153, 155-7, 166, 169-78, 182-5, 209, +220, 229, 239, 242-5, 249, 251, 256-8, 260-1. + +Parameswar, 176-7, 207. + +Paramhansa, Ramkrishna, 47, 48, 175, 199, 227, 265. + +Pariahs. _See_ Castes. + +Parliament of Religions, 30, 48, 128, 152, 227, 243. + +Parsees, 7, 41, 66, 82, 138, 178. + +Patriotism, 95, 116, 130, 132, 134-5, 141, 149, 172, 190. _See_ Indian +bias. + +Paul, Saint, 111, 253, 264. + +Pessimism, Indian, 212-22, 229, 232. + +Philosophy, Hindu, 47, 70, 128, 172-6, 179, 220. + +Physical changes, 120-2. + +Pilgrims, 13, 245-6, 262-3. + +Plains, The, 2, 66, 130. + +Political activity, 20, 138. + +Political criticism, Idea of, 7, 72-4, 76, 78. + +Political Economy, 99, 216. + +Political ideas, New, v, 7, 72-102, 104. + +Political reformers, 83. + +Polygamy, 55, 59-61. + +Polytheism, 128, 133, 150, 153-6, 166-72, 182, 239, 242, 249, 262. + +Poona, 97. + +Post Office, 2, 34, 76. + +Poverty, Indian, 20, 99. _See_ Famines. + +Prajapati, 188-9. + +Pr[=a]rthan[=a] Sam[=a]jes (Prayer Associations), 122, 130-1, 138, 169, +171-2, 250-2, 267. + +Prayer, 128, 130, 244-5, 250-1. + +Press, The Indian, 20, 26, 72, 73, 75, 88-9, 92, 99. + +Priesthood, Hereditary, 7, 163, 245. + +Priesthood twofold, 163-5. + +Professions, Modern, 42, 144. + +Progress, xi, 8, 52, 273. + +Public meetings, 17, 113. + +Public questions, Idea of, 16-7, 72. + +Punjab, 36, 47, 84, 130, 132-3, 138, 201, 228, 234. + +Purans or later Hindu Scriptures, 137. + +Purohit (celebrant priest), 163-5, 260. + +Purusha (the first embodiment of the Universal Spirit), 21, 188-9. + + +Qadian. _See_ Ahmad. + + +Race feeling, 88-95. + +Railways, 2, 17, 18, 76. + +Rajputana, 54, 58. + +Ram, 77, 186, 227, 261, 266. + +Ramabhai, Pandita, 46. + +Ramayan, The, 77, 186. + +Rao, Sir T. Madhava, 28, 46. + +Reactionaries, 20, 46, 149, 243. _See_ Conservatism; Hindu Revival. + +Reformers. _See_ Political, Religious, Social. + +Reincarnation. _See_ Transmigration. + +Religious ideas, Hindu, 7, 94, 104, 115, 117, 150. + +Religious ideas, New, v, 8, 9, 103, 150. + +Religious leaders not brahmans, 30-1, 249. + +Religious reformers, 22, 45-6, 49. + +Renaissance, Indian, 19, 104. _See_ New. + +Responsibility, Moral, 156. _See_ Sin. + +Resurrection, The, 110-1, 126. + +Rigveda (earliest book of Aryan hymns), 135, 188, 234, 246. + +Robertson Lectures, Alexander, v, xi. xii. + +Roy, Rammohan, 16, 23, 26, 45, 54-5, 75, 125-7, 157, 167-9, 194, 250, +267. + +Russia, 89, 98. + + +Sacred places, 3, 154, 244-8. + +Sacrifice, 108, 133, 135, 179, 247-9, 262. + +Salvation, 40-1, 108, 221, 239-67. _See_ Mukti. + +Sankarachargya, 153, 244-5. + +Sanscrit College, Calcutta, 5, 15, 35. + +Sanscrit learning, 6, 15, 47, 128, 162. + +Saraswati (Hindu Goddess of Learning), 192. + +Saraswati, Dyanand, 30, 46, 134, 136. + +Schools and Caste, 34, 39. + +Schools, Secondary, 43. + +Scotland Mission, Church of, 48, 99, 265. + +Sea--voyages forbidden. _See_ Europe. + +Self-government, 15, 86. + +Self-torture, 107, 254-55, 257, 261. + +Sen, Keshub Chunder, 8, 30, 46, 125, 130, 179-80, 192, 195, 252. + +Serfdom, Indian, 27-9. + +Shah, Mahbub, 204-6. + +Shrines. _See_ Sacred places. + +Sikhs, 37. + +Sin, Idea of, 156, 172, 239-53. + +Singh, Hakim, 202. + +Sinnett, A.P., 92, 141. + +Siva, the God, 14, 164, 176-7, 185, 246. + +Sivaji, 96. + +Social ideas, Hindu, 6-7, 21, 50, 104, 105. _See_ Women, Zenana. + +Social ideas, New, v, 8, 21, 39, 98. + +Social reformers, 22, 45-6, 49, 116. + +Social usages rigid, Hindu, 159, 165. + +Sorabjee, Miss Cornelia, 62. + +Soul, The, 134, 172-3, 213-4, 224-5, 227-31, 235-6. + +South India, 28-9, 33-4, 37, 106, 130, 156, 195, 232, 252. + +Students, 41-5, 60. + +Sudras. _See_ Castes. + +Suttee or Widow-burning (_Sati,_ a chaste woman), v, 4, 45, 54-5, 127. + +Swadeshi (boycott of all except _own-country_ products), 97. + + +Tantras, 229, 246, 256, 261. + +Teachers, Indian, xi. + +Tennyson, 14, 216, 234, 254. + +Theatres, 63. + +Theism. _See_ Monotheism. + +Theosophists, 30, 38, 92, 122, 132, 138-43, 149, 208-9, 235. + +Thibet, 89, 141, 196, 204, 209. + +Tilak, Hon. Mr., 96-7, 99. + +Tols, 162-3. + +Transmigration, 31, 38, 108, 134, 153, 185, 213-4, 220-38, 240, 246, +258, 260. + +Travancore State, 37. + +Trinity, 186, 207. + + +Unitarians, 126, 171, 267. + +United Provinces, 36, 46, 54, 84, 105, 130, 132-3, 145, 172, 228, 234, +250. + +Unity of India, New, 75, 104, 116. + +Universities, 43, 49, 89, 99-100, 216. + +Upanishads, 170, 235. + + +Vedanta (the specially pantheistic system of Hindu philosophy), 6, 172, +209, 230, 244. + +Vedas, 46, 135-7, 140, 210, 234. + +Vedas do not sanction certain abuses, 47, 135. + +Viceroy, 79, 85, 114. + +Victoria, Queen, 2, 52. + +Vidyasagar, I.C., 45, 63. + +Vivekananda, Swami (Narendranath Dutt, B.A.), 30, 47-9, 128, 227, 243-5. + +Vishnu, the God; or Hari, 176-7, 185-7, 197, 255, 261. + +Vishnuism, 262. + + +Wahabbis, 145. + +Western India, 8, 35, 54, 82, 138, 171, 251. + +Widow. _See_ Marriage. + +Williams, Sir M. Monier, 23, 70, 126, 154-5, 164, 170, 188-9, 235, 249, +262 + +Wilson, Dr. John, 167, 257. + +Women, 151, 237. + +Women, Social position of, 31, 37, 40, 50-64. _See_ Zenana. + + +Youngson, Rev. Dr., 135-6. + + +Zenana system (Zenana=the women's portion of a Hindu house), 52, 55, +61-3, 133. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Ideas in India During the +Nineteenth Century, by John Morrison + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14294 *** |