iiiKiiir LIBRARY UNJVERstrr or CALiFOftNU IV I' 1/ ^y^ THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT BY THE REV. G. F. ANDREWS, M.A. OF THE CAMBRIDGE BROTHERHOOD, DELHI SOMFTIME FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE A>D VICE-PKINCIPAL OF WESTCOTT HOUSE, CAMBEIDGE CHURCH MISSIDNARY SOCIETY SALISBURY SQUARE, LONDON, E.C. 1912 sy32L5 BeMcation ITo tbc :©isbop of llClincbester ant) /Iftrs Talbot 'My dear Bishop, Do i/ou remember that Christmas Day in 1909 sitting in my room at Delhi with Mrs Talbot, and telling me of the anxiety and gloom in Government circles concerning the Indian Unrest ; and do you remember, also, my telling you of the bitterness and resentment among educated Indians during that sad Christmas-tide of doubt and fear ? I want to dedicate this book to you and Mrs Talbot, as it will tell you much about Educated India and the Unrest which I could not tell you then, and Mrs Talbot will find in it something, quite inadequate, about the Indian Womaiis Movement. And I ivant above all, to tell you, on this very first page, how different things are now since the visit of our dear King and Queen — / know not which did most to change them, the King or the Queen, for it jvas a personal triumph of both from beginning to end — the triuynph of goodness and snnplicity and love. If the resentment and the gloom are lessened, — arid I believe they are, — it is due to the boldness and the wisdom of that visit. Your affectionate frioid, C. F. ANDREWS. Delhi. 819 CONTENTS Editor's Preface Notes on the Spelling op Hindu Names Author's Preface Prologue .... CHAPTER I. The Indian Unrest II. Indian Education III. Hinduism as a Religious Growth IV. The New Reforsiation V. The Challenge of Hinduism . VI. Christian Difficulties in India VII. Indian Wo.manhood VIII. Christian Ideals in India appendices I. AV^hat it is to be a Hindu II. Fundamental Conceptions III. Chart : Religious Growth of Hinduism IV. Typical Passages from the Reformers V. A Modern Hindu Catechism . VI. The Anglo-Indian Community VII. Nestorian Chrisiianity and the Bhakti School VIII. Hindu Terminology and Christian Doctrine IX. Population of India by Religion X. Christians in India by Denomination XI. Table of Literacy XII. Number of Students in Indian Colleges 1900-10 ... Bibliography .... Index ..... page vii X xi 1 3 S) lOfi 145 175 20G 238 209 271 272 274 280 285; 287 289 293 292 294 295 297 305 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Day Breaketh' The City of Delhi The River Ganges at Benares Maula'i Nazir Ahmad_, LL.D., D.O.L Map of India . Serajipur Martyn's Pagoda Students at Allahabad : Oxford and Cambridge Hostel^ Allahabad A Bengali Student Dr Krishna Mohan Banerji The Students^ Home (Brahman)^ Madras The Sacred City of Benares Group of Professors and Students, Madras Dr Hayes with Plague-stricken Patient Guru and Chela MuNSHi Zaka Ullah of Delhi A Fakir preparing his Bhaxg A Hindu Ascetic and his Disciples . A Christian Ascetic . . . Kali Charan Banurji A. GOVINDRACHARYA SvAMIN . A Discussion with a Sadhu . Rabindra Nath Tagore Hindu Shrine in the Himalayas Lilavati Singh and Isabella Thoburx Reading the Ramayana In the Zenana ... Muhammedan Men, of University Training, at Home Shushil Kumar Rudra Madras Christian College . The National Missionary Society, North India Conference The Snows of the Himalayas Frontispiece FACING page 3 EDITOR'S PREFACE The present volume is distinguished from its pre- decessors in several notable respects. The United Council for INIissionary Study is happy in being able this year to provide more adequately for the varying needs of Study Circles by publishing two text-books for adults. That by the Rev. Godfrey Phillips, M.A., entitled The Outcastes^ Hope is of a simpler and more concrete character than The Renaissance in India, dealing as it does with village life and work. It has therefore been possible for the Rev. C. F. Andrews, M.A., to devote himself more directly to the discussion of wide problems of Missionary policy, and to the setting forth of methods of approach to the smaller but more influential class of students and educated people in the light of their own national ideals and in view of the prevailing unrest in India. This has made appropriate — and, indeed, necessary — a greater element of personal opinion in the treatment of the topic than has been the general rule in previous text-books. The criterion of excellence in a study text-book being its power to stimulate thought, discussion, and devotion, and the great value and influence of Mr Andrews' point of view being self-evident, the Editor determined, with the concurrence of the Editorial Committee, to make no attempt to work the Author's material into anything like an expression of communal opinion on every point, but rather to let Mr Andrews make his own viii The Renaissance in India aDDeal intervening only with a slight qualifica- tE'expansion h'ere o there. That th.s course will be abundantly justified m the minds of the readers as they follow Mr Andrews line of thought and appreciate its power we are fully convinced. At the same time it is due to Mr Andrews to remind those who are awaiting his book so eagerly that his work is not presented wholly untouched. It has been of the greatest advantage to be able to consult personally with Mr Indiivs during the latter half of the time during which the book has been m preparation. We would accord much gratitude to him for his great willingness to receive and incorporate sug- gestions and criticisms from all quarters ; for the book has been very widely read m proof by authoritative people. To msert a list of all who have rendered us this service would be scarcely possible; but an especial debt of thanks is due to Miss A. W. Richardson, Miss de Selincourt and Miss G. M. Weitbrecht, the R^^ Herbert Anderson, J. N. Farquhar, Esq., M.A., the Rev. WES. Holland, M.A., W. W. Pearson Esq M.A., the Rev. Canon C. H. Robinson, D.D and the Rev. Canon Waller, M.A., for their great help. Every Society has been represented either on the Editorial Committee or among the Consultants. For photographs and blocks we are mdebted to the B.M.S: the C.M.S., the L.M S the SPG. the U.F. Church, and to the Author, Canon Hayes, A. C. Judd, Esq., Miss Pearson, Miss M. Hope Simpson, and Miss L Stevenson. The index is the work of Miss Leadbeater. It should be explained that two topics of the greatest importance have ff intention received only passing reference m this book The first is that of the place of Islam m the life of India Editor's Preface ix and of Missions to Muhamniadans in the activities of the Church. This has been treated in The Reproach of Islam, by the Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner, M.A. The second is that of the part that Anglo- Indians (i.e. ' Eurasians ') will play in the future development of India, and the duty of the Church towards them.^ But this needs a volume to itself in order that it may be properly surveyed. To each chapter of the earlier text-books were appended questions designed to help students to master for themselves the facts of that chapter. It was decided (as in the case of The Future of Africa) that this should no longer be done because such questions are not infre- quently used as assignments, and the " Helps to Leaders " issued by the various Societies have not been properly utilised. At the same time it is hoped that the brief analysis by which each chapter of this book is prefaced may serve the same purpose of aiding students to realise more quickly what are the chief points to which thought should be directed. It only remains to add that for all faults of form the Editor is alone responsible. The Editorship of this book has been an especially delightful privilege. For the Author kindles a rare enthusiasm in those whose good fortune it is to call him friend. The great com- pany of those who read this book will quickly realise why. For two things are written in letters of light across every page : AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM. UT OMNES UNUM SINT. B. A. Y. ^ Refer to Appendix \'I. Xll The Renaissance in India missionary societies, who have criticised and corrected the material which I have set before them for pubhcation. It is a great happiness to me to know that, after their labours, so many societies are able to adopt this as a text- book for their study circles. I would thank Babu Ramananda Chatterji, the Hon. Sacchidananda Smha, the Editor of The East and the West, and the Editor of the Church Times for their kindness in allowing me to quote from articles of mine which have appeared in periodicals pubhshed by them. And, as in private duty bound, I would add my special thanks to many close personal Indian friends, both Christian and non- Christian, who have given me the stimulus necessary to serious thinking and set before me the Indian point of view. Among these I would venture to name Principal S. K. Rudra, Padre S. A. C. Ghose and Pandit Janki Nath of Delhi, Dr S. K. Datta of Lahore, Prof. Raju of Madras, Prof. Mukerji of Allahabad, and Mr K. Natarajan of Bombay. Two others I would name who have now passed to their rest,— Maulvi Nazir Ahmad and Munshi Zaka UUah. To their memory I would pay this last tribute of gratitude and affection. _ ^ C. F. ANDREWS. Delhi xii The Renaissance in India The Ren aissance in India, To face page 1 of Text. NOTE This text-book is intended primarily for use in Mission Study Circles, and in connection with it Suggestions to Leaders con- cerning the making of assignments, etc., have been prepared. The Editorial Committee strongly recommend all Circles to make use of these "Suggestions." They may be obtained by Avriting to the Mission Study Secretary at any of the addresses given below. The following Editions of this text-book are published : — Baptist Missionary Society, 19 Furnival Street, E.G. Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee, 22 Queen Street, Edinburgh. London Missionary Society, i6 New Bridge Street, E.C. Student Volunteer Missionary Union, 93 Chancery Lane, W.C. United Free Church of Scotland Mission Study Council, 121 George Street, Edinburgh. Young People's Missionary Movement, 78 Fleet Street, E.C. For the Exhibit of Social and Missionary Need held in connection with the Student Conference in Liverpool, January 1912, and subsequently in London and Edinburgh respectively, a number of striking charts were prepared, and proved most valuable as an aid to the study of the various great religions, forming in each case the walls of the court devoted to that speciaAopic. Those on Hinduism (upon Avhich Appendices L and II. are modelled) have been reproduced, full size, by the Council responsible for this book. Study Circles are strongly urged to make use of these, and the set, numbering in all more than a dozen, may be obtained for 3s. 6d., post free, of the Missionary Societies or of the United Council for Mission Study, 78 Fleet Street, E.C. Delhi PROLOGUE In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, And the Word was God : The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, And without Him was not anything made. That which hath been made Was Hfe in Him. And the Life was the Light of men, And the Light shineth in the darkness, And the darkness overcame it not. There was the true Light, The Light which hghteth every man Coming into the world. He was in the world. And the world was made by Him, And the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, And His own received Him not. The Renaissance in India But as many as received Him, To them gave He power To become children of God — To them that beheve on His name. Which were born, not of blood, Nor of the will of the flesh, Nor of the will of man. But of God. And the Word became flesh. And dwelt among us, And we beheld His glory, As of the only begotten of the Father. Full of grace and truth. CHAPTER I THE INDIAN UNREST The New Life in the East. Results throughout Asia of the Russo-Japanese \^'ar. The rekindhng of India's ancient hope. Some Parallels in the West. (i) The European Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century. The New Learning in India. Close connection of Renaissance and Refor- mation. India's efforts towards Religious Reform. (ii) European Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century. Indian social progress evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Place of the middle classes in the new movement. Elements of Promise and of Peril in Educated India. Home and college as antithetic influences. The new spirit of patriotism and social service. Demand for a fresh religious impulse. The revival of Indian art and literature. The drawback of an uneducated Womanhood. India's Claim on England's Sympathetic Service. 3 I.— THE NEW LIFE IN THE The Renaissance in India At the close of the year 1904 it was clear to those who were watching the pohtical horizon EAST. that great changes were impending in the East. Storm-clouds had been gathering thick and fast. The air was full of electricity. (i) Results of The war between Russia and Japan had kept the Russo- the surrounding peoples on the tip-toe of ^panese expectation. 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 Hke it since the Mutiny." A Turkish consul of long ex- perience in Western Asia told me that in the interior you could see everywhere 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 ahve," 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 Ahgarh ^ movement among Muhammadans was close 1 Pipe. ^ See chap. iv. The Indian Unrest 5 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 significance reverses of Russia chiefly from the territorial madans and standpoint. These reverses seemed to mark ^^"^"s. 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 of the European races at the expense of the East seemed at last to be checked. The whole of Buddha- land from Ceylon to Japan might again become one in thought and hfe. 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 inde- pendence 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. The movement which followed among the Revolutions T T T I J in East and nations was as sudden and unexpected as west. 6 The Renaissance in India one of those great cyclonic disturbances which sweep over a whole continent and change the face of nature. Few could have dared to prophesy that within six years Turkey and Persia would each have deposed its sovereign and framed a new parliamentary constitution, that Arabia would have been in open revolt, that India would have passed through a crisis only less serious than that of 1857, and that China would have thrown off the yoke of the Manchu dynasty. Yet, as we all know, these very things have happened and much else besides. There is not a single country in Asia, not even remote Afghanistan and in- accessible Tibet, which has not been deeply affected. The storm has passed from one end of Asia to the other and reached, also, Russia and the Mediterranean shores. Who can tell whether even the restlessness of the farther West — in France, and Germany, and Great Britain — may not be partly due to such a vast cyclonic change among the miUions of the East and the unsettlement of the psychic atmosphere of mankind ? The Clearing The track of the storm which swept suddenly Atmosphere forward in Asia has been marked here and in India. there by wreckage and upheaval. It has shifted the tide-marks and anchorages of human life. Not even yet has the violence The Indian Unrest 7 of the winds abated in certain quarters. But this, at least, may now be said concerning India — the atmosphere has, for the time, been wonderfully cleared ; the stagnant mists which had brooded so long over the land before the storm came have now given place to the fresh breezes of progress ; hfe and movement are everywhere around us. Before, a note of helplessness and despair ran through the characters even of those who were the most persistent workers for the good of India. A paralysing recollection of India's (ij) The re- greatness in the past took the place of hopeful ii^Sia^s hope. optimism in the present. The inertia which had lain upon the country still bound her as with a spell. But now new hopes — even extravagant hopes — have filled the air. The old passive indifference has passed away. The recent visit of the King-Emperor to India marked an epoch in the development of the national consciousness. It evoked an en- thusiasm almost beyond belief to those who do not know India. The service that it rendered was, in the words of one in closest touch with the young Hfe of India, "altogether priceless." What the future has in store for us in The Oppor India — whether the storm may come back Recon- upon us at any moment with redoubled fury — "^issance. no one can possibly foresee. It would be a bold 8 The Renaissance in India prophet who should declare that the worst was over. At present, however, as I have said, the atmosphere has been cleared. We are able to look round and count up our losses and our gains. We can see what oppor- tunities the Christian Church might have seized, if she had been more prepared ; we can understand wherein lay her true spiritual strength, which made her able to weather the gale. We look far into the distance and see the tempest still raging and others strugghng with the waves which we have recently surmounted. We have time to send messages of help, based on our own recent experience, and to give warning of impending dangers. It is partly with this purpose in view that this book is now written concerning the Indian unrest and the position of the educated classes m this country.^ The problems which will here be discussed have an apphcation wider than the present Indian situation. Significance For, apart from much that is merely local the^tuaSon ^^^ accidental, there must be a large sub- in India. stratum which bears directly upon what is happening in every part of Asia, (and in many parts of Africa also,) where the ferment of modern education is leavening ancient customs and old-world tradition. The record, more- ^ i.e. India. The Indian Unrest 9 over, reveals to Christian workers and tliinkers the Spirit of the Hving God brooding over the face of the deep and saying, " Let there be hght " — and there is Hght. There are parallels to contemporary events ii.-some in Asia wliich may be drawn from two periods m the^^^^ of European history. It will be well to turn ^^^'^• for a moment to these in order to come to a clearer understanding of the present position ; for it is only by analogies, however imperfect, that the true significance of these movements of our own times can be accurately grasped. The Sixteenth Century in Europe witnessed n) The an upheaval and a change which were due to Rena?sSnce the advent of the New Learning on the one of the hand and to the Reformation of Religion on Century, the other. The former stirred more especially the rising middle classes and made them eager, and even clamorous, in their demand for the reform of ancient abuses ; but alone and unaided it could have effected very Httle permanent good. Things would quickly have shpped back into their old condition if the Reformation had not followed and given the new progressive impulse a religious bearing. The Vital The Reformation did not stop at the middle of^Renais'" classes. It went down deeper still, and reached Reformadon the hearts of the poorest of the poor. Luther achieved what Erasmus could never have lo The Renaissance in India accomplished. The two movements to- gether created a new social and poHtical order. Modern Europe, as Lord Acton has pointed out, begins from the combination of the Renaissance with the Reformation. The New In the East to-day English Literature and inTndia.^ Western Science have brought about a new Renaissance, wider in its range than that which awakened mediaeval Europe more than four centuries ago. The Modern Age, if we may so call it, is of comparatively recent origin in India and Japan. It takes its date in history from the times of Raja Ram Mohan Roy ^ and the governor-generalship of Lord WiUiam Bentinck in Bengal, and from the Meiji, or Era of Enhghteriment, in Japan. In China the date is more difficult to fix with any accuracy. Many would regard its advent as coinciding with the events following the Boxer rising at the beginning of the present century and the victories of Japan over Russia. Others would place it somewhat earher still. One fact, however, is apparent to all — the new Renaissance is now estab- hshed in all these countries ; and a movement somewhat similar, but not so clearly pro- nounced, has spread over the Muhammadan lands of Western Asia and Egypt. 1 «7/:pp. 107. f. The Indian Unrest 1 1 But tliis awakening would have been wliolly indias insufficient to usher in a new era if it had towards not been combined with a second, and even ^f^Reiigion" greater, change. A rehgious Reformation has been advancing side by side with the new Renaissance. Clu-istian Missions have been silently but surely leavening the old rehgious conceptions of the people of the East, and wherever they have spread there has been a quickening of new hfe. The effect has been seen not merely in the indigenous Christian Churches which have sprung up in all these lands, though their foundation is of great significance : what is even more visible is a re- volution in the estabhshed rehgious. Apparent on all sides are those changes and confhcts, those actions and reactions, those advances and oppositions, which go to make up a religious Reformation. New sects and new societies have been formed during the last century within the older faiths; and side by side with these, representing, as it were, the Pro- testant impulse, there has been a remarkable rallying of conservative forces, which has A Counter produced what might be called a Counter- Reformation. In North India these tendencies are specially noticeable. The young and vigorous Arya Samaj is in strong opposition to orthodox Hinduism. The latter is putting 12 The Renaissance in India its own house in order and displaying stubborn powers of resistance. The same effect may be witnessed, to a lesser degree, in the new Islam of the AHgarh movement, side by side with the orthodox Islam which still tena- ciously holds its ground and has its stronghold along the borders of Afghanistan. And this religious upheaval is not affecting the rising Its National middle classes alone. It is penetrating far and Extent. ^^^ ^^^ villages. The poor and the outcast, the ignorant and the depressed, are being stirred and moved. The leaven is leavening the whole lump.^ Out of the ferment of these two great movements, the intellectual and the re- Hgious, the Renaissance and the Reformation, a new social order is being slowly constructed in the East. (ii) European The Nineteenth Century in Europe affords of^the^N^ne^ ^ sccoud analogy not quite so close as that teenth Qf ^hc Sixteenth, but still worthy of careful Century. . ^ consideration by the student of Eastern affairs. In India and Japan there has, indeed, been nothing comparable with the destructive and devastating aspect of the French Revolu- tion. There has been no rewriting of history on a blank page, irrespective of past traditions — nothing to compare with the September massacres, the tumbrils and the guillotine. The reconstruction of society has been evolu- The Indian Unrest 13 tionary rather than revolutionary. Only in India's China have there been scenes which recall EvXSonary the year 1793 and all that followed. What I^^J;^;^^^^" China may do in her convulsions no one can tionary. easily foretell. But of India, under British rule, it may reasonably be expected that the immemorial conservatism of her village population, resting on the bases of caste and tradition, will preserve the outer fabric of society even while the inner spirit is being wholly transformed. The comparison, there- fore, between Europe of a century ago and Asia of to-day is not primarily concerned with violent upheaval. It is rather to be found in the sudden rise of the spirit of nationahty. Rise of the This has now been welcomed everywhere as Nationality, a kind of creed, havms; all the bmdinfij force ^" j^^'^^P^. . . ^ . ^ and in Asia. and fervour of reHgion, and moulding together into a new corporate hfe disorganised masses of mankind. Japan has been the great out- standing example of this new spirit ; but its effect has been hardly less evident in India, Persia, and Turkey. China herself may yet show to the world an exhibition of the same power on a still wider scale. The national spirit in Europe, which led to the regeneration of Prussia, the unification of Italy, and the rise of modern Germany, is finding its close analogy to-day in the East. Asia is shaping Secondary Tendencies. Rapidity of the Change. 14 The Renaissance in India itself in our own generation, as Europe did a century ago, on national lines. In a lesser degree other Nineteenth- century ideals are beuig taken up with all the eager- ness of novelty and inexperience. The older Liberahsm of Gladstone and Bright, the economic principles of the Manchester School, the imphcit faith in Acts of Parhament and parhamentary institutions, the philosophy of Herbert Spencer and liis political deductions —these are still being preached in India by difierent reformers as the panacea for all human ills. In the same way a wave of agnostic and materiahstic thought, such as that which Europe experienced in the middle of last century, is in many places in evidence, and is seriously hampering some of the leading thinkers. This aspect, however, affects the educated alone up to the present, while the spirit of nationality has gone far deeper, and has begun to reach down to the masses of the common people. The age is full of restless energy and un- settlement of thought. One reconstructive idea after another is taken up, only to be abandoned. Each year smce 1904 has been crammed with changes and excitements, with new programmes and fresh outbursts of enthusiasm. An educational missionary who The Indian Unrest 15 came back to India after a short four months' furlough told me that he found himself completely out of touch with the situation on his return. It is, indeed, difficult to keep pace with the progress of events. In all tliis there is undoubtedly a weakness, for it betokens a lack of thoroughness ; but, on the other hand, there is the evidence of fresh and vigorous life. Indeed, the buoyant optimism of the educated classes is carrying them forward over difficulties which they would not other- wise have surmounted. The onlooker from Piaceof the the West is often reminded of the picture classes of the rising middle class in Victorian Eng- MovemenT land drawn by Thackeray. There is the same confidence in themselves and in their own capacity for progress, the same tendency to form an exaggerated estimate of their own importance. Yet in the case of educated Indians the estimate may not be wrong after all ; for the destiny of the country is clearly in their hands, and the advance they have made in modern methods, when compared with that achieved by their uneducated fellow-country- men, is enormous. Indeed, the rapidity of their progress is the standing wonder of the age. In Bombay and Calcutta, and in almost every Indian centre, a circle of advanced thinkers and workers may be found with whom it is 1 6 The Renaissance in India iii.-ELE- a pleasure and a privilege to converse on PROMISE subjects covering the widest range of thought PERIL m ^^^ 1^^^- They are the men who will mould f™^'^^^^ the future, — men of character as well as INDIA, . ' intellect, men who have surmounted diffi- culties such as we ourselves have never ex- perienced. Sometimes we feel that they are too Westernised, too doctrinaire, too much out of touch with their own people ; yet, now that the spirit of nationality has fired them with new hopes, they are taking greater pride in their own country than before and working out indigenous lines of advance. The danger of Europeanisation is not so great as it was a generation ago, and it will be still less in the near future. An Analogy Perhaps one further analogy, taken from Ex^erienc?^ an English home experience, may give us greater sympathy with this educated class at the critical period of their history. Some who read these pages may have been brought up in a very narrow religious home circle — a kind of backwater into which the current of modern thought has not been allowed to enter. From such an environment the plunge may have been made into the midst of the fullest University life. Under such circumstances, an almost tragic struggle takes place before the new mental atmosphere The Indian Unrest 17 can be freely breathed. A wide gulf is opened between the college and the home life. There is an unsettlement of conviction, a medley of conflicting opinions, a chaos of confused emotions. This experience, which has not infrequently (i) Home and happened in our own more sheltered surround- Antithetkf ings, is the lot, on an infinitely wider and more influences. pathetic scale, of every one in the East who takes up the New Learning. It leaves him not merely a generation, but often centuries, ahead of his surroundings. He gradually finds himself out of touch with his old home in the village to a degree which we can hardly imagine or picture to ourselves. He belongs to a new order — the educated community. The old and the new jostle one another in the streets, pass one another in the bazaars, share even the same homes ; but all along they Hve, as it were, in two different worlds. The assimila- tion will be made in the years to come ; if primary education becomes compulsory, as in Japan, it will take place very rapidly ; but at present it is very little in evidence. The two worlds go on side by side and scarcely overlap. In the village districts the old predominates ; the new is prominent only in the towns. The future is all with the new. There can of the East. 1 8 The Renaissance in India The New be no ultimate return to the old when once it Eagerness has been left behind. Matthew Arnold's much- quoted lines concerning the Roman Empire and the East ^ are no longer true of the new civiHsation with which the East is coming into contact in our own times. She is patient and disdainful no longer in the face of the legions of Modern Science and the New Learn- ing. Rather she is as restless and impatient as Western Europe was in the days of Erasmus, j She is not about to bow her head before the blast and plunge in thought again. Rather she is eagerly, precociously press- ing forward into the realms of the new. And the old life of the villages, though it cannot appreciate what is happening, yet on the whole accepts the leadership of the new in its own passive way. The momentum, which is now gathering volume among the masses, is forward not backward. The strain and stress of the new ideas are visible on every side. They produce whirling eddies in the rising flood of waters. The onward tide is like one of the great Indian rivers after the monsoon rains. There is much froth and 1 '' The East bowed low before the blast, In patient, deep, disdain ; She let the legions thunder past. And plunged in thought again." The Indian Unrest 19 foam, much turbid and muddy overflow, many new-cut channels losin2 the main course for a time ; but wherever the flood passes, the land is fertilised and becomes fruitful. The picture that I have endeavoured lluis rapidly to sketch must necessarily be difficult to grasp for those who have never visited the East. Perhaps the nearest approach to it in Western hterature is that contained in Froude's Life and Letters of Erasmus, similarity to There the reader can see the crude and gross [*|^e"of^^ superstitions of old European life being left Erasmus, behind by educated men and a new world coming into being. As he reads on he will understand the huge task that is now before India, where the superstitions are far grosser and the popular conceptions far cruder. He will also learn to appreciate the difficulties in the way of carrying into immediate action convictions wdiich have been accepted by the intellect. If Erasmus and the most en- lightened men of his times were only able to move very slowly forward towards emancipa- tion, it is not likely that educated Indians will change their social structure quickly. As an example of the new earnestness which story of a is springing up in the rising generation I visionary, would give the story of a young Hindu student as it was narrated to me by himself. He had 20 The Renaissance in India been educated in a Mission school and college, where he had been brought under powerful Christian influences and imbibed a passion for the new Western learning ; but up to the age of twenty his life was selfish and worldly. His thoughts and ambitions had centred in his family and in his caste. He had very rarely looked beyond these towards India as a whole. Then came the great Russo-Japanese war, which set him thinking. He began to have a wider outlook. Day after day the news of fresh victories came from the Far East. At last he read of the complete overthrow of the Russian fleet in the Straits of Tsushima. That night, he told me, he was quite unable to sleep. The vision of his own country came to him in an almost The Call objective form. She seemed to rise in front Motherland. ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ desolate mother, claiming his love. The face which he saw was very beautiful, but indescribably sorrowful. It was so real to him that for months afterwards he could shut his eyes and recall it as vividly as on its first appearance. What happened to him, as far as one could judge from his story, was something analogous to the ex- perience described in rehgious language as conversion. With overwhelming force he heard the call to give himself up for his mother- The Indian Unrest 21 land. He could think of nothin": else. Nicht and day the vision was before liim. He determined to put himself to the test, and the test was a significant one. Hindu as he was, he began to try to win the friendship of Musalmans and to inspire them with liis new ideals ; for he grasped at once the sahent fact that a United India must mean a union between the two great sections of the ])opula- The cost of tion.i He met with constant rebuffs, but'"P°"''- persisted, and won his way. Then other difficulties faced him. His father insisted with all the authority of parentage, which is so strong in the East, that he should marry and settle down. A suitable bride was found for him ; a comfortable position and a generous allowance were assured. But he resisted all pressure and was content to be banished from home and reduced to poverty, rather than give way and be false to the call which he had received. When I last heard of him he had definitely joined the ranks of the Arya Samaj,^ and was engaged in administering relief in a famine-stricken district. Shortly (ii) Patriot- ip ii'TT-j £1 ' 1 •' ism and social beiore this, 1 had news 01 him as a worker in a service, plague camp where he had fearlessly risked his own life for the good of his fellow-countrymen. ^ See Statistical Table given in Appendix IX. 2 See p. 119. 2 2 The Renaissance in India It is by men of this character that Young India is being built up. They are to be found now in almost every centre of Indian life, Character- keenly sensitive to the new conditions, eager nee?s^" to take their share in acts of sacrifice and Young India, service, pathetically in need of guidance and direction. On the religious side they feel themselves adrift and cannot tell whither the current is carrying them. In the first flush of the new movement there was a period when religion seemed of secondary importance compared with nationalism, but those days are rapidly passing away. A leading Indian thinker, who was not himself a Christian, said to me a short time ago : " We are all feehng (iii) Demand HOW the need of a new rehgious impulse if reUffiour ^^^ national movement is to go forward. impulse. The heart of India is eternally religious and cannot understand anything unless it is stated in religious terms. Our national thinkers at the first often neglected this fundamental fact, and we ourselves are only just coming to see the full importance of it. But what this new rehgion will be, which will hold India Inadequacy together, wc cauuot cveu imagine. Hinduism isia^^ind""' ^^^ never do it. Islam cannot either. No Theosophy. mere eclectic rehgion, such as Theosophy, can help us. You will probably say that Christianity is the supreme rehgion of the MAULVI NAZIll AIIMM); I.I,.F)., D.O.I.. Sliems-ul-Ulcina The greatest novelist of the Unlu literary revival— jce />. 23 The Indian Unrest 23 future, and we in India are looking anxiously towards it as they are also in Japan. But the Christian religion in its present outward aspect does not greatly attract us ; though its teaching, as seen in the Sermon on the Mount, is very beautiful and thoroughly ' Indian.' We are really waiting, expecting, hoping, for the new religious impulse to come. When it does come we shall recognise it and turn to it, and our present difficulties and disappointments will be ended." (^nother phase of nationalism, which is now coming into prominence, is the attention that is being paid to national literature and (iv) The art. The indigenous arts of India had almost Indian perished beneath the utihtarian wave, intel- Lkerature lectual as well as commercial, wliich swept over the country in the Victorian Age. But a more wholesome spirit is now abroad which seeks to bring about a revival of the aesthetic and imaginative genius of the Indian peoples. Indian social reconstruction of the future will no longer be dull, drab and ugly. Colour, music, song — these are present in the very sky and climate, the mountains and rivers, the forests and plains, of beautiful and sunny India. They are also enshrined in the hearts of the village populations. The more neutral- tinted civilisation of the cold, grey North 24 The Renaissance in India has been allowed too long to overshadow the natural Indian genius. The spell is at last being broken, and in Bengal especially a remarkable awakening with regard to the artistic aspect of life is being experienced. As the new move- ment spreads among the women of India, a still wider range will be given to this all-important social factor ; for there the imaginative impulse is strongest. Indian religion in the future mil be rich in artistic and emotional expression. Condition of At present the greatest of all drawbacks home life. ^^ national progress is the condition of the home life of the educated classes owing to the illiteracy of Indian v/omen. Those who take their degrees in Indian Universities go back from College to homes where ignorance and superstition are rampant. Their wives are (v) The unable to understand even the simplest aspects of^^^^^^ of modern hfe. In some cases the husband mieducated ^{\i attempt the uphill task of educating his wife during his spare time, but this has not been found practicable on any large scale. Opposition has frequently come from the older women of the house. In other cases the pressure of business has been too great to allow leisure for such a serious undertaking. \ The last few years have witnessed, however, a change of attitude in the matter of women's education which is nothing less than revolu- The Indian Unrest 25 tionary. The younger generation of India's Modern women have now set their hearts on beinir ^^^^'^' educated, and in the long run they will win their way tlirough all opposition. Then, and then alone, mil the National ^lovement be estabhshed on a firm basis. To meet the new situation which Young india s India presents, the highest qualities of both ^^^^'^• head and heart will be needed by those who come out from England. Above all, that S3mipathy for which the King-Emperor so earnestly pleaded must be exhibited to the full. The problems are far more complex, the work of construction is far more delicate, the educated classes themselves are far more sensitive, than in the past. For the Christian worker in such a time of transition and difficulty the intercession needs to be made continually that — The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of tlu- Lord. For further Reference, Andrews, C. F. [18, 20], [M)], chaj). xi. Chirol, V. [51], chaps, ii. and iii. James, H. R. [54], chap, xviii. Jones, J. P. [84], chap. i. MacDonald, Ramsay [10], chap. iii. 5, 6, 7. X.B. — The bracketed niMnbers refer to the Uildioj/niphy. CHAPTER II INDIAN EDUCATION Educational Policies^ Old and New. The Pioneers of Serampur. Macaulay and his Minute. DufF and the Development of Educational Missions. The Mistake of the Root-and-Branch Method. Th Policy of Assimilation. Illustrations from Hardwar^ Poona, and Lahore. The Relation of Religion to Education. Attitude of the Churchy the State^ and the Student respectively. Influence of Hostels, Secular Learning, En- vironment, and Personal Contact. Extent of Religious Unsettlement among Students. Some Modern Problems. Conditions of Student Life. Efficiency, demanding Co-operation. Personal Work in Education. Danger of Separate Religious Universities. The Education of Women. The Twofold Task. 26 a'^O 'WSHMIR UNlTEP as. dB CENTRAL PROV> l9ER0k| HyoERftefto. COsrVBtCVG-flL and A^SAM BENGftL. X -* |o8 Burma. < MAORIS. MAP SHEWING NUMBEI{ OF CHHISTIAX STUDENTS AT CHIEF UNIVERSITY CENTRES IN INDIA Indian Education " Never on this earth was a more momentous i.-educa- question discussed." politics. The event referred to was the discussion of 2b?.,^^° NEW. Macaulay's famous minute, which decided in favour of EngHsh education in India. The author of the words quoted was Sir John Seeley, the historian. Up to the year 1813 no Christian missionary had been allowed to set foot in British India. William Carey and his companions had been forcibly deported and had found refuge in Danish territory at Serampur. They had i; The worked on there with patience and persever- pfoneers^ ance twenty years before Macaulay ai)peared J^^"^^^^^®" upon the scene. Of all the missionary careers Education, in the history of the Church of the Nineteenth Century, theirs was in many ways the most fruitful and permanent in its results. They seem to have grasped in a wonderful manner the main problems of India's conversion, and set themselves to work out at the very start the largest and broadest lines of development. Their two prmcipal objectives were Transla- tion and Education, and in each they dis- played a thorouglmess wliicli has made their work endure for more than a ccntmy since it was taken in hand. The Serampur College has in our own day been revived and made 28 The Renaissance in India a notable centre of higher education. Still further, by patient persistence in well-doing they so changed Anglo -Indian opinion with regard to missionary work that they became honoured and respected by the very govern- ment which had deported them. Bishop Mylne has shown that, while the work of Francis Xavier and of Schwartz declined rapidly after the saintly founders had died, the work of Carey and Marshman survived and is still bearing fruit. Orientalists Between 1813 and 1833 a battle royal Anglicists, was being carried on in Calcutta between two schools of Anglo-Indian opinion. The Orientalists, as they were called, wished to confine education to the study of Sanskrit and Arabic Hterature, and to exclude the teaching of the West. Their opponents, the Anglicists, wished for many reasons, chiefly practical and commercial, to make Enghsh itself the educational basis. (ii) Macau- It was at this juncture that Macaulay wrote the aY/its ^"^ ^ minute about which Sir John Seeley inscribed importance. }^-[g astonishing verdict : " Never on this earth was a more momentous question discussed." At first sight the words appear to be a gross exaggeration. But this impression is modified when we consider carefully all that lay behind the decision. It represented the first full Indian Education 29 inter-penetration of the two greatest civil isa- inter- tions that the world has ever seen. Bofoi-o of'ES^lnd this epoch the East and the West had been ^"^• strangely held apart, their religious thought and culture being separated, as it were, by an unbroken mountain range, and flowinc: down on opposite sides of the great watershed. The brilliant campaign of Alexander in 326 b.c. had not led to the hitroduction of Hellenic civilisation into India. The great Buddhist movement under Asoka, nearly a century later, never penetrated the West, though its effects w^ere felt in later ages as far as the Caspian Sea, the Islands of Japan, the Malay Peninsula, and Ceylon, and its civilisation became the leading factor in Asiatic history. The spread of Nestorian Christianity, from the Sixth Century to the Tliirteenth,^ was the nearest approach to an opening up of direct inter- course between these two great divisions of mankind ; but the Nestorian Christians were themselves cut off from the West, and, after the rise of Islam, entirely isolated. Islam itself was never able to bridge over the gulf; on the contrary, it widened the breach between the Christian West and the Hindu-Buddliist East. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century eight hundred millions of mankind who Hved East of the Persian (nilf were 1 Cf. Appendix V'll. 30 The Renaissance in India nearly as widely separated in thought, reHgion, and civilisation from the many milhons of Europe as they had been in the days of Alexander or Asoka. The Nineteenth Century in India, with the British occupation and settlement of Bengal, gave at last the opportunity for intermingling The to take place, but at first Anglo-Indians them- of Anglo- selves were the most vehemently opposed n lans. ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ being made of the great occasion. From the point of view of government pohcy they had no wish to disturb the old ideas of the East. Their scholars also were under the spell of the newly discovered treasures of Sanskrit literature. As Seeley puts it, they were '^ Brahmanised, and would not hear of admitting into their enchanted enclosure either the Christianity or the learning of the West." But gradually this view was given up. We have already seen how the Anglo- Indian attitude towards Christian missions was altered. The further change with regard to Western civilisation came with Macaulay. '' We were led," writes Sir John Seeley, " to stand out boldly as civihsers and teachers. . . . Macaulay's minute remains the great land- mark in the history of our Empire considered as an institute of civihsation. It marks the moment when we dehberately recognised that Indian Education ;;i a function had devolved on us in xVsia sinular to that which Rome fuHilled in Euroj)e." When we consickn- what has taken place since then — liow the Indian Renaissance w^hich sprano; from Macaulay's pohcv has Momentous pointed the way forward to the mo(U'rnisiii«r J^ssues of „ -r r ^ ' Macaulay s ot Japan, Chma, and Corea ; liow a reflex Policy. action has opened out new movements in Persia, Turkey, and Egypt ; liow all the great revolutions wliich have recently convulsed Asia have this same cause behind them ; how even greater events than these may be before us in the future : we can then under- stand that there is much to justify Sir Jolni Seeley's sentence with respect to Macaulay's minute — " Never on this earth was a more momentous question discussed." The one man who saw the signs of the liii) Alex times most clearly in the Indian mission field and^hif "^^ and understood with the flash of genius the Outlook, overw^helming issues that were at stake was a young Scotsman, Alexander Duff. The Serampur missionaries were absent from Calcutta itself (which was the centre of excitement and controversy), and their own special work was occupying their full atten- tion ; but Alexander Duff had just come out from Scotland, and he plunged at once into the turmoil of the ' Youn<>; India ' of those The Renaissance in India His English College in Calcutta. Governor- General approves Duff's Action. Duff's Converts. stirring days. He was himself young and enthusiastic, and understood what the younger generation was needing. Before Macaulay's minute was written he had anticipated its conchisions and founded an Enghsh College in Calcutta on his own account. He was only twenty-four, just out from home, know- ing scarcely a word of the language. AU the older missionaries in Calcutta were against him and condemned his vehement haste. Even his supporters often wrung their hands in despair at the action he was taking. But he had perceived with the eye of a born leader what was at stake and went straight forward. This was in 1830. In 1833 the Governor- General and his Council frankly and heartily accepted Duff's point of view. The great reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy sided wholly with the new missionary teacher, and young Bengal hailed him with acclaim as the champion of the hour. He was, both practi- cally and theoretically, the leader of the new movement on the English side. A remarkable band of converts was the immediate fruit of Alexander Duff's action. Many most brilliant young men from the highest families in Bengal became ardent Christians. Duff, with a noble prodiga- lity, set them to work in the various missions Indian Education 33 which needed help, not selfishly caring only for his own denomination. The An7 Spain were Romanised, so tliey iniao^iiiod thai India would be Anglicised by education. Fallacious They openly declared that they wished to ^^'n "he make educated Indians ' more English than go'"-:^*^ ^ ,. , . ^ fc.inp:rc. the English.' A deeper study of Roman history miglii have checked their enthusiasm. Dill and Bigg have in recent years pointed out how ruinous the Romanising process was. The former writer pictures to us the educated classes in Gaul writing bad complimentary Latin verses to one another, while their own people were sinking beneath a weight of debt and evil custom. The latter writer narrates what happened in the following trenchant words : — " The Roman schools in the provinces aimed at producing good government officials, and the officials whom they sent forth in crowds were corrupt, insolent, servile, and incapable. They aimed at producing poets, historians, orators, and men of letters. Yet the more they projected their system, the more did art and letters decline. What was wanted was a literature of the people. There were plenty of men who might have written it, but they were condemned to silence by the tyranny of this windy, vapouring ' rhetoric' " Dr Bigg goes on to show how only by the indigenous growth of the Christian Church, ai)[)ealing in 38 The Renaissance in India its hymns and vernacular writings to the hearts of the common people, was the situa- tion saved from utter ruin. Other considerations might have exposed the fallacy of the supposed parallel to the Roman Empire. Gaul and Spain were very scantily peopled : probably the combined population of both provinces was under Vastnessof 2,000,000. India contains to-day a popula- indil^'^'" tion of 315,000,000. Again, Gaul and Spain were almost destitute of culture, literature, rehgion, and civihsation. India can point to one of the most imposing civilisations and rehgious developments in the world. The Indian past is no blank page. It is rather like an illuminated manuscript, partly worn away and needing revision, but still most precious for the subject-matter it contains. To neglect the past of India is to fail to utilise the deepest springs of Indian national life. The idea of Anglicising over three hundred million people scattered in thousands of villages needs only to be stated to reveal its inherent impossibility. Modern De- All these things have become much easier Tn EducT-^^ to understand since Macaulay's time. The tionai theory of education itself has undergone between then and now nothing less than a revolution. It is no longer concerned with ■• M Alt IN .\ - I' \(.<»1) \ The old pagoda at which Henry Maityn and Carey, with the other Men uf Seraiiipur, were aceu.stunicd to meet fur prayer Indian Education 39 hard, formal rules, unintollii]jible grammars and ' dead languages,' but on the contrary it aims at developing the pupil's living in- terests, and appeals to liis innate instincts and inherited associations. The educational aim of the teaclier in India, therefore, is now altered. The wealth of EngHsh literature, science, and culture is still set before the pupil for study and assimila- tion, but it is (to use a convenient metaphor) grafted on to the original stock : it is no Grafting:, longer taught in a kind of vacuum without reference to the background of Indian thought and Indian experience. The mother tongue of the pupil is made, more than before, the medium of instruction ; the current Indian ideas are employed in approaching the study of the West ; as far as possible the teaching given is adapted to the environment of the taught. It is true that the old system still Hngers on and is hard to eliminate altogether ; but the main principles of the more scientific theory of education are now universally acknowledged. The worst of the old AngHcising days are over. The National Movement has done much to popularise the new conceptions, and the next generation will see very far-reaching results. Already tliere is visible a marked revival of vernacular 40 The Renaissance in India (v) The literature, especially in Bengal, and various National efforts are being made by Indians themselves AssImUariorr ^^ Hiake education more national. The most significant of these efforts, from a missionary standpoint, is that of the Arya The Samaj at Hardwar. The Aryas have built of^Hardwar. there, on the banks of the Ganges, a large residential school and college, where boys are taught from the age of eight to that of twenty- five, and remain unmarried till they leave. The attempt is being made to combine Western science with ancient Indian literature and culture. At the end of their long school career the students are expected to go out as missionaries and to preach the Arya faith. The teachers are for the most part honorary workers, and a high moral standard is observed. Those who have visited the place have been deeply impressed with the progress that has been made in indigenous development. Other educational experiments of a somewhat similar kind are being essayed in different parts of India. Within the sphere of the existing govern- ment universities several less drastic experi- ments are also in evidence. Schools and colleges have been founded which teach the government curriculum, but have a distinctive religious or national character of their own. Indian Education 41 The most efficient of these are the Fergusson College, Poona, the Dayanand College, I.alioro, The the Central Hindu College, Benares, and the ^oiiege""^ Muhammedan College, Aligarh. The two last ^^^°^^- mentioned are being made tlie bases for new universities, and will come before our notice later. The Dayanand College, Lahore, is an Arya institution, which owes its chief success to tlie devoted labours of an honorary worker, Lala Hans Rfij. The story of liis early career is an instructive lesson in tlie spirit of modern Indian Nationalism. There were two brothers, of whom Lrda Hans Raj was the younger. At the death of Swami Dayanand they agreed together that the elder should go on with his worldly profession, while the younger should take up religious work, as Principal of the new^ Arya College, and be supported by his brother's earnings. Most of the staff of the college are content with a stipend of £60 a year, thougli tlie income of a college teacher in modern India may rise to £500. The same devotion is shown by the staff of the Fergusson College, Poona, and also in the Central Hindu College, and the Aligarh College. The Principal of the The Fergusson College, Mr Paranjpye, a Maratlii conlge!°" Brahman, was senior wrangler, and witli bis Poo"^. marked ability, both practical and intellectual. 42 The Renaissance in India he could have obtained a lucrative position wherever he pleased, but he has been content to sacrifice this in order to help forward the national educational ideal. The Hon. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a leading member of the Viceroy of India's Legislative Council, taught for many years in the Fergusson College on a nominal stipend. On a short visit which I paid last year I was deeply impressed by the great capacity of the staff and the es'prit de corps of the students. They have especially developed the scientific side of the college, and the students make with their own hands, in their spare time, the most dehcate scientific instruments. Close to the college is the The central home of the Servants of India Society, of India" where some of the ablest graduates are pre- Society. paring themselves by five years of advanced study and research for careers of national usefulness under Mr Gokhale's direction. The Ranade Research Institute is also near at hand, itself another token of the new national spirit. Many other colleges exist in different parts of India, especially in Bengal, which have been built by patriotic and large- hearted Indians, or founded by some reforming religious society. These are all developing distinctive characteristics of their own, and are helping to carry forward Indian Education 43 ill varied ways the one great national movement. The question of reHgious education has been ii._the no less vehemently discussed and debated in qf^r^e^'^^ India during the last century than the question ed^u^atTon of Anglicising the curriculum. The Christian Church has in this matter a record of achievement upon which she may look back with thankfulness. It would not . H Indian Education 47 and isolated action. The reforming movements gain a great deal of their popularity from the fact that they are half-way houses between the old and the ne\\\ Those which appeal to national sentiment, such as the Arya Samaj, and demand least domestic change, are the most popular. Those which demand complete separation from caste (and therefore great domestic change), such as the Brahmo Samaj, are either stationary or declining. It is noticeable that the Arya Samaj has more than doubled its numbers during the last ten years, w^hile the Brahmo Samaj has not gone up in numbers.^ Theosophy used to be the half -w^ ay house of the student in the South. It demanded very little from him in the way of change, and was quite willing to compromise with idolatry and caste. Since the rise of the National Movement, however, its influence has decUned. It is now regarded by large numbers of educated Hindus as a foreign intrusion into the domain of Hinduism and its esoteric side is openly repudiated. '' We do not want," one student wrote to me, " to bind round our necks a chain of new superstitions, having just discarded our ow^n." With regard to the conditions under which (i) Conditions the students live there has been much mis- Life. ' (f. Statistical Appendices. 48 The Renaissance in India understanding, owing to the special promin- ence lately given to Calcutta on account of the anarchist movement. In many parts of that city the student life is passed in the worst pos- sible surroundings and the evil has grown so great, owing to the congestion of population, that no words can be strong enough to condemn it. The following passage from Dr Garfield Williams' book, entitled The Indian Student and the Present Discontent^ presents the picture most vividly : — Student Life " He gets up about six o'clock in the morning, and immediately he has dressed (which is not a very long process) he starts work. From seven to ten, if you go into his mess, you will see him ' grinding ' away at his notes or his text-book under the most amazing conditions for work. He is usually stretched out upon his bed or sitting on the side of it. The room in which he works is almost always shared with some other occupant, usually with two or even three or more occupants, mostly engaged in the same task as himself if they are students. Often there are two or three of them reading aloud or repeating audibly to themselves. At ten o'clock the boy gets some food, and then goes of! to his college for about five hours of lectures. A little after three in the afternoon Indian Education 49 he comes home to his mess, and between three and hve is usually to be found lounging about his room, dead tired, but often engaged in animated discussion with his room-mates or devouring the newspaper, which is his only form of recreation and his only bit of excite- ment. At five o'clock he will go out for a short stroll down College Street or around College Square. This is his one piece of exer- cise, if such you can call it. At dusk he returns to his ill-lighted, stuffy room, and continues his work, with the exception of a short interval for his evening meal, until he goes to bed, the hour of bed-time depending upon the proximity of the examination. During the last three weeks before an examination it is usually in the small hours of the morning. A very large percentage of Bengali students when they actually sit for their examination are nothing short of physical wrecks. " ' What a hfe ! ' Yes, and the life becomes infinitely more significant when we consider the type of man who is living it. This age The "re , . , ,. . T . p T T naissance m which we live is the renaissance tor India, for India. There is a tide of new learning surging in, destroying ancient , faith and practice, imder- mining the old foundations of morality and of Indian society, producing an eager, restless, throbbing mass of student life, pushing onward 50 The Renaissance in India Our Re- sponsibility. General good effect of Student Life. amid a ferment of new ideas, and ' the moral unsettlement of a period of transition.' An impressive sight it is — impressive as a stormy sea, impressive to look upon, but likely to awaken other thoughts than that of the mere impressiveness of the sight when one strives to propel the frail bark of temporal govern- ment on the restless waters. Only a few thousand students of no particular import- ance ! No, these are the precursors of a new age, these are the first-fruits of a renaissance, these are the future leaders of a nation that has been dumb for centuries and is being disillusioned. " And it is the God-given task of this great empire under whose government we hve to mould this power, to shape it so that it does not fail to give to the world the contribution which hes hidden away in the centuries of India's priceless history and in its ages of sohtary evolution." But Calcutta is not India, and, with the partial exception of Bombay, such conditions are quite exceptional. The picture would be ludicrously inaccurate if apphed to India as a whole. Indeed the larger proportion of Indian students live in an environment which is superior to that of their own homes, and look upon their College days as a time, not A BENGALI STUDENT D- The Renaissance in India have remained in the old environment of Hinduism or Islam. Certain quahties may have decKned which gave dignity and good manners to the old society that is passing away, but abundant compensation has been made by the new qualities which have been added. I once asked a Heutenant-governor which he would prefer, a man of high family who had been brought up apart from English education or a man of lower birth who had received an Enghsh college education. He answered at once : '' For pleasing manners the former, but for moral integrity undoubtedly the latter." (ii) Necessity The great need in missionary colleges at standard of ^^^ present time is that of close and effective Efficiency, co-opcratiou between the different missions. Since Lord Curzon's University Act of 1904 the standard of efficiency has been greatly raised and the day of cheap second-rate institutions is now over. Missionary schools and colleges have been built in too haphazard a way, and a large amount of over-lapping has taken place which might have been avoided. This had been going on for years before the new university regulations, but its harmful effect was not so apparent when the Close Co- general standard was lower. Now, however, essential the^defect is obvious and close co-operation is Indian Education .-^j the only remedy. Wherever possible all the educational work of missions within a civen city or area should be directed in its develoj)- ment and expansion from a common centre, and over-lapping should be rigidly excluded. Only in this way will it be possible in the years to come, when the standard is still further raised, to keep up to the level of Government requirements. With regard to the personal staff the Government requirements should be exceeded in order to ensure missionary effec- tiveness. A vague and ill- defined Christian atmosphere carries with it only a vague and ill-defined impression. If our Lord's training of the Twelve is taken as the highest example of educational method, it is clear that concentration upon a comparatively small number, with powerful personal in- fluence brought to bear on them, is to be preferred to wide extension of numbers. Christian education of the intensive personal liii) Place of kmd has in India possibilities which transcend perTonI? our human range of vision. The chapter ^o""^*^^!^^ dealing wdth the Hindu past will show how in India, rich in great religious personalities Indian history has been. The description of the modern reforming movements will show how India is still prolific in the production of such men of genius. There is reason to hope that 54 The Renaissance in India from among the number of students who pass through our Mission Colleges there may be discovered here and there such men of re- ligious genius, who, either from within the Church or from outside the Church, may be led to give up all for the sake of religion. J, The example of Swami Ram Tirath, who was educated at the Christian College in Lahore, is Creating cited elsewhere in this book.^ The time will surely come when leaders with even greater personal gifts will go forth from our colleges to preach the Christian message in its entirety and move the hearts of multitudes. What Oxford and Cambridge and Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities have effected in Great Britain through such magnetic leaders as a Wesley, a Simeon, or a Drummond, this and much more may be effected by the work of the Christian Colleges at the great Indian city centres. (iv) Danger In quite rcccnt times a movement has been Reh^lSTs^^ started among educated Indians for the Universities, foundation of religious universities represent- ing Hinduism on the one hand and Islam on the other. The movement is still in its infancy and the enthusiasm exhibited at the outset has already shown signs of decline. At this stage it is only necessary to discuss briefly ^ See p. 1.S2. )|{ KllISlINA MOIlAxN BANEUJI; ONE Ui DUFf's CONVERTS I)|{ Indian Education 55 the problems which may arise. That there are some advantages in a system of separate reHgious universities is at once obvious. Our older European universities were, for the most part; estabhshed on the Christian foundation, and this very fact has been their strengtli. But in India, with its great religious divisions, the situation is more complex. The question of Probably supreme moment is that of rehgious inter- cr^ing mingling, and the proposed new universities Friendliness would lead to separation. While Hindus and Religious Musalmans have shown themselves ready to unite under Clmstian leadership, they have in general drifted further and further apart when educated separately. One of the most thoughtful and earnest of my own students told me that ^then residing in a Hindu College he had become bitterly hostile to Muhammadans and Christians, while in the Mission College he had come to reckon those differing in religion from himself as among his greatest personal friends. Even if an attitude of mutual hostility were not created by separate religious universities there would grow up an aloofness which miglit at any time become hostility. A further difficulty faces the Hindu university scheme. Caste is an essential part of Hinduism as a religion. Yet the very name ' university ' cries out c 56 The Renaissance in India A University is incom- patible with Caste. Hindu and Muhamma- dan Hostels the Better Way. (v) The Imperative Question of the Quality and Character of Women's Education in India. Rapidity in Grovrth of Demand. against a caste basis of higher education. A university which only admitted certain higher castes, and separated these castes still more completely from their fellow-Indians, w^ould be so contrary to the modern spirit that its education would be reactionary rather than progressive. It would seem, therefore, that while the claim for Hindu or Muhammadan hostels should be allowed, and even en- couraged, the claim for separate universities should be regarded with considerable hesita- tion and anxiety. The same principles would apply equally to the question of Anglo-Indian (or 'Eurasian') education in India at the University stage. ^ With regard to the future, by far the great- est educational question before India is the quality and character of modern education given to women. This question has reached a stage to-day not unlike that which faced Alexander Duff with regard to men's educa- tion in the early Victorian Age. The demand for education from the women of India will in a few years be great beyond all human calculation. It will directly affect more than one hundred and fifty millions of the human race, and shape more than any other factor the destinies of India. The leaders of the ^ See Appendix M. Indian Education 57 National jMovement in India now realise tliat the regeneration of their country depends upon a radical change in the conditions of woman's hfe and thought. As the work of Dr Duff An Oppor- deterniined for good or ill the type and tone of xask'smuiar the education of Indian manhood, so to-day it ^° ^^o^e of lies in the power of the best educationists, who have fully grasped the problems involved, to guide the policy with regard to the educa- tion of Indian womanhood. In the present century, on the woman's side, as in last century on the man's side, the opportunity is given to direct into right channels new forces wliich are beginning to come into operation. Upon Western educationists must rest very largely the responsibility of establishing the lines of advance ; for technical experience is still almost non-existent in India itself. The next ten years will be the formative years. From the missionary standpoint the demand The Claim is clearly pressing for the very ablest of our „pon /i^e best Christian women, who have been engaged in ^" England, education at home, to go out and study at first hand the problems involved, and then, when full experience of Indian conditions has been gained, to help to set the ty])o. If I might express my own personal opinion ^^(' should not appeal merely to the rank and file 58 The Renaissance in India (though these might be invaluable in other forms of women's missionary work), but we should make, on the other hand, a bold claim for the very ablest and most imaginative and most spiritual women that the Christian Church can give us and set them in groups at the great centres of modern Indian hfe, leav- ing them a free hand to work out a Christian educational policy, and find their own workers both in India and from home, as the demand for education increases. There are posts which might be occupied by those in delicate health as well as other posts which would require a strong and vigorous constitution. In a subsequent chapter of the book an attempt will be made (as far as the necessarily limited experience of the writer goes) to set forward some picture of Indian womanhood as it confronts the sympathetic observer to-day.^ THE TWO- Taking Indian education as a whole tAvo problems stand out before the Church. On the men's side the problem is that of recon- 1 Not the least important work to be undertaken by women at the present time is the care and tuition of Ang-lo-Indian and English girls in the Hill-schools of India. These are for the most part feebly staffed. There is also a tone of aloof- ness from thing's Indian in many of them^ which leads to a growth of caste feeling. Teachers are needed who have learnt to love India, and can inculcate that love in their pupils. FOLD TASK. Indian Education 59 striiction. On the woincn's side the probltMii Rcconstruc is that of origination. According as the o°ig?nation work involved in these two problems is taken in hand^^by missionary workers, both at home and abroad, in the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of prayer and faith, will India in her new national life respond to the Cliristian message. For furthku Rkferenck, AH [47]. chap. iv. Chirol [51], chaps, xvii., xviii., xix., xx. Cowan [96]. Frascr [256]. Haytliornthwaitc [26]. Holland [27, 28]. Appendices XI. and XII. should be carefully studied Janies\5A:-i\m whole book]. Miller [11]. /^«c-/z/er [68], chaps. iii.,iv.,v. Smith [15, 45]. Tubbs [^S5i']. Williams [I6]. CHAPTER III HINDUISM AS A RELIGIOUS GROWTH Hinduism as a Dynamic^ Developing Religion. The Vedic and Post-Vedic Period (1500-500 b.c.) Rig- Veda and Upanishads. Doctrines of " Wandering " (Samsara), ^'Works'' (Karma) and "Release" (Moksha). Rise of Brahmans and of Caste. The Buddhist Period (500 b.c. — a.d. 200). Buddhism not a Reformation^ but a ' Middle Path.' Its fundamental pessimism. Supersession by the Incarnation teaching. Ethical influence. The Incarnation Period (200 b.c. — a.d. 500). The Mahabharata' and the Ramayana. Shiva : Vishnu and his avatars — Krishna and Rama. The Puranas ; the Bhagavad-Gita. Brahma the Creator. The Trimurti. The Medieval Period (a.d. 500-1400). Shankara and the Doctrine of Illusion (Maya). The Mental Atmosphere of India. The Period of the Bhakti Saints (a.d. 1400- 1800). Doctrine of Personal Devotion (Bhakti). Bhakti-saints : Ramanuja and his successors. Tulsi Das and his Ramayana. 60 Hinduism as a Religious Growth 61 The strcngtli of tlic IJhakti M()\ tiiK-iil and its weakness. Influknck of the Sacked Hooks upon India ofTo-dav. The religions of the world may be divided i.-hindu into two groups, the static and dynamic, dynamic. The former group, wliich may best be illus- l^ff^y^^^^ trated by Islam, starts with its type already religion fixed in the person and writings of the founder. These stamp it with a definite and unmistak- able character which remains as long as the rehgion continues. Confucianism in China is a further example of a static religion. The second group of religions, which may best be illustrated by Hinduism, has not the same definiteness or fixity of type. These faiths develop with the development of history, and display extraordinary change of character- istic along with change of environment. When looked at as a whole, they have the appearance of an accumulated rehgious growth, rather than a clear-cut system. They may have their sacred scriptures, but these too are a growth, a development. Buddhism comes nearest to Hinduism in this group, for though the person of its founder inspired its first beginnings, the religion itself soon passed beyond the range of his direct teaching ; and its varieties of historical expression have been so great in 62 The Renaissance in India Tibet, China, and Japan that the person of the Buddha has been almost lost sight of, except as a mythical figure. Christianity Christianity combines in itself to a wonderful and dynamic, degree the characteristics of both religious groups. It has all the definiteness and fixity of a static religion, owing to the one central figure of Christ, portrayed for all time in the pages of the New Testament. On the other hand, owing to the preparation for it through the ages of Jewish history, its doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and its organic, historical expression in the Church, the Body of the Christ, it is the most dynamic of all religions, developing from age to age with the growth of humanity. If we study a religion such as Islam our main interest will lie in the Quran itself and the character of Muhammad. These will explain its subsequent history. But a religion which belongs wholly to the second, or dynamic, group needs to be approached quite differently. Here the expectation at the outset will be that doctrines and practices will undergo considerable variation. The history of these variations will be a main object of study. The student will not expect, for instance, to find all subsequent Hinduism contained even in germ in the Vedas, or all Hinduism as a Religious Growth 63 Buddhism contained in the J;itakas. He will not despise Chinese Buddhism or medicieval Hinduism because they have wandered far from the original. He will rather delight in tracing the changes which have occurred. The failure to realise this distinction be- The Hunu.n tween a dynamic and a static religion has HfiXism^ led to much misunderstanding of Hinduism. The mistake has sometimes been made of regarding this religion as an abstract system, and the result has been to make it unin- telligible. But once regard Hinduism as a rehgious growth, and its record becomes full of human interest. For it will then be seen to represent the varieties of religious experi- ence in one of the most gifted families of mankind. It forms, as it were, a museum of the past, in which nearly all the records are complete. The earhest religious instincts of the aborigines are preserved side by side with the higher Aryan conceptions. There are rich evidences of piety and lofty aspiration on the one hand, and large areas of superstition and corruption on the other. Hinduism has made progress by accretion rather than by revolu- tion. The Brahman priesthood wliich has formed, as it were, the central thread of its long history, has shown at all times the wis- c* 64 The Renaissance in India dom of adaptation. It has accepted and interpreted the trend of rehgious events, adding popular gods to the pantheon and assimilating each new popular movement when it has won its way to success. The whole vast accumulation of beliefs which The variety represents Hinduism to-day forms a strange Hinduism. ^^^^ significant commentary on the phrase Vox foyuli, vox del ; for in no religion in the world has the popular voice been made to such an extent the ultimate authority. For good or ill, it is the proud boast of Hindu- ism that it contains within itself every type of religious culture, from polytheism to mono- theism and even to atheism. Value of The Hindu student of modern days knows HguniVbo'oks little of his own past religious history, yet all as a record of ^]^g Same he is the direct product of it. He development. ^ ^ knows little of the text of liis sacred books, but he is the living representative of their spirit. He knows little at first hand of the rehgious pliilosophy of his own Hindu past, yet his mind is steeped in religious concep- tions which have their root in that philosophy. To understand him, therefore, to read his subconscious mind, we must go back to his religious history. As far as the vague records of the past can be traced we find a branch of the Aryan stock Hinduism as a Religious Growth 65 settling for a time on the Western borders "• the of India and dividing at a later period into post-vedic two groups of patriarchal families, one of period which went down into Persia, while the other b^^^oo^^"" occupied the North Indian plains. The earliest religious records of the former are found in the Zend-avesta ; the earliest religi- ous records of the latter are found in the Rig Veda. While the religious conceptions in these two books are widely different (for the Rig Veda is earlier than the Zend-avesta by many centuries) the language roots are strikingly similar. Furthermore we find the same language roots, especially with regard to religious and domestic affairs, in early Greek literature. There seems little doubt, there- fore, that the earhest hterary records of Zend, Sanskrit and Greek, point back to a common Aryan home. ^i^ The The Rig Veda discloses to us a young and Rig Veda, vigorous people, still at the patriarchal stage, worshipping worshipping the powers of nature. The gods Pantheistic, are regarded in the earlier and simpler hymns chiefly as the source of material prosperity, and of aid in the struggle of the Aryan people against the aborigines. The accepted way of propitiating the gods and of obtaining desired boons was the way of libation and sacrifice. A quotation from these hymns will 66 The Renaissance in India suggest their metre and form of nature worsliip : — This light has come of all the lights the fairest^ The brilliant brightness hath been born, far shining, Urged on to prompt the sun god's shining power. Night now hath yielded up her place to morning. 'Tis heaven's daughter hath appeared before us, The maiden dazzling in her brilliant garments. Thou sovereign mistress of all earthly treasure, Auspicious dawn, flash thou to-day upon us.^ Some of the chief gods are Agni {ignis), Fire ; Indra, Storm ; Varuna (ovpavo<^). Sky ; and Soma, a plant yielding intoxicating liquor. The last named seems to show that the ecstatic mood was prominently associated with religion. There are the faint beginnings of ethical per- sonification in the case of Varuna. Thus in a hymn to Varuna, we read the following : — Fain to discover this my sin, I question, I go to those who know, and ask of them. The self-same story they all in concert tell me :— " God Varuna it is whom thou hast angered." What was my chief offence, O V^aruna, That thou would'st slay thy friend who sings thy praises ? Tell me, infallible Lord, of noble nature. That I may be prompt to quench thy wrath with homage. 2 1 Big Veda, 1. 113. Prof A. A. Macdonell's translation. 2 Rig Veda, 7. 86. / Hinduism as a Religious Growth '67 But this ethical element was not developed. The tendency was rather towards assimilation of the different deities, until the conception of an All- God — ^the Pantheistic idea — \v^as evolved. This stage is reached in more than one of the hymns of the Rig Veda. The much-quoted line occurs in one of them/" They call Him Indra, Agni, Varuna. . . . That which is One the sages call by many names." In these later poems there is also much mystic speculation as to the origin of the Universe. The difference between the Semitic and Aryan rehgious con- ceptions at this stage may be put briefly as follow^s : the Semitic mind gravitated towards the ethical and the personal, the Aryan towards the philosophic and the impersonal. The Upanishads form a second group of (iii The what may be called the scriptures of Hindu- with"the^^^ ism. The greatest of their utterances deal J?°^i""^ °^ ^ , the Atma. \vith the relation of the human soul to the All-God. The essence of the Universe is the One Absolute Being, Brahma (neuter), who can only be described by negations. Tliis is also called the Supreme Self, Paramfdma, The human self, dtmd, is identical with the Supreme Self, ParamCitmd. The know- ledge of this identity is salvation. At times the relation of identity is described 68 The Renaissance in India in theistic terms, but the trend is towards pantheism. The ethical note is now and again struck clearly, but more frequently this is obscured iby the growing philosophic con- ception of t/ie Absolute, about which nothing either moral o/ immoral can be predicated. The following arc two quotations : — " All-working, all-loving, all-smelling, all- tasting, grasping this all, speaking naught, heeding naught, this is my Self within my heart, this is Brahma ; to Him shall I win on going hence. He that hath this thought hath indeed no doubt." " The Self is ' No, No ! ' (defined by nega- tives). Not to be grasped, it is not grasped ; not to be broken, it is not broken ; uncling- ing, unbound, it clingeth not, it wavereth not. Therefore the deathless one passeth alike beyond thought of his sinful works and be- yond thought of his godly works. Good and evil, work done and work undone, grieve him not. By no work so-ever is the world lost to him." (iii) Doc- Two doctrines, which were to hold the Wandering-, popular mind for centuries and are still active Re?eas\^"^ to-day, form the background of the ideas of the Upanishads. The time of their inception is difficult to decide. They are wholly absent Hinduism as a Religious Growth 69 from the Vedas, but are postulated in Ww. Upanisliads. They had clearly begu i to take th-eir })lace in the popular imagina' ton before the Buddhist era. The first is the doctrine of Wandering (samsdn,^, l-^ ipiying constant Samsara rebirth. It describes the soul as a solitary pilgrim wandering through many stages of existence before it reaches its final goal {nirvana). This Wandering necessitates per- petual rebirth until Release {mohsha comes at last. The conception of Transmigration or Wandering may have been taken from animism and totemism, where the distinction between animal life and human life is scarcely defined. However this may be, we find from the first, combined with the doctrine of Wan- dering, that vivid idea of the sacredness of all animal life, which has permeated Hinduism ever since, for an animal may be the dwelling- place of a soul. The second doctrine is that of Works {karma). By this is implied that all action bears fruit, and that each rebirth of the soul is the resultant of the works done in the previous existence. Thus the chain of re- births is a chain of cause and effect. Kacli human being's goodiK^ss or badness, his wealth or poverty, his happiness or sorrow, is the exact retribution for the lives already past, 70 The Renaissance in India whethei good or bad. In origin this doctrine is the sei uel and complement of the doctrine Karma. of Wandt^ing. It was most probably an attempt to explain the inequalities of human life and to m^A^ suffering intelligible, when once a series of rebirths was postulated. In its historical development, however, the doctrine of Works lost much of its high moral content. For when the Release of the soul was made to consist in cessation from re- birth, and Works were regarded as leading to rebirth, the conclusion was natural that the way to Release was by cessation from action. The moral stress was therefore laid more and more upon quietism and retirement from the world, and less upon the energy of noble deeds. The state of blessedness, or nirvana, became regarded as actionless calm, or even as extinction. This state of niwclna could thus only be reached when the soul, in absolute quietness and contemplation, ceased from all action and realised its own identity with the Supreme. Sources The extraordinary fertility of rehgious im- ima^t^inative agination discloscd in the Upanishads seems Element to have been produced chiefly by a later Upanishads. migration of the Aryan race which had settled farther down country on the borders of Nepal. They appear to have come origin- ally without their families and taken wives THE STUDF.NTs' IIOMK (uilAHM ANj Madras Christian College — see />y>. 44 and 'S>[f Hinduism as a Religious Growth 71 from the aboriginal race, and then lo have closed their ranks against further inter- marriage. The tenor of existence among these new tliinkers has strangely altered from the youthful and almost animal buoyancy of the early Vedic hymns. This may be due, histori- cally, to climatic reasons, or to mixture of race producing other types of thought. But however tliis may be, the result is one of the most remarkable in rehgious history. The new ideas of " Wandering," " Works," and " Release," which they introduced, never afterwards receded from vision, and form the staple ideas of Hindu belief even at the present day. We shall come across various definitions of the last of the three terms later on, but underlying them all is the conception that the finite experience of the soul is a curse, a chain, a fetter, and in no sense a blessing, an educa- tion, a progress. Side by side with this elaboration of re- iv Rise of ligious and philosophic thought, the institu- ^ansa^nd of tional and social sides of Hinduism were ^^^^^• largely developed. The ritual of sacrifice became moulded into an all-embracing system which worked itself out into magical formuLT known only to the priesthood. The old patriarchal idea of family worship sank iiilo the background and a separate order of Brali- 72 The Renaissance in India mans was evolved who alone could rightly perform the sacrificial acts. Meanwhile, on the social side, the ' race ' problem began to reach an acute stage. A distinction was made between the fair-skinned Aryan and the dark-skinned aboriginal. From this distinction the caste- system took its rise. What caste was in origin is best understood by watching what is happening to-day in South Africa and America between the negro and the white. In ancient India no intermarriage or social intercourse was permitted, and the dark race was kept in a state of serfdom and ignorance. Later on in history elaborate distinctions with regard to marriage and food began to spring up even among the higher castes, and a hundred different castes and sub -castes were formed between whom marriage intercourse was banned. But these all remained high caste people ; while the darker races were low caste, or even out-caste. At the present time there are still nearly 60,000,000 Hindus who are out- caste. Their very touch is con- taminating to a caste Hindu. Social Hfe within the high-born Aryan families was in theory divided into four stages. The first stage, up to the age of twenty- five, was to be kept in chastity under the Hinduism as a Religious Growth 73 care and protection of the ^uru, or rolifrious teacher. The second stage was to be Uved as a houseliokler. In this the married state was entered and the family reared. The third stage was to be lived in the retirement of the forest. The fourth stage was the com])letc hermit hfe, in wliich the world was left beliind and the soul passed out in solitude to its next round of existence. How far this theory was carried out even in the priestly families we have no means of ascertaining, but the idea of ascetic retirement, which was linked closely with the doctrine of Release, has become so ingrained in Hindu society that it is no uncommon thing even to-day to find a Hindu gentleman of high position leaving his family behind, as life advances, and passing out into solitude. One further aspect of early Hinduism needs Gross ani to be carefully noticed. The gross animistic and totemistic ideas connected with animal, tree and snake worship, and with the pro- pitiation of the evil spirits of nature, filled a large part of the common religious life of the Aryan peoples, side by side with ideas of a much loftier kind. Their influence may be seen in the Atharva Veda and the earliest legends. Page after page of the Atharva Veda is tilled with ma^ic incantations and 74 The Renaissance in India charms which are often very coarse in char- acter and even unfit for pubhcation. iii.-THE It has been customary to describe the rise PERIOD of Buddhism as a kind of Protestant Reforma- A D° 200)" ^'^^^ within Hinduism, leading to the rejection of Brahman sacerdotal supremacy and break- ing down the rigid barriers of caste. A more likely view, however, is that the teaching of Gautama, the Buddha, was the greatest of the many attempts of the age to (i) Buddhism harmonise the current philosophic and ascetic mation " but ideas and fill them with an ethical content. path"'^^^^ The Jain religious philosophy, which for many centuries ran parallel with Buddhism in India and shared during one period almost equal popularity, was another contemporary attempt to face the same situation. Both of these move- ments were in origin more philosophic than religious. They left out of their teacliing the conception of the One Eternal God as the Guide and Ruler of human Hfe, the Answerer of prayer, and their whole attitude towards (ii) Its human life was supremely pessimistic. They were concerned only with the chain of finite existence (Samsdra) and the means of release from it. The Jain pathway led to salvation through rigid asceticism and above all through the scrupulous avoidance of any destruction of animal life. The Buddhist fundamental pessimism Hinduism as a Religious Growth 75 took what was called the Aryan Middle Path, practising the extinction of all desire by means of a modified asceticism and a kind- liness towards all creatures, without attach- ment to any individual. Renunciation of desire may be said to be the keynote of Buddhist teaching. It is thus set forth in a famous passage in the Dhammapada : He wlu) by distraction is attracted, And by abstraction is attracted not, Renouncing reality, grasping pleasure, Envieth the self-abstracted. Seek not things pleasant or unpleasant ; Not seeing pleasant things is pain. And seeing the unpleasant is pain. Therefore make nothing dear. The loss of the endeared is evil. Bonds are unknown to those For whom nought is dear or otherwise. When springs the wish for the ineffable. Then may one thrill with mind. When in lusts the heart is not bowed down, Carried up stream may one be called.^ It was probably the noble personaUty of Gautama himself, and the devotion of liis followers, which caused the spread to all parts of India, and later on to all Eastern Asia, ^Dhammapada, by A. J. Edmunds, chap, xvi., p. oii. 76 The Renaissance in India Limits of Buddhist Influence. (iii) Super- session by Incarnation teaching. of the Aryan Middle Path. Although, how- ever, it spread so widely, there is no evidence to show that the Buddhist teaching touched deeply the large aboriginal population. They probably were left in their ignorance and serfdom almost as before, though the universal kindliness inculcated by Gautama may have won for them temporarily less harsh and cruel treatment. Side by side with the Buddhist practice of meditation and asceticism the Brahman ritual and sacrifice went on as in former days, but bloody sacrifices became less frequent owing to the greater regard which sprang up for animal life. Caste continued to build up its imposing edifice all through the Buddhist period, though within the Buddhist mendicant orders no caste restrictions were observed. The Buddhist movement decHned in India after a thousand years of eventful liistory, partly because its Aryan Middle Path failed to satisfy the growing needs of Hindu society and the changing phases of Hindu philosophic thought, but cliiefly be- cause the Incarnation ideas, which came in after the speculative period of Hinduism was over, centred in the mythical heroes of ancient Indian legend and left on one side the pale and shadowy figure of the Buddha liimself. But before Buddhism died out in India it Hinduism as a Religious Growth / / had stamped ineffaceahly on tlio Aryan iiiiiid the doctrine of transmigration and the idea of the sanctity of all animal life, thus creating a kindly feehng towards all living creatures. The etliics of Hinduism, such as they are (iv) Ethical to-day, owe more to Buddhism than to any Buddhism. other religious development. Such qualities as those of pity, gentleness, simplicity, humihty, temperance, self-denial, are trace- able to Buddhist influence. It is interesting to note also that the sanctity of the cow dates from tliis Buddhist period. Among all the beliefs of later Hinduism tliis has become the most universal in its application. While meat is eaten still by large sections of both high and low caste Hindus (and to call Hinduism a vegetarian rehgion is partly a misnomer) yet beef-eating is entirely tabooed, and the cow is reverenced and even worshipped in all parts of India. Buddhism in India abandoned its purely iv.-the philosophic and ethical form soon after the t^qn^^^ death of the great Emperor Asoka. The [200^8?- latter had lived in accordance with tlie ad. 500)- Buddhist monastic rule of life even while reigning from the throne. We find from his edicts that the Brahman ascetics and the Buddhist mendicants lived peaceably side y^ The Renaissance in India by side, and shared almost equally the allegi- ance of the common people. The history of the centuries which followed is still very obscure, but much has now been made clear by archaeological discovery and we are able Influence of to gain some picture of the times. The fact invas%n"in ^^ Central significance to religion was the reaction from series of barbaric invasions from Central Asia philosophic 1 • 1 to reUgious which brought into India an entirely new non- emper. Aryan population. These hordes settled in large numbers and seem to have intermarried freely with the older inhabitants. A whole Hne of their kings ruled from Peshawar, and their settlements probably reached as far south as the Deccan. Like the barbarian invaders of Europe, they received from the higher civilisation which they over-ran its religion and culture. This did not happen, however, without profound modification of both. The more directly rehgious and less philosophic side of Hinduism revived, and ideas of divine incarnation appeared in both Buddhism and Hinduism at the same time. Ideas of The human heart rebelled against abstractions and longed for the concrete. Among the Buddhists Gautama himself was transformed into a Saviour God, and the Buddhist saints were worshipped. Similarly within Hinduism the same incarnation process was at work. Incarnation. Hinduism as a Religious Growth 79 There is a true human cry in the words of Tulsi Das' Ramriyana — '' Beino; a |)hih)so|)lu'r he began to speak of the unbegotten, the indivisible, the immaterial, the formless, the nameless, the indestructible, the incomparable, the impassable, the illimitable. Again I cried, bowing my head at his feet, ' Tell me, holy father, how to worship the Incarnate.' " ^ The idea of personal union with the Supreme, rather than impersonal absorption, had been represented in the Upanishads, and in some of those poems a mystical union with the Divine had been described in terms of ecstasy and adoration. These were now to bear fruit in Hinduism after the period of speculative thought had given way to the new conditions of human society. In the Incarnation period the two great Epics of (i) The Ma India, the Mahubharata and tlie Rama- and the yana bore the chief part in tlie transforma- ^^"^^y^"^- tion of Hinduism. Throughout the subsequent development there is traceable an almost passionate longing for one supreme personal God, w^ho may be worshipped and adored. But it must be observed that side by side with this went always a luxuriant growth of ' Tlie passag-e quoted is niucli later than this period in origin, but it will illustrate the reaction of the human heart that took place. 8o The Renaissance in India polytheism which led to idolatry, superstition and even worse evils. These darker aspects of Hinduism are unfortunately very prominent in actual practice, and must by no means be overlooked in the study of nobler develop- ments. They are only too frequent even in the households of the educated classes. (ii) Shiva and Two names Came gradually into prominence Vishnu. g^g titles for the one supreme personal God — Shiva and Vishnu.^ The former is probably the god Rudra of the Vedas, but there is Httle left of the Vedic conception in the later worship of him. Shiva represents the terrible, destruc- tive forces of nature along with those of repro- duction. The same idea of the Supreme God as the Destroyer and Reproducer is worshipped under the name of Kali, who is figuratively pictured as the wife of Shiva, but regarded as the Supreme. The worship of Krdi is chiefly found in Bengal. Awe, dread, propitiation, are the characteristic notes of the worship of Kali or Shiva, but notes of tenderness and love have been added through devotion to Kclli as the Divine Mother. In South India also devotion to Shiva has been alhed to a noble doctrine of grace which ^ The worshippers of Shiva and Vishnu are called Shaivite and Vaishnavite. In some parts of India the pronunciation of the former name is nearer to Siva than Shiva and it is often thus written. Hinduism as a Religious Growth Si has redeemed it from its earlier crudity and horror. The cult of Vishnu, the Preserver, as tlie Supreme God is more directly Vedic in origin, though in the Vedas Vishnu is a very secondary figure. The idea associated with Vishnu is that of hght or graciousness, the opposite of the darkness and destructiveness of Shiva. Vishnu himself, however, passes into the background as an object of worship and his avatars or incarnations take his place and represent him. The two most famous of these are Rama and Krishna. The former is a Avatars of noble, heroic figure whose story is told in the Rama"and Ramayana. In the first form of this Epic ^"shna. Rama is wholly human, and the story turns on his heroic rescue of his wife Sita, who is a model of womanly purity and devotion. Only in later versions of the epic is Rama portrayed as the incarnation of Vishnu sent down to earth to save mankind. The story, though of course mythical, is very finely told, and has exercised a great influence over the ideas of manhood and womanhood in North India, where this incarnation of Vishnu is chiefly worshipped. The ideal of Sita has been especially elevating. The same cannot be said of Krishna, whose (iii' The story is related in the Puranas. Grossly 82 The Renaissance in India sensual ideas have mingled with religious emotion in this cultus. There has been no more potent cause of degradation in the whole of Hindu religious history than the vile legends concerning Krishna in the Pur anas. They have corrupted the imaginations of millions of the human race, and their evil influence is still potent in India at the present time. Apart from the Puranas, however, Krishna figures in the second great epic of Hinduism called the Mahabharata. Here his character is differently portrayed. He is the king, (iv) The warrior and sage who divinely guides the Git?^^^^ conduct of the great war which the epic describes. The Bhagavad-Gita, or ' Lord's Song,' is the section chiefly connected with his name. In this the doctrine of bhaJcti, or loving devotion to a personal God, is pro- pounded as a true pathway to salvation, more attainable for the average man than the more difficult pathway of philosophic knowledge. The following typical extracts may be quoted : " Have thy mind on me, thy devotion toward me, thy sacrifice to me, thy homage to me. To me shalt thou come. I make thee a truthful promise ; thou art dear to me. Surrendering all the laws, come for refuge to me alone. I will deliver thee from all sins : grieve not." Hinduism as a Religious Growth S .) " If thou hast thy thought on me, thou slialt by my grace pass over all hard ways ; hut if, from the thought of tlie /, thou hearken not, thou shalt be lost." The high idealism of the Gltfi is not the Krishna in aspect of Krishna that has seized the po])ular fmagination. imagination. Tliis has been rather captivated by the grossly immoral stories, which make liim to be the incarnation of sensual lust. In this aspect the Krislma cultus has done infinite moral harm to the emotional people of India, and debased the pure idea of hhakii, or loving devotion. It must be added, however, tliat in many refined writings the story of tlie loves of Krishna is so allegorised and interpreted that the original coarseness disappears. Among the more thoughtful minds of later Hinduism the Gitfi has been used, not merely as a pliilosophic treatise, but as a treasury of reUgious devotion. It has served, more than any other book, to carry on the yearnings for mystical union with the divine, through self-abnegation and ecstatic adoration, whicli the earlier Upanishads first dimly expressed. Though interpreted in later times in a pan- theistic sense, its theistic bearing could never be wholly obliterated. To the doctrine of Works (karma) it has added significant moral teaching. Instead of mere quietism and in- 84 The Renaissance in India action as the pathway to Release {moksha) it favours the principle of works done without attachment or hope of reward. Men are taught to labour in their appointed places without desire for rewards. (v) Brahma, With Vishnu and Siva, each of whom is and Brahmi, regarded by his worshippers as the One the Absolute, g^preme God, there has been associated the dim figure of Brahma (masculine) the Creator. This name for the Supreme is originally derived from philosophy rather than popular tradi- tion. The neuter Brahma, who is called nir- guna (" without attributes "), becomes for the purpose of creation the masculine Brahma, who is called saguna (" mth attributes "). There is in this Hindu conception a line of thought which has been used recently by an Indian Christian writer as a mode of approach to the Christian doctrine of the Logos or ' Word ' of God, found in the first chapter of the Gospel according to St John.^ It should be noted here, however, that in Hinduism it is not Brahma (the Supreme God manifest in crea- tion) who becomes incarnate for the salvation of mankind, but Vishnu. It is interesting also to note that Brahma, originally a philosophic rather than a popular conception, has no school ^ See The Christian Idea of Incarnation , by Principal S. K. Rudra (C.L.S.I.)^ and also Appendix, Hinduism as a Religious Growth S5 of worshippers. There are no '' Brahmfiites '' in Hinduism, in the same way as tliere are Vaishnavites and Shaivites. Brahma has been grouped with Vishnu and Shiva to represent the Supreme God in the threefold aspect of Creator, Preserver, Des- troyer — the Trimurti, as it is called. This vi The Trimurti has been compared with the Christian '^""^"'■^'• doctrine of the Trinity, but in reality it bears very httle resemblance. A far nearer ap- proximation to the Cliristian doctrine may be found in the name for the Supreme (which is foreshadowed in the Upanishads, and occurs frequently in later Hinduism), Sat, Chit, Ananda, This may be translated by the words, Being, Intelligence, Bliss. The con- ception has done much to^ rescue Hindu philosophic thought concerning the Supreme from the barren category of negations, such as the Absolute, the Illimitable, etc. At this point a further caution may be added mth regard to supposed resemblances between Hindu and Christian doctrine.^ The word incarnation has been used above to translate the Sanskrit word avatdra. The Christian idea of Divine Incarnation, how- ever, is as wide asunder as the poles from that of Hinduism ; for incarnation, according to the Hindu conception, may take place many ' See Appeiulix \'III. 86 The Renaissance in India times, and need not even be confined to a human form. There are incarnations of Vishnu as a tortoise and a boar, besides those as Rama and Krishna. The Hindu incarna- tions are regarded as merely temporary and changing ; there is no idea such as is de- scribed by the great words, 6 Xoyo^ crap^ iyepero — ' The Word became Flesh.' Little by little the worship of Shiva or Kah, and the worship of Vishnu and his incarna- tions, absorbed many local cults and local gods and goddesses. Tliis process of absorp- tion partly accounts for the many names which are attached to Shiva and Vishnu and their counterparts. To a certain extent this absorption of the lesser cults helped to raise the idea of the Divine in the popular mind. But the instincts of polytheism and idolatry have always been too deeply rooted in India to be much affected by half -measures. It is true that the ordinary peasant will say with his lips that his hideous, paint-smeared idol repre- sents to him Shiva, the Supreme God. But in actual observance he makes no subtle distinc- tions. The idol to him has in itself demonic power, either to curse or to bless. This is what, in his heart of hearts, he believes, and he acts according to his belief. The history of India during the mediaeval Hinduism as a Religious Growth .S; period is difficult to follow. There is little v. -the or no centralised authority, and education period. and refinement often reach a very low ebb. ^00.^°°' During five hundred years, from 500 a.d. to 1000 A.D., Hinduism was left entirely to its own resources, and was able to de- velop itself in its own way without any external pressure or internal rival. The result is at first sight disappointing. The period appears on the surface to be one of degradation and decadence. But from a larger point of view it may be shown to be rather one of expansion and absorption. Expansion Hinduism was engaged in an almost over- sorpUon, whelminp; task of reconciling and combinin very specially]; Ilaig// [i' Raja Ram famine ever recorded in the annals of Bengal ^^ °^* occurred. Ten million people — one third of the population — died of starvation ; yet in the following year we find the Company con- gratulating itself on exacting a heavier revenue from the land than before. Amid such cor- ruption and misgovernment there would seem little encouragement for reliii^ious genius. Vet it was in the midst of this state of things ^ I would express my in(lel)te(lness in the accomit wliicli follows to a very al)le series of articles in Tlu- lliuduMtan Review by Maiioli.'ir L:il Ziit>lii. io8 The Renaissance in India that Rclm Mohan Roy passed his early youth. Boyhood. His ancestors were Brahmans of a high order, who for some generations past, as Ram Mohan relates, " had given up spiritual exercises for worldly pursuits and aggrandise- ment." The boy was of an enquiring mind, and finding no response to his religious yearn- ings in his own home, started on his wanderings at the age of fifteen, searching for a guide. He went as far as the borders of Tibet, but his search proved useless, and in 1804 he returned and entered the Company's service, under a certain Mr Digby, who was both sympathetic and kind. A Crucial The turning-point in his religious life came xperience. -^ ^^^^ ^ .^^^ when he was obliged to witness the sati of his brother's wife. He had tried, all in vain, to persuade her relations to refuse to allow this inhuman act to take place. At first the poor girl herself, goaded on by the Brahman priests, was ready to undergo this self - immolation. But when at last the flames actually reached her, there followed a scene which haunted Rfmi Mohan Roy till the day of his death. She struggled to get up and escape from the torture of the fire ; but the Brahman priests and her own orthodox relations forced her down with long bamboo poles, while the drums and horns The New Reformation 109 were sounded louder aiul louder to diown her dying shrieks. The sight of the cruel murder oi' his si>ler, a chivalrous wliich he was unable to ])revent, made 11 ini ^''"^^'*<^- Mohan Roy take a solenui vow to devote the rest of his days to an unceasing effort to overthrow these terrible abuses. The patient and resolute determination witli whieh he strove to accomplish this end, crowned as it was at last with success, may well Ije compared with the great struggle of Wilber- force, liis contemporary in the West, to abolish slavery. To the cruel and selfish argument that the virtue of Bengali ladies could not be trusted if sati w^ere removed, he made answer in burning words as follows : — " The accusa- tion of their want of virtuous knowledge is an injustice. Observe what i)ain, what slighting, what contempt and alllictions their virtue enables them to support. I low many Kulin Brahmans are there who nuirry ten or fifteen wives for the sake of their money ? They never see the greater number of them after the day of their marriage. Still, amongst these women most continue to preserve their virtue. And when Brahmans and others bring their wives to live with them what misery do the women not suffer? . . . Hiey are treated as worse than inlVrlor aiiiniaN. . . . no The Renaissance in India They are obliged to perform the office of menial servants. In case of any fault or omission in the performance of these labours they receive injurious treatment. Should the husband acquire wealth, he indulges in criminal amours to the wife's perfect know- ledge. As long as the husband is poor she suffers every kind of trouble, and when he becomes rich she is altogether heart-broken. All tliis pain and affliction their virtue alone enables them to support. When a husband takes two or three wives to live with him they are subjected to mental miseries and con- stant quarrels. Even tliis distressed situation they virtuously endure. . . . What I lament is that, seeing the women thus dependent and exposed to every misery, you feel for them no compassion that might exempt them from being tied down and burnt to death." Social The fact that Hinduism to-day has been largely purged of these horrors is due, in a way often inadequately recognised, to Ram Mohan Roy : for Lord William Bentinck would never have been able to carry out his beneficent act of Sati Abolition, if the gromid had not been prepared beforehand by the great Hindu reformer. The precepts which guided Ram Mohan in liis reformino- work were dra^^^l from two Reforms. The New Reformation i 1 1 sources. TJie first, IVoin wliicli In- look his theology, was the teacliing of the I'piinisliads. '' In none of my writin<];s," he says modestly, ,i Sourcesof ^' have I ever pretended lo the title of reformer f^J'^^^^HK or discoverer. So far from such an assumj)- shad tion, I fiave urged in every work that I have hitherto ])ublished that the doctrines of the unity of God are real Hinduism." In the introduction to the Kathopanishad, lie nn rites : '' This work will, I trust, ex])lain to my countrymen the real spirit of the Hindu scriptures, which is but the declaration of the Unity of God. . . . Many learned Brahmans are perfectly aware of the absurdity of idol- worsliip, and are well informed of the pure mode of divine worship." He therefore at all times appealed to the purer faith of the ancient scriptures of Hinduism against the corruption of idolatry and superstition which had come in during the days of degradation. The second source, from which he took the bi Christian moral basis of his teaching, was Christianity. °^**y- '' The consequence,'' he writes, '' of long and uninterrupted researches into religious truth has been that I have found the doctrines of Christ more conducive to morn] ])rincij)ies and more adaj)ted for the ii^c of rational beinfjs than auv other which have come t(» mv knowledge." On another occasion la- 112 The Renaissance in India said : " As a youth I acquired some know- ledge of the EngHsh language. Having read about the rise and progress of Christianity in Apostolic times, and its corruption in succeed- ing ages, and then of the Christian Reformation which shook off these corruptions and restored it to its primitive purity, I began to think that something similar might have taken place in India and similar results might follow here from the reformation of popular idolatry." The thoroughness of Rrim Mohan's character may be seen from the fact that, on coming to this conclusion, he set himself to learn Greek and Hebrew in order to gain a first- hand knowledge of the Christian Scriptures. The result was the pubhcation of his book, "The entitled The Precepts of Jesus, Because Precepts , . of Jesus." he did not assume in this work the orthodox Christian position, he was attacked by some of the missionaries in Calcutta. They little realised the help that he was render- ing to the spread of Christian ideas. The attack was as ungracious as it was short- sighted. This experience, however, did not interfere with his admiration for Christianity itself, and he was one of the foremost to put his name to the petition for the despatch of Presbyterian missionaries, which resulted in the sending of Alexander Duff. When the The New Reformation 1 1 latter came, he rendered liim every aid possible in his great pioneer work of Christian education. Some leadintj Benoali Christians have acknowledged that they owe the begin- nings of their faith in Christ to the study of The Precepts of Jesus} But the work that Ram Mohan Roy did Foundation might have remained isolated and individual Brahmo if he had not been led to found the Brahmo Samaj. Samfij. In the title deeds of the foundation are the folloAving w^ords : — " No graven image, sculpture, statue, carving, painting, picture, portrait, or the likeness of an}i:liing is to be admitted within the Samaj premises : no sacrifice, offering, or oblation of any kind or thing is to be ever permitted therein." The greatness of Raja Ram Mohan Roy can only be rightly estimated when we re- member what India was more than a hundred years ago. He was the first Indian under the British rule to break through the trammels of convention, and to dare to think for himself and educate himself on modern lines. This did not lead, however, in his case to contempt for ancient India. On the contrary, he loved his country more deeply than ever, and strove during his whole life to bring to his fellow- countrymen the enlightenment which he had 1 See Th<' Ih-sir" of fii'/in. pair.- '-Mr,, for one sticli example. 114 The Renaissance in India himself received. The aboHtion of sati and (iii) India's the founding of the Brahmo Samaj, wliich ^"^' have been mentioned, were not his sole achievements, for he shares with Carey the honour of having created the vernacular press in Bengal, and with Alexander Duff that of having established the first English schools in Calcutta. He was also the first Hindu to make the sea voyage to England. But even more important than these signal changes, great as they were, was the new reforming spirit, the new outlook upon Christianity and Western civilisation, which Rclm Mohan Roy introduced to his own fellow- countrymen in India. This spirit, which con- noted a new moral fervour and a new intellectual freedom, has been the main cause ever since of the liberalising and humanising of Indian thought and life. It has spread, as we shall see, to every part of India and affected each province in turn. It has helped to remove that crushing burden of convention wliich more than anything else weighed down the life of India and prevented it from becoming creative and original as in the past. Raja Ram Mohan Roy died in Bristol during a visit to England on a political mission in 18S3. Since the days of Raja Ram Mohan Roy the The New Reformation 1 1 5 Brahmo Samaj has produced many loaders, men of commandinnr intellect and liijr], spiritual o-enius. Such was Dcbendra Xath Tagore (1817-1905).. who earned in Bengal the title of IMaharishi or great sage. But, nohle as the Brahmo succession has been, H.lm Mohan liimself stands out in the background like a lofty, solitary peak, towering above the rest and marking the distant horizon \nth majestic outline. The most notable of later leaders was Kesliab (iv) Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), who for a season ^en"^''* astonished the world by the brilliance of liis oratory, liis spiritual fervour, and his ])assionate adoration of Christ as liis true Master. He had the powder of creating strong personal loyalty and affection among his followers. Many hold that he w^as a greater man than Ram Mohan Roy himself. In the earlier half of his career, when utterances both in England and in India led to tlie expectation that he would soon seek Christian baptism, he was regarded as an influence of the greatest importance on the side of Christianity. But the marriage of his thirteen-year-old daughter to the young Maharajah of Cooch Ik'har in 1876 (in direct defiance of the law of the Brahmo Samaj, which made fourteen the lowest age at which a girl nu'ght marry, and ii6 The Renaissance in India which had been passed chiefly through his own efforts) resulted in the splitting up of the Brahmo Samaj and an extravagant claim on the part of Keshab to be the founder and prophet of a " New Dispensation." The closing years of his life sadly belied the brilliant early promise. Few even of his most ardent admirers were able to follow him in his ecstatic emotions and artificial attempts to combine Eastern rehgious passion with Western rationalism. The power and in- fluence of the Brahmo Samaj has declined, rather than advanced, since his day. It numbers now scarcely five thousand members in its different branches. Yet among the enlightened and devoted men who have built up Modern India, no province can produce a nobler muster roll than Bengal. This has been due in no small measure to the work of the Brahmo Samaj .^ ii.-THE A striking difference of tone and temper samAj. meets us when we come to the Panjab, where Swami Dayanand accompHshed his mission, 1 The Brahmo Samaj is essentially a movement among the upper educated classes^ chiefly in Bengal, and it makes its appeal to the intellect rather than to the will. It is prac- tically Unitarian in its view of Jesus Christ, despite its enthusiasm for His unique character. In its earliest form it retained caste, but later branches have entirely rejected caste. Leading writers, such as P. C. Mozumdar, have developed what has been called an oriental interpretation The New Reformation 1 1 and founded the Arya Samfij. Hero tlie influence of Christianity has boon far loss direct, thougli the power of the Wostorn Renaissance has been one of the chief factors in the movement. Dayanand was born in a Bralunan house- i Swami hold at Morvi in Kathiawar, in the year ^^y^"^"** 1824. His education was of the strictest orthodox type, and his early life was occupied in learning the Vedas by heart and engaging in temple worship. Wliile keeping a vigil Turning at one of the great festivals of the god Shiva, ''°'"^^' he saw his elders one by one fall asleep. The boy kept vigil strictly, and about mid- night saw a mouse creep out of its hole and not only devour the sacred food of the god, but also run about over the idol of the god himself. From that moment his faith in idol-worship was destroyed. The death of a young sister gave him a second great search- ing of heart wdth regard to the problem of life and death. His father and mother sought to silence these questionings by endeavouring to marry him to a young girl belonging to another priestly family and thus settling him in life ; but he ran away from home of Jesus. It has nurtured men of hi^-li ethical ideals and keen social enthusiasm. Hut, as (tne recent writer remarks, "It may be ethically immaculate, hut it has no vital power." — [K'»] ii8 The Renaissance in India before this could be accomplished, and wandered for many years in search of a guru, or spiritual guide. Master He found at last at Muttra, between and upi. ^gj.g^ Q^^ Delhi, a remarkable blind teacher, named Swami Virjanand. The latter had himself discarded the modern popular forms of Hinduism and turned back to the Vedas, and he taught his pupil on these lines. When Dayanand had completed his education imder this master, he brought him the usual present or offering. Virjanand said to him, " If you would pay me an offering, let it be this. Give the knowledge of the ancient religion to the Motherland." Swami Dayanand worthily repaid the debt which he owed to his great master. He began in the usual way by preaching his doctrines at the great bathing festivals, but his work went slowly forward. He held a religious controversy with the vandits at Benares, on the question as to whether or not idolatry was inculcated in the Vedas ; but though this made his name famous, it did not bring him many followers. At Calcutta and Bombay his message brought no response. Meanwhile he was more and more shunned and even persecuted by the orthodox party. At last, undaunted by his comparative ^«Si(' to call you Hinduism. 132 The Renaissance in India sinners ! Ye, divinities on earth, sinners ! It is a sin to call man so ! It is a standing Kbel on human nature ! " In spite, how- ever, of this outrageous doctrine regarding sin, and an irritable temper, over which he seemed to exercise no control, he did a very great work indeed by leavening the more conservative and reactionary part of Hinduism Liberalising "with new and liberal ideas. He roused the orthodox from their apathy, and the Ramkrishna Mission which he founded has performed a noble service to the poor. He was an Indian Nationahst years before the great national movement. He had much about him of the strong, virile temperament of Swami Dayanand, and the sense of manly vigour with which he inspired his fellow countrymen has been an invaluable asset in the making of modern India. (iii) Swami Another personahty, in many ways far more attractive than that of Vivekananda, carried on the same movement of the New Vedanta in the North. Swami Ram Tirath was a Brahman, brought up in extreme poverty at Lahore, where he gained his education at the Forman Cln-istian College and became, after a brilliant university career, a Professor of Mathematics. His heart, however, was wholly given to religion, and he left his college Ram Tirath. The New Reformation 133 work to bocoino 11 wandcrint^ monk aiul proaoher. He went into the wildest refjions of the Himalayas, where he lived alone with nature. A vein of true j)oetry ran througli his character, and his buoyant joyfnlness of (hsposition carried him throui^h the severest hardships and })ri vat ions. I was asked by liis disciple Swami Xarayan to write an introduction to his ])ublishe(l writin<^s, and I did so with tlie greatest readiness ; for the Christian note is much stronm'r in them than in those of Vivekananda. Compare, for instance, the following comments on the Lord's prayer with the crude mistake con- cerning the words ' wliich art in heaven ' that I have already quoted from Vivekananda's wTitinjjs. ** In the Lord's prayer," writes Swami a Hindu Ram Tirath, ** we say 'give us tliis day our uon of7hc daily bread,' and in another |)lace we say praye' ' Man shall not live by bread alone.' Re- consider these statements : understand them thoroughly. The meaning of the Lord's Prayer is not that you should be craving, wishing : not at all. The meaning of that prayer is such that even a king, an emperor, who is in no danc^er of not iiavin*' his dailv bread, may offer it. If so, evidently ' (five us this day our daily bread ' docs not mean 134 The Renaissance in India Changes within orthodox Hinduism. that we should put ourselves in a begging mood, that we should ask for material pros- perity : not that. The prayer means that everybody, let him be a prince, a king, a monk, is to look upon all these tilings around him, all the wealth and plenty, as not his but God's : not mine, not mine. That does not mean begging, but renouncing, giving up ; renouncing everything unto God. The king while he is offering that prayer puts himself into that mood where all the jewels of his treasury, all the riches in his house, the house itself — all these he renounces, he gives them up, he disclaims them. He is, in offering this prayer, the monk of monks. He says ' Tfils is God's : . this table, every tiling on this table is His, not mine : I do not possess anything. Anything that comes to me comes from my Beloved One.' " Swami Rjim Tirath was drowned in one of the rivers of the Panjab just when his religious genius seemed to be about to bear its richest fruit. The work of such wandering religious preachers, who form a link between the new and the old, can hardly be overestimated. They rarely take up, as in the case of Swami Dayanand, the position of puritan reform and ' root and branch ' destruction of re- cognised rehgious evils, but they are sufficiently The New Reformation v") in toiicli with niodiM'ii ciilliirc to sec clrarlv that Hinduism requires a reformation from within, and tliey play an imj)ortant j)art in bringing this about. To refer to a parallel in European history, they are performing within orthodox Hinduism the work of a counter-Reformation, not wholly dissimilar from that which Ignatius Loyola undertook in Europe in the Sixteenth Century. The last, and, in many ways, tlie most v -justice , . P 1 P • • RANADE endurmg aspect oi the new reformation m and the India has had its rise in the Bombay Presidency reform and is linked most closely with the name of movement. Justice Ranade. Born in a district not far from Bombay, Ranade showed at the University exceptional powers of scholarshi|) and learning. He was appointed the first indigenous Fellow of the Bombay University. Later on he rose by degrees to be Judge of the High Court, but this was not the highest honour to which he attained. His name will be know^n to posterity rather as the founder of the Social Reform movement of modern India and as one of her profoundest religious thinkers and workers. Ranade comes nearest to Raja Rim Mohan Roy and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan among the reformers already mentioned in the largeness of his ranm? of vision and the nia/ inspired his careful economic studies jts it did also his social programme. His social programme again led on to higher national aims. All human life was of one j)iece, and rehgion was the war]) on which it wa^s woven. He did not leave ont, as so often has liappened among Indian reformers, the woman's side in the great advance forward. His wife w^as a most noble helpmate to him in all his work, and the Seva Sadan sisterhood was the outcome of some of his earlier labours. Great and important as Ranade's activity (iiii His was as an organiser of different move- **^ '"^' ments, he was still greater as a thinker. His pubhshed w^orks are a mine of sound and clear and accurate thinking on the prob- lems which confront his countrymen in their efforts towards moral and social reconstruction. As we read them, we discover certain princi})les which directed all his thoughts. The first is a profound and unsliakm faith in an overruling Providence guiding his country and his race. He went to history to discover in it the ruling liand of God shaping events. " We represent,'' he writes, "in India a continuity of creed, traditions, hterature, philosophy, modes of life, and forms of thought which are peculiar to this land. It cannot, surely, be for notliing tiiat this 138 The Renaissance in India peculiar favour has been shown to us under The Divine providential guidance. If the miraculous ^rTndfa. preservation of a few thousand Jews had a purpose, this more miraculous preservation of one-fifth of the human race is not due to mere chance. We are under the severe discipline of a high purpose. . . . Change for the better by slow and gradual absorption ; assimilation, not by sudden conversion and revolution — this has been the characteristic feature of our past history." Christian civilisation from the West he regarded as the greatest of all the factors which were to change and discipline Indian life, and make it more worthy. " Both Hindus and Muhammadans," he writes, " lack many virtues. Both are wanting in the love of municipal freedom, in the exercise j of virtues necessary for civic life, in aptitudes of mechanical skill, in the love of science and research, in the love of daring and ad- venturous discovery, in the resolution to master difficulties, and in the chivalrous respect for woman-kind. Neither the old Hindu nor the old Muhammadan civilisation was in a condition to train these virtues in a way to bring up the races of India on a level with those of Western Europe, and so the work of education had to be renewed. The New Reformation 139 TIh' ('hri'>fian civilisation which came t«» India from the Wol wa- I he main instruiiu'nt ol renewal.' His second '^vvM principle \va> thai the Prcvrv«non social oririuiism in a country such as India, JlJll^nai containing many millions of the human race, "^tp*- has a life, a growth of its own individual reason suggests as pro|)er and litting. The power of long-formed iuibits tUid tendencies is icjuored in this view of tiie matter." '' Tlie true reformer has not to write on a clean slate. His work is more often to complete the half- written sentence." '' What have been the inward forms and ideas which have hastened our decline during the past three thousand years ! Thoe ich'as may be brielly set forth as isolation, submission to outward force more than to tlie inward voice of conscience, perception of fictitious differences between men and men due to heredity and birth, passive accpiiescence in ev^il and wrong-doing, and a general indifference to secular wcll-beinj' idmost bordering on I40 The Renaissance in India fataKsm. These have been the root ideas and forms of our ancient social system. These have, as their natural result, led to the existing family arrangements whereby woman is entirely subordinated to man and the lower castes to the higher castes, to the length of depriving men of their natural respect for humanity. In place of isolation we must cultivate the spirit of fraternity and elastic expansiveness. With too many of us, again, a thing is true or false, right or sinful, simply because someone in the past has said so. The new idea which must take the place of tliis helplessness and dependence is not the idea of rebeUious overthrow of all authority, but that of freedom responsible to the voice of God in us. Heredity and birth, again, may explain many things, but this law of Karma does not explain all tilings. The new idea that should come in, is that this law of Karma can be controlled and set back by a properly trained will made sub- servient to a liigher Will than ours — the Will of God. With regard to the fourth old idea, that all human life is a vanity, a dream, and we are not much concerned with it — a healthy sense of the true dignity of our nature and of man's high destiny is the best corrective and antidote to this poison." The New Reformation 141 I have been obliged for want of space to abbreviate the above quotation, which is one of the most strikinfj in ah liis writings. The last great principle which runs through- out Ranade's teaching has already been liinted at in describing the character of liis movement. It was his emphasis on the truth that the reformer must attempt to deal with Dealing the whole man and not to carry out reform on ^hoie man one side only. " If a man is down, he has to get up with the whole of his strength, physical, moral and intellectual; and you may as well suppose that he can develop one of these elements of strength and neglect the others as try to separate the hght from the heat of the sun, or the beauty and fragrance from the rose. You cannot have a good social system when you find yourself low in the scale of political rights ; nor can you be fit to exercise pohtical rights unless your social system is based on reason and justice. You cannot have a good economical system, when your social arrangements are imperfect. If your rehgious ideas are low and grovelling you cannot succeed in social, economical and pohtical spheres. This interdependence is not an accident, but it is the law of our nature. No man can be said to reahse his 142 The Renaissance in India duty in one aspect, who neglects his duty in other directions." These were not mere copy-book maxims which Ranade enunciated, but principles lived and fought for with passionate earnest- ness of conviction. Furthermore, his strength and resolution were matched by a large- heartedness and magnanimity which gave tenderness to his vigorous personality. The secret of such a character was liis faith in God, and that faith was largely moulded and inspired by veneration for the teacliing of Christ. In summing up his great message to the social reformers who were following in his steps he said, " Strength of numbers we cannot command, but we can command earnestness of conviction, singleness of de- votion, readiness for self-sacrifice, in all honest workers in the cause. In the words of the Prophet of Nazareth, we have to take up our cross — not because it is pleasant to be persecuted, but because the pain and injury are nothing by the side of the principle for wliich they are endured." These words of the great Hindu reformer will sum up a very large part of the work which has been carried out during the last century in India. With the exception of Vivekan- i^ _ The New Reformation 143 anda's mission, it has been undertaken amid the bitterest opposition and often amid persecution of no ordinary kind. It has required commanding courage and abound- ing faith, and both of these have been in evidence. When the first disciples of Jesus came to Him, and said, — " Master, we saw one casting out evil spirits in Thy name vi.-atti- and we forbade him, because he followed not chri^ °^ us," Jesus replied, " Forbid him not, for there TifE^^NEj^ is no man which shall do a mighty work in ^^^orma. ^ "^ TION, My name and be able quickly to speak evil _«« He that of Me. For he that is not against us is on ifs"f o^,f ^i;;'^ our side." It is in this spirit of our Master side." that we need to approach such work as is now being done in India by the reforming bodies. Stress has been laid in this chapter upon the nobler elements and the many successes of the reform movements. But a close survey of the century reveals many dire failures, and much that is still dark and even revolting in the teaching and practice of some of the new sects. Caste and idolatry have crept in again where they had been condemned. We find in many places evidence of the fact that there are those who love darkness rather than Hght, and that such are impelled, when light comes into their world, to a more 144 The Renaissance in India desperate denial of its revelations and resist- ance to its demands. For they perceive that if Christ does indeed satisfy the longing soul of India, as of every other land, there is much in Hinduism that must perish at His appearing. And it is at this point that the demand is always made : "If any man will come after Me, let him come, take up his cross, and follow Me." Yet a wide sympathy and tolerance for the work of others, such as Christ inculcated, should only deepen and enlarge our own faith. The great words of St Paul strike the key-note of constructive missionary work : " Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- soever things are honourable, whatsoever tilings are pure, whatsoever things are lovely ; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. The things that ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do : and the God of peace shall be with you." For further Reference. Caini.s [17]. Miil/er [k'Jj. Co/lett [89]. Ovum [44]. Jones [84]. Ric/i/cr [6S]. Lillingslon [85]. Enci/clojHL'di.a Br'Uannica, Enci/cLopauUa oj' Religion and Ethics, etc. {arts. ' Arya,' ' Brahmo/ etc.). See also Appendix IV. CHAPTER V THE CHALLENGE OF HINDUISM The Source and Strength of the Challenge. In part the aftermath of Western Education. Strengthened by the work of the Theosophical Society. The Case as presented on behalf of Hinduism. The East Spiritual : the West Material. Pantheism more Rational and Permanent tlian a Personal and Historical Revelation. Hinduism indigenous : Christianity may supple- ment^ but cannot supplant. Denationalising tendency of Christianity. Inconsistency of Christians condenms their Creed. The Present Situation. The reforming movements which have been described in the last chapter represent, in one aspect, the apologetic made by modern Hinduism when confronted by the new religious thought and life from the West. Hinduism has been nobly trying to set her own decaying house in order. In attempting 145 146 The Renaissance in India India's at- this she has rediscovered many of the treasures refbrmation. of her own great past, and brought them for- ward into common use. An example of this might be seen in the fact that the Bhagavad Gita, which a century ago was scarcely known outside the learned circle of the pandits, can now be bought for a few pice by any Hindu student, and commentaries, versions, and translations abound. Within the memory of educational missionaries still Hving, it has been elevated from a position of comparative obscurity to that of a common and well-read scripture for the whole of educated India. J _ This process of reformation through the past AND^^^^^ century has had one singular and distinctive SOURCE OF feature which marks it off from earlier reform- THE CHAL- LENGE. ing movements. It has derived its main strength and support, not from emotional appeals to the masses of the common people, but from the sympathy of the rising educated classes who have gained some* knowledge of the West. With one hand, as it were, it has grasped ancient Hindu thought : with the other it has taken hold of Western knowledge. The reformers have indeed not stopped at the educated classes and neglected the masses. In every case their reforms have gone outwards in wider and wider circles. But their first appeal has been to the modern educated man, The Challenge of Hinduism 147 and in this class they have found the store of energy needed to move the masses. When we now look back, after a century of change, we can see what a general uphfting has taken place. The distance travelled may perhaps be esti- mated from a biography written by a Hindu concerning one of the spiritual leaders of his own community, in which this passage occurs : " He was a Krishna and a breaker of the Seventh Commandment. The reader may say that S was morally bad. Before laying that to his charge we shall have to consider the times in which he lived. The schoolmaster (d The was not abroad then, and moreover jew mission- ^/w^s^ern aries were ^preaching. Having set forth the Education. moral failing and extenuating circumstances, we may now record as a set-off that he was a great worshipper of the lower gods and goddesses, and especially of the goddess of smallpox, for whom he built a temple." The schoolmaster and the missionary, — it must not be forgotten that while the reform- ing movements have been quickening new life and stirring the flame of enthusiasm, these two forces of Western education and Christian missionary effort have provided in every part of India the fuel wherewith the fire has been kindled. 148 The Renaissance in India The result, as was pointed out, has not been altogether good. New evils have crept in where old evils have been banished. But when the present state of Hinduism is considered, it is clear that some ancient corruptions have been sloughed off. Religion itself is more wholesome and cleanly. If we at times grow impatient at the slowness of the changes, we must remember over how many ages the history of Hinduism has extended. Abuses which have taken centuries to accumulate can- not be abolished in a day. (ii) Work of Among the reforming movements I have the The- ^. _ ^ i p .i rm i • i osophicai not mentioned the work ot the iheosophical Society. Society. This has not been due to its unim- portance, for it has exercised considerable in- fluence in the South, but rather because there appears in it, at present, more making for re- trogression than tending towards reformation. It has also, in no sense, become indigenous. The defence of superstitious practices, put forward in theosophical writings, counter- balances the wholesome, positive attempts to do away with recognised evils. We witness the strange phenomenon of devoted ladies spending their lives in lifting the cloud of ignorance from Hindu boyhood and girl- hood, while at the same time the immorahties of Krishna are discussed and palliated by The Challenge of Hinduism 140 Mrs Besant herself in the magazine which she edits for her young students. Modern science is taught in her schools and then degraded into an instrument for defending tlie use of charms, spells, incantations, astrology, idolatry, caste and all sorts of other evils. In a series of articles in the Central Hindu College Magazine, which she edits, these practices and many others were justified on the ground of ' magnetism.' The water of the Ganges was sacred because it was magnetised by the great risliis. Hindus bathed at the time of the eclipse to wash off the bad magnetism. Idols were to be worshipped because they are ' centres of magnetism,' which is put into them by highly spiritual persons. The religious marks were worn on the forehead because the ' materials used have magnetic properties.' Yet no one has been a more strenuous and active opponent of child-marriages than Mrs Besant, and few have worked harder for the education of Indian girls (though it must be admitted that she has done little to produce teachers). The ladies who have come out with her, and engaged in educational work, have lived lives of sacrifice under the most trying conditions of chmate without hope or thought of reward. Nevertheless, when every considera- tion is given to the good work that has been 150 The Renaissance in India done, it is more than doubtful whether the Theosophical Society in India can be placed clearly on the side of reform. ^ Its influence is decHning and can hardly survive long, after Mrs Besant's remarkable personaHty is removed. This appears to be felt now by some of the leaders themselves, and a new order has been started called the Order of the Star in The " Order the East. In India Mrs Besant announces in the East." the advent of the new Krishna as the cause of the foundation of the order, linking it on to the Hindu doctrine of the avatar : in England she connects it indirectly with the second coming of Christ. This is entirely in keeping with her whole propaganda, which is professedly Christian in England and Hindu in India. She herself seems to see no inconsistency in this, but people in England and America should clearly un- derstand that she has been the most bitter opponent of Christian missions in India. The following address, which she her- self printed in the Central Hindu College Magazine, explains the Indian situation. She allowed herself to be carried round the city 1 Cf. ''The Out-caste's Hope/' by the Rev. Godfrey Phillips^ M.A. (ch. ii.). It is a significant fact that in the South, where the Society's work has been strongest, the social movement among the educated has practically failed. The Challenge of Hinduism 151 in procession by her Hindu devotees and then received the address : — " Respected and Beloved Madam, — ^\Ve beg to approach you on this important occasion and offer you our cordial welcome. Tradition has recorded that a Chola King visited this place and built the once beautiful temple of the god Shiva in close proximity to the Bala- subrahmanya Swami shrine. The last-named sliri le, it is said, is as famous as Palni, being specially dedicated to the god Subrahmanya. In India your labours in Sanskrit hterature and philosophy have not only tended to give back to us our rehgion in a pure form, but they have at the same time dealt a blow at the materialism of the West, and have success- fully repulsed the proselytising efforts of the Christian missionaries in our midst." I have dealt at some length with the work of the Theosophical Society, because it is im- portant that Christians in England should understand its attitude towards unreformed Hinduism and also towards Christian ^Missions. Furthermore, the Hindu challenge to the Church has in some centres of the conflict been largely furnished Avith its artillery for attack by Mrs Besant's writings and labours.^ 1 See, for another aspect of Mrs Besant's work, Appendix V. F 1=^2 The Renaissance in India II.-THE CASE AS PRE- SENTED ON BEHALF OF HINDUISM. (i) "The East, Spiritual ; the West, Material." When we come to examine the Hindu attack itself wliich has been brought to bear in recent years upon the Cluristian position, we shall find that it presents itself under five main heads. The tone in which these are stated is almost always courteous, and there is a marked desire to show great reverence to the Person of Christ. The main arguments are repeated again and again and very seldom go beyond the main issues discussed in this chapter. I shall quote the arguments brought forward as far as possible in the words of Hindus themselves. The first argument assiduously taught by Swami Vivekananda, and also by Mrs Besant, is that the East is spiritual and the Wesb material ; that the East is profoundly religious and the West profoundly irrehgious ; that Christianity is rapidly decaying in the West, and that the missionaries who come to India are but the forlorn hope of a dying Church ; that India has to bring back to a world rapidly sinking in materiahsm the supreme message of a spiritual life. I give two different utter- ances which may make these points clear : — " The Hindu will not ordinarily be convinced of the superiority of a rehgion which permits the slaughter of kine for food and men for conquest. He beheves in a religion which The Challenge of Hinduism 153 inculcates physical purity and asceticism, which makes a sin of kiUing, and permits no flagging of spiritual interests. A religion which extends its sanction to war, butchery, and diplomacy will not appear to him spiritual enough, and games, sports, dancing, and such other Western accomplishments will strike him as unpardonable levity in a minister of religion. His admiration is reserved for the Yd^i (ascetic), and he has no appreciation of the clergyman who wins a bride by courtship, and dines and drives in state. He is an hourly witness of miracles, and will not limit his faith to those few recorded in one sacred book. He beheves in the capacity of prayer to bring down the divine influence to human souls and even to clay images. Religion is to him, if it is to anybody, o/A^r- worldhness — absolute, absorbing, all-comprehending — and not a mere regulation of ^Ai5-worldliness. Let the missionary, therefore, well understand his customer before he sets about his business." The second quotation I shall give is from Swami Vivekananda himself : — " Once more the world must be conquered India's claim by India. This is the dream of my life, and I SupJema"cy. wish that each one of you who hears me to-day may have the same idea in your mind, and stop not till you have realised the dream. 154 The Renaissance in India They will tell you that we had better look to our own homes first. But I will tell you in plain language that you work best when you work for others. One -fourth of the effect that has been produced in this country by my going to England and America would not have been produced had I confined my ideas only to India. This is the great ideal before us, and everyone must be ready for it — the con- quest of the whole world by India ! Let foreigners come and flood the land with their armies ; never mind. Up, India ! and conquer the world with your spirituality ! Aye, as has been declared on this soil first, love must conquer hatred : hatred cannot conquer itself. Materialism and all its miseries can never be conquered by materialism. Armies, when they attempt to conquer armies, only multiply and make brutes of humanity. Spirituality must conquer the West. Slowly they are finding it out. What they want is spirituality to preserve those nations. They are waiting for it, they are eager for it. Where is the supply to come from ? Where are the men ready to go out to every country in the world with the messages of the great sages of India ? Where are the men who are ready to sacrifice everything so that this message shall reach every corner of the world ? Such heroic The Challenge of Hinduism 155 souls are wanted to help the spread of the great truths of the Vedanta. The world wants it, without it the world will be de- stroyed. The whole of the Western world is on a volcano wliich may burst to-morrow. They have searched every corner of the world and have found no respite. They have drunk deep of the cup of pleasure and have found it vanity. Now is the time to work for India's spiritual ideas penetrating deep into the West. Therefore, young men of Madras, I specially ask you to remember tliis. We must go out. We must conquer the world tlu:ough our spirituality and philosophy. We must do it, or die. The only condition of Indian national hfe, of unashamed and vigorous national hfe, is the conquest of the world by Indian thought ! " A short time ago I had a letter from an The Belief unknown correspondent in the South. He students, told me that at a very largely attended gather- ing of Indian students the point had been brought forward as an axiom, that India was the spiritual leader of the world, and the West was sunk in materialism. He had ventured to get up and question the truth of this axiom, but his remarks were received with astonishment. Indeed, the President, one of the Professors of the 156 The Renaissance in India College, had expressed his extreme surprise that any one could doubt such an obvious fact; which was admitted by Europeans them- selves. He wrote to me, beheving in my im- partial judgment, to ask my own view of the matter. One of the most highly educated Indian Christians in the Punjab said at a public meeting in our College at Delhi that, till he went to England and saw things with his own eyes, he had fully believed that the West was given over to materialism, and that the East was far more spiritual. This, coming from an Indian CMstian, will show how very wide-spread the beHef is. Hindu Clearly there is here (the first quotation Sp^irituaiity- ^^^^^J shows it) a difference in the conception Non-moral, Qf spirituahtv. I was discussing the meaning consisting- in J^ "^ , ^ ^ Asceticism, of the word ouc day with my B.A. students, and ' and it came as a surprise to most of them to Philosophy. ^^^ ^j^^^^ according to the Christian standard, a man without morality could never under any circumstance be called spiritual. It is at this point that the retention of the Krishna legends has so defiled Hinduism. For the argument is adduced concerning him in one of the Puranas that immorality is permitted m God which would not be per- mitted in man : and this doctrine has led to a The Challenge of Hinduism :^/ fatal divorce in men's minds between spiritu- ality and morality.^ If I might analyse very rouglily the current Hindu idea of spirituality, it is connected to a very great extent with three things, asceticism, powers of abstract meditation, and philosophy. It is only just beginning to become associated at all largely with philanthropy. It is interesting to notice how very much farther the new Vedantists have gone in tliis direction in comparison with the old. As the Christian conception of spirituahty gains ground, the old contrast between the East and the West will not be so frequently brought forward. At the same time it should also be clearly recognised that our own current idea of spirituahty in the West needs reconstruction, and that a hfe which has no calm and quiet spaces may lack spirituality as much as a life that is careless about moral duties. A second challenge to the Christian faith (ii) " Pan- comes from advanced Hindus, who object to Rational Christianity on the ground of its liistorical and p^^^sonai personal rehgious basis. They set ^<^^ward aiid^^^_^^^ the pantheistic ideas which are so prominent Revelation." in Hinduism as scientifically more rational than the personal and historical character of the 1 The passage, '' He was a Krishna," quoted above from a Hindu writer, will illustrate this point. 158 The Renaissance in India Christian revelation. I will again quote two passages : — " Men of highest culture and enlightenment all over the world have ceased to regard either the Buddha, or the Christ, or Muhammad, or Rama or Krishna as the incarnation of God. Our education and culture in India in the past have taught us to take the whole of Nature as God's revelation of Himself. The glorious mountains, the sacred rivers, the mighty forests, the sunrise, the sunset, the animate and inanimate objects of creation, the in- tellect and the soul of man — all these we now take to be the One Revelation of the One God. Pantheism of tliis spiritual type calls upon higher humanity to consider the whole of Nature and of History as God's one great book. The narrow, crude ideas of a locahsed divinity, of a localised revelation, make Httle appeal to the more thoughtful of us to-day. They will make even less appeal to Indians of the future who have returned to the Upanishads and learnt their message afresh in the Ught of modern science and modern philosophic thought." Swami Vivekananda writes as follows : — The Claim of "If there is a religion wliich can lay claim to UniversSity. ^e the Universal rehgion of the world, it is ours and none else ; because every other religion The Challenge of Hinduism 159 depends on some person or persons. All the other rehgions have been built round the life of what they think an historical man, and what they think their strength is really their weak- ness, for smash the liistoricality of the man and the whole building tumbles to the ground. Half the lives of these great centres of religion have been broken into pieces, and the other half are doubted very seriously. As such, every truth that has its sanction only in their words vanishes into air again. But the truth of our religion, although we have persons in abund- ance, does not depend on them. The glory of Krishna is not that He was Krishna, but that He was the great teacher of Vedanta. If He had not been, His name would have died out of India as the name of Buddha has. Thus our allegiance is to the principles always and not to the persons. Ours is the only Principles, religion that does not depend on a person or "° persons ; it is based on principles. " The sages who wrote the Vedas were preachers of principles. Now and then their names are mentioned, but that is all. V/e do not know who or what they were. At the same time, just as our God is an impersonal and yet a personal one, so our rehgion is a most intensely impersonal one, and yet has an infinite scope for the play of persons. For i6o The Renaissance in India what religion gives you more avatars and still waits for infinitely more ? It is vain to try to gather all the peoples of the world round a single personahty. It is difficult enough to make them gather round eternal and universal principles. If it ever becomes possible to bring the largest portion of humanity together to one way of thinking about religion, it must be through principles, not persons. For this reason, the religion of the Vedanta is more universal than the religion of Christ." History It might be sufficient negatively to point to msufficierfcy Hindu rcligious history as an answer to the ofPantheistic g^y^mi's position. If any history in the world as an could provc the insufficiency of pantheistic Religion. philosophy as an ultimate rehgion for man- kind, it would be the history of Hindu de- generation and idolatry. 'Si monumentum requiris^ respice' could be said of this with force, as well as with truth. It would be easy also to show the utter illogicality of an ' impersonal yet personal God,' and an ' impersonal yet personal rehgion.' But a far nobler apologetic, and a more positive argument, may be constructed by working out The afresh the full Christian doctrine of the Logos the^Loeos^ which met and satisfied the same form of doubt and speculation in the first tlu'ee centuries of the history of the Church. The The Challenge of Hinduism i6i Eternal Word revealed in creation, in nature, in history, in human hfe, is the true answer to the demand that God's immanence should be completely acknowledged. As in the former challenge of Hinduism, so here also there is undoubtedly something lacking in our own Cliristian conceptions which needs to be made good ; our failure to commend our message to very many of the best Indian minds may be due to that lack. The third argument that is brought forward (iii) " Hindu- goes much deeper than either of the two indigenous already mentioned. It appears in an indirect therefore way in many of Ranade's writings, and he alone suitable is a far greater tlnnker than Swami Vive- Christianity kananda. He does not, however, raise the ment^buf ^^' issue with direct reference to Christian missions, cannot supplant it. and I shall take my quotation from another source. " Because Hinduism and Christianity," says A Compari- the writer, " stand really in the same plane of Hi'nduisnr" reHgious evolution, a rational and profitable ^^^istianity comparison between the two is rendered possible. The modern spirit is operative in both. Both Hinduism and Christianity are working out a new synthesis for meeting the requirements of a new situation. From some points of view certain types of Christianity may seem to be as decadent as certain aspects 1 62 The Renaissance in India of Hinduism. Hinduism has had an historical growth in India. Its present problems, how- ever complex they may be, have an organic relation to its historic past. Christianity has also had another course of historic evolution. The problems of Christianity have an equally organic relation to the past history of Christian peoples. The future evolution of these two religions must follow the course of their past history. It must be an organic evolution." The conclusion to which the writer points will be made clear by a second quotation : — The Relation " When a religion such as Hinduism has to indian^"^ grown up with the growth of civihsation and Civilisation. ]^^g moulded that civilisation in turn, through countless generations, it becomes gradually a part of the life-blood of the people. To attempt to uproot it and substitute Christianity is to tear away, as it were, the very fibres of the heart. Hinduism is the most tolerant of faiths, and is always ready to absorb new influences, but this can only take place vitally when these influences enter into organic connection with the system as a whole." 1 Here, again, there is an argument which may imply a revision of some of our narrower con- ' The words quoted in chapter iv, from llanade's writings [should be also referred to. See pp. 137 ff. KALI CHARAN BANURJI The Indian Christian Nationah>t— we p. 166 The Challenge of Hinduism i6 J ceptions of Christianity. It will lead to a deeper understanding of the great words of Christ, " I came not to destroy, but to fulfil," " i came not and the still more striking words, "The thief b^ftSi.'- cometh not, but that he may steal and kill and destroy ; I came that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." If Christ were not Hunself the fulfilment of that religious craving to which Hinduism has borne witness; if the Indian Church were bound to conform to the West and receive a purely Western type of Christianity, there would be force in this third argument which might be very difficult to overcoVne. But we may surely believe that the Eternal Word was the Light of the Buddha and Tulsi Das in their measure, even as He was, in so much greater a degree, the Light of the Hebrew Prophets ; that Hinduism in its higher religious history was a true prce- faratio evangelica, even though in its lower forms it has sometimes proved unspeakably degrading. There was a noble literature in Greece, along with much that was base, when Christianity first came in touch with the Hellenic civilisation. Certain Christian apologists wished to discard this, but the mind of the Church CathoUc steadily 1 64 The Renaissance in India (iv) "Chris- tianity results in Denational- isation." refused. The great Greek and Roman Classics are still treasured and studied over the whole of Christian Europe, and form the background of our Western thought. We think and speak in their terms. Instead of being destroyed, they have received a more abundant life. In a somewhat similar way we are certain that there is, in the ancient literature of India, much that will be studied and treasured not less but more than before, when India finds in Christ the fulfilment of her religious ideal. The fourth argument is very closely con- nected with the third, which has just been discussed. It is based on the present Westernised condition of the Indian Christian Church and the denationalisation which is said to occur when a Hindu becomes a Christian. The third objection is thus taken from the field of theory into the field of practice, and the practical effects of Christianity are regarded as destructive. It is the argument of the layman who regards the immediate effects, rather than that of the theologian who tries to work out principles. Here is a typical quotation on this point : — " The Cliristian religion in India, as we see it lived to-day before our eyes, bears on every hand the marks of the foreigner. The Indian The Challenge of Hinduism 165 Christian tends to become a foreicrncr in liis own native land cut off from his own people. Every Indian who becomes a Christian is lost for ever to the national cause. He not only deserts the religion of liis fathers and fore- fathers of countless generations, but he also abandons the customs, traditions, modes of life, eating and drinking, and even of -dress, which distinguish Indians and make them a distinct type of human civilisation. As surely as water tries to find its own level, so surely the Indian Christian gravitates more and more towards the Eurasian and English element in modern India and away from the purely Indian element. His religion itself tends to push him farther and farther away and make him foreign. His prayers, his worship, his churches, his very customs and habits, are the work of foreigners imposed on him from without, and he has passively accepted tliem without a protest. He even is beginning to glory in his bondage and despise his birthright, and to ape European manners to such an extent that he looks askance at his fellow Indians, travels in railway trains marked ' For Europeans only,' and often calls himself a Eurasian." The description given above is much too darkly sketched. To take one sentence only. 1 66 The Renaissance in India An Instance the life of Kali Charan Banurji falsifies the Contrary. statement that an Indian who becomes a Christian is " lost for ever to the National cause." Kali Charan was for nearly twenty years one of the most deeply respected leaders of the Indian National Congress, a man venerated by all patriotic Indians for his self-sacrifice and devotion to the national cause. If his health had not failed, he would have been elected President of the Congress itself by the votes of Hindus and Muhamma- dans. The picture is also drawn from one aspect only of Indian Christian life. It takes no account of the vast masses of the Christian Village community, now numbering nearly four not^aff?cted millions, who live their life in remote village as^TowiT"*^** districts and never see an Englishman, except Christians, the itinerant missionary on his round of visita- tion. These have not changed their dress or mode of life, except that their houses are often cleaner and their villages more sanitary, and their children better educated than those of their neighbours.^ They are the true repre- sentatives of the indigenous Indian Church, and they will set the type of Clu'istianity in India in the future, when they have had sufficient time to grow and expand. But when all this has been said, there is ^ Cf. " The Outcastes^ Hope/' chap. vi. The Challenge of Hinduism 167 undoubtedly very much, especially on the surface, in the Indian Christian Church wliich repels the educated Hindu. As one of them said to me one day, " Christ we love, the Christian Church we hate," mean- ing thereby that the Christian Church stood, in his eyes, for all that was denationa- lising. Yet the evils of the present state of the The Indian Church are gradually passing away. Movement in They are not inveterate. Both missionaries ^^^ Church. and congregations have been inspired with a new spirit since the great national revival. The National Missionary Society and other kindred organisations are welcome signs of the change which is leading on to self-govern- ment and self-support. Life and movement are in the very air we breathe, and the hearts of Indian Christians are beating with new hopes. The Church in India will soon repre- sent a far more important element in national life than is now apparent, and, when the dangers of relapse into idolatry and caste are overcome, she will assimilate as largely as possible the ancient traditions of India, and make them a vital part of her own constructive growth. The fact that such assimilation has not already taken place more rapidly is due not merely to the European missionary j but 1 68 The Renaissance in India also to the supreme need of a strong ethical revolt against the corrupter forms of Hinduism. To go back once more to the analogy of the first Christian centuries, — just as the early Church, in the face of Hellenic mythology and idolatry, took up an attitude of un- compromising antagonism to the current corruptions, so the same attitude is needed now in India. This does not mean that the ancient glories of the Hindu past are to be destroyed, but rather, that the evil must perish before the good can be assimilated. ^ *"!" Looking back, then, over the four challenges crudescence ^ . . . , ^ of earlier to the Christian Faith that have been challenges to , . t i . i i • the Church, mentioned, we may regard them, speaking generally, as the revival in a modern form and dress of objections which had to be faced by the early Church. They are strangely like the old arguments which we read in Celsus and Porphyry. Their recrudescence may prove to be a boon to the Church in correct- ing narrow and one-sided impressions of Christianity which have grown up in Christian lands. But when we come to the fifth and last challenge of Hinduism, we find ourselves con- fronted with a problem which is both strange in appearance and disquieting in character. It The Challenge of Hinduism 169 is directly due to the world of our own modern life, and has little or no parallel in earlier Christian times. I will quote an important passage which states the challenge in its clearest form : — "We recognise that Christianity has done (v) ''The much in India to rekindle the moral fervour Teaching of of spmt which had died down. In this sense ha/r'^i^vt/ it has been a remarkable moral force among ^^^ ^F^^ , . . ^ Ideals of US m the past at a critical moment in our Hinduism. spiritual history when a new force was needed nves of to awaken us from our lethargy. It did then ^a^usfjfoubt for us the work that Buddhism did in earlier of its real power. times. Like Buddhism it taught us afresh to treat women and the depressed classes with greater consideration than our fathers did before us. Like Buddhism it has re-awakened among us a deep sympathy with distress and misery, no matter where found. Like Buddhism, it has loosened the unwholesome fetters of caste and ceremonial traditions. But in doing so it has only really pointed us back to our own earlier instincts and ideals. It has given us nothing new. On the other hand there are terrible moral stains upon Christianity itself as we see it now presented to us by Anglo-Indians. These more than neutralise the good we see on other sides and make us wonder if Christ's teaching has any 170 The Renaissance in India effect on conduct to-day. What can we think of the hauteur, the spirit of distrust, the sense of inequahty with which every Christian official in this land treats every one of us ? What can we think of the Christian missionary who never cares to raise his voice against the failure of Christian justice, against Christian tyranny, against Christian repression and high-handedness ? When we study the recent history of EngHsh and German foreign diplo- macy, the heartless and sometimes shameless way in which independent states and peoples are brought under subjection by Christian nations : when we glance at the treatment accorded to coloured people by Christian powers all over the world, and above all, when we consider the supreme contempt with wliich all subject peoples are looked upon by their Christian conquerors, we not only begin to lose faith in Christian civilisation, but we almost begin to have a lurking antipathy against Christianity itself." Recent The force of this argument has been in- tion of ^^ tensified in the last eight years since the advent Resentment. q£ ^^^ Spirit of nationality. Indians feel, as they never felt before, the galling yoke of subjection. Young Indians cannot, and wiU not, bear things that were done as a matter of course by Englishmen a generation ago. One A. (lOViiNDKAt liAH\ A sVAMlN A leader of the revival within Hinduism The Challenge of Hinduism i/i slight but not unimportant index of this growth of self-respect among the educated classes is their dishke to be called " the natives," as though they were an inferior race of beings. Half the good effect of one of Lord Morley's most sympathetic speeches was lost upon educated India by the unfortunate use of this one word, which no one had told him to avoid. Instances of British high-handedness in the treatment of Indians are now resisted with resentment where before they would have been passively accepted. Each insult dealt to British Indians in the Transvaal and other colonies is recorded at length in the news- papers and magazines, and made the talk of the bazaars. We have the spectacle of a sensitive people with its nerve on edge, feeling acutely every slight and ready to blaze out at injustice. During the greatest ebulhtion of this bitter- Significant ness, the very name of Christ our Master was ^"^^ ^"^^' hissed by a large audience of educated Hindus. An English missionary was shot in East Bengal, a murderous attack was made on lady mission- aries in the Deccan, and the Christian Church was looted in the Rawalpindi riots. At one time it seemed as though a wave of anti- Christian feeling, such as missionaries have experienced in China, were about to sweep over India. 172 The Renaissance in India iii.-THE The acute bitterness of that most painful SITUATION, period has partly receded, and the visit of our beloved king and queen has done much to restore mutual sympathy. But the spirit of independence among educated Indian* has now become a settled fact. The continu- ance of racial hauteur on the part of English Christians will be a scandal and an offence of increasing magnitude. It will be an utter contradiction in practice of the Christian faith, and also the most destructive weapon of oSence that can be used against Christian work in India. A Hindu gentleman of my acquaintance said to me, " Do you not see w^hat is happen- ing ? Mr is pulling down your work faster than you can build it up. Every time he calls us ' niggers ' it is a blow dealt to your religion ; for you teach us that caste is sinful, while you Christians are building up a ' white- caste ' of your own." The English It would be sad indeed if the Church which of Caste"^ condemns caste in the Indian Christian were to condone it in the English. Yet, as we have seen, caste was originally nothing else except race exclusiveness. The Aryan race drew the colour line, just as the Enghsh race in the colonies and dependencies is attempting to draw it to-day ; and racial pride has been the The Challenge of Hinduism / J consequence in both cases. If we speak of the glaring injustice of the caste system by which the poor pariah is not allowed within thirty yards of the proud Brahman, lest even his shadow should defile, we are met with the answer, " What do we hear about Indians not being allowed to use the side-walks or tram- cars in Johannesburg ? " If we urge that it is inhuman to refuse to eat and drink with those who are highly educated and refined, but of a lower caste, we are met with the answer, " What did the American Press and people say when President Roosevelt dined with Mr Booker Washington ? " It is the incon- sistencies of Christians that keep back the educated classes in India from accepting Christianity : it is their consistencies which attract. When they see refined Indian gentlemen refused permission even to enter a British colony, they declare with no uncertain voice that Christianity is as much bound up with caste as Hinduism, and that the Christian talk about the brother- hood of man is mere cant and hypocrisy. When they see on the other hand that Christians are ready to treat members of other races in every way as their fellow-men, belonging to one common, human family together, then they feel that Christ is indeed 174 The Renaissance in India triumphing in the world, and that His teaching has not been given in vain to the children of men. It is, therefore, at all points to a deeper realisation of our Lord's Work and Person that the challenge of Hinduism drives us back. Christ, the Eternal Word, the Life and Light of millions who have not yet con- sciously known Him ; Christ, the Son of Man, suffering in each indignity offered to the least of His brethren ; Christ, the Giver of more abundant life to noble and aspiring souls ; Christ, the Divine Head of humanity, in Whom all the races of mankind are gathered into One — these are the great truths which we must express m act as well as creed, if we are to meet the Hindu challenge. For further Reference. Andrews [^9], chaps, x., xi. Richie?- [68], chap. vi. Cairns [17]. Torvnsend [o9\ CHAPTER VI CHRISTIAN DIFFICULTIES IN INDIA Alleged Failure of Christl\nitv to decome accli- matised IN THE Second Generation. Difficulties in Acclimatisation Arising from Caste. Social ostracism. Impossibility of compromise : contrast with slavery in the early Church. Cause of social stagnation. Education and the overthrow of caste : resultant unrest. What India requires of us. The Church and the "colour-bar." Difficulties in Acclimatisation arising from Attitude OF European Christians. The Christian an outcaste on both sides. Resultant bitterness, bequeathed to second generation. The lack of challenge to the heroic in the second generation. Parallel from Sub-Apostolic Age. The ebb and flow natural to India. Difficulties in Acclimatisation arising from Westernising Tendency of Missionaries and Indian Christians alike. The instinctive tendency of the Indian Christian. 176 176 The Renaissance in India The position of the missionary. Necessity of slow transference of authority. Sterling Qualities in the Character of the Indian Christian. I.— AL- LEGED FAILURE OF CHRIS- TIANITY TO BECOME acclima- tised IN THE SECOND GENERA- TION. In a very sympathetic review of a book which I had written on North India the Editor of one of the leading Indian Magazines, called The Modern Review, wrote as follows : — " In glancing over the names of prominent Indian Christians mentioned in this book we have been struck by one fact. It is that not one of them was born a Christian. If Indian Christianity be spiritually potent, how is it that generations of Indian Christians, born and brought up within the Church, have not been able to produce men equal to those who themselves became converts and who owed all their latent spiritual potency to their Hindu or Islamic birth, breeding, or heredity ? Your theory is that Christianity made them what they were in spite of their ' heathen ' homes and heredity. But pray show us similar specimens of born Indian Christians, with all the advantages of their Christian homes and heredity. . . . We admit the mundane and upHfting power of Indian Christianity, there being so much money and organisation behind it, but it is by the test of spiritual power that Christian Difficulties in India 17 // a faith is judged. Show us the spiritual potency of born Indian Christians. That is what a non-Clu-istian may ask." This challenge could easily be answered by pointmg to the Hves of large numbers of Indian Christians whom Hinduism had left for countless generations in a condition of hopeless servitude and dependence. Under the vitahsing influence of the Christian Faith, these have now risen to be respectable and worthy members of society, in not a few cases becoming teachers and tutors of Brahmans themselves. Some of the most remarkable spiritual transformations to be seen in Modern India are those of Indian Christians of the second and third generation when compared with the condition of their ancestors more than half a century ago. It would be possible, again, to point to a Successes Christian village, such as that of Nazareth, in castes. °^ South India, and compare it with the back- ward and morally unprogressive villages around belonging to Hindus. Or again, it would be easy to point to the inamense moral and intellectual advance among the Kols in Chota Nagpur, since their admission within the fold of the Christian Church.^ ^ Cf. " The Outcaste's Hope/^ by the Rev. Godfrey riullips, M.A., eh. vi. lyS The Renaissance in India Fewer among the High Castes, but more Difficulties. But if, on the other hand, examples are sought among the children of high- caste Hindu converts, the immediate results are not so striking, and the difficulties which confront such converts and their children have to be taken into account in forming a correct estimate of what is happening now, and what is likely to happen in the future. But perhaps the simplest way to approach the difficulties of the present generation is to note that the editor of The Modern Review has really misunderstood the theory of Christian missions, and is attacking a theory which may have been held in the past, but is not entertained by thoughtful missionaries to-day. The words ' heathen homes ' would scarcely be apphed by such to the famihes of educated non-Christian Hindus, who are theists, or to Muhammadans, who believe in the unity of God. They might be applied to the gross ani- mistic cults of large masses of the lower Hindu population, but to use them to describe edu- cated Hindus of the reforming type is clearly a misnomer. Personally I have learnt many lessons about God from the hps of saintly men whose homes are similar to those from which high- caste Hindu converts have come, and I could never dream of calling such homes ' heathen.' Christian Difficulties in India 179 The Christian argument with regard to these classes would not be that ' in spite of ' their homes and heredity they have be- come noble Christians, but rather that because of that which was good in their Hindu homes and heredity they have been attracted to Christ. For the Christian principle is this, The that from none other than God is the hght naturaUter that lightens every man coming into the world Christiana. (St John i. 9). There are multitudes who have never heard the name of Christ, and yet have this hght within them leading them to the Father. This is taught by Christ in the par- able of Judgment, where those who did not know Him are welcomed by Him as His friends and helpers. It is also seen in Christ's own recorded words, " Other sheep I have which are not of this fold : them also I must bring and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd." This latent affinity with the Christian spirit — which TertulHan calls the anima naturaliter Chris- tiana — is perhaps more deep and profound in India than in any other non-Christian country ; for India has been the home of religion from the first dawn of civilisation. It is to this spirit that the missionary, on one most vital side of his teaching, makes his appeal. He claims, not that it should 8o The Renaissance in India II.— DIFFI- CULTIES IN ACCLIMA- TISATION ARISING FROM CASTE. (i) Social Ostracism and compulsory breaking of Spiritual Ties. be denied, but rather that it should be recognised to the full. This does not imply, that there is no need to set in the very fore- front the teaching of repentance from past sin and conversion to a new life of right- eousness. The Epistle to the Romans is as essential for the higher- caste Hindu as for the low-caste. But the doctrine of Christ, as the Light of the World, can never be subtracted from Christian theology without the danger of serious misstatement. If this position be taken, then the social ostracism which takes place when a Hindu becomes a Christian is a real impoverishment. The Christian convert is a loser as well as gainer. He suffers the loss of all things, for the excellency which is in Christ. The spiritual ties of his past life, many of which were good and noble, are broken, not by his own will, but by Hindu orthodoxy, which regards him as de- filed and polluted. As he enters the Christian Church by baptism, he becomes dead to his old friends and relatives, by their act, not by his own. The priestly ceremonies, which are per- formed at his excommunication, place under a curse anyone, even his nearest and dearest, who eats with liim. Furthermore, there is no possibility of re-admission. Orthodox Hindu- Christian Difficulties in India i8i ism is in this respect wholly intolerant, and freedom of conscience on this side simply does not exist. Far too infrequently do we of the West realise the conservatism of the average Hindu home, and its reac- tionary power. It is this fact that makes the education of women in India so vital and pressing a problem at the present time. Here, then, is one of the greatest of all difficulties in the way of the acchmatisation of Christianity within Hindu society. Hindu- ism itself refuses to allow it. Caste pre- vents it. It might be argued by those who have not (ii) impossi- experienced the blighting effects of caste that prom°e^°"'' it should be treated as slavery was treated in ^^^^ Caste, the early Church, and allowed to die a natural death within the Christian atmosphere. It has been suggested that an inward belief in Christ should be sufficient, and such outward acts as those of Baptism and the Holy Com- munion (wherein caste is visibly broken) should not be required. But the analogy of slavery breaks down at this very point. The slave could kneel side by side with the freeman and receive the sacrament ; the caste man cannot do this while remaining in caste. The letter of St Paul to Philemon shows that even 1 82 The Renaissance in India Contrast while the status of slavery remained undis- i^^the^EaTIy^ turbed the Christian slave could be treated by Church. ]^g master as " more than a servant — a brother beloved." He could also at any time be given his complete freedom. But caste is an absolutely final division of mankind to those who keep it. A man is horn a Brahman or a pariah and can never by any act, except by changing his religion, change his status. According to strict Hindu rules he is not allowed even so much as to touch his fellow - man. The pariah in certain parts of Southern India has to keep at a distance of thirty yards from a Brahman, lest even his shadow should defile. I can well remember how, on the first day of my arrival in Delhi, I took up, in my ignorance, a vessel on the cricket field which was used for water. I saw the Hindus glancing at one another and realised that I had done something wrong. When I inquired about it I found that the vessel I had touched could never be used again by the students. Though they read Mill on Liberty and belonged, many of them, to the Arya Samaj, they could not touch the drinking vessel, which had been touched by me, without defilement. I, who was their moral and intellectual teacher, was a defiling person. An even more pitiable RABINDRA NATH TAGORE The greatest poet of modern India Leader of the Bengal literary revival — see pp. 23, 184 Christian Difficulties in India iS:; incident occurred to me later, wliicli I shall never forget. I was walking by myself in the hills, about forty miles from Simla, and I came across a little famished boy, who was clearly fainting with hunger and exhaustion. There was no one witliin miles of the place, and as I asked liim what was the matter, he pointed to his mouth to show his hunger. I had some bread with me, and, without think- ing, offered him some. In a moment the little half-starved face kindled with indigna- tion and contempt, and he spat on the ground, as much as to say, " That is how I regard your food." I told this incident to my B.A. students, but while many appeared uneasy at the thought of it, others were clearly sympathising with the boy in his resentment of the indignity I had offered him. This caste system has been going on for countless generations. The pariah remains a pariah and can never hope to rise. The Brahman remains a Brahman. As a Hindu writer has said, the high-caste man may break every commandment in the Decalogue — be- come a thief and an adulterer and a murderer — but if he observe caste rules he will never sink to a lower status. Some feeble attempts have been made to moralise the caste rules, but they have never succeeded. Morality, as 184 The Renaissance in India Caste cannot among the Jews of old, has been made to con- be moralised. • , . • 1 • 1 II 1 • p sist m various wasnmgs and the cleamng 01 pots and vessels, and has left on one side the weightier matters of the law. Christ broke Jewish caste when He allowed His disciples to eat with ' unwashen hands,' when He held intercourse with the Syro-Phcenician woman, and when He touched the leper. The Christian Church in India, turning away from Christ, has attempted again and again to compromise with caste. The most ancient form of Christianity in India, the Syrian Church, has not been able to check its observ- ance. The same was the case with the Jesuit missions of the Sixteenth Century. Two cen- turies later the early Lutheran missions allowed the same compromise to take place. Even in our own modern missions in South India caste has again and again reappeared among the converts. But wherever and whenever this has been allowed stagnation has resulted. From the social and national point of view the following quotation from the writings of Rabindra Nath Tagore, perhaps the greatest living Indian thinker, is highly significant : (iii) Caste the "This immutable and all-pervading system Socfal ° ^^ caste has no doubt imposed a mechanical Elvf ?^^^°"'d ^^^i^ormity upon the people, but it has, at Inflexibility, the same time, kept their different sections Christian Difficulties in India iS:; inflexibly and unalterably separate, with the consequent loss of all power of adaptation and readjustment to new conditions and forces. The regeneration of the Indian people, to my mind, directly and perhaps solely depends zipon the removal of this condition of caste, ^Vllen I reaHse the hypnotic hold which this gigantic system of cold-blooded repression has taken on the minds of our people, whose social body it has so completely entwined in its endless coils that the free expression of manhood, even under the direst necessity, has become almost an impossibility, the only remedy that suggests itself to me is to educate them out of their trance. . . . Now has come the time when India must (iv) Educa- begin to build, and dead arrangement must overthrow gradually give way to living construction, °^^^^'^- organized growth. ... If to break up the feudal system and the tyrannical convention- ahsm of the mediaeval Church, which had out- raged the healthier instincts of humanity, Europe needed the thought-impulse of the Renaissance and the fierce struggle of the Reformation, do we not need in a greater degree an overwhelming influx of higlior social ideas before a place can be found for true political thinking ? Must we not have that greater vision of Immanity wliich will 1 86 The Renaissance in India impel us to shake off the fetters that shackle our individual life before we begin to dream of national freedom ? . . . From my seclusion it seems to me that it is not this or that measure which is at the bottom of the Indian unrest. We have been on the whole comfort- able with a comfort unknown for a long time ; we have peace and protection and many of the opportunities for prosperity which these Unrest imply. Why, then, this anguish of heart ? fromthf Because the contact of East and West has Western done its work and quickened the dormant Ideas life of our soul. We have begun to be dimly to Caste. conscious of the value of the time we have allowed to slip by, of the weight of the clog- ging, effete matter which we have allowed to accumulate, and we are angry with ourselves. We have also begun vaguely to realise the failure of England to rise to the great occasion, and to miss more and more the invaluable co-operation which it was so clearly England's mission to offer. And so we are troubled with a trouble which we know not yet how to England's name. How England can best be made to Mission— perccivc that the mere establishment of the Cooperation^ . . • .-p i in the Pax Bntanuica cannot either justiiy or make whh^Caste. possible her continued dominion, I have no idea ; but of this I am sure, that the sooner we come to our senses and take up the thread Christian Difficulties in India iS; of our appointed task, the earlier will come the final consummation." In the face of such words as these from a great and noble tliinker, who knows the caste system from within and has studied deeply the history of his own country, any suggestion of compromise with caste on the part of tlie Christian Church becomes intolerable. Such a suggestion would be resented by educated Indians themselves who are not Christians. There is no burden under w^hich they labour Indian feel to-day more heavy than that of caste, and compromise even if they do not break with it themselves c^hrTs^t^anity they look longingly at the lives of those who ^^^ Caste, do. \Vlien recently a rumour got afloat that a Bishop of the Christian Church was intend- ing to make a very slight concession to the caste spirit, the leading Hindu papers spoke out with indignation at the very idea of this happening. It was commented on day after day in leading articles and paragraphs, and formed the chief topic of conversation among educated Hindus. I was confronted with it by our Hindu professors in the college common-room, and all of them said that they trusted the Bishop would stand firm, and were relieved when he did so. With this rapidly growing feehng on what may be called the Christian side of the caste of us. 1 88 The Renaissance in India question it would be indeed a betrayal of trust to weaken our strong position. Rather than this, the great opportunity is given to the Christian Church to set forth the true (v) What brotherhood of man. The Hindu writer whom India . 1 . requires I have quoted has revealed to us m his own words what India requires of us. " Do we not need," he cries, " an overwhelming influx of higher social ideals ? " " Must we not have that greater vision of humanity which will impel us to shake off the fetters that shackle our individual life ? " And then he adds sadly, " we have begun to realise the failure of England to rise to the great occasion." Are not such words as these a direct chal- lenge to the Church to come forward in the name of the Son of Man ? Has she not to offer that influx of higher social ideals, that greater vision of humanity ? If England has failed to rise to the great occasion, may not the Church of Christ succeed ? The answer to these questions is one which should rouse our consciences to evils in our own midst. For it comes back upon our- selves and our own Christian Hves. The answer is this. The Church can only succeed if she refuses to harbour within her own fold those very racial and caste evils from which Christian Difficulties in India iSg India is longing to be set free. She will be able (vi. The to give help to India in her hour of need ailU'the only when, in St Paul's burning words, she 5^^°!°"'" has " put off the old man with his doings and put on the new man . . . ; where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncir- cumcision, barbarian, Scytliian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all." Those who have been abroad and seen the treatment of coloured races by the white will understand the impossibility of success, and the difhculty of the Indian Christian position, while these evils are still rampant.^ For it is not merely on one side that the m. -diffi- Indian Christian is put out of caste. ThcAccLiMA- pathos of the situation, and often its horror, arising Ues in the fact that he is looked down upon, ATTrruoE and often even out-casted, by his Enf^lish o^ ^,^, ' */ » EUROPEAN fellow- Christian. While there are the noblest chris- examples of true Christian sympathy, there are also the most sordid examples of un- christian intolerance. Disputes have arisen even with regard to the burial of the Christian dead, and separate cemeteries have often become necessary for Indian and Enghsh Christians — as though the colour-bar must continue even after death. ^ The reader is referred l)ack to tlie (•om-ludini; paraizraplis of Chap, vi., wliere the same point is raised in a dirterent connexion. 190 The Renaissance in India (i) The Indian There is a proverb prevalent in North India Outcasteon Concerning the position of educated Indian both Sides. Christians, used even by themselves about themselves. It runs as follows : — Dhobi ha kutta, na ghcir ka^ na ghat ka. " The dog of the washerman is welcome neither in the house nor at the bathing ghat." By this it is implied that the Indian Christian can neither have any footing in Hindu society, nor be expected to share social privileges with Englishmen. He is only too frequently an out-caste on both sides. I give at this point two quotations from Indian Christian autobiography which will explain in the most vivid way the present situation. The one illustrates the type of difficulties already dealt with : the other, those which are now under discussion. A comparison betw^een the two reveals the sameness of the root- difficulty, namely, the destructive spirit of caste. The first, illustrat- ing the Hindu antipathy, runs as follows : — An iiiustra- '' At first I did uot dare to break the news antipathy to to my father and mother that I was about to Christianity. ]3g(.Qj^g ^ Christian, though my soul was con- vinced. I did not know what they might do, and having myself a very vivid imagination, I used to picture all sorts of terrible things happening. I used to dream at night of my = ^ Christian Difficulties in India 191 mother killing herself in despair, and see her throwing herself down a well, and wake with a scream. At other times I would dream that I myself was murdering her, and that 1 had to go about with tlie brand of Cain upon my brow. The thought so preyed u})on my mind that I became irresolute and almost reckless and tried to stifle my conscience. Then for days and days I would be despondent and fall into a kind of rehgious melancholy, and my mother would ask me what ailed me, but I would refuse to tell her. At last the agony was so great that I determined myself to commit suicide. My mind was deranged, and I could not think clearly. I went down to the river determined to meet my end. But, as I went, a warning voice seemed to pursue me, and I turned back and fled into the jungle. That night I had fever, and I remained ill for many days. When I was recovering, one day, at noon, I told my father the reason of my illness, and begged him to allow me to be baptised. He was very angry indeed, and though I was weak and ill at the time, he threatened me with every punish- ment if I should continue in my evil desires, as he called them. That night my mother came into my room. I shall never forget it. She threw herself at my feet, and declared IQ2 The Renaissance in India that if I became a Christian she would refuse to hve any longer. I was too weak to resist her, and promised her that I would put the thought entirely out of my head. Then, as I grew stronger, I saw that I had done wrong and begged her to relieve me from my promise. My father, seeing that I was now again deter- mined, shut me up in the house, and some- times would threaten me and at other times would coax me and flatter me. At last, one night, I managed to get my Hberty. It was the dark fortnight, and I stole away unnoticed by anyone at all. I dared not go near the railway, as I was certain to be known. I wandered on, hiding by day and walking through the night. On the fourth day I reached a city where I knew the missionary, and was baptised. From that day to this my father has completely disowned me. I have not been allowed to see my wife or my home, my mother or my relations. I am like a wanderer and an outcast upon the face of the earth. For one thing I am deeply thank- ful. Through the mercy of God my mother is still alive. My dreams have not come true. If Christ Himself had not been my support through all, how could I possibly have borne it ? But through all I have felt His presence with me. It was His voice I heard warning Christian Difficulties in India i()3 me not to destroy myself, and He is with me still. His word is true which says, *' Wlicii my father and my mother forsake iiu', the Lord upholdeth me." The second life-story, wliicli was related to An iiiustra me personally by an educated Christian, coin- chHstian cided almost word for word with that which 1 intolerance, have just recorded, and need not be repeated. But I asked the further question : — '' What treatment did you receive within the Church after you became a Cliristian ? " " That," he repUed, " was almost the hardest part of all. It was so unexpected. I was a new convert and had seen little of Christians liitherto. I had read in the New Testament the commandments of love and brotherhood. I had also suffered so much that I thought, ' Now surely my troubles are over. I am among Christ's followers.' I had sustained myself with the hope that 1 should be welcomed with loving-kindness by my new Christian friends. I knew tliat all Englishmen were Cln*istians, and the mis- sionary who baptised me treated me as a brother indeed. And so, in my ignorance, when I met an EngUshman, at first, I would go up to him and say, ' I am a Christian ' ; but I was received with cold looks and some- times with abuse, and would be told to ' get 94 The Renaissance in India " Not so much Difference. ' (ii) The Resultant Bitterness, bequeathed to the Second Generation. out.' Here and there I found a true ChristiaUj but the majority of the Enghsh I have met seem to regard me as belonging to a lower caste." '' But there is all the difference," I inter- posed, " between this treatment, bad as it is, and caste itself." " Not so much," he replied sadly — and I re- member his words to this day — " not so much as you would suppose. To me, as I came from Hinduism, it seemed just ' caste ' over again. BeHeve me, Padre Sahib, I have suffered shghts harder to bear from those who should have been my brother Christians than from my relations who outcasted me." Can we wonder if the Indian Christian community, under such treatment from both sides, within and without the Church, appears at some times Hke a rudderless ship adrift on the stormy waters ? Can we wonder if the spiritual fervour of the children of converts from the higher castes sometimes diminishes ? Some Indian Christians after their conver- sion have become bitter in spirit, and have handed on that bitterness to their cliildreru Indifference and coldness have taken the place of the first glowing love and devotion. Others again, without proper guidance and direc- tion, have aped Western manners, and become Christian Difficulties in India 195 almost more English than the English. The community itself is still very small and insig- nificant amid the many millions of Hindus and Muhammadans. The spirit which enables men to stand alone is growing but slowly, and while it is still undeveloped there are some who fall back, finding the strain of isolation too hard to bear. Looking back on the Christian converts of The Heroism the first generation w^ho went through the converts ordeal of excommunication from all they cenemtion! loved, and received frequently such cold- ness from English Christians, they present a remarkable picture of heroism and endur- ance. The trial of their faith was indeed a kind of living martyrdom, and they them- selves stand out as leaders in their own generation. But in the generation that suc- ceeded them there was often a relaxation of the intense spiritual strain. This, combined with the lack of acclimatisation within the Christian Church, has accounted in some {}}[) Less 1 . „ , T • . Challenge measure for the not mtrequent disappomt- to the ments which have been experienced in the Eiemelit in lives of the children of noble Christian con- J^,^„f;^'t^"„^ verts who have grown up in the atmosphere of the Church. Many indeed have been lofty in spiritual attainment, and have in no way fallen below the level of their fathers, though 196 The Renaissance in India their names have been less prominently before the pubhc. I have myself known several such and could point to whole famihes who have ' adorned the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.' But on the other hand there are failures to be taken into account, and the disappointment of seeing a lower level reached where a higher level was expected has been very great indeed. (iv) The It is Only when we consider all the condi- inTh^elub- tions of the situation that the failures are Apostolic gg^j^ j-Q i^g ^^Q ^^ j^Yie main to temporary causes rather than to permanent effects. The history of other ages of the Church teaches us to expect such failures as a part of the discipline of growth. The decHne, for in- stance, in spiritual genius of the highest order during the Second Century of our era, is a well-known historical fact. The sub- apostolic Fathers of the Church cannot be compared with those of the apostohc age. Yet no one would go on to argue that on this account the Christianity of the first centuries had failed, or that the earliest Christian converts would have done better to re- main in their old rehgions, or that St Paul was wrong in urging the Greeks and Romans and Jews to become Christians. Yet that is what the objection quoted at the beginning Christian Difficulties in India 197 of this chapter would amount io, il' cjirritd out to its logical conclusion. To turn tlie objection to bear on another sphere — the modern educated Indian in the second and third generation often presents the appear- ance of failure to reach the liigli standard of the first generation that broke through the traditions of the past. The young educated Hindu who has joined one of the reforming sects without having had to pass through the school of suffering and persecution is not so fine a character, speaking generally, as the pioneer who went before him and opened up the way to a higher social order. " There were giants on the earth in those days " — the days of Ram Mohan Roy and Dabendra Nath Tagore and Dayanand. Yet no one would wish to put back the clock of time because the high level of the heroic days of early reform has not altogether been maintained. Rather than this, we look forward to still greater days to come, when another wave of progress shall sweep the wider and larger community forward. Indeed, it is only when the transition The Need of t&ki nc' period, with all its gains and losses, its hopes Long Views. and disappointments, is over that it is possible to look back and judge what progress has been made over the whole fiekl. The 198 The Renaissance in India Christian Church in India, along with other reforming movements, is still at the pioneer stage, and as Mr Gokhale has finely said of the pioneer work in the pohtical sphere, " It may be left for our present generation to serve India with its failures ; it will be left for future generations to serve her with their successes." For it is a recognised feature of human history all the world over, that a time of transition from the old to the new carries with it an ebb and flow of character and ideals which makes progress itself for a time seem doubtful, even though progress is there all the while. For while the tired waves^ vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain. Far back, though creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main. (v) The Ebb In India, more than in any other Eastern naturarto couutry, this ebb and flow in the tide of pro- india. gress is inevitable. Nowhere in the whole world are the conservative forces so strong. Nowhere in the whole world has there been built up such an impenetrable fortress as that of Caste. For centuries the social sanction has dwarfed individual effort, and now at last, when the break-up of the old forms of civilisation has begun, there are anomalies and confusions without number ; and not in Christian Difficulties in India 199 the sphere of the Cliristian Church alone, but in every other sphere of life there is much to dishearten, disappoint and discourage. Out Conscrva- of these confusions the new order of society change^ will be built up, and step by step the true pathway of progress will be discovered. An illustration may be taken from another The iiiustra side of Indian hfe which will show the strength brthf "'"^'"^ of opposition to reform and the slowness Q^^^tion of ^^ Remarriage that marks actual progress. The re-marriage of Chiid- even of child-mdows — httle children who have never really been married at all, but only betrothed — is forbidden by immemorial Hindu custom. There are some thousands of baby-widows, to whom the hope of mother- hood will for ever be denied. But although such re-marriages have been made legal by Government, and all the influence of social reform has been brought to bear in their favour, yet generation after generation passes, and scarcely any change has been effected. Only some two hundred widow re-marriages take place each year, out of the millions of Hindu widows. Though the retention of such obso- lete customs is felt more and more to be inhuman ; though Hindusim is declining in population on account of their retention ; though the national press cries out against them and the argument for their abolition 200 The Renaissance in India has been pleaded in a thousand ways ; yet outwardly the sway of custom appears to remain almost entirely unbroken. But even here it would be a mistake to despair, as though nothing had been accomplished. The break-up of old ideas has begun which must inevitably lead to the break-up of old forms. India, as has so often been said, when it moves, will move in the mass. Meanwhile the infiltration of new thoughts is proceeding apace. Perhaps in India most of all the motto needed by the reformer is — " He that belie veth shall not make haste." iv-DiFFi- Being excluded by caste from sharing the cuLTiEs IN social life of the people of the land and being TisATioN bound by his faith itself to take up an attitude FROM THE of antagonism towards a large part of Hindu re- ismo^^^ ligious practice, the temptation to the Indian OF THE^^^ Christian to Westernise is as we have already MISSION- noticed very great indeed. But such a course ARY AND THE INDIAN cau uevcr give final satisfaction. It mush ALIKE. only lead to greater and greater disappoint- (i) The In- ment. It represents a shirking of the greater Tendem: problem. A young plant which cannot grow of the in the open air, and demands artificial stimulus Christian, and nourishment, is utterly different from the sturdy and vigorous growth which assimilates both the atmosphere and the soil. The two vital needs of the present hour, in Christian Difficulties in India 201 order to prevent the Westernising influences Co education from going further are co-education and in- nrent^o7''°^ dio^enous leadersliip. In the early centuries indigenous . 1 m 1 1 Leadership the Church never attempted to establisli as Remedies. higher schools and colleges for the exclusive use of her own children. Christians mingled with non-Cliristians in the public schools and Universities of the Roman Empire. So long as this pohcy of co-education is preserved in Christian India, a part, at least, of the impoverishment of life due to withdrawal from caste will be counteracted. But if in some evil moment the present gulf between Christians and non-Christians were to be widened by separate institutions at the liiglier educational stages, it would make the final accHmatisation of Christianity in India more difficult and remote than ever.^ The second standing danger is the con- (") The Posi- tinuance of the foreign missionary in liis Foreign present position as the controlling and domi- Missionary, nating power. The foreign missionary has often added to the difficulties of the situation by incon- siderate attempts to force en bloc upon the Eastern Church his own ideas of a narrowly 1 It should be noted that this does not apply to the educa- tion at the elementary stag-e of younij^ Indian Christian children. There is i)ractically a unanimous opinion amoni: educational missionaries that this should he separate. 202 The Renaissance in India Western type. He was led to do this in the first instance by the corrupt state of Hinduism, which he found in possession. The uncompromising attitude which he at once adopted and pressed upon his first converts was in a great measure necessary ; but it was carried to the extreme of refusing to allow any vestige of Hindu custom to remain, and it was also combined with a somewhat domineering patronage, rather than a fellow- discipleship in the School of Christ. The results of this have often been deplor- able. Both initiative and inspiration have been lacking in many Indian Christian congregations. Nothing is more striking in the Acts of the Apostles than the way in which St Paul entrusted almost immediately to indigenous leadership, with the minimum of foreign super- vision, the churches which he founded. In South India there are churches which have been over a century in existence and are still under the direct care of the foreign missionary. The Westernising process inevitably goes on under such conditions, however much the missionary himself may wish to avoid it. (Hi) Need of The problem is indeed not solved by hurried Trans^ transference. Often the Indian padre himself Authority ^^^ learnt to think and act in merely Western Christian Difficulties in India 203 ways. I remember my own disappointment in going to an Indian church which was said to be entirely independent and self-supporting and self-governing. When I entered, I found that not a single tiling had been changed. There was the church building still wholly Western in appearance, the service narrowly Western in character, the congregation Western in dress and manners. The change to independence had come too late and had only stamped the Western marks still deeper. But while such cases may exist, and are to be avoided, there can be no question that the movement towards self-government is in the right direction and should be wisely fostered and developed. There can be no question, also, that the delay which has taken place in effecting tliis in the past has been the cause of many of the difficulties of the present. I would not close this chapter, which by its v. -the very confusion and repetition may illustrate charac!^ the confused state of the problems mth which J^ndian ^"^ it deals, without some tribute of admiration christian. for the Indian Christians themselves, who, through good report and evil report, in the face of almost overwhelming difficulty have so patiently struggled forward. They have had to endure suffering and coldness, persecu- tion and indifference — things all the harder 204 The Renaissance in India to bear as coming often from those they loved best on earth. Above all, they have had to endure that isolation which, to the Indian, is almost a hving death. Year after year they have borne all this in silence and with patience, and their faith has been rewarded. They have endured " as seeing Him Who is invisible." If in this chapter I have had to mention chiefly their difficulties and faihngs, it is not because I do not recognise their virtue. Their sterling qualities are known to every one who has come in close contact with them. There is no community in the whole of India that is more progressive. But it is only as their special difficulties are clearly understood, that those who read these pages will be able to sym- pathise with them in thought and intercede for them in prayer. A Note on A word may be said at this point to help any who are Self-prepara- hoping in the future to come out to India. It will be seen tion for from the difficulties and confusions mentioned in this India chapter how supremely important it is for them to obtain what may be called the Indian point of view as quickly as possible. Just in so far as they do this will those \V^esternis- ing tendencies which I have mentioned be overcome. A careful study should be made of all the Indian conditions^ and this not from missionary publications^ which are some- times apt to distort the picture^ but from every source available. It is especially important to study books written by Indians themselves. Abundant writings exist, composed by [Indians in excellent English, and a course of study in these will do far more to acclimatise thought to India Christian Difficulties in India 205 than a multitude of books written hy Ku^'Iishmcn. Such study, while pre-eminently useful for those who are going out to India, would also he very helpful for those who may never be able to go out, but desire to keep up a living sympathy by prayer and intercession. For FURTiip.u Rkference. Andrews[M)], chaps. \.xi. 1 Richtcr [f)8], Introd. and Lncas [66]. Macdonald [ 1 0], II., chap viii. ; III., chap. vi. Oman [44], l2. chap, iv Robinson [9'-2]. Rudra [.S.S]. Townsend r59]. CHAPTER VII INDIAN WOMANHOOD Characteristics and Power of Women in Indian Tradition and under Christian Influence. Gentleness and devotion. Power of advancing, under modern conditions, social service, literature and art. Conservatism of family life hindering education of women. The classic tradition of Indian womanhood and its recent reconstruction. Age-long disabilities and degradation due to debased religious teaching. The romance of wifehood and motherhood, and its springs in the Ramayana. Some Examples of Educated Indian Womanhood. Aru and Toru Dutt. Significance of their achievements for the Indian Church. Place of art, music, poetry, and home life in the assimilation of Christianity in India. Krupabai Satthianadhan. Present Condition of Pardaii Women. Stunting effect of pardak, and illiteracy. Conflict of modern college life with the zenana. The divided home-life. The National Movement and its advocacy of the education of women. LILAVATI slNliJl Who was representative for India on the World's Kudunition. V. W.C. A. and ISABELLA TIIOUI'UN Formerly Head of the Women's Collu^^c, Liicknow Indian Womanhood 207 The Great Opportunity and the Pressing Nfx^i-issity. Difficulty of supplying- trained teachers. Presentation of liigliest types of education tlu- task of the Church. Education of women for medical ^\ ork. Demand created by the revival of art and music. The Vocation of Friendship. If I were asked to look back on the years i._charac- that I have spent in India and point out ^nd mpiAj- what had impressed me most of all, I should f^J^jJ^j^^^ be inclined to say the gentleness and devotion woman- HOOD of Indian women. I learned first to appreciate these qualities in India by seeing them exercised nessTncf to a marked degree within the Indian Christian ^e^o^^on. community. There, perhaps, and among the members of the Brahmo Samaj, womanly grace is seen most strikingly combined with intellectual and spiritual refinement. As there is no pardah it is, of course, more easy to be- hold it. But even where the hfe of seclusion is strictly kept there is, I am told, the same air of gentleness and devotion. Though modern education has only touched (ii) power in the merest fringe of Hindu womanhood, its ^^^1^^"^"^^°" effects have already been made clearly visible. It would scarcely be too much to say that every side of Indian life has been influenced for good in modern times by the presence of ?o8 The Renaissance in India women of gentle birth, who have come forth into the pubhc gaze and tried to remedy the evils in their own womanly way. Few though they are in number, their utterances are listened to with a singular respect. Indeed, if there is any country in the East about which it would be safe to prophesy that woman will take a leading part in the regeneration of society, it surely is India. There are treasures of devotion still undeveloped and unseen, which, as life becomes less secluded, will be used not merely for domestic but also for the public good. The Indian nature has an instinctive reverence for those gentler qualities which make true womanhood so beautiful. Unchanged One thing has struck me specially as I puwfcity. look back on my own experience. I can recall hardly a single case of those who have come forth out of the seclusion of fardcih in which publicity has detracted from the gentler qualities already mentioned. I find it difficult also to recall any acts of dis- respect or discourtesy on the part of educated Indians towards Indian women who have come out of fardah, India, of course, is a vast continent, and a single personal observa- tion may not count for much, but I give it for what it is worth. There are in India to-day women who are doctors, barristers, inspectors, Indian Womanhood 209 teachers, and not a few who 8j)cak from pubhc platforms to audiences of men ; but amid all these new lines of activity there has been less than might have been expected of that exaggeration of freedom and emancipation which would be termed unwomanly. The danger, however, that tliis may happen in the future, when much larger numbers come out of pardah, is already engaging serious attention, and much mil depend on the character of the higher education given to women. It is in hterature and pliilanthropy that the Work in greatest triumphs of educated Indian women anlT phu-^ have been won. Their writings as well as their anthropy. actions have tended greatly to further the cause of purity, temperance and social service. The Seva Sadan Sisterhood in Bombay and Poona is a striking example of what may be attempted by united effort, and by a wise and careful use of the pubhc Press. Sarojini Naidu and Sarola Devi are names well known all over India for their interest in social reform, and also for their hterary power, in most of the larger cities of India there is some outstanding figure among the women who is undertaking reforming work in her own neighbourhood. Pandita Ramabai, whose story is told in Dr Datta's book,^ was one of 1 The Desire of hi'tin, ]>|>. -IVA, 'IM . 2IO The Renaissance in India The Accept- ance of Women's Influence in National Advance. the first to organise a home for Hindu widows and to start a reform among them which has spread to other parts of India. She also has a reputation as a writer and maintains her home by her pubhc appeals. Herself a devout Chris- tian, she has been able to a marked degree to win the reverence of her fellow-countrywomen. In the Ramkrishna Mission and in the Arya Samaj movement there are devoted women workers carrying on institutions for the care of orphans, the nursing of the sick and the teaching of the young. In Muhammadan circles the Begam of Bhopal has shown an enlightened policy among her subjects which has ranked her among the most progressive of Indian rulers. At the Calcutta National Congress in 1906, one of the most striking features was the assembly of Bengali ladies who led the singing of the songs of new Bengal. The Women's Movement is not confined to one community or rehgion. The wonder of all this, and the courage of it, are the first things that strike the mind of the student of Indian history — the trans- formation to this modern life of social service from that of the dainty, unseen, dehcate ladies of the zenana, who shrank back behind the pardah from even a single gaze of man. Those who have come out have been able to Indian Womanhood 211 assume at one step their natural womanly place as leaders of the national advance in all that is good, and the educated men of India have at once accepted this as their ideal of what ought to be. They speak with pride and admiration of the women who are leading the way, and respond generously when their sympathies are claimed for financial and other support. There is indeed, among educated Indians, Cni) Con- a lamentable hesitation in moving forward Faimiy^Li?e when their own famihes are concerned. Tlie hindering T 1 Education dead hand of custom hes heavy on the land, of Women, and the primary duty of educating their own daughters has too often been neglected by Indian fathers. But there are many reasons which make such action extremely difficult, simple though it appears. Up to the j^resent the women, especially the elder members of the family, have been against it. There is also the difficulty of conveyance to and from the school, as no girl coming from a good family would be allowed to walk. Girls' schools, moreover, are as yet very few in number, and boarding schools are scarcely known except among Brahmos, Aryas and Christians. But in a later part of this chapter it will be seen how rapidly even these drawbacks are passing away. 2 12 The Renaissance in India (iv) Modern Develop- ments the Reconstruc- tion of Ancient Tradition. (v) Disabili- ties and Degradation due to a Debased Religious Teaching. When the tradition of Indian woman- hood in the past is considered, this remark- able transformation in modern India loses much of its strangeness. Indians are but reconstructing a lost ideal, which has been in abeyance for centuries. For in early- Indian life, and in Buddhist times, the freedom and prominence of woman in society was both clearly marked and generally accepted. The heroines of ancient India, who have come down in story, are at least as great as the heroes, if not greater. Sita, Sakuntala, Damayanti, are noble names in hterature, and their story is well known in every Indian household. Above all, the character of Sita, as described in the Ramayana, has created a kind of reverential awe of true womanhood which has kept generation after generation of Hindu women chaste and man's ideal of woman high. " May you be like Sita " is the highest marriage wish and blessing that can be bestowed on any Hindu woman. It is true that, side by side with this tradition, there has grown up in the lapse of ages another line of religious teaching, as ignoble as that just mentioned is noble. "Day and night," say the Laws of Manu, " must women be kept in dependence by the male members of the family ; they are never fit for independence ; Indian Womanhood 213 they are as impure as falsehood itself; ihis is a fixed rule " ; and again, " Let a woman be in subjection to her father in her child- hood, to her husband in her youth, to her sons in her old age, when her husband is dead ; let a woman never enjoy independence." And in another sacred code we read, ** If a w^oman's husband dies, let her lead a life of chastity or else mount his funeral pyre," from w^hich injunction the terrible custom of widow burning or sail was derived. These and other rehgious laws, dating back to very ancient times, changed for the worse the actual condition of Indian women and led to child-marriage, enforced widowhood, the refusal of education to w^omen, the dedication of children to immoral temples, and a hundred other religious evils w^hich have darkened the face of the land. The Muhammadan concep- influence tion of the complete seclusion of women °[^^^"^^^"' has also carried countless evils in its train. ^^^^^^^'^^^ The uneducated women of India have become, through ages of neglect, a prey to ignorance and superstition, and victims of man's selfish- ness and priestly greed. Yet in spite of century after century of debasing custom, the higher ideal has never died away, even though outward conditions have altered ; and in recent years, as we have seen, along 2 14 The Renaissance in India with the revival of national hfe this ideal has come again to the front and has been immediately accepted. (vi) The One of the most notable distinctions of Wifehood Indian life, when compared with that of the Motherhood. West, is that, while the romance of womanhood in Europe centres in early love and courtship, in India the romance surrounds the wdfe and mother. Ideals of chivalry, such as are represented in the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, are not unknown in India, but on the other hand they do not form the centre of the picture. That is taken by the wife and mother. Where most modern English novels end an Indian novel would in nine cases out of ten begin. Its Springs It is this Conception of woman's highest Ramayana. Sphere which makes the wonderful popu- larity of the Ramayana. The pure romance of the story lies in the babyhood of Rama, nestling in his mother's arms, and in the perfect chastity and devotion of the sorely- tried wife Sita. It is always to the well- known passages describing these scenes that the villagers of India turn, as they sit round their huqqas at night, after the heat and toil of the day are over. The recitation of them is welcomed even more than the rehearsal Indian Womanhood 2 I of the mighty deeds of valour wrought by the hero-god, Rama himself. Mr Oakley, speak- ing of the Ramfiyana after twenty years of intimate experience of Indian village life, writes as foUow^s : — '' There are whole pro- Popularity vinces in upper India where the R.im.iyana is R^lyana. emphatically the Bible of the people, where, after the day's work is over, the farmers in their village homesteads, the shopkeepers in the bazaar, gather together to hear their favourite portions of this work recited. The village sire, like Burns's pious cottar, ' wales a portion with judicious care,' and if any person qualified to do so is present the lines are explained and commented upon. It is for them a treasury of moving incident, of homely wisdom and religious sentiment." There can be little doubt that, more than any other single agent, this book has set the standard of Indian womanhood. It will be well to turn from these general h-ex- P , AMPLESOF statements to give some examples of educated educated Indian womanhood as it exists among Indian woman- Christians to-day. Aru and Torn Dutt were the children of U' Aru and -.^ rni 1 Torn Dull. Govin Chandra Dutt. They were born shortly before the Mutiny at a country house not far away from Calcutta. Their mother exercised an extraordinary influence over their 2i6 The Renaissance in India early days. She filled the young imagination of her children with the old songs and stories of the past, and stirred in their hearts a passionate devotion to their own motherland. At the same time she implanted in them an adoring love for Christ, the Saviour of Man- kind. The extreme delicacy of Govin's children made him wisely undertake a journey to Europe in days when very few Bengali famihes went on such a tour. The poetical faculties of Toru's mind seem to have slumbered until this adventure of foreign travel called them forth. Under its impulse her imagination suddenly awoke and her genius became Toru's Poetic creative, pouring forth poetry and prose with ^"^"s. ^^^^1^ profusion in both French and EngHsh. Her early work was naturally crude in the extreme ; but at each fresh flight of song she gained fresh powers. Aru, also, was endowed with the gift of song, but she was greater as an artist, and the two sisters combined together to bring out a book which Torn was to write and Aru to illustrate. But death brought to a close the ripening powers of both. Aru died at the age of twenty, and Torn at the age of twenty- one. . Yet before the latter died she had written poems of which Edmund Gosse could write : — Indian Womanhood 217 " It is impossible to exaggerate what we An Estimate, have lost in the premature death of Tom Dutt. Literature has no lionours wliich need have been beyond the reach of a ml who at the age of twenty-one had produced so much of lasting worth. Her courage and fortitude were worthy of her intelligence. Among the last words of celebrated people, that which her father has recorded — ' It is only physical pain which makes me cry ' — is not the least remarkable or the least signifi- cant of strong character. When the history of English Uterature comes to be written, there is certain to be a page dedicated to tliis fragile blossom of song." As her short life drew to a close, her heart Her Devotion turned more and more to her own Sanskrit Literature. literature. She planned a series of poems embodying the old classic traditions of her country. With the daring of youth, dying though she was at the time, she began to work at an epic w^hich should be worthy to take its place among the songs of Bengal. The bravery of her last illness, as she struggled on through physical pain and anguish with her books round her, has been recorded by her father. In her fragile body dwelt an indomitable spirit, which sustained her to the last. Like the experience of which Keats 2i8 The Renaissance in India has told us in that saddest of all English son- nets, she too had beheld — —upon the night's starred face Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance. She too had known that she would never live to trace Their shadows with the magic hand of chance. She too had felt Keats' solitude of soul ' on the shore of the wide world.' But through- out, her faith in Christ sustained her and His hand upheld her. She died as she had Uved, a pure Christian soul and a lover of her country. Her style Anioug the many verses that haunt the and Feeling. ^.^^ j^j, j^y ^j^^jj. beauty, some of the sweetest are those written concerning the Casuarina tree under which she had played at her mother's knee in childhood, and to whose moaning in the wind she had listened at night. " Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay. Where slumbered in his cave the water-wraith ; And the waves gently kissed the classic shore Of France or Italy beneath the moon^ When earth lay tranced in a dreamless swoon." Another melody, which first attracted Edmund Gosse's attention and made him recognise this new flower of Enghsh Htera- ture, runs as follows : — Indian Womanhood 219 ^^ Still barred thy doors ! The tar east glows, The morning wind blows fresh and free. Should not the hour that wakes the rose Awaken also thee ? All look for thee — love, light, and song : Light in the sky deep red above, Song in the lark of pinions strong. And in my heart true love. Apart we miss our nature's goal. Why strive to cheat our destinies ? Was not my love made for thy soul ? Thy beauty for mine eyes ? " It is a temptation to go on quoting melodies like these ; and I cannot refrain from giving the poem describing her childhood, when she used to hsten, with her brother and sister, to the story of Sita, told by their mother : — " Three happy children in a darkened room. What do they gaze on with wide-open eyes } A dense, dark forest, where no sunbeam pries. And in its centre a cleared spot. There bloom Gigantic flowers on creepers that embrace Tall trees ; there, in a quiet, lucid lake. The white swans glide; there, whirring through the brake, The peacock springs ; there, herds of wild deer race ; There, patches gleam with yellow, waving grain ; There, blue smoke from strange altars rises light. Where dwells in peace the poet-anchorite. But who is this fair lady ? Not in vain She weeps ; for, lo ! at every tear she sheds, Tears from three pairs of young eyes fall amain, 2 20 The Renaissance in India (ii) Sig- nificance of their Work for the Church, (iii) Place of Art, Music and Poetry in the Natural- isation of Christianity in India. And bowed in sorrow are the three young heads. It is an old^ old story^ and the lay Which has evoked sad Sita from the past Is by a mother sung." The long quotations I have given may appear out of proportion to the scope and purport of this book ; but I know no other way in which I could give more accurately, and in a living manner, the ideals of Indian womanhood and the treasures of art and song which the Christian Church will win from such characters as these. It is, perhaps, not known that the hymn," In the secret of His Presence," so absolutely simple in its expression of personal devotion to the Saviour, was written by the daughter of Nilakantha Goreh, one of the most saintly of all Brahmin converts to the faith. It is my growing conviction that the naturalisation of the Christian message amidst Indian conditions of life and thought will take place through the medium of art, music, and poetry more than through the channels of controversy and hard reasoning. One type of Christian missionary from England specially needed in India to-day is the imagi- native type possessing literary or artistic or musical ability, and able to enter sympatheti- cally into the heart of this highly gifted people. Indian Womanhood 2 I We have been far too narrow hitherto in our outlook, and have thouglit that we shall win India by our busy practical pliilanthropy and our highly organised institutions. Hut while these have done great good, and have commended the Clu-istian cause in certain directions, they have not touched the soul. On the other hand, where imacination is brought into play and the ideals of the East are appreciated, a kinsliip is estabhshed in India vdih the immediateness of instinctive affection. Only in a Cliristian home, in the middle The Fnut of of last century in Bengal, could such a perfect Honfe life, blossom of song as that of Torn Dutt have shed forth its fragrance. The Cliristian spirit is all-pervading ; at the same time, her faith itself causes her to love more deeply than ever the ballads and songs of her own Hindu past. Just as Greek and Roman poetry have become the classics of Christian Europe, and have not been put under a ban because pagan mythology is mingled with them, so the ancient Sanskrit hterature of India will always remain the classics of the land, and its stories will be cherished m future ages by Cin-istians. To Toru Dutt such an assimilation of the best life of India to Christianity came as a natural instinct. Her passionate love for the tradit ions 222 The Renaissance in India of her country, inherited from her mother, in no way mihtated against her Christian faith. It is of the utmost importance that this attitude should be expressed in the Indian Church, not hesitatingly and apologetically as a kind of after - thought, but spontaneously and instinctively, as a natural outcome of the Patriotism Christian faith. At a time when the name of of Christian Bengal was held in low esteem in Europe ^^^ • Torn Dutt raised it high among the nations of the West. In days when Bengalis were losing heart and despairing of themselves and their country she turned dehberately from the paths of foreign song to write of the glories of her own dear motherland. In an age when residence in Europe led too often to denationalised habits of life she remained a true BengaH lady, devoted to her country's noblest ideals. In her own person and work she pointed out the pathway of assimilation between East and West through the indwelling Spirit of Christ. (iv) Krupabai Krupabai Satthianadhan is the name of an- han. ^^"^ other Indian Christian lady famous in litera- ture and a true lover of her country. Her father, Hari Panth, belonged to a family of high-caste Marathi Brahmans, and was him- self, with his wife Radhabai, a convert to Christianity. Krupabai was the youngest of Indian Womanhood 223 a large family of sons and daughters. I lor father died just before lier birth ; but the family remained united, and tlie elder brothers and sisters helped the younger. In early days they moved their home to the healthy climate of the mountains of the Deccan. Here Krupabai grew up to be a lover of nature, keenly alive and sensitive to natural beauty. In the soUtude of the mountains she would hold communion with God, and her religious faith became richly coloured with adoration for Him who clothes the lilies of the field and feeds the sparrows — the Heavenly Father whom Christ came to reveal. She suffered much from physical pain and weakness, and resolved to become a doctor herself so that she might relieve the sufferings of others. She passed her examination brilliantly from the Her Medical College, but her health completely BnUiancy^ broke down. On her recovery she married Professor S. Satthianadhan, and the happiness of her wedded life seemed for a time to have fully restored her health. She shared her husband's intellectual labours when he undertook the duties and responsibilities of Professor of Moral Pliilosophy at the Presi- dency College, Madras, and the stinujlus which his brilHant talents afforded awakened in her Hterary gifts of a high order. Her 2 24 The Renaissance in India Her Novels, first novel, SagUTia, gained a place in the English literature of the times. It is largely an autobiography, and many of her descrip- tions of the mountains and valleys of India are full of poetic feeling. She describes in her book the early experiences of a pure and gifted soul in its struggle to attain to that ideal of holy excellence which Christ set forth before men. Her second novel, Kainala, dealt with Hindu life and its ideals. Meanwhile she was busily engaged in active philanthropy, endeavouring by every means in her power to help the women of her country — nursing the sick and dying, ministering to the outcast. Social The crown of the wedded life of Krupabai Home-Ufe!^ and her husband seemed to have been given them when at last a son was born after long waiting ; but the child died in infancy, and the delicate health of the mother never recovered from the shock. She died on the 8th of August 1894, and is buried by the side of her child in a quiet and beautiful spot in the Madras Cemetery. She is the type of educated woman whom India is now producing — cultured, refined, imaginative, the Christian product of the new Indian Renaissance.^ 1 For a short biography of another type of Christian philan- thropy and devotion among- Indian women^ the reader is referred to The Desire of India, pp. 248 (f: Indian Womanhood 225 We turn from such pictures as these — and iii.-pre- they might be paralleled for their love of condition country and devotion to good works from tlie m^F^uENCE ranks of that body, so singularly Clu-istian J^^^^^^^^" in spu-it, the Brahmo Samaj — to the position of the great majority of Indian women wlio still lead the old life of seclusion. Though tlie latter life is often equally devoted, its area is narrowly confined, and this narrowness brings with it special dangers and temptations as well as special hardship and suffermg. Tw^o quota- tions, taken from leading Indian papers strongly national in tone, may suggest the picture. A Modern Review writer says : — '' In The Outlook India woman has vegetated rather than lived p/e^/"'^'''" the full hfe. She has not attained the status which was hers by birth-right. She has not been granted the advantages of an independent human being, nor has she given to the nation at large an impetus towards development. She has been cribbed and cabined and her growth impeded." The second writer, describing m the Arija Patrika the present evil conditions, gives tlie following gloomy account : — " Looking on woman as a neghgible factor, we have monopolised all departments of thought and activity to ourselves, and our treatment has been unjust in the extreme. 226 The Renaissance in India To some, who have to pay large dowries for their daughters, the very birth of a female child is unwelcome. . . . Those who become widows lead miserable Hves ; their very presence is inauspicious, and they are denied all the comforts of life. Man may marry as often as he pleases, but woman only once. Man may, to improve his health, take open- air exercise ; but woman must remain a prisoner in the ' black holes ' of our houses — not homes. Man may win laurels in imiver- sities, but woman should not dream of know- ing the three R's. Man may go to foreign countries to learn various arts and sciences, but woman should not be given even chances of knowing how to handle a needle. Is not such a treatment of woman a disgrace to humanity ? . . . Mere talk of nationahsm does not produce a nation ; it should be obvious to every man in India that the future "The Future of the country depends upon its motherhood. Comftry ^^ ^^^7 ^^^^ ^ hundred pohtical congresses fi^P^"^s upon an(j conferences ; we may talk as much as we Its Mother- ... n i • t i hood." Will 01 our new-born nationahsm ; but never shall we make an inch of progress as a nation unless and until we solve tliis problem." Good There are, of course, other features wliich Pardaif Ufe. Considerably modify this picture, and a certain allowance must be made for the one-sided view Indian Womanhood 227 of a reformer. The old secluded life had many noble characteristics of its own. 11 created great and strong home affections, and its very concentration on the home made it impressive in certain directions. Again, it must not be imagined that each home in India only con- sists of one family ; not infrequently many famihes live under one roof, and thus the isola- tion of the zenana is not always so great as at first sight appears. There are also visits to the hathing-ghats, pilgrimages, festivals, which break the monotony and even the strictness of the pardah system. But however this may be, the present seclusion of Indian women is neither natural nor healthy. Life becomes stunted d stuntmg under such conditions, and when they are com- Par^dah°and bined with complete ilhteracy, then the super- illiteracy stition and ignorance and narrowness which often pervade it are almost inconceivable. If it be asked why progress among the educated in India is so slow and so one-sided, ending so often in mere words rather than deeds, the answer given would be — because of the home-influence. The educated classes The Home in India neither get a fair start in their child- Hindfancc hood, nor can they break the chains of narrow %^^^,l'^t home-traditions in later life. The bonds of Educauon. caste and other evil customs, wliich now cut so deeply, would be loosened at once if the home 228 The Renaissance in India were an educated home. But as it is, in ninety- nine cases out of a hundred ignorance prevails. The evil caused by this ignorance works itself round in a kind of vicious circle. The uneducated mothers, often themselves mere cliildren, have little else to teach their own little ones but fabulous legends and old-world The Endur- superstitions. The imagination is very strong of^Eari^^^ in early years. The mother's teaching, how- Superstition ever foohsh, leaves an indehble impression. and Ig-norant ^ -, i i Teaching-, btudents have told me that they have never been able to get rid of the picture of the world and its geography and history which was stamped on their minds by their mothers' stories in childhood. An interesting case, which bears out this fact, came under my own notice. I once asked my Hindu students how many of them believed that aeroplanes were in use in early India. An air-chariot is part of the story of the Ramayana, and for this reason I asked the question. To my surprise, the whole class declared that they fully believed that they were used by ancient Indian heroes. Those who stated this were grown-up men, with homes and children of their own, who had studied modern history and modern science ; yet nothing could shake the belief of their younger days, learnt at their mothers' knees. Indian Womanhood 229 The effect of having one section of society Hi) Conflict educated in modern ways, and the other an^cXU section still hving in the old world of the past, wuhZcnana raises some of the greatest problems of this time of Indian transition. At school the mind of the Indian boy is visibly confused. He hves, for the most part, in an atmosj)here of bewilderment. Life is divided, for liiiu, into two separate compartments — the modern school and the old-world zenana. The teach- ing of the one contrachcts the teaching of the other, and he does not attempt to form a synthesis except in the crudest manner. The difficulty in college days is somewhat different. The college student has become more or less emancipated. He has, with con- siderable limitations and with many corners of his mind still unswept and ungarnislied, taken up the modern position. He is even ready and anxious to act upon what he knows to be true — but he is married. Within the house, the power of tlie grand- iii The mother, mother, and wife, respectively, H ^^ it develops its own life from within INDIA. while conserving all that is good in the customs and traditions of the country, no one can accurately foretell. Some broad generaHsa- tions, however, can be made with regard (i) Three to India as a whole. It is probable that Northern, three typcs, corresponding with the Northern, and^Ben'aii Southern, and Eastern races, will come into evidence. The Southern type, in keeping with a more relaxing chmate, will be more emotional and sensuous, warmer in colour and richer in ceremonial. Its nearest anal- ogy may be that of Southern Europe. The Northern type will be more practical and probably more austere. The stress of all the many invasions of India has been felt in the North, and it is there that the soldiers of India are chiefly recruited. It has also been for many centuries the home of Islam, and is mainly Aryan in population. Bengal, in the East, is developing a national consciousness which will be one of the strongest forces in Modern India. The Bengali race is more Aryan than the South, but less Aryan Christian Ideals in India 261 than the North. It has, in addition, a Mon- gohan element which has made a remark- able blend of character — highly imaginative and intellectual. The old libels of Macaulay and others concerning the Bengahs must be discounted by anyone who wislies to form a true estimate of this most brilliant people. The Christian type in Bengal \n\\ come near to the South in emotion and sensuous imagina- tion, but there will be added qualities of keen speculation and radicahsm of thought. Bengal is the France of India. The fact that these striking variations exist ("). The Ex- does not imply that the dream of a great of India united Indian Church can never be realised, [^n chrfst^ It has been a commonplace w4th a certain school of writers to assert that India can never become a nation. In the narrower sense of the word, confining it to a single race, this may be true ; but if the United States may be called by that name, there is no reason why India should not become a nation also. Geographically, she is a unity ; in sentiment, she is a unity; poHtically, she is becoming more and more a unity. What is needed to complete this unity is the Christian Faith. The words of Keshab Chandra Sen, '' It is Christ who rules India, not the British Govern- ment," are a prophecy from Indian lips fore- 262 The Renaissance in India telling the great Indian Christian Church of the future. When the National Movement began there was one word which ran through the length and breadth of the land and was taken up by millions of voices. It was the word Mother as apphed to India. The affection contained in that word must gather round the Church, if she is to be in very truth the nursing Mother of the Indian peoples. It may well be the case that in the future the closing words of the Apostles' Creed—" The Holy CathoHc Church, the Communion of Saints "^will gain a new fulness of meaning when interpreted (iii) The by Indian Christians. The Indian reverence Mother.^^ for motherhood needs to be rescued from the debasing idol- worship with which it has been invested. In any reHgion which is to become acclimatised in India this ideal of motherhood must have a prominent place. The Church, which St Paul has called " the mother of us all," supphes that need without the danger of obscuring and confusing the thought of God as our Heavenly Father. It may be objected that the use of the word Mother of the Church by St Paul is only symbolic. That is true; but the symbol is infinitely nobler and purer in character than that of Mother Ganges or Mother KaH, round Christian Ideals in India 26 which the reverence and devotion of millions of Hindus now centre. St Boniface cui down the sacred oaks which the Germans worshipped and built with them Christian churches. This action is a parable with regard to many transformations which must be made in India if Christianity is to reach the hearts of the people. The criticism naturally arises with respect (iv) The to the Christian ideal which has been out- ofThe "^"^^ lined above, that it is related to the communitv Co"^"^""^' ... .... Ideal in rather than to the individual. This is inevi- India, table, and corresponds with one of the most striking features of Indian habit and custom. Centuries of close communal life have caused the individual to be merged in the social environment. It is true, indeed, that Chris- The tianity must build up from the very beginning orTper^nai that personal character and initiative wliich ^^^^^• has been lacking in much of the rehgious life and teaching of India in the past. Conversion and confession must be as clear notes of the Church in India to-day as in any other place and age since Christ came. The Church must hold fast to the teaching of her Master — " Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Yet the fact remains that it is the community which comes first in Indian thought and life. All is regulated according to the will and 264 The Renaissance in India The Testimony of Christian Converts to the Power of the Communal Ideal. custom of the community, and this affects the whole outlook upon religion. I once noted down the answers which I received from leading Indian converts whom I had met from time to time as to the special causes which had led them to become Christians. One after the other omitted that cause which I should have imagined to be primary — namely, the longing for personal salvation. Some told me that it was the moral perfection of Christ's character, especially as seen in the Sermon on the Mount — the attraction of the Christian moral standard. Many replied that it was the freedom of the Christian life compared with the bondage of caste — the attraction of the Christian brotherhood. Others stated that it was the thought of Christ uniting all the divided races and peoples of India into one — the ideal of the Christian Church. But I found no case in which the individual's own need was the sole or even primary factor. I do not imply by this that the sense of in- dividual need of salvation is absent, or that this experience is necessarily typical. But in such instances as these the purely personal aspect develops later. The community is the primary concern. If rightly developed, there should arise in India a type of Christianity which would be Christian Ideals in India 265 a corrective of the excessive individualism Indian of the West. Up to the present the corrcafvcof Indian Christian community has been too ^^^uaiUm weak to make its own genius felt. The many divisions of the missionary bodies, unintelli- gible to the Indian Christian, have added to the confusion. It is not, of course, within the province of this book to discuss the question (v) Reunion of the reunion of the Churches ; but it lies churches the at the very heart of the Indian missionarv J^^.^''^ o^ ^^<^ 'J ' Indian problem. " That they all may be one, that Missionary the world may beheve," — this sets forth the order of Indian acceptance of the Faith ; and as long as the Church makes hght of the intercession of her Lord, the ' world ' of India, with all its inherited communal instincts and its pathetic longing for unity, will fail to come to a full behef in Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The ideal of a United Christendom would mean more to India than to any other country in the world. The conviction grows stronger with every ^^^^^^^'J^j^^^^ year spent in India that the people of this to the Fui- land, numbering one-fifth of the human race, ^'h'r'sUan'' have one of the greatest possible contributions Message, to make towards the fulness of the Christian message. A country where the very birds and squirrels flit about quite fearlessly and are men's friends, not wild, hunted creatures ; a 266 The Renaissance in India country where drunkenness is comparatively little known and lives of simple, complete poverty puts our modern luxury to shame ; a country where renunciation of the world has been for centuries a passion and its practice an object of worship ; a country where mother- hood is reverenced to the point of adoration — such a country must surely have much to teach the Christian Church as well as much to learn. The Re- The Indian peoples are among the most of°indra"^^^ loveable as well as the most loving of the races of mankind. To the heart that loves them they open out with a wealth of affection which is lavish in its freedom from reserve. From the heart that despises them they shrink back like a sensitive plant. If this book has in any way served to win sympathy and affection for the educated classes of India in their difficult struggle forward, it will have effected its main object. For where love exists, prayer and service will follow. v.-«'LovE As a prologue to these chapters I quoted FAiLETH." the opening words of the Gospel according to St John. As an epilogue, I would set down the Hymn of St Paul — the great hymn of Chris- tian love. May the book be studied and its message given in the spirit of that hymn. 1?' 9 .^ .112 c 5 = 3 Christian Ideals in India 267 " Though I speak with tlie tongues Of men and of angels, And have not love, I am become as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. " Though I have the gift of prophecy, And understand all mysteries and knowledge, And though I have all faith, So that I could remove mountiiins, And have not love, I am nothing. " Though I give all my goods to feed the poor, And though I give my body to be burned, And have not love, It profiteth me nothing. " Love suffereth long and is kind, Love envieth not ; Love vaunteth not itself, Love is not puffed up. " Love doth not behave itself unseemly, Seeketh not her own : Love is not easily provoked, Taketh not account of evil, Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, But rejoiceth with the truth. " Love beareth all things, believeth all things ; Hopeth all things, endureth all things ; Love never faileth. " Whether there be prophecies they shall fail ; Whether there be tongues they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. 268 The Renaissance in India " For \ve know in part^ And prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come^ Then that which is in part shall be done away. " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. " For now we see through a mirror darkly ; But then face to face. Now I know in part : But then shall I know, even as I am known. " Now abideth, Faith, Hope, Love, These three ; But the greatest of these Is Love." For further Reference. Andrews [19, 21, and es- Holland [28], peciallv 20]. Lucas \^&]. Davies [22]. MacLean [28^]. Edinburgh Conference, \o\. Robinson [92]. II. [62]. Rudra {SS, 34]. Hayes [6d\ Stokes [69\ APPENDIX I WHAT IT IS TO liE A JllNDl". A Man is a Hindu because of two Tiiin»;s— BHITH and CONFORMITY, i.e. Birth into one or other of the very numerous castes, and Conformltij to the rules of the caste into which lie is born. These caste rules concern chiefly food-regulations, occupation, ancestor-worship, marriage and other domestic ceremonies, and worship of the household gods. BELIEF : The substance of Hindu faith is exceedingly ditlicult to define, because it difiers with different people. Certain convictions, however, are held by nearly all Hindus : — Validity of Caste. Authority of the Vedas and of the Brahmans. Doctrines of Transmigration and Karma. Sacredness of the Cow. A general characteristic is the tendency to, Mystic Pantheism. The Educated Hindu has some belief in one God; polytheism has be- come incredible. The National Movement i.s 2Gy 2 70 The Renaissance in India weakening caste. Faith in the religious basis of the Hindu family is fading. The Orthodox Brah^ian believes in the earlier form of Hinduism ; keeps up the old ceremonies ; ackno^yledges the old gods ; is usually a Saivite or Yaishnavaite ; and studies one of the systems of philosophy. The Average Villager keeps up the ceremonies, worships Rama or Krishna or Siva as his particular divinity, or in some cases Kali, Hanuman, or the local village demon-mother. Philosophic Hinduism : Hinduism exists as Abstract Philosophy expressed in many divergent schools of thought and rooted in Pantheistic conceptions of the universe. Popular Hinduism: It also exists as a Popular Faith absorbing and revert- ing to the underlying Animism and degenerating into degrading Polytheism. N.B. — Although to the popular form belong caste, idolatry, and unworthy incarnations of deity, these are so interwoven with daily life that they permeate educated Hindu thought. Again, re-incarnation and Karma, though philosophic conceptions, have spread to the lowest classes. It will be seen that it is almost impossible to make hard-and-fast distinctions within Hinduism. Appendices APPENDIX U FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTIONS OF HINDUISM and ClIiflSTlAMTV. God The all- pervading The One Eternal Fatlier essence of the Uni- revealed in .lesus verse. Christ. The World Unreal. A battle-ground. The visible, an illusion. The visible, a sacra- ment. Human Life Essentially evil ; to be Essentially good ; an escaped by cessation ever-increasing o})- from desire. portunity of loving service. Salvation Eelease from the chain Forgiveness of past sins of individual exist- and new life unto ence. righteousness. The Social Order Stratified by caste. A Brotherhood includ- Each man's place un- ing all men as alterably fixed by children of the One birth. Father. The Past Irrevocable, must be Redeemed by the in- expiated by man finite sacrifice of himself. divine love. The Goal Identity with Brahma. " Communion with God : Nirvana. " The measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 272 The Renaissance in India f*^ o p M 9 CM Q O 00 ^ o S >> g O '-H GO ^* , ' . , d o ^ -"SS >H »* d M ^ rS «"od1 3 ^ g oO_ <^^-e_ S_;S I It "When I reached home the niin hud ceased, and witli it the thunder and lightning. The earth drank in the nectar of the showers. There was a life-giving coolness and freshness in the night's breeze. And as, before retiring to rest, I sat with bowed head in supplication to the Supreme, and was thinking what I should say by way of prayer, somehow the words uttered by the Master of old, to serve as a light to life's journey, came spontaneously to my lips from the very depth of my heart — 'I and the father are One.' 'I speak not of Myself, but the Father which dwelleth in ^le, He doeth the works.' " That was another call to calmness from on high. The night's sleep was restful and sweet. I rose in the morning refreshed, and found that the storm on the previous evening was followed by a serene day. And as I was looking on the beautiful scene before me, once more I felt touched, and the voice whispered the words of the previous night — 'I and the Father are One.' "Inspired by silent joy I set out and joined my Maharshi (religious leader). He was in one of his spiritual moods. When is he nof? His presence added to my happiness, and I gently and with reverence drew him out so as to catch something of his devout spirit. " ' I and the Father are One.' ' I speak not of Myself, but the Father who dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. ' This is what Christ Jesus said, and the words uttered nearly two thousand years ago in Palestine have lived to lighten the sorrows and sufterings of toiling humanity ever since. And have not our saints in India said the same thing in exactly the .same language? This was the question I asked, and my Maharshi was all aflame with the spirit divine as he poured forth hymn after hymn of Tukunlm, in which 276 The Renaissance in India that child of God proclaimed, 'I and the Father are One,' to make it clear unto the world that God is in us, speaks unto us, guides us, every moment of our lives — only we ourselves are listless and hearken not in the conceit of our hearts and in the pride of our passions. "So instructed I went home, and there another joy awaited me. Two beloved friends — a Christian missionary and his wife — had called and were waiting to see me. We spent the day together and spoke about the sacred words, 'I and the Father are One.' We read the fourteenth and following chapters of the Gospel according to St John. I compared them with some of the sacred songs of our Hindu saints, Tukaram and Nanadeva, and of that sweet songstress of Hindu devotion — my lady Muktabai. " The words ' I and the Father are One ' seemed thus to follow me and ring in my ears throughout the whole day. In the evening I set out for a walk with my Maharshi. We took the direction of a hill which had a large plateau. Years ago it had been every evening the resort of the Maharshi, myself, and one dear but departed soul. Since then the place had become private property ; in the midst stands a chapel. The owner of the place, a Christian friend of mine, had told me that I could roam about there whenever I liked. With this liberty given, we were looking for a place where we could sit, muse, and talk a little while, when the owner himself caught sight of us and hastened to where we were. He led us to his house, which stands on the highest ground there, and as we were going up a magniticent sight presented itself to us. " The sky in the West, visible from where we were looking on, was spread out before us like a sea. The sun had just set, and the horizon in the West, where we had just seen him go down glittering — as also the Appendices 277 earth below— was covered with a mist of dark bhie, a colour which seemed borrowed from the sky a])ovc. Colour was everywhere, radiant, glorious. We found Nature like an artist painting on the clouds pictures for our delight. It seemed as if God was playing the greatest and supremest artist, that He ever is, for our delight and devotion. From the terrace of my Christian friend we drank in the scene. It was a sober evening, friendly to devotion. We sat for nearly an hour speaking of duty and of God. Then we left the place silently, blest in spirit by power Divine. " I shall never forget that day. A succession of sweet emotions born of the inspiring words— "I and the Father are One." It is such a day that fills the heart with loving thoughts. The mind is turned to reverence and discerns the depth of meaning that there is in life. " My soul, blessed be this day of delight! The earth is full of blessings. Surrender thyself to the Divine Life, in and with God. Say every moment — ' I and the Father are One.' " This long extract is taken from the writings of one who might rightly be described as on the very border- land of the Christian faith. A very different example follows, taken from the Nationalist literature in Bengal. Here the remarkable thing to notice is that the writer frames his own Hindu thoughts in a kind of Christian framework as he gives them forth to his own country- men. The "vernacular" of the Bible has become so well known that it is taken naturally to express his ideas. The passages are also remarkable as illustrating the religious personification of the spirit of nationality, as the new Avatar, or Incarnation. "There is a creed to-day in India which calls itself Nationalism. It is not a mere political programme, but 278 The Renaissance in India a religion ; it is a creed in which all who follow it will have to live and suffer. Let no man call himself a Nationalist to-day with a sort of intellectual conceit. To be a Nationalist in India means to be an instrument of God, and to live in that spirit. For the force that is awakening the nation is not of man ; it is divine. We need not be a people who are politically strong; we need not be a people sound in physique ; we need not be a people of highest intellectual standing ; but we must be a people who believe. " Certain forces have appeared against the new religion. It always happens that when the Avatar appears, when God is going to be born in the people, such forces of opposition arise. The question then becomes a personal one. Are you who take your part in this divine movement able to endure ? (' Yes.') Do not say lightly ' Yes ' ; it is a solemn thing. Suppose the question is put to you, ' Will you suffer 1 ' how will you answer ? Have you got a real faith that the movement is from God, or is it merely a political aspiration ? Or is it merely a larger selfishness ? Or is it merely that you wish to be free in order to oppress others, as you are being oppressed 1 Do you hold your political creed from a higher or a lower source ? Is it really God that is born in you ? Do you really believe 1 Have you realised that you are merely the instruments of God, and that your bodies are not your own 1 If you have realised all this, then you are true Nationalists, able to save the spirit of India from lasting obscuration. " You all know what Bengal used to be — a term of reproach and a byword among nations. What has made Bengal so different to-day 1 Bengal has learnt to believe. She now has her faith in God. . . . " You see then this movement which no obstacle can THE SNOWS OF TIIK lUMALWAS Appendices 279 now stop. You see God being born again on earth to save His people. The Lord Krishna, who is now among the poor and despised of the earth, will declare the Godhead and the whole nation will rise. He has a work for His great and ancient nation India. Therefore He has been born again to do it ; therefore He is revealing Himself in you— not that you may rise by human strength to trample underfoot the weaker peoples, but because something must come out of you which is to save your nation and the world. That which the ancient seers knew and revealed of old is to be known again on earth and revealed in the Avatar ; and in order that the Lord Krishna may reveal Himself again you must realise Him in yourselves and shape your own lives, and the life of this great nation, that it may be fit to reveal Him." " In the season of ordeal and persecution only the children of grace, for whom the gospel is preached, are able to see the vision of its glory. The world admires and hates, but will not believe. It promulgates an ordin- ance that the first-born shall be sought out and put to the sword. As in the early days of the Christian Church, so always, zealous persecutors 'breathe out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord ' and * make havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, commit them to prison.' Even the nation itself, to which the gospel is preached, the rich man and the high-priest, receive the doctrine with contempt, because its enthusiasms are unintelligible to their worldly wisdom, its inspired teach- ings are a scandal to their narrow systems ; they even accuse its apostles before the tribunal of alien rulers — a Pontius Pilate, a Felix and a Festus — as ' j^estilent fellows and movers of sedition throughout the nation.' But Nationalism is an Avatar and cannot be slain. The K 28o The Renaissance in India powers of evil cannot destroy the Lord Krishna. Nationalism is a divinely appointed power of the Eternal and must do its God-given work before it returns to the Universal Energy from Avhence it came." The extracts that I have given present a strange medley — a strange ferment of thought. Beneath them the Christian leaven can be seen working, penetrat- ing the great mass of Indian life. To change the metaphor, the ground in which the Christian seed is being sown is rich and even luxuriant in fertility. The good seed of the kingdom is springing up and the tares also. We may wish to keep the wheat separate from the tares, but the word of the Master comes to us — "Let both grow together until the harvest." APPENDIX V A MODERN HINDU CATECHISM The following is taken from the Hindu Catechism pre- pared by Mrs Besant with the help of certain Pandits and issued by the Board of Trustees of the Central Hindu College. It is now used in a very large number of Hindu schools throughout India. Notice should be taken of the fact that it differs fundamentally from the Arya position in accepting other books besides the Vedas as sacred scriptures. It should also be noted that the Puranas and the Laws of Manu are taken unreservedly as scriptures, although the former contain the immoral Krishna legends and the latter contain some very debasing rules concerning the treatment of the lower castes, sati, etc. The form of the catechism is clearly taken from the West, and the Christian influence is apparent, especially in the ethical setting. Appendices 281 I. What is the meaning of the words Sandfana Dharma ? An.swer. Sanatana means eteimal ; Dharma means religion. Q. To what religion is this name jziven 1 A. It is given to the Hindu religion, which is the oldest of the religions now in the world. Q. Is this the only reason for giving it tlie name eternal. A. No. It is also given because the great truths taught in it are eternal. Q. What is its foundation ? A. The Four Vedas, namely, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Atharva Veda. These were spoken by the Rishis, holy men taught by Brahma, and teach us how to worship and what to believe. Q. Are there any other books given by Rishis ? A. Yes. There are the Laws of Manu, the great Puranas, and the two histories, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These are the chief books from which we learn the Sandfana Dharma. Q. What are we taught to believe about the Supreme Being, God ? A. That there is one Boundless, Eternal Being, "One only, without a Second." He is spoken of as Brahma in all the sacred books, or as Para- brahma, or as THE ALL, because containing all that ever has been, is, or will be. Q. Can w^e know that Eternal Being 1 A. Only when revealed as Ishvara, tiie Lord, the loving Father of all worlds and of all creatures who live in them. Q. How does Ishvara help us to know Him ? A. By taking different forms, each of which shows us a little portion of Him, so that we may learn to 282 The Renaissance in India know Him little by little. The more we know Him the more we learn to love Him. Some forms show us little, other forms show us much of Him. Q. Tell me some of these forms. A. The chief are the three great Devas (gods) called the Trimurti, whose names are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. As Brahma, Ishvara creates the worlds; as Vishnu, He sustains and preserves them ; as Shiva, He dissolves them again when they are worn out and useless. Q. What other forms does He take ? A. The forms of Devas and Devis (gods and goddesses), such as Indra who sends the rain ; Agni who gives us fire. Q. Does He take any other forms ? A. Yes, He lives in us, in our hearts always, and in our own inner self ; He shines out in us when we are loving and pure, and is clouded over when we are cruel or unclean. And He lives also in all animals, and even in plants and stones. He is everywhere, helping everyone and everything, and we cannot do harm to any without hurting Him. Q. How many Avatdras are there 1 A. Ten : (1) The Fish, who came when the earth was covered with water to save alive the Manu and others ; (2) The Tortoise, who came to support the earth during great convulsions ; (3) The Boar, who came to lift the earth out of the waters ; (4) The ]\I' n-lion, who came to slay a great oppressor ; (5) The Dwarf, who came to deliver man from tyranny ; (6) Kama of the Axe, who came to punish the warrior caste for abusing their power ; (7) Rama, the ideal King and model son and brother ; (8) Krishna, the beloved object of Appendices 2i»«O •5 od~ I -T oo" t^ u-r «o" tC >r o" « rl ,-H ,-1 t^ CO «?DCOr-i«DO't oo ^ OS O ^ -^ l^ Tj» O^O'.-T r-T 00 eir-i«oeoeoc^-j'eo M Cft u-^ l^ C^ 7^ i^O «^U-: r-l ,-1 i-c r-l .-. •^ t>- I— I 1—1 i-h" I OJ CO 1 •'J' O ocT CO_«D i-H ^ >g< GO i-f W fi' oo" .-T i-T CO (rf I— I w Tj«i^ctJl--CD-^CV005 CO w" r-T i-T icT i-T r-T 3 Oi rH c^ ^x t-COCiOO r^ -^ '>\V^ *o.-hooi— loooo c^eo'O 00 ^ ^ ,_, t-^ CO OOOOS'XJOil--'— it^CO'^OO M t^ 05 1-- t^ -^ --I ■* O r-< ^ t-t~«.Ot-^C^005000COOO O t-, O 00 oo F-H 05 r^ t^ t-^ to O OJ OS 0.!N r-l r-1 t^ OO O (N »0 t^ Mt^'*Ci-^ooknt^"- divisions not being mutually exclusive. (i) BIOGRAPHICAL. Carus- Wilson , Mrs Ashley. !. Irene Petrie, Missionary' to Kashmir. 1911. (Iloddcr & Stoughton, 2s. 6d.) 300 The Renaissance in India COLLETT, S. D. 39. Lije and Letters of Raja Ham Mohan Roy. 1900. (Harold Collett, 20 Bucklersbury, London, 2s. 6d.) [The standard Life.] Dyer, H. S. ^ 40. Lif e of Pandita Ramabai. 1900. (Morgan &^cott, Is. 6d.) Gardiner, C. E. 41. Life oj Nehemiah Goreh. 1900. (Longmans, 5s.) Lee, a. 42. Life of Chandra Lela, an Indian Priestess. 1902. (Morgan & Scott, Is. 6d.) MtJLLER, F. Max. 43. Biographical Essays. (Longmans, 5s.) [Ram Mohan, Keshab, etc.] Oman, J. Campbell. 44. Brahmans, Theists, and Muslims of India. 1903. (Fisher Unwin, 7s. 6d.) [Excellent accounts of Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj , and their founders. ] Smith, George. 45. Lif e of Alexander Duff. 1899. (Hodder & Stoughton, 6s.). Richter's History {infra, 68) is rich in biog)-aphical sketches of great missionaries and leaders in modern movements within Hinduism. (ii) EDUCATIONAL, SOCIAL, AND GENERAL. 46. Indian Idylls. (Elliot Stock, 3s. 6d.) Ali, Yusuf. 47. Life and Labour of the Peoples of India. 1907. (John Murray, 7s. 6d.) [Vivid, chatty, and especially useful as a general view of social conditions.] Alston, Leonard. 48. Education and Citizenship in India. 1910. (Longmans, 4s 6d.) [Copious in quotations from recent authorities.] Andrews, C. F. 49. North India. _ 1908. (Mowbray, 2s. 6d.) [The last two chapters eminently successful in presenting the Indian "point of view" regarding modern developments and aspirations.] Banerjea, Ramathanath. 50. A Study of Indian Economics. (Macmillan, 3s. 6d.) Chirol, Sir Valentine. 51. Indian Unrest. 1910. (Macmillan, 5s. ) ["LQiiers oi The Times Correspondent in India, enlarged and revised : records most significant facts, and traces very keenly underlying causes.] Bibliography 301 Eddy, Sherwood, 52. India Awakening. 1911. (American Missionary Educational Movement, New York : 2s. 6d. ; the new American to.\t-l>ook.) Fuller, Sir Bampftlde. 53. Studies in Indian Life and Sentiment. 1910. (Oliphant, 6s.) [Concise in its historical sketch and clear in analysis of the principles underlying modern tendencies in India.] James, H. R. 54. Education and Statesmanship in India. 1911. (Longmans, 3s. 6d.) [An excellent study in the development of Govern- ment educational policy from the time of Macatilay till the present, with a good discussion of the existing problem of Education in relation to Nationalism and Religion.] Pennell, J. L. 55. Things Seen in Northern India. 1912. (Seelcy, 2.'*.) [Im- pressions of Land and People.] Sorabji, Cornelia. 56. Between the Ticilights. 1908. (Harper, 5s.) [AfTords insight into the secret of the power of caste.] Thompson, E. W. 57. Junior School History of India. 1910. (C.L.S.I., Is. 3(1.) 58. History of India. (C.L.S.I., 2s. 6d.) TowNSEND, Meredith. 59. Asia and Europe. 1905. (Constable, 5s.) [Particularly good on the problem of racial characteristics and relationships. Written from a fairly neutral point of view.] (iii) MISSIONS, THEIR PROGRESS AND POLICY. Datta, S. K. 60. The Desire of India. 1909. (Young People's Missionary Movement, 2s. : the earlier text-book in this series. ) Edinburgh Conference Report, 1910, especially— 61. Vol. L Carrying the Gospel. 62. Vol. II. The Church in the Mission Field. 63. Vol. VIII. Co-operation and Unity. 64. Vol. IX. Recoi-ds and Addresses. See also 79. (Oliphant, 2s. each.) 65. At Work. 1911. (Marshall Bros., 2s. 6d.) [See above, p. 212.] Lucas, Bernard. 66. The Empire of Christ. 1908. (Macmillan, 2s. 6d.) Mylne, Bishop. ^, , rr. ,. . 67. Missions to Hindus. 1908. (Longmans, 2s. 6d.) [Excellent on Caste.] 302 The Renaissance in India RicHTEB, Julius. 68. A History of Missions in India. 1910. (Oliphant, 10s. 6d.) [The standard history : indispensable.] Stokes, S. 69. The Love of God. 1912. {Fifth Edition, with Appendix. Longmans, Is. 6d.) [The story of a Franciscan movement in Indian missions. Se® above, p. 243.] See also 45, 48, 65, 79. (iv) RELIGIONS AND LITERATURE OF INDIA. Arnold, Sir E. 70. The Song Celestial. 1908. [A rendering of the Bhagavad Gita.] 71. The Light of Asia. 1909. TThe story of Gautama, the Buddha.] (Kegan Paul, Is. 6d. each.) Barnett, L. D. 72. The Bhagavad Gita. (Temple Classics. Dent, Is. 6d.) [On the whole the best translation, v?ith a very thorough intro- duction.] 73. The Heart of India. 1908. (Wisdom of the East Series. Murray, 2s.) [Chiefly extracts from Hindu Scriptures.] Chatterji, Mohini M. 74. The Bhagavad Gita. (Houghton, Mifilin & Co., Boston and New York, 10s. 6d.) Deussen, Paul. 75. Outline of Vedanta System of Philosophy. 1907. (Luzac, 4s. 6d.) 76. Philosophy of the Upanishads. 1906. (T. & T. Clark, 10s. 6d.) [Most sympathetic and profound.] DUTT, Romesh C. 77. Indian Poetry. (Temple Classics. Dent, Is. 6d.) [Renderings in verse of typical Scriptures, chiefly from the Vedic Hymns.] DUTT, TORU. 78. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. 1906. (Kegan Paul, 5s.) [See above, p. 216.] 79. Edinburgh Conference Report, 1910, vol. iv., The Missionary Message. [Most important.] Eraser, J. N. , and K. B. Marathi. 80. Poems of Tukaram. 1909. (C.L.S.L, 5s.) Haigh, Henry. 81. Some Leading Ideas of Hinduism. (Fernley Lectures, 1902. Methodist Publishing House, 2s. 6d.) [Very lucid, sympathetic, and well-balanced.] Hopkins, E. W. 82. The Religions of India. 1902. (Ginn & Co., Boston, Ss, 6d.) Bibliography Hume, R. A. 83. An Interpretation of India's Religious History. 1011. (Kovoll, 5s.) Jones, J. P. 84. iTidia, its Life and Thought. 1908. (Macmillan, 7h. dl) [Especially for Bhagavad Gita, Caste, Hindu Religious Ideals, and Modern Movements.] LlLLIKQSTON, F. 85. The Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj in tlioir hearing' \ipon Christianity. 1901. (Macmillan, 2a. Gd.) Lucas, Bernard. 86. Christ for India, 1910. (Macmillan, 6.s.) fAn attempt at reinterpretation in the light of India's need.] Lyall, Sir A. C. 87. Asiatic Studies. 1899. (2 vols. John Murray, 5s. each. ) Macdonell, a. a. 88. A History of Sanskrit Literature. 1900. (Heinemann, 6.s.) [Valuable study, especially of the Vedas.] Macnicol, N. 89. The Religion of Jesus. 1910. (C.L.S.I.. Is.) [An excellent presentation of Christian teaching in view of Hindu thought.] Mitchell, J. Murray. 90. The Great Religions of India. (Oliphant, Ss.) Oman, J. C. 91. Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India. 1907. (FLsher L'nwin, 7s. 6d.) Robinson, C. H. 92. The Intei-pretation of the Character of Christ to non-Christian Races. 1910. (Longmans, 3s. 6d.) Slater, T. K 93. The Higher Hinduism and Christianity. (Elliot Stock, 3s. 6il.) Tisdall, W. St Clair. 94. India: Its History, Darkness, and Dawn. (S. C. M., Is. 6d.) See also 49, 52, 56, 62, 63, 64. (V) INDIAN WOMANHOOD. Carmichael, Amy Wilson. 95. Things as They Are in South India. (Is. 6d.) OverwoightB of Joy. (23. 6d.) (Morgan & Scott.) [Dark pictures, but true to fact.] Cowan, Miss M. C. ,. u . , i 96. The Education of Indian Women. (To be published abortly ; important. ) 304 The Renaissance in India Fuller, Mrs M. B, 97. The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood. 1900. (Introduction by Kamabai. Revell, 5s.) Heston, Winifred, M.D. 98. A Bluestocking in India. 1910. (Andrew Meh-ose, 3s. 6d. ) HiNKLEY, Edith and Marie L. Christlieb. 99. A Struggle for a Soul. 1909. (R. T. S., 3s. 6d.) Ramabai, Pandita, 100. The High Caste Hindu Woman. (New ed. 1901. ReveU, 3s. 6d.) See also 36, 38, 42, 52, 56, 61, 73, 79. LIST C. Edinburgh Conference. Statistical Atlas of Missions, 1910. (Oliphant, 15s.) [Very complete statistics.] Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. (T. & T. Clark, 4 vols, now published.) [For articles on Hinduism, on such movements as the Arya Samaj, on individual men, on caste, etc.] Imperial Gazetteer of India, particularly vols. i. and ii. , New Edition. (Clarendon Press, 3 908, 6s. per vol.) [Authoritative and concise statements on Ethnology, Religions, Social Life, Caste, etc.) Statistical Abstract Relating to British India 1900-01 to 1909-10. Forty-fifth number, 1911. (Wyman & Sons, Is. 3d.) Census Reports, as they become available. (Wyman & Sons, Fetter Lane, E.C.) See also art. ' Indian Census.' (E. & W., July 1912.) Charts on Hinduism. 1912. (United Council for Missionary Study, 78 Fleet Street, E.C. 3s, 6d. post free. See special slip in this book. ) C. L.S. I. = Christian Literature Society for India, 35 John Street, Bedford Row, W.C. S,C.M.= Student Christian Movement, 93 and 94 Chancery Lane, W.C. Y.P.M.M, = Young People's Missionary Movement, 78 Fleet Street, E.C. INDEX Agni, 66, 282 Agnosticism, 14, 74, 127 Aligarh College, 41, 126 „ Movement, 4, 12, 123, 127 Allahabad, 44 " Anglicists," 28 Anglo-Indians, 30, 56, 165, 169, 285 ,, influence against Christianity, 169 ff. Animism, 69, 73, 178, 270, 290 Apocryphal Gospels, the, 99 Arnold, Matthew, 18 Art, Indian, 23, 220, 236 Arya Patrika, the, 225 Arya Samaj, 11, 40, 45, 47, 116, 182, 210, 233 ,, ,, foundation of, 119 ,, ,, influence of, 120, 122, 280 ,, ,, work of, 40, 122 „ ,, women workers in, 210 Aryans, 63, 65. 70, 89, 172, 260 " Aryan Middle Path," 75/. " AssijL dilation," 34, 39, 167, 220, ..39. 251, 257, 274 § Ascetic, a Christian, 242 Asoka, 29, 77 Atharva-Veda, the, 73, 281 Atma, 67 Avatdra, loi, 150, 160, 277 279, 282 Banurji, KaU Charan. 166 Benares, 41, 118 Bengal, 24, 34, 42, 45, 80, loi 107, 171, 210, 217, 222, 233, 260, 278 Bentinck, Lord W., 10, no Besant, Mrs 149 ff., 280 Bhagavad-Gita, the, 82/., 103, 146, 272 influence of,83 Dhajans, 92 Bhakti, 82, 91, 96, 100, 287 /. „ saints, 92-96, 105, 283 Bhopal, Begam of, 210 Bible, quoted, 9, 25, 144, 163, 179. 189. 193. 196. 200, 204, 237, 241, 244, 246. 254/., 257. 263/., 265, 267, 271, 280 Indian Interpretations of, 84, 130, 133, 143, 193. 248. 256. 275 ff: 279 Brahma, 67, 84, 90, 116, 129, 280, 291 Brahmanism, 63, 71, 121 Brahmans, Kuhn, loS Brahmo Samaj, 47, 113-116, 207, 225, 233 Buddha, the, 62, 74, 97, 105, 158, 163, 272, 283 Buddliism — " Aryan Middle Path," 75/. doctrines, 74, 75 ethical influence, 77 Christianity compared with, 169, 288 Calcutta, 15, 28, 31/., 48, 118, 128, 210, 215, 285 Carey, Wilham, 27, 114, 258, 272 Caste, 121, 172, 180/.. 183^., 190, 198, 227, 239, 244, 247, 284 Caste, rise of, 72 ,, growth of, 76, 93 3o6 The Renaissance in India Caste, early attempts at reform of, 93-96, loi „ Rabindra Nath Tagore and, 184 ff. „ Christianity and, 172, 182, 187 /., 244, 287 Central Hindu College, 41, 280 Chaitanya, 96, 272 Chandavarkar, Sir Narayan, 136 China, 6, 13, 31, 171 Christianity, Indian, 24, 92, 137, 165, 257, 260,265,279/. „ influence of, 106, 254 „ denationaHsing tendency, and education, 235 Christians, intolerance of European, 172, 189 #., 193/- „ Indian, 195, 197, 203, 240 Church — achievements of the, in education, 43, 198 opportunities of, 8, 188, 233 unity and co-operation of, 52, 265 problems in face of nationahsm, 254 an Indian, 167, 247, 256, ■260 ff., 265 and caste, 172, 180, 182, 187, 244 Clough, 198 Colleges — Ahgarh, 126 Central Hindu, Benares, 41, 280 Dayanand, Lahore, 41 Fergusson, Poona, 41/. Forman Christian, 132 Hardwar, 40 Madras Christian, 259 Serampur, 27 Confucianism, 61 Converts, 180, 190, 193 /"., 263 Counter-Reformation, 11, 135 Co-operation, 52, 265 Curzon, University Act, 52 D Damayanti, 212 Dayanda, 116, 134, 197 ,, and the Arya Samaj, 119 „ and the Saty- artha Prakash, 121 College, 41 Delhi, 4, 118, 124, 126, 156, 182, 231, 241^., 255 de SeHncourt, Miss, 231 Desire of India, The, 98, 113, 209, 224, 285 Devi, Sarola, 210 Dhammapada, the, 75 Dravidians, 88/. Duff, Alexander, 31-36, 56, 112, 114, 272 Dutt, Tom, 215 ff., 222 E East India Company, 102, 107 Educated Classes — ■ influence of Western thought on, 14, 146 ff. Nationalism and the, 16 and reform, 146 hindrances to acceptance of Christianity, 173 difficulties created by con- servatism of home hfe, 24, 181, 227-230 Education — hues to be determined, 56, 235. 258 work of Arya Samaj, 40 ,, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, 124 ff. „ Carey, 27 Duff, 31-36 Church and, 235 Government and, 43, 236 modern developments in, 39, 234 of women, 24, 35, 57, 58 Index 307 Education — continued need of teachers and leaders, 54, 233/. Anglo-Indian, 285 Ephesians, 244 Erasmus, 9, 18 /. " Eurasian," vii, 56, 165, 285^. F French, Bishop Valpy, 239 French Revolution, 12 Ganges, the, 40, 149, 262 Gautama, 74, 76, 78, 97, 272 God, personal conception of, 79. 85, 94, 100, I II, 249, 252 God, impersonal conception of, 68, 74, 90, 160, 269, 271, 281 Gokhale, Mr, 42, 198 Goreh, Padre Nilakantha, 220, 241 Gosse, Edmund, 216, 218 Government, rehgious neut- rahty, 43 „ co-operation, 233. 236 Granth, the, 95 Grierson, Dr, 287 Guru, 73, 95. 117/. H Hardwar, 40 Hellenic civilisation, 29, 163, 221 Hinduism — doctrines, 65-68, 79-81, 90, loi, 157, 158, 269 claims to spiritual superi- ority, 153 ^., 281 powers of assimilation, 63, 67. 86/., 162 failure of, 22, 93, 138,143,247 conservatism of, 198 action of Westernising influences on, 186, 280 arguments of, against Christianity, 152-165, 168 §., 176 Hindu Catechism, 280 Home-life, 24, 179, 181, 190, 211, 214, 221, 226-230, 270 " Heathen Homes," 178 Hostels, 44, 56 I Illusion, doctrine of, 90 Incarnation — the Christian doctrine, 34, 160. 179/.. 254 the Hindu doctrine, 76 ff., 80, 86, 97 /., 100, 158, 278 ff., 281, 288. 291 a comparison, 85 India, Unity of, 21, 53, 241 /.. 247, 251, 261, 264 Destiny of, 97, 252, 278 /. Indra. 66 Ishvara, 282 ff. Islam — contact of Hinduism with, 22, 92, 94, 119 AUgarh Movement, 123, 127 failure of, 22, 247, 253 influence upon India through seclusion of women, 213, 248 Jains, the, 74 Japan, 4/., 10, 12/., 17. 20, 25, 31. 43. 288 Jatakas, 63 John, S., I, 86, 129, 160, 163, 179, 254, 256, 263,. 265 /., 276, 287 K Kabir, 94, loi, 287 Kali. 80, 102. 128. 262. 270 Kalki, 283 Kamala, 224 Kanopanishad, the, 11 1 Karma, 69,83,91, 140,' 269/.. 283 Keats, 218 KeshabChanderSen. 115, 128, 261, 272 3o8 The Renaissance in India Khan, Sir Syed Ahmad, 123, 126, 135 King- Emperor, the, iii, 7, 25, 172 Kols, the, 177 Krishna, 81, 96, 100, 147 ff., 156. 158/., 280 the New, 150, 279 Kurral, the, 104 Literature, Hindu — for Sacred Books, see separate headings for quotations, 66, 68, 75, 79. 82, 95 /., 99, 102 §., 104, 212 revival of, 23, 214, 217 /., 222, 224 Lloyd, Prof. A., 288 Logos, doctrine of the, 84, 160 Loyola, Ignatius, 135 Luther, 9, 95, 272 M Macaulay, 27, 30, 36, 261 Madras Christian College, 259 Mahdbhdrata, the, 79, 82, 272, 281 Mantras, 102, 283 Manu, Laws of, 212, 280 Marathi, the, 100 Mass-movements, 258 Materiahsm, 14, 151 /., 154 Maya, 90 /. Medical work, 23',, 242 Mill. 182 Miller, Principal, 259 Milton, 45, 100 Missionary Society, National, , 167, 255 Missions — influence of, 11, 147 policy of assimilation, 222, 257 need of indigenous leader- ship, 201 ^. and education, 27, 258 Missionary, position of the, 20I Modern Review, The, 176, 197, 225 Moksha, 69, 84, 91, 100/,. 279 Morley, Lord, 171 " Mother-land," India the, 20, 118, 262 Mother, the Church as, 262 Mozumdar, 116 Muhammad, 62, 158 Muktabai, 276 Mutiny, the. 4, 215, 239 ^. Mylne, Bishop. 28 N Naidu Sarojini, 209 Nanak, 95, loi National Congress, Indian, si 166 ^ National Congress, Calcutta, 210 National Missionary Society, 167. 255 Nationalism, 7, 13, 14, 23, 41, 166, 167, 170, ^ 230, 277 ff. „ Christianity and, 22. 246, 253 ,, and Education. 39 ff., 57 Nestonan Christianity, 29 98, 287 ff. 'New Dispensation,' the, 116 New Learning, the, 9, 17, 18, 49 Nirguna, 84 Nirvana, 69, 70, 105, 271 Novels, Indian, 214. 224 O Oakley, Mr, 2 1 5 O'Neill, Father, 241 " Orientahsts," 28 Outcastes' Hope, The, vii, 150 166, 178. 245 Oxford and Cambridge Hostel, 44 P Pantheism, 67, /., 90, 94, 131, 157. 158. 160, 270 Paramdtma, 67 Index 3C9 Paranjpye, Mr, 41 Pardah, 207, 208, 210, 231, 233. 248 Pariah. 104, 173, 182/. Paul, S., 144, 181, 188, 196. 202, 262, 276 Philemon, 181 Polytheism, 66, 73, 80, 86, 94, 102, III, 268 PrcBparatio Evangelica, 34, 163 Prarthana SamSj, the, 136, 274 Precepts of Jesus, the, 1 1 2 Purdnas, the, 81, 82, 87, 272, 280/. Q Quran, the, 62, 247/., 253 R Raj, Lala Hans, 41 Rama, 81, 98, 215, 270, 281 /. Ramabai, Pandita, 210 Ramananda, 94, 272 Ramanuja, 94, 272 Ramayana, the, 79,81,272,281 ,, of Tulsi Das, 97, 103 „ influence of, 81, 212, 214. 228 Ramkrishna, i'2'j ff. „ Mission, 132, 210 Ranade, Justice, 135 jf., 161 ,, Research Institute, 42 Reformation, the, in Europe, 9. 93. 185 „ „ in India, 10 II. 97. 107, 112, 146, 259 Renaissance, the European, 10, II, 185 „ the Indian, 31, 49, 116/., 224, 259 Release, doctrine of. 69, 73, 91 Revolution, the French. 12 Rig-Veda. the. O5. 102. 281 Roman Empire, the, 18, 31, 3^ ff-. 201, 289 Roy, Ram Mohan, 10, 32. 107, 112/.. 135. 197 Rudra, 80 Rudra, Principal S. K., 84. 247. 256 Saguna, 84 Saivite, 80, 270 Sakuntdla, 212 Sama Veda, the, 282 Samsdra, 69, 74, 91 Sandtana Dharma, 281 Sanskrit, 28, 30, 97, 151, 217, 221, 283 Satl, 108, 109, 114, 213, 280 Satthianadhan, Krupabai, 222 ff. Schwartz, 28, 272 Seeley, Sir John. 27, 30 Serampur, 27, 31 Sermon on the Mount, 23, 264 " Servants of India " Society'. 42 Service, need for. and types of, 57, 204, 220, 233/.. 287 " Seva Sedan " Sisterhood, 137, 209 Shankara, 89, 74, 97, loi teaching of, 89 Shastras, 253 Sikhs, 95. 104 Sita, 81, loi, 212, 214. 219 Siva. 80. 84, 86, 117. 282 Sivaji. 100 Slavery, parallel with. 109. 181 Smith. Philip. 242 Social Reform Movement. 21, 135 Soma, 66 ' Star in the East," Order of the, 150 3 TO The Renaissance in India student life, 44, 48, 258 ,, character, 20, 22, 51/- ,, belief, 45/., 64, 119, 155 Si7ft, 92, 128 Tagore, Debendra Nath, 115, 197 Tagore, Rabindra Nath, 184 TertulUan, 179, 272, 289 Theosophy, 22, 47, 147, 148, 150 Theosophical Society, 148-150 Tirath, Swami Ram, 54, 132 Tiru-vdsagam, the, 104 Transmigration, 69, 77, 269 Transvaal, the, 171, 173 Trimurti, the, 85, 282 Tukaram, 100, 104, 272, 274, 276 Tulsi Das, 96, 98, loi, 163, 272 Upanishads, the, 67, 85, 90, 102, 105, III, 158. 272 „ origin of, 70 „ teaching of, 90, 129 „ Vivekananda's interpretation of, 129 Tini varsities, 16, 41, 45, 54, 56, 245 Vaishnavite, 80, 270 Varuna, 66 Vedantism, the New, 128, 155, 157, 160 Vedanta, the Practical, 129 Vedas, the, 81, 102, 105, 118, 120, 159, 280 /. Villagers, 4, 12, 17, 18, 23, 24, 76, 86, 123, 166, 177,215,270 Virjanand, Swami, 118 Vishnu, 81, 86, 270, 282 W Wandering, doctrine of, 69, 91 Westcott, Bishop, 99 Widows, remarriage of child, 199 Wilberforce, 119, 272 WilUams, Dr Garfield, 48 Wilson, Bishop, 35 Women, Characteristics of, ,, education of, 24, 35, 57. 58, 181, 211, 231/- „ influence of, „ medical work, 235 „ pardah, 225 ff. Works, doctrine of, 69, 84, 91 Xavier, Francis, 28, 272 Yajur Veda, the, 281 Yoga, 128, 153 Zend-avesta, the, 65, 272 TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH ' \ RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO— ► 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 : 3 4 5 ( b ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW /aUG 919B7 ^^■'^i^^ii> jViAr 1 . m/ f ^*=.NT ON ILL ^ APR 2 1 1999 U.C.BERKELEY ■ juHl9^00^ niir -1 A ?nn? AUG 1 ^^ ^^^^ _ FOR, FORM NO. 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