i^--... ■ ^' '' - 

 
 L I E) RA R.Y 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N I VLRSITY 
 
 or ILLI NOIS
 
 OCCASIONAL PAPER. 
 
 Caiitkibge Pissmit to §dl^\, 
 
 IN CONNEXION WITH THE S. P. G. 
 
 THE LEATHER-WORKERS 
 
 OF 
 
 DARYAGANJ 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. G. A. LEFROY, M.A. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE MISSION, DELHI. 
 1884
 
 Cambridge Mission, Delhi, 
 Sept. 8, 1884. 
 
 Dear Dr Westcott, 
 
 A POINT has, I think, been reached in our work amongst the 
 poor Chamar Christians of Delhi which w^ill justify some account of 
 our progress and present position. And at the outset let me say one 
 word with regard to our own relation to that work. It has more than 
 once been objected to me by friends of our Mission in this country, 
 and such as have really understood the special aims with which our 
 Brotherhood was formed, that this work lies altogether foreign to the 
 scope of our true labours, and that in allowing ourselves to become 
 entangled in it we have acted wrongly and have so far crippled our- 
 selves, by loss of time and thought, for carrying out our original 
 programme. It is not unlikely that a similar view may be held by 
 some at least of our friends in England, and so it seems worth while 
 to explain, whether by way of apology or to remove misunderstand- 
 ing, what has led to the present state of affairs. And in the first 
 place I might urge that the clause in the original statement of our 
 Mission which defined our work to be " in addition to other Evange- 
 listic labours''' certain special undertakings, is of a scope at least 
 sufficiently wide to include the work of which I am at present speak- 
 ing, and in point of fact I do not suppose that it was ever for a 
 moment intended, that in addressing ourselves especially to the upper 
 classes and the more thoughtful heathen, we should wholly ignore the 
 claim of the poorer lower and possibly less thoughtful classes who 
 are so particularly numerous in this country, and to whom the 
 Invitation seems so specially to address itself. 
 
 But it is not on any wording of programmes or even on any 
 general theories of work that I would base the justification of the
 
 course we have pursued in this matter, but on the far more weighty 
 and authoritative teaching of circumstances. I think you were 
 present — as several of us now out here were — at a sermon preached 
 before the Cambridge Church Society by Dean Stanley, in which he 
 spoke at length of Bp. Mackenzie, and gave as the principle which 
 had underlain and formed that simple and noble life, the rule always 
 'to do what was natural under the circumstances,' and certainly if 
 this may be accepted as a true guide for conduct, I cannot think that 
 we should have been acting in accordance with it, or indeed other- 
 wise than most unnaturally under the circumstances in which we 
 found ourselves placed, if we had refused to take a share in the work 
 which was being carried on amongst the Delhi Chamars. For I need 
 scarcely remind you that this work is none of our seeking or of our 
 creating. So far from this it is now more than 20 years since atten- 
 tion was especially directed to this caste, and Catechists appointed not 
 indeed exclusively but very mainly with the object of teaching and 
 influencing them. For many years the results of this effort, though 
 not altogether lacking were still very small, and I think there can be 
 but little doubt that had we at that time and while the work was still 
 so to speak merely tentative, reached Delhi, we should have held 
 aloof from it almost or altogether, as having no special claim on us 
 and not falling within our proper province. But during the famine 
 of 1877-78 things materially altered, for during these and the two or 
 three following years large numbers of these poor people came for- 
 ward to receive Baptism, and after longer or shorter periods of proba- 
 tion and preparation were admitted to the Church of Christ. It was 
 at this point that our Mission came upon the scene, and we found 
 ourselves at once face to face with a body of Christians, including 
 indeed among its numbers a fair sprinkling of men of a very different 
 and really Christian type, for the most part Catechists or agents of 
 the Mission in other capacities, but with an overwhelming majority of 
 men drawn from this caste, numbering some eight hundred souls, and 
 giving rise to the gravest problems of future discipline and organisa- 
 tion; how grave you will have gathered from much that you have 
 already heard and may still further realise, when I repeat that of this 
 eight hundred it was only a small minority who had been in the eye 
 of man at any rate in any real way affected by their Christianity, the 
 rest remaining in full fellowship with their caste, sharing in its feasts, 
 idolatrous and otherwise, adhering to the old ceremonies of birth, 
 marriage, death, wholly ignoring Sundays, etc. ; Christians in short in 
 
 /^\
 
 5 
 
 nothing but name, and yet it must be remembered in name Christians, 
 and as such representing to the rest of the people of Delhi, high and 
 low, rich and poor, the Church of Christ in this great city. Things being 
 thus, could we have taken any other line of action than that we did? 
 Would it have been, I will not say natural under the circumstances, 
 but even possible or in any way morally justifiable for us to decline to 
 assist Mr Winter in the tremendously difficult task which lay before 
 him, and at which he set to work with might and main on his return 
 from England in 1879, of raising the whole spiritual position of these 
 poor people and bringing home to them the glory and dignity of the 
 privileges to which they had been admitted as well as the responsibility 
 of the duties they had assumed? Nay, simply from the point of view of 
 our own more special work such a course would have been suicidal : 
 for as I have said the true state of things was well understood and 
 widely known throughout the city : and while it may no doubt be and 
 in fact is a question, on which a good deal of difference of opinion 
 exists as to exactly how far the Mahommedans and high class 
 Hindoos could be influenced, either for better or worse, by the spiri- 
 tual condition of a people whom they look upon as separated from 
 themselves almost as widely as the brute creation itself, yet there 
 can be no doubt whatever that it lent a ready and all too powerful 
 handle to any antagonist, who wished in the Bazar or elsewhere to 
 laugh at Christian work, while it must have influenced others exactly 
 in proportion as they came within the circle, and felt the influence of 
 Christian teaching, affording them an ever present test of the truth of 
 its claims, and of its power to raise those who accepted it to a higher, 
 purer life. It was this conviction, the conviction of the crucial 
 importance, for the sake of all future Christian work among whatever 
 class in Delhi, of removing from the outset a stumblingblock and 
 scandal which could not but most grievously affect any efforts which 
 might hereafter be made, which more perhaps than anything else 
 decided us — and would I am sure have decided you — to devote some 
 portion of our time to this task. I say some portion of our time 
 advisedly, for on this point too there seems to exist some misunder- 
 standing, and many seem to think that we have for better or worse 
 thrown ourselves almost wholly into this work and made it our 
 special sphere. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. 
 In point of fact we each devote two evenings in the week, one 
 Sunday and one week-day, to visiting and preaching in these little 
 district congregations, and, so far as actual working time is concerned.
 
 that is alP : while the majority of us at present out here teach from 
 two to four hours daily in the School and College, not to mention the 
 
 ^ I ought perhaps to make a slight exception in my own case, for I have 
 recently been entrusted with an office which involves the outlay of some little time 
 and thought, though I fear it scarcely receives so much of either as it deserves 
 considering the magnitude of the interests involved. The office to which I refer 
 is that of marriage-registry-officer for the native congregation in Delhi, by which 
 I would have you understand nothing in the most remote degree connected with 
 the celebrant of secular as opposed to religious nuptials, but a kind of central 
 confidant for all the eligible young persons of both sexes in the neighbourhood to 
 whom they may entrust, together with a short statement of their personal ad- 
 vantages, their hopes and longings with reference to the married state, and whose 
 effort it is to arrange and bring to completion such unions as may seem to contain 
 the greatest promise of a long and happy domestic life. The office is perhaps 
 a somewhat peculiar as well as delicate one, and for the relief of any of the 
 weaker brethren M'ho may find in this a singular outlet for monastic energy, and 
 it may be even stumble thereat, I may perhaps explain a little further the circum- 
 stances out of which such a state of things have arisen. The problem is in reality 
 a simple one. One of the very first and chiefest aims in life of the parents here, 
 I allude, of course, more especially to the class of which I am at present speaking, 
 is to secure betimes the suitable betrothal of their children. I say betrothal, 
 because it is in this country a ceremony wholly distinct from marriage, and often 
 preceding it by many years, taking place at any age between two and twelve years 
 old, earlier perhaps, but not later without very grave reason or incurring the risk 
 of serious responsibility. The conditions of such suitability in the mind of the 
 anxious Father are chiefly three, {a) That the parents of the other child should 
 be living, or failing this, that there be some other responsible person able and 
 prei^ared to undertake the expense of the marriage feast, etc. ; {b) that the 
 partner selected be, if possible, lighter, at any rate not darker in colour than his own 
 offspring; and (<r) that he or she come of a stock not only unconnected by blood 
 with his own, but even without the slighter, and as it would appear to us not 
 wholly undesirable bond of friendship or even casual acquaintanceship. It is 
 on these lines that I have to work, and the method of action is not difficult. I 
 enter in a book the names of all children for the disposal of whose hand and 
 fortune no other engagement has already been made, and whose parents express 
 their wish that such should take place by Christian rites, and then, whenever a 
 father intimates to me that he is desirous to conclude a betrothal for his olive- 
 branch, I try to select a partner, fulfilling as far as possible the above conditions. 
 Sometimes negotiation is required to carry a proposed engagement to a successful 
 issue. This was notably the case in one instance which occurred some time back. 
 An engagement had been suggested between two parties who seemed in all 
 respects suitably matched, the age especially being all that could be desired, as 
 the boy was eight and the girl six years old, but unfortunately the boy's father, 
 who lived in a village a little distance from Delhi, and had some difficulties about 
 accepting exclusively Christian rites, hung back. I arranged to go and talk the 
 matter over with him, but so serious did his objections seem in the mind of those 
 who knew him best that, on the day in question, I was deserted by all those who
 
 time given to Language, Private Study, Catechists' and Readers' 
 Classes, Bazar preaching, College Club meetings and the like. It is 
 no doubt true that this branch of our work does occupy a larger 
 share in our thoughts and conversations as well as in our monthly 
 Council meetings, and perhaps in our Annual Reports, than the pro- 
 portion of actual working time assigned to it in the division I have 
 just spoken of would seem to indicate. But this is simply due to the 
 nature of the work itself. For while the educational work moves on in 
 its accustomed channel from day to day and without for the most part 
 giving rise to many questions of general interest or burning problems, 
 the case is exactly the reverse with this more directly pastoral work 
 in which, as I have already said, most weighty questions are of con- 
 stant recurrence. 
 
 So much by way of preface, and now I may turn I think with a 
 free conscience to the recent events which have more immediately 
 called for this letter. To enable you to understand them in 
 their true bearing, I must begin with some reference to a change 
 which has recently taken place in our policy with regard to these 
 poorer Congregations. There are obviously two ways in which 
 individual converts to Christianity — and it is with such alone that 
 
 among our little Daryaganj flock are usually my heartiest supporters in these 
 simple and earnest efforts for the domestic prosperity and happiness of our 
 Christian brotherhood, and left to bear the brunt of the battle, and probably the 
 burden of defeat, alone. Nothing daunted I girded myself up for the task, 
 summoned the whole male population of the village, for I need scarcely explain 
 that these are matters of absolutely general interest, in which every 'bhai' or 
 member of the caste has an almost equal vote with the father, and urged my case 
 so vigorously that in a couple of hours' time a successful issue was reached, and 
 the engagement there and then (in the absence it is true of the girl, but of what 
 consequence was that?) formally completed. This piece of successful diplomacy 
 brought my fame as a match maker (if a word of so questionable a character can 
 be applied to functions so pure and lofty) up to fever heat, and applications for 
 engagements flowed in apace. Unfortunately amid this press of business an 
 accident, such as may occur in even the best managed institutions, happened, 
 which, for the moment at least, caused a complete reaction, for, by the slightest 
 clerical error in the entry of the names in my book, I almost succeeded in bringing 
 together in the important betrothal rite two young persons, admirably matched 
 in almost every other respect but both, by an amusing coincidence, of the male 
 sex. For a time this unfortunate incident, causing as it somehow seemed to do 
 a most unfavourable impression, completely stopped the run on my office, but I 
 have little doubt that by renewed efforts and a still more scrupulous attention to 
 even the slightest wishes of my clients my previous proud position may be before 
 long regained.
 
 we have at present to do in this country — may be dealt with 
 as regards their future place of abode and manner of living, the 
 one being to leave them in their own surroundings, and, as far as 
 possible among their own people, in the hope that they may be a 
 witness to guide others from among them into the truth, the other 
 being to separate them off almost or altogether from their old asso- 
 ciations and gather them together into a knot by themselves. The 
 latter policy is usually known as that of segregation ; to the former 
 perhaps because it is so perfectly obvious and simple, no special name 
 that I know of can be given. It is not difficult to account for the 
 fcict that the segregation policy is that which has, in greater or less 
 degree, been followed by far the greater number of Missions. In the 
 first place the caste prejudices of Hindoos, and to an almost equal 
 extent the bitterness of Mahommedans, makes it quite impossible for 
 a convert, if living as so many of them do in a kind of clan fashion, 
 two or three generations and all degrees of relations massed together 
 in one house, to continue his old position among them as though 
 nothing had happened. He must, Avhether he wishes it or no, go out 
 from among them and set up for himself. But this, to mention no 
 other difficulty, means of course greatly increased expense which he is 
 very frequently not able to undertake. What then more natural than 
 that he should take refuge in the Mission Compound where he can 
 usually find, not only a house sufficient for his wants and not seldom 
 free of rent, but also a Christian atmosphere and congenial com- 
 panionship secured from the taunts and insults to which he would 
 certainly be, for some considerable time at least, exposed if living in 
 the open Bazar. Add to this the natural hope on the part of the 
 Missionaries that by bringing Christians together into a purer air, 
 away from their old and so often debasing surroundings, a higher 
 standard and tone of Christian thought and life maybe evoked, many, 
 it may be, feeble sparks combining to form a really vigorous and 
 active flame, and it will not seem strange that this is the policy which, 
 whether in the form of a Christian village entirely distinct from all 
 surrounding habitations, or in the modified form of a Mission 
 Compound in the city of size sufficient to aff'ord shelter to as many as 
 are at present likely to need its refuge, has been most commonly 
 followed. Now while on the one hand it is hard not to think that the 
 plan of leaving them to be a light to their own world, where more than 
 elsewhere their influence and testimony ought to make itself most 
 powerfully felt, is really the truest and highest, it is also certain that
 
 the segregation plan is by no means an entire success, tending as it 
 so constantly does to foster a more or less exotic life, and above all 
 to put the converts at once into a position of immediate dependence 
 on the Mission and Mission support, and in too many cases to substi- 
 tute a very living faith in it and the depth of its purse and the com- 
 passion of the stringholders for any more real and worthy reliance on 
 the great Giver of all. How far I am guilty of treason in saying this 
 I do not know, for nothing is so apt to attract the attention and 
 please the sentiments of friendly visitors to Missions as the little 
 Christian village with its church, its pastor's house, its schools, and 
 so much that brings back all that is best and dearest to us at home. 
 Nevertheless, I believe that though in one or two cases under excep- 
 tionally wise and careful direction such villages have thriven, yet in 
 many cases the dangers of which I have spoken have made themselves 
 felt, and most strongly by those who have most to do with them, and 
 have the greatest opportunity of seeing how they affect character. 
 Whether it was the general theory or the experience of other Missions 
 which had had most weight with Mr Winter in forming his decision I 
 cannot say, but, from whichever cause — probably from both — he had 
 in the case of these poor Chamar Christians wholly abstained from 
 anything approaching to a segregation policy and had left them 
 entirely among their own people to be a light to them. This I may 
 remark in passing was possible partly because of the imperfect Chris- 
 tianity of too many of these converts, partly from the fact that they do 
 not mass together in one large home in the way I have above referred 
 to as common among the higher and wealthier classes, but live for 
 the most part each in a most diminutive house of his own, but still 
 more because of the lowness of their caste which cannot afford to 
 indulge in the distinctions and prejudices in which the higher Hindoo 
 so mightily delights. In the highest classes a man will often 
 refuse, as I have been credibly informed by my own Munshi, on 
 religious scruples, to eat food with his brother should there have 
 occurred anything approaching to 'incompatibility of temper' between 
 them. In Mr Winter's position we on entering the work most 
 heartily concurred, believing it to be in every way the highest and 
 wisest line. But during the last two years this conviction, chiefly 
 under the teaching of sad experience, has been considerably modifying 
 itself in, I believe, the minds of all of us. For while we still maintain 
 that in theory, and given sufficiently powerful material for the experi- 
 ment, this plan is far the best, yet we have been forced to recognise 
 
 - 1—5
 
 lO 
 
 that while even a very weakly flame, a farthing dip — if I may be 
 allowed an expression which has been already used in this connec- 
 tion — 7nay shed around it a light faint indeed, and yet amidst the 
 surrounding blackness of darkness by no means to be despised, on 
 the other hand it runs — especially if exposed to a raging storm — a 
 very considerable risk of being itself entirely quenched. And this is 
 what it seemed to me was happening, and that our poor people, 
 starting from but a very low tone of Christianity themselves, so far 
 from being able to influence, w^ere quite unable to resist the mass of 
 heathenism in the midst of which they lived, and that till they were 
 freed from this contact and brought by some means or other into a 
 purer air, there was but little chance of their attaining any true man- 
 hood in Christ. This view was most fully borne out by the testi- 
 mony of those among themselves in whom any real strivings after a 
 higher truer life were beginning to make themselves felt : they always 
 begged us to separate them off from their neighbours and give them 
 a place to themselves, representing that till this was done they felt 
 their utter impotence to make any head against the evil around them. 
 Influenced then by these considerations we determined after much 
 hesitation and deliberation to try the experiment of a modified form 
 of segregation, not taking them away from their trade or out of the 
 city into a wholly distinct village, but settling a few of the more 
 earnestly-disposed amongst them in a little square of houses apart by 
 themselves but at the same time in the midst of the dwellings of their 
 old caste-fellows. Here they would be free to carry on their own 
 trade under precisely the old conditions, and while they would be 
 exempt from the actual intrusion into their midst of idolatry or any 
 other abomination from which they honestly wished to escape, they 
 would at the same time be so situated that their whole life and tone 
 w^ould be known, and if it did indeed rise to a higher standard, very 
 speedily make itself felt on their neighbours. Several reasons seemed 
 to point to Daryaganj, a district of the city, as the name imports 
 on the river bank, as a suitable spot for this which we felt to be a 
 most weighty experiment, involving as it did in great measure the 
 abandonment of a theory to which we had hitherto held tenaciously. 
 Accordingly a little square containing eight houses was built, and these 
 were let to any Christians who professed that they wished to strive 
 after a nearer approximation to the life to which their baptismal vow 
 had pledged them, and were ready, in token thereof, to accept the 
 following simple conditions which were indeed involved in the very 
 idea of the place, viz. :
 
 II 
 
 (i) to observe Sunday as a day of rest, 
 
 (2) to use Christian rites exclusively at times of birth, marriage, 
 and death, 
 
 (3) to abstain from the use of charas^ 
 
 On these terms two or three men were forthcoming at once, one in 
 especial who had already at a meeting of our little local congregation 
 some time before subscribed to these rules preparatory to being 
 elected chaudri or head-man (a functionary answering somewhat 
 to a very unmistakeable churchwarden) of our district, and in the 
 course of a month or two all the other houses were filled with men, 
 differing a good deal so far as I could judge in the earnest- 
 ness of their Christianity, but all I hope and believe, urged by 
 at least some stimulus of pure motive. For a time things went 
 on happily enough and we had every reason to congratulate our- 
 selves, in a preliminary kind of way, on the success of our experi- 
 ment, but it was not long before troubles begun to crop up, and these 
 really arose necessarily from the position in which these men now 
 found themselves placed. On the one hand they had advanced so 
 far as to commit themselves definitely in some respects, at least, to a 
 Christian manner of life. On the other, they had not yet made that 
 open and final severance from their old caste which would free them 
 from its claims and secure them from the temptation of being invited 
 to share in its festivals and rites. The natural outcome was a con- 
 tinual bickering between the different families as to what was and 
 what was not consistent with their new and more distinctly Christian 
 attitude, each member being inclined to be very liberal in the con- 
 cessions which he made to himself and the favour with which he 
 regarded the invitations of his own old friends, but very much the 
 reverse where his neighbour was concerned, and this quarrelling in- 
 creased so much as to threaten the very life of the little community. 
 I went to see them one day preparatory to leaving Delhi for a few 
 days' work in the district, and things looked so bad that I le^t them 
 with a sad heart, thinking it only too likely that before I returned 
 
 1 Charas I should explain is a drug, very similar in its properties and action to 
 opium, much used, and almost always with a degrading effect, by many of the 
 members of this caste, and, so far as I have been able to ascertain, in a rather 
 special degree among the chamars of Daryaganj. It is used chiefly for smoking in 
 the huqqa or large pipe. Considering that they themselves regard the use of it 
 as a low and debasing custom accompanied with almost certain moral degrada- 
 tion, we thought it especially desirable to resist its introduction even in the smallest 
 quantities from the first.
 
 they would have completely broken up and gone off again to their 
 old life. But by the grace of God it was not so, but rather this 
 fighting, resulting legitimately as one may almost say it did from their 
 equivocal and undecided position, proved the means of bringing 
 them forward another step in the right direction of decision for 
 Christ. The night after I left as they were talking together some- 
 body, I know not who, recognising the true cause of their trou- 
 bles, suggested that — instead of falling back into their old position, 
 and so, to put it on no higher ground, bringing on themselves the 
 ridicule of all Christians and Chamars alike — they should take 
 another step forward and definitely break off connection with their 
 old brotherhood. It was obviously the true and the only true solu- 
 tion of the difficulty, but to act upon it required a degree of deter- 
 mination and courage of which there had been previously but little 
 trace among them. For of course the step would involve the loss of 
 whatever position they had hitherto held among their caste fellows. 
 It is true that this was at all considerable only in the case of one 
 man, the chaudri or headman to whom I have already referred, 
 and who held a similar position amongst a small section of the 
 Daryaganj Chamars. The honour had been purchased by his grand- 
 father, as such honours mostly are among these people, at the expense 
 of a feast involving an outlay of some six or seven hundred rupees, 
 after which the dignity passes on from father to son, and is regarded 
 as a very real and very important part of the family property. To 
 voluntarily relinquish this would of course cost any man an effort, 
 but even in the case of the others who held a merely subordinate 
 position of full membership in the caste it must have seemed a some- 
 what formidable proposal to convene a meeting of all the older and 
 most respected members of their community, to whom they had 
 always been accustomed to defer, and whose collective opinion was 
 final in all internal disputes affecting members of the caste, and 
 then standing up before them renounce publicly all further allegiance 
 or connection. This is the way, and the only recognised way, in 
 which such severance can be effected. You will not therefore be 
 surprised that the proposal to take this step met with but faint 
 approval at the time, and was followed by several days of anxious and 
 conflicting counsels. Rather I think one has reason to be thankfully 
 surprised and to trace the direct working of the Holy Spirit in the 
 fact that the higher view did ultimately prevail, and our tenants settled 
 to convoke such a meeting as that I have described, and then and there
 
 to terminate connection with their old caste and break the bands 
 which they felt were tying them down to the lower life. It was a 
 curious, and, viewed in the result, a happy coincidence that during 
 these very days not only was I absent in the district but the Catechist 
 also for special reasons was unable to be with them as much as 
 usual. For, while it might naturally have been anticipated that this 
 absence, at such a critical juncture, of the guidance and support 
 upon which they are most accustomed to rely, would have had a 
 prejudicial influence on the decision, on the other hand when it 
 proved otherwise this very fact lent a spontaneity and reality to their 
 conduct which would have been in part at least lacking had it seemed 
 to be merely the result of our instigation and exhortation, while it also 
 materially contributed to strengthen their own firmness of attitude 
 and determination to go through with the course they had of their 
 own free will resolved upon. I need not tell you how happy I was, 
 how deeply thankful to Him from whom all holy desires and all just 
 counsels as well as all good works proceed, when I found the turn 
 which things had taken. It was determined to call the important 
 meeting as soon as possible within a week of my return. Messengers 
 were sent round the whole city and suburbs to convoke those whose 
 attendance was required. The method of summoning such meetings 
 or 'Panchayats' is well recognised, forming as they do the continual 
 court of appeal in all classes and castes of the Hindoos throughout 
 this country in all those matters which are decided by internal arbitra- 
 tion, and not by resort to the of course superior, but so to speak 
 foreign, and far less heartily obeyed authority of the English courts. 
 They are attended, not I need scarcely say by the whole male popu- 
 lation, who, numbering for instance in the special caste of which I 
 am speaking some ten or twelve thousand, would form a quite 
 unmanageable body, but by the heads of the numerous little clans or 
 boroughs into which by a wholly natural and spontaneous principle 
 of organization each of the larger castes has got broken up. In the 
 case of the Chamars even these heads are too numerous to be often 
 brought together to one spot, and so they have formed themselves 
 into three main divisions, called in Urdu Bawdni, i.e. Jifly-two 
 villages or clans, indicating the original number of representatives 
 in each, though in course of time these too have been largely modi- 
 fied. Each division constitutes an amply sufficient tribunal for any 
 ordinary disputes which its members may bring before it, though in 
 cases of very exceptional magnitude the three occasionally coalesce
 
 and form one supreme court. In the present case it was only the 
 particular Bawani to which our people belonged that was summoned, 
 consisting of some 250 representatives. The time of meeting, the 
 invariable and only possible time as we were assured, may strike 
 you as it certainly did us who were expected to attend as remarkable, 
 if not inconvenient — being midnight — though indeed high precedent 
 may be adduced in our own land for the conduct of deliberations at 
 such an hour. It was significant that the convocation was strenu- 
 ously opposed, by fair and unfair means alike, by some of the Chris- 
 tians of the district who looked upon the proposed step with anything 
 but approval, since they saw well enough how closely they were 
 themselves concerned in the principle involved, and how certainly, if 
 it were accepted, it would mean for them also sooner or later the 
 necessity of choosing between their two lives. Christian and Chamar, 
 definitely abandoning the one and pursuing the other. And indeed 
 this was a point of view which we had ourselves by no means over- 
 looked, but which we had most anxiously considered before finally 
 sanctioning the proposal of the Daryaganj men. For while the main 
 body of the Chamars are perfectly ready to continue on terms of friend- 
 ship and brotherhood with those of their number who have received 
 baptism, so long as these are practically content to merge their 
 Christianity in their Chamarship, on the other hand we knew it was 
 highly probable that any move, such as that now contemplated, in 
 the direction of making a definitely fresh start and disowning allegi- 
 ance to the old brotherhood as such, would most probably be re- 
 sponded to on the part of the latter by a general call to all, whether 
 originally engaged in this movement or not, to declare themselves 
 openly the one thing or the other, accompanied by the exclusion of 
 all who stood firm to their Christianity from the privileges of their 
 caste. And, with the exception of these few men who were pro- 
 posing of their own free will to occupy this position, there were 
 but few of whom we seemed at present to have ground for hope 
 that they could sustain such a test, while there was of course 
 always the hope that by letting things go on quietly in their accus- 
 tomed course without hurrying on the moment of final decision, 
 others might gradually advance to the point from which it would be 
 easier for them to go on than draw back. On the other hand we 
 did not know that any such retaliatory move would be taken, and in 
 any case we felt that in our present position of extreme weakness or 
 half-heartedness any movement towards strength must be for good,
 
 15 
 
 however much it might seem at the moment to cost. It was in this 
 conviction that we determined to go through with the proposed 
 meeting. And certainly it was one, the memory of which will stay 
 by many of us, I think, for long. We got down to the spot (I 
 forget whether I have said that the Daryaganj Christian Basti was the 
 chosen place of convocation) just before midnight, the Mission clergy 
 being present in force, with the exception of Haig and Wright who 
 had but recently reached the country, and who, their acquaintance 
 with the language being at the time confined to some valuable rudi- 
 ments, which did not include the more delicate idioms of the com- 
 mon tongue, felt strongly the rival and surely, I may say, at such ah 
 hour, legitimate claims of the couch. There was no moon and the 
 little court-yard was lighted only by 'glims' of the very feeblest 
 nature, so it took us some time to ascertain the exact position of 
 affairs. We then found that some 200 of the Chamars had already 
 arrived and were sitting together, while the Christians — these con- 
 sisting chiefly of the families of the Basti^ the Catechists, Readers, etc., 
 of the mission and a few other of the more earnestly disposed Chris- 
 tians from other districts — were massed together a little apart. We 
 found of course, and as all previous experience might have told us 
 would be the case, that we were much too early, and that there were 
 still various preliminaries to be got through before the business could 
 begin in earnest. The first thing was to send and insist on the attend- 
 ance of some few men, living chiefly we were thankful to find in the 
 immediate neighbourhood, who had failed to present themselves, and 
 we were amused and somewhat maliciously pleased to hear that 
 these were, for the most part, those very Christians who had tried to 
 frustrate the meeting altogether, but having failed in this had deter- 
 mined at any rate to keep clear of it themselves. Not a bit of it. 
 Two or three brothers were despatched to the abode of each, and 
 insisted, doubtless by most fraternal, but evidently by sufficiently 
 cogent arguments, on the necessity of their attendance. They came 
 in one by one sheepishly enough. Meantime we were getting the 
 Christians better arranged together and trying to induce some of 
 those who had taken their place among the Chamars to come out from 
 among them and range themselves with those to whom by name they 
 belonged. In some cases we were successful, in others not, and as 
 might have been expected, the later conduct of each man was plainly 
 foreshadowed in the response which they made to this preliminary 
 invitation. At last all Avere assembled and we were hoping that
 
 we might proceed at once to business, as it was now past one a.m. ; 
 but again we had a trial of patience, for it seemed that nothing in the 
 way of formal dehberation could be entered on till refreshments, 
 consisting of some very simple kind of sherbet, had been served 
 round to all assembled. Nothing is done in a hurry in this country, 
 and the present proceeding was no exception to the rule. Suffice it 
 however that by about 1.30 or perhaps a little later the ball was really 
 opened. The first move was on the part of our Catechist who gave 
 a short resume of the events which had led to the present meeting, 
 and thanked them for having all responded to the summons, and 
 then called on our Chaudri and the other men to do their part. 
 This they did simply and well. Standing up they one after the other 
 expressed their appreciation of the comfort which they had enjoyed 
 and the consideration they had met with in their old connection, but 
 regretted that they had now reached a point in their new life as 
 Christians which made it impossible for them to continue on the old 
 terms of fellowship, and they therefore wished to say that for the 
 future, while they were, and always would be, glad to reckon many 
 individuals as personal friends, they would have nothing to do with the 
 Chamar Brotherhood, as such ; they would not recognise its authority 
 or attend its meetings. So far all went smoothly, and this declara- 
 tion was even received with favour as an outspoken frank confession 
 which it well became them to make. But then a httle point arose 
 which showed that there was, to say the least, a strong undercurrent 
 of opposition present. For our Chaudri on resigning the similar 
 post of Chaudri in his old caste (which, as I have previously said, he 
 had held) was entitled by custom to nominate his successor. Strictly 
 to fiominaie, the acceptance or rejection of his nomination being at 
 the option of the meeting, and when in the exercise of this right he 
 proceeded to nominate his nephew who was not a Christian, the 
 nomination was, after a very few moments' of discussion, rejected with 
 something very like contempt. Then there was a lull and we waited 
 anxiously to see what turn things would take, for now that our part 
 was done and the object with which we had called the meeting was 
 attained, it was just a question whether they would break up, 
 leaving the step already taken to work its influence quietly and 
 gradually, which was the course which we should on the whole have 
 ourselves preferred, or whether they would proceed to the sifting of 
 which I have spoken above. Before long it made itself very evident 
 that the latter was their intention. It was very interesting to watch
 
 the way in which decisions were gradually matured among them and 
 then found expression. The whole process was essentially natural, 
 and I fancy that on this occasion we enjoyed an insight into the 
 real internal workings of the Panchayat system of the country, which 
 does not fall to the lot of a great many Englishmen. As a rule, the 
 presence of the latter, in the few cases where such presence is possi- 
 ble, gives an entirely forced and artificial character to the entire 
 proceedings of the meeting, but here, under the influence of strong 
 feelings, they plainly forgot us almost or altogether — sitting as we 
 were quietly in the darkness and somewhat to one side — and followed 
 instinctively their wonted procedure. Silence would reign for a time, 
 or silence only broken by the murmuring of low voices as all the heads 
 clustered themselves together into little knots usually round some 
 one more or less prominent and central head, and discussed the matter 
 in dispute, and as opinions took clearer shape the voices rose to 
 louder utterance till the comparative silence was succeeded, first by 
 a buzz, and then by something like a roar, as everybody, having found 
 what he believed to be the true solution, hastened to convey it in no 
 measured tones to his neighbour; but then out of the uproar order 
 once more evolved itself as some one of the more prominent person- 
 ages, raising himself slightly on his hips or throwing himself forward 
 on his knees (I need scarcely say that they were all squatting round 
 on pieces of cloth and mats on the ground), addressed by name 
 some other notable and propounded his view of the right line of 
 conduct to be pursued. It was very interesting, but I must not dwell 
 on this now. As I said we soon found that the general feeling of the 
 meeting was strongly in favour of 'sifting out the Christians', the pro- 
 cess to be performed by setting a pot of Ganges water (which takes 
 the place of our Bible in an oath) in the midst, and calling on all those 
 who were supposed to be Christians to come forward and raise it to 
 their foreheads in sign of worship, at the risk of being summarily 
 ejected from the caste if they refused. One or two preliminary diffi- 
 culties had first to be resolved. In the first place it was a question 
 who should call upon the Christians to stand forward, and as more 
 than one member of considerable standing and personal or family 
 influence among the Chamars was included in the number, it was a 
 function from which most shrank. At first they tried to throw the 
 odium of the active step on us by suggesting that we should now 
 ascertain the real position of our converts by producing the register 
 and reading out the names one by one, giving each the opportunity
 
 of declaring himself in the face of all a true man. It was cleverly 
 put, but fully entering into and sharing their motive, we declined, 
 merely pointing out that the meeting had been called in accordance 
 with the expressed wish of certain prominent members of our con- 
 gregation, that these had now said their say, and, while it was of 
 course open to any other Christian to stand up and follow their 
 example, and we should be only too rejoiced to see any do so, on 
 the other hand we had no wish to subject our converts to any strain 
 for which they were not prepared ; that in short, so far as we were 
 concerned, the meeting was at an end, and any further step, if such 
 was to be taken, must emanate from them. In the force of this they 
 reluctantly acquiesced, and it was decided that each headman of a 
 district should call out one by one the names of those who lay 
 within his jurisdiction. They next asked us to oblige them with 
 a little Ganges water for the purpose of the test, to which we 
 replied that the article being in no demand among us was un- 
 fortunately not to hand, and sorry as we were not to be able to oblige 
 our quasi guests in any particular, yet in this one we must ask them 
 to provide for themselves. And it was wonderful how rapidly such 
 provision was made, considering that the Ganges lies at a distance of 
 not less than forty miles as the crow flies. A boy lifting a pot dis- 
 appeared, taking by a curious coincidence, which I merely mention 
 for what it is worth, the direction of the nearest well, and in an 
 incredibly short space of time reappeared with the holy fluid. To a 
 person sceptically disposed the incident might have presented diffi- 
 culties. All we felt was that it was no concern of ours, and that so 
 long as those for whose use it was intended were satisfied, we had no 
 occasion to be anything else. And now all was ready, and after a 
 few minutes of really very anxious suspense, for there was no question 
 that a real crisis in the life of our little congregation had come, the 
 calling out commenced. Designedly or otherwise it happened that 
 the first five names called were those of men of very weak character, 
 low esteem, and poor position among both their old and their new 
 caste-fellows, and it was with less surprise than sorrow that I (who 
 knew them best) saw them one after the other step forward in 
 obedience to the summons and raise the water to their heads. It 
 was done rather amidst the jeers, half suppressed, than the real ap- 
 proval of the Chamars. On our part we made no sign, except that as 
 each stepped forward I also advanced to the middle with a pencil 
 and paper, and, as he lifted the water, wrote down the name as a
 
 formal recognition of his act. But this again was a process the 
 reverse of speedy, and meantime there was a Httle bye-play going on 
 near where we were sitting of the deepest interest, and on the result 
 of which turned the real success or failure, from our point of view, of 
 this part of the meeting. Among the men who had taken their 
 place from the first as Christians there was a young fellow on whose 
 line of conduct that of many others depended. He is a very well-to- 
 do and active man, much respected by all. Christians and Chamars 
 alike, a Chaudri already in his own right, and with the prospect of a 
 second chaudriship in reversion from his father. I knew him to be 
 of high character, and also distinctly inclined towards Christianity; 
 but how far he would be prepared to stand firm on such an occasion 
 as the present, at the possible loss of all his old caste privileges, 
 which are so highly valued, was, to say the least, a very open question. 
 I say at the possible loss, for I ought to have said that when it was 
 found how many, and how influential members of the meeting were 
 involved in this matter, it was decided that the cutting them all off 
 from caste-communion was too grave a step to be taken at once, and 
 would have to be reserved for a united m.eeting of all the three 
 sections of the Chamar brotherhood to which I have alluded above. 
 The present action was therefore confined to ascertaining who those 
 were, who, when it came to the point, valued their Christianity above 
 their Chamarship, leaving the further question of the line to be pursued 
 towards such for decision at a future and larger meeting ; but at the 
 present there seemed every reason for thinking that such line would 
 be hostile. Much then depended on him ; and while the case of 
 the five men to whom I have already alluded was going forward 
 fitfully and tediously, vigorous efforts were being made by his old 
 associates to withdraw him from a position so compromising as that 
 he at present occupied. I had myself sat down beside him for a few 
 moments at an earlier stage of the proceeding ; partly to try to en- 
 courage him to play the man, partly from an eager desire to know 
 what his real intentions were; and on the latter point I had been much 
 reassured by his abrupt reply to a question by which I had sought to 
 elicit this information : ' What do you suppose I have sat down here 
 for ? ' But now we saw first an old friend come and engage him in 
 earnest conversation, evidently urging him to go over to the rank of 
 the Chamars ; and then, as he withdrew unsuccessful, his father himself 
 got up and moved towards him. I could not resist the temptation 
 of being present at the interview, and again slipped quietly into my
 
 20 
 
 previous place by his side. It was really a moment not to be soon 
 forgotten. Both of them were men of strong wills, and shewed it in 
 their faces ; and as the father stooped down and looked his son full 
 in the face for a few moments no word was exchanged. Then : 
 'What are you doing here?' 'In my place with the Christians.' 
 'Come with me at once.' *I can't.' 'Take up the Ganges water.' 
 ' Never.' That was all ; and then, with a look of the deepest re- 
 sentment, the father withdrew. To appreciate the effort this must 
 have cost you should remember, in addition to what I have said 
 above about his own personal position, how very strong the bonds of 
 filial obedience in this country are, and how entirely, in return, the 
 father looks to his son to keep up the fair name, and inherit the 
 privileges of the house. Under these circumstances you will, I think, 
 feel that it can have cost no slight effort to take the decided line 
 this young fellow did, or rather that nothing short of the very real 
 and present power of the Holy Spirit would have enabled him to 
 quit himself so truly as a man. 
 
 This was, as I have said, the turning point of this latter part of the 
 night's business. Even now they hesitated to call upon him openly, 
 still hoping that if no final step was taken at once they would be able 
 afterwards, by intimidation or persuasion, to win him over; but 
 against this policy of inaction those men who had already apostatized 
 loudly and, in a sense, fairly clamoured, insisting that the others 
 should be subjected to the same strain as that under which they had 
 themselves given way. If however they hoped to see him follow 
 their example they were mistaken, for when at last his name was 
 called he stood up, and very quietly and firmly said that while he 
 had no wish to follow the lead of those who had pi'oprio motii 
 separated themselves from the Chamar brotherhood, on the other 
 hand he was before all else a Christian, and Christian he would be, 
 whether this should bring upon him exclusion from the caste or not. 
 You may imagine how happy and deeply thankful we were to hear 
 such open manly words. And behind him all the rest, who stood 
 indeed in a position of semidependence to him, being members of 
 the clan, of which he was by his old right Chaudri, stood firm. They 
 were not indeed all called upon individually, for the third or fourth 
 man who was put on his feet, instead of pursuing the courteous and 
 semi- regretful tone which the others had used, retaliated with such 
 an attack on some of the abuses of the Chamar brotherhood, including 
 especially some very pungent allusions to the laziness and covetous-
 
 21 
 
 ness of their head men, that they all begged him to be seated with 
 all speed, assuring him that they had heard quite enough to prevent 
 any possibility of mistake as to his meaning. He was in no hurry to 
 comply with the request, and they on the other hand, when he did 
 so, resolved that it was needless to call on any others for an expres- 
 sion of opinion which had now declared itself at least sufficiently. 
 And so at 7.30 a.m. the meeting broke up, and we adjourned, with 
 all the Christians present, to our little chapel near by for a short 
 service, to which the events of the preceding night lent, as you will 
 readily believe, a very special solemnity and meaning. 
 
 And now just to sum up very shortly the position in which this 
 night's work left us and our congregation. Five men had, under strong 
 trial it is true, but still openly and wilfully denied their Lord ; occasion 
 sufficient surely for deep sorrow and humility and searchings of heart. 
 On the other hand eight families had definitely stood out and broken 
 that bond which had weighted so heavily all their previous attempts 
 at a Christian life and stood forward, nominally at any rate, Christians 
 and Christians only. And besides these there w^as another body, 
 numbering some eight or nine heads of families, in a more or less 
 intermediate position, not at present breaking loose from their old 
 caste, but on the other hand pledged to do so rather than abandon 
 their newer faith ; and in point of fact the moral influence of the 
 latter party, though their line of conduct had been distinctly less 
 high, was I believe of considerably the greater weight amongst their 
 fellows. This was so because the members of the Christian Basti 
 living on Mission property had already put themselves more or 
 less into the position of connection and partial dependence on the 
 Mission to which I have referred in an earlier part of my letter, and 
 in which the more entirely single motives in an open confession of 
 faith are at any rate backed up and strengthened by others of a more 
 worldly nature. These men on the other hand, standing as they did 
 in a position of entire independence, so far as any material gains are 
 concerned, towards the Mission, had much to lose while they had 
 nothing, so far as I know, to win by their boldness. Add to this 
 that the conduct of the ' segregated ' was, previous to the meeting, as 
 entirely expected and assumed as the conduct of the others was the 
 reverse, and you will be able to understand that what is in itself the 
 lower position may well have carried, to outsiders at any rate, the 
 greater moral weight. 
 
 And then as to later events. The very moderation of the
 
 Chamars in not pressing the question of immediate exclusion has 
 prevented the results of the meeting being as clearly visible in the 
 subsequent walk of those who declared themselves Christ's as it 
 would otherwise have been. I mean for the present at any rate they 
 continue in just their old connection of friendship and fellowship 
 with the Chamars. Nay, even in the case of those who voluntarily 
 broke this bond, it turns out far more difficult than we had previously 
 expected to say exactly what they have given up and how they now 
 stand (with the exception of course of the definite abandonment 
 by the Chaudri of his old chaudriship), and very varying indeed are the 
 views taken even within the Mission of the extent of their surrender. 
 Nor may we disguise the operation of the natural law of reaction 
 following, though I am thankful to say far from equalling, action, 
 brought home to us as it is by the certain fact that the best of these 
 men have not wholly clung fast to the position which they, for the 
 time at least, genuinely occupied, but have let themselves be betrayed 
 into actions inconsistent with a stronger faith. Yet, when all is said 
 and done, I cannot believe but that a real point, a very real point, 
 has been made, and that we have had at any rate unmistakeable — 
 be they in the present individuals permanent or transient — traces of 
 the working of a Spirit not of this world, and the earnest of greater 
 things to come. 
 
 Wherefore we ask your prayers for them and us, and all who so 
 sorely need them. 
 
 G. A. LEFROY. 
 
 CAMHRIDGK: IMUNTKI) V.Y C. J. CI. AY, M.A. X: SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
 
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