THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NKW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO
 
 From life-size portrait by Biggs 
 in Bristol Museum. 
 
 By permission of the Committee of the Museum 
 and Art Gallery. 
 
 RAJA RAM MOHAN RAY 
 Founder of the Brahma Samaj.
 
 MODERN 
 
 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 IN INDIA 
 
 BY 
 J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A., D.Lrrr. (OXON.) 
 
 LITERARY SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG MEN'S 
 CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, INDIA AND CEYLON 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "A PRIMER OF HINDUISM," "THE CROWN OF HINDUISM" 
 
 gorfc 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1919 
 
 All rights rtstrved
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1915, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1915. 
 
 NotiDOOtJ 
 
 J. 8. Gushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 HARTFORD- LAMSON LECTURES ON "THE RELIGIONS 
 OF THE WORLD" ARE DELIVERED AT HARTFORD THEO- 
 LOGICAL SEMINARY IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAMSON FUND, 
 WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED BY A GROUP OF FRIENDS IN HONOUR 
 OF THE LATE CHARLES M. LAMSON, D.D., SOMETIME PRESIDENT 
 OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS, TO ASSIST IN PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE FOREIGN 
 MISSIONARY FIELD. THE LECTURES ARE DESIGNED PRIMARILY 
 TO GIVE SUCH STUDENTS A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF THE RELI- 
 GIOUS HISTORY, BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLES AMONG 
 WHOM THEY EXPECT TO LABOUR. As THEY ARE DELIVERED BY 
 SCHOLARS OF THE FIRST RANK, WHO ARE AUTHORITIES IN THEIR 
 RESPECTIVE FIELDS, IT IS EXPECTED THAT IN PUBLISHED FORM 
 THEY WILL PROVE TO BE OF VALUE TO STUDENTS GENERALLY.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TOWARDS the close of 1912 Dr. W. Douglas Mackenzie, 
 President of Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, 
 Conn., invited me to deliver, as Lamson Lecturer for 1913, 
 a course of eight lectures on Modern Religious Movements 
 in India. The subject was extremely attractive. It was 
 clear that to bring these many movements together, ar- 
 range them in related groups, and set them forth as vary- 
 ing expressions of a great religious upheaval would be a 
 far more illuminating piece of work than the description 
 of them as units ever could be. But the difficulties in- 
 volved in the proposed investigation were so great that it 
 was only after much inward questioning as to whether I 
 ought to dare the task that I decided to attempt it. 
 
 The first difficulty of the subject lies in the fact that the 
 majority of these numerous and very varied movements, 
 scattered over every part of India, have never been de- 
 scribed before. In the case of a few of the more note- 
 worthy, excellent monographs do exist. The following 
 books and pamphlets proved of signal service in my inves- 
 tigation : 
 
 Sastri, History of the Brahma Samdj (including the 
 Prarthana Samaj); Griswold, art. Arya Samdj in ERE.; 
 Griswold, The Chet Kami Sect ; Griswold, Mirza Ghuldm 
 Ahmad, the Mehdl Messiah of Qadian ; Griswold, The 
 Rddhd Swami Sect ; Griswold, Pandit Agnihotri and the 
 Deva Samaj ; Chirol, Indian Unrest. There are also sev-
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 eral valuable biographical works notably, Max M tiller's 
 Rdmakrishna, Prof. M. N. Gupta's Gospel of Srt-Rdma- 
 krishna, Dayananda's Autobiography, and SolovyofF s Mod- 
 ern Priestess of I sis, which enable the student to see, in a 
 measure, the genesis of the movements to which they are 
 related. But, apart from these two groups of good au- 
 thorities, it was necessary to conduct the investigation 
 almost entirely by personal visits and interviews, or, less 
 satisfactorily, by correspondence. By these means nearly 
 all the fresh matter in the following chapters was gathered. 
 A small amount of the new material comes from another 
 source, viz., the apologetic and propagandist literature of 
 the various movements ; but, with the exception of certain 
 systematic statements of creed (e.g. Rddhd Sodmi Mat 
 Prakdsh, A Dialogue about the Deva Samdj, and Lead- 
 beater's Textbook of Theosophy), these innumerable book- 
 lets, pamphlets and tracts in many tongues have provided 
 only a scanty gleaning of significant facts. 
 
 But the subject carries within it a still more intimate 
 difficulty. Even if abundance of information were forth- 
 coming about any one of these most noteworthy uprisings 
 of the Indian spirit, there would still remain the difficulty 
 of understanding it, the possibility of totally misconceiving 
 the forces that have created it, of fastening one's eyes on 
 externals and failing to feel the beatings of the heart. 
 
 Others must decide whether I did right in attempting 
 the task, and how far I have succeeded in it. What 
 weighed with me was the fact that my past experience had 
 given me a partial preparation for the work, and that my 
 present circumstances afford me unusual facilities for 
 getting the necessary information. 
 
 I spent in Calcutta eleven years as a Professor in a 
 Missionary College and five as an Association Secretary 
 among educated non-Christians. During those sixteen 
 years I was constantly in touch with Chaitanyas, Brahmas,
 
 PREFACE IX 
 
 Aryas, Theosophists, followers of Ramakrishna and young 
 men interested in other North India movements. Two 
 pieces of work arose from this contact : Gita and Gospel 
 (1903), a booklet dealing with the Neo-Krishna Movement 
 in Bengal, and art. Brahma Samdj vi\ ERE. (1909). 
 
 During the next five years my duties required me to 
 travel all over India with little intermission and to deliver 
 religious addresses in all the important towns. I was thus 
 brought into personal contact with men of almost every 
 type of religious belief; while my one study was Hindu- 
 ism. 
 
 A recent modification of my work has given me special 
 opportunities for interviewing individuals and learning 
 facts with a view to these lectures. Fresh arrangements, 
 made by Dr. J. R. Mott and the Committee in New York, 
 have enabled me since the spring of 1912 to spend the 
 summers in England in literary work and the winters in 
 India lecturing and teaching. The invitation to give the 
 Lamson Lectures reached me late in 1912. That winter 
 I visited Bombay, Jubbulpore, Allahabad, Benares, Lahore, 
 Calcutta, Puri, Madras, Conjeeveram, Bangalore, Mysore 
 City, Palamcottah, Madura, Trichy, Tanjore, Kumbakonam, 
 Pudukottai; and almost everywhere I was able to have 
 long conversations with intelligent men about the sect or 
 movement they were interested in, to visit buildings, and 
 to pick up literature and photographs. The summer of 
 1913 was spent in Oxford, preparing the lectures. This 
 enabled me to use the Bodleian Library and the British 
 Museum and to consult many men in and about London 
 who have special knowledge of certain of the movements 
 dealt with. After delivering the lectures in Hartford, 
 Conn., in October, 1913, I returned to India, and visited 
 Poona, Hyderabad (Deccan), Bangalore, Madras, Trichy, 
 Madura, Palamcottah, Nagarcoil, Trevandrum, Quilon, 
 Calicut, Tellicherry, Calcutta, Jamalpore, Jubbulpore,
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Agra, Lahore, Rajkot 
 (Kathiawar), Bombay. I thereby gained much fresh infor- 
 mation, and was able to settle scores of questions which 
 had arisen in my mind in the course of writing the 
 lectures. 
 
 Thus, one way or another, I have had personal inter- 
 course with adherents of all the movements described in 
 this book, with the exception of a few of the smallest and 
 most obscure. 
 
 I have felt cramped for want of space. To deal with 
 the whole subject adequately would have required two vol- 
 umes instead of one. I have thus been compelled to com- 
 press the matter very seriously everywhere. I trust this 
 has not resulted in making my sentences and paragraphs 
 unintelligible. It certainly has reduced the last chapter 
 to rather an arid catalogue of facts. Necessarily, the eight 
 lectures delivered in Hartford contained far less material 
 than the book does. 
 
 Though I have done my utmost to secure accuracy and 
 to avoid misrepresentation, the movements are so varied 
 and so intricate that there must be many omissions and 
 mistakes. Criticism will therefore be very warmly wel- 
 comed. Letters calling attention to errors and omis- 
 sions, or suggesting fresh points of view, may be sent 
 either to 86 College Street, Calcutta, or to Oxford. 
 
 So many friends in every part of India, and also in 
 England and America, have helped me in conversation 
 and by correspondence that it would be impossible to make 
 a complete list of them. I wish here, however, to express 
 my heartfelt gratitude to every one who has given me per- 
 sonal assistance, whether much or little ; for, without them, 
 the book could never have been written. I mention in 
 the footnotes the names of those who have helped me 
 at the most critical points, because in these cases it is 
 necessary to give the source of my information. But my
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 gratitude is quite as great to those whose names are not 
 mentioned. 
 
 The portraits scattered through the text may help readers 
 to seize in a more vivid way the character and tempera- 
 ment of the men and women who created these religious 
 movements. A few of them are new, but all the others 
 have been published before. Of these, some are quite well 
 known ; but the rest, having appeared only in obscure 
 Indian books and periodicals, must be quite new to the 
 general reader. In any case it seems worth while bring- 
 ing them together as a series of religious leaders. 
 
 I wish here to express my most grateful thanks to those 
 whose kindness has made possible the publication of these 
 portraits; first to the following for gifts of photographs 
 and leave to publish them : 
 
 Donors Portraits 
 
 The Committee of the Museum and Art 
 
 Gallery, Bristol ..... Raja Ram Mohan Ray 
 Mr. N. C. Sen, Private Secretary to the 
 
 Maharani of Cooch Behar . . . Keshab Chandra Sen 
 
 (father of the donor) 
 
 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar .... His own 
 Sir N. G. Chandavarkar .... His own 
 Mr. M. N. Katrak, Bombay . . . Mr. K. R. Cama 
 Dr. H. D. Griswold, Lahore . . . Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 
 Mr. Sasipada Banerjea, Calcutta . . The symbolic picture, 
 
 Plate X. 
 Mr. Mansukhlal Ravjibhai Mehta, Bombay Mr. Rajchandra Ravjibhai 
 
 (brother of the donor) 
 Mr. G. K. Devadhar, Bombay . . . The Hon'ble Mr. G. K. 
 
 Gokhale, C. I. E. 
 
 I owe very special thanks to Mr. Satyendra Nath Ta- 
 gore, I. C. S., Retired, who gave me permission to take 
 a photographer into the Tagore Residence, Calcutta, and 
 photograph the beautiful portraits of his grandfather and 
 father (Plates I and II).
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 Grateful thanks are also due to the following for per- 
 mission given to publish photographs : 
 
 Portraits 
 
 Mrs. Ramabai Ranade, Poona . The late Mr. Justice Ranade 
 The Arya Samaj, Lahore . . Svami Dayananda Sarasvati 
 The Radha Soami Satsang . The gurus 
 The Deva Samaj . . . The guru 
 The Ramakrishna Mission . Ramakrishna Paramahaihsa and 
 
 Svami Vivekananda 
 
 The Theosophical Society . . Madame Blavatsky and Mrs. Besant 
 Mr- Rabindra Nath Tagore . His own 
 
 My debt to my friend Dr. H. D. Griswold of Lahore is 
 very great ; for considerable sections of my third chapter 
 are built upon his scholarly monographs mentioned above ; 
 and he revised the whole work for me in manuscript. To 
 him and to another friend, the Rev. John McKenzie of 
 Bombay, who kindly did for me the troublesome work 
 of revising the proofs, I offer my unfeigned gratitude and 
 thanks. 
 
 11 FRENCHAY ROAD, OXFORD^ 
 October 30, 1914.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER JAGB 
 
 I. HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD i 
 
 II. MOVEMENTS FAVOURING SERIOUS REFORM, 1828-1913 . 29 
 
 1 . The Brahma Samaj 29 
 
 2. The Prarthana Samaj 74 
 
 3. Parsee Reform 81 
 
 4. Muhammadan Reform 91 
 
 III. REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF THE OLD FAITHS, 
 
 1870-1913 101 
 
 1. The Arya Samaj 101 
 
 2. Sivanarayana Paramaharhsa . . . .129 
 
 3. The Vedic Mission 135 
 
 4. A Castle in the Air 137 
 
 5. The Ahmadiyas of Qadian 137 
 
 6. The Nazarene New Church 148 
 
 7. The Chet Ramls 150 
 
 8. The Isamoshipanthis 156 
 
 9. The Radha Soami Satsang 157 
 
 10. The Deva Samaj ...... 173 
 
 n. Two Minor Gurus 182 
 
 IV. FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS, 1870-1913 . 186 
 
 1. Beginnings 186 
 
 2. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa . . . .188 
 
 3. Theosophy 208 
 
 4. Sectarian Movements in Hinduism . . .291 
 
 A. The Madhvas 
 
 B. The Chaitanyas . 
 
 C. The Sri-Vaishnavas 
 
 D. Four Vaishnava Sects 
 
 E. The Saiva Siddhanta 
 
 F. The Lingayats 
 
 G. The Left-hand Saktas 
 
 . 291 
 
 . 293 
 
 Vaishnava . . 297 
 
 . 298 
 
 .... 299 
 Saiva . .301 
 
 . 303 
 
 H. The Smartas 305 
 
 Caste Organizations 308 
 
 A. Caste Conferences 308 
 
 B. The Tiyas 311 
 
 C. The Vokkaligas 314
 
 xiv CONTENTS 
 
 6. The Bharata Dharma Mahamandala . 
 
 316 
 
 7. The All-India Suddhi Sabha 
 
 323 
 
 8. The Jains 
 
 324 
 
 9. The Sikhs 
 
 336 
 
 10. The Parsees 
 
 343 
 
 II. The Muhammadans 
 
 347 
 
 12. Sectarian Universities 
 
 352 
 
 V. RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM, 1895-1913 
 
 354 
 
 I. Anarchism 
 
 355 
 
 2. Industry, Science, Economics 
 
 365 
 
 3. Social and Political Service . . 
 
 . 366 v^ 
 
 A. Help for the Depressed Classes 
 
 . 366 \s 
 
 B, Universal Education 
 
 375 
 
 C. The Servants of India Society 
 
 376 
 
 D. The Seva Sadan .... 
 
 . 380 
 
 4. Fine Art and Music ..... 
 
 . 382 
 
 5. Poetry 
 
 383 
 
 VI. SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE, 1828-1913 
 
 387 
 
 I. Historical Outline ..... 
 
 387 
 
 2. The National Social Conference . 
 
 39 1 
 
 3. Female Infanticide 
 
 395 
 
 4. Child-marriage 
 
 396 
 
 5. Boy-marriage ...... 
 
 399 
 
 6. Polygamy 
 
 . 400 
 
 7. Widows 
 
 . 401 
 
 8. The Zenana 
 
 . 405 
 
 9. Marriage Expenses ..... 
 
 . 406 
 
 10. Domestic Ceremonies 
 
 . 407 
 
 ii. Devadasis (Hierodouloi) .... 
 
 . 407 
 
 12. Education of Boys ..... 
 
 . 414 
 
 13. Education of Girls ..... 
 
 . 416 
 
 14. Caste 
 
 . 418 
 
 15. Temperance 
 
 . 421 
 
 1 6. Social Service 
 
 . 422 
 
 17. The Criminal Tribes 
 
 424 
 
 VII. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS. 
 
 430 
 
 APPENDIX. ... . . . . . . . 
 
 447 
 
 GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS 
 
 459 
 
 INDEX 
 
 461
 
 LIST OF PORTRAITS 
 
 Raja Ram Mohan Ray, from the life-size portrait by Biggs in 
 Bristol Museum. Reproduced by permission of the Com- 
 mittee of the Museum and Art Gallery . . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 Prince Dwarka Nath Tagore, from the life-size portrait by 
 
 Baron de Schweter in the Tagore Residence, Calcutta 
 
 Maharshi Debendra Nath Tagore, from the portrait by W. 
 
 Archer, R. A., in the Tagore Residence, Calcutta 
 Keshab Chandra Sen 
 
 Mr. Justice Ranade 
 
 Sir N. G. Chandavarkar 
 
 Sir R. G. Bhandarkar 
 
 Kharshedji Rustamji Cama 
 
 Svami Dayananda SarasvatI 
 
 Svami Dayananda SarasvatI 
 
 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad ....... 
 
 The Wife of the First Radha Soami Guru . 
 
 The First Guru 
 
 The Second Guru 
 
 The Third Guru 
 
 Pandit S. N. Agnihotri, Guru of the Deva Samaj 
 
 Ramakrishna Paramaharhsa 
 
 Svami Vivekananda ....... 
 
 Madame Blavatsky 
 
 Mrs. Besant 
 
 Ramakrishna teaching Keshab the harmony of all re- 
 ligions 
 
 Rajchandra Ravjibhai 
 
 The Hon'ble Gopal Krishna Gokhale, C. I. E. 
 
 Rabindra Nath Tagore 
 
 XI. 
 Plans of rooms at Theosophic Headquarters 
 
 39 
 
 44 
 
 55 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 76 
 
 109 
 
 109 
 
 U8 
 167 
 167 
 167 
 z6 7 
 177 
 
 195 
 195 
 195 
 195 
 
 198 
 376 
 376 
 376 
 
 234-235 
 
 XV
 
 ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES 
 
 A Historical Retrospect. 
 Chhajju Singh. 
 Collapse. 
 
 Dubois. 
 
 ERE. 
 
 Gospel of R. 
 BBS. 
 
 IRM. 
 ISR. 
 
 Karaka. 
 
 Miss Collet. 
 MPI. 
 
 ODL. 
 
 Proceedings. 
 
 Ranade, Essays. 
 Richter. 
 
 Sinnett, Incidents. 
 Social Reform in Bengal. 
 
 A Historical Retrospect of the Theosophical 
 
 Society, by H. S. Olcott. 
 The Life and Teachings ofSwami Dayanand 
 
 Saraswati, by Bawa Chhajju Singh. 
 The Collapse of Koot Hoomi, a reprint of 
 
 articles from the Madras Christian Col- 
 lege Magazine. 
 Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, 
 
 by J. A. Dubois. 
 
 Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 
 Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, by M. 
 History of the Brahmo Samaj, by Siva 
 
 Nath Sastri. 
 
 The International Review of Missions. 
 The Indian Social Reformer. 
 History of the Parsees, by Dosabhai Framji 
 
 Karaka. 
 Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, by 
 
 Sophia Dobson Collet. 
 A Modern Priestess of Isis, by V. S. 
 
 Solovyoff. 
 
 Old Diary Leaves, by H. S. Olcott. 
 Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
 
 Research. 
 Religious and Social Reform, A Collection 
 
 of Essays and Speeches, by M. G. Ranade. 
 A History of Missions in India, by Julius 
 
 Richter. 
 Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, 
 
 by A. P. Sinnett. 
 Social Reform in Bengal, by Pandit Slta- 
 
 natha Tattvabhushana.
 
 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 
 IN INDIA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 i. Our subject is Modern Religious Movements in India, 
 that is, the fresh religious movements which have appeared 
 in India since the effective introduction of Western influence. 
 There are two great groups of religious facts the presence 
 of which we must recognize continuously but which are 
 excluded from our survey by the limitations of our subject. 
 These are, first, the old religions of India, Hinduism, 
 Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Muhammadanism, 
 so far as they retain the form and character they had before 
 the coming of Western influence ; and, secondly, Christian 
 Missions, which are rather a continuation of Church History 
 than a modern movement. The old religions are the soil 
 from which the modern movements spring; while it will 
 be found that the seed has, in the main, been sown by Mis- 
 sions. Thus, though these great systems are not included 
 in our subject, we must, throughout our investigation, keep 
 their constant activity and influence in mind. 
 
 It seems clear that the effective interpenetration of India 
 by the West began about 1800. The first fresh religious 
 movement appeared in 1828; the intellectual awakening 
 of India began to manifest itself distinctly about the same
 
 2 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 time ; and the antecedents of both go back to somewhere 
 about the beginning of the century. The period we have 
 to deal with thus extends from 1800 to 1913. 
 
 In 1800 India was in a pitiable plight. Early Hindu 
 governments seldom succeeded in securing settled peace 
 even in the great central region of the country for any 
 extended period of time ; but matters became much worse 
 when the flood of Muhammadan invasion came at the end 
 of the twelfth century. When the nineteenth century 
 dawned, India had scarcely known peace for six hundred 
 years. Even under the best of the Mughals there was 
 frequent fighting, and a good deal of injustice; under all 
 other Muslim rulers there was practically constant war and 
 frequent outbreaks of barbarity; while the eighteenth 
 century piled misery on misery. It is heartbreaking to 
 read descriptions of India at that time. 
 
 We can now see that British supremacy began to assert 
 itself with the battle of Plassey in 1757 ; yet the rulers had 
 scarcely a definite policy until the opening of the new cen- 
 tury ; and, even then, Britain had not by any means awaked 
 to the greatness and the splendour of the task set before her 
 in India. We must never forget that the East India Com- 
 pany went to India exclusively for commerce, and that the 
 British Empire sprang altogether from the necessity, which 
 was only very gradually realized, of providing a settled and 
 just government in order to make commerce possible. 
 
 2. In 1800 Hinduism, which was the religion of at least 
 three-fourths of the population of the peninsula, consisted, 
 in the main, of two great groups of sects and a mass of 
 wandering celibate ascetics, who were held to be outside 
 society. The two great groups of sects are the Vishnuite and 
 the Sivaite. The Vishnuite sects were very numerous, both 
 in the North and in the South, and they were perhaps, on the 
 whole, more homogeneous than the worshippers of Siva. The
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 3 
 
 leading Vishnuite sects declare Vishnu to be the one God, and 
 yet they recognize the existence of all the other divinities of 
 the Hindu pantheon. They also hold that Vishnu has been 
 incarnate among men a great many times, the latest and chief 
 incarnations being Rama and Krishna. Worshippers of Siva 
 declare that Siva is the one God, but recognize also all the 
 other gods. A special group of Sivaite sects has to be noticed, 
 namely, those who pay honour to the wife of Siva as Kali or 
 Durga. Both Vishnuites and Sivaites worship idols, but among 
 Sivaites the phallic symbol is more usual than images of the 
 god. Both sects worship their gurus, that is, their teachers, 
 as gods. Both are fully orthodox in the sense that they retain 
 and enforce with great strictness the ancient Hindu rules of 
 conduct which are summed up under the word dharma. Both 
 sects claim to be Vedantists, but each has its own interpreta- 
 tion of the philosophy. Around the Hindu community in 
 every part of the country there lived multitudes of degraded 
 Outcastes, held down in the dirt by Hindu law. They num- 
 ber about fifty millions to-day. 
 
 When the century dawned, Hindus were in a pitifully back- 
 ward condition. Their subjugation by the Muhammadans 
 about 1 200 A.D. had been a very serious trampling under foot ; 
 and, while the reasonable rule of the Mughals had given them 
 a breathing-space, the terrific convulsions of the eighteenth 
 century had more than undone all that had been recovered. 
 Learning had almost ceased; ordinary education scarcely 
 existed ; spiritual religion was to be met only in the quietest 
 places; and a coarse idolatry with cruel and immoral rites 
 held all the great centres of population. The condition of 
 South Indian Hinduism at the end of the eighteenth century 
 is very vividly reflected in 1'Abbe Dubois' famous work, and 
 the Hinduism of the North at the beginning of the nineteenth 
 in the writings of Ram Mohan Ray. The reader may make 
 a rough guess at the state of the Hindu community from the
 
 4 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 long list of reforms, social and religious, which the early mis- 
 sionaries felt driven to demand 1 and which all the finer spirits 
 within Hinduism have since then recognized as altogether 
 necessary. 
 
 Buddhism, which came to the birth about 525 B.C., attained 
 extraordinary greatness before the Christian era, and during 
 the next six centuries not only spread over the whole of Eastern 
 and Southern Asia, but struggled with Hinduism for the pri- 
 macy in India. Thereafter it steadily declined hi the land of 
 its origin ; the Muhammadan conquest all but destroyed it ; 
 and Hinduism gradually absorbed what remained. Thus 
 there were practically no Buddhists in India proper at the 
 opening of the nineteenth century; but on the Himalayas, 
 in Burma and in Ceylon the faith was still supreme. 
 
 Jainism was originally an agnostic philosophy which arose 
 a little earlier than Buddhism, and, like Buddhism, became 
 transformed at an early date into a religion and a rival of 
 Hinduism. By the beginning of our period the ancient Jain 
 community had shrunk to small proportions. They were 
 scattered over a large part of the country, and were wealthy 
 and prosperous ; but there was no vigour in Jainism ; and 
 there was a slow, continuous drift towards Hinduism ; so that 
 the community was steadily dwindling in numbers. 
 
 The Parsees are a small community of Zoroastrian Persians 
 who fled from Persia to India in the eighth century A.D., and 
 have since then remained a prosperous business community, 
 very exclusive socially and very faithful to their ancient re- 
 ligion. They originally settled in Gujarat ; but, since early 
 last century, Bombay has been their chief centre. 
 
 In 1800 Muhammadanism in India was very orthodox and 
 very ignorant, and was steadily deteriorating. The collapse 
 of the Muhammadan governments and the steady fall of 
 Muslim character had worked sad havoc in the religion itself. 
 
 1 See p. 15,
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 5 
 
 Muhammadans formed perhaps one-sixth of the population. 
 They were necessarily discontented and crushed, having 
 been conquered both by the Maratha Hindus and by the 
 British. Yet they were not so cowed nor so weak as the 
 Hindus. The British had entered into the heritage of their 
 administration ; multitudes of Muslims were still government 
 officials ; and Urdu, the hybrid tongue which had grown up 
 as a medium of communication in the Muhammadan camp, 
 was still the official language in the law-courts and elsewhere. 
 The bulk of public education was thus still Muhammadan in 
 character ; and what men studied most was the Persian and 
 Urdu languages. Yet the Muslim community was steadily 
 declining. There was no living movement of thought and no 
 spiritual leader among them. 
 
 3. Can we see what was the cause of the great Awakening 
 which began about 1800 and since then has dominated the life 
 and history of India ? How was the Muslim period so barren 
 as compared with the nineteenth century? How is it that 
 European influence produced practically no results between 
 1500 and 1800? Why did the Awakening begin at that 
 particular point ? 
 
 The answer is that the Awakening is the result of the co- 
 operation of two forces, both of which began their character- 
 istic activity about the same time, and that it was quickened 
 by a third which began to affect the Indian mind a little 
 later. The two forces are the British Government in India as 
 it learned its task during the years at the close of the eight- 
 eenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, and 
 Protestant Missions * as they were shaped by the Serampore 
 men and Duff ; and the third force is the work of the great 
 Orientalists. The material elements of Western civilization 
 have had their influence, but, apart from the creative forces, 
 
 1 Catholic Missions have been continuously of service, especially in edu- 
 cation, but they have had no perceptible share in creating the Awakening.
 
 6 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 they would have led to no awakening. The proof of all this 
 will gradually unfold itself in our chapters. 
 
 It was necessity that drove the East India Company to as- 
 sume governmental duties. They had no desire to rule India, 
 far less to reform the intellectual, social and religious life of 
 the people. They were driven to undertake first one and then 
 another administrative duty, because otherwise they could 
 not obtain that settled government and those regular financial 
 arrangements without which profitable commerce is impossible. 
 But every step they took led to another ; and gradually the 
 conscience of Britain awoke and began to demand that India 
 should be governed for the good of the people. It was during 
 the last decades of the eighteenth century that the old trading 
 company was gradually hammered into something like a 
 government. The men who did the work were Clive, Hastings 
 and Cornwallis. A succession of changes transformed its 
 civil-servant traders, whose incomes depended on their business 
 ability, into administrators living on a salary and strictly 
 forbidden to make money by trading ; while the Government 
 itself steadily assumed new functions, and grew in knowledge 
 of the people. 
 
 Protestant missionary history in India opens with the 
 Danish Mission, which did very remarkable work in the 
 Tamil country throughout the eighteenth century; but it 
 was the toil of Carey and his colleagues that roused first 
 Britain and then America and the Continent to a sense of their 
 duty to the non-Christian peoples of the world. William 
 Carey, an English Baptist, arrived in Calcutta on the nth 
 November, 1793, and, after many wanderings, settled as an 
 indigo-planter near Malda in North Bengal. Here he studied 
 Bengali and Sanskrit, began the work of translating the Bible 
 into Bengali, gained his experience and developed his methods. 
 In 1800 he settled in Serampore under the Danish flag ; and 
 in the same year he began to teach Sanskrit and Bengali in
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 7 
 
 Lord Wellesley's College in Calcutta. Then it was not long 
 before the wiser men both in Missions and in the Government 
 began to see that, for the immeasurable task to be accom- 
 plished, it was most necessary that Missions should take ad- 
 vantage of the advancing policy of the Government and that 
 Government should use Missions as a civilizing ally. For 
 the sake of the progress of India cooperation was indispen- 
 sable. 
 
 The rise of Orientalism is contemporaneous with the be- 
 ginnings of good government in North India and with the 
 development of the new Mission propaganda, but it did not 
 touch the Indian mind until later. 1 It was Warren Hastings 
 who took the steps which led to Europeans becoming ac- 
 quainted with Sanskrit and Hinduism. By his orders a 
 simple code of Hindu law was put together and translated 
 into English in 1776. In 1785 Charles Wilkins, who had 
 been roused to the study of Sanskrit by Hastings, published 
 a translation of the Bhagavadgitd ; and Sir William Jones, the 
 
 1 At first sight it seems very extraordinary that our real knowledge of 
 India should have begun so late. Europe has known of India superficially 
 from time immemorial ; and from a very early date Indians have had scraps 
 of information about the West. Long centuries before the Christian era, 
 it seems certain that Solomon sent his navy from the Gulf of Akabah to 
 Western India ; and Indian merchants sailed to the Persian Gulf and brought 
 home Babylonian goods and ideas. The conquest of the Panjab by Darius 
 the Persian brought a small amount of knowledge to Greece; and Alex- 
 ander's matchless raid led to the establishment of direct communication 
 between India and the Greek kingdoms. Roman traders carried on large 
 commerce with the mouths of the Indus, and also with Southern India, in 
 the first and second centuries A.D. Occasionally travellers from the West 
 penetrated to India during the Middle Ages; and a great trade both by 
 caravan and by sea went on uninterruptedly. Modern intercourse begins 
 with Vasco da Gama, the famous Portuguese explorer, who sailed round 
 the Cape of Good Hope and reached the coast of India at Calicut in Malabar 
 in 1498. From that date onward, Portuguese, Dutch, French and English 
 went to India by sea, and a large trade was carried on ; yet until the end of 
 the eighteenth century no serious attempt was made to understand India 
 and its civilization.
 
 8 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 first great Sanskritist, published in 1789 a translation of 
 Sakuntald, the finest of all Indian dramas. Another Eng- 
 lishman, named Hamilton, happened to be passing through 
 France on his way home, in 1802, and was arrested. During 
 his long involuntary stay in Paris he taught Sanskrit to 
 several French scholars and also to the German poet, Fried- 
 rich Schlegel. Thus was the torch handed on to Europe. 
 The discovery of Sanskrit led to a revolution in the science 
 of language. About the same time English scholars began the 
 study of the flora and fauna of India, and also of her people. 1 
 4. But, though history has shown decisively that it was the 
 British Government and Protestant Missions working to- 
 gether that produced the Awakening of India, we must note 
 carefully that, at the outset, the Government vehemently 
 opposed Missions. In order to understand their attitude, we 
 must realize that their only object was trade, and that it was 
 purely for the safeguarding of their trade that they had inter- 
 fered with the politics of the land. In consequence, they re- 
 garded themselves as in every sense the successors of the old 
 rulers and heirs to their policy and method, except in so far 
 as it was necessary to alter things for the sake of trade. There 
 was another point. They had won their territory by means of 
 an Indian army composed mainly of high-caste Hindus, who 
 were exceedingly strict in keeping all the rules of caste and of 
 
 1 We ought also to mention the wonderful work done by two Frenchmen. 
 Anquetil du Perron went to India and ultimately prevailed upon the Parsee 
 priests to teach him the language of the Avesta. He brought his Mss. and 
 his knowledge to Europe in 1771, and thus became the pioneer of Zoroastrian 
 research in the West. Four years later he translated into Latin a Persian 
 version of a number of the Upanishads, produced under the orders of a 
 Mughal Prince in the seventeenth century. It was through his almost 
 incomprehensible Latin that Schopenhauer received his knowledge of the 
 Vedanta philosophy. L'Abbe Dubois, a Catholic missionary who lived 
 and wandered in the Tamil country from 1 792 to 1823, wrote Hindu Manners, 
 Customs and Ceremonies, one of the most vivid and reliable descriptions of 
 a people that has ever been penned.
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 9 
 
 religious practice. Further, every competent observer was 
 deeply impressed with the extraordinary hold Hinduism had 
 upon the people. Every element of life was controlled by it. 1 
 In consequence, the Government believed it to be necessary, 
 for the stability of their position, not merely to recognize the 
 religions of the people of India, but to support and patronize 
 them as fully as the native rulers had done, and to protect 
 their soldiers from any attempt to make them Christians. 
 Accordingly, they adopted three lines of policy from which, 
 for a long tune, they stubbornly refused to move : 2 
 
 a. They took under their management and patronage a 
 large number of Hindu temples. They advanced money for 
 rebuilding important shrines and for repairing others, and 
 paid the salaries of the temple officials, even down to the cour- 
 tesans, which were a normal feature of the great temples of 
 the South. 3 They granted large sums of money for sacrifices 
 and festivals and for the feeding of Brahmans. Salvoes of 
 cannon were fired on the occasion of the greater festivals ; 
 and government officials were ordered to be present and to 
 show their interest in the celebrations. Even cruel and im- 
 moral rites, such as hook-swinging, practised in the worship 
 of the gods, and the burning of widows, were carried out under 
 British supervision. In order to pay for all these things, a 
 pilgrim- tax was imposed, which not only recouped the Govern- 
 ment for their outlay, but brought them a handsome income 
 as well. Reformers in England and India found it a long and 
 toilsome business to get this patronage of idolatry by a Chris- 
 tian Government put down. The last temple was handed 
 over as late as 1862. 
 
 1 During the many years that I studied Hindu customs I cannot say that 
 I ever observed a single one, however unimportant and simple, and, I may 
 add, however filthy and disgusting, which did not rest on some religious 
 principle or other. Dubois, p. 31. 
 
 1 Richter, 185-192. 
 
 * See below, pp. 408-9.
 
 io MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 b. They absolutely refused to allow any missionary to settle 
 in their territory. Carey got a footing in Bengal by becoming 
 an indigo-planter ; and he was not able to devote his whole 
 time and energy to Christian work, until he settled at Seram- 
 pore, twelve miles north of Calcutta, under the Danish flag. 
 Many missionaries, both British and American, landed in 
 India, only to be deported by the authorities. This policy 
 was reversed by Act of Parliament in 1813. 
 
 c. They refused to employ native Christians in any capacity, 
 and they enforced all the rigours of Hindu law against them. 
 In the Bengal army, if any native soldier wished to become a 
 Christian, he was forcibly prevented by the authorities ; or, 
 if by any chance he became baptized, he was expelled from the 
 service. This fierce prejudice was so strong even at the time 
 of the Mutiny that the services of thousands of Indian Chris- 
 tians were refused by the Government. 
 
 Yet from quite an early date there was a certain amount of 
 collaboration between the Government and Missions. When 
 Lord Wellesley founded, in 1800, the College of Fort William 
 in Calcutta, to give his young Indian Civilians a training in 
 Indian languages and literature, Carey was the only man who 
 could be found to teach Sanskrit and Bengali. He was 
 accordingly appointed Professor ; and for many years, though 
 his chief work was in Serampore, he spent one-half of each 
 week in Calcutta, lecturing to Indian Civilians hi the morning, 
 and preaching to the poor in the evening. Government also 
 took advantage of the Mission Printing Press at Serampore, 
 where, for the first time in history, Indian languages were 
 printed in their own script ; and they departed in one instance 
 from their strict rule of deporting every missionary landing 
 in India, because the new man was a skilled type-founder, 
 and was about to cut, for the mission, Chinese type which the 
 Government would be glad to use. At a later date the great 
 problem of education drew the Government and Missions 
 together.
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD n 
 
 The present wise policy of absolute religious neutrality 
 was not reached until 1857, when, in the throes of the Mutiny, 
 the East India Company came to an end, and the home Gov- 
 ernment became directly responsible for India. Since that 
 moment, though many individual government officers, both 
 civil and military, have misinterpreted British neutrality to 
 mean what it certainly meant under the Company, namely, 
 favour to the old religions and opposition to Christian work, 
 yet the attitude of Government as such has been right. Every 
 Christian to-day ought to rejoice that the policy of strict 
 neutrality was adopted when India came under the Crown. 
 Some people wished the Government to take a definite 
 stand hi favour of Christianity and to use its money and in- 
 fluence for the bringing of India into the Church ; but it is 
 as clear as noonday that that could have brought only disas- 
 ter to the cause of Christ. No government can ever do the 
 work of the Church ; the government official as such cannot 
 be an Apostle. 
 
 5. This discussion will enable us to sympathize with a num- 
 ber of ideas which have been influential in certain sections of 
 Anglo-Indian society for a hundred and fifty years, and are 
 still held by some. We can see how it is that men in business 
 and in government have come to believe that we had better 
 not touch the religion and civilization of India, that it is im- 
 possible to alter them, or to produce any lasting influence on 
 Indian thought, and that every attempt to introduce change 
 is bad for the people, on the one hand, and a grave danger 
 to British trade and government, on the other. 
 
 It is well to notice that from time to time men of scholar- 
 ship and character have held to the old policy and ideas in 
 these matters. Horace Hayman Wilson, the famous Sanskrit 
 scholar, was opposed to Bentinck's abolition of sati, 1 and 
 seriously believed that it would cause the Government grave 
 
 1 Below, p. 17.
 
 12 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 difficulty. 1 As a matter of fact, Bentinck's judgment was 
 justified. No difficulty of any kind arose. Many noteworthy 
 persons, and masses of business men throughout the nine- 
 teenth century have been opposed to educating the Indian. 
 Lord Ellenborough, when Governor-General, 
 
 regarded the political ruin of the English power as the inevitable 
 consequence of the education of the Hindus. 2 
 
 Many a business man in Calcutta echoes this belief to-day, 
 but no serious statesman holds such an opinion. Here is how 
 the attitude of the people of Calcutta to missions was described 
 in 1812 : 
 
 All were convinced that rebellion, civil war, and universal 
 unrest would certainly accompany every attempt to promote 
 missionary enterprise, and, above all, that the conversion of a 
 high-caste native soldier would inevitably mean the disbanding 
 of the army and the overthrow of British rule in India. 3 
 
 Gradually the policy of Government was brought into conso- 
 nance with the political and religious convictions of the people 
 of Britain ; yet, in circles little touched by Christian enthu- 
 siasm and democratic feeling, the old ideas still persist, and 
 find frequent expression in conversation and public addresses, 
 in articles and books. 
 
 Probably no thinking man to-day believes that Western 
 influence is producing no serious effect on the Indian mind ; 
 yet we must not forget that one of the greatest publicists who 
 ever lived and wrote in India, Meredith Townsend, held, 
 throughout a long life, that all the efforts of Britain to modify 
 Indian thought and behaviour were absolutely hopeless. 
 Here are two brief quotations from his volume of Essays, 
 Asia and Europe: 
 
 1 Compare also Ram Mohan Ray's attitude. See below, p. 33 n. 
 
 2 Richter, 183. 3 Ib., 131.
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 13 
 
 All the papers are directed to one end, a description of those 
 inherent differences between Europe and Asia which forbid 
 one continent permanently to conquer the other. ... It is 
 rather a saddening reflection that the thoughts of so many 
 years are all summed up by a great poet in four lines : 
 
 " The East bowed low before the blast, 
 
 In patient deep disdain ; 
 She let the legions thunder past, 
 Then plunged in thought again." * 
 
 As yet there is no sign that the British are accomplishing 
 more than the Romans accomplished in Britain, that they will 
 spread any permanently successful ideas, or that they will found 
 anything whatever. It is still true that if they departed or 
 were driven out they would leave behind them, as the Romans 
 did in Britain, splendid roads, many useless buildings, an in- 
 creased weakness in the subject people, and a memory which in 
 a century of new events would be extinct. 2 
 
 Dubois held similar opinions : 
 
 I venture to predict that it (i.e. the British Government) 
 will attempt in vain to effect any very considerable changes in 
 the social condition of the people of India, whose character, 
 principles, customs and ineradicable conservatism will always 
 present insurmountable obstacles. 3 
 
 It is necessary, for the understanding of the history of the 
 nineteenth century, to realize how influential these ideas were 
 for many years, though they begin to seem rather old-world 
 and bloodless in the light of the Awakening, and especially 
 of the religious upheaval we have to deal with. 
 
 LITERATURE. The Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion in 
 India, by Sir Alfred Lyall, London, Murray, 1894. Hindu Manners, 
 Customs and Ceremonies, by J. A. Dubois, Oxford, Clarendon Press. 
 A History of Missions in India, by Julius Richter, London, Oliphant. 
 Asia and Europe, by Meredith Townsend. 
 
 We shall divide the period of one hundred and thirteen 
 years with which we deal into four sections. 
 
 1 P. xxi. * P. 27. P. xxiii.
 
 14 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 FIRST SECTION: 1803-1828 
 
 1. In this year 1800, from which we date the effective inter- 
 penetration of India by the West, a large part of the country 
 was already under British rule, and Lord Wellesley was busy 
 bringing the independent native princes within the scope of the 
 empire by means of peaceful treaties. His policy proved very 
 successful, and extended the empire far and wide. In the wars 
 which arose his brother, later known as the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, played a great part. His policy may be said to have com- 
 pleted itself in 1849, when the last remaining portion of India 
 proper was added to the empire. 
 
 2. We have already seen that Carey, his apprenticeship over, 
 had settled under the Danish flag at Serampore in 1800 and 
 had at once become a Government professor in Calcutta. He 
 gave a great deal of time to the translation of the Bible into 
 the vernaculars of India and even into the languages of coun- 
 tries outside India ; but it was chiefly by the winning of actual 
 converts from Hinduism, by his schools, newspapers and 
 literature, that he was able to bring Christian thought effec- 
 tively to bear on the Indian spirit. But it would have been 
 impossible for him to make his work varied and effective had 
 it not been for his two great colleagues, Marshman and Ward. 
 Carey had been a cobbler, Marshman a Ragged-School teacher 
 and Ward a printer. They were all largely self-taught. They 
 differed greatly from each other, but differed in such a way as 
 to supplement one another. Their methods of work were 
 partly those which had been developed by Danish missionaries 
 in South India in the eighteenth century, partly new. The 
 basis of all their work was preaching and translation of the 
 Bible. To this they added the publication of literature of 
 many types, and very effective journalism. They had a print- 
 ing press, and in it Indian type was first founded and used. 
 They laid great stress on education, and opened numerous
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 15 
 
 schools around them for both boys and girls. They opened 
 boarding-schools and orphanages. They even attempted 
 medical work, and did not neglect the lepers. They were most 
 eager to send out native missionaries to preach throughout 
 the country, and with that in view built a great college at 
 Serampore, and received from the King of Denmark author- 
 ity to confer degrees. Their study of Hinduism and the 
 Hindu community convinced them that, for the health of the 
 people, many social and religious reforms were necessary, 
 for example, the total abolition of caste, the prohibition of 
 widow-burning, of child-marriage, of polygamy and of infan- 
 ticide, the granting to widows of the right to remarry, the 
 prohibition of human sacrifice, of the torturing of animals in 
 sacrifice, of human torture in worship, and of the gross ob- 
 scenity practised in the streets. They took great care that 
 caste should be utterly excluded from the Church of Christ. 
 
 In 1813, when it was necessary to renew the Charter of the 
 East India Company, Parliament insisted, in spite of the oppo- 
 sition of the Directors of the Company, on inserting a clause 
 in the Charter, giving missionaries full freedom to settle and 
 work in India. There can be no question that this was largely 
 a result of the wonderful work done at Serampore. Soon 
 afterwards there was a great influx of missionaries into the 
 country. 
 
 During these years a number of individual Europeans did 
 what they could to start Western education in the great cities 
 of India apart from missionary associations. David Hare, 
 a Scotch watchmaker, was the pioneer of English studies 
 among boys in Calcutta ; and a Civil Servant, Mr. Drinkwater 
 Bethune, succeeded in starting a school for Hindu girls in the 
 same city. The Hon'ble Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone 
 led both the Hindu and the Parsee community in Bombay 
 to modern education. His name is perpetuated in the 
 Government College of that city.
 
 1 6 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 3. Three men stand out as pioneer Orientalists during these 
 years, the great Colebrooke, to whom almost every aspect of 
 Sanskrit and Hindu study runs back, H. H. Wilson, who pub- 
 lished a number of very useful works, and Tod, a military 
 officer, who studied the poetry, traditions and customs of the 
 Rajputs so thoroughly that his Rdjasthdn is to this day the 
 greatest and most beautiful work upon that people and their 
 country. 
 
 4. But for our subject the most interesting name is that 
 of Ram Mohan Ray, the founder of the Brahma Samaj. 
 We shall deal with his work in our next chapter. Here we 
 note simply that the years from 1800 to 1828 were the years 
 that formed him, and that while he was influenced by 
 Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, the forces which proved 
 creative in him were unquestionably Christianity and the 
 influence of the West in general. During these years he 
 published almost all his books and conducted a vigorous 
 agitation in Calcutta against widow-burning, which proved 
 of great practical value. 
 
 No fresh religious movement worthy of notice appeared 
 during these years. 
 
 LITERATURE. Lyall, as above. Marshman's History of India. 
 Welksley and Eastings in Rulers of India Series, Oxford University 
 Press. Life of William Carey, by George Smith, in Everyman's 
 Library. Carey, Marshman and Ward, by George Smith. For the 
 rise of Orientalism see Macdonell's Sanskrit Literature, chap. I. 
 
 SECOND SECTION: 1828-1870 
 
 i. The British Empire in India continued to expand during 
 these years until it covered the whole of India. The last 
 portion to be added, namely the Panjab, was annexed in 1849, 
 at the conclusion of the second Sikh war. 
 
 The Mutiny of 1857-1858 extends across the middle of our 
 period like a dark bar, but we need not, in this brief historical
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 17 
 
 outline, attempt to deal with it. It was essentially a reaction, 
 a natural and almost inevitable result of the rapid conquest 
 of the country and of the numerous reforms imposed on a most 
 conservative people. So far from checking the process of the 
 building up of the empire, the Mutiny, in the long run, pro- 
 duced most beneficial results ; for the Crown became directly 
 responsible for India ; and both policy and method were clari- 
 fied and simplified, to the immeasurable benefit of India. 
 
 Apart from the completion of the empire, the whole activity 
 of the Government throughout this section might be de- 
 scribed as one long programme of reform ; and this aspect of 
 its work is of more importance for our subject than the exten- 
 sion of the frontiers and the wars that shook down the old 
 rulers. We take the beginning of the Governor-Generalship 
 of Lord William Bentinck as the date of the opening of this 
 section of our period, because he initiated the policy of reform, 
 and began to apply in serious earnest the conviction, which 
 had taken hold of the best minds at home, that Britain must 
 govern India for the good of India. The reforms which he 
 introduced may be best understood if we take them in three 
 groups. 
 
 The first group consists of a list of cruel practices which 
 had long been customary in India, and were closely con- 
 nected with the religious life of the people. The principle 
 on which the government decided to interfere with these re- 
 ligious customs is this, that to interfere with religion as such is 
 beyond the province of rulers, but to prohibit customs which 
 are grossly immoral and revolting to humanity is a most serious 
 duty, even though these customs, through superstition and 
 long tradition, have come to be regarded as most sacred. 
 The chief of these customs prohibited were sati, the burning of 
 a widow along with her husband's body, thagi, 1 the strangling 
 and robbery of travellers, female infanticide and human sacrifice. 
 
 1 See below, p. 425 n. 
 c
 
 i8 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The second group of reforms comes under the head of the 
 recognition of human equality. It was decided that no 
 native of India should suffer in any way because of his reli- 
 gious opinions, but that all should be absolutely equal before 
 the law. The same idea found practical expression in the 
 largely extended employment of Indians in Government ser- 
 vice ; but the reason the Directors had for asking Lord Wil- 
 liam to initiate the reform was the necessity of economy. 
 
 The third set of reforms gathers round the English language. 
 For years there had been a serious controversy among gov- 
 ernment officials as to whether Government should support 
 Oriental or Western education. The great success of Duff's 
 work in Calcutta, which we shall notice below, and the power- 
 ful advocacy of Macaulay, who was Legal Member of 
 Council under Lord Bentinck, enabled the Governor-General 
 to decide in favour of modern education. The English lan- 
 guage became the official tongue of the empire, and the 
 vehicle of instruction in all higher education. No more 
 momentous decision was ever taken at the Indian Coun- 
 cil Board. The working out of a new policy in education was 
 necessarily left to Lord Bentinck's successors. Government 
 schools and colleges grew and multiplied ; medical education 
 was introduced; vernacular education was not neglected; 
 and, in the midst of the throes of the Mutiny, the new system 
 was crowned by the establishment of universities at Calcutta, 
 Bombay and Madras. 
 
 The results produced by English education in India are 
 revolutionary in the highest degree. The following pages will 
 give much evidence of the extraordinary changes in progress ; 
 but, so far as one can see, we have not nearly reached the end 
 of the evolution ; and no man can foretell what the ultimate 
 result will be. 
 
 Other reforms of considerable magnitude followed. In 
 1843 an act was passed to render slavery in India illegal;
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 19 
 
 and, in consequence, during the following years vast 
 numbers of people who had been born and brought up in 
 slavery gradually acquired liberty. Lord Dalhousie (1848- 
 1856) introduced many reforms into the administration. 
 His acts led to great improvements in the life and pros- 
 perity of the people throughout the vast empire. Amongst 
 these was a law prohibiting certain gross obscenities which 
 hitherto had been common in the streets of Indian cities. 
 A clause had to be inserted excluding the temples, images 
 and cars of Hindu gods from the operation of the law. 
 
 But the most far-reaching and precious reform of this sec- 
 tion of history was the assumption of the government of India 
 by the Crown. Every part of the service was quickened, puri- 
 fied and invigorated under the new system. 
 
 2. In Missions these decades are marked chiefly by great 
 activity in education, especially in English education, and by 
 a brilliant development of missionary method in many direc- 
 tions. The number of missionaries engaged in the Empire 
 increased very greatly during those years; and the area 
 covered by missions expanded with the Empire. 
 
 In 1830 a young Scotch missionary named Alexander Duff 
 arrived in Calcutta. He decided to open a school for the 
 teaching of English, believing that nothing would do so much 
 for the opening of the Hindu mind as intercourse with the 
 spirit of the West through the medium of the English language. 
 Ram Mohan Ray obtained rooms for him in which to start his 
 school and brought him some of his earliest pupils. His work 
 rested on two convictions. The first of these was this, that 
 the highest form of education is Christian education, namely, 
 a thoroughly sound intellectual and scientific training, built 
 on the moral and religious principles of Christ. To him the 
 teaching of the Bible was the most essential element in the edu- 
 cation he gave. Apart from that, mere intellectual drill might 
 do more harm than good. His second conviction was that a
 
 20 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 modern education could be given to the Indian only through 
 the medium of English, because their own vernaculars did not 
 contain the books necessary for a modern education. His 
 work opened a new missionary era in India. His school be- 
 came extraordinarily popular ; all the most promising young 
 men of the city flocked to him ; and the results of his teach- 
 ing were very remarkable. Western thought caused a great 
 ferment in their minds, breaking down the old ideas with 
 great rapidity ; and the daily Scripture lesson filled them with 
 Christian thought. Soon a stream of fine young fellows 
 began to pass out of Hinduism into the Christian Church, 
 and Duff's work and Christianity became the most absorbing 
 topic of conversation throughout the Hindu community. 
 Dr. John Wilson started similar work in Bombay and John 
 Anderson in Madras. These were followed by other mission- 
 aries in other centres. 
 
 During these decades the Christian education of girls was 
 pushed rapidly forward, and its methods well worked out. It 
 was the desire to spread girls' schools far and wide that led to 
 the rapid increase of women missionaries and finally to a great 
 influx of unmarried lady missionaries. Further contact 
 with the people showed the piteous needs of the women of 
 the upper classes shut up in zenanas ; and consequently from 
 about 1854 there was developed a new method of missionary 
 service, the visitation of zenanas by women missionaries and 
 their assistants. It was during this section of our period 
 also that medical missions took shape. During all the pre- 
 vious years a little medical help had been given at various 
 points; but now the Christian conscience of Europe and 
 America was stirred to bring medical help to the millions 
 of the common people of India, for whom no skilled assistance 
 in the time of trouble and death was available. Gradually 
 the idea took shape, and produced the Medical Mission, i.e. 
 a Christian medical man, sent out to heal and to preach, well
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 21 
 
 equipped with knowledge, with medicine and with surgical 
 implements, and backed also with a dispensary, hospital and 
 assistants. Here again the sufferings of the women of India 
 led to something new. Men could not enter the zenanas, and 
 yet in them much of the tragedy of Hindu pain and death 
 took place. Such was the origin of the woman medical mis- 
 sionary, one of the most precious forms of help ever sent to 
 India. Orphanages, widows' homes and famine relief were 
 all used to some extent during these years, but their full de- 
 velopment comes later. 
 
 3. The years 1828-1870 saw the flowering of Oriental 
 scholarship. Hodgson discovered the literature of Northern 
 Buddhism during his residence in Nepal from 1833-1844. 
 Roth published his epoch-making treatise on The Literature 
 and the History of the Veda in 1846, and, in collaboration with 
 Bohtlingk, began the issue of the great Petersburg Lexicon 
 in 185 2 . Max Miiller's Text of the Rigveda was issued between 
 1849 and 1875. Meantime Prinsep and Cunningham laid 
 the foundations of our knowledge of Indian art, epigraphy and 
 archaeology. Even at this date the work of Oriental scholars 
 did not influence the Indian mind seriously. 
 
 4. The new educational policy of the Government created 
 during these years the modern educated class of India. These 
 are men who think and speak in English habitually, who are 
 proud of their citizenship in the British Empire, who are de- 
 voted to English literature, and whose intellectual life has 
 been almost entirely formed by the thought of the West. 
 Large numbers of them enter government service, while the 
 rest practise law, medicine or teaching, or take to journalism 
 or business. We must also note that the powerful excitement 
 which has sufficed to create the religious movements we have 
 to deal with is almost entirely confined to those who have 
 had an English education. 
 
 It was in Bengal and Bombay that the results of the new
 
 22 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 policy became first conspicuous. The Bengalis in the East 
 and the Parsees and Marathas in the West took very eagerly 
 to English education. Madras followed, and took quite as 
 much advantage of the new situation. The Muhammadans 
 on the whole held back, but one prominent man, Sir Syed 
 Ahmad Khan, was far-sighted enough to see the folly of 
 this attitude and did all he could to bring his people into 
 line. 
 
 5. We have already noticed Ram Mohan Ray's activity as 
 a writer and social reformer. His greatest achievement coin- 
 cides with the opening year of this section of our period. In 
 1828 he founded the Brahma Samaj, a theistic society, opposed 
 to polytheism, mythology and idolatry, the first and most 
 influential of all the religious movements we have to deal with. 
 But, eighteen months after it was founded, he sailed for Eng- 
 land and never returned. The new society would have died, 
 had it not been for the financial support of one of his friends, 
 Prince Dwarka Nath Tagore. In 1842 Debendra Nath Ta- 
 gore, the youthful son of Rama Mohan Ray's friend, entered 
 the Samaj, and soon became recognized as its leader. A new 
 period of growth and fruitful labour followed. For nearly 
 twenty years longer the Brahma Samaj continued to be the 
 most prominent indigenous religious movement. Just after 
 the Mutiny a young Bengali, named Keshab Chandra Sen, 
 became a member, and soon displayed remarkable powers. 
 He led the little community into social reform, philanthropy 
 and also, in some degree, into discipleship to Christ. 
 
 From the Brahma Samaj there sprang in 1867 a kindred 
 organization in Bombay, known as the Prarthana Samaj. Its 
 most prominent leaders belong to a later day. The Parsees 
 of Bombay were busy at the same time with educational and 
 social reform, but no organization sprang up among them. 
 
 We ought also to notice that in 1856, largely as a result of 
 the agitation of a Calcutta Brahman, Pandit Isvara Chandra
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 23 
 
 Vidyasagara, the Government passed a law legalizing the re- 
 marriage of Hindu widows. 
 
 Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, whose influence on the Muhamma- 
 dan community we have already noted, was an eager social 
 and religious reformer, but his most notable achievement was 
 the foundation of the Muhammadan College at Aligarh, 
 which has done a great deal to rouse the Muhammadans of 
 North India to accept modern thought and to take their 
 rightful place in government and education in these modern 
 days. 
 
 LITERATURE. Lyall, as above. India under Victoria, by L. J. 
 Trotter, London, Allen, 1886, 2 vols. Bentinck, Dalhousie and 
 Canning in Rulers of India Series. Trevelyan's Life of Macaulay. 
 The Administration of the East India Company, by J. W. Kaye, 
 London, Bentley, 1853 (describes the great reforms). The Suppres- 
 sion of Human Sacrifice, Suttee and Female Infanticide, Madras, 
 C. L. S. L, 1898, two and a half annas (abridged from Kaye). 
 Richter's History of Missions in India; and George Smith's Lives of 
 Duff and Wilson. 
 
 THIRD SECTION: 1870-1895 
 
 i. Continuous progress in the adaptation of British admin- 
 istration to the needs of India may be said to sum up the policy 
 and the work of the government during those thirty years. 
 A few points ought to be definitely mentioned. Perhaps the 
 greatest social advance made by Government has been the 
 elaboration of the Famine Code, whereby provision is made 
 from year to year for the possible arrival of serious famine. 
 Elaborate instructions, the reasoned outcome of very wide 
 and very varied experience, are also laid down for the guid- 
 ance of officers who have to deal with famine conditions. A 
 Local Self-government Bill was passed by Lord Ripon's 
 Government with the definite purpose of educating the 
 people in self-government. Good has certainly resulted
 
 24 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 from it but not quite so much as was looked for. The only 
 other act which we need notice is the Age of Consent Act, 
 passed in 1891, which prohibits a husband from living with 
 his wife before she reaches the age of twelve. 
 
 2. From the very birth of missionary work in India there 
 had been devoted men who had given their lives to toil amongst 
 the Outcastes, but for a long time comparatively little fruit 
 appeared. From 1876 to 1879 the South of India suffered 
 from an appalling famine. Everywhere missionaries threw 
 themselves into the work of saving life and alleviating dis- 
 tress; and this piece of disinterested service brought its re- 
 ward. From 1880 onwards great masses of the Outcastes of 
 South India passed into the Church of Christ. The movement 
 has since spread to the North. It has proved the most 
 signal of all the object-lessons given to India by Christians. 
 
 Women's work for women, and medical work, both of which 
 took shape, as we have seen, before 1870, have become greatly 
 expanded and still further improved in method since then. 
 These years have also seen the organization of systematic 
 Christian work for lepers. Numerous hospitals have been 
 built for them ; and in many places badly managed shelters 
 have been brought under Christian care, and are now doing 
 wonderful work. A large proportion of the lepers cared for 
 by Christians become Christians. 
 
 The rapid spread of English education has produced a very 
 large student class, studying in three different types of institu- 
 tions, government, missionary and native schools and colleges. 
 The attention of Christians has been drawn to the moral and 
 religious needs of this interesting group of young men in a num- 
 ber of ways, and also to the still larger group who are beyond 
 the student stage. Methods of work have been steadily im- 
 proved in Christian institutions. Hostels for non-Christians 
 have been built in considerable numbers, and, under devoted 
 Christian management, have produced such excellent results
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 25 
 
 that there is a loud cry for the extension of the hostel system 
 throughout the country. The student's magazine, whether 
 connected with a single college or meant for the students of 
 a province, is also a creation of these years. The Young 
 Men's Christian Association, which had been working among 
 Europeans for several decades, began to reach out to Indians, 
 both Christian and non-Christian, in the year 1889, and has 
 proved singularly popular and efficient. The young Indian 
 Christian likes the Association because of its democratic 
 government and the variety of its activities. To the young 
 Hindu the Association has proved a very great boon in many a 
 town. It is to him at once a happy social club and a centre 
 of religious instruction. Its organization and methods have 
 been copied by every religious group throughout India. 
 
 3 . If Oriental study flowered before 1 870, we may say that its 
 fruit was plucked during the next thirty years. Great masses 
 of the knowledge acquired by the leading scholars in previous 
 decades were made available for the ordinary man during 
 these years. We need only refer to these magnificent series 
 of volumes, T}ie Sacred Books of the East, Triibner's Oriental 
 Series, The Harvard Oriental Series and M. N. Dutt's long 
 list of translations. Several of the books published during 
 these years have climbed to fame, notably Edwin Arnold's 
 Light of Asia and The Song Celestial. Childers, a young civil 
 servant in Ceylon, published in 1875 a Dictionary of Pali, 
 and thus laid the basis of the scientific study of the literature 
 of early Buddhism. Since 1870 Oriental study has reacted 
 very powerfully on the Indian mind in various ways. 
 Indian scholars, trained in European methods, have done 
 brilliant service both in the editing of texts and in transla- 
 tion. 
 
 4. The reason why we date this section of our period from 
 1870 is that from about that date a great change manifests 
 itself in the spirit of the educated classes of India. Hitherto
 
 26 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 they have been docile pupils : now they begin to show the 
 vigour and independence of youth. There is a wonderful 
 outburst of freshness, energy and initiative. Many forms of 
 new effort and organization appear. The most pronounced 
 line of thought is a growing desire to defend Hinduism, and 
 an increasing confidence in its defensibility. The movement 
 is now shared by Muslims, Buddhists, Jains and Parsees, 
 but it appeared first among Hindus. Rather later, new 
 political aspirations began to be expressed; the Indian 
 National Congress came into being; and the native press 
 climbed to great influence. About the same time the Social 
 Reform Movement was organized. The first college organ- 
 ized by Hindus was opened in Calcutta in 1879. 
 
 5. Religiously, the new feeling created what was practically 
 a Counter-Reformation. A large number of religious move- 
 ments sprang into being, all of them quite as distinctly opposed 
 to the Brahma Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj as to Chris- 
 tianity. We divide these movements into two groups, those 
 which insist on a good deal of reform, and those which lay all 
 their emphasis on defence of the old faiths. 
 
 Of the group which seeks reform the most noteworthy 
 movements have their home in the Panjab. There is first 
 the Arya Samaj, the founder of which was an ascetic named 
 Dayananda Sarasvati. A Muhammadan, named Mirza 
 Ghulam Ahmad, resident in a village hi the Panjab, 
 founded a body which holds much the same place in Indian 
 Muhammadanism that the Arya Samaj does in Hinduism. 
 He proclaimed himself the Muslim Mahdi, the Christian 
 Messiah and a Hindu incarnation. There is, lastly, the 
 Deva Samaj, an atheistic body with its centre in Lahore, 
 the leader of which receives divine honours. 
 
 The other group contains a large number of movements, of 
 which we shall mention only a few at this point. The first is 
 the teaching of an interesting ascetic who lived and taught in a
 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF THE PERIOD 27 
 
 temple a few miles north of Calcutta. He is known as Rama- 
 krishna Paramahamsa. Svami Vivekananda, who represented 
 Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, was a 
 pupil of his. The next movement is Theosophy, which was 
 founded by a Russian lady, named Madame Blavatsky, in 
 New York in 1875. The headquarters were moved to India 
 in 1879, and have remained there since. Madame Blavatsky 
 declared that the system was taught her by certain beings of 
 superhuman knowledge and power who, she said, resided in 
 Tibet. It is rather remarkable that another Russian, a man 
 named Notovitch, created, in similar fashion, a myth about 
 Jesus in connection with Tibet l ; and an American has started 
 in Chicago an eclectic form of Zoroastrianism which he de- 
 clares he was taught by the Dalai Lama himself. 2 , 
 
 All the leading Hindu sects, both Vishnuite and Sivaite, 
 have formed defence associations; and Jains, Buddhists, 
 Parsees and Muhammadans have followed their example. 
 We need not deal with these in detail here. 
 
 These two groups of movements, taken together, form a very 
 striking revival of the ancient religions, parallel to the revival 
 which the faiths of the Roman Empire experienced in the early 
 centuries of the Christian era. 
 
 LITERATURE. Trotter's India under Victoria. R. C. Dutt's 
 Victorian Age in India. The Lives of Ripon, Dufferin and Lans- 
 downe. Richter's History of Missions in India. Phillip's Outcastes' 
 Hope, London, Y. P. M. M., 1912. India, Fifty Years of Progress 
 and Reform, by R. P. Karkaria, Oxford Press, 1896. 
 
 FOURTH SECTION: 1895-1913 
 
 This brief space of eighteen years is but a fragment of a 
 period ; but it has proved so different in character from the 
 foregoing time that it would be misleading not to set it by it- 
 
 1 P. 140, below. * P. 346, below.
 
 28 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 self. What gives it its peculiar colour is the new national 
 spirit, which will be discussed in our fifth chapter. 
 
 For our purposes the most significant events of the decade, 
 1895-1905, are the serious preparations for revolutionary 
 action which were made during these years, especially in the 
 Maratha country, but also to some extent in the Panjab and 
 Bengal. Meantime, the national movement was steadily 
 gaining in strength, and men were becoming furiously 
 urgent to reap results. The educated Indian was becoming 
 a full-grown man. Towards the close of the decade there 
 came the Russo-Japanese war, the result of which was to 
 enhance the self-respect and the sense of independence and 
 strength of every thinking Asiatic. It happened, then, that, 
 while these three series of events were moving to their 
 climax, we had in India as the representative of Britain 
 Lord Curzon, a man of high aims, of will and knowledge, of 
 industry and eloquence, but also a man whose temperament 
 and action were as a mustard-blister to educated India. 
 
 Those who had been preparing for ten years got their oppor- 
 tunity in the Partition of Bengal in October, 1905 ; and thus 
 the whole length of Lord Minto's viceroyalty (1905-1910) was 
 filled with the horror of anarchism. But he also has the hon- 
 our of having proposed the new Councils, which have served 
 to give Indians a new place in the Government of India. The 
 King's visit in 1911-1912, and the restoration of the unity 
 of central Bengal greatly helped the healing process. 
 
 Since the time when the majority of the educated class 
 came to recognize that anarchism was the worst enemy the 
 people of India have, the new national feeling, touched as 
 it is with religious feeling, has led men into new forms of 
 activity and service, which promise to bear rich fruit. 
 
 LITERATURE. Lord Curzon and After, by Lovat Eraser, London, 
 Heinemann, i6s. Indian Unrest, by Sir Valentine Chirol, London, 
 Macmillan, 1910, 53. net. Indian Nationalism, by Edwin Bevan.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 
 
 1828-1913 
 
 WE have already seen that the earliest religious movements 
 of our period were very radical in character, seeking both 
 religious and social reform with great earnestness, and that 
 organizations which sprang from them at a later date were 
 usually filled with the same spirit. All these movements 
 oppose both idolatry and caste ; and none of the leaders have 
 been ascetics. 
 
 i. THE BRAHMA SAMAJ 
 
 i. Of all the religious movements of the nineteenth century 
 the Brahma Samaj has, without doubt, proved the most in- 
 fluential. Brahma is an adjective formed from Brahman, the 
 God of the Upanishads and the Vedanta philosophy, and 
 samdja is a noun meaning society. Throughout its history it 
 has been sternly theistic and opposed to idolatry, and has al- 
 ways had a policy of reform. Looked at from one side, it is 
 one of a long series of attempts to found a spiritual religion 
 on a genuine Hindu foundation, which have marked the reli- 
 gion of India from a very early date ; while, from the other 
 side, it is a new creation, finding the sources of its vitality in 
 Christian faith and practice. 
 
 Ram Mohan Ray (Ramamohana Rai) (1772-1833), the 
 founder of the Samaj, is the pioneer of all living advance, 
 religious, social and educational, in the Hindu community 
 during the nineteenth century. He was born in a Kulin 
 
 29
 
 30 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Brahman family, which had long been connected with the 
 Muhammadan government of Bengal. The family were 
 followers of Chaitanya, 1 the Bengali Vishnuite leader, but his 
 mother came of a Sakta 2 family. Both his parents were 
 deeply religious. He was married when quite a boy ; but his 
 girl-wife soon died, and his father married him to two other 
 little girls ; so that until i824 3 he was a polygamist. 
 
 When he was about twelve years old, he was sent to study at 
 Patna, at that time a famous seat of Muhammadan learning, 
 which was then the passport into Government service. The 
 effect of the education he received there is thus described by 
 the historian of the Brahma Samaj : 
 
 He is said to have been specially enchanted with the writings 
 of the Sufi school of Mahomedan philosophers, whose views 
 tallied to a large extent with those of the Vedantic school of 
 the Hindus and who accordingly were regarded as little better 
 than heretics by the narrow and orthodox school of Mahome- 
 dans. Throughout his subsequent life, Ram Mohun Roy never 
 entirely shook off these early Mahomedan influences. In 
 private life, through a long course of years, his habits and tastes 
 were those of a Mahomedan, and in private conversation he 
 always delighted to quote freely from his favourite Sufi authors. 4 
 
 It is probable that he also made the acquaintance of the 
 rationalistic school of Muslim thought, the Mu'tazilites, 5 
 as B. C. Pal suggests. 
 
 On his return, about the age of fifteen, he discovered that 
 the differences between himself and his father on the subject 
 of idolatry were very serious, and he decided to leave home. 
 For some years he lived a wandering life. There is a story 
 that he visited Tibet to study Buddhism and held discussions 
 with the Lamas, but the truth of it is uncertain. But finally 
 his father recalled him. He then settled in Benares, and 
 
 1 P. 293, below. 8 Miss Collet, 115. 6 P. 96, below. 
 
 *P. 303, below. BBS., I, 16-17.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 31 
 
 studied Sanskrit and certain of the Hindu books. In 1796 
 he began the study of English. 
 
 In 1803 his father died, and Ram Mohan removed to Mur- 
 shidabad, where he published, in 1804, a pamphlet in Persian, 
 Tuhfatul Muwahhiddin, A Gift to Deists. Here the rational- 
 istic and somewhat hard character of the deistic thought 
 which he had imbibed from his study of the Muhammadan 
 doctors makes itself manifest. 
 
 Shortly after, he entered the service of the East India Com- 
 pany under Mr. John Digby. This gentleman, noting Ram 
 Mohan's studious disposition, became his friend, and helped 
 him to acquire a better knowledge of English and English 
 literature. He still continued his religious inquiries and his 
 discussions with those round about him. He served the 
 Government as a revenue officer for nine or ten years, and 
 amassed a fortune. During his stay at his last station, Rung- 
 pur, he spent a good deal of time in religious discussion with 
 the Hindus and Jains of the town. 
 
 From this time onward his mother opposed and persecuted 
 him, and for some considerable time his wives refused to live 
 with him on account of his heterodoxy. 1 
 
 Originally, Ram Mohan had only hatred for the English; 
 but his practical experience of the Government, his inter- 
 course with Digby and further study of English literature 
 led to a change of feeling and conviction. 2 
 
 On retiring from the service in 1814, he settled in Calcutta, 
 with the definite purpose of devoting his whole time and 
 strength to the propagation of his religious convictions. He 
 established in 1815 a society called the Atmlya Sabha or 
 Friendly Association. Meetings were held weekly, at which 
 texts from the Hindu scriptures were recited and hymns were 
 sung: but the society ceased to meet in 1819. He studied 
 very seriously, giving his chief attention to the Upanishads 
 1 Miss Collet, 33-4, 115. * Miiller, Biographical Essays, 170., 47.
 
 32 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and the Veddnta-sutras of Badarayana. Between 1816 and 
 1819 he published, in both Bengali and English, an abstract 
 of the Vedanta-sutras, translations of four of the verse Upani- 
 shads, and two pamphlets in defence of Hindu theism. His 
 position was that the Upanishads taught pure theism, uncon- 
 taminated by idolatry ; and he summoned his fellow-country- 
 men to return to the pure religion of their forefathers. His 
 vigorous action brought him not only controversy but serious 
 persecution. The publication of these works created extraor- 
 dinary excitement in Bengal and even beyond. 
 
 Shortly after settling in Calcutta, he made the acquaintance 
 of the Serampore Missionaries. He also set himself to study 
 Christianity seriously, learning both Hebrew and Greek in 
 order to get at the sources. The result of his reading was 
 thus expressed by himself : 
 
 The consequence of my long and uninterrupted researches 
 into religious truth has been that I have found the doctrines 
 of Christ more conducive to moral principles, and better adapted 
 for the use of rational beings, than any other which have come 
 to my knowledge. 
 
 In order to give practical effect to this conviction he published, 
 in 1820, a very remarkable volume, The Principles of Jesus, 
 the Guide to Peace and Happiness, being a series of extracts 
 from the Gospels, covering the bulk of Christ's teaching given 
 by Matthew and Luke, with a few pages from Mark and still 
 fewer from John. In the preface to this volume he says : 
 
 This simple code of religion and morality is so admirably 
 calculated to elevate men's ideas to high and liberal notions 
 of one God, . . . and is also so well fitted to regulate the con- 
 duct of the human race in the discharge of their various duties 
 to God, to themselves and to society, that I cannot but hope 
 the best effects from its promulgation in the present form. 
 
 His position is that Christ was a theist like himself, that His 
 disciples misunderstood Him, and that the whole edifice of
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 33 
 
 Christology is a huge mistake. Despite this attitude, we can 
 now see what a striking and prophetic advance in the growth 
 of the Hindu spirit the book indicates, and can rejoice that 
 Ram Mohan was able to come so far; but, necessarily, his 
 friends at Serampore felt that the Gospels were mangled and 
 used in an utterly unfair and unhistorical way, in order to bar 
 the progress of Christianity in India. Hence Ram Mohan 
 was now involved in serious controversy on the Christian side. 
 
 But he was almost as keenly interested in education and in 
 the reform of the Hindu family as in the establishment of his 
 religious views. In the matter of English education his help 
 proved of great value. He was one of those who formed the 
 scheme of the Hindu College, which was opened in Calcutta 
 in 1819; and, when Duff arrived in the city in 1830, Ram 
 Mohan not only secured a suitable house for his English school, 
 but also brought him a number of pupils. He realized that 
 caste was indefensible and required to be opposed ; but, for 
 various reasons, he carefully guarded his own caste, retained 
 his sacred thread, and wrote in defence of the observance of 
 caste ; so that he did no service to the crusade. 
 
 With regard to the family he felt strongly. The influence 
 of the Serampore men moved him decisively here. It was 
 chiefly the wrongs of women that stirred him. He denounced 
 widow-burning and polygamy, and pleaded for a return to 
 earlier practice in the matter of the rights of women according 
 to the Hindu law of inheritance. 
 
 His efforts proved fruitful in several directions. The 
 agitation against the burning of widows, in which he had 
 taken a great part, 1 found its conclusion in Lord Bentinck's 
 famous order of the 4th of December, 1829, forbidding the 
 cruel practice. 
 
 1 Strangely enough, Ram Mohan, though eager to see the practice cease, 
 was opposed to Lord Bentinck's proposal, and endeavoured to persuade 
 him not to carry it out. See Miss Collet, 146. 
 
 D
 
 34 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 But it was in religion that his work was most effective. 
 Through his friendship with the Serampore Missionaries he 
 was led to help them in their great task of translating the 
 New Testament into Bengali. In the course of the work 
 serious discussions arose, and collaboration ceased ; but one 
 of the Missionaries, the Rev. W. Adam, sided with Ram 
 Mohan, and became a Unitarian in May, 1821. This led to 
 the formation in September, 1821, of a Unitarian Mission in 
 Calcutta under a Committee of Europeans and Indians. A 
 house was rented, and Unitarian services were conducted in 
 English. A printing-press and education were also used as 
 auxiliaries ; and a Vedant College, meant to turn out Hindu 
 Unitarians, was opened. But Ram Mohan and Adam did 
 not pull well together, and little success was attained. The 
 mission was given up. 
 
 2. First Period of the Samdj, 1828-1842 : Deistic Theology 
 and Christian Ethics. Since the weekly service in English had 
 failed, some friends suggested a more distinctly Indian service 
 in the vernacular. Feringhi Kamal Bose's house hi Upper 
 Chitpore Road was rented, and the first meeting was held on 
 the 2oth of August, 1828. The name chosen at first was 
 Brahma Sabhd, Brahman Association, but it was soon altered 
 to Brahma Samdj. His chief supporters were three wealthy 
 men, of whom the most notable was Prince Dwarka Nath 
 Tagore (Dvdrikdndtha Thakkura], and a group of learned 
 Brahmans. The society met every Saturday evening from 
 seven to nine. The service was in four parts, the chanting 
 of selections from the Upanishads in Sanskrit (this was done 
 in a small room curtained off by itself into which only Brah- 
 mans were admitted), the translation of these passages into 
 Bengali, a sermon in Bengali, and the singing of theistic 
 hymns in Sanskrit and Bengali composed by Ram Mohan and 
 his friends. There was no organization, no membership, no 
 creed. It was merely a weekly meeting open to any who cared
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 35 
 
 to attend. Ram Mohan believed he was restoring Hindu 
 worship to its pristine purity. 
 
 Soon afterwards a building was erected in Chitpore Road 
 for the Samaj ; and it was opened on the 23rd of January, 
 1830. The Trust Deed is rather a remarkable document. 
 The following are a few sentences from it : 
 
 To be used ... as a place of public meeting of all sorts 
 and descriptions of people without distinction as shall behave 
 and conduct themselves in an orderly sober religious and 
 devout manner for the worship and adoration of the Eternal 
 Unsearchable and Immutable Being who is the Author and 
 Preserver of the Universe but not under or by any other name 
 designation or title peculiarly used for and applied to any 
 particular Being or Beings by any man or set of men whatso- 
 ever and that no graven image statue or sculpture carving 
 painting picture portrait or the likeness of anything shall be 
 admitted within the said building . . . and that no sacrifice 
 . . . shall ever be permitted therein and that no animal or 
 living creature shall within or on the said premises be deprived 
 of life . . . and that in conducting the said worship and adora- 
 tion no object animate or inanimate that has been or is ... 
 recognized as an object of worship by any man or set of men 
 shall be reviled or slightingly or contemptuously spoken of 
 . . . and that no sermon preaching discourse prayer or hymn 
 be delivered made or used in such worship but such as have a 
 tendency to the promotion of the contemplation of the Author 
 and Preserver of the Universe to the promotion of charity 
 morality piety benevolence virtue and the strengthening the 
 bonds of union between men of all religious persuasions and 
 creeds. 
 
 3. InNovember, 1830, Ram Mohansailed for England. He 
 had long wished to take the journey. He was fully conscious 
 of the momentous changes destined to arise in India from the 
 introduction of British government. Western civilization and 
 Christianity ; and naturally wished to study life and religion 
 in England. He also hoped to be of some service to his coun-
 
 36 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 try politically, since the Charter of the East India Company 
 fell to be renewed in 1833. The representative of the Mughal 
 dynasty, now a pensioner of the Company, entrusted him with 
 a personal petition, and conferred on him the title of Raja. 
 He took two servants with him, in order that he might keep 
 caste on the sea and in England. 
 
 He was received with the utmost cordiality and respect 
 in England, and exercised a greater influence than he can have 
 ever hoped to do, but he died in Bristol in 1833. In Bristol 
 Museum there hangs a portrait by Biggs, which is repro- 
 duced as the frontispiece to this volume. 
 
 4. He was a man of large intellect, of wide sympathies and 
 of both courage and force. He was the first Indian who 
 realized the great good which the country would reap from its 
 connection with Britain and from the leaven of Christianity. 
 But * he realized to the full that no real blessing could come 
 to India by the mere adoption of Western things unchanged. 
 India, he said, would inevitably remain Indian. No gift from 
 the outside could be of any real value except in so far as it 
 was naturalized. His long bold struggle, on the one hand, for 
 religious and social purity, for educational progress and jour- 
 nalistic freedom, and his brilliant literary work and unchang- 
 ing fidelity to Indian ideals, on the other, had made him not 
 only the most prominent of all Indians, but the one man able 
 to stand between Indians and Englishmen as interpreter and 
 friend. 
 
 But he was neither a philosopher nor a theologian. He 
 thought out no system. Faced with the superstitions and the 
 immoralities of popular Hinduism, on the one hand, and seeing 
 distinctly, on the other, the truth contained in Islam and 
 Christianity as well as in his own Hindu Upanishads, he found 
 a plain man's solution of the complicated problem. He 
 
 1 The following sentences to the end of the paragraph are from the 
 author's article on the Brahma Samaj in ERE.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 37 
 
 seized on the theistic elements common to the three faiths, 
 and declared them to be at once the original truths of Hin- 
 duism (corrupted by the populace in the course of the cen- 
 turies) and the universal religion on which all men could unite. 
 We must not be astonished at the crudeness of his work. The 
 Vedas from which alone a true knowledge of the rise of Hindu- 
 ism can be obtained were inaccessible to him, only the Upani- 
 shads being available; and the science of religion had not 
 yet gathered its stores of comparative knowledge to illuminate 
 the whole problem of the religions and their relation to each 
 other. 
 
 He believed he was restoring the Hindu faith to its original 
 purity, while, as a matter of fact, what he offered was a deistic 
 theology and worship. Deism was very popular among Euro- 
 pean rationalists in the eighteenth century, and it harmonized 
 well both with what he found in the Upanishads and with what 
 he had learned from Muhammadan rationalists. The Upani- 
 shads teach that Brahman is actionless ; that he has no pur- 
 pose or aim which could lead him to action ; that all his ac- 
 tivity is sport ; that he is beyond the range of thought and 
 speech ; and therefore cannot be reached by man's medita- 
 tions and prayers. That Ram Mohan's conception of God was 
 seriously deistic we may realize clearly from the lack of 
 prayer in the worship of the Samaj in his day, and also from 
 the definitions of worship given in his writings. Here is a 
 passage from his Religious Instructions founded on Sacred 
 Authorities: 
 
 Question What is meant by worship ? 
 
 Answer Worship implies the act of one with a view to 
 please another; but when applied to the Supreme Being, it 
 signifies a contemplation of his attributes. 
 
 Question In what manner is this worship to be performed ? 
 
 Answer By bearing in mind that the Author and Governor 
 of this visible universe is the Supreme Being, and comparing
 
 38 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 this idea with the sacred writings and with reason. In this 
 worship it is indispensably necessary to use exertions to subdue 
 the senses, and to read such passages as direct attention to the 
 Supreme Spirit. . . . The benefits which we continually re- 
 ceive from fire, from air, and from the sun, likewise from the 
 various productions of the earth, such as the different kinds of 
 grain, drugs, fruit and vegetables, all are dependent on him : 
 and by considering and reasoning on the terms expressive of 
 such ideas, the meaning itself is firmly fixed in the mind. 1 
 
 Contrast with these statements the following lines from a 
 little manual used at present by the Sadharan Brahma Samaj : 
 
 Worship is the communion of the soul with God ; on the 
 part of man, it is the opening of his soul, the outpouring of his 
 aspirations, the acknowledgement of his failures and trans- 
 gressions and the consecration of his life and work to God as 
 his Lord, Refuge and Guide ; and on the part of God, the com- 
 munication of His light, strength, inspiration and blessing unto 
 the longing soul. 2 
 
 This is a living theism : the above is a dry deism. 
 
 But there is another element in Ram Mohan's teaching 
 which, in the subsequent history, has proved of infinite impor- 
 tance, namely this, that he did not believe in transmigration. 
 Here he broke absolutely with Hinduism. Transmigration 
 and karma are the very essence of the religion. The one aim 
 of the philosophy of the Upanishads is the attainment of 
 release from transmigration. It is thus only the simple truth 
 to say that Ram Mohan was no longer a Hindu, that the 
 orthodox were quite right in their suspicions, although they 
 failed to lay stress on the crucial point. That this is a just 
 judgment is made plain by the fact that the historical evolu- 
 tion of his principles has ended in separating the Brahmas 
 from Hindu society. The Brahma to-day is as distinctly 
 outside Hinduism as the Christian is. 
 
 1 English Works, 135, 137. 2 The Religion of the Brahmo Samaj, 40.
 
 PLATE I 
 
 From life-size portrait by Baron de Schweter. 
 
 PRINCE DWARKA NATH TAGORE
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 39 
 
 We must also note that the form of the service arranged 
 by Ram Mohan is Christian. Congregational worship is 
 unknown in the ancient Hinduism which he believed he was 
 restoring. Further, the ethics which Ram Mohan recom- 
 mended were drawn from the teaching of Christ. 
 
 The death of the Founder was almost fatal to the infant 
 society; but the munificence of his friend Prince Dwarka 
 Nath Tagore enabled it to exist until a better day dawned. 
 
 5. Second Period, 1842-1865: Debendra Nath Tagore: 
 Theism and Religious Reform. In 1838 Debendra Nath Ta- 
 gore, the youthful son of the prince who had been Ram 
 Mohan's great friend, passed through a very decided spiritual 
 change, which made him a consecrated man for the rest of his 
 life. The following year he formed, along with a few friends, 
 the Tattuabodhini Sabhd, or Truth-teaching Association, which 
 met weekly for religious discussion, and once a month for 
 worship. 
 
 Then in 1842, nine years after Ram Mohan's death, he and 
 his young friends joined the Brahma Samaj ; and, for some 
 years, the two societies worked side by side for common 
 objects. Debendra was soon recognized as leader, and, being 
 a Brahman, became the Acharya or minister of the Samaj. 
 A monthly, called the Tattvabodhini Patrika, or Truth-teach- 
 ing Journal, began to appear; and a Vedic school, the 
 Tattvabodhini Pdthsdla, was established, partly to train Brahma 
 missionaries, partly with a view to check Christianity, now 
 making considerable progress in Calcutta under Duff's 1 
 leadership. Debendra followed Ram Mohan in his belief that 
 original Hinduism was a pure spiritual theism, and in his 
 enthusiasm for the Upanishads, but did not share his deep 
 reverence for Christ. He believed India had no need of 
 Christianity ; and he was never known to quote the Bible. 
 
 6. He saw that the Samaj needed organization. Hitherto 
 
 1 P. 19, above.
 
 40 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 it had been merely a weekly meeting. It had exercised little 
 influence on the private life of those who attended ; and they 
 were bound by no lasting tie to the Society. He therefore 
 drew up, in 1843, what is known as the Brahma Covenant, 
 a list of solemn vows to be taken by every one on becoming a 
 member of the Society. The chief promises made are to ab- 
 stain from idolatry, and to worship God by loving Him and by 
 doing such deeds as He loves. The members of the Tattva- 
 bodkinl Sabhd were the first to take the vows. This fresh 
 organization greatly strengthened the Samaj. 
 
 At the same time a brief form of prayer and adoration, 
 drawn up by Debendra and called Brahmopdsand, 1 worship 
 of Brahman, was introduced. This addition of prayer and 
 devotional exercises to the service of the Samaj was a notable 
 enrichment. It was a living fruit of Debendra's own religious 
 experience. He was as far as possible from being a deist. He 
 lived a life of constant prayer and worship of God ; and the 
 direct communion of the human soul with the supreme Spirit 
 was the most salient point in his teaching. 
 
 These changes and the vigorous preaching of Debendra and 
 several young missionaries in Calcutta and many places round 
 led to considerable growth. The Samaj began once more to 
 take a prominent place in the life of Bengal. 
 
 But there were difficulties. The Vedas were recognized as 
 the sole standard of the faith of the Samaj ; and most of the 
 members believed them to be verbally inspired. Duff was 
 therefore justified in criticizing the Samaj for holding the 
 plenary inspiration of such documents. A few of the more 
 advanced members saw that it was no longer possible to hold 
 the belief. In order that the matter might be settled on a 
 sure basis, four students were sent to Benares, that each might 
 study and copy one of the four Vedas, and bring back the fruits 
 of his labour. They reached Calcutta in 1850 ; and the final 
 
 1 Published in Brahma Dharma.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 41 
 
 result was that the inerrancy of the Vedas was altogether given 
 up. Thus the rationalism implicit in Ram Mohan's teaching 
 from the beginning became fully explicit; and the Samaj, 
 left without any authoritative standard of doctrine, was 
 thrown back on nature and intuition. Yet the Upanishads 
 did not cease to be the chief scripture of the society ; for, just 
 at this crisis, Debendra compiled a series of extracts from 
 Hindu literature, the bulk of them being from the Upanishads, 
 for use in public worship and private devotion. This volume 
 is called Brahma Dharma, i.e. Brahma Religion. 
 
 7. In 1857 a young man joined the Samaj who was destined 
 to prove its third leader. This was Keshab Chandra Sen 
 (Kesavachandra Sena), a Calcutta student, who came of a well- 
 known Vishnuite family of Vaidya caste, and had had a good 
 modern education. For two years he did nothing, but in 1859 
 he became an active and successful worker. Debendra 
 formed a great liking for his gifted young friend, while Keshab 
 looked up to him with reverence and tenderness as to a father. 
 
 In 1860 Keshab founded the Sangat Sabha, 1 or Believers' 
 Association, which met regularly for devotional purposes and 
 for the discussion of religious and social questions. In this 
 weekly meeting the problem of the sacraments, samskaras, 
 celebrated in Hindu homes on the occasion of births, mar- 
 riages and other family events, was discussed ; and their idola- 
 trous character stood out so clearly that the members came to 
 the conclusion that Brahmas could not conscientiously take 
 part in them. In consequence, Debendra decided that no 
 idolatrous sacrament should ever be celebrated in his own 
 home, and prepared, for the use of the Samaj, a set of modified 
 ceremonies from which everything heathen and idolatrous had 
 been eliminated. These are known as Brahma rites; the 
 manual is called the Anushthana Paddhati; and Brahmas who 
 use them are known as Anushthanic Brahmas. The worship 
 
 1 The word Sangat is used by the Sikhs for a company of pious people.
 
 42 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 of Durga, which until now had been held every year in the 
 Tagore residence, was given up, and the chamber in which 
 the idol stood was converted into a chapel for family worship. 
 The Sabha also discussed caste, with the result that the mem- 
 bers gave it up once and for all, and Debendra discarded his 
 own sacred thread. At Keshab's suggestion, the Samaj be- 
 gan to follow the example of Christian philanthropy, and 
 gathered money and food for the famine-stricken. He was 
 daily coming more and more under the influence of Christ, 
 and felt in the depths of his spirit that social service and social 
 reform were the bounden duty of every serious theist. 
 
 Keshab had had a good English education and had obtained 
 a post in the Bank of Bengal. In 1861 he and several of his 
 young friends gave up their positions, in order to become 
 missionaries of the Samaj. Shortly afterwards, Keshab, 
 though he was not a Brahman, was formally made a minister 
 of the Samaj with the title of Acharya. 1 At this time also it 
 was arranged that no minister of the Samaj, whether Brah- 
 man or non-Brahman, should wear the sacred thread. 
 
 Amongst the -new activities of the movement were the 
 Brahma Vidyalaya, a sort of informal theological school, and 
 a fortnightly English journal, The Indian Mirror, which soon 
 became influential. 
 
 In 1864 Keshab made a long tour extending as far as Madras 
 and Bombay, and preached with great power and success 
 wherever he went. As a result of his labours, a new society 
 called the Veda Samaj was founded in Madras that same year. 
 From this society the present Brahma Samaj of Madras has 
 grown. During this tour the welcome which he received far 
 and near, and the many openings which he saw, suggested to 
 him the possibility of a Brahma Samaj for the whole of India. 
 
 1 This led to the secession of a number of the older members of the Samaj, 
 including Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara. They formed a new society, the 
 Upasana Samaj, which did not last long.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 43 
 
 Three years later the men whom he had influenced in Bombay 
 formed themselves into the Prarthana Samaj. 1 
 
 8. But all the changes and reforms which had come through 
 Keshab's activity proved too much for the older members of 
 the society ; and Debendra himself, though he felt like a 
 father towards his gifted young helper, was very much 
 afraid that spiritual religion would be sacrificed to the 
 new passion for social reform. To him the latter was of 
 very little consequence as compared with the former. 
 He was still very much of a Hindu in feeling ; he believed 
 that, however evil caste might be, members of the 
 Samaj ought not to be compelled, in the circumstances 
 of those days, to give it up. He was opposed to mar- 
 riages between people of different castes; and he could not 
 endure the thought of widow-remarriage. Keshab's Chris- 
 tian studies, on the other hand, had led him and his associates 
 to see that the overthrow of caste and the complete reform of 
 the Hindu family were altogether necessary for the moral and 
 religious health of India. There were religious differences 
 between them also. Debendra was a deeply devotional 
 spirit, but the fact of sin and the need of repentance had made 
 very little impression upon him ; while, through the teaching 
 of Christ, Keshab and his party had become fully alive to 
 the supreme importance of the ethical side of religion, both 
 for the individual and the country. 
 
 The consequence was the formation of two parties within 
 the Samaj, each eager to be friendly with the other, and yet 
 each unable to yield to the other ; and suspicion grew apace. 
 On the 5th of October, 1864, a very violent cyclone visited 
 Calcutta and Bengal, and so damaged the Brahma building 
 that it became necessary to hold the services in Debendra's 
 house. He seized this opportunity to allow ministers wearing 
 the sacred thread to officiate. Keshab and his party protested 
 1 P. 74, below.
 
 44 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 against this breach of the rules, while Debendra would not 
 budge. Negotiations were carried on for some time, but 
 without result. Consequently, early in 1865, Keshab and 
 his party withdrew, leaving Debendra and his followers with 
 all the property of the Samaj. Keshab was only twenty-four 
 j^ears of age. There were already fifty Samajes in Bengal, 
 three in North India and one in Madras. 
 
 9. Since the secession, the old Samaj has become more 
 Hindu than before. Its ambiguous theological position is 
 reflected in its undecided attitude to caste. On this latter 
 point one of its leaders wrote : 
 
 In conformity with such views, the Adi Samaj has adopted 
 a Hindu form to propagate Theism among Hindus. It has 
 therefore retained many innocent Hindu usages and cus- 
 toms. ... It leaves matters of social reformation to the 
 judgments and tastes of its individual members. ... If it 
 be asked why should such social distinctions as caste be ob- 
 served at all, the reply is that the world is not yet prepared 
 for the practical adoption of the doctrines of levellers and 
 socialists. 1 
 
 10. We may here sum up what we have to say about De- 
 bendra Nath Tagore ; for, though he preached from time to 
 time, and now and then published something, during the 
 forty years that intervened between the secession and his 
 death in 1905, yet he no longer occupied his old prominent 
 position. He spent most of his time in retirement and de- 
 votional exercises, either on the Himalayas or in his own home 
 in Calcutta. His great and noble character and his lofty 
 spiritual nature so impressed his fellow-citizens that he was 
 universally known as the Maharshi, the great Rishi or Seer ; 
 and he was looked up to by all sections of the Samaj as the 
 saintly patriarch of the movement. I had the pleasure of 
 seeing and talking with him a few months before his death. 
 
 1 HBS., 1, 189.
 
 PLATE II 
 
 From portrait by W. Archer, R.A. 
 
 MAHARSHI DEBENDRA NATH TAGORE
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 45 
 
 The bleached complexion and massive architecture of his face 
 revealed even then, at the age of eighty-seven, the lofty spirit- 
 ual nature and the sensitive heart which had done so much in 
 the far-away years. 
 
 He regarded himself as a true Hindu, standing in the long 
 noble succession of the thinkers and rapt devotees of the 
 Vedanta ; and it is indeed true that a large measure of their 
 reverence and inspiration had descended to him. But he failed 
 to realize that the rejection of the authority of the Vedas, and 
 above all of the doctrine of transmigration and karma, had set 
 him outside the nexus of the peculiar beliefs and aspirations of 
 Hinduism. Since he was unwilling to learn from Christ, and 
 since he stood apart from the chief source of Hindu religious 
 passion the desire for release from rebirth, his Samaj 
 has barely succeeded in keeping afloat amid the fierce currents 
 of modern thought and practical life. 
 
 ii. Third Period, 1865-1878: Two Samaj es: Theism and 
 Social Reform. At this time Keshab read a great deal of 
 Christian literature and came more and more under Christian 
 influence. Dean Stanley's Works, Robertson's Sermons, 
 Liddon's Divinity of our Lord, the Theologica Germanica and 
 Seeley's Ecce Homo were among the volumes which touched 
 him most deeply. The influence of Seeley can be very dis- 
 tinctly felt in the lecture delivered in 1866 on Jesus Christ: 
 Europe and Asia. He called attention to the fact that Jesus 
 was an Asiatic, and spoke very freely of Christ's greatness 
 and his supernatural moral heroism. The chief point of the 
 lecture, however, is a straightforward, manly appeal, addressed 
 to Europeans as well as his fellow-countrymen, to follow the 
 moral precepts of Jesus. His enthusiasm for Christ led 
 many to believe that he was about to become a Christian. 
 
 Many of his followers turned enthusiastically to the study 
 of the Bible at this time; and the touch of Christ produced a 
 new seriousness among them, which showed itself in an eager
 
 46 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 desire to lead a pure and holy life, and a passion for saving 
 souls. It was this that formed the temper of the missionary 
 body. These men, seven or eight in number, all of them 
 attached by the closest personal ties to Keshab, were the 
 strength of the new movement. They were great in enthu- 
 siasm and self-sacrifice. They lived lives of simplicity and 
 hard work, and suffered both privation and persecution. 
 They went about preaching, and many individuals were won 
 to the cause. Yet the seeds of future difficulty were already 
 visible. There was no organization ; and so, although each 
 missionary was bound to Keshab by strong religious ties, 
 lack of definite arrangement and rule led to frequent 
 quarrels amongst them, which Keshab found it hard to 
 compose. 
 
 12. At the- end of 1866 he formed a new society, called the 
 Brahma Samaj of India, and invited all Brahmas through- 
 out the country to join it. Henceforward the original Samaj 
 was called the Adi Brahma Samaj, or original society. A 
 number of the steady old members held by Debendra, but 
 nearly the whole of the younger and more enthusiastic men 
 followed Keshab ; and many noteworthy Brahmas in other 
 parts of India also adhered to him. Unfortunately there 
 was no constitution, no governing body, no rules. Every- 
 thing was left in Keshab's hands. Very soon afterwards a 
 selection of theistic texts from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, 
 Christian, Muhammadan and Chinese Scriptures was pub- 
 lished, under the title Slokasangraha, or Collection of Texts, 
 for use in the services of the Samaj. The wider, freer outlook 
 of the new body thus received very vivid expression. The 
 society held its weekly service in Keshab's own house on 
 Sundays, while the leaders still attended the regular service 
 of the Adi Samaj, which was held on Wednesday. 
 
 13. The separation from Debendra depressed Keshab, and 
 threw him back on God. Hence, he and his fellow-mission-
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 47 
 
 aries spent long days of fervent prayer and adoration in his 
 house, seeking strength and courage from God. Ever since 
 his conversion he had been a man of prayer, but he now en- 
 tered into a deeper experience of its joy and power than ever 
 before. 
 
 Set free from old restraints, and having round him a large 
 body of enthusiasts who were ready for progress, he adopted a 
 number of new practices which were meant to deepen and 
 strengthen the religious life of the Samaj. The sources of his 
 new methods were the Vishnuism of Chaitanya, 1 which was 
 traditional in his own family, and Christianity, which was now 
 influencing him so deeply. He began to use the old Vishnuite 
 word bJwkti, which covers both love for God and faith in Him, 
 and to stir the members of the Samaj to live by it. One of 
 his missionaries, Bijay Krishna GosvamI, was a lineal descend- 
 ant of one of the companions of Chaitanya. Keshab com- 
 missioned him to introduce the instruments used in the old 
 sect, and begin sankirtana, 1 the enthusiastic singing in chorus, 
 with musical accompaniments, of hymns of praise and devo- 
 tion. Chaitanya had also taught his followers to move in 
 procession through the streets of a town, dancing and singing 
 praise to God, with flags flying and drums beating. This 
 nagarkirtana, 1 town-praise, was adopted and used in Calcutta 
 with much success. He also drew up a new liturgy for use in 
 the services, which is still widely used. From this time too 
 the Brahmas have held several annual festivals, each lasting 
 two or more days. The whole time is spent in prayer, worship 
 and the hearing of religious addresses. Keshab thus did all 
 in his power to start the new society in a living experience of 
 God and His service. 
 
 14. In August, 1869, a building in Machua Bazaar Street 
 was opened for the use of the new Samaj with great rejoicings. 
 Then, just as Ram Mohan did, after the opening of the original 
 1 P. 293, below.
 
 48 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 building, Keshab suddenly announced, to the amazement of 
 his friends, his intention of going to England. The Samaj 
 was altogether without organization, and all its activities de- 
 pended entirely on Keshab himself ; so that it seemed rather 
 unwise for him to go away. But some sort of arrangement 
 was made, and Keshab took the journey. He was received in 
 England with the utmost cordiality, delivered addresses in 
 all parts of the country, met many noteworthy people, and 
 made many new friends. The visit was also a great expe- 
 rience for Keshab : he returned to India with a new sense of 
 the priceless value of the Christian home, and with his head 
 filled with fresh schemes for social reform. 
 
 15. The younger members of the new Samaj had been very 
 busy socially from the very outset. They were, above all, 
 enthusiastic advocates of the education of girls and of the 
 emancipation of women. Some of them began to take their 
 wives with them to call on Christians and to social gatherings. 
 They invented a new and becoming dress, more suited for 
 outdoor wear and social intercourse than the rather scanty 
 clothing of the stay-at-home Bengali wife. A new form of 
 marriage-ritual was created, more truly expressive of progres- 
 sive Brahma feeling than the form in use in the old Samaj, 
 and in it were included marriage-vows to be taken by the bride 
 and bridegroom, in imitation of Christian marriage. They 
 struggled to put down child-marriage. Several widows were 
 remarried and more than one marriage between persons 
 of different castes was solemnized. Philanthropy was not 
 neglected. In time of famine or epidemic they were ready to 
 help. 
 
 Later, it became clear that there was no law in existence 
 under which Brahma marriages could come. Hence Keshab 
 appealed to the Government, and, after much discussion and 
 difficulty, an Act was passed in 1872 which legalized them. 
 Pandit S. N. Sastri remarks :
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 49 
 
 The passing of this Act may be justly regarded as the crown- 
 ing success of the prolonged efforts of the reformers for the 
 amelioration of their social life. It abolished early marriage, 
 made polygamy penal, sanctioned widow marriages and inter- 
 caste marriages. As such it was hailed with a shout of joy by 
 the progressives ; but ever since it has been one of the prin- 
 cipal causes that have alienated the Brahmos from the sym- 
 pathies of their orthodox countrymen. 1 
 
 The new social activities which Keshab inaugurated on his 
 return from England included a Normal School for girls, an 
 Industrial School^ for boys, the Victoria Institution for women, 
 and the B karat ASram, a home in which a number of families 
 were gathered together for the cultivation of a better home- 
 life, and for the education of women and children. Journal- 
 ism was also eagerly pursued. The Indian Mirror became a 
 daily paper, and the Suldbh Samachdr, the Cheap News, a 
 Bengali weekly published at a farthing, began to appear. 
 
 The movement was very successful. The tours of the 
 missionaries in country towns, Keshab's tours to distant 
 cities, and his great lectures in English drew great numbers 
 of men to theism and rapidly built up the membership of the 
 Samaj. Several of the other missionaries, notably Pratap 
 Chandra Mozoomdar, were growing in strength and spiritual 
 power. 
 
 1 6. Yet Keshab began to be conscious that all was not well 
 in the Samaj . An opposition party was being formed. There 
 were several reasons for their dissatisfaction. While Keshab 
 was in most things very progressive, he was opposed to giving 
 women much freedom, and was very much afraid of the effects 
 which a university education would produce on them. He 
 had already done much to release them from the restraints of 
 Hinduism, and he was in favour of giving girls a simple edu- 
 cation; but a large and growing party were coming more 
 
 1 BBS. ,1,251. 
 
 E
 
 50 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and more under the spell of Western ideals, and they were de- 
 termined that their daughters should receive a good modern 
 education. The second point of difference sprang from the 
 supremacy of Keshab in the Samaj. He was so much bigger 
 than any other Brahma, and his addresses showed so much 
 inspiration, and influenced men so deeply, that he began to 
 believe himself different from other men, dowered with a con- 
 stant inspiration from heaven; and some of his youthful 
 followers began to fall at his feet and to address him as Hindus 
 have been accustomed to address their gurus for many cen- 
 turies. The party of progress and freedom were very sen- 
 sible of the extreme dangers of guruism in a modern body like 
 the Samaj, and they protested seriously against it. Two of 
 the missionaries actually left Keshab. It seems clear that he 
 rebuked his young disciples when their enthusiasm carried 
 them to extremes; yet in his lectures he used expressions 
 which might well lead people to treat him as different from 
 other men ; and Mozoomdar tells us frankly that he always 
 favoured those who regarded him as the divinely commissioned 
 leader of the movement, and severely criticized the opposite 
 party. The worst point of all was his doctrine of adesh 
 (ddesa). He declared that from time to time a direct com- 
 mand from God was laid upon him by special revelation. The 
 want of organization in the Samaj made matters still worse. 
 It is probably true that he had no desire to be an autocrat ; 
 yet, since there was no constitution, and since he objected to 
 every form of popular government proposed by the other party, 
 everything depended upon him, and he occupied, as a matter 
 of fact, the position of master of the Samaj, whether he de- 
 served to be charged with autocracy or not. 
 
 17. In a temple a few miles to the north of Calcutta there 
 lived an ascetic known as Ramakrishna Paramaharhsa, of 
 whom we shall hear later. 1 Keshab made his acquaintance, 
 
 1 P. 188, below.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 51 
 
 went frequently to see him, and now and then took a large 
 company of his followers with him. There can be no doubt 
 that Keshab's appreciation of the man and his frequent praise 
 of his devotion and his stimulating conversation did much to 
 bring Ramakrishna into public notice, and to draw to him the 
 crowds of disciples who listened to his words. We do not 
 know when Keshab made his acquaintance, but Ramakrish- 
 na's latest biographer states that it was about the year 1875 > 
 and that seems, on the whole, the most likely date. 1 Rama- 
 krishna was a man of deeply religious nature. He was a true 
 Hindu, little touched by Western influences, holding the Ve- 
 danta philosophy, ready to worship any Hindu idol, and pre- 
 pared to defend any Hindu belief or practice against all 
 comers, yet also convinced that all religions are true and that 
 no man should leave the faith into which he has been born. 
 
 Feeling very distinctly the growing opposition in the air 
 around him, Keshab sought once more by prayer, consecra- 
 tion and new forms of renunciation to unite and strengthen 
 the missionary body, and to fill the whole Samaj with such 
 enthusiastic devotion as to preclude the possibility of dis- 
 union. The practices which he adopted himself and which he 
 induced his missionaries to adopt at this time are so very 
 different in spirit from the methods of devotion that he em- 
 ployed earlier, and are so distinctly Hindu, that one is tempted 
 to see in them evidence of the influence of Ramakrishna. 
 Here is the account given by Sastri : 
 
 It was not entirely the asceticism of the spirit that he in- 
 culcated at this time ; for he countenanced, both by precept 
 and example, some of the external forms of it. For instance, 
 he himself gave up the use of metallic drinking cups, substi- 
 tuting earthen ones for them, his example being followed by 
 many of the missionaries ; he took to cooking his own food and 
 constructed a little thatched kitchen on the terrace of the third 
 
 1 P. 194, below.
 
 52 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 story of his Kalutolah house for that purpose ; and introduced 
 the ektara, a rude kind of musical instrument and the mendicant's 
 drinking bowl, well-known to a sect of Vaishnavas. . . . One 
 thing, however, was remarkable. Along with the development 
 of these tendencies there was visible a decline of the old philan- 
 thropic activities of the Samaj. The educational and other 
 institutions started under the Indian Reform Association, for 
 instance, began to decline from this time. Very great stress 
 was laid on meditation and retirement from the world. With 
 a view to giving practical effect to these ideas, Mr. Sen pur- 
 chased a garden in the village of Morepukur, within a few 
 miles of Calcutta, in 1876, and duly consecrated it to that 
 purpose on the 20th of May that year, under the name of Sadhan 
 Kanan, or "Forest Abode for Religious Culture." Here many 
 of the missionaries of the Samaj spent with him most of the 
 days of the week in meditation and prayer, in cooking their 
 own food, in drawing water, in cutting bamboos, in making and 
 paving roads, in constructing their cabins, in planting and 
 watering trees, and in cleansing their bedrooms. As marks 
 of their asceticism they began to sit below trees on carpets 
 made of hides of tigers and of other animals, in imitation of 
 Hindu mendicants and spend long hours in meditation. . . . 
 It was towards the end of this year that Mr. Sen introduced a 
 fourfold classification of devotees. He chose from amongst his 
 missionaries four different sets of men to represent four types 
 of religious life. The Yogi, or the adept in rapt communion, 
 the Bhakta, or the adept in rapturous love of God, the Jnani, 
 or the earnest seeker of true knowledge and the Shebak, 
 or the active servant of humanity. These four orders were 
 constituted and four different kinds of lessons were given to 
 the disciples of the respective classes. 1 
 
 He succeeded by these means in binding the missionaries to 
 himself, but he failed with a large section of his followers. 
 
 18. Yet things might have continued as they were for some 
 time, but for a chance occurrence, which led to a serious prac- 
 tical application of the doctrine of adesh 2 by Keshab, and which 
 
 1 BBS., I, 269-71. 2 P. 50, above.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 53 
 
 convinced the opposing party that they were absolutely right 
 in their estimate of him. The Government of Bengal had had 
 the young heir to the native state of Kuch Bihar (in North 
 Bengal) carefully educated under English officials, so that he 
 might become a capable modern ruler, and they had arranged 
 that he should proceed on a visit to England. But his mother 
 demanded that he should be married before leaving India; 
 and the Government officials who were responsible for his 
 training were most anxious that he should be married to a cul- 
 tured girl who would be a help and not a hindrance to him. 
 Consequently, the proposal was made that he should marry 
 Keshab's daughter. Now, the Brahma leader had been 
 fighting idolatry and child-marriage for many years; and, 
 through his influence, a special Marriage Act had been passed 
 for Brahmas. 1 The young prince and Keshab's daughter 
 were both under age from the point of view of the Brahma 
 Marriage Law. Further, the Kuch Bihar family were Hin- 
 dus ; and, consequently, the prince could not be married as a 
 Brahma. His marriage would necessarily be a Hindu mar- 
 riage; and there could be no guarantee that he would not 
 marry other wives. It was thus perfectly clear that Keshab 
 could not consistently agree to the marriage. But several 
 things conspired to make it difficult to refuse. The Govern- 
 ment were most eager to see it carried out. Already tentative 
 proposals had been made with regard to the daughter of 
 another Brahma, with whom the alliance would be made, 
 if Keshab declined it. The young man himself declared that 
 he was a theist, and that he would not marry more than one 
 wife ; yet, as he was not a member of the Samaj, that could 
 not alter the character of the marriage. Indeed, since Kuch 
 Bihar is a native state, the Brahma Marriage Act was alto- 
 gether inapplicable. Government, however, extracted prom- 
 ises from the Kuch Bihar family, that everything idolatrous 
 1 P. 48, above.
 
 54 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 would be excluded from the ceremony, and that the marriage 
 would be in fact a betrothal, as the parties would not live 
 together until the young man returned from England, when 
 both would be of age. But what decided Keshab was the 
 doctrine of adesh. He believed that he had received from God 
 a command to go on with the wedding ; and therefore, in spite 
 of all the facts already mentioned, and in spite of the vehe- 
 ment protests of a large party in the Samaj, he gave his 
 consent. 
 
 As was to be expected, the Kuch Bihar family did not carry 
 out their promises. The wedding as celebrated was a Hindu 
 marriage; idolatrous implements and symbols were in the 
 pavilion ; and, though Keshab and his daughter both with- 
 drew before any idolatrous ceremonies took place, the ritual 
 was completed by the Hindu priests in the presence of the 
 bridegroom in the usual way. 
 
 19. A tremendous storm followed in Calcutta. The oppos- 
 ing party did their best to depose Keshab, and to seize the 
 building, but failed in both attempts. Finally, they left the 
 Samaj, a great body of intelligent and influential men. For 
 many years a fierce controversy raged round the details of the 
 wedding ; but the facts are now quite clear. A little pam- 
 phlet, called A Brief Reminiscence of Keshub Chunder Sen, 1 
 written by Miss Pigot, the pioneer Zenana Missionary of the 
 Church of Scotland, who was most intimate with Keshab and 
 his family, and accompanied the little bride to the wedding, 
 gives a clear and intelligible account of all that happened. 
 
 20. Fourth Period, 1878-1884: Three Samdjes: KeshaVs 
 New Dispensation. Most of the missionaries, a number of 
 outstanding men and a section of the rank and file held by 
 Keshab, but the major portion of the membership went out. 
 All the provincial Samajes were consulted, and the majority 
 fell in with the new movement. The name chosen was the 
 
 1 Published in Calcutta in 1910.
 
 PLATE III 
 
 KESHAB CHANDRA SEN
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 55 
 
 Sadharan Brahma Samaj ; and great care was taken to or- 
 ganize the society in a representative way, so as to avoid the 
 single-man government and the consequent changes of teach- 
 ing which had caused so much trouble in the old body. The 
 word sadhdran means "general," and is clearly meant to sug- 
 gest that the society is catholic and democratic. With regard 
 to doctrine and practice, they were anxious to continue the 
 old theistic teaching and the social service and philanthropy 
 which had characterized Keshab's Samaj to begin with. They 
 were especially eager to go forward with female education. It 
 was the easier to organize a representative government and to 
 secure continuity of teaching, because, while there were many 
 able men among them, there was no outstanding leader. Of 
 the four missionaries appointed the most prominent was 
 Pandit Siva Nath Sastri. On the 22nd of January, 1881, 
 their new building in Cornwallis Street was opened. 
 
 Yet, despite the great schism, Keshab retained the primacy 
 in Brahmaism by sheer genius and force of character until his 
 death in 1884. His achievements during the last six years 
 of his life are very remarkable, the extraordinary freshness of 
 his thinking and writing, and the many new elements he in- 
 troduced into his work. Yet, though very brilliant, these 
 innovations have not proved nearly so fruitful and lasting as 
 his early contributions to the cause. They will be more 
 intelligible grouped under three heads, than set out in chron- 
 ological order. 
 
 21. The first group comes under the head of his own phrase, 
 the New Dispensation. For some years it had been clear that 
 he thought of himself as having a special divine commission. 
 That idea now becomes explicit. There have been a number 
 of divine dispensations in the past : he is now the divinely 
 appointed leader of the New Dispensation, in which all reli- 
 gions are harmonized, and which all men are summoned to 
 enter as their spiritual home. He and his missionaries are
 
 56 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 the apostles of this new and universal church. But this claim, 
 which, if logically carried out, would have set him, as the 
 centre of the final religion of all time, far above Christ, Buddha, 
 Muhammad and every other leader, is crossed and hindered 
 by two other thoughts, each of which influenced him power- 
 fully during the last section of his life ; first, the idea that all 
 religions are true, which he took over from Ramakrishna 
 Paramaharhsa, and, secondly, a belief in the supremacy 
 of Christ as the God-man. Consequently, all his teaching 
 about the New Dispensation lacks consistency and grip. 
 
 On the anniversary day hi January in 1881 he appeared on 
 the platform, with twelve of his missionaries around him, 
 under a new red banner, on which were inscribed the words 
 Naba Bidhan (Nava Vidhdna), that is, New Dispensation, and 
 also an extraordinary symbol made up of the Hindu trident, 
 the Christian cross and the crescent of Islam. On the table 
 lay the Scriptures of the four greatest religions of the world, 
 Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Muhammadanism. 
 Four of the apostles were specially appointed that each might 
 study the Scriptures of one of these religions. Henceforward, 
 the phrase Brahma Samaj falls into the background, and 
 Keshab's body is known as The Church of the New Dispensation. 
 
 Feeling now more confident of his own inspiration, he fre- 
 quently issued proclamations in the name of God, calling upon 
 all men to accept the New Dispensation, and pronouncing 
 those who had left him infidels, apostates and disobedient 
 men. In keeping with the universality ascribed to the New 
 Dispensation, the faithful were exhorted to turn their thoughts 
 to the great men of all nations. One of the methods employed 
 was to go on pilgrimage in imagination to see one of the great 
 ones, and to spend some time in meditation on his teaching, 
 achievements and virtues. Men and women were formed into 
 orders of various kinds, and solemn vows were laid upon them. 
 
 22. The second group of innovations comes from Hinduism.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 57 
 
 How far Keshab had moved from his early theism may be 
 seen from the following facts. In his early days he was a 
 stern theist, and vehemently denounced polytheism and 
 idolatry of every type. He was seriously opposed to all 
 coquetting with other systems, believing that it was dangerous. 
 When Mr. Sasipada Banerjea founded at Baranagar, near 
 Calcutta, in 1873, the Sadharana Dharma Sabhd, i.e. the 
 General Religious Association, the platform of which was 
 open to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians as well 
 as to Brahmas, Keshab roundly condemned it, as the follow- 
 ing sentences from his own paper show : 
 
 We cannot but regard this new Society as a solemn sham 
 before God and man. The members seem to have no fixed 
 religion in them, and, in endeavouring to commend every creed, 
 they only betray their anxiety to mock and insult everything 
 sacred. Such dishonest latitudinarianism ought to be put 
 down. 1 
 
 But somewhere about 1875 Keshab made the acquaintance of 
 Ramakrishna, and thereafter saw him frequently and listened 
 with great pleasure and interest to his teaching. Now one of 
 the most outstanding ideas of that gifted man was this, that 
 all religions are true. 2 In January, 1881, the New Dispensa- 
 tion was formally announced, as described above; and in 
 the Sunday Mirror of October 23rd the following sentences 
 appeared : 
 
 Our position is not that truths are to be found in all religions ; 
 but that all the established religions of the world are true. 
 There is a great deal of difference between the two assertions. 
 
 The glorious mission of the New Dispensation is to har- 
 monise religions and revelations, to establish the truth of every 
 particular dispensation, and upon the basis of these particulars 
 
 1 This quotation occurs in an article in the Indian Mirror of Oct. isth, 
 1896, called Prof. Max Mailer on the Paramhansa. 
 
 2 P. 197, below.
 
 58 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 to establish the largest and broadest induction of a general and 
 glorious proposition. l 
 
 One of Ramakrishna's friends had a picture painted symboliz- 
 ing the dependence of Keshab on Ramakrishna in this matter. 
 It is dealt with below. 2 
 
 It was doubtless this idea, that all religions are true, and 
 that their harmony can be demonstrated, which prompted 
 Keshab to adopt a number of ceremonies from both Hinduism 
 and Christianity and to seek so to interpret a great deal of 
 Hindu doctrine and practice as to make it appear consistent 
 with theism. He called God Mother. He adopted the homo, 
 sacrifice and the dratl ceremony (the waving of lights) into 
 Brahma ritual. He expounded polytheism and idolatry as if 
 they were variant forms of theism. He found spiritual nour- 
 ishment in the Durga Puja, i.e. the annual festival held in 
 October in Bengal in honour of the demon-slaying Durga, the 
 blood-thirsty wife of Siva. In imitation of the 108 names of 
 Vishnu, a Sanskrit hymn of praise, recounting 108 names of 
 God, was composed, and became an integral part of the lit- 
 urgy of his Church. 3 Chaitanya's religious dance was intro- 
 duced to express religious joy. 4 Prayers were addressed to 
 the Ganges, to the moon and to fire, as creatures of God and 
 expressions of His power and His will. 
 
 23. The third group of innovations come from Christianity. 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper were both introduced into 
 New Dispensation ritual. But of far more importance than 
 these ceremonies were the new pieces of Christian doctrine 
 adopted, above all, certain new convictions about the person 
 of Christ. 
 
 Ram Mohan Ray recognized clearly that Christ had a great 
 contribution to make to Indian religion. He believed that 
 
 *I owe these quotations to HBS., II, 96. 3 HBS., II, 66. 
 
 "P. 198. * P. 293, below.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 59 
 
 the ancient Vedanta was all that India needed in the way of 
 theology ; but in the matter of ethics he saw the supremacy 
 of Jesus ; and in The Precepts of Jesus l he laid the ethical 
 teaching of Christ before his fellow-countrymen, and told 
 them plainly that they required to study it and live by it. To 
 him these precepts were the path to peace and happiness. 
 
 Keshab from the very beginning realized the truth which 
 Ram Mohan had expressed ; but, even in his early lectures, he 
 went far beyond Ram Mohan's standpoint, and that in three 
 directions. 
 
 a. The first of these is the recognition of the glory of the 
 character of Christ, and its value as an example to man. We 
 quote from Keshab's lecture, Jesus Christ: Europe and Asia: 
 
 What moral serenity and sweetness pervade his life ! What 
 extraordinary tenderness and humility what lamb-like meek- 
 ness and simplicity ! His heart was full of mercy and for- 
 giving kindness : friends and foes shared his charity and love. 
 And yet, on the other hand, how resolute, firm, and unyielding 
 in his adherence to truth ! He feared no mortal man, and 
 braved even death itself for the sake of truth and God. Verily, 
 when we read his life, his meekness, like the soft moon, ravishes 
 the heart and bathes it in a flood of serene light ; but when we 
 come to the grand consummation of his career, his death on 
 the cross, behold he shines as the powerful sun in its meridian 
 splendour ! 
 
 Christ tells us to forgive our enemies, yea, to bless them that 
 curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us; he tells 
 us, when one smites the right cheek, to turn the left towards 
 him. Who can adequately conceive this transcendent charity ? 
 The most impressive form in which it practically manifests it- 
 self is in that sweet and tender prayer which the crucified Jesus 
 uttered in the midst of deep agony "Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do." 2 
 
 1 P. 32, above. * Lectures in India, 25-6.
 
 60 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 b. The second is the sense of sin and all it leads to. We 
 quote from the historian of the Brahma Samaj. He remarks : 
 
 Keshub Chunder opened his heart to the Christian spirit, 
 and it begat a sense of sin and the spirit of earnest prayer. 1 
 
 The infusion of the Christian spirit brought into the field 
 another characteristic Christian sentiment, namely, an enthu- 
 siasm for saving fellow-sinners by carrying to them the new 
 gospel. . . . The spirit of utter self -surrender in which the 
 new missionaries took up their work after the schism was a 
 wonder to all. . . . Amongst the new principles imbibed from 
 the study of the life of Christ was one, "Take no thought for 
 the morrow," which they wanted to carry literally into prac- 
 tice. . . . Their young wives, most of them below twenty, 
 touched by the new enthusiasm, shared in all their privations 
 with a cheerful alacrity. The memory of these days will ever 
 remain in our minds as a truly apostolic period of Brahmo his- 
 tory, when there was a spirit of real asceticism without that 
 talk of it, in which the Church abounded in subsequent times. 2 
 
 c. The third is the Christian attitude to social life. We 
 again quote from the history : 
 
 Mr. Sen tried to view social questions from the standpoint 
 of pure and spiritual faith, making the improvement of their 
 social life an accessory to men's progress in spiritual life. Social 
 reform naturally came as a part of that fundamental concep- 
 tion. Under the influence of their leader the progressive party 
 tried to abjure those social abuses that tended to degrade society 
 or encourage vice or injustice. The conviction became strong 
 in them that it was only by raising and ennobling man's social 
 life that a pure and spiritual religion like theism could establish 
 itself as a social and domestic faith of man and convert human 
 society into a household of God. This conviction took firm 
 possession of Mr. Sen's mind and he unfurled the banner of 
 social reform by systematic efforts for the abolition of caste 
 
 1 HBS., 1, 133. * Ib., I, 209-11.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 61 
 
 and also by trying to communicate new light and new life to 
 our womanhood. 
 
 We may justly ascribe this passion for social reform to the 
 influence of Mr. Sen's Christian studies. The reason for my 
 ascribing it to Christian influence is that it is so unlike the 
 Hindu teaching on the subject, with which we are familiar. 1 
 
 These three aspects of Christ scarcely appear in Ram 
 Mohan's teaching, but they were the very pith and marrow of 
 Keshab's doctrine. Indeed, as the last extracts shew, they 
 were the source of all the life and vigour which Keshab suc- 
 ceeded in pouring into his missionaries and followers during 
 the first twenty years of his public life. This fact was very 
 vividly present to Keshab's mind. Here are his own words : 
 
 Christ has been my study for a quarter of a century. That 
 God-Man they say half God and half man walks daily 
 all over this vast peninsula, from the Himalayas to Cape Co- 
 morin, enlightening and sanctifying its teeming millions. He 
 is a mighty reality in Indian history. He is to us a living and 
 moving spirit. We see him and commune with him. He 
 permeates society as a vital force, and imbues our daily life, 
 and is mixed with our thoughts, speculations and pursuits. 2 
 
 24. But from 1879 onward there is a further advance. 
 Thus far Christ had been to Keshab only a religious leader, 
 distinctly the greatest of all the prophets, but in no sense 
 divine. From now the problem of the person of Christ oc- 
 cupies a large place in his mind. He began the discussion of 
 the question in his lecture, India asks: Who is Christ? de- 
 livered in 1879. He starts from the words, "I and My 
 Father are one," and explains them as follows : 
 
 Christ really believed that he and his Father were one, or 
 he would not have said so. He spoke the truth, unmixed and 
 pure truth, when he announced this fact. "I can of mine 
 
 1 BBS., I, 296-7. * Lectures in India, 330.
 
 62 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 own self do nothing," "I am in my Father, and my Father in 
 me." 
 
 I am, therefore, bound to admit that Christ really believed 
 that he and his Father were one. When I come to analyse 
 this doctrine, I find in it nothing but the philosophical principle 
 underlying the popular doctrine of self-abnegation, self- 
 abnegation in a very lofty spiritual sense. 1 
 
 Therefore, I say this wonderful man had no thought what- 
 ever of self, and lived in God. This unique character of com- 
 plete self -surrender is the most striking miracle in the world's 
 history which I have seen, and which it is possible for the mind 
 to conceive. 2 
 
 He declares that God sent Christ to be the perfect example of 
 sonship to men : 
 
 An example of true sonship was needed. . . . Perfect 
 holiness dwelt in the Father, the eternal fountain-head of all 
 that is true, and good and beautiful. It comprehended all 
 manner of holiness. It had in it the germs of all forms of vir- 
 tue and righteousness. Purity of life dwelt in Him in its ful- 
 ness and integrity. Out of this substance the Lord took out 
 only one form of purity, that which applies to the son in his 
 relations to the Father and his brethren, and comprises the whole 
 round of human duties and virtues, and having given it a human 
 shape, said, Go and dwell thou in the world and show forth 
 unto nations divine sonship. 3 
 
 He also declares that Christ fulfils Hinduism : 
 
 He comes to fulfil and perfect that religion of communion 
 for which India has been panting, as the hart panteth after the 
 waterbrooks. Yes, after long centuries shall this communion 
 be perfected through Christ. 4 
 
 Then in his lecture on the Trinity, in 1882, Christ is definitely 
 called the Logos, the Son of God, the second person of the 
 Trinity: 
 
 1 Lectures in India, 245-6. * /&., 251-2. 
 
 /&., 249- /&., 258.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 63 
 
 You see how the Lord asserted His power and established 
 His dominion in the material and the animal kingdom, and 
 then in the lower world of humanity. When that was done the 
 volume of the Old Testament was closed. The New Testament 
 commenced with the birth of the Son of God. . . . Having 
 exhibited itself in endless varieties of progressive existence, 
 the primary creative Force at last took the form of the Son 
 in Christ Jesus. 1 
 
 Gentlemen, look at this clear triangular figure with the eye 
 of faith, and study its deep mathematics. The apex is the 
 very God Jehovah, the Supreme Brahma of the Vedas. Alone, 
 in His own eternal glory, He dwells. From Him comes down 
 the Son in a direct line, an emanation from Divinity. Thus 
 God descends and touches one end of the base of humanity, 
 then running all along the base permeates the world, and then 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost drags up regenerated humanity 
 to Himself. Divinity coming down to humanity is the Son; 
 Divinity carrying up humanity to heaven is the Holy Ghost. 2 
 
 Through Israel came the First Dispensation; in Christ we 
 have the Dispensation of the Son; while Keshab's own 
 movement is the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit : 
 
 The Old Testament was the First Dispensation; the New 
 Testament the Second ; unto us in these days has been vouch- 
 safed the Third Dispensation. 8 
 
 25. But all this inevitably raises the question, How could 
 Keshab teach in this strain and yet declare all religions true, 
 and introduce Hindu ceremonies into the ritual of his services ? 
 - There is only one way of accounting for it : we must recog- 
 nize that Keshab was not a consistent thinker, far less a sys- 
 tematic theologian. Illustrations of inconsistency are sown 
 thick in his lectures. Thus in 1876, six years before the 
 lecture on the Trinity, while he was still pledged to the doc- 
 trine that Christ is a mere man, the very first sentence of one 
 of his lectures runs : 
 
 1 /ft., 336. * Ib., 33 8. ib., 356.
 
 64 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 I verily believe that, when Jesus Christ was about to leave 
 this world, he made over the sacred portfolio of the ministry 
 of his Church to the Holy Spirit. 1 
 
 What manner of man is this who stands in official relations 
 with the Spirit of the Universe ? The truth is that he was 
 dazzled with the glitter of Ramakrishna's idea of the harmony 
 of all religions; and, having once accepted the thought, he 
 proceeded, in confidence in it, to attempt to hold in his own 
 mind, at the same moment, the essential principles of Hin- 
 duism, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and his own 
 old theism. Perhaps the most amazing example of inconsist- 
 ency occurs within the limits of a single paragraph in his lec- 
 ture We Apostles of the New Dispensation, delivered in Janu- 
 ary, 1 88 1, when the New Dispensation was announced. He 
 first sets his own Dispensation on a level with Christ's : 
 
 Is this new gospel a Dispensation, or is it simply a new sys- 
 tem of religion, which human understanding has evolved? I 
 say it stands upon the same level with the Jewish dispensation, 
 the Christian dispensation, and the Vaishnava dispensation 
 through Chaitanya. It is a divine Dispensation, fully entitled 
 to a place among the various dispensations and revelations of 
 the world. But is it equally divine, equally authoritative? 
 Christ's Dispensation is said to be divine. I say that this 
 Dispensation is equally divine. 2 
 
 He then sets himself on a level with Christ : 
 
 If Christ was the centre of his Dispensation, am I not the 
 centre of this ? 3 
 
 And immediately thereafter there follows this most touching 
 piece of self-humiliation : 
 
 Shall a sinner vie with Christ for honours? God forbid. 
 Jesus was a born saint, and I am a great sinner. Blessed 
 Jesus ! I am thine. I give myself, body and soul, to thee. If 
 
 1 Lectures in India, 161. * Ib., 298. * Ib., 299.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 65 
 
 India will revile and persecute me, and take my life-blood out 
 of me, drop by drop, still, Jesus, thou shalt continue to have my 
 homage. I have taken the vow of loyalty before thee, and I 
 will not swerve from it, God help me ! These lips are thine 
 for praise, and these hands are thine in service. Son of God, 
 I love thee truly. And, though scorned and hated for thy 
 sake, I will love thee always, and remain an humble servant 
 at thy blessed feet. Yet, I must tell you, gentlemen, that I 
 am connected with Jesus' Gospel, and occupy a prominent 
 place in it. I am the prodigal son of whom Christ spoke, and 
 I am trying to return to my Father in a penitent spirit. Nay, 
 I will say more for the satisfaction and edification of my op- 
 ponents. I am not Jesus, but I am Judas, that vile man who 
 betrayed Jesus into the hands of his infuriated persecutors. 
 That man's spirit is in me. The veritable Judas, who sinned 
 against truth and Jesus, lodges in my heart. If I honour Jesus, 
 and claim a place among his disciples, is there not another side 
 of my life which is carnal and worldly and sinful ? I am Judas- 
 like so far as I love sin. Then tell me not I am trying to exalt 
 myself. No. A prophet's crown sits not on my head. My 
 place is at Jesus' feet. 1 
 
 No further proof is wanted of the unsystematic character of 
 Keshab's thinking. Clearly, he had not worked the contents 
 of his mind into any kind of consistent unity. 
 
 26. But another problem remains, his relation to Christ. 
 His habitual want of consistency explains how he could hold 
 self-contradictory ideas, but the extraordinary place which 
 Christ holds in his teaching needs explanation. The needs of 
 the time, and the wonderful way in which the teaching of 
 Christ meets them, account for the hold which Christ's ethi- 
 cal and social teaching have taken of the Brahma Samaj as 
 a whole; but they do not account for the tenderness and 
 passion which mark Keshab's every reference to Jesus nor for 
 his interest in the problem of Christology. The simple fact 
 is that Keshab's religious experience was from beginning to 
 
 l lb., 299.
 
 66 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 end rooted in Christ; and he was thereby driven steadily 
 forward, steadily nearer an adequate account of Christ's 
 person and His relation to God. His lectures show quite 
 clearly that his religious experience depended largely on 
 Christ : 
 
 My Christ, my sweet Christ, the brightest jewel of my heart, 
 the necklace of my soul for twenty years have I cherished 
 him in this my miserable heart. Though often defiled and 
 persecuted by the world, I have found sweetness and joy un- 
 utterable in my master Jesus. . . . The mighty artillery of 
 his love he levelled against me, and I was vanquished, and I 
 fell at his feet. 1 
 
 The Father cannot be an example of sonship. Only the 
 Son can show what the son ought to be. In vain do I go to 
 the Vedas or to Judaism to learn sonship. That I learn at the 
 feet of my sweet Christ, my Father's beloved Son. 2 
 
 All over my body, all through my inner being I see Christ. 
 He is no longer to me a doctrine or a dogma, but with Paul I 
 cry, For me to live is Christ. . . . Christ is my food and drink, 
 and Christ is the water that cleanses me. 3 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the meaning of these words.. 
 Further, the solution of the problem of the three amazing 
 passages quoted on page 64 lies here, that in his theory of 
 the New Dispensation we have his loose but brilliant think- 
 ing, while in the touching sentences where he contrasts 
 himself with Christ we have a living transcript from his reli- 
 gious experience. Practically every difficulty which Keshab's 
 life presents to the student (and they are not few) becomes 
 comprehensible when we realize to the full these two facts : 
 he was not a systematic thinker, and his religious experience 
 sprang from Christ. 
 
 But we may go one step farther still. Keshab's richest 
 religious experience came from Christ, and, in consequence, 
 in the latter part of his life, his deepest theological beliefs 
 
 1 Lectures in India, 260. 2 Ib., 344. 3 Ib., 393.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 67 
 
 were fully Christian, but he never surrendered himself to 
 Christ as Lord. He retained the government of his life in 
 his own hands. I also believe that this is the only way in 
 which we can explain the spiritual experience of his friend and 
 biographer, Pratap Chandra Mozoomdar, and of two or three 
 others of the missionaries. 
 
 The theological position of these men stands out quite 
 clear from a number of facts. 
 
 The late Registrar of Calcutta University, Mr. K. C. 
 Banurji, a Bengali Christian universally loved and respected, 
 was very intimate with Keshab; and he maintained, with 
 great consistency and earnestness, that Keshab died a Chris- 
 tian. Had Mr. Banurji been an ordinary man, it might have 
 been said that he had been misled by some chance expression, 
 such as one meets in Keshab's published writings, and the 
 inconsistency of which the leader was so often guilty would 
 have been sufficient explanation. But Mr. Banurji was no 
 ordinary man ; and he had no hazy, indistinct conception of 
 Christian faith. He had followed Keshab's history closely 
 for many years, and was most intimate with him. It is thus 
 certain that, in conversation with Mr. Banurji, Keshab gave 
 expression to a full, clear, distinct faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Mr. P. C. Mozoomdar, one day, had a long unhurried con- 
 versation with a friend of the writer, a missionary in the North. 
 In the course of the talk my friend gave expression to the deep- 
 est convictions of his Christian life. Mr. Mozoomdar assured 
 him that his own faith, and Keshab's also, was precisely the 
 same, and said that the reason why he and Keshab did not 
 give public expression to these beliefs was that they held they 
 would be more likely to bring their fellow-countrymen to full 
 faith in Christ by a gradual process than by a sudden declara- 
 tion of all they believed. 1 
 
 1 He must have spoken in the same way in South India. Madras Decen- 
 nial Miss. Conf. Report, 310.
 
 68 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Some eleven or twelve years ago, in a brief article, I had 
 ignorantly spoken of all Brahmas as Unitarians. In a cour- 
 teous note, the only letter I ever received from Mr. Mozoom- 
 dar, he protested against the statement so far as the Church 
 of the New Dispensation was concerned, declaring himself 
 and his fellow-believers to be Trinitarians. During the last 
 twenty years articles have frequently appeared in the pages 
 of Unity and the Minister (a weekly published under the New 
 Dispensation), which, if taken seriously from the standpoint 
 of theology, undoubtedly imply the full Christian faith. My 
 own personal intercourse with several of the leaders would 
 also tend to prove that they had learned from Keshab to re- 
 gard Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour. 
 
 Yet, so far as my experience and reading reach, there is no 
 evidence that these men ever allowed their faith to rule their 
 life. There was never the full surrender of the soul to the 
 Saviour. There was something that restrained. They re- 
 garded Jesus as the eternal Son, but they lived the life of 
 theists, following now one master, now another. An incident 
 in Keshab 's life fits in well with this judgment. One of the 
 missionaries of the New Dispensation, who was very intimate 
 with him, and who believed that he was a servant of Christ 
 and would remain such to the end, went to see the great leader 
 as he lay dying in his home, Lily Cottage, Calcutta. He 
 found him rolling on his bed in great pain, crying aloud in 
 prayer to God in Bengali. Great was his friend's astonish- 
 ment to catch the following words repeated over and over 
 again: 
 
 r 
 
 Buddher Ma, Sakyer Ma, nirban dao, 
 
 i.e. " Mother of Buddha, Mother of the Sakyan, grant me 
 Nirvana." What an extraordinary mixture of ideas this sen- 
 tence bears witness to ! Thus Keshab's deepest convictions 
 were Christian beliefs, yet he was not a Christian.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 69 
 
 He passed away on the 8th of January, 1884, leaving his 
 Samaj shepherdless. 
 
 27. Fifth Period, 1884-1913 : the Sddhdran Brahma Samaj. 
 It has been already stated that, from the beginning, there 
 were disputes, and even quarrels, among the missionaries, 
 which Keshab found it difficult to control. One day, in Lily 
 Cottage, when some little difference of this kind was being 
 talked about, Keshab pointed to a velvet pincushion, and said, 
 "You are like the pins, united in the pincushion. When I 
 am taken away, there will be nothing to hold you together." 
 The words were prophetic. Ever since the leader's death, his 
 whole following has been reduced to the utmost weakness by 
 the quarrels of the missionaries. There are three sub-divi- 
 sions, each of which holds a separate service on Sunday, and 
 there are individuals who will unite with none. But it is not 
 personal differences only that have led to this state of affairs ; 
 the irreconcilable elements in the leader's teaching, now 
 held by different minds, render real union impossible. It was 
 largely because P. C. Mozoomdar was so much of a Christian 
 that his brethren refused to make him their leader. The 
 tendency to make Keshab an inspired guru, which led to the 
 Kuch-Bihar marriage and the great secession, operated most 
 disastrously. After his death one party declared that he was 
 still their leader, and that no one could ever take his place in 
 the Samaj building, while the others opposed vehemently. 
 Some still keep up this foolish idea. They call the anniver- 
 sary of his death the day of " the Master's Ascension " ; 1 and 
 the room in which he died, kept precisely as it was then, is 
 entered reverently, as if it were a shrine. For nine and twenty 
 years the Samaj has been dismembered and rendered impo- 
 tent by divisions and brawls ; and there is no sign of better- 
 ment. 
 
 28. The Adi Brahma Samaj still holds steadily on, but there 
 1 A recent book calls him " God-man Keshub " and " Lord and Master."
 
 70 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 are few members apart from the family of Debendra Nath 
 Tagore. The saintly old leader lived to the age of eighty- 
 seven, passing away in 1905. After his death a fragment of 
 an Autobiography in Bengali was published, and later still 
 was translated into English by one of his sons. It is a very 
 modest document but contains a remarkable spiritual record. 
 It is one of the most valuable pieces of literature the Adi 
 Samaj has produced. Debendra's fourth son, Mr. Rabindra 
 Nath Tagore, now so famous as a poet, 1 frequently preaches 
 in the building. 
 
 29. The Sadharan Brahma Samaj, on the other hand, has 
 made steady, solid progress since its formation in 1 878. It has 
 now a large body of members and adherents in Calcutta, and 
 its services are well attended. Most of the provincial Samajes 
 are connected with it. It is the only section of the Brahma 
 Samaj whose missionaries are able from time to time to go on 
 preaching tours. It is a living, effective body, though not 
 large. Its history need not detain us. A brief sketch of its 
 organization and its teaching must suffice. 
 
 The Samaj is under the control of a General Committee of a 
 hundred members elected both from Calcutta and the prov- 
 inces. The President, the Secretary with three Assistant 
 Secretaries, and the Treasurer, together with thirteen others 
 chosen by the General Committee from among its members, 
 form the Executive. This form of organization has suc- 
 ceeded in making the government of the Samaj representative 
 and democratic. This body governs the Sadharan Brahma 
 Samaj of Calcutta and its missionaries, and also bears rela- 
 tions to the majority of the provincial Samajes. Forty-one 
 of the provincial Samajes are called "Associated Samajes": 
 they pay a certain annual subscription to the central body, 
 and are entitled to receive help from the missionaries. The 
 majority of the other Samajes are in fellowship with the Sad- 
 1 P- 383, below.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 71 
 
 haran Samaj of Calcutta, although some have closer relations 
 with the Adi Samaj or the New Dispensation or the Prarthana 
 Samaj in Bombay. 
 
 The bulk of the work of the Samaj is carried on by the nine 
 missionaries ; but a good deal is also done by the Sevak Man- 
 dali or Circle of Laymen. The heaviest work undertaken is 
 the tours made in the provinces by the missionaries, to 
 strengthen existing work and win new adherents. Apart from 
 these, the chief forms of effort are the Sunday Services in the 
 building, the Students' Weekly Service, the Sangat Sabha (a 
 sort of Methodist Class Meeting), the Working Men's Mission 
 at Baranagar, near Calcutta, the Brahmo Young Men's Union, 
 and the Samaj newspapers, the Indian Messenger and the 
 Tattva Kaumudi. The Calcutta congregation has more than 
 800 members and a very large number of adherents. The 
 mission on the Khasi Hills in Assam is perhaps the most not- 
 able piece of work being done outside Calcutta. The Khasis 
 are a very simple race, who had no education or literature 
 until the Welsh Calvinistic Mission waked them to an alto- 
 gether new life. The Brahmas have won some fifty families. 
 
 In 1911 there were 183 Brahma Samajes in India ; and 5504 
 persons were entered as Brahmas in the Census. 
 
 30. The following is a brief summary of the beliefs of the 
 Adi Samaj * : 
 
 (1) God is a personal being with sublime moral attributes. 
 
 (2) God has never become incarnate. 
 
 (3) God hears and answers prayer. 
 
 (4) God is to be worshipped only in spiritual ways. Hindu 
 asceticism, temples, and fixed forms of worship are unnecessary. 
 Men of all castes and races may worship God acceptably. 
 
 (5) Repentance and cessation from sin is the only way to 
 forgiveness and salvation. 
 
 (6) Nature and Intuition are the sources of knowledge of 
 God. No book is authoritative. 
 
 1 ERE., II, 816.
 
 72 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The following is the official statement of the principles of 
 the Sadharan Samaj * : 
 
 (1) There is only one God, who is the Creator, Preserver 
 and Saviour of this world. He is spirit ; He is infinite in power, 
 wisdom, love, justice and holiness ; He is omnipresent, eternal 
 and blissful. 
 
 (2) The human soul is immortal, and capable of infinite 
 progress, and is responsible to God for its doings. 
 
 (3) God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Divine 
 worship is necessary for attaining true felicity and salvation. 
 
 (4) To love God and to carry out His will in all the concerns 
 of life constitute true worship. 
 
 (5) Prayer and dependence on God and a constant realisation 
 of His presence are the means of attaining spiritual growth. 
 
 (6) No created object is to be worshipped as God, nor is 
 any person or book to be considered as infallible and as the sole 
 means of salvation ; but truth is to be reverently accepted from 
 all scriptures and from the teaching of all persons without dis- 
 tinction of creed or country. 
 
 (7) The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man 
 and kindness to all living beings are the essence of true religion. 
 
 (8) God rewards virtue, and punishes sin. His punishments 
 are remedial and not eternal. 
 
 (9) Cessation from sin accompanied by sincere repentance 
 is the only atonement for it ; and union with God in wisdom, 
 goodness and holiness is true salvation. 
 
 The following statement of the faith and principles of the 
 New Dispensation is from Keshab's Laws of Life:* 
 
 (1) God. I believe that God is one, that He is infinite and 
 perfect, almighty, all-wise, all-merciful, all-holy, all-blissful, 
 eternal and omnipresent, our Creator, Father, Mother, Friend, 
 Guide, Judge and Saviour. 
 
 (2) Soul. I believe that the soul is immortal and eternally 
 progressive. 
 
 1 From the Report for 1910. 
 
 2 Published in the World attd New Dispensation, of July 27, 1910.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 73 
 
 (3) Spiritual Law. I believe in natural inspiration, general 
 and special. I believe in providence, general and special. 
 
 (4) Moral Law. I believe in God's moral law as revealed 
 through the commandments of conscience, enjoining perfect 
 righteousness in all things. I believe that I am accountable 
 to God for the faithful discharge of my manifold duties and 
 that I shall be judged and rewarded and punished for my vir- 
 tues and vices here and hereafter. 
 
 (5) Scriptures. I accept and revere the scriptures so far 
 as they are records of the wisdom and devotion and piety of 
 inspired geniuses and of the dealings of God's special providence 
 in the salvation of nations, of which records only the Spirit is 
 God's, but the letter man's. 
 
 (6) Prophets. I accept and revere the world's prophets 
 and saints so far as they embody and reflect the different ele- 
 ments of divine character, and set forth the higher ideals of 
 life for the instruction and sanctification of the world. I ought 
 to revere and love and follow all that is divine in them, and try 
 to assimilate it to my soul, making what is theirs and God's 
 mine. 
 
 (7) Church. I believe in the Church Universal which is 
 the deposit of all ancient wisdom and the receptacle of all 
 modern science, which recognises in all prophets and saints a 
 harmony, in all scriptures a unity and through all dispensations 
 a continuity, which abjures all that separates and divides and 
 always magnifies unity and peace, which harmonises reason 
 and faith, yoga and bhakti, asceticism and social duty in their 
 highest forms, and which shall make of all nations and sects 
 one kingdom and one family in the fulness of time. 
 
 (8) Synopsis. My creed is the science of God which en- 
 lighteneth all. My gospel is the love of God which saveth all. 
 My heaven is life in God which is accessible to all. My church 
 is that invisible kingdom of God in which is all truth, all love, 
 all holiness. 
 
 LITERATURE. HISTORY : History of the Brahmo Samaj, Siva- 
 nath Sastri, Calcutta, Chatterji, 1911-1912, two vols. Rs. 6. The 
 Theistic Directory, by V. R. Shinde, Bombay, Prarthana Samaj, 1912. 
 THE ADI SAM'J: Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, by 
 Sophia Dobson Collet, Edited by Hem Chandra Sarkar, Cal-
 
 74 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 cutta, 1914, Rs. 2, as. 8. The English Works of Raja Ram Mohan 
 Ray, Allahabad, Panini Office, 1906, Rs. 2, as. 8. The Complete 
 Works of Raja Ram Mohan Ray, Sanskrit and Bengali, Calcutta, 
 1880. The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, Trans- 
 lated by Satyendranath Tagore, Calcutta, Lahiri, 1909, Rs. 2 as. 
 8. Brahma Dharma, by Devendranath Tagore, Calcutta, K. K. 
 Chakravarti, 1850. KESHAB AND THE NEW DISPENSATION: The 
 Life and Teachings of Keshab Chundra Sen, by Pratap Chandra Mo- 
 zoomdar, Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1887, out of print. 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's Lectures in India, Calcutta, the Brahmo Tract 
 Society, 1899. (Most of Keshab's writings, whether Bengali or 
 English, can be got through the Brahmo Tract Society, Lily Cottage, 
 Upper Circular Road, Calcutta.) Keshab Chandra Sen in England, 
 Calcutta, 1881. The Oriental Christ, by P. C. Mozoomdar, Cal- 
 cutta, Brahmo Tract Society, Rs. 3. Slokasahgraha, A Compila- 
 tion of Theistic Texts, Calcutta, K. P. Nath, 1904, Rs. i. THE 
 SADHARAN SAMAJ : The Religion of the Brahmo Samaj, by Hem Chandra 
 Sarkar, Calcutta, Kuntaline Press, 1911, as. 6. The Philosophy 
 of Brahmaism, by Pandit S. N. Tattvabhushana, Madras, Higgin- 
 botham, 1909, Rs. 2-8. 
 
 2. THE PRARTHANA SAMAJ 
 
 i. We now turn our attention to Western India, the modern 
 history of which begins in 1818 when, at the close of the last 
 Maratha war, British authority became supreme in the great 
 territory now known as the Bombay Presidency. The Hon. 
 Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone, who became Governor of 
 Bombay in 1819, founded the very next year the Bombay 
 Native Education Society, which did much to plant Western 
 education in the city. When he retired in 1827, the leaders of 
 the city, both Hindu and Parsee, in order to commemorate his 
 work, raised a great fund which was used to found profes- 
 sorships, and became the nucleus of the Elphinstone College, 
 the Government College in Bombay. 
 
 John Wilson of the Church of Scotland founded in 1835 the 
 college which bears his name to-day. Wilson's work was on 
 the same lines as Duff's ; and under his teaching a number of
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 75 
 
 young men, both Hindu and Parsee, passed into the Christian 
 Church. The whole of Western India was moved by the 
 baptism of three Parsees in 1839,* and again by the baptism 
 of a Brahman, Narayana Seshadri in 1843. Wilson's vital 
 influence may also be traced in many men who remained in 
 Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. In 1842 the London Society 
 for the Promotion of Female Education sent out a lady mis- 
 sionary to work among the Parsee women in Bombay. 2 
 
 2. Progressive movements among both Hindus and Parsees 
 sprang from these educational and religious efforts. The 
 earliest organization was a secret society called the Gupta 
 Sabhd. The members were Hindus 3 and they met for worship 
 and religious discussion, but nothing further is known of its 
 work. It was succeeded in 1849 by the Paramahamsa Sabhd.* 
 It too was a secret society, but social reform held a rather 
 more prominent place in its discussions than religious ques- 
 tions. After their discussion was over the members sang 
 hymns from the Ratnamdl-d and joined in a common meal, 
 the food for which had been prepared by a low-caste cook. 
 No one could become a member, unless he were willing to eat 
 bread made by a Christian, and drink water brought by a 
 Muhammadan. The influence of the society was necessarily 
 rather limited, as everything was kept secret. Yet there 
 were branches in Poona, Ahmadnagar and elsewhere. But 
 in 1860 some one stole the books, and the whole thing was 
 made public. There was great indignation against the mem- 
 bers ; and the society broke up. 
 
 1 P. 84, below. 
 
 2 Richter, 338 n. 
 
 1 Amongst them were Moroba Vinoba and Baba Padmanji, who became a 
 Christian at a later date. 
 
 4 Amongst its members were N. M. Paramanand and B. Mangesh Wagle. 
 It is interesting to note that a secret society was formed in Calcutta by 
 Hindus " for instructing their young daughters and other female relatives." 
 Richter, 337.
 
 76 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The more earnest men, however, held by their convictions 
 and watched with great interest the Brahma movement in 
 Bengal. In 1864 Keshab paid his first visit to Bombay, and 
 many were delighted with both the man and his message. 
 But his visit came at an unfortunate moment ; Bombay was 
 in a fever of excitement over share speculation; and no 
 result followed. 
 
 3. Three years later, however, in 1867, a theistic society 
 was actually formed and called the Prdrthand Samdj, Prayer 
 Society, the leader being Dr. Atmaram Pandurang (1823- 
 1898), who was a personal friend of Dr. Wilson and had been 
 deeply influenced by him. Other members were Dadoba 
 Pandurang, Bhaskara Pandurang (brothers of the leader), 
 Ram Bal Krishna, N. M. Paramanand, Bhare Mahajan, W. 
 B. Naorangi, V. A. Modak and B. M. Wagle. A weekly 
 prayer-meeting was started, rules for the society were 
 drawn up, and a managing committee appointed. The aims 
 were theistic worship and social reform. Next year Keshab 
 visited Bombay for a second time, and considerably strength- 
 ened the organization. In 1870 the first marriage celebrated 
 according to theistic rites took place; and about the same 
 time R. G. Bhandarkar (now Sir R. G. Bhandarkar) and M. 
 G. Ranade (later Mr. Justice Ranade) joined the young Samaj. 
 In 1872 P. C. Mozoomdar came from Calcutta, and spent six 
 months in Bombay, building up the congregation, and start- 
 ing night-schools for working people and the journal of the 
 Samaj, the Subodh Patrikd. In 1874 the Samaj erected its 
 own building in Girgaum, Bombay. Pandit Dayananda 
 SarasvatI came to Bombay the same year, 1 and his lectures 
 roused much interest, but his ideas about the Vedas pre- 
 vented the Prarthana Samaj from following him. The fol- 
 lowing year he founded the Arya Samaj in Bombay. A little 
 later there was a proposal to change the name of the society 
 1 P. 109, below.
 
 PLATE IV 
 
 MR. JUSTICE RANADE 
 
 SIR N. G. CHANDAVARKAR 
 
 SIR R. G. BHANDARKAR 
 
 KHARSHEDJI RUSTAMJI CAMA
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 77 
 
 to the Bombay Brahma Samaj, but on account of the dissen- 
 sions in the Brahma Samaj in Calcutta the Bombay leaders 
 were unwilling to identify themselves with it. In 1882 
 S. P. Kelkar became a missionary of the Samaj ; and in the 
 same year N. G. Chandavarkar, now Sir Narayan Ganesh 
 Chandavarkar, began to take an active part in the work. 
 Pandita Ramabai, who had not as yet become a Christian, did 
 valuable work among the women of the Samaj in 1882-1883, 
 and founded the Arya Manila Samaj, or Ladies' Society. 
 During recent years a number of younger men, the chief of 
 whom are K. Natarajan, S. N. Gokhale, V. R. Shinde, V. A. 
 Sukhtankar, and N. G. Velinkar, have joined, and have done 
 valuable work in various ways. 
 
 The Prarthana Samaj has never had such groups of mis- 
 sionaries as have toiled for the Brahma Samaj. They have 
 usually had only one or two. For this reason the movement 
 has not spread widely ; yet there are associated Samajes at 
 Poona, Kirkee, Kolhapur and Satara. Several societies, 
 originally connected with the Prarthana Samaj, now call 
 themselves Brahma Samajes. On the other hand, the milder 
 policy of the Prarthana Samaj has commended itself to many 
 in the Telugu country and further south. Out of the twenty- 
 nine Samajes in the Madras Presidency eighteen bear the 
 name Prarthana Samaj. 
 
 Nor has the Prarthana Samaj produced much literature. 
 This failure is, doubtless, largely due to the impression so com- 
 mon among its members that definite beliefs and theological 
 thought are scarcely necessary for a free theistic body. Of 
 this serious weakness Ranade wrote 1 : 
 
 Many enthusiastic leaders of the Brahma Samaj movement 
 have been heard deliberately to declare that the only cardinal 
 points of Theism necessary to constitute it a religion of man- 
 kind, the only articles of its confession of faith, are the Father- 
 1 Essays, 251-3.
 
 78 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 hood of God, and the Brotherhood of man. These are the only 
 points which it is absolutely necessary to hold fast to for purposes 
 of regeneration and salvation. And with fifty years of working 
 history, our leaders seem content to lisp this same story of early 
 childhood. There is no attempt at grasping in all earnestness 
 the great religious difficulties which have puzzled people's 
 faith during all time, and driven them to seek rest in revela- 
 tion. ... To come nearer home, our friends of the Prarthana 
 Samaj seem to be perfectly satisfied with a creed which consists 
 of only one positive belief in the unity of God, accompanied 
 with a special protest against the existing corruption of Hindu 
 religion, viz., the article which denounces the prevalent idolatry 
 to be a sin, and an abomination ; and it is ardently hoped that 
 a new Church can be built in course of time on such a narrow 
 foundation of belief. ... It is time, we think, to venture on 
 an earnest attempt to remove this reproach. 
 
 His own Theisms Confession of Faith l is a brave attempt to 
 give the thought of the Samaj something more of a theology. 
 In February, 1913, Mr. N. G. Velinkar, one of the most capable 
 thinkers in the Samaj, gave expression in conversation with the 
 writer to his regret that there is so little definite teaching in 
 the Samaj. A vigorous effort is being made at present by Mr. 
 Velinkar and a few other leaders to produce theological and 
 devotional books to enrich the life of the society. 
 
 4. Speaking practically, the beliefs of the Samaj are the 
 same as those held by the Sadharan Brahma Samaj. They 
 are theists, and opposed to idolatry. Their theism rests 
 largely on ancient Hindu thought ; yet, practically, they have 
 given up the inspiration of the Vedas and the doctrine of trans- 
 migration. The latter is left an open question, but few hold 
 by it. The Samaj draws its nourishment very largely from 
 the Hindu scriptures, and uses the hymns of the old Maratha 
 poet-saints in its services. 
 
 If theistic worship is the first interest of the Samaj, social 
 
 1 Essays, p. 250,
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 79 
 
 reform has always held the next place. Four reforms are 
 sought, the abandonment of caste, the introduction of 
 widow-remarriage, the encouragement of female education, 
 and the abolition of child-marriage. Yet some of the 
 diffidence of the Paramahariisa Society still clings to the 
 members. There has never been amongst them the rigid 
 exclusion of idolatry, which has marked the Brahma Samaj 
 since Debendra Nath Tagore became leader, nor is the break- 
 ing of caste made a condition of membership, as in the two 
 younger Samajes of Calcutta. Even though a man be a full 
 member of the Samaj, caste may be observed and idolatry 
 may be practised in his house. Miss S. D. Collet wrote in her 
 Brahma Year Book in 1880 : 
 
 The Theistic Church in Western India occupies a position 
 of its own. Although in thoroughly fraternal relations with 
 the Eastern Samajes, it is of indigenous growth and of hide- 
 pendent standing. It has never detached itself so far from the 
 Hindu element of Brahmaism as many of the Bengali Samajes, 
 and both in religious observances and social customs, it clings 
 far more closely to the old models. It is more learned and less 
 emotional in its tone, and far more cautious and less radical 
 in its policy than the chief Samajes of Bengal. But it is doing 
 good work in its own way and it has enlarged its operations 
 considerably within the last few years. 1 
 
 A writer in the Indian Social Reformer 2 says : 
 
 The PrartJtana Samaj may be said to be composed of men 
 paying allegiance to Hinduism and to Hindu society with a 
 protest. The members observe the ceremonies of Hinduism, 
 but only as mere ceremonies of routine, destitute of all reli- 
 gious significance. This much sacrifice they make to exist- 
 ing prejudices. Their principle, however, is not to deceive 
 anyone as to their religious opinions, even should an honest 
 expression of views entail unpopularity. 
 
 1 1 owe this quotation to Shinde, Theistic Directory, 33. 
 * Vol. XX, 317.
 
 So MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The following is the official statement of the faith of the 
 Samaj : 
 
 Cardinal Principles of Faith 
 
 (1) God is the creator of this universe. He is the only true 
 God ; there is no other God beside him. He is eternal, spiritual, 
 infinite, the store of all good, all joy, without parts, without 
 form, one without a second, the ruler of all, all-pervading, 
 omniscient, almighty, merciful, all-holy and the saviour of 
 sinners. 
 
 (2) His worship alone leads to happiness in this world and 
 the next. 
 
 (3) Love and reverence for him, an exclusive faith in him, 
 praying and singing to him spiritually with these feelings 
 and doing the things pleasing to him constitute His true wor- 
 ship. 
 
 (4) To worship and pray to images and other created ob- 
 jects is not a true mode of divine adoration. 
 
 (5) God does not incarnate himself and there is no one 
 book which has been directly revealed by God or is wholly 
 infallible. 
 
 (6) All men are His children ; therefore they should behave 
 towards each other as brethren without distinction. This is 
 pleasing to God and constitutes man's duty. 1 
 
 5. The religious activities of the Samaj are the Sunday 
 services, the Sunday School, the Young Theists' Union (a 
 sort of Endeavour Society), the Anniversaries, the work of the 
 missionaries, the Postal Mission, which sends religious litera- 
 ture by post, and the Subodh Patrikd. 
 
 There are eight night-schools for working-people financed 
 and conducted by the Samaj ; there is a Free Reading Room 
 and Library in the Samaj building; and there is a Ladies' 
 Association for spreading instruction and culture among 
 women and girls. The Students' Brotherhood, a theistic 
 replica of a Young Men's Christian Association, is loosely 
 
 1 Prarthana Samaj Report, 1911-1912.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 81 
 
 associated with the Samaj. In Pandharpur an Orphanage 
 and Foundling Asylum supported by the Samaj has done 
 good work for many years. 
 
 But the greatest service which the Samaj has done to India 
 has been the organization of the Social Reform Movement. 
 Though not officially connected with the Samaj, nearly every 
 vigorous effort made in favour of social reform during the last 
 thirty years has been started, and largely carried on, by its 
 members. The same is true of the Depressed Classes' 
 Mission. We deal with these great movements below. 1 
 
 An All-India Theistic Conference is held annually which 
 brings the Brahma and Prarthana Samajes together. 
 
 LITERATURE. HISTORY: Vol. II, pp. 411-456 of History of the 
 Brahmo Samaj, by Sivanath Sastri, Calcutta, Chatterji, 1911-1912, 
 two vols. Rs. 6 ; and pp. 33-42 of The Theistic Directory, by V. R. 
 Shinde, Bombay, Prarthana Samaj, 1912. TEACHING: Religious 
 and Social Reform, by M. G. Ranade, Bombay, Claridge, 1902. The 
 Speeches and Writings of Sir N. G. Chandavarkar, Bombay, Mano- 
 ranjak Grantha Prasarak Mandali, 1911, Rs. 2 as. 8. 
 
 3. PARSES REFORM 
 
 i. One great branch of the Indo-European race lived long 
 before the Christian era somewhere in Central Asia to the 
 south of the Oxus River. This group finally broke in two, 
 the eastern wing passing into India, and creating its civili- 
 zation, the western colonizing Iran, and producing the Zoro- 
 astrian religion and the Persian Empire. On the rise of 
 Islam, Arab armies marched both east and west, conquering 
 every power that came in their way. The overthrow of 
 Persia was complete. In their new zeal for their religion, 
 the Muslim warriors offered the Persians the choice of Islam 
 or the sword. Only a remnant of the people were able 
 by escaping to the wilds of the North to retain both life 
 
 1 P. 372 and Chapter VI. 
 o
 
 82 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and religion. Even there, they were so much harassed 
 that a great company of them left Persia altogether, and 
 found their way into the province of Gujarat in Western 
 India. There the Hindus allowed them to settle under very 
 definite conditions. The exiles took root, and prospered. 
 Bombay is now their greatest centre, but they are still found in 
 Gujarat, and small groups reside in each of the great commer- 
 cial centres of the country. They call themselves Parsees, 
 i.e. Persians ; and they number about one hundred 
 thousand. 
 
 They brought with them certain copies of their sacred books, 
 but the disasters of their country had played terrible havoc 
 with its sacred literature. The people ascribe their most 
 serious losses to Alexander the Great ; but it is not known 
 how far the destruction of the Avesta is due to him, or to later 
 conquerors. In any case there has been most pitiable loss. 
 Professor Moulton says : 
 
 The faithful remnant who in the next century (i.e. after 
 the Moslem conquest) took refuge on the hospitable shores of 
 India, to find there a liberty of conscience which Mohammedan 
 Persia denied them, brought with them only fragments of the 
 literature that Sassanian piety had so laboriously gathered. 
 Altogether, Prof. William Jackson calculates, about two-thirds 
 of the Avesta have disappeared since the last Zoroastrian mon- 
 arch sat on the Persian throne. 1 
 
 As the Hindus and the Parsees are sister-peoples, so the 
 Zoroastrian religion and the Hindu faith have a good deal in 
 common. The religious reform introduced by Zoroaster did 
 for the Persians a larger and more fruitful service than that 
 done for the Hindus by the Vedanta philosophy. But, though 
 the monotheism and the ethics of Zoroaster had worked a 
 greater revolution than the Vedanta produced, yet the 
 religions still shewed their ancient kinship. Consequently, 
 . 1 Early Religious Poetry of Persia, 14.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 83 
 
 when a small band of hunted fugitives, carrying with them the 
 precious fragments of their national literature, settled in a 
 Hindu environment, they found themselves in somewhat con- 
 genial company; and, despite their exclusiveness, their life 
 and conceptions necessarily felt the influence of the powerful 
 community in the midst of which they were settled. Child- 
 marriage and the Zenana became universal among them. 
 Polygamy was not uncommon. The men ate separately from 
 the women. Many were ready to recognize Hindu festivals 
 and worship. The Parsee priesthood became a hereditary 
 caste. Religious, social and legal questions were settled, ac- 
 cording to Hindu custom, by a small body called the Panchayat. 
 
 2. If we consult Parsee writers as to the state of the Parsees 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, we shall be told 
 that the community was living in great ignorance, that the 
 ordinary Parsee received little education and did not under- 
 stand a word of his prayers or of the liturgy of Parsee worship, 
 and that very few of the priests were scholarly. They knew 
 the ritual and the liturgy, and were able to spell their way 
 through certain books of the Avesta; but there seems to have 
 been no thought-movement among them, and no vivid reali- 
 zation of the importance of the spiritual elements of their 
 religion as compared with the ritual. The whole people 
 tended to stand aloof from the other communities of India, 
 making pride in their religion and race the reason for their 
 exclusiveness. 
 
 In material things the Parsees were very prosperous. They 
 held a great place in Indian commerce, and many families 
 had risen to opulence. They were highly respected alike by 
 Hindus and Muhammadans. 
 
 3. We have seen above 1 that Western education was intro- 
 duced into the Bombay Presidency in 1820, and that in 1827 
 money was raised which finally created the Elphinstone Col- 
 
 1 P. 74, above.
 
 84 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 lege. In 1835 John Wilson began Christian College education 
 in Bombay ; in 1839 three Parsees were baptized ; and in 
 1843 Wilson's work on the Parsee religion appeared. In a 
 letter to me Mr. R. P. Karkaria writes : 
 
 This work, which mercilessly exposed the weak points of the 
 popular system believed in by the laity and the clergy in their 
 ignorance, was really epoch-making, not only for its scholar- 
 ship it was the first European book based on a first-hand 
 knowledge of Parsi sacred language and books but for the 
 effect it has had on our religion itself, which it helped materially 
 to purify. It put Parsis on their mettle. Numerous were 
 the criticisms and replies, mostly ignorant and some down- 
 right stupid. In a few years sensible Parsis set to work to put 
 their house in order, so to say. 
 
 In 1849 th ev started schools for the boys and girls of the 
 community, so that no child should have to go without educa- 
 tion. As the Panchayat had lost all power over the commu- 
 nity, and reform was seriously needed, a group of influential 
 and wealthy Parsees and a number of young men fresh from 
 Elphinstone College formed, in 1851, the Rahnumai Mazday- 
 asnan Sabhd, or Religious Reform Association, which had for 
 its object " the regeneration of the social condition of the Par- 
 sees and the restoration of the Zoroastrian religion to its pris- 
 tine purity." The more notable men in this group were Dad- 
 abhai Naoroji, J. B. Wacha, S. S. Bangali and Naoroji Fur- 
 donji. They established at the same time the Rast Goftar, 
 or Truth-teller, a weekly journal, which proved a powerful 
 instrument in their hands. By lectures, meetings and litera- 
 ture they stirred the community to its depths with their pro- 
 posals of reform. At first they encountered a great deal of 
 opposition from the orthodox. 1 But they persevered, and at 
 last achieved considerable success : 
 
 These early reformers were very cautious, discreet, sagacious 
 and tactful in their movement. They rallied round them 
 1 See below, p. 343.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 85 
 
 as many Parsi leading priests of the day as they could and 
 submitted to them in a well-formulated form specific questions 
 under specific heads, asking their opinion if such and such 
 practice, dogma, creed, ceremony, etc., were in strict con- 
 formity with the teachings of the religion of Zoroaster, or con- 
 travened those teachings. Fortified by these opinions, the re- 
 formers carried on their propaganda in the way of lectures, 
 public meetings, pamphlets and articles in the Rast Go/tar. 
 One cannot rise from the perusal of these articles without being 
 thoroughly impressed with a sense of candour, thorough in- 
 dependence and an unmixed desire to extricate their co-reli- 
 gionists from the thraldom of all those practices, rituals and 
 creed for which there was no warrant within the four corners 
 of the authentic Zoroastrian scriptures. 1 
 
 In 1858 a group of educated Parsees started a movement for 
 helping their brethren, the remnant of the old Zoroastrians 
 of Persia, now known as the Gabars, 2 who were very 
 seriously oppressed by the Shah's government. After twenty- 
 four years of agitation, they were released, in 1882, from the 
 poll-tax, jizya, which weighed heavily upon them. The 
 Parsees have also assisted them financially. 
 
 A little later a new element was introduced. A young man 
 belonging to one of the great commercial families, Kharshedji 
 Rustamji Cama, 3 went to Europe on business ; and, before he 
 returned to Bombay in 1859, proceeded to the Continent, 
 where he studied the Avesta in the original under the greatest 
 Avestan scholars of Europe. 4 What he did in Bombay from 
 1 86 1 onwards had better be told in the words of one of my 
 correspondents : b 
 
 On his return he began teaching to a few disciples the Avesta, 
 the Parsi scriptures, by the Western methods comparative 
 
 1 ISR., XXII, 113. 
 
 2 See art. Gabars in ERE. 
 
 See his portrait, Plate IV, facing page 76. 
 
 4 For the rise of Avestan scholarship, see p. 8 n. above. 
 
 1 Professor P. A. Wadia.
 
 86 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 study of the Iranian languages and grammar. The most famous 
 of his disciples were Sheriarji Bharucha, who is still alive, 
 Temurasp Anklesaria, a most distinguished scholar of Pahlavi, 
 who died about ten years ago, and Kavasji Kanga. He also 
 helped largely in the foundation of two Madressas, or institu- 
 tions devoted to the study of the Iranian languages and scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 His main purpose was to create a new type of Parsee priests 
 who, by their education and character, might be able to lead 
 the community, and also by study to realize what the real 
 teaching of Zoroaster was, and so be able to show authority 
 for casting off the many superstitious accretions which the 
 religion had gathered in the course of the centuries. 
 
 Meantime, through the encouragement of the reformers, 
 English education had laid hold of the Parsee community. 
 They built schools for themselves. The education of girls 
 made great progress. A certain amount of religious instruc- 
 tion was given in the schools. The age of marriage was 
 gradually raised; and, within a comparatively short space 
 of time, Parsee women achieved their emancipation. They 
 began to move about freely in the open air, both on foot 
 and in carriages, while in former years, if they went out at all, 
 the blinds of the carriage were always closely drawn. English 
 dress came more and more into use ; the European mode of 
 dining at table was accepted ; and men and women began to 
 eat together : 
 
 The Parsi mode of life may be described to be an eclectic 
 ensemble, half-European and half-Hindu. As they advance 
 every year in civilization and enlightenment, they copy more 
 closely English manners and modes of living. 1 
 
 Many hold that Western influence has gone too far. Thus, 
 Mr. R. P. Karkaria, writing of Government education, says : 
 
 1 Karaka I, 123.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 87 
 
 It helped the reformers, but went much farther than they 
 intended, and has bred up a generation which is too reformed, 
 a generation which is not quite strictly Parsee or Christian or 
 anything in religion. 
 
 This has helped the conservative movement dealt with below. 1 
 
 4. Mr. B. M. Malabari, a Parsee government servant, who 
 later became a journalist, exercised a very wide and powerful 
 influence in the cause of women and children in India. His 
 pamphlet on Infant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood? 
 published in 1887, stirred public opinion to the depths. In 
 his journal, The Indian Spectator, he continued the struggle 
 for more humane treatment for the women and children of 
 India. When in England in 1890, he published, in pamphlet 
 form, an. Appeal on behalf of tJte daughters of India, which power- 
 fully moved English feeling. Finally, in 1908, in conjunction 
 with his biographer, Mr. Dayaram Gidumal, he founded the 
 Seva Sadan. 3 
 
 5. The culture and wide business relations of theParsees 
 have brought them into very close relations with Europeans, 
 and there have been several intermarriages. One wealthy 
 Parsee married a French lady. She declared herself a Zoroas- 
 trian by faith ; and, wishing to be a true wife in all things to 
 her husband, sought admission to the Parsee community, that 
 she might share his religious life with him to the full. The 
 advanced party wished to agree to the proposal ; but necessa- 
 rily opposition arose ; for the Parsees have not admitted (ex- 
 cept stealthily) any foreigner to their ranks for centuries; 
 and the priests refused her admission. 4 For, though reform 
 has done much for the Parsee community in general, the 
 priests have lagged pitiably behind. Very few of them are 
 men of education ; and, even if they know their own Scrip- 
 tures, they have no knowledge of the West, and are therefore 
 quite unfit to lead the community to-day. In consequence, 
 
 1 P- 343- 2 Below, pp. 389 and 396. 3 P. 380, below. 
 
 4 A great lawsuit followed, but it did not result in a clear decision.
 
 88 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 a new demand has arisen for educated priests. Parsees con- 
 trast their priests with the missionaries they see around them. 
 A valued correspondent writes : 
 
 There is an increasing demand for educated priests, capa- 
 ble of satisfying the spiritual needs of an educated community, 
 which is no longer content with accepting everything on author- 
 ity. Amongst us hitherto the priests have been illiterate, 
 ignorant, and therefore unfit for the new demands created by 
 the times. They have to depend not upon fixed salaries or 
 endowments but upon fees and payments received for reciting 
 prayers and performing ceremonies. There is an increasing 
 demand for priests who by preaching and example can set up 
 an ideal for the faithful to follow. Hitherto we have had little 
 of preaching or sermonizing, or even of philosophical exposition 
 of tenets. 1 
 
 The most advanced party are also convinced that there is 
 still much required in the way of religious and social reform. 
 
 But a number of the leading men of the community have 
 come to believe that the Parsees are losing their primacy in 
 India, that they no longer control commerce to the extent 
 they used to do, and that physical degeneration has set in 
 amongst them. Strangely enough, one of the boldest and most 
 cultured of modern Parsees, the Hon. Justice Sir Dinshaw 
 Davar, puts down this supposed degeneracy to modern educa- 
 tion. Others have, however, no difficulty in answering him. 
 It is clear that it is city life, sedentary occupations and the 
 want of regular exercise which is producing the phenomena 
 referred to. 
 
 6. A Parsee priest named Dhala went to America and 
 studied in the University of Columbia under Professor Jack- 
 son, the famous Zoroastrian scholar. He returned to India 
 in 1909, and, in order to focus the reform movement, pro- 
 posed a Zoroastrian Conference. The following quotation 
 gives the main facts: 
 
 1 Professor Wadia.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 89 
 
 A couple of years ago, Dr. Dhala, a young energetic Parsi 
 divine, fresh from his long and arduous studies of the Parsi 
 Religion at the University of Columbia, as elucidated by scholars 
 and savants of English, European and American reputation, 
 whose labours and researches in the field of Avesta literature 
 have thrown a flood of light on the philosophical teachings and 
 speculations of our revered prophet, conceived the idea of having 
 a Conference on some such lines as the Indian Social Confer- 
 ence held every year by our sister community, the Hindus. 
 The raison d'etre of the Conference was to inaugurate a liberal 
 movement for the purpose of restoring Zoroastrian religion 
 to its pristine sublimity and simplicity, in other words, to weed 
 out all practices, beliefs, creeds, rituals, ceremonies and dogmas 
 that have clustered round the true original religion, and to in- 
 struct and guide the community accordingly. 1 
 
 The Conference was held in April, 1910, and a variety of 
 questions, religious, social and educational were discussed. 
 The need of an educated priesthood, and the need of serious 
 moral and religious education in schools, were strongly 
 emphasized. But the conservatives 2 opposed, and violent 
 scenes interrupted the proceedings, the result being that the 
 gathering which had been created by the reformers for the 
 sake of securing a great advance became rather a rallying 
 centre for the conservative party. The Second Conference, 
 held in 1911, also suffered seriously from the same causes. 
 
 The third and fourth Conferences, held in 1912 and 1913, 
 were largely attended and very successful, and were not marred 
 by violent opposition. The membership has grown to 500. 
 The Conference is pressing forward the following schemes for 
 the betterment of the community : 
 
 i. Lectures. Dr. Dhala and Mr. D. H. Madan, advocate 
 of the Bombay High Court, and several others, have delivered 
 lectures on Zoroastrianism in the vernacular to very large au- 
 diences in Bombay and throughout Gujarat. 
 
 1 ISR., XXII, 1 13. P. 345, below.
 
 90 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 2. Revision of the Calendar. 
 
 3. Education of Parsee priests. Money is available for this 
 project, but the scheme is not yet ripe. 
 
 4. Industrial and Technical Education. A sub-committee 
 has been appointed for this purpose. 
 
 5. Medical Inspection of School Children. The special 
 Committee on this subject has 35 doctors to carry out the work. 
 
 6. Charity Organization. A scheme was proposed by Pro- 
 fessor Henderson of Chicago but it is still in embryo. 
 
 7. Dairy Scheme. A limited liability company is being 
 organized to supply sterilized milk, first to Parsee children, 
 then to others. 
 
 8. Agricultural Scheme. A proposal has been made to pur- 
 chase land for a new organization to conduct farming. 
 
 The leaders of the progressive party are Dr. Dhala, Sir P. 
 M. Mehta, Sir Dinshaw Petit, the three Tatas, Mr. H. A. 
 Wadia and Dr. Katrak. The paper that represents their 
 position is The Parsee. 
 
 The rise and growing influence of the propaganda of the 
 Theosophic party 1 led in 1911 to the organization within the 
 reforming party of a society to resist and expose it. It is 
 called The Iranian Association. The following are the ob- 
 jects the members have in view : 
 
 1. To maintain the purity of the Zoroastrian religion and 
 remove the excrescences that have gathered around it. 
 
 2. To expose and counteract the effects of such teachings 
 of Theosophists and others as tend : 
 
 (a) to corrupt the religion of Zarathushtra by adding ele- 
 ments foreign to it, and 
 
 (b) to bring about the degeneration of a progressive and 
 virile community like the Parsis, and make them a body of 
 superstitious and unpractical visionaries. 
 
 3. To promote measures for the welfare and advancement 
 of the community. 
 
 1 P. 344, below.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 91 
 
 Since March, 1912, the Association has published the Journal 
 of the Iranian Association, a small monthly, partly in English, 
 partly in Gujaratl. 
 
 LITERATURE. History of the Parsis, by Dosabhai Framji Karaka, 
 London, Macmillan, 1884, 2 vols., 365. The Pdrsi Religion, by 
 John Wilson, D.D., Bombay, American Mission Press, 1843, out 
 of print. The K. R. Cama Memorial Volume, by Jivanji Jamshedji 
 Modi, Bombay, Fort Printing Press, 1900. Dadabhai Naoroji, 
 A Sketch of his Life and Life Work, Madras, Natesan, as. 4. B. 
 M. Malabari, a Biographical Sketch, by Dayaram Gidumal, with Intro- 
 duction by Florence Nightingale, London, Fisher Unwin, 1892. In- 
 fant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood in India, by B. M. Malabari, 
 Bombay, Voice of India Press, 1887. 
 
 4. MUHAMMADAN REFORM 
 
 i. By the opening of the nineteenth century the collapse 
 of the Muhammadan empire in India was complete, although 
 the name and the shadow continued to exist in Delhi for half 
 a century longer. Necessarily, the fall of this mighty empire, 
 which had wielded so much power and controlled so much 
 wealth, produced the direst effects upon the Muhammadans 
 of North India. True, the Empire collapsed through inner 
 decay, so that serious evils were there before the fall ; yet 
 the actual transference of the power and the prestige produced 
 widespread degradation. The whole community sank with 
 the empire. Necessarily, there was very bitter feeling against 
 the European who had so unceremoniously helped himself to 
 the empire of their fathers. The old education and culture 
 rapidly declined ; and for many decades Muhammadans 
 failed to take advantage of the new education planted by the 
 conqueror. The consequence was that, throughout North 
 India, the relative positions of the Hindu and Muhammadan 
 communities steadily changed, the former rising in knowledge, 
 wealth and position, the latter declining.
 
 92 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 2. Syed Ahmad Khan came of an ancient noble family 
 which had long been connected with Government. After 
 receiving a Muhammadan education, he had found a position 
 under the British administration. In these and other particu- 
 lars of his life and experience he was very like Ram Mohan 
 Ray, only he came about forty years later, and was connected 
 not with Calcutta but Delhi. While he was still young, he 
 began to see how matters stood. During the Mutiny his 
 loyalty never wavered, and he was instrumental in saving 
 many Europeans. As soon as peace returned, he wrote a pam- 
 phlet, called The Causes of the Indian Mutiny, but, unfortu- 
 nately, it was not published until five years later. That piece 
 of work showed most clearly what a shrewd, capable man the 
 writer was, and how invaluable he might be as an intermediary 
 between the Government and the Muhammadan community. 
 
 But the Mutiny opened Syed Ahmad's eyes also. It showed 
 him, as by a flash of lightning, the frightful danger in which his 
 community stood. He had early grasped the real value of 
 British rule in India, and had thereby been led to believe that 
 it would prove stable in spite of any such storm as the Mutiny. 
 He now saw clearly that the Muhammadans of India must 
 absorb the science and the education of the West, and must 
 also introduce large social reform amongst themselves, or else 
 fall into complete helplessness and ruin. He therefore at 
 once set about making plans for persuading his brethren of 
 the truth of his ideas. He talked incessantly to his personal 
 friends, published pamphlets and books, and formed an asso- 
 ciation for the study of Western science. He frankly said, 
 "All the religious learning in Muhammadan libraries is of 
 no avail." He established English schools, and struggled in 
 every possible way to convince his community of the wisdom 
 of learning English and absorbing the culture of the West. 
 But he saw as clearly that Englishmen also required to learn. 
 It was most necessary that they should know Indian opinion
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 93 
 
 and sympathize with Indian aspirations. Hence in 1866 the 
 British-Indian Association was founded, in order to focus 
 Indian opinion on political questions, yet in utmost loyalty to 
 the British Government, and to represent Indian ideas in Par- 
 liament. Then, in order to further his plans, both educational 
 and political, he visited England with his son in 1869, and 
 spent seventeen months there, studying English life and poli- 
 tics but giving the major part of his time and attention to 
 education. 
 
 When he returned to India, he began the publication of a 
 monthly periodical in Urdu, the Tahzibu'l Akhldq or Reform 
 of Morals. It dealt with religious, social and educational 
 subjects in a courageous spirit. He combated prejudice 
 against Western science, advocated greater social freedom, and 
 sought to rouse the Muhammadan community to self-con- 
 fidence and vigorous effort. He urged that there was no reli- 
 gious reason why Muslims should not dine with Europeans, 
 provided there was no forbidden food on the table, and boldly 
 put his teaching into practice, living in European style, re- 
 ceiving Englishmen as his guests and accepting their hos- 
 pitality in return. In consequence, he was excommunicated, 
 slandered and persecuted. He was called atheist, renegade, 
 antichrist. Men threatened to kill him. But he held bravely 
 on. 
 
 3. The climax of his educational efforts was the creation of 
 the Anglo-Muhammadan College at Aligarh. He conceived 
 the institution, roused public opinion in its favour and gathered 
 the funds for its buildings and its endowment. His idea was 
 to create an institution which should do for young Muslims 
 what Oxford and Cambridge were doing for Englishmen. He 
 believed that a good education on Western lines, supported 
 by wise religious teaching from the Koran, would produce 
 young Muhammadans of capacity and character. Aligarh is 
 thus the first college founded by an Indian that follows the
 
 94 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 missionary idea, that education must rest on religion. The 
 founder did his best to reproduce in India what he had seen 
 in Oxford and Cambridge. The students reside in the Col- 
 lege ; there are resident tutors who are expected to develop 
 character as well as intellect ; athletics are prominent ; and 
 religion is an integral part of the work of the College. The 
 Principal and several members of the staff are always Euro- 
 peans. The prospectus states that the College was founded 
 with the following objects: 
 
 1. To establish a College in which Musalmans may acquire 
 an English education without prejudice to their religion. 
 
 2. To organize a Boarding-House to which a parent may send 
 his son in the confidence that the boy's conduct will be care- 
 fully supervised, and in which he will be kept free from the 
 temptations which beset a youth in big towns. 
 
 3. To give as complete an education as possible, which, 
 while developing intellect, will provide physical training, foster 
 good manners, and improve the moral character. 
 
 The following sentences from the Prospectus show how reli- 
 gious instruction is given : 
 
 A Maulvi of well-known learning and piety has been specially 
 appointed to supervise the religious life of the students and 
 conduct the prayers in the College Mosque. 
 
 Religious instruction is given to Musalman students, to 
 Sunnis by a Sunni, and to Shias by a Shia ; the books of The- 
 ology taught are prescribed by committees of orthodox Sunnis 
 and Shias, respectively. 
 
 The first period of each day's work is devoted to the lectures 
 on Theology, and attendance at these lectures is enforced by 
 regulations as stringent as those regulating the ordinary class 
 work of the College. 
 
 Attendance at prayers in the College Mosque is also com- 
 pulsory, and students who are irregular are severely punished. 
 Students are expected to fast during the month of Ramzan. 
 
 On Friday, the College is closed at eleven so as to allow the
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 95 
 
 students to attend at Juma prayers, after which a sermon is 
 delivered by the Resident Maulvi. 
 
 All Islamic festivals are observed as holidays in the College. 
 
 The College has proved truly successful. It has given the 
 Muhammadan community new courage and confidence. A 
 striking succession of English University men have occupied 
 the position of Principal, and have succeeded in producing 
 something of the spirit and tone of English public school and 
 University life among the students. A steady stream of young 
 men of education and character passes from the College into 
 the service of Government and the professions. It has con- 
 vinced thoughtful Muhammadans of the wisdom of accepting 
 Western education. It has proved a source of enlightenment 
 and progressive thought. But, it must be confessed, the reli- 
 gious influence of the College does not seem to be at all promi- 
 nent or pervasive. 
 
 In 1886 interest in modern education had made so much 
 progress that Syed Ahmad Khan was able to start the Muham- 
 madan Educational Conference, which meets annually, now 
 in one centre and now in another. It has done a great deal 
 to rouse Muhammadans to their own backwardness and piti- 
 able need. In recent years a Conference of Muslim ladies has 
 met alongside the main Conference to deal with female edu- 
 cation. 1 
 
 4. With the Syed also began the permeation of the Muham- 
 madan community in India with modern ideas in religion. 
 
 After the death of Muhammad, Muslim teachers gathered 
 all the traditions about him, and sought to form a systematic 
 body of doctrine and of law for believers. Orthodoxy gradu- 
 ally took shape. The doctrine of the divine will and the 
 divine decrees was stated in such a form as to make human 
 freedom almost an impossibility. The Koran was declared to 
 be the eternal and uncreated Word of God. Crude concep- 
 1 ISR., XXII, 247.
 
 96 
 
 tions of God and His attributes became crystallized in Muslim 
 doctrine. Rules for family and social life were fixed in rigid 
 form. 
 
 But as conquest brought vast territories of both the East 
 and the West under Islamic rule, the conquerors came into 
 close touch with Greek and Christian civilization. At Bag- 
 dad, especially, the science and philosophy of Greece were 
 carefully cultivated. Christian monks taught and translated. 
 From this living intercourse there arose, in the eighth century 
 A.D., a great movement of Muhammadan thought. Learned 
 teachers began to defend the freedom of the will, to speculate 
 on the nature of the Godhead, and to discuss the Koran. A 
 new school, the Mu'tazilites, arose, characterized by freedom 
 of thought, great confidence in reason, and a keen sense of 
 the importance of the moral issues of life. They held the free- 
 dom of the human will, pronounced against the doctrine of 
 the resurrection of the body, and declared that the Koran was 
 created in time, and that there was a human element in it 
 alongside the divine. They were opposed to polygamy. But 
 this enlightened school was soon pronounced heretical, and 
 passed out of existence. 
 
 It is most interesting to note that Western thought pro- 
 duced almost identical results in India in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. Early in life Syed Ahmad Khan openly abandoned the 
 charge, which is so often made by orthodox Muhammadans, 
 that Christians have seriously corrupted the text of the Old 
 and New Testaments. He urged his fellow-believers that 
 they should not consider Christians as Kafirs and enemies, 
 and declared that the Bible and the Koran, when rightly 
 understood, did not contradict one another. Readers will 
 note how closely his position approximates to the teaching 
 of Ram Mohan Ray. The resemblance in many respects is 
 very striking: the Hindu leader published The Precepts oj 
 Jesus: the Muhammadan reformer published a fragment of a
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 97 
 
 Commentary on Genesis, which has been of real service in 
 opening Muhammadan minds. He held that in the Koran, 
 as in the Bible, we must acknowledge the presence of a human 
 element as well as a divine. The rest of his religious concep- 
 tions have been outlined by a trustworthy scholar as follows : 
 
 But his thought (system we cannot call it) is more influenced 
 by the conceptions of conscience and nature. Conscience, 
 he says, is the condition of man's character which results from 
 training and reflection. It may rightly be called his true guide 
 and his real prophet. Still, it is liable to mutability, and needs 
 to be corrected from time to time by historic prophets. To 
 test a prophet we must compare the principles of his teaching 
 with the laws of nature. If it agrees with these we are to accept 
 it, and he quotes with approval the remark of a French writer, 
 that Islam, which lays no claim to miraculous powers on the 
 part of the founder, is the truly rationalistic religion. Muham- 
 mad, he claims, set forth the Divine unity with the greatest 
 possible clearness and simplicity : first, Unity of Essence, which 
 he promulgated afresh; second, Unity of Attributes, which 
 the Christians had wrongly hypostatized in their doctrine of 
 the Trinity ; third, Unity of Worship in the universal and uni- 
 form rendering of that devotion which is due to God alone, 
 thus securing the doctrine of the Unity against all practical 
 encroachments through corrupt observances. 1 
 
 He made much of reason. One of his phrases was, ' Reason 
 alone is a sufficient guide.' He spoke and wrote in favour 
 of Natural Religion. Hence his followers are called Naturis. 
 The word has been corrupted into Necharis, and occurs in 
 this form in Census Reports and elsewhere. The Syed won 
 the confidence of Government, became a member of the 
 Viceroy's Legislative Council, and was knighted. 
 
 His principles have been accepted and carried farther by 
 several writers, notably Moulvie Chiragh Ali and The Right 
 
 1 Weitbrecht, Indian Islam and Modern Thought, 5 (Church Congress, 
 1905). 
 
 H
 
 98 MODERN L RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Hon. Syed Amir All. Their work is almost entirely apologetic. 
 They have a double aim in view, first, to defend Islam from 
 Christian criticism and the corroding influences of Western 
 thought in general, and, secondly, to prove that the religious, 
 social, moral and political reforms, which, through Christian 
 teaching, modern thought and the pressure of the times, are 
 being inevitably forced on Muhammadan society, are in full 
 consonance with Islam. As the practice of Muhammad him- 
 self, Muhammadan Law and orthodox teaching are all unques- 
 tionably opposed to these things, the line of argument taken is 
 that the spirit 1 of Islam is all in their favour, and that every- 
 thing else is to be regarded as of the nature of concessions to 
 human frailty. This theory is elaborately worked out in 
 Syed Amir Ali's Spirit of Islam. There we are told that the 
 Koran in reality discourages slavery, religious war, polygamy 
 and the seclusion of women. Of this writer a competent 
 scholar 2 says : 
 
 The Syed is at the stage of explaining things away, and it is 
 fair to say that he does it at the expense of much hardly ingenu- 
 ous ingenuity and a good deal of suppressio veri. 
 
 But the very hopelessness of these positions from the critical 
 point of view may be to us the measure of the forces that are 
 driving the writers to plead for the reforms and to find justi- 
 fication for them. Syed Amir Ali definitely identifies himself 
 with the Mu'tazilite school, both in their theology and their 
 social ideas, and believes that large numbers of Indian Mu- 
 hammadans are with him in his opinions. 
 
 As to the results of the movement the following statement 
 may suffice : 
 
 The energies of the reform movement at present find their 
 vent in the promotion of education and of social reforms. 
 
 1 Cf. p. 334, below. 2 D. B. Macdonald in IRM., April 1913, p. 377.
 
 MOVEMENTS FAVOURING VIGOROUS REFORM 99 
 
 The Aligarh College, under a series of capable English prin- 
 cipals and professors, is training up a new generation of Muham- 
 madan gentlemen in an atmosphere of manly culture and good 
 breeding, with high ethical ideals. The yearly meeting of 
 the Educational Conference both works practically for the ad- 
 vancement of enlightenment among Indian Muhammadans 
 and also affords an opportunity for exchange of thought and 
 propagation of reforming ideas. Thus some years ago a lead- 
 ing Muhammadan gentleman known as the Agha Khan, when 
 presiding over the Conference at Madras, trenchantly impressed 
 upon his hearers that the progress of the community was chiefly 
 hindered by three evils : by the seclusion and non-education of 
 women, by theoretical and practical fatalism, and by religious 
 formalism; an enlightened self-criticism which commands 
 sympathy and admiration. The questions of polygamy and 
 female seclusion are being actively debated in the press and other- 
 wise, and some leading Muhammadan gentry have broken 
 the ordinance of the veil and appear in public with their wives 
 and daughters in European dress. 
 
 As far as regards theological thought, competent Indian 
 observers are of opinion that the rationalism of Sir Syed Ahmad 
 is not at present being developed ; but that there is rather a 
 relapse towards a passive acceptance of Muslim orthodoxy. 1 
 Still, there is no doubt that the movement has tended to in- 
 crease openness and fairness of mind among the educated classes. 2 
 
 A few educated Indian Muhammadans during recent years 
 have reached a more advanced position. Mr. S. Khuda 
 Bukhsh, M.A., one of the Professors of the Presidency College, 
 Calcutta, has published a volume entitled, Essays, Indian and 
 Islamic, which the present writer has not seen, but which is 
 characterized as follows by one of our best scholars : 
 
 He has read his Goldziher and accepts his positions. He 
 knows what a monogamous marriage means and confesses 
 frankly the gulf between it and marriage in Islam; and he 
 does not try to prove that Islam does not sanction polygamy. 
 
 1 P. 347, below. 2 Weitbrecht, p. 7.
 
 ioo MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 With similar candour he views the other broad differences of 
 East and West. How, then, is he a Moslem ? He would go 
 back to the Koran and Mohammed and would sweep away all 
 the labours of the schoolman by which these have been over- 
 laid. Above all he is fascinated by the music and magic of 
 the Koran. That book and a broad feeling of loyalty to the 
 traditions of his ancestors are evidently the forces which hold 
 him. 1 
 
 It is probably true, as the Right Hon. Syed Amir All said 
 to me, that there are very few indeed who are ready to 
 follow Mr. Bukhsh. For the modern conservative move- 
 ment among Muslims see p. 347. 
 
 LITERATURE. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, by General Graham, Lon- 
 don, Hodder, 1909. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Madras, Natesan, 
 as. 4. The Spirit of Islam, by Syed Amir Ali, Calcutta, Lahiri 
 and Co., 1890. Essays, Indian and Islamic, by Khuda Bukhsh, 
 London, Probsthain, 1912, 75. 6d. net. 
 
 1 D. B. Macdonald, IRM., April, 1913, p. 378.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WE have seen in the historical outline that about 1870 a 
 great change began to make itself manifest in the Hindu spirit. 
 The educated Indian suddenly grew up, and shewed that he 
 had a mind of his own. Religiously, the change manifested 
 itself in a disposition to proclaim Hinduism one of the greatest 
 religions. The same temper appeared among Buddhists, 
 Jains, Muslims and Parsees ; but the movement shewed itself, 
 first of all, among Hindus. It also took many forms. We 
 propose to divide the many movements and organizations 
 incarnating this spirit into two groups, according as they 
 defend only a part or the whole of the ancient faith. This 
 chapter will deal with those that defend only a part. Every 
 movement in this group opposes Hindu idolatry ; but several 
 of them worship their gurus, a practice which leads to idolatry. 
 The attitude to caste in all cases is very ambiguous. 
 
 i. THE ARYA SAMAJ 
 
 i. This powerful body, which during the last twenty years 
 has expanded rapidly in the Panjab and the United Provinces, 
 is so completely the creation of its founder that a brief sketch 
 of his life is the indispensable introduction to a study of the 
 movement. 
 
 For the first thirty-three years of his life we have a very 
 clear and informing witness, a fragment of an autobiography, 
 dictated by him, and published in the Theosophist, in October
 
 102 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and December, 1879, and November, iSSo. 1 This sketch 
 seems to be on the whole trustworthy. It certainly enables 
 us to trace in some degree the growth of his mind during the 
 period which it covers. 
 
 In the small town of Tankara, 2 belonging to the native state 
 of Morvi, Kathiawar, Western India, there lived early last 
 century a wealthy Brahman, named Amba Sankara. He held 
 the position of Jamadar of the town, which his fathers had 
 held before him, and was a banker besides. He was a devout 
 Hindu, an ardent and faithful worshipper of Siva. To this 
 man was born, in 1824, a son, whom he named Mula Sankara. 
 The father was above all things anxious that the boy should 
 prove a religious man and should accept his father's religion. 
 Accordingly he was careful to give him a Hindu education. 
 By the time he was fourteen the boy had learnt by heart 
 large pieces of the Vedas and had made some progress in 
 Sanskrit grammar. 
 
 At this time the first crisis in his life occurred. As the 
 incident is one of the most vivid episodes in the Autobi- 
 ography, 3 we give it in his own words : 
 
 When the great day of gloom and fasting called Sivaratri 
 had arrived, this day falling on the i3th of Vadya of Magh, 
 my father, regardless of the protest that my strength might fail, 
 commanded me to fast, adding that I had to be initiated on 
 that night into the sacred legend, and participate in that night's 
 long vigil in the temple of Siva. Accordingly, I followed him 
 along with other young men, who accompanied their parents. 
 This vigil is divided into four parts, called praharas, consisting 
 of three hours each. Having completed my task, namely, 
 having sat up for the first two praharas till the hour of mid- 
 
 1 Republished as an introduction to the English translation of the 
 Satyarth Prakash, by Durga Prasad. 
 
 2 For the name of the town I am indebted to Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson of 
 Rajkot, and also for the names of the father and the son. 
 
 Pp. 2-3.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 103 
 
 night, I remarked that the Pujaris, or temple servants, and some 
 of the lay devotees, after having left the inner temple, had 
 fallen asleep outside. Having been taught for years that by 
 sleeping on that particular night, the worshipper lost all the 
 good effect of his devotion, I tried to refrain from drowsiness 
 by bathing my eyes now and then with cold water. But my 
 father was less fortunate. Unable to resist fatigue, he was 
 the first to fall asleep, leaving me to watch alone. 
 
 Thoughts upon thoughts crowded upon me, and one ques- 
 tion arose after the other in my disturbed mind. Is it possible, 
 I asked myself, that this semblance of man, the idol of a 
 personal God that I see bestriding his bull before me, and who, 
 according to all religious accounts, walks about, eats, sleeps 
 and drinks ; who can hold a trident in his hand, beat upon his 
 damaru drum, and pronounce curses upon men, is it pos- 
 sible that he can be the Mahadeva, the Great Deity, the same 
 that is invoked as the Lord of Kailash, the Supreme Being and 
 the Divine hero of all the stories we read of him in his Pu- 
 ranas ? Unable to resist such thoughts any longer, I awoke my 
 father, abruptly asking him to enlighten me, to tell me whether 
 this hideous emblem of Siva in the temple was identical with the 
 Mahadeva, of the scriptures, or something else. "Why do 
 you ask it?" said my father. "Because," I answered, "I feel 
 it impossible to reconcile the idea of an omnipotent, living God, 
 with this idol, which allows the mice to run upon its body, and 
 thus suffers its image to be polluted without the slightest pro- 
 test." Then my father tried to explain to me that this stone 
 representation of the Mahadeva of Kailash, having been con- 
 secrated with the Veda mantras (verses) in the most solemn 
 way by the holy Brahmins, became, in consequence, the God 
 himself, and is worshipped as such, adding that, as Siva cannot 
 be perceived personally in this Kali-Yuga the age of mental 
 darkness, we hence have the idol in which the Mahadeva 
 of Kailash is worshipped by his votaries ; this kind of worship 
 is pleasing to the great Deity as much as if, instead of the em- 
 blem, he were there himself. But the explanation fell short of 
 satisfying me. I could not, young as I was, help suspecting 
 misinterpretation and sophistry in all this. Feeling faint 
 with hunger and fatigue, I begged to be allowed to go home.
 
 104 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 My father consented to it, and sent me away with a Sepoy, 
 only reiterating once more his command that I should not eat. 
 But when, once home, I had told my mother of my hunger, she 
 fed me with sweetmeats, and I fell into a profound sleep. 
 
 Every one will feel the beat of conviction in this fine pas- 
 sage ; and the results of it are visible in the crusade of the 
 Arya Samaj against idolatry to this day. But every one who 
 knows India will also agree that what happened is scarcely 
 comprehensible in a Hindu boy of fourteen years of age, unless 
 he had already heard idolatry condemned. Brooding over the 
 problem, I wrote to my friend, Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson of 
 Rajkot, Kathiawar, and asked whether Sthanakavasi influence 
 could be traced in or about the boy's birth-place at that time. 
 The Sthanakavasis are a group of Jains who gave up idolatry 
 and broke away from the main Svetambara sect in the fifteenth 
 century. 1 Mrs. Stevenson writes : 
 
 Tahkara is fourteen miles south of Morvi, and about twenty- 
 three miles north of Rajkot. In the thirties, the father of 
 the present Thakur Saheb of Morvi was ruling. He was very 
 devoted to a certain Sthanakavasi monk, and the Prime Minis- 
 ter also was a Sthanakavasi; so that the sect was then very 
 powerful and influential in the Morvi state. All monks and 
 nuns, travelling from the town of Morvi to Rajkot (another 
 Sthanakavasi stronghold), passed through Taiikara, where 
 Amba Sankara and his son lived. 
 
 This clearly gives the environment which prepared the boy 
 for his experience in the temple. 
 
 Four years later the sudden death of a sister convulsed him 
 with grief, and made him realize to the full the horror of death. 
 He thereupon resolved that he would allow nothing to restrain 
 him from winning moksha, that is, emancipation from transmi- 
 gration, the Hindu idea of salvation. Consequently, he re- 
 turned to his studies with redoubled energy, and made up his 
 
 1 P. 326, below.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 105 
 
 mind to allow no such entanglement as marriage to impede him 
 in his quest. In 1 846, when he was twenty-one or twenty- two, 
 his parents determined to get him married ; but he fled from 
 home. Thus ends the first section of his life. 
 
 2. In his wanderings he met a number of ascetics, who re- 
 ceived him into their order. His father came out to seek 
 for him and caught him, but he escaped once more. He then 
 met with a sannyasi named Brahmanand, and by him was 
 convinced of the truth of the Vedanta doctrine of the identity 
 of his own soul and God. This he gave up at a later date. 
 For two years he wandered about, seeking good teachers. 
 
 In 1848 he proceeded to Chanoda Kanyali on the banks of 
 the river Nerbudda, and met several groups of scholarly 
 ascetics, some of them followers of the Yoga system, others of 
 the Vedanta. He was most anxious to become an initiated 
 sannyasi, that is, a Hindu monk who has renounced the world 
 completely. He gives up caste, home, marriage, property, 
 the use of money and of fire, and is expected to live a wander- 
 ing life. If he were once received into one of the recognized 
 orders of sannyasls, his parents could no longer bring pressure 
 upon him to marry. At length he begged an ascetic known as 
 Paramananda, belonging to the SarasvatI order of Sankara's 
 Dandls, to receive him. At first he refused, but, after much 
 persuasion, he initiated him, giving him the name Dayananda. 
 Since he had thereby become a member of the SarasvatI order, 
 he was henceforward known as Dayananda SarasvatI. Until 
 the day of his death he would tell no one his real name. 
 
 From this time onwards for eight years he wandered about 
 from place to place, trying to find trustworthy teachers of 
 Yoga. His A utobiography does not tell us why he was so eager 
 to learn Yoga methods ; but he probably regarded them as 
 the proper means for reaching the emancipation which he was 
 so desirous to reach. 
 
 Either at the time of his initiation as a sannyasi, or at some
 
 io6 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 point during these years, he lost faith in the teaching of 
 Sankara, and came to believe that God is personal, that the 
 human soul is distinct from God, and that the world is real. 
 He does not tell us who the teachers were who led him to these 
 opinions. They are probably the outcome of the modern 
 influences he came under, and of his original belief in Siva. 
 In any case he continued to worship Siva, and believed in the 
 personality of God. 
 
 His books on Yoga contained anatomical accounts of the 
 human body. Reading in these volumes long and intricate 
 descriptions of nerve-circles and nerve-centres which he could 
 not understand, he was suddenly filled with suspicion. As it 
 happened, a dead body was floating down the river on the 
 banks of which he was walking. He drew the corpse to the 
 shore, cut it open, satisfied himself that the books were false, 
 and in consequence consigned them to the river along with the 
 corpse. From this time his faith in many works on Yoga 
 gradually dwindled. 
 
 The Autobiography stops short at the beginning of 1857, 
 and we are without information of his activities until 1860. 
 Thus there is no echo of the Indian Mutiny whatsoever in 
 his life. 
 
 He had been greatly disappointed in his search for compe- 
 tent teachers. 1 In 1860, however, he came across a blind 
 Brahman in the city of Mathura (Muttra), and became his 
 disciple for two and a half years. His master, whose name was 
 Virajananda, was a great authority on Panini's Grammar. He 
 believed implicitly in the authority of the ancient books, but 
 condemned all modern Sanskrit religious works as worthless 
 lies. He would not accept Dayananda as a disciple until the 
 latter had sunk all his modern books in the river Jumna. 
 Blind and learned though he was, he was a very irritable man, 
 
 1 For the remainder of Dayananda's life see his Life by Bawa Chhajju 
 Singh.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 107 
 
 and would now and then give his disciple corporal chastise- 
 ment. One day he struck him on the hand with a stick with 
 such violence that he carried the mark of it all his life. This 
 man influenced Dayananda more than any other. He read 
 with him Panini's Grammar and Patanjali's Commentary on 
 it. We are also told that he studied the Veddnta-sutras and 
 many other books, but what these other books were, we do 
 not know. Whether it was from Virajananda that he learned 
 the extraordinary method of expounding the Vedas which he 
 used in writing his Commentaries in later years, we do not 
 know. But his teacher certainly sketched his mission for him. 
 When he was leaving, Virajananda said to him : 
 
 The Vedas have long ceased to be taught in Bharatvarsha, 
 go and teach them; teach the true Shastras, and dispel, by 
 their light, the darkness which the false creeds have given 
 birth to. Remember that, while works by common men are 
 utterly misleading as to the nature and attributes of the one 
 true God, and slander the great Rishis and Munis, those by 
 the ancient teachers are free from such a blemish. This is 
 the test which will enable you to differentiate the true, ancient 
 teaching from the writings of ordinary men. 1 
 
 It was in May, 1863, that he took leave of his master and 
 began his wanderings once more. He now regarded himself as 
 a learned man, and usually conversed in Sanskrit rather than 
 in the vernacular Hindi. Although he had many a conversa- 
 tion and discussion during those years, he still thought of him- 
 self as a religious student and not as a teacher. When he 
 started out, he was still a devotee of Siva, wearing the neck- 
 lace of rudraksha berries, and the three lines of white ash on the 
 forehead, which distinguish the pious Saiva. But in the 
 course of his wanderings his mind altered, and he laid these 
 things aside once for all. Henceforward he worshipped God, 
 and recognized Siva as only one of the many names of the 
 1 Chhajju Singh, 77.
 
 io8 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Supreme. This change seems to have come in the year 1866, 
 which was clearly a time of crisis for him. During that year 
 he came in contact with various missionaries, and had long 
 conversations with them. The same year finds him not only 
 preaching against idolatry at Hardwar, but telling the pilgrims 
 there that sacred spots and ceremonial bathing are of no reli- 
 gious value whatsoever, and denouncing the great Vaishnava 
 book, the Bhdgavata Purdna, as immoral. 
 
 3. A further change came in the year 1868. Virajananda 
 and he seem both to have felt that it was now his duty to be- 
 gin the public exposition of his ideas. From this time, then, 
 Dayananda's public life may be said to have begun. His 
 biographer speaks of him as trying several methods of work, 
 and finding them each more or less a failure. 
 
 His first plan was to talk to the pandits in Sanskrit, in the 
 hope that, if he convinced them of the truth of his ideas, they 
 would spread the light all over the land. But these old- 
 fashioned conservatives, no matter how often convicted of 
 error, were of the same opinion still. So he gave the course 
 up in despair. 
 
 He next decided to adopt one of the methods which he had 
 seen in use in Christian missions, namely education. He 
 found some well-to-do men to finance several schools for him. 
 The curriculum was to be confined to early Sanskrit literature. 
 He hoped that pupils trained in this way would become mis- 
 sionaries of his ideas. The schools were opened, and continued 
 for some time ; but, though the pandits were quite willing to 
 receive his pay and become schoolmasters, they did not teach 
 the new ideas ; and the work came to nothing. 
 
 Consequently, he determined to appeal to the people them- 
 selves, both by lectures and by books. He published a num- 
 ber of books, and went from town to town, delivering lectures, 
 in Sanskrit, on the right interpretation of the Vedas and the 
 teaching which he believed they gave. This method was
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 109 
 
 more successful. He found it quite possible to draw huge 
 audiences wherever he went, and to get the ear, not only of 
 ordinary men, but of the wealthy. He had many conversa- 
 tions with individuals, but consistently refused to speak to 
 women. Wherever it was possible, he met the pandits in 
 discussion. He was specially anxious to prove in every place, 
 in public discussion with the most learned men, that idolatry 
 has not the sanction of the Vedas. His followers declare he 
 was always victorious in these discussions. All those who 
 met him in discussion declared him to be violent, loud-tongued 
 and overbearing. He still lived like a sannyasi, wearing only 
 a minimum of clothing. He was a large, powerful man with 
 striking features, and rather a remarkable voice. 
 
 In the end of 1872 he went down to Calcutta, and spent four 
 months there, lecturing, speaking and discussing. He had 
 been above all things anxious to meet Keshab Chandra Sen ; 
 and it is clear that Keshab and the Samaj exercised a very 
 wonderful influence over him. Two changes in his method 
 date from this time. He began to wear regular clothes ; and 
 a picture which still survives shows that he must have copied 
 the Brahma leaders, whose dress was a modification of mission- 
 ary costume. Secondly, he realized, from the great influence 
 exercised by Keshab and the other Brahma leaders through 
 their addresses in Bengali, that he ought to give up using 
 Sanskrit in his public lectures and speak in Hindi instead. 
 
 4. His fame and influence continued to spread and become 
 deeper, as he taught far and wide throughout North India. 
 At Allahabad in 1874 he completed his Satydrth Prakdsh, 
 with which we shall have to deal later. In the end of 1874 
 we find him in Bombay, in close touch both with the Hindu 
 community and the young Prarthana Samaj. 1 He seems to 
 have had more than usual success in the city ; for he returned 
 early in 1875, and there launched his great scheme, the foun- 
 
 1 P. 76, above.
 
 no MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 dation of the Arya Samaj. The members of the Prarthana 
 Samaj had hoped to be able to unite with him, but the differ- 
 ences were too deep. It is clear, however, that the main fea- 
 tures of his society were borrowed directly from the Brahma 
 and Prarthana Samajes, as he saw them working in Calcutta, 
 Bombay and elsewhere. The common name covers common 
 features. This may be taken as the end of the third, and the 
 beginning of the last, stage of his life. 
 
 On the first of January, 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed 
 Empress of India in a magnificent Durbar held by the Viceroy, 
 Lord Lytton, at Delhi. Dayananda was present as the guest 
 of one of the native princes, and met some Hindus from La- 
 hore, who gave him a pressing invitation to visit the Panjab. 
 Shortly after he visited Ludhiana and Lahore. So great was 
 his success in this latter city, that the Arya Samaj founded 
 there very speedily eclipsed the society founded in Bombay ; 
 and Lahore became the headquarters of the movement. 
 
 For six years longer Dayananda lived and worked, touring 
 throughout North India, and steadily extending the Samaj. 
 There are just two matters to be noted during these years. 
 The first is his connection with the Theosophical Society 
 which had been founded in New York in 1875. In 1878 the 
 founders, Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, wrote to Daya- 
 nanda and suggested a union of the two movements, on the 
 ground that their aim was the same; and Dayananda ac- 
 cepted the proposal. The Theosophist leaders came to India 
 in January, 1879 ; and the strange union continued until 1881, 
 when it was broken off, both parties feeling bitter and ag- 
 grieved. 1 
 
 The other matter is a living part of his general policy. He 
 consistently sought to recall the Hindus to what he conceived 
 to be the ancient faith, and as consistently stirred them up 
 to vehement opposition to Christianity and Muhammadan- 
 
 1 Chhajju Singh, 476-532 ; ODL., I, 135 ; 396 S. Below, pp. 218, 226.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS in 
 
 isrn. In the first edition of the Satyarth Prakdsh, 1 published 
 in 1874, he approved of beef -eating under certain conditions, 
 but in the second edition it is condemned. In 1882 he formed 
 the Gaurakshini Sabhd? or Cow-protecting Association, and 
 about the same time published his book, Gokarunanidhi, 3 on 
 the same subject. The purpose was to rouse Hindu feeling 
 against Christians and Muhammadans on account of the 
 killing of cows and oxen, and to present a monster petition 
 to Government, 4 begging that the practice might be prohib- 
 ited. Dayananda died before the movement had spread 
 very far ; but later it attained great proportions, as we shall 
 see. 5 In this connection Sir Valentine Chirol has suggested 6 
 that Dayananda was a political schemer. This we believe 
 to be a complete mistake, although, as we shall show, his un- 
 healthy teaching has produced very unhealthy political fruit. 7 
 
 He passed away on the 3oth of October, 1883, at the age of 
 fifty-nine. 
 
 5. The following sketch of his position and amis by Dr. 
 Griswold of Lahore is so vivid and convincing that we cannot 
 do better than transcribe it : 
 
 Pandit Dayanand Sarasvati became finally emancipated 
 from the authority of Brahmanism in some such way as Luther 
 became emancipated from the authority of the Church of Rome. 
 Luther appealed from the Roman Church and the authority 
 of tradition to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. 
 Pan<Jit Dayanand Sarasvati appealed from the Brahmanical 
 Church and the authority of Smriti to the earliest and most 
 Sacred of Indian Scriptures. The watchword of Luther was 
 'Back to the Bible' : the watchword of Pandit Dayanand was 
 'Back to the Vedas.' With this religious watchword another 
 watchword was implicitly, if not explicitly, combined, namely 
 
 1 P. 302. Also Sanskdr Vidhi, n ; 42. 6 P. 358, below. 
 
 1 Chhajju Singh, 726-30. Indian Unrest, 109 ff. 
 
 1 Ib., 721. * P. 358, below. 
 
 Ib., 730.
 
 112 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 'India for the Indians.' Combining these two, we have the 
 principle, both religious and political, that the religion of India 
 as well as the Sovereignty of India ought to belong to the Indian 
 people; in other words, Indian religion for the Indians, and 
 Indian Sovereignty for the Indians. In order to accomplish 
 the first end, Indian religion was to be reformed and purified 
 by a return to the Vedas, and foreign religions as Islam and 
 Christianity were to be extirpated. Thus the program included 
 reform for indigenous religion and extirpation for foreign reli- 
 gion. With regard to the second end, the founder of the Arya 
 Samaj seems to have taught that a return to the pure teachings 
 of the Vedas would gradually fit the people of India for self- 
 rule and that independence would ultimately come to them. I 
 am not charging Pandit Dayanand Sarasvati with disloyalty. 
 Every sincere well-wisher of India hopes that the time will 
 come when the Indian people through the spread of education 
 and the removal of bad social customs and above all through 
 the prevalence of true religion will befitted for Self-government. 
 It is evident from all this that Pandit Dayanand Sarasvati was 
 a man of large views. He was a dreamer of splendid dreams. He 
 had a vision of India purged of her superstitions, filled with the 
 fruits of Science, worshipping one God, fitted for self-rule, 
 having a place in the sisterhood of nations, and restored to her 
 ancient glory. All this was to be accomplished by throwing 
 overboard the accumulated superstitions of the centuries and 
 returning to the pure and inspired teachings of the Vedas. 
 Thus the founder of the Arya Samaj was a kind of Indian Elijah 
 or John the Baptist, who felt himself called to turn the hearts 
 of the degenerate children of modern India to their fathers 
 of the glorious Vedic age, to reconcile the present with the 
 past. The character of his mission helps to account for the 
 violence of his methods of controversy. Elijah was not specially 
 gentle in his dealings with the prophets of Baal; nor was 
 Luther very tender toward the Roman Church. In like manner 
 Pandit Dayanand Sarasvati stood with his back to the wall, 
 facing on the one hand the attacks of the Brahmanical hier- 
 archy and on the other the assaults of the foreign religions, 
 Islam and Christianity. Under these circumstances we can 
 hardly wonder that he struck back as hard as he could. Luther
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 113 
 
 dealt heavy blows at the Roman Church as Pandit Dayanand 
 did at the Brahmanical Church. Suppose now that while 
 Luther was fighting with Rome, an extensive and powerful 
 Mohammedan propaganda, which threatened to devour all the 
 fruits of the Reformation, was found all over Europe. What 
 would Luther have done under these circumstances, but smite 
 the apostate Roman Church at home and the Mohammedan 
 propaganda from abroad with impartial zeal and violence and 
 with no great effort to be fair and appreciative. This illus- 
 trates exactly Pandit Dayanand's attitude toward the degen- 
 erate Brahmanical Church, on the one hand, and the foreign 
 faiths Christianity and Islam on the other. In his opinion, 
 the one needed to be purged and pruned; the others, to be 
 extirpated. The sections in the Satyarth Prakash which deal 
 with the criticism of Islam and Christianity are evidently in- 
 tended to be the literature of such extirpation, i.e., to be the 
 means of rooting out all such foreign superstitions from the 
 hearts of the sons of India. For extreme unfairness, for in- 
 ability to state the position of opponents without caricature, 
 and for general crudeness, these sections can hardly be matched 
 in the whole literature of religious controversy. 1 
 
 6. Dayananda's chief convictions may be summed up as 
 follows : 
 
 a. There is one God only. He alone is to be worshipped ; 
 and he must be worshipped spiritually, not by images. 
 
 b. The four Vedas are God's knowledge. They contain all 
 religious truth, and also all science, at least in germ. They 
 are the eternal utterance of God. There is no thing temporary 
 or local in them. Everything which seems a reference to par- 
 ticular times and places only seems such through miscon- 
 ception. There is no polytheism in the Vedas. The many 
 divine names which occur in them are all epithets of the one 
 true God. These statements apply only to the collections of 
 hymns. The Brahmanas have less authority. Many other 
 Hindu books are of value, because they were written by 
 
 1 Indian Evangelical Review, January, 1892. 
 
 I
 
 114 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 rishis and other inspired men, but they are not authoritative 
 in the same sense as the Vedas ; and they are not to be followed 
 where they contradict the Vedas. 
 
 c. The Vedas teach transmigration and karma. 
 
 d. Forgiveness is for ever impossible. 
 
 e. Salvation is emancipation from transmigration. 
 The following are Dayananda's chief works : 
 
 (1) Satyarth Prakdsh, a Hindi work, setting forth his 
 teaching on marriage, the bearing of children, education, the 
 ascetic orders, government, God, the Vedas, the world, man, 
 salvation and food, and a long and interesting description of 
 the various creeds of India with Dayananda's criticism of them. 
 
 (2) Veda Bhdshya, a Vedic Commentary in Sanskrit. It 
 is incomplete, yet covers the whole of the Yajurveda and the 
 major part of the Rigveda. x 
 
 (3) Rigvedddi Bhdshya Bhumikd, an Introduction to his 
 Vedic Commentary, partly in Sanskrit, partly in Hindi, a 
 controversial work in which he condemns all existing commen- 
 taries as false, and expounds his own principles. 
 
 1 7. The most amazing of Dayananda's ideas is his concep- 
 tion of the Vedas. In order to understand how he came to 
 hold it, we must recognize what the traditional Hindu doc- 
 trine about them is. Since the Veda is the eternal utterance 
 of God, there can be no temporal references in it. As Max 
 Muller says : 
 
 If any historical or geographical names occur in the Vedas, 
 they are all explained away, because, if taken in their natural 
 sense, they would impart to the Vedas an historical or temporal 
 taint. 1 
 
 This violent method of exegesis, whereby hundreds of allu- 
 sions to places and events in these most human documents 
 are distorted and misexplained, already finds clear expression 
 
 1 Biographical Essays, 1 70.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 115 
 
 as the only right principle of Vedic interpretation in the earliest 
 treatises on the subject that have come down to us, some of 
 which come from dates five or six centuries before Christ. 
 
 Dayananda held fast by the old dogma, that the Vedas 
 are God's eternal utterance. Several other Hindu ideas, 
 notably the doctrines of transmigration and karma and of 
 the sanctity of the cow, remained firmly seated in his mind. 
 
 But in his long, stormy career of wandering and disputing 
 with all sorts and conditions of men, the facts of life, as they 
 stared him in the face in North India under the British Govern- 
 ment, had driven certain very modern and un-Hindu ideas 
 into his mind with great force. The most important of these 
 was the group of related convictions, that there is but one 
 God, that all the gods (devas) of the Hindu pantheon have 
 no existence, that idolatry is irrational and degrading, and 
 that the sacrifice of animals and the offering of food as prac- 
 tised in Hindu temples are silly superstitions. Next in im- 
 portance was his perception of the practical value of Western 
 science and invention as made plain in the railway, the tele- 
 graph and modern weapons of war. Amongst his other 
 fresh convictions may be mentioned the folly and danger of 
 caste as practised in modern times, and of child-marriage. 
 
 Now these two groups of ideas, Hindu and modern, seem to 
 have been both firmly implanted in his mind. He had had no 
 modern education. He did not know sufficient English to 
 read English books; so that he had no grasp of modern 
 methods of thought and criticism. Nor had he had a thor- 
 ough Hindu training. He had read with his blind teacher the 
 best that Hindu literature contained on grammar and phi- 
 losophy, but he had had no complete Vedic education. The 
 time he spent with Virajanand was insufficient for the purpose. 
 Hence, believing the Veda to be God's knowledge, he neces- 
 sarily concluded that it corresponded with his own convictions 
 as to truth, i.e. that it taught monotheism, transmigration
 
 u6 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and modern science, and that it did not recognize the gods 
 of Hinduism nor sacrifice ; and, being a Hindu born and bred, 
 and filled with Hindu methods of thought, he proceeded, like 
 the earliest Hindu scholars, by violent methods of interpreta- 
 tion to expel from the Vedas what he held to be false and to 
 import into them what he held to be true. Max Muller 
 writes : 
 
 To him not only was everything contained in the Vedas 
 perfect truth, but he went a step further, and by the most in- 
 credible interpretations succeeded in persuading himself and 
 others that everything worth knowing, even the most recent 
 inventions of modern science, were alluded to in the Vedas. 
 Steam-engines, railways, and steam-boats, all were shown to 
 have been known, at least in their germs, to the poets of the 
 Vedas. 1 
 
 Naturally he took full advantage of the principle stated by 
 the ancient scholars, which we have just referred to, as 
 justification of his methods. 
 
 Yet, though he claims to have restored the ancient inter- 
 pretation, in reality he departs from it in two large and most 
 important matters. The ancient scholars recognize the gods 
 in the Vedas and all the details of their worship, while he re- 
 moves all the gods, and leaves only the One. To the ancient 
 teachers the Brahmanas with their appendices, the Aranyakas 
 and the Upanishads, are as truly the eternal word of God as 
 the Hymns are ; but Dayananda makes the claim only for 
 the SamMtds, i.e. the collections of Hymns, and recognizes 
 the presence of a human element in the Brahmarias. He 
 thus stands absolutely alone as an interpreter of the Veda. 
 No Hindu, ancient or modern, ever taught what he teaches ; 
 and we need scarcely say that every Western scholar repu- 
 diates both his methods and his results. 
 
 It is thus quite possible to follow the process of thought 
 1 Biographical Essays, 170.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 117 
 
 by which the Svami reached his doctrines. Yet, when one 
 turns to the hymns themselves and to his interpretation of 
 them, it becomes exceedingly difficult to believe in his straight- 
 forwardness and sincerity. One can hardly imagine any 
 mind believing what he says. In order to give the ordinary 
 reader some indication of his methods, we here transcribe the 
 first five stanzas of the first hymn of the Rigveda, as translated 
 by Hopkins. 1 It is a hymn of praise to the god Agni, i.e. Fire, 
 regarded as the great priest, because sacrifices were wafted to 
 the gods on the flames and smoke of the altar-fire. 
 
 To Agni 
 
 I worship Agni ; house-priest, he, 
 
 And priest divine of sacrifice, 
 
 Th' oblation priest, who giveth wealth. 
 
 Agni, by seers of old adored, 
 To* be adored by those to-day 
 May he the gods bring here to us. 
 
 Through Agni can one wealth acquire, 
 Prosperity from day to day, 
 And fame of heroes excellent. 
 
 O, Agni ! whatsoe'er the rite 
 
 That thou surround 'st on every side, 
 
 That sacrifice attains the gods. 
 
 May Agni, who oblation gives 
 
 The wisest, true, most famous priest 
 
 This god with (all) the gods approach ! 
 
 The meaning expressed in the above translation is precisely 
 what is given by all Hindu scholars, ancient and modern; 
 
 1 Religions of India, 108. For the materials used in this discussion I am 
 indebted to Dr. Griswold's pamphlet, The Daydnandi Interpretation of the 
 word Deva.
 
 and all Western scholars agree. There are five words in the 
 translation printed in italics. In the original the word in each 
 case is deva, god, either in the singular or the plural. In the 
 first stanza it is translated as an adjective, elsewhere as a sub- 
 stantive. 
 
 Dayananda, like certain early Christian exegetes, is an ad- 
 vocate of the method of dual interpretation. Agni is not a 
 god, but is at once a name of the one God, and the name of 
 the material element, fire. Taken as a name of God, it means 
 "giver and illuminator of all things." Taken as the material 
 element, it means "fire which gives victory in battle by means 
 of skilfully contrived weapons." This last is an allusion to 
 modern firearms. In the first stanza he takes the word deva 
 as an epithet of the one God and as meaning " Giver." In the 
 second he translates it "excellent sense-organs" or "excellent 
 qualities of knowledge," or "excellent seasons," or "excellent 
 pleasures." Of the fourth and fifth stanzas he gives two trans- 
 lations, the one taking Agni as " God," the other taking it as 
 "fire." In the fourth stanza, if God is addressed, devah means 
 "learned men"; if fire is addressed, devah means "excellent 
 things." In the fifth stanza, if we take Agni to mean God, the 
 last line runs, " May this self-luminous One approach with 
 learned men" ; if we take Agni to mean fire, the meaning is, 
 "May this illuminator approach with excellent qualities." 
 This needs no comment. As translated by Hindu and by 
 Western scholars, the poem is a polytheistic hymn, but clear, 
 comprehensible, human. Dayananda's translation reduces 
 the lines to nonsense. 
 
 It ought to be stated here that Pandit S. N. Agnihotri, 1 the 
 founder of the Deva Samaj, published in 1891 a pamphlet 
 called Pandit Dayanand Unveiled, in which he avers that a 
 number of men, some belonging to Gujarat, others to Bengal, 
 others to the Panjab, declared to him, either in conversation 
 
 1 P. 173, below.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 119 
 
 or by letter, that Dayananda, in personal conversation with 
 them, had acknowledged that his statements about the Veda 
 were not matters of conviction but of diplomacy, that a reli- 
 gion must have some superstition as its basis, and that he had 
 chosen the infallibility of the Vedas, because nothing else 
 would be accepted by Hindus. Dayananda had been dead 
 eight years when the pamphlet appeared ; and one of his fol- 
 lowers attempted to demolish the writer by means of another 
 pamphlet. 1 As the evidence was not carefully sifted by an 
 impartial scholar at the time, it is not possible to say precisely 
 how much weight ought to be attached to it ; yet two or three 
 of Agnihotri's witnesses were religious men of known probity ; 
 so that it would be hard to set their testimony aside. I have 
 also received myself, from an altogether different source, 
 another piece of evidence which strikingly corroborates their 
 statements. The Rev. P. M. Zenker of the Church Mission- 
 ary Society, Muttra, writes of an incident which occurred 
 when he was in Brindaban preaching at a spring festival. He 
 cannot vouch for the year, but it was 1884, 1885 or 1886. One 
 of the leaders of the local Arya Samaj had a long and serious 
 conversation with him in the afternoon. Mr. Zenker re- 
 turned his call the same evening; when they had another 
 long talk. I quote Mr. Zenker's report of the conversation, 
 so far as it refers to the Arya Samaj : 
 
 My informant stated that Dayanand's real object was to 
 obtain for India all the advantages which Western civilization 
 has conferred on the nations of Europe and America. But, 
 being fully acquainted with the character of his Hindu fellow- 
 countrymen, he knew they would hardly accept as a guide one 
 who presented this as the sole aim and object of all the laborious 
 training they would have to undergo. He therefore cast about 
 for an expedient to gild the pill ; and he thought he had found 
 it in the cry, "Let us return to the pure teaching of the Veda." 
 
 1 Agnihotri Demolished, by Rambhaj Datta.
 
 120 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 This conversation, which occurred only some two or three 
 years after Dayananda's death in 1883, corroborates the 
 statements of Agnihotri's witnesses, who had had personal 
 intercourse with the leader himself. The evidence is not 
 absolutely conclusive ; but, taken along with the amazing 
 character of Dayananda's commentaries on the Vedas, it 
 will have considerable weight with the open-minded student. 1 
 8. The following is the official creed of the Samaj : 
 
 i. God is the primary cause of all true knowledge, and of 
 everything known by its name. 
 
 ii. God is All-Truth, All-Knowledge, All-Beatitude, Incor- 
 poreal, Almighty, Just, Merciful, Unbegotten, Infinite, Un- 
 changeable, without a beginning, Incomparable, the Support 
 and the Lord of All, All-pervading, Omniscient, Imperishable, 
 Immortal, Exempt from fear, Eternal, Holy, and the Cause of 
 the Universe. To Him alone worship is due. 
 
 iii. The Vedas are the books of true knowledge, and it is 
 the paramount duty of every Arya to read or hear them read, 
 to teach and preach them to others. 
 
 iv. One should always be ready to accept truth and renounce 
 untruth. 
 
 v. All actions ought to be done conformably to virtue, i.e. 
 after a thorough consideration of right or wrong. 
 
 vi. The primary object of the Samaj is to do good to the 
 world by improving the physical, spiritual, and social condi- 
 tion of mankind. 
 
 vii. All ought to be treated with love, justice, and due re- 
 gard to their merits. 
 
 viii. Ignorance ought to be dispelled and knowledge diffused. 
 
 ix. No one ought to be contented with his own good alone, 
 but every one ought to regard his prosperity as included in that 
 of others. 
 
 x. In matters which affect the general social well-being of 
 the whole society, one ought to discard all differences and not 
 allow one's individuality to interfere, but in strictly personal 
 matters every one may act with freedom. 
 
 1 Cf. the Tiyas, below, p. 313.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 121 
 
 But these sentences omit many of the points which it is most 
 important to know. 
 
 9. The following are the leading theological ideas of the 
 Sanaa j. Orthodox Hindus allow only men of the three high- 
 est castes to study the Vedas : Aryas invite all, both men and 
 women, to study them. On the other hand, they condemn 
 modern Hindu literature. They teach that there are three 
 eternal existences, God, the soul and elemental matter. The 
 soul undergoes transmigration according to the law of karma. 
 Forgiveness is altogether impossible. Salvation comes only 
 by continued well-doing ; and the soul, even when released 
 from transmigration, is not absorbed in God. The doctrine 
 of avaidras, or divine incarnations, is denied. Idolatry is 
 vehemently condemned, and also the practice of killing ani- 
 mals in sacrifice or of offering food on the altar to God. The 
 fire-sacrifice of the Vedas is retained, but is explained as a 
 means of purifying the air. The Hindu form of ancestor- 
 worship, known as the Srdddha, is condemned as useless ; and 
 pilgrimage is given up as superstitious. 
 
 10. A careful reading of the Satydrth Prakdsh shews that the 
 ethical system of the Samaj is crude in the extreme. Many of 
 the laws of Manu in all their barbarity are laid down for use 
 in modern life. For example, the individual is encouraged 
 to kill those whom he regards as monstrously evil men ; l and 
 the king is advised to have the adulterer burned alive on a red- 
 hot iron bedstead, and the adulteress devoured alive by dogs, 
 in the presence of many men and women. 2 But it is in its 
 marriage laws that the book goes farthest astray. Child- 
 marriage is prohibited, 3 and virgin widows and widowers are 
 allowed to remarry, 4 excellent regulations, as all will agree. 
 But widows and widowers who have lived with their spouses 
 are told not to remarry. 5 Yet, for their relief, and for the 
 
 1 Durga Prasad's translation, 203. 
 
 1 Ib., 204, 207. 3 Ib., 132. * Ib., 156. 6 Ib., 156.
 
 122 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 relief also of husbands and wives in certain circumstances, 
 the law of niyoga is laid down. 1 Niyoga is simply sexual re- 
 lationships without marriage. The details are too horrible 
 to transcribe. They may be seen in the book. In 1892 some 
 Aryas brought a law-suit against a Hindu who wrote against 
 niyoga, calling it adultery, but the case was dismissed. 2 One 
 is glad to hear that many members of the Samaj would now 
 like to repudiate this most immoral legislation, which is 
 equally repulsive to the Hindu and the Christian. 
 
 There is another feature of the Satydrth Prakash which has 
 attracted wide attention. All the outstanding Hindu sects, 
 and Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity as well, are 
 mercilessly criticized in it, and here and there with a good deal 
 of malice and injustice. This section of the book has en- 
 couraged Aryas and provided them with very useful ammuni- 
 tion for their controversies, but it has also created vehement 
 hatred against the Samaj in many quarters. Dayananda'*s 
 stinging taunts have been effective in rousing a number of 
 the sects to retaliation and defensive organization. This is 
 noticeably true of the Sikhs, 3 the Jains, 4 the Ahmadiyas, 5 the 
 Muhammadans, 6 and also of Pandit Din Dayal, 7 the founder 
 of the Bharata Dharma Mahamandala. 
 
 Dayananda's own methods of controversy, shewn in his 
 public addresses and debates and also in his writings, have 
 naturally been adopted by his followers. Wherever they go, 
 one hears of slander, passion, and unfair methods; and 
 disturbances in the streets and squares have been pitiably 
 common. 
 
 ii. I had the privilege of being present, in company with 
 Dr. Griswold, at an Arya Samaj Sunday morning service in 
 
 1 Durga Prasad's translation, 156-161. 
 
 2 Ruchi Ram Sahni, The Niyoga Doctrine of the Arya Samaj, 35-6. 
 
 1 P. 340, below. 4 P. 329, below. P. 137, below. 
 
 * P. 351, below. 7 P. 316, below.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 123 
 
 Lahore in December, 1912. The place of meeting is a large 
 oblong hall without seats, with a platform at one end and a 
 high narrow gallery at the other. In the floor, in front of the 
 platform, there is a square pit, measuring perhaps two feet 
 each way. This is the altar. On one side of the hall a small 
 platform for singers and a harmonium had been placed. 
 When we entered, there was only one man in the hall, and he 
 was laying some pieces of wood in order at the bottom of the 
 square pit. When that was done, he set up a stick of incense 
 on end on the floor at each corner of the pit. Some packets 
 of aromatic herbs and several sacrificial vessels lay on the 
 floor. Men came dropping in, and squatted in front and on 
 the two sides of the altar. When there were perhaps twenty 
 present, those next the altar began to intone some Sanskrit 
 verses, amongst which we could distinguish some of the verses 
 of Rigveda, X, 129. This continued about twenty minutes. 
 By that time there were about thirty present. The fire and 
 the incense sticks were then lighted ; the aromatic leaves were 
 shed on the fire ; and ghl (melted butter) was rubbed on the 
 outer edges of the altar. Other verses were now chanted, 
 while the flames rose nearly two feet above the level of the 
 floor. This is the Havana, which Aryas are recommended to 
 perform every morning, at the time of their devotions, for the 
 purification of the air. This continued for about fifteen min- 
 utes. All then rose to their feet and sat down in various 
 places in the hall. A young man mounted the platform to 
 lead the service, one sat down at the harmonium and a few 
 others gathered round him to sing. There were forty-eight 
 present. 
 
 The second part of the service then began. It consisted 
 of the singing of hymns, the repetition of texts (one of them 
 the Gdyatri), prayer and a sermon, all in Hindi except a few 
 texts which were in Sanskrit. It was just like a Protestant 
 service, and totally unlike any Vedic observance. During
 
 124 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 this part of the service many boys came in. Before the 
 sermon began there were perhaps two hundred present. Later 
 the number rose to two hundred and fifty. There was no 
 woman or girl present. I am told they are not excluded, but 
 a special service, conducted by a lady, is held at another time 
 and place, which they attend in fair numbers. 
 
 12. The death of Dayananda was a great blow to the mem- 
 bers of the Samaj ; yet the work was carried on with enthu- 
 siasm ; and the movement has continued to grow at a rapid 
 pace since then. Large sums of money were collected to per- 
 petuate the memory of the founder, and in 1887, the Daya- 
 nanda Anglo- Vedic College was opened in Lahore. This 
 great foundation, in which the flower of the youth of the Arya 
 Samaj receive a modern English education, and also instruc- 
 tion in the religion of the Samaj, forms a very worthy memorial 
 to Dayananda's devotion and energy. 
 
 In 1892 the Arya community fell in two. This division is 
 parallel to the first split in the Brahma camp. As Keshab led 
 out the progressives, and left Debendra and the conservatives 
 behind ; so the Arya Samaj broke up into the College or " Cul- 
 tured ' ' party and the Vegetarian or ' ' Mahatma ' ' party. The 
 former are progressive, stand for modern education and for 
 freedom in diet, and declare that the Arya Samaj is the one 
 true universal religion, which must be taught to all the 
 world ; while their opponents favour the ancient Hindu edu- 
 cation, stand by vegetarianism and declare that the teaching 
 of the Samaj is pure Hinduism, but not the universal religion. 
 
 13. I have failed to obtain printed reports of the work of the 
 Samaj, so that it is rather hard to estimate what they are doing. 
 Their methods, however, are well known. Those members 
 of a local Samaj who pay i% of their income to the funds 
 elect the managing Committee of the Samaj. Then the 
 Samajes in each Province elect representatives who form the 
 Pratinidhi Sabha, or Representative Assembly, of the Prov-
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 125 
 
 ince. Since the split in 1892 there have been duplicate or- 
 ganizations. There are missionaries and preachers of the 
 Samaj, some paid, others honorary. Most of the paid men 
 were originally Hindu pandits ; most of the honorary workers 
 are men who have had an English education. The Samaj 
 also copies other forms of Christian effort. They have their 
 Tract Society, their Strl Samaj or Women's Arya Samaj, 
 their Arya Kumar Sabhd, or Young Men's Arya Association 
 (a copy of the Y. M. C. A.), their Orphanages, and their work 
 among the Depressed, which will be noticed elsewhere. 1 
 
 The Samaj is doing a good deal of education. Lala Lajpat 
 Rai writes with regard to the schools and colleges of the 
 progressive party : 
 
 At Lahore it has founded and maintains a first-class College, 
 preparing scholars up to the highest standard and for the high- 
 est University examinations. This was created in 1886 in 
 sacred memory of its founder, and is called "The Dayanand 
 Anglo- Vedic College." Its objects are to encourage and en- 
 force the study of (a) Hindi literature; (b) classical Sanskrit 
 and the Vedas; and (c) English literature and sciences, both 
 theoretical and applied ; and, furthermore, " to provide means 
 for giving technical education." It owns considerable property, 
 and has endowments yielding an annual income (including 
 tuition and admission fees, etc.) of over Rs. 60,000 (4000). 
 The Principal is honorary, and has held the post with remarkable 
 success since the foundation. On the staff are several of its 
 own alumni, working in a missionary spirit on mere subsistence 
 allowances. Directly or indirectly connected with the College 
 are a number of secondary and primary schools maintained by 
 the Samaj throughout the province, some of which receive the 
 usual grants from the Educational Department. In the United 
 Provinces, also, the Samaj maintains several schools on the same 
 lines as the Anglo- Vedic or Anglo-Sanskrit Schools of the Pun- 
 jab, their principal Anglo- Vedic school being at Dehra Dun. 2 
 
 1 P. 371, below. 
 
 1 Contemporary Review, May, 1910.
 
 126 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The centre and crown of the educational efforts of the Ma- 
 hatma party is the Gurukula Mahdvidyalaya at Hardwar, a great 
 institution, founded in 1902, in which an attempt is being made 
 to give a true Hindu education and to save students from the 
 contaminations both of Hindu home and city life and of 
 Western civilization. It is a most interesting and promising 
 experiment. The situation is all that could be desired ; good 
 food is provided, and the physique of the students receives 
 a good deal of attention. Here is what a Christian writes of 
 the conditions of life and study : l 
 
 The students are admitted at the age of eight years, and 
 the parents are under written pledge not to remove their sons 
 from the school till the expiry of the 17 years' course, i.e. till 
 they have reached the age of 25. During the whole of these 
 17 years they may never once go home or leave the school. 
 Indeed, they are only allowed to have a quarter of an hour's 
 interview once a year with their parents, and that in presence 
 of their teachers. . . . During the whole of their long course 
 they are watched day and night by their teachers and house- 
 fathers. Without these they may not go out even for a walk. 
 No woman may approach the Gurukula. They live a simple, 
 hardy life, on strictly vegetarian diet. . . . They wear the 
 saffron dress of the religious orders. 
 
 There are many points to admire in the life and the methods 
 of study. Almost all the work is done in the vernacular, not 
 in English. Great care is taken to train the character as well 
 as the mind, and the foundation of a true love of India is 
 laid from day to day. One wonders, however, whether the 
 exclusion of home influence is wise, and whether anything like 
 a sound literary education can be given, while Dayananda's 
 interpretation of the Veda is retained. There are other Guru- 
 kulas at Gujranwala, Farukhabad and elsewhere. 
 
 The Samaj does also a good deal for the education of girls. 
 They have a very successful boarding school at Jullundur. 
 
 1 Rev. W. E. S. Holland in East and West, June, 1907.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 127 
 
 Lala Lajpat Rai, struck with the work of the Salvation 
 Army, started recently in Lahore the Vedic Salvation Army. 
 
 In the Panjab and the United Provinces the Samaj has done 
 valuable work by its testimony to monotheism, its opposition 
 to idolatry and to other superstitions and by its educational 
 work. Its polemic against caste, child-marriage, priestcraft, 
 pilgrimage, and self-torture in the name of religion, is all to 
 the good, although members of the Samaj are still bound by 
 caste, 1 and many have not given up child-marriage. In these 
 matters there is far more talk than action. The great expan- 
 sion of the Samaj in recent years 2 gives promise of still farther 
 growth, and the zeal of the members is proved by the very 
 generous way in which they subscribe to the funds. Daya- 
 nanda's praise of all things Indian, and his defence of the Vedas 
 and of transmigration have proved very popular. 
 
 Yet there is no risk involved in prophesying that the Samaj 
 will not have a great history. In the very sources of its pres- 
 ent strength there is that which will inevitably lead to its 
 ruin. The false interpretation of the Vedas, on which the 
 whole structure rests, will inevitably crumble as enlightenment 
 proceeds. The attempt to retain much that is old and out- 
 worn, instead of transcending it, is another source of weakness. 
 The retention of the doctrine of transmigration and karma is 
 in itself most dangerous. So long as that remains, a healthy 
 monotheism is impossible, 3 and caste cannot be rooted out. 4 
 
 On the 3oth of November, 1907, at the Samaj Anniversary in 
 Lahore, Prof. Lala Sain Das, M.A., gave an address in which 
 he asked the assembly to realize how little work they were 
 doing in comparison with Christian Missions, how weak they 
 
 1 A low-caste man wanted to send his son to the D. A. V. College, Lahore, 
 but there was so much opposition that the authorities kept him out. 
 1 The last census shows that they now number 243,000. 
 a See the author's Crown of Hinduism, 392-407. 
 4 Ib., 179-181; 191.
 
 128 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 were spiritually and how impotent socially through the caste 
 system. He added : 
 
 Two new forces are now at work in India (i) English edu- 
 cation, and (2) Christian evangelisation. The first, formerly 
 a source of weakness to the Hindu society, has now proved a 
 source of strength to the Arya Samaj. Superstition at once gave 
 way before the scientific education. In order, therefore, to fully 
 avail ourselves of the former and to nullify the effect of the 
 latter, we should open as many schools as possible where all the 
 latest discoveries in science should be taught and education 
 on national and modern lines should be imparted free to as 
 large a number as our funds permit, and, secondly to carry the 
 torch of Vedic light to the remotest corners of India at least 
 where the Arya Samaj is still unrepresented. But then there 
 comes in the question of funds. Our rich men are not going to 
 part with their money, because they have to minister to their 
 own wants, to those of their sons and daughters and relations. 
 Then there is a question of time. Now those who can spare 
 time, won't do it, because they have to attend to this business 
 and to that business. 1 
 
 An article appeared in Lahore in December, 1912, by Dr. 
 Gokal Chand, Barrister, Lahore, in which he declares that 
 the Samaj is gradually losing its intensity, and tries to dis- 
 cover the causes of this weakening. He puts it down, first, 
 to the want of a Scripture, a book of spiritual instruction 
 which the ordinary man can take up and find help in: 
 "the members of the Arya Samaj do not read the Vedas." 
 Secondly, he notes they have no religious ministers doing pas- 
 toral work among the people. Thirdly, they want mission- 
 aries settled each in his district with an organization and assist- 
 ants, just like Christian missionaries. Fourthly, they want 
 men who have renounced the world and will live only for 
 the Samaj. 
 
 LITERATURE. GENERAL : Dr. JEL D. Griswold, art. Arya, 
 Samaj in ERE. Hand-Book of the Arya Samaj, by Pandit Vishun 
 1 Reported in the Bombay Guardian, Dec. 14, 1907.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 129 
 
 Lai Sharma, Allahabad, the Indian Press, 1912, 6 as. (The best 
 official account of the rise of the sect, its opinions and work.) BIOG- 
 RAPHY : The Autobiography is published in Durga Prasad's transla- 
 tion of the Satyarth Prakash (see below). Maharshi Swdml Dayd- 
 nand Sarasvatl Jl Mahdrdj Kd Jivan Charitra, by Pandit Lekh Ram and 
 Lala Atma Ram, Lahore, 1897 (the standard biography; in Hindi). 
 The Life and Teachings of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, by Bawa 
 Chhajju Singh, Lahore, Addison Press, 1903, two vols., Rs. 2. 
 DAYANANDA'S WORKS : Rigvedabhdshya (a Hindi commentary on the 
 Rigveda}. Rigvedddibhdshya Bhumikd (Hindi introduction to the 
 commentary on the Rik). An English Translation of the Satyarth 
 Prakash by Durga Prasad, Lahore, Virjanand Press, 1908, Rs. 2. 
 The Ocean of Mercy (an English translation of Dayananda's tract on 
 Cow-killing), by Durga Prasad, Lahore, Virjanand Press, 1889. 
 CRITICISM: Chirol's Indian Unrest, chap. VIII. The Niyoga Doc- 
 trine of the Arya Samdj, by Ruchi Ram Sahni, Lahore, 1896, one half- 
 anna. Pandit Dayanand Unveiled, by S. N. Agnihotri, Lahore, The 
 Tribune Press, 1891, out of print. The Daydnandi Interpretation 
 of the Word " Deva" in the Rig Veda, by H. D. Griswold, Ludhiana, 
 1897. DEFENCE : The Arya Samdj, Its Aims and Teachings, by Lala 
 Lajpat Rai, Contemporary Review, May, 1910. The Arya Samdj 
 and its Detractors, by Munshi Ram and Ram Deva, Hardwar, Satya 
 Dharm Pracharak Press, 1911, Rs. 3. Agnihotri Demolished by 
 Rambhaj Datta, Lahore, 1891, out of print. 
 
 ^ 
 
 2. SlVANARAYANA PARAMAHAMSA 1 
 
 i. We take next another wandering ascetic whose teaching 
 bears quite a close resemblance to Dayananda's. 
 
 Sivanarayana was the son of a Benares Brahman, born 
 perhaps about 1840. At home he seems to have received no 
 education, and he remained practically illiterate to the end. 
 While still a child, he was agitated with religious questions 
 which his father could not help him with. He left home, 
 according to his own account, when he was twelve years of age, 
 and spent the rest of his life wandering all over India, at first 
 only asking questions, afterwards teaching every one who 
 
 1 For the word Paramahamsa see below, page 191. 
 K
 
 130 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 would listen to him. He dressed in the simplest way, and 
 lived practically like a sannyasi, yet he never called himself 
 such, and he does not seem to have been initiated into any 
 order. We have no means of learning how he came to form 
 the opinions he held. Mr. Mohini Mohan Chatterji of Cal- 
 cutta, to whom I owe all the information I have about him, 
 and who was one of his best friends, writes : 
 
 So far as his thoughts were not the results of his musings 
 and meditations, they were due to his contact with all sorts 
 and conditions of men he came across in his wanderings all over 
 India. 
 
 He spent most of his time during the last years of his life in 
 Bengal. In 1884 r tf&S ne went to the temple of Kali at 
 Dakshinesvara near Calcutta and met Ramakrishna, but the 
 two men were not drawn to each other. In July, 1888, Mr. 
 Chatterji, who had already published his well-known transla- 
 tion of the Bkagavadgita, met Sivanarayana ; and to this cir- 
 cumstance we owe the preservation of the latter's teaching. 
 Mr. Chatterji listened to him eagerly, and took notes of what 
 he said. A few tracts in Bengali, in Hindi and English were 
 first published. Then in 1902 Mr. Chatterji edited the 
 Amrita Sdgara, a volume in Bengali, containing the main 
 elements of his teaching arranged in systematic form. The 
 volume was published in Hindi also. Mr. Chatterji then took 
 down from his lips an account of his wanderings and of the 
 conversations he had with the people he met. This appeared 
 in 1907 in English, a volume of 146 pages, published by Luzac, 
 and called Indian Spirituality; or the Travels and Teachings of 
 Swandrdyana. Quite apart from the religious teaching, the 
 book makes very pleasant reading, for it contains many in- 
 teresting particulars about Hindu temples and the life of as- 
 cetics. He died at Kalighat, Calcutta, in 1909. 
 Mr. Chatterji writes,
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 131 
 
 Those who came under his influence were common people in 
 the main ; 
 
 and again, 
 
 He expressly prohibited the formation of a sect. But 
 there is a large number of men and women in Calcutta and 
 other places, specially among the Mech tribe of Assam, who 
 look upon him as a source of spiritual inspiration. 
 
 He taught as seriously as Dayananda did that there is but 
 one God ; but he attempted to conceive Him as having two 
 aspects, the one unknowable, inactive, and tending to be im- 
 personal, the other distinctly personal and active. He lays 
 more stress on the will of God than any other Hindu thinker 
 of the nineteenth century. There is one rather curious sur- 
 vival in his thought, viz., that God is specially manifested in 
 light. Perhaps in connection with this same thought, he af- 
 firms that it is God's will that all men should make to Him 
 offerings in fire of things fragrant and sweet. Like Dayananda, 
 he holds that this form of sacrifice purifies the air. 
 
 He condemns idolatry with quite as much vehemence as 
 Dayananda ; but he goes further, and, like a prophet of the 
 Old Testament, proclaims that the worship of idols degrades 
 man and works ruin to the nation as a whole. His teaching 
 on this point is most penetrating. He also condemned man- 
 worship. Consequently, though he visited all the great 
 shrines of India, he would not bow down to idols, nor would 
 he prostrate himself before religious authorities, as Hindus are 
 wont to do. He held most sincerely that the weakness of 
 modern India was the result of idolatry and superstition. 
 As he wandered through the country, he saw how gross the 
 ordinary worship of the temples was, and how frequently 
 fraud was employed to increase the popularity of a particular 
 god or shrine. All this he condemned very frankly. 1 His 
 
 1 See Indian Spirituality,
 
 132 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 attitude to social questions was also practically the same as 
 Dayananda's. He opposed caste, condemned child-marriage, 
 advocated female education, and declared woman to be equal 
 with man. He says : 
 
 Similar reasons will show you the injustice of the treat- 
 ment to which your women are subjected. Man and woman 
 are equally related to the all-comprehending supreme Being, 
 manifested as light. It is pleasant in His sight that each should 
 be free to realise the perfection possible to the human individ- 
 ual. 1 
 
 His teaching is distinctly better than Dayananda's in two 
 particulars. First, he did not press the doctrine of trans- 
 migration and karma. Clearly he had not realized what an 
 incubus it had been on the theology of Hinduism and on the 
 life of the common people ; so that he occupied rather an am- 
 biguous position towards it. Mr. Chatterji writes : 
 
 Transmigration did not receive much attention from 
 Sivanarayana. He thought it had no bearing upon a man's 
 spiritual life or his mukti or salvation. He neither asserted 
 nor denied its reality. He left the question open and prac- 
 tically ignored it. 
 
 The other point on which he advanced beyond Dayananda was 
 this : he did not hold the infallibility of the Veda, but recog- 
 nized the value of many sacred books. 
 
 He believed that, if men would only recognize the true 
 import of the two aspects of God, peace would come amongst 
 all religions, and good will would be established in place of 
 evil. At one time he urged the advisability of holding a great 
 religious Conference with the object of bringing all men to 
 one opinion with regard to God. The following is another 
 of his proposals, which, if not very practical, gives us a peep 
 into his mind : 
 
 1 A Word in Season, 14.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 133 
 
 Let all mankind have a common speech. Compile from all 
 the scriptures of the world, in that common human tongue, 
 a scripture, containing all that is useful for man to know con- 
 cerning his spiritual and temporal welfare. Preserve that one 
 and burn all the rest, burying their ashes out of sight. 1 
 
 He insists on the duty of training the body to be the obedient 
 servant of the spirit, and he makes practical service of our 
 neighbours an essential part of spiritual religion. The fol- 
 lowing summary is given at the end of one of his latest tracts : 
 
 1. Keep this world pure, so that no uncleanness may at- 
 tach, within or outside, to the physical body, the senses, mind, 
 food, raiment, dwellings, roads, bathing-places and so forth. 
 Prevent the adulteration of food in every form. 
 
 2. Be " equal-sighted " to sons and daughters, and educate 
 them equally ; secure equal rights to man and woman. Looking 
 on all individuals as God and your own soul, cherish them, so 
 that want and suffering may come to none. 
 
 3. Let each, to the extent of his power, lovingly, in God's 
 name, make offerings in the fire of things fragrant and sweet, 
 such as clarified butter, sugar, etc., and help and encourage 
 others to do so. This purifies the air, secures timely rain and 
 abundant crops. Such is God's law. 
 
 4. His name is the mantra, Om Sat guru. Let every man 
 and woman call upon Him by inwardly repeating this name. 
 By His favour all will attain the fourfold objects of desire, 
 religious merit or ethical perfection, possessions on earth, en- 
 joyment and salvation. 
 
 5. Light or the sun and moon is His expression. Let all 
 men at the rising and the setting of light with love and rever- 
 ence bow down with folded hands and adore Him who is light, 
 craving forgiveness of sins. 
 
 When you perceive the true nature of light, you will under- 
 stand all phenomena of life and movement, such as birth and 
 death, eclipses and the waxing and the waning of the moon. 
 
 6. Knowing Him to be all-comprehending and complete, 
 keep your hearts well established on Him. 2 
 
 1 Take Heed unto Yourselves, 5. 2 A Word in Season, 22-23.
 
 134 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Christian influence is very distinctly visible in his teaching 
 at several points, notably in his attitude to idolatry, his free- 
 dom from the grip of transmigration, and his conception of the 
 equality of man and woman. 
 
 2. A number of intelligent people in Calcutta still confess 
 his influence ; the Isamoshipanthis are the outcome of the 
 teaching of one of his disciples ; l and a new sect has 
 sprung from his teaching in Assam. 2 The Kacheris are a 
 Burma-Tibetan race scattered throughout Upper Assam. 
 One branch of the Kacheris are known as the Mech tribe. 
 The word Mech is simply a corruption of the Sanskrit word 
 Mkccha, which means " barbarian," " unclean," " foreign." 
 There is a good deal of unrest up and down the country ; and 
 the Mech tribe, having grown in knowledge and intelligence 
 during recent years, very naturally dislike their tribal name. 
 
 Shortly after Sivanarayana's death, a member of this tribe. 
 Kali Charan by name, went to Calcutta and met some of his 
 followers. He picked up the teacher's main ideas, and carried 
 away one of his Bengali books with him, Sdr Nityakriya, i.e. 
 "Essential Daily Duties." When he reached Assam, he 
 taught the new doctrines as a means of changing the status 
 of the tribe. He received a ready response, and the movement 
 grew apace. He teaches the people that by accepting the new 
 teaching they become Brahmas, or, as they pronounce it, 
 Bormhos. He means they will become Brahman, God. 
 Those who follow him call themselves Bormhos instead of 
 using the old name Mech. They do their best to follow the 
 teaching of Sdr Nityakriya, but they do not understand it well. 
 They are setting themselves up as a caste, at least thus far 
 that they will not eat with others. They have neither temples 
 
 1 P. 156, below. 
 
 2 All my information about this Assamese movement I owe to the Rev. 
 A. C. Bowers of Goalpara, Assam. There is a brief mention in Census of 
 India, 1911, vol. i, 125.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 135 
 
 nor idols, but worship fire, earth, air, water and sun in a spot 
 prepared for the occasion. These are supposed to be God. 
 They offer fruits and vegetables, and sacrifice certain sweet- 
 smelling substances in fire. 
 
 Kali Charan is their leader. He has some half a dozen 
 chelas, disciples, who assist him. They use the Bengali litera- 
 ture published by Sivanarayana's disciples in Calcutta. They 
 are aiming at the economic development of the tribe, and 
 therefore are collecting money for the erection of a technical 
 school, shops and such like. They say that there are about 
 two thousand families in the movement, but that is probably 
 an overestimate. In any case it is now losing ground. 
 
 LITERATURE. Indian Spirituality or the Travels and Teachings 
 of Sivanardyana, by M. M. Chatterji. London, Luzac, 1907. Amrita 
 Sagara (the teaching of Sivanarayana in Bengali), edited by M. M. 
 Chatterji, Calcutta, Sanyal & Co., 1911, Rs. 2. 
 
 3. THE VEDIC MISSION 
 
 In 1886 a movement called Sadharana Dharma arose in 
 Madras, and has continued active until to-day. The adher- 
 ents of Sadharana Dharma declare their belief in Paramatman, 
 or the Supreme Self, his government of the world and of indi- 
 viduals, and the possibility of realizing him by the develop- 
 ment of one's moral or physical powers and the use of them for 
 the good of humanity ; and they promise to work for their own 
 progress and the advancement of humanity. The following 
 sentences come from the prospectus of the organization : 
 
 The Common Path (Sadharana Dharma) is open to people 
 of any creed. Those who profess other faiths need not dis- 
 claim them when they adopt Sadharana Dharma. Sadharana 
 Dharma aims not to establish uniformity but unity in variety 
 throughout the different cults and sects of India, and by and 
 by of the whole world.
 
 136 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 In 1909 this organization was included in a wider body 
 called the Vedic Mission. This new organization has two 
 divisions, Vedic Dharma and Sadharana Dharma, the former 
 purely Hindu, the later for everybody and anybody. For a 
 time they were affiliated with the Bharata Dharma Maha- 
 mandal, 1 but its orthodoxy was too stiff for the Vedic Mission. 
 The following sentences allude to that fact : 
 
 We take this opportunity of informing the public that our 
 Mission has nothing to do with so called Hindu orthodoxy and 
 priesthood. Nothing short of thorough religious reform based 
 on "Vedic monotheism" will satisfy us. 
 
 We do not want to please those orthodox people that may be 
 indifferent Or opposed to the spread of Sanskrit and Religious 
 Education as well as the right kind of spiritual knowledge 
 among the non-Brahmin castes and the depressed Classes. 
 
 The work is as follows : 
 
 The Mission has three branches of work, viz., (i) Educa- 
 tional for spreading secular and useful religious knowledge 
 among the masses, (ii) Medical pertaining to the Ministry of 
 Healing (the sick in body and mind), and (iii) Literary in- 
 cluding the study of comparative Mythology, Theology and 
 Philosophy. The Mission advocates the cause of Vedic Reli- 
 gion and philosophy. 
 
 They have what they call a Vedic Mission College for training 
 preachers and teachers, and they publish a good deal of litera- 
 ture. 
 
 The leaders are Pandit G. Krishna Sastri and an Australian. 
 There is a branch in Delhi, under Svami Sivaganacharya. 
 Work is also being done in Australia. I find it impossible to 
 make out how much is being done. 
 
 The movement seems to stand nearer the Arya Samaj and 
 Sivanarayana's teaching than anything else. 
 
 *P. 316, below.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 137 
 
 4. A CASTLE IN THE AIR 
 
 A Muhammadan, who shall be nameless, has written a 
 little book which it is perhaps kindest to regard as the product 
 of a diseased mind. It is worthy of mention merely as another 
 indication of the present state of affairs in India. Its folly 
 may also serve to relieve my sober narrative. It is an attempt 
 to fuse Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. A pantheistic 
 theology and transmigration are mingled with Muhammadan 
 ideas and diluted Christian ethics. The writer calls himself 
 the Holy Ghost, the very God and such like. Like Sivanara- 
 yana, he proposes one language and one Scripture for all men, 
 and also a universal religious conference. From that there 
 might emerge a universal religious empire. Constantinople 
 would be the centre of this empire ; the English would be its 
 guardians ; and the Promoter himself would be the spiritual 
 teacher and head of the whole ! 
 
 We now turn to a group of movements which have one strik- 
 ing feature in common, namely, their use of the person of 
 Christ. They are a peculiarly interesting and instructive 
 group ; for two of them are Muhammadan in origin, and two 
 are Hindu. 
 
 5. THE AHMADIYAS OF QADIAN 
 
 i. The first is a very successful and combative sect which 
 arose in the Pan jab in the eighties, largely as a reaction from 
 the striking success of a Christian mission in the Central 
 Panjab and from the fierce onslaught of Dayananda and his 
 Samaj. 
 
 In the village of Qadian l in the Gurdaspur district of the 
 Panjab, there was born, about 1838, in an ancient Muhamma- 
 
 1 1 am indebted for most of my information about this sect to Dr. Gris- 
 wold of Lahore. See his pamphlet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and his article 
 in The Moslem World for October, 1912.
 
 138 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 dan family which had long been known for its attachment to 
 the mysticism of Islam, viz., Sufiism, a boy called Mirza 
 Ghulam Ahmad. Very little is known about his youth or 
 education ; so that it is not possible to trace the growth of 
 his mind, as may be done in the case of Dayananda. He began 
 to teach about 1879, and died in 1908. 
 
 2. The whole movement rests on his personal claims. He 
 declared himself to be the Christian Messiah, the Muhamma- 
 dan Mahdi, and the final avatar a or " Incarnation " of the Hin- 
 dus. In one of his latest utterances he said, 
 
 My advent in this age is not meant for the reformation of 
 the Mohammedans only, but Almighty God has willed to bring 
 about through me a regeneration of three great nations, viz., 
 Hindus, Mohammedans and Christians. As for the last two I 
 am the promised Messiah, so for the first I have been sent as 
 an Avatar. 1 
 
 The last claim, to be Hindu avatara, was made for the first 
 time towards the end of his life, and has had no results. He 
 spent his life in trying to prove himself the Mahdi of Islam as 
 well as the Christian Messiah, in seeking to shew that in him 
 Christianity and Islam unite and culminate. 
 
 The conception is rather an unusual one for a Muslim ; for, 
 according to ordinary Muhammadan belief, the Messiah and 
 the Mahdi are distinct persons ; 2 and the common expecta- 
 tion is that the Mahdi will be a man of blood, a character 
 which it would be impossible to combine with Christ. The 
 Mirza gets over this last difficulty by declaring that the 
 traditions which speak of the Mahdi as a man of blood are all 
 forgeries, that the Guided One (i.e. the Mahdi) is to be a man 
 of peace. Thus, the controlling idea of his conception of him- 
 self as a prophet is the character and work of Christ. It 
 
 1 Review of Religions, November, 1904, p. 410. 
 
 2 Yet some groups assert that Jesus is the only Mahdi that will ever 
 come.
 
 PLATE VI 
 
 MIRZA GHULAM AHMAD
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 139 
 
 seems almost as if he had first come to believe himself to be 
 the Messiah, and had then added the idea that he was the 
 Mahdi as a sort of inference from his position in Islam. In 
 any case, nearly the whole of his apologetic is built up with 
 the object of proving himself the Messiah. With that, then, 
 we begin. 
 
 He does not profess to be Jesus Christ returned in propria 
 persona. He claims to be the fufilment of the prophecy of 
 the Second Coming, on the ground that he has come in the 
 spirit and power of Jesus. In order to make this claim seem 
 reasonable, he uses two series of arguments. 
 
 A . He first sets about proving that Christ did not die on the 
 Cross, rise from the dead, and ascend to Heaven. 1 He ac- 
 knowledges that, if Jesus really died, rose, and went to heaven, 
 then Christianity must be true, and he himself must be an 
 impostor : 
 
 If Christ was in reality exalted in bodily form alive to 
 heaven, then there is no need of further controversy, and my 
 claim to be the promised Messiah is in vain. The reason is 
 that my claim is based upon the natural death (wafat) of the 
 Son of Mary. 2 
 
 He avers that, while Jesus was truly crucified, He was taken 
 down from the cross seemingly dead, but really in a swoon, 
 recovered from His wounds, came to India, lived for many 
 years and finally died in Cashmere like any ordinary mortal. 
 The materials he uses to establish these propositions are as 
 follows : 
 
 a. He revives the old swoon theory of the death of Jesus, 
 citing as confirmation the facts, that He was on the cross for 
 only a few hours and that His legs were not broken. He also 
 uses the phrase, "Why seek ye the living amongst the dead ? " 
 
 1 He asserts that the Gospels were deliberately corrupted by Christians. 
 * Griswold, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, 5.
 
 140 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and urges that the appearances of Jesus to His disciples after 
 the crucifixion are those of a living man and not of a disem- 
 bodied spirit. Christ's own use of the experience of Jonah as 
 a parallel to Himself is pressed into service. As Jonah was 
 alive in the whale's belly, so Jesus must have meant that He 
 Himself would be alive in the tomb. 
 
 b. He cites the so-called Gospel of Barnabas, a mediaeval 
 Muhammadan forgery, as a witness that Jesus did not die on 
 the cross. 
 
 c. He asserts that over a thousand medical books, Jewish, 
 Christian, Parsee and Muhammadan, describe the Marham-i- 
 Isd, or Ointment of Jesus, and extol its powers. He asserts 
 that after three days Jesus recovered from the swoon, and 
 that the disciples applied this wonderful ointment to His 
 wounds with such success that, within the space of forty days, 
 He was entirely healed and ready for foreign travel. 
 
 d. In 1887 a Russian, named Nicolas Notovitch, travelled 
 through Cashmere to Leh in Ladak and spent some 
 time in friendly intercourse with the Buddhist Lamas of the 
 monastery of Himis. Seven years later, he published a book 
 in which he declared that the Abbot of the monastery had 
 brought out and read to him an ancient manuscript, accord- 
 ing to which Jesus, in the interval between His visit to the 
 Temple of Jerusalem at the age of twelve and his baptism by 
 John, travelled from Palestine to India, and studied under 
 the Jains, Buddhists and Hindus of those days. The book 
 appeared in French and in English and made a considerable 
 stir both in Europe and India for some time. In an article 
 in The Nineteenth Century for October, 1894, Max Miiller, who 
 saw clearly that the tale was false, suggested that M. Noto- 
 vitch had been so persistent in trying to get information that 
 the Lamas, having nothing better to give him, had invented 
 the story to satisfy him. But Prof. J. Archibald Douglas of 
 the Government College, Agra, was inclined to think that
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 141 
 
 Max Miiller was too rash in concluding that the whole story 
 was false, and therefore used his hot- weather holiday in 1895 
 to take a journey to Ladak in the hope of finding the Ms. 
 But when he reached the monastery and told his tale, the in- 
 dignation of the Abbot knew no bounds. No such Ms. is in 
 the library, nor indeed in Tibet anywhere. The whole story 
 was an impudent lie. Professor Douglas described his journey 
 in The Nineteenth Century for April, 1896 ; and M. Nicolas 
 Notovitch was recognized to be an unscrupulous adventurer. 
 Yet many Hindus and Muhammadans still make use of his lies. 
 
 The prophet of Qadian sets forth this false story of a journey 
 to India undertaken by Jesus before He began His ministry as 
 proof that He travelled to India after His crucifixion. Could 
 futility proceed to greater extremes ? 
 
 e. The meaning of the Ascension, he argues, is that Jesus 
 was separated from his disciples in order to preach in Afghan- 
 istan and Cashmere, the inhabitants of which countries, he 
 avers, are the ten lost tribes. 
 
 /. In Khan Yar Street, Srinagar, Cashmere, there stands a 
 tomb, perhaps a couple of centuries old, known to the people 
 of the vicinity as the tomb of Yus Asaf. Clearly it is the tomb 
 of some obscure Muslim saint. There is no tradition at- 
 tached to the building. 
 
 The prophet maintains, however, without adducing the 
 slightest evidence, that it is the tomb of Jesus, that Yus is a 
 corruption of Yasu, which he equates with Jesus, and that 
 Asaf, coming from the Hebrew asdf, to gather, designates Him 
 as the " Gatherer " of the ten lost tribes of Israel. 
 
 g. Lastly, he asserts that Christianity is spiritually dead, 
 and argues that, if Jesus had really risen from the grave, and 
 ascended to heaven, to reign there in spiritual power, His 
 Church would exhibit His energy and life. Hence we can 
 infer that He did not rise. 
 
 It ought to be noticed that, in denying the Ascension of
 
 142 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Christ, the Mirza is a heterodox Muslim ; for the Muhamma- 
 dan belief is that God took Him to heaven, that He is now 
 there, and that He will return at the end of the world to slay 
 the Antichrist. 
 
 B. Having thus in his own way set Christ aside, he proceeds 
 to give positive arguments in support of his assertion that he 
 is the Messiah himself. 
 
 a. As the Old Testament prophecy of the second coming 
 of Elijah was fulfilled in John the Baptist, who was not Elijah, 
 so the New Testament prophecy of the second coming of Christ 
 will be fulfilled, not by a personal return of Jesus, but by the 
 appearance of one coming in the spirit and power of Jesus. 
 
 b. In the Koran Christ's prophecy of the coming of the Com- 
 forter is referred to. The Greek word in John 16, 7 is para- 
 cletos, advocate, defender, comforter. Muhammad seems to 
 have got this word mixed up with the similar Greek word 
 peridytos, which means famous, and took it as a prophecy of 
 his own name, which, whether in the form Muhammad or 
 or Ahmad, means praised, glorified. Hence the words of the 
 Koran, 1 
 
 And remember when Jesus the son of Mary said, "O children 
 of Israel ! of a truth I am God's apostle to you to confirm the 
 law which was given before me, and to announce an apostle that 
 shall come after me whose name shall be Ahmad !" 
 
 Our prophet could not fail to seize upon this text, despite the 
 fact that his own name is not Ahmad but Ghulam Ahmad, i.e. 
 the servant of Ahmad (Muhammad). He uses it, as several 
 other self-styled prophets of the name of Ahmad have done, as 
 a definite prophecy of himself. 
 
 c. He bases another argument on the doctrine of the millen- 
 nium taught in the Apocalypse. Counting by lunar years, 
 he divides the time since the appearance of Jesus into two 
 
 1 Sura, LXI.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 143 
 
 millenniums, and makes his own appearance the beginning of 
 the third. The first is the millennium of the devil's imprison- 
 ment, during which time Muhammad appeared. The second 
 is the millennium of the devil's freedom, marked by the declen- 
 sion of Islam and a frightful growth of evil. The third, 
 which the new Messiah introduces, is the millennium of the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 d. He draws out a great many parallels between Jesus and 
 himself. There is first the political parallel : the Indians 
 under British rule are in very much the same condition as the 
 Jews were under the Romans. Next comes the moral and 
 religious parallel : the corruptions of India to-day are in many 
 respects like the corruptions of Palestine in the time of Christ. 
 Thirdly, he describes himself as a divinely appointed media- 
 tor between God and man, a true intercessor for man, and a 
 perfect image of God. On the ground of these parallels he 
 claims that his mission is altogether like the mission of Christ. 
 
 e. He also claims that he is able to prove the truth of his 
 Messiahship by miracle. The only facts seriously put forward 
 as miracles are certain prophecies which he made. 
 
 It is said that he predicted the death of no less than one 
 hundred and twenty-one persons. Of these we need refer only 
 to two. He predicted the death of Pandit Lekh Ram, his chief 
 antagonist in the Arya Samaj. The man was murdered soon 
 afterwards, under circumstances which gave rise to the strong 
 suspicion that it was the deed of a Muhammadan who had 
 managed to become intimate with the pandit on the pretence 
 of being an enquirer. Again, he predicted that his Christian 
 antagonist, Deputy Abdullah Atham, would die within the 
 space of fifteen months. Precautions were taken by Mr. 
 Atham's friends to protect him from possible assassination, 
 and he outlived the time assigned to him. These prophecies 
 went on for some time ; but they proved so mischievous and 
 dangerous that, on the 24th of February, 1899, the Govern-
 
 144 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ment of the Panjab issued an order, ordering him to cease 
 making such prophecies. The prophet, under grave pressure 
 from the Government, solemnly promised : 
 
 (1) To refrain from publishing any prediction involving 
 the disgrace of any person, or in which anyone should be repre- 
 sented as an object of God's displeasure. 
 
 (2) To refrain from publishing any challenge to appeal 
 to God to indicate by the signs of His displeasure, such as dis- 
 grace, etc., the party in a religious controversy which is in the 
 wrong. 
 
 (3) To refrain from publishing any writing purporting to 
 be an inspiration, the object of which can be reasonably taken 
 to be the disgrace of any person, or the representing of him as 
 an object of the Divine wrath. 1 
 
 He also predicted the birth of sons to certain friends, but, 
 unfortunately, fulfilment did not always follow. Sometimes 
 there was no birth at all, sometimes the sons turned out to be 
 daughters, to the disgust of the parties and the discomfiture 
 of the prophet. 
 
 In 1898 he published a pamphlet called, A Revealed Cure for 
 the Bubonic Plague, in which he declared the Marham-i-Isd, or 
 Ointment of Jesus, mentioned above, to be a perfect remedy 
 for bubonic plague, on the ground that it had been "prepared 
 solely under the influence of divine inspiration." Hakim 
 Muhammad Husain of Lahore was the manufacturer of the 
 ointment. Unfortunately, the Government again interfered 
 with the action of his " divine inspiration," and prohibited 
 the exploitation of the specific. 
 
 He also prophesied that his people would be immune from 
 pestilence without plague inoculation. 
 
 His own death from cholera in 1908 formed a fitting climax 
 to this series of fraudulent impostures. 
 
 /. His claim to be the Second Adam is another of his argu- 
 ments for his Messiahship. Dr. Griswold writes : 2 
 
 1 Akhbar i A mm of Lahore, March i?th, 1899. * Pp. 6-7.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 145 
 
 At the close of the sixth day, God created the first Adam. 
 But one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. Therefore 
 at the close of the sixth millenium or the beginning of the seventh, 
 the second Adam is to appear. We are now at the beginning 
 of the seventh millenium, if we reckon according to the lunar 
 year, which is the inspired mode of reckoning ; and so the time 
 is fulfilled for the second Adam to be manifested. Where is the 
 Second Adam to appear? "In the East and not in the West," 
 says the Mirza Sahib; "for from Gen. ii. 8 we learn that God 
 had put the first Adam in a garden eastward. It is therefore 
 necessary that the second Adam should appear in the East, 
 in order to have a resemblance with the first in respect of his 
 locality." 
 
 g. Towards the end of his life he began to claim that he was 
 greater than Christ : 
 
 I swear by the Lord . . . that the words expressing my 
 dignity revealed from God . . . are far more weighty and 
 glorious than the words of the Gospels relating to Jesus. . . . 
 My superiority lies in being the Messiah of Muhammad, as 
 Jesus was the Messiah of Moses. 1 
 
 He also began to carp at the character of Christ, accusing Him 
 of drunkenness, lack of philanthropy and several other such 
 things. 
 
 He has not so much to say in proof that be is the Mahdi, 
 yet a couple of arguments may be noted. 
 
 i. There is a saying traditionally ascribed to Muhammad 
 which runs : 
 
 What will be your condition when the Son of Mary shall 
 descend among you, and your Iman from you ? 
 
 Clearly the Messiah and the Mahdi are here regarded as dis- 
 tinct personalities, the Messiah coming from heaven, the 
 Mahdi arising among Muslims. Hence the Mirza translates 
 
 the passage : 
 
 1 P. 15. 
 
 L
 
 146 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 What will be your condition when the Son of Mary shall 
 descend among you? Who is he? He will be your Iman, 
 who will be born from among you. 
 
 This opens the way for his own claims. 
 
 ii. He cites the passage from the Koran quoted above 1 
 as a proof that he is the Mahdi, declaring himself the Buruz 
 or spiritual reappearance of Muhammad. 
 
 3. Apart from these personal claims, his teaching is an at- 
 tempt to find, amidst the irresistible inrush of Western edu- 
 cation and Christian thought, a middle path between im- 
 possible orthodoxy and the extreme rationalism of Sir 
 Syed Ahmad Khan. 2 He is opposed to jihad, i.e. Muslim 
 religious warfare, and the spirit of the ghazi, or religious 
 fanatic, as well as to a bloody Mahdi ; and he condemns 
 tomb-worship. He says the Koran teaches that slavery ought 
 to be gradually abolished. He says polygamy, the veiling of 
 women and divorce were permitted by Muhammad to pre- 
 vent worse evils. 
 
 His sect, which, in organization, is like a Samaj, has its 
 headquarters in Qadian, and is called the Sadr Anjuman-i- 
 Ahmadiya, or Chief Society of Ahmad. 
 
 His success shews that he was in some respects an able man, 
 but one can scarcely say more than that. The reasoning 
 which we have given above as advanced in support of his 
 claims is a fair sample of his teaching and of his thought. One 
 might illustrate his scholarship by the puerilities he advanced 
 to shew that Arabic is the mother of all languages. He was 
 probably self-deceived in the matter of his Messiahship rather 
 than a conscious impostor, but one can scarcely believe him 
 to have been honest in all his pretensions and assertions. 
 
 He was as eager for disputation as Dayananda himself, and 
 as violent and unscrupulous in controversy. He was a most 
 
 1 P. 142. 2 P. 92, above.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 147 
 
 vehement opponent of Christianity. He did not shew the 
 genius for practical organization that his great rival did, but 
 he founded a high school and a few other institutions. He 
 edited two papers, one in the vernacular, the Al-Hakam, and 
 one in English, the Review of Religions, and published large 
 quantities of tracts, open letters, challenges, memorials to 
 Government and such like. The sect has its own regular 
 weekly services and its conferences, like the Samajes. 
 
 The likeness of the movement to Persian Babism is very 
 striking, and well worth study. 
 
 The whole movement is outside orthodox Islam. Dr. 
 Griswold writes : 1 
 
 In the numerous fatwas, which Muhammadan Associations 
 all over India have issued against the Mirza Sahib, the strong- 
 est words of denunciation are used. Thus he is called Kafir 
 'unbeliever,' Dajjal 'Anti-Christ,' mulhid 'heretic,' murtadd 
 'apostate,' kazzab 'liar,' be-iman 'faithless,' dag habaz 'deceit- 
 ful,' etc., etc. With such epithets as these is the 'certificate' 
 filled, with which Muhammadan orthodoxy has dismissed the 
 Mirza Sahib from its fellowship and service. 
 
 His successor, Hakim Nur-ud-Din, was not a man of the 
 same strength and capacity as the founder, yet the sect went 
 forward steadily. Nur-ud-Din died recently, and the com- 
 munity has fallen into two very hostile parties. 
 
 The sect has also a branch in Shorapur in the Deccan. 
 A man named Abdulla has been the leader there for many 
 years, but he now declares that he himself is the prophet ; 
 so that his followers have fallen into two companies, one 
 loyal to the original founder, and one loyal to Abdulla. 
 Feeling runs very high; orthodox Muslims oppose both 
 parties ; and three lawsuits are pending against Abdulla. 
 
 4. A member of the sect, Mr. Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, a 
 
 1 Pp. 26-7.
 
 148 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Pleader of the Chief Court, Lahore, began a Muslim Mission 
 in England some two years ago. He settled first at Richmond, 
 but has recently gone to Woking, where he has his office close 
 by the Muhammadan Mosque erected by the late Dr. Leitner, 
 formerly Principal of the Oriental College, Lahore. The chief 
 means whereby Mr. Kamal-ud-Din carries on his propaganda 
 is a monthly magazine called Muslim India and Islamic Re- 
 view. Lectures are also delivered from time to time in differ- 
 ent places. A new English translation of the Koran is being 
 prepared for use in England. Recently, Lord Headley, who 
 for years has proclaimed himself to be more in sympathy with 
 Islam than with Christianity, formally accepted Muhamma- 
 danism in connection with the mission. This accession has 
 caused great rejoicing in the Panjab. Two Moulvies have 
 been sent to England from Delhi to strengthen Mr.Kamal-ud- 
 Din's hands. 
 
 Naturally orthodox Muslims do not quite like to have 
 Islam represented in England by such a heterodox group as the 
 Ahmadiyas. A pamphlet has recently been written by the 
 Secretary of the Anjuman-i-Himayet-i-Islam 1 in Lahore, 
 which violently denounces the mission. 
 
 LITERATURE. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, by Dr. H. D. Griswold, 
 Ludhiana, The American Tract Society, 1902, one anna. The 
 Ahmadlya Movement, by Dr. H. D. Griswold in The Moslem World 
 for October, 1912. Also The Review of Religions, an English monthly 
 published in Qadian, and many little pamphlets. The Unknown Life 
 of Christ, by N. Notovitch, London, Hutchinson & Co., 1895. 
 
 6. THE NAZARENE NEW CHURCH 
 
 This short-lived organization sprang from the Ahmadlya 
 movement, but was so different in its teaching that it must 
 be kept distinct. 
 
 1 See below, p. 347.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 149 
 
 In 1890 Mr. E. J. S. White, a Government servant, then 
 stationed at Kurnool in South India, who was keenly inter- 
 ested in Muhammadanism, paid a visit to Qadian and was 
 greatly influenced by the prophet. But he could not follow 
 him completely ; for as he said in a letter to a friend of the 
 writer recently : 
 
 My view of Islam has always been that it is the mere per- 
 verted continuation of the Nazarene or Ebionite sect, the im- 
 mediate community of disciples of our Lord, which contained 
 the descendants of the Lord's brethren and His own disciples, 
 and maintained the pure doctrine derived from Him, having 
 nothing to do with the Gentile churches founded by Paul, 
 in the midst of which it became a heresy and was crushed out 
 of existence. 
 
 So he started the Nazarene New Church, seeking to mingle 
 what he considered to be the purer elements of both Islam and 
 Christianity in a Unitarian doctrine. He published a book of 
 prayers in Urdu, so that Muhammadans might be able to un- 
 derstand their prayers, which is scarcely possible while they 
 use the Arabic. He also maintained the freedom of women 
 and the duty of allowing them to join, under restrictions, in 
 the worship of the mosque. A Eurasian named Snow became 
 a Muhammadan in Hyderabad, Deccan, in 1892 and became 
 one of White's helpers. In 1893 a number of pamphlets were 
 issued. In these we find it stated that members of the Naz- 
 arene New Church should adhere strictly to the Law of Moses 
 " as perfected by our Master Jesus." They are to accept the 
 Gospel of Matthew and some other parts of the New Testa- 
 ment, but not the writings of John or Paul. They are rec- 
 ommended to read the Koran as a perfect exposition of the 
 Unitarian doctrine. Pilgrimage to Nazareth is enjoined as 
 one of the principal duties. The following sentence occurs in 
 one of these pamphlets :
 
 150 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The Church in India is directed by an apostle who, until 
 the Spirit shall send one more worthy, is John White in the 
 Blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Snow was guilty of a good deal of abusive language with ref- 
 erence to Christianity. The founder, who is still alive and 
 resides at Cocanada in South India, writes : 
 
 The late Baud Khan Bahadur, head of the Kurnool family, 
 and a few other Muhammadans were very sympathetic sup- 
 porters of the movement. After I left Kurnool I endeavoured 
 to form a Nazariah or Qadiani Jamaat at Ellore, at Secunder- 
 abad and in Madras, but nothing came of it. 
 
 So the movement soon ended. 
 
 The two Hindu movements which use the person of Christ 
 are small groups, almost altogether confined to the common 
 people. 
 
 7. THE CHET RAMIS * 
 
 In a village in the Lahore district of the Panjab, Chet Ram 
 was born about 1835. The family were Vishnuites by sect, 
 and belonged to a class of shop-keepers and money-lenders. 
 Chet Ram was uneducated, and almost illiterate. He could 
 keep his shop accounts but that was all. He spent some two 
 years in China, from about 1858 to 1860, as a camp-follower in 
 the second Chinese war. When he returned, he settled down 
 in his father-in-law's village Buchhoke, and kept a shop and 
 sold opium and liquor. 
 
 To this shop there came from time to time a Muhammadan 
 ascetic of the Chisti order, named Syed Mahbub Shah. He 
 was given to drink, and was often seen in the village in a 
 dull intoxicated condition. Clearly, the man's teaching was 
 
 1 All my information about this sect is derived from Dr. Griswold's pam- 
 phlet, The Chet Rami Sect, Cawnpore, Christ Church Mission Press, 1904. 
 The references are to its pages.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 151 
 
 eclectic ; for he gathered Hindu as well as Muhammadan 
 disciples, and he was accustomed to speak about Christ. Up 
 to this tune Chet Ram was an idolater. Then, probably 
 when he was about twenty-seven years of age, he became 
 fascinated by Mahbub. He became his disciple, and hence- 
 forward followed him everywhere, and served him with the 
 utmost faithfulness. We have no record of what Mahbub 
 taught him ; but it seems clear that he led him to reverence 
 Christ and the Bible. 
 
 Mahbub died when Chet Ram had been his disciple for some 
 three or four years, probably about 1865 or 1867. He was 
 buried at Buchhoke ; and, for three years, Chet Ram haunted 
 the tomb, sleeping on it every night, or actually inside it, as 
 tradition now goes. Then one night he had a vision of Jesus 
 Christ, and received a command from Him to build a church 
 on that very spot and to place a Bible therein. A simple 
 Panjabi poem, ascribed to Chet Ram, describes the vision. 
 We quote a few of the stanzas of a translation made by the 
 Rev. G. L. Thakur Dass of Lahore : 
 
 1. Upon the grave of Master Mahbub Shah 
 Slept Sain Chet Ram. 
 
 2. O dear (reader) it was midnight, 
 
 Full moon, stars were as hanging lamps ; 
 
 3. Unique was that night, surpassing the shab qadr; 
 Rays were falling from the full moon. 
 
 4. There appeared a man 
 
 Whose description is without bounds ; 
 
 5. A man came in a glorious form 
 Showing the face of mercy ; 
 
 6. His countenance beautiful as the full moon, 
 No man could look at that beauty ;
 
 152 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 7. Glorious form, tall in stature and erect, 
 Appeared as if a clear mystery of the Deity. 
 
 8. Sweet was his speech, and simple his face, 
 Appearing entirely as the image of God. 
 
 9. Such a glory was never seen before, 
 
 The coming of the Lord Himself was recognized in it. 
 
 25. Afterwards I began to think, 
 
 What was all this which Omnipotence did ? 
 
 26. Then my soul realized 
 
 That Jesus came to give salvation. 1 
 
 The date of the vision must have been somewhere between 
 1868 and 1870. From that time Chet Ram became, in his 
 own way, a follower of Christ. He built a small church and 
 placed a Bible in it, and began to gather disciples "in the name 
 of Christ." He succeeded in inducing a number of men and 
 women, both Hindu and Muhammadan, to attach themselves 
 to him. He lived a wandering life, moving about the country 
 with a number of his followers, everywhere proclaiming Jesus 
 as Lord, and suffering much persecution from both Hindus 
 and Muhammadans. He sought the friendship of Christians 
 and missionaries in a general way, but did not join the Chris- 
 tian church. One Sunday in 1 887, Chet Ram and his followers 
 came to the American Mission Compound in Lahore; and 
 both the Rev. C. W. Forman and the Rev. C. B. Newton 
 give accounts of the appearance and the behaviour of the 
 leader and his disciples. Mr. Newton went with them to 
 Buchhoke, and saw the church. We have also a report from 
 a missionary in Ludhiana of the year 1888. 
 
 Chet Ram died at Buchhoke in 1894 and was cremated ; and 
 his bones were buried beside his master's. 
 
 * Pp. 4-6.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 153 
 
 Of Chet Ram's character Mr. Newton gives us a very pleas- 
 ing picture, though it is clear that he had but little knowledge 
 of Christ : 1 
 
 During my stay, I had an opportunity of observing Chet 
 Ram's conduct and character; and certainly the case is a 
 remarkable one, though the good in him is so obscured by 
 superstition and ignorance, that one can scarcely call his 
 case a very hopeful one. He manifests on all occasions a strong 
 feeling of love and reverence for Christ, and undergoes perse- 
 cution and contumely for His name. His treatment of others 
 is marked by a spirit of rare kindness and generosity. One 
 day a faqir, a total stranger, from some distant place, came to 
 the lakyd,, and told a story of his sufferings, having been robbed 
 of some article of clothing. Chet Ram at once pulled off his 
 own principal garment, and gave it to him. He never refuses 
 appeals of this kind. 
 
 He was no real student of the Bible. He was ignorant and had 
 no desire to read. Sometimes his talk was quite incoherent. 
 
 Chet Ram's daughter was appointed his successor and the 
 head of his sect, while the leader was alive. She is an unmar- 
 ried woman, and is pledged to lifelong celibacy. She lives at 
 the headquarters of the sect, which are now in Lahore. 
 
 Just outside the Taxali Gate, Lahore, and at a distance of 
 only two or three hundred feet from the Royal Mosque is a 
 small garden thickly planted with trees and flowers and trailing 
 vines and containing a tiny square building and several faqirs' 
 huts. The square building has one room, perhaps fourteen 
 feet by ten, and contains certain relics of Chet Ram such as 
 his bed and his Bible. In front of the building is a pole sur- 
 mounted by a cross. Such are the monastic headquarters 
 of the Chet Rami Sect in Lahore. 2 
 
 The only other leader whose name is known is one Munshi 
 Nathu, who has been called the theologian of the sect. He has 
 interpolated large pieces into Chet Ram's poem. 
 1 P. 9. P. i.
 
 154 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The creed of the sect is quite short. It is engraved on a 
 tablet over the door of Chet Ram's cell at headquarters. The 
 translation is as follows : 
 
 Help, O Jesus, Son of Mary, Holy Spirit, Lord God Shepherd. 
 Read the Bible and the Gospels for salvation. Signed by 
 Chet Ram and the followers. 1 
 
 In this we note the recognition of the Trinity, the duty of 
 reading the Bible and the belief that salvation is made known 
 in the Gospels. 
 
 The sect teaches another doctrine of the Trinity besides 
 that contained in the above creed. They believe in the exist- 
 ence of Allah the Creator, Paramesvara the Preserver, and 
 Khuda the Destroyer ; and they use this trinity to set forth 
 the supremacy of Jesus. Allah represents Muhammadanism, 
 Paramesvara Hinduism, and Khuda, who is the greatest of the 
 three, is Jesus. Jesus is the true God. He is the giver of all 
 gifts. All the Muhammadan prophets and saints and the 
 Hindu gods and incarnations were sent by Jesus. He is the 
 supreme ruler over all. He is the Son of God. The Father 
 and the Son are of one nature. 
 
 Now that Chet Ram is dead, his followers give him a very 
 exalted place. They say he is not dead, but is present now 
 and works in the hearts of his followers. As Hindus recognize 
 then" guru to be God, they consider Chet Ram to be Christ 
 Himself. They praise Chet Ram as much as they praise 
 Christ. They are accustomed to say : 
 
 There is a God, if Chet Ram says so ; 
 There is no God, if Chet Ram says no. 
 
 After his cremation, his ashes were mixed with water and 
 eagerly swallowed by his disciples. It is their veneration for 
 their Teacher which keeps them from joining the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 1 P. 13-
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 155 
 
 The followers of Chet Ram are either householders or monks. 
 When a man joins the community, there is a ceremony of bap- 
 tism. When a birth takes place, the creed is recited in the 
 ears of the child, and also the names of the twelve Apostles. 
 When a member wants to become a Chet Kami monk, he tears 
 off his clothes, casts dust upon his head and thus becomes 
 a monk. This is known as Earth-baptism. The monks get 
 their living by begging ; and they are the only clergy of the 
 sect. It is their business to preach the Gospel of Chet Ram. 
 Like most modern Indian ascetics, they are addicted to the 
 use of intoxicating drugs, such as bhang, charas, opium. 
 
 As to the Chet RamI worship Dr. Griswold writes : 1 
 
 There does not seem to be any fixed form of worship among 
 the Chet Ramis. One old fagir declared that for the enlight- 
 ened there is no need of religious worship. 'We have re- 
 ceived,' said he; 'worship is for those who have not received.' 
 I invited Munshi Nathu to attend our Church services in 
 Lahore. He proceeded to tell me that all such worship is 
 man-made worship. I have spent many hours at the Chet 
 Rami Khanqah in Lahore, conversing with Munshi Nathu. 
 He said to me on one occasion, 'This conversation of ours is 
 worship: no other worship is needed.' All Chet Ramis are 
 supposed to own a Bible, and the few who can read doubtless 
 read it. Ghulam Muhammad one day said to me : 'I read the 
 Bible every day and especially on the Sabbath. I was just 
 reading the first chapter of John's Gospel, when you arrived.' 
 The Chet RamI creed is repeated as an act of worship, and the 
 Hymn of Chet Ram is chanted. There are some forms of wor- 
 ship which show decidedly the influence of Hinduism and 
 Mohammedanism. At the Khanqah in Lahore are preserved 
 with great care certain relics of Chet Ram. At evening lighted 
 lamps are placed before the Cross and the Bible. On one oc- 
 casion I noticed the evening worship of two Chet RamI women. 
 They came and bowed themselves to the ground first before 
 the cross and then before the Bible, and so went their way. A 
 
 1 Pp. 21-2.
 
 156 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 considerable use is made of amulets. Charms are made and 
 inscribed with the Chet Ram! Creed and with the names of the 
 Twelve Apostles, and hung about the neck. 
 
 Most of the members of the sect are poor, illiterate people. 
 They are a small body, probably less than a thousand in num- 
 ber. There is a good deal of brotherly feeling amongst them. 
 Yet caste remains among them, and Hindu converts do not 
 mix with Muhammadan converts. The duty of philanthropy, 
 and of the endurance of persecution, has been carefully taught 
 them, but, apart from that, there does not seem to be much 
 emphasis on morality. They frequently carry a long rod 
 surmounted by a cross. On the horizontal bar of the cross 
 there is usually inscribed the creed of the sect. 
 
 8. THE IsAMOsmpANTins 
 
 A group of Hindus in South Behar, mostly cobblers and 
 masons, have formed a new sect and call themselves Isd- 
 moshipanthis, i.e., the Jesus-Messiah-followers. 1 Besides these 
 simple people, there are a few educated ascetics who are iden- 
 tified with the sect. They study the Bible, and lay a good 
 deal of stress on the teaching of Jesus. They do not class 
 Christ with the incarnations of Vishnu ; yet they have mixed 
 up His life with the story of Krishna. Christ's death is of 
 more importance to them than His resurrection. They meet 
 for worship on Fridays. It is said that the sect is the result 
 of the teaching of one of the disciples of Sivanarayana Para- 
 mahamsa. 2 I am told they number two to three thousand. 
 
 The four movements which close this chapter are grouped 
 together, because, though they have all accepted a good 
 deal that is new, the system in each case is very distinctly 
 
 1 My informant is Mr. B. C. Sircar, M. A., one of the National Secretaries 
 of the Y. M. C. A. in India. 2 Above, p. 129.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 157 
 
 Hindu, and the worship of the teacher as God is prominent 
 in all. The first pair are closely related in the elements they 
 borrow from the West and in the claim that their teaching 
 is scientifically trustworthy and verifiable. 
 
 9. THE RADHA SOAMI SATSANG 
 
 i. The word satsang seems to come from the Sikhs, among 
 whom it means "a company of pious people." The phrase 
 Radha Soami cannot be explained apart from the history of 
 the sect. It is dealt with below. 1 
 
 In order to secure a reliable account of this society and its 
 teaching, a few paragraphs are here transcribed from a manual 
 of doctrine published by the second guru. 2 
 
 1. The Radha Soami faith derives its name from its original 
 Founder, the Supreme Being, Radha Soami, who appeared in 
 this world in human form and designated Himself Sant Satguru 
 or perfect Saint or true Guide and Preceptor, and preached holy 
 doctrines to sincere enquirers of Truth for the deliverance 
 of their spirit from the bondage of body and its surroundings, 
 as well as from the pains and pleasures of this world, and for 
 the ultimate admission of their spirit into the Holy Presence 
 of the Supreme Being after traversing and breaking through 
 the trammels and impediments in the material spheres. 
 
 2. The Holy name Radha Soami has been given out by the 
 Supreme Being Himself. It resounds in splendid refulgence 
 in the higher spheres, and can be heard within themselves 
 by those who perform devotion by practising Surat Sabd Yoga 
 according to the instructions given by the Supreme Being 
 Himself. 
 
 4. This Holy name Radha Soami signifies both the Supreme 
 Being and the original Spirit or Sound current (or Word) which 
 
 1 See p. 167. 
 
 1 Rddhd Sodmi Mat Prak&sh. The numbers of the sections are retained.
 
 158 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 emanated from His Holy Feet, and which is the prime factor 
 and principal agent in the whole creation. 
 
 6. The three degrees or grand divisions, comprised in the 
 entire creation, according to Radha Soami faith are : 
 
 1. SPIRITUAL 
 
 2. SPIRITUAL-MATERIAL 
 
 3. MATERIAL-SPIRITUAL 
 
 Pure spirit, uncontaminated with matter, exists in the 
 first grand division. Here the Supreme Being reigns over 
 absolutely spiritual life. This, the purest possible form of 
 life, has no desire but to love and serve the Supreme Being. 
 The joys the very existence of this pure spirit-life are 
 derived from the Supreme Being who is the Ocean of spirit, 
 love and joy. Nothing concerning this degree is known or 
 has been known to the founder of any religious creed. It com- 
 prises six sub-divisions and is called the Dayal Desh or the Re- 
 gions of Mercy. 
 
 7. The second or Spiritual-Material degree or grand division 
 is entirely free from all worldly passions and desires of the lower 
 order. Likening the Supreme Being to an Ocean, the president 
 of the second degree is a tide from that Ocean. He is a kind 
 of Viceroy who rules over all life existing in the space com- 
 prised in the second and third grand divisions committed to 
 his care. As its name indicates, the spiritual-material degree 
 contains both spirit and matter. But matter is, comparatively 
 speaking, pure and is subject to, and controlled by spirit. Life 
 here is very pure, and, though clothed in pure material forms, 
 spirit predominates. This degree also comprises six sub- 
 divisions and is called the Brahmanda or the regions of Uni- 
 versal Mind and pure matter. 
 
 8. In the third or Material-Spiritual degree matter predomi- 
 nates over spirit. Life is composed of spirits wholly clothed 
 in coarse matter. Having quite forgotten the higher abode 
 from which they originally sprang, the spirits here have ac- 
 quired carnal desires and passions. This also comprises six
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 159 
 
 sub-divisions and is called the Pinda or the regions of Individual 
 Mind and coarse matter. 
 
 9. This degree is dominated over by a wave emanating from 
 the Supreme Being and flowing through the tide which has 
 already been likened to a Viceroy. This wave or current may, 
 for want of a better name, be called a Governor who presides 
 over the Material Universe and controls matter. 
 
 12. The Supreme Being, as already said, is unknown. The 
 Spirit or the Viceroy who presides over the second degree, is 
 the Lord God of the Bible: he is the Sat or Sacchitanand or 
 Brahman of the Vedanta, the Nirvana of the Jains and the 
 Buddhists and the Lahut of the Mahomedan Saints. The 
 Spirit or Governor who rules over the third degree is the Brahma 
 or Parmatma or God of most religions in the world. 
 
 13. The entire creation below the first degree is composed 
 of two parts, namely, spirit which is all good and pure, and 
 matter which is always more or less bad. Man is a drop from 
 the Ocean, that is, the Supreme Being. This drop of pure 
 good spirit is so mixed with matter that it becomes in bondage 
 thereto, and unless aided by a Superior Spirit is always liable 
 to yield to temptation and deteriorate or sink down in matter. 
 
 1 6. There are two streams in our solar system ; the one ever 
 improving, the other always deteriorating. The spirits of 
 the first of these streams pass from plants through the lower 
 creation till they reach man; they then become angels or 
 heavenly spirits and ultimately merge into the Supreme Being 
 or remain in His Presence. Maintenance of individuality in 
 the changes later than man depends upon the practice of de- 
 votion according to Surat Sabd Yoga or the union of the Spirit 
 with the Word the Word being the emanation from the 
 Supreme Being. If such devotion be not practised, the spirit 
 loses its previous individuality and becomes merged into a 
 lower stage fit for its reception. A devotee, when merged into 
 the Supreme Being, can assume his individuality at pleasure. 
 Such a being is called a perfect Sant, a Special and Beloved
 
 160 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Son of the Supreme Being. But the spirits who belong to the 
 deteriorating stream are wholly under the influence of matter. 
 At every change they get lower and lower until they reach the 
 lowest form in the creation. 
 
 17. The Supreme Being has Special and Beloved Sons 
 called Sants and Param Sants, who are full of mercy and love 
 and who descend periodically upon the earth to deliver spirits 
 from the bondage of matter and to carry them to the Presence 
 of the Supreme Father. 
 
 1 8. Any one desirous of reaching the Supreme Being must 
 search for a Sant Satguru (incarnation of the Supreme Being) 
 or a Sadh Guru (one who has reached the top of the second 
 grand division) and invoke His help, and receive instructions 
 from one of these Superior Guides, as to the manner of his 
 devotion and procedure. 
 
 21. The name of the Supreme Being is Radha Soami. He 
 is impersonal, but personal in the second and third divisions 
 and when He manifests Himself through humanity as Sant 
 Satguru. His attributes are mostly met with in the Sant 
 Satguru, who might be called an incarnation of Sat Punish 
 Radha Soami, the true Supreme Being. 
 
 22. The deliverance of spirit from the bondage of body, 
 senses and mind, and its gradual ascension and eventual en- 
 trance into the first or highest division by the practice of Surat 
 Sabd Yoga is perfect salvation according to Radha Soami faith. 
 
 24. Radha Soami faith is not built on the basis of scriptures 
 appertaining to Hindu or any other religion, but on the pre- 
 cepts or instructions of the Supreme Being Himself, Who ap- 
 peared on this earth in human form and graciously performed 
 the functions of a Sant Satguru for the benefit of degraded hu- 
 manity. 
 
 25. The sound heard internally is a current which has orig- 
 inally emanated from the Supreme Being and is the means not
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 161 
 
 only of concentrating the will but also of raising the spirit to 
 the source from which it emanated. 
 
 27. It must be clearly understood that by Sabd or Word 
 or internal voice is meant the spirit or life current which en- 
 livens every part of the body and is the main principle or es- 
 sence which supports life in and gives activity to every being 
 or body in the whole creation or Universe. 
 
 28. At present the spirit of man is residing in the third or 
 material-spiritual region, and has, therefore, to do all the work 
 here by means of the senses and the mind which are mediums 
 between it and the material objects, and consequently, as a 
 natural result, its power has become quite hampered. But as 
 soon as it begins to ascend, the powers which are now lying 
 dormant, become active and the spirit acquires ultra-material 
 or higher powers. 
 
 29. The method for taking back the spirit to its Supreme 
 source is first to concentrate at the focus of the eyes the spirit 
 and mind which are diffused in our body and in a manner tied 
 to external objects by desires and passions, and next to com- 
 mence its journey homewards by attending to the internal 
 sound, or in other words, by riding the life or sound current which 
 has originally emanated from the Supreme source. 
 
 30. The current which has been instrumental in having 
 brought it down here must naturally be the only true path for 
 its return to the original source, and whoever finds this current 
 is on the path of emancipation. This current which is the spirit 
 and life current, is called in the Radha Soami faith, Sound 
 (Sabd} or Word or Holy Name. 
 
 34. To approach the Supreme Being, there is absolutely no 
 other means except the practice of Surat S*abd Yoga under the 
 guidance of a Sant Satguru or a Sadh Guru, or a sincere lover 
 of the Supreme Being who has received instructions from, and 
 is helped in his practice by one of those Superior and Holy 
 Spirits.
 
 1 62 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 35. Prayer is necessary to obtain blessing and mercy to 
 help man's perfect salvation, but it must be offered from the 
 inmost heart and not confined to mere utterance. It must 
 be also backed up by works of faith and charity performed 
 through love and affection for the Supreme Being. 
 
 37. In following this mode of devotion the following restric- 
 tions are made with regard to diet and mode of living. No 
 intoxicating drink or drug and animal food is to be taken and 
 immoderate indulgence in any desire is to be avoided. Animal 
 food is forbidden on account of its producing a material tendency 
 in human nature, and intoxicating drink is detrimental to a 
 calm and natural state of the brain and the nervous system. 
 Other public and private duties should be carried on as usual. 
 
 38. The moral code appertaining to Radha Soami faith 
 is comprised in two sentences : 
 
 (1) All acts including spiritual practice which tend to free 
 the spirit from matter and raise it towards its source are good 
 works. 
 
 (2) All acts which tend to degrade the spirit by weighing it 
 downwards deeper and deeper into matter are bad works. 
 Again any action done with a view to help the needy from un- 
 selfish motives is good work; and the contrary, bad work in 
 this world. 
 
 147. A member of Radha Soami faith is strictly forbidden 
 to divulge the secrets or mention to any one (even to a fellow 
 member without express permission) the glory and wonder of 
 the higher creation he sees now and then within himself, or the 
 happiness and extraordinary joy he experiences during his 
 practice, or the special Mercy, Grace and Protection extended 
 to him from time to time on important occasions by the Supreme 
 Father and Sant Satguru. 
 
 2. One fact stands out clear from the above statement of 
 doctrine that the guru occupies a place of supreme impor- 
 tance in the sect. He is the centre of the whole ; for he is not 
 only the source of revelation but the essential means of salva-
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 163 
 
 tion. Thus the sect ought to have an unbroken succession of 
 gurus. There have been already three, and a fourth is now 
 required. The following facts are taken from a book by the 
 third guru. 1 
 
 The first guru was an Agra banker of Kshatriya caste, born 
 in 1818. His name seems to have been Tulsi Ram, but he is 
 better known as Siva Dayal Saheb. He came of a pious 
 Vishnuite family, and had his guru, whose name was Tulsi 
 Saheb ; yet, according to the sect, he did not learn any of the 
 deep things from his guru, but brought his divine knowledge 
 with him from the other world. He is said to have had the 
 power of sending people into samddhi, 2 that is, a sort of reli- 
 gious trance, and of enabling them to see visions. He pub- 
 licly proclaimed his doctrine in 1861 . He left two books, each 
 named Sdr Bachan, i.e. " Essential Utterance," one in poetry 
 and one in prose. He died in 1878. His ashes lie in a sacred 
 tomb in the Radha Soami Garden, Agra. 3 His titles are 
 Rddhd Soami Dayal and Soamiji Maharaj. 
 
 The second guru was born in Agra in 1828, in a family of 
 Kayastha caste. He was a government official, serving in 
 the Post Office, and finally rose to be Postmaster-General of 
 the United Provinces, and received from Government the 
 title Rai Bahadur. He was thus known as Rai Saligram 
 Saheb Bahadur. Of his early life and his relations with the 
 first guru, whom he met in 1856, Max Miiller 4 writes : 
 
 It seems that the horrors of the mutiny in 1857 made a deep 
 impression on his mind. He saw thousands of men, women, 
 and children butchered before his eyes, the rich reduced to 
 poverty, the poor raised to unexpected and undeserved wealth, 
 so that the idea of the world's impermanent and transient 
 nature took complete possession of him and estranged him from 
 all that had formerly enlisted his interest and occupied his 
 
 1 Discourses on Rddhd Soami Faith. * See below, p. 166. 
 
 * See p. 189. * Rdmakrishna, 20-1.
 
 164 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 energies. From his very youth, however, his mind had been 
 filled with religious and philosophical questions, and he is said 
 to have devoted much time from his youth onward through all 
 the years of his official life to the study of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 No wonder therefore that after witnessing the horrors of the 
 mutiny and its suppression, he should have wished to flee 
 from this den of misery and to get happiness unalloyed and 
 permanent where alone it could be found. He went to consult 
 several Sannyasis and Yogis, but they could not help him. 
 At last one of his colleagues at the Post Office recommended 
 his elder brother as a spiritual guide who could be trusted. 
 For two years he attended his lectures, compared his teaching 
 with that of the Upanishads and other holy writings, and then 
 became his devoted pupil or Chela. During his stay at Agra 
 he allowed no one else to serve his master. He used to grind 
 the flour for him, cook his meals, and feed him with his own 
 hands. Every morning he could be seen carrying a pitcher of 
 pure water on his head for the Guru to bathe in, which he fetched 
 from a place two miles distant. His monthly salary also was 
 handed over to the Saint, who used it for the support of his pupils, 
 wife and children, and spent the rest in charity. 
 
 In 1878, on the death of the guru, he became head of the sect, 
 and retained his position until his death in 1898. His samddh, 
 sacred tomb, is at Pipalmandi, Agra. He left behind him 
 several works in poetry called PremaBdni, "Love Utterances," 
 and Prema Patra, ' ' Love Letters, ' ' and a little manual in English 
 called Rddhd Sodmi Mat Prakdsh, ( l Exposition of Radha Soami 
 Doctrine," from which our exposition of the teaching of the 
 sect is taken. He also wrote several small treatises in Hindi 
 and Urdu. It seems certain that the sect owes a great deal to 
 this man's clear intellect and power of expression. The first 
 guru may have been the source of the leading ideas and of the 
 religious practice of the sect ; but one can scarcely doubt that 
 the order and precision which now mark its teaching were the 
 fruit of Saligram's vigorous and orderly mind. His title is 
 Huzoor Maharaj.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 165 
 
 The third guru was a Brahman of Bengali extraction, named 
 Brahma Sankar Misra. He was born in Benares in 1861, 
 quite near the place where Kabir taught. He received an 
 English education, and was a Master of Arts of Calcutta Uni- 
 versity. He held a position in the Accountant General's 
 Office, Allahabad. He joined the Satsang in 1885. In 1898 
 he became the head of the sect. In 1902 he came to the con- 
 clusion that it was necessary, for the health of the Satsang, 
 to give it a well-expressed constitution and a definite organiza- 
 tion. He created a Central Administrative Council, and had 
 a Constitution and By-laws drawn up. He left a few poems 
 in Hindi and he wrote two brief expositions of the faith for the 
 Census Officers of the Pan jab and of the United Provinces. 
 When he died, he left, in manuscript, a volume of three hun- 
 dred pages, called Discourses on Rddhdsodmi Faith, which con- 
 tains much more sound than sense. He left also a few letters 
 in English which have been published under the title Solace 
 to Satsangis. He died in 1907. In Benares, where he died, 
 they have purchased a famous house and garden. It used to 
 be called Nandeshwar Kothi, and at the close of the eight- 
 eenth century it was used as the residence of the British judge 
 and magistrate of Benares. Here in 1799 Mr. Davis, the 
 judge, was attacked by a body of native troops, who had just 
 killed the British Resident. He placed himself at the top of a 
 narrow staircase leading to the roof, and succeeded in defend- 
 ing himself, his wife and two children with a spear, until he 
 was rescued by a regiment of cavalry. The garden is now 
 called the Radha Soami garden. A fine building has been 
 erected in it, which is used for the worship of the sect. It is 
 a large hall with a gallery and a raised platform. At the back 
 of the platform there is the tomb of the third guru, and on it 
 there hangs his photograph, so that the faithful may look 
 upon his face and adore him. His title is Maharaj Saheb. 
 
 Since his death the community has been unable to agree
 
 1 66 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 as to who is to be the next guru. Until 1913 there were two 
 prominent candidates, Mr. Sircar Kamta Prasad of Murai, 
 near Ghazipur, and Mr. Madhava Prasad Saheb, who is the 
 Chief Superintendent in the Accountant-General's Office, 
 Allahabad. The former died in the autumn of 1913 ; so that 
 Mr. Madhava Prasad Saheb has now a far better chance of 
 being chosen ; but there are groups who are unwilling to follow 
 him, and at least two other candidates. 
 
 3. Thus far we have relied on the literature published by 
 the sect, but there are many important facts which do not 
 appear in the official books. For this further information I am 
 indebted to members of the sect or to people who were mem- 
 bers but are no longer so. 
 
 The first guru was a man who had had no Western educa- 
 tion and did not know English. We may compare him with 
 Ramakrishna. 1 His wife, whose real name I have not dis- 
 covered, was a woman of great piety and goodness. They 
 acted together as religious teachers, although the guru was 
 probably the greater of the two. There was no organization, 
 no sect, in those days. Disciples came to them and received 
 instruction ; and the photographs of both the man and his 
 wife were given them to contemplate during their private 
 meditations. 
 
 The guru belonged to a Vaishnava family, as we have al- 
 ready seen. His connections were with the Krishnaite gurus of 
 Brindaban. From time to time he and his wife dressed up as 
 Krishna and Radha to receive the worship of their disciples. 
 The second guru also got himself up as Krishna from time 
 to time. Thus the guru-worship of the sect was probably 
 borrowed unchanged from the practices of the gurus at Brinda- 
 ban. In February, 1914, 1 was able to visit the Radha Soami 
 Bagh (i.e. Garden), some four miles outside Agra, where the 
 tomb, samddh, of the first guru is. I was shown over the prem- 
 1 Below, p. 188.
 
 PLATE VII 
 
 RADHA 
 
 Wife of the first guru 
 
 SOAMI 
 The first guru 
 
 The second guru 
 
 The third guru
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 167 
 
 ises by Mr. Tota Ram, who was educated at Roorki and 
 served Government as a civil engineer for years, but has now 
 retired, and is both architect and builder of a fine new marble 
 structure being erected over the samadh. I was greatly in- 
 terested to find two photographs hanging on the front of the 
 samadh, a woman and a man. I asked my guide who they 
 represented. He answered that the woman was Radha and 
 the man Soami, and then explained that they were the first 
 guru and his wife. He also said that Radha was not the 
 woman's real name. 
 
 So far as my information goes, it was the second guru, Rai 
 Saligram Saheb Bahadur, guru of the sect from 1878-1898, 
 who organized the Satsang, systematized the teaching and 
 gave it its modern character. I have also been told that the 
 sect owes its name to him. It is most noteworthy that this 
 extraordinary name, Radha Soami, bears four significations 
 in the sect. It is the name of God Himself ; it is the name 
 which the first guru bears, as the perfect incarnation of God ; 
 it is the sound which the spiritual sound-current (Sabda) makes 
 as it rings through all regions ; and it is the name of the sect. 
 It is necessary also to realize that the real meaning of Radha- 
 svami is Krishna, as Lord of Radha (his cowherd mistress 
 in the latest cycle of the myth) ; and that Soami is only a 
 curious phonetic misspell for Svami. How comes it that this 
 name stands for God in a sect which rejects the whole Hindu 
 pantheon ? We can only conjecture, until some scholar ex- 
 plores the Hindi writings of the first guru ; but it almost seems 
 as if, in the first instance, it had been applied to the first guru 
 and his wife, as they shewed themselves to their disciples in 
 person and in portrait, and as they still appear on the samadh, 
 and also in our reproduction of their portraits, 1 and had then 
 been applied to God, of whom the guru was held to be the 
 full and perfect revelation. The third guru quotes a Hindi 
 1 Plate VII, facing this page.
 
 i68 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 couplet, said to be by Kabir, which is supposed, by transposi- 
 tion, to say that the name of God is RadhasvamI ; 1 but the 
 couplet is clearly a forgery : it nowhere occurs among the 
 writings of Kabir, published or unpublished ; the language 
 is of a later date than Kabir ; and the forger was a bungler, 
 for, when transposed according to rule, the name reads 
 Arddhsvdmi, and not RadhasvamI. 2 
 
 The cosmogony is curiously like the Buddhist scheme, 
 which also has three planes or worlds, the Formless World, the 
 World of Form, and the World of Desire, each sub-divided 
 into sections. We may also compare the Theosophic scheme, 
 which sets forth reality as existing in seven distinct planes. 
 
 Most of the conceptions of the sect are Hindu, and of these 
 the majority are Vishnuite. God, the World, and the Soul 
 are recognized as realities ; the soul is an amsa, or portion of 
 God ; the spirit-current (Sabda), which streams from the Su- 
 preme and is the source of all things, corresponds to the sakti, 
 or energy of God, in the Vaishnava and Saiva systems. Trans- 
 migration is retained. The doctrine of immortality shews 
 traces of the Vaishnava conception, that the soul retains its 
 personality for ever; but the incarnation doctrine differs 
 very seriously from the Vaishnava idea ; for it is men who 
 become incarnate and not God Himself. 
 
 4. The practice of the sect is summed up in the phrase 
 Surat Sabd Yoga, that is, union (yoga) of the human soul (suraf) 
 with the spirit-current or word (Sabda}. The methods em- 
 ployed are unknown ; for they are imparted by the guru to 
 the disciple under a vow of secrecy ; but it is clear that they 
 are occult practices of a hypnotic nature such as are used in 
 Theosophy. There are hints in the literature that the initiate 
 sees wonderful lights and extraordinary scenes, and wins 
 
 1 Discourses of Radhasoami Faith, 162. 
 
 2 1 owe this criticism to my friend the Rev. Ahmad Shah of Hamirpur, 
 U. P.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 169 
 
 supernatural powers. Instructions about the practice are 
 given partly in meetings of the sect, in which the guru delivers 
 lectures, partly in private, when he receives his disciples in- 
 dividually or in small groups. The guru gives his photo- 
 graph to each disciple, that he may have it before him during 
 his religious practice. The prescribed exercises (sddhandni) 
 ought to be practised from two to three hours every day. 
 As to the powers of the Sant Satguru Dr. Griswold writes : 
 
 The incarnate Sant Satguru, even while on earth, has his 
 citizenship in the Radha Soami Dham (realm). He is not 
 controlled by the forces and currents which come from low 
 levels of earthly lives ; for, " as in the state of somnambulism, 
 all the functions of the body and senses are performed from a 
 plane higher than that which the soul occupies in the wakeful 
 state, so all the actions of the incarnations of the True Creator 
 are regulated by the currents coming direct from the Supreme 
 Being himself." The Sant Satguru who has attained to the 
 highest stage of being might leave the body at any time and 
 return to his own proper sphere ; but he stays on earth a cer- 
 tain time for the salvation of believers. This is of his grace. 
 
 We are told in the books that the sect recognizes no temples, 
 shrines or sacred places, except those sanctified by the pres- 
 ence of the guru or his relics : that the practice of the sect 
 can be carried on anywhere. This is quite true ; for the ini- 
 tiate can sit down, with the photograph of his guru in front of 
 him, and practise his meditations and his exercises wherever 
 he pleases, so long as he does it in secret. But for their meet- 
 ings the members of the sect prefer to have then- own buildings 
 and the presence of either the living guru or the relics of one 
 who has passed away. There are three relic-shrines already 
 in existence, each called gurudwara (the guru's chamber), two 
 in Agra and one in Benares. Each guru's photograph hangs 
 on his tomb. 
 
 In the daily meetings of trj sect portions of their own
 
 170 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 sacred books or of the writings of Kabir and other Hindu 
 saints are read. There is a prayer, hymn-singing and an ad- 
 dress by the guru, if he is present, by some other one, if he is not 
 present. Besides these common practices, there is the adora- 
 tion of the guru or of his portrait ; 1 but of that I have received 
 no detailed description. Several things are clear, however. 
 We are told in the books that each member brings to the meet- 
 ing with him a wreath of flowers, which he places round the 
 neck of the guru. The wreath is afterwards returned to him, 
 rilled with the spiritual power of the guru. Everything that 
 has touched him is charged with his sanctity and influence. 
 All relics from his body, such as clothing, hair, nail-parings or 
 water in which he has washed his feet, are sacred and precious. 
 There are some very disgusting practices connected with this 
 idea, certain products of his body being actually eaten or 
 drunk by his followers. When he dies, his body is burnt; 
 and his ashes, mixed with water, are swallowed by the faith- 
 ful. The place where he resided is considered holy ; and con- 
 templation of his image is held to be contemplation of the 
 Supreme Being. 
 
 Radha Soamis are taught that there is no need for them to 
 give up their life as householders and become monks. 2 In- 
 deed, the lives of the three gurus themselves show what is 
 the ideal. Yet, in spite of this, in the Constitution of the Sat- 
 sang drawn up in 1902, a set of rules is given for the enrolment 
 and conduct of Radha Soami monks. 3 
 
 There is one side of Radha Soami influence which is veiy 
 curious, their want of touch with modern movements. The 
 gurus discourage study. The members shew no national 
 feeling whatsoever, nor any serious interest in the life of the 
 country. If any member were to accept a public position of 
 
 1 Cf. the Deva Samaj, p. 179 below, and Theosophy, p. 261, below. 
 
 2 Radha Soami Mat Prakdsh, 51. 
 
 * Discourses of Radhasodmt Watih, 329.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 171 
 
 any prominence, he would be looked down upon. Economic, 
 literary or educational progress is no part of the ideal of the 
 sect. This neglect of public affairs is what takes the place 
 of the old ascetic renunciation. 
 
 5. The points that attract new members seem to be, first of 
 all, the secrecy of the religious practice of the sect, with 
 the hope connected therewith of gaining supernatural wisdom, 
 enlightenment and power. The living guru, believed to be 
 an incarnation of God in the fullest possible sense, is a distinct 
 attraction. Within the meetings of the sect there is a good 
 deal of freedom. Men of all castes mix freely together, and 
 even on occasion, dine together in secret ; and there is no strict 
 separation of men and women. There is thus a sort of free 
 happy fellowship within each group of Satsangis, as they call 
 themselves. Finally, membership in the sect does not in- 
 volve any breach with one's own religion. The fact that a 
 man is a member of the sect is often kept secret. As in The- 
 osophy, you may be a Radha Soami and yet remain a Hindu, 
 a Muhammadan or a Christian. People are taught that all 
 religions are true, and that the Radha Soami faith is an extra, 
 fit to be the complement of any religion, and supreme over 
 them all. Membership is thus made quite easy. Yet it is 
 definitely stated that the religion is for all, and that outside 
 the Satsang there is no salvation. 
 
 There is no proselytism in the sect, except in so far as the 
 individual member may express his high appreciation of the 
 guru to his personal friends. One Satsangi tried to make me 
 realize how many miracles had accompanied the gurus through- 
 out their lives. They teach only people'who wish to be taught ; 
 and they would rather win a few intelligent men than crowds 
 of common people. 
 
 6. The affinities of the theology of the sect stand out quite 
 clear. Most of the teaching is pwely Hindu ; it stands nearer 
 to Vaishnavism than to any other part of Hinduism, and is
 
 172 
 
 perhaps most closely allied to the teaching of Kablr. This is 
 reflected in the practice of the sect. While they profess to 
 find all truth in the books of their own gurus, they do use the 
 writings of certain Hindu and Muhammadan saints, and 
 amongst these they give Kablr the highest place. But, though 
 the system is in the main Hindu and old, there are modern 
 elements. There is an attempt to place religious leaders in 
 the various spheres of the universe, according to their merit ; 
 and there are a number of Christian elements in the teaching. 
 The unknown Supreme is constantly called the Heavenly 
 Father; His will is frequently emphasized; and Satsangis 
 are taught to seek His approbation. The Sant Satguru, who 
 alone can reveal Him, is called His beloved Son. God created 
 man in His own image. Love is emphasized in the teaching 
 of the sect in such a way as clearly to reveal its Christian 
 origin; for it goes far beyond the old ideas connected with 
 bhakti. Works of faith and charity, the spirit of service and 
 prayer, are laid down as necessary duties. Finally, the forms 
 of worship in the regular services, apart from the adoration 
 of the guru, are Christian. 
 
 In this connection, however, nothing is more noteworthy 
 than the many points in which Radha Soami and Theosophi- 
 cal doctrine and practice coincide. The most important 
 items are : the unknowable Supreme, the spheres and their 
 regents, the human revealers of religion, the emphasis on the 
 Word, reincarnation, the use of methodical exercises (sddh- 
 andni) of a hypnotic character for the development of the 
 spiritual powers and of the photograph 1 of the guru in med- 
 itation, the worship of gurus, the supernatural powers of the 
 gurus, the claim that the teaching of the sect is scientifically 
 accurate and verifiable in every particular, esoteric teaching, 
 secret practice, and all the talk about astral and higher 
 planes, adepts and such like. 
 
 1 See above, pp. 169, 170; below, p. 261.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 173 
 
 LITERATURE. Radha Soami Mat Prakdsh, by Rai Salig Ram 
 Bahadur, Benares, 1896, for private circulation, 10 annas. 
 (This is by far the best presentation of Radha Soami Doctrine in 
 English.) Discourses of Radhasoami Faith, by Pandit Brahm Sankar 
 Misra, Benares, The Satsang, 1909. This very verbose volume 
 has a Prefatory Note which contains details about the three gurus. 
 For the other works of the gurus, see above, pp. 163, 164, 165. The 
 Radha Swami Sect, by the Rev. H. D. Griswold, Ph. D., Cawnpore 
 Mission Press. 
 
 10. THE DEVA SAMAJ 
 
 i. Siva Narayana Agnihotri was born in a Kanauji Brah- 
 man family in 1850, in a small town in the Cawnpore district 
 of the United Provinces. When he was sixteen, he entered the 
 Government Engineering College at Rurki, and got the degree 
 of Overseer after some years of study and service there. Be- 
 fore the close of his course, he came greatly under the religious 
 influence of the Curator of the Instrument Depot of the Col- 
 lege, and through him became convinced of the truth of the 
 Vedanta philosophy as taught by Sankaracharya, namely, 
 that God is impersonal, and that the human spirit is God. 
 In 1871, while he was acting as a master in the College, both 
 he and his wife underwent a ceremony of initiation and be- 
 came disciples of the Curator-guru. He also began to see 
 clearly the need of religious and social reform. Hence he ban- 
 .ished idolatry from his household and set his wife free from 
 the restrictions of the zenana. 
 
 In 1873, now 23 years of age, he was appointed Drawing- 
 master in the Government School, Lahore ; and in that city he 
 has lived ever since. Here he at once came under the influ- 
 ence of the Brahma Samaj, with its doctrine that God is essen- 
 tially personal. Both he and his capable wife became active 
 Brahma workers. In 1875 he was appointed honorary minis- 
 ter of the Lahore Samaj, and soon-became well known in the 
 city as a man of character and a good speaker. Wherever
 
 174 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 he went, large audiences gathered to hear him. The Arya 
 Samaj was planted in Lahore in 1877, as we have already 
 seen, and very soon rose to great influence. The following 
 year, Agnihotri began a long-continued crusade against its 
 false pretences about the Veda. In January , 1 880, he attended 
 the anniversary meetings of the recently founded Sadharan 
 Brahma Samaj in Calcutta ; l and he and three others were 
 ordained as the first missionaries of the movement. 2 For two 
 years longer he gave all his leisure to work for the Lahore 
 Samaj ; but in 1882 he gave up the post of Drawing-master 
 in the Government School, in order that his full time might be 
 devoted to missionary labour. We are also informed in the 
 recent literature of the Samaj that on his birthday, the 2oth 
 of December of the same year, he took his great vow, ex- 
 pressed in a Hindi couplet, the translation of which runs : 
 
 The supreme object of my Life is to serve the world by 
 establishing the kingdom of Truth and Goodness on this earth 
 and by destroying what is opposed to them ; may I spend my 
 whole life for the fulfilment of this supreme object ! 
 
 In any case his full powers now began to make themselves 
 manifest. He proved effective as a writer as well as a speaker. 
 Books, pamphlets and tracts poured from the press. For a 
 little time a sort of simple copy of the Salvation Army, called 
 the Brahma Sena or Brahma Army, was used as an auxiliary. 
 He made his influence felt in every section of public life in 
 Lahore. But it was not long before difficulties arose within 
 the Samaj. His methods displeased the quieter members; 
 and his forceful will and autocratic temper led to constant 
 friction with the other leaders. He wanted to rule. He would 
 often be heard to say, "I am born to command not to obey." 
 Most of the members were apprehensive that he would soon 
 set up as the authoritative guru of the Samaj. The way his 
 followers now express this is : "His life-mission was unique 
 P. 55, above. 2 BBS., II, 144.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 175 
 
 and quite different from the object of the Brahmo Samaj." 
 A split became inevitable. 
 
 2. Accordingly, he seceded from the Brahma Samaj, taking 
 with him a fair number of followers, and organized, on the 
 Queen's Jubilee day, 1 February i6th, 1887, a new society to 
 be known as the Deva Samaj. The name was clearly chosen 
 in order to distinguish the new society from the old, and yet 
 to indicate its close relationship to it. Brahma is an adjective 
 formed from the word Brahman, the name of the supreme God 
 of the Upanishads. Deva is the ordinary Sanskrit word for 
 one of the innumerable gods of the Hindu pantheon, but is 
 probably used in the name of the society as an adjective. So 
 that the whole name means the Divine Society. A creed was 
 soon issued, which showed that the aims and beliefs of the new 
 community were very similar to those of the Brahma Samaj ; 
 yet there were significant differences. The Deva Dharma, 
 the divine religion of the divine society, is a special divine 
 dispensation, 2 and so is distinct from the Brahma Dharma. 
 The doctrines are Brahma doctrines; yet the beginnings of 
 a guru-doctrine are perceptible ; and, within a few years, the 
 leader could say of himself, "My mission is unique" ; "I am 
 free from sin" ; 3 and "I am a ship of hope and a leaven for 
 elevating nations." The work of the Samaj ran along the 
 usual lines: only Agnihotri dabbled in spiritualism. 
 
 In 1893 ne became involved in a libel case which, dragging 
 on for five long years, greatly hindered the work of the Samaj. 
 During this period Agnihotri's mind underwent a very serious 
 change ; and at its close a new period opens. 
 
 3. From 1898 down to the present day the Deva Samaj has 
 been an atheistic society, working for educational and moral 
 ends. Yet the members attribute to the guru such a supreme 
 place in human evolution and give him such a position in their 
 
 1 As celebrated in India. 2 Cf. Keshab's idea, above, p. 55. 
 
 1 Dharma Jivan, 4th October, 1892.
 
 176 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 own minds and devotional practice that we are fully justified 
 in saying that, practically, he is regarded and worshipped as a 
 god. Indeed, they call him sattya deva, a real god. 1 The lit- 
 erature of the earlier period was at once withdrawn from cir- 
 culation as far as possible ; a new creed, quite different from 
 the previous one was promulgated; and, for several years, 
 there was no public preaching or disputation. The literature 
 of the sect is now sold publicly and many of the meetings are 
 public ; but the devotional meetings and the worship of the 
 guru are held in private. The chief book of the Samaj is called 
 the Deva Sastra, or Divine Scripture, and the teaching, Deva 
 Dharma, or Divine Religion. 
 
 4. The teaching of the sect is that the universe consists of 
 matter and force, which are uncreated and indestructible, 
 and which manifest themselves in four forms, inorganic, vege- 
 table, animal, human. Man's life or soul is the builder of 
 his body, the most essential part of his existence. The soul 
 develops if it possess the necessary capacity and unite with the 
 right evolutionary environment ; but if it lacks the capacity 
 or fails to grasp the environment, it degenerates ; and if de- 
 generation is not checked, it will become extinct. A soul that 
 rises to the Complete Higher Life is thereby raised above the 
 danger of degeneration and extinction. The soul then sur- 
 vives in the form of a refined human body. 
 
 Good action leads to development, evil action to degenera- 
 tion. When a man reaches a certain height of development, 
 he is entirely beyond the danger of degeneration and dissolu- 
 tion. In order to reach this higher life, it is necessary to unite 
 with one who has already risen to these heights. The guru 
 of the Deva Samaj has risen to the highest possible heights, 
 and thus is the true environment for souls eager for progress. 
 He is an unprecedented manifestation of the powers of the 
 highest life. 
 
 1 He is so called in a letter sent me by the Secretary of the Samaj.
 
 PLATE VIII 
 
 MAHAMANANIYA PUJANIYA SRI DEVA GURU BHAGAVAN 
 Pandit S. N. Agnihotri
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 177 
 
 Since matter and force are the only reality that exists, 
 there is no such thing as God or gods. Every conception of 
 God that has been held among men is purely imaginative, 
 and consequently harmful. 
 
 The teaching about the guru himself is the key to the whole 
 life of the sect. He is the highest result of the evolution of 
 the universe. He has evolved the highest powers that any 
 being on this earth has ever had. Nay, he possesses in his 
 soul all the powers of the Complete Higher Life and is its 
 highest ideal. Hence many of the titles used of Hindu gods 
 are conferred upon him. He is Mahamananiya Pujanfya Sri 
 Deva Guru Bhagavan (the Most Reverend, Most Worshipful, 
 Most Exalted, Divine Teacher and Blessed Lord). Since he 
 became the god of the Samaj, he has tended to withdraw into 
 seclusion. He no longer figures hi the public life of Lahore. 
 He seldom instructs any one except his own disciples, very 
 seldom gives outsiders interviews, and delivers addresses only 
 in meetings of the Samaj. Much is made of the vow he is 
 said to have taken in 1882. Much is also made of his 
 sacrifices. 
 
 The guru teaches and practises spiritualism. Being the 
 summit of all evolution, he possesses powers whereby he is 
 able to see into the other world, and to have personal deal- 
 ings, through mediums, with souls there. He states that many 
 of his own dead relatives have become convinced of the truth 
 of his teaching, and have found salvation through him. He 
 delivers addresses to spirits who assemble from time to time 
 to hear him at the Samaj building. 
 
 Transmigration is denied. This is one of the elements 
 of Brahma teaching which have been carried over into the new 
 period. 
 
 5. Those who wish to become members of the Samaj have 
 to take the following ten vows. 1 % 
 
 1 A Dialogue about the Deva Samaj, 14-16. 
 
 N
 
 1 78 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 1. I shall not commit the following four sins relating to my 
 profession or calling : 
 
 (a) I shall not take bribe. 
 
 (b) I shall not weigh or measure anything more or less, 
 with a motive of cheating some one. 
 
 (c) I shall not substitute one thing for another with a view 
 to cheating some one. 
 
 (d) When certain remuneration for a certain work or price 
 of a thing has been agreed upon, I shall not dishonestly pay less 
 or take more than is due according to the agreement. 
 
 2. I shall not commit theft. 
 
 3. I shall not withhold anything borrowed by or entrusted 
 to me. 
 
 4. I shall not rob any person of his money, land or any other 
 article by force or fraud. 
 
 5. I shall not gamble or do any act which involves loss or 
 gain of money or property through betting. 
 
 6. I shall not lead a useless life when I am able to do some 
 work. 
 
 7. I shall not commit adultery, polygamy, or any unnatural 
 crime. 
 
 8. I shall not use, prepare, cultivate, buy or sell, or give to 
 any person any intoxicant such as Wine, Opium, Bhang, To- 
 bacco, Charas, Chandoo, Cocaine, etc., for the purpose of in- 
 toxication. 
 
 9. I shall not eat flesh or eggs myself, or give or direct 
 others to eat flesh or eggs or anything made thereof. 
 
 10. I shall not kill any sentient being, barring certain right 
 occasions. 
 
 When any one wants to become a member of the Samaj, he 
 writes a letter to the guru, putting into it a catalogue of all 
 his past sins, telling how he has been brought to a better
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 179 
 
 mind by the guru, and promising to give them up. From time 
 to time thereafter he writes in a similar strain. All these 
 documents the guru preserves most carefully. 1 
 
 6. The guru is seldom present at the regular devotional 
 meetings of the Samaj, but his photograph hangs before the 
 congregation. An image would be used; but hitherto the 
 cost has stood in the way. When the people have assembled, 
 all stand up, and the conductor offers a tray of flowers to 
 the portrait, 2 or hangs a garland round it. All then bend 
 low in adoration. The stotra, a Sanskrit hymn in praise 
 of the guru, is then sung by all, and a Hindi translation is 
 read by the conductor. All then prostrate themselves before 
 the portrait. When all are seated, the conductor offers 
 prayer to the guru. Then a hymn is sung. This is often 
 followed by a sermon, or a meditation on the virtues of the 
 guru, and another hymn ; or a passage is read from the Deva 
 Sdstra. The conductor or some other one then closes the 
 meeting with another prayer. The burning of incense and 
 the waving of lights (arati) before the portrait were originally 
 parts of the service, but they have been discontinued. When 
 the guru himself is present, the service centres in him ; and 
 when members call on him, they prostrate themselves at his 
 feet. His birthday is the anniversary of the Samaj. 
 
 7. The methods of the Samaj are practically all Christian. 
 Many of them the guru brought with him from the Brahma 
 Samaj ; the rest have been copied direct from Christian 
 missions. The Samaj has missionaries, and also lay-workers, 
 both men and women. They have two High Schools, a num- 
 ber of Primary Schools, a School for the Depressed Classes, 
 and a Training College for mission workers, called the Bikdsh- 
 alai, or House of Development. A good deal of attention 
 is given to female education. They have a successful Board- 
 
 1 Cf. p. 182, below. * 
 
 1 Cf. the Radha Soimis, p. 169 f., above, and Theosophy, p. 261, below.
 
 i8o MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ing School for Girls at Firozepore, teaching up to the Matricu- 
 lation Standard. They do a little medical work, have two 
 Widows' Homes, and have held Industrial Exhibitions. They 
 lay a good deal of stress on social reform, as we have already 
 seen, and endeavour to do a little social service. They have a 
 Temperance League and a Vegetarian League. 1 
 
 Literature is much used in spreading the teaching of the 
 Samaj. The guru's chief work is a Hindi book, the Deva 
 Sdstra, i.e., the Divine Scripture, which, he believes, is destined 
 to eclipse all the sacred books of the world. The portrait 
 of the guru which forms the frontispiece of the Deva Sdstra is 
 reproduced in the plate facing page 177. There are a few 
 more books of some size in Hindi which expound the principles 
 of their doctrine ; and there are a great many pamphlets in 
 Hindi, Urdu, Sindhi and English. A series of schoolbooks in 
 Hindi has been published. Four journals are published : an 
 English monthly, called the Science-Grounded Religion, an 
 Anglo-Sindhi monthly, called the Sindh-Upakdrak, an Urdu 
 fortnightly, called Jiwan Tattva, and a Hindi monthly, called 
 the Sewak, which is meant only for those belonging to the 
 Samaj. 
 
 The Reports read at the Anniversary Meetings tell of steady 
 expansion. 2 Lahore and Firozepore are the two chief centres 
 of the work ; but members from Sindh, Baluchistan, the N. 
 W. Frontier Province and the United Provinces attend the 
 annual meetings. 
 
 8. The sources and connections of the system stand out 
 quite clear. The scientific elements are fairly prominent: 
 the conceptions of life, seed, soil, growth, evolution, progress, 
 degeneration, extinction, are scattered throughout the litera- 
 ture. Originally, the guru seems to have been considerably 
 influenced by Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual 
 
 1 All this may be found in the Dialogue about the Deva Samaj. 
 2 ISR., XX, 258; XXI, 207, 257; XXIII, 235.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 181 
 
 World; but his later thought is drawn mainly from Spencer. 
 Hinduism shews itself in the Samaj in the beliefs about the 
 guru and in the worship, and lingers on in the practice of caste, 
 though transmigration has been expelled, and in the stress 
 laid on vegetarianism and on the preservation of animal life. 
 The influence of Christianity is visible throughout, chiefly 
 in the vigorous moral sense which characterizes the doctrine 
 of salvation, and in the claim made in every report, that nu- 
 merous individuals have been saved from various forms of 
 vice by the teaching of the Samaj ; * also in the rejection of 
 transmigration, in the demand for social reform, and in the 
 practical methods employed. The religious atheism of the 
 Samaj reminds one of Comtism, but the position of the guru 
 is distinctly Hindu. Curiously enough, his doctrine of con- 
 ditional immortality is not unlike that preached by the Rev. 
 Edward White hi London, shortly before the rise of the Deva 
 Samaj. 
 
 9. All went fairly well with the Samaj until 1913, when the 
 guru took two measures which have raised a storm. He 
 appointed his own second son, Devanand, who keeps an ath- 
 letic store in Lahore, to succeed him. Naturally, Dev Ratan, 
 who has been associated with him for twenty-four years, and 
 for many years has been his right hand, did not think this 
 quite the right appointment. In the second place he pub- 
 lished a book, called Bignan-Mulak Tattva Siksha, in which 
 he declared himself the perfect ideal, the perfect object of 
 worship, the perfect giver of life, perfection and salvation for 
 all mankind. No one has been equal to him in the past ; no 
 one will ever equal him in the future. The worship of all 
 other beings, whether imaginary gods and goddesses or real 
 men, should be abandoned as harmful. 
 
 The consequence is that Dev Ratan, the one considerable 
 
 1 See, for example, the Dialogue, 19. Cf. MadamqrBlavatsky's boasts, 
 below, p. 438.
 
 1 82 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 man in the movement after the guru, has seceded from the 
 Samaj ; and one of the sons of the guru, his brother-in-law, his 
 sister-in-law, two graduates and some others have come out 
 with him. The bulk of the members have, however, remained. 
 The seceders have formed The Society for the Promotion of 
 Higher Life. Their position is the old teaching without the 
 guru. Meantime the guru has published the letters of confes- 
 sion l written to him by Dev Ratan in former years, and seeks 
 to show from them what a bad man he is ; a proceeding 
 which suggests many thoughts. What the outcome of all 
 this will be no one can tell. 
 
 LITERATURE. OFFICIAL : Devasastra, by S. N. Agnihotri, 
 Lahore, Jivan Press, Rs. 5. (The chief scripture of the Samaj; 
 in Hindi.) Dev Dharm, Lahore, Deva Samaj Office, price ij as. 
 (An account of the teaching of the sect, in English, in fifty pages.) 
 A Dialogue about the Dev Samaj, Lahore, The Jivan Press, 1912, 
 i an. (A brief account of the Samaj and its work.) CRITICAL : 
 Pandit Agnihotri and the Deva Samaj, by Dr. H. D. Griswold, Lahore, 
 1906. (A clear account of the Samaj.) A Lecture on Pandit S. N. 
 Agnihotri and His Atheistic Propaganda, by Kashi Ram, Lahore, 
 N. W. Indian Press, 1908. 
 
 ii. Two MINOR GURUS 
 
 Two young Hindus, belonging to our own day, the one a 
 Telugu, the other a Tamil, have each sketched a system and 
 gathered a few disciples. Both have been deeply influenced by 
 Christ ; yet, the main teaching of each is Hindu ; and they 
 both wish to be worshipped as gurus. They are of no im- 
 portance as leaders, but their teaching may be worth notice 
 as further evidence of the character of Indian thought to-day. 
 
 i. The Telugu guru 2 is not quite ready yet to appear in 
 public to expound his system. His thought, as it at present 
 exists in his mind, seems to be fundamentally Hindu, but with 
 
 1 P. 178, above. 
 
 2 My informant is one of his disciples, whom I met in Madras.
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 183 
 
 a good deal of Christianity worked into it. He declares that 
 his system is for all men, and that he selects what is good 
 from all religions. 
 
 At present he seems to be a pantheist. The whole world 
 is God, and we are part of God. God is not a Spirit. God is 
 not Sat, Chit, Ananda, except in so far as the universe deserves 
 these titles. God is non-moral. He has no will. He does 
 not act. He does not listen to prayer, and does not receive 
 sacrifice. God does not answer prayer : prayer automatically 
 answers itself. 
 
 He condemns idolatry entirely. 
 
 He finds all metaphysics in the Rigveda. He acknowledges 
 that Hindu mythology is absurd, and explains Brahma as 
 sthula, i.e., the material world, Vishnu as antahkarana, i.e. 
 man's inner faculties, and Siva as the first cause. He asserts 
 that there is no mythology in the Rigveda. He is writing a 
 Commentary on it. In his attitude to the Rik he stands very 
 near Dayananda. 
 
 He bids his followers concentrate the mind on certain words 
 or phrases from the Rigveda (e.g. the Gayatrl, the most famous 
 of Hindu prayers), because he holds they are instinct with 
 meaning. They are to concentrate the mind on that, until 
 only one thought remains. He believes in the power of Yoga 
 methods, but says they are dangerous. 
 
 He calls Sankara and Buddha great philosophers. He has 
 not much respect for Muhammad. He acknowledges that the 
 Gitd is not an utterance of Krishna. 
 
 He says the world is eternal. He does not believe in the 
 re-creation and destruction of the world. He believes in 
 karma and transmigration ; but he does not seek deliverance 
 himself at all ; nor does he admire men who seek deliverance. 
 He desires rebirth, in order to work for the goooj, of humanity. 
 This is curiously like the attitude ascribed to the Bodhisattvas 
 in Mahayana Buddhism.
 
 1 84 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Moral law is made by man. What is best for society is 
 moral. In moral action he would advise us to copy Jesus. 
 He holds that the life of Jesus was entirely given up to doing 
 good ; and he says that He died for men. He also declares 
 that Jesus is now a living angel, who can answer the prayers 
 of Christians. 
 
 He urges his followers above all things else to philanthropic 
 action. He also urges them to prayer and moral action. He 
 insists on moral asceticism. 
 
 He is a Brahman; yet he eats with Christians in secret. 
 He is in favour of mixed marriages, even between people of 
 different races. He is anxious to make Brahmans less con- 
 servative; but, as he has not yet appeared publicly as a 
 teacher, he conceals his anti-caste tendencies. He is op- 
 posed to polygamy, but is not in favour of widow-remarriage, 
 nor in favour of marrying girls after puberty. The age of 
 the marriage of men ought to be raised. He is a married man 
 with a family. He lays no stress on the monastic life, but 
 makes working for humanity the prime thing. 
 
 Though he has not proclaimed himself a public teacher as 
 yet, he has gathered a number of friends around him and 
 formed a sort of society. Weekly or fortnightly a meeting 
 is held. He presides ; some one reads a paper in Sanskrit, 
 and he comments on it. 
 
 The disciples consider him worthy of divine honour. Each 
 bows down individually to him. 
 
 2. The young Tamil has been rash enough to publish a 
 little book to explain his position. It is simply a rhetorical 
 exercise, containing no systematic thinking. The elements 
 contained in it are drawn mainly from the Saiva Siddhanta 
 and from Christianity, but Vaishnavism is not quite neglected. 
 The Christian elements are distinctly subordinate to the Hindu , 
 and the need of the guru is one of the most prominent points. 
 He describes, in a mystical way, his own meeting with his guru,
 
 REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF OLD FAITHS 185 
 
 whom he calls the Anointed, and to whom he attributes his 
 conversion. His language throughout is modelled on the 
 Bible; but in every case Christian truth is volatilized, so 
 as to become equivalent to Hindu doctrine. Baptism, the 
 Holy Ghost, Regeneration, the Kingdom of God, Eternal Life, 
 and other such phrases are scattered about his pages every- 
 where ; and many texts are quoted from the Gospels ; but all 
 are emptied of their real meaning.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 AT the beginning of our third chapter we noted the rise in 
 India about 1870 of a new spirit, which generated many 
 religious movements, roughly divisible into two series, one 
 marked by defence of the old, tempered by reform, the other 
 eager to defend the old in almost every particular. We deal 
 with this latter series in this chapter. 
 
 i. BEGINNINGS 
 
 The earliest stirrings of the new spirit appeared in and 
 around Calcutta. In 1872 Raj Narayan Bose, one of the 
 leaders of the Adi Brahma Samaj, 1 delivered a lecture on The 
 Superiority of Hinduism over all other Forms of Faith, 2 which 
 attracted a good deal of attention. The very next year, the 
 idea of the equality of all religions, which has become so 
 closely associated these last thirty years with the defence of 
 Hinduism, found organized expression at Barahanagar, a few 
 miles to the north of Calcutta. Mr. Sasipada Banurji, a 
 Kulin Brahman, who had early turned to various forms of 
 social service, and had become a member of the Brahma 
 Samaj in 1865, established a religious association, which he 
 called the Sadhdran Dharma Sabhd, or General Religious 
 Association, in which Hindus, Brahmas, Christians, Buddhists 
 
 1 P. 46, above. 2 HBS., I, 248. 
 
 1 86
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 187 
 
 and Muslims were allowed freely to express their own religious 
 beliefs, so long as they condemned no one. The following 
 is a description of its work : 
 
 Its two main features were, first, a spiritual union, held 
 every week, of the followers of various religions on the basis 
 of commonly-accepted principles a union in which prayers 
 and other spiritual exercises took place and were joined in by 
 all; and, secondly, a platform for the preaching of diverse 
 opinions by their advocates, a platform where the most perfect 
 freedom and toleration were allowed consistently with brotherly 
 feeling and general co-operation; for no one was allowed to 
 vilify or ridicule the beliefs and practices of another. 1 
 
 The work has died out at Barahanagar. But, within recent 
 years, Mr. Banurji has started it again in Calcutta. The 
 institution is named the Devdlaya, or " Divine House." 2 The 
 building is his own, and stands in the compound of the Sadh- 
 aran Brahma Samaj. He has made over this property to a 
 group of trustees, so that it may be used for the purposes 
 described by the donor. It is most curious to note how sim- 
 ilar Sasipada's original idea is to those which, a few years 
 later, were expressed by Ramakrishna, and later still, by 
 Theosophists. 
 
 We may also note that in 1873, at the very time when he was 
 starting his General Religious Association at Barahanagar, a 
 group of Hindus formed in Calcutta the Sandtana Dharma 
 Rakshini Sabhd, or Association for the Defence of the Eternal 
 Religion. They were anxious to found a Sanskrit School in 
 the city to counteract modern tendencies. One of the reasons 
 why Dayananda Sarasvati visited Calcutta was that he hoped 
 to help this society. 3 A few years later the Hindus of the 
 South began to move in the same direction, as we shall see. 
 
 1 The Devdlaya, by S. N. Tattvabhushan, 19. 
 
 1 Ib., 26. 
 
 *Swami Dayanand Saraswati, 28, Madras, Natesan. Cf. above, p. 109.
 
 1 88 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 2. RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA 
 
 But the man who really made these ideas current coin in 
 India was a Bengali ascetic, known as Ramakrishna Para- 
 maharhsa. 
 
 i. Gadadhar Chatter ji 1 was born in the village of Kamar- 
 pukurinthe Hoogly district of Bengal, on the 2oth of February, 
 1 8$4, 2 in a poor but orthodox Brahman family. The accounts 
 which are published of his life already tend to be mythical. 
 Even the best biography that exists, which was written by one 
 of his pupils, and published by Max Miiller, decidedly tends 
 here and there towards the marvellous ; and a large volume, 
 published by another of his disciples, and called the Gospel 
 of Sri Ramakrishna, imitates the Christian Gospels so carefully 
 in many minor points that one wonders how far the assimila- 
 tion has gone. Yet the main events of his life stand out quite 
 clear, so that we can trace, in large measure, the growth of this 
 gifted man's mind. 
 
 Even when quite a boy, he showed wonderful powers of 
 memory and considerable interest in religious books and 
 stories. He received no education. His father died when 
 he was about seventeen ; and he then went with his elder 
 brother, Pandit Ram Kumar, down to Calcutta, to try to 
 make a living. For some time he was employed as pujdri, 
 or ministrant, in certain Hindu families in the northern part 
 of the city, his duty being to see to the worship of the house- 
 hold idols. But a wealthy Bengali lady built rather a strik- 
 ing temple at Dakshinesvara, four miles north of Calcutta, on 
 the bank of the Hugli River ; and, when this temple was opened 
 on the 3ist of May, 1855, his elder brother was appointed 
 chief priest. Soon after, Gadadhar was appointed one of the 
 assistant priests. 
 
 1 The details of his life are taken mainly from Max Miiller's Ramakrishna. 
 Where I differ from him, I give my authority. 
 
 * See the Gospel of R., p. i. Miiller's date is clearly wrong.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 189 
 
 The two brothers were now in comfortable circumstances ; 
 but almost at once religion began to assert itself in Gadadhar's 
 life. The form which his religious passion took was a fervent 
 worship of the image of Kali in the temple. He thought of 
 her as the mother of the universe, and as his own mother. 
 The following quotation is from Max Muller's life : 1 
 
 He now began to look upon the image of the goddess Kali 
 as his mother and the mother of the universe. He believed it 
 to be living and breathing and taking food out of his hand. 
 After the regular forms of worship he would sit there for hours 
 and hours, singing hymns and talking and praying to her as 
 a child to his mother, till he lost all consciousness of the out- 
 ward world. 
 
 In his religious ecstasy he would pass into that form of trance 
 which is called in Hinduism samddki. When this came on 
 him, he became unconscious. He would sit in a fixed posi- 
 tion for a short time, or it might be for hours, and would then 
 slowly return to consciousness. When he was in this condi- 
 tion, the best doctors could find no trace of pulse or of heart- 
 action. 2 It is also said that he already had the power of in- 
 ducing samadhi in others. This trance is clearly a form of 
 hypnotism. 
 
 His mother and brothers, thinking that marriage would 
 make him more like ordinary people, took him home, and had 
 him married. This was in 1859. He was then twenty-five 
 years of age, while his little bride was only six. This Hindu 
 marriage-ceremony is a full Hindu marriage, and completely 
 binding : but the husband and wife do not live together until 
 the little girl-wife is eleven or twelve years old. 
 
 Then he returned to the temple, leaving his little wife in 
 her father's home. But, instead of getting rid of his religious 
 ecstasy, he developed a new phase. He now had an over- 
 powering desire to realize the existence and the presence of 
 
 1 P. 36. J Rdmakrishna, 57.
 
 190 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 his mother, the goddess. The following is from one of his 
 disciples : 
 
 "Oh Mother!" he would cry, "show me the truth! Art 
 Thou there ? Art Thou there ? Dost Thou exist ? Why then 
 should I be left in ignorance ? Why can I not realize ? Words 
 and philosophy are vain. Vain all this talk of things ! Truth ! 
 It is truth alone I want to realize. Truth I would touch ! 
 Truth I seek to feel ! " 1 
 
 He believed that God can be seen. He felt that, until he had 
 seen Kali, he had not realized her, and that there was some- 
 thing wrong with his devotion. He would fall into samddhi, 
 and remain unconscious for hours. His neglect of his duties 
 as priest of the temple was so serious, that he had to be de- 
 prived of his position. He left the temple, and lived in a little 
 wood near by. From now onwards for about twelve years 
 he lived a life of prayer and supplication, of severe self-repres- 
 sion, and of unceasing effort to reach union with God : 
 
 Looking back to these years of self-torture in his later days, 
 he said, ' that a great religious tornado, as it were, raged within 
 him during these years and made everything topsy-turvy.' 
 He had no idea then that it lasted for so long a time. He 
 never had a wink of sound sleep during these years, could not 
 even doze, but his eyes would remain always open and fixed. 2 
 
 The first person who understood him and helped him, was a 
 Brahman nun (sannydsim), who came and resided in the 
 temple for some time. She was a woman of great beauty, and 
 considerable learning. She knew and practised yoga, that is, 
 various bodily postures, breathing exercises, and forms of in- 
 tellectual drill, meant for the progressive restraint of both 
 body and mind and the development of supernatural powers. 
 The books she knew were the Tantras, old manuals written for 
 the worship of Kali, and the exposition of the theology con- 
 
 1 My Master, 30. 2 Ramaskrishna, 41.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 191 
 
 nected with her name. She understood Gadadhar's religious 
 condition, and her sympathy was of great service to him. 
 She showed his friends old Vaishnava books from which it 
 appeared that the saints of Bengal of former days were afflicted 
 just as he was. She taught him all she knew ; and then, after 
 a stay of some years, departed and was never seen again. 
 
 Gadadhar was still dissatisfied. He longed for higher 
 knowledge ; and, fortunately, there came to the temple a man 
 named Tota-puri who was able to help him. He was a tall, 
 strong, muscular ascetic, who wore no clothing, and never 
 slept under a roof, but kept up the use of the sacred fire. He 
 was some sort of monk, sannydsi, but he cannot have belonged 
 to any of the great orders, else he would not have had a fire. 
 The system of philosophy which he followed was the monistic 
 Vedanta, as taught by Sankaracharya. The doctrines are 
 that God is impersonal, that the human spirit is identical with 
 God, and that the world is an illusion. This he expounded to 
 Gadadhar; and the latter proved a quick pupil. He also 
 taught him the highest stage of religious trance, nirvikdpa 
 samddhi, in which not a trace of consciousness remains. But 
 the master also learned much from the pupil; so that he 
 stayed eleven months with him. He initiated Gadadhar as a 
 monk, sannyasi. As we have already seen, the sannyasi gives 
 up home, property, caste, ornaments, the work of the world, 
 money and marriage. Gadadhar was able to take this vow, 
 because he had forgotten that he was married. When a man 
 becomes a sannyasi, he takes a new name. From this time 
 forward, then, he was known as Ramakrishna At a later 
 date his friends called him Paramaharhsa, a title bestowed 
 only on sannyasis of the most advanced knowledge and 
 sanctity. 
 
 After the departure of Tota-puri, Ramakrishna desired to 
 remain continuously in the exalted form of trance he had 
 learnt ; and we are told that, for six months, almost without
 
 192 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 a break, he lived in religious unconsciousness. His own ac- 
 count of these days is as follows : 
 
 In those days I was quite unconscious of the outer world. 
 My body would have died for want of nourishment, but for a 
 sadhu (religious ascetic) who came at that time and stayed 
 there for three days for my sake. He recognized my state of 
 Samadhi, and took much interest to preserve this body, while 
 I was unconscious of its very existence. He used to bring some 
 food every day, and when all methods failed to restore sensa- 
 tion or consciousness to this body of mine, he would even strike 
 me with a heavy club, so that the pain might bring me back to 
 consciousness. Sometimes he succeeded in awakening a sort 
 of partial consciousness in me, and he would immediately force 
 down one or two mouthfuls of food before I was lost again in 
 deep Samadhi. Some days when he could not produce any 
 response, even after a severe beating, he was very sorrowful. 1 
 
 The trance period passed away, ending in a serious illness, but 
 Ramakrishna recovered. 
 
 He next sought to attain the Vaishnava ideal of love for 
 God. The method by which he tried to rouse the right 
 feelings was to imagine he was some one of the great devotees 
 of the old stories. For example, he imagined himself Radha, 
 Krishna's cowherd mistress, wore woman's attire, spoke like 
 a woman, and lived among the women of his own family, 
 until he experienced something like her passionate love for 
 Krishna. After some time he felt he had attained his ideal : 
 he saw the beautiful form of Krishna in a trance, and was 
 satisfied. 
 
 The twelve years of storm and stress had passed. He was 
 at peace. It was the year 1871. His wife, who was now 
 eighteen years of age, and had heard of his fame, came to see 
 him. Ramakrishna explained that he could never be a hus- 
 band to her. She replied that she was quite satisfied to live 
 with him on his own terms, if he would only enlighten her 
 
 1 Ramakrishna, 49.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 193 
 
 mind, and enable her to see and serve God. So she took up 
 her residence in the temple, and became one of his most de- 
 voted pupils. She survived him, and spoke in the warmest 
 way of him afterwards. She revered him as a divine being. 
 
 The next impulse that came to him was to conquer his own 
 feelings in matters of caste. Since he was a sannyasi, he had 
 no caste of his own left, according to the rules of his religion ; 
 yet the prejudices and instinctive feelings of his Brahman birth 
 remained ; and he felt he must overcome his natural abhor- 
 rence of low-caste people. One of his disciples describes what 
 he did: 
 
 In order, then, that he might stand above none, our Brahmin 
 sought to identify himself with the Chandala, by doing his 
 work. He is the street-cleaner, and the scavenger, touched 
 by no one; and so, in the night, this man possessed himself 
 of his brooms and utensils, and entering those hidden offices 
 of the temple which it was the duty of pariahs to cleanse, he 
 knelt down, and did the work of purification with his own 
 hands, wiping the place with his hair ! Nor was this the only 
 abasement that he imposed upon himself. The temple gave 
 food daily to many beggars, and amongst these were Mahom- 
 medans, outcasts, and people of no character. Waiting till 
 all had finished eating, our Brahmin would collect the green 
 leaves that had formed their plates, would gather together the 
 broken fragments of food that they had left, would even eat 
 from amongst their rejected morsels, and would finally cleanse the 
 place where all sorts and conditions of men had had their meal. 1 
 
 He was next seized by the desire to know and understand 
 other religions. Here are two quotations which tell how he 
 proceeded : 
 
 He found a Mahommedan saint and went to live with him ; 
 he underwent the discipline prescribed by him, became a Mahom- 
 medan for the time being, lived like a Mahommedan, dressed 
 like a Mahommedan, and did everything laid down in their 
 codes. 2 
 
 1 My Master, 38-40. * /&., 41. 
 
 o
 
 194 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 He had seen Jesus in a vision, and for three days he could 
 think of nothing and speak of nothing but Jesus and His love. 1 
 
 The result was that he came to the conclusion that all reli- 
 gions were true, that they were simply various paths leading 
 to the same goal. 
 
 2. People now began to visit him. One of his chief friends 
 was a pandit, named Vaishnava Charan, who often went to 
 see him, and now and then brought him to Calcutta. 2 Daya- 
 nanda Sarasvati met him during the time which he spent in 
 Calcutta at the end of 1872 and the beginning of i873- 3 
 About the year 1875, Keshab Chandra Sen made his ac- 
 quaintance, 4 and became deeply interested in him. He talked 
 about him to his friends, and also wrote about him. In conse- 
 quence, educated men from Calcutta began to go to the 
 temple to see Ramakrishna. From this time onward, he 
 made the acquaintance of those young men who became his 
 devoted disciples, and carried on his work after his death. 
 Many famous Indians went to see him, and to listen to his 
 brilliant conversation. 5 For seven years, from 1879 to his 
 death in 1886, he talked almost incessantly. He wrote 
 nothing, but his disciples took down his sayings in Bengali ; 
 and several collections of them have been published. The 
 most convenient collection is that contained in Max Miiller's 
 Ramakrishna. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, written by 
 Prof. M. N. Gupta, one of his disciples, consists of a brief in- 
 troduction, containing the merest outline of his life, and a 
 description of the temple precincts where he lived, and then 
 350 pages of conversations with friends and disciples. A good 
 deal of the language is modelled on the language of the 
 Gospels. 
 
 According to his most famous disciple, Narendra Nath Dutt, 
 
 1 Ramakrishna, 51. 2 Gospel of R., 6. * Ib., 9, 182. 
 
 4 76., 7. Miiller's date, p. 55, is manifestly wrong. P. 51, above. 
 6 Gospel of R., 8-10, 135, 182.
 
 PLATE IX 
 
 RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA 
 
 SVAMl VlVEKANANDA 
 
 MADAME BLAVATSKY 
 
 MRS. BESANT
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 195 
 
 usually called Svami Vivekananda, he had two types of con- 
 versation, as may be seen from the following paragraph : l 
 
 He was a wonderful mixture of God and man. In his ordi- 
 nary state he would talk of himself as servant of all men and 
 women. He looked upon them all as God. He himself would 
 never be addressed as Guru, or teacher. Never would he claim 
 for himself any high position. He would touch the ground 
 reverently where his disciples had trodden. But 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 spoke as if he had the power of giving anything to anybody. 
 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 Ramakrishna. He told Mathuranatha long before anybody 
 knew him, that he had many disciples who would come to him 
 shortly, and he knew all of them. He said that he was free 
 from all eternity, and the practices and struggles after religion 
 which he went through were only meant to show the people 
 the way to salvation. He had done all for them alone. He 
 would say he was a Nitya-mukta, or eternally free, and an in- 
 carnation of God Himself. 
 
 3. The character of Ramakrishna was singularly simple. 
 He seemed to be capable of only a single motive, namely, a 
 passion for God. That ruled and filled him. So completely 
 did it dominate him that many regarded him as a useless, in- 
 effective man, while others said he was mad. His idea of God 
 seems crude and thin to a Christian ; yet it had mastered him ; 
 and, when we follow that clue, every detail of his character 
 and life falls into place. For this end he became a sannyasi, 
 renouncing caste, marriage, property, money. In order that 
 his renunciation might be utterly real, he put himself through 
 a tremendous discipline of repression, until his hatred of money 
 had become so instinctive that his body would shrink back 
 convulsively if he were touched with a coin, when asleep ; 2 
 
 1 Rdmakrishna, 58. * My Master, 61.
 
 196 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and he had so conquered the sex instinct that every woman was 
 to him a mother. On this latter point P. C. Mozoomdar, 1 
 the Brahma, says : 
 
 For long years, therefore, he says, he made the utmost 
 efforts to be delivered from the influence of women. His heart- 
 rending supplications and prayers for such deliverance sometimes 
 uttered aloud in his retreat on the river-side, brought crowds of 
 people who bitterly cried when he cried, and could not help 
 blessing him and wishing him success with their whole hearts. 
 
 This same passion for God, taken along with the Hindu idea 
 of God, will explain also the more curious and eccentric points 
 of his character. One of his own sayings is : 
 
 A true devotee who has drunk deep of the Divine Love is 
 like a veritable drunkard, and, as such, cannot always observe 
 the rules of propriety. 2 
 
 It is from this point of view that we can understand another of 
 Mozoomdar's statements about him : 
 
 His speech at times was abominably filthy. 3 
 
 He believed God in His true essence to be impersonal, un- 
 knowable, beyond the reach of man. On the other hand, 
 every human being, indeed everything that is, is a manifesta- 
 tion of God. Everything that happens is, in a sense, done 
 by Him: 
 
 God tells the thief to go and steal, and at the same time warns 
 the householder against the thief. 4 
 
 God is thus so truly all that is, that in Him moral distinctions 
 become obliterated. 5 Here we get a glimpse of the radical 
 distinction between Christianity and Hinduism. Another 
 point in his conduct will enable us to understand still more 
 clearly. Since every human being is a manifestation of God, 
 
 1 Paramahamsa Rdmakrishna, 13. 'Rdmakrishna, 121. 
 
 * Ib., 62. < Ib., 103. * Gospel of R., 72.
 
 u 
 
 P 
 
 3
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 197 
 
 if Ramakrishna happened to meet an unfortunate, he would 
 bow down before her in adoration. Contrast with this the 
 mind of Christ, who loved the unfortunate as a child of God, 
 but could not be content, unless she came to repentance. 
 
 Like every ordinary Hindu, Ramakrishna regarded all 
 deities as manifestations of the impersonal Supreme. He 
 recognizes the goddess Kali as one of the chief manifestations 
 of God. She was to him the divine mother of the universe, 
 and he worshipped her more than any other divinity. He 
 worshipped her by means of idols ; for he implicitly believed 
 the Hindu doctrine, that the divinity fills every one of his own 
 idols with his presence. 1 He also held the ordinary Hindu 
 idea of the guru. Here is one of his sayings : 
 
 The disciple should never criticise his own Guru. He must 
 implicitly obey whatever his Guru says. Says a Bengali 
 couplet : 
 
 Though my Guru may visit tavern and still, 
 My Guru is holy Rai Nityananda still. 2 
 
 He was thus a true Hindu, and was ready at any moment 
 to defend the whole of Hinduism. 
 
 Thus far Ramakrishna was simply a very devoted Hindu. 
 Had there been nothing more in him, he might have lived at 
 any time during the last two thousand years. There have 
 been multitudes of men like him in India. But the living 
 forces which are making the new India pressed in upon him 
 from every side. Though he had no English education, the 
 new thought came to him by many channels. Christianity 
 was demanding acceptance from Hindus, claiming to be the 
 one religion for the whole world, urging its ethics on all men. 
 Islam was also present, but far less active. What was his 
 response to the situation ? He declared that all religions were 
 true, that in their inner essence they were identical, and that 
 
 1 See above, p. 189, and Gospel of R., 187. 2 Ramakrishna, 133.
 
 198 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 each man should remain in the religion in which he had been 
 born: 
 
 A truly religious man should think that other religions also 
 are paths leading to the truth. 1 
 
 Every man should follow his own religion. A Christian 
 should follow Christianity, a Mohammedan should follow 
 Mohammedanism, and so on. For the Hindus the ancient 
 path, the path of the Aryan Rishis, is the best. 2 
 
 4. One of Ramakrishna's disciples, a wealthy Calcutta man, 
 named Surendranath Mitter, was keenly interested in the 
 result produced on Keshab Chandra Sen by his master's 
 teaching on this point, 3 and employed a painter to produce 
 a symbolical picture, embodying the idea of the harmony of 
 all religions and of the part played by Ramakrishna in intro- 
 ducing it to Keshab. 4 I have not been able to discover with 
 certainty when the picture was painted, but it was already in 
 existence on the 2yth of October, i882. 6 When it was shewn 
 to Keshab, he exclaimed, "Blessed is the man who conceived 
 the idea of this picture." At a later date the picture was re- 
 produced and published as a supplement to Unity and the 
 Minister, a weekly paper representing one of the sub-divisions 
 into which the Church of the New Dispensation split up after 
 the great leader's death. This picture is reproduced here. 
 In the background are a Christian church, a Muhammadan 
 mosque, and a Hindu temple. In front of the church stand 
 Keshab and Ramakrishna, Keshab carrying the symbol of 
 the New Dispensation described above, 6 and Ramakrishna 
 calling Keshab's attention to the group of figures arranged in 
 front of the mosque and the temple. In the middle of this 
 group Christ and Chaitanya, a Bengali religious leader of the 
 sixteenth century, 7 are represented dancing together, while a 
 
 1 Ramakrishna, 153. 2 Ib., 177. 3 See above, pp. 57-8. 
 
 * Janmabhumi, Asarha, 1317 Sal. 
 
 8 Gospel of R., 132, 164. P. 56, above. 7 P. 293, below.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 199 
 
 Muslim, a Confucian, a Sikh, a Parsee, an Anglican clergy- 
 man and various Hindus stand round them, each carrying 
 some symbol of his faith. It seems to me that nothing 
 could be more fitting (for I am writing in Oxford and the 
 subject is most apposite) than to dedicate this interesting 
 piece of theological art to the versatile author of Reunion 
 All Round. 
 
 5. It was his teaching on the religions that laid hold of his 
 disciples. He impressed all who came in contact with him as a 
 most sincere soul, a God-intoxicated man ; but what distin- 
 guished his message from the teaching of others was his de- 
 fence of everything Hindu and his theory that all religions are 
 true. This gave his teaching a universalistic turn, and pro- 
 vided the ordinary Hindu with a defence which he could use to 
 meet Christian criticism and the Brahma Samaj. 
 
 His personal influence over all who came within his range 
 was very remarkable. Mozoomdar says : 
 
 My mind is still floating in the luminous atmosphere which 
 that wonderful man diffuses around him whenever and wher- 
 ever he goes. My mind is not yet disenchanted of the myste- 
 rious and indefinable pathos which he pours into it whenever 
 he meets me. 1 
 
 Over his personal disciples he exercised a still more wonderful 
 power. Their love and reverence for him was boundless. 
 They worshipped him. Vivekananda once remarked to a 
 well-known Calcutta citizen of high character, Dr. Sircar : 
 
 We look upon the Master as a Person who is like God. 2 
 We offer to Him worship bordering on divine worship. 3 
 
 Here we have ancient Hindu guru- worship checked in Vivek- 
 ananda's mind by the Christian teaching he had got in his 
 college course. Apart from Christian influence, he would 
 have said, "He is God, and we worship him as God." 
 
 1 Paramahamsa Rdmakrishna, i. ! Gospel of R., 357. 3 Ib., 360.
 
 200 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The picture given of him by his disciples is very pleasing and 
 very vivid ; yet there are not many personal traits to notice. 
 Though he was a sannyasl, he dressed like an ordinary Ben- 
 gali, and lived like one. 1 Mozoomdar in describing him uses 
 the words : 
 
 a child-like tenderness, a profound visible humbleness, an 
 unspeakable sweetness of expression and a smile that I have 
 seen on no other face that I can remember. 2 
 
 He knew no Sanskrit and scarcely any English. His disciples 
 would smile when he used the English words, " Thank you." 
 Indeed he had no scholarly knowledge even of Bengali. 3 But 
 his conversation was full of quaint, good sense, expressed in 
 vivid homely phrases, and lighted up here and there with a 
 broad kindly humour. He was fond of certain short allitera- 
 tive phrases, which he had coined, 4 expressive of his main 
 religious ideas, such as : 
 
 Naham, naham : Tuhu, tuhu. 
 
 that is, ' ' Not I, not I, Thou, Thou. ' ' He was no formal teacher. 
 Indeed he used to say, "I am nobody's teacher : I am every- 
 body's disciple." 5 He was a conversationalist, pouring out 
 his riches like Samuel Johnson. 
 
 6. After Ramakrishna's death, 6 his chief disciples decided that 
 they must devote their lives to the spread of his teaching. 
 So a group of them renounced the world and became sannyasls. 
 Amongst these by far the most prominent has been Narenda 
 Nath Datta, who took the name Vivekananda, when he be- 
 came a sannyasl. SvamI is a title of respect given to any 
 sannyasi. He was a Bengali, belonging to Calcutta, a Kayas- 
 tha by caste, born on the gth of January, i862. 7 He received 
 
 1 Gospel of R., 133. 2 Paramahamsa Rdmakrishna, 3. 
 
 8 Rdmakrishna, 62 ; Gospel of R., 194. * Gospel of R., 196-7. 
 
 5 Ib-, 337- 6 On the isth March, 1886. 
 
 7 See a brief biography published by Natesan, Madras.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 201 
 
 a good English education, taking his degree from a Mission 
 College in Calcutta, and distinguishing himself in philosophy. 
 As a student, he came a good deal under the influence of the 
 Brahma Samaj. He had a fine voice, and wherever he went 
 was in great request for the singing of Bengali hymns. After 
 taking his degree, he began the study of law ; but, early in 
 1882, an uncle took him to see Ramakrishna ; and that mo- 
 ment became the turning-point in his life. 
 
 From the first Ramakrishna singled him out as one destined 
 to do great things for God, and gave him a great deal of 'at- 
 tention. On his master's death he became a sannyasl, as we 
 have said, and then spent some six years in retirement on the 
 Himalayas, doubtless studying and thinking about many 
 things. Among other places he is said to have visited Tibet, 
 in order to study Buddhism. In 1892 he emerged from his 
 retirement, and toured all down the western coast of India, 
 going as far south as Trevandrum, whence he turned north 
 again and went to Madras. Preparations were being made at 
 that time for holding the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. 
 Some friends in Madras proposed that Vivekananda should be 
 sent to the Parliament to represent Hinduism. Funds were 
 collected, and he travelled to America by way of Japan. 
 
 The gathering was held in September, 1893 ; and Vivek- 
 ananda made a great impression, partly by his eloquence, partly 
 by his striking figure and picturesque dress, but mainly by his 
 new, unheard-of presentation of Hinduism. We shall deal 
 with his thought later ; so that we need not delay over it here. 
 The following quotations from American papers show how far 
 those who were most deeply influenced by the Svami went : 
 
 He is an orator by divine right, and his strong, intelligent 
 face in its picturesque setting of yellow and orange was hardly 
 less interesting than those earnest words, and the rich, rhyth- 
 mical utterance he gave them. 1 
 
 1 The New York Critique.
 
 202 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the 
 Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how 
 foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation. 1 
 
 He stayed some time in America, lecturing and founding 
 Vedanta societies in several places. Two American disciples 
 joined him, Madame Louise, who became Svami Abhaya- 
 nanda, and Mr. Sandsberg, who became Svami Kripananda. 
 From America he crossed to England, where he was joined by 
 his most notable disciple, Miss Margaret Noble, who took the 
 name Sister Nivedita (i.e. dedicated). 
 
 In January, 1897, the Svami arrived in Colombo with his 
 small group of Western disciples, and from there made a 
 triumphal progress all the way up through India. He was 
 everywhere acclaimed by vast audiences of Hindus as the 
 Saviour of the ancient faith ; and it was generally believed 
 that America and England were being rapidly converted to 
 Hinduism. There was no limit to the thousands of disciples 
 with which the Svami was credited. 
 
 He at once set about organizing regular work. Two monas- 
 teries were opened, one at Belur, near Calcutta, the other at 
 Mayavati on the Himalayas, near Almora. These monas- 
 teries are meant to receive young men who have become 
 sannyasis of the Ramakrishna Mission, as it is called, and to 
 give them a training for their work. The monastery at Belur 
 near Calcutta is the headquarters of all the work. The 
 same year one of the most outstanding features of the Rama- 
 krishna Mission, its philanthropic activity, was started. There 
 was widespread famine in India then ; and Vivekananda was 
 able to gather money, and to organize a number of enthusi- 
 astic followers at several centres for the relief of the famine- 
 stricken. 
 
 But in 1898 Vivekananda's health gave way, and he was 
 
 1 The New York Herald.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 203 
 
 advised to go to Britain and America for a change. He and 
 Sister Nivedita sailed together. He spent but a short time in 
 England, and went on to America. The climate of California 
 helped his strength a good deal, and he soon began work again. 
 It was at this time that the Vedanta Society was founded in 
 San Francisco, and also the Sdnti Asrama, the Peace Retreat. 
 He went to New York, and founded the Vedanta society 
 there. It was then arranged that he should attend the Con- 
 gress of Religions, which was to be held in Paris in 1 900. After 
 attending the Congress, he returned to India, but in very poor 
 health. 
 
 Yet he could not be still ; and, during the next two years, 
 he organized a good deal of fresh work. A third monastery 
 was founded, in Madras ; and centres of philanthropic effort 
 were formed in Madras, Benares and in the Murshidabad dis- 
 trict of Bengal. He was deeply impressed with the need of 
 work and self-sacrifice. He would not deliver lectures, but 
 did all he could to set men to work. 1 He passed away rather 
 unexpectedly on the 4th of July, 1902, at the early age of 
 forty. 
 
 We may grasp his message most distinctly, if we take it in 
 four parts. 
 
 A. All religions are true and good; and, therefore, every 
 man ought to remain in his own religion. 
 
 B. God is impersonal, unknowable, non-moral. He is 
 manifested in the whole world, in all men, in all gods and in 
 all incarnations. The human soul is truly divine. All men 
 are saints. It is a calumny and a sin to say that any human 
 being can be guilty of sin. Idolatry is a very healthy and 
 spiritual form of worship. Every particle of Hinduism is of 
 value and must be retained. The reformers are mistaken. 
 In trying to uproot the weeds, they are tearing up the precious 
 wheat also : 
 
 1 ISR., XXI, 114.
 
 204 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The old ideas may be all superstition, but within these masses 
 of superstition are nuggets of gold and truth. Have you dis- 
 covered means by which to keep that gold alone, without any 
 of the dross ? 1 
 
 C. Hindu civilization, since it springs from the oldest and 
 noblest of religions, is good, beautiful and spiritual in every 
 part. The foreigner fails altogether to understand it. All 
 the criticism of European scholars is erroneous, and every- 
 thing that missionaries say on the subject is wickedly slander- 
 ous. The Hindu nation is a spiritual nation. It has taught 
 the world in the past, and will yet teach the whole world again. 
 
 D. European nations and Western civilization are gross, 
 material, selfish and sensual ; and therefore their influence is 
 most seriously degrading to the Hindu. It is of the utmost 
 importance that every Hindu should do all in his power to 
 defend his religion and civilization, and save Hindu society 
 from the poison of Western influence. Yet the Hindu re- 
 quires to use Western methods and Western education. Nay, 
 the Hindu must even give up his vegetarianism, and become a 
 meat-eater, it may be a beef-eater, in order to become strong, 
 and build up a powerful civilization once more on the soil of 
 India. 
 
 Vivekananda has no historical conscience whatsoever. He 
 is ready to re-write the whole history of antiquity in a para- 
 graph, to demonstrate in a sentence that China, in the East, 
 and Greece and Rome, in the West, owed all their philosophi- 
 cal acumen and every spiritual thought they had to the 
 teachers of ancient India. He learned the appeal to history 
 from his Western education; but there is not the faintest 
 reflection in his writings of the accuracy and careful research 
 which are the very life-breath of modern scholarship. 
 
 He exercised a fine influence on young India in one direc- 
 tion. He summoned his fellow-countrymen to stand on their 
 
 1 My Master, 13.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 205 
 
 own feet, to trust themselves and to play the man ; and his 
 words were not without fruit. 
 
 It is striking to note the harvest that appeared in Vivek- 
 ananda from the seed sown by his master Ramakrishna. 
 The latter dropped every moral restriction when thinking of 
 God and his manifestations. Vivekananda frankly drew the 
 natural inference : "sin is impossible ; there is no such thing 
 as human responsibility; man can do no wrong." Rama- 
 krishna's indiscriminate acceptance and uncritical defence of 
 everything Hindu expanded in his disciple into unbounded 
 laudation of everything Indian; and, while Vivekananda 
 himself bears witness that his master was genial and kindly, 
 and condemned no one, the disciple, not unnaturally, was led 
 by his unmixed praise of everything Hindu to the most violent 
 and unjust condemnation of everything Western. 
 
 The final outcome of Vivekananda's teaching will be dis- 
 cussed in another connection. 1 
 
 7. Vivekananda's English disciple, Sister Nivedita, settled 
 in a small Hindu house in the northern part of Calcutta, and 
 lived there a life of simple service for several years, visiting the 
 Hindu homes around about her, conducting a school for girls 
 hi her own house, and leading young Hindus into practical 
 service. She was a woman of deep romantic feeling and of 
 considerable literary power. She readily picked up her mas- 
 ter's method of glorifying Hinduism and Hindu life, and far 
 exceeded him. Her chief work, The Web of Indian Life, shows, 
 on the one hand, most remarkable sympathy with both the 
 ideals and the actualities of Hindu life, and proves to every 
 capable reader what a priceless help towards interpretation 
 sympathy is, but, on the other hand, contains such exaggerated 
 language in praise of Hindu customs and institutions, that 
 many orthodox Hindus have protested against the book as 
 altogether untrustworthy and as thoroughly unhealthy read- 
 
 1 Below, pp. 357-8.
 
 206 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ing for young Hindus themselves. Yet Sister Nivedita had 
 her reward. Though her book is unwise, she loved the Hindu 
 people and served them ; and they gave her their love. At 
 her death, in October, 1911, there was an extraordinary out- 
 burst of feeling in the Hindu community of Bengal. 
 
 8. The work of the Ramakrishna Mission 1 has grown slowly 
 since Vivekananda's death. There have been no such results 
 as one would have expected to spring from the unbounded 
 enthusiasm with which the Svami was welcomed, when he 
 returned from America. He summoned his countrymen to 
 practical service, to self-sacrificing work for India. Had the 
 myriads who acclaimed him really responded to his call, the 
 work would soon have attained very great dimensions ; but 
 the truth is that ancient Hinduism does not teach the duty 
 of service at all, and that all that the average educated Hindu 
 wants is to get somebody to assure him that Hinduism is as 
 good as Christianity, and that he does not need to become a 
 Christian. Having heard this, amidst the flare of trumpets 
 with which Vivekananda returned from America, the average 
 man gave a sigh of relief, and returned to his vegetating life 
 as an ordinary Hindu. Vivekananda's call to self-sacrificing 
 service was just another of those troublesome appeals which 
 they had heard over and over again from the missionaries 
 and the Brahma leaders ; and they paid no more attention 
 to it. Only a few responded; and these continue to carry 
 on the work. There are now five monasteries, Belur, near 
 Calcutta, Benares, Allahabad, Mayavati, on the Himalayas, 
 and Bangalore. These institutions are meant for the resi- 
 dence and training of sannyasls. The whole mission is 
 governed from the Belur monastery. At Benares, Hardwar, 
 Allahabad and Brindaban, the four chief centres of Hindu 
 pilgrimage, permanent charitable institutions, called Sevd- 
 Srams, Homes of Service, have grown up. Care for the poor 
 
 1 It is described in the Hindoo Patriot, October 14, 1912.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 207 
 
 and medical relief are their chief activities. Educational 
 work is also attempted in a few places ; and the mission is 
 sensitive to need and ready to help, when distress arises 
 through famine, plague or flood. There is a desire in the mis- 
 sion to build up a large educational activity, but this has not 
 yet been found possible. Vivekananda wished to combine 
 Western and Hindu education. 
 
 The founder of the Ramakrishna Mission, SvamI Vivek- 
 ananda, had his own ideal of national education. For, to him, 
 as is evident from his Indian utterances, the national ideal was 
 a thing already realized within. It is claimed by many, like 
 the late Sister Nivedita, that he was the first representative of 
 the synthetic culture which India must evolve, if she is to live. 1 
 
 Vivekananda's influence still lives in America. There are 
 societies that teach Hinduism in various ways in New York, 
 Boston, Washington, Pittsburg and San Francisco. His 
 influence seems to be far stronger in San Francisco than any- 
 where else. There is a picturesque Hindu Temple there, in 
 which classes are held and addresses given, and the literature 
 of the mission sold. They have a little monthly magazine, 
 called the Voice of Freedom. Two Svamis are in charge. 
 There are three lectures every Sunday; and classes for the 
 study of the Gitd, the Upanishads and Yoga are held on week 
 days. 
 
 Vivekananda started several magazines, which are still 
 published in India. The Brahmavadin, which is published in 
 Madras, and the Prabuddha Bhdrata, which is published at 
 Mayavati in the Himalayas, are both in English, and contain 
 a good deal of useful matter on Hindu philosophy. A 
 Bengali monthly, named Udbodhan, is published in Calcutta. 
 Books written by Vivekananda during his lifetime, and a 
 few others, published by other members of the mission since 
 then, are sold in the various centres. 
 
 1 The Hindoo Patriot, October 14, 1912, p. 7.
 
 208 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 LITERATURE. LIFE : Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings, by 
 F. Max Muller, London, Longmans, 1910, 55. (This book con- 
 tains the best biography, and also a collection of his sayings.) Gospel 
 of Sri Ramakrishna, according to M. (i.e. Prof. M. N. Gupta), Part 
 I, Madras, Ramakrishna Mission, 1912, Rs. 2-8. (A picture of 
 Ramakrishna's life with his disciples and his teaching : see above, 
 p. 194.) My Master (a lecture), by Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta, 
 Udbodhan Office, 1911, 8 as. VIVEKANANDA: Swami Vivek- 
 ananda, His Life and Teachings, Madras, Natesan, 4 as. 
 Speeches and Writings of Swami Vivekananda. Madras, Natesan, 
 Rs. 2. NIVEDITA : Sister Nivedita, A Sketch of her Life and Her 
 Services to India, Madras, Natesan, 4 as. The Web of Indian 
 Life, by Sister Nivedita, London, Heinemann, 5$. An account of the 
 Ramakrishna Mission appeared in the Hindu Patriot of October, 1912. 
 
 3. THEOSOPHY 
 
 Theosophy is a system of religion, science and practical life, 
 first taught by Madame Blavatsky, and incorporated in a 
 society founded by her and Colonel Olcott in New York in 
 1875, but carried much farther by Mrs. Besant and C. W. 
 Leadbeater in recent years. It purports to be the final truth 
 of the universe, taught in different lands and at different times 
 by various founders of religion and teachers of philosophy, but 
 revealed anew to Madame Blavatsky by certain Masters, or 
 Mahatmas (i.e. Great Souls), said to live in Tibet and else- 
 where. The system and the society are both of great interest 
 because of the large literature which has sprung from the 
 movement, and the very remarkable growth of the society in 
 many parts of the world. 
 
 The attempt to write an unvarnished account of Theosophy 
 is beset by a number of tantalizing difficulties. No trust- 
 worthy history of the movement, no reliable biography of 
 the foundress, is in existence. Theosophic accounts both of 
 Madame Blavatsky's life and of the history of the society 
 are extremely unreliable. 1 Colonel Olcott and other leaders 
 
 1 See Appendix, p. 447 ff.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 209 
 
 of the movement themselves tell us with the utmost frankness 
 that Madame Blavatsky was a liar, that she told lies at any 
 time, both in fun and in earnest. 1 This habit of hers issued in 
 two extraordinary myths, the story of the pretended Mahat- 
 mas in Tibet and their communications to her, 2 and the legend 
 of her own virginity. 3 Since 1879 and 1885, respectively, these 
 two myths have very seriously contaminated Theosophic 
 literature. Every statement has to be checked by reference 
 to other documents and authorities. 
 
 Fortunately, after her death, a number of letters, which she 
 had written to two well-known Russian men of letters be- 
 tween 1874 and 1886, were published in Russia, and shortly 
 afterwards were translated into English. These give us a great 
 many peeps into her life. The first of these correspondents 
 was M. A. N. Aksakoff, editor of the Leipzig Psychische Studien, 
 who had long taken an interest in every kind of psychical 
 question. Her letters to him run from the 28th of October, 1874, 
 to the 6th of November, 1877, and there are a few from i879also. 
 Her second Russian correspondent was M. V. S. Solovyoff, 
 whose acquaintance she made in Paris in May, 1884. Her 
 numerous letters to him all fall between that date and the 
 spring of 1886. There is not the slightest question about the 
 genuineness of these letters. They appeared originally in a 
 series of articles, entitled A Modern Priestess of I sis, by M. 
 Solovyoff in a Russian magazine. Madame Blavatsky's 
 sister, Madame Jelihovsky, denied several of M. Solovyoff 's 
 own statements, but she did not challenge the authenticity of 
 any of the documents which he had reproduced. The articles 
 were published in book-form in Russia ; and the book was then 
 translated into English by Mr. Walter Leaf. Whoever 
 wishes to understand Madame Blavatsky ought to read this 
 brilliant and reliable work. We shall not use anything chal- 
 
 1 Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. i ; ODL., I, 264-5. 
 1 P. 227, below. * P. 260, below, 
 
 p
 
 210 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 lenged by Madame Jelihovsky, and indeed shall rely almost 
 entirely on the letters. 
 
 Similarly, for later periods, documentary evidence which 
 enables the student to get somewhat nearer the facts, has 
 become available in various ways. Thus, the full exposure 
 of Judge would have been quite impossible, had it not been 
 that one of the officials of the society, disgusted at the course 
 of events, resigned, and then handed over copies of all the 
 incriminating documents for publication ; l and, in the Al- 
 cyone trials in Madras, 2 Mrs. Besant inadvertently handed 
 over to the prosecution a bundle of letters written by Mr. 
 Leadbeater, which threw much light on certain events. 
 
 It is very unfortunate that, at present, so far as I can 
 make out, there is no scholar in England or America, outside 
 the Theosophic circle itself, who has made any serious study 
 of the literature and history of Theosophy. Hodgson, 
 Coleman and Solovyoff are dead; and every scholar to 
 whom I have spoken on the subject has said that the 
 quality of Theosophic literature has altogether driven him 
 away from the subject. This is greatly to be regretted. 
 
 I have had interviews with scores of people who are, 
 or who were, Theosophists, and have learned much from 
 them ; but it is harder to get information of a helpful and 
 reliable kind from Theosophists than from members of any 
 other religious movement I have dealt with, except possibly 
 the Radha Soamis ; and the pledge of secrecy exacted from 
 those who join the Esoteric School makes it impossible to 
 get light on Theosophic methods of occultism. I have 
 learnt most of all from a few individuals who were once at 
 the centre of things, but are now outside. Some have 
 returned to Christianity, but most retain a larger or smaller 
 amount of Theosophic belief. 
 
 I have been seriously hampered in writing my account 
 1 See p. 270, below. 2 See pp. 276-7, below.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 211 
 
 of Theosophy for want of space. An adequate outline of its 
 history would fill the whole volume. 
 
 Madame Blavatsky 
 
 1. Helena Petrovna was born on the 1 2th of August, 1831, 
 the daughter of Col. Peter Hahn, a member of a German 
 family settled in Russia. She was connected with a number 
 of the best Russian families. From her childhood she seems 
 to have been a medium. Spiritualistic phenomena are 
 said to have constantly attended her. 1 In 1848, when she 
 was but seventeen, she married N. V. Blavatsky, a Russian 
 official, a man a good deal older than herself, 2 but ran away 
 from him three months after the marriage. 
 
 2. Of her life from 1848 to 1872 we have no connected and 
 reliable account. It is clear that she travelled a great deal 
 in many lands, but both dates and places are altogether 
 doubtful. Two facts, however, are absolutely certain, 
 both of great importance. 
 
 The first of these is that for many years she lived a very 
 wild and evil life. Her relatives in Russia knew quite well 
 the kind of life she led. M. Aksakoff wrote in the autumn 
 of 1874, to Andrew Jackson Davis, an American journalist, 
 interested in spiritualism : 
 
 J'ai entendu parler de Madame Blavatsky par un de ses 
 parents, qui la dit un medium assez fort. Malheureusement 
 ses communications ressentent de son moral qui n'a pas ete 
 des plus severes. 3 (I have heard Madame Blavatsky spoken 
 of by one of her relatives, who said she was rather a powerful 
 medium. Unfortunately her communications bear marks of 
 her morality, which has not been of the severest type.) 
 
 1 Sinnett, Incidents, 33-37 (edition of 1913) ; Aksakoff in MPI., 227. 
 
 1 According to her story, he was nearer seventy than sixty in 1848 (Sin- 
 nett, Incidents, 39), but as he was still alive in 1892 (MPI., 116), she must 
 have greatly exaggerated his age. 
 
 MPI., 227.
 
 212 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Mr. Davis handed this letter to Madame Blavatsky herself 
 to translate. Naturally the reference to her past caused 
 her intense excitement ; and she at once wrote a letter to 
 M. Aksakoff from which we give a few sentences : 
 
 Whoever it was told you about me, they told you the truth 
 in essence, if not in detail. God only knows how I have suffered 
 for my past. It is clearly my fate to gain no absolution upon 
 earth. The past, like the brand of the curse of Cain, has pur- 
 sued me all my life, and pursues me even here, in America, 
 where I came to be far from it and from the people who knew 
 me in my youth. ... I hated hypocrisy in whatever form 
 it shewed itself; ergo, I ran amuck against society and the 
 established proprieties. Result : three lines in your letter, 
 which have awakened all the past within me and torn open all 
 the old wounds. . . . 
 
 I have only one refuge left in the world, and that is the respect 
 of the spiritualists of America, who despise nothing so much as 
 'free love.' 1 
 
 Later she wrote again : 
 
 I really cannot, just because the devil got me into trouble 
 in my youth, go and rip up my stomach now like a Japanese 
 suicide in order to please the mediums. My position is very 
 cheerless ; simply helpless. There is nothing left but to start 
 for Australia and change my name for ever. 2 
 
 In February, 1886, she sent a document, headed "My Confes- 
 sion," to M. Solovyoff, in which the following sentences occur : 
 
 I have already written a letter to Sinnett forbidding him to 
 publish my memoir es at his own discretion. I myself will 
 publish them with all the truth. So there will be the truth 
 about H. P. Blavatsky, in which psychology and her own and 
 others' immorality and Rome and politics and all her own and 
 others' filth once more will be set out to God's world. I shall 
 conceal nothing. It will be a Saturnalia of the moral depravity 
 
 1 MPI., 228, 229, 230. Cf. also her later letters, 233, 268. 
 
 2 Ib., 268.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 213 
 
 of mankind, this confession of mine, a worthy epilogue of my 
 stormy life. 1 
 
 Her sister, Madame Jelihovsky, also spoke and wrote to 
 M. Solovyoff quite frankly on the subject. 2 Amongst her 
 letters to Madame Coulomb 3 was one consisting of twelve 
 closely written quarto pages, giving a detailed account of her 
 life from 1851 to 1875. She spoke of it as a page which she 
 wished to see " torn out of the book" of her life. For some 
 considerable time she lived with a man named Metrovitch, 
 and was known as Madame Metrovitch. There was also 
 a boy whom she acknowledged as her son for several years ; 
 but in 1885, when she created the virginity myth, she told 
 a new and wonderful tale about him. 4 There is thus the 
 most irrefragable evidence that she lived a very immoral 
 life for many years. 
 
 The other fact which stands out clear in these years is 
 that in 1858 she returned to Russia for some time, and that 
 spiritualistic phenomena followed wherever she went. 5 
 
 3. From 1872 onward we can trace her life in outline 
 without much difficulty. Some part of that year she spent 
 in Cairo, endeavouring to make a livelihood by giving spirit- 
 ualistic seances. There, she met an Englishwoman who 
 later married a Frenchman, named M. Coulomb. This 
 lady went to one of the seances, in the hope of hearing the 
 voice of a dearly loved brother who had just died. The 
 spirit-show was a complete failure, but the two women 
 became friends. Madame Blavatsky was in great need 
 of money, and the Englishwoman gave her a loan, 
 which she was unable to repay during her stay in 
 Egypt. In 1884, when the Coulomb letters made these 
 facts public, 6 Madame Blavatsky denied them, but her 
 
 1 MPI., 181. /&., 193, 195, 202. 
 
 1 See below, p. 239; also Proceedings, IX, 314-5. * MPI., 141. 
 
 6 Sinnett, Incidents, chaps. III-VL See below, p. 239.
 
 214 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 own correspondence shews clearly that the seances were 
 held and proved a failure. 1 A paragraph also appeared in 
 The Medium for April 26, 1872, inviting mediums ready 
 for engagements to apply to Madame Blawatsky (sic) in 
 Cairo. 
 
 On the yth of July, 1873, she arrived in New York, and 
 settled down there. In her first letter to M. Aksakoff, 
 written on the 28th of October, 1874, she said : 
 
 I have been living in America for about a year and a half, 
 and have no intention of leaving. 2 
 
 She continued to reside in the States until the end of 1878, 
 becoming a naturalized citizen in the interval. Clearly 
 there was some reason for this decision to give up her wan- 
 dering life and to settle down, not in Russia, but in an alien 
 land. In her letters to M. Aksakoff she gives a clear intelli- 
 gible reason for this policy. Her youth was now over; 
 she was forty-two years of age. She wanted to escape from 
 the results of her dissolute life ; but that was impossible in 
 Europe, above all in Russia, where her past was so well 
 known. 3 So she decided to go to America " to be far from " 
 the curse of her past life and "from the people who knew" 
 her in her youth. 4 
 
 No detailed account of how she spent her first fifteen 
 months in America has been published. Events are clearly 
 traceable only from October, 1874, onwards, when she began 
 to correspond with M. Aksakoff. But her plan seems to 
 have been to live by writing on spiritualism, which at that 
 time was making a great noise in America. It is probable 
 that it was this consideration which drew her to New York 
 rather than to Melbourne, Calcutta, or some other city 
 equally distant from the Russia which she longed for but 
 
 1 MPI., 131. 2 Ib., 225. 3 Ib., 228. * Above, p. 212.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 215 
 
 dared not approach. At any rate, she made the acquaint- 
 ance of several journalists and writers, one of whom was 
 Andrew Jackson Davis, who has been already mentioned, 
 and kept in close touch with spiritualism. 
 
 During the summer and autumn of 1874, a group of people 
 interested in spiritualism had gathered round a family 
 named Eddy, at Chittenden in the State of Vermont. 
 Amongst those who were there to watch and to see what 
 was to be seen was Henry Steel Olcott, who had served in 
 the federal army during the Civil war and bore the title 
 of Colonel, but who was now a journalist, and had been 
 sent by the New York Graphic to report the happenings at 
 Chittenden. Thither went Madame Blavatsky ; and there, 
 in October, she met Olcott. 
 
 On the 28th of the same month, at the advice of Davis, 
 she wrote to M. Aksakoff, telling him of the great vogue of 
 spiritualism in America, and asking whether she might not 
 send him for publication from time to time Russian transla- 
 tions of articles on spiritist subjects appearing in American 
 magazines. The proposal was accepted, and the corre- 
 spondence continued for some years. In her first letter, 
 the boom in spiritualism is represented as very great, 1 
 and the phenomena at Chittenden are described as most 
 wonderful. 2 
 
 The letter was scarcely despatched when Aksakoff's 
 French letter to Davis about Madame Blavatsky's character 
 already quoted, 3 arrived ; and in her reply, an extract from 
 which has been also quoted, she declares that she is a con- 
 vinced spiritualist and has been such for more than ten 
 years : 
 
 I am a 'spiritist' and 'spiritualist' in the full significance 
 of the two titles. ... I have now been a spiritist for more 
 than ten years, and now all my life is devoted to the doctrine. 
 1 MPL, 22$. * Ib. t 226. 3 Above, p. an.
 
 2i6 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 I am struggling for it and trying to consecrate to it every mo- 
 ment of my life. Were I rich, I would spend all my money to 
 the last farthing pour la propagande de cette divine verite. 
 But my means are very poor, and I am obliged to live by my 
 work, by translating and writing in the papers. 1 
 
 In later letters she wrote : 
 
 I was in deepest darkness, but I have seen the light, and to 
 this light I have given myself up entirely. Spiritism is a 
 great truth, and I will serve it to the grave. . . . 
 
 For spiritism I am ready to work night and day, so long as I 
 have a morsel of bread, and that only because it is hard to work 
 when one is hungry. ... 
 
 I have already sacrificed myself for spiritualism, and in 
 defence of my faith and the truth I am ready at any moment 
 to lay my head on the block. . . . 2 
 
 If you hear that the sinful Blavatsky has perished, not in 
 the bloom of years and beauty, by some surprising death, and 
 that she has dematerialised 'for ever,' then you will know that 
 it is for spiritualism. In thee, Lord, do we put our trust, and 
 we shall not be confounded for ever. . . . 
 
 I have quite ceased to get any letters from my aunts and 
 sisters ; they have evidently all forgotten me, and so much the 
 better for them. I am no credit to them, to tell the truth. 
 I shall now never go back again to Russia. My father is dead, 
 nobody wants me, and I am altogether superfluous in the world. 
 Here I am at least a human being; there, I am Blavatsky. 
 I know that everybody respects me here, and I am needed for 
 spiritualism. Now the spirits are my brothers and sisters, 
 my father and mother. 3 
 
 From her letters it is plain that Olcott used every possible 
 means to bring her into notoriety and popularity, raising 
 her to the rank of Countess, mixing her up with "princes, 
 boyards and imaginary governors-general," 4 and making 
 her out a second Livingstone in her travels in Africa and the 
 
 1 MPI., 228, 229. * Ib. , 236, 240-1. 3 Ib., 242, 243. 4 Ib., 244.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 217 
 
 Soudan ; * and she did him a like service. While the vogue 
 of spiritualism lasted, things went well. Everything that 
 they wrote was widely read, and they rose steadily in public 
 estimation. There was a spirit who was peculiarly friendly 
 with her. Here is what she says about him : 
 
 My John King alone is a sufficient recompense for all; he 
 is a host in himself to me. And yet they call him the double 
 of the medium, him and Crookes's Katie King. What sort 
 of double can he be when the medium Williams is not here at 
 all, but John King in his own person, with his own black beard 
 and his white Chinese saucer-upside-down cap, going about 
 here in America from one medium to another, and doing me 
 the honour of visiting me incessantly, though he has not the 
 least resemblance to me? No, John King is a personality, a 
 definite, living, spiritual personality. Whether devil or good 
 spirit, he is at all events a spirit, and not the medium's proto- 
 type. 2 
 
 Olcott tells us that she had known John King since 1860, 
 and had seen him and talked with him in different countries. 3 
 But a peculiarly odious piece of fraudulent spiritism was 
 exposed early in 1875, and public interest in the subject 
 began to die down. The comrades tried various plans to 
 keep their hold on the people, but it was useless. On May 
 24th, Madame Blavatsky writes : 
 
 Disaster has come upon us. Dr. Child has appeared in the 
 character of the spiritist Antichrist, and, as the Judas of the 
 seven councils, has destroyed spiritualism. Even the most 
 advanced spiritualists begin to be afraid of public opinion, and 
 their 'high respectability' induces many to continue to believe 
 in spirits in secret only, and privately. . . . 
 
 I am ready to give my life for the spread of the sacred truth. 
 Olcott is helping me as much as he can, both with his pen and 
 with pecuniary sacrifices for the cause. He is as passionately 
 
 1 76., 245. * Ib., 243. Cf. also 247 ; 253, 254. 
 
 1 People from the Other World, 454.
 
 2i8 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 devoted to spiritism as I am. But he is far from rich and has 
 nothing to live on but his literary labours, and he has to keep a 
 wife and a whole lot of children. 
 
 Olcott is sitting on heaps of his People from the Other World, 
 like Marius on the ruins of Carthage, and thinking bitter things. 
 Not a thousand copies of his book have been sold in five months. 1 
 
 On the 1 8th of July she writes again : 
 
 Here, you see, is my trouble, to-morrow there will be nothing 
 to eat. Something quite out of the way must be invented. It 
 is doubtful if Olcott's 'Miracle Club' will help; I will fight to 
 the last. 2 
 
 Things were in a very bad way. Spiritualism was worked 
 out, and the partners were threatened with want. Some 
 new source of income had to be found. The Miracle Club 
 was clearly meant to be something new and startling to 
 catch public attention. But it did not succeed. Her letter 
 of the loth September is still very despondent. 
 
 4. Such were the circumstances in which the Theosophi- 
 cal Society was founded. Colonel Olcott gives us the dates 
 and the steps in the following passage : 
 
 The formation of such a society was suggested by myself 
 on the evening of September yth, 1875, in the rooms of Madame 
 Blavatsky, at 46 Irving Place, New York City, where a small 
 gathering of her friends had assembled to listen to a discourse 
 by a Mr. G. H. Felt on the lost canon of proportion of the Ancient 
 Egyptians. My views as to the necessity of such a society 
 were embodied in a short impromptu address and, receiving 
 general assent, a motion was made by Mr. W. Q. Judge and 
 adopted, nem. con., that I be elected chairman of the meeting, 
 and on my motion Mr. Judge was elected secretary. A com- 
 mittee to frame Bye-laws was chosen. A report of the proceed- 
 ings including a digest of my little speech, was published in a 
 local daily paper, copied into the Spiritual Scientist, of Boston, 
 and thence transferred by Mrs. E. H. Britten into her large 
 
 1 MPI., 251, 250, 252. z Ib., 253.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 219 
 
 work, "Nineteenth Century Miracles" (p. 296), where the 
 curious reader may find it in detail. No previous consulta- 
 tion had been held about the matter between Madame Blavatsky 
 and myself or any body else ; the suggestion was entirely unpre- 
 meditated and grew out of the discussion provoked by Mr. 
 Felt's lecture. . . . 
 
 On the i yth November, the Society was launched as a per- 
 fected organization. 1 
 
 Olcott became President, Judge Vice-president, and 
 Madame Blavatsky Corresponding Secretary. To her 
 friend in Russia Madame Blavatsky wrote on the 2oth 
 of September : 
 
 Olcott is now organising the Theosophical Society in New 
 York. It will be composed of learned occultists and cabbalists, 
 of philosophes Hermetiques of the nineteenth century, and of 
 passionate antiquaries and Egyptologists generally. We want to 
 make an experimental comparison between spiritualism and the 
 magic of the ancients by following literally the instructions of 
 the old Cabbalas, both Jewish and Egyptian. I have for many 
 years been studying la philosophic Hermetique in theory and 
 practice, and am every day coming to the conclusion that spirit- 
 ualism hi its physical manifestations is nothing but the Python 
 of Paracelsus, i.e., the intangible ether which Reichenbach 
 calls Od. The Pythonesses of the ancients used to magnetise 
 themselves read Plutarch and his account of the oracular 
 currents, read Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, the Magia Ada- 
 mica of Eugenius Philalethes, and others. You will always see 
 better, and can communicate with the spirits by this means 1 
 self-magnetisation. 2 
 
 On December 6th she wrote : 
 
 It is the same spiritualism, but under another name. Now 
 you will see if we shall not start the most learned investigations. 
 Our vice-treasurer, Newton, is a millionare, and president of 
 the New York spiritualists. 3 
 
 1 A Historical Retrospect, 2. 
 
 * MPL, 256-7. Ib., 265.
 
 220 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 These are most instructive paragraphs. It is, above 
 all, to be noted that the purpose of the Theosophical Society 
 is " to make an experimental comparison between spiritual- 
 ism and the magic of the ancients." There is as yet no 
 mention of Buddhism or Hinduism. There is no sugges- 
 tion that the foundress receives her wisdom in ample meas- 
 ure, without trouble, through "Masters" from the ancient 
 sources. She still struggles forward by experimental com- 
 parison ; and her occult communications are not with living 
 Masters in Tibet, but with the spirits of the dead. "Ma- 
 hatma Morya" has not yet appeared above the horizon. 
 "John King" is stiU " the Master of her dreams." 1 
 
 The facts are simple and natural. Madame Blavatsky 
 had been a medium from childhood, and had practised 
 spiritualism since 1858, if not from an earlier date, though 
 it does not appear that she ever worked as a hired medium. 
 She started a spiritualist show in Cairo in 1872. She lived 
 by spiritualist writing, and made the most serious protesta- 
 tions of belief in spiritualism from 1873 to September, 1875. 
 The Miracle Club and the Theosophic Society were succes- 
 sive attempts to start something new and successful, when 
 public interest in spiritualism declined. Theosophical 
 doctrine at a later date became a blend of Buddhism, Hin- 
 duism and various forms of occultism; but, when first 
 launched, it was merely an addition of the magic and mys- 
 ticism of Egypt and of mediaeval Judaism to spiritualism, 
 with a view to stimulating the jaded appetite of the people 
 of New York. 
 
 It is clear that she had been interested to some extent in 
 all these mysterious things for years. She was a woman of 
 most unusual temperament, possessing the powers of the 
 medium, the clairvoyant, the clairaudient and probably also 
 of the automatic writer. She had met "Eliphaz Levy" in 
 1 MPI., 254. See below, p. 447.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 221 
 
 Paris ; and she had probably given some attention to jug- 
 gling, devil-dancing and such like in Egypt and the East. 
 The following sentences are probably quite reliable. We 
 should not have had this curious passage in her letters at 
 all, had it not been that her correspondent took in the 
 American papers, and she felt she must apologize once 
 more for Colonel Olcott's outrageous exaggerations : 
 
 In a detailed account of the story of Katie King Olcott 
 makes out of me something mysteriously terrible, and almost 
 leads the public to suspect that I have either sold my soul 
 to the devil or am the direct heiress of Count Germain and 
 Cagliostro. Do not believe it ; I have merely learnt in Egypt 
 and Africa, in India and in the East generally, a great deal 
 of what other people do not know. I have made friends with 
 dervishes, and I do indeed belong to one mystic society, but 
 it does not follow that I have become an Apollonius of Tyana 
 in petticoats. 1 
 
 She now began to study modern works on occultism seri- 
 ously. About the same time she began to draw away from 
 her old full belief in spiritualism and to hint that it was not 
 spirits, but merely " shells" that caused the marvels. This 
 theory comes from " Eliphaz Levy." He taught that when 
 a man dies, the spirit departs completely, leaving behind 
 in this world only an empty " shell," which, however, has 
 the power of producing phenomena. 
 
 Five months before the foundation of the Theosophical 
 Society, on the third of April, 1875, Madame Blavatsky 
 married in Philadelphia an Armenian, a Russian subject, 
 named Michael Bettalay. 2 Yet N. V. Blavatsky was still 
 
 1 MPI., 246-7. The date is the i2th of April, 1875. 
 
 2 The account of this marriage given by Olcott in ODL., I, 54-57, having 
 been written after the creation of the virginity myth (see below, p. 260), 
 cannot be trusted. He is wrong even with the date. Solovyoff (MPI., 
 165) tells how Madame once described the match to him. For the end of 
 the marriage see below, p. 226.
 
 222 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 alive ; and there had been no divorce. It was a case of 
 bigamy pure and simple. Doubtless she said she was a 
 widow; for she practised that piece of deceit for many 
 years. She put down her age in the marriage-register as 
 thirty-six, while she was actually forty-three. 1 
 
 The new society was scarcely started when serious trouble 
 arose from her old spiritualist allies ; for they felt that she 
 was faithless to them. She had publicly declared that the 
 spirits had brought her a medal and clasp from her father's 
 grave, and Olcott had published in his People from the 
 Other World, a drawing of the medal and clasp. This en- 
 abled the medium Home to trace her antecedents and to 
 obtain information about her private life. He had also 
 got to the bottom of some of her fraudulent spiritualistic 
 phenomena. He then attacked her publicly on both 
 counts. 2 
 
 The new society went fairly well for a time, and then in- 
 terest steadily waned. Yet the comrades held on, never 
 allowing the organization to fall to pieces. 3 
 
 5. For two years Madame Blavatsky toiled at her new 
 studies, and on the 2nd of October, 1877, her Isis Unveiled 
 was published. It is a really noteworthy book, and that for 
 two reasons. First, it was the earliest vigorous attempt 
 made to defend the ancient religions against the harsh 
 judgments still only too common at the time. Secondly, 
 it took up a striking attitude to that great shady border- 
 land which lies between jugglery and religion. Everything 
 mysterious, weird, occult or magical, the unexplored powers 
 of the human mind, and all suggestive, or symbolic words, 
 acts or things, had an overpowering fascination for her. It 
 
 1 1 owe the facts in the text to Mr. W. Irving Lewis of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association of Philadelphia, who did me the great kindness of 
 searching the public records and copying out the details. 
 
 2 MPI., 267-8. 3 A Historical Retrospect, 3.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 223 
 
 is also clear that at a fairly early date she began to realize, 
 in a more or less hazy way, certain facts which science has 
 only recently perceived and acknowledged. The most im- 
 portant of these are (a) that spiritualism, clairvoyance, 
 hypnotic trances, faith-healing and many of the phenomena 
 of dreams and apparitions are, in essentials, identical with 
 practices and occurrences which are vouched for in the 
 literature of Classical and early Christian times, and with 
 much which happens among modern savages ; (b) that a 
 considerable proportion of the marvels are genuine, whatever 
 the ultimate explanation of their reality may be; and 
 (c) that those who make such practices their profession 
 sooner or later have recourse to fraud. 1 In the Isis these 
 questions are not raised or treated in any scholarly fashion ; 
 and the evidence, good, bad and indifferent, is simply thrown 
 down in indiscriminate heaps ; so that the book as it stands 
 is practically of no scientific value ; yet the personal know- 
 ledge the authoress had of many of the practices dealt with, 
 and her perception that there was something genuine in 
 them, gave the book a certain value, and made it very at- 
 tractive to many people. 
 
 One of the most notable characteristics of the book is its 
 violent polemic against modern science and Christianity. 
 
 The authoress so wrote as to lead her readers to under- 
 stand that she was a woman of vast learning, and that she 
 had mastered all the great works on occultism in existence ; 
 while the truth is that all the learning it contains is borrowed, 
 or rather stolen, from modern books ; for in most cases 
 there is no acknowledgment. Mr. Wm. Emmette Coleman 
 of San Francisco spent three years in making an exhaustive 
 analysis of the contents of Madame Blavatsky's writings. 
 The following is his statement with regard to the Isis : 2 
 
 1 See art. Clairvoyance by Andrew Lang in ERE.
 
 224 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 By careful analysis I found that in compiling Isis about 100 
 books were used. About 1,400 books are quoted from and 
 referred to in this work; but, from the 100 books which its 
 author possessed, she copied everything in Isis taken from and 
 relating to the other 1,300. There are in Isis about 2,100 quo- 
 tations from and references to books that were copied, at second- 
 hand, from books other than the original, and of this number 
 only about 140 are credited to the books from which Madame 
 Blavatsky copied them at second-hand, The others are quoted 
 in such a manner as to lead the reader to think that Madame 
 Blavatsky had read and utilized the original works, and had 
 quoted from them at first-hand, the truth being that these 
 originals had evidently never been read by Madame Blavatsky. 
 
 Col. Olcott stated in the Theosophist l that Madame Blavat- 
 sky 's library contained about 100 books when she wrote 
 the Isis; so that Mr. Coleman's critical judgment is con- 
 firmed. The following is a list of the books from which the 
 largest numbers of quotations were taken : 2 
 
 PASSAGES 
 
 Dunlap's Sod : the Son of the Man 134 
 
 Ennemoser's History of Magic, English Trans 107 
 
 Demonologia 85 
 
 Dunlap's Spirit History of Man 77 
 
 Salverte's Philosophy of Magic, English Trans 68 
 
 Dunlap's Sod: the Mysteries of Adoni 65 
 
 Des Mousseaux's Magie au Dix-neuvieme Siecle .... 63 
 
 Des Mousseaux's Hants Phenomenes de la Magie ... 45 
 
 King's Gnostics, ist edition 42 
 
 Supernatural religion 40 
 
 Mackenzie's Masonic Cyclopaedia 36 
 
 Zeller's Plato and the Old Academy 35 
 
 There are some students who, while recognizing frankly 
 that the bulk of the Isis is built out of materials from 
 modern works, are yet inclined to think that it may be 
 true, as was stated by Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, 
 
 1 April, 1893, p. 387 f. * MPL, 356.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 225 
 
 that large sections of the book were written automatically. 
 If this be true, then the explanation must be that her sub- 
 conscious mind had retained all that she had read on these 
 subjects, and gave out the materials when each fit of auto- 
 matic writing came on. 
 
 The book contains innumerable errors, many of them of 
 the most rudimentary type. The commonest Sanskrit 
 words are misspelt ; the Buddhist doctrine of transmigra- 
 tion is grossly misrepresented; and the Bhagavadgitd is 
 confused with the Bhdgavata Purana. The following sen- 
 tences give a sample of the scholarship of the book : 
 
 Apart from the now-discovered fact that the whole story of 
 such a massacre of the Innocents is bodily taken from the 
 Hindu Bagavedgitta, and Brahmanical traditions, the legend 
 refers, moreover, allegorically to an historical fact. King Herod 
 is the type of Kansa, the tyrant of Madura. 1 
 
 Yet, to-day, we are asked to believe that all this is the 
 wisdom of the Mahatmas. When Madame Blavatsky went 
 to India, an elaborate myth was created, to the effect that 
 for many years she had been receiving her wisdom from 
 these Masters in Tibet. Thus all who accept this myth 
 are compelled to explain the Isis as an early exposition of 
 orthodox Theosophy. As a matter of fact, it represents the 
 state of the writer's mind in 1877 : it does not teach the 
 doctrine of reincarnation ; 2 it teaches that man is a being 
 of a threefold nature, while the orthodox doctrine makes 
 him sevenfold ; there is no mention of the great doctrine 
 of brotherhood ; and a great deal of the furious attack on 
 Christianity is contrary to the professed standards of to-day. 
 
 6. About the time when the Isis was published, Home's 
 Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism also appeared, and its 
 exposures of her frauds agitated her so much, and influenced 
 public opinion so seriously, that she decided to leave Amer- 
 
 1 II, 199. 2 Olcott acknowledges this frankly, ODL,, I, 278. 
 
 Q
 
 226 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ica for ever and go to India. Here is how she wrote in 
 December, 1877, two months after the publication of the 
 I sis : 
 
 It is for this that I am going for ever to India, and for very 
 shame and vexation I want to go where no one will know my 
 name. Home's malignity has ruined me for ever in Europe. 1 
 
 Home's evidence must have been irrefragable; for Olcott 
 did not attempt to meet it, though asked to do so. 2 
 
 In anticipation of their voyage to India, Olcott wrote to a 
 Hindu friend, whom he had met some time before on a voy- 
 age across the Atlantic, and through him got into corre- 
 spondence with Svaml Dayananda Sarasvati, the founder 
 of the Arya Samaj. As a result of an interchange of letters, 
 the two societies were connected the one with the other. 
 This continued after the Theosophists reached India ; but 
 finally they separated in anger. 3 
 
 On the 25th of May, 1878, Madame Blavatsky was di- 
 vorced from her Armenian husband. 4 Olcott says that the 
 husband obtained the divorce on the ground of desertion. 5 
 
 7. In December, 1878, " the Theosophical Twins," as 
 Madame Blavatsky had named herself and Olcott, sailed 
 from New York. They arrived in Bombay in January; 
 and that city, for almost three years, was the headquarters 
 of the society. Madame Coulomb and her husband, who had 
 meantime lost all their money, reached Bombay late in the 
 spring of 1880, and were established at headquarters as 
 friends and assistants of Madame Blavatsky. 
 
 The opinions and the teaching of the Twins now became 
 much more distinctively Indian than they had been in 
 America. They declared themselves Buddhists, and en- 
 tered into close relations with Buddhism in Ceylon. 
 
 The Theosophic Myth also began to take definite shape. 
 
 1 MPL, 278. * Ib., 278. * ODL., I, 394-407. Above, p. no. 
 < P. 221, above. 6 ODL., I, 57. Cf . MPL, 165.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 227 
 
 They diligently taught the existence of the Great White 
 Brotherhood and their Lodge in Tibet. The theory took 
 shape gradually, and some of the more showy parts have 
 been added only recently. The completed myth is as 
 follows: A large number of men have reached the stage 
 of Adepts in the Wisdom ; and many have become mem- 
 bers of the Hierarchy which governs this world. 1 These 
 beings are far beyond death and transmigration ; yet they 
 live upon earth, mostly in Tibet ; and a few of them are 
 willing to take as apprentices those who have resolved to 
 devote themselves to humanity. Since they take pupils, 
 they are known as Masters. On account of their great- 
 ness they are called Mahatmas, great souls. Madame 
 Blavatsky, we are told, was selected from the whole human 
 race in our days to receive the ancient wisdom from these 
 Masters. Her own particular master was Mahatma 
 Morya ; but Koot Hoomi and others were also ready to 
 help. From them she received Theosophy : it was in no 
 sense her own creation. As far back as 1851 she had met 
 Mahatma Morya, " the Master of her dreams" ; 2 she had 
 spent seven years in unremitting study in Tibet; and in 
 the intervening years the wisdom had been poured into her 
 mind in amplest measure. 
 
 Our narrative has provided sufficient disproof of the 
 myth. As late as 1874 she was neither Buddhist nor 
 Theosophist, but a Spiritualist, and was ready at any 
 moment to lay her head on the block in defence of her faith. 3 
 Instead of learning from a living Master, she was the 
 confidant of a disembodied spirit, John King. 4 Even when 
 the Theosophical Society was founded, there was no men- 
 tion of India but only of the Kabbala and the Hermetic 
 system. 5 
 
 1 See below, pp. 279-80. * P. 447, below. * Pp. 215-6, above. 
 4 P. 217, above. 8 P. 219, above.
 
 228 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The two travelled a great deal in various parts of India, 
 and were usually received by the Hindu community with 
 acclamation. The society steadily grew in numbers and 
 popularity, largely as a result of the new theory of the 
 Masters. For, wherever they went, miraculous events, 
 which they called " phenomena," appeared ; and Madame 
 Blavatsky attributed all to her Masters, or to the occult 
 knowledge she had derived from them. If some prominent 
 European were inquiring about Theosophy, a letter from 
 Koot Hoomi would be sure to fall on his head. Telegrams 
 from the Masters would come tumbling through the air 
 " precipitated" in Theosophic phrase but, strangely 
 enough, bearing the stamp of the British Telegraph office. 
 The Masters shewed themselves now and then in one of 
 their bodies to selected people. Lost articles were found, 
 and new things arrived in unheard-of ways. Half a cig- 
 arette, or a lock of Madame Blavatsky's hair, would be 
 transported from one place to another by " occult" means. 
 Probably a percentage of the phenomena were genuine, 
 as we should expect in the case of a woman of Madame 
 Blavatsky's powers; but no carefully sifted evidence has 
 ever been given for any of them; while evidence exists 
 which proves clearly that many of them were fraudulent ; 
 and, as to the Masters, nothing worth the name of evidence 
 has ever been produced for their existence. 1 
 
 8. One of the most famous occurrences took place at 
 Simla. There was a dinner-party there one evening, in 
 the house of Mr. A. O. Hume, a distinguished Indian 
 Civilian, holding very high office under Government. 
 After dinner it was proposed that Madame Blavatsky 
 should give an example of her powers. After some talk 
 she asked Mrs. Hume whether she had lost anything she 
 would like very much to recover. In reply she described 
 
 1 P. 447, below.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 229 
 
 a brooch, which some little time before had passed out of 
 the family. Madame Blavatsky indicated a spot in the 
 garden where they might look for it. They looked, and the 
 brooch was found. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hume accepted the occurrence as a genuine 
 occult phenomenon. It was described in glowing terms in 
 the papers ; and it has been continuously used by Theos- 
 ophists ever since as evidence of the truth of their system. 
 Yet the explanation is simple and undeniable. The truth 
 came out in the following way : 
 
 The publication of the incident in the Pioneer gave rise to a 
 good deal of discussion in the daily papers of the period. The 
 Englishman pointed out a number of awkward lacunae in the 
 account given, and was especially anxious to know something 
 of the "person" who had allowed the brooch "to pass out of 
 their possession." It remarked 
 
 "There is nothing to show to whom Mrs. Hume's friend, to 
 whom she had given the brooch, parted with it. It might have 
 been to some one who had communicated the fact and given 
 the brooch to Madame. A very slight hint in the conversation 
 might have turned Mrs. Hume's thoughts, almost uncon- 
 sciously, towards her lost brooch," etc. 
 
 The Bombay Gazette, of October i3th, 1880, after noticing 
 this article, went on 
 
 "We can furnish the Englishman with a small item of intelli- 
 gence. At the end of last and the commencement of this year, 
 a young gentleman who had resided at Simla previously, and 
 was, we believe, well known to the Hume family, sojourned for 
 some months in Bombay, and was part of the time a guest of 
 Madame Blavatsky at Girgaum. The latter lady's connection 
 with this gentleman may or may not have had anything to do 
 with the affair of the brooch, though to our mind it is as prob- 
 able as that the presence of the brooch in the flower bed was due 
 to 'occult' phenomena." 
 
 Three days later a correspondent of The Times of India 
 wrote 
 
 "It may interest some of your readers on the other side of
 
 230 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 India to learn that some months ago an individual who had been 
 immediately connected with some of the members of Mr. Hume's 
 family at Simla arrived in Bombay. He was, I believe, hos- 
 pitably received by Madame Blavatsky, if, indeed, he did not 
 spend some weeks at her house in Girgaum, and when he left for 
 England eventually, the arrangements for his passage were made 
 through the agency of Colonel Olcott." 
 
 All this is very suggestive ; but still more so is a pretty idyll 
 narrated by the Civil and Military Gazette a month or two 
 later : 
 
 " Once upon a time a certain Daphnis had received as a gage 
 d'amour from his Chloe, a brooch, an ancestral gem, formerly 
 the property of Chloe's Mamma, which probably poor Chloe 
 considered would in the course of happy time revert to her 
 possession, when Daphnis and all that was his should be her own. 
 But the course of true love never did run smooth, and the un- 
 happy Daphnis, separated from Chloe, and driven by impe- 
 cuniosity, deposited his pretty gift with an accommodating 
 pawn-broker for a consideration meaning doubtless in 
 future time to redeem the precious pledge. The trinket chanced, 
 however, to attract the notice of a very famous spiritualist and 
 medium, a lady who dealt in mysteries of psychic force and 
 powers of disintegration and reintegration of matter. There is 
 nothing to prevent a spiritualist, however magically endowed, 
 from dealing also in mundane affairs after the usual humdrum 
 and worldly fashion, and in this instance the famous lady chose 
 to achieve the possession of the object of her fancy by the ordi- 
 nary method of paying for it. Time rolled on, and it happened 
 in the fulness thereof that the celebrated medium and Chloe's 
 Mamma became acquainted, and under some circumstances, 
 which attained perhaps an undeserved notoriety, the brooch 
 became again the property of its original possessor. 1 " 
 
 Two further points came out after this account was printed. 
 Mr. Hormusji Seervai, a Bombay jeweller, saw an account 
 of the miracle in the papers, and realized from the descrip- 
 tion of the brooch that he had repaired it for Madame 
 
 1 Collapse, 46-7.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 231 
 
 Blavatsky. 1 Finally, the Rev. George Patterson, when on a 
 visit to Bombay at the end of 1884, learned that Madame 
 Blavatsky bought the pawn-ticket from the young man 
 and redeemed the trinket. 
 
 There cannot be the slightest question as to the truth 
 of the explanation ; for not one of the facts has ever been so 
 much as questioned. Mr. Hume himself publicly acknowl- 
 edged that the famous phenomenon was a piece of well- 
 planned fraud. Yet the Theosophical Society still uses 
 this fraud, indefensible and undefended, as an example of 
 occult agency. 2 
 
 9. The Theosophic conception of the world, man and 
 religion, which is nowhere given in the I sis, now gradually 
 took shape. A brief analysis of the system is given below. 3 
 The main channel through which the fresh teaching found 
 its way to Theosophists and the public was a series of long 
 letters, which Madame Blavatsky averred were written and 
 sent by the Master known as Koot Hoomi. Parts of these 
 letters were published by Mr. Sinnett, an Englishman who 
 was editor of the Pioneer and had become a Theosophist, 
 in his books, Esoteric Buddhism and The Occult World; but 
 much of the material was so poor that it had to be eliminated 
 as rubbish. 4 
 
 The Occult World was published in June, 1881. Mr. H. 
 Kiddle of New York read the volume, and discovered in one 
 of the letters a long passage copied almost verbatim from 
 an address delivered by him at Lake Pleasant, August 15, 
 1880, and reported the same month in The Banner of Light. 
 The date of the letter was two months later. When this 
 was made public, a ridiculous reply, purporting to come 
 
 1 Mr. Hodgson called and learned the facts from him personally. Pro- 
 ceedings, IX, 267. 
 
 1 Sinnett's Occult World, pp. 66-79 (eighth edition, 1906). 
 
 * P. 278 ff. * Proceedings, IX, 304.
 
 232 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 from the Mahatma, was published, but no one was de- 
 ceived. It was a case of deliberate plagiarism; and the 
 final proof that it was so is found in the fact that in the more 
 recent editions of The Occult World the passage is omitted. 1 
 
 10. In December, 1882, the headquarters of the society 
 were moved to Adyar, Madras. The Coulombs went 
 along with the rest of the staff. M. Coulomb was Librarian, 
 while his wife was Assistant Corresponding Secretary of 
 the society. Besides that, Madame Coulomb acted as 
 housekeeper, while her husband took charge of all repairs 
 or additions to the buildings. 
 
 Madame Blavatsky occupied a large upper room in 
 the main bungalow. See plan B on page 235. Early 
 in 1883 a new room for occult purposes was built against 
 the west wall of her room. There were two windows in the 
 west wall. The south window, transformed into a door, 
 became the ordinary entrance into the new room, which 
 was called the Occult Room. The north window was 
 removed, and a single layer of bricks filled up the aperture 
 on the Occult Room side, leaving a recess about 15 in. 
 deep on the other side, in Madame Blavatsky's bedroom. 
 Part of the Occult Room was screened off by means of a 
 curtain to form a small room for the Shrine. This was a 
 wooden cupboard which, by means of two stout wires, was 
 hung on the wall over the thin brick partition where the 
 north window had been. In the Shrine was placed a por- 
 trait of the Master, Koot Hoomi. The doors of the Shrine 
 were occasionally thrown open to Theosophists, that they 
 might see the master's portrait. Hindus bowed reverently 
 
 1 Let any one compare pp. 101-2 of the third edition with pp. 125-6 of 
 the eighth edition. The plagiarized passage begins at "Ideas rule the 
 world," and runs down to "speck of dirt." No acknowledgment of the 
 omission is made. I owe this point to the Rev. John Hackett of Hamp- 
 stead. Cf. also what occurs on p. 257, below.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 233 
 
 before him and burned incense to him. 1 Both Indians and 
 Europeans were accustomed to present their requests in the 
 form of letters. The door would then be shut ; and, when it 
 was re-opened, a reply from the Master would be found 
 within it. On one occasion a broken saucer was put in 
 beside him. When the Shrine was re-opened, it was found 
 intact. From this time onward many of the most striking 
 phenomena were connected with the Shrine. 
 
 By the year 1884 the Theosophical Society had attained 
 great proportions. There were over a hundred branches in 
 India, and Hindus everywhere rejoiced in its work. Nor is 
 their enthusiasm hard to understand. Theosophy provided 
 a new defence of Hinduism for the thousands of educated 
 men whose Western education had filled them with shiver- 
 ing doubts about their religion. It condemned Christian 
 missionaries as impudent and ignorant intruders, who dared 
 to criticize Hinduism and Buddhism, the two faiths which 
 alone among all the religions of the world still taught clearly 
 the truths of the Ancient Wisdom. All the great and good 
 of every age had known and taught this wisdom ; but, while 
 it had been lost or beclouded elsewhere, Hinduism and Bud- 
 dhism still retained its priceless principles; and in Tibet 
 lived immortal teachers who were now, through Madame 
 Blavatsky, revealing the Wisdom in all its glory to the 
 whole human race. Yet even this most flattering procla- 
 mation would not have won its way as it did apart from the 
 phenomena. There can be no question that it was these 
 marvels that trumpeted the cause throughout India, and 
 convinced the Hindu of the truth of the new propaganda. 
 
 n. In 1884 a great crisis in the history of Theosophy 
 occurred. As Theosophists still assert that the whole was 
 a missionary plot, and that Madame Blavatsky came out of 
 it triumphant, we cannot dismiss it in a paragraph. In order 
 
 l Cf. the Radha Soamis and the Deva Samaj, pp. 170 and 179, above.
 
 234 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 A. JUDGE'S PLAN, ORIGINAL SIZE 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 Sitting Ttoom 
 
 Partrtion, 
 
 'I Door 
 
 Bed Room. 
 
 Occult Room. 
 
 Book. 
 
 Desk. 
 
 Case. 
 
 Sofa.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 235 
 
 B, HODGSON'S PLAN, f OF ORIGINAL SIZE 
 
 3:waa3/
 
 236 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 to place our readers in a position to judge for themselves, we 
 shall give, in as brief a form as possible, an orderly outline 
 of the significant events of the crisis and shall also indicate 
 where the detailed evidence produced on both sides may 
 be seen and examined. 
 
 a. On the 2ist of February, 1884, Madame Blavatsky, 
 Colonel Olcott and a young Calcutta Brahman, Mohini 
 Mohan Chatterji, sailed from Bombay for Europe. By 
 Madame Blavatsky's explicit instructions, the Coulombs 
 were left in charge of her rooms at the headquarters, Madras. 
 They were to reside in them, and to look after her furniture 
 and dogs. No one was to disturb them. There is the best 
 evidence possible for these statements. The written in- 
 structions have been published ; l and the following is a 
 letter written by Madame Blavatsky, and printed in Dr. 
 Hartmann's pamphlet published in September : 2 
 
 46 RUE NOTRE DAME DES CHAMPS, 
 PARIS, 
 
 April, 2-84. 
 
 She swore to me that she would take care of my rooms, only 
 asking me to let it be known that she alone had the right over all, 
 and would have and keep the key. Having told Dr. Hartmann 
 that he was welcome to my books and my desk in my absence, 
 she made a vow when alone with me, and declared that if I 
 allowed one single person to have access to my rooms, she would 
 answer for nothing ; that the ' shrine ' would be desecrated, 
 etc. 3 
 
 Damodar, a Hindu who had become a Theosophist and was 
 one of Madame Blavatsky's secretaries, had the keys of the 
 Occult Room and the Shrine. 4 Only these three had free 
 access to the penetralia at headquarters. The affairs of the 
 society were left by Colonel Olcott, the President, in the 
 hands of a Committee of seven. 
 
 1 Collapse, 19. 3 Report of Observations, 32. 
 
 1 Below, p. 240. * Proceedings, IX, 225, 373-4.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 237 
 
 b. On the 2gth of February one member of this Com- 
 mittee, Dr. Hartmann by name, arrived at headquarters ; 
 and two or three days later a meeting of the Committee 
 was held. In order that they might sit in quiet, Dr. Hart- 
 mann proposed that they should meet in Madame Blavat- 
 sky's room upstairs ; but, to his amazement, the Coulombs 
 refused to give them admittance. The consequence was a 
 bitter quarrel between the Coulombs, on the one side, and 
 the members of the Committee and the other residents at 
 headquarters, on the other. Madame Coulomb said that 
 she had many secrets which she would tell, if they continued 
 to molest her. 1 She said there were sliding panels in the 
 walls by which phenomena were created, and secret panels 
 in the Shrine, by mean of which the letters from the 
 Master and other things were introduced from Madame 
 Blavatsky's room behind. She also talked of the money 
 which she had lent Madame Blavatsky in Egypt and 
 which had not been repaid. 2 Hence Dr. Hartmann and 
 others wrote to Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, 
 complaining of the Coulombs. 
 
 So serious did matters become in the meantime, that the 
 Committee decided to impeach them in an informal manner, 
 and expel them from headquarters. But on March 22nd, 
 while they were drawing up the charges against them, 
 Damodar laid before them a letter, 3 which he declared had 
 been brought from Koot Hoomi by a chela in his astral 
 body, advising them not to turn out the Coulombs. Natu- 
 rally, the Committee were rather upset to find such an 
 authority interfering to save the traitors. Yet, in the face 
 of a message direct from the Master, they dared not turn 
 
 1 Collapse, 24, 25, 34 ff. She had spoken earlier to many people in the 
 same strain. 
 
 1 Above, p. 213. 
 
 1 Given in full in Proceedings, DC, 278.
 
 238 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 them out of doors. Consequently, as Dr. Hartman says, 
 an armistice was concluded with them. 
 
 After the peace was patched up, the Coulombs, Mr. Lane 
 Fox and Damodar went to Ootacamund for a holiday. 
 Meanwhile, the letters despatched early in March, reached 
 the founders in Paris ; and they replied, in letters written 
 on the ist and 2nd of April, to the Coulombs and to others. 
 These letters reached Madras on the 25th of April. On 
 the 26th, the very day when the mail from Europe reached 
 Ootacamund, a letter 1 purporting to come from the Master, 
 and directed to Dr. Hartmann, was forwarded to the latter 
 by Damodar, from Ootacamund. This letter said that the 
 Coulombs were plotting. Therefore, when they returned 
 from Ootacamund, the Committee decided to expel them. 
 On the i yth of May, M. Coulomb gave up the keys he held, 
 and several of the sliding doors and panels which Madame 
 Coulomb had talked about were discovered. 2 On the 23rd 
 of May they were finally forced to leave headquarters. 
 
 c. We now turn to Europe for a moment. The Theo- 
 sophical Society had by this time attained so much notoriety 
 that the London Society for Psychical Research appointed, 
 in May, i884, 3 a Committee for the taking of such evidence 
 as to the alleged phenomena as might be offered by mem- 
 bers of that body at the time in England, or as could be col- 
 lected elsewhere. The journey of the founders to Europe 
 thus came at a very fortunate time, and the R^ . _ui 
 Society took full advantage of it. 4 
 
 d. On the gth of August Madame Coulomb called on the 
 Editor of The Madras Christian College Magazine, and placed 
 in his hands some forty letters, and asked him whether he 
 cared to publish them, as they contained sufficient evidence 
 
 1 Parts of it were published by Dr. Hartmann in his September pamphlet 
 (p. 240, below) and these are reproduced in Proceedings, IX, 279. 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 223. Ib., IX, 201. 4 Ib., IX, 202.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 239 
 
 to expose the fraudulent nature of the phenomena which 
 had made so much stir in India. The Editor asked for a 
 few days to look into the matter. 1 
 
 A few days later the General Council of the Theosophical 
 Society through their Chairman, Dr. Hartmann, sent out a 
 circular letter of inquiry to a number of Theosophists who 
 had visited headquarters, asking them what they knew 
 about the Shrine. 2 
 
 Meantime the Editor of the Christian College Magazine 
 was examining the documents left in his hands. Most of 
 them were letters from Madame Blavatsky to Madame 
 Coulomb, but there were several other things, a letter 
 from Mrs. Carmichael (the wife of an Indian Civilian) to 
 Madame Blavatsky with a letter to Madame Coulomb 
 written on the back, a receipt for a telegram, etc. The 
 Editor submitted the documents to the most skilled opinion 
 available in Madras, among others to certain bankers, and 
 they pronounced them genuine. 3 But the letters authen- 
 ticated themselves. No one could look through them and 
 believe them to be forgeries. The question of the hand- 
 writing was quite a subordinate one. The letters con- 
 tained scores of references to leading Hindus and Govern- 
 ment Officials all over India with details of what happened 
 when Madame Blavatsky was in their houses and when she 
 met them casually. No forger would have dared to invent 
 such details. If they had been forged, a few personal in- 
 quiries would have at once exposed them. The style was 
 also Madame Blavatsky's, brilliant, vivacious, full of sur- 
 prises and sudden changes. The documents were thus 
 manifestly genuine. As they contained numerous instruc- 
 tions to Madame Coulomb for the production of phenomena, 
 the Editor decided to publish a number of extracts from 
 them, so as to expose Madame Blavatsky and her frauds. 
 
 1 Collapse, 29. * Proceedings, IX, 223, 325. Ib., IX, 277.
 
 Accordingly, an article appeared in the Christian College 
 Magazine, on September loth, 1 containing extracts from 
 some dozen letters, with sufficient comment to make them 
 comprehensible. The letters were almost all in French. 
 The text and the English translation were given in parallel 
 columns. The Editor quoted only such paragraphs as were 
 necessary to prove the fraud, and omitted numerous pas- 
 sages dealing with the private affairs of individuals, both 
 European and Indian ; and most of the letters were not 
 used at all. 
 
 The publication of this article caused immense excitement 
 throughout India. Most of the newspapers recognized 
 that it was a genuine exposure, but some doubted whether 
 the Editor had not been hoaxed by forgeries. The leading 
 Theosophists, on the other hand, put the whole matter down 
 as a conspiracy on the part of the missionaries. 
 
 e. Mr. W. Q. Judge, who took part in the foundation of 
 the society in i875, 2 was in Europe in 1884, and was sent 
 by Olcott from Paris to Madras. 3 He arrived there some- 
 time in May or June. 
 
 /. Dr. Hartmann now drew up as vigorous a defence 
 of Madame Blavatsky as he could and published it, some- 
 time in September, with the title, Report of Observations 
 made during a nine-months' stay at the Head-quarters of the 
 Theosophical Society at Adyar (Madras), India. 4 " A rough 
 and inaccurate plan of the chief rooms at headquarters, 
 probably the work of Judge, 5 appeared in it. It is repro- 
 duced above, plan A, page 234. Hartmann denied that 
 the letters which had been published were genuine, and 
 charged the missionaries with forming a conspiracy against 
 the Theosophical Society. He confesses the existence at 
 
 1 Reproduced in Collapse, 1-15. 2 See above, p. 218. 
 
 8 MPI., 125. The passage is quoted below, p. 248. 
 
 4 Proceedings, IX, 230. * See pp. 452-3, below.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 241 
 
 headquarters of such sliding panels, trapdoors, holes in the 
 wall, etc., as could be used for the production of occult 
 phenomena ; but he asserts, that M. Coulomb made all 
 these after Madame Blavatsky's departure, in order to ruin 
 her reputation. The whole conspiracy, however, would 
 be unmasked and the innocence of Madame Blavatsky 
 established in a court of law. 
 
 We have noted Judge's arrival above because of the 
 following grave incident in which he was concerned. The 
 chief facts are given in a written statement by Dr. Hart- 
 mann from which we quote the following : 
 
 Of the existence of a movable back to the Shrine and a filled- 
 up aperture in the wall, none of us knew anything, and although 
 superficial examinations were made, they divulged nothing; 
 because to make a thorough examination, it would have been 
 necessary to take the Shrine down, and we were prevented from 
 doing this by the superstitious awe with which Mr. Damodar 
 K. Mavalankar regarded the Shrine, and who looked upon every 
 European who dared to touch or handle the " sacred " shrine as a 
 desecration. 
 
 At about the time when Major-General Morgan sent his invita- 
 tion to Mr. Patterson to come to headquarters, that . examina- 
 tion was made, and it was found that the back of the Shrine 
 could be removed, and on moistening the wall behind the Shrine 
 with a wet cloth, it was found that an aperture had existed, 
 which had been plastered up. . . . 
 
 I must confess that it seemed to me that if at that inoppor- 
 tune moment this new discovery, to which I then alluded in the 
 papers (see Madras Mail), would have been made public, it 
 would have had a bad effect on the public mind . . . 
 
 A gentleman who was present, and who shared my opinions, 
 was of the opinion that the Shrine had been too much desecrated 
 to be of any more use, and he burned the Shrine in my presence. 1 
 
 What they found was that the back of the Shrine consisted 
 of three movable panels, and that there had been an aper- 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 225. 
 
 R
 
 242 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ture in the thin brick partition behind; 1 so that there 
 had actually been direct communication between Madame 
 Blavatsky's room and the interior of the Shrine, precisely 
 as Madame Coulomb had said. 2 The aperture had been 
 plastered up when Madame Blavatsky sailed for Europe. 
 Among those who examined the Shrine and made the dis- 
 covery were Dr. Hartmann, Mr. Judge and Mr. T. Vijaya- 
 raghava Charloo (known as Ananda) ; 3 and it was Judge 
 who burned the Shrine. 4 The date of the discovery was 
 September 2oth. 5 
 
 Dr. Hartmann and Theosophists generally have always 
 maintained that the sliding panels in the back of the Shrine 
 and the hole in the wall behind it, which made it possible 
 to get access to the Shrine surreptitiously from Madame 
 Blavatsky's room, were made by M. Coulomb after Madame 
 Blavatsky sailed for Europe in February, 1 884. It is passing 
 strange that they destroyed the Shrine, if they were really 
 convinced that M. Coulomb had made these arrangements 
 in order to ruin Madame Blavatsky. Why did they 
 not preserve this most notable piece of evidence of his 
 villainy ? 
 
 The truth is that it is totally impossible to believe that the 
 sliding panels in the Shrine and the hole in the wall were 
 made by M. Coulomb after Madame Blavatsky's departure ; 
 for while the Coulombs had charge of her rooms, Damodar 
 had the keys of the Occult Room and the Shrine. 6 How then 
 could M. Coulomb insert sliding panels in the back of the 
 shrine, and dig a hole through the wall without the know- 
 ledge of Damodar ? The burning of the Shrine shows that 
 Judge and Hartmann had had some glimpse of this truth. 
 
 1 See p. 232, above, and plan B, page 235. 2 See p. 237, above. 
 
 3 Proceedings, IX, 224. On this page a full and clear account is given of 
 the removal of the Shrine. 
 
 4 Ib., XXIV, 141. 6 Ib., IX, 227. See p. 247, below. 
 4 P. 236, above.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 243 
 
 Clearly they were conscious that no defence of Madame 
 Blavatsky was possible while the Shrine remained in exist- 
 ence. 
 
 g. It is important that Hartmann's bold promise of a 
 lawsuit should be kept in mind. In making it Dr. Hart- 
 mann did not stand alone. Judge was especially bold in 
 promising a full exposure in court ; 1 and Theosophists in 
 every part of India loudly proclaimed that the missionaries 
 would be prosecuted, and their conspiracy laid bare. So 
 strong was confidence at headquarters that again and again 
 it was prophesied that they would rue the day when first 
 they accepted the lying evidence of two dismissed servants. 2 
 The London Lodge published a pamphlet in which it was 
 stated that the matter would go to Court; and Madame 
 Blavatsky also stated in an interview with a representative 
 of The Pall Mall Gazette that she was hurrying to India 
 to commence proceedings against the missionaries. 2 
 
 But, while this was what she said in public, she wrote 
 in a very different strain to M. Solovyoff. We quote part 
 of her letter. The date is early in October, 1884 : 
 
 " First of all, you can say to each and all in Paris that since, 
 in spite of all my efforts, in spite of my having sacrificed to the 
 society life and health and my whole future, I am suspected not 
 only by my enemies but even by my own theosophists. I shall 
 cut off the infected limb from the sound body ; that is, I shall 
 cut myself off from the society. They have all clutched at the 
 idea with such delight, Olcott and Madame Gebhard and the 
 rest, that I have not even met with any pity. I leave the moral 
 to you. Of course, I shall not depart into the 'wilderness' 
 till Olcott, who starts for India by the first steamer, has arranged 
 matters at Adyar, and exposed and proved the conspiracy 
 they gave the Coulomb woman 10,000 rupees 3 as is now 
 proved, in order to destroy the society; but when all this has 
 settled down, then I shall go off, where, I do not know yet ; 
 
 1 Collapse, 51-2. 2 Ib., 49. * See below, p. 246.
 
 244 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 it is all the same, besides, so long as it is somewhere that nobody 
 knows. 1 
 
 h. In October a second article appeared in The Christian 
 College Magazine? in which the missionaries, in reply to Dr. 
 Hartmann's pamphlet and to other criticisms which Theoso- 
 phists had raised against them, published a further instal- 
 ment of letters, and indicated still more clearly the great 
 strength of their position. 
 
 i. So keen was the interest in the Psychical Society on the 
 question of the Theosophical phenomena and of the gen- 
 uineness of the letters published in The Christian College 
 Magazine that the Committee appointed by them to con- 
 sider the phenomena determined to send one of their num- 
 ber to India to make careful scientific investigations on the 
 spot. Mr. Richard Hodgson, B.A., of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, was sent out at the expense of Prof. Henry 
 Sidgwick. He arrived in Madras on the i8th of December. 
 On the 2oth of December Madame Blavatsky and Colonel 
 Olcott arrived at the headquarters in Madras. 
 
 The following is Mr. Hodgson's own statement of his 
 attitude of mind : 
 
 Before proceeding it may be well for me to state that the 
 general attitude which I have for years maintained with respect 
 to various classes of alleged phenomena which form the subject of 
 investigation by our Society enabled me, as I believe, to approach 
 the task I had before me with complete impartiality ; while the 
 conclusions which I held and still hold concerning the important 
 positive results achieved by our Society in connection with the 
 phenomena of Telepathy, of which, moreover, I have had 
 instances in my own experience, both spontaneous and experi- 
 mental, and both as agent and percipient, formed a further 
 safeguard of my readiness to deal with the evidence set before 
 me without prejudice as to the principles involved. Indeed, 
 whatever prepossessions I may have held were distinctly in 
 
 1 MPI., 94-95. * Reproduced in Collapse, 15-42.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 245 
 
 favour of Occultism and Madame Blavatsky a fact which, 
 I think I may venture to say, is well known to several leading 
 Theosophists. 1 
 
 Mr. Hodgson's actions fully bear out his statement. When 
 he arrived in Madras, the Editor of The Christian College 
 Magazine offered him hospitality, but he declined it ; and 
 a day or two later the Editor heard that he had gone to re- 
 side at the Theosophic headquarters ; and there he resided 
 all the time he was in India (nearly three months), except 
 when he went on short visits to places at a distance from 
 Madras. Madame Blavatsky acknowledges frankly that 
 he was friendly to the Theosophist cause when he arrived 
 in India. She writes to M. Solovyoff : 
 
 It was he (i.e. Hartmann) who turned Hodgson, the repre- 
 sentative sent by the London Psychical Society to inquire into 
 the phenomena in India, from a friend, as he was at first, into an 
 enemy. 2 
 
 Mr. Hodgson acted wisely, I believe, in putting up at 
 headquarters. He thus gave Madame Blavatsky, Colonel 
 Olcott and all their followers the fullest possible opportu- 
 nity of explaining every suspicious circumstance and giving 
 all the evidence they possessed to prove that the letters 
 which had been published were forgeries ; while he himself 
 was able to become acquainted with every corner of the 
 rooms at headquarters, except in so far as the Theosophic 
 leaders had destroyed the evidence. 3 
 
 The Editor of The Christian College Magazine handed 
 the incriminating letters to Mr. Hodgson for examination, 
 on condition that they should be returned, as they were the 
 property of Madame Coulomb, and were to be handed 
 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 208. 
 
 * MPI., 124. Quoted below, p. 248. Cf. also Proceedings, XXIV, 135. 
 
 ' See above, pp. 241-2.
 
 246 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 back to her as soon as all danger of a prosecution should 
 have passed away. 1 
 
 Mr. Hodgson interviewed the people who supplied the 
 materials for building and repairs, traced the vases, saucers, 
 flowers, etc., which appeared in the phenomena, to the shops 
 or other places whence they came, and endeavoured to fit 
 these facts into the accounts given by those who witnessed 
 the phenomena. He tested all the details of the incrimi- 
 nating letters, cross-questioned witnesses, examined the 
 places referred to, and compared the documents with 
 
 1 As Theosophists have persistently declared that the Missionaries 
 bought the letters for a very large price, the truth must be set down here. 
 The Editor of The Christian College Magazine writes in April, 1885 (Collapse, 
 
 54-5) : 
 
 " We did not buy the letters. They are still Madame Coulomb's property 
 and will remain so. Two, at least, of the members of the Committee of 
 Investigation Dr. Hartmann and Mr. Subba Row know this, and have 
 known it since Sept. 2;th of last year. On that date the Editor of The 
 Christian College Magazine, accompanied by Mr. Gribble, the Rev. A. Alex- 
 ander and the Rev. J. E. Padfield, visited the Headquarters of the Theo- 
 sophical Society, where they met Messrs. Hartmann, Judge, Subba Row and 
 Damodar. At the close of the interview Dr. Hartmann asked what we had 
 paid Madame Coulomb, and remarked that it was rumoured we had pur- 
 chased the letters for Rs. 10,000. He was informed that such a rumour 
 was wholly false, that we had not purchased the letters, and that Madame 
 Coulomb had only been paid at our ordinary rates for work done. On our 
 return we asked the gentlemen who had accompanied us to write down 
 separately their recollections of the interview. On reference to these docu- 
 ments we find the following remarks of Dr. Hartmann's recorded. We 
 quote from Mr. Alexander's account : 
 
 '"Dr. Hartmann replied . . . that this confirmed what he had always 
 thought, that Madame Coulomb was acting not for money but for revenge.' 
 
 " We may add to this that the letters were put into our hands absolutely 
 and unconditionally, with the single proviso that they should be returned 
 when we were done with them. The first suggestion as to payment for work 
 done came not from Madame Coulomb but from us ; and from first to last 
 we have paid her the comparatively paltry sum of Rs. 150." 
 
 One of the letters was lent to Mr. W. Emmette Coleman of San Fran- 
 cisco. He promised to return it, but did not do so. It was probably burned, 
 along with his other papers, in the great fire in San Francisco. See p. 263.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 247 
 
 acknowledged specimens of Madame Blavatsky's hand- 
 writing in matters of spelling, phraseology, 1 style, etc. No 
 other person, whether Theosophist or not, had the oppor- 
 tunity of examining all the witnesses personally, of seeing 
 all the rooms and other places involved in the matters at 
 issue, and of handling all the documents. Any one who, 
 from a sincere desire to get at what actually happened in 
 these matters, will work patiently and carefully through 
 the multitude of details supplied in all the sources, will 
 realize with what extreme honesty and with what infinite 
 pains Hodgson collected and sifted the evidence. 
 
 As he proceeded with this persistent scientific search for 
 the facts, it became evident that the Theosophic leaders 
 were not trustworthy witnesses, that they contradicted 
 themselves and each other in multitudes of particulars. 
 Each new piece of cross-questioning on Mr. Hodgson's 
 part produced a new version of some occurrence. Madame 
 Blavatsky, 2 Colonel Olcott, 3 Hartmann 4 and Damodar 5 
 all produced a very bad impression. 
 
 Here is what happened when Mr. Hodgson asked his first 
 questions about the shrine in December, 1884 : 
 
 Madame Blavatsky professed ignorance on the subject, 
 saying she had been unable to discover what had been done with 
 the Shrine. Mr. Damodar and Mr. Hartmann both denied 
 having any knowledge of it, and it was only after repeated and 
 urgent requests to be told what had happened that I learnt from 
 the halting account given by Mr. Damodar and Dr. Hartmann 
 that the Shrine had been removed from the Occult Room (see 
 Plan 6 ) into Mr. Damodar's room at about mid-day of September 
 2oth, that on the following morning, at 9 o'clock, they found the 
 Shrine had been taken away, and they had not seen it since. 
 
 1 See below, pp. 256-7. 
 
 1 Proceedings, XXIV, 133. 
 
 a Ib., IX, 210, 237-239, 309, 311, 335-6. 
 
 4 Ib., IX, 220-226. ' Ib., IX, 210, 226-237, 312. 'Above, p. 235.
 
 248 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 They threw out suggestions implying that the Coulombs or the 
 missionaries might have stolen it. 1 
 
 Mr. Hodgson questioned every Theosophist who had sent 
 in written answers to Dr. Hartmann about the Shrine and 
 any other one who could throw any light on its history, and 
 in this way gradually pieced together a certain amount of 
 information about it. All the evidence showed that no one 
 had examined the Shrine carefully before the 2oth of Sep- 
 tember. Every statement made about examinations before 
 that date proved altogether untrustworthy. But he was 
 kept in ignorance of the burning of the Shrine until the i3th 
 of March. 2 
 
 j. We may next see what Madame Blavatsky herself 
 wrote about Dr. Hartmann. The letter was written from 
 Naples in May, 1885, to M. Solovyoff, after her final return 
 from India, but six months before Mr. Hodgson's report 
 appeared : 
 
 If your heart is not attracted to Hartmann, you are quite 
 right. This dreadful man has done me more harm by his de- 
 fence, and often by his deceit, than the Coulombs by open lying. 
 One moment he was defending me in the papers, the next he was 
 writing such ' equivokes ' that even the papers hostile to me could 
 only open their mouths and say : ' There is a friend for you ! ' 
 One day he defended me in letters to Hume and other theoso- 
 phists, and then hinted at such infamies that all his correspond- 
 ents went against me. It was he who turned Hodgson, the repre- 
 sentative sent by the London Psychical Society to inquire into 
 the phenomena in India, from a friend as he was at first, into an 
 enemy. He is a cynic, a liar, cunning and vindictive, and his 
 jealousy of the Master, and his envy for any one on whom the 
 Master bestows the least attention, are simply repulsive. He 
 has turned our devoted Judge, when despatched by Olcott from 
 Paris to Adyar, into our enemy. He set against me at one time 
 all the Europeans in Adyar, Lane Fox, Mr. and Mrs. Oakley, 
 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 220. See the truth, above, pp. 241-2. 
 
 2 Below, p. 250.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 249 
 
 Brown; the Hindus alone, who hate him and have long since 
 taken his measure, he was unable to stir. Now I have been 
 able to save the society from him, by agreeing to take him with 
 me under the plea that he is a doctor. The society, and Olcott 
 at their head, were so afraid of him that they did not dare expel 
 him. 1 
 
 There thus need be no doubt as to Dr. Hartmann's charac- 
 ter as a witness. 
 
 k. From the time that Madame Blavatsky and Colonel 
 Olcott reached Madras, on the 2oth December, 1884 (two 
 days after Hodgson's arrival), the missionaries and the Cou- 
 lombs watched and waited eagerly, looking for the promised 
 suit-at-law which was to establish the innocence of Madame 
 Blavatsky, prove the Coulombs forgers and expose the 
 missionaries as conspirators. But week after week passed, 
 and nothing happened. The blustering ceased. Hart- 
 mann, who had boasted by word of mouth and in print, did 
 nothing. Colonel Olcott and Judge were mute. Madame 
 Blavatsky initiated no proceedings in the Law Courts to 
 clear her character. Finally, in February, there was issued 
 from headquarters a pamphlet, the work of Dr. Hartmann 
 in the main, and bearing the following title, Report of the 
 Result of an Investigation into the charges against Madame 
 Blavatsky, brought by the Missionaries of the Scottish Free 
 Church at Madras and examined by a Committee appointed 
 for that purpose by the General Council of the Theosophical 
 Society. Madras, Scottish Press, i885- 2 This pamphlet 
 contains the written replies sent in by Theosophists in 
 response to the letter circulated in August, 3 but no mention 
 is made of the discoveries made by Dr. Hartmann and Mr. 
 Judge in September, 4 nor of the effect of Hodgson's examina- 
 
 1 MPI., 124-5. 
 
 1 Collapse, 48; Proceedings, XXIV, 134 n. 
 
 3 See above, p. 239. 4 See above, pp. 241-2.
 
 250 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 tion on those who had sent in Replies. 1 It is stated in the 
 pamphlet that there is to be no prosecution of the mission- 
 aries. What a fiasco ! A pamphlet instead of a prosecu- 
 tion ! 
 
 What was it that choked the bluster of the Theosophists 
 and stilled the last threat of a prosecution ? In the inner 
 circles of Theosophy it is acknowledged that Sinnett, Olcott 
 and the others were afraid to have Madame Blavatsky with 
 her unbridled tongue go into the witness-box : as a witness 
 she was impossible. That doubtless weighed also, but the 
 real cause of their terror, without any doubt, was the search- 
 ing examination made by Hodgson. Until he came and sub- 
 jected them to his trained scientific mode of inquiry, they 
 doubtless believed they had an irrefragable case. But 
 that ordeal made everybody at headquarters realize that 
 no Theosophic leader could stand cross-examination for a 
 quarter of an hour, and that many of the phenomena could 
 be shewn to be fraudulent by a few carefully directed in- 
 quiries. To go to court would be black ruin. The follow- 
 ing quotation will make this plain and will also explain the 
 events that followed. Hodgson writes : 
 
 It was on the evening of March i3th, at a conference between 
 Dr. Hartmann, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, Mr. Hume and 
 myself, that Dr. Hartmann finally confessed that "nobody was 
 
 allowed to touch that d Shrine," and he then related the 
 
 incident described on p. 224 of my Report, 2 concerning the dis- 
 covery of the sliding panel of the Shrine and the subsequent 
 destruction of the Shrine itself. I had learned from Mr. A. D. 
 Ezekiel, in Bombay, that he had discovered independently that 
 there had once been a hole in the wall behind the Shrine, but 
 that it had been carefully blocked up. Dr. Hartmann then 
 admitted that traces of this hole had been discovered previously, 
 but the discovery was kept a secret. On the following morning 
 Mr. Hume drew up some statements to form proposed resolu- 
 
 1 See above, p. 248. 2 See above, pp. 241-2.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 251 
 
 tions for an informal meeting to be held in the evening by him- 
 self, the Oakleys, Hartmann, Ragoonath Row, Subba Row, and 
 P. Sreenvas Row. These were to the effect that most of the 
 phenomena in connection with the Theosophical Society were 
 fraudulent, as appears from such of the Coulombs' statements as 
 have been verified, and the independent investigations by myself, 
 that the Society be reconstituted, that Madame Blavatsky, 
 Olcott, Damodar, Babajee and Bhavani Shankar should resign 
 their connection with it, that the disputed letters are genuine, 
 and that Hartmann's pamphlet as well as the Defence pamphlet 
 should be withdrawn, as being founded on an imperfect know- 
 ledge of the circumstances. These resolutions, as I was informed 
 by Mr. Hume, were not carried, the Oakleys and Dr. Hartmann 
 being unwilling to go so far as to condemn the phenomena as 
 fraudulent. It was decided, however, that the pamphlets 
 should be withdrawn. 1 
 
 Hartmann confessed that the pamphlet published in 
 February was thoroughly untrustworthy, 2 and gave Mr. 
 Hodgson a written statement about the Shrine. 3 Finally, 
 Madame Blavatsky herself confessed that the Shrine was 
 made with three sliding panels in the back. 4 
 
 The result of Mr. Hodgson's long patient inquiry was 
 that he was driven to these conclusions : that every phe- 
 nomenon, so far as he had been able to trace it, was fraudu- 
 lent; that the letters handed over by Madame Coulomb 
 were genuine; and that most of the Koot Hoomi letters 
 were written by Madame Blavatsky herself, though a few 
 were probably written by Damodar. 6 
 
 1 Proceedings, XXIV, 134. 2 Ib., XXIV, 145. 
 
 1 Reproduced in part, Proceedings, IX, 225, and quoted above, p. 241. 
 
 4 Proceedings, IX, 221. 
 
 For example, Damodar, who knew everything, wrote the letter, which 
 pretends to come from Koot Hoomi, referred to above on p. 237, to prevent 
 the Committee from expelling the Coulombs and discovering the shrine and 
 the sliding panels, at least until orders should come from Europe. The 
 letter from M., referred to above on p. 238, was clearly written by Madame 
 Blavatsky in Europe and sent by the mail to Damodar to be delivered to
 
 252 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 A few days after the conference just described Hodgson 
 left for home. About the same time Judge slunk away to 
 America without fulfilling his boasts ; 1 and Damodar, 
 knowing that his course was run, took a journey to the 
 Himalayas, and was seen no more. 2 
 
 /. When Madame Coulomb saw that Madame Blavatsky 
 and her friends were afraid to prosecute and give her the 
 opportunity of proving the truth of her statements, she 
 determined to bring the matter before a court of law herself. 
 But, since Madame Blavatsky had not publicly charged 
 Madame Coulomb with forging the letters, it was impossible 
 to prosecute her. Consequently, she instructed Messrs. 
 Barclay and Morgan to proceed against General Morgan 
 of Ootacamund, as he had been foremost in charging her 
 with forgery. But at this juncture Madame Blavatsky's 
 lady doctor went and begged Madame Coulomb's friends 
 to postpone the case : Madame Blavatsky was so ill that 
 it would inevitably kill her. They agreed. Several post- 
 ponements were asked for and obtained; but finally the 
 patient recovered. It was then decided to proceed 
 with the case. As a preliminary measure, Madame Cou- 
 lomb's solicitors wrote to General Morgan on March 25th, 
 threatening him with criminal proceedings, should he fail 
 to make an apology before April 2nd. General Morgan 
 replied, in a letter dated March 3ist, declining to apologize. 
 
 The very next day, the Theosophical Society gave 
 Madame Blavatsky permission to leave India; and she 
 embarked on a French steamer, the Tibre, at Madras 
 on the 2nd of April, never to return. In order that no one 
 
 Dr. Hartmann. If it was sent by Morya himself, how did he require to use 
 Damodar as his postman ? Why did he not send it direct to Hartmann in 
 Madras? 
 
 1 Proceedings, XXIV, 141. 
 
 J The reason for his flight may be found in Proceedings, IX, 226-237.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 253 
 
 might know beforehand that she was to sail, her passage 
 and that of Miss Flynn, who went with her, were taken 
 under the name of " Madame Helen and maid." She sailed 
 on a medical certificate of dishealth ; for her doctor thought 
 that she ought not to stay through the hot weather. It was 
 kidney-trouble she had suffered from. She had had a very 
 similar attack in Elberfeld seven months earlier, 1 and she 
 had another at Wiirzburg five months later. 2 But it is 
 also perfectly clear that it was not this sickness that was 
 the reason for her sudden and secret departure. Had she 
 been ready to clear her character, she could have stayed 
 a little longer without the slightest danger. As soon as 
 it was rumoured that she had escaped, a representative 
 of Messrs. Barclay and Morgan went down by rail 
 to Pondicherry, where the French steamer had to call, 
 went on board, and found the lady well and happy 
 on deck, surrounded by a crowd of admirers. She 
 unquestionably fled from India, in order to escape the ordeal 
 of cross-examination as a witness in the Coulomb-Morgan 
 trial. In a letter to M. Solovyoff, written at Naples on 
 the 29th of the month, she says that she had been called a 
 Russian spy, and adds : 
 
 They certainly could not prove anything, but meanwhile, 
 on mere suspicion, it might have been a matter of sending me 
 to jail, arresting me, and doing who knows what to me. I have 
 only now heard all this in detail; they did not tell me, and 
 packed me off straight from my bed on to the French steamer. 3 
 
 Dr. Hartmann also sailed in the same steamer. Thus, 
 Judge, Damodar, Madame Blavatsky and Dr. Hartmann 
 had all fled from Madras. 
 
 Two days after the steamer sailed the following note ap- 
 peared in the Madras Mail: 
 
 * MPL, 77, 87. '/*., 144- Ib., "9.
 
 254 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The Theosophists : Colonel Olcott writes on behalf of the 
 General Council of the Theosophist Society to say that "as a 
 number of copies of a pamphlet entitled 'Report of the result 
 of the investigations into the charges brought against Madame 
 Blavatsky,' x have been circulated, it is my duty to state that 
 the issue has not been ordered by the General Council, nor 
 authorized by the Committee." z 
 
 Clearly, this action can have resulted only from a convic- 
 tion on the part of the leaders that the pamphlet was un- 
 trustworthy ; and that is precisely what Hodgson says they 
 had come to. 3 The Theosophists of India thereby abso- 
 lutely gave up the attempt to defend Madame Blavatsky. 
 
 On the 22nd of April a letter from Madame Coulomb ap- 
 peared in the Madras Mail in which she explained that, since 
 Madame Blavatsky had left the country, it was impossible 
 to have the question of the authenticity of the letters satis- 
 factorily settled, and she had in consequence decided to drop 
 the case against General Morgan. 
 
 m. How sick the Theosophic leaders were of phenomena 
 is patent from the fact that from this time these most useful 
 miracles were banned. They were unnecessary ; and they 
 were dangerous. Every book labours to show that they 
 are no essential element of the Theosophist programme. 
 But has no one realized what the cessation of the phenom- 
 ena means ? Many of them were supposed to be the work 
 of the Masters themselves. Hence, if we accept the Theo- 
 sophic explanation of the Coulomb affair, we must conclude 
 that those great Adepts, who, in the fulness of their omni- 
 science, had planned them and carried them out, were com- 
 pelled by a pair of forgers and a few conspiring missionaries 
 to give up the policy they had adopted for the establishment 
 of the truth in India ! 
 
 1 See above, p. 249. 2 Proceedings, XXIV, 135. 
 
 3 See above, p. 251.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 255 
 
 n. Meantime, the Committee appointed by the Society 
 for Psychical Research to inquire into the phenomena of 
 Theosophy had been dealing with certain parallel cases 
 which had taken place in Europe, and had been led by all 
 the evidence adduced to declare that they had been fraudu- 
 lently arranged by Madame Blavatsky. This conclusion 
 was based solely on the evidence available in Europe, 1 
 and is thus altogether independent of the Coulomb letters 
 and the masses of evidence gathered by Hodgson. 
 
 o. When his report was laid before the Committee, they 
 carefully weighed all the evidence and unanimously accepted 
 his main conclusions. The report was published in Decem- 
 ber, 1 885.2 
 
 No man is in a position to decide any one of the most 
 important questions at issue until he has worked his way 
 patiently through the mass of detailed evidence accumu- 
 lated in this report. We cannot, in the space at our dis- 
 posal, give any outline of the masses of evidence set forth in 
 it. We simply note the most outstanding facts, and refer 
 readers to all the relevant documents. 
 
 p. With regard to the phenomena, two points must be 
 noticed here. First, the famous brooch case, detailed 
 above, 3 was unmasked by journalists long before Hodgson 
 had anything to do with the question. This affords us, 
 then, undeniable evidence, quite apart from Hodgson, the 
 missionaries and the Coulomb letters, that Madame Blavat- 
 sky, on one occasion at least, was guilty of a most impudent 
 piece of fraud, and that she had made the most careful ar- 
 rangements beforehand to deceive her hosts, an Indian 
 Civilian and his wife. Secondly, the evidence which Hodg- 
 son offers to prove that other phenomena were fraudulent is 
 of the same nature as that which exposed the brooch-trick, 
 simple matters of fact, requiring no knowledge of telepathy 
 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 397-400. 2 Ib., IX, 201-396. * Pp. 228-31.
 
 256 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 or any form of occultism for their appreciation, but under- 
 standable by all. Let readers turn to the Report. 
 
 q. As to the letters handed over by Madame Coulomb, 
 the handwriting proved them to be Madame Blavatsky's ; 
 but it was not merely the handwriting that convinced every 
 one who handled them of their genuineness and made it 
 utterly impossible for the Theosophic leaders to prove them 
 forgeries, but the masses of detailed allusions in them to 
 Indian Civilians, prominent Hindus and other people, 1 
 details the truth of which no one could deny and no forger 
 could have invented, details which proved absolutely true 
 so far as Hodgson was able to probe them in each case. The 
 instructions for the production of phenomena contained in 
 the letters were proved genuine by the sliding panels and 
 other arrangements found in the Shrine and in Madame 
 Blavatsky's rooms and by many circumstances discovered 
 by Hodgson. 
 
 r. In the case of the long philosophic letters purporting to 
 come from the Masters, there is abundance of evidence to 
 prove that most of them were written by Madame Blavat- 
 sky. The plagiarism from Mr. Kiddle and the stupid fic- 
 titious defence set up afterwards, 2 taken along with what we 
 know of how Isis Unveiled was produced, 3 would suggest 
 that the same mind produced both ; but there is direct and 
 convincing evidence as well. There are multitudes of errors 
 in the English of these letters, errors in spelling, errors in 
 dividing words at the end of a line, and errors in idiom; 
 and almost every one of them can be paralleled in Madame 
 Blavatsky's acknowledged correspondence. This was one 
 of the forms of evidence which convinced Mr. Hodgson as 
 to their authorship. Here are lists of some of the more 
 noticeable of these errors : 
 
 1 See, for example, the letter reproduced in Collapse, pp. 32-34, and the 
 first letter on p. 211 of Proceedings, IX. 
 
 2 Pp. 231-2, above. 3 Pp. 223-5, above.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 257 
 
 a. Misspells, your's, her's, fulfill, dispell, thiefs, leasure, 
 quarreling, marshaling, alloted, in totto, circumstancial, defense. 
 
 b. Faulty division of words at the end of a line, incessan-tly, 
 direc-tly, una-cquainted, fun-ctions, discer-ning, rea-ding, 
 rea-dily, po-werless, atmos-phere, des-pite, corres-pondence, 
 En-glishman, En-glish, misunders-tood. 
 
 c. Faulty idioms. I give you an advice ; who, ever since he 
 is here, has been influencing him ; we mortals never have and 
 will agree on any subject entirely ; one who understands toler- 
 ably well English ; you felt impatient and believed having rea- 
 sons to complain ; to take care of themselves and of their here- 
 after the best they know how ; the best she knew how ; 
 that the world will not believe in our philosophy unless it is 
 convinced of it proceeding from reliable ; there are those, 
 who, rather than to yield to the evidence of fact; in a direct 
 course or along hundred of side-furrows ; their active mentality 
 preventing them to receive clear outside impressions ; provided 
 you consent to wait and did not abuse of the situation ; Immu- 
 table laws cannot arise since they are eternal and uncreated, 
 propelled in the Eternity and that God himself if such a thing 
 existed could never have the power of stopping them; so 
 more the pity for him. 1 
 
 It must also be noticed here that Mr. Sinnett's books are 
 no faithful representation of the Ms. letters. Most of the 
 above errors, and many other awkward words and phrases, 
 have been corrected ; 2 and the passage plagiarized from Mr. 
 Kiddle 3 is dropped altogether from the text in the later 
 editions, and no note is appended to tell readers of the omis- 
 sion. This way of dealing with the Mss. is the more serious 
 because Mr. Sinnett says on p. 100 : 4 
 
 The reader must be careful to remember, however, as I now 
 most unequivocally affirm, that I shall in no case alter one 
 syllable of the passages actually quoted. 
 
 1 Proceedings, IX, 306-7. * Ib., IX, 305. 
 
 * See p. 231, above. 
 
 * I.e. of the ist edition, p. 69 of the 3rd and p. 85 of the 8th edition. 
 
 s
 
 258 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Readers will form their own opinion of Theosophic editorial 
 methods. 1 At a later date, Mr. W. Emmette Coleman, 
 whom we have already mentioned, 2 brought forward a 
 great mass of evidence of a different kind, which completely 
 confirms Mr. Hodgson's conclusion. Here is his general 
 statement : 
 
 Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon state- 
 ments in letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. Hume, 
 through Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the 
 Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya, principally the former. 
 Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a considerable number 
 of the original letters of the Mahatmas leading to the production 
 of Esoteric Buddhism. I find in them overwhelming evidence 
 that all of them were written by Madame Blavatsky, which 
 evidence will be presented in full in my book. In these letters 
 are a number of extracts from Buddhist books, alleged to be 
 translations from the originals by the Mahatmic writers them- 
 selves. These letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of San- 
 skrit, Thibetan, Pali, and Chinese. I have traced to its source 
 each quotation from the Buddhist scriptures in the letters, and 
 they were all copied from current English translations, including 
 even the notes and explanations of the English translators. 
 They were principally copied from Beal's Catena of Buddhist 
 Scriptures from the Chinese. In other places where the adept 
 ( ?) is using his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms 
 and ideas, I find that his presumed original language was copied 
 nearly word for word from Rhys Davids's Buddhism, and other 
 books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea in these letters 
 and in Esoteric Buddhism, and every Buddhistic term, such as 
 Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books whence Helena Petrovna 
 Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be proficient in the 
 knowledge of Thibetan and Sanskrit, the words and terms in 
 these languages in the letters of the adepts were nearly all used in 
 a ludicrously erroneous and absurd manner. The writer of these 
 letters was an ignoramus in Sanskrit and Thibetan ; and the 
 mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages, are in exact 
 
 1 See also what M. Solovyoff reports, MPI., 157. 
 
 2 See above, pp. 223-4.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 259 
 
 accordance with the known ignorance of Madame Blavatsky 
 thereanent. Esoteric Buddhism, like all of Madame Blavatsky's 
 works, was based upon wholesale plagiarism and ignorance. 1 
 
 There is another fact. Most of these letters were written 
 on a peculiar sort of hand-made rice-paper. After Madame 
 Blavatsky's death, Judge fabricated a large number of 
 Mahatma letters, as we shall see; and they too were 
 written on this peculiar paper. Olcott then told his 
 Theosophic friends that he himself had bought a quantity 
 of this paper in Jummoo, Cashmere, in 1883 ; that Madame 
 Blavatsky always carried a supply of it about with her ; 
 and that Judge must have abstracted some of it from her 
 rooms in London. 2 M. Solovyoff tells us that, in a drawer 
 of Madame Blavatsky's writing-table in Wiirzburg, he saw 
 a packet of envelopes of this very paper. 3 Hence no serious 
 student will doubt how these letters were composed. 
 
 s. Mr. Sinnett published a defence of the occult phe- 
 nomena in 1886. Then Mrs. Besant attempted to answer 
 Hodgson's Report in an article in Time in March, 1891. It 
 is astounding to discover that for most of the evidence 
 which Mr. Sinnett and Mrs. Besant bring, they rely on the 
 pamphlet, Report of the Result of an Investigation, etc., 4 which 
 was chiefly compiled by Dr. Hartmann, Madame Blavatsky's 
 "liar, cunning and vindictive," 5 and which, within two 
 months of its publication, was publicly repudiated by the 
 leaders of Theosophy in India, 6 Dr. Hartmann himself 
 having acknowledged it to be untrustworthy. 7 
 
 Mr. Hodgson overwhelmed these articles with a reply 
 in 1893.* Yet Mrs. Besant published H. P. Blavatsky and 
 the Masters of the Wisdom in 1907, using the old repudiated 
 
 1 MPI., 363-4. * I sis Very Much Unveiled, 49; below, p. 268. 
 
 1 MPI., 152. * Above, p. 249. B Above, p. 248. * Above, p. 254. 
 1 Proceedings, XXIV, 145 ; above, p. 251. 
 76., XXIV, 129-159.
 
 260 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 source, and repeating certain shameful slanders, without 
 even mentioning Hodgson's replies. Nothing has done so 
 much to shake my confidence in Mrs. Besant's honesty as 
 my study of this dreadful document. All later attempts 
 at defence depend almost entirely on its statements. These 
 books and pamphlets are by far the most unreliable litera- 
 ture that it has ever been my sad fate to have to study. 
 A few samples of their quality are given in the Appendix, 
 
 p. 447- 
 
 12. A new myth was created in 1885. According to the 
 teaching of all the wise and good of the ancient world, the 
 goddess Isis lifted her veil only to those who had lived lives 
 of perfect chastity. Now Madame Blavatsky, according 
 to Theosophic legend, was chosen by the Masters from 
 amongst all modern men and women to receive the ancient 
 wisdom in limitless measure from the highest sources. 
 She unveiled Isis. Hence during the autumn of 1885, 
 while she was at Wiirzburg, Germany, she began to tell her 
 friends, that, despite her marriage to M. Blavatsky, despite 
 many stories told of her after life, and despite her American 
 marriage, 1 she had through all remained a spotless virgin. 2 
 Yet this is the woman whose confessions of gross and long- 
 continued immorality live in her own letters to M. Aksakoff 
 and to M. Solovyoff. 3 We are thus driven to acknowledge 
 that she was capable of stupendous hypocrisy in addition 
 to everything else. This myth has to be carefully borne in 
 mind in the study of Theosophic literature written after 
 1885. 
 
 13. 1888 proved one of the most remarkable years in 
 Madame Blavatsky's life. From that year dates the Eso- 
 teric School of Theosophy, which since then has been the 
 kernel and the strength of the society. In the same year she 
 published her greatest work, The Secret Doctrine. Then also 
 
 1 See above, p. 221. 2 MPI., 139-141. 3 See above, pp. 211-3.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 261 
 
 Mr. G. R. S. Mead, now editor of The Quest, became her 
 private secretary. He retained the position until her death 
 in 1891. 
 
 The Esoteric School was created in order to initiate young 
 Theosophists into the practice of occultism. The work 
 was carried on in classes, each under the guidance of a secre- 
 tary. A good deal of the instruction was taken from Ms. 
 material prepared by Madame Blavatsky and afterwards 
 published in the third volume of The Secret Doctrine. Each 
 person initiated had to take two vows : to defend and ad- 
 vance the cause of Theosophy as far as lay in his power; 
 and not to reveal anything taught in the Esoteric School. 
 Each pupil received also a photograph 1 of a (pretended) 
 portrait of one of the Masters and was bid gaze on it 
 fixedly during meditation and try to visualize it in the 
 corners of the room. The occultism of the school at this 
 time seems to have been rather different to what it has 
 become under Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater. 
 
 It was in October, 1888, that The Secret Doctrine was pub- 
 lished. In the Introduction the authoress assures us that 
 the teaching it contains comes from her Masters, who reside 
 beyond the Himalayas. The truth it contains is now "per- 
 mitted to see the light after long milleniums of the most 
 profound silence and secrecy." The reason why "the out- 
 line of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine 
 of the Archaic Ages" is now revealed is because European 
 scholars during the nineteenth century have been studying 
 the religions of Egypt, India and other lands and have been 
 publishing to the world utterly false and misleading ac- 
 counts of these great systems. 2 
 
 The whole book is founded on what she calls "The Book 
 of Dzyan," which consists of nineteen stanzas, and, accord- 
 ing to Madame Blavatsky, is a very ancient work. It is 
 1 See above, pp. 169, 170, 179. 2 Pp. xxi-xxii.
 
 262 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 altogether unknown to European scholars; no copy of it 
 lies in any European library ; yet, she asserts, that it exists 
 in one of the mysterious libraries of Tibet, in which are con- 
 cealed all the sacred and philosophical works that have ever 
 been written, in whatever language or characters, since the 
 art of writing began. 1 
 
 The Secret Doctrine is in two volumes, the first, on Cos- 
 mogenesis, being founded on the first seven stanzas of the 
 Book of Dzyan, and the second, on Anthropogenesis, being 
 founded on the remaining twelve. In this work readers 
 will find Theosophy as it is actually taught to-day. The 
 doctrine is much more developed and definite than it is in 
 Isis Unveiled. Here the formation of the worlds and the 
 evolution of man are treated in detail. As in the Isis, the 
 treatment is unscientific in character throughout. 
 
 Analysis has shewn that large portions of the book were 
 compiled in the same way as so much of the Isis was built 
 up. 2 Hundreds of passages were borrowed without acknow- 
 ledgment from modern books. Mr. Coleman writes as 
 follows : 
 
 A specimen of the wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears 
 in Vol. II, pp. 599-603. Nearly the whole of four pages was 
 copied from Oliver's Pythagorean Triangle, while only a few 
 lines were credited to that work. Considerable other matter in 
 Secret Doctrine was copied, uncredited, from Oliver's work. 
 Donnelly's Atlantis was largely plagiarised from. Madame 
 Blavatsky not only borrowed from this writer the general idea 
 of the derivation of Eastern civilization, mythology, etc., from 
 Atlantis ; but she coolly appropriated from him a number of the 
 alleged detailed evidences of this derivation, without crediting 
 him therewith. Vol. II, pp. 790-793, contains a number of facts, 
 numbered seriatim, said to prove this Atlantean derivation. 
 
 These facts were almost wholly copied from Donnelly's book, 
 ch. IV., where they are also numbered seriatim ; but there is no 
 
 1 Pp. xxiii-xxiv. 2 Above, pp. 223-5.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 263 
 
 intimation in Secret Doctrine that its author was indebted to 
 Donnelly's book for this mass of matter. In addition to those 
 credited, there are 130 passages from Wilson's Vishnu Purana 
 copied uncredited ; and there are some 70 passages from Win- 
 chell's World Life not credited. From Dowson's Hindu Classi- 
 cal Dictionary, 1 23 passages were plagiarised. From Decharme's 
 Mythologie de la Grece Antique, about 60 passages were plagi- 
 arised ; from Myer's Qabbala, 34. These are some of the other 
 books plagiarised from : Kenealy's Book of God, Faber's Cabiri, 
 Wake's Great Pyramid, Gould's Mythical Monsters, Joly's 
 Man before Metals, Stallo's Modern Physics, Massey's Natural 
 Genesis, Mackey's Mythological Astronomy, Schmidt's Descent 
 and Darwinism, Quatrefage's Human Species, Laing's Modern 
 Science and Modern Thought, Mather's Cabbala Unveiled, 
 Maspero's Musee de Boulaq, Ragon's Maconnerie Occulte, 
 Lefevre's Philosophy, and Buchner's Force and Matter. 
 
 The Book of Dzyan was the work of Madame Blavatsky 
 a compilation, in her own language, from a variety of scources, 
 embracing the general principles of the doctrines and dogmas 
 taught in the Secret Doctrine. I find in this "oldest book in the 
 world" statements copied from nineteenth century books, and 
 in the usual blundering manner of Madame Blavatsky. Letters 
 and other writings of the adepts are found in the Secret Doctrine. 
 In these Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarised 
 passages from Wilson's Vishnu Purana and Winchell's World 
 Life, of like character to those in Madame Blavatsky's 
 acknowledged writings. Detailed proofs of this will be given in 
 my book. I have also traced the source whence she derived the 
 word Dzyan. 1 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that Coleman's promised 
 book never appeared. The evidence he had accumulated 
 would have been interesting in the extreme. His library was 
 destroyed in the fire which followed the great earthquake in 
 San Francisco in 1906 ; and he died in 1909. The third 
 edition of The Secret Doctrine, edited and published in London 
 in 1897, gives references to a considerable proportion of the 
 *MPI., pp. 358-9.
 
 264 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 borrowed passages which Coleman speaks of ; so that there 
 is no question about them. But Theosophists who have 
 studied the work carefully, while willing to acknowledge the 
 presence of these recognized quotations, believe that the 
 book of Dzyan and certain other passages cannot be traced 
 to modern works. Since Mr. Coleman did not publish his 
 studies, the question is still undecided. 
 
 14. Madame Blavatsky 1 died at the age of sixty on the 
 8th of May, 1891. 
 
 It may be well to introduce here a pen-and-ink portrait 
 of her which appeared recently : 
 
 She was playing her usual game of " Patience " when I came 
 upon her first of all one evening. She looked up and arrested 
 your attention by the steady gaze of her large, pale blue eyes. 
 Most people regarded them as the redeeming feature of an 
 otherwise excessively plain face. They were set to advantage 
 in a somewhat wide angle on either side of what did duty for a 
 nose but which she playfully described as " no nose at all, but a 
 button." Her mouth was wide with lips that were close-set, 
 thin, and mobile, and when she laughed she opened her mouth 
 and eyes wide with the abandon of a child. I have never seen 
 a woman of mature years laugh with such child-like natural- 
 ness as she. Her complexion may be described as coffee- 
 coloured, a yellowish brown, and the. face had no square inch 
 that was not scored by a thousand wrinkles. This and the whites 
 of her eyes, which were not white at all but yellow, gave one 
 the impression of "liver" or the tropics, and either would have 
 been a safe guess. The size and shape of her head was very 
 remarkable. No student of phrenology would convict her of 
 material tendencies or attribute to her anything but a highly 
 spiritual and intellectual nature, for the vault of the head from 
 the bore of the ear upwards was exceptionally high, as was 
 also the forward development, and these were sustained by an 
 adequately broad base, while the lateral development was com- 
 paratively insignificant. Her iron-grey crinkly hair ran in 
 fascinating little ripples to where it was gathered in the most 
 1 See her portrait, Plate IX, facing p. 195.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 265 
 
 unconventional of knots on the nape of the neck, as if it were 
 something to be got out of the way merely, and stuck through 
 with a broad comb. The inevitable cigarette called immediate 
 attention to her hands. They were really beautiful hands, but 
 uncanny ; so like a child's with their dimples and soft cushions ; 
 and every phalange of her lithe, tapering fingers was double- 
 jointed. They seemed to be endowed with a life of their own. 
 They were seldom still for more than a few seconds together. 
 Later on she gave some sort of reason for this. Holding her 
 hands perfectly still over a table, the palms curved so as to 
 form a sort of inverted cup, she remained so for perhaps two 
 minutes or more, when suddenly there was a loud explosion like 
 the crack of a rifle and one expected to see that the table itself 
 had split from end to end. 1 
 
 She was a woman of very unusual powers. Her personality 
 was potent and attractive in a very high degree. She had 
 great gifts as a story-teller and conversationalist. She was 
 greatly loved by her friends, and was most affectionate to 
 them in turn. She drew people towards her, and won their 
 confidence, influencing every one who came within her 
 radius so deeply that people found it hard to escape from her 
 control. She had the genius to will and to rule. She was 
 what Theosophists call " a psychic " of a very high order. 
 This word denotes those little-understood sympathies and 
 faculties which make the spiritualistic medium, the telep- 
 athist, the thought-reader, the clairvoyant, the hypnotist. 
 Probably some of the lesser phenomena which she exhibited 
 were quite real. She was also a woman of great energy 
 and industry ; for, in spite of frequent illness and racking 
 pain, she worked almost incessantly for many years. She 
 had the shaping gift of imagination, which, combined with 
 a natural power of direct and telling expression, enabled her 
 to produce books which have captivated thousands. 
 
 In character she was an extraordinary mixture. She was 
 
 1 W. R. Corn Old in the Occult Review of March, 1914.
 
 266 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 bountifully generous to her friends and to every one in need. 
 She was devoted to her family and her country. She must 
 have had sterling qualities to inspire friends as she did. 
 Yet Colonel Olcott tells us that she was not loyal to her 
 friends, that she used them all as pawns ; 1 and another 
 unimpeachable witness says, "You never knew when you 
 had her." We have already seen how far she was from 
 being truthful ; and all who knew her say she was extremely 
 unguarded with her tongue, and also with her pen. 2 She 
 was liable to outbursts of furious rage, when her great 
 face became livid with passion and almost demonic in ex- 
 pression. 3 She would then execrate every one in appalling 
 language, and make the most outrageous statements which 
 were not meant to be taken seriously. 4 She expected those 
 who loved her to do for her whatever she asked : conscience 
 had no rights as compared with friendship. 5 Seen against 
 this background of elemental character, the colossal frauds 
 and pretences of her Theosophic career seem a little more 
 credible than they do at first sight. 
 
 The truth is, she is best described as a Bohemian. She 
 was always smoking, 6 was loose in speech and in manner, 
 took her freedom in everything. 7 She was as far as possible 
 from being a saint. 8 She hated all conventions, and enjoyed 
 nothing so much as tilting at them and breaking through 
 them. Indeed, from her own point of view, the whole 
 propaganda was but a half-serious, half-comic attack on 
 the solemn sobrieties and stupidities of modern science and 
 
 1 ODL., I, 463. 
 
 2 MPI., 71. This accounts in some degree for the recklessness with 
 which she wrote masses of compromising material to Madame Coulomb. 
 Most of her letters show this characteristic. 
 
 3 Sinnett, Incidents, 18, 19; ODL., I, 463; MPI., 152. * ODL., I, 463. 
 6 MPI., 59. 6 ODL., I, 449-453- 7 Ib., 440-462. 
 
 8 Cf. her own words to M. Solovyoff, "I am by no means a saint; I am 
 far from being one, little father." MPI., 19.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 267 
 
 the strait-laced ideas of Christianity. Her volcanic tem- 
 perament and surging senses rebelled against all such 
 things. Yet she was serious also. She saw that there was 
 much more in ancient occultism and magic than the middle 
 nineteenth century could believe, and she was convinced 
 that Hinduism and Buddhism deserved better treatment 
 than they had received. Despite all that she wrote about 
 Christianity, the Orthodox Greek Church still touched her 
 heart. 
 
 LITERATURE. N.B. Books marked with an asterisk to be used 
 with extreme caution. HISTORY : * Old Diary Leaves, by H. S. 
 Olcott, New York, Putnam's Sons, four vols., 1895, 1900, 1904, 
 1906, 6s. net each. * Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, 
 by A. P. Sinnett, London, Redway, 1886, new edition, T. P. S. 1913. 
 A Modern Priestess of Isis, by V. S. Solovyoff, translated by Walter 
 Leaf, London, Longmans, 1895, out of print. TEACHING AND 
 PHENOMENA : * The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, London, Triib- 
 ner, 1881. * Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, London, Triib- 
 ner, 1883. THE MADRAS EXPOSURE : The Collapse of Koot Hoomi, 
 Madras, C. L. S. I., 1904, as. 4. Proceedings of the Society for 
 Psychical Research, DC, pp. 201-400, London, Triibner, 1885, 
 45. 6d. ; XXIV, 129-159, London, Triibner, 1893, 35. 6d. Also 
 Solovyoff's Modern Priestess of Isis. For THEOSOPHIC DEFENCES, 
 see Appendix. MADAME BLAVATSKY'S WORKS : Isis Unveiled, New 
 York, Bouton, London, Quaritch, 1877, 2 vols. (Point Loma 
 Edition, 18 Bartlett's Buildings, London, E. C., 175.) The Secret 
 Doctrine, London, T. P. S., 1888, 2 vols. (A reprint of this edition, 
 Point Loma, 1909, 425.) Third volume, London, T. P. S., 1897. 
 Third edition revised and annotated, London, T. P. S., 3 vols. 505. 
 
 Mrs. Besant 
 
 In 1888 Mr. W. T. Stead, editor of The Review of Reviews, 
 handed Mrs. Besant a copy of The Secret Doctrine to review ; 
 and that book made her a follower of Madame Blavatsky. 
 She passed at one leap from Atheism to Theosophy ; and, 
 since the death of the foundress, she has been by far the 
 most potent personality within the society.
 
 268 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 From the beginning Olcott had been President and Judge 
 Vice-President, while Madame Blavatsky herself had only 
 held the position of Corresponding Secretary. When she 
 died, Judge cabled from America to the London office, "Do 
 nothing till I come." Within a few days after his arrival 
 in London, he produced two messages which he declared 
 had been sent by the Master Morya, Madame Blavatsky's 
 own special monitor. Mrs. Besant accepted the missives 
 as genuine, and publicly proclaimed in a great meeting in 
 London that there could be no doubt about the existence 
 of the Mahatmas, as communications had been received 
 from them since the death of Madame Blavatsky. These 
 messages continued to arrive. Mr. Judge's wisdom and the 
 high place which he ought to have in the Society was their 
 constant burden. Mrs. Besant was convinced of their 
 genuineness; Olcott was in India; and in consequence 
 Judge rose to great prominence in the movement. As a 
 result of some of these wonderful epistles Olcott was so 
 cowed that he actually resigned his position as President 
 of the Society early in 1892. Shortly afterwards he with- 
 drew his resignation, but at first without effect ; for at the 
 Annual Convention of 1892 Judge was elected President for 
 life. This election, however, does not appear to have been 
 ratified. A little later Mrs. Besant went to India. When 
 all the documents were laid before Olcott, it became clear to 
 him that Judge had forged them, and that he had abstracted 
 from Madame Blavatsky's rooms in London the hand-made 
 rice-paper l on which they were written and the seal with 
 which most of them were sealed. Mrs. Besant examined all 
 the evidence and recognized Judge's guilt. Olcott then 
 wrote to Judge on the 1 2th of February, 1894, giving him the 
 option of (a) retiring from all the offices he held in the Theo- 
 
 1 It was the same paper as the Koot Hoomi letters were written on. 
 See above, p. 259.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 269 
 
 sophical Society, and leaving Olcott to make a general public 
 explanation or (&) having a Judicial Committee convened 
 and the whole of the proceedings made public. Judge re- 
 fused to resign. It was therefore decided that all the docu- 
 ments should be placed in Mrs. Besant's hands, that she 
 should preside over a judicial inquiry to be held at the 
 Annual Convention in London in July, 1894, and that all 
 the evidence should be published. This latter pledge was 
 given in order to satisfy Indian Theosophists, who were in- 
 sistent that the fraud should be exposed. 
 
 But, when the Judicial Committee met, Olcott and Judge 
 being present as well as Mrs. Besant, a most extraordinary 
 thing happened. After most serious deliberation, the 
 Committee came to the conclusion that it was contrary 
 to Theosophic principles to decide whether Judge was 
 guilty or not. The trial was impossible ! It was also 
 agreed that the evidence which had been gathered should 
 not be published. Clearly, the inner history of this most 
 shameful transaction is that Judge, who knew all that had 
 happened in Madras in 1884 and much else, threatened 
 that, if he were exposed, he would expose everybody, but 
 agreed to continue to work with the Colonel and Mrs. 
 Besant on condition that the affair should be hushed up in 
 such a way that his character should not suffer. All this 
 the leaders endeavoured to carry out. 
 
 But many Theosophists felt that such immorality must 
 not be condoned and concealed. One of the officials, Mr. 
 W. R. Corn Old, therefore urged the leaders at the London 
 headquarters to have the evidence published. He was told 
 that that was impossible : Mrs. Besant had burned all the 
 documents! Like Judge in Madras, 1 she had found fire 
 a most convenient means for getting rid of inconvenient 
 evidence. But she did not know that, before the incrimi- 
 1 See above, pp. 241-2.
 
 270 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 nating documents were handed over to her in India, fac- 
 simile copies of all had been taken by Mr. Old. Even when 
 he made this fact known at headquarters, and offered to 
 hand the copies over for publication, the leaders refused to 
 act. Then, Mr. Old, disgusted beyond measure because the 
 officials would not carry out the promise made in India, 
 that all the evidence should be published, and were deter- 
 mined as far as possible to hide the fraud, resigned his posi- 
 tion and left the society. He then handed over the fac- 
 similes of the documents to his friend, Mr. Edmund Garrett ; 
 and the whole story was published in The Westminster 
 Gazette, October 29-November 8, 1894. It was there- 
 after republished in book form under the title Isis Very 
 Much Unveiled. For his action Mr. Old was vehemently 
 attacked by Theosophists as a traitor and a pledge-breaker ; 
 but, if Mrs. Besant and Colonel Olcott were justified in 
 promising to publish all the evidence, how did Mr. Old do 
 wrong in doing what they had promised to do ? It was they 
 who broke their pledges. He was also charged with having 
 done it from sordid motives. As a matter of fact, through 
 resignation of his offices in the Society, he lost a comfortable 
 income, and he refused the honorarium of 80 offered him 
 by the editor of The Westminster Gazette for his services. 
 
 It was probably this most unexpected publication of the 
 evidence, blazoning his forgery to all the world, that drove 
 Judge to the next step. He had agreed to work along with 
 Olcott and Mrs. Besant ; but, now that the evidence, which 
 they had gathered against him, and which they could not 
 repudiate, had been published, the only course open to him 
 was to deny the facts and pose as a martyr. This he did. 
 He broke away from the main Theosophical Society, carry- 
 ing with him a majority of American Theosophists. These 
 he formed into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical 
 Society, and was elected their President for life. He lived,
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 271 
 
 however, only eleven months longer. His place was taken 
 by Mrs. Katherine Tingley. The headquarters of this 
 rival organization are at Point Loma, California. 
 
 Neither Mrs. Besant nor Colonel Olcott ever attempted 
 to deny any of the statements made in The Westminster 
 Gazette. The whole fabric of gross and shameful fraud and 
 concealment stands undeniable. 
 
 Since 1893 Mrs. Besant has spent most of her time in 
 India, and has been very successful in building up 
 Theosophy there. Her activity has run in the main along 
 four lines. She has lectured a great deal in every part of 
 India, making the defence and exposition of Hinduism her 
 chief theme. Secondly, she has done a great deal for the 
 education of Hindus. Hindus had established many col- 
 leges between 1879 and 1898 ; but, like Government col- 
 leges, they gave no religious instruction. The Central 
 Hindu College, which she founded in Benares in 1898, is 
 modelled on a missionary college, Hinduism taking the place 
 of Christianity. From that centre she strove to spread 
 this type of education throughout the Hindu community, 
 founding schools in many places for both boys and girls. 
 Thirdly, she has proved a most prolific and most effective 
 writer. Tens of thousands of her books have been sold in 
 many other lands as well as India. Lastly, she has given 
 a good deal of time to occultism ; but that we shall deal 
 with later. 
 
 Mr. C. W. Leadbeater, who had been a curate of the 
 Church of England, became a Theosophist in 1884, and 
 since that time, with the exception of a break of some four 
 years, he has been one of the officials of the society. He 
 has worked in India, Ceylon, America and England. He 
 is a very able writer. 
 
 He has also become notorious because of his occult in- 
 vestigations. We have seen that a secret society for the
 
 272 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 practice of occultism was formed within the Theosophic 
 Society by Madame Blavatsky in 1888. Since her death 
 Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater have been the leaders 
 of the Esoteric School. They have re-organized the School, 
 introduced a hierarchy of gurus and systematized the in- 
 struction, keeping certain very definite ends in view. They 
 have also conducted a long series of occult investigations 
 themselves, the results of which have been published from 
 time to time. One of their chief methods is to read what 
 they call the Etheric Record of past events, 1 and thereby 
 reconstruct portions of ancient history. 
 
 Mr. Leadbeater on one occasion, on consulting the record, 
 came to the startling conclusions, that Jesus and Christ 
 were two distinct persons; that both were men, neither 
 being the Logos, or the Son of God ; that Jesus was born in 
 105 B.C. ; that Christ was the great Master ; that Jesus, 
 wise and devoted though he was, merely yielded up his body 
 for Christ to use ; that the twelve Apostles never lived ; 
 and that there is scarcely a scrap of historical matter in the 
 Gospels. The teaching now is that one ego was incarnated 
 at a very early date as Hermes, again as Zoroaster, then as 
 Orpheus, finally as Gautama the Buddha. Another ego 
 was Christ. He used the body of Jesus as his vehicle. 
 Jesus was born in 105 B.C., and was again incarnated as 
 Apollonius of Tyana. 
 
 Much of this Mrs. Besant published in her book, Esoteric 
 Christianity. It is also embodied in Mr. Leadbeater's own 
 work, The Christian Creed, published in 1904. In 1903 
 Mr. G. R. S. Mead published Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?, an 
 attempt to collect and estimate all the evidence contained in 
 Talmudic and Christian sources, bearing on the time when 
 Jesus lived. He does not come to any decision on the main 
 question. 
 
 1 See below, p. 278.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 273 
 
 5. In 1905 certain very serious charges were brought 
 against Mr. Leadbeater. He was then in England, and held 
 the office of Presidential Delegate in the British section of 
 the society. It was said that he had given immoral teach- 
 ing to boys in America, and had even gone the length of 
 immoral acts. The leaders of the American Section of the 
 society were greatly disturbed over the matter, and wished 
 to have him expelled from the society. Since they did not 
 possess this power themselves, it was decided that they 
 should send a Commissioner to London to lay the matter 
 before Colonel Olcott, the President-founder. Colonel Ol- 
 cott called a special meeting, consisting of the Executive 
 Committee of the British Section, the Commissioner from 
 America, and a representative from France. The whole 
 matter was carefully discussed and Mr. Leadbeater was 
 examined. He confessed frankly enough to the charge 
 of having given a number of boys the teaching complained 
 of; and, under great pressure, he acknowledged that he 
 might have been guilty also of some of the acts complained 
 of. The printed minutes, legally authenticated, lie before 
 me, as I write ; so that there can be no question as to the 
 absolute accuracy of these statements. Finally, Mr. 
 Leadbeater's resignation was accepted, and he dropped 
 out of the society. Mrs. Besant declared that he would not 
 be restored until he repudiated his opinions on these matters. 
 
 6. Colonel Olcott died early in 1907, and Mrs. Besant 
 became President of the Theosophic Society. 
 
 7. In January, 1909, Mrs. Besant announced in the 
 Theosophist that the General Council had decided to 
 allow Mr. Leadbeater to return to the society. Since 
 then he has resided at the headquarters in Madras. He 
 had not repudiated his teaching, nor has he yet done so. 
 About the same time a defence of his teaching, written by 
 an American Theosophist named Van Hoek, was circulated
 
 274 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 in the Society. Two of the English leaders, backed by 
 many members, appealed to the General Council to with- 
 draw this document, but they refused. The result was 
 that, under the leadership of Mr. G. R. S. Mead, a body 
 of some 700 British Theosophists, including nearly all the 
 cultured and influential members in the country, and a 
 number in other lands, left the society. 
 
 8. Since the moment when Mr. Leadbeater settled at 
 headquarters, occultism has come to the front, and is 
 now the main activity of the society. Nor is that all. 
 Mr. Leadbeater had already published most amazing ac- 
 counts of what, as he asserted, he had seen in clairvoyance. 
 But these were readings of the records of the past ; while 
 prophecy is now held to be one of the chief functions of 
 occultism. We are told that the world is just about to 
 enter on a new era of history. A great World-teacher will 
 very soon enter upon his work. The human being whose 
 body is to be the physical vehicle for the ego of this World- 
 teacher is already in the Theosophical Society, and is to be 
 trained for his task by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater. 
 Mrs. Besant will soon be seen to be one of the greatest rulers 
 of the world of gods and men. Even those who stand near- 
 est to her scarcely realize how great she is, and will be. 
 Mrs. Besant, in turn, affirms that Mr. Leadbeater is a most 
 exalted being, on the very threshold of divinity. In conse- 
 quence, both these leaders and the Madrasi boy who is to 
 be the vehicle of the coming Teacher are adored and praised 
 by lowly bending groups of Theosophic initiates. 
 
 It was only gradually that all this was made public. 
 Clearly, however, most careful preparation had been made 
 for the supreme announcement. The new policy is meant to 
 be a master-stroke to capture at once Christianity, Bud- 
 dhism and Hinduism for the Theosophical Society. In 
 England the coming one was called Christ, while in India
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 275 
 
 and Ceylon he was called the Bodhisattva or Maitreya. 
 He is said to be the ego which used the body of Jesus and 
 was then called Christ. A new world-wide organization 
 was created to prepare people for the Epiphany. At first 
 it was called the Order of the Rising Sun, but three months 
 later l was changed to the Order of the Star in the East. 
 A most urgent propaganda was launched among the stu- 
 dents of the Hindu College, Benares, in all the Theosophic 
 lodges of the world, and among Christian people in England 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 One of the most extraordinary accompaniments of this 
 startling movement has been the publication of a book, 
 written by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater in collabora- 
 tion, and called Man: Whence, How and Whither. This 
 work is essentially a vast mythology, stretching away back 
 some thirty thousand years. It is the pretended record of 
 the repeated incarnations of the small group of people at 
 present resident at the Theosophic headquarters at Adyar, 
 Madras; and what we are asked to believe is that we 
 have in the history represented in this record the prepara- 
 tion for the great events that will take place, when the great 
 World-teacher makes his appearance. For example, we are 
 told that in 13,500 B.C. "Jesus" was the wife of an emperor 
 of southern India, while in 12,800 B.C. he was the brother of 
 Madame Marie-Louise Kirby, and the father of Mrs. S. 
 Maude Sharpe (General Secretary of the English Section), 
 of Julius Caesar, and of T. Subba Rao, the Teshu Lama 
 being at that time his daughter. 2 
 
 9. The new propaganda with its outrageous statements 
 and limitless claims has led to considerable upheavals within 
 Theosophy. The persistent preaching of the new doctrine 
 
 1 April, 1911. 
 
 1 For some account of the book see Mrs. Besant and the Present Crisis 
 in the Theosophkal Society, by Eugene Le'vy.
 
 276 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 to the students of theHindu College, Benares, and the forma- 
 tion of numerous societies and classes for the study of its 
 literature and other such purposes, enraged the mass of 
 solid Hindus connected with the College. They protested 
 seriously for some time, but got no redress. Finally, they 
 were able to make things so hot for Mrs. Besant's personal 
 followers on the teaching staff, that they resigned in a body 
 and left. Mrs. Besant has thus lost nearly all her influence 
 in the citadel of Hinduism. 
 
 There were also many members of the Society in India 
 who resigned, probably as many as 500; but she still re- 
 tains her hold over the great bulk of the Indian membership. 
 A few seceded in England and in America. On account of 
 a sharp disagreement between Mrs. Besant and Herr Steiner, 
 the German leader, all the lodges in Germany, consisting of 
 2400 members, and several in Switzerland, were driven out 
 of the movement. Germany has thus been forced to form 
 a fresh organization. The new name is the Anthroposophi- 
 cal Society. 
 
 The third result has been a crop of lawsuits in Madras. 
 The chief case arose from the fact that a Madrasi Brahman, 
 named G. Narayana Aiyer, handed over his two sons to 
 Mrs. Besant to be educated. The elder of these boys, 
 J. Krishnamurti, is called Alcyone in Mr. Leadbeater's 
 occult investigations ; and he is said to have been chosen as 
 the vehicle of the coming Christ. Mrs. Besant placed the 
 boys under Mr. Leadbeater's care in the matter of their 
 studies. The father objected on the ground that Mr. 
 Leadbeater is an immoral man. 1 Mrs. Besant consented to 
 keep the boys apart from Mr. Leadbeater, but put them 
 again under his care, and finally refused to separate them 
 from him. The father then raised an action against her 
 in the Madras courts, and won his case. 2 Mrs. Besant ap- 
 
 1 See p. 273, above. 2 See The Alcyone Case.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 277 
 
 pealed, but lost again. She then appealed to the Privy 
 Council in England ; and the original case has been upset 
 on a technical point. 1 Mrs. Besant brought lawsuits for 
 defamation of character against two citizens of Madras, 
 but both were dismissed. In the course of the four trials in 
 Madras a great deal of very unfavourable evidence was 
 produced against Leadbeater and Mrs. Besant. The follow- 
 ing is an extract from the Judgment in the first case : 
 
 Mr. Leadbeater admitted in his evidence that he has held, 
 and even now holds, opinions which I need only describe as 
 certainly immoral and such as to unfit him to be the tutor of the 
 boys, and, taken in conjunction with his professed power to 
 detect the approach of impure thoughts, render him a highly 
 dangerous associate for children. 2 
 
 In one case the judge declared that Mrs. Besant had de- 
 fended Leadbeater's immoral teaching. In another the 
 judge said Mrs. Besant had not shewn common honesty 
 in her dealings with the father of the boys. 
 
 10. The Theosophic cause has suffered so seriously in 
 India through the new propaganda and these lawsuits that 
 Mrs. Besant has been making frantic efforts during the last 
 nine months to achieve a new position by means of new 
 activities. The first of these is a Theosophic movement 
 in favour of social reform. This is a very noticeable change ; 
 for, until now, the Society has been reactionary on all social 
 questions with the exception of early marriage, and Mrs. 
 Besant has published long, elaborate defences of many 
 superstitious observances in Hinduism connected with caste 
 and the family. Hindus are being enrolled for the purpose 
 of advancing social reform; and each stalwart appends 
 his name to seven pledges. 3 
 
 1 The Times, Weekly Edition, May 8, 1914. 
 
 1 The Alcyone Case, p. 260. ISR., XXIV, 43.
 
 278 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Another proposal has been to form a Young Men's Indian 
 Association, confessedly in imitation of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, and for the purpose of saving young 
 men from Christian influence. The original idea was to 
 make it a Hindu organization of a Theosophic type, but 
 several of the Madras leaders refused to have anything to 
 do with an organization that touched religion ; and, in con- 
 sequence, the proposal is now a purely secular one. There 
 have been great difficulties in getting the project launched. 
 When I was last in Madras, 1 all that had been done was to 
 arrange for the opening of a small hostel, containing a read- 
 ing room, but without a Superintendent. 
 
 n. We give next a very brief outline of the teaching 
 given by Theosophists. Our sketch is drawn from Mr. C. 
 W. Leadbeater's Textbook of Theosophy, and consists largely 
 of quotations from it. We begin with a couple of sentences, 
 descriptive of ' the Etheric Record,' which, we fancy, are 
 necessary as a sort of preface to the whole : 
 
 Theosophy has much to tell us of the past history of man 
 of how in the course of evolution he has come to be what he now 
 is. This also is a matter of observation, because of the fact that 
 there exists an indelible record of all that has taken place a 
 sort of memory of Nature by examining which the scenes of 
 earlier evolution may be made to pass before the eyes of the 
 investigator as though they were happening at this moment. 
 
 We can now plunge into the major principles of the system : 
 
 Of the Absolute, the Infinite, the All-embracing, we can at 
 our present stage know nothing, except that It is ; we can say 
 nothing that is not a limitation, and therefore inaccurate. 
 
 In It are innumerable universes ; in each universe countless 
 solar systems. Each solar system is the expression of a mighty 
 Being, whom we call the LOGOS, the Word of God, the Solar 
 Deity. He is to it all that men mean by God. 
 
 1 In March, 1914.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 279 
 
 Out of Himself He has called this mighty system into being. 
 We who are in it are evolving fragments of His life, Sparks of His 
 divine Fire ; from Him we all have come ; into Him we shall all 
 return. 
 
 Next below this Solar Deity, yet also in some mysterious 
 manner part of Him, come His seven Ministers, sometimes called 
 the Planetary Spirits. 
 
 Under Them in turn come vast hosts or orders of spiritual 
 Beings, whom we call Angels or Devas. 
 
 Here in our world there is a great Official who represents the 
 Solar Deity, and is in absolute control of all the evolution that 
 takes place upon this planet. We may imagine Him as the true 
 KING of this world, and under Him are ministers in charge of 
 different departments. One of these departments is concerned 
 with the evolution of the different races of humanity, so that for 
 each great race there is a Head who founds it, differentiates it 
 from all others, and watches over its development. Another 
 department is that of religion and education, and it is from this 
 that all the greatest teachers of history have come that all 
 religions have been sent forth. The great Official at the head 
 of this department either comes Himself or sends one of His 
 pupils to found a new religion when He decides that one is 
 needed. 
 
 Therefore all religions, at the time of their first presentation 
 to the world, have contained a definite statement of the Truth, 
 and in its fundamentals this Truth has been always the same. 
 
 It is foolish for men to wrangle over the question of the superi- 
 ority of one teacher or one form of teaching to another, for the 
 teacher is always one sent by the Great Brotherhood of Adepts, 
 and in all its important points, in its ethical and moral principles, 
 the teaching has always been the same. 
 
 In the earlier stages of the development of humanity, the 
 great Officials of the Hierarchy are provided from outside, from 
 other and more highly evolved parts of the system, but as soon 
 as men can be trained to the necessary level of power and wisdom, 
 these offices are held by them. In order to be fit to hold such
 
 280 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 an office a man must raise himself to a very high level, and must 
 become what is called an Adept. 
 
 A large number of men have attained the Adept level . . . 
 but always some of them remain within touch of our earth as 
 members of this Hierarchy which has in charge the adminis- 
 tration of the affairs of our world and of the spiritual evolution 
 of our humanity. 
 
 This august body is often called the Great White Brother- 
 hood. 
 
 A few of these great Adepts, who are thus working for the 
 good of the world, are willing to take as apprentices those who 
 have resolved to devote themselves utterly to the service of 
 mankind ; such Adepts are called Masters. 
 
 One of these apprentices was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. 
 
 To attain the honour of being accepted as an apprentice of 
 one of the Masters of the Wisdom is the object set before himself 
 by every earnest Theosophical student. But it means a deter- 
 mined effort. There have always been men who were willing 
 to make the necessary effort, and therefore there have always 
 been men who knew. The knowledge is so transcendent that 
 when a man grasps it fully he becomes more than man, and he 
 passes beyond our ken. 
 
 Mr. Leadbeater next gives a chapter describing certain 
 intricate chemical processes whereby a solar system is said 
 to be formed from " the aether of space." Our own globe is 
 a fair sample of all the planets ; and it is said to be really 
 seven interpenetrating worlds ; the physical earth and six 
 others which are beyond the ken of our ordinary senses but 
 are visible to the eye of the clairvoyant or occultist, when 
 far enough advanced. These six suprasensual worlds do not 
 stand apart from the physical earth, but interpenetrate it at 
 every point, occupying the same space which it occupies 
 but also stretching far beyond it. The seven worlds are 
 named in descending order, Divine, Monadic, Spiritual, 
 Intuitional, Mental, Emotional (or Astral), Physical.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 281 
 
 Each of these worlds has its inhabitants. The evolution of 
 life is described in another chapter. 
 
 Man, according to Theosophy, is in essence a Spark of the 
 divine Fire, belonging to the Monadic world mentioned 
 above, and is called a Monad. For the purposes of human 
 evolution the Monad manifests itself in lower worlds. It 
 manifests itself in three aspects in the Spiritual, Intuitional 
 and higher Mental worlds. This is the Theosophic soul, a 
 Monad, a trinity, a self. This Monad is immortal, is born 
 and dies many times, but is in no way affected by birth or 
 death. Before birth he draws round him veils from the 
 lower mental and astral worlds, and only then obtains his 
 physical body. During life man in his bodies makes prog- 
 ress, slow or rapid : and according to his behaviour is his 
 experience. As to death and the hereafter we read : 
 
 Death is the laying aside of the physical body : but it makes 
 no more difference to the ego than does the laying aside of an 
 overcoat to the physical man. Having put off his physical 
 body, the ego continues to live in his astral body until the force 
 has become exhausted which has been generated by such emotions 
 and passions as he has allowed himself to feel during earth-life. 
 When that has happened, the second death takes place; the 
 astral body also falls away from him, and he finds himself living 
 in the mental body and in the lower mental world. In that con- 
 dition he remains until the thought-forces generated during his 
 physical and astral lives have worn themselves out; then he 
 drops the third vehicle in its turn and remains once more an ego 
 in his own world, inhabiting his causal body. 
 
 Man makes for himself his own purgatory and heaven, and 
 these are not places, but states of consciousness. Hell does not 
 exist ; it is only a figment of the theological imagination ; but a 
 man who lives foolishly may make for himself a very unpleasant 
 and long-enduring purgatory. Neither purgatory nor heaven 
 can ever be eternal, for a finite cause cannot produce an infinite 
 result.
 
 282 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 After life for a shorter or longer time in the higher worlds 
 the man is reborn, in order to make more progress. Ac- 
 cording to Theosophy, a man can never be born an animal. 
 Nor is any final failure possible : 
 
 This is a school in which no pupil ever fails; every one must 
 go on to the end. 
 
 There is one further point which it is necessary to express 
 here. As all religions are held to be in reality the same, 
 Theosophy is said to place us at the standpoint where this 
 unity becomes visible ; and its function, we are told, is to 
 strengthen every religion and to antagonize none. 
 
 12. But hitherto we have said nothing about that which is 
 the core of the whole, namely occultism. We have seen 
 that Madame Blavatsky started a secret society within the 
 Society for the practical study of occultism in I888. 1 Since 
 then this Esoteric School has contained all the most con- 
 vinced Theosophists. It seems clear, that under Mrs. 
 Besant and Mr. Leadbeater, the organization has been 
 greatly developed and the work of the school transformed. 
 At present there is within the school an inner group called 
 the Esoteric Section, and within that again a smaller group 
 who have given special pledges to Mrs. Besant. 2 The chief 
 investigations are carried on at headquarters in Madras 
 by Mr. Leadbeater and Mrs. Besant: but the members of 
 the school are found all over the world ; and in most of the 
 lodges classes are held in which young members receive their 
 earliest lessons. 
 
 As members are bound by a pledge not to divulge what 
 goes on in the school, it is extremely difficult for an outsider 
 to realize what the aims, the methods and the results of 
 Theosophic Occultism are. Even those who have broken 
 
 1 P. 261, above. 2 See her portrait, Plate IX, faring p. 195.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 283 
 
 absolutely with Theosophy feel they are still bound by the 
 old pledges and will not speak out. Several things, however, 
 may be said : 
 
 A. There is a regular hierarchy of gurus (i.e. teachers). 
 They teach forms of meditation which are meant to still 
 the mind and to make it receptive, receptive not only to 
 teaching but to impressions on the sub-conscious plane. 
 There are secret manuals which are put into the hands of 
 junior members, and they are taught to practise this medita- 
 tive discipline privately. The gurus use telepathic im- 
 pressions and hypnotic suggestions to bring the minds of 
 their disciples under their control. Everything that is 
 taught must be accepted on the authority of the teacher : 
 nothing can be tested. When these processes have been 
 continued for some time, the mind becomes almost paralyzed, 
 and is ready to receive and believe anything that comes 
 through the teacher, and to disbelieve everything adverse. 
 
 The pupil as he advances meets the leaders in the esoteric 
 section of his lodge. 
 
 B . The word which Leadbeater uses to describe his methods 
 of research is Clairvoyance; but from many hints in the 
 literature, and from words which have dropped from 
 Theosophists in conversation I am convinced that hypnotic 
 methods are much used. 
 
 C. We are frankly told that clairvoyant powers have no 
 connection with intelligence, spirituality or purity of char- 
 acter : 
 
 A constantly growing minority, however, of fairly intelligent 
 people believe clairvoyance to be a fact, and regard it as a per- 
 fectly natural power, which will become universal in the course of 
 evolution. They do not regard it as a miraculous gift, nor as an 
 outgrowth from high spirituality, lofty intelligence, or purity of 
 character. . . . They know that it is a power latent in all 
 men, and that it can be developed by anyone who is able and
 
 284 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 willing to pay the price demanded for its forcing, ahead of the 
 general evolution. 1 
 
 D. Results. In the process of working through masses ot 
 Theosophic literature and interviewing scores of individuals 
 who have been connected with Theosophy I have become 
 convinced that the following results arise from occultism : 
 
 i. On pupils the result is their complete subjugation to 
 their gurus 2 and through their gurus to the leaders of the 
 Theosophical Society. Scarcely anything is read except 
 Theosophic literature; and the mind becomes incapable 
 of believing that the guru or the leader can be wrong. We 
 may realize how eager the leaders are to obtain this result 
 from the fact that the members of the innermost group 
 of all have each taken a personal pledge to Mrs. Besant, 
 a pledge of "absolute obedience without cavil or delay." 
 Apart from this result on the mind, it would be hard to un- 
 derstand how, in spite of the frequent exposures of the 
 leaders, the mass of Theosophists continue their adhesion 
 without a break. 
 
 ii. It is well known that the continued practice of spirit- 
 ualism drives all mediums to fraud. However honest they 
 may be, however real the bulk of the phenomena appearing 
 through them may be, a moment comes when reality fails 
 them, and the temptation to pretend and to deceive is over- 
 whelming. The same danger haunts the Theosophic leaders . 
 The pursuit of occultism necessarily involves them in a con- 
 stant straining after results and the consequent acceptance 
 of illusions. They live in a world half-true, half-false. 
 
 1 Man: Whence, How, and Whither, quoted in L6vy, no. 
 
 2 Madame Blavatsky used the word " psychologize " for this process. In 
 a letter written from America to a Hindu in Bombay, she called Olcott 
 "a psychologized baby" (Proceedings, IX, 311) ; and writing of Bavaji to 
 M. Solovyoff in 1886, she says, "He is an obedient and clever boy ! He is an 
 obedient weapon in my hands ! 'Je 1'ai psychologis6. ' " (MPI., 184.)
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 285 
 
 Necessarily, the mind ceases to distinguish sharply between 
 truth and falsehood. A clear case from Mrs. Besant's own 
 life may be cited here. One evening in a lecture in London 
 she declared, to the amazement of the whole audience, that 
 Madame Blavatsky had been again incarnated. After the 
 lecture her own friends asked her how she had come to say 
 such a thing. She replied, " O, I just felt like it." She had 
 not a particle of evidence. Probably she did not realize 
 that she was romancing and misleading her audience. 
 Another instance is her pamphlet in defence of Madame 
 Blavatsky. 1 Similarly, the Theosophists felt sure they 
 had an irrefragable case until Hodgson cross-examined 
 them : they had not realized in the slightest their own ex- 
 treme inaccuracy. Necessarily, the blurring of the dis- 
 tinction between truth and falsehood weakens the con- 
 science in other directions also. This sheds a little more 
 light on the Theosophic mind. Madame Blavatsky's 
 frauds, Olcott's inaccuracy and lies, 2 Judge's shrine-burn- 
 ing 3 and forgeries, 4 Sinnett's editorial achievements, 5 Lead- 
 beater's immoralities, 6 and Mrs. Besant's behaviour in the 
 Judge case, 7 all are made a little more intelligible. There 
 was loose morality in some of these cases to begin with ; 
 but occultism and its attendant phenomena did the rest. 
 
 13. The enslaving of the minds of the members, however, 
 will not stand as a full explanation of the survival of the 
 system. If in spite of exposures which would destroy al- 
 most any society, members still remain true to Theosophy, 
 it is clear that it must meet certain needs of our day which 
 otherwise do not find satisfaction. It will therefore be 
 worth while to attempt to discover what its chief attractions 
 are. 
 
 1 Appendix, p. 447. 2 Proceedings, IX, 237-239. * Pp. 241-2, above. 
 4 See above, pp. 268-9. 8 P P- 2 3 2 2 57. above, and MPL, 157. 
 
 ' P. 273, above. 7 Pp. 268-70, above.
 
 286 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 A. One of the most outstanding features of the nine- 
 teenth century was the rise of accurate knowledge of the re- 
 ligions of the world. The religions of antiquity, especially 
 of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, India and China, 
 have been explored by a great company of scholarly 
 Orientalists. The faiths of the ruder peoples have been 
 described by an army of missionaries, travellers, traders 
 and anthropologists. The whole has been built up into a 
 new and most imposing science, the science of religions. 
 Further, during the last half-century our knowledge of the 
 human mind, and especially of its more abnormal activities, 
 has grown very rapidly. In consequence, psychological 
 interests and methods of study hold a great place in 
 modern thought. 
 
 The thinking men of our time are vividly conscious of 
 these masses of fresh knowledge. Even if they do not care 
 to study psychology and the religions in detail, they want 
 to know what practical attitude a reasonable man ought 
 to take towards the religions, and also towards telepathy, 
 hypnotism, clairvoyance and such like. The Church of 
 Christ thus far has failed to give clear expression to her 
 mind on these matters. Yet, it is high time she should 
 do so, for guidance is wanted ; and if the Church is not 
 able to suggest a reasonable attitude, thinking men will 
 follow the guidance of other schools of thought. 
 
 Now the Theosophical Society is first of all sympathetic 
 to all religions. It has assumed a generous attitude, the 
 attitude of appreciation and friendliness. Nor is that all. 
 The society has its text-books and classes, its teachers and 
 lecturers, and invites men and women to come and study, to 
 come and enjoy the rich feast which Oriental religions offer 
 to the student. The Christian doctrine of the brotherhood of 
 men is also taught : Theosophists are bid receive men of all 
 religions as brothers. The bulk of the work they have done
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 287 
 
 in the exposition of religions is unscientific and seriously 
 misleading. They have usually filled men's heads with 
 froth instead of knowledge. Yet the fact remains that they 
 have attempted to do in a wrong way the work the Church 
 of Christ ought to have done in the right way. This is 
 unquestionably the first attraction which Theosophy 
 presents to the outsider ; and it is the attraction which has 
 drawn to it the great majority of the more intellectual men 
 who at one time or another have belonged to it. 
 
 B. The second attraction is the promise of occult know- 
 ledge and secret power. A very small number of really nota- 
 ble men, e.g. Sir William Crookes and M. V. S. Solovyoff, 
 the Russian man of letters, were attracted to Madame Blavat- 
 sky by this side of her work, although they soon discovered 
 the hollo wness of her pretences. 1 But it is this aspect of 
 the system also which draws the mass of the devoted The- 
 osophists of the West. The sheer fascination of secrecy 
 lays hold of them, the hope of exclusive knowledge, the 
 promise of a path to occult development. Then, once these 
 people enter the Esoteric School, the system holds them 
 like a vice. One friend who has escaped from the toils 
 describes most vividly the fierce mental and spiritual 
 struggle which it cost to regain freedom. 
 
 C. In India and Ceylon it is perfectly clear that the 
 great mass of members have been drawn by neither of these 
 two attractions but simply and solely by the Theosophic 
 defence of Hinduism and Buddhism. Thousands of Orien- 
 tals, whose minds had been filled with shivering doubts 
 about their religion by the Western education they had re- 
 ceived, have fled to Theosophy for refuge with great joy and 
 relief. The defence goes a very long way. The depths to 
 which Mrs. Besant habitually descends in defending Hin- 
 duism will hardly be believed. There is scarcely an ex- 
 
 1 MPI., 7.
 
 288 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ploded doctrine, scarcely a superstitious observance, which 
 she has not defended with the silliest and most shameful 
 arguments. No one who has not scanned the files of The 
 Central Hindu College Magazine or the reports of Mrs. 
 Besant's lectures in India has any idea of the indescribable 
 rubbish which Theosophy has presented to its Hindu 
 members. But there is another side to all this. It is a 
 simple matter of fact that for several decades Hindu and 
 Buddhist thought and civilization were most unjustly de- 
 preciated and unmercifully condemned by missionaries, 
 by Europeans in general and even by some Hindus. Only 
 a few Orientalists escape this censure. There was thus 
 really good reason for a crusade in defence of these systems. 
 
 14. To estimate the value of the work done by Theosophy 
 is rather a difficult task. It has certainly popularized, 
 in Europe and America, a number of the best Oriental 
 books, such as the Upanishads and the Gitd, and has taught 
 Theosophists to sympathize with Orientals and to think of 
 them as brothers ; while in India it has helped to restore 
 to the Hindu and the Buddhist that self-respect which 
 tended to evaporate amid the almost universal depreciation 
 of Oriental thought, life and art. 
 
 But there is a vast amount to be placed on the other 
 side of the account. Theosophy under Madame Blavatsky 
 condemned and ridiculed Orientalists, and yet took from 
 them, almost without acknowledgment, practically all the 
 trustworthy knowledge of the East it possessed. Further 
 in spite of all its pretences and all its noise, Theosophy 
 has made no contribution whatever to our knowledge of 
 Oriental religions. It has not discovered a single fresh 
 historical fact, nor brought a fresh text to the notice of 
 scholars, nor produced a notable translation or commen- 
 tary. Thousands of copies of Mrs. Besant's translation of 
 the Gita have been sold; but no scholar would dream of
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 289 
 
 referring to it for the translation of a difficult line. Apart 
 from the writings of Mr. G. R. S. Mead and one or two 
 others, we must pronounce the whole vast literature of the 
 Theosophical Societies worthless from the point of view of 
 scientific knowledge. Where is there a single scholar, 
 historian or philosopher to be found amongst its members ? 
 One and all are repelled by the charlatanism of the litera- 
 ture. There is, last of all, the gross disservice it renders 
 by filling the heads of its ordinary members with the 
 cosmological and historical rubbish which is dumped in 
 such heaps by the high-priests of occultism at head- 
 quarters, and with the impudently worthless trash 
 published in defence of superstitions which thoughtful 
 Hindus would do anything to get rid of. 
 
 15. Mrs. Besant constantly proclaims both in India and 
 in England that a man can become a Theosophist and yet 
 remain a true Christian; nay, she goes further and says 
 that Theosophy will make a man a better Christian. Is 
 this contention justifiable? The facts contained in the 
 following paragraphs will enable readers to judge : 
 
 (1) Instead of the Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ, with 
 whom every man may come into closest personal relationships 
 in worship, prayer and communion, Theosophy offers us, as the 
 Supreme, an unknowable IT. 1 
 
 (2) Theosophy detaches religion from God. The ancient 
 wisdom which it teaches is not a revelation from the Unknow- 
 able, but proceeds from the human Masters who are in charge 
 of the department of religion in our world. 2 
 
 (3) Necessarily there is no prayer in Theosophy, since the 
 Supreme is unknowable. 
 
 (4) There is no worship of God in Theosophy. It is the 
 Masters, and such people as Alcyone, Mrs. Besant and Mr. 
 Leadbeater who receive adoration. 
 
 1 Above, p. 278. * Above, p. 279. 
 
 u
 
 290 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 (5) The Gospels are condemned as utterly unhistorical. 1 
 
 (6) Jesus and Christ are declared to be distinct persons. 2 
 
 (7) Neither Jesus nor Christ is the Son of God: they are 
 said to be mere men. 3 
 
 (8) The whole story of Jesus as given in the Gospels, and 
 also by Tacitus, is made unhistorical; for He was not born 
 under Augustus, in the days of Herod the King, but a century 
 earlier, in B.C. io5. 4 He is said to be one of the Masters on 
 earth now and to spend most of his time in the Lebanon. 
 
 (9) It was another quite obscure fanatical preacher who was 
 condemned to death and executed in Jerusalem about 30 A.D. 6 
 
 (10) According to Theosophic teaching, Jesus was not cruci- 
 fied for the sins of men. No such death could be an atonement 
 for the sins of others. It could only be punishment for His own 
 sins in a former life ; for the sway of the doctrine of Karma knows 
 no exception. 
 
 (n) The Second Coming of Christ which Mrs. Besant refers 
 to is not the Second Coming of the crucified Jesus, the Son of 
 God, but the return of a man named Christ, who, according to 
 Mrs. Besant's story, for a time used as His vehicle the body of a 
 man named Jesus, who was born 105 B.C. 
 
 (12) Christianity teaches that, "It is appointed unto men 
 once to die; and after death cometh judgment "; while The- 
 osophy teaches that every human being is born and dies many 
 times. 
 
 This catalogue might be made much longer; but we 
 believe it is quite long enough. We ask our readers to con- 
 sider seriously whether Mrs. Besant acts rightly, when she 
 stands up before a great audience of Christian people in 
 England, who know nothing of these Theosophic doctrines 
 which she has in her mind, and tells them that to become 
 Theosophists will not make them disloyal Christians. 
 
 1 Leadbeater, The Christian Creed, 15. 2 Ib., 13, 29. * Ib., 15, 27, 29. 
 4 Above, p. 272. 8 Leadbeater, The Inner Life, I, 183.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 291 
 
 Every Christian teacher and minister ought to inform him- 
 self of the true nature of this poisonous an ti- Christian 
 system; for attempts are being made in many places to 
 introduce it into the Church. 
 
 For the relation between Theosophy and the Radha 
 Soami system, see above, p. 172, and for its influence on 
 the Parsees, p. 344, below. 
 
 LITERATURE. JUDGE : Isis Very Much Unveiled, by Edmund 
 Garrett, London, Westminster Gazette Office, 1894, is. THE 
 LEADBEATER CASE: See The Alcyone Case (below). TEACHING: 
 Esoteric Christianity, by Annie Besant, London, T. P. S., 1901, 
 55. net. Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.? by G. R. S. Mead, London, 
 T. P. S., 1903, 95. net. The Christian Creed, by C. W. Leadbeater, 
 London, T. P. S., 1904, 35. 6d. net. A Textbook of Theosophy, by 
 C. W. Leadbeater, Madras, Theosophist Office, 1912, 15. 6d. net. 
 Man; Whence, How, and Whither, by Annie Besant and C. W. Lead- 
 beater, Madras, T. P. H., 1913. ALCYONE: Mrs. Besant and the 
 Alcyone Case, by Veritas, Madras, Goodwin and Co., 1913, 3$. 
 (A detailed account of the first trial in Madras.) Mrs. Besant and 
 the Present Crisis in the Theosophical Society, by Eugene L6vy, Lon- 
 don, Heywood Smith, 1913, is. net. 
 
 4. SECTARIAN MOVEMENTS IN HINDUISM 
 
 The rise of the modern spirit and the example set by the 
 great movements we have already discussed had the effect 
 of stirring each of the chief Hindu sects to self-defence and 
 to various efforts for the strengthening of the community. 
 
 A . The Mddkvas 
 
 It was the Madhvas of South India who first bestirred 
 themselves to mutual help and organization. They are a 
 Vishnuite sect, and are followers of Madhva, a philosophic 
 thinker, who formed his system and created his sect, in the 
 Canarese country in Western India, in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. The sect is strongest in the part of the country where
 
 292 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 it arose, but it is found scattered throughout the South; 
 and the Chaitanya sect of Bengal and Brindaban sprang 
 from its influence. Like all the other theistic sects, they 
 are Vedantists, their form of the Vedanta being dualistic. 
 Krishna is their favourite incarnation. A considerable 
 number of cultured and well-to-do men are Madhvas. 
 
 Thirty-seven years ago, a member of the sect, Mr. Kanchi 
 Sabba Raoji, who had had a good English education, and 
 was a Deputy- Collector of the First Grade under the 
 Madras Government, conceived the idea of forming a 
 society to unite the Madhvas, to stimulate the systematic 
 study of Madhva literature, and to look after the Madhva 
 temples. In 1877 he succeeded in forming the Madhva 
 Siddhdntonnahini Sabhd, or Association for the Strengthen- 
 ing of the Madhva System. An annual Conference is 
 held, at which speeches are delivered, examinations in the 
 sacred books conducted, and prizes and honours conferred. 
 A well-managed Bank, with a capital of three lacs of rupees, 
 is connected with the society, and is able to give an annual 
 grant in aid of its work. The Maharajas of Travancore 
 and Mysore, and a large number of wealthy titled gentle- 
 men, are patrons and life-members of the society ; and all 
 the leading educated Madhvas of the South are members. 
 The Conference meets at Chirtanur, near Tirupati, in the 
 Madras Presidency. 
 
 From the Thirty-Fourth Annual Report * it appears that 
 the founder of the society did all he could to stimulate the 
 pandits of the sect to study the literature. His hope was 
 that, if the pandits could be made educated men, it would 
 be possible to bring the mass of the people to an intelligent 
 knowledge of their religion, and to raise the whole standard 
 of thought and life throughout the sect. The Report says 
 that most of the men whom the founder dealt with have 
 
 1 Published by Thompson & Co., Madras, 1912.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 293 
 
 passed away, and that worthy successors are hard to find. 
 All capable young Madhvas seek an English education, and 
 are altogether unwilling to become pandits. 
 
 In recent years, the sect has produced a number of books 
 to help its people in the circumstances of to-day. Most 
 of these are in the vernaculars, but a few are in English. 
 S. Subba Rao has translated Madhva's Commentary on the 
 Veddnta-sutras, 1 and has done the work well ; but the most 
 noteworthy book is the Life and Teachings of Sri Madkva- 
 charyar, by C. M. Padmanabha Char, of Coimbatore. 2 
 
 B. The Chaitanyas 
 
 i. Early in the sixteenth century, a young Bengali san- 
 nyasl, named Krishna Chaitanya, belonging to Nuddea 
 (then, as now, celebrated as a seat of Sanskrit learning), 
 founded a new sect which worships Krishna and Radha. 
 The theology he taught was the system of Madhva, but in 
 other matters he was a follower of the earlier Vishnuites 
 of Bengal. He was a man of extremely emotional tempera- 
 ment, and won his success by a tempest of devotion. He 
 would repeat the sweet name of his Lord till he lost all self- 
 consciousness, and imagined himself Krishna or his be- 
 loved Radha. He and his followers would sit together for 
 hours, singing hymns in praise of Krishna with instrumental 
 accompaniment, until they lost themselves in ecstasy and 
 love. This was called sanklrtana, united praise. Then 
 they would sally out, drums beating and flags flying, and 
 would march through the streets, dancing and singing to 
 Krishna with such contagious joy and holy rapture, that 
 the whole town would be swept along on the tide of 
 devotion. This was called nagarkirtana, town-praise. 
 The composition of popular hymns was thus as character- 
 
 1 Madras, Natesan, Rs. 3, as. 8. 2 To be had of the author. Rs. 3.
 
 294 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 istic of Chaitanya's followers as it is of the Salvation Army. 
 In consequence there arose from his movement a new rich 
 literature of religious song in the vernacular. 1 These poems 
 and hymns did much to mould the mind of Rabindra Nath 
 Tagore. 2 During Chaitanya's lifetime, the movement was 
 wholesome and uplifting, but it soon degenerated to care- 
 lessness and uncleanness. The pure flame was kept 
 burning in a few families ; but the fall had been so serious 
 that during the first half of the nineteenth century, the 
 sect was very little thought of in Bengal. 
 
 2. We have already seen that Keshab Chandra Sen be- 
 longed to one of the good old Vaishnava families, that one 
 of his earliest associates in his religious work was Bijay 
 Krishna Gosvami, a lineal descendant of one of the per- 
 sonal companions of Chaitanya, and that they successfully 
 introduced into the Brahma Samaj the enthusiastic de- 
 votional methods which we have just described. 3 
 
 Both these forms of praise have also been adopted by 
 the Christian Church in Bengal. Sanklrtana may be wit- 
 nessed in any gathering; and, when the annual united 
 Conference is held in Calcutta in October, a nagarkirtana 
 procession passes through the northern parts of the city. 
 
 3. But the Neo-Krishna movement of Bengal is above all 
 things a literary movement. When Bijay Krishna Go- 
 svami finally left the Brahma Samaj in 1886, he and some 
 friends sought to create a modernized Vaishnavism, a mys- 
 tic Hinduism meant to be a revival of the Chaitanya spirit ; 
 and their preaching was not without result ; but no organ- 
 ization resulted from their labours. The literary revival, 
 on the other hand, has been very successful. It was Chris- 
 tianity and Christian criticism that led to the movement. 
 The steady toil of the Mission Colleges of Calcutta had 
 
 1 Sen's History of Bengali Language and Literature, chap. V. 
 1 See p. 385, below. 3 See pp. 41 and 47, above.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 295 
 
 produced among educated Bengalis a distinct liking for the 
 Gospels and a craving for a perfect character such as Christ's 
 for daily contemplation and imitation. The official Libra- 
 rian of the Bengal Government wrote in 1899 : 
 
 There is no denying the fact that 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 
 plainly detectable in many of the Hindu publications of the year. 
 
 On the other hand, Orientalists and missionaries had openly 
 declared that the incarnation-stories of Rama and Krishna 
 were myths, and that the Gitd did not come from Krishna. 
 The aim of the whole movement is to destroy this criticism, 
 and to persuade the Bengali to put Krishna in the place of 
 Christ and the Gitd in the place of the Gospels. 
 
 The new literature falls into three groups, dealing re- 
 spectively with (a) the historicity of the traditional life 
 of Krishna, (6) his life and character, regarded as an ex- 
 ample for imitation, (c) the Gitd. Of all the books of the 
 Neo-Krishna literature Krishnacharitra, a Bengali prose 
 work by the great novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji, 
 has been by far the most influential. The main purpose 
 of the work is to prove the historicity of the man-God 
 Krishna ; and, though its reasoning is but a house of cards, 
 it has been used as the critical arsenal of the whole move- 
 ment. Many books have also been written in English on 
 the life and character of Krishna, notably Lord Gaurdnga 
 by Sishir Kumar Ghose. A daily text-book, called The 
 Imitation of Sree Krishna, acknowledges by its title and its 
 form the Christian influence which inspired it. Of texts 
 and translations of the Gitd there is an endless catalogue ; 
 and there have been several books written to prove that the 
 Gitd lays the foundations of a universal religion.
 
 296 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 But there is a wider interest connected with this litera- 
 ture. The Gita has won its way to recognition throughout 
 the world, and is widely read in Europe and America. It 
 was one of the first Sanskrit books introduced to Europe ; 
 for it was translated into English in 1785 by Charles Wil- 
 kins. Since then it has received a great deal of attention 
 from Western Scholars. Edwin Arnold's translation, The 
 Song Celestial, did much to make it known ; and the Theo- 
 sophical Society has introduced it to thousands. 
 
 A Bengali, named Surendranath Mukerji, a nephew of 
 Mr. Justice Anukul Chandra Mukerji of Calcutta, had 
 rather a romantic history in America. He was a follower 
 of Chaitanya, and became a sannyasi, taking the name 
 Premananda Bharati. He was usually called Baba 
 Bharati. He went to New York in 1902, and lectured on 
 Krishna with great success not only in New York, but in 
 Boston, Los Angeles (where he built a Hindu temple), and 
 elsewhere. In 1907 he returned to India with a few 
 American disciples, and opened a Mission in Calcutta. 
 But funds failed, and he returned to America. He 
 published two books, one on Krishna and one on Light 
 on Life. He died in Calcutta in January, 1914. 
 
 The Vaishnavas of Orissa and the Northern Telugu 
 country held a Convention at least once. It took place 
 at Berhampore, Ganjam, in December, 1910. The Chair- 
 man was Baba Bharati. Religious education in schools 
 and the translation of Vaishnava literature into the vernac- 
 ular seem to have been the chief matters under discus- 
 sion. 
 
 LITERATURE. Chaitanya's Pilgrimages and Teachings, trans- 
 lated into English by Jadunath Sarkar, London, Luzac, 1913, 35. 
 net. (A translation of the central portion of the best of the early 
 Bengali biographies of Chaitanya.) Gita and Gospel, by J. N. Far- 
 quhar, Madras, C. L. S., 6 as. (The Appendix gives an account of
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 297 
 
 the Nee-Krishna Movement in Bengal and a list of the chief books 
 down to 1903.) Krishnacharitra by Bankim Chandra Chatter ji, 
 Calcutta, 1886 and 1892. (Bengali prose. Meant to prove Krishna 
 historical.) The Bhagavadgitd, translated by M. M. Chatterji, 
 New York, 1887. (A Theosophic attempt to put the Gitd on a level 
 with the New Testament.) Lord Gaurahga, by Shishir Kumar Ghose, 
 Calcutta, 1897. Two vols. (A life of Chaitanya in English prose. 
 A very inflated work.) 
 
 C. The Sri-Vaishnavas 
 
 The sect of Ramanuja, called the Sri-Vaishnavas, holds 
 a very striking position among the Hindus of the South. 
 They own many of the greatest and wealthiest temples; 
 a large proportion of the members of the sect are Brah- 
 mans; and English education has made great headway 
 amongst them. One would not have been surprised if 
 they had become organized for self-defence and advance 
 much earlier than most sects. But they are divided into 
 a pair of very hostile sub-sects, called Vada-galais, and 
 Ten-galais ; and many of the members of both subdivisions 
 are strictly orthodox. They were thus rather late in 
 developing modern movements. 
 
 They have had one scholar, however, who has done his 
 very utmost to uphold the dignity of the sect by his writ- 
 ings both in English and the vernacular, Mr. A. Govind- 
 acharya Svaml of Mysore City. Since 1898 he has pub- 
 lished a long list of books, the most noteworthy of which 
 are : Ramdnuja's Commentary on the Gita, the Holy Lives 
 of the Azkuars, and the Life of Ramanuja. A little 
 monthly in English, named the Visish.advaitin, was also 
 published for some time, but it has been discontinued. 
 
 Then in 1902 a group of Sri-Vaishnavas resident in the 
 Mysore State formed a society named the Ubhayavedanta 
 Pravartana Sabha, or Association for the Promotion of 
 both forms of the Vedanta, which has continued to do
 
 298 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 good work ever since. It is clearly modelled on the Madhva 
 Sabha, as will be seen from the following statement of 
 aims: 
 
 (1) To encourage the study of Visishtadvaita works in 
 Sanskrit and Tamil ; 
 
 (2) To hold an annual examination at Melkote (Tirunaray- 
 anapuram), the most sacred Vaishnava Shrine in the Mysore 
 State, and to award prizes to successful candidates ; and 
 
 (3) To facilitate the propagation of Visishtadvaita philosophy 
 by providing, as funds permit, for the holding of religious classes, 
 delivery of lectures, employment of itinerant teachers and 
 preachers, etc. 
 
 Another society with similar aims was recently formed 
 in Madras, the ri Visishtadvaita Siddhanta Sangam. 
 From a report of a general meeting published in the Hindu 
 on March 3rd, 1914, it seems clear that the society wishes 
 to encourage religious education in the vernacular among 
 the young people of the community, so that they may not 
 lose their religion. 
 
 r r 
 
 LITERATURE. Sri Bhagavadgita with Sri Rdmdnuja's Commen- 
 tary, translated by A. Govindacharya, Madras, Vaijayanti Press, 
 1898, Rs. 5. The Holy Lives of the Azkvdrs (i.e. the Alvars), by 
 A. Govindacharya, Mysore, G. T. A. Press, 1902^ Rs. i as. 8. 
 The Divine Wisdom of the Drdvida Saints (i.e. the Alvars), by A. 
 Govindacharya, Madras, C. N. Press, 1902, Rs. 2. The Life 
 of Rdmdnuja, by A. Govindacharya, Madras, Murthy & Co., 1906, 
 Rs. 2 as. 12. (A translation of a thirteenth-century Tamil life.) 
 
 D. Four Vaishnava Sects 
 
 In the month of May, 1911, the four chief Vaishnava 
 sects, the Sri-Vaishnavas, the Madhvas, the Vallabhas and 
 the Nimbarkas, took part in a united Vaishnava Confer- 
 ence held at Allahabad. Several papers of considerable 
 interest were read, and were afterwards published in the
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 299 
 
 Brahmavddin for October and November, 1912. The Con- 
 ference met also in 1913, at Jaora in Malwa, but no 
 Report has yet been published. 
 
 E. The Saiva Siddhdnta 
 
 Among the many sects which honour Siva the Saiva 
 Siddhanta is decidedly the most interesting ; for it has a 
 great history, and possesses a very rich literature, both in 
 Sanskrit and Tamil. It is also one of the largest and 
 most influential bodies in South India. A considerable 
 proportion of its people are now cultured men of position 
 and influence. English education is spreading steadily 
 amongst them; and the pressure of European thought is 
 keenly felt. 
 
 Saiva Sabhas, i.e. Sivaite Associations, have sprung up 
 in several places, notably at Palamcottah and Tuticorin. 
 The Saiva Sabha of Palamcottah dates from 1886, and has 
 had an honourable history. Its objects are the propaga- 
 tion of the principles of the Saiva Siddhanta among Saivas 
 and others, the supervision of religious institutions, when 
 funds are mismanaged, the cultivation of the Dravidian 
 languages and the betterment of social conditions in South 
 India. The means employed are classes, lectures, the pub- 
 lication of literature, a library, and in recent years, an 
 annual Conference (see below). The Sabha owns a print- 
 ing press. 
 
 The sect has been fortunate in drawing the attention of 
 a number of scholarly missionaries; and in recent years 
 they have had several scholars of their own, who have 
 worked faithfully for the elucidation of the literature. Of 
 these the chief have been Mr. V. V. Ramanan and Mr. 
 J. M. NallasvamI Pillai. 
 
 Until 1895 ver Y little was known about the sect. A 
 few essays had appeared by Hoisington, Pope and Cobban,
 
 300 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 but that was all. In that year, however, Mr. Nallasvami 
 Filial published an English translation l of what is regarded 
 as the fundamental scripture of the Siddhanta, the Siva- 
 jndna-bodha, "Instruction in Siva-Knowledge." It is a 
 short manual of dogma in Sanskrit, accompanied by an 
 elaborate Tamil commentary by Mey-kanda-devar, a fa- 
 mous theologian of the thirteenth century. In 1900 Mr. 
 Nallasvami Pillai and his friends succeeded in starting a 
 monthly English magazine, The Siddhanta Dipikd, or Lamp 
 of the Siddhanta, for the purpose of giving expression to 
 the best thought of the sect. It has done good work. 
 Many translations are published in it. An English trans- 
 lation of the Sivaite commentary on the Veddnta-sutras, 
 which is by Nllakanthacharya and is called the Saiva 
 Bhdshya, appeared in its pages, and is now being issued 
 in book form. In 1900 Dr. G. U. Pope's edition and trans- 
 lation of Manikka Vachakar's Tinwdchakam 2 drew wide 
 attention to the sect. Three years ago Mr. Nallasvami 
 Pillai published a very useful volume, called Studies in 
 Saiva Siddhanta. 3 We ought also to mention a booklet by 
 the Hon. Mr. P. Arunachulam, of the Ceylon Civil Service, 
 Studies and Translations from the Tamil* 
 
 Since 1906 the sect has held an annual Conference, the 
 Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam, at various towns in the 
 north of the Tamil country. The last for which a Report 
 has reached me was held at Conjeeveram in December, 
 1912. Papers are read and resolutions passed, and the 
 whole Conference helps to encourage and uplift the sect. 
 The last Conference was held at Vellore on the 26th, 27th, 
 and 28th December, 1913. An interesting appreciation 
 of the gathering appeared in The Harvest Field for January, 
 
 1 Madras, Somasundara Nayagar. * Oxford, the University Press. 
 
 3 Madras, Meykandan Press, 1911, Rs. 3. 
 
 4 Madras, Siddhanta Dipika Office, 1898, as. 4.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 301 
 
 1914. Since 1909 the Saiva Sabha of Palamcottah has 
 held an Annual Conference in Palamcottah, which is very 
 similar in character to the Mahasamajam. The latter 
 draws its supporters mainly from the north, while the 
 former influences the south of the Tamil country. 
 
 In March last I had the privilege and pleasure of inter- 
 viewing the head of the Tirujnana Sambandha Svami 
 Matha in Madura. His name is Svaminatha Desika. He 
 received me most courteously, explained the course of in- 
 struction followed in the monastery, and also told me 
 about his own tours among his disciples. He said that 
 he sympathized with the Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam, 
 but could not agree with it in all things, and that he did 
 not attend the annual gathering, because, among other 
 reasons, he does not feel that, as a sannyasi, he can travel 
 by railway. 
 
 F. The Lihgdyats 
 
 In the twelfth century, at Kalyan in the south of the 
 Bombay Presidency, Basava, the prime minister of the 
 state, founded a new Saiva sect called the Vira Saivas, i.e. 
 the heroic, or excellent Saivas. No Brahman was allowed 
 to act as priest in the sect, 1 and the members renounced 
 caste altogether ; but the old poison has crept in amongst 
 them again, and they demand recognition for their caste 
 distinctions in the census papers. There seems to be no 
 theological doctrine marking them off from other Sivaites ; 
 but each person wears a miniature linga (Siva's phallic 
 symbol) in a reliquary hung around his neck, and holds it 
 in the palm of his left hand during his private worship. 
 Hence they are usually called Lingayats. The men who 
 act as their priests and gurus are called Jangamas and 
 may belong to any caste. Jangama-worship is one of the 
 
 1 Cf. the Tiyas, below, p. 312.
 
 302 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 most essential parts of the cult of the sect. The Jangama 
 sits down in yoga-posture, and his disciple sits down before 
 him and performs the sixteen operations of worship, pre- 
 cisely as is done in the case of an idol. The chief books 
 of the sect are Siddhanta Sikhdmani, Kriyasdra, Linga- 
 dhdrana Chandrikd, Vira Saiva Dharma Siromani, and the 
 bhashya mentioned below. The Basava Puranas are popu- 
 lar books of far less consequence. 
 
 Thirty years ago the Lingayat Education Association 
 was formed for the promotion of modern education within 
 the community. Large gifts from the wealthiest members 
 of the sect, supplemented by smaller sums from others, 
 sufficed to create an endowment (now amounting to Rs. 
 225,000), the proceeds of which are used to help poor 
 Lingayat boys to get an education. This central fund 
 has its office in Dharwar. In recent years other organiza- 
 tions have arisen elsewhere, notably the Mysore Lingayat 
 Education Fund, which was organized in Bangalore in 
 1905, and a hostel for Lingayat students, the Virashaiva 
 Ashram, Kalbadevi, Bombay. In consequence, the com- 
 munity is making progress in education, and many of the 
 younger Lingayats are getting into Government service. 
 
 Some ten years ago the All-India Lingayat Conference 
 met for the first time to discuss problems, both religious 
 and secular, which affect the life and standing of the sect. 
 In 1905 the Conference met at Bangalore, and the organi- 
 zation of the Mysore Education Fund was one of the re- 
 sults of the gathering. The Conference of 1913 met at 
 Belgaum. There have been divisions of opinion on various 
 questions, especially religious questions; and, in conse- 
 quence the Conference has resolved to restrict itself to 
 educational, economic and other secular problems ; and 
 all religious subjects are to be dealt with by the Sivayog- 
 mandir, which is clearly under the control of the Jangamas.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 303 
 
 Literature is not being neglected. The Lingayat com- 
 mentary on the Vedanta-sutras is by Sripati Panditaradhya 
 and is called Srikara Bhashya. One-half of this commen- 
 tary was printed many years ago in Canarese character, 
 but, until recently, no copy, either manuscript or printed, 
 of the second half was known to exist. A good Ms. of the 
 latter has now been found, and Dewan Bahadur Putana 
 Chetty, until recently one of the Councillors of the Mysore 
 State, has arranged to have the whole text edited by com- 
 petent pandits and printed in devandgarl. The philosophic 
 standpoint of this commentary is said to be Sakti-visisht- 
 ddvaita. Lingayats state that there were two earlier 
 Lingayat commentaries, by Renukacharya and Nilakanth- 
 acharya respectively, but no Mss. of these works now 
 exist. 
 
 G. The Left-hand Saktas 
 
 Sakti is a Sanskrit word meaning strength, energy. It 
 is used in every Hindu sect to designate the wife of a god 
 as his energy in action. Lakshmi is the Sakti of Vishnu ; 
 while Uma is the Sakti of Siva. But a number of sects 
 give nearly all their attention to the Sakti of Siva, to the 
 neglect of Siva himself. These sects are known as Saktas. 
 They usually call the Sakti Devi, i.e. the Goddess; but 
 Kali, or Durga, is also frequently used. Their sectarian 
 books are called Tantras. 
 
 These Devi-worshipping sects fall into two groups, dis- 
 tinguished the one from the other as the Right-hand 
 Saktas and the Left-hand Saktas. The Right-hand Saktas 
 are scarcely distinguishable from ordinary Hindus, except 
 in this that they worship Kali ; but the Left-hand Saktas 
 have several very distinct characteristics. We need not 
 discuss their theology here in detail : for us the significant 
 point is their worship. According to them Moksha, i.e.
 
 304 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 release from transmigration, can be achieved in this evil 
 age only by their peculiar ritual. They meet in private 
 houses, and worship in secret. A group of worshippers is 
 known as a chakra or circle. In the room there is either 
 an image of the goddess or a yantra, that is, a diagram which 
 mystically represents the goddess. The actual cult con- 
 sists in partaking of the Panchatattva, i.e. the five elements. 
 They are also called the Panchamakdra, i.e. the five m's, 
 because the Sanskrit names of the elements all begin with 
 the letter m : they are wine, meat, fish, parched grain and 
 sexual intercourse. A worship-circle always consists of 
 both men and women; and people of any caste or of no 
 caste are admitted. The actual observances are foul 
 beyond description, always involving promiscuity, and 
 often incest. 
 
 No modern organization, so far as the writer is aware, 
 has undertaken to modernize or defend this system; yet 
 there have been tentative defences by two individuals. 
 By far the greatest and best book belonging to the sect is 
 the Mahdnirodna Tantra. A translation of this work was 
 published in 1900 by Manmatha Nath Dutt Sastri, M.A. 1 
 In his Introduction 2 the following paragraph occurs : 
 
 However abhorrent these rites may appear on the face of them, 
 there is no doubt that there is a great esoteric meaning behind 
 them. All these, meat, wine, fish and women are objects of 
 temptation. If a worshipper can overcome this temptation, 
 the road to eternal bliss is clear for him. It is not an easy affair 
 for a man to have a youthful and beautiful damsel before him 
 and worship her as a goddess without feeling the least lustful 
 impulse within him. He is to take wine, after dedicating it to 
 the goddess, not for the purpose of intoxicating but for that of 
 concentrating his mind on the object of his devotions. He is 
 to take meat and fish, not because they are palatable dishes but 
 because he must be in good health for performing religious rites. 
 
 1 Calcutta, the Elysium Press. Rs. 10. 2 P. xxi.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 305 
 
 Thus we see that in Tantrik religion, a worshipper is to approach 
 God through diverse objects of pleasure. He is to relinquish 
 his desire and self and convert the various pursuits of enjoyment 
 into instruments of spiritual discipline. 
 
 Last year, a European published, under a nom de plume, 
 a new translation * of the same work, with an Introduction, 
 in which, while he does not openly state that he regards 
 the system as good or right, he yet suggests some sort of 
 defence at every point. 
 
 H. The Smartas 
 
 The word smarta is an adjective formed from smriti. 
 The Smartas are those Hindus found in many parts of 
 India who follow Sankara, the great mediaeval exponent 
 of the Vedanta, in his monistic exposition of the Vedanta, 
 his unsectarian recognition of all the gods of Hinduism, 
 and his insistence on strict adherence to the rules of ritual 
 and of conduct laid down in the ancient sutras, which 
 come under that section of Hindu sacred literature which 
 is called smriti. 
 
 Many Hindu scholars seek to commend Sankara's phi- 
 losophy to the world. Here we mention briefly an organ- 
 ization of a more practical character, which seeks to 
 strengthen and defend the whole Smarta position, namely, 
 the Advaita Sabha of Kumbakonam. The best thing I 
 can do to bring this movement vividly before readers is to 
 transcribe the following passage from a most courteous 
 letter which reached me last January from Mr. K. Sun- 
 dararaman, who was a Professor of History in a college, but 
 has now retired and lives in Kumbakonam. 
 
 The Society was started in 1895 chiefly at the instigation 
 of some of the learned Pandits of the Tanjore District among 
 
 1 Tantra of the Great Liberation, by Arthur Avalon, London, Luzac, 
 ioj. net. 
 
 x
 
 306 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 whom must be mentioned first and foremost, the greatest modern 
 Vedantist of South India, Raju Sastri of Mannargudi town. 
 
 An annual assembly of Brahman Pandits of the school of 
 Sankaracharya is convened usually in the month of July. It has 
 always met in the town of Kumbakonam, where there is a Mutt 
 (or monastery) presided over by one who claims to be a lineal 
 successor of the famous founder of the Advaita School of Vedanta. 
 The Pandits who attend are chiefly drawn from the Southern or 
 Tamil Districts of the Madras Presidency. Others are welcome, 
 and there have been years during which Pandits have come in 
 from Godavery and Krishna Districts which form part of the 
 Telugu country. In the year 1911, the Annual Session met at 
 Palghat, as an exceptional case. 
 
 There are four permanent Examiners for the Sabha, who are 
 all of them men of great merit and fame. They prefer to con- 
 duct their examinations orally, on the ground that such examina- 
 tions are more efficacious as a test of worth. They also set 
 papers to such as are unwilling or unable to stand the searching 
 oral test. Some time is also given to the older and abler Pandits 
 to carry on Vakyartha or scholastic disputations on selected 
 topics under the superintendence of the four Examiners. 
 
 In the evenings, popular lectures are given by Pandits to 
 spread a knowledge of the Vedanta religion among the lay mem- 
 bers and the women of the Brahman Community, and also to 
 interest them in the work of the society. 
 
 The annual session lasts usually for a week, but sometimes it 
 has lasted 2 or 3 days more. During its course, the assembled 
 Pandits are fed at the Society's expense. At its close, presents 
 are made to them according to merit, and their travelling ex- 
 penses are also paid. The Examiners are at present paid Rs. 
 50 each, besides their travelling expenses. 
 
 The Pandits are attracted, not by the money gifts, but by 
 their devotion to the branch of learning for the cultivation of 
 which they spend their time and energy, and by their earnest 
 desire to help forward its more systematic and thorough study. 
 The spectacle is one rare in an age when men's interests are 
 predominantly materialistic. 
 
 The sabha has engaged a learned Pandit who is one of the 
 four Examiners of the Sabha and who resides at Kumbakonam
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 307 
 
 to teach the Vedanta philosophy as contained in the writings 
 of Sankaracharya and of some of the later writers of his school. 
 He has also the obligation to deliver every year a course of lec- 
 tures on a selected topic or work in two leading centres of one 
 of the Tamil Districts. There is a small endowment of Rs. 
 5,000 out of which this Pandit is paid one half of his salary. 
 The other half of his salary is met from the subscriptions sporad- 
 ically collected each year. The entire annual income from all 
 sources does not exceed Rs. 2,000. 
 
 The work of the society is very humble in its character, and 
 it also works too much on antique lines. Its work may, in course 
 of time, get modernized ; and then it will live. As at present 
 carried on, it gives not much of a promise for the future. 
 
 Professor Sundararaman's own position will also be of 
 interest. He believes that the whole of the ritualistic 
 system of Hinduism comes from God, that every detail 
 of it is right, that the punctilious observance of all its rules 
 would bring health, strength and prosperity to the Indian 
 people, and that the decline of India during the last two 
 thousand years is the direct outcome of the neglect of these 
 rules by large masses of the population. The following is 
 a paragraph from one of his letters to the press : l 
 
 The consequences of rebellion against ritualistic Hinduism 
 are writ plainly on the face of the history of India for two thou- 
 sand years and more. Buddha began the first revolt, and since 
 then he has had many successors and imitators. The unity 
 and might of the once glorious fabric of Hindu society and civil- 
 ization have been shattered, but not beyond hope of recovery. 
 That recovery must be effected not by further doses of 
 "Protestant" revolt, 2 but by the persistent and patient en- 
 deavour to observe the injunctions and precepts of the ancient 
 Dharma 3 in its entirety. 
 
 1 ISR., XXII, 23. 
 
 1 This is a reference to the samajes, especially the Brahma and Prarthana 
 Samajes. 
 
 1 I.e. the religious law.
 
 308 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 I have been informed that, in Kathiawar, there is an- 
 other Smarta organization, the leader of which is Mr. 
 Nathu Sarma of Porebandar and Bilkha. 
 
 5. CASTE ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 A. Caste Conferences 
 
 The modern spirit and the difficulties of the times have 
 stirred the leading castes, as well as the leading sects, of 
 Hinduism to united action. The earliest of all the Caste 
 organizations was the Kayastha Conference, which was 
 first held in 1887. These gatherings were already very 
 common by 1897 ; for Ranade refers to them in an address 
 delivered that year. 1 Caste Conferences may be local, or 
 provincial, or may represent all India. Like other con- 
 ferences, they are held during the cold season, very often 
 during the Christmas week. Printed reports of these 
 gatherings are very seldom issued ; so that I have had to 
 rely on notices in the newspapers for my information. 
 
 I have noted Conferences of Brahmans and of Brahman 
 sub-castes, Kshatriyas, Rajputs, Vaisyas, Kayasthas and 
 Kayastha sub-castes, Vellalas, Reddys, Nairs, Jats, Pa- 
 tidars, Daivadnyas, Namasudras, etc. 
 
 There are two main motives in these conferences. On 
 the one hand, they share the widespread impulse to defend 
 the whole of Hinduism, and, very naturally, within that 
 wider object, their own caste privileges. But on the 
 other, there is a strong desire to promote the prosperity 
 of the caste ; and that of necessity demands the introduc- 
 tion of such reforms as may help the caste in the difficult 
 circumstances of the present. Frequently the caste appeals 
 to the Government for special privileges which they once 
 enjoyed or which they would like to obtain. Resolutions 
 
 1 Essays, 165.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 309 
 
 are passed on the subject of the age of marriage, of funeral 
 expenses, and of marriage expenses. Education usually 
 bulks rather large, and female education is frequently 
 advocated. There is a great desire to attain greater 
 unity in the caste. Frequent proposals are made for mak- 
 ing marriages possible between sub-castes which at present 
 do not intermarry. 
 
 For some time social reformers were inclined to disap- 
 prove of these Caste Conferences. The following is from 
 a leader in the Indian Social Reformer: 
 
 The idea of caste conferences has always been repugnant 
 to us, even when they have for their object the prosecution of 
 social reforms. The caste sentiment is so ingrained in the Hindu 
 mind, it so deeply permeates every fibre of our being, and it so 
 thoroughly colours our outlook, that it seems to us that the only 
 effective course for those who wish to see this state of mind 
 altered, is resolutely to cut themselves off from anything savour- 
 ing of the idea. . . . 
 
 An occasional European like Mrs. Annie Besant may allow 
 her intellect to play with the idea of caste without much practical 
 effect. Her nervous system is strung to different social ideals, 
 and mere intellection does not produce conduct. But with one 
 who is born a Hindu and who believes caste to be the great 
 monster we have to kill, only one attitude is safe and possible. 
 He must not associate himself with any movement which, under 
 whatever name or pretext, aims at setting up caste as its goal 
 and standard. To the subtle poison of caste, its self-compla- 
 cency, and its pharisaism, the Hindu nervous system has for 
 centuries been accustomed to respond. Unconsciously, the 
 best and most resolute of reformers are apt to have the old 
 monster taking liberties with them if they slide into the attitude 
 of acquiescence in such movements. These observations apply 
 to caste conferences which meet with the object of effecting 
 reforms in the habits and customs of their respective castes. 
 They apply more forcibly to such movements as the Saraswat 
 Conference recently held at Belgaum, whose sole object is to 
 amalgamate and perpetuate this particular caste. The charac-
 
 3io MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ter of the movement is sufficiently clear from the fact that the 
 one resolution about social reform, regarding the marriageable 
 age, which was sought to be introduced, had to be dropped for 
 fear of breaking up the Conference. 1 
 
 But experience seems to show that the progressive tend- 
 ency is in most Conferences stronger than the conservative. 
 The following is from the same journal as the above : 
 
 Judging however by the broad lines on which the resolutions 
 passed at the annual gatherings of most of these bodies are based, 
 there is good reason to think that they all tend to the prop- 
 agation of liberal ideas on religious and social questions through- 
 out the land. 2 
 
 Most magazines are inclined to take quite a hopeful view 
 of these gatherings. How the leaven works even among 
 rather backward communities, may be seen from the fol- 
 lowing brief report of a meeting of one group of Sikhs in 
 the Panjab : 
 
 The Sikh Jats assembled the other day in a meeting held at 
 Budhi, District Jullundar, with the object of giving up the evil 
 customs prevalent among them and effecting useful and neces- 
 sary reforms. Resolutions were passed enjoining the curtail- 
 ment of expense on occasions of marriages and other festivities 
 and forbidding drink and nautches on such occasions. It was 
 further resolved that the siapa should also be abolished, and 
 that on no occasion should indecent songs be allowed. 3 
 
 Two groups of people which, strictly speaking, belong 
 to the great Outcaste population of India must find men- 
 tion here ; and that for two reasons. First, both of these 
 communities are amongst the very best of the Outcastes. 
 Secondly, there have arisen among them organizations of 
 sufficient energy and value to raise them to a place in 
 modern India alongside caste people. See the other Out- 
 caste stirrings below. 4 
 
 1 ISR., XX, 423. 2 Ib., XXI, 241. Ib., XX, 557. * Pp. 368-70.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 311 
 
 B. The Tiyas 
 
 Scattered up and down the west coast of Southern 
 India there live three Outcaste communities which are of 
 the same stock, and which, taken together, number 
 1,800,000. In South Kanara they are called Villavas, hi 
 Malabar Tiyas and in Travancore Elavas. They now 
 differ from each other in a variety of ways, and neither 
 intermarry nor dine together, but originally they were one. 
 The new movement aims at emancipating them from the 
 disabilities of their position as Outcastes, advancing them 
 economically and educationally, and fusing the three 
 groups into one body. The spirit of the race and the 
 position in which the awakening found them are both 
 clearly reflected in the following extracts from an address 
 presented by them to Mrs. Besant, the Theosophic leader, 
 in 1904: 
 
 We are very pleased to hear that although born a Christian 
 you are prepared to die a Hindu. . . . When you visited 
 Calicut you were admitted as a guest in one of the palaces 
 belonging to a member of the Zamorin 's family. This was ren- 
 dered possible by the fact of your having become a convert to 
 Hinduism. But as we are Hindus by very birth we are pre- 
 vented from approaching the place. . . . Even the sight of us 
 within close proximity is a source of pollution. ... If under 
 such circumstances we are to gain admission to places accessible 
 to you, we find a way to it through you. And it is this : It 
 is impossible for us to be born Christians. We shall therefore 
 become Christian converts first and then turn Hindus as you 
 have done. This will relieve us of our disability as you have 
 cured yourself of your disability. 
 
 Although they are Outcastes, they have long been recog- 
 nized as possessing the right of studying and practising 
 the old Hindu medicine, and also Astrology. Consequently, 
 in many families a knowledge of Sanskrit is handed down
 
 312 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 from father to son. For this and other reasons they have 
 not been nearly so crushed and depressed as most Out- 
 caste tribes are. 
 
 In one of the old medical families, settled three miles 
 north of Trivandrum in Travancore, a boy was born who 
 was called Nanu Ashan. He knew a little Sanskrit, having 
 been taught the medical lore traditional in his family. 
 But, besides that, he managed one way or another to per- 
 suade some Hindu scholar or scholars to give him some- 
 thing of a Hindu theological training. I have failed to 
 learn who his teachers were, or what sect or school they 
 belonged to. He became an ascetic, taking the name of 
 Narayana. He is now known as Sri Narayana Gurusvaml. 
 
 About 1890 he began to urge his community to make a 
 new beginning religiously. Hitherto they had been devil- 
 worshippers like the mass of the Outcastes. He urged them 
 to build temples for themselves, and to worship the Hindu 
 gods in orthodox fashion, but to appoint members of their 
 own community as priests. Gradually the movement 
 caught on. It has spread to the North and the South ; 
 and there are now thirty temples in all. A small Sanskrit 
 school is usually attached to each temple. The movement 
 is thoroughly orthodox in everything except in its non- 
 Brahman priests. So much for the religious leader. 
 
 The other leader is a layman. Within Travancore 
 State the Elavas were under serious disabilities. Govern- 
 ment service was closed to them, and their children were 
 not allowed to study in the schools. A young man '(now 
 Dr. Palpu of the Mysore Medical Service) succeeded, in 
 extremely difficult circumstances, in getting an education 
 for himself; and then set to work to get the disabilities 
 removed. Government service under the Travancore 
 Government is now open to the community, and most of 
 the schools are open also.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 313 
 
 An organization was started in 1903 to draw the people 
 together and to work for their betterment. It is called 
 the S. N. D. P. Yogam, or in full, the Sri Narayana Dharma 
 Paripalana Yogam, i.e. Union for the Protection of the Sri 
 Narayana Religion. This union, which represents the three 
 sections of the community, has its headquarters in Trivan- 
 drum. Local Yogams have been started in some thirty- 
 three places, notably in Parur, Calicut and Tellicherry. 
 An Annual Conference is held, now at one place, now at 
 another. Sometimes an Industrial Exhibition accompanies 
 the Conference. The Yogam supports a number of 
 preachers, some of whom are sannyasls. They move about 
 the country, giving lectures in the temples and elsewhere, 
 and teaching the people. Most of the temples are related 
 one way or another to the Yogam, and some are directly 
 managed by it. They have an educational fund, from 
 which money is advanced as loans to poor students. At 
 Alwaye, where Sankara, the great Vedantist, was born, 
 they have a monastery which they wish to transform into 
 a Sanskrit-English College. A good deal of money and 
 effort is being used to spread industrial and agricultural 
 education and to advance the community economically. 
 Social reform is also sought. A magazine, the Vivekodaya, 
 is published from the office in Trivandrum. 
 
 The religious side of the movement has very little reality 
 in it. Most of the leaders have adopted it, as some of them 
 said to me, merely to catch the interest of the masses, 1 
 and to keep them from becoming Christians. On the other 
 hand, the new system is perhaps a little better than the 
 old devil-worship. It is also of considerable interest 
 to the student as a modern parallel to the rise of the 
 Lingayats. 2 
 
 1 Cf. the Arya Samaj, above, pp. 118-20. * P. 301, above.
 
 314 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 C. The Vokkaligas 
 
 The Vokkaligas also are technically Outcastes, but 
 really are as fine a people as great masses of Sudras are. 
 They are the peasant class of the Mysore State, and num- 
 ber about a million and a quarter, one fourth of the whole 
 population of the State. They are a simple, hardy, kindly 
 people, but, otherwise, they were very backward until the 
 new movement waked them. 
 
 In 1906 seven individuals came together, and said, "It 
 is time that we bestir ourselves to see that the poor have 
 the benefit of education." They found a rich man, and 
 promised to work, if he would provide money. He promised 
 to give Rs. 10,000. 
 
 It was resolved to hold a Conference in Bangalore. 
 The peasants came in thousands ; enthusiasm grew ; and 
 Rs. 50,000 were subscribed on the spot. Thus the Vok- 
 kaligara Sangha, or union, was formed, and the work began. 
 The aims of the movement are as follows : 
 
 (1) To adopt means for the awakening of the people by send- 
 ing lecturers into the villages to preach to them the value of 
 education, the advantage of improving their methods of cultiva- 
 tion, the benefit accruing from paying attention to sanitation, 
 hygiene, domestic science, etc. 
 
 (2) To hold periodical Conferences in different parts of the 
 State, at which all questions relating to the amelioration of the 
 community are dealt with. A spirit of unity, concord, and 
 brotherly feeling is sure to result from such meetings. 
 
 (3) To establish the headquarters of the Association in 
 Bangalore, where arrangements will be made for the boarding 
 and lodging of the students coming from the country for study. 
 It is intended to make it the centre of activity. Courses of 
 illustrated lectures on all useful subjects, a reading room, a 
 library, a museum, on a small scale, of the arts and crafts of the 
 community, a gymnasium, athletic grounds, evening classes in 
 technical subjects, are all proposed to be instituted. Similar
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 315 
 
 institutions on a smaller scale may be erected in the principal 
 towns of the State as funds permit. 
 
 (4) To establish and maintain Demonstration Farms, show- 
 ing modern methods of cultivation and machinery employed for 
 the purpose. The organisation of exhibitions to show to the 
 people how to secure better housing conditions, and better 
 sanitary and healthy surroundings are also intended. 
 
 (5) The publication of a newspaper and other periodicals to 
 educate the people and to spread among them wholesome and 
 progressive ideas. It is intended to make illustrated journalism 
 a feature of this branch of work. 
 
 (6) To work in co-operation with the Government in their 
 efforts to bring about the progress of the State. 
 
 The Sangha now owns a press which does printing in 
 both English and Canarese, a building worth Rs. 30,000, 
 with a hostel for one hundred boys on a site given by Gov- 
 ernment, and a newspaper, the Vokkaligara Patrika, one 
 of the best in the State. The aim of the movement is to 
 get the peasant boys to come for education. They live at 
 the hostel ; those who can afford it pay ; those who can- 
 not are paid for by the Society. The boys attend the 
 Government schools; there is the closest cooperation and 
 good will between the Government and the Peasants' 
 Movement. The best methods of Western organization 
 have been adapted to the needs of the organization and the 
 spirit of service dominates all the work. After seven years, 
 with its position now well established, the Peasants' Move- 
 ment realizes how much work is yet to be done. The special 
 development now to be undertaken is the improvement of 
 agricultural education and methods, and the simple, sober, 
 religious, intelligent character of the peasants makes them 
 good material on which to work. Four Conferences have 
 been held. Lecturers go into the interior on the occa- 
 sions of fairs and festivals where large numbers of people
 
 316 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 collect to make known to them the aims and objects of 
 the Association, to enrol new subscribers for the Associa- 
 tion's newspaper, and also new members of the Association. 1 
 
 6. THE BHARATA DHARMA MAHAMANDALA 
 A bold attempt has been made during recent years to 
 gather together the whole of the Hindu people in a single 
 organization, partly in self-defence, partly for further in- 
 struction in religion. 
 
 i. By the year 1890, as a result of the work of the 
 Arya Samaj, of Ramakrishna and the Theosophists, there 
 was a general uprising of the educated Hindu spirit in 
 defence of Hinduism. Out of this widespread desire to 
 strengthen the old faith there sprang a number of organ- 
 izations. In the Panjab the movement was started by 
 Pandit Din Dayal Sarma, who has proved an energetic 
 and successful organizer. Infuriated by the attacks of 
 the Arya Samaj on orthodox Hinduism, he attacked the 
 Samaj in turn, and taught the people to retain their idols 
 and live in orthodox fashion. He had had no Sanskrit 
 training nor English education, but he was a brilliant 
 speaker and he was so successful that a number of pandits 
 and titled men gathered round him. Then in 1895 they 
 founded the Sanatan Dharma Sabha in Hardwar and 
 Delhi. In 1896 Svami Gyananandaji started in Muttra a 
 movement called the Nigamagama Mandall. In Bengal 
 the Dharma Mahamandali 2 arose. In Southern India 
 Pandit Sastriji Pade founded the Bharata Dharma Maha- 
 parishad. All these organizations aimed at defending 
 orthodox Hinduism, but they were not connected with one 
 another. 3 
 
 1 See ISR., May i7th, 1914, pp. 435 and 438. 
 
 2 A Sanatana Dharma RakshinI Sabha had been formed in Calcutta as 
 early as 1873. See Dayanand Sarasvati (Natesan) 28. 
 
 3 Mahamandal Magazine, vol. I, no. 4, pp. 1-2.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 317 
 
 By 1900 these movements had made so much progress 
 that a national Conference was held at Delhi under the 
 presidency of the Maharaja of Darbhanga. One note- 
 worthy episode in the Conference was a great procession in 
 which the President walked barefooted, carrying a copy 
 of the Vedas, and attended by nearly a hundred thousand 
 people. 1 
 
 2. In 1902 it became possible to unite the various 
 bodies in one large organization, and the Bharata Dharma 
 Mahamandala was formed at Muttra. Svaml Gyan- 
 anandaji became Organizing Secretary, and Gopmath, a 
 graduate, worked along with him. Pandit Din Dayal 
 continued to do very valuable work for the movement. 
 The Mahamandala was registered, and a constitution was 
 drawn up. In 1905 the headquarters of the Association 
 were moved to Benares, where they are to-day. 
 
 The following are said to be the objects of the Associa- 
 tion : 
 
 (a) To promote Hindu religious education in accordance with 
 the Sanatan Dharma, to diffuse the knowledge of the Vedas, 
 Smritis, Purans and other Hindu Shastras and to introduce, in 
 the light of such knowledge, useful reforms into Hindu Life 
 and Society. 
 
 (b) To promote and enrich the Sanskrit and Hindi literatures 
 in all the branches. 
 
 (c) To introduce such useful reforms as may be warranted by 
 the Shastras in the management of the Hindu Charitable and 
 religious institutions and Tirthas, i.e. sacred places. 
 
 (d) To establish, affiliate and control Branch Sabhas in 
 different parts of India. 
 
 (e) To found and maintain new and to support the existing 
 Hindu Colleges, Schools, Libraries and publishing establish- 
 ments in consonance with the object of the Association. 
 
 1 Madras Decennial Missionary Conference Report, 306-7.
 
 318 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 (/) To adopt all proper and lawful means and measures to 
 carry out the above objects. 
 
 The work of the Association is distributed among five 
 departments, The Preaching Department, The Religious 
 Endowments Department, The Department of Sacred 
 Learning, The Library and Research Department, and 
 The Publishing Department. 
 
 The Mahamandala publishes an Anglo-Hindi monthly, 
 the Mahdmandal Magazine, and several provincial maga- 
 zines, in the vernacular; and the Research Department 
 has its own organ, called Vidya Ratnakar. One of the chief 
 difficulties of the Association is to find preachers "worthy 
 of the name": an attempt is being made to meet this 
 need by means of a training-school at headquarters. 
 
 The Mahamandala advertises a long list of books for 
 sale; and the following note comes at the end of the 
 advertisement : 
 
 For 
 
 UPANISHADS 
 VEDAS 
 SMRITIS 
 PURANAS 
 TANTRAS 
 
 HINDI PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS 
 
 and all kinds of Sanskrit and Hindu religious books, 
 
 Apply to the Manager, Gurudham, Benares City. 
 
 Numerous booklets for free distribution are also appearing. 
 Under the general supervision of this great national 
 body come a number of Provincial Associations, and under 
 these in turn are some 600 local societies, called Sabhas 
 in the towns and villages. There are provincial offices 
 and organizations in Calcutta, Bombay, Lahore, Ajmere, 
 Muttra and Darbhanga. There is no provincial organiza- 
 tion in Madras.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 319 
 
 For eight years the newly formed organization enjoyed 
 abounding prosperity under the guidance of SvamI Gyan- 
 anandaji. In 1910, however, he decided to retire from the 
 position of organizing secretary. He was able to give a 
 very satisfactory account of his stewardship during the 
 eight years. The Association had been recognized as a 
 body representing the whole Hindu community by the 
 heads of the chief Hindu sects and religious orders. Some 
 600 branches had been opened, and about 400 institutions 
 had become affiliated. Nearly 200 preachers were em- 
 ployed ; a considerable literature had been put into cir- 
 culation ; and large sums of money had been subscribed. 
 
 The Mahamandala has never recovered from the loss of 
 this organizer's work. For two years after his retirement 
 there was constant weakness, and bickering. In 1912 the 
 chief secretary was forced to resign through vigorous action 
 taken by the Bengal Provincial Organization, and Mr. 
 Sarada Charan Mitra, who was until recently a Justice of 
 the High Court of Calcutta, became Chief Secretary in his 
 place ; and it is hoped that work will now go on satisfac- 
 torily. The Maharaja of Darbhanga is the General 
 President of the Mahamandala, and by his wealth and 
 prestige adds greatly to its strength ; but the leading per- 
 sonality in the movement at present is Pandit Madan 
 Mohan Malavlya, who is one of the most prominent men 
 in the United Provinces as an educationalist and politician, 
 and who has been the leading spirit in all that has been 
 done to found a Hindu University. 
 
 3. Through its extreme orthodoxy the Mahamandala 
 has won the adherence of numerous ruling princes and 
 sectarian pontiffs ; and tens of thousands of young Hindus 
 are ready to applaud both its theological position and its 
 propaganda; but of the many thousands who shout ap- 
 proval there are very few indeed who are willing to lay a
 
 320 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 hand to the work. The contrast between orthodoxy and 
 such bodies as the Brahma Samaj or the Arya Samaj in 
 this regard is very striking, and very significant : there is 
 no spontaneous living energy in the orthodox community. 
 Then, thinking Hindus all over the country disapprove 
 very seriously of the reactionary character of its teaching. 
 The editor of the Indian Social Reformer, referring to the 
 fact that the Mahamandala wishes to uphold the old rule, 
 that no Hindu may cross the sea, comments severely on 
 the unhealthy character of the whole propaganda ; 1 while 
 the Leader of Allahabad says : 
 
 We receive from time to time papers relating to the internal 
 strife in the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal with the request that 
 we should express our opinion on the merits of the personal 
 controversies that have been going on. We are sorry we must 
 decline the courteous invitation. To our mind the best that 
 could happen to the country, the Hindu community and the Maha- 
 mandal itself is that that organization should decree its own 
 abolition. It is so very reactionary in its religious and social 
 tendencies and activities that far from promoting the well- 
 being and advancement of the community, it does a lot of harm 
 whenever it does anything at all, that is to say. Its members 
 are so wealthy and influential that if they are so minded they 
 can make themselves a powerful help to progress. But the 
 misfortune and mischief is that they do not. 2 
 
 The Mahamandala stands above all things for the defence 
 of the whole of Hinduism, the Sanatana Dharma, the 
 Eternal Religion, as they call it. The foundation of such 
 an organization is in itself almost a portent. Hinduism 
 has never in the course of its whole history been a single 
 organization. It has been a natural growth, springing up 
 and spreading like the grass, the flowers and the forests of 
 India. No one has ever been able to count its sects, or to 
 
 1 ISR., XXII, 121. J 76., XXH, 518.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 321 
 
 classify its multitudes of wandering ascetics. Nor until 
 now has the Hindu ever felt the need of union for defence. 
 Apologetic against Jains and Buddhists one does find in 
 the ancient literature ; and there are frequent references to 
 persecution also ; but these things were left to philosophers 
 and kings : the ordinary Hindu went his way unheeding. 
 How great then is the pressure of the modern spirit and of 
 Christian criticism to-day ! 
 
 It is also worthy of notice that, although the purpose 
 of the organization is to defend and maintain the ancient 
 religion unchanged, the modern spirit shows itself in much 
 of the work of the Association. First of all, like every other 
 modern religious movement in India, the Mahamandala 
 finds itself driven to set forth the Hindu system as the re- 
 ligion for all mankind. To defend a religion which is but 
 the religion of the Hindus is felt to be impossible for the 
 modern mind. Hence we have the extraordinary spectacle 
 of this organization, created for the express purpose of 
 defending the religion which in all its own sacred books is 
 expressly restricted to the four highest castes Brahmans, 
 Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, making the following 
 declaration : 
 
 But the Sanatan Dharma is not marked by any such spirit 
 of narrowness or exclusiveness. It is not a particular creed 
 promising salvation to its followers alone; it is the universal 
 Dharma for all mankind. 1 
 
 Again, in all the sacred literature of Hinduism the rule 
 is laid down that the Vedas must not be made known to 
 any one except initiated members of the three twice-born 
 castes, Brahmans, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. No woman, 
 and no Sudra may hear the sacred words, not to speak of 
 Outcastes and foreigners. This rule may be found thou- 
 
 1 Mahdmandal Magazine, vol. I, no. i, p. 8. 
 Y
 
 322 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 sands of times in all the great books, legal and philosophical. 
 In the earliest of Hindu law-books we read : 
 
 If a Sudra listens intentionally to a recitation of the Veda, 
 his ears shall be filled with some molten tin or lac. If he recites 
 Veda texts, his tongue shall be cut out. If he remembers them, 
 his body shall be split in twain. 1 
 
 Yet this most orthodox movement, backed by the heads 
 of all the greatest Hindu sects, sells copies of any part of 
 the Vedas to any one who cares to buy them, and en- 
 courages their study, no matter what a man's caste may 
 be. 2 Clearly, the freedom as well as the universality of 
 Christianity is working with irresistible force within the 
 very citadel of Hinduism. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking evidence of the working of the 
 leaven that has yet appeared is a paper which occurs in 
 the first number of the official organ of the movement, The 
 Mahamandal Magazine. It is a clear, well-written, for- 
 cible paper by Professor Phani Bhusan Adhikari, M.A., 
 on The Need of a Critical History of Hinduism. The fol- 
 lowing quotations from this article will show where this 
 thoughtful defender of orthodox Hinduism stands; but 
 the paper as a whole is most significant and well worth 
 study : 
 
 But Hinduism has erred too much on the side of its catholicity. 
 Its philosophy has made it unpractical, as every philosophy 
 does its adherents. What would have otherwise been an excel- 
 lent virtue has proved to be a pernicious vice. Hinduism is un- 
 practical, and who knows to what extent the unpractical nature 
 of the Hindu character may have been due to the catholicity of 
 its religious spirit? In adopting everything within itself, it 
 does not appear to have made a selection between the useful and 
 the useless; and in cases where this selection has been of the 
 useful, it is reluctant to give up what, once so useful, has now 
 become not only useless but positively injurious. . . . 
 
 1 Gautama Dharmasutra, XII, 4-6. 2 See above, p. 318.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 323 
 
 Now, if we take a somewhat wide survey of what popularly 
 goes by the name of Hinduism (and Hinduism is now too much 
 popular), we find that it consists mostly in the observance of 
 certain practices, the meaning of the use of which is hardly 
 known to or can be explained even by those who pose as au- 
 thorities on the religion. . . . 
 
 Those who have eyes to see will observe that the present-day 
 Hinduism of the popular type consists in the scrupulous per- 
 formance of certain rites and the unquestioning maintenance of 
 certain forms the meaning of which is almost unknown. It is 
 these which under the name of Sanatana Dharma is the all of 
 popular Hinduism. . . . 
 
 For permanent results of a beneficial nature, some other 
 method of action has become desirable to adopt. The method 
 that suggests itself for the purpose is historical and critical 
 (although both go hand-in-hand in a subject like religion). 
 This is the method which has been found highly useful in pre- 
 serving the essentials of Christianity. 
 
 The Hindu nation is passing now through what may be called 
 a transition-period. The situation is very critical. There 
 are signs all around of a break with the old which has been found 
 to be effete and in some cases positively unhealthy for the life 
 of the nation in the present altered conditions. . . . 
 
 What is wanted is a band of scholars forming an association 
 with a common object. . . . 
 
 7. THE ALL-INDIA SUDDHI SABHA 
 In the nineties a movement arose in the Panjab for re- 
 admitting to the Hindu community people who had passed 
 over to other faiths. 1 Since a Hindu becomes impure 
 through embracing another religion, the method adopted 
 is to subject those who return to a purifying ceremony. 
 Hence the name Suddhi Sabha,, purification society. At a 
 later date other provinces formed similar organizations; 
 and now there is an All-India Suddhi Sabha, which holds 
 
 1 Ranade, Essays, 164. Census of India, 1911, vol. I, 128.
 
 324 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 an annual Conference. In 1913 the Conference was held 
 at Karachi in the Christmas holidays. The Arya Samaj 
 still take a large share in the work ; but other bodies, and 
 notably the Prarthana Samaj, are interested. 
 
 8. THE JAINS 
 
 The Jain system arose within Hinduism in the sixth 
 century B.C., a little before Buddhism ; and, like Buddhism, 
 broke away from the parent faith at an early date and 
 became a distinct religion. It is, like Buddhism, an 
 atheistic system. The supreme religious aim of the system 
 is to free the soul from matter. Its chief doctrine is 
 that there are souls in every particle of earth, air, water 
 and fire, as well as in men, animals and plants; and its 
 first ethical precept is, Do not destroy life. In conse- 
 quence, the Jain has to obey many rules in order to avoid 
 taking life in any of its forms. Another of the original 
 beliefs is that the endurance of austerities is a great help 
 towards salvation. From the very beginning, the com- 
 munity was divided into monks and laymen, the former 
 alone subjecting themselves to the severest discipline. In 
 Jainism the Tirthakaras hold the place which the Buddhas 
 hold in Buddhism. By the Christian era the Jains, like 
 the Buddhists, had begun to use idols. Images of the 
 Tirthakaras are worshipped in their temples. 
 
 The above brief account of the rise of Jainism is drawn 
 from the writings of Western scholars who have studied the 
 original authorities. But there is a group of scholarly 
 Jains who do not accept these statements. Their account 
 of the history runs as follows : 
 
 The Jain system was founded in Ayodhya untold ages ago by 
 Rishabha. It was reformed by Parsvanath in the eighth cen- 
 tury. The last reformer, Mahavira, rose in the sixth century. 
 Jainism has been a rival of Hinduism from the beginning.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 325 
 
 All my information about modern movements among 
 the Jains I owe to two friends, Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson of 
 Rajkot, Kathiawar, and Mr. J. L. Jaini, Barrister-at-Law. 
 Mr. Jaini has revised and accepted as correct the whole 
 of my essay from this point onwards. 
 
 At an early date the Jain community broke into two 
 sects. What divided them was the question whether 
 Jain monks should wear clothes or not; and the names 
 of the sects still indicate this difference. One sect is called 
 Svetambara, that is, clothed-in-white ; the other Digam- 
 bara, that is, clothed-in-atmosphere, because their monks 
 wear no clothes. 
 
 After the Christian era the Jain community seems to 
 have grown rapidly in numbers and influence. They were 
 prosperous and wealthy business people. In various parts 
 of India they obtained royal patronage, and abundance of 
 resources. In both the North and the South there are re- 
 mains of architecture from the early centuries which show 
 that the sect was very prominent. They had numerous 
 scholars who created a great literature on the original 
 sacred books of the sect, and also cultivated with success 
 all the sciences which were current in India in mediaeval 
 times. 
 
 But their power was broken in the South by the rise of 
 the Sivaite and Vishnuite sects ; and at a later date the same 
 cause steadily weakened and depressed them in the North. 
 It seems clear that for many centuries there has been a 
 continuous drift of the Jain population into Hinduism ; 
 while Hindu thought and practice have as continuously 
 found their way into Jain temples and homes. In Svetam- 
 bara temples to-day the ministrants are usually Hindus; 
 and nearly all Jain families call in Brahmans to assist 
 them in their domestic ceremonies. 
 
 The steady drift towards Hinduism is still in progress, as
 
 326 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 the following table will show. The three last Reports of 
 the Census of India give the following as the figures for the 
 Jain population : 
 
 1891 .... 1,50x3,000 
 1901 .... 1,334,000 
 1911 .... 1,248,000 
 
 In 1473 A.D. a movement arose amongst Svetambara 
 Jains in Ahmabadad against idolatry, with the result that a 
 group broke away and formed a non-idolatrous sect. They 
 are called Sthanakavasis. The three sects, Digambaras, 
 Svetambaras and Sthanakavasis, divide the Jain com- 
 munity fairly evenly between them, each numbering about 
 400,000 souls. 
 
 Colebrooke published a certain amount of information 
 about the Jain sect early in the nineteenth century, but 
 their early history was not understood until the Pali litera- 
 ture of Ceylonese Buddhism became available towards the 
 end of the century. A number of the Jain texts have been 
 translated into English in recent years, and many Jain 
 inscriptions have been deciphered ; but much still remains 
 to be done to make the history and the teaching of the sect 
 fully intelligible. 
 
 2. Jains began to take advantage of Western education 
 both in Bengal and in Bombay almost as early as any other 
 community ; and they have prospered exceedingly in busi- 
 ness under British rule. They are a very wealthy com- 
 munity. The pearl trade of the East is almost altogether 
 in their own hands. Hence Jains are scattered in many 
 parts of the world, notably in Britain, France and South 
 Africa. One Jain has received the honour of knighthood, 
 Sir Vasonji Tricumji of Bombay. 
 
 Yet the better men of the community are deeply con- 
 scious that the Jains are in a very perilous position. The
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 327 
 
 following quotations will show what some of the leaders 
 think: 
 
 Are we on our way to attain that level of life ? I think we 
 are not. Firstly, because we are dwindling down year after 
 year. Secondly, our little community is a house divided against 
 itself. Thirdly, we have reduced our power to the lowest limit 
 by cutting the community into numberless castes. 1 
 
 Alas ! the body of Jainism is in a very bad way. It is not 
 only ill, but perhaps it is already lifeless. . . . Knowledge of 
 Jainism is almost extinct. Very few original texts are extant ; 
 they are unknown to the Jaina masses, even to their learned 
 leaders, and are very rarely read even in private, not to speak of 
 public meetings. The spiritual or rather anti-spiritual food of 
 the masses is derived partly from crude half Jaina, half non- 
 Jaina truths or half truths and partly superstitions upon which 
 their lives are based in our towns and villages. . . . The Jaina 
 community is dying ; perhaps it is already dead ; at any rate 
 its condition is very serious. 2 
 
 In consequence, a keen desire for organization and reform 
 began to manifest itself about 1890; and rather valuable 
 results have followed. There has been no movement 
 created comparable with the Brahma Samaj or the Arya 
 Samaj ; nor have the Jains had noteworthy leaders like 
 Ram Mohan Ray or Dayananda Sarasvati. Yet for the 
 last twenty years there have been groups of young men who 
 have earnestly worked for the uplifting of the community, 
 and there has been one Jain leader who is well worthy of 
 mention here. 
 
 This notable man, Rajchandra Ravjibhai, 3 was a Sthana- 
 kavasi, and was born in Morvi State, Kathiawar, in 1868. 
 He received no English education. He was a jeweller in 
 Bombay for some eight or nine years and died in 1900. 
 
 1 Digambar Jain, Kartik, 1969, p. 33. 
 1 Jain Gazette, May, 1911, pp. 74-75. 
 1 See his portrait, Plate XI, facing page 376.
 
 328 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 He was a gifted man and a poet, and so is usually called 
 Rajchandra Kavi : " Kavi " means poet. A good deal 
 of his influence was due to his extraordinary memory which 
 enabled him to attend to one hundred things at once. He 
 was a reformer, and yet more of an idealist than a reformer. 
 Although a SthanakavasI, he was so eager to see the three 
 sects united that he used to say there was no harm in wor- 
 shipping in a Svetambara temple. He declared that 
 neither murti (idol) nor mumati (mouth-cloth *) led to moksa 
 (release) but a good life. He held that the moral ideal 
 underlying the legends was the great thing, not the legends 
 themselves. He thus sought to weaken the religious sanc- 
 tion of old customs rather than to produce any immediate 
 and radical change in conduct. The following quotation 
 gives his attitude towards reform : 
 
 His views on the social and political questions of the day were 
 liberal. He said that there ought not to be anything like caste 
 distinctions amongst the Jains, as those who were Jains were all 
 ordered to lead a similar life. Among all the agencies for reform, 
 he assigned the highest place to the religious reformer, working 
 with the purest of motives and without ostentation. He found 
 fault with the religious teachers of the present day, because 
 they preached sectarianism, did not realise the change of the 
 times, and often forgot their real sphere in the desire to proclaim 
 themselves as avatars (incarnations) of God, and arrogated to 
 themselves powers which they did not possess. In his later 
 years, it was clear that he was preparing to fulfil his life's mission 
 in that capacity. But unfortunately death intervened and the 
 mission remained unfulfilled. 2 
 
 As a result of English education and the influence of such 
 advanced men as Kavi, there is a common leaven working 
 throughout the Jain community, and especially among the 
 
 1 The mouth-cloth is worn by Jain ascetics, lest they should inadver- 
 tently swallow an insect. 
 
 2 Pioneer, 22nd May, 1901.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 329 
 
 educated men. This new spirit manifests itself in various 
 ways, first of all, in sectarian conferences. 
 
 3. The Digambara sect were first in the field. They 
 held their first annual Conference about 1893. A year or 
 eighteen months later, as a result of the work of the Con- 
 ference, a group of the younger men belonging to all the 
 three sects organized themselves as the Jain Young Men's 
 Association. Then hi 1903 the Svetambara sect began to 
 hold a Conference; and the Sthanakavasis followed in 
 1906. These three sectarian conferences have proved on 
 the whole the most successful of all the efforts made during 
 this period; but a good deal has also been done by local 
 groups unconnected with any conference ; and it is prob- 
 able that in the future still greater things will be accom- 
 plished by those who are seeking to unite the three sects 
 in one. 
 
 The aims which these organizations have in view are, in 
 the main, to unite, strengthen and build up the community, 
 so that individuals may not drift away from it, and to 
 introduce such education and fresh life as will adapt the 
 Jains to modern conditions. All parties seem to recognize 
 that these great ends cannot be achieved unless their reli- 
 gious teachers, whether sadhus (celibate ascetics) or priests, 
 receive a good modern education, so as to enable them to 
 lead the community in the difficult circumstances of to-day, 
 and to meet, on the one hand, the assaults of materialism, 
 and, on the other, the criticism of the Arya Samaj and of 
 Christianity. Jains want their sadhus to become edu- 
 cated, capable, modern men like missionaries. All realize 
 also that it is of the utmost importance that the boys and 
 girls of the community should receive not only a modern 
 education, but such religious and moral training as shall 
 make them good Jains. There is also a clear realization 
 that the old religion must be uplifted ; but as to how this is
 
 330 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 to be done there is no unanimity. The policy advocated 
 by the educated young men is a good deal different from 
 that favoured by conservatives, whether sadhus, priests 
 or laymen. 
 
 The chief methods employed by the various organizations 
 are (a) institutions for giving a religious education to the 
 sadhus and priests, (6) hostels for students, in which each 
 student is required to study Jain books and live a Jain life, 
 (c) newspapers in the vernaculars and in English, (d) the 
 publication of literature, both the ancient sacred texts and 
 modern books, and (e) the introduction of religious and 
 social reform. We had better now look at the leading 
 organizations in turn. 
 
 4. The All-India Digambara Jain Conference, Bharatvar- 
 shlya Digambara Jain Mahasabha, the office of which is at 
 Khurai, C.P., was founded about 1893. It has proved a 
 very useful organization; yet it has had its difficulties. 
 At the annual gathering at Muzaffarnagar in 1911 there 
 was a tremendous dispute, which ended in a suspension 
 of the Conference. Later on peace was made. It has 
 succeeded in creating several valuable institutions, nota- 
 bly the Syadvada Mahavidyalaya at Benares, in which 
 the priests of the sect receive something of a modern 
 training, an orphanage in Delhi, a number of Hostels in 
 various parts of the country, and a Widows' Home in 
 Bombay. The Digambaras support a number of news- 
 papers, the Digambara Jain, a monthly magazine, published 
 in Surat, and containing articles in several languages, the 
 Hindi Jain Gazette, the Jain Mitra, and a woman's paper 
 called the Jain Nari Hitkdri. 
 
 5. The Svetambaras met for the first time in Conference 
 at Marwar in 1903, and they have met seven times since 
 then. The Conference has an office in Bombay, and issues 
 a paper, the Conference Herald. Books for the moral and
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 331 
 
 religious training of Jains in school and college are being 
 produced in five grades. Hostels for students have been 
 organized in several places, and a training college for sadhus 
 at Benares, the Yasovijaya Jain Pathsala, in which they 
 receive an English education and a training in the sacred 
 books. The Conference has also undertaken to index the 
 books in the Treasure-houses, i.e. libraries, at Cambay, 
 Jessalmir, Patan, and elsewhere. This work is attended 
 with considerable difficulty, owing to the Jain habit of 
 concealing their sacred books. 
 
 One of the chief points of Jain devotion is the building of 
 temples. These are not erected to meet the needs of the 
 population, but as works of piety. Consequently, there are 
 vast numbers of Jain temples, quite out of proportion to 
 the number of Jains. The Conference sees to the restora- 
 tion and repair of the most important of these. 
 
 Like Hindus, the Svetambara Jains have discovered that 
 a large amount of the income of their temples is misused, and 
 various plans are being tried by the Conference to rectify 
 the matter. At Palitana and Junagadh Committees have 
 been formed to supervise the disbursement of these monies. 
 
 There is a desire among certain laymen to lessen the 
 prominence given to idol- worship. Two well-known men 
 ventured to publish something on this subject about five 
 years ago, but the result was a storm of opposition, which 
 has not yet died down. 
 
 Laymen are also rather eager to lessen the power of the 
 sadhus in the Conference, because they are uneducated 
 and reactionary. This too has led to quarrelling. 
 
 Svetambara laymen are doing a good deal of useful work 
 apart from the Conference. They issue four or five monthly 
 papers, and one vernacular fortnightly, the Jain Sdsana, 
 published at Benares. They also are doing what they can 
 in the way of bringing out versions of their Scriptures, and
 
 332 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 revising and correcting them. Rich merchants provide 
 the necessary funds. They depend a good deal on English 
 and German scholars for the work of editing and translat- 
 ing these texts. 
 
 6. The Sthanakavasis met first in Conference in 1906. 
 The office of Conference is at Ajmere, and their paper is 
 called Conference Prakdsh. The subjects discussed at the 
 Conferences fall under the following heads, education 
 (boarding schools, religious education for boys and girls, 
 orphanages, a training college for teachers), libraries, 
 publication of sacred texts and a proposed union of all 
 Jains. Though idolatry is the subject on which this sect 
 feels most keenly, it is never mentioned in Conference, 
 because there are always members of the other sects present 
 whom they do not wish to offend. Many feel also the need 
 of dealing with caste, but they do not venture to raise the 
 question. Certain other aspects of social reform are, 
 however, eagerly pressed. A Jain history from the Sthan- 
 akavasi point of view is being prepared. The Conference 
 sends out itinerant preachers to acquaint the people with 
 the decisions of Conference and to collect fourpence from 
 every house towards the expenses of the annual gathering 
 and the preaching scheme. 
 
 Outside the Conference, small groups of Sthanakavasis 
 are doing useful work. In many towns and large villages 
 libraries are being founded. They are meant specially for 
 Jain books, but secular works are also admitted. Local 
 Jain societies establish hostels for Jain boys, and arrange 
 for religious teaching to be given an hour before the ordi- 
 nary schools meet. A monthly paper, the Jain Hitecchi, 
 is supported ; and another is being started. The objects 
 sought by these papers are, to remove the superstitions and 
 increase the knowledge of the people, and to insist on a 
 higher standard of training for sadhus.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 333 
 
 7. But the more advanced men are by no means satis- 
 fied with what is being done in the Conferences belonging 
 to the three sects. They feel that the three groups must 
 become united, if the community is to survive, and that 
 there is far greater need for reform and modernization 
 than the average Jain realizes. The following quotations 
 will show what these leaders think : 
 
 Obviously our orthodox people are very anxious about our 
 religion ; and could they grasp the situation, we should not be 
 far from a satisfactory solution of the crucial problem of Jain 
 progress. The failure of the orthodox is due to one cause. 
 They are attempting the hopeless task of transforming the 
 twentieth century into the days of Shri Mahaveer. They would 
 forget the history of twenty-six centuries. By founding Path- 
 ashalas of the primeval type, they would think of producing our 
 Akalanks and Nikalanks. What is the result ? They hardly 
 attract any intelligent boys to these antiquated seminaries and 
 after years of arduous toiling, they find themselves as far from 
 their ideal as ever before. The experience is discouraging not 
 only to the orthodox but to every one who cherishes the sublime 
 hope of vivifying Jain ideals. 
 
 What is the remedy ? To my mind it consists in modernis- 
 ing the institutions where we have to train up typical Jain 
 spirituality through the ages to come. That is not done by 
 the absurd insertion of a few readers or book-keeping in the 
 curriculum of our Pathashalas. The aim of these nurseries of 
 Jain lives ought to be to associate the best in the discoveries of 
 the West with the highest in the lore of the past. They should 
 be Colleges in which the Jain boys would imbibe Jain principles 
 in their best form and yet would become able to hold their own 
 against the literary and scientific savants of the west. Such should 
 be the place from which Jain types would be evolved types that 
 shall not be at a disadvantage in any walk of life and shall yet 
 live up to Jain ideals. That would be the Aligarh of the Jains. 1 
 
 Like certain Muhammadan leaders whom we have men- 
 tioned above, 2 these men think it necessary to lay stress on 
 
 1 Digambar Jain, Kartik, 1969, pp. 33-34. * P. 98.
 
 334 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 the spirit of Jainism, rather than on the literal observance 
 of all the old rules. Here is an attempt to state what the 
 spirit of Jainism is : 
 
 Well, then, what is the Light left in our custody by Lord 
 Mahavira? . . . Briefly characterised the Light teaches us 
 
 (1) Spiritual independence which connotes individual freedom 
 and unlimited responsibility. The soul depends upon none 
 else for its progress, and none else is responsible for the degrada- 
 tion and distress which the soul may be affected with. . . . 
 
 (2) It teaches us the essential universality of the Brotherhood 
 of not only all men but of all that lives. The current of life in 
 the lowest living organism is as sacred, subtle, sensitive, mighty 
 and eternal as in Juliet, Cleopatra, Caesar, Alexander, Christ, 
 Mahomet, and Lord Mahavira himself. This is the undying 
 basis of our fraternity for all. 1 
 
 This advanced group became organized in 1894 or 1895 
 as the Jain Young Men's Association. It is now called 
 the Bharata Jaina Mahamandala, or All-India Jain Associa- 
 tion. Its office is in Lucknow, and it is governed by its 
 Officers and a Managing Committee. The chief officer is 
 the General Secretary, but he is assisted by three Joint 
 Secretaries, one from each of the three sects. The objects 
 of the Association are : 
 
 (a) The union and progress of the Jaina community. 
 
 (b) The propagation of Jainism. 
 
 The Association holds an anniversary, usually about 
 Christmas. There are also provincial and local organiza- 
 tions affiliated to the main body. Special men are told off 
 to do departmental work of several types, one of the most 
 prominent being female education. The Association issues 
 a monthly magazine in English, the Jain Gazette. 
 
 1 Digambar Jain, Kartik, 1969, pp. 26-27.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 335 
 
 The Association has been peculiarly active during the 
 last three years. The energy of Mr. J. L. Jaini, Barrister- 
 at-Law, has proved of very great value to it in various 
 directions. In 1910 the International Jain Literature 
 Society was founded in London. All the leading Jains in 
 Europe and all the chief European Jain scholars have be- 
 come members. They propose to edit and publish Jain 
 literature. In 1911 the Rishabha Brahmacharya Asrama 
 was founded at Meerut for the training of sadhus. The 
 same year a branch of the Jain Literature Society was 
 formed in India ; and the Central Jain Library was founded 
 at Arrah in Behar, for the purpose of collecting books and 
 manuscripts, and cataloguing Jain literature. The Library 
 issues a monthly magazine in Hindi, which is named the 
 Jaina Siddhdnta Bhdskara, and is published in Calcutta. 
 Finally, as these words are being written, August 24, 
 1913, the Mahavira Brotherhood is being founded in 
 London, for the purpose of uniting Jains resident in Europe 
 and helping them to live the Jain life. 
 
 It may be well to notice that books in English are being 
 published by Jains to introduce Jainism to Europeans. 
 Of these we may mention an Introduction to Jainism, by 
 A. B. Latthe, 1 M.A., Jainism in Western Garb, as a Solution . 
 to Life's Great Problems, 2 by Herbert Warren, an English- 
 man who has become a Jain, and a third volume by Mr. 
 J. L. Jaini, which is about to be issued by the Jain Literary 
 Society. 
 
 Modern Indian religious movements find very close 
 parallels among the Buddhists of Burma and Ceylon; 
 but my knowledge of the religion and of the local condi- 
 tions is too scanty to enable me to sketch the religious 
 situation in those lands with accuracy. 
 1 Bombay, Natha Rangaji, 1905. 2 Madras, Thompson & Co., 1912, is.
 
 336 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 9. THE SIKHS 
 
 i. Nanak (1469-1538), the founder of the Sikh sect, was 
 a disciple of the famous teacher Kabir. Except in two 
 matters, his system is practically identical with that of 
 many other Vaishnava sects. It is a theism, and the main 
 teaching of the founder is highly spiritual in character. 
 Yet the whole Hindu pantheon is retained. The doctrine 
 of transmigration and karma and the Indian social system 
 remain unaltered. The guru holds the great place which 
 he has in all the later Vaishnava and Saiva systems. He is 
 not only a teacher but a saviour, and receives worship. 
 The two points on which Kabir and Nanak were unlike 
 earlier teachers were these: they condemned the whole 
 doctrine of divine incarnations ; and they never ceased to 
 protest against idolatry, thus preventing their followers 
 from using Hindu temples. On one other point the two 
 men seem to have been agreed : they did not wish their 
 followers to become ascetics, but advised them to go on 
 with their ordinary avocations. 
 
 Since the guru held such a great place in Nanak's teaching, 
 it was necessary to appoint another man to succeed him at 
 his death. Nine gurus were thus appointed, one after the 
 other ; and the series would have gone on indefinitely, had 
 it not been for a momentous change introduced by the tenth 
 guru. Nanak had left behind him a liturgy for the sect 
 called the Japji, and also a considerable body of religious 
 poetry. In this matter he was like many of the teachers of 
 North India who lived before him. These poems were 
 carefully treasured by the Sikhs ; the second guru invented 
 the Panjabi alphabet, called Gurumukhi, as the script for 
 them ; and the fifth guru gathered them together and 
 made a book of them, including also a large number of 
 pieces from Kabir and fifteen other saints. This volume
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 337 
 
 is called the Adi Granth, or " Original Book." The tenth 
 guru added a great deal of fresh material ; and the result is 
 the Granth Sahib, or Noble Book of the Sikhs. Before he 
 died, this guru told the Sikhs that they must not appoint 
 another guru, but must take the Granth for their guru. 
 Since that time this sacred book has been the centre and the 
 inspiration of the sect. 
 
 But Govind Singh, the tenth guru, introduced another 
 change of still greater importance. At the time when he 
 was Sikh leader, at the end of the seventeenth and the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century, Aurangzeb, the last 
 great Mughal Emperor, was pressing the sect very hard. 
 He did all in his power, by means of persecution and admin- 
 istrative pressure, to turn them into Muslims. Govind 
 Singh had the genius to perceive how the Sikhs could be 
 organized so as to be able to resist the Mughals. He 
 formed all those who were willing to enter into a covenant 
 with him into what he called the Khdlsd. The ceremony of 
 initiation, Khanda-di-Pahul, Baptism of the Sword, gave 
 it a religious character. Within this league Caste disap- 
 peared, and each man became a warrior, vowed to fight 
 for his faith to the death, and to regard every other member 
 of the league as a brother. They called themselves "Lions," 
 each adding the word Singh to his name. The result was 
 an army of heroes as unconquerable as Cromwell's Iron- 
 sides. Certain definite customs were laid upon them, 
 which marked them off from other men, and increased the 
 feeling of brotherhood among them. Infanticide, widow- 
 burning and pilgrimage were prohibited. Wine and tobacco 
 were proscribed. The consequences were two. The 
 Khalsa became strong to resist the Mughals, but their 
 organization cut them off from their fellow-countrymen, 
 and made them practically a new caste. 
 
 The transformation of the Church into an army produced
 
 338 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 another evil result; living preaching ceased among the 
 Sikhs, and their religious life began to go down. Hin- 
 duism began to reappear among them. Though their 
 founder had condemned the doctrine of incarnations, they 
 soon came to regard each of their ten gurus as an incarna- 
 tion of the Supreme ; and, in spite of his advice, orders of 
 ascetics began to appear among them. 
 
 The recognition of the Granth Sahib as the guru of the 
 community has also proved unhealthy. The book is wor- 
 shipped like an idol in the Golden Temple at Amritsar : 
 a priest fans it, while the people throw offerings of flowers 
 to it, and bow down before it. At night it is put to bed, 
 to be waked in the morning for another day of worship. 
 In a Sikh monastery in Conjeeveram, I was shown the altar 
 where fire-sacrifice is regularly performed to the Granth. 
 Nor is the rule against pilgrimage kept. Here and there 
 one meets groups of Sikh ascetics on pilgrimage, visiting 
 all the chief Hindu temples. When asked how they, as 
 Sikhs, opposed to all idolatry, go to idolatrous temples, 
 they answer that they go to look at the idols, not to worship 
 them. This is surely as clear a case of the fascination of 
 idols as one could wish to have. 
 
 After the fall of the Mughal Empire, the Sikhs became 
 organized in two small democratic republics, called Taran 
 Dal and Budha Dal. Then these subdivided into twelve 
 missils, or petty states. Finally, Ranjit Singh united 
 them all, and became the king of the Panjab. He ruled 
 from 1800 to 1839. To their religious memories and 
 warlike pride there was thus added the consciousness of 
 nationality. 
 
 2. Ranjit Singh had been statesman enough to keep 
 the peace with the British, who already held all the terri- 
 tory to the east of the Panjab ; but he was not long dead 
 before the Sikh leaders, in the pride of their old military
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 339 
 
 prowess, began to make raids on British territory. This 
 the British would not endure. War followed in 1845, an d 
 the Sikhs were defeated ; but even that was not sufficient. 
 They would not keep the peace. Hence a second war, 
 in 1848-1849, resulted in the annexation of the Panjab to 
 British India. 
 
 The province was singularly fortunate in the British 
 officers sent to administer it. John Lawrence, Eadwardes, 
 Nicholson, Montgomery, Reynell Taylor were men of 
 striking character, of great capacity and of Christian life. 
 Hence the Panjab remained quite loyal throughout the 
 Mutiny in 1857-1858 ; and the Sikhs have been one of the 
 stoutest and most valuable elements in the Indian army 
 ever since the annexation of the province. 
 
 3. Fresh religious influences came in with the empire. 
 Christian missionaries entered the province in 1849, an d 
 since then have spread all over it; the Brahma Samaj 
 appeared in Lahore in 1863 ; the Arya Samaj began its 
 aggressive and stormy career in 1877; an d since 1898 the 
 atheistic Deva Samaj has made its influence felt not only 
 in Lahore city but in some of the country districts. 
 
 4. The Sikh community, for various reasons, has tended 
 to become weak and impoverished. The following para- 
 graphs are from their own paper : 
 
 They are poorer than their Hindu or Moslem brothers. 
 They borrow money from the village Sahukars or money- 
 lenders, to carry on their agricultural occupation, under very 
 hard and exacting terms. All grain in excess of their bare neces- 
 sities is snatched from them by some device or another. 'A 
 person who has to be anxious for his livelihood cannot aspire to 
 be wealthy' goes the Punjabi saying. Sikh peasantry could, 
 therefore, hardly support their children for higher education. 
 There are very few Sikh merchants and traders, and Sikh bank- 
 ing and trading companies hardly exist. This general state of 
 poverty prevailing among them is the greatest hindrance in their
 
 340 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 way to progress and prosperity. Calamities, such as famine, 
 locusts, plague, war, etc., have added to their burdens and anxi- 
 eties and rendered the condition of the Sikhs indescribably 
 wretched. 
 
 We have often been drawing the attention of our leaders to 
 the comparatively backward state of education, and daily de- 
 creasing number of the Sikh young men who receive instruction 
 in the public and private schools of the Punjab. 
 
 With the decline of spiritual religion among them, 
 there has come to them what has come to every other re- 
 formed Hindu sect, an overpowering tendency to drift 
 back into ordinary Hinduism. Hatred of Muhammadans 
 is traditional amongst them, and quite strong enough to 
 influence conduct. The Hindu community is big and in- 
 fluential ; and Hindu worship is showy and attractive, and 
 appeals to the feelings, while Sikh worship is exceedingly 
 simple. There are only four places of worship of any 
 size belonging to the sect in the whole of the Panjab. For a 
 long time very little was done to strengthen the Sikhs in 
 their religion. The chiefs tended to become cold. The 
 Gyanis, or learned men, who knew the Granth and inter- 
 preted it, had lost a great deal of their fervour and learning. 
 The drift towards Hinduism thus became almost irresist- 
 ible. Idols found their way not only into the homes of the 
 people but into the Sikh temples. Caste crept back, and 
 all the evils of Hindu social life. Education was not in- 
 creasing among them. 
 
 5. But the new forces set in motion by the British Govern- 
 ment, Christian Missions and the Samajes at last began to 
 tell upon the Sikhs. Above all, the provocative attacks of 
 Dayananda and the Arya Samaj stirred them to fury. 
 About 1890 a body of reformers arose amongst them, and 
 summoned their leaders to action for the revival of Sikhism 
 and the uplifting of the community. A college for Sikhs
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 341 
 
 called the Khalsa College was founded at Amritsar. A 
 central association called the Chief Khalsa Dlwan, with its 
 office at Amritsar, was created; and local associations, 
 called Singh Sabhas, were formed all over the country for 
 the strengthening and purification of Sikh life. An agita- 
 tion was started in favour of the extension of education 
 and of social reform. 
 
 Considerable results have already arisen from this 
 reforming policy. A weekly paper in English, the Khalsa 
 Advocate was started in 1903, and still continues to express 
 the views of the progressives. In 1869 the Government 
 of India commissioned a German missionary, Dr. Ernest 
 Trumpp, to translate the Adi Granth into English, in order 
 that they might understand their Sikh subjects better; 
 and the volume was published in 1877. Trumpp found 
 the work exceedingly difficult for various reasons, and 
 acknowledged that his translation must be imperfect in 
 many particulars. When Western education spread among 
 the Sikhs, they became very dissatisfied with his work; 
 and in 1893 they asked Mr. A. M. Macauliffe, a member of 
 of the Indian Civil Service, to make a new translation for 
 them. Mr. Macauliffe, who was deeply impressed with 
 the value of the Sikh religion, agreed to do so. He worked 
 in the closest possible collaboration with the Sikh Gyanls, 
 and published his work in six volumes in 1910. 
 
 By 1905 the reforming spirit had gone so far that the 
 Sikh leaders found it possible to cast out the Hindu idols 
 which had found their way into the central place of Sikh 
 worship, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. By word and 
 action they have shewn that they wish to revive the spirit 
 of their military organizer, the tenth guru. They want to 
 reincarnate the courage, the freedom and the independence 
 of these days. They wish to be truly Sikhs. They realize 
 that they must resist Hinduism as well as the Arya Samaj,
 
 342 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 if they are to escape from caste and the other social evils 
 of the Hindu system. 
 
 The chief lines of reform which are being pressed by 
 the leaders are the same as those advocated by Hindu 
 social reformers. They protest against caste and child- 
 marriage ; they plead that widows ought to be allowed to 
 remarry, if they choose to do so : they agitate against 
 expensive weddings; they plead for temperance; and a 
 good deal of progress has been made. They have a Widows' 
 Home with thirty inmates at Amritsar ; also Orphanages ; 
 and attempts are made to help the Depressed Classes. 
 
 It is in education that the Sikhs have made most 
 progress. The Khalsa College in Amritsar is under a Euro- 
 pean Principal and is carefully governed by a representa- 
 tive Committee. It has done good service to the com- 
 munity. The latest available report, that for 1911-1912, 
 gives the number of students as 159. Everything seems 
 satisfactory except the religious instruction. There is a 
 large hostel in connection with the college, and another 
 in Lahore. In addition to the college, the community 
 supports 46 boys' schools, High, Middle and Primary. 
 
 There is a large and very successful Boarding School for 
 Girls at Ferozepore. It has 305 pupils, 273 of them 
 boarders. There are 32 other girls' schools. 
 
 Two Theological Seminaries, one at Tarn Tarn and an- 
 other at Gujranwala, receive grants from the Chief Khalsa 
 Dlwan. 
 
 For many years Sikh educational institutions languished 
 for lack of financial support. In 1908 the leaders started a 
 Sikh Educational Conference, which meets annually, now 
 in one town, now in another. It reviews the educational 
 situation, suggests improvements, and keeps Government 
 informed of its wishes ; but the chief service it renders to 
 the community is the raising of funds. About Rs. 15,000
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 343 
 
 are now handed to the Chief Khalsa Dlwan every year to 
 be divided amongst their educational institutions. 
 
 The Chief Khalsa Dlwan also publishes a fair amount of 
 literature, mainly in Panjabi, but partly in English, setting 
 forth the lives of the gurus and the Sikh faith in its early 
 purity. It has a Tract Society with a depot for the 
 sale of this literature in Amritsar, and another in Lahore. 
 There is a Sikh Bank. There is a Young Men's Sikh 
 Association in Lahore and a Khalsa Young Men's Associa- 
 tion in Amritsar, imitations of the Y. M. C. A. ; and a 
 young men's paper, The Khalsa Young Men's Magazine, is 
 published. Finally the Chief Khalsa Dlwan has some 
 twelve or fifteen missionaries in the Punjab, and about as 
 many more in other parts of India, who preach to Sikhs 
 and others. 
 
 Fresh life is stirring in the Sikh community, and the 
 activities we have detailed all tend towards progress. Yet 
 a very great deal remains to be done. The chief question 
 of all is, Can the Sikh faith be made a living and inspiring 
 force in the circumstances of modern India or not ? 
 
 LITERATURE. The Adi Granth, by Dr. Ernest Trumpp, Lon- 
 don, Triibner, 1877, 635. The Sikh Religion, a translation of the 
 Granth, with lives of the Gurus, by M. A. Macauliffe, Oxford Uni- 
 versity Press, 1912, 63$. net. Sri Guru Nanak Dev, by Sewaram 
 Singh Thapar, Rawalpindi, Commercial Union Press, 1904, Re. 
 i as. 4. Sikhism, A Universal Religion, by Rup Singh, Amritsar, 
 Coronation Printing Works. Bkai Mahnga or the Search after Truth, 
 Amritsar, The Chief Khalsa Diwan, 1911. 
 
 10. THE PARSEES 
 
 i. There were certain parts of the programme of the 
 Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha 1 and of the teaching of 
 Mr. K. R. Cama 2 which many Parsees thought rather 
 
 1 See above, p. 84. 2 See above, p. 85.
 
 344 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 dangerous. They were afraid that the removal of certain 
 parts of the traditional system as superstitions, the laying 
 of extreme emphasis on the Gathas and on the moral ele- 
 ments of Zoroastrianism, and the proposal to pray in 
 Gujarat! instead of in the ancient sacred language of the 
 Avesta, would weaken the religion itself and shatter the 
 faith of the masses. 
 
 One of the leaders of this party in early days was Mr. 
 Hormusji Cama (a member of the same family to which 
 Mr. K. R. Cama belonged), who in Europe in the sixties 
 came into contact with the best Zoroastrian scholars and 
 published, at his own expense for gratuitous distribution, 
 Professor Bleeck's English rendering of Professor Spiegel's 
 German translation of the Avesta. A society, the Rahe 
 Rust, or True Way, was organized to oppose the reformers ; 
 and a journal, the Suryodaya, or Sunrise, carried on vigorous 
 controversy with the Rast Goftar * on all the chief points of 
 dispute. Mr. Hormusji Cama was the conservative pro- 
 tagonist in this long-continued fight. 
 
 2. When the Theosophical Society transferred its head- 
 quarters to India in iS'jg, 2 a number of this type of Parsees 
 joined it, and in the course of years the new system got a 
 firm hold. The Theosophic policy in Zoroastrianism was 
 the same as in Hinduism, full defence of the whole 
 religion. The crudest and most superstitious observances 
 were allegorically explained as expressions of the highest 
 spiritual wisdom : 
 
 They preach to the less educated classes of people that there 
 is high efficacy in offering flowers and milk and cocoanuts to 
 the waters ; they preach to the people as an act of special reli- 
 gious merit to fall prostrate before and kiss imaginary pictures 
 of their prophet ; they exhort people to make a show of penitence 
 by a vigorous slapping of cheeks. They represent to the people 
 
 1 See above, p. 84. 2 See above, p. 226.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 345 
 
 that the sole efficacy of their prayers consist in the material 
 form resultant upon the physical vibrations created by their 
 utterances. 1 
 
 As in Hinduism, so here, the mounting spirit of national- 
 ism and community-feeling coalesced with the impulse to 
 defend the whole of the traditional faith ; and there arose 
 the cry : " Everything Zoroastrian is good ; everything 
 Western is bad ; we must defend ourselves against the 
 pestilential materialism of Europe." Behind this bulwark 
 of patriotic communal feeling all the conservative elements 
 of the Parsee race ranged themselves; and the tide of 
 nationalism swept for a time the mass of the young edu- 
 cated men into the party, and carried away even a few of 
 the older members of the reforming group. 
 
 Gradually this party began to pose as the expounders of 
 orthodox Zoroastrianism. The original message of the 
 prophet, they asserted, was identical with the Ancient 
 Wisdom, and included pantheism, the practice of yoga, 
 and the doctrine of reincarnation and karma. They 
 flouted the scientific methods of exegesis pursued by 
 scholarly Parsees, and endeavoured to defend superstitious 
 and even idolatrous practices in the light of Theosophy. 
 They stood by Mrs. Besant when she brought Mr. Lead- 
 beater back into the Theosophical Society in January iQOQ. 2 
 A clear expression of the position of this group of Parsees 
 will be found in The Message of Zoroaster, by A. S. N. Wadia, 
 published by Dent. 
 
 It was this group that caused the violent scenes that 
 marred the first and second Zoroastrian Conferences. 3 
 After that Conference, they separated themselves from the 
 reformers; and, in consequence, the Parsee community 
 has been rent into two parties. 
 
 1 Journal of the Iranian Association, March, 1913, p. 247. 
 1 See above, p. 273. See above, p. 89.
 
 346 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 This conservative group works mostly thro.ugh the 
 Zoroastrian Association, an old organization which has 
 fallen into their hands. They are toiling eagerly for the 
 amelioration of the community. They are doing good work 
 by erecting houses for the poorer classes ; and they have 
 started a Census to discover how much poverty there is 
 in the community. The paper which represents their 
 position is The Jami Jamshed. 
 
 3. A Zoroastrian propaganda has arisen in America. 
 The name used for the system is Mazdaznan. The founder, 
 who calls himself His Humbleness Zar-Adusht Hannish, is 
 said to be a man of German and Russian parentage, whose 
 real name is Otto Hannisch. He called himself a Persian, 
 and said he had come from Tibet (like Madame Blavat- 
 sky and M. Nicolai Notovitch), where he had penetrated 
 the deepest secrets of the Dalai Lama. 1 His teaching is a 
 mixture of Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and 
 Muslim elements. The side most emphasized in America 
 seems to be the effect of breathing and other exercises on 
 health. They celebrate the birth of Jesus on the 23rd of 
 May. Mazdaznan Temples have been erected in a few 
 places. In the Boston temple there is a brilliant representa- 
 tion of the sun. Perhaps the following may serve as a 
 sample of Mazdaznan teaching : 
 
 As an introductory step Mazdaznan offers the formula of 
 "Assurance, or Ahura's Prayer," which when uttered on the 
 breath, assures oxygenation and purification of the blood, 
 increased circulation and rhythmic heart action. 
 
 ASSURANCE, OR AHURA'S PRAYER 
 
 Our Father who art in Peace, 
 Intoned be Thy name ; 
 Thy realm arise ; 
 
 1 P. 27, above.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 347 
 
 Thy will incarnate upon the earth as in heaven. 
 
 This day impart Thy Word 
 
 And remember not our offenses 
 
 That we may forgive those who offend us. 
 
 Thru temptation guide us 
 
 And from error deliver us. Be it so. 
 
 The movement seems to have a few adherents in India. 
 
 II. THE MUHAMMADANS 
 
 The rise of the spirit which finds expression in the Hindu 
 movements we have dealt with above led to similar activity 
 among Muhammadans. Many observers agree in saying 
 that most educated Muslims are turning away from the 
 rationalism of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan l to orthodoxy. 
 
 i. In 1885 there was founded in the city of Lahore the 
 Anjuman-i-Himayet-i-Islam, i.e. the Society for the De- 
 fence of Islam; and since that date branch associations 
 have been formed in many towns throughout India. The 
 objects of the Association are set forth as follows in a 
 prospectus of the society : 
 
 I. (a) Rationally and intelligently to answer, through verbal 
 discussion or in writing, any accusations advanced 
 against Islam, and to further its propagation. 
 
 (6) To impart suitable and necessary education to Muslim 
 boys and girls, and save them from abjuring their 
 own true faith. 
 
 (c) To take upon itself the maintenance and education, to the 
 best of its ability, of Muhammadan orphans, and to 
 render all possible educational aid to poor Muslim 
 boys and girls, so as to save them from falling into 
 the hands of the followers of other religions. 
 
 1 P. 99, above.
 
 348 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 (d) To improve the social, moral and intellectual condition 
 
 of the Muslim community and initiate measures con- 
 ducive to the creation and preservation of friendly 
 feelings and concord between the different sects of 
 Islam. 
 
 (e) To bring home to the Muhammadans the advantages of 
 
 loyalty to the British Government. 
 
 IT. For the realisation of its objects, the Anjuman shall appoint 
 preachers, issue a monthly magazine, establish educa- 
 tional institutions and orphanages, and make use of other 
 necessary means. 
 
 Several accounts of the working of the parent Association 
 in Lahore have been placed in my hands, which give informa- 
 tion about its educational activities. The purpose, clearly, 
 is to give Muslims a good modern education, and, along 
 with it, religious instruction of a more orthodox type than 
 is given in Aligarh institutions. They are eager to increase 
 female education, and have nine girls' schools in Lahore. 
 They have two very large boys' schools in the same city, 
 and also an Arts College, called the Islamia College, with 
 200 pupils on the rolls and a European Principal. Islamic 
 Theology is taught daily in each of the classes. Attached 
 to the College is the Rivaz Hostel with 131 boarders. There 
 is then the Hamidia School with 27 pupils, an academy 
 for advanced Arabic scholarship. They have also an 
 Orphanage in the city in which some simple industrial 
 training is given. Of the educational efforts of the 
 associations in other towns I have failed to get reports. 
 
 Nor have my Muslim correspondents told me anything 
 about the other activities of the Anjuman. I am therefore 
 driven to give here the experience of missionaries : 
 
 The methods of defence adopted by this great organisation 
 have been, in brief, the establishment of Muhammadan vernac- 
 ular and Anglo-vernacular schools for the education of Muslim
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 349 
 
 youth, the publication of a literature, books, tracts and news- 
 papers, for the refutation of anti-Muslim publications as well as 
 for the commendation and propagation of the religion of Islam. 
 In addition to this a Muslim propaganda has been organized, 
 especially to withstand and hinder the work of missions. Even 
 Zenana teachers are supported, whose first duty is to break up, 
 if possible, the missionary Zenana and Girls' Schools. Pressure 
 is brought to bear upon Muslim parents and families to exclude 
 the Christian ladies and workers. Moreover, preachers are 
 supported and sent here and there to preach against the Chris- 
 tian religion and to use every effort to bring back to the Muslim 
 fold any who have been converted to Christianity. Christian 
 perverts are sent out as the chosen agents of this propaganda. 
 The results of the labours of the Anjuman-i-Himayat-ul- 
 Islam are apparent in a revival of interest among Muslims in 
 their own religion. The Mosques have been repaired and 
 efforts have not been fruitless in securing a better attendance. 
 The boycott inaugurated against missionary work has reduced 
 the attendance of Muslims at the chapels and schools, and has no 
 doubt closed many doors once open to Christian teaching. 1 
 
 Clearly this organization is a Muslim parallel to the Bharata 
 Dharma Mahamandala, though it has not gained so much 
 publicity. 
 
 2. In recent years the chief efforts made by Muslims in 
 defence of their religion have had as their object the pro- 
 duction of preachers, teachers and missionaries of a more 
 modern type. They wish them to be cultured men, fit to 
 lead and teach those who have had an English education ; 
 and they wish them to be well-trained theologians, able to 
 defend Islam against Christian, Arya and Hindu criticism, 
 and to carry the war into the enemy's territory. 
 
 In 1894 a Defence Association was formed, the Nadwat- 
 ul-Ulama, or Society of Muslim Theologians, which has 
 its central office in Lucknow. The principal objects of the 
 Association are stated as follows : 
 
 1 Madras Decennial Miss. Conf. Rep., 334.'
 
 350 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 (1) The advancement and reform of education in Arabic 
 Schools. 
 
 (2) The suppression of religious quarrels. 
 
 (3) Social reform. 
 
 (4) The pursuit of the general welfare of Mussulmans and 
 the spread of Islam. 
 
 The methods which this society employ for the defence 
 and strengthening of Islam are five : 
 
 (1) Most of their money and activity has been spent in 
 founding and maintaining in Lucknow a divinity school of 
 a new type meant to provide a more enlightened education 
 for the Muhammadan clergy. It is called the Dar-ul-ulum 
 (i.e. School of Theology) of the Nadwat-ul-Ulama and 
 dates from 1898. They wish to establish such institutions 
 elsewhere. A branch has already been opened at Shahja- 
 hanpur, and another in Madras. The young men undergo 
 a very serious training, lasting at least eight years, in all 
 branches of Muhammadan theology ; and in addition they 
 are taught English, Geography and Mathematics. They 
 receive no training in Christianity or Hinduism. The 
 curriculum as a whole is a great advance on the old educa- 
 tion. There are about 100 students at present ; but much 
 larger numbers are expected in future. A great building 
 is being erected for the Seminary on the north bank of 
 the Goomti River. 
 
 (2) Missionaries are sent out to preach. 
 
 (3) An Urdu monthly magazine, En Nadwa, is published, 
 in which attempts are made to reconcile Muslim thought 
 with modern science and thought. 
 
 (4) There is an orphanage in Cawnpore. 
 
 (5) An Annual Conference is held. 
 
 Under another society a theological seminary, the 
 Madrasa-i-Ildhiyat, has been organized in Cawnpore. I 
 understand it owes its existence mainly to a desire to
 
 repel the attacks of the Arya Samaj, several Muslims, 
 including one Moulvie at least, having gone over to Hin- 
 duism under Arya influence. The aims of the institution 
 are two : 
 
 a. To protect Islam from external attacks. 
 
 b. To send missionaries to preach Islam among Non- 
 Muslims, and ignorant Muslims. 
 
 Six subjects are taught, the Koran, Islamic theology and 
 philosophy, the defence of Islam, Christianity, Western 
 science, and Sanskrit. There are seven students at present. 
 None of them know English ; but I was told that some of 
 the missionaries already sent out do know English. A 
 printing press is attached to the school ; and a series of 
 tracts has already been published against the Arya Samaj. 
 
 A third seminary recently founded is the Anjuman-i- 
 Naumania, which is carried on in the Shahi Mosque, Lahore. 
 The Secretary writes, "Ours is a purely religious school 
 teaching Arabic literature and sciences through the medium 
 of our vernacular." From another source I learn that the 
 institution receives considerable financial help from Mus- 
 lims who have had a university education. 
 
 Fourthly, a learned Muhammadan, named Hakim Ajmal 
 Haziq-ul-Mulk, who is a doctor and resides in Delhi, has 
 the idea of combining Orthodox Muhammadanism with 
 Western culture. He has already trained four graduates of 
 Aligarh as Moulvies. 
 
 The most important and most orthodox of all Muslim 
 seminaries in India is the Dar-ul-ulum, or School of Theol- 
 ogy, at Deoband, near Saharanpur. It has about 500 
 students. All Muslims acknowledge that it is very old- 
 fashioned. Yet even here the pressure of modern times 
 is being felt: an English class has recently been opened, 
 and attempts are being made to reform the divinity course 
 in several directions.
 
 352 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 In Jubbulpore there is a little group of Muslims who have 
 had an English education and are very eager to defend 
 their religion. They told me that they had already started 
 a High School in the town, the purpose of which is to pre- 
 serve and to spread Muhammadanism. They have also 
 opened a little school on the same lines as the seminary in 
 Lucknow. It is as yet but a little venture ; but they hope 
 to raise the standard and train young men to know the 
 Koran thoroughly, and also to deal with men of other reli- 
 gions. 
 
 An All-India Muslim Students' Brotherhood with its 
 headquarters at Aligarh has just been formed. 
 
 Finally, there is a Muhammadan Book and Tract Depot 
 in Lahore, where a large variety of volumes, both in Urdu 
 and English, are offered for sale. Any English work which 
 can be used apologetically, e.g. Carlyle's Hero as Prophet, is 
 published and sold cheap. 
 
 3. The movements already dealt with are all among 
 Sunnis ; but the Shiahs are also active. They hold an annual 
 Conference x which is meant mainly to rouse their commu- 
 nity on the subject of education and to find money for its 
 extension. I am told also that there is at present a great 
 upward movement of the Feringhi Mahal School. Their 
 work is mostly literary. They translate English works 
 into Urdu. They are approaching far more than formerly 
 the philosophy of the West. 
 
 12. SECTARIAN UNIVERSITIES 
 
 The most successful of the educational efforts yet made 
 for the defence and strengthening of Hinduism has been the 
 Central Hindu College, Benares, founded by Hindus under 
 the leadership of Mrs. Besant and the Theosophical Society. 
 
 i ISR., XX, 234.
 
 FULL DEFENCE OF THE OLD RELIGIONS 353 
 
 It is strong, efficient, successful, and it actually teaches 
 Hinduism. Hence a desire has arisen to take the further 
 forward step of creating a Hindu University which should 
 arrange curricula, hold examinations and confer degrees. 
 In this way, not the actual work of teaching only, but the 
 aims of education, the subjects taught and the standards 
 demanded would be under Hindu control. Naturally the 
 Muhammadan community at once followed suit and pro- 
 posed a Muslim University. Both parties began the collec- 
 tion of funds. 
 
 These proposals are so contrary to the spirit of University 
 culture and so likely to stand in the way of every movement 
 for the increasing of friendliness and harmony amongst the 
 various religious communities of India that it seems certain 
 that the Government of India would have vetoed them 
 absolutely, had there not been something (all unknown to 
 the public) to hinder their action. They have, however, 
 definitely decided that, if such Universities are set up, they 
 shall be local teaching Universities, and not territorial 
 organizations like the existing Universities. This obviates 
 the most serious dangers. Meantime Mrs. Besant has 
 fallen from her high place in Benares ; * and the proposals 
 for the present seem to hang fire. 
 
 1 P. 276, above. 
 
 2 A
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 1895-1913 
 
 IN this last section of our period a frightful portent flamed 
 up in India, anarchism and murder inspired by religion. 
 But, fortunately, there seems to be good reason for believ- 
 ing that the outbreak of violence will prove a lurid episode 
 in a time of great and better things. Facts seem to justify 
 our marking off these years sharply from the preceding; 
 for new ideals and passions which are visible in their best 
 literature and noblest activity as well as in anarchism dis- 
 tinguish it clearly from earlier times. Yet there is a certain 
 continuity : the new spirit is a further stage of the move- 
 ment which began a century ago, a further unfolding of 
 what has been latent in the Awakening from the beginning. 
 The notes of what we tentatively call Religious Nationalism 
 seem to be as follows : 
 
 A. Independence. A distinct advance in thought and 
 action made itself manifest about 1870. Young India 
 began to think of political influence and to defend the 
 ancient religious heritage. Yet there was a sort of half- 
 dependence on the ideals and the thought of others, which 
 gives the time an appearance of unripeness. In this new 
 era we have the assertion of the full independence of the 
 Indian mind. The educated Indian now regards himself 
 as a full-grown man, the equal in every respect of the cul- 
 tured European, not to be set aside as an Asiatic, or as a 
 member of a dark race. He claims the right of thinking 
 his own thoughts ; and he is quite prepared to burn what 
 
 354
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 355 
 
 he has hitherto adored and to create a new heaven and a 
 new earth. This adult self-confidence was immeasurably 
 strengthened by the victory of Japan over Russia. Every 
 Asiatic felt himself recreated by that great event. To all 
 Asiatic lands it was a crisis in race-history, the moment 
 when the age-old flood of European aggression was turned 
 back. The exultation which every Indian felt over the 
 victory lifted the national spirit to its height and gave a 
 new note of strength to the period. 
 
 B. A new nationalism. The patriotism of to-day makes 
 the feeling which inspired the Congress seem a very blood- 
 less thing indeed. Men now live at fever-heat, carried 
 beyond themselves by a new overmastering devotion to the 
 good of India. But there is clear sight as well as passion. 
 The new nationalism is much more serious and open-eyed 
 than the thin old politicalism. It is burdened, tortured, 
 driven forward by the conviction that the whole national 
 life needs to be reinspired and reborn. Full proof of the 
 depths to which the Indian mind has been stirred may be 
 seen in this, that in all the best minds the new feeling and 
 the fresh thought are fired by religion, either a furious 
 devotion to some divinity of hate and blood, or a self-con- 
 secration to God and India which promises to bear good fruit. 
 Finally, whether in anarchists or in men of peace, the new 
 nationalism is willing to serve and suffer. The deluded 
 boys who believed they could bring in India's millennium by 
 murdering a few white men were quite prepared to give 
 their lives for their country ; and the healthy movements 
 which incarnate the new spirit at its best spend themselves 
 in unselfish service. 
 
 i. ANARCHISM 
 
 Before we attempt to describe the murderous propaganda 
 we had better endeavour to realize what curdled to such
 
 356 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 bitterness the spirit of many of the most generous young 
 Indians of our days. What were the causes of the sudden 
 storm of furious hate ? 
 
 1. The fact that India is under a foreign government. The 
 first thought of the man filled with the new spirit is that 
 this is utterly wrong, something which simply ought not to 
 be. India ought to be guided by her own ideals and ruled 
 by her own men. Her present rulers loom up as tyrannical 
 aggressors, thieves of the nation's rights, ruthless destroyers 
 of her priceless ancient heritage. 
 
 2. The race-hatred and race-contempt of Europeans. I am 
 not one of those who believe that the Englishman behaves 
 worse in his imperial position than other nationalities would 
 do, if they were in his place. Indeed, I am inclined to 
 think that, in comparison with others, he stands fairly high. 
 Yet the fact remains that there is a percentage of Europeans 
 in India soldiers, mechanics, shop assistants, business 
 men, with a sprinkling even of professional men, army 
 officers, and civilians who continually shew contempt 
 and hatred for Indians and speak of them as an inferior race, 
 and who from time to time assault Indian servants and 
 subordinates, and treat educated Indians with the grossest 
 rudeness. This behaviour of a small minority of our fellow- 
 countrymen, which at all times has produced very serious 
 results, necessarily stirred the fiercest passions, when 
 national feeling and Indian self-respect rose to flood-tide. 
 
 We must also frankly acknowledge that every piece of 
 self-complacent, ill-informed, unsympathetic criticism of 
 Indian religion, society and life, whether written by tourist, 
 missionary or official, helped to inflame the sense of wrong 
 and to embitter the resentment which the imperial position 
 of Britain necessarily creates. 
 
 3. Lord Curzon. Perhaps no man was ever so well pre- 
 pared for the viceroyalty as Lord Curzon was. Certainly
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 357 
 
 no man ever toiled harder in the position, or worked more 
 disinterestedly for the good of India. His insight and his 
 unsparing labour are already producing their fruits in higher 
 efficiency in education and many other departments of 
 Indian life. Yet it was his tragic destiny to be more 
 furiously detested by the educated Indian than any other 
 Englishman. The cause lay in his self-confident and arro- 
 gant spirit and manner. Twenty years earlier they would 
 have scarcely provoked comment; but, contemporaneous 
 with the rise of the Indian mind to independence and na- 
 tional dignity and with the emergence of Asia from her 
 secular slavery to Europe, they stung India to fury and 
 worked wild ruin. 
 
 4. The inner antagonism between Hindu and Western 
 culture. When the modern Indian reached self-conscious- 
 ness and self-confidence, there could not fail to come a 
 violent reaction from the attitude of reverence for the West 
 which had guided his scholar-footsteps. Trained to think 
 by his modern education, he could not fail to turn back to 
 the ancient culture which lived in him and make the most 
 of it. The period of training had been too repressive, too 
 fully dominated by the West. The reaction was bound to 
 come. Thus the old passionate devotion to Hinduism 
 flared up and increased the passion of the anarchist ; and 
 his perception of the inner antagonism between Hindu and 
 Western culture-ideals at once justified and embittered his 
 hatred. 
 
 5. Exaggerated praise of India and condemnation of the 
 West. This more than anything else was the cause of the 
 ruinous folly which marked so much of the teaching and 
 the action of the anarchists. Dayananda, the Theosophists, 
 Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita and all that followed them 
 talked in the wildest and most extravagant way in praise of 
 Hinduism and Indian civilization and in condemnation of
 
 358 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Christianity and the West; so that they actually led the 
 average educated Hindu to believe the doctrine, that every- 
 thing Indian is pure, spiritual and lofty, and that every- 
 thing Western is materialistic, sensual, devilish. I do 
 not believe that these leaders had any sinister political 
 motive for this policy. Sir Valentine Chirol is inclined to 
 go too far in this matter. What they did they did hi the 
 hope of making their followers devoted and enthusiastic 
 Hindus, and of rousing them to toil for the benefit of India. 
 But you cannot sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind. 
 If it be true that Hinduism and Indian civilization are purely 
 spiritual and good, and that Christianity and Western 
 civilization are grossly materialistic and corrupt, then the 
 average Hindu was quite right in drawing the conclusion 
 that the sooner India is rid of Europeans and Western influ- 
 ence the better : we are already on the very verge of the 
 doctrine of the anarchists. These leaders are directly 
 responsible for a great deal of the wildest teaching of the 
 assassin press. It is not merely the general attitude that 
 is common to the revivalists and the anarchists. It is as 
 clear as noonday that the religious aspect of anarchism was 
 merely an extension of that revival of Hinduism which is 
 the work of Dayananda, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda and 
 the Theosophists. Further, the historical is almost as close 
 as the logical connection. Dayananda started the Anti- 
 cow-killing agitation in i882. : The movement grew until, 
 in 1888, it had reached colossal proportions; and in 1893 
 Tilak made it one of his most potent tools. Krishnavarma 
 was a pupil of Dayananda ; Lajpat Rai was for many years 
 one of the chief leaders of the Arya Samaj ; and Vivek- 
 ananda's brother Bhupendra was one of the most influ- 
 ential of the anarchist journalists of Calcutta. 
 The history of Indian anarchism cannot be written yet. 
 1 P. in, above.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 359 
 
 The most salient facts may be found in Sir Valentine 
 Chirol's Indian Unrest ; l but every careful reader of that 
 useful volume must feel very distinctly that there are many 
 facts as yet unknown which are needed to make the growth 
 of the movement intelligible. We mention here only the 
 names of the leaders. 
 
 So far as can be seen at present, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a 
 member of the sept of Brahmans that led and governed the 
 Marathas, formed the earliest centre of the propaganda 
 known as anarchism. The Anti-cow-killing agitation 
 already referred to was one of several experiments which he 
 tried in seeking to rouse his people to energetic political 
 action ; but in 1895 ne organized a great celebration of the 
 birthday of Sivaji, the chieftain who, in the latter half of 
 the seventeenth century, made the Maratha tribes an iron 
 army and a united nation to resist the Muhammadans. 
 This widespread commemoration of the Maratha leader in 
 1895 i s significant, because in it for the first time all the 
 features of the Extremist propaganda stand out clear; 
 and there is unquestionable proof that it contained the 
 poison of anarchy; for within two years it worked itself 
 out in murder in the streets of Poona. For this reason we 
 take 1895 as the date of the arrival of the new spirit in 
 Indian history. 
 
 Two other men can be discerned as generators of the 
 anarchical spirit, alongside of Tilak, between 1900 and 1905. 
 These are Syamaji Krishnavarma in London and Bipin 
 Chandra Pal in Calcutta. The former, who had been a 
 personal friend and pupil of Dayananda, lived in India 
 House, London, edited the Indian Sociologist, and filled 
 many a young Hindu student with the poison of hate and 
 murder. Here perhaps was the chief centre of the cult of 
 the bomb. Bipin Chandra Pal edited a journal, called 
 
 1 London, Macmillan, 1910, 55. net.
 
 360 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 New India, the settled policy of which was to publish every 
 tale that could be found and exaggerated to fill the Indian 
 mind with the bitterest hatred and profoundest contempt 
 for Europeans, and to urge Indians to train themselves 
 physically to be able to fight those blackguards. 
 
 The following paragraphs by the Rev. C. F. Andrews of 
 Delhi describe very faithfully the effect of the Russo- 
 Japanese war upon India : 
 
 At the close of the year 1904 it was clear to those who were 
 watching the political horizon that great changes were impending 
 in the East. Storm-clouds had been gathering thick and fast. 
 The air was full of electricity. The war between Russia and 
 Japan had kept the surrounding peoples on the tip-toe of expecta- 
 tion. A stir of excitement passed over the North of India. 
 Even the remote villagers talked over the victories of Japan as 
 they sat in their circles and passed round the huqqa at night. 
 One of the older men said to me, "There has been nothing like it 
 since the Mutiny." A Turkish cousul of long experience in 
 Western Asia told me that in the interior you could see every- 
 where the most ignorant peasants "tingling" with the news. 
 Asia was moved from one end to the other, and the sleep of the 
 centuries was finally broken. It was a time when it was "good 
 to be alive," for a new chapter was being written in the book of 
 the world's history. 
 
 My own work at Delhi was at a singular point of vantage. 
 It was a meeting-point of Hindus and Musalmans, where their 
 opinions could be noted and recorded. The Aligarh movement 
 among Muhammadans was close at hand, and I was in touch 
 with it. I was also in sympathy with Hindu leaders of the 
 modern school of Indian thought and shared many of their views. 
 Each party spoke freely to me of their hopes and aims. The 
 Musalmans, as one expected, regarded the reverses of Russia 
 chiefly from the territorial standpoint. These reverses seemed 
 to mark the limit of the expansion of the Christian nations over 
 the world's surface. The Hindus regarded more the inner 
 significance of the event. The old-time glory and greatness of 
 Asia seemed destined to return. The material aggrandisement
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 361 
 
 of the European races at the expense of the East seemed at last 
 to be checked. The whole of Buddhaland from Ceylon to 
 Japan might again become one in thought and life. Hinduism 
 might once more bring forth its old treasures of spiritual culture 
 for the benefit of mankind. Behind these dreams and visions 
 was the one exulting hope that the days of servitude to the 
 West were over and the day of independence had dawned. 
 Much had gone before to prepare the way for such a dawn of 
 hope : the Japanese victories made it, for the first time, shining 
 and radiant. 1 
 
 Now, in contrast with these glowing lights, let us place 
 some of Lord Curzon's acts as they seemed at the time to 
 educated Indians. He gave an address at Calcutta Uni- 
 versity Convocation in which he suggested to a listening 
 nation that they were a nation of liars. He created and 
 passed a Universities' Act which was meant to introduce a 
 number of much-needed reforms into the higher education ; 
 yet, honestly or dishonestly, almost the whole native press 
 interpreted it as meant to curtail Western education among 
 Indians, and thereby to weaken their influence in the coun- 
 try. Then there came, in 1905, the Partition of Bengal. 
 It is now perfectly clear that some serious change in the 
 administration of the province was urgently required; 
 and there seems to be no reason to doubt that Lord Curzon 
 believed he was carrying out the best policy ; but he paid 
 but little attention to Bengali feeling and opinion, and some 
 of the speeches which he delivered in a tour through the 
 province were provocative in the last degree. In any case, 
 his action infuriated the educated classes of Bengal; the 
 whole country was soon rocking in sympathy with them; 
 and an unscrupulous propaganda roused the wildest passion, 
 excited the students beyond measure and led to many 
 riots. 
 
 It was these events that gave the Anarchist party their 
 
 1 The Renaissance in India, 4-5.
 
 362 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 opportunity. Immediately a new type of journalism 
 appeared in Calcutta. The chief writers were Aravinda 
 Ghose, who had been educated in England, and had then 
 spent some years in the service of the Gaekwar of Baroda, 
 his brother Barendra, Bipin Chandra Pal and Bhupendra 
 Nath Dutt, a brother of Svami Vivekananda; while 
 Tilak and his followers continued the campaign in the West, 
 and Lala Lajpat Rai and some other Aryas did all they could 
 to rouse the Pan jab. A long series of murders and at- 
 tempted murders of Europeans and Indians was the direct 
 result of this writing and of the secret plotting of men who 
 are not yet fully known. 
 
 Perhaps the most amazing fact in the whole sad history is 
 this, that the Moderate party, which until now had con- 
 trolled the National Congress and had led the educated 
 community, were swept off their feet and dragged behind the 
 Anarchists, almost without a word of protest, until the 
 Congress met at Surat in 1907 ; when the two parties ac- 
 tually came to blows, and the gathering had to be broken 
 up. This fact, and the terrible catalogue of murders which 
 was steadily lengthening out, at last convinced the Mod- 
 erates that they must dissociate themselves from the 
 teaching of the Anarchist party. Then the tide began to 
 turn. Fewer of the high-strung, unselfish students fell 
 into the toils of the men who planned the murders. In 
 June, 1908, Tilak was arrested and sent to prison for six 
 years for seditious writing. Lord Morley, who was Secre- 
 tary of State for India, and the Viceroy, Lord Minto, had 
 the new Councils Act passed in 1909, which proved that 
 Britain is really anxious to go forward and give educated 
 India a gradually increasing share in the government of the 
 Empire. The King's visit touched the hearts of the people 
 of India as nothing has done for many years ; and the re- 
 arrangement of the two Bengals helped to heal old wounds.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 363 
 
 The results have been priceless. There is now a clear per- 
 ception of the fact that Indians must cooperate with the 
 British Government in order to bring in the better day for 
 India. Things look distinctly promising. 1 
 The following are the chief notes of Anarchist teaching : 
 
 1. Indian civilization in all its branches, religion, 
 education, art, industry, home life and government, is 
 healthy, spiritual, beautiful and good. It has become cor- 
 rupted in the course of the centuries, but that is largely the 
 result of the cruelty and aggression of the Muhammadans 
 in former times and now of the British. The Indian patriot 
 must toil to restore Indian life and civilization. 
 
 2. Western civilization in all its parts, religion, educa- 
 tion, art, business and government, is gross, materialistic 
 and therefore degrading to India. The patriotic Indian 
 must recognize the grave danger lurking in every element 
 of Western influence, must hate it, and must be on his 
 guard against it. 
 
 The inevitable result of this has been race-hatred such 
 as has never been seen in India before. The Anarchist 
 press was filled with the uttermost hate and bitterness. 
 
 3. India ought to be made truly Indian. There is no 
 place for Europeans in the country. Indians can manage 
 everything far better than Europeans can. The British 
 Government, Missions, European trade and Western influ- 
 ence of every kind, are altogether unhealthy in India. 
 Everything should belong to the Indians themselves. 
 
 4. Hence it is a religious duty to get rid of the European 
 and all the evils that attend him. The better a man under- 
 stands his religion, the more clear will be his perception that 
 Europeans and European influence must be rooted out. 
 All means for the attainment of this end are justifiable. As 
 
 1 Since these words were put in type, the war has come, and Tilak and 
 Lajpat Rai are loyally helping the Government.
 
 364 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Krishna killed Kamsa, so the modern Indian must kill the 
 European demons that are tyrannically holding India down. 
 The blood-thirsty goddess Kali ought to be much honoured 
 by the Indian patriot. Even the Gita was used to teach 
 murder. Lies, deceit, murder, everything, it was argued, 
 may be rightly used. How far the leaders really believed 
 this teaching no man can say; but the younger men got 
 filled with it, and many were only too sincere. 
 
 5. The whole propaganda was marked by a complete 
 disregard of historical truth. The most frightful distor- 
 tions of past events, and the foulest slanders both of the 
 Government and of individual Europeans went the round of 
 the press, and did their poisonous work. 
 
 LITERATURE. The New Spirit, by Bepin Chandra Pal, Calcutta, 
 Sinha, Sarvadhicari & Co., 1907, Rs. i as. 4. Life of AravindaGhosha, 
 by Rama Chandra Palita, Calcutta, the author, 1911, Rs. i as. 8. 
 Indian Unrest, by Sir Valentine Chirol, London, Macmillan, 1910, 
 55. net. 
 
 Anarchism flung itself against the British Government 
 and fell back broken. The whole movement was a piti- 
 ful piece of waste, waste of energy, patriotic feeling, 
 literary skill and human life. One cannot look back 
 upon it without a very heavy heart, as one thinks of all the 
 dignity and worth of the character and feeling which were 
 perverted and flung away. But the same high love for 
 India and will to be spent for her sake have found healthy 
 channels for themselves along various lines. In all these 
 movements the main notes of the period ring out very dis- 
 tinctly: the end in view in each case is the national ad- 
 vancement; the religious sanction is always in the back- 
 ground, even if it is not distinctly expressed ; the work is 
 of the nature of unselfish service ; and high passion inspires 
 the whole. We subdivide the movements into four groups, 
 industrial, social, artistic and poetic.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 365 
 
 2. INDUSTRY, SCIENCE, ECONOMICS 
 
 The Swadeshi Movement (svadesi = belonging to one's 
 own country), an agitation for the strengthening of Indian 
 industries, arose in Bengal in Lord Curzon's viceroyalty 
 under the stimulus of national excitement. Indians were 
 urged to buy goods of Indian design and manufacture; 
 articles and books were published, exhibiting the vast natu- 
 ral resources of India, the abundance of cheap labour avail- 
 able, and shewing how much India loses through importing 
 what might quite well be made in the country. The 
 movement was later contaminated by an organized Boycott 
 of British goods, which was accompanied by much violence 
 and social tyranny, disturbed business for a while, and em- 
 bittered relations between the races, but entirely failed to 
 divert the natural course of trade. The legitimate move- 
 ment, however, has been distinctly useful. The educated 
 classes began to think of economic questions, and every 
 Indian industry was encouraged and quickened. Under 
 the same impulse a society was formed in Calcutta for the 
 purpose of sending young men to Europe, America or Japan 
 to receive industrial or scientific education. When these 
 students began to return from study, a supply of trained 
 workers became available for the furthering of native in- 
 dustries. Between 1905 and 1907 a considerable number of 
 new manufacturing and trading companies were formed in 
 various parts of India, but above all in Bengal. Cotton, 
 jute, leather, soap, glass and other manufactures were at- 
 tempted. There was at least one steam navigation com- 
 pany. Several Banks and Insurance Companies arose. 
 All have not proved successful by any means from the 
 business point of view ; indeed, in the end of 1913, a number 
 of Indian banks collapsed ; but experience has been gained ; 
 and in a number of cases considerable progress has been 
 achieved.
 
 366 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 There has also been an increase in the number of students 
 reading science, agriculture and economics at the Univer- 
 sities; and several Indians have written wisely and well 
 on economic questions. 
 
 3. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SERVICE 
 
 a. Help for the Depressed Classes 
 
 One sixth of the whole population of India, a vast mass 
 of humanity outnumbering all the people of England, Scot- 
 land, Ireland and Wales, have for some two thousand years 
 been held down by Hindus at the bottom of society, in 
 indescribable ignorance, dirt and degradation, on the ground 
 that they are so foul as to be unfit for ordinary human 
 intercourse. According to the orthodox theory, every man 
 born among these people is a soul which in former lives 
 lived so viciously that his present degradation is the just 
 punishment for his former sin. They are called Outcastes, 
 Untouchables, Panchamas, or the Depressed Classes. 
 What sort of a national danger this mass of crushed human- 
 ity is to India, every student of sociology and politics will 
 readily realize. These people belong to many different 
 races, and are found in every part of India, sometimes in 
 small, sometimes in large groups. Their poverty is in most 
 cases pitiable. Their religion consists in pacifying diabolic 
 powers by means of animal sacrifice and various forms of 
 barbaric ritual. 
 
 More than a century ago Christian missionaries at- 
 tempted to win some of these groups for Christ; and at 
 quite an early date they met with some success ; but it was 
 not until the year 1880 that anything startling occurred. 
 The years from 1876 to 1879 were marked by a frightful 
 famine, which brought indescribable suffering and lament- 
 able loss of life in many parts of the South of India. Chris- 
 tians could not stand idly by in these circumstances :
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 367 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of people were dying in the Tamil and 
 Telugu countries. Government was doing what it could in 
 face of the hopeless mass of misery. There were few railroads, 
 and grain brought from other countries by sea rotted on the 
 beach at Madras while people two hundred miles away starved 
 for lack of it. At this crisis missionaries everywhere co-operated 
 with Government in the work of relief, raising funds among their 
 own supporters at home, carrying out earthworks, and so finding 
 employment for many poor people, and doing all that pity and 
 their close contact with the people enabled them to do to help the 
 sufferers. 1 
 
 The result was that to these poor down-trodden people 
 the contrast between Hinduism which held them down, 
 and Christianity which did all that it possibly could to save 
 them, began to be dimly visible; and, after the famine 
 was over, they came to the missionaries in thousands for 
 baptism. Such movements have occurred in several dis- 
 tinct parts of India. When such a movement begins, it 
 usually lasts for a number of years, and then dies down. 
 Or, it may slacken and then increase again. 
 
 Wherever it has been possible to give sufficient attention 
 to this work, very remarkable results have been secured. 
 When missionaries began to appeal to these people, Hindus 
 jeered at them, saying they might as well attempt to uplift 
 the monkeys of the forest. Certainly, at first sight, they 
 are most unpromising material, physically, socially, men- 
 tally, morally. Yet the truth of Christ and loving Chris- 
 tian service have worked miracles. They have responded 
 nobly, and great advances in physical well-being, in educa- 
 tion, in society and the family, and also in religion, have been 
 won. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features of the work is this, 
 that Hindus and Muhammadans all over India at once give 
 the baptized Outcaste a new standing. He is no longer 
 1 The Outcastes' Hope, 32-3.
 
 368 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 untouchable and beyond the pale, but is received as other 
 Christians are. 
 
 For many years the work went on without causing much 
 comment from the Hindu side ; though, now and then, some 
 educated man would refer to Christian success among these 
 people either in scorn or in bitter anger. But, just about 
 the time when the new nationalist spirit was spreading far 
 and wide, fresh currents of thought began to shew them- 
 selves both among the Outcastes themselves and among 
 educated men. 
 
 Groups of these Outcastes who had not become Chris- 
 tians had begun to realize that the doctrine which for so 
 long had justified their miserable condition was false, and 
 that it was not held by missionaries or the British Govern- 
 ment. The hope that they might be able to throw off their 
 chains began to rise in their hearts. These new stirrings 
 appeared in different parts of India. First of all, came the 
 Tiyas of Malabar, and, later, the Vokkaligas of Mysore. 
 In the case of both these peoples the rising is so remarkable 
 that we have dealt with them alongside of Caste movements. 1 
 Another noticeable case is the rising of the Mahars of the 
 Maratha country. They met in Conference at Poona in 
 November, 1910, and drew up a Memorial to the Earl of 
 Crewe, Secretary of State for India, begging that certain 
 privileges which their fathers enjoyed in the Indian army 
 should be restored to them. In this connection they speak 
 of the many Mahars who fell wounded or died fighting 
 bravely side by side with Europeans, and with Indians who 
 were not Outcastes. But much more important than this 
 claim of theirs is the spirit shown in the Memorial, and the 
 statements they make to the Secretary for India. The 
 following are a few sentences taken from it : 
 
 1 Above, pp. 311 and 314.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 369 
 
 As British subjects we cannot, we should not submit to ordi- 
 nances which are entirely foreign to British ideas of public justice 
 and public honour. We are sick of the bondage which the barbar- 
 ism of Hindu customs imposes upon us ; we long to enjoy the 
 perfect freedom which the British nation and the British Gov- 
 ernment desire to offer impartially to all those who are con- 
 nected with them as British subjects. 
 
 We would, therefore, earnestly appeal to the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment to move on our behalf. We have long submitted to the 
 Jagannath of caste; we have for ages been crushed under its 
 ponderous wheels. But we can now no longer submit to the 
 tyranny. 
 
 Our Hindu rulers did not recognize our manhood, and treated 
 us worse than their cattle; and shall not that nation which 
 emancipated the Negro at infinite self-sacrifice, and enlightened 
 and elevated the poorer people of its own commonwealth, 
 condescend to give us a helping hand ? 
 
 The kindly touch of the Christian religion elevates the Mahar 
 at once and for ever, socially as well as politically, and shall not 
 the magic power of British Law and British Justice produce the 
 same effect upon us even as followers of our own ancestral faith ? 
 
 A similar story may be told of the Namasudras of Bengal. 
 They are amongst the very lowest classes of the country; 
 yet we find them in Conference in April, 1910, seeking to 
 plan for their own advancement, and stirring each other 
 up to various items of social reform. 1 A few months later 
 a still more interesting event took place in the Panjab : 
 
 An incident which would appear to be queer, under existing 
 conditions, is reported to the Hindustan from Jullundur. To 
 the reflecting mind it appears to be but the beginning, feeble 
 though it be, of a spirit of retaliation against the most inhuman 
 and degrading treatment meted out by Hindus and Mussalmans 
 alike to the depressed classes for centuries past. The sweepers 
 of Jullundur have started a society called the Valmika Samdj 
 to defend their interests. They do not think themselves to be 
 in any way inferior to their Hindu or Mussalman compatriots. 
 
 * ISR., XX, 397. 
 
 2B
 
 370 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 At the last Dussehra fair they opened a shop vending sweet- 
 meats for the benefit of members of their own community. The 
 following is the translation on the board: "Let it be known 
 to the High-born that Hindus and Mussalmans are prohibited to 
 buy sweets here. Chuhras and all others are welcome." 1 
 
 Somewhere about 1903 the whole problem began to be 
 discussed in the Indian press. Orthodox Hindus still con- 
 demned the missionary propaganda in violent terms, but 
 far-sighted men gave utterance to other ideas. Here is 
 what the Hon. Mr. G. K. Gokhale said at a public meeting 
 in Dharwar in 1903 : 
 
 I think all fair-minded persons will have to admit that it is 
 absolutely monstrous that a class of human beings with bodies 
 similar to our own, with brains that can think and with hearts 
 that can feel, should be perpetually condemned to a low life of 
 utter wretchedness, servitude and mental and moral degradation, 
 and that permanent barriers should be placed in their way so 
 that it should be impossible for them ever to overcome them and 
 improve their lot. This is deeply revolting to our sense of jus- 
 tice. I believe one has only to put oneself mentally into their 
 places to realize how grievous this injustice is. We may touch 
 a cat, we may touch a dog, we may touch any other animal, but 
 the touch of these human beings is pollution. And so complete 
 is now the mental degradation of these people that they them- 
 selves see nothing in such treatment to resent, that they acquiesce 
 in it as though nothing better than that was their due. More- 
 over, is it, I may ask, consistent with our own self-respect that 
 these men should be kept out of our houses and shut out from all 
 social intercourse as long as they remain within the pale of Hin- 
 duism, whereas the moment they put on a coat, and a hat and a 
 pair of trousers and call themselves Christians we are prepared 
 to shake hands with them and look upon them as quite 
 respectable ? No sensible man will say that this is a satisfactory 
 state of things. 2 
 
 1 From the Punjabee. Reproduced in ISR., XXI, 98. 
 
 2 Quoted in the Memorial of the Mahars.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 371 
 
 At a later date Mr. Gokhale's political instincts led him to 
 give utterance to another wise word : 
 
 The problem of the depressed classes really went to the root 
 of their claim to be treated on terms of equality with other 
 civilized communities of the world. They were all of them 
 asking he might even use the word clamouring for equal 
 treatment by other communities. He thought they were 
 entitled to do that, and they would be unworthy of their man- 
 hood if they did not agitate for it. But they would deserve to 
 have it only when they were prepared to extend the same treat- 
 ment to those who expected it at their hands. 1 
 
 The Arya Samaj was probably the first body that pro- 
 posed to outflank the missionary movement : 
 
 While the people of India increased in 1891-1901 at the rate 
 of i per cent, native Christians increased at the rate of over 
 30 per cent. Just consider for a moment what Christian mission- 
 aries are accomplishing in India, though they come here from the 
 remotest part of Europe. They beat even the Arya Samajists, 
 in spite of their preaching the indigenous faith of the country. 
 The reason is that the Arya Samajists have not yet learnt to 
 work among the masses who form the backbone of India. It is 
 high time for us to realize that the future of India lies not in the 
 hands of the higher classes but of the low caste people, and if we 
 devote the best part of our enegry in raising the status of the 
 masses, we can make every Indian household resound with the 
 chanting of Vedas at no distant date. But where are the men, 
 where is the sacrifice ? 2 
 
 Later, certain Hindus took up the same position; but 
 others pointed out that the policy of raising the Outcaste 
 is contrary to Hinduism and must certainly tend to break 
 up the religion. The following is a sentence from the 
 
 Mahratta : 3 
 
 Now we know that the result of educating the depressed 
 classes must be in the long run to weaken, if not utterly destroy 
 caste. 
 
 1 ISR., XX, 88. * From the Arya Messenger. ' November 7, 1909.
 
 372 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Yet, in spite of many cries of danger, the conscience of 
 India has been waked. Men realize that it is wrong to hold 
 down the Outcaste. Then the new Nationalist conscious- 
 ness feels so distinctly the need of unifying the nation and of 
 strengthening every element in the population that the prob- 
 lem of transforming these fifty millions of crushed Indians 
 into vigorous citizens is felt to be one of the most pressing 
 national problems. Hence the best men have turned to 
 action. 
 
 The Brahma Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj were the 
 first bodies outside the Christian Church that gave any 
 attention to the depressed classes ; but their work has never 
 risen to such dimensions as to make it of great importance. 
 The Prarthana Samaj in Mangalore has been working among 
 these poor people since 1898, and the Brahmas have a 
 little work going on in East Bengal. In 1906, however, 
 things began to take a more practical turn. The Depressed 
 Classes Mission Society of India was founded in Bombay 
 that year. It shows clearly the influence of the most recent 
 developments of the national spirit ; for the philanthropic 
 aim of the work is largely sustained by national feeling; 
 and people of any religion may take part in the work. As a 
 matter of fact, however, the leaders throughout have be- 
 longed to the Prarthana Samaj, though they have received 
 a great deal of support from Hindus. The following gives 
 a sketch of the aims of the Society, its work and its finances : 
 
 The object of the Society shall be to maintain a Mission which 
 shall seek to elevate the social as well as the spiritual condition 
 of the Depressed Classes viz. the Mahars, Chambhars, Pariahs, 
 Namsudras, Dheds, and all other classes treated as untouchable 
 in India, by 
 
 (1) Promoting education, 
 
 (2) Providing work, 
 
 (3) Remedying their social disabilities,
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 373 
 
 (4) Preaching to them principles of Liberal Religion, per- 
 sonal character and good citizenship. 
 
 Work of the Society 
 
 The present organization and work of the Society, which is 
 described at length in the last annual report, a copy of which 
 accompanies this representation among other enclosures, may be 
 summarized as follows : 
 
 The Society has under it fifteen centres of work in and out- 
 side of the Bombay Presidency, viz. Bombay, Poona, Hubli, 
 Nagpur, Yeotmal, Thana, Satara, Mahableshwar, Malvan, 
 Dapoli, Akola, Amraoti, Bhavanagar, Mangalore, Madras. Of 
 these the first five, being incorporated branches, are under the 
 direct control of the Executive Committee of the Society and the 
 rest, being only affiliated, are independent in the management 
 of then- own local affairs. The Headquarters are in Parel, 
 Bombay, and the Society is registered as a charitable Body under 
 Act XXI of 1860. It has at present in all thirty educational 
 institutions of which five are Boarding Houses, four are technical 
 institutions, one is a middle school and the remaining are primary 
 schools. The number of pupils on the roll on the 3ist December 
 last was 1,231 and the total expenditure of the Society on its 
 educational work last year was Rs. 20,304.11.5 for which the 
 total Grant-in-Aid received from the Government and the local 
 municipalities for the year was Rs. 1,956. Of the thirty institu- 
 tions sixteen are incorporated and fourteen are affiliated to the 
 Society. 1 
 
 It will be seen that this Society, which was started in Bom- 
 bay some seven years ago, has roused people in many parts 
 of Western and Southern India to the duty of doing some- 
 thing for the Outcaste. The Society is therefore an or- 
 ganization of real value, and may do still larger work in the 
 future. It will be noticed that the work of the Mission is 
 practically confined to education, except in so far as it seeks 
 
 1 From an address presented to H. E. the Governor of Bombay, on the 
 joth of July, 1913. ISR., XXIII, 580.
 
 374 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 to rouse public opinion. A similar society exists in Cal- 
 cutta, but it has not grown to any strength. 
 
 Several of the sectarian groups are attempting to gather 
 in Outcastes to their fold, and all of them follow the edu- 
 cational method which the Depressed Classes Mission uses. 
 I have not been able to get detailed reports of these activi- 
 ties, perhaps because in most cases the work done is small. 
 The Arya Samaj probably does more than the others. The 
 Deva Samaj has three schools in distinct centres in the Pan- 
 jab. The local Sikh Associations called Singh Sabhas 
 do what they can to induce Outcastes to become Sikhs. 
 Some Hindus in the Mysore State have organized what they 
 call The Hindu Education Mission to help the children of the 
 Outcastes of Mysore. Three day schools and two night 
 schools have been already started. The Theosophists of 
 Madras have also a few schools for the same class. Mu- 
 hammadans in the Panjab, and also in Malabar have 
 succeeded in persuading groups of Outcastes to become 
 Muslims. 
 
 But by far the most significant and important fact to be 
 observed with regard to this whole question is the fact that 
 the conscience of India has been roused by what missions 
 have done; and it is now perfectly clear that, whether 
 sooner or later, whether through the Christian Church or 
 through other agencies, the Outcastes of India will in- 
 evitably escape from the inhuman condition in which Hin- 
 duism has imprisoned them for two thousand years. Thus 
 in far-distant India, and in the twentieth century, Christ 
 fulfils once more His promise to bring release to the captive. 
 Perhaps the clearest proof of the change in the attitude of 
 the Indian public generally to this question will be found 
 in a small volume, called The Depressed Classes, containing 
 twenty-three addresses and papers by Hindus, Christians, 
 Theosophists, Aryas, Brahmas, and Prarthana Samajists.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 375 
 
 Many signs of the working of this new spirit may be ob- 
 served. The Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay 
 Presidency observes that during the last few years a great 
 change has come over local boards and other bodies ; there 
 is now far less objection to Outcaste children taking places 
 in the ordinary schools. 1 Mr. T. B. Pandian has succeeded 
 in raising money to dig a number of wells for Outcastes in 
 the Tamil country. 2 Quite recently the Hindu community 
 in a centre in the Panjab held a ceremony to begin the prac- 
 tice of allowing these untouchable Outcastes to use the ordi- 
 nary wells. 3 So the leaven works. 
 
 Yet it is very important to observe that, though the ac- 
 tivities of the Depressed Classes Mission are of considerable 
 value, the fact that it can do no vigorous religious work 
 seriously weakens its results. "The kindly touch of the 
 Christian religion elevates the Mahar at once and for ever," 
 as the Mahars said in their address to the Earl of Crewe ; 
 while the Depressed Classes Mission can merely give a little 
 education and moral advice. 
 
 LITERATURE. The Outcastes' Hope, by G. E. PhUlips, London, 
 Y. P. M. M., 1912, is. net. The Depressed Classes, by many writers, 
 Madras, Natesan, 1912, Re. i. 
 
 b. Universal Education 
 
 One of the most striking manifestations of the new 
 national spirit is the Bill which Mr. Gokhale laid before the 
 Viceroy's Council in the winter of 1911-1912, for the purpose 
 of extending primary education all over the country. The 
 method proposed was to give local authorities the power, 
 under certain conditions, to make primary education com- 
 pulsory amongst the people under their jurisdiction. For 
 various reasons the Bill was rejected, but it served a very 
 
 1 ISR., XXI, 184. * Ib., XX, 621. Ib., XXIII, 25.
 
 376 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 useful purpose in familiarizing the educated classes with 
 the reasons why universal education is desirable, and in 
 evoking the opinions of the native press on the subject. 
 Thus, though it failed to pass, the Bill undoubtedly for- 
 warded the cause. Some step for the furtherance of uni- 
 versal education will have to be taken ere long. 
 
 c. The Servants of India Society 
 
 In Poona there is a Hindu College called the Fergusson 
 College, the professors of which receive very small salaries 
 and do their work for the love of India. The quality of 
 the education is high ; and a number of most devoted public 
 servants have been trained in its work. Amongst these 
 the most brilliant is the Hon. Mr. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, 
 C. I. E. He served as one of the professors of the College 
 for twenty years, from 1885 till the end of 1904. He then 
 set himself to the formation of a society, the aim of which 
 should be devoted and life-long service to the people of 
 India. 
 
 The following paragraphs give the substance of an in- 
 terview which the writer had with Mr. Gokhale in the 
 National Liberal Club, London, in June, 1913. 
 
 The Society, which was established in 1905, is called the 
 Servants of India Society. Its headquarters are in Poona, 
 where there is a Home specially built for the training of the 
 workers ; and there are Branches in four of the provinces 
 of India, Bombay, the Central Provinces, Madras and the 
 United Provinces. 
 
 Only University graduates or men who have done success- 
 ful public service are admitted as members. When a young 
 man wishes to become a member, he lives in Mr. Gokhale's 
 house for a short time, or in the Home, so that he may learn by 
 experience what the society is, and so that the other members
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 377 
 
 may have an opportunity of gauging his temperament and 
 character. If he is thought suitable and if he wishes to go 
 into the work, he becomes a student. For five years he re- 
 ceives a salary of only thirty rupees a month, and spends 
 every year four months in study in the Home in Poona, 
 six months in practical work in that Branch of the society 
 to which he belongs and two months at home. The purpose 
 of the whole movement is to create by means of practical 
 work a higher type of worker. The progress of India is 
 the great aim in view. There is a clear perception that, if 
 India is to be a nation, the communities must become united. 
 Hence in all the work of the society the aim of bringing 
 Hindus and Muhammadans together in real brotherhood 
 is kept in view. Young Hindus are sent to live among Mu- 
 hammadans, to help them by loving service to the utmost 
 of their power, just as missionaries do. 
 
 The society is open to young men of any race or religion ; 
 and there is a keen desire on the part of the leaders to get 
 members other than Hindus. One Muhammadan is al- 
 ready a member. There is no attempt made to bind the 
 men together religiously. There are no common prayers 
 in the Home. Each man is left to order his own devotions 
 as he thinks best. Yet Mr. Gokhale holds that the aims 
 in view, and the serious renunciation which membership 
 imposes, are in themselves deeply religious. No demand 
 is made that a student should give up caste ; yet brotherly 
 feeling in the Home is so rich and deep that no caste dis- 
 tinctions are kept. Members are not asked to become 
 celibates ; but life in the Home during the four months of 
 training is monastic. The students are completely under 
 the guidance of the First Member, Mr. Gokhale. During 
 the five years of their training they are not allowed to de- 
 liver public addresses or to write to the magazines, without 
 first submitting the matter to the First Member.
 
 378 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The work of the society is carried on under the direction 
 of the Branches. Those who are members give their whole 
 time and work to public service, while the students give 
 their annual term of six months. A few of them are told 
 off annually to make arrangements for the meetings of the 
 National Congress. They do all they possibly can to help 
 such movements as primary education, female education, and 
 the uplifting of the Depressed Classes. In Berar a great 
 deal has been done to help the Co-operative Credit Societies 
 of the Province. During the serious fodder-famine from 
 which Gujarat suffered in 1912, ten members and six volun- 
 teers were fully engaged for ten months, and did priceless 
 service. 
 
 After the five years of studentship are over, a member 
 receives only fifty rupees a month of salary, even if he be a 
 married man with a family. There are at present twenty- 
 six members in all. The expenses of the society already 
 run from twenty to forty thousand rupees per annum. Mr. 
 Gokhale raises the bulk of this large sum himself from 
 private friends. 
 
 The following paragraphs copied from a brief prospectus 
 of the society : will give a clear idea of the spirit of the 
 undertaking : 
 
 For some time past, the conviction has been forcing itself on 
 many earnest and thoughtful minds that a stage has been 
 reached in the work of nation-building in India, when, for further 
 progress, the devoted labours of a specially trained agency, 
 applying itself to the task in a true missionary spirit, are re- 
 quired. The work that has been accomplished so far has indeed 
 been of the highest value. The growth during the last fifty 
 years of a feeling of common nationality, based upon common 
 traditions and ties, common hopes and aspirations, and even 
 common disabilities, has been most striking. The fact that we 
 are Indians first, and Hindus, Mahomedans and Parsees or 
 1 The Servants of India Society, to be had from the Society.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 379 
 
 Christians afterwards, is being realized in a steadily increasing 
 measure, and the idea of a united and renovated India, marching 
 onwards to a place among the nations of the world worthy of her 
 great past, is no longer a mere idle dream of a few imaginative 
 minds, but is the definitely accepted creed of those who form the 
 brain of the community the educated classes of the country. 
 A creditable beginning has already been made in matters of 
 education and of local self-government; and all classes of the 
 people are slowly but steadily coming under the influence of 
 liberal ideas. The claims of public life are every day receiving 
 wider recognition, and attachment to the land of our birth is 
 growing into a strong and deeply cherished passion of the heart. 
 The annual meetings of Congresses and Conferences, the work of 
 public bodies and associations, the writings in the columns of the 
 Indian Press all bear witness to the new life that is coursing 
 in the veins of the people. The results achieved so far are 
 undoubtedly most gratifying, but they only mean that the jungle 
 has been cleared and the foundations laid. The great work of 
 rearing the superstructure has yet to be taken in hand and the 
 situation demands on the part of workers devotion and sacrifices 
 proportionate to the magnitude of the task. 
 
 The Servants of India Society has been established to meet 
 in some measure these requirements of the situation. Its mem- 
 bers frankly accept the British connection as ordained, in the 
 inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India's good. Self- 
 Government within the Empire for their country and a higher 
 life generally for their countrymen is their goal. This goal, they 
 recognize, cannot be attained without years of earnest and 
 patient effort and sacrifices worthy of the cause. Much of the 
 work must be directed toward building up in the country a higher 
 type of character and capacity than is generally available at 
 present ; and the advance can only be slow. Moreover the path 
 is beset with great difficulties ; there will be constant tempta- 
 tions to turn back ; bitter disappointments will repeatedly try 
 the faith of those who have put their hand to the work. But the 
 weary toil can have but one end, if only the workers grow not 
 faint-hearted on the way. One essential condition of success in 
 this work is that a sufficient number of our countrymen must 
 now come forward to devote themselves to the cause in the spirit
 
 380 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 in which religious work is undertaken. Public life must be 
 spiritualized. Love of country must so fill the heart that all else 
 shall appear as of little moment by its side. A fervent patriot- 
 ism which rejoices at every opportunity of sacrifice for the 
 motherland, a dauntless heart which refuses to be turned back 
 from its object by difficulty or danger, a deep faith in the purpose 
 of Providence which nothing can shake equipped with these, 
 the worker must start on his mission and reverently seek the 
 joy which comes of spending oneself in the service of one's 
 country. 
 
 Mr. M. K. Gandhi, 1 who did such excellent service in 
 the struggle with the South African Government for jus- 
 tice for the Indian, has signified his intention of becoming 
 a worker under the Society. 
 
 d. The Seva Sadan 
 
 The progress of thought and the march of events, work- 
 ing together in India, have forced many women's problems 
 to the front during the last few years. 
 
 The Seva Sadan, or Home 2 of Service, was founded in 
 Bombay in July, 1908, by Mr. B. M. Malabari, the Parsee 
 Reformer whose pamphlet on Child-marriage and Widow- 
 celibacy published in 1887 is mentioned above, 3 and Daya- 
 ram Gidumal, a Hindu from Sindh, a retired judge. These 
 two vigorous men collected large sums of money and guar- 
 anteed a steady income for the institution. During the last 
 three years they paid in Rs. 45,000 between them, and 
 raised an Endowment and Building Fund of Rs. 82,000. 
 But Malabari is dead, while Gidumal has fallen away from 
 
 1 See M. K. Gandhi, a sketch of his life and work. Madras, Natesan, 
 as. 4. 
 
 2 1 owe practically all my information on the Seva Sadan to a letter 
 from Miss B. A. Engineer, the General Secretary, and a few pamphlets which 
 she kindly sent me. 
 
 3 See p. 87.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 381 
 
 social reform ; so that the Seva Sadan must now rely on 
 other friends. 
 
 Perhaps the following lines cut from one of their publica- 
 tions will most readily give a clear idea of the work : 
 
 OBJECT : Social Educational and Medical Service (Seva) 
 through Indian Sisters, regular and lay. 
 
 The Society maintains the following institutions : 
 
 1. A Home for the Homeless. 
 
 2. An Industrial Home with various departments. 
 
 3. A Shelter for the distressed. 
 
 4. A Dispensary for Women and Children. 
 
 5. Ashrams (or Sisterhoods) Hindu, Parsi and Mahom- 
 medan. 
 
 6. A Work-Class, also Home Classes in Chawls (i.e. large 
 tenement houses). 
 
 All these are for the benefit of women. 
 
 A resident lady doctor gives her whole time to the work ; 
 and two others give a certain amount of help. A social 
 service nurse is also available for outdoor work ; and there 
 are lay sisters, Hindu, Parsee and Muslim, who move 
 about among the poor. Young probationers are sent for 
 training to various medical schools. 
 
 The society also publishes tracts for free distribution on 
 medical, sanitary and moral subjects. 
 
 The Home has now its own building in Gamdevi Road, 
 Bombay. The annual expenditure is about Rs. 20,000. 
 
 There are branches in Poona and Ahmedabad which are 
 also doing excellent work. 
 
 One might reasonably mention here certain other forms 
 of social work, such as Widows' Homes, the Social Service 
 being done by students, and especially the Nishkama Karma 
 , 1 which is very similar in purpose and in work to the 
 1 See below, p. 403.
 
 382 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Seva Sadan ; but our aim in this chapter has been to group 
 together the new movements which shew a decidedly 
 nationalist purpose, while in other chapters we have dealt 
 with those which are more sectarian in character, 1 or are 
 clearly inspired by social considerations. 2 
 
 4. FINE ART AND Music 
 
 The Government School of Art, Calcutta, has been for 
 several years the centre of a very promising revival of 
 Indian painting, sculpture, wood-carving and other fine 
 arts. Mr. E. B. Havell, who was for several years Principal 
 of the School, has been the leader of the movement; but 
 he has been ably seconded by a group of very promising 
 Indian painters, the most prominent of whom is Mr. Aba- 
 nindra Nath Tagore. The purpose in view is to produce a 
 genuinely Indian school of art. A number of beautiful 
 reproductions of both ancient and modern pictures have 
 been published at moderate prices by the Indian Society 
 of Oriental Art, which is closely connected with the Cal- 
 cutta School ; and in London the India Society is doing 
 similar work. 
 
 Mr. Havell and Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, who is con- 
 nected with Ceylon, have for several years led a crusade to 
 convince the world that Indian art has high spiritual quali- 
 ties which set it at least in the front rank of the world's art, 
 if not in advance of all other art. This high argument, 
 which is parallel to the claims made on behalf of Hinduism, 
 Buddhism and other Oriental faiths by the revivalists, has 
 proved of large value ; for it has led to a far more intelligent 
 appreciation of Indian sculpture and painting than was 
 possible in former years, and to the recognition of fine quali- 
 ties in them hitherto unnoticed, and has also given great 
 1 Chap. IV. 2 Chap. VI.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 383 
 
 encouragement to Indian artists ; but it seems clear that it 
 has failed to bring sober critics to the acceptance of all that 
 Messrs. Havell and Coomaraswamy teach. No one who 
 wishes to understand India ought to fail to look through 
 Mr. HavelPs exquisite book, Indian Sculpture and Paint- 
 ing, and the volumes of reproductions published by Dr. 
 Coomaraswamy. 
 
 Until quite recently the cultivation of music in India 
 was left largely to nautch-girls. Here also the new 
 national spirit has proved creative. Keen interest in 
 the best Indian music, both vocal and instrumental, 
 is being shewn in several quarters. The Gandharva 
 Mahavidyalaya, or Academy of Indian Music, was estab- 
 lished in Lahore in 1901, but has now its headquarters in 
 Girgaum, Bombay. Local musical societies have appeared 
 in a number of places, one of which, the Poona Gayan 
 Samdj, or Song Society, may be mentioned. Sir George 
 Clarke, when Governor of Bombay, and also Lady Clarke, 
 did all they could to encourage these efforts. Within the 
 Christian Church, the Rev. H. A. Popley of Erode, in 
 South India, has done excellent service in adapting the best 
 Indian music to Christian uses. Several Europeans have 
 recently written books on Indian music. 
 
 LITERATURE. Indian Sculpture and Painting, E. B. Havell, Lon- 
 don, Murray, 635. Essays on Indian Art, Industry and Education, E. B. 
 Havell, Madras, Natesan, Rs. i as. 4. Essays on National Idealism, 
 A. K. Coomaraswamy, Madras, Natesan, Rs. i. The Music of Hindu- 
 stan, by A. H. Fox Strangways, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1914, 2is. 
 net. 
 
 5. POETRY 
 
 The youngest son of Debendranath Tagore : is Rabindra- 
 nath Tagore, 2 who is by far the most prominent literary 
 
 1 See p. 39, above. 2 See his portrait, Plate XI, facing page 376.
 
 384 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 man in India to-day. For many years he has been the ac- 
 knowledged king of Bengali literature. His songs and hymns 
 are on every lip, and everything he writes is treasured. 
 When he delivers an oration in Bengali, or when he sings 
 some of his own songs, his power and charm are inex- 
 pressible. Quite recently he translated a number of his 
 short devotional poems into rhythmical English prose; 
 and, by the advice of his friends, they were published in 
 England, under the title Gitanjali. He is now recognized 
 as one of the greatest literary men of the Empire ; and 
 European opinion as such is expressed in the award of the 
 Nobel prize for literature to him. 
 
 But the chief fact to be realized about him is that he is 
 the very flower of the new nationalist movement, represent- 
 ing at their very highest the noblest motives that have 
 stirred the people of India since the new century began. 
 His position is central. Though he is the son of Deben- 
 dranath Tagore, 1 he no longer holds his father's religious 
 position. He expects, as he said to me a few months ago, 
 that the regeneration of India will come through gradual 
 change within the body of Hinduism itself rather than 
 from the action of any detached society like the Brahma 
 Samaj. Even when he tells his readers in Sddhana that 
 his religious faith is a purely Indian growth, owing noth- 
 ing to the West, he is still the child of his day ; for the 
 modern Nationalist has no difficulty in finding every 
 Christian principle and practice in ancient Hinduism. 
 
 Mr. Tagore sums up in himself all the best characteristics 
 of modern nationalist thought and feeling. He is an eager 
 educationalist, maintaining at Bolpur, Bengal, a Boarding 
 School in which two hundred boys receive an education 
 combining the best traditions of the old Hindu teaching 
 with the healthiest modern methods. A good modern 
 1 P. 39, above.
 
 RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM 385 
 
 education is given ; the health of the body is secured by ath- 
 letics; and music and daily worship, in the simple and 
 severe manner of the Brahma Samaj, are used to purify and 
 strengthen the religious nature. 1 
 
 Mr. Tagore feels as keenly on social questions. Never 
 shall I forget the magnificent oration which I heard him 
 deliver in Bengali, on Indian Society, in the Minerva Theatre, 
 Calcutta. 2 The loftiness of the speaker's character, his 
 brilliant diction, and the superb strength and music of his 
 utterance moved me very deeply, and produced an extraor- 
 dinary effect on the great audience. His proposals were 
 scarcely practical, and no one has attempted to carry them 
 out in action ; but one could not fail to realize his insight 
 into the urgency of the whole social problem or to feel the 
 heart-throb of nationalism in every sentence. 
 
 The universal appeal of Gitanjali 3 is due largely to the 
 lofty religious feeling which inspires the work, and to the 
 sincerity and simplicity of the style, touched with the 
 colour and fragrance of the East, but largely also to the 
 character of the religious ideas of the poems. There is 
 sufficient Hindu phraseology and form, drawn from the 
 exquisite Bengali lyrics of the Chaitanya movement, 4 to 
 distinguish these poems from European work and to give 
 them a most engaging freshness ; yet the dominant beliefs 
 are Christian and in full harmony with modern thought. 
 There is no karma, no transmigration, no inaction, no 
 pessimism, no world-weariness and hatred of sense in 
 this lofty verse ; but there is the perception that nature 
 is the revelation of God ; there is everywhere the joy of 
 meeting Him in sun and shower ; there is the dignity and 
 
 1 The school is described in the Modern Review, May, 1913. 
 
 2 July 22, 1904. The address was reported in the Bengalee next day. 
 
 3 Gitanjali, by R. N. Tagore. London, Macmillan, 1913, 45. 6d. 
 
 4 P. 294, above. 
 
 2C
 
 386 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 worth of toil, deliverance won only by going down where 
 God is, among " the poorest and lowliest and lost," the 
 duty of service, the core of religion found in righteous- 
 ness, life won by dying to self, sin recognized as shame and 
 thraldom, and death as God's messenger and man's friend. 1 
 
 1 This essay was written before the striking appreciation appeared in the 
 Times Literary Supplement of May 16, 1914, and before the author had 
 seen the review in the Spectator of Feb. 14, 1914.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 
 
 1828-1913 
 
 SOCIAL service and reform are so closely intertwined with 
 religious thought and effort in every land, and especially 
 in India, that it may prove useful to students to have a 
 connected account, however brief, of the various movements 
 and organizations which have influenced the people of India 
 socially during the past century. 
 
 i. HISTORICAL OUTLINE 
 
 The Indian social movement is a direct outcome of 
 Christian missions and Western influence ; and all communi- 
 ties have felt the impact in a greater or less degree. The 
 primal impulse was communicated by the Serampore 
 Missionaries to Ram Mohan Ray, and by him to the 
 Hindu community; and, throughout the whole history, 
 Christian teaching, effort and example have done more than 
 anything else to quicken the movement. 
 
 Ram Mohan Ray scarcely touched the question of caste, 
 but he condemned polygamy, and he spoke and wrote 
 against widow-burning with so much force and convincing 
 power as materially to prepare the way for Lord Bentinck's 
 act. 1 
 
 Under Lord Bentinck the British Government entered 
 
 on a new policy of very great significance, the putting down 
 
 of certain social and religious customs which had for many 
 
 1 Above, p. 33. 
 
 387
 
 388 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 centuries been usual in India but which were outrageously 
 inhuman. Widow-burning was prohibited in 1829; thagl, 
 or the strangling of travellers, was then put down, and the 
 crusade against female infanticide was begun. Under later 
 rulers human sacrifice and religious suicide were prohibited. 
 
 In 1849 a secret society for social reform was founded by 
 Hindus in Bombay, and in 1851 the Parsees of the city 
 formed a Religious Reform Association. 
 
 Besides their daily teaching in College, Duff and the 
 other educational missionaries of Calcutta used to deliver 
 public lectures in the city in which social as well as religious 
 questions were discussed. As a result of this Christian 
 teaching a secret society was formed in Calcutta, in which 
 Hindus pledged themselves to educate their wives and 
 daughters. In 1849 Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara, along 
 with a European official, Mr. Drinkwater Bethune, founded 
 the first Hindu school for girls in Calcutta. About the same 
 time Vidyasagara also began the agitation which led to the 
 Government Act of 1856 legalizing the marriage of Hindu 
 widows. 
 
 A little earlier Lord Dalhousie passed an Act prohibiting 
 the gross obscenities which until then had been common in 
 the streets of Indian cities. It was found necessary to in- 
 sert a clause into the Bill providing that its restrictions 
 should not apply to the images, temples and cars of the gods. 
 
 The next prominent name in social reform is Keshab 
 Chandra Sen. He was the first non-Christian who adopted 
 the whole social programme of Christian Missions, namely, 
 the thorough reform of the Hindu family, the repudiation 
 of caste and the practice of philanthropy. Through his 
 influence new non-idolatrous rites for domestic ceremonies 
 were introduced among Brahmas ; and they gave up child- 
 marriage, polygamy and enforced widowhood, and began 
 to press forward the education of girls. Brahma marriages
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 389 
 
 were legalized by Lord Lawrence's Government in 1872. 
 Sasipada Banerjea did a good deal of excellent social work 
 at Barahanagar near Calcutta. The New Dispensation 
 and the Sadharan Brahma Samaj are still true to Keshab's 
 teaching and practice in social matters. 
 
 The interest of the story passes next to the Bombay 
 Presidency, where from 1870 onwards Mankar, Ranade and 
 Vishnu Sastrl Pandit carried on a vigorous and fruitful agi- 
 tation in favour of the remarriage of Hindu widows. 
 
 About 1870 the movement appeared also in the North. 
 In that year Syed Ahmad Khan began his long-continued 
 agitation in favour of modern education and social reform 
 among Muhammadans; and from 1875, when the Arya 
 Samaj was founded, we must also reckon Dayananda as 
 helping the cause of reform along certain lines. He not 
 only condemned idolatry but opposed child-marriage and 
 favoured female education. His crusade against caste was 
 more nominal than real. 
 
 From 1880 onwards the great mass movements of the 
 Depressed Classes towards Christianity began. 1 These 
 have not only added hundreds of thousands to the Chris- 
 tian Church, but have powerfully affected thinking men of 
 all religions throughout India, and have started movements 
 of untold significance among Brahmas, Aryas, Hindus and 
 Muhammadans. 
 
 In 1887 the first Widows' Home organized by a Hindu was 
 opened by Sasipada Banerjea at Barahanagar near Calcutta. 
 In the same year B. M. Malabari, a Parsee, published a 
 large pamphlet entitled Infant Marriage and Enforced 
 Widowhood in India. This pamphlet, with its unsparing 
 criticism and its great array of weighty names, roused wide- 
 spread discussion, and did much to move public opinion. 
 It was largely as a result of this agitation that the Govern- 
 1 See above, p. 366.
 
 390 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 ment of India felt free to pass, in 1891, their Age of Consent 
 Act, whereby cohabitation with a wife under the age of 
 twelve is prohibited. It has been found impossible to en- 
 force the Act with anything like strictness; but it has 
 proved distinctly helpful in more ways than one. 
 
 Meanwhile social reformers had organized themselves 
 and had met in 1888, for the first time, in the National 
 Social Conference, which since that date has formed the 
 centre of much social effort and has proved a powerful 
 agent for the formation of public opinion. A few facts 
 about its history are given below. 
 
 From about 1890 onwards one can trace the influence of 
 a large number of organizations in social matters. Most 
 of these new bodies are exceedingly conservative, the 
 Ramakrishna Mission, the Sectarian movements, whether 
 Hindu, Jain or Muhammadan, and the Caste Conferences ; 
 yet every one of them does something to promote female 
 education and to raise the age of the marriage of girls. 
 Even the ultra conservative Nambutiri Brahmans of Tra- 
 vancore are beginning to move. 
 
 Since the opening of the new century there has been a 
 notable increase in earnest attempts to render social ser- 
 vice to the most needy. The Ramakrishna Mission has 
 not only given itself to education but to medical work and 
 to flood and famine relief. The Arya Samaj has also done 
 great work in famine relief. But the most important or- 
 ganizations are the various societies, Brahma, Arya, Hindu, 
 Muslim, which are seeking to help the Depressed Classes, 
 the many new Widows' Homes, the Seva Sadan and Mr. 
 Gokhale's Servants of India Society. 
 
 LITERATURE. The Administration of the East India Company, 
 by J. W. Kaye, London, Bentley, 1853 (describes the great reforms). 
 The Suppression of Human Sacrifice, Suttee and Female Infanticide,
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 391 
 
 Madras, C. L. S. I., 1898, 2^ as. (abridged from Kaye). Confes- 
 sions of a Thug, by Meadows Taylor, London, Triibner, is. Rambles 
 and Recollections, by W. H. Sleeman, Oxford University Press, 7$. 6d. 
 net. Social Reform in Bengal, by S. N. Tattvabhushana, Calcutta. In- 
 fant Marriage and Enforced Widowhood in India, by B. M. Malabari, 
 Bombay, 1887. Religious and Social Reform, by M. G. Ranade, 
 Bombay, Claridge, 1902. The Speeches and Writings of Sir N. G. 
 Chandavarkar, Bombay, 1911, Rs. 2 as. 8. 
 
 2. THE NATIONAL SOCIAL CONFERENCE 
 
 It was the Bombay Presidency, and, in the main, the 
 Prarthana Samaj, that created the new movement. The 
 earliest Social Reform Association was formed in Sind in 
 1882. The National Social Conference was organized and 
 met for the first time at Madras in I888. 1 The real leader 
 was Mr. M. G. Ranade, but, with his usual modesty, he 
 remained as much in the background as possible. Sir T. 
 Madhava Rao presided at the first Conference, and after- 
 wards the most prominent place was usually taken by Rai 
 Bahadur Raghunath Rao, 2 a Hindu belonging to the Madras 
 Presidency, who had been Prime Minister of the State of 
 Indore, and was older than Ranade. The methods of the 
 Conference are practically the same as those in use in the 
 Congress. Representatives meet from every part of India. 
 The subjects on the agenda are discussed, and resolutions are 
 passed. The Conference usually meets in the same city as 
 the Congress, and just after it. At the close of the Confer- 
 ence the members usually dine together, irrespective of 
 caste, race and religious distinctions. While a few Muham- 
 madans and others attend, the great majority of those who 
 take part in the Conference are Hindus; and the whole 
 policy of the movement tends to be Hindu in its affinities 
 and interests. 3 The following set of resolutions passed in 
 
 1 Ranade, Essays, 179. 2 This leader died in 1912. ISR., XXII, 422. 
 * See Resolution XI, below.
 
 392 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 the Conference held at Allahabad in December, 1910, will 
 give some idea of its interests and work : 1 
 
 I. (a) That in the opinion of this Conference greater and 
 more persistent efforts should be made by the edu- 
 cated community themselves to promote the Edu- 
 cation of Women. That with a view to give effect 
 to this recommendation this Conference is of opin- 
 ion that a larger number of schools should be 
 opened in towns and that a graduated series of 
 text books be prepared for use in such schools and 
 that local Committees be appointed to collect 
 funds and to establish and conduct such schools. 
 (b) That this Conference while appreciating the help 
 which Government has extended to the cause of the 
 Education of Women hi this country is of opinion 
 that the proportion of expenditure on the Educa- 
 tion of Women is much less than it should be and 
 it earnestly prays that Government may be pleased 
 to spend a larger proportion of revenues under this 
 head. 
 
 II. That this Conference strongly recommends that every 
 effort should be made to persuade parents not to marry 
 their boys before the age of 25 and their girls before 16. 
 
 III. This Conference is of opinion that the time has come 
 
 when steps should be taken to abolish the parda system. 
 
 IV. That this Conference welcomes the efforts that are being 
 
 made in several parts of the country to raise the moral, 
 material and social condition of the depressed classes, 
 and urges that further efforts be made to obtain for 
 these classes full recognition as an integral part of the 
 general body of the community. 
 
 V. That this Conference records its opinion that no attempt 
 should be made in the census to introduce artificial dis- 
 tinctions among classes recognized as belonging to our 
 community and in this connection views with great 
 1 ISR., XXI, 221.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 393 
 
 concern the recent circular issued by Mr. Gait regard- 
 ing the depressed classes. 
 
 VI. That the miserable condition of young widows should be 
 improved by starting or further strengthening Widows' 
 Homes in each province, by giving young widows 
 technical education and permitting such of them as 
 wish to marry to do so without let or hindrance. 
 
 VII. That this Conference is of opinion that the requirements 
 of Act III of 1872 of repudiation of religious belief on 
 the part of parties to marriage is unnecessary and inex- 
 pedient, and urges that the law be so amended as to 
 omit this undue interference with religious beliefs. 
 
 VIII. That every effort should be made to induce sub-castes of 
 the same caste to interdine and intermarry. 
 
 IX. That a working fund be established for the organization 
 of the annual Social Conference for collecting and 
 publishing its proceedings and for carrying on the 
 necessary office work during the year. 
 
 X. That this Conference reiterates the resolution passed at 
 previous Conferences urging on all social reform bodies 
 the necessity of strenuous efforts in favour of temper- 
 ance and social purity, and regrets the action of the 
 exhibition authorities to allow a dancing girl to per- 
 form within the precincts. 
 
 XI. That in the opinion of this Conference it is a pressing duty 
 
 of the Hindu community to provide facilities for the 
 re-admission of repentant converts. 
 
 XII. That all obstructions to the re-admission of foreign 
 
 returned Indians be removed. 
 
 Xni. That in the opinion of this Conference it is urgently 
 necessary that there should be some legislation control- 
 ling the administration and management of charitable 
 and religious trusts which as experience has proved 
 have been utterly mismanaged by their trustees.
 
 394 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 The year 1897 marks a further advance in the move- 
 ment. Two permanent provincial organizations for fur- 
 thering social reform arose that year, The Bombay Presi- 
 dency Social Reform Association, and The Madras Hindu 
 Social Reform Association. These bodies at once began to 
 hold annual Provincial Conferences. 1 In 1900 Bengal fol- 
 lowed suit. 2 These provincial assemblies, which are usually 
 held at the same time and place as the provincial gatherings 
 for political purposes, have proved extremely useful. Dis- 
 tances are so great in India that it is very hard to gather men 
 from every quarter for a Conference, but the problem is 
 much easier in a province. Local conferences are also held 
 representing single districts or other sections of the country. 
 The first of these were also held in 1897, m the Godavery 
 and Mangalore districts. 3 Wherever a group of the friends 
 of freedom and progress happen to be, there it is compara- 
 tively easy to hold a social conference. 
 
 Since 1904 an Indian Ladies' Conference (Bharat Mahild 
 Parishad) has been held at the same time and place as the 
 National Social Conference, to discuss subjects affecting 
 women's life. The following Resolutions were passed in 
 Hindi at the seventh Conference held at Allahabad at 
 Christmas, 1910: 
 
 1. That in the opinion of this Conference the best way of the 
 advancement of the country is female education and the Con- 
 ference requests all Indians to make arrangements for spreading 
 female education. 
 
 2. That in the opinion of this Conference it is not enough to 
 teach girls reading and writing. They ought to be taught how 
 to manage the household, how to attend a sick person, sewing, 
 etc. 
 
 3. That in the opinion of this Conference child-marriage is 
 
 1 Ranade, Essays, 165-6, 279. Cf. for Bombay, ISR., XX, 136, 148, 
 292, 304; XXII, 375 ; and Madras, ISR., XIX, 580; XX, 375, 462. 
 
 2 See ISR., XXII, 44. 3 Ranade, Essays, 165.
 
 395 
 
 the root of all evils. It is the duty of the well-wishers of the 
 country to remove this evil. 
 
 4. That this Conference is of opinion that it is absolutely 
 necessary to lessen the rigour of the parda. 
 
 5. That this Conference thinks that the children should not 
 be made to wear ornaments. 
 
 6. That the condition of Hindu widows is pitiable, and in 
 order to save them from many troubles it is necessary to open 
 Widows' Homes where they can be educated. 
 
 Ladies have also met in conference in a few provincial 
 centres in recent years, notably Benares, 1 Guntur, 2 Vizia- 
 nagram 3 and Travancore. 4 
 
 In 1890 The Indian Social Reformer, a twelve-page weekly 
 in English, began to appear. Its office is in Bombay. Its 
 editor, Mr. K. Natarajan, belongs to the Madras Presidency. 
 The paper has had a very honourable record. It stands 
 for religion, for morality, for social and political progress, 
 and has consistently maintained a courageous and manly 
 policy. Its influence as an encouragement to social re- 
 formers in small places, where orthodox opposition is 
 fierce and powerful, must be very great. 
 
 3. FEMALE INFANTICIDE 
 
 As British rule was extended in India, administrators 
 discovered, to their horror, that female infanticide prevailed 
 to a most alarming extent in the Centre and the West. In 
 some villages there was scarcely a girl to be seen ; in others 
 there were four or five times as many boys as girls, all the 
 rest having been destroyed. Under Lord Bentinck admin- 
 istrative action was taken to put down the inhuman practice. 
 The crusade took many years ; and even now there may be 
 some places where it is still secretly practised ; but on the 
 
 1 ISR., XX, 439. Ib., XXI, 222. 
 
 J Ib., XX, 498. * Ib., XXIII, 161.
 
 396 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 whole it has been stamped out, and no Indian would wish 
 to see it revived. 
 
 4. CHILD-MARRIAGE 
 
 The Hindu law since about 500 B.C. has been that the 
 father who does not marry his daughter before the menses 
 appear commits sin; and since the Christian era, if not 
 earlier, the law has been held to be a serious religious ob- 
 ligation and has been almost universally obeyed. 1 
 
 Christian influence began to make itself felt early in the 
 nineteenth century, and bore fruit among the Parsees in 
 Bombay, in the Brahma Samaj under Keshab Chandra 
 Sen and in the Arya Samaj under Dayananda. B. M. 
 Malabari, a Parsee journalist, started in 1884 an agitation 
 on child-marriage and widow-celibacy which convulsed 
 Hindu society, and deeply influenced public opinion. He 
 wished Government to take action, especially in the matter 
 of child-marriage. 2 His pamphlet, containing the opinions 
 of many prominent Hindus and Government officials, was 
 published in iSSy. 3 Much useful discussion was provoked. 
 Missionaries supported him warmly throughout the country. 
 Soon, a case occurred, which proved conclusively how 
 serious the matter was becoming : 
 
 Public attention was called to the matter by the case of 
 Rukhmabai in Bombay, a case which showed that relief was 
 demanded not for Christian girls alone, but for Hindu girls as 
 well. Rukhmabai was a Hindu girl, educated in the Free 
 Church Mission School and afterwards as a Zenana pupil. She 
 was clever and accomplished, and the man, Dadaji by name, to 
 whom she had been married in infancy, being repulsive and 
 illiterate, she refused to live with him. He appealed to the law 
 to compel her to do so. The case was carried from court to 
 court, till the High Court ordered Rukhmabai either to live with 
 
 1 Crown of Hinduism, 94-96. 2 Ranade, Essays, xxiv ff. 
 
 3 See p. 389, above.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 397 
 
 Dadaji as his wife or go to prison for six months. A compromise, 
 however, was then effected. A sum of money, sufficient to buy 
 another wife, was paid to Dadaji. But it was decreed that, 
 according to Hindu law, Rukhmabai must never marry. She 
 went to London to study medicine, took the degree of M.D., 
 and returned to India to take charge of a hospital for women. 1 
 
 In 1890 a tragic occurrence brought another aspect of the 
 subject forcibly before the minds of all men. A Bengali 
 girl, named Phulmam Dasi, eleven years of age, died in 
 Calcutta in consequence of what in all other civilized coun- 
 tries would be described as an outrage on the part of her 
 husband, who was a man of thirty. He was arrested and 
 tried for culpable homicide. The only defence he made was 
 to quote the clause in the Penal Code which fixed the age 
 of ten years as the lowest limit for married life. Yet he was 
 convicted, and sentenced to twelve months' rigorous im- 
 prisonment. The consequence was a loud outcry from the 
 orthodox community. They complained that it was utterly 
 unjust to punish a man for doing what was prescribed by 
 his religion and distinctly permitted by law. 
 
 The case caused great indignation in Christian circles. 
 Europeans demanded, in the words of Max Mtiller, "that 
 the strong arm of the English law be not rendered infamous 
 by aiding and abetting unnatural atrocities." There was 
 a loud cry that the age should be raised, and that the pen- 
 alty should be increased. The Government of India there- 
 fore introduced a bill into the Legislative Council, raising 
 the age from ten to twelve. 
 
 The Bill roused the most violent opposition amongst 
 Hindus. The following sentences give some idea of the 
 excitement and fury raised by the proposal : 
 
 Never before, within living memory, had Bengal been so 
 agitated. Crowds of excited Hindus paraded the streets all 
 1 Kenneth S. Macdonald, 183-4.
 
 398 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 day and far into the night, yelling at the pitch of their voices, 
 "Our religion is in danger." Those who were still sane enough 
 to argue protested that the Bill was an infringement of the 
 Queen's Proclamation of 1858, by which she pledged her Gov- 
 ernment to a policy of non-interference with the religions of her 
 Indian subjects. ... A monster meeting of protest was held 
 on the maidan, for no public building in Calcutta would accom- 
 modate all those who wished to be present. The attendance 
 was estimated at one hundred thousand, and speeches were 
 delivered from twelve platforms. . . . No such public demon- 
 stration had ever been seen in Calcutta. When it became 
 apparent that the appeals to the Government of India and to 
 the Secretary of State were in vain, it was resolved as a last 
 resort to make a supreme effort to move Kali, the patron goddess 
 of Calcutta, to intervene. A mahapuja, or whole day of fasting, 
 prayer and sacrifice was proclaimed at Kalighat, the great shrine 
 of this popular deity, in one of the suburbs of Calcutta. ... It 
 was estimated at the time that two hundred thousand rupees 
 (over 13,000) were spent on the ceremony. Three hundred 
 pundits, many of whom had been brought from Benares, led the 
 devotions. One devotee wished to sacrifice himself upon the 
 altar, and was with difficulty restrained from his purpose. 
 Others, like the priests of Baal, cut themselves with knives. 1 
 
 But Government passed the Bill in spite of all protests. 
 The date was 1891. Those who are best able to judge be- 
 lieve that it has had a good effect; but it is quite well 
 known that the law is still broken in multitudes of cases. 
 
 About twenty years ago Colonel Walter, then Agent to 
 the Governor- General in Rajputana, suggested to the 
 leaders of Rajput society an arrangement which has pro- 
 duced excellent results. By the unanimous decision of these 
 men it was decided that no girl should be married before 
 she was fourteen, and that the marriage expenses should 
 in no case exceed a certain proportion of the father's yearly 
 income. A society, called the Walterkrit Rajputra Hita- 
 
 1 Kenneth S. Macdonald, 188-9.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 399 
 
 karim Sabha (the Rajput Benevolent Society created by 
 Colonel Walter) sees to the enforcement of these rules. It 
 would be well if similar institutions could be introduced 
 elsewhere. 1 
 
 In 1901 the Gaekwar of Baroda passed the Infant Mar- 
 riage Prevention Act, which fixed the minimum age for 
 marriage in the State at twelve for girls and sixteen for boys. 
 Early in 1912 the Census Commissioner of Baroda pub- 
 lished his impressions of the results of the act. The Times 
 of India thus summarizes his views : 
 
 In the ten years under review no less than 22,218 applications 
 were made for exemption from the provisions of the Act and 
 95 per cent of them were allowed. Over 23,000 marriages were 
 performed even without this formality of an application for 
 exemption, in violation of the Act. The parties responsible 
 were fined from a few to a hundred rupees, and the Superintend- 
 ent thinks that there must have been an equally large number 
 of marriages which were connived at by the village patels who 
 are also the marriage registrars. The age returns are notori- 
 ously unreliable, but even thus there were 158 per thousand 
 males and 277 per thousand females married and widowed, 
 under 10 years of age. 
 
 Clearly the act is much too far in advance of the public 
 conscience. 
 
 A certain amount of progress has been achieved in this 
 matter as a result of these acts and of the persistent agita- 
 tion of the reformers ; but it is universally recognized that 
 the mass of Hindu society has been scarcely 'touched as yet. 
 
 5. BOY-MAKRIAGE 
 
 In ancient India boys of the Brahman, Kshatriya and 
 Vaisya castes were expected to go to school for a religious 
 education for an extended period, and were married only on 
 1 Risley, The People of India, 188.
 
 400 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 their final return from school. But for many centuries the 
 vast mass of boys have not taken the old religious training. 
 Hence nothing has stood in the way of marriage ; and in 
 many parts of the country it has long been customary to 
 marry boys at the age of eight, ten or twelve. 1 
 
 Social Reformers have appealed powerfully against this 
 most unwise custom, and modern education has tended to 
 restrict the practice ; but the plan referred to in the follow- 
 ing paragraph is probably the best that has yet been thought 
 of for dealing with the difficulty : 
 
 At the last meeting of the Travancore Popular Assembly 
 Mr. K. G. Sesha Iyer advocated the exclusion of married boys 
 from Government Schools. The Central Hindu College at 
 Benares has been enforcing this exclusion for several years 
 past. The rule ought to be adopted everywhere. Seeing that 
 the ancient ideal of students in India was celibacy until educa- 
 tion was finished, there ought to be no opposition from orthodox 
 Hindus. To prevent any possible hardship to married boys, 
 who are not responsible for their marriage, it may be laid down 
 that the rule will be enforced five years hence. 2 
 
 6. POLYGAMY 
 
 Every Hindu marriage is in posse polygamous. Though 
 the great majority of Hindus are monogamous in practice, 
 yet there is a law which allows a man to take a second wife 
 if the first proves childless or quarrelsome ; and from the 
 earliest times until to-day kings and wealthy men have been 
 accustomed to marry many wives. 3 
 
 Ram Mohan Ray himself had two wives, when he was a 
 young man; but, later, under Christian influence, he 
 condemned polygamy. Social reformers have continued to 
 agitate against the practice, and public opinion has been 
 
 1 Crown of Hinduism, 86. 2 Modern Review, May, 1913. 
 
 3 Crown of Hinduism, 91-93.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 401 
 
 partially modified, but the old conditions still prevail. 
 There has been very little betterment, except in the Samajes. 
 
 7. WIDOWS 
 
 About 500 B.C. it became the rule that only childless 
 Hindu widows should marry, and from about the time of 
 the Christian era, it has been the law that no Hindu widow, 
 not even a virgin child-widow, shall marry. 1 Some three 
 or four centuries later the practice of sail became recognized 
 as legitimate, i.e. when a man died, his widow was allowed 
 to mount the pyre and be burned along with his body if 
 she wished to do so. Widows who did not mount the pyre 
 had thenceforward to live a life of serious asceticism. In 
 many parts of India to-day, as soon as a woman is widowed, 
 her hair is shaven away and she must live tonsured all the 
 rest of her life. 2 
 
 By the beginning of the nineteenth century widow-burn- 
 ing had reached huge proportions hi India, especially in 
 Bengal. The vast majority of widows certainly were not 
 burned ; but several hundreds actually mounted the pyre 
 every year in Bengal alone. In certain kingdoms, especially 
 in the South, a vast holocaust of women took place when the 
 king died. Individual Englishmen protested vehemently 
 against the practice; and here and there an English ad- 
 ministrator took the law into his own hands, and prevented 
 the burning of a widow; but for many years the British 
 Government hesitated to interfere. The Serampore mis- 
 sionaries protested very loudly on the subject both in Eng- 
 land and in India ; and Ram Mohan Ray added his powerful 
 voice to theirs. Finally, in 1829, in spite of the opposition 
 of many leading Hindus and of some Englishmen, Lord 
 Ben thick prohibited the practice within the British prov- 
 
 1 Crown of Hinduism, 96-98. * /&., 98-101. 
 
 2D
 
 402 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 inces. It was many years later before it was put down 
 in native states. 
 
 Perhaps no educated Indian to-day would wish to revive 
 the practice ; for all now recognize that it came into use at 
 a comparatively modern date ; but, even in these days, a 
 Hindu widow occasionally carries out the old custom by 
 burning herself. When such a thing happens, the Hindu 
 community still thrills with reverence and sympathy. It 
 may be also mentioned that Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy 
 published in The Sociological Review for April, 1913, a paper, 
 in which he attempts to set forth the essential nature of the 
 Hindu ideal of woman, and he gives his paper the title, 
 Sati; A Defence of the Indian Woman. 
 
 It was Pandit Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara who began 
 the agitation in favour of allowing Hindu widows to remarry, 
 if they wished to do so. The Government of India passed 
 an Act legalizing such marriages in 1856. About 1870 an 
 agitation was started in the Bombay Presidency for the 
 purpose of rousing Hindus to such sympathy with widows 
 as would make widow-marriage really possible in Hindu 
 society. 1 The Social Reform Movement has made this one 
 of its main aims, and has done a great deal to commend the 
 remarriage of widows in all parts of the country. In con- 
 sequence, a certain number of such marriages do take place 
 in all grades of Hindu society, and in most parts of the 
 country ; but they are exceedingly few, and it is question- 
 able whether they are increasing. 
 
 Social reformers have not done very much to lighten the 
 burden of suffering which the widow has to endure through- 
 out her life. Only one point has been vehemently attacked 
 by them, namely, the tonsure. Appeals on this subject 
 now and then appear in the columns of the Indian Social 
 Reformer; and in 1909 a small volume called The Ton- 
 
 1 Ranade, Essays, xvii, xviii.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 403 
 
 sure of Hindu Widows, byM. A. Subramaniam, B.A., B.L., 
 was published in Madras. 1 
 
 During the last twenty years groups of Hindus in various 
 parts of the country have begun to maintain Widows' 
 homes in imitation of Christian missions. The earliest 
 Home outside the Christian Church was established at 
 Barahanagar near Calcutta in 1887 by Sasipada Banerjea, 2 
 and did good work for some time ; but it is no longer in 
 existence. In 1889, a Christian lady, Pandita Ramabai, 
 opened the Sdradd Sadan, or Home of Learning, for Hindu 
 widows in Bombay. 3 Soon after it was moved to Poona. 
 But within a few years so many of the widows had been 
 baptized that Hindus became very hostile. Most of the 
 widows were withdrawn, and Hindu subscriptions ceased. 
 But the work accomplished was manifestly good and 
 necessary ; and Hindus began to clamour for a similar in- 
 stitution under Hindu management. Hence the Hindu 
 Widows' Home Association was organized in Poona in 1896, 
 and a Home was opened, which has steadily grown in strength 
 and usefulness. During the year 1912 there were 105 in- 
 mates in the Home, of whom 95 were widows. The annual 
 expenditure is now about 17,000 Rupees. 4 The whole insti- 
 tution seems to be thoroughly well managed by the founder, 
 Mr. D. K. Karve. In 1906 a Boarding School for high-caste 
 Hindu girls and widows was opened close beside the Home. 
 Then in 1912 the Nishkama Karma Matha (Monastery for 
 Unselfish Work) was started for the purpose of creating a 
 band of competent women workers to staff the Boarding 
 School. I was able to visit these institutions in February 
 last, and was much struck with the character of the buildings 
 
 1 Cf. ISR., XX, 185, 296; and Indian Review, March, 1910. 
 1 Social Reform in Bengal, 12. 
 
 * See The High-caste Hindu Woman, by Pandita Ramabai, New York, 
 Revell. * Report for 1912 ; ISR., XIX, 596, 605 ; XX, 151, 261.
 
 404 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 and the excellence of the arrangements. So far as I know, 
 no widows' home was founded by Hindus between 1896 
 and 1906; but it was probably during that interval that 
 the Deva Samaj, 1 the Arya Samaj 2 and the Digambara 
 Jains 3 founded their homes. I have seen no reports of these 
 institutions, and do not know the dates when they were 
 founded. In 1907 a Hindu Widows' Home was founded 
 in Mysore City; and in 1910 there were thirty-two pupils, 
 of whom seventeen were resident. The total cost was met 
 by Rai Bahadur Narasimha lyengar. 4 The same year the 
 Manila. Silpasrama, or Women's Industrial Refuge, was 
 founded in Calcutta by Mrs. P. Mukerjee, a niece of Mr. 
 Rabindra Nath Tagore. Over a dozen widows reside in it, 
 and a number of others come from the outside to receive 
 instruction. It is supported by public subscription, supple- 
 mented by Government and Municipal grants. 5 In 1908 
 the Sikhs opened their Widows' Home in Amritsar. In 
 1910 Mrs. Pitt, the widow of an Indian civilian, opened a 
 Widows' Home in Bangalore, which is to be conducted on 
 purely Hindu lines. It is intended to teach women the 
 privilege of social service. 6 In 1911 a Home was opened in 
 Dacca of which Mrs. Dutta is the Founder-Secretary. 7 In 
 July, 1912, a group of Hindus organized a Brahman Widows' 
 Hostel in Madras, and in September of that year the Govern- 
 ment of Madras undertook the bulk of the financial respon- 
 sibilities. It is too early to say anything about the success 
 of this new venture. 8 
 
 1 At Ferozpore and Bhatinda. 
 
 2 One is at Jullundur. Chirol, Indian Unrest* in. 
 
 3 In Bombay. 
 
 ISR., XX, 522. 
 
 5 My informant is Mr. Hem Ch. Sarkar of the Sadharan Brahma Samaj. 
 
 ISR., XXI, 26, 500. 
 
 > Ib., XXIV, 390. 
 
 Ib., XXIII, 532-
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 405 
 
 8. THE ZENANA 
 
 From very early times the ladies of royal harems in 
 India lived in something like seclusion, and wealthy families 
 naturally copied kings in some degree. There was also a 
 great deal of distrust of women expressed in Hindu law, 
 and men were therefore bid guard their women with great 
 care. Yet there was no general custom of shutting women 
 up in the house. When, however, at the end of the twelfth 
 century, the Muhammadan invasion came, two motives 
 arose which combined to make the Hindus seclude their 
 women. Their conquerors, who now held the highest 
 social position in India, kept their women shut up in the 
 women's apartments; and it was natural for Hindus to 
 imitate them. Then, in the wild violence and lawlessness 
 which characterized Muslim rule for centuries, Hindu 
 women were unsafe, unless they were shut up and guarded. 
 Hence all high-caste Hindus, living in provinces where Mu- 
 hammadans were numerous and powerful, adopted the 
 Zenana system. A high-caste woman to-day very seldom 
 leaves the zenana. If she goes out, it is in the dusk of the 
 morning or the evening, and only for a hurried visit to 
 the temple or the river. On occasion she may go to the 
 house of a relative for a wedding or some other important 
 ceremony, but, if she do, she goes in a closed carriage or 
 palanquin. Parsees and Jains adopted the custom as well 
 as Hindus. In those parts of the South where Muham- 
 madan rule did not arise or did not last long, some of the 
 old freedom still remains; and the women of the lower 
 orders live a very free life. 
 
 Christian teaching and Western example have made a 
 very serious impact on educated opinion in this matter; 
 and the women of the Brahma Samaj are now as free as 
 Christian women; but the only other community which
 
 406 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 has stepped out into full freedom is the Parsees. But 
 there has been a distinct and very welcome change amongst 
 educated Hindus during the last twenty years. A small 
 but increasing number in Calcutta and in Bombay take 
 their wives and children out driving with them in the even- 
 ing ; and in every educated centre the women themselves 
 are increasingly eager to meet European ladies socially, to 
 gather together in little clubs and societies, and occasion- 
 ally to hold women's meetings and conferences. One sym- 
 pathizes with the fear lest a sudden change should do 
 more harm than good ; but, without any doubt, progress 
 in this matter might with safety be a good deal accelerated. 
 
 9. MARRIAGE EXPENSES 
 
 Loud and bitter complaints are raised in many parts of 
 India by Hindus about the extortionate payments de- 
 manded by the bridegroom's family from the father of the 
 bride. The evil seems to be largely a result of the progress 
 of Western education; for a young man who has done 
 well at College is a most desirable bridegroom, and naturally 
 the price has tended to rise as steadily as the demand. 
 The tyrannical custom, which compels a father to spend 
 huge sums upon feasting, processions and presents to 
 Brahmans on the occasion of a daughter's wedding, presses 
 very heavily on the poor. Most fathers are driven to 
 borrow huge sums, and, in consequence, pass the remainder 
 of their lives in bondage and fear. 
 
 Reformers have ( tried to mitigate these evils, but noth- 
 ing very substantial, except the action of the Walterkrit 
 Sabha, 1 has to be chronicled. Quite recently in Calcutta, 
 a father could see no way to raise money for his daughter's 
 marriage except by mortgaging his home. The daughter, 
 
 1 Above, p. 398.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 407 
 
 whose name was Snehalata, burned herself to death in 
 her own room to release her father from the impasse. 1 
 Her suicide roused intense feeling, and meetings were held 
 to move public opinion, but with what result has still to 
 be seen. 
 
 10. DOMESTIC CEREMONIES 
 
 In ancient Hindu Law-books twelve domestic samskdras 
 or sacraments, are enumerated as binding on every Hindu 
 of the Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaisya castes, and the 
 details of the ceremonies are laid down in priestly manuals. 
 Each is filled with polytheistic ideas and idolatrous prac- 
 tices ; so that modern men are inclined to object to them. 
 Debendranath Tagore prepared a new set of ceremonies 
 for Brahmas from which everything idolatrous was ex- 
 cluded, and Keshab carried the process still farther. 2 
 The other Samajes have followed suit, but orthodoxy re- 
 mains orthodox. 
 
 ii. DEVADASIS (HIERODOULOI) 
 
 In Hindu literature of all ages, even in the Rigveda itself, 
 wherever references to heaven occur, we find very frequent 
 mention of the Gandharvas and the Apsarases, the former 
 being male musicians, the latter female dancers and singers. 
 The Apsarases are equally famed for their dazzling beauty 
 and their easy morals. When some human ascetic carried 
 his austerities to such a pitch that the merit due to him 
 threatened to endanger the gods, the regular expedient 
 was to send down one of these irresistible nymphs to draw 
 him away from his self-torture. 
 
 This is probably a reflection of the customs of Hindu 
 Kings. Each had a troop of male musicians in his resi- 
 
 1 75/2., Feb. i sth, 1914, 210. Two other cases followed. 75/?.,May lyth. 
 * Above, pp. 41, 43, 48.
 
 408 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 dence and companies of dancing and singing women oi 
 rather loose character. This custom is still kept up by 
 Hindu princes. 1 
 
 Every well-appointed Hindu temple aims at being an 
 earthly reproduction of the paradise of the god in whose 
 honour it was built. He and his spouse or spouses are 
 there in stone, also his mount, his car, and all else that he 
 needs. The Gandharvas are represented by the Temple- 
 band, the Apsarases by the courtesans who sing and dance 
 in the service. These are dedicated to the service of the 
 god ; but they give their favours to his worshippers. They 
 are usually called Devaddsis, handmaidens of the god, 
 Hierodouloi ; but in the Bombay Presidency each shrine 
 has its own name for its women, Muralis, Jogavins, Bhavi- 
 nis, Naikinis, Kalawantis, Basavis, 2 Devaddsis, Devalis, 
 Jogtis, Matangis, Sharnis, Muralis being used in a general 
 way for all. 3 They dance and sing in the temple-services 
 and also when the images are carried out through the 
 town in procession. Hence the common name for them 
 everywhere is Nautch-girls, Dancing-girls. The songs 
 they sing are usually obscene. They receive certain allow- 
 ances from the temple. Until recently they lived within 
 the temple precincts, but now they usually occupy some 
 street or lane close by. In North India they are not per- 
 manently attached to the temple. They live in the bazaar, 
 practise music and dancing, and ply their trade. The 
 temple-authorities hire as many as they require for each 
 occasion. In some temples in the Bombay Presidency 
 there are male prostitutes also. 
 
 How foul the atmosphere is in which this custom thrives 
 may be realized from the hideous sculpture visible on the 
 
 1 V. Smith's Asoka, 89. 
 
 2 Cf. Dubois, 133. 
 
 * Shinde's Muralis, 2 ; ISR., XXIII, 606.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 409 
 
 gates and walls of many Hindu temples in Central and 
 Southern India and from the following quotation : 
 
 And then again, it is not that only females are dedicated to 
 the temples but also males who are called Waghyas of Khandoba, 
 Aradhyes of Ambabai, Potrajas of Dyamawwa, Jogyas of 
 Yallamma, and who are forbidden to marry or to live the ordi- 
 nary civil life and therefore lead a more or less dissolute life. 
 Their number however is not so considerable as that of the female 
 victims nor is their looseness so noticeable. There is a third 
 class of devotees, who are neither male nor female but are mostly 
 eunuchs. These hideous beings are more indecent than im- 
 moral and they naturally follow the trade of procurers, pimps, 
 and such other disgusting and un-natural practices. Whether 
 they are for some wicked purpose castrated or born defective 
 and how they come to be connected with the temples cannot be 
 said ; but they are generally connected with the temples of the 
 female deities Ambabai and Yallamma. Quite a number of 
 them might be seen at any time loitering and dancing about 
 the little temple of Bolai near the Sassoon Hospital in Poona. 1 
 
 Courtesan ministrants, in precisely similar fashion, lived 
 in the temples of Babylonia, Syria and Egypt, and took 
 part in the ritual ; and thence the custom spread to Cyprus, 
 the Greek islands and elsewhere. The Greek name for 
 them was Hierodouloi, Sacred Slaves. 2 
 
 To these facts is due the low estimate in which music 
 and dancing, especially the latter, have been held in most 
 countries of the East. Salome degraded herself to the 
 level of a courtesan in dancing before Herod. The culti- 
 vation of music and dancing has never been a respectable 
 art in India, but has always been left to Nautch-girls. 3 
 
 A century ago these women were much more in the 
 public eye in India than they are to-day. L'Abbe Dubois 
 writes : 4 
 
 1 Shinde's Muralis, 4. * Dubois, 337. 
 
 1 Art. Hierodouloi, ERE. * 585.
 
 410 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Their duties, however, are not confined to religious cere- 
 monies. Ordinary politeness requires that when persons of 
 any distinction make formal visits to each other they must be 
 accompanied by a certain number of these courtezans. To 
 dispense with them would show a want of respect towards the 
 person visited, whether the visit was one of duty or politeness. 
 
 Hindus have also been accustomed to hire them to dance 
 and sing in their houses at weddings, on other festive occa- 
 sions, and even when entertaining European officials : 
 their dancing and singing have been part of the programme, 
 like the performances of jugglers. 
 
 Missionaries have long protested in the name of morality 
 and decency against the whole system, and have especially 
 begged that European officials should give no countenance 
 to such a thing. Brahmas and social reformers have 
 joined in these protests. The presence of these women at 
 the temple-services and in the great processions leads to a 
 great deal of vice among young Hindus ; and their intro- 
 duction into the homes of the people on festive occasions 
 has done endless harm. Their gestures in dancing are 
 lewd and suggestive ; and their songs are immoral and 
 obscene. Many a man has spoken of the dire results such 
 exhibitions have upon the young. 
 
 Western example and education have had their influence 
 upon the coarsest parts of Hinduism. The frightful 
 obscenities which we hear about from eighteenth-century 
 writers have almost altogether disappeared. What remains 
 is bad enough, it is true ; but the grossest things have been 
 removed. Dancing girls are much less prominent in the 
 temples of the West and the North than they used to be. 
 
 Lord Wenlock, who was Governor of Madras from 1891 
 to 1896, was the first prominent official who distinctly 
 refused to countenance the nautch. 1 His example has 
 
 1 Kenneth S. Macdonald, 71.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 411 
 
 proved very powerful: so that nowadays one seldom hears 
 of an English official consenting to be present on any occa- 
 sion when dancing-girls are present. The majority of 
 educated Hindus have also given up the custom of having 
 them in their homes at weddings and such like. This is a 
 reform of very great value indeed ; and we may trust that 
 in future things will go still further. 
 
 In many parts of the country it is customary to marry 
 a girl to an idol, a flower, a sword or some other material 
 object, in order that she may be free from the entangle- 
 ments of a genuine marriage. 
 
 In the year 1906 a large body of gentlemen, including 
 many Hindus, approached the Governor of Bombay, call- 
 ing his attention to the whole practice of divine marriage, 
 and praying that measures might be taken by the Govern- 
 ment to put down the dedication of girls to prostitution. 
 The following is a brief statement : 
 
 The Memorialists ask that the attention of the Police shall be 
 called to the infrequency of prosecution, and that they shall be 
 directed to show greater vigilance in bringing offenders to account. 
 They request that public notices shall be posted in many places, 
 and especially at Jejuri, where the temple of Khandoba enjoys 
 an infamous pre-eminence in this destruction of innocent children ; 
 and that temple-authorities shall be warned of their liability to 
 prosecution as accessories to crime, if they permit such cere- 
 monies to take place within the precincts of the temple. 1 
 
 In the following year the Bombay Government issued a 
 resolution on the subject. They feel the need of action 
 but recognize that it is impossible to do much until public 
 opinion is riper. They promise, however, to prosecute 
 temple-authorities who take part in the dedication of 
 girls ; and they suggest that the Hindu community should 
 
 1 Harvest Field, June, 1906.
 
 412 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 provide orphanages or homes in which girls rescued by 
 Government may be placed. 1 
 
 Two years later Sir George Clarke, Governor of Bombay, 
 issued a proclamation, calling the attention of District 
 Magistrates to the powers of* the law and to the necessity 
 of enforcing them seriously. 2 
 
 The Mysore Government next took action. In 1909 
 they issued an order, in which they prohibit the performance 
 of any religious ceremony which has an intimate connection 
 with dedication to the profession of a prostitute or dancing- 
 girl. This prohibition applies to every temple under the 
 control of the Mysore Government. 3 About the same time, 
 the head of the Sankesvara monastery, a modern repre- 
 sentative of Sankaracharya, issued an order in which he 
 declares that the custom of dedicating girls has not the 
 sanction of any sacred book of the Hindus, and therefore 
 must be put a stop to. 4 Later still the Travancore Govern- 
 ment took the matter up. 5 
 
 But though the movement has thus made considerable 
 progress, there are those who oppose it for various reasons. 6 
 The first of these is the fear that the musical art may 
 suffer if they are discouraged. How absurd this argument 
 is, we need not say. Yet it had weight enough with certain 
 Government officials to lead them to introduce dancing- 
 girls into the Arts and Industries Exhibition at Allahabad 
 in the winter of 1910-1911, and to give prizes to the most 
 skilful of these artistes. 7 As one might expect in such a 
 country as India, Government example at once led to 
 serious results. Here is what the Rev. C. F. Andrews of 
 Delhi wrote to the press on the subject : 
 
 1 Indian Witness, August 15, 1907. 4 ISR., XIX, 565. 
 
 2 ISR., XEX, 568. 5 ISR., XX, 461. 
 
 3 Harvest Field, 1909, p. 190. 6 ISR., XX, 127 and 123. 
 7 The Social Conference objected. See p. 393, above.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 413 
 
 An intimate friend of mine, who was known by all the city to 
 refuse under any circumstances to be present at a wedding where 
 a nautch was a part of the ceremonies, was asked a few days ago 
 to a wedding, and was on the point of accepting it, when he 
 discovered that a nautch was to be held. When he remonstrated 
 with some indignation, saying that his own abstention from 
 nautches was well known in the city, the reply was immediately 
 made that now things were different. The Government itself 
 was encouraging nautches, and one was being held every night 
 at the Government Exhibition. 1 
 
 Fortunately, the press of India, whether European or In- 
 dian, almost unanimously condemned the action of those 
 who had charge of the Exhibition ; 2 and public opinion was 
 so clearly expressed that we may hope that little final evil 
 will come of it. 
 
 Fortunately, Lord Morley's attention had been drawn 
 to the whole problem ; and, on the 3rd of March, 1911, he 
 addressed a despatch to the Government of India on the 
 question : 
 
 My attention in Council has lately been called to the various 
 methods by which female children in India are condemned to a 
 life of prostitution, whether by enrolment in a body of dancing 
 girls attached to a Hindu Temple ; by symbolical marriage to an 
 idol, a flower, a sword, or some other material object; or by 
 adoption by a prostitute whose profession the child is brought 
 up to follow. I observe with satisfaction that an increasing 
 section of Hindu Society regards the association of religious 
 ceremonies with the practice of prostitution with strong dis- 
 approval. In Madras, where the Institution of Temple Dancing 
 Girls still survives, an Indian District Magistrate, Mr. R. 
 Ramachandra Row, has expressed the opinion that Temple 
 servants have been degraded from their original status to per- 
 form functions 'abhorrent to strict Hindu religion'; and in 
 Bombay a society for the protection of children has been formed 
 with the co-operation of leading Hindu citizens. 
 
 1 From the Leader. See ISR., XXI, 292. * ISR., XXI, 306.
 
 414 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 I desire to be informed of the probable extent of the evil; 
 how far the provisions of the Penal Code, sections 372 and 373, 
 are in themselves sufficient to deal with it effectually, and 
 whether in your opinion, or that of the Local Governments, ade- 
 quate steps are being taken to enforce the law as it at present 
 stands, or whether any, and if so, what amendments of the law 
 are required to give reasonable encouragement and suppress 
 the grave abuse. The matter is one in which the weight of 
 public authority may well be lent to the furtherance of reforms 
 advocated by the enlightened leaders of the communities to 
 which the children belong whom the law was intended to protect. 
 
 The Society for the Protection of Children in Western 
 India, which consists of men belonging to all faiths, keeps 
 watch over the progress of events, and seeks to rouse 
 public opinion, and to help Government in every way 
 possible. The pamphlet on Muralis quoted above was 
 published by them. 
 
 As this book goes to press, the Government of India is 
 passing a law for the better protection of girls. 
 
 LITERATURE. Hindu Customs, Manners and Ceremonies, by J. A. 
 Dubois, Oxford University Press. The Crown of Hinduism, by J. N. 
 Farquhar, Oxford University Press. The Muralis, by V. R. Shinde, 
 Bombay, Sharada Kridan Press, half an anna. Lotus Buds, by Amy 
 W. Carmichael, London, Morgan & Scott. India and its Problems, 
 W. S. Lilly, 231-237. 
 
 12. EDUCATION OF BOYS 
 
 In Ancient India, when the Hindu system took shape, 
 it was the rule that every boy of the three highest castes 
 should go to some teacher and spend several years in ac- 
 quiring a religious education. All girls, and all boys of 
 every other caste or class, were by law excluded from this 
 education. As the centuries passed, the percentage of 
 those taking the religious education became less and less.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 415 
 
 Doubtless various systems of secular education were used 
 from time to time, but none of them took deep root in 
 the country. When the Muhammadans conquered India, 
 Muslim education became the passport to government 
 service and high social position. Here again it was only 
 the few who were educated. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century the illiteracy 
 of India was almost complete. The number of those who 
 received any education was exceedingly small ; and in the 
 universal confusion of the times things were steadily get- 
 ting worse. It was the missionaries who began to give the 
 people education. But what they gave them was not 
 any Indian discipline, but a Western training, mediated in 
 the schools by the vernaculars. A few European laymen 
 soon began to help. Then Ram Mohan Ray perceived the 
 facts of the situation, and became the champion of Western 
 education. Government came round to the same point 
 of view in 1835. 
 
 The one large fact which we must keep firm hold of in 
 thinking of education in modern India is, that Western 
 education (which the country clearly must have) comes 
 from an alien civilization and environment, and that in 
 inoculating the community with this most necessary 
 remedy considerable disturbance will inevitably be pro- 
 duced. This far-reaching fact is usually neglected alto- 
 gether by those who condemn modern education in India 
 as a failure. 1 The comparison of the results of Roman 
 education in the provinces of the Empire would lead men 
 to a saner estimate of the factors at work. It is quite as 
 necessary to keep this same truth in mind, if we are to 
 understand why the education of boys grows so slowly in 
 India. The conservatism of the people and their pitiful 
 
 1 Parts of Chirol's writing on education are weakened by a failure to take 
 this most important fact into full consideration.
 
 416 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 poverty are certainly powerful retarding agents. Yet both 
 taken together do not hamper progress nearly so much as 
 the inherent antagonism of the religious systems to Western 
 thought and life. 
 
 Two very healthy symptoms may here be mentioned to 
 cheer the reformer and the student. The first of these is 
 Mr. Gokhale's bold attempt to secure universal education 
 in India through Government action. The Bill which he 
 laid before the Viceroy's Council was rejected; and, per- 
 sonally, I am inclined to believe it was well for India that 
 it should be rejected ; yet the way in which the Indian 
 press received the proposal showed that the educated 
 class have travelled far in opinion these last twenty years, 
 and that there is in them the possibility of still greater 
 advance. The second healthy symptom is this, that 
 competent Indian observers assure us that the last few 
 years of extreme national interest and excitement have so 
 stirred the common people in certain parts of India that 
 there is now a keen desire for widespread education, and 
 such a willingness to allow children to attend school as 
 has not been known before. 
 
 In 1902, 22.2 per cent of the boys of school-going age in 
 India were at school ; in 1912 the percentage had risen to 29. 
 
 13. EDUCATION OF GIRLS 
 
 The ancient ideal for high-caste Hindus was that, when 
 children reached the age of eight to twelve, the boys should 
 go to school, and the girls should be married. 1 The deep 
 distinction here implied has not only been taught the 
 Hindu people for two thousand five hundred years, but 
 has been worked into their very nature and character by 
 a series of institutions such as no other country has ever 
 possessed. Girls have been married before reaching 
 1 Crown of Hinduism, 93-94.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 417 
 
 puberty. Their husbands have been free to marry as 
 many wives as they chose to have. No husband has 
 eaten with his wife. The widow has been prevented from 
 remarrying, while the widower has had severe pressure 
 brought to bear upon him to induce him to remarry, if 
 he was disinclined. For some fifteen hundred years, the 
 Hindu widow was taught that the noblest thing she could 
 do was to burn herself upon the pyre with her husband. 
 For six hundred years, high-caste women have been closely 
 shut up in the zenana. Finally there was another fact 
 which told for a long time : 
 
 Courtesans, whose business in life is to dance in the temples 
 and at public ceremonies, and prostitutes are the only women 
 who are allowed to learn to read, sing, or dance. It would be 
 thought a disgrace to a respectable woman to learn to read; 
 and even if she had learnt she would be ashamed to own it. 1 
 
 This feeling does not tell so powerfully now as it did a 
 century ago. 
 
 When we take all these factors into consideration, we 
 are not astonished to find that the proposal to give Hindu 
 girls an education has made very little progress in the 
 community. The whole Hindu scheme of things has 
 operated to keep the people from giving their girls an 
 education. 
 
 It was missionaries who began the education of girls. 
 They were followed, at a considerable interval, by a few 
 European laymen, the Government, and the Brahma 
 Samaj. Later still, the other Samajes, the Ramakrishna 
 Mission and Theosophy began to help ; and now most 
 Hindu organizations do something to further the cause. 
 Progress is slow, yet while only 2.5 per cent of girls of 
 school-going age were in school in 1902, there were 5 per 
 
 cent in 1912. 
 
 1 Dubois, 337. 
 
 3E
 
 4i8 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 14. CASTE 
 
 The main rules of caste which a Hindu has to observe 
 relate to marriage, food, occupation and foreign travel. 
 No man may marry outside his caste, and usually he is 
 restricted to certain sub-sections of his caste, while, in 
 many parts of India, sectarian distinctions narrow the 
 range of choice still farther. Certain kinds of food are 
 absolutely proscribed in each caste ; there are rules as to 
 the caste of the person who may cook for the members of 
 the caste ; no man may eat with a person of lower caste 
 than himself; and there are strict rules as to those from 
 whose hands one may receive water. The occupation rule 
 is in most cases very strict for low-caste people but very 
 lax for the high castes. No Hindu may cross the ocean. 1 
 
 The marriage rule is very strictly kept by all classes. 
 There are very few, even among those who have had an 
 English education, who dare to break the matrimonial 
 rules; for they are the very foundation of caste observ- 
 ance. Not only the social reform organization but most 
 of the sectarian unions 2 and the caste conferences 3 suggest 
 that restrictions on marriage between members of sub- 
 castes should be given up, but very little progress has yet 
 been made. It is only the most advanced reformers who 
 propose that distinctions of caste should be altogether 
 neglected in marriage. 
 
 The law as to what is legitimate or illegitimate in the 
 matter of diet must always have been subject to minor 
 changes. Educated men living in the large towns take 
 large liberties nowadays outside their own homes in this 
 matter, but they are usually strict at home. Mr. Shridhar 
 Ketkar, in the second volume of his History of Caste in 
 
 1 Crown of Hinduism, 163-166. 2 See above, pp. 291 fi. 
 
 3 See above, pp. 308 ff.
 
 419 
 
 India, gives a very illuminating account of the state of 
 affairs in the matter of diet in the Bombay Presidency. 1 
 
 Until recent times the rule that a man must not eat with 
 a person of lower caste than himself was upheld with the 
 extremest stringency. In past days, people have been 
 outcasted because they had smelt beef ! Even now in 
 certain localities orthodoxy is very strict. Yet Western 
 thought and common sense are gradually telling on edu- 
 cated men. The Brahmas are quite free in interdining, 
 and most members of the Prarthana Samaj are ready to 
 dine not only with Hindus of any grade but with Christians, 
 Muhammadans and foreigners. Indeed social reformers 
 all tend to seek liberty in this matter. The ordinary edu- 
 cated Hindu desires freedom, so that he may dine with old 
 classmates and with Europeans who have been happily 
 associated with him in public life, education or business. 
 Yet many shrink back, and the mass of educated men still 
 hold the orthodox position. There is much ground yet 
 to be possessed. 
 
 What may perhaps be described as the boldest action 
 taken by social reformers in recent years was carried out in 
 Bombay in November, 1912. Under the auspices of a new 
 organization, called the Aryan Brotherhood, a Conference of 
 people opposed to caste was held from the 9th to the i2th of 
 November, and closed with a dinner at which one hundred 
 and fifty men and women dined together, openly setting at 
 defiance the laws of caste. Those who were present at the 
 dinner had come from many parts of Western India ; and a 
 considerable number of them found themselves outcasted, as 
 soon as they returned to their homes. In several places, the 
 orthodox party showed that they were determined to push 
 things to the uttermost. It is well known that Brahmans 
 of the highest rank who are counted orthodox take tea in 
 
 1 Chap. VI.
 
 420 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Irani shops in Bombay, and even occasionally dine quietly 
 with Muhammadans or Europeans. So long as this is 
 done secretly, nothing is said ; but a public defiance of all 
 the rules of caste is another matter. Some of those out- 
 casted yielded at once, and were reinstated after performing 
 prayaSchitta (an atonement ceremony), but others are 
 holding out. It seems clear that this piece of bold action 
 will produce good results. 1 
 
 The rule that no Hindu may cross the ocean was im- 
 posed because it is clear that no Hindu can go to another 
 country by sea and keep caste rules about food. When 
 Ram Mohan Ray went to England, he sought to preserve 
 his caste by taking a Brahman cook with him. The de- 
 sire to get an education in Europe or America has proved 
 the most powerful motive leading to the breach of the 
 rule; but the exigencies of business have also proved 
 effective ; and a few orthodox Hindu princes have yielded 
 under the overwhelming desire to be present at some 
 great state ceremonial in England. For a long time 
 orthodoxy remained utterly implacable. The man who 
 had crossed the ocean could not be received back into 
 caste unless he underwent the prescribed atonement, 
 prdyaschitta, a most disgusting and barbarous ceremony. 
 Those who would not pay the penalty were outcasted. 
 Hence there grew up in Calcutta a small but interesting 
 and influential community who, for the sake of education, 
 had suffered excommunication. Most of them found 
 refuge in the Brahma Samaj. For long the battle was 
 most serious, 2 and in many parts of India it is so to the 
 present day; but nationalism has triumphed in Calcutta. 
 One of the most noticeable results of the unbounded excite- 
 ment of 1905-1907 was the creation of a society in Calcutta 
 for the sending of Bengali students to Europe, America or 
 
 1 ISR., XXIII, 49, 133, 139, 176, 233. 2 Ranade, Essays, 161.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 421 
 
 Japan to receive a modern education. So popular has the 
 movement been and so powerful its leaders, that, when 
 students return to Calcutta, they are received back into 
 caste without any fuss. Quite recently the Bhatias of 
 Bombay have split into two sections over the problem. 
 
 The movement for the uplifting of the Outcaste is prob- 
 ably the most significant of all the facts that fall to be 
 chronicled under the head of caste. But it has been 
 already dealt with, 1 so that we need not touch it here. 
 
 15. TEMPERANCE 
 
 Many a Hindu has been reckless enough to declare that 
 Europeans brought drink to India, and debauched a tee- 
 total nation. The facts are, however, that there has 
 been a good deal of drinking in India since the very dawn 
 of history. Priests and people in the time of the Rigveda 
 were so fond of the drink called soma that they not only 
 offered it to the gods as one of the best gifts they could 
 give, but actually deified it. Soma is one of the leading 
 gods of the Rigveda. From the Epics it is also evident 
 that there was a good deal of drinking among the warlike 
 tribes in the pre-Christian centuries. The laws of Manu 
 show us that in settled Hindu life throughout North India 
 various kinds of intoxicating liquor, drink shops, drinking 
 parties and drunkards, were not uncommon; and the 
 dramas corroborate this evidence. 
 
 It is perfectly true that Hindu law for many centuries 
 has been seriously opposed to the use of alcoholic drink; 
 and high-caste Hindus, as a class, have been practically 
 total abstainers. Yet even this general statement re- 
 quires to be qualified ; for in Bengal, at the great festivals, 
 every family gives siddhi to visitors; and in the Left- 
 
 1 Above, pp. 366 ff.
 
 422 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 hand Sakta Sect intoxicating liquor is one of the five 
 tattvas used as means of salvation. Many of the lower 
 castes have been accustomed to drink from time im- 
 memorial. 
 
 Modern life, unfortunately, has done a good deal to 
 introduce drink among the educated classes and to spread 
 the drinking habit among the coolies on tea-gardens. It 
 is probably true also that the planting of licensed liquor 
 shops in the lower parts of the great cities of India has 
 led to an extension of the drinking customs of the com- 
 mon people. 
 
 There was thus ample room for a temperance propa- 
 ganda. A vigorous crusade was carried on for several 
 years by Mr. W. S. Caine and a number of helpers, with 
 the result that many Hindu castes were induced to give 
 up drink altogether. The movement still continues to do 
 good work, through the Churches, the Samajes, and 
 Temperance Societies consisting of men of every faith. 
 Besides using moral suasion with communities and indi- 
 viduals, these bodies do useful service by watching lest 
 the action of the Excise Department lead to an increase 
 in drink-shops and drinking, and by making suggestions to 
 Government for the better control of the traffic. An 
 Annual Temperance Conference is held in one of the great 
 cities. 
 
 1 6. SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 It was Keshab Chandra Sen who first suggested that 
 the Brahma Samaj should copy Christians in the matter 
 of philanthropy. All the Samajes have taken this up 
 seriously. The Arya Samaj especially has done work of 
 very great value in relieving the famine-stricken and those 
 who suffered in the great Kangra earthquake. The Rama- 
 krishna Mission has several times done fine service in re-
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 423 
 
 lieving sufferers from flood, famine and pestilence. The 
 Arya Samaj, the Deva Samaj and the Ramakrishna Mis- 
 sion all follow the lead of the Christian Church in doing 
 medical work. The Brahma Mission on the Kasi Hills 
 also gives medical help. 
 
 But the new currents started by the great national 
 excitement of recent years have helped to bring into 
 existence a new type of effort which may yet prove of 
 considerable value. For many years certain Christian 
 Colleges and schools have led out their students into simple 
 social service. Usually this has taken the form of schools 
 for neglected tribes and castes, or simple medical relief; 
 but, in recent years, the value of social work as training 
 for the young Christian has been so clearly perceived that 
 the whole subject has been carefully discussed, and many 
 new lines of activity have been started. This Christian 
 movement found articulate expression in an excellent book, 
 Suggestions for Social Helpfulness, by the Rev. D. J. Flem- 
 ing, of Lahore. This volume is now out of print, but its 
 place has been taken by a still better book, Social Study, 
 Service and Exhibits, by the same author. 
 
 During the last three or four years the movement has 
 appeared in Government and Hindu Colleges; and it is 
 steadily spreading. In most cases the work attempted is 
 a school for Outcaste children. This service is being done 
 by students of the Presidency College, Calcutta, by stud- 
 ents of the Central Hindu College, Benares, and by others. 
 In some cases, careful social study has been started. For 
 example, the students of Patna College, organized in the 
 Chanakya Society, have surveyed the chief industries of 
 Patna City, of Dinapore, of Mozufferpore and of some 
 other places in Behar. In many centres the Young Men's 
 Christian Association has organized groups of Hindus for 
 social service along various lines.
 
 424 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 In close connection with the Servants of India Society's 
 work there was started recently, under the Presidency of 
 Sir N. G. Chandavarkar, the Social Service League, Bom- 
 bay. The objects of the League are : 
 
 The collection and study of social facts; the discussion of 
 social theories and social problems with a view to forming public 
 opinion and securing improvements in the conditions of life, 
 and the pursuit of social service. 
 
 Only those who are prepared to work are received as 
 members. A similar League, under the Presidency of 
 Mrs. Whitehead, is working in Madras. 
 
 LITERATURE. Social Study, Service and Exhibits, by D. J. Fleming, 
 Calcutta, The Association Press, 1913, 10 as. The Theory and 
 Practice of Social Service in India, by K. M. Munshi, Bombay, the 
 Social Service League (a prize essay). 
 
 17. THE CRIMINAL TRIBES l 
 
 The movement for the reformation of the Criminal 
 Tribes is scarcely parallel with the other efforts at social 
 reform which we have just reviewed ; for, thus far, it has 
 been almost exclusively the work of the Salvation Army 
 and the Government; but it is a matter of so much im- 
 portance and interest, and fits so well into the chronicle 
 of this chapter, that the story had better be told. 
 
 The phrase Criminal Tribes is used strictly of tribes 
 whose regular caste-occupation is some form of crime. The 
 form of crime which a tribe practises is part of the caste- 
 organization, and is carried on under very strict rules. 
 
 1 1 am indebted for much of my information on this subject to Mr. O. H. 
 B. Starte, I. C. S., who travelled home on the same steamer with me in April, 
 1914. He has been engaged during the last four years in establishing and 
 controlling experimental settlements amongst the Criminal Tribes in the 
 southern part of the Bombay Presidency.
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 425 
 
 Thus, among the Ghantichors of the Bombay Presidency 
 it used to be the rule that a young man could not marry 
 until he had stolen a nose-ring off a woman's face. The 
 same tribe is bound by another rule, that they must steal 
 only by day : until quite recently, if a man stole by night, 
 he was outcasted. The reason why these regulations are 
 so well understood and so carefully observed is that they 
 are to the tribesmen religious laws. In most cases the 
 tribe holds that the gods have imposed their particular 
 crime-occupation on them ; that, so long as they follow it 
 in accordance with caste rules, they are true men and 
 faithful to their religion; and that, if they were to give 
 it up, the gods would wreak their displeasure on them. 
 Hence, before starting out on a criminal expedition, they 
 offer prayers to their divinity, and when they return, they 
 dedicate to him a percentage of their spoils. The Chhap- 
 parbands of the Bombay Presidency, for example, whose 
 caste profession is the making of counterfeit coins, give 
 12^ per cent. Most of these tribes are Hindus, but some 
 are Muhammadans; and amongst the Muhammadans it 
 is usually to the shrines of the Pirs (saints) that they 
 dedicate the stated portion of their gains. 1 
 
 No trustworthy estimate of the numbers of these reli- 
 gious criminals can be given ; for no careful survey has yet 
 been made. Some tribes are completely and dangerously 
 
 1 The secret society of robber-stranglers known as Thags, which was put 
 down by the British Government in the second quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury (p. 17, above), was an organization conducted on the same principles as a 
 criminal tribe, but it had a much wider basis. It was composed of both 
 Hindus and Muhammadans, and the Hindus belonged to many different 
 castes ; yet all took the same oaths, practised the same ritual and worshipped 
 the same divinity, the goddess Kail. The date of its origin and the name 
 of its founder are alike unknown. Doubtless it sprang into existence at 
 some time when the Delhi Government was so disorganized as to give 
 predatory gangs unusual opportunities for plundering. See Meadows 
 Taylor, Confessions of a Thug, London, Triibner, is.
 
 426 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 criminal; others are less aggressive, part being actively 
 criminal, the rest only passively so ; others are mixed, 
 some sections being perfectly honest, others hardened 
 criminals. But, though a definite census has not been 
 taken, they are known to be very numerous ; for they 
 are found in every part of India ; and we may be certain 
 that the total population of those tribes which are com- 
 pletely and dangerously criminal is not less than 300,000. 
 If they could be changed into good citizens, a large part of 
 the Indian police force could be disbanded. 
 
 The growing efficiency of the British Government, and 
 two modern police-methods the taking of finger-prints 
 and gang-prosecutions have broken the self-confidence 
 of many of these tribes. They begin to find the resources 
 of civilization too strong for them. They are in a chastened 
 mood, and are thus in some degree prepared to respond to 
 the suggestion that they should become honest men. The 
 majority are willing to enter Settlements. 
 
 Government is also, in a manner, pledged to go forward 
 with their reclamation : such is the implication of the 
 Criminal Tribes' Act of 1911. 
 
 Government Settlements for the purposes of reclama- 
 tion were tried at various times in the past, but with 
 limited success. It is only during the last six years that 
 results have been won which justify the hope that the 
 further improvement of methods may lead to a complete 
 transformation of these tribes. 
 
 A. In 1908 work was begun in a small Settlement at 
 Gorakhpur by the Salvation Army with Government help, 
 and others have been opened since. The long experience 
 the Army has had in dealing with the criminal class all 
 over the world has prepared them for the task. Govern- 
 ment provides suitable buildings when such are available, 
 or gives grants-in-aid for the erection of new buildings. It
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 427 
 
 also gives a monthly grant for expenses, and in many cases 
 provides land for cultivation. Trades, such as silk-reeling, 
 carpentry, weaving, etc., are taught to many of the younger 
 members of the tribes. The Salvation Army provides 
 experienced officers of the right type of character. Their 
 work has not been all success by any means; and they 
 themselves confess that they are only learning how to deal 
 with these difficult people ; yet such results have been won 
 as to justify a wide extension of the effort. The Army 
 have now 25 Settlements in India and one in Ceylon. A 
 pamphlet by Commissioner Booth Tucker, called Crimino- 
 curology, 1 gives a vivid account of their work. 
 
 B. At the end of 1909 the Government of Bombay 
 opened an experimental Settlement at Bijapur in the 
 South of the Presidency, 'under direct Government super- 
 vision. In the beginning their efforts were confined to 
 Chhapparbands, Harranshikaris and Ghantichors. At a 
 later date work was opened at other centres. The method 
 has two sides. The people live in a Settlement, and work 
 is provided for them, either in the Settlement or outside, 
 so that they may become accustomed to earning an honest 
 livelihood. A considerable number of them have been 
 placed in spinning and weaving mills, others have been 
 taught masonry or carpentry. Experience has shewn that 
 the members of the Settlement attain to a virility and 
 knowledge of the economic value of their own labour 
 much more speedily if work is found for them under in- 
 dependent employers than if work is provided directly 
 under the Settlement authorities. Hence the present 
 policy is to establish the Settlements in places where there 
 is a keen demand for labour. They are kindly treated 
 and helped in every possible way. But, in order that 
 they may not slip away from discipline and return to 
 
 1 Simla, The Royal Army Temperance Association Press.
 
 428 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 crime, they are registered and watched; and absconders 
 are punished. 
 
 Very encouraging results have been already won. An 
 extension of the work is now contemplated ; but the ques- 
 tion is being considered whether, in order to obtain the 
 necessary moral influence, some of the Settlements should 
 not be controlled by voluntary agencies. 
 
 The independent experience so gained fully corroborates 
 the conclusions which Salvation Army Officers have reached 
 as to the possibility of reclaiming these people and the 
 methods to be employed. The provision of regular work 
 for a considerable period of time under strict discipline, 
 and the placing of them under the guidance of people of 
 high character, who will treat them at once with the utmost 
 kindness and the utmost firmness, and will use all possible 
 moral suasion to change them, seem to be the principles 
 which will lead to success. Government alone can bring 
 to bear the pressure necessary to secure discipline, and 
 private philanthropic effort alone can supply in a satis- 
 factory way the men and women needed for the moral 
 side of the work of reclamation. 
 
 The work is still mostly of an experimental nature, but 
 the experiments now being carried on in different parts of 
 India are leading to such definite conclusions that it is 
 highly probable that the near future will see a very wide 
 extension of the work. 
 
 There are thirteen Salvation Army Settlements in the 
 United Provinces, five in the Pan jab, five in the Madras 
 Presidency and two in Bihar and Orissa. The American 
 Baptists in the Telugu country have one Settlement, and 
 one is under the control of the Manager of a Mica mine. 
 The Wesleyans in Benares are working among the Doms, 
 a semi-criminal tribe. 
 
 Arrangements are being made for the opening of more
 
 SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 429 
 
 Settlements under private management. Hitherto only 
 Christian bodies have been willing and able to undertake 
 the task, and until quite recently the Salvation Army alone 
 has had Settlements ; but long-established Missions, with 
 their communities, Churches, Industrial Schools and Indus- 
 tries, and their knowledge of the local conditions, are in 
 many respects in a position of great advantage for dealing 
 with the problem, though at present they have not the 
 experience of the Salvation Army. It may also be noted 
 that the Panjab Government recently invited several of 
 the leading Hindu and Muhammadan societies to take a 
 share in the work. The problem is so large that there 
 would appear to be ample scope for all suitable voluntary 
 agencies to aid in its solution.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 
 
 I. The most prominent characteristic of the long series 
 of religious movements we have dealt with is the steady 
 advance of the ancient faiths. The earlier organizations 
 were very radical indeed in the treatment they proposed 
 for the troubles of the time, and adopted great masses of 
 Christian thought and practice. But as the years passed, 
 men found courage to defend an ever larger amount 
 of the old theology, until a number undertook to prove 
 every scrap of the ancient structure good. Hinduism, 
 Islam, Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism-each leaped 
 up into new vigorous activity, every prominent sect ex- 
 periencing a mysterious awakening. Finally, under the 
 impulse of national feeling, the tables were completely 
 turned : not only the religions but everything Oriental 
 was glorified as spiritual and ennobling, while everything 
 Western received condemnation as hideously materialistic 
 and degrading. An immense quantity of literature pours 
 from the press, and considerable sums of money are 
 subscribed for defence purposes, above all for sectarian 
 education. 
 
 Hence the Hindu, the Jain, the Buddhist, the Parsee 
 and the Muslim are to-day filled with overflowing con- 
 fidence each in his own religion; a confidence which 
 tends to be hostile to spiritual life as well as to a reason- 
 able estimate of the old faiths. Many a man has a pride 
 in his tone, and shews an arrogance towards outsiders, 
 which are scarcely characteristic of health, whether religious 
 
 430
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 431 
 
 or intellectual. The Modern Review, perhaps the best and 
 most representative of the monthlies at present, frequently 
 contains a good deal of bombast ; and the youthful gradu- 
 ates who speak and write on Hinduism have usually far 
 too much of Vivekananda's swagger about them. Hun- 
 dreds of men of the student class, under Dayananda's in- 
 fluence, believe that the ancient Hindus were as far advanced 
 in the natural sciences l as modern Europeans are, and that 
 they had invented not only firearms and locomotives but 
 telegraphs and aeroplanes as well. 
 
 Yet the arrival of the new spirit was necessary for the 
 health of the country. The long decades during which 
 not only the European but the cultured Hindu looked down 
 upon the religion, philosophy and art of India effectually 
 opened the door to the influence of the West, without 
 which the Awakening would have been impossible; but 
 they as effectually depressed the Indian spirit to a point 
 at which the doing of the best work was impossible. Hence 
 the return of self-respect was sorely needed ; and that has 
 come since the twentieth century opened. 
 
 II. But there is another aspect of the situation which 
 requires to be clearly realized. The triumphant revival 
 of the old religions, with their growing body-guard of 
 defence organizations, has been accompanied by continuous 
 and steadily increasing inner decay. This most significant 
 of all facts in the history of these movements seems to be 
 scarcely perceived by the leaders. They believe that the 
 danger is past. This blindness arises largely from the fact 
 that they draw their apologetic and their inspiration almost 
 entirely from Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, 
 Dayananda and Mrs. Besant ; and it is clear that neither 
 capable thinking nor clear-eyed perception can be bred on 
 such teaching as theirs. 
 
 1 P. 116, above.
 
 432 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 We shall here attempt only a very brief statement of the 
 evidence for this inner decay in the case of Hinduism. 
 While the apologists have been busy building their defences 
 these last forty years, Western influence has been steadily 
 moulding the educated Hindu mind and rendering it alto- 
 gether incapable of holding the ideas which form the founda- 
 tion of the religion. Hence we have many defences of 
 idolatry but no faith in it. In spite of all that has been said 
 in favour of the Hindu family, no educated Hindu has 
 found any religious basis for pre-puberty marriage, for 
 widow-celibacy, for polygamy, for the zenana. The 
 modern man simply cannot believe that his dead father's 
 spirit comes and eats the rice-cake offered at the Srdddha, 
 far less that his place in heaven is dependent on it. Much 
 has been said to make caste seem a most reasonable form 
 of social organization ; yet thinking Hindus no longer hold 
 that which is the foundation of the system, the doctrine 
 that each man's caste is an infallible index of the stage of 
 spiritual progress his soul has reached in its transmigrational 
 journey. The Depressed Classes Mission is clear proof 
 that Hindus no longer believe that the Outcaste is a soul 
 whose past record is so foul that physical contact with him 
 is spiritually dangerous to the caste Hindu. What student 
 believes that that is true of the European Principal and 
 Professors of his college ? Yet, if these things are incredi- 
 ble, caste has no religious basis left. Then the Vedic 
 Schools are dying. Asceticism is clearly dying. The 
 great Sankaracharya founded four monasteries, at Sringeri 
 in Mysore, at Dvarika in Kathiawar, at Badrinarayana 
 in the Himalayas, and at Puri. In February last, at 
 Rajkot, Kathiawar, I had a personal interview with the 
 Sankara who is the head of the Dvarika monastery. In- 
 stead of a fine company of intelligent men studying the 
 Vedanta, he has only some half a dozen boys of six or seven
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 433 
 
 years of age as his disciples. They came marching into 
 the verandah where we were seated, each little fellow dressed 
 in a rough brown blanket and carrying the wand of a 
 brahmachdrij and saluted the dchdrya. He also informed 
 me that the Badrinarayana monastery is now extinct. 1 
 
 III. The causes which have combined to create the move- 
 ments are many. The stimulating forces are almost exclu- 
 sively Western, viz. the British Government, English edu- 
 cation and literature, Christianity, Oriental research, Euro- 
 pean science and philosophy, and the material elements of 
 Western civilization ; but the beliefs and the organization 
 of the ancient faiths have been moulding forces of great 
 potency. The Arya Samaj is an interesting example of the 
 interaction of rationalism and modern inventions with 
 belief in transmigration and the inerrancy of the Vedic 
 hymns. The Deva Samaj shews us Western evolutionary 
 science in unstable combination with Hindu guru-worship. 
 Theosophy is a new Gnosticism which owes its knowledge to 
 Western Orientalists but takes its principles from Buddhism 
 and its fireworks from occultism. 
 
 IV. While the shaping forces at work in the movements 
 have been many, it is quite clear that Christianity has ruled 
 the development throughout. Christianity has been, as it 
 were, a great searchlight flung across the expanse of the 
 religions; and in its blaze all the coarse, unclean and 
 superstitious elements of the old faiths stood out, quite 
 early, in painful vividness. India shuddered; and the 
 earlier movements were the response to the revelation. But 
 the same light which exposed all the grossness gradually 
 enabled men to distinguish the nobler and more spiritual 
 elements of the religions. Consequently the Hindu, the 
 
 1 A great deal of evidence on the subject of the decay of Hinduism is 
 gathered in the author's Crown of Hinduism, pp. 34, 42, H3-i5> I48-5 J > i?7~ 
 87, iQi. 273-61 334-9, 342, 421-4, 446-7- 
 
 2P
 
 434 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Jain, the Parsee and the Muhammadan set these in the 
 foreground, crushed out the worst as far as possible, and 
 sought to build up fresh organizations which should be able 
 to bear the searching glare continually flung on them by the 
 great Intruder from the West. Hence, while most of the 
 material used in the reconstruction is old, Christian prin- 
 ciples have guided the builders. In every case the attempt 
 is made to come up to Christian requirements. Frequently 
 the outcome is extremely slender ; yet the purpose can be 
 seen. Christianity has been the norm ; and no part of the 
 most orthodox movement is fully comprehensible except 
 when seen from the Christian point of view. 
 
 i. Christianity has made men feel that the only possible 
 religion is monotheism. The Brahma, Prarthana and Arya 
 Samajes declare themselves as truly monotheistic as Chris- 
 tianity. Parsees and Muhammadans make the same claim. 
 All the Saiva and Vaishnava sects, and also the Sikhs, urge 
 that they are true monotheists; yet their teaching recog- 
 nizes the existence of all the gods of the Hindu pantheon. 
 Various forms of pantheism (for example, Theosophy, and 
 the systems taught by Ramakrishna, the Radha Soamis 
 and the Smartas of the South) demand recognition as 
 monotheistic, on the ground that monotheism and panthe- 
 ism should be reckoned as synonyms. 1 Why should 
 theological terms be used with pedantic strictness ? Finally, 
 even in the case of atheistic forms of thought (for example, 
 Jainism, the Buddhism of Ceylon and the teaching of the 
 Deva Samaj) the vogue of monotheism is clear. People 
 shrink from the word atheist. Individual Jains and Deva 
 Samajists will affirm that all they mean is that they cannot 
 see the necessity for a Creator ; while in Ceylon theistic 
 phraseology is very common in all revival literature. 
 
 1 Mr. Shridhar Ketkar says this frankly. See his Hinduism, its Forma- 
 tion and Future, 47.
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 43$ 
 
 2. When this idea of the one spiritual God is held intelli- 
 gently, it necessarily excludes polytheism, mythology, idola- 
 try and man-worship. Face to face with this powerful 
 conception, the modern religious movements of India fall 
 into three groups. The first of these contains the Brahma, 
 Prarthana and Arya Samajes. All these have been so 
 deeply influenced by the idea that they hold it in compara- 
 tive purity, and, along with the Parsees and the Muham- 
 madans, summon all men to give up these degrading super- 
 stitions. Next come the Radha Soamis, the Chet Ramis, 
 and the members of the Deva Samaj, who, though they have 
 given up polytheism and mythology, have succumbed to 
 man-worship, and will doubtless be led on by it to idolatry. 
 In the case of nearly all the other movements, there is a 
 desire to remain orthodox : so that polytheism, mythology, 
 idols and guru-worship are all retained. Yet the effect of 
 Christian criticism is very noticeable. In most of the 
 groups guru-worship, at least in its most degrading aspects, 
 is carefully concealed. The modern thinking man is 
 ashamed of it. Vivekananda and his fellow-disciples wor- 
 shipped Ramakrishna, but Christian influence led them to 
 minimize it: "We offer him worship bordering on divine 
 worship." In the case of idols, the need of an apologetic 
 is seriously felt, and numerous attempts have been made to 
 reach a reasonable defence, attempts about as successful as 
 Aaron's explanation of how the golden calf came into exist- 
 ence. No thinking man to-day can accept a phallic symbol 
 as a worthy representation of the God of the whole earth ; so 
 Vivekananda asserted, without a vestige of evidence, that 
 the linga is no phallus but a model of a sacred hill. The 
 most pitiful allegorizations are put forward as defences of 
 the mythology. In every case the apologetic confesses, 
 in form, if not in words, that it is the Christian spirit which 
 has to be faced.
 
 436 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 3. The Christian doctrine that God is the Father of men and 
 that every man is a child of God, with its corollary, that all 
 men are brothers, is accepted with practical unanimity in 
 all the movements. In the Brahma and Prarthana Samajes, 
 and by Sivanarayana, these doctrines are seriously accepted 
 and made the basis of a new life. But the force and perva- 
 siveness of the teaching are seen still more clearly in the 
 fact that in the case of all the other movements (with 
 the exception of those which deny the existence of God) the 
 doctrine is accepted and taught, even though other parts of 
 the theology are radically inconsistent with it. The Saiva 
 and Vaishnava sects claim the Fatherhood of God and the 
 Brotherhood of Man as Hindu doctrines, and yet hold 
 hard by the Hindu doctrine of the essential inferiority of 
 woman and the Caste system with its inhuman laws for 
 Outcastes and Mlecchas. Theosophists, Radha Soamis 
 and Smartas, though they make the Supreme impersonal 
 and unknowable, yet find themselves driven to call Him 
 the Heavenly Father. The Christian doctrine of the love 
 of God, which is a necessary element in the Fatherhood, 
 passed into the teaching of the Brahma and Prarthana 
 Samajes, and has deeply influenced most of the other 
 movements. It has led to increased emphasis being laid 
 on the doctrine of bhakti. The belief, that all men, as 
 children of God, are brothers, and that morality may be 
 summed up in the word brotherliness, has also worked 
 wonders. Here is the secret of the strange fact that men 
 who still hold by the doctrine of transmigration and karma 
 feel increasingly that caste is wrong, and are being gradu- 
 ally driven, by their consciences, first to acknowledge that 
 the untouchable Outcastes are their brothers, and then, 
 more slowly and reluctantly, to receive them as such. The 
 same belief has given Indians a truer idea of the value of 
 the human personality and shews itself in the convic-
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 437 
 
 tion that an Indian of any class is as great and valu- 
 able as a European, and in the new attitude to women and 
 children. This fresh way of looking at every human being 
 is implied in all the activities of the new Nationalism. 
 Another implicate of the Fatherhood has made a tremen- 
 dous impression. Every modern religious movement in 
 India calls itself the religion for all men. What a striking 
 result this is in India becomes clear only when one recollects 
 what an extremely exclusive religion orthodox Hinduism is. 
 Yet even the superlatively orthodox Bharata Dharma Ma- 
 hamandala makes the claim of universalism,and offers to sell 
 to anyone the books which, according to Hindu law, must be 
 seen by no woman and by no man outside the three twice- 
 born castes. How is it that no such claim was ever made 
 until Christianity appeared on the scene ? On the basis of 
 human brotherhood Christ insists vehemently on the duty 
 of kindly philanthropic service, and no part of His teach- 
 ing has produced larger results in India. Feeble attempts 
 are made here and there to trace the teaching to Hinduism ; 
 but all well-informed men recognize that it was introduced 
 into India by Christian missions. This mighty force shews 
 itself in every element of the social reform movement, but 
 above all things in what Christians have done for the Out- 
 castes, and in the rise of the movement among Hindus. 
 
 4. The righteousness of God, as taught by Jesus, has also 
 exercised a profound influence. The conception necessarily 
 involves the Christian ideas of repentance, forgiveness, the 
 transformation of character, the holy life and the passion 
 for saving men. All these in their fulness were adopted by 
 Keshab Chandra Sen ; those who follow him, both in Bengal 
 and Bombay, still preach them ; and most of them may be 
 traced in the exquisite cadences of Gitanjali. In all the 
 other movements there has been a serious clinging to the 
 conceptions of the old religion. Yet, modern men could
 
 438 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 not but seek to get rid of the filth, superstition and corrup- 
 tion revealed by the searchlight of Christ. Many of these 
 things are exposed in the writings of Ram Mohan Ray, of 
 Sivanarayana and of Dayananda. There has been a serious 
 attempt, on the part of the orthodox, to destroy, to drive 
 underground or to deny the worst features of Left-hand 
 Saktism, temple-prostitution, temple-miracles, priestly 
 fraud and corruption, and unclean superstition. Even 
 Vivekananda acknowledges the presence of masses of super- 
 stition in Hinduism : 
 
 The old ideas may be all superstition, but within these 
 masses of superstition are nuggets of gold and truth. 
 
 Mrs. Besant alone has had the courage to defend many of 
 the gross superstitions which the honest Hindu is heartily 
 ashamed of. On the other hand, it is now universally 
 recognized that no religion is worth the name that does 
 not work for spiritual ends and produce men of high and 
 noble character. Hindus lay all the stress nowadays on the 
 best parts of Hinduism, and make as little as possible of 
 law, custom and ritual. There is no movement that does 
 not set the Upanishads and the Gitd in the foreground. 
 So keenly is this felt in Jainism and Islam that, where the 
 laws of the religion are external and old-world, modern 
 apologists tell us that we must follow not the literal com- 
 mands but the spirit of Jainism, the spirit of Islam ; and 
 there is many an orthodox Moulvie in India to-day who 
 denies that the Koran allows slavery, polygamy or the kill- 
 ing of men who refuse to accept Islam. It is very signifi- 
 cant that the Deva Samaj and Madame Blavatsky unite 
 in proclaiming to the world how many hardened criminals 
 their particular doctrine has saved. 1 
 
 5. Christianity insists that the worship of God must be 
 1 Above, p. 181, and MPL, 265-6.
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 439 
 
 spiritual, and therefore that animal and vegetarian sacri- 
 fices, ceremonial bathing, pilgrimage and self-torture ought 
 to be given up. For the same reason worship ought to be 
 conducted in the vernacular, so that it may be understood 
 by the people ; otherwise it has little or no value for them. 
 The Brahma, Prarthana and Arya Samajes have responded 
 very fully to these ideals ; and the Radha Soami Satsang, 
 the Deva Samaj and Sivanarayana have not fallen far 
 short of them. A sort of simple non-conformist service in 
 the vernacular has been the norm for all these bodies. 
 Sacrifice, pilgrimage and ceremonial bathing have been 
 completely given up. The spirituality of true worship 
 also finds powerful expression in Gitanjali. The convic- 
 tion that prayer ought to be in the vernacular has led to 
 fresh proposals among both Parsees and Muslims, although 
 little result has followed. There have been a few attempts 
 made to transform sacrifice to spiritual uses. Thus Keshab 
 allegorized the homa sacrifice and the ceremonial waving of 
 lights, called Arati. In the Arya Samaj and in the teaching 
 of Sivanarayana we find fire-sacrifice retained, not as part 
 of the worship of God but as a means of purifying the air ! 
 The other movements cling to old Hindu worship practically 
 without change; but cultured men are more than half 
 ashamed of it ; the defences offered are very half-hearted ; 
 and the details are frequently condemned by individuals. 
 
 The Christian contention that sacred books can be of no 
 value, unless they are understood by the people, has led all 
 the movements, Jain, Sikh, Parsee and Muslim, as well as 
 Hindu, to produce translations of the sacred books they use 
 and to write all fresh books in the vernaculars. 
 
 6. The Christian doctrine of the Person of Christ has been 
 adopted in a modified form in a number of the movements. 
 Keshab Chandra Sen is the most noteworthy instance ; 
 but, besides him, we note, in the Hindu sphere, the Chet
 
 440 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 Ramls and the Isamoshipanthis, and among Muhammadans, 
 the Ahmadiyas and the Nazarenes. 
 
 But much more important than these cases of direct 
 acceptance of certain aspects of the Person of Christ is the 
 indirect influence the doctrine has exerted. The most 
 striking case of all is the prophecy of the Coming Christ 
 which has caused such an upheaval in Theosophy. Next in 
 importance is the increased emphasis laid during recent 
 years on the Vishnuite doctrine of divine incarnations, and 
 the altered form it has taken. The old animal incarnations 
 are dropped out of sight, and all the stress is laid on Rama 
 and Krishna, above all on Krishna. The reason for his 
 prominence is to be found in his place in the dia. Krishna 
 and the Gita can thus be put forward as a satisfactory 
 Hindu substitute for Christ and the Gospels. Hence, in 
 order to make it possible to place Krishna on an equality 
 with Christ, numerous attempts have been made to white- 
 wash his character as it is represented in the Epic and the 
 Puranas, and many books have been written to prove the 
 historicity of his life as it appears in the Mahabhdrata. A 
 similar motive led a Calcutta Hindu to publish a little 
 devotional volume called The Imitation of Shri Krishna. 
 It is worth noting also that the Radha Soamis call their 
 Sant Satguru the Son of God. 
 
 7. The most characteristic and vital of all Hindu doctrines 
 is transmigration and karma. It is also more anti- 
 Christian than any other aspect of the religion; for it 
 involves not only the theory that each individual passes 
 through many lives and deaths, but also the doctrines 
 that a man's place in society is an infallible index of the 
 stage of soul-progress he has reached ; that the suffering 
 he undergoes is strictly equivalent to his past sins; that 
 women are born women because of former sin, and widows 
 are widowed for the same reason ; that to seek to ameliorate
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 441 
 
 the social condition of an individual or a tribe is futile, 
 since the exact amount of the misery or happiness each man 
 will suffer or enjoy is inevitably fixed by his karma ; that 
 Caste is the only right form of society, because social grades 
 are divinely proportioned to human desert; that divine 
 forgiveness is impossible ; and that, since God stands apart 
 from karma, He is necessarily actionless. So powerful and 
 pervasive is the doctrine that there is scarcely a part of the 
 religion that has not been modified by it. How potent 
 then has Christianity been in controlling the religious 
 thought of the past century ! The doctrine has been ex- 
 pelled completely from the teaching of the Brahma and 
 Prarthana Samajes ; and everywhere else it has been deeply 
 wounded. Every aspect of the social reform movement is a 
 direct attack upon it ; and indeed each of the social impli- 
 cations of the doctrine is rapidly losing its hold. Men revere 
 the doctrine to-day but do not understand it. To them it 
 is merely an explanation of the inequalities of life ; but no 
 educated Hindu is ready to follow even that line to the end. 
 8. In all the movements we trace a strong desire that 
 their leaders should be like missionaries, that their priests 
 and teachers should be men of training, of high moral 
 character and spiritual power. Each body desires to give 
 its teachers a modern training in theology, so that they 
 may be able to teach the people and to defend the system 
 from outside attack. The great majority of sadhus, 
 priests and gurus are recognized as being worse than useless. 
 Apart from the Brahma and Prarthana Samajes, very few 
 of the movements have been able to secure trained leaders. 
 One hears everywhere that there is great difficulty in 
 getting good preachers. All the clever young men want to 
 enter secular employment. The sectarian movements have 
 organized examinations and offered prizes to stimulate 
 study ; while the Parsees, the Jains and the Muhammadans
 
 442 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 are making serious attempts to organize modern systems of 
 theological training. 
 
 9. A peculiarly arresting proof that Christianity has 
 ruled the whole religious development of the last century is 
 to be found in the Social Reform Movement. From begin- 
 ning to end the ideas that have led to reform have been purely 
 Christian, and have had to win their way in face of the 
 deepest conceptions of Hindu theology and social organiz- 
 ation. Buddhist and Jain teaching are quite as hostile, 
 and Islam also, in most cases. All this shines out so con- 
 spicuously in our sixth chapter that we need say no more 
 here. 
 
 10. The dominance of Christianity in the religious devel- 
 opment of the last hundred years may be clearly seen in 
 this that, almost without exception, the methods of work in use 
 in the movements have been borrowed from missions. This 
 is the more noticeable since India, in the past, had the 
 genius to produce a series of methods of religious propa- 
 ganda unmatched in the history of the world. 
 
 The schools of the priests, which at quite an early date 
 were thrown open to the three twice-born castes, is the 
 first method of Hinduism. In them arose most of the 
 greatest literature of the religion ; and, for well-nigh three 
 thousand years they dominated the mind of India. When 
 the passion for release from transmigration awakened the 
 early Hindus to philosophic inquiry, there appeared the 
 second method, groups of wandering monks (and nuns 
 also), who practised and taught their respective ascetic 
 theories of release. All the forms of Hindu philosophy 
 were propagated in this way. The same is true of Bud- 
 dhism and Jainism, except that in these movements monas- 
 teries appeared at an early date, and greatly eased the 
 rigours of asceticism. In mediaeval days there appeared 
 the third method, the wandering monk with his commen-
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 443 
 
 tary on the Veddnta-sutras, challenging to debate any one 
 who had a rival theory of the Vedanta, or a rival philosophy 
 and retiring from time to time to a monastery to study and 
 write. Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva are the best 
 examples. The fourth method appeared very early in the 
 Tamil South, an emotional devotee, poet, musician and 
 singer, wandering from shrine to shrine, using only the 
 vernacular, singing and dancing in ecstasy, or swooning 
 away in rapture before the idol which he adored. Rama- 
 nanda was the creator of the fifth method, which proved very 
 successful in North India, the wandering preacher and 
 theologian, fit to meet scholars, but ready to preach to the 
 people in their own tongue, and always ready to put his 
 prayers and meditations into pithy vernacular verse. This 
 type, known as the Bhagat (i.e. the Bhdgavata, the devotee 
 of the Lord, Bhaga van), might be a monk, like Ramananda, 
 or a married man, like Nanak or Tulsi Das. Chaitanya was 
 a Brahman, who had been a brilliant figure in the schools ; 
 but he introduced into the North the ecstatic singing and 
 dancing of the South. 
 
 It is very remarkable that no single movement in our 
 days uses these remarkable methods. We have seen no 
 new Sanskrit commentary on the Veddnta-sutras. No 
 vernacular poet moves from shrine to shrine dancing and 
 singing, followed by crowds of enraptured devotees. Day- 
 ananda and Ramakrishna were monks ; but in neither case 
 did any organized movement appear until monastic modes 
 of effort had given place to missionary methods. Keshab 
 introduced Chaitanya's dancing and singing in to the Brahma 
 samaj, but they are of no service to-day as modes of 
 propaganda. Only modern forms of effort are efficient. 
 The occultism of the new Theosophy is the one outstanding 
 method at present in use which is not missionary in origin, 
 and, as far as one can see, it is not Indian either.
 
 444 MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA 
 
 On the other hand, every sort of missionary method and 
 organization has been copied. A modern movement be- 
 longing to whatever religion is in almost every detail a 
 replica of a mission. Many of the methods are old, having 
 been long in use in Europe and America, but many are quite 
 fresh, developed to meet the peculiar circumstances of 
 modern India. We shall merely give a list of the more 
 notable of the methods copied, and leave readers to carry 
 the inquiry farther themselves. The modes of congrega- 
 tional worship, the educated ministry, preaching, lecturing, 
 pastoral work, prayer meetings, itinerancy, conferences, 
 make the first group. Sunday schools, Bible classes, 
 Young People's Societies, Bands of Hope, social gatherings 
 and other forms of work for young people make another. 
 The principles and methods of the mission school and col- 
 lege, girls' schools, boarding schools, hostels, industrial and 
 technical schools, schools for the blind, the deaf and dumb, 
 orphanages, widows' homes and zenana visitation, form 
 the educational group. All forms of medical work, and 
 also the Christian leper asylum, have beeen copied. Work 
 among the Outcastes and the wild tribes is one of the most 
 noticeable of all cases. Literature of every type, in English 
 and the vernaculars, for men, young men, women and 
 children, forms another group. Philanthropy and social 
 service can escape no one's notice. Every movement has 
 copied the Y. M. C. A., and a few have tried to reproduce 
 the Salvation Army. The very names used by Christians 
 are adopted and used by non-Christians. The whole 
 movement is a Revival; the work is conducted by Hindu, 
 Arya or Muslim Missionaries; and on many of them the 
 title Reverend is conferred ; Vivekananda organized a 
 mission, and many others have followed him ; Gita Classes 
 are conducted ; Prayer Meetings are held ; and Young Men's 
 Hindu (or Arya, Jain, Muslim, Buddhist) Associations
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENTS 445 
 
 are organized ; and the language of the Bible and of Chris- 
 tian prayer is on every lip. 
 
 V. After the evidence we have already adduced none 
 need be gathered to show that Christ's parable of the leaven 
 is proving itself true in India. Sir Narayana Chandavarka 
 of Bombay, in the following words, speaks out what many 
 recognize to-day : 
 
 The ideas that lie at the heart of the Gospel of Christ are 
 slowly but surely permeating every part of Hindu society and 
 modifying every phase of Hindu thought. 
 
 VI. Every student will notice how remarkably close the 
 parallel is between the revival of the ancient religions of 
 the Roman Empire in the early Christian centuries and 
 these movements in India in our own days. The similarity 
 is far greater than we have been able to bring out in our 
 pages, since our studies run on other lines. A number of the 
 salient points have been already touched on in fugitive 
 papers by different writers ; but the subject is well worth 
 working up into a monograph.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 1. H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the Wisdom, by Annie 
 Besant. Theosophical Publishing Society, London. 1907. 
 
 2. Episodes from an Unwritten History, by Claude Bragdon. 
 Rochester, the Manas Press. 1910. 
 
 3. Incidents in the History of the Theosophical Society, by 
 Joseph H. Fussell. Point Loma, California, the Aryan Theo- 
 sophical Press. 
 
 4. A Historical Retrospect of the Theosophical Society, by H. S. 
 Olcott. Madras, published by the Society. 1896. 
 
 The first purpose of this Appendix is to give readers some idea 
 of the extreme unreliability of the historical literature of The- 
 osophy, and the second is to show the publishers of these books 
 that they are thoroughly inaccurate and misleading, and on that 
 ground to appeal to them, to withdraw them from circulation. 
 
 i . H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the Wisdom. 
 
 a. "In August, 1851, we find her in London, and there, on a 
 moonlight night, as her diary tells us, beside the Serpentine, 
 'I met the Master of my dreams.' He then told her that he 
 had chosen her to work in a society, and some time afterwards, 
 with her father's permission, she went into training for her 
 future mission, passing through seven and ten years of proba- 
 tion, trial and hard work." P. 7. 
 
 " On November i7th, 1875, she founded, in pursuance of the 
 order she had received, the Theosophical Society." P. 10. 
 
 Here we have the Theosophic myth at work. For the whole 
 of the stupendous story of her intercourse with these "Masters" 
 Madame Blavatsky never produced any trustworthy evidence. 
 There is only her own bare assertion. She has never given any 
 definite geographical information to enable scholars to find the 
 Lodge of the Brotherhood in Tibet or the vast libraries which 
 
 447
 
 448 APPENDIX 
 
 she asserts exist there. Since those days Sarat Chandra Das, 
 a Calcutta Hindu, has travelled in Tibet, visited libraries and 
 talked with many monks. The British expedition sent by Lord 
 Curzon actually went to Lhassa; so that Tibet is now well 
 known. Two of the most honoured Hindu scholars in Calcutta, 
 Pandit Hara Prasad Sastri and Pandit Satischandra Vidya- 
 bhushana have wandered all over the hills within B ritish territory, 
 visiting monasteries and libraries. They have brought many 
 Mss., both Sanskrit and Tibetan, to Calcutta. How is it that 
 there is not a scrap of corroboration of Madame Blavatsky's 
 wonderful story ? No one knows anything about the existence 
 of the Masters, their Lodge or the Libraries. 
 
 On the other hand, as we have shewn above, in Madame 
 Blavatsky's own letters there is overwhelming evidence to prove 
 the whole false. 
 
 In the passages before us we are asked, on the evidence of 
 an entry in Madame Blavatsky's "diary," to believe that she 
 was guided by the Masters from 1851 to 1875. Now, what are 
 the facts ? The " diary" is no diary at all, but a book of drawings. 
 If it were a real diary ; if it provided us with information which 
 enabled us to understand Madame Blavatsky's early life ; and 
 if the passage referred to were an integral part of the narrative, 
 and demonstrably written in 1851 ; then it would be solid evi- 
 dence. But the passage quoted is the only entry in the whole book. 
 No one can tell when it was written. What then is its value as 
 evidence ? Simply nil. It may have been written by Madame 
 Blavatsky at any time during the last twelve years of her life. 
 But how are we to characterize Mrs. Besant's audacity in call- 
 ing the book in question a diary ? 
 
 b. "Before dealing with the communications received during 
 a short time in the famous ' Shrine ' at Adyar, it is necessary to 
 describe the rooms which afterwards became famous. Madame 
 Blavatsky occupied two out of three rooms of the upper story, 
 opening on to a large hall. There was a sitting-room, which 
 opened into a bedroom, and this again into a third room ; the 
 wall between the bedroom and this third room was made of two
 
 APPENDIX 449 
 
 partitions with twelve inches between them, lightly built, there 
 being no support below, and with a door in the middle, the door 
 being thus sunk in a recess. This third room was set apart for 
 occult purposes, and was called the Occult Room. On the 
 partition wall, loosely hanging, was a cupboard, originally over 
 the door, in which were placed two pictures of the Masters, 
 a silver bowl, and other articles; the cupboard had a solid 
 back and shelves, and was merely hung on the wall, so that it 
 could be removed easily. This cupboard was called 'The 
 Shrine.' The wall was smoothly plastered over, and various 
 people after it had been tampered with by the Coulombs 
 bore witness to the fact that at least up to February iyth, 1884, 
 H. P. B. left Adyar on February yth it was intact. Gen- 
 eral Morgan states that he first saw the Occult Room in August, 
 1883, when he visited Adyar in Madame Blavatsky's absence, 
 and, probably in consequence of a remarkable phenomenon that 
 happened on his visit, he examined the Shrine and its surround- 
 ings with great care; he affirms that, up to January, 1884, 
 when he left the headquarters, 'any trickery was impossible.' " 
 
 Pp. 2O-2I. 
 
 The authoress goes on to quote a number of similar state- 
 ments made by Mrs. Morgan, Col. Olcott and several other 
 Theosophists with regard to the Shrine ; and she repeats her 
 main affirmation about it again : 
 
 "Mr. Hodgson did not see the cupboard, and Dr. Hartmann, 
 who did see it, and examine it, says it had ' a solid unmovable 
 back,' and this is confirmed by others." P. 44. 
 
 Now what are the facts with regard to these large masses of 
 evidence ? They have been already given, but may be sum- 
 marized as follows : 
 
 (i) Every scrap of this evidence is quoted from the pamphlet, 
 Report of the Result of an Investigation into the Charges against 
 Madame Blavatsky, which contains the statements of Theoso- 
 phists written (in response to the circular of August, 1884) before 
 Mr. Hodgson arrived in India, but not published until February, 
 1885. P. 249, above. 
 20
 
 450 APPENDIX 
 
 (2) It was compiled in the main by Dr. Hartmann, Madame 
 Blavatsky's "liar, cunning and vindictive." P. 248, above. 
 
 (3) In September, 1884, five months before the pamphlet was 
 published, the Shrine was examined by Judge, Dr. Hartmann 
 and other Theosophists, and the sliding panels were found. 
 Pp. 241-2, above. 
 
 (4) Three of these Theosophists removed the Shrine, and 
 Judge burned it. Pp. 241-2, above. This is the amazing fact 
 which is necessary to explain Mrs. Besant's statement that 
 "Mr. Hodgson did not see the cupboard," and which she most 
 carefully suppresses. Neither the discovery of the panels nor 
 the burning of the Shrine is mentioned in the pamphlet, Report 
 of the Result, etc., though it was published five months later. 
 
 (5) When Hodgson asked Dr. Hartmann and Damodar about 
 the Shrine, they said they did not know what had happened to it, 
 and suggested that it had been stolen by the missionaries or the 
 Coulombs. Pp. 247-8, above. 
 
 (6) Most of the people whose testimony Mrs. Besant quotes 
 were questioned by Mr. Hodgson personally, and acknowledged 
 that they had never examined the back of the Shrine, thus repudiat- 
 ing all the evidence which Mrs. Besant quotes. Each of the 
 following singly confessed this to Mr. Hodgson, thus proving 
 that their statements printed in the pamphlet were at the least 
 very careless declarations: Mrs. Morgan, Mr. Subba Row, 
 Mr. Damodar, Mr. P. Sreenevasa Rao, Mr. T. Vijiaraghava 
 Charloo (Ananda), Babajee, Mr. P. Rathnavelu, Mr. T. C. 
 Rajamiengar. The details of their confessions are given by 
 Mr. Hodgson (Proceedings , IX, 220-226; 325-341). He adds 
 with reference to Mr. St. George Lane-Fox, "Mr. Lane-Fox 
 desired my special attention to the fact that an excessive super- 
 stition was attached to the Shrine by the natives. The feeling 
 with which they regarded it would absolutely interfere with 
 any careful investigation of either the shrine or its surroundings " 
 (Ib., 327). Dr. Hartmann himself agreed with this statement 
 (Ib., 226). Thus Mr. Hodgson could find no evidence that any 
 one examined the Shrine before September, 1884. 
 
 (7) On March 13, 1885, about a month after the publica-
 
 APPENDIX 451 
 
 tion of the pamphlet, Dr. Hartmann confessed, in the presence of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, Mr. A. O. Hume, and Mr. Hodg- 
 son, that "nobody was allowed to touch that d shrine" ; and 
 he then told the story of the discovery of the panels and the 
 burning of the Shrine. These facts were effectually concealed 
 from Hodgson until that date. Pp. 250-1, above. 
 
 (8) Mme. Blavatsky confessed to Mr. Hodgson that the Shrine 
 was made with three sliding panels in the back. P. 251, above. 
 
 (9) Dr. Hartmann confessed that his pamphlet was untrust- 
 worthy, and gave Mr. Hodgson a written statement about the 
 Shrine, which is quoted above. Pp. 251 and 241, above. 
 
 (10) In April, 1885, the pamphlet was publicly repudiated in 
 The Madras Mail by the Theosophic leaders. Pp. 253-4, above. 
 
 How then shall we characterize Mrs. Besant's statement of 
 the evidence as to the Shrine ? 
 
 c. Mrs. Besant quotes in extenso a letter written by Mr. A. O. 
 Hume to the Calcutta Statesman, in September, 1884, with refer- 
 ence to the letters handed over by Madame Coulomb. We need 
 quote only the last sentence, which is as follows : 
 
 "Parts of the letters may be genuine enough; one passage 
 cited has a meaning quite different from that in which I see that 
 the Times of India accepts it, but believe me, Madame Blavatsky 
 is far too shrewd a woman to have ever written to any one, any- 
 thing that could convict her of fraud" P. 37. 
 
 Now it is quite true that Mr. Hume sent this letter to the 
 Statesman; but Mrs. Besant omits altogether to tell her readers 
 that, within a few months, his mind changed completely. This 
 fact was published by Mr. Hodgson twenty-two years before 
 Mrs. Besant wrote her booklet : 
 
 "When the Blavatsky-Coulomb letters were first published, 
 Mr. Hume expressed his opinion publicly that Madame Blavat- 
 sky was too clever to have thus committed herself; latterly, 
 however, and partly in consequence of the evidence I was able 
 to lay before him, he came to the conviction that the letters in 
 question were actually written by Madame Blavatsky." Pro- 
 ceedings ', IX, 274.
 
 452 APPENDIX 
 
 Mrs. Besant declares she studied Mr. Hodgson's Report care- 
 fully : does not her action in this case, then, come as near wilful 
 misrepresentation as possible ? 
 
 d. "Mr. Hodgson, the gentleman sent by the S. P. R., was 
 present at this memorable Convention Meeting of December, 
 1884, the Colonel, in the innocence of his heart, extending to him 
 a warm welcome. Mr. Hodgson's appearance of friendship was, 
 however, a mere pretence to cover his real aim; he simulated 
 honest inquiry only the more surely to destroy." P. 40. 
 
 Dr. Hartmann and Mr. Judge charged the Coulombs with 
 forgery and the missionaries with hatching a conspiracy. Mrs. 
 Besant now charges Mr. Hodgson with shameful treachery ; and 
 if we accept this charge, we must believe that the Society for 
 Psychical Research were from beginning to end duped by this 
 dishonest scheme. But, apart from these considerations and 
 from Mr. Hodgson's own statement and behaviour, how are we 
 to characterize Mrs. Besant's conduct in publishing this foul 
 slander twelve years after the publication of A Modern Priestess 
 of Isis, in which Madame Blavatsky herself says that Hodgson 
 was at first a friend ? (P. 248, above.) 
 
 e. "Mr. Hodgson, in his Report, publishes a 'plan of the 
 Occult Room with shrine and surroundings (from measurements 
 taken by R. Hodgson, assisted by the statements of Theosophic 
 witnesses).' On page 220 Mr. Hodgson says that 'the accom- 
 panying rough sketch, made from measurements of my own, 
 shows the positions.' The reader will now see why I laid stress 
 on the fact that Mr. Judge had, in the summer of 1884, bricked 
 up the hole, plastered the wall, and then re-papered it; this 
 having been done in the summer of 1884, how could Mr. Hodgson 
 have made a rough sketch of the positions from his own measure- 
 ments in the spring of 1885 ? It may be asked : 'How then did 
 Mr. Hodgson obtain his plan?' The answer is simple; Mr. 
 Judge gives it. He said: 'I made a plan of how it had been 
 left by Coulomb, and that plan it is that Hodgson pirated in his
 
 APPENDIX 453 
 
 report, and desires people to think his, and to be that which he 
 made on the spot, while looking at that which he thus pretends 
 to have drawn.' All that Mr. Hodgson could have seen was a 
 blank wall. I reprint here the comment I made in Time on this 
 remarkable proceeding : 'I venture to suggest that the pirating 
 of another person's plan, with " measurements " of things that 
 no longer existed when Mr. Hodgson visited Adyar, is not con- 
 sistent with good faith. Yet the whole terrible charge against 
 Madame Blavatsky rests on this man's testimony. The Society 
 of Psychical Research, which has taken the responsibility of the 
 report, has no knowledge of the facts, other than that afforded 
 by Mr. Hodgson. Everything turns on his veracity. And he 
 issues another man's plan as his own, and makes imaginary 
 measurements of vanished objects.' ' P. 43. 
 
 This attack is practically the same as that published by Mrs. 
 Besant in Time in 1892. Mr. Hodgson replied in detail to the 
 attack in Proceedings, XXIV, 136-141, issued in June, 1893. 
 He not only shewed that all the minor charges were unjustifiable, 
 but published a copy of the only plan of the Shrine made by a 
 Theosophist which he ever saw. It had appeared in the Report of 
 Observations, etc., a pamphlet published by Dr. Hartmann in Sep- 
 tember, 1884. (See above, p. 240.) This must be the plan Mrs. 
 Besant refers to, as the pamphlet was prepared and issued during 
 the time when Mr. Judge was in Madras. This plan is repro- 
 duced above (plan A, page 234), with Mr. Hodgson's plan (plan B) 
 beside it, that readers may see with their own eyes how utterly 
 absurd it is to say that the latter was copied from the former. 
 
 Yet here we have Mrs. Besant repeating the old attack in 
 1907, without the slightest reference to Mr. Hodgson's complete 
 disproof of the slander, and without a single scrap of evidence, 
 except the statement of Judge, to substantiate the charge. 
 
 Further, Judge, on whose testimony Mrs. Besant relies, 
 is the man who had to do with the removal and burning of the 
 Shrine, and he is the man whose frauds and forgeries Mrs. Besant 
 and Colonel Olcott discovered in 1894. (See above, pp. 241-2, 
 268-71.) What sort of a witness is he ? 
 
 Now, if the plan republished by Mr. Hodgson is not Mr.
 
 454 APPENDIX 
 
 Judge's plan, Mrs. Besant is in honour bound to publish Mr. 
 Judge's one, that the world may see that Mr. Hodgson plagia- 
 rized it. But if the reproduced plan is Mr. Judge's plan, then 
 will not Mrs. Besant withdraw from publication this cruel and 
 baseless slander on the dead ? 
 
 /. " Mr. Hodgson's third charge is that certain letters alleged 
 to be from the Mahatma Koot Hoomi were written by Madame 
 Blavatsky, or in some cases by Damodar." P. 48. 
 
 " The before-mentioned experts varied together as to the au- 
 thorship of the letters submitted to them ; first they said they 
 were not done by Madame Blavatsky ; then, this not satisfying 
 Mr. Hodgson, they said they were. As against this valuable 
 opinion of theirs may be put that of Herr Ernst Schutze, the Court 
 expert in caligraphy at Berlin, who gave evidence on oath that 
 the letter of Master K. H. 'has not the remotest resemblance 
 with the letter of Madame Blavatsky,' and who wrote: 'I 
 must assure you most positively that if you have believed that 
 both letters came from one and the same hand, you have laboured 
 under a most complete mistake.' " P. 48. 
 
 This statement looks very convincing at first sight ; but let 
 us set the facts around it and see what becomes of it. 
 
 When Mr. Hodgson got a number of these letters submitted 
 to him, he found that the penmanship varied in them a good 
 deal. He then placed them as far as possible in chronological 
 order, when it became plain that the early letters retained many 
 of the characteristics of Madame Blavatsky's handwriting, while 
 in the later examples a number of these characteristics were 
 eliminated. Studied as a series, they at once suggest that all 
 are by the same hand and that there had been a progressive 
 differentiation of the handwriting. 
 
 It was merely several small slips of writing belonging to this 
 lengthy correspondence, conducted in a disguised hand, which 
 were submitted to the English experts, and which they declared 
 had not been written by Madame Blavatsky. When the long 
 chronological series was submitted to them, they recognized
 
 APPENDIX 455 
 
 the progressive differentiation and came to the conclusion that 
 all were written by Madame Blavatsky. 
 
 Now to come to the German expert. Mr. Sinnett tells us 
 (Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, 323-4) that the 
 documents submitted to him were a Root Hoomi letter of 
 September, 1884, and a letter written by Madame Blavatsky in 
 October, 1885. Now it had been suggested many months before 
 this latter date that Madame Blavatsky had written the letters 
 in question. Clearly, if the expert was to make his examination 
 under scientific conditions, a letter written by Madame Blavat- 
 sky before the question arose should have been given him for 
 comparison. How could he judge a question of handwriting, 
 if the accused was given an opportunity of resorting to disguise ? 
 Further, Mr. Hodgson gives a number of facts which clearly 
 suggest that Madame Blavatsky attempted the same trick with 
 him. Proceedings, IX, 281, 290-1 ; XXIV, 148-9. Thus the 
 German expert's verdict is worthless, simply because the evi- 
 dence was not submitted to him. 
 
 The English experts, on the other hand, had before them 
 specimens of Madame Blavatsky's writing dating from before 
 the Coulomb exposure, and also a considerable number of K. H. 
 letters of various dates. They thus worked under scientific 
 conditions, while the German expert did not. 
 
 Again we remark that all these facts are detailed by Mr. 
 Hodgson (Proceedings, IX, 282 ff . ; XXIV, 147-149) ; yet Mrs. 
 Besant ignores them entirely, and indeed suggests by her lan- 
 guage that there are no such material facts. 
 
 No one would say that the mere opinion of experts on the 
 handwriting would be sufficient to settle the question of the au- 
 thorship of these letters. As we have shown above (pp. 256-9), 
 several other lines of proof combine to indicate that they were 
 written by Madame Blavatsky and her immediate disciples. 
 
 We have submitted only a few fragments of Mrs. Besant's 
 booklet to examination. Limits of space alone prevent us from 
 carrying the process farther. The bulk of the rest of the material 
 is quite as rotten as the portions we have reviewed.
 
 456 APPENDIX 
 
 2. Episodes from an Unwritten History. 
 
 This work is in the main dependent on No. i, and we need 
 not deal with the corresponding passages here. But to give some 
 idea of the utter unreality of the story we shall quote two 
 passages : 
 
 a. "The work designated to Judge by the Founders was 
 magnificently performed, and notwithstanding his secession 
 from the parent society in 1895, taking with him most, though 
 not all, of his colleagues, his name rightly ranks first, after those 
 of the two Founders, among the great workers and leaders in the 
 Theosophical cause." P. 25. 
 
 What. must be the condition of the Theosophic conscience 
 which writes such a panegyric of Judge ? See above, pp. 241-2, 
 268-71. 
 
 b. Writing of Madame Coulomb, this author says : 
 
 " Prince Harisinghji of Kathiawar, to whom she had applied 
 on more than one occasion for two thousand rupees, tired of her 
 importunities, complained at last to Madame Blavatsky, who 
 promptly put an end to an intolerable situation by dismissing 
 from her service Madame Coulomb." P. 42. 
 
 This last statement is absolutely false. See the evidence 
 produced above (p. 236), shewing that the Coulombs were left 
 in full charge of Madame Blavatsky's rooms. 
 
 3. Incidents in the History of the Theosophical Movement. 
 
 In the discussion of the Madras exposure this pamphlet is 
 dependent on Mrs. Besant, and repeats the gross and baseless 
 slander about the plan of the shrine-room (pp. 45 2-4, above) . We 
 need not deal with it again. But there are other slanders : 
 
 a. " It was afterwards learned and published in the Madras 
 Daily Mail that the missionaries of the Madras Christian College 
 had offered to pay Mme. Coulomb a thousand rupees to procure 
 certain letters of Madame Blavatsky." P. 7. 
 
 This is utterly false. See the facts on p. 246 n., above.
 
 APPENDIX 457 
 
 b. " Both M. and Mme. Coulomb later, when their actions 
 were exposed, confessed to this plot." P. 7. 
 
 Could a grosser slander be conceived ? Madame Coulomb, 
 so far from confessing to a plot, instituted a lawsuit in defence 
 of her character (p. 252, above), and when it became impossible 
 to proceed with it, published a long letter in The Madras Mail, 
 stating her position once more with the utmost emphasis (p. 254, 
 above). 
 
 4. A Historical Retrospect of the Theosophical Society. 
 
 a. Writing about Judge, Olcott says : 
 
 " In the autumn of 1893, charges had been made against this 
 officer's character, a widespread and intense excitement had 
 resulted, and a majority of the Sections were urging me to remove 
 him from office. A Judicial Committee was convened at London 
 in 1894 to try the charges, but adjourned without doing so 
 because of certain technical points which were put forward and 
 held to be good. The discontent was not allayed by this action 
 but greatly increased, feeling ran high, an overwhelming major- 
 ity of the American Branches stood by him, and an angry dis- 
 cussion was carried on within and outside our own press. This 
 was the state of affairs when the Ninth Annual Convention of 
 the American Section met at Boston, Mass., on the day specified. 
 The Delegates almost in a mass made Mr. Judge's cause their 
 own, and voted to secede from the parent Society and organize 
 as an independent society." P. 17. 
 
 What sort of a historical account is this of the amazing events 
 we have outlined above (pp. 268-71) ? Olcott here simply keeps up 
 the policy of concealment agreed upon in the Judicial Committee. 
 
 We appeal to all who read these pages, Theosophists, re- 
 viewers and the general public : Is it not high time that the 
 Theosophical Publishing Society, London, the Manas Press, 
 Rochester, U. S. A., the Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma, 
 California, and the Theosophical Society, Madras, should with- 
 draw these most unhistorical publications from circulation ?
 
 GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS 
 
 acharya : scholar, theologian, minister. 
 
 astral : belonging to the astral world, see p. 195. 
 
 bhakti : devotion, love for God. 
 
 bhashya : commentary, especially on the Vedanta-sutras. 
 
 brahmachari : celibate student. 
 
 chela : disciple. 
 
 Dandis : ten orders of sannyasls, organized by Sankaracharya 
 
 and named from the danda or beggar's stick which 
 
 each sannyasl carries. 
 
 guru : a Hindu teacher, worshipped as God. 
 
 mantra : a short expression, prose or verse, used as a sacred 
 
 utterance, and believed to possess mystic power, 
 mleccha: a name used by Hindus for foreigners, like the 
 
 Greek ' barbaros ' and the Jewish ' Gentile.' 
 Moulvie : a Muslim theologian. 
 
 Om : the most sacred of all mystic syllables in use among 
 
 Hindus. 
 
 pandit : a learned man, especially learned in language. 
 
 paramahamsa : a title conferred on a sannyasl of high philosophic 
 
 and religious attainments. 
 
 purda : a word meaning ' curtain,' used instead of zenana, 
 
 sadhu : a word used for any modern Hindu ascetic. 
 
 Saiva : Sivaite. 
 
 samskaras : domestic ceremonies, 
 
 sannyasl: a celibate monk, see p. 73. 
 
 sat : real, true, 
 
 satguru : true guru, 
 
 s'raddha: Hindu ancestor- worship, 
 
 svaml : lit. ' lord,' a title conferred on sannyasls. 
 
 Vaishnava : Vishrjuite. 
 zenana : the women's apartments in an Indian house. 
 
 459
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abanindra Nath Tagore, 382. 
 
 Adam, W., 34. 
 
 Adepts, 280. 
 
 Adesh, 50. 
 
 Adi Brahma Samaj, 44, 46, 60-70; 
 
 _ creed, 71, 186. 
 
 Adi Granth, 337, 341. 
 
 Advaita Sabha, 305. 
 
 Aga Khan, the, 99. 
 
 Age of Consent Act, 24, 300, 397. 
 
 Agnihotri, S. N., 118, 173-82; por- 
 trait facing p. 177. 
 
 Ahmadlyas, 137 ff., 148-50. 
 
 Aksakoff, A. N., 209, 211, 212, 214, 
 215, 216, 217, 260. 
 
 Alcyone, 276, 289; the A. case, 276. 
 
 Aligarh College, 23, 93, 99, 333, 348, 
 360. 
 
 All-India Suddhi Sabha, 323. 
 
 Amritsar, Golden Temple at, 338, 341. 
 
 Anarchism, 28, 353-64. 
 
 Andrews, C. F., 360, 412-3. 
 
 Anglo-Muhammadan College, see Ali- 
 garh College. 
 
 Animal torture, 15. 
 
 Anjuman-i-Himayet-i-Islam, 148, 347. 
 
 Anjuman-i-Naumania, 351. 
 
 Anquetil du Perron, 8 n. 
 
 Anthroposophical Society, 276. 
 
 Anti-cow-killing agitation, in, 359. 
 
 AratI, 58, 179. 
 
 Aravinda Ghose, 362. 
 
 Aryan Brotherhood, the, 410-20. 
 
 Arya Samaj, 26, 101 ff., 316, 320, 324, 
 423. 433i 43Sf 439; the founder, 
 101 ff., and see Dayananda Saras- 
 vatl; foundation, 109-10; creed, 
 120-1; ethics, 121; sources of 
 ideas, 115; religious services, 122-4; 
 fire-sacrifice, xai, 123, 439; edu- 
 cation, 124, 125-6; work for De- 
 pressed Classes, 125, 371, 374; 
 Widows' Home, 404; famine relief, 
 300, 422 ; criticism of other religions, 
 
 113, 122; organization, 124-5; 
 
 schism, 124; strength and weakness 
 
 of system, 127. 
 Atheism, 175, 181, 324, 434. 
 Atmaram Pandurang, 76. 
 Atmlya Sabha, 31. 
 Automatic writing, 220, 225. 
 Avalon, Arthur, 305 n. 
 Avesta, 8 n., 82, 85, 344. 
 Awakening of India, 5, 13. 
 
 Baba BharatI, 296. 
 
 Badrinarayana Monastery, 433. 
 
 Baukim Chandra Chatterji, 295. 
 
 Banurji, K. C., 67. 
 
 Barendra Ghose, 362. 
 
 Basava, 301. 
 
 Basava Puranas, 302. 
 
 Bentinck, Lord, his policy, 17, 387 ; 
 abolition of salt, 12, 17, 33, 387, 401 ; 
 reforms, 17 f., 387, 395 ; decides in 
 favour of English education, 18. 
 
 Besant, Mrs., 208, 210, 309, 357; 
 becomes a Theosophist, 267 ; ac- 
 cepts Judge's missives, 268; goes 
 to India, 268; action on the Judge 
 case, 268-71, 285; success in India, 
 271 ; action with regard to Mr. 
 Leadbeater, 273-7; becomes Presi- 
 dent, 273; her occultism, 282 ff. ; 
 defence of Madame Blavatsky, 
 259-60; 447-55; defence .of Hin- 
 duism, 277, 287-9, 438; statements 
 about Christianity, 272, 274, 289-91 ; 
 books, 271, 272, 275; character, 
 277 ; portrait facing p. 195. 
 
 Bethune, Drinkwater, 15, 388. 
 
 Bettalay, Michael, marries Madame 
 Blavatsky, 221. 
 
 Bhagat, 443. 
 
 Bhagavadgitd, 7, 207, 288, 295-6, 364, 
 438, 440. 
 
 Bhandarkar, Sir R. G., 76; portrait 
 facing p. 76. 
 
 461
 
 462 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bharata Dharma Mahamandala, 136, 
 316-23, 349, 437. 
 
 Bharata Dharma Mahaparishad, 316. 
 
 Bharata Jaina Mahamandala, 334. 
 
 Bharata Mahila Parishad, 394. 
 
 Bharatvarshlya Digambara Jain Ma- 
 hasabha, 330. 
 
 Bhupendra Nath Dutt, 358, 362. 
 
 Bible, the, in the Brahma Samaj, 45. 
 
 Bijoy Krishna Gosvami, 47, 294. 
 
 Bipin Chandra Pal, 30, 359, 362. 
 
 Blavatsky, Madame, 27, 208, 438; 
 birth, 2 1 1 ; childhood, 211; mar- 
 riage, 211 ; bigamy, 221-2; im- 
 morality, 211-3; her son, 213; 
 myth of her virginity, 209, 213, 
 260; her pretended widowhood, 
 222; wanderings, 2 1 1 ; spiritualism, 
 211, 212, 213-20, 222; settles in 
 America, 214; Russian correspond- 
 ents, 209; founds Theosophical 
 Society, 218-9; her interests, 222-3; 
 her capacities, 220-1, 265 ; goes to 
 India, 226; settles in Bombay, 226; 
 travels in India, 228; her 'phenom- 
 ena,' 228; the Mahatmas, 27, 209, 
 227; the Koot Hoomi letters, 
 231-2; settles in Madras, 232; 
 rooms at headquarters, 232, 234-5; 
 journey to Europe, 236; the Cou- 
 lomb affair, 237 ff. ; returns to 
 India, 244; leaves India finally, 
 252-3; occultism, 261; books, 
 222-5, 261-4; literary ethics, 223-5; 
 appearance, 264-5 >' portrait facing 
 p. 195; character, 260, 265-7; 
 death, 264. 
 
 Blavatsky, N. V., 211, 211 n., 221. 
 
 Blavatsky-Coulomb letters, the, 213, 
 238-40, 244, 245, 246 n., 251, 256, 
 451-2. 
 
 Bombay Native Education Society, 74. 
 
 Book of Dzyan, The, 261-2. 
 
 Bormhos, 134. 
 
 Boycott of British goods, 365. 
 
 Boy-marriage, 399-400. 
 
 Bragdon, Claude, Episodes from., an 
 Unwritten History, 447, 456. 
 
 Brahma Dharma, 41. 
 
 Brahma Marriage Act, 48, 53, 389. 
 
 Brahma Samaj, 307, 320, 339, 384, 
 405, 419, 435, 436, 439, 441 ; founded 
 by R. M. Ray, 22, 34; the building, 
 35; almost dies, 39; revived by 
 D. N. Tagore, 22, 39-40 ; inspiration 
 
 of the Vedas, 40 ; organization, 39 ; 
 prayer, 40; K. C. Sen, 22; phi- 
 lanthropy, 42; social reform, 41, 
 42, 43, 49 ; first schism, 44 ; second 
 schism, 54; relation to Christ, 39, 
 42, 45, 45-6, 58-68; rationalism, 
 41 ; dress, 48 ; cult, 34, 39 ; work 
 for Khasis of Assam, 71 ; members 
 of Samaj outside Hindu society, 
 38; Adi B. Samaj, 46; Sadharan 
 B. Samaj, 38, 55 ; New Dispensation 
 Samaj, 55. 
 
 Brahma Samaj, Lahore, 173 ff. 
 
 Brahma Samaj of India, 46. 
 
 Brahma Sankar Misra, 165. 
 
 Brahma Sena, 174. 
 
 Brahmavddin, 207, 299. 
 
 Brahma Vidalaya, 42. 
 
 Brahmopdsana, 40. 
 
 British Government in India, 2, 5, 
 6, 8, 14, 16-9, 23-4, 28, 31, 53, 92, 
 143-4. 3S6, 363, 364, 379, 387-8, 
 395, 397-8, 401, 402, 411-4, 424-9, 
 433; rise and purification, 5, 6, 12; 
 attitude to Hinduism, 9, n, 17; 
 to Missions and Christianity, 7, 
 8-1 1, 15; to reform, 17-9, 24; to 
 education, 18; taken over by the 
 Crown, 17, 19; religious neutrality, 
 ii. 
 
 British Indian Association, the, 93. 
 
 Brooch miracle, The, 228-31. 
 
 Brotherhood, the great white, 227. 
 
 Brotherhood of men, as taught by 
 Theosophists, 225, 286, 288. 
 
 Buddhism, 4. 
 
 Budha Dal, 338. 
 
 Caine, W. S., 422. 
 
 Cama, Hormusji, 344. 
 
 Cama, K. R., 85 f., 343, portrait fac- 
 ing p. 76. 
 
 Carey, Wm., 6, 10, 14. 
 
 Caste, 15, 29, 33, 42, 43, 44, 79, 101, 
 115, 127, 128, 181, 184, 308-10, 328, 
 332, 337, 340, 342, 37i, 377, 388, 
 389, 391, 393, 418-21, 432, 436. 
 
 Caste Conferences, 308-10. 
 
 Catholic Missions, 5 n. 
 
 Central Hindu College, 271, 275, 276, 
 352, 400, 423. 
 
 Central Hindu College Magazine, 288. 
 
 Chaitanya, 30, 47, 198, 293-4, 443- 
 
 Chaitanya literature, 293-4, 385. 
 
 Chaitanya methods, 47, 293.
 
 INDEX 
 
 463 
 
 Chaitanya sect, 292, 293-6. 
 
 Chakra, 304. 
 
 Chandavarkar, Sir N. G., 77, 445 ; 
 portrait facing p. 76. 
 
 Chet Ram, 150 ff. 
 
 Chet Ramls, 150 ff., 435. 
 
 Chhapparbands, 425, 427. 
 
 Chief Khalsa Diwan, 341, 343. 
 
 Childers, 25. 
 
 Child-marriage, 15, 48, 79, 83, 86, 87, 
 115, "I, 127, 184, 342, 380, 388, 
 389, 394, 396-9, 398, 416, 432. 
 
 Chirol, Sir V., 358, 359- 
 
 Christ, teaching, 32, 59; character, 
 59; teaching on sin, 60; attitude 
 to social life, 60; in Theosophy, 
 272-291 ; Christology, 33 ; of Kes- 
 hab, 56, 62-8, 439; of Mirza 
 Ghulam Ahmad, 139-43, 439! of 
 Nazarenes, 43_9; of Chet Ramls, 
 154, 439; of Isamoshipanthls, 439; 
 fulfils Hinduism, 62. 
 
 Christian Creed, The, 272. 
 
 Christian influence, in general, 5, 34, 
 35, 36, 61, 75, 127-8, 134, 137, 149, 
 182-5, 311, 340, 351, 385-6, Chap. 
 VI, 443-5 ; through English edu- 
 cation, 20, 24-5, 39, 74-5 ; through 
 work among Depressed Classes, 24, 
 366-75; in Brahma Samaj, 32-3, 
 39, 42. 43, 45, 46, 48, 56, 57-68, 69; 
 Prarthana Samaj, 76; Arya Samaj, 
 108, 123; Deva Samaj, 181 ; Ra- 
 makrishna Mission, 188, 194, 199; 
 Theosophy, 272, 274-5, 276, 289-91 ; 
 Chaitanya sect, 294-5 ; Bharata 
 Dharma Mahamandal, 322-3; 
 among Ahmadiyas, 138-46; Chet 
 Ramls, 151-6; Isamoshipanthls, 
 156 ; Jains, 329 ; Muslims, 94, 96-7 ; 
 Parsees, 84, 346; Radha Soamis, 
 172; in Social Reform and Service, 
 377. 378, Chap. VI; influence of 
 missionary methods, 39, 125, 127, 
 128, 179, 271, 278, 343, 377, 378, 
 415, 417, 424-9- 
 
 Clairvoyance, 223, 265, 274, 283, 286. 
 
 Colebrooke, 16. 
 
 Coleman, William Emmette, 210, 
 223-5, 258, 262-4. 
 
 Condemnation of Hinduism, Bud- 
 dhism, and Indian civilization, 267, 
 288, 356, 431- 
 
 Condemnation of the West, 204, 205, 
 345, 358, 363, 430. 
 
 Conditional immorality, 181. 
 Confessional of the Deva Samaj, 178, 
 
 182. 
 Coomaraswamy, Dr. A. K., 383, 
 
 402. 
 
 Cooperative Credit Societies, 378. 
 Cornwallis, 6. 
 Coulomb, Madame and M., 213, 226, 
 
 236, 241, 242, 243, 245, 252, 254, 
 
 266 n., 456, 457. 
 Councils' Act, 28, 362. 
 Criminal Tribes, 424-9. 
 Criminal Tribes' Act of 1911, 426. 
 Criminocurology, 427. 
 Cunningham, 21. 
 
 Curzon, Lord, 28, 356-^, 361, 365. 
 Cyclone in Calcutta, 43. -^ 
 
 Dalhousie, Marquis of, 19, 388. 
 
 Damodar, 236, 237, 238, 241, 242, 247, 
 251- 
 
 Dancing, 47, 198, 409. 
 
 Dandis, 105. 
 
 Danish Missionaries, 6, 14. 
 
 Darbhanga, Maharaja of, 317, 319. 
 
 Dar-ul-ulum of Deoband, 351. 
 
 Dar-ul-ulum of the Nadwat-ul-Ulama, 
 350. 
 
 Davis, Andrew Jackson, 211, 215. 
 
 Dayananda Anglo- Vedic College, 124. 
 
 Dayananda Sarasvati, 26; Autobi- 
 ography, 101 ff. ; birth, 102 ; edu- 
 cation, 102; loses faith in idols, 
 102 ff. ; resolves not to marry, 105 ; 
 runs away from home, 105 ; be- 
 comes a sannyasl, 105, 443 ; interest 
 in yoga, 105, 106 ; his blind teacher, 
 106 ; begins to teach, 108 ; methods, 
 108; languages used, 107, 109; 
 controversial methods, 109, 112-3, 
 122, 316, 340, 351 ; visits Calcutta, 
 109,187,194; influenced by Brahma 
 Samaj, 109; _visits Bombay, 76, 
 109; founds Arya Samaj, 100-10; 
 in Lahore, no; beliefs, 105, 106, 
 107, 113-6; aims, 111-13; social 
 reform, 389 ; connection with Theo- 
 sophical Society, no, 226; Cow- 
 protecting Association, in, 358; 
 teaching about the Vedas, 113-9, 
 127, 183; ideas about science, 115, 
 116; his diplomacy, 119; criticism 
 of other religions, 113, 122, 137, 
 438; of Western civilization, 115, 
 116, 118, 119, 357, 358, 43i; polit-
 
 464 
 
 INDEX 
 
 ical ideas, in, 112; works, 109, 
 in, 114, 121-2; death, 124; por- 
 traits facing p. 109. 
 
 Dayaram Gidumal, 380. 
 
 Debendra Nath Tagore, 22, 30-41, 
 42, 43, 44-45, 383, 407; Autobiog- 
 raphy, 70; portrait facing p. 44. 
 
 Decay of old religions, 431-3. 
 
 Dedication to religious prostitution, 
 411. 
 
 Defence of the old religions, 26, 
 Chaps. Ill, IV, 287-8. 
 
 Depressed Classes, 3, 310, 366-75 ; 
 Christian Missions among D. C., 
 24, 366-8, 371, 389, 437; the effect 
 of Christianity on them, 367-8, 
 369, 370; other forms of help, 81, 
 125, 179. 342, 378, 389, 390, 392, 
 423, 437; Hindus and the D. C., 
 370-5 ; uprising of D. C., 368-70, 
 3H-3, 3*4-6; the conscience of 
 India, 372, 436. 
 
 Depressed Classes Mission Society, 
 81, 372-5, 432. 
 
 Devadasis, 9, 310, 383, 407-14, 417. 
 
 Deva Dharma, 175, 176. 
 
 Devalaya, 187. 
 
 Deva Samaj, 26, 173-82, 423, 433, 
 434, 435, 438, 439; founded, 175; 
 name, 175; work for Depressed 
 Classes, 179, 374; Widows' Homes, 
 180, 404. 
 
 Deva Sastra, 176, 180. 
 
 Dev Ratan, 181. 
 
 Dhala, Dr., 88 ff. 
 
 Dharma Mahamandali, 316. 
 
 Did Jesus Live 100 B.C. ? 272. 
 
 Digambara Jain Conference, 329. 
 
 Digambara Jains, 325, 326, 329-30, 
 404. 
 
 Digby, John, 31. 
 
 Domestic Ceremonies, 41, 388, 407. 
 
 Dubois, L'Abbe, 3, 8 n., 13, 409. 
 
 Duff, Dr., 18, 19 f., 33, 39, 40, 388; 
 his theory of Christian education, 
 19. 
 
 Dwarka Nath Tagore, Prince, 22, 34, 
 39 ; portrait facing p. 39. 
 
 East India Company, 2, 6, n, 15. 
 
 Economics, 365-6. 
 
 Educated Indians, 21, 24, 25-6, 28, 
 
 354-5, 365, 366. 
 Education, Western, 18, 21-2, 24-5, 
 
 415, 433; Missionary E., 14, 19, 
 
 20; Government E., 18, 21-2, 24-5; 
 
 of girls, 20, 48, 49, 55, 79, 99, 126, 
 
 309, 348, 388, 392, 394, 416-7. 
 Elavas, 310. 
 
 "Eliphaz Levy," 220, 221. 
 Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 15, 74. 
 Elphinstone College, 74, 83. 
 Emancipation of women, 48, 49, 86, 
 
 149. 
 
 Esoteric Buddhism, 231, 258-9. 
 Esoteric Christianity, 272. 
 Esoteric School of Theosophy, 210, 
 
 260, 261, 271-2, 282, 287. 
 Esoteric Section, 282. 
 Etheric Record, the, 272, 278. 
 
 Famine Code, 23. 
 
 Famine of 1876-9, 24, 366-7. 
 
 Famine relief, by missions, 21, 367; 
 
 by Government, 23 ; by others, 42- 
 
 48, 202, 390. 
 
 Fergusson College, Poona, 376. 
 Fine Art, 382-3. 
 Funeral expenses, 309. 
 Fussell, Incidents in the History of the 
 
 Theosophical Society, 447, 456-7. 
 
 Gabars, 85. 
 
 Gaekwar of Baroda, 399. 
 
 Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, 383. 
 
 Gandhi, M. K., 380. 
 
 Garrett, Edmund, 270. 
 
 Ghantichors, 425, 427. 
 
 Gitanjali, 384-6, 437, 439. 
 
 Gokhale, the Hon'ble G. K., 370, 371, 
 
 375, 376-80 ; portrait facing p. 376. 
 Golden Temple of Amritsar, 338, 341. 
 Gopmath, 317. 
 Gorakshinl Sabha, HI. 
 Corn Old, W. R., 264-5, 260-70. 
 Gospel of Barnabas, 140. 
 Gospel of Sri-Ramakrishna, 188, 194. 
 Govindacharya SvamI, 297. 
 Govind Singh, 337. 
 Granth Sahib, 337, 338. 
 Great White Brotherhood, 227, 280. 
 Griswold, Dr. H. D., p. vii, HI, 
 
 117 n., 137 n., 150 n. 
 Gupta Sabha, 75, 388. 
 Gurudwara, 169. 
 Gurukula, 126. 
 Gurumukhi, 336. 
 Gurus, 3, 162-8, 177, 179, 283, 336; 
 
 the dominance of Theosophical 
 
 gurus over their pupils, 284.
 
 INDEX 
 
 465 
 
 Guru- worship, 50, 101, 131, 169-70, 
 176, 177, 179, 182, 184, 199, 274, 
 289, 301-2, 336, 435 ; forms of wor- 
 ship, 170, 179, 302. 
 
 Gyananandaji Svaml, 316, 317-9. 
 
 Gyanis of the Sikhs, 340, 341. 
 
 Harmony of religions, 56, 57, 186-7, 
 
 i97~9i 203, 282. 
 Harranshikaris, 427. 
 Hartmann, Dr., 237, 240, 241, 242, 
 
 243, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 253. 
 Hastings, Warren, 6, 7. 
 Havana, 123. 
 HaveU, E. B., 382-3. 
 Hermetic philosophy, 219. 
 Hierodouloi, 407-14. 
 Hindu Education Mission, Mysore, 
 
 374- 
 
 Hindu methods, 442-3. 
 Hodgson, B. H., 21. 
 Hodgson, Richard, 210, 231 n., 244- 
 
 52, 255, 256, 259, 452-4- 
 Homa, 58. 
 
 Home the Medium, 222, 225. 
 Hook-swinging, 9. 
 Human sacrifice, 15, 17, 388. 
 Human torture, 15, 127, 439. 
 Hume, A. O., 228, 250, 450-1. 
 Hypnotism, 168, 265, 283, 286. 
 
 Idolatry, 3, 19, 29, 40, 41, 101, 102-4, 
 109, 113, 115, 121, 127, 131, 173, 
 203, 316, 324, 326, 331, 332, 336, 
 338, 340, 34i* 388, 389, 435- 
 
 Imitation of Sree Krishna, 295, 440. 
 
 Incarnation, doctrine of, 121, 168, 
 336, 338. 
 
 Indian Ladies' Conference, 394. 
 
 Indian National Congress, 26, 355, 
 362, 378, 391. 
 
 Indian Social Reformer, 309, 320, 
 395- 
 
 Indian Society of Oriental Art, 382. 
 
 Indian Sociologist, 359. 
 
 India Society, 382. 
 
 Infanticide, 15, 17, 337, 388, 395-6. 
 
 International Jain Literature Society, 
 335- 
 
 Iranian Association, the, 90. 
 
 Isamoshipanthls, 134, 156. 
 
 Isis, 260. 
 
 Isis Unveiled, 222-5, 256. 
 
 Isis Very Much Unveiled, 270. 
 
 Islamia College, Lahore, 348. 
 2H 
 
 Isvara Chandra Vidyasagara, 22, 42n., 
 388, 402. 
 
 Jaini, J. L., 325, 335. 
 
 Jainism, 4, 324-35, 405, 434. 
 
 Jain Young Men's As_sociation, 329, 
 334- 
 
 Jami Jamshed, The, 346. 
 
 Jangamas, 301, 302; jangama- wor- 
 ship, 302. 
 
 Japji, 336. 
 
 Jelihovsky, Madame, 209, 213. 
 
 Jesus in Theosophy, 272, 274-5, 290. 
 
 Jones, Sir W., 7. 
 
 Judge, W. Q., 210, 218-9, 240, 243, 
 249, 259, 268-71, 285; burns the 
 shrine, 241-2, 452-4; forges letters 
 from Morya, 268-71, 456, 457. 
 
 Kablr, 168, 170, 172, 336. 
 
 Kali Charan, 134-5. 
 
 Kanchi Subba Raoji, 292. 
 
 Keshab Chandra Sen, belonged to 
 Chaitanya sect, 47, 249; youth, 
 41 ; joins Brahma Samaj, 22, 41 ; 
 made acharya, 42 ; character and 
 genius, 55 ; religious life, 46-7, 51 ; 
 advocates social reform, 22, 42, 48, 
 388, 407; philanthropy, 22, 42, 
 422 ; in Bombay, 42, 76 ; in Madras, 
 42 ; first schism, 43-4 ; visit to 
 England, 48; autocracy, 50; guru- 
 ism, 50, 69; doctrine of adcsh, 50, 
 52, 54; asceticism, 51-2; meets 
 Dayananda, 109; relations with 
 Ramakrishna, 50-51, 56, 57; sym- 
 bolic picture, 58, 198; the Kuch 
 Bihar Marriage, 53-4; second 
 schism, 54; New Dispensation, 55, 
 56; relation to Christ, 22, 42, 43, 
 45. 56, 58-68, 437; to Hinduism, 
 56-8, 439 ; to all religions, 56, 57 ; 
 calls God Mother, 58; inconsis- 
 tency, 56, 63; use of Chaitanya 
 literature and methods, 47, 58, 443 ; 
 other methods, 52, 56; works, 45, 
 59, 61, 64; death, 68-9; portrait 
 facing p. 55; see also plate X, 
 facing p. 198. 
 
 Khalsa, 337- 
 
 Khalsa Advocate, 341. 
 
 Khalsa College, 341, 342. 
 
 Khalsi Young Men's Association, 343. 
 
 Khanda-di-Pahul, 337. 
 
 Khasis of Assam, 71.
 
 466 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Khuda Bukhsh, Prof., gg. 
 Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, 147. 
 Kiddle, Mr. H., 231, 256, 257. 
 King, John, a spirit, 217, 220. 
 King, Katie, a spirit, 217. 
 King, the, visits India, 28, 362. 
 Koot Hoomi, 227, 228, 234; his por- 
 trait, 232. 
 Koot Hoomi letters, 231-2, 251, 
 
 256-9, 454-5- 
 
 Krishna, 2g2, 2g3, 295, 296, 364, 440. 
 KrishnacharUra, 295. 
 Krishnamurti = Alcyone, 274, 276. 
 Krishnavarma, 358, 359. 
 Kuch Behar Marriage, the, 53-4. 
 
 Lajpat Rai, 358, 362. 
 
 Leadbeater, C. W., 208, 271, 273-7, 
 
 282 ff. 
 
 Left-hand Saktas, 303-5, 421-2, 438. 
 Leper work in missions, 24. 
 Linga, 301, 435. 
 Lingayat Conference, 302. 
 Lingayat Education Association, 302. 
 Lingayats, 301-3- 
 
 Macauliffe, A. M., translates the 
 Sikh Growth, 341. 
 
 Madhava, 291, 293, 443. 
 
 Madhava Prasad Saheb, 166. 
 
 Madhava Rao, Sir T., 391. 
 
 Madhavas, 291-3, 298. 
 
 Madhava Siddhantonnahini Sabha, 292, 
 298. 
 
 Madras Christian College Magazine, 
 238, 239, 240, 244, 245. 
 
 Madrasa-i-Ilahiyat, 350-1. 
 
 Magic, 2ig, 221, 223, 267. 
 
 Mahamandal Magazine, 318. 
 
 Mahdnirvdna Tantra, 304. 
 
 Mahars, 368-9. 
 
 Mahatma Morya, 227, 268. 
 
 Mahatmas, see Masters. 
 
 Mahavlra Brotherhood, 335. 
 
 Mahdi, the, 138, 145-6. 
 
 Malabari, B. M., 87, 380, 389, 396. 
 
 Marriage Expenses, 309, 310, 342, 3g8, 
 406. 
 
 Marriage to an idol, a flower, etc., 
 411. 
 
 Mass Movements towards Chris- 
 tianity, 24. 
 
 Masters, the (of Theosophy), 208, 
 209, 220, 225, 227, 228, 233, 254, 
 260, 261, 268, 280, 447-8; their 
 
 supposed libraries in Tibet, 262, 
 448; their Lodge, 227, 448. 
 
 Mazdaznan, 346-7. 
 
 Mead, G. R. S., 261, 272, 274, 289. 
 
 Mech tribe of Assam, 134-5. 
 
 Medical Mission work, 15, 20-1, 24. 
 
 Messiah, the pretended, of Qadian, 
 138 ff. 
 
 Minto, Lord, 28, 362. 
 
 Miracle Club, the, 218. 
 
 Mirza Ghulan Ahmad, 26, 137 ff. ; 
 portrait facing p. 138. 
 
 Missils of the Sikhs, 338. 
 
 Missionary Methods, 6, 14-5, IQ- 
 21, 24-5; for Missionary Methods 
 copied, see Christian influence. 
 
 Missions, see Catholic Missions, Prot- 
 estant Missions. 
 
 Modern Priestess of Isis, A , 209. 
 
 Mohini Mohan Chatterji, 130, 236, 
 297. 
 
 Monotheism, 434. 
 
 Morgan, Major-General, 252, 254. 
 
 Morley, Lord, 362, 413. 
 
 Moulvie Chiragh Ali, 97. 
 
 Muhammadan Education, 5, 30, 91, 
 92. 
 
 Muhammadan Educational Confer- 
 ence, 95, 99. 
 
 Muhammadan Ladies' Conference, 95. 
 
 Muhammadan Orthodoxy, 95, 99, 
 347-52, 374- 
 
 Muhammadan Reform, 91-100. 
 
 Mula Sankara, 102. 
 
 Muralis, 408. 
 
 Music, 382-3, 409. 
 
 Mu'tazilites, 30, 96, 98. 
 
 Mutiny, 10, n, 16, 92, 339. 
 
 Mysore Lingayat Education Fund, 
 302. 
 
 Naba Bidhan, 56. 
 
 Nadwat-ul-Ulama, 349-50. 
 
 Nagarkirtana, 47, 293. 
 
 Nallasvaml Pillai, 299, 300. 
 
 Namasudras, 308, 369. 
 
 Nanak, 336, 443. 
 
 Nandeshwar Kothi, Benares, 165. 
 
 Nanu Ashan, 312. 
 
 Narendra Nath Dutt, 194. 
 
 Nathu Sarma, 308. 
 
 Nationalism, 26, 28, Chap. V, 437. 
 
 National Social Conference, 390, 391-5. 
 
 Naturis, 97. 
 
 Nautch-girls, see Devadasls.
 
 INDEX 
 
 467 
 
 Nazarene New Church, 148-50. 
 
 Necharis, 97. 
 
 Neo-Krishna movement, 294. 
 
 New Dispensation Samaj, 55, 56, 63, 
 389 ; its symbol, 56, 198 ; its Trini- 
 tarian theology, 68; its quarrels 
 and subdivisions, 69 ; the Master's 
 Ascension, 69; creed, 72-3. 
 
 New India, 360. 
 
 Nigamagama Mandall, 316. 
 
 Nilakanthacharya, 300. 
 
 Nimbarkas, 298. 
 
 Nivedita, Sister, 202, 203, 205-6, 
 257- 
 
 Niyoga, 122. 
 
 Noble, Miss, see Nivedita, Sister. 
 
 Notovitch, Nicholas, 27, 140-1. 
 
 Obscenities, 15, 19, 388, 410. 
 
 Occultism, 223, 228, 245, 261, 267, 
 271-2, 274-5, 282-5, 287, 289, 443. 
 
 Occult Room in Theosophic head- 
 quarters, Madras, 232, 234-5, 236, 
 242 ; plans of Occult Room, 234-5, 
 
 452-4- 
 
 Occult World, The, 231. 
 
 Ointment of Jesus, 140, 144. 
 
 Olcott, Henry Steel, 215, 216, 217, 
 218-9, 221, 222, 224, 226, 236, 
 237, 243, 244, 245, 247, 249, 250, 
 254, 259, 266, 268-71, 273, 285. 
 
 Order of the Rising Sun, 275. 
 
 Order of the Star in the East, 
 
 275- 
 Orientalists, 5, 7, 16, 21, 25, 258, 261, 
 
 263, 286, 288, 295, 433. 
 Orphanages, 21, 342, 348, 412. 
 Outcastes, see Depressed Classes. 
 
 Padmanabha Char, C. M., 293. 
 
 Palpu, Dr., 312. 
 
 Pafichamakara, 304. 
 
 Paftchatattva, 304. 
 
 Pandian, Mr. T. B., 375. 
 
 Pandit Din Dayal Sarma, 316, 317. 
 
 Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, 319. 
 
 Pandit Sastriji Fade, 316. 
 
 Pandit Siva Nath Sastri, 55. 
 
 Pantheism, 434. 
 
 Paramharhsa Sabha, 75. 
 
 Parliament of Religions, 201. 
 
 Parsees, 4, 81 ff ., 343-7, 405 ; Hindu 
 influence, 83 ; rise of Avestan schol- 
 arship, 8 n., 85, 344 ; social and reli- 
 gious reform, 22, 84 ff., 388; P. 
 
 education, 22, 84, 86; Theosophy 
 among Parsees, 90; Parsee ortho- 
 doxy, 343-7- 
 
 Partition of Bengal, 28, 361, 362. 
 
 Patterson, the Rev. George, 231, 245. 
 
 Phallus, 3, 301, 435. 
 
 Phenomena, Theosophic, 228 ff., 233, 
 239, 246, 254, 255-6. 
 
 Philanthropy, 42, 48, 55, 156, 184, 
 202, 388. 
 
 Photographs and portraits used in 
 worship and meditation, 166, 169, 
 170, 179, 232-3, 261. 
 
 Phulmanl Dasi, 397. 
 
 Pigot, Miss, 54. 
 
 Pilgrimage, 121, 127, 337, 439. 
 
 Pilgrim-tax, 9. 
 
 Point Loma, 271. 
 
 Polygamy, 15, 33, 83, 96, 98, 99, 184, 
 388, 400-1, 417, 432, 438. 
 
 Polytheism, 113, 115, 116, 131, 435. 
 
 Poona Gayan Samaj, 383. 
 
 Prabuddha Bharata, 207. 
 
 Praise of Indian religions, civilization 
 and art, 127, 204, 205, 345, 357, 
 363, 382, 430. 
 
 Prarthana Samaj, 22, 43, 76 ff., 
 100-10, 307, 324, 419, 435, 436, 
 439, 441; creed, 78, 80; social 
 reform, 78, 391 ; work, 80-1 ; work 
 for Depressed Classes, 81, 372. 
 
 Pratap Chandra Mozoomdar, 49, 67, 
 68, 69, 76, 199, 200. 
 
 Protestant Missions, 5, 6-7, 8, 14-5, 
 18, 19-21, 24-5; see also Missionary 
 methods; for the influence of P. 
 missions, see Christian influence. 
 
 'Psychic' (technical term in Theos- 
 ophy), 265. 
 
 Psychological interests of our time, 
 286. 
 
 'Psychologize,' as used by Madame 
 Blavatsky, 284. 
 
 Putana Chetty, Dewan Bahadur, 303. 
 
 Qadianls, 137-48. 
 
 Rabindra Nath Tagore, 70, 294, 282-6, 
 404; portrait facing p. 376. 
 
 Race-hatred and race-contempt, 356, 
 363- 
 
 Radha, 167, 293. 
 
 Radha Soamis, 157, 160, 167-8; the 
 gurus, 162-7 ; the Satsang, 157- 
 72, 210, 434, 435. 436, 439, 44;
 
 4 68 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Radha. Soami gardens, at Agra, 
 163, 166; at Benares,i6s. 
 
 Radhasvaml, 167. 
 
 Raghunath Rao, Rai Bahadur, 391. 
 
 Rahe Rust, 344. 
 
 Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha, 84, 
 343, 388. 
 
 Rai Saligram Saheb Bahadur, 157, 
 163-4, 1 66, 167; portrait facing 
 p. 167. 
 
 Rajchandra Ravjibhai, 327-8; por- 
 trait facing p. 376. 
 
 Raj Narayan Bose, 186. 
 
 Ramabai, Pandita, 77, 403. 
 
 Ramakrishna Mission, 202-7, 39> 
 422. 
 
 Ramakrishna Paramaharhsa, 26, 50-1, 
 57, 130, 188 ff., 316, 434; birth, 188; 
 no education, 188, 200; appointed 
 priest, 1 88; passion for Kail, 189, 
 190, 197; belief in idols, 189, 197; 
 trances, 189, .190, 191-2; marriage, 
 189, 192 ; teachers, 190-1 ; becomes 
 a sannyasl, 191, 443 ; imagines 
 himself Radha, 192 ; fights sex 
 instinct, 196; fights caste instinct, 
 193 ; fights love of money, 195 ; 
 defends Hinduism, 51, 358; imag- 
 ines himself a Muhammadan, 193; 
 has a vision of Jesus, 194; theory 
 that all religions are true, 51, 187, 
 194, 197-9; influences Keshab 
 Chandra Sen, 50-1, 57-8, 194; sym- 
 bolical picture, 198-9; his 'God- 
 consciousness,' 195 ; passion for 
 God, 195, 199; holds God non- 
 moral, 196; all deities manifesta- 
 tions of God, 197 ; teaches rev- 
 erence for gurus, 197 ; personal 
 influence, 199; his disciples, 51; 
 character, 195-6; peculiarities, 200; 
 portrait facing p. 195, see also 
 Plate X, facing p. 198. 
 
 Ramanan, V. V., 299. 
 
 Ramananda, 443. 
 
 Ramanuja, 297, 443. 
 
 Ram Mohan Ray, 3, 16, 19, 92, 96, 
 415; birth, 29; a polygamist, 30; 
 education, 30, 31; hatred of idola- 
 try, 30; studies other religions, 30, 
 31 ; in Government service, 31 ; 
 interest in British rule, 31, 36; re- 
 tires to Calcutta, 31 ; religious 
 propaganda, 31 ; religious opinions, 
 32, 36-9; as social reformer, 22, 33, 
 
 36, 387; opposes satl, 33, 387; 
 criticism of Hinduism, 438; founds 
 Brahma Samaj, 22, 34; erects a 
 building, 35 ; goes to England, 22, 
 35; beliefs, 32, 35; works, 22, 31, 
 32, 37 ; deism, 37 ; relation to 
 Christ, 32, 36, 39, 58-9; relation 
 to Christianity, 19, 32, 33, 34, 36, 
 39, 59; character and powers, 36; 
 death, 36 ; portrait, 36, and Frontis- 
 piece. 
 
 Ranade, M. G., 76, 77, 78, 308, 388, 
 391 ; portrait facing p. 76. 
 
 Ranjit Singh, 338. 
 
 Rast Goftar, 84, 344. 
 
 Rationalism, of R. M. Ray, 37, 41 ; 
 of Sir S. A. Khan, 97, 99. 
 
 Reincarnation (in Theosophy), 282, 
 290. 
 
 Relic-worship, 163, 164, 165, 167, 169, 
 170. 
 
 Religious Nationalism, Chap. V. 
 
 Religious Neutrality, n. 
 
 Religious suicide, 388. 
 
 Report of Observations, etc., a Theosophic 
 pamphlet, 240, 453. 
 
 Report of the Result, etc., a Theosophic 
 Pamphlet, 249, 251, 254, 259, 449, 
 4Si. 
 
 Reunion All Round, 199. 
 
 Review of Religions, 147. 
 
 Rice-paper used for Koot Hoomi 
 letters, 259, 268. 
 
 Righteousness of God, 437. 
 
 Right-hand Saktas, 303. 
 
 Rukhmabai, 396. 
 
 Russo-Japanese war, 28, 355, 360-1. 
 
 Sacrifices, 115, 121, 131, 439. 
 Sadharan Brahma Samaj, 38, 55, 
 
 70-1, 174, 181, 389; creed, 72. 
 Sadharana Dharma, 135-6. 
 Sadharan Dharma Sabha, 57, 186. 
 Sadh guru, 160. 
 
 Sadr Anjuman-i-Ahmadlya, 146. 
 Saiva Bhdshya, 300. 
 Saiva Sabhas, 299. 
 Saiva Siddhanta, 299. 
 Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam, 300. 
 3aktas, 30, 303. 
 Sakti, 1 68, 303. 
 S"akti-Visishtadvaita, 303. 
 Salvation Army, 294, 424, 426-9 ; 
 
 copied by Indian Movements, 127, 
 
 174, 444.
 
 INDEX 
 
 469 
 
 Samadhi, 163, 189, igi. 
 
 Samskaras, see Domestic Ceremonies. 
 
 Sanatana Dharma Rakshim Sabha, 
 187. 
 
 Sana tan Dharma Sabha, 316. 
 
 Sangat, 41 n. 
 
 Sangat Sabha, 41. 
 
 Sankara, 305, 313, 432, 443. 
 
 Sanklrtana, 47, 293. 
 
 Sannyasls, 105, 100, 191. 
 
 Sant Sat guru, 160, 169. 
 
 Sarasvatl Dandis, 105. 
 
 Sasipada Banerjea, 57, 186, 389, 403. 
 
 SatI, see Widow-burning. 
 
 Satsang, 157. 
 
 Satyarth Prakash, 109, in, 113. 
 
 Seclusion of Women, see Zenana. 
 
 Secrecy in religion, 162, 168, 169, 171, 
 287. 
 
 Secret Doctrine, the, 260, 261-4, 267. 
 
 Sectarian movements, 291 ff. 
 
 Sectarian Universities, 319, 352-3. 
 
 Serampore Missionaries, 6, 10, 14, 15, 
 32, 33, 34, 387, 401. 
 
 Serampore Mission Press, 10. 
 
 Servants of India Society, 376-80, 
 390. 
 
 Seva Sadan, 87, 380-2, 390. 
 
 Shells (i.e. of spirits), 221. 
 
 Shishir Kumar Ghose, 295. 
 
 Shrine, the, at Theosophic head- 
 quarters, 232, 236, 237, 239, 241-3, 
 247, 248, 250-1 ; plans of shrine- 
 room, 324-5, 448-51. 
 
 Siddhanta Dipika, 300. 
 
 Sidgwick, Prof. Henry, 244. 
 
 Sikh Educational Conference, 342. 
 
 Sikh gurus, 336-7. 
 
 Sikhs, 336-43, 404. 
 
 Sinclair Stevenson, Mrs., 102 n., 104, 
 
 325- 
 
 Singh, 337. 
 
 Singh Sabhas, 341, 374. 
 
 Sinnett, A. P., 212, 231, 250, 257, 259, 
 285. 
 
 Sircar Kamta Prasad, 166. 
 
 Siva Dayal Saheb, 163, 164, 166-7 ; 
 portrait facing p. 167. 
 
 Sivaji, 359. 
 
 Sivanarayaija Paramahamsa, 129 ff., 
 436, 438, 439. 
 
 Sivayogamandir, 302. 
 
 Slavery, 18, 98, 146, 438. 
 
 Sliding panels at Theosophic head- 
 quarters, 237, 238, 241. 
 
 Jslokasangraha, 46. 
 
 Smartas, 305-8, 434, 436. 
 
 Smriti, 305. 
 
 Social Reform, Chap. VI, also 15, 26, 
 
 29, 41, 43, 48, 49, 55, 75, ?8, 81, 84, 
 
 127, 132, 146, 180, 277, 341, 342, 
 
 437, 442. 
 Social service, 48, 55, 133, 180, 202, 
 
 206, 366-82, 404, 422-4, 437. 
 Social Service League, 424. 
 Social Study, Service and Exhibits, 423. 
 Society for Psychical Research, 238, 
 
 244, 255- 
 
 Society for the Promotion of Higher 
 
 Life, 182. 
 Society for the Protection of Children 
 
 in India, 414. 
 Solovyoff, V. S., 209, 210, 212, 243, 
 
 245, 253, 258 n., 259, 260, 266 n., 
 284 n., 287. 
 
 Song Celestial, the, 25, 296. 
 Spirit of Islam, 98, 438. 
 Spirit of Islam, the, 98. 
 Spirit of Jainism, 334, 438. 
 Spiritualism, 175, 177, 211, 212, 213-20, 
 
 265. 
 
 Sraddha, 121, 432. 
 Srlkara Bhashya, 303. 
 isri Narayana Dharma Paripalana 
 
 Yogam, 313. 
 
 Ssri Narayana Gurusvaml, 312. 
 3r!pati Panditaradhya, 303. 
 Sri-Vaishnavas, 297-9. 
 SVl-Visishjadvaita Siddhanta Sangam, 
 
 298. 
 
 Starte, O. H. B., 424 n. 
 Steiner, Herr, 276. 
 SthanakavasI Jains, 104, 326, 332 ; 
 
 their Conference, 332. 
 Student class, 24. 
 Subba Rao, S., 293. 
 Subodh Palrikd, 76, 80. 
 S*uddhi Sabha, 323, 393. 
 Sufis, 30, 138. 
 
 Sundararaman, K., 305, 307. 
 Surat Sabd Yoga, 159, 160, 161, 168. 
 Suryodaya, 344. 
 S"vetambara Jains, 325, 326, 330-2 ; 
 
 their Conference, 330-1 ; their 
 
 temples, 325. 
 Swadeshi movement, 365. 
 Sweepers of Jullundur, 369. 
 Syed Ahmad Khan, Sir, 22, 92 ff., 
 
 146, 347, 389; religious opinions, 
 
 96-7.
 
 470 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Syed Amir Ali, the Right Hon., 98, 
 
 100. 
 Syed Mahbub Shah, 150-1. 
 
 Tahzibu'l Akhldq, 93. 
 
 Tantras, 190, 303. 
 
 Taran Dal, 338. 
 
 Tattvabodhini Patrika, 39. 
 
 Tattvabodhinl Sabha, 39. 
 
 Telepathy, 283, 286. 
 
 Temperance, 342, 393, 421. 
 
 Ten-galais, 297. 
 
 Thagi, 17, 388, 425 n. 
 
 Theosophical Myth, the, 209, 225, 
 226-7, 260. 
 
 Theosophical Society, 218-9, 316; its 
 growth, 233. 
 
 Theosophical Twins, the, 226. 
 
 Theosophy, 27, 208 ff., 433, 434, 436; 
 founded, 218-9; its teaching, 278- 
 82; its occultism, 282-5, 289; 
 secrecy, 282-3 ; attractions, 286-8 ; 
 defends Hinduism, 277, 287-8, 289; 
 value of its work, 288-9; its doc- 
 trine of brotherhood, 286, 288; 
 charlatanism of its literature, 289 ; 
 untrustworthiness of its historical 
 books, 260; Theosophy among 
 Parsees, 90, 344-5 ; among De- 
 pressed Classes, 374; relation to 
 Radha Soami teaching, 172; to 
 Christianity, 223, 225, 233, 272, 
 289-91, 440. 
 
 Tilak, B. G., 358, 359, 362. 
 
 Tingley, Mrs. Katherine, 271. 
 
 Tlrthakaras, 324. 
 
 Tirujnana Sambandha Svami Mafha, 
 301. 
 
 Tiyas, 311-3, 368. 
 
 Tonsure of Hindu widows, 401, 402. 
 
 Townsend, Meredith, 12, 13. 
 
 Transmigration and Karma, 38, 45, 
 114, 115, 121, 127, 132, 168, 177, 
 282, 290, 345, 385, 436, 440-1. 
 
 Trumpp,_ Dr. Ernest, translates the 
 Sikh Adi Granth, 341. 
 
 Tulsl Das, 443. 
 
 Ubhayavedanta Pravartana Sabha, 
 297. 
 
 Udbodhan, 207. 
 
 Unitarian Mission, the, 34. 
 
 Unity and the Minister, 68. 
 
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophi- 
 cal Society, 270. 
 
 Universal Education, 375-6, 416. 
 Universities, founded, 18; Lord Cur- 
 
 zon's Universities' Act, 361. 
 Upanishads, 8 n., 31, 32, 37, 39, 41, 
 
 116, 207, 288, 438. 
 Upasana Samaj, 42 n. 
 
 Vada-galais, 297. 
 
 Vaishnavas, of Orissa and the Telugu 
 country, 296; Four Vaishnava 
 sects in Conference, 298-9. 
 
 Vallabhas, 298. 
 
 Valmika Samaj, 369. 
 
 Vedanta societies, 203. 
 
 Vedanta-sutras, 32, 303, 443. 
 
 Vedas, 40-1, 113-9, I2 7, 132. 
 
 Veda Samaj, 42. 
 
 Vedic Mission, 135-6. 
 
 Vedic Salvation Army, 127. 
 
 Villavas, 311. 
 
 Virajananda, 106-8, 115. 
 
 Vira isaivas, 301. 
 
 Virashaiva Ashram, 302. 
 
 Visishtadvaitin, the, 297. 
 
 Vivekananda, 27, 195, 200-7, 357, 
 358, 362, 431, 435, 438, 444; por- 
 trait facing p. 195. 
 
 Vivekodaya, 313. 
 
 Vokkaligara Patrika, 315. 
 
 Vokkaligara Sangha, 314. 
 
 Vokkaligas, 314-6, 368. 
 
 Walterkrit Rajputra Hitakarinl Sabha, 
 
 398-9, 406. 
 
 Web of Indian Life, The, 205. 
 Wellesley, 14 ; his college, 7, 10. 
 Wellington, 14. 
 Wenlock, Lord, 410. 
 Westminster Gazette, The, 270. 
 White, E. J. S., 149- 
 Widow-asceticism, 401. 
 Widow-burning, 9, n, 15, 16, 17, 33, 
 
 337, 387, 4i-2, 417. 
 Widow-remarriage, 15, 23, 43, 48, 
 
 79, 121, 184, 342, 388, 389, 401-2, 
 
 4i7, 432. 
 Widows' Homes, 21, 330, 342, 389, 
 
 390, 393, 395, 403-4- 
 Wilkins, Charles, 7, 296. 
 Wilson, Dr. John, 20, 74, 84. 
 Women Medical Missionaries, 21. 
 Women Missionaries, 20. 
 Women's work for women, 20, 24, 
 
 381-2.
 
 INDEX 
 
 471 
 
 World-spheres, 158, 168. 
 World-Teacher, a new, prophesied, 
 274- 
 
 Yantra, 304. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 
 25, 423; copied, 80, 125, 278, 329, 
 
 343, 444- 
 
 Zar-Adusht Hannish, 27, 346. 
 Zenana, 83, 86, 98, 99, 173, 394, 
 
 406-7, 417, 432. 
 Zenana work, 20, 392. 
 Zoroastrian Association, 346. 
 Zoroastrian Conference, 88 ff., 345. 
 Zoroastrianism, 81 ; an eclectic form 
 
 of, 27, 346-7. 
 
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