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Ewing Galloway

The Taj Mahal, Agra

This is not a tomb of marble, — never, never !

My heart cries out it is a dome of heavenly flowers.

Those flowers that blossom on the trees of Paradise

Have shed their radiant beauty to enshrine Mumtaz. — From a Bengali poem hij Satish Chandra Ray, Translated hy W. W. Pearson and 0. F. Andrews.

India on the March

By Alden H. Clark

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT

OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

NEW YORK

3

Copyright, 1922, by

Missionary Education Movement op the United States and Canada

PRINTED IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

aCl.AB77706

«9

TO THE THREE CHILDREN

WHO HAVE SHARED IN THE EXPERIENCES

AND HELPED IN THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK

CONTENTS

CHAPTEE

I. The Wonderland

II. The Meeting Ground of East and West

III. A Village Wrestler

IV. Out of the Mire . V. Born to be Eobbers

VI. Scouting in India .

VII. Those Poor Missionaries

VIII. Christians Who Count

PAGE 1

25

51

75

93

115

135

155

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The Taj Mahai . . Frontispiece

Mission college students 36

A Maratha trooper . . . . . . 68

Training in agriculture 84

A Criminal Tribes Settlement elementary school 100

Rev. J. R. Chitambar 116

Dr. Anna S. Kugler 148

Rambhau's "adopted child" 164

NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF INDIAN WORDS

' As a general rule it may be said that in the Indian languages the vowels are pronounced in the Italian manner rather than the English : i. e., like the vowels in do, re, mi, fa of the musical scale. There is a short a, which is often found at the close of Indian words and sometimes elsewhere. It is pronounced like the a in aboard. Indian languages have no flat a as in at. The u is pronounced like the ou in soup. Spellings have been used which give as nearly as possible the English equivalents of consonants. Many Indian words have an aspirated letter which appears as hh, dh, th, etc. This is given an explosive pronunciation like the hh in ahhor. In the case of important Indian words in the text in which there are exceptions to these rules, a foot- note shows the approximate pronunciation. Strong accent upon one or more syllables of a word is not so common in the Indian languages as in English. Each syllable is given very nearly the same weight in speak- ing the word. For common place names, a pronouncing gazetteer should be consulted.

PREFACE

As a higli scliool boy I heard a vivid account of the needs of mission lands. It appealed to me so strongly that I decided to go out as a missionary and began to try to fit my very lively and not over-pious self for the great life-work which I had dared to choose. Later, my courses in college were planned with this in mind. For a time the original purpose grew weak, but a fresh study of the facts with a college chum brought it back, stronger than ever.

Real missionary life and work in India proved far more interesting and more significant than I had antici- pated. This little book is an expression of my enjoy- ment of the privilege of being a missionary. It is an attempt to pass on to others something of the attraction and appeal which India has for me. If it leads one strong, earnest American to answer the missionary call, I shall be well repaid for writing it.

Perhaps I should call attention to the fact that in two chapters, the third and the fifth, I have used the story form as that seems the most effective way of pre- senting the situation. ^^Appaji" and "Tevan" are not actual persons, but they represent the experiences of many from India's middle classes and criminal tribes.

The writing of this book has been made pleasant by the ready and able cooperation of Mr. Franklin D. Cogswell of the Missionary Education Movement. I owe a great debt also to Miss Mabel E. Emerson and Miss Ruth I. Seabury, both experts in missionary edu- cation, who have given unstinted advice and help at

ix

X PREFACE

every stage of the work. I shall not attempt to name here the books which I have used, neither can I men- tion the many letters and other private sources which have been placed at my disposal. We are fortunate in having many interesting recent books about India, yet no publication on modern India can now be up to date. Before the print is dry on its pages, some of its state- ments will need to be modified. So quickly are events marching in fast-changing India !

National feelings and prejudices are running high in the Orient. It is no easy task to which India calls us; but it is a great task — the greatest in the world. We are aiming at nothing less than to make Christian brotherhood the dominating principle in the surging life of one of the world's greatest peoples. The heart of India responds with wonderful completeness to the appeal of Christ when His appeal really reaches her heart. JSTo other land has a greater contribution to make to the world than Christian India. And to-day India is choosing her future path. Shall it be one of turmoil and chaos, or shall it be one of development and world- wide helpfulness ? The next thirty years will largely give the answer to this question. ISTever before did India so clearly need the spirit of Christ, l^ever before was her missionary appeal to America so great. May we rise to our high privelege by responding to this appeal !

Aldeist H. Clark

Boston, 1922.

INDIA ON THE MARCH

*If you've ^eard the East a-callin', why, you won't 'eed nothin* else."

No! you won't 'eed nothin' else But them spicy garlic smells An' the sunshine an' the palm trees An' the tinkly temple bells!

— Rudywrd Kipling

I

The Wonderland

"This is India, the land of dreams and of romance, of fabulous wealth, of fabulous poverty, of splendor and of rags, of palaces and hovels, of tigers and ele- phants. Cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech; mother of religion; grandmother of history; great-grandmother of tradition. The land of a hundred nations and of a hundred tongues; of a thousand reli- gions and of three million gods, and she worships them all. All other countries in religion are paupers ; India is the only millionaire. The one sole land under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for all men; rich and poor, bond and free; alien prince and alien peasant; all men want to see India, and hav- ing seen it once even by a glimpse, would not give up that glimpse for all the rest of the shows of the earth combined."

So says Mark Twain in Following the Equator.^ I invite you to come with me and see for yourselves this wonderland of India. Who could refuse a chance to do anything so fascinating? There is always room for several more in our bungalows, or on the verandas, and we shall be delighted to see you and show you the real India — and learn from you the latest home styles and slang. Heat and hardship? Oh, yes, I suppose so. Have you ever heard of anything that

1 Vol. 2, Chap. II. Quoted by permission of Estate of Samuel L. Clemens, The Mark Twain Company, and Harper & Brothers.

1

2 INDIA ON THE MARCH

was really wortli doing where there wasn't a certain amount of heat and hardship to be endured ?

The best time for the trip is during the "cold season," say, in December or January. Then, if "the rains" have not failed, the river valleys and great upland fields will be covered with waving grain — millet and sor- ghum, wheat and rice and sugar-cane. Then, at this time, too, her climate is ideally cool. Yes, cool ! Per- haps when we go to some northern hill station we shall have a snow-storm — and a snowball fight. Even down on the plains you may some day find a little ice on the water in the early morning. So bring a fairly warm coat along with you.

I advise you to take passage from Marseilles to Bom- bay in one of the boats of the staid old Peninsu- lar and Oriental Company. Second-class will be all right and is really far less stiff and formal than first class. You will find plenty of English captains and majors and government officials "going second" with you on their way back to their jobs. There will be a foretaste of what is to come, as these people tell you some of their tiger stories and as you talk to your very courteous Indian fellow-passengers or when the barefooted Indian table steward, imposing in his great turban and white robe, brings you, with silent steps, an Indian curry.

As you slowly steam into Bombay's mighty harbor, you will take in the tropical beauties of islet and shore and the imposing array of mountains that lie back of the long, narrow island. Yet I think that you will look with keenest interest at the tall buildings and smoking factory chimneys of this great modern city.

THE WONDERLAND

We &hall be awaiting jou, but shall not expect to receive much attention when you first come ashore. You have seen plenty like us before, while all around you on the great wharf, some shouting, some laughing, some moving with stately tread^ are such folk as you have never seen. The show that has the center of the stage at first is the landing of a native prince who was a fellow-passen- ger of yours. He is a Maharajah/ or "great king," and holds personal sway in true Oriental style over a principality as big as JSTew England. Soon a salute of twenty-two guns in his honor will boom out from the fort. He is the first to step down the gang-plank and is greeted by a group of European officials, some in ordi- nary civilian costume, but one, at least— a police officer — in pure white, standing stiff and straight. It looks as if he himself must have been starched and ironed right in the suit he wears. But it is the Maharajah's retainers, drawn up to receive him, who attract most of your attention. With their strange curved swords and their gorgeous gold-fringed turbans, they are like a pic- ture out of the Arabian Nights.

However, even the picturesque costumes and ancient accoutrements of the Maharajah's men cannot hold your eye long in that crowd. A group of men and women waving to a passenger who is about to come ashore attract your attention next. Their complexion is light and their features are regular. Some of the men have on long black coats and queer stiff hats like stovepipes which have been chopped off on a slant. The women wear beautiful embroidered silk saris ^ or flowing dra- peries and do not seem at all troubled, as most India

2 Every "a" long. s Pronounce "is" like "ees."

4 H^DIA ON THE MARCH

women would be, by being seen in the jostling crowd. They are Parsis — Persian fire-worsbippers whose an- cestors came to India centuries ago. The men are now for the most part successful merchants of Bombay and other Indian cities. They seem three-quarters Euro- pean, yet they are very much at home in India. A fellow-passenger has told you that this particular Parsi is a multimillionaire, a member of the famous Tata family that owns the greatest steel works in India be- sides great cotton mills and many other enterprises.

Look at these two rough, muscular fellows with dark faces who are waiting to carry the heavy boxes which will soon be raised from the ship's hold. See how they are pushing and hitting and shouting and laughing at each other like a pair of great overgrown boys.

That man with the long white robe and red beard? He is a Mohammedan who has done what is the ambi- tion of every devout Mohammedan to do. He has made the long pilgrimage to Mecca and proudly wears his beard stained red as a badge of his accomplishment.

But we must fairly carry you away by force. We have arranged with the efficient and willing agents of Thomas Cook to bring up your trunks and have hired for ourselves garis, or open victorias. In time we start out for the mission compound in the heart of the In- dian city where ten o'clock ^^Dreakfast" awaits us. The streets are full ; other victorias with shouting drivers and poor, thin horses, queer, lurching, two-wheeled bul- lock carts, heaped high, automobiles, — ^we almost feel at home when we see how many of them are flivvers, • — tram cars, and a stream of barefooted brown people.

At fi.rst we go through wide streets and between many-

THE WOi^DERLAIsD

storied buildings "wliicli are almost European in appear- ance. You exclaim with surprise when we come out into a great open space and see on our right the beauti- ful Victoria Terminus, the principal railroad station of Bombay, and one of the largest in the world. Soon, however, we plunge into narrow streets lined with queer little shops piled high with interesting things. The crowds are so dense that we have to drive very slowly , to avoid running over someone. How striking the people are with their brilliantly colored costumes and their strange speech! Doubtless before we reach the mission compound we shall have passed people who are talking every one of India's twelve great languages as well as many others both foreign and Indian.

We are now in the heart of the Indian city in one of the most densely peopled areas in the world, and it doesn't seem possible that we have been only a short time before driving down a wide thoroughfare between great Western buildings. Yet everywhere we see automo- biles waiting in front of native shops, we hear grapho- phones playing, and presently we pass a moving picture palace. We are having a taste of the strange mingling of West and East which is one of the fascinations and. problems of modern India.

At last we turn in at a gateway and find ourseIves^> in a most attractive compound. Right before us rises^ a beautiful church building, and to our left is an In-diam bungalow with ample verandas and many doors and?, windows. In the entrance stands a little group of our fellow-countrymen who have gathered to give jou the warmest sort of welcome. They have arranged that we shall have a breakfast to celebrate your coming, and

% INDIA ON THE MARCH

■soon we are seated around a long, improvised table -in the airy dining-room, all laughing and talking to- ;gether.

After your heavy ocean fare, you will enjoy the meal. It is quite like an American breakfast, with the addi- tion of Bombay plantains, or sweet, juicy bananas, and loose-skinned oranges, picked the day before. There will be cereal and eggs and doughnuts — the pride of the cook — and other good things. The silent-footed table-boy seems to know what you want as soon as you do yourself and passes your plate for a second helping.

After breakfast we shall have a council of war. This trip of ours isn't to be of the ordinary tourist kind, w^ith a hop, skip, and a jump between "the sights." We've invited you because we want you to know the people of India and to respect and like them, as we are sure you will if you only know them. We are going to take you right out for a real visit with the village people of India. We are also going to introduce you to a few of India's political leaders and British adminis- trators and give you an opportunity to know some of our fellow-missionaries and Indian Christians. But you really must have a chance for at least a glimpse of the wonderful show places of India — no trip in India would be complete without that — and we have only a few short weeks for everything! Somehow, we must I)egin by taking a lightning trip all over India. Then we'll be ready to si)end the rest of our time in making friends with the people.

Would you like to try a truly Indian plan ? In my (Own city of Ahmednagar there lives a Hindu holy man who, by his long meditation and his austerities, has

THE WOI^DERLAND 7

gained miraculous power, at least that is wliat people think. He was seen in Ahmednagar on a certain day, and on that same day friends say that they met him in the holy city of Benares, one thousand miles away. It is their belief that his mind had gained such complete control over his body that all he had to do was to repeat the proper mantraf' or sacred verse of magic power, to think himself in Benares and there he was. Why shouldn't we use this method of locomotion since we too are in this mystic land of India ? While I repeat the mantra of the Ahmednagar holy man, think with all your might, ^^Khyber Pass."

We find ourselves twelve hundred miles north of Bombay and six thousand feet above sea level. Below us is a narrow cliff-lined pass which is the only way by which any large company can go through the mighty Himalayan barrier which, for eighteen hundred miles,,. guards India on the north. All about us is a wild coun- try of piled up mountaips, but in front and far below we can barely see from our perch the great green plaint of i^orth India.

It was through this pass that our distant Aryan cousins entered India over three thousand years ago., Yes, the people of India are really distant relatives of ours. They left the high tableland of Central Asia and journeyed south to India about the same time that other near-by Aryan tribes began their journey toward Europe, there to become the ancestors of many of the European peoples. Even today there are several old Aryai^ words used in India which are nearly the 4 Mun-tra.

8 INDIA OIT THE MAECH

same in sound and meaning as words which we use in English.

As jou stand above this wild defile, can you not pic- ture those early invaders, keen of eye, strong of body, fearless and free of bearing, with their bows on their backs, driving their herds before them through the Pass ? They are looking for better homes, just as the Vir- ginians of colonial days were when they went through the mountain passes of the Appalachians on their way to the blue grass country of Kentucky. When some ven- turesome Aryan boy climbed our hill and for the first time looked down on the rich land of rivers and mead- ows and forests that was before him, can you not im- agine his shout of triumph as he dashed down to tell the news to those in the pass ?

These bold Aryan invaders easily drove before them the dark-skinned people whom they found in their path, and soon their civilization became the dominating ^civilization of India. Long afterwards successive waves of Mohammedan invaders came surging through this same great Pass and became masters of the Indian plain. 'Now it is securely guarded by the last invaders of India who came, not over the mountains, but by the sea. "We can see about us some signs of the vigilance with which the "Khyber Rifles," who are Indian troops under British officers, are now watching over this pass- age way to Central Asia. For still today, as in the ^ime of the Aryans, the fierce people to the north cast longing eyes on the rich plains of India. If the strong liand of British rule were removed, it would not be long before armies of invaders were again marching through the Khyber Pass.

THE WONDEELAND S

But "we must not linger here too long. Shut your eyes and, while I again repeat our magic mantra, think "Darjeeling."

We have once more leaped over nearly twelve hun- dred miles, this time to the southeast, right along the" mighty mountain harrier of the Himalayas. As we open our eyes, we shall draw in our breath in absolute wonder. After a time, a quiet exclamation of awe may come from the lips of some of us. We are on Tiger Hill on a clear day, and we are looking at one of the very grandest sights in the world. Have you ever been in the Canadian Kockies or the Alps or in any place where you have seen great snow-clad mountains? If you have, you can dimly picture to yourself the won- der of this scene. To the left, one hundred and twenty miles away, we can clearly see Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world, while right before us rises its mighty twin, itself 28,156 feet high, Kinchenjanga. The guide-book says that it is forty-five miles away, but as it rises before us in the clear air, we cannot be- lieve that it is more than ^Ye miles distant. "The eye looks over the lofty hills and across a vast chasm to the line of perpetual snow, about 17,000 feet high, on the side of the stupendous Kinchenjanga. Above that rises a glittering white wall, and then it seems as if the sky were rent, and the view is closed by enormous masses of bare rock." The longer you look at these mighty mountains, the more will their grandeur and their won- der impress you, and as we turn away, perhaps you will feel like saying with the great poet when he thought of another of nature's wonders, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him ?"

10 IITDIA ON THE MAKCH

But let US be off again on our mystic journey. This time it is a short trip — only three hundred and fifty miles southwest. We have come to the very heart of the Ganges plain, with its many compact little gray vil- lages and with ancient cities here and there on the river-bank. No "jungle" here, only fiat unfenced fields extending from the Bay of Bengal on the east way up the Ganges to the place where it pours out of the Hima- layas and thence to the southwest, down the Indus to the Indian Ocean, a great, fiat, curving belt, eighteen hundred miles long. One hundred and seventy-five mil- lion people live on this great plain, many more than there are in the United States and Canada, with Mexico and Central America thrown in. It is the countless little streams and the mighty rivers pouring down from the Himalayan snows which bring life to this great plain. "No wonder the people worship "Mother Ganga" and think of the Himalayas as the home of the gods.

You will be surprised to see that the place in which we find ourselves is nothing but an ancient ruin. It is Sarnath, four miles from Benares, and the reason we are here is that it is one of the famous places where India's greatest religious teacher, Gautama Buddha, :first proclaimed his message. In front of us is the de- scendant of the very Bo tree under which he sat as he taught.

Gautama was a young Indian prince of Aryan blood, I)rought up in luxury. The accounts speak of his great skill and strength. Indeed, we are told that he won his beautiful wife, Maya, by his prowess in archery and in other sports. But he was turned from his care- less life by seeing sights of great suffering in his father's

THE WONDERLAIS^D 11

city. He could no longer bear to go on in his selfish enjoyment while others were in such suffering, and came to feel that he himself must find the key to life's hard problem. So on the very night when his first child was born, he left home and friends and went off into the forest to think through the mysteries of life and death and to try to find some way to bring hope to suffering people. For years he lived in the forest, some-^ times fasting until he was little more than a skeleton and enduring all sorts of austerities, but in all this he found no message of hope for the world. At last, when he was in despair, light seemed to come to him. All at once he felt that he had found the true secret of life,, and he became "Buddha" — the Enlightened.

The Aryans of Gautama's day had lost much of their former spontaneous joy of life. There was constant quarreling between the tribes and much suffering ex- isted among them. They were still, as they had always been, deeply religious. But the Brahmans, who were the priests and religious teachers, had squeezed most of the happiness out of their religion and had left it a dry routine of elaborate ceremonies, just as the Jewish Pharisees and priests had done in the time of Jesus. In Old Testament times the prophets denounced all the elaborate sacrifices and ceremonies and told the Chil- dren of Israel that what God wanted was the sacrifice of clean lives. Gautama was a great prophet who called the people from a religion of external forms to one of real life. He taught them that priestly ceremonies would not meet their need. What they must do was to give up their passions and selfish ambitions and by right thinking and right action free themselves from all de~

12 INDIA 0]S" THE MARCH

sire of every sort. By getting rid of all desire, they would conquer sorrow and suffering. In this way, Gautama proclaimed, they would finally free themselves from the great "wheel of life."

His teaching contained no vital message ahout God, and the goal to which he invited his hearers was "]^ir- vana" — the absence of conscious life. But he himself was so attractive a man, he led such a beautiful life, and preached with such power that many followed his "gos- pel." Despite its deficiencies, the religion of Gautama was far better than the dry ritual of the priests.

Here among the ruins of Sarnath you may see a column covered with the remarkable chiseled edicts of Gautama's most powerful follower, the great Asoka, Emperor of a large part of India. It was in remorse at the terrible bloodshed and suffering of a great victory he had just won that Asoka was converted to Buddhism. He was equally great as an emperor and as a disciple and stands out as one of the most attractive rulers of history. In many ways he was like our o^vn Alfred the Great, but his empire was many times greater than that of Alfred. In Asoka's day Buddhism became a mighty missionary religion, sending its messengers to Tibet, Burma, and China whence they later went to Japan. In this way Gautama Buddha, the simple re- ligious teacher, became the greatest figure in Asia, and at the present time five hundred million people are partially or wholly his followers.

Yet how unattractive his message seems to us today. Here were his last words, spoken when he was over eighty years old to a group of his closest disciples: "Behold now, brethren, this is my exhortation to you.

THE WONDEELAND 13

Decay is inherent in all things. Work out, therefore, your emancipation with diligence."

If only this great-hearted teacher could have known Christ and learned from Him, he would not have talked so much of "decay" and "freedom from desire," hut he would have called people to the joy of service to God and men. Really it is no wonder that in the end India turned from Buddha's cheerless teaching hack to Hin- duism. There, at least, was a god — indeed myriads of gods to be worshipped.

Only four miles from these quiet ruins is the proof of Buddha's failure to meet the deepest needs of men's hearts. There lies the great city of Benares which has been India's religious capital — its Mecca — since his- tory began. Benares is filled with temples and shrines and idols. Here we find ourselves in a swirl of men and women bent on worship. Through the dark, nar- row, crooked, crowded streets and many temples, with their slimy tanks of holy water, a million pilgrims pass every year. Here are holy men lying on beds of spikes, and others with rigid upraised arms which have been kept so long in this position that they have lost all power of movement. Hindu widows with shaved heads and hopeless faces hurry by in the crowd. Read what Macaulay says about Benares, and I am sure you will feel that it applies to what you are seeing today. "The traveller could scarcely make his way through the press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the bathing-places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of an innumerable

14 IISTDIA OIT THE MARCH

multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples drew crowds of pious Hindus from every province where the Brahmanical faith was known. Hundreds of de- votees came hither every month to die, for it was be- lieved that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should pass from the sacred city into the sacred river." On the river-hank are the burning funeral pyres, the ashes of which will soon be thrown to "Mother Ganges."

Let us walk along beside this band of villagers who are coming with their banners and their gourds to be filled with Ganges water, and talk with them. Where did they come from? "From a village near Bijawar, eight days' journey away." Had they walked all the way ? "Yes." Why did they come ? "To bathe in Mother Ganges and to have a sight of God in the temple. What else?" We look over the group with a new interest and respect. Ignorant they clearly are, but they have revealed in this simple answer a hunger to feel themselves near to God which was great enough to induce them to endure the hardships of that long tramp and to spend their meager savings for the journey. How many in Christian America would give such proof that their religion meant something to them ? Doubtless other motives entered in. This pilgrimage is a way of finding change from the monotony of village life. It gives something of the excitement of a country fair. Yet underneath all else is a consciousness of the need for God — which is India's great gift to our busy Western world.

When our eyes are tired with the bewildering sights of Benares, we will come aside out of the surging

THE WONDERIAKD 15

crowd and again try the power of our spell, "Agra'' is our next goal.

I almost doubt the potency of any psychic power to prevent our turning a little further north to go to imperial Delhi. Delhi is the agelong political center of India, with ruins of many a famous city of bygone days surrounding it and with the wonderful buildings of the Mohammedan Mogul emperors and of the rising new British capital making it one of the show cities of the world. Yet Agra is our choice because here we are in closer touch than at Delhi with Akbar, greatest of the great Moguls, and one of the great rulers of history, and here is the Taj Mahal, which people call the most beautiful building in the world.

The story of Akbar's boyhood is a wild tale of ad- venture. He was born in the camp of Humayun, his father, who was fleeing from India for his life after a complete defeat. Akbar was a very little lad when he came marching back into India with the once more vic- torious Humayun. When he was only thirteen, the news of his father's death found him off on an expedi- tion with the army. In a few weeks he had been pro- claimed emperor and had accompanied his army in a victorious campaign against his most dangerous rival. That was a little before Queen Elizabeth began her long reign in England, and Akbar's reign outlasted even hers.

Eight before you is the wall of the great Agra fort over the battlements of which young Akbar, single handed, flung the man who had just murdered his prime minister. Until that time he had been more interested in sport than in his empire. Indeed he was called the

16 IISTDIA ON THE MARCH

best polo player of his time. But from that day on for forty-three years he reigned with such wisdom and ability that much of his work remains as the basis of the Indian Empire of today. He began, a child-ruler over a very uncertain kingdom. When he died, he was perhaps the greatest and richest ruler in the world, with most of the vast area of India as well as Afghanistan and- Baluchistan owning his sway.

He was generous to beaten enemies and tolerant to followers of other faiths. He was nominally a Moham- medan, yet he was interested in every religion. There is a tradition that one of his wives was a Christian. In spite of the fact that he himself was not a very loyal Mohammedan, there can he no doubt that Akhar's great reign helped in the spread of the religion of the Arabian prophet. There are today over sixty-five million Mo- hammedans in India — ^by far the greatest numher to be found in any country in the world.

If Akhar was the David of the Mogul Empire, Shah Jehan was its Solomon, and we are now to see the mas- terpiece of this great huilder. Whatever else we hurry over, we are going to take enough time to study the Taj Mahal. We shall see its glistening dome through the green trees of its garden, and then we shall take a hoat and see it from across the stately Jumna River, with the fine red sandstone buildings on either side set- ting it off, the whole reflected in the still waters of the river. We shall see it in the full hlaze of afternoon and again as sunset lights its graceful towers and, most heautiful of all, as the full moon softens its white marble into ivory and it rises before us a veritable crea- tion of fairyland.

THE WONDEfiLAND l7

Of course we shall go inside and look at the beauti- ful designs of precious stones inlaid in the marble and the wonderful trelliswork screens of white marble that surround the tombs. We shall feel "the chastened beauty of that central chamber" which "no words can express." Indeed, no words can express the impression of beauty made by the Taj. Such a building could have been built only as an expression of some great and beautiful ideal. And so it was.

Shah Jehan, grandson of Akbar, spent twenty-two years and untold treasure in building the Taj, that it might be a tribute to his queen, Mamtaz-i-Mahal — "The chosen of the palace." He loved her with so great a love that when she died, his only consolation was in the creation of this wonderful tribute in marble. Later, when Shah Jehan was dethroned and imprisoned by his son, tradition says that he asked to be allowed to be confined in an apartment in the fort from which he could see the Taj Mahal. There he died, facing his matchless memorial to his beloved queen.

In Agra we have seen resting under the trees herds of camels which are soon to start over the desert wastes of Rajputana to the west, and we long to follow them into that land of chivalry and romance. Indeed it seems almost impossible that, we should fly past the pic- turesque native states of Rajputana and over the won- derful old capitol and fort of Gwalior. If we could only stop in some of these places, we could be the guests of rajahs and, seated on royal elephants, we might visit wonderful ancient palaces — and modern ones as well. We could get a bit of the flavor of the life in these principalities which cover a third of India's territory.

18 INDIA o:n the march

and whicli still maintain much of the glamour and splendor of the ancient Oriental despots.

But we must be inexorable with ourselves. Eeso- lutelj think "Satpura Mountains."

What a contrast to the palaces and mosques of Agra ! We are in the wild region of mountain and jungle which separates the northern plain of India from the great up- land plateaus of the Deccan or South Country. The trees are not dense, and there is no tangled mass of vines and creepers such as you may have pictured in an Indian '^jungle" ; yet jungle it is. There are many open spaces, and in the middle of some of them you see impenetrable thickets of thorned cactus. We are on a narrow wind- ing path which is the only highway through this country.

Suddenly, noiselessly, there appears before us a dark little man with a short bow in his hand. We exchange greetings. He is evidently excited. He jabbers away at me in very low tones and gestures toward a dense mass of cactus only a hundred yards away. Then he looks around and points to a jutting rock on the hill- side on the other side of the valley. This man is a member of the wild hunter tribe of Bhils who have eyes as keen as those of any American Indian. They live in these hills and make their living largely by hunting. A man-eating Bengal tiger has been dealing destruction to their jungle village and to others as well. He had be- come so bold that the night before, he pounced upon and carried off a child from the very street of the vil- lage, and they had traced him to this place. All the men of the village had come out with whatever weapons

THE WONDEELAND 19

they owned. They had vowed that, no matter if several of them were killed in doing it, they would put an end to the constant dread of their lives in which they all lived because of this tiger. He was gorged with his meal and at present lay asleep. They were about to attack him, and this Bhil, who was their leader, asked us to go to the position of safety on the hill.

Quickly, and as quietly as possible, we follow our guide and, lying flat behind the rock, eagerly look toward the cactus. 'Now we see the Bhils approaching it on every side. Two have old shot-guns or muskets. Most of the men carry short bows of stiff bamboo and reed arrows with heavy iron heads. All have hatchets stuck into their waist-bands. We wait, breathless. The leader gives a signal. A gun shot rings out. Arrows fly. Then a great roar, and out from the cactus crashes the wounded tiger. He pauses a moment to locate his enemies. We hear another shot. More arrows fly. The tiger staggers, but makes a spring toward the nearest Bhil. Alert little hunter that he is, he springs aside and throws his hatchet with marvelous skill. It makes a deep gash in the great tawny beast's neck. The tiger tries to follow the hunter, but staggers and falls. At once the Bhils are upon him making doubly sure of their victory by blows from their hatchets. We rush down to join the group around the fallen monarch of the jungle. One lucky arrow has hit an eye. Another is in his neck. Several wounds in his side show how deadly was the aim of these wiry hill men. As the huge beast lies there nearly ten feet long, his great fangs showing through his open jaws, power in every line of body and leg, we marvel at the courage of these little hunters in

20 INDIA ON THE MARCH

attacking such a creature with their crude weapons* It is surprising and interesting, indeed, to find that in almost every part of such a thickly peopled land as India there should still be stretches of jungle country inhabited by wild or half -tamed peoples like the Bhils. As we go back to gather up the belongings we had hastily dropped in our excitement, we are brought up with a start, for a dark snake over five feet long is lazily crawling directly across our path. He sees us, pauses, coils himself, and raises his head. 'No mistaking that head with the beautiful markings on its spreading um- brella. He is a great cobra. As we retreat, he sees that his danger is past, and, uncoiling, quickly glides into the cactus beyond, for he is just a little bit more afraid of us than we are of him. You may see other cobras while you are in India, but they will probably be in the baskets of snake charmers and jugglers. All over India poisonous snakes are a lurking danger, and we are always glad to have a mongoose pay our hedges a visit ; but you may live in India for years and never see a single free cobra. I am almost safe in assuring you that you will see no more on this trip.

After this experience you are all probably quite ready to put unusual intensity into the thought which is to carry us out of this wild country and on our journey. *^Tanjore" is the word this time, and we open our eyes to find ourselves once more amid the streaming crowds of a city street. We are a thousand miles south of Agra in a city which is a great center of South India culture. The people are different in dress and in appearance from those of the North. The language sounds differ- ent. The buildings are different. Somehow the whole

THE WONDERLAI^D 21

atmosphere is entirely changed. We see almost no bearded Mohammedans and few whose light complex- ions indicate Aryan blood. These people are Dravidians by race. They were driven south by the Aryan in- vaders, and here they founded over fifteen hundred years ago a civilization which has ever since been grow- ing richer in literature and art.

I see that your eye is attracted by that curious great cannon which you see in a bastion of the fort. It is named Raja Gopala and is twenty-four and a half feet long with a bore of two and a half feet. You could easily crawl into it. In many places in India you will find big guns like this in the ancient forts. The old Indian Rajahs were very fond of them. Do you re- member that Kim was sitting on one in Lahore when he first met his Lama ?

A massive tower covered with images of gods and demons rises two hundred feet above us and soon de- mands our attention. It is clearly a temple, yet we have seen no such mighty temple building even in holy Benares. As we walk into the enclosure another great tower appears and we find ourselves in the midst of a bewildering array of cloisters and chapels covering a very wide area, all part of the same temple. The guide tells us that part of this great temple dates from the fourth century A. D. — that is from the time of the Ro- man Empire. Other portions were built a little after the reign of William the Conqueror. The great towers which completed the temple were added at about the time of Columbus. Here and there in the enclosure we see sleek Brahman priests who are keenly watching to be sure that we do not go where we are not allowed and so

22 IISTDIA 01^ THE MAECH

desecrate the temple. But thej are even more eagerly watching the offerings of the worshippers.

In spite of the fact that they are few in numher in South India, the Brahmans seem to dominate things here in an even more imperious way than they do in the !N'orth. As we ramble about the town, we cannot get away from that great temple. It overshadows the whole city. It is so in many cities of the South. Hinduism seems to be absolutely in control here.

Yet in this very country Christianity has won greater victories than anywhere else in India. Right before us is one visible reason for this. It is the church of Christian Frederick Schwartz and was erected by him in 1777. He was one of India's greatest early mis- sionaries and was trusted by every class of people. At one time he acted as ambassador of the British to Hyder Ali of Mysore and made so great an impression on that fierce ruler that he invited him to stay in his country and preach Christianity. But Schwartz declined be- cause he felt that he was most needed in Tan j ore. The Rajah of Tanjore asked him to do many difficult public services, every one of which Schwartz performed with great ability. Finally, the Rajah made him guardian of Sarabojee, his son and heir.

Tor a time this humble missionary, whose main in- terest was in his growing congregations of Christians, was the most important man in the government of a rich and populous native state. The young Rajah whose guardian he had been, loved him as a father, and when Schwartz died, erected to his memory the marble monument which we see in the church. He also com- posed the quaint inscription which we shall read :

THE WONDEELATiTD 23

Firm wast thou, Immble and wise, Honest, pure, free from disguise, Father of orphans, the widow's support. Comfort in sorrow of every sort. To the benighted, dispenser of light, Doing and pointing to that which is right. Blessing to princes, to people, to me; May I, my father, be worthy of thee! Wishest and prayest thy Sarabojee.

Our week of sightseeing is over, and we must be get- ting back to Bombay for a Sunday of rest. We shall pass, swift as thought, over the high mountains of South India, over her great upland plateau, over the "Western Ghats'' which rise near India's western coast, and down again into the mission compound in Bombay, eight hundred miles away.

As we sit back in our comfortable veranda chairs, we shall all be going over in imagination the many great sights which we have seen. There will also come pour- ing into the minds of each of us little bits of native life and color which perhaps we alone have noticed. We have seen something of the wonders of nature and art in India, something of her variety of life, something of the greatness of her past, something of her human in- terest.

After a Sunday of worship with the progressive Indian church and of quiet rest in our bungalows, you will be eager to go on to find the answers to some of the questions about India that fairly bristle in your mind and to become better acquainted with her inter- esting people.

' It may take years — ^it may take a century — ^to fit India for self-government, but it is a thing worth doing and a thing that may be done. It is a distinct and intelligible Indian policy for England to pursue — a way for both countries out of the embarrassments of their twisted destinies. Then set it before you. Believe in it, Hope for it. Work up to it in all your public acts and votes and conversations with your fellow-men. And ever remember that there is but one way by which it can be reached. . . . Till India is leavened with Chris- tianity, she will be unfit for freedom. When India is leavened with Christianity, she will be unfit for any form of slavery, however mild. England may then leave her . . . freely, frankly, gladly, proudly leave the stately daughter she has reared, to walk the future with a free imperial step. — Sir Herbert Edwardes, K.G.B., K.G.8.I,, Hero of the Indian Mutiny

II

The Meeting Ground of East and West

We are on an athletic field in the beautiful inland city of Poona in western India. A crowd of excited boys and men is watching a game of aUa-patia — a pop- ular team game that is played, under different names, over most of India. This particular contest is between two of Poona's high school teams. The players are barefooted. They wear but little clothing, and their light brown bodies are lithe and graceful. By their color and general appearance we can easily see that almost all of them are Brahmans, the proud descendants of India's Aryan conquerors. Ten players are lined up at one end of the long, narrow field. The opposing team is scattered down the field, each player guarding a cross line. You can picture what the field is like by thinking of a shortened football gridiron squeezed to- gether until its side lines are six yards apart, a third line running down the center.

The signal to start is given, and the attacking team rushes forward into the upper squares. One fine look- ing fellow slips through the first opponents and comes bounding down toward the lower end of the field, stop- ping short before an alert antagonist. 'Now watch the contest. Back and forth he runs, seeking an opening; but the guardian of the square is equally quick and bars the way. Suddenly, like a flash, the runner flings himself almost flat on the ground, but forward and out- ward so that only one foot remains inside the side line,

thus keeping him technically within bounds. Again,

25

26 INDIA Oiq" THE MARCH

like a flash, he rises, but he is beyond the guardian of that line and in the next square. You never saw a football runner in America put more fire into his play, and I doubt if you ever saw one who moved more quickly. Others follow. See how skilfully the team works together in getting its men forward, and with what fearlessness and abandon they throw themselves down- in passing their opponents. Gradually they work their way forward until the first player has reached the farther end of the field and, turning, has threaded his way back until he finally dodges across the starting line. ''Lon! ion/" they shout. "Goal! Goal!'' The boys jump and yell for all the world like American boys whose team has made a touchdown.

These boys are the "lazy Brahmans" about whom you may have heard ! A few years ago most of them would have been spending the afternoon idly strolling about, telling stories, and singing songs; or they would have been lying on their beds or under a tree, committing to memory some text-book. But now they have caught the new spirit which is abroad in the land. They want to see their country playing a great part in the world. They realize that India must have men of strong bodies and fearless spirits, men able to play the game as a team and take failure with a smile. There is passionate patriotism in the way the high-caste boys in the schools of Poena and other places are getting ready to meet this need. More than school loyalty expresses itself in the way they are playing atia-patia. There is love of their Motherland. ''Bande Mataramr^ — "Hail to the Motherland!" — is their rallying cry.

iBundey Materum.

THE MEETIN-G GEOUITD OF EAST AKD WEST 27

Back of this new patriotism which is changing these schoolboys from flabby, selfish bookworms into keen athletes lies Indians contact with the modern Western world — especially with sport-loving and liberty-loving Britain. You cannot understand India's modern schools and colleges, its great factory chimneys, and its passion- ate patriotism, flourishing right by the side of densest ignorance, wooden plows, and indifference to public affairs, unless you know something of the fascinating story of her contact with the Western nations.

The Western world has always been nearer to the Eastern world than most persons imagine. Every American schoolboy and businessman uses something Indian many times a day. We do all our figuring with what we call "Arabic numerals," because they came to Europe through the Arabs. But they are really Indian numerals which were brought to Palestine by Arab traders before the time of the Crusades. The Crusaders introduced them into Europe. Of course, they have changed a little in the process of time and travel, but not very much, after all, as you shall see if you will come into one of our little elementary schools. It will take you about three minutes to learn how to follow everything which the boys write as they work out or- dinary examples in arithmetic. And remember that their ancestors were using these figures when our own were hunting with bows and arrows in the forests of Europe and counting on their fingers.

India has ever held a fascination for Europe. In the old days great caravans transported her precious stones and her spices, her ivory and her beautiful cloth

28 I»"DIA ON THE MARCH

to Constantinople and other ports, and mercliants from Venice and Genoa spread them over Europe. ^^Calico" was named from the city of Calicut in India from which this kind of cloth first came. Fancy the Queen of England making the hit of the season at Court by appearing in a robe made from a rare Indian cloth which some English merchant had just brought from Venice, and which was really nothing more nor less than a calico dress.

When the Turks conquered Syria and Asia Minor, they closed the caravan routes between India and Europe and tried to keep all the Indian trade to themselves; but western Europe refused to be cut off from the trade of India. The fine ladies were bound to have their Calicut dresses as well as their muslins and cloth of gold, their diamonds and pearls. It was the lure of India that led the navigators of Spain and Portugal to try to sail around Africa and that led Columbus to venture out on the untried western ocean. When he discovered land, he thought that he had reached India, and naturally he called the natives "In- dians." Europeans were sorely disappointed when it be- came known that they had only discovered America, when they had hoped to find India !

After many unsuccessful attempts the Portuguese finally found their way around Africa to India and established trading-stations there. It was the age of daring adventure. Sir Walter Paleigh was fitting out his first colonizing expedition for Virginia. At about the sam3 time a company of English traders secured a charter from good Queen Bess and sent ships on the six months' journey around Africa to start a modest

THE MEETING GKOUND OF EAST AND WEST 29

trading-station at Surat, the port of Akbar's Empire. So began two dangerous little English enterprises, each of which often seemed on the very verge of failure. By the sheer pluck of those sturdy pioneers, both ventures succeeded and have resulted in mighty empires. To the east is the great Indian Empire, still controlled by Britain, and to the west, the imperial lands of Canada and the United States, which owe their language and much of their civilization to England.

It is a very interesting fact that the English did not at first wish to govern India or dream that they ever would do so. All they sought was a chance for peace- ful trade. In the qiiaint style of the day, Sir Thomas Roe, British ambassador to the Mogul court, wrote, in 1612 : "A war and traffic is incompatible. . . . Let this be received as a rule. If you will profit, seek it in private trade." He pointed out that the Portuguese and Dutch lost the profits of their trade by getting mixed up with the government of the country and so having to maintain armies. Yet it was not twelve years before the British had to fight off the jealous Portu- guese at Surat. Then Shiva ji, the great Indian chief, swooped dovm from his mountain fortresses to raid this rich port. Later on the Dutch and the French attacked the English, who soon found that if they wanted to trade, they would have to be strong enough to defend themselves. So they built forts and organized littl^ armies consisting of a few Englishmen and many more Indian soldiers, or sepoys.

Many bold adventurers and able leaders had a hand in the development of England^s connection with India. There were wars, and there was much hard work. First,

30 Il^DIA ON THE MARCH

the English won little pieces of territory, among them the wild island of Bombay, which was very much like the equally wild island of Manhattan on which 'New York City was soon to be built. Then they conquered, one by one, whole provinces as big and rich and popu- lous as European countries. It was a long process, but by 1857 it was almost finished, and the British East India Company found itself, with a handful of white men and many Indian assistants, governing a land as large and with as great a population as all Europe ex- cept Russia.

Among the interesting men who laid the foundations of the Indian Empire was rough Job Charnock, who doggedly clung to the fever-infested mud flat which the iN^awab (ruler) of Bengal assigned to him as a trading- post. He watched most of his men sicken and die, but stayed on until the beginnings of the great city of Cal- cutta rose about him. There was Gerald Angier, early governor of Bombay, who had the vision to see "the city which by God's assistance is intended to be built," and who was "a chivalric and intrepid man who made it his daily study to advance the company's interest and the good and safety of the people under him."

The most picturesque and typical figure of the early days of Britain's contact with India is that of Robert Clive. He was a tempestuous, uncontrolled boy. Once he shocked the sedate people of his quiet English village by climbing the steeple of the village church and sitting astride the eaves-spout. No school kept him long, and at eighteen his father packed him off to India as a clerk of the East India Company. Seven years later, with a tiny force of poorly trained troops, most of them

THE MEETING GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 31

Indian sepoys, he had, by his bravery and wonderful leadership, captured the important fortress of Arcot, withstood a siege, won a decisive victory, and turned the tide against the seemingly all-conquering French. The mighty French power in India never recovered from that defeat by an English boy commander who was trained to be a clerk, but who had the heart of a great general. When his father heard of the brilliant victory of Arcot, he said, "After all, the booby has something in him.''

At thirty Clive was made Governor of Madras. Soon afterward tidings came speeding from the north that Surajah Dowlah, the depraved and cruel Nawab of Bengal, had captured Calcutta and had thrown one hundred and forty-six European men, women, and chil- dren into the Black Hole where all but twenty-three of them perished in the night. The new Governor lost no time in preparing to march against the ISTawab, and soon found himself with a little army of two thousand In- dian and one thousand English soldiers with nine small cannon facing the E^awab's army of fifty thousand in- fantry and eighteen thousand cavalry with a contingent of French soldiers and with fifty great cannon drawn up at some distance beyond a small river. Should he cross the river against the enemy and so risk the annihilation of his force ? All the officers except one advised against taking such a risk, but when the coun- cil of war broke up, Clive reversed their decision and led his little army forward. ISText day the battle of Plassey was fought, the ISTawab's army was completely defeated, and the English became the real power in the great province of Bengal. The mighty British Empire

32 INDIA ON THE MARCH

in India practically dates from June 22, 1757, the day on which young Clive decided to cross the river and fight the ]^awab.

What follows sounds like a story-book romance. The corrupt jN'awah fled, but was captured and killed. Clive installed a new and friendly ruler, who took him through the treasure chamber of the capital, with its great jars of jewels and gold and silver coins on either hand, and told him to take what he wanted as a present. In those days it was considered honorable for a general to take such spoils of war, and Clive actually accepted treasure worth more than a million dollars, while other officers and officials received large sums. Kupees, plate, and jewels were sent in boat-loads down the river to Cal- cutta. Two years later, for another service, the new !N^awab gave Clive as a little token of appreciation the revenue of the Calcutta district, or about $160,000 a year.

The English did not yet understand what a poor country India really was. They knew of Akbar's splen- dor and of the vast treasures of Indian rulers ; they did not realize that these treasures were wrung from the poverty of India's peasants. Young Clive resigned from his position and returned to England where he was made a peer and lived as a '^Nahoh/' ISTaturally the other agents of the East India Company wanted to fol- low Clive's example. There was a general scramble after money which resulted in the oppression of the Indians. The Company saw that it must send out from England a Governor-General who would be strong enough to clean things up.

Of all men they chose for the task this young prince

THE MEETING GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 33

of iN'abobs^ this man who had become a millionaire over night out of the spoils of India — Robert Clive. And they chose rightly. Clive was as brave and fearless in his fight against the corruption of his countrymen as he had been in battle and did much to "cleanse the Augean stables." In two short years of intense activity which broke his health, he made the Company's posi- tion in India far stronger than it had been. Macaulay says about this man who went to India a scapegrace boy to become a clerk in a struggling company and in a few years won an empire for England, "Our island, so fertile in heroes and statesmen, has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great either in arms or in council."

At the time that Clive was winning his battles, the Mogul Empire was crumbling, and all India was in confusion. Little kingdoms were rising and fighting each other on every side. Great bands of robbers roamed the country. But gradually British rule ex- tended, bringing peace and order. Sometimes the earlier British rulers were harsh and intolerant and did India wrong; but often they were men of noble character and ability. On the whole, they brought peace and progress to a disturbed and suffering land.

In many ways the outstanding man among all the earlier English rulers in India was Lord William Ben- tinck. He was a great lover of liberty. As a young man he helped Italy to win her freedom, and when he became Governor-General, in 1828, he did everything in his power to give Indians high place in their coun- try's life. He also fearlessly fought such Indian

34: IN"DIA ON THE MAECH

abuses as saU_, or the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of tbeir busbands, and the inhuman practice that existed in some parts of India of killing many of the girl babies.

It was in Lord William Bentinck's day that there came the great controversy as to whether the Govern- ment should offer Indians an English education or whether it should favor teaching them only their own languages and culture. A strong party argued that the Government should encourage only Indian education. It would be dangerous for the British Government, they said, for Indians to receive Western education and learn too much about Western freedom.

Perhaps the strongest and most enthusiastic advocate of English education was a young Scotch missionary, Alexander Duff. He believed that Indians were worthy of the very best that the West could give them, and, what was more, he was proving in his own remark- able school what English education would do for India. The famous Macaulay, who was then a member of the Supreme Council and to whom this question was referred, advised strongly in favor of English educa- tion. In his epoch-making Minute, with which Lord William Bentinck heartily agreed, he repudiated the idea of keeping India ignorant in order to keep it sub- missive. He clearly saw that through English educa- tion the day might come when India would outgrow British rule and demand European institutions of frc3- dom, and he said, ^Whenever it comes, it will be the proudest day in British history." In this high spirit the British Government definitely committed itself to promoting Indian progress.

THE MEETING GROUI^D OF EAST AND WEST 35

But probably the man who did more than any Briton could do to lead India out into tbe modern world was the Indian prophet of the new day, the Pajah Bam Mohan Boy, ^ ^through whose courageous efforts a golden bridge was first erected uniting the progressive, practical traditions of the West with the sublime idealism of the East." ^ Up to his time most leading Indians had clung to their own old ways and had opposed Western civilization. Bajah Bam Mohan Boy had the courage to attack the ancient evils of India, — idolatry and caste and sati. He secured for Duff the rooms in which he started his school, helped him and other missionaries in many ways, and cooperated with Lord William Ben- tinck in his fight against sati and in his other reforms. Bam Mohan Boy dared to tell his proud high-caste countrymen that they must learn from the West, and that they must learn from Christ. It was his conviction that underneath all reform must lie religion, and his greatest work was the founding of a liberal religious society, the Brahmo Samaj. He wrote, "I have found the doctrines of Christ more conducive to moral prin- ciples and better adapted to the use of rational beings than any other which have come to my knowledge."

Of Qourse he was persecuted. When he was a very young man, his father turned him out and told him never to darken his doorstep again. After his father's death, his mother bitterly attacked him. Orthodox Hindu leaders did everything they could against him, but he did not swerve from his course. If Clive was the founder of the British Empire in India, Bajah Bam Mohan Boy was the founder of the modern, progressive

2 India's Nation Builders, p. 40.

36 II^DIA ON THE MARCH

India of today. In many ways he was a nobler figure than Clive. The battles which he fought were just as hard and they demanded a higher kind of courage. His successes were not so spectacular as those of Clive, but they probably had a larger influence on the inner life of India.j

This great pioneer of the new India was the first of a notable group of brave and able reformers. Many of them graduated from mission schools and colleges. Al- most all of them felt the influence of Christ. They attacked Indian idolatry, sometimes at the risk of their lives. They denounced India's treatment of its women, saying that little girls had a right to their childhood and must not be married until they were at least four- teen. They supported schools for girls which were generally under the care of women missionaries. They even dared to break the rules of the great sacred system of caste. A few of these reformers were killed, espe- cially those who were bold enough to become Christian. Almost all of them were persecuted by orthodox Hindus. But every year Indians in increasing numbers were educated in English schools and were getting ideas of liberty and democracy. More and more Indian students and leaders were following Ram Mohan Roy by honor- ing Christ and His teaching of brotherhood. Gradu- ally reform and progress gained ground.

During this period more Christian missionaries were establishing their schools and hospitals and churches. Western railways were introduced, and on their trains Indians of all castes travelled together. In the new schools that were springing up, children of many differ- ent castes studied and played together. Old India was

( 1 ) 'J'he liumble eh'ica brings a new student to the gate of a Christian college. One sixth of all the students of India are enrolled in mission colleges.

(2) A game of atia-patia. The students realize that India must have men of strong bodies and fearless spirits, men able to play the game as a team and take failure with a smile.

THE MEETING GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 37

gradually being changed. The terrible wrongs of In- dian women and girls, of the outcastes, and of all un- fortunates were very slowly but very surely growing less, and the spirit of public service was increasing.

Then came the great Indian mutiny of 185 Y in which many regiments of Indian sepoys shot their British officers, killed white women and children and native Christians, captured the old capital city of Delhi and several other cities, and, with the help of some of the people, attempted to set up again the old Mogul Em- pire. This crisis was really like the Boxer Uprising in China. It was the last violent attempt of the old East to keep out the new West.

When the mutiny failed and, by proclamation of Queen Victoria, the Crown took over from the East India Company the control of India, most educated In- dians accepted the new order. Railway travel grew popular and increased immensely. Factories began to ispring up. High schools and colleges were crowded with eager students. Hundreds and thousands of Indians dejB.ed Hindu prejudice by crossing the "black water" to finish their education in England and America. The West seemed to be gradually dominating India.

In 1905, little Japan's victory over great Russia sent a thrill of new hope throughout Asia. Educated In- dians began to ask, "Why cannot India become free and strong like Japan ?" Many ardent young men an- swered, "We can and we will." A well-known mission- ary tells of a typical young Indian who, before the Russo-Japanese War, had rarely thought of India as a whole; his ambitions had centered in his family and

38 INDIA ON" THE MAEGH

caste. But tlie night when he heard of the defeat of the Eussian fleet, a clear vision of his country came to him. India appeared as a desolate mother claiming his love, and the vision was so vivid that for months afterwards he could shut his eyes and see it again. Like Paul, he set out at once to obey his vision. Because he saw that until the Mohammedans and Hindus came together there could he no united India, he began by seeking to win the friendship of the Mohammedans. From this he went on in his service of his country, risking his life in work in a plague camp, then going into relief work in a famine stricken district. Japan's victory had changed his whole life.^

Thousands of young Indians went through experi- ences like this, and a new spirit came over the land. Since 1905, agitation and patriotic movements have been going on all the time in India.

Mr. Gokhale, the strongest Indian social and political leader of the last generation, founded the Servants of India Society. This is a little group of highly educated Indians, most of them Brahmans, who dedicate their lives to the service of those in need. When they enter the Society, even though they could earn many times as much elsewhere, they are given a salary of twenty- five dollars a month, only enough for a bare living. Whenever famines have come, the members of this So- ciety have organized very effective relief. They have gone into the factory districts of Bombay and have tried to brighten and improve the hard life of the mill- hands by forming clubs, by helping them to keep clear of drink and to save money, and by showing their

QThe Renaissance in India, Andrews, p. 19.

THE MEETIIS-G GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 39^

f riendsliip in many ways. They are in the forefront of every social reform in India.

Mr. Kelkar started a plow factory where he manu- factures modern steel plows to replace the old wooden ones which Indians have used for centuries. This in itself is a great service to India, but Mr. Kelkar does- more. He is making his factory a model, where work- ing conditions are healthful and where the life of the workers is worth while. There is a recreation ground for the employees, and Mr. Kelkar himself freely joins them in tennis and other games, though some of them are lowest outcastes.

One of India's noblest women, Mrs. Ramabai Ranade, opened the Seva Sadan,^ or "Home of Service, '^ in which women learn to serve much as the men do in the Serv- ants of India Society. There have been great temper- ance movements also. Ram Mohan Roy's Brahma Samaj has kept up its service. The Arya Samaj is a powerful reform movement among Indians which is unlike most of the rest in that it is definitely opposed to Christianity.

All of these movements and many more like them are the mighty indirect result of Christian missions. They are winning Indian leaders away from the old Hindu idea that life is something evil to be escaped, and are teaching them the Christian lesson that the life of ser- vice is something good, to be gladly followed. The^r show how rapidly and powerfully the Christian leaven has been working. Many of the leaders reject organized Christianity because they think of it as Western. But their whole outlook is being changed by the silent, per-

4 Sayvah Sudden.

4'0 INDIA ON THE MAECH

vasive influence of Christ whicli has come into the life of India largely through modern missionary activity. One of the first and ablest of India's young reformers, Mr. G. K. Devadhar of the Servants of India Society, frankly acknowledges that he received his own impulse to such service from a mission school and says, *^ Chris- tian missions have played a large part in the great in- tellectual and spiritual evolution that has slowly gone on in this country during the past century, and they have been one of the potent factors which have produced modern India."

Intense political activity has gone on also, and even high school boys have had a share in it. There have been plots and bombs and the shooting of officials. In- dian students have often shown that they were willing to die for their country. Two political parties have de- veloped : one, of radicals who have urged India to break away from Great Britain at once. Some in this party would use only peaceful measures. Others are prepared, if necessary, to use force. The other party is made up of more conservative men who want to accept British help for some years to come. These two parties have fought for the control of the I^ational Congress which has been the great Indian gathering in which educated Indians meet to express their opinions on public ques- tions. The more radical party now dominates the Con- gress. An interesting fact about this Congress is that the only language which all who attend can understand and use is the English language. As a matter of fact, it is the English type of freedom which the Indian ISTational Congress is demanding, and the English Ian-

THE MEETING GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 41

guage is the natural one to use in making the demand.

When the World War came, one of the questions which British leaders asked was, "What will India do ? Will she use this chance to become independent? Or will she he loyal to our cause ?" Britain did not have long to wait for an answer. The educated leaders of India were roused to anger by Germany's ruthless treat- ment of Belgium. The message she sent to Britain was, "We are with you.". Her leaders said it, the news- papers said it, the native princes said it, and the Indian soldiers said it. It sent a thrill through both England and India when the brown veteran troops of India marched into the great first battle of Ypres and played a large part in saving the day and thus in saving the cause of the Allies.

Canada and the United States are proud of the past they played in the War, and well they may be; but perhaps America's aid would have come too late if it had not been for a million and a quarter of India's picked young men who served — and many of whom died — for the great cause of the world. From all over India they came, sturdy Marathas from the West, little Gurk- has from the far ISTortheast, tall Sikhs from the Punjab, bearded Mohammedans from the United Provinces, Christians from many places. For the most part they fought well. Some of them fought wonderfully well^ even winning the most coveted of all British war dec- orations— the Victoria Cross. Some Indian princes left the luxuries of their Oriental courts and themselves donned khaki and fought in France. Others turned palaces into hospitals and gave vast sums of money. Indian women met and sewed for the Red Cross. Even

'42 INDIA ON THE MAECH

the ragged little Indian school children somehow earned and gave money for the starving Belgian children.

Great Britain was not slow to show her gratitude to India for this priceless aid. Mr. Montagu, then Secre- tary of State for India, announced that India would he given increasing control of her own affairs until her people were governing themselves. The phrase he used i:o describe this was "the progressive realization of re- sponsible government." Mr. Montagu came to India and with the Viceroy prepared a bold and able plan for :giving her home rule.

But Indian leaders had come to understand their power through the War, and many Indians said, "This plan is not enough. "We want to control all our affairs at once." Immediately after the War, the Moham- medans in India were greatly stirred because it looked ■to them as though the Allies intended to destroy the power of Turkey, which was the only great Moham- medan country left in the world. For this and other reasons, there has been unrest. Bioting has broken out liere and there. One British general, in order to stop i;he rioting, ruthlessly shot down hundreds of Indians. After an investigation by a Royal Commission he was publicly condemned by the British Government; but the Indians feel that the punishment was inadequate, ^nd the resentment remains. Also, the Russian Bolshe- vists have been working against the British in the north. They cannot send armies over the Khyber Pass, but they have been sending Bolshevist teachers to try to make trouble. India is no quiet, peaceful place today. It is pulsing with new life.

In the period after the War Mohandas Gandhi be-

THE MEETING GROUND OF EAST AND WEST 43

came in many ways the most interesting figure in In- dia or, for that matter, in the whole world. He is a thin, inconspicuous little man, and he wears the coarsest and simplest of Indian clothing. Yet in those critical days he became by his utter fearlessness, by his sheer devotion, and by his purity of character the acknowl- edged leader in all India. Millions of Indians, espe- cially her educated young men, were ready to follow him anywhere. They called him MaJiaima/ "the Great Souled One," and not only acclaimed him as a popu- lar hero, but worshipped him as a saint. Probably this Indian leader has had a greater influence over more people than any other living man.

Mahatma Gandhi does not believe in Western ma- terial civilization, and he does not want to see India Westernized. He wants her people to remain simple in their habits. He does not believe in the government schools. They are too Western. He wants an Indian system of education. He believes that the British Gov- ernment has done great wrongs to India, but he tells his followers that they must not shed blood to right these wrongs. Practically, what he tells them to do is to go on strike against the Government and against everything Western. He calls his doctrine Satyagraha/' or "Soul Force." It is generally spoken of in English as "non-cooperation." "Don't send your boys to a Gov- ernment school. Don't vote. Don't serve the Govern- ment. Don't wear clothes made of Western cloth. Re- vive your old hand-weaving industry and your old-time simple life in every village and city," he says. So his followers wear coarse homespun clothing and the 5 Ma-hat-ma, "a" as in far. e Suttya graha.

44 INDIA OHf THE MARCH

"Gandhi'' cap made of a simple piece of rougli native cloth.

In November of 1921, while the Prince of Wales was being received with great splendor at the port of Bombay, Gandhi, as a general protest against his visit, was making a bonfire of Western cloth in the native city. At the same time, rioting broke out in the crowded parts of the city. Mobs of Hindus and Mohammedans attacked police stations, street cars, and automobiles. "No one who did not wear the Gandhi cap was safe on the streets of that part of Bombay. The disorder de- veloped into a race riot against Parsis and Anglo-In- dians. Several Parsis and Europeans and one Ameri- can, as well as many of the rioters, were killed. Gandhi was heartbroken. He did everything he could to dis- perse the mobs and finally resorted to a typical Indian device. He sent out word that he would not eat or drink till peace was restored. And peace was soon re- stored, for none of the rioters could endure the reproach of having been the cause of the death of their great saint.

This mob violence in Bombay seemed, for a time, to convince Mahatma Gandhi that India was not •yet ready for non-violent non-cooperation. The day after the rioting, he issued a statement. These few sen- tences from it show its spirit of true penitence : "We have failed when we ought to have succeeded, for yester- day was the day of our trial. We were under our pledge bound to protect the person of the Prince from any harm or insult. And we broke that pledge inasmuch as any one of us insulted or injured a single European or any other who took part in the welcome to the Prince.

THE MEETING GEOUND OF EAST AND WEST 45

They were as miicli entitled to take part in the welcome as we were to refrain. 'Nor can I shirk my own per- sonal responsihility. I am more instrumental than any other in bringing into being the spirit of revolt. I find myself not fully capable of controlling and dis- ciplining that spirit. I must do penance for it. ... I have personally come deliberately to the conclusion that mass civil disobedience cannot be started for the pres- ent." Yet it was not long afterward that Gandhi pre- sided over the Congress which advocated civil disobedi- ence.

As a result, another terrible outbreak of mob violence occurred. Once more Gandhi expressed deepest repent- ance. Yet even then he did not repudiate his cam- paign to overthrow the Government. Finally, on March 18, 1922, after a trial at which he pleaded guilty, he was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the Govern- ment and was sentenced to six years of imprisonment. In sentencing Mr. Gandhi the judge expressed the high- est admiration for his personal character and the deep- est regret that he was compelled to find him guilty. On his side Mr, Gandhi complimented the judge on the fair- ness of the trial. This great-souled leader in his final message to his followers commanded them not to use violence as a protest against his imprisonment. And no violent protest occurred.

As a politician, Gandhi made what he himself called "Himalayan blunders" which have done measureless harm. As a social and religious leader, he has done untold good. He has called his people to give up the use of all liquor, to live pure lives, to recognize the despised outcastes as human beings and fellow-citizens.

46 INDIA OW THE MARCH

He honors Christ. Indeed, he receives much of the in- spiration for his work from Him. He has been a won- derful influence for the moral uplift of India and for the establishment of brotherhood among her divided peoples.

Gandhi's great failure comes from his indiscriminate rejection of everything from the West. In this he is not so broad or so human as Ram Mohan Roy. He is absolutely right in wanting India to keep her own distinctive civilization, but he has not succeeded, and he ought not to succeed in his boycott of everything Western, even Western schools and hospitals.

We admire him and other Indian leaders for their in- dependence of spirit, for their refusal to join the world in its scramble for ease and luxury. We Westerners care far too much for automobiles and movies and all sorts of mere things. Mr. Gandhi has lived as a cul- tured gentleman while wearing the coarsest clothing and eating simplest food. He has not wanted to see the evils of our big factory cities spread in India, and he has been right in wanting to save India from these things. India ought to stay simple. Jesus lived a sim- ple, frugal life. Yet men like Mr. Gandhi cannot build a Chinese wall around India and keep everything West- ern out, and, what is more, her best leaders do not want to do such a foolish thing. For her own sake and for the sake of other people, she must remain a part of the modern world.

Many of India's ablest men, like the Right Honorable V. S. Shastri, one of the British Empire's seven pleni- potentiaries at the Washington Conference, do not be- lieve in non-cooperation and are helping to make Mr.

THE MEETING GEOUKD OF EAST AND WEST 47

Montagu's new plan of home rule a fair success. They seem to me to represent the truest and best spirit of modern India. They believe in India and her civiliza- tion, but they can also see good in Britain and her civilization. They are not controlled by race prejudice and hatred, but are working toward the closer coopera- tion of West and East.

Eabindranath Tagore, in a remarkable article on "The Union of Cultures," directly combats Gandhi's principles. Here are a few sentences from this article: "By their present separateness. East and West are now in danger of losing the fruits of their age-long labors. Eor want of . . . union, the East is suffering from poverty and inertia, and the West, from lack of peace and happiness. . . . !N'othing is more obvious than that the nations have come together, yet are not united. The agony of this presses on the whole world. . . . Shaw- tam,^ Shivam, Advaitam — "Unity is peace, for unity is the good." It is the dream of my heart that the culture centers of our country should also be the meeting ground of the East and West."^

If Indian radicals should succeed in doing away with the strong British rule in India this year or within five years, the result would be nothing less than terrible chaos and bloodshed. That would be indeed a "Hima- layan blunder" which would almost destroy their own beloved Motherland. The Moplah riots around Calicut in 1921 are a hint of what would happen. The Moplahs are fierce, intolerant Mohammedans. Indian agitators led them against the Government, but when these Mo- hammedans rose, they committed atrocities not so much

7 Pronounce "am" as "urn." sThe Nation, Calcutta, Nov., 1921.

48 INDIA ON THE MARCH

against Europeans as against their Hindu neighbors. They forced over a thousand of them at the point of the sword to become Mohammedans. If it had not been for the British military power, there is no telling how far the Moplahs would have gone. A shrewd Indian Mohammedan has said that if the British power were withdrawn, his fellow-Mohammedans would come swooping down on India from the northwest, the Mo- hammedans in India would join them, and rivers of blood would flow. India is still too ignorant and is divided into too many castes and races and religions; there is too much mutual suspicion and hate and too little public spirit. If the British should leave tomor- row, rivers of blood would indeed flow. Millions would starve as they have been doing in Russia. It would be a terrible calamity.

When we picture what would happen in India today if her present government should fail, we see how im- portant it is that Indians and Englishmen should find a way of working together. Where shall they find it ? In the world-wide spirit of Jesus Christ. Many In- dians and Englishmen realize this. The leaders in the great task of bringing the two races together are found, for the most part, among the educated Indians who, like Tagore, have strongly felt the influence of Christ's spirit. On the other hand, when English officials are truly Christian in spirit, Indians still trust them and respond to them. Missionaries and Indian Christians have a wonderful chance to show both sides the way out of the present crisis. It is deeply significant that Jesus was born in Asia, yet in a part of Asia which had

THE MEETING GKOUND OF EAST AND WEST 4^

felt the currents of European life. He is the Master of all. If Westerners and Easterners can only come close to Him, their suspicions and jealousies will melt away, and in their place we shall have mutual trust and re- spect and common efforts for the good of India and of the world.

The East needs the West, and the West needs the East. I helieve that in the end they are not going to fight in India, but that they are going to cooperate. Just now jealousies are keen and distrust is strong. Yet the leaders of the great middle classes still look upon the British rulers as their friends. In general, so do native princes, the merchants and land owners, the outcastes, and many progressive leaders. The final solution of the whole hard problem of race relationship is to be found in Christian brotherhood. That is the Good 'News of Christ for troubled India today.

THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE

I used to think him heathen,

Just because — well, don't you see, He didn't speak "God's English,"

And he didn't look like me ; He had a burnt complexion

Which is heathen, goodness knows; He ate a heathen's rations,

And he wore a heathen's clothes. But there's a s'prising skinful

In that bloke from far away: He fights like any Christian,

And I've caught the beggar pray; He's kind to little kiddies,

And there's written in his eyes The willingness to render

All a Christian's sacrifice. Yes, you'd know him for a heathen

If you judged him by the hide ; But, bless you, he's my brother,

For he's just like me inside.

— Robert Freeman

Ill

A Village Wrestler

Most of tlie people of India belong to the respectable farmer castes. They live in her 720,000 villages where they cultivate their fields as their ancestors have done before them, generation after generation for a thousand years. They are hard-v^orking folk, sturdy and vsrithal attractive. Today, even these stolid villagers are being awakened from their age-long sleep. There is nothing more interesting in India than the way that these people are beginning to play a real part in the life of the land. Once I was suggesting to a city Brahman that the farmers had shrewd opinions which every leader must respect. ^'These villagers ? What are they ? Stones I" was his contemptuous reply. To their cost, the high- caste people of different parts of the country are find- ing that the middle classes are not stones. They are rousing themselves and intend to play their part in the new life of India. Indeed in the Madras Presidency the so-called non-Brahman party now controls the legis- lative council. The story which follows seeks to show how the ferment of new life is working among India's middle-class millions.

' "Jail jail Appaji!^ Jail jail Appaji!" The shouts of the crowd rose from the river-bed where the village fair was going on. Even a widow at work in the heart of the neighboring village of l^imbgaon lis- tened eagerly.

lAp-pa-jee,

51

62 INDIA 01^ THE MARCH

^Wah!" she exclaimed. "Vithoba still smiles on our village. Our Appaji has the strength of an elephant and the quickness of a tiger. Who can withstand him !" And she paused in the preparation of the evening meal. As the noise drew nearer, she left her little windowless cook-room, and carefully placed herself in a dark corner near the open door, where she could be somewhat shaded. yet could see all that went on in the street.

Soon the crowd of excited villagers came surging by. A cloud of dust rose around them. The gray, window- less walls of the mud houses that lined the narrow street on either side hemmed them in.

''Jail jail Appaji!" they called in rhythmic repeti- tion. In the center of the crowd, borne aloft on the stout shoulders of some of his young fellow-villagers, was the object of all this attention the broadly smiling Appaji.

Around his almost bare body he had hastily thrown a dhoter, or long, thin, cotton cloth, which did not conceal the rippling muscles of his arms and chest. There was a ruddy look of health about his face; and the smile with which he looked around him was a most attractive combination of amused good nature and honest pride.

1^0 wonder the women of the village smiled, and the boys went wild with excitement. Por was not this their own Appaji Bhosle who had for years been famed as the best wrestler in all the region ? And had he not just now, after three years of absence from all wrestling matches, defeated the champion of the rival village, Shingavi, in the toughest bout of his career, and that at their own yearly yatra, or religious fair ?

Most conspicuous in all the crowd, his high, clear call

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 53

easily heard above the other shouts, was a ten-year-old boy who danced along beside the village hero. '^Majya hapane tiala jinJcile/' he called. ^'My father beat him ! My father beat him !" It was Jayavant,^ Appaji's elder child; and when the crowd reached the village rest- house and set Appaji down, the little boy leaped into his father's arms.

In the meantime, men had gone bustling about to prepare an impromptu celebration. From somewhere a sweet-smelling garland of roses and jasmine was brought and placed about Appaji's neck. Attar of roses was sprinkled on his uparana, or long scarf, and san- dalwood paste was placed on the back of his hand.

Appaji's acknowledgment was brief and direct as befitted a sturdy Maratha farmer. ^'Friends, I thank you for honoring me thus. I am glad that by the help of God I was able to uphold the honor of our village. As you all know, I have been giving much time lately to the Satya Shodah Samaj ^ — The Society of the Search for Truth. We aim to bring back the ancient glory of the Maratha name. 'No need to remind you how our Shivaji and our other heroes conquered much of India. They had Tukaram and Kamdas, the saints, as well as Shivaji, the warrior, in those days.

"If we want to regain our ancient name, we must keep up our ancient sports ; but we too must once more worship God as Shivaji did, — and we must send our boys to school. How else can we free ourselves from our slavery to the clever Brahman officials and the slip- pery money lender ? I tell you that the English Sirhar (Government) means well by us. It is the under offi-

2Jay-vunt. 3 guttya Shodak Sum-mfij.

54 INDIA ON THE MARCH

cials of our own land who keep ns down. Letjis start a school for our boys !"

When he had finished, the crowd was silent. Then the gray-haired village patil (headman) replied: '^Ap- paji, thou hast spoken well. Let us start a school. Then will our village not he helpless in the hands of the Brahmans and the money lenders like a lamb caught by two wolves, and we may regain our ancient glory. In speaking to us thus, thou hast done us a greater service than by winning the wrestling match. What say you? Shall we ask the Government for a school? Or shall we go to the missionary ?"

^'The missionary sahib live^near at hand," replied Appaji. ^^He speaks our language and knows our ways. He is our friend. Moreover, he will teach our boys, not only to read and figure, but to keep strong speak truth, and to worship God. I give my opinion for asking him."

A general murmur of approval came from the crowd of men who were sitting about the rest-house*

The ^^missionary sahib" was the Eev. John Greyson, well known far and wide as the people's friend. Sev- eral who were sitting there owed their lives to the relief work he had superintended in the terrible famine days of 1900. So it was decided that they should ask him for a school.

Appaji did not let the interest in the village school grow cold. He had attended a big convention of his fellow-Marathas three years before which had opened his eyes to his people's need of education. Ever since then, he had been trying to have a school started in his village, but up to this time no one had shown much in- terest in his project Now the patil, another leader,

A VILLAGE iWEESTLEE 56

and he went to the near-by village of Chincliore, where the missionary lived, to make their request. All prom- ised help toward the teacher's salary. Appaji him- self offered to lend a rude farm building for the use of the school at the start. There were many other vil- lages that were asking the missionary for schools, and in the last analysis, it was the earnestness and sincerity of Appaji himself that finally decided Mr. Greyson to send a teacher to Nimbgaon.

'Not long after Appaji's little son, Jayavant, had be- gun his first lessons, news of far greater events than wrestling matches reached Nimbgaon. One evening Gangaramji, the new teacher, brought his weekly news- paper to the village square and read how the English Sirkar had entered the World War. Soon rumors came that the Government was asking for new recruits for the Maratha regiments, then, that some of the In- dian army had actually gone over the '^black water" to fight. No one was more eager for the news than Appaji. No one seemed to think so much about it. Gangaramji was surprised one day to have him say, ^^Why should not I go ? I am young and strong. Always m_y ances- tors responded to the appeal to arms. The British Sirkar is just and good. Will it not help us Marathas to regain our ancient honor if we do our part V^

"But how about Jayavant and little Tara and the rest of your family, Appaji?" said the teacher. Eti- quette forbade his mentioning Appaji's wife by name, yet he was sure that a real affection existed between the big villager and Sitabai, his wife.

A shadow passed over Appaji's face. Nevertheless, his reply was clear and simple. "They will lack for

56 IJSTDIA ON THE MAECH

nothing. We have fields and gardens. My older brother, Balavant, is in charge of the family affairs. He will look out for them. You will give Jayavant especial care, will you not V

"Yes, I promise you that I will/' answered Ganga- ramji.

So in the cool dawn of a winter day, Appaji and a little group of fellow-recruits tramped away to the training camp in Poena. The good-bys to his wife and little daughter were said at home, but Jayavant ran along beside his father. Indeed, most of the men of the village came some distance to "start them on their path."

In a few days the post-runner brought Appaji's first letter. It was addressed in a scrawling hand to Jaya- vant, and Gangaramji, who was postmaster as well as teacher, read it first to the family and later to the vil- lagers. It was simple and brief, giving a glimpse of the busy life of the training camp and bringing his greetings to his fellow-villagers and the members of his family.

Great was the stir caused in the village by the receipt of this letter. It was gravely discussed by the village fathers. The women talked about it next morning as they gathered around the village well with their big, brass water- jars to get the morning supply of water. The old patil summed it up when he said: "A great man is our Appaji! See how he has learned with his own hand to write a letter ! His thought is always for the honor of our village and the good of our people. Hay Vithoba and all the gods guard him Hey, Yish- vanath, wilt say mantras for his safety ?"

"Yea," said Yishvanath, "tomorrow they shall be :said."

A VILIiAGE WRESTLEK 57

Kow Yishvanath was the village Brahman, and he loved Appaji not at all, for that doughty wrestler had dared openly to challenge the right of the Brahmans to control the life of the village. He dared not, how- ever, do anything but say yes. Indeed, he was very glad to receive the two-anna piece which the headman unknotted from his waist and handed to him.

Other letters from Appaji followed, in one of which he told of being made a petty officer. Then came one in which he said: "We go tonight. Take care of Tara. All thought of her marriage must await my re- turn. Let her go to school. Bemember to guard the honor of the Bhosle name."

Long weeks elapsed before the next word came, this time from Basra, port of entry of Mesopotamia. It reflected graphically the terror of the sea to the simple Indian countrymen. "In a great boat," he wrote, "we went out over the black waters, broad as the sky. Soon we could see Mumbai (Bombay) no more. Then the mountains disappeared. The waters rose up and tossed our boat as I used to toss thee in our play. There lay we all, sick as children who had eaten green mangoes. We said one to another that we should never again see our homes, for the boat was lost in the great black water with no land anywhere about us, only the angry waves. Then our Kaptan took one or two of us to the back of the boat and showed us a white path stretching back from the center of the boat. ^Does that path go all the way to Mumbai?' we asked. ^Surely it does,' he answered, *and when the war is done, over that path shall a great boat like this bear you back.' Then were we assured that we should return to our homes. For

58 INDIA OIT THE MAECH

truly I had thouglit that we were lost in the waste of water and never again should I see thee or set foot in ITimbgaon."

Further letters told of fierce fighting in the Euphrates valley, where even Indian troops wilted under the fur- nace heat.

Sitabai went often to the village shrine to pray for her husband. Finally, in a big ofiicial envelope came the word that all had dreaded. Appaji was seriously wounded. He had been in a fierce engagement in cross- ing a river where Turkish machine guns were playing relentlessly on them from the opposite bank. Two at- tempts to throw over a pontoon bridge had failed. A third was on the point of succeeding. Appaji and his platoon had been ordered to be the first to cross to at- tack the machine guns. Then the last of the engineer- ing squad fell, leaving the bridge incomplete and use- less. Appaji saw the crisis, ran through a stream of bullets to the incompleted section and, single handed, by sheer strength, coolness, and courage, repaired the frail bridge. His platoon rushed forward, enough of them gaining the opposite bank to establish a bridge head. Night brought reinforcements, and the enemy were beaten back. But Appaji was found lying with one leg broken and two bullet wounds in his body. The letter went on to say that, in token of the gratitude of the Empire for his bravery, his commander would rec- ommend that he be awarded a decoration and receive a grant of land lying near Nimbgaon to be handed down as an inam or hereditary estate from generation to generation in his line forever. Appaji was in a hospital in critical condition, but with good hope of recovery,

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 69

and wlien strong enough, lie was to be sent back to India.

After a time news came from a hospital in Bombay that he had arrived there. Then, one day, the post- runner brought the longed-for word that he had been allowed to leave the hospital and would reach the rail- road station of Ahmednagar next morning.

"Khandoba has blessed ns. He is coming home/^ said Sitabai with trembling voice.

As soon as possible, Balavantrao and Jayavant started in a bullock cart for the thirty-mile journey, and they were at the station when the train came in. At first they did not recognize the thin soldier with the large khaki-colored turban. But in a moment, Jayavant rushed forward, calling, "Bapa ! Bapa !" tears running down his cheeks in sheer joy at seeing the father who was also his hero.

Two long years had passed since Appaji had seen his boy. He held him at arms' length, and the look of love and pride deepened in his eyes as he saw what a fine, tall lad Jayavant had grown to be.

'^How far have you got in school V^ he asked.

"I'm just finishing the third book. Gangaramji says that I should now go on to Chinchore to the mission boarding-school, but the family does not want to send me."

"We'll arrange all that," said Appaji. "How are your mother and little Tara ?"

"All welL Mother can eat nothing since your mes- sage came. She thinks only of your coming," said Jaya- vant. "Tara can read and write and has taught mother a little, too."

Soon they were seated in the crude, joggling, two-

60 INDIA ON THE MAECH

wheeled cart and had started on the slow journey to I^imbgaon. As they went, Balavantrao told the news of village and household, — the death of the patil, the dispute as to whose right it was to succeed him, and the consequent reopening of an old village feud, the growth of the progressive Satya Shodak Samaj in which Appaji had been so much interested, and the attempts of the village Brahman to prevent it, the fierce sudden hailstorm which had come, as it sometimes will in India, beating down the growing sugar-cane in their mala, or irrigated garden, and a thousand other pieces of local news of intense interest to the returning soldier. Part of the way Appaji slept, but as the cart reached an eminence a few miles from his village, he looked lovingly forward to the patch of green trees in the midst of the plain that marked the site of ITimbgaon, its only two-storied house — their ancestral home — thrusting up a bit of gray in the midst of the gTeen.

Half a mile from the village, the picturesque native band of five players met the travelers, and for the rest of the journey, they went in slow procession heralded by its wild, weird music. The welcome in the village square, with garlands and speeches, was indeed a warm one. JSTimbgaon had been proud of Appaji the wrestler, but her pride in Appaji the war hero was far deeper.

Then came the quiet home coming, sweet little Tara hugging her father close, and all the household crowd- ing around. "While others were about, Sitabai contented herself with ministering to Appaji's tired body; ar- ranging a comfortable place for him to recline, bringing him a drink, watching him with eager love. But when each little family in the larger joint family group had

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 61

retired to its own section of the home, she restrained herself no longer, but even as she busied herself about the preparation of dinner, poured out truly Oriental expressions of love and care. Appaji responded and settled back in the little dark room in restfulness and utter contentment.

It is hard for us dwellers in a new country? to appre- ciate what the village of his ancestors and of his own birth means to an Indian. All the principal interests of his life center here. The doctors had been right in thinking that what Appaji most needed now to complete his recovery was to come back to his home.

In a few weeks came the problem of Jayavant's edu- cation. He had finished the village school. Ganga- ramji urged Appaji to send him on to the boarding- school at Chinchore. Sitabai was fearful. Most of the women and the older men opposed such an innovation. Vishvanath the Brahman denounced the move. Jaya- vant would lose caste in the Christian school, he said. His companions would be Christians from among the despised outcastes. His manners would be corrupted. "Who knows but that he may himself turn Christian V But the father was firm as a rock. The boy was to go to the Chinchore school. This school has a special hostel for Maratha boys. He could eat food cooked by his fellow-castemen and could thus observe the funda- mental rules of caste. But he could study and play with the Christian boys. So one fine day Jayavant went off to Chinchore to school.

At first all seemed strange enough, and the Maratha lad was shy. But it doesn't take boys long to break through artificial barriers. Jayavant inherited his

62 IlirDIA OIT THE MARCH

father's love of all games. His dearest ambition was to be a great wrestler, and it was not long before be was in demand for games of atia patia and ball, while he easily vanquished even larger boys in Jcusti — the wres- tling match — ^which has, in the life of Indians, the place which football holds with American students. His mind was keen, too, and he did well at his lessons.

In the beginning, Jayavant didn't know what to make of the quiet Sundays with the service in the big church ; but he liked the singing. He asked: "Where is your Christian God ? I want to see his image. This is his temple, isn't it ?" It took him a long time to think that it was worship at all to sit on a bench in a big building and sing and listen to a sermon and to close one's eyes while the minister offered a prayer. The worship that he had known had been to bow and leave his little tribute of flowers or coin on the threshold of a dark shrine, from the opposite wall of which glistened and gleamed the hideous features of a little stone idol. One of the young teachers soon became the boy's fast friend and talked it all over with him.

"Why don't you have a shrine and an image ?" asked Jayavant.

"Because God is everywhere, like the sunlight, and is so great and good that we dare not try to picture Him as an ugly little image," the teacher answered. "All we need to do is to think about Him and speak to Him wherever we are. He is always ready to answer us and help us."

Gradually Jayavant came to understand and enter into Christian worship. In school, too, he was studying the Bible and came to admire some of the men and

A VILLAGE WEESTLEB 63

women and boys and girls that it told about. When he went home for his first vacation, he had many questions to ask of his father.

^'Mj boy/' said Appaji, ^^I have been talking much with Gangaramji about this Christian religion. Long have I felt that something was the matter with our vil- lage faith. I have thought that perhaps it was because our Brahman was a small, greedy man; but while I have been away, I have come to feel that the trouble is with our religion itself. It keeps us apart from each other in different castes. It doesn't even let the Mahars (outcastes) into the temples. Yet over there I saw a Mahar driver save the life of my friend Manoharrao. The Christians say that all men are brothers. They are not always afraid that they have offended their God. They say He loves them. Study their Shastras (Scrip- tures) well and tell me all you learn."

And whenever he came home, Jayavant did tell his father the Bible stories he had learned. He read to him from the Gospel of Mark, which had been given him in school, and Appaji thought long and deeply on all these things.

Three years passed, and Jayavant was a strapping fellow of fifteen. He was still in the boarding-school at Chinchore, where he was now a leader in sports and in all the school life. A movement was taking place among the older boys. Easter was approaching, and a class had been formed for those who wanted to join the church. Jayavant's most intimate friend in school was Vithal, son of a Hindu holy man and grandson of the man who had been the most bitter opponent of the com- ing in of Christianity in all that region. Vithal was

64 INDIA ON THE MAEOH

in the class and had felt the call to become a Christian. Jayavant was also a member of the class and was stirred by that great sacred impulse that comes to most boys at about his age. It impelled him to come out boldly as a follower of Jesus.

The World War was over and had brought to India an intense patriotism such as she had never known be- fore. Jayavant was his father's son and shared to the full this love for his Motherland. This only deepened his love for Christ, whom he had come to look upon as the only possible Saviour of his country.

But the obstacles in the boy's way were staggering. He had realized this more and more clearly when he had gone home for vacations. ISTever a month passed without some ceremony in which he was expected to take part which involved worship of the idol and old superstition. His uncle could not build a well without having the Brahman say mantras over it. Hinduism was woven into the very fabric of his family life.

This was not all. If he was baptized with the other boys, he would be an outcaste. Even his father and mother and little sister could no longer eat with him. His grandmother and his uncles, whom he loved, would regard him as a traitor to the family name. He would bring disgrace to them all. Quite likely no young man of good family and situation would be willing to marry his sister. It seemed to him that it meant pulling his life up by the roots. ^^It would be easier to die," he said to Vithal, the son of the holy man.

*^Yes," Vithal replied; "it would be easier, but we aren't here to take the easy way. We must be loyal to our Master and to our Motherland."

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 65

About two weeks before Easter, Jayavant surprised the missionary "sahib" by asking for three-days' leave to go home. "I want to join the church on Easter Sunday, but I can't do it without talking it over with my father and mother," he said.

So it happened that Appaji, who was working in a field beside the road that afternoon, heard a familiar voice call, '^'Are, Bapa !" and looked up from his plow to see Jayavant running toward him. His face lit up with love and pride as he watched his tall son come nearer, yet there was lurking in his eyes an anxiety, almost a fear, that had often been there during the last year when he thought of Jayavant. Warm indeed was the greeting of father and son, between whom existed a comradeship unusual in the Orient.

"The sight of thee is like that of the new grass which springs up after the first rain. Come and sit under the big mango tree and tell me of thy school and what bring- eth thee home at this time," he said. So they walked over to the great tree exchanging news of school and village.

When they were seated in the quiet nook, Appaji turned to Jayavant. He had seen the traces of struggle in the boy's eyes and in his manner. "My boy, what is it ?" he said.

"Father, why didst thou send me to a Christian school?" he asked.

Appaji saw in a flash what he meant. His fears had come true. He himself had come to believe in Christ as a great Guru, or Master, and even as an Avatar, or incarnation of God. He rebelled at much in Hinduism, especially against Brahman domination; but

Q6 HTDIA ON" THE MAECH

witli the easy tolerance of the Indian mind, he thought to retain the old while also accepting the new. He was not prepared to brave social ostracism and break from all the life which he held so dear by seeking Christian baptism.

^^I sent yon there because it is a good school that teaches boys to speak truth and keep clean as well as to read and figure. Why do you ask ?" he said.

"IText Sunday Vithal and other boys are going to be baptised," Jayavant replied.

^^And thou wishest to join them ?" asked Appaji.

"For weeks the thought of it has been with me/' said Jayavant. "Sometimes it has been as a ball of fire in my stomach. When Vithal, my friend, decided, I went off into the field alone to pray and think it over. Then there came to me, as it were, a message from heaven saying, Tear not, I will be with thee.' And I knew that He was calling me to brave every difficulty and be baptised. So I asked raza ^ (leave) and here lam."

Appaji was silent for a long time. Then he said, "If thou dost this thing, thou canst never again live in our home or eat with us. I^o girl of our caste will marry thee. Thou wilt become an outcaste. Disgrace will come upon all our house. Hast thou thought of all this?"

"Yes, I have thought of it. Worst of all, Bapa, I cannot be near thee." Jayavant could say no more for a long time. Great sobs shook him. Finally he added, "What will mother think — and Balavant kaka (Uncle Balavant) ?"

4 Ruzza.

A VILLAGE WBESTLEB 67

Appaji was no less deeply moved. At length he re- plied, ^^God knows what they will say or do. As for me, I have feared this. It has been as a heavy burden on my head all the time. Yet I will not command thee not to do it. If I thought right to risk my life for the Sirkar, why should not my son risk life and more for his Master and his Motherland ?" He laid his arm across Jayavant's shoulder and said earnestly, ^'We shall have a hard time at home tonight. Let us pray God to strengthen us both." There in the field they prayed, Jayavant leading in earnest, simple words. Then they walked to the village and through the massive gate in the bastioned wall, built in the old days to keep out the robber bands, through the gray village street to their own home. The cattle had just come from the common pasture and jostled them in the street. They met the village patil who gave Jayavant a warm greeting. Every familiar sight and sound of the village seemed peculiarly dear to the boy, and he realized with fresh force what it was going to mean to give up the old life.

That evening, with the men of the household gathered together, sitting cross-legged in a circle, and the women hovering in doorways behind, Jayavant told of his de- cision. A shriek from his grandmother interrupted the story. She came before him in threatening attitude.

^'What sayest thou, Jayavant? Dost thou mean to tell us that thou wilt go into the Christian church and let the Christian pastor defile thee and make an out- caste of thee V

^'Yes, Aji (grandmother)," said Jayavant, for he knew that further reply was useless.

68 INDIA ON THE MARCH

"And art thou, Appa, going to allow Jayavant to drag our fair name in the mire by his foolhardy childish act?" she said, turning fiercely to Appaji.

"The hoy has received a command from God to do this thing, and I may not stand in his way," replied Appaji.

■Shriek upon shriek from the old grandmother greeted this statement, and in these she was joined by the other women.

"Are! Did I bear Appa for this, — that he should blacken all our faces ! Where will my granddaughters find husbands when our friends know what has come in our household ! Why are the gods thus angry with us ! As for me, I swear that the, day he does this thing, that day I cast myself into the well."

When exhaustion brought comparative quiet, Bala- vantrao spoke. As oldest brother and head of the joint family, he had large authority in all important family affairs. "Mother, be silent!" he said. "Jayavant, I command thee to give up this silly idea. Better that thou cast thyself into the well and drown, than that thou shouldest do such a thing. I warn thee that we shall not allow it." A murmur of assent went around the circle.

"Uncle, I cannot give it up," cried Jayavant.

After an hour of futile discussion, the family council broke up in bitter anger against Jayavant and Appaji. Worst of all for the boy were the tears and reproaches of his own mother, when they went back into their own rooms. It was indeed a terrible ordeal for a boy who loved his home and people as Jayavant did.

The nights were warm, and the men and boys slept

A Maratha trooper from Appaji's country fording a stream in the Mesopotamian campaigu-and incidenta ly furnislnng trans- port for a kid while its mother looks on with grave concern.

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 69

in the open courtyard of the house. Before they went to sleep, Appaji said in quick, low tones, ^^My boy, your Uncle Balavant and your grandmother are very an- gry. They may try to kidnap you or even poison you. Before daylight you must be gone. And do not stay in Chinchore. Tell the sahib to send you away some- where for a time, until their anger grows cold." Long before dawn, accordingly, Jayavant was on his way back to Chinchore, with a hearty Godspeed from his father^ Appaji.

Again excitement reigned when the family awoke next day and found Jayavant gone. It was soon ar- ranged that the uncles should follow and demand the boy from the missionary sahib. ^'Thou shalt come with us, too, Appaji, and shalt assent to our demand," said Balavantrao. Much to Appaji's disgust, Balavantrao also invited Vishvanath, the village Brahman. But when they arrived in Chinchore, they did not find Jay- avant there, and no amount of angry demands from the uncles could discover where he had gone.

Easter Sunday came and went. Appaji's thoughts were far away, wondering about his son, where he was, whether he had taken the final irrevocable step, and, most of all, whether he too should not take his stand be- side his plucky boy. Some days later, Gangaramji handed Appaji a letter. He could scarcely wait to open it. Jayavant wrote that he had arrived in Chinchore just in time to be sent on with a bullock cart to Ahmed- nagar and thence to Satara, where on Easter Sunday he had been baptised. He hoped and prayed that his father and the rest might some day share the happiness of this experience. He wanted to return to school at

70 INDIA OI7 THE MARCH

Chincliore soon and hoped tliat his father would come to see him there. He sent loving greetings to his mother and sister.

After some thought, Appaji decided to tell the news at once to all the household, and he did so. Again there was an uproar. Again the grandmother in an abandon of despair swore that she would take her life. Bala- vantrao, being an orthodox Hindu, went at once to Vishvanath, the Brahman, with the tale, and that eve- ning a crowd of villagers, some angry, some grave, and 3ome merely curious, gathered at the village square to talk over this untoward event. Appaji quietly joined the group. He listened with the rest to the Brahman's bitter attack on himself and Jayavant, on the Satya Shodak Samaj, the liberal society to which the Brahman with reason blamed this occurrence, on Gangaramji, and on the Christian school. Two or three of the older vil- lagers followed in similar vein.

Then Appaji himself rose and looked about the circle of faces. ^'Chintaman Patil, there is something that I would say about this."

"Say on," said Chintaman.

"Twice before have I been before you here," said Appaji. "Once, when I had won the wrestling match and ye did me honor, and once when I returned from the War and ye did me even higher honor. I won the wrestling match for the honor of our village and as an example for all our young men. I went to the War for the sake of our old Maratha glory and for the good of our Motherland. ITow listen to me. ISTever did we need God's help more than we need it now. The SirJcar has given us home rule. Soon we shall have to elect

A VILLAGE WRESTLER 'Tl

those who are to rule over us. Where shall we find men who will hold even the balance between friend and foe and who will serve our common good ?" He paused and a murmur went about the circle, for the spirit of public service was well-nigh unknown. "Has our re- ligion prepared us for this? Will Vishvanath and his mantras help us ? 'No. But the religion of Christ will help us. He teaches men to think of others. I know that his religion is true. When I was wounded, men came to take me to the hospital, risking their lives for my sake. They bore upon their clothes the symbol of Christ's cross. And when I was in the hospital, a white nurse served me night and day, caring for me like a sister. She too wore on her arm a red cross. I have thought about this, and I have decided that I will join my boy Jayavant and that I too will become a Chris- tian."

These were bold words for Appaji to say before Vish- vanath. So bold, that they left his hearers speechless. Some shook their heads, but there were several of the younger men whose faces showed their approval. After a time one of them spoke.

"Appaji, thou art right. Thou hast ever been the best leader of our village. I have listened to the Chin- chore sahib's talk, and it is true. Some day all of us will be Christians."

"Yes," answered Appaji, "and that day is not far distant. Already in South India thousands of men of caste like ours in several districts have become Chris- tians. Here the Satya Shodak Samaj grows stronger every year. Soon ye too shall come to see that Christ is the hope of our Motherland."

72 INDIA ON THE MABCH

Then the meeting broke up, some holding with Vish- vanath, but many openly siding with Appaji.

IText morning, under Vishvanath's influence, a few of the pupils did not go to the Christian school. Most of the parents, however, refused to be moved by his threats and arguments and continued to send their chil- dren.

Appaji went to Chinchore. He easily satisfied Mr. Greyson that he was ready to take a Christian stand, and when Jayavant came back from Satara, the simple baptismal ceremony was performed.

That was the critical step which meant a final break with all, except Jayavant, who had meant most to him. From now on he was, in the eyes of his family, an out- caste. He could no longer live in his own home, and for a time he sought and found employment at Chin- chore. Sitabai refused to see her husband or let little Tara see him. He took every opportunity to send them messages, but he received no reply. Many a hard fight against lonesomeness and longing for home and village did Jayavant and he fight together. But after many months, the glad word came from Sitabai that she could bear the separation no longer and would come to live with him. Arrangements were quickly made, and Sitabai and Tara came to Chinchore.

At first she tried to observe the rules of caste, but the Christian influences about her were too strong and finally both she and Tara joined the church. The fam- ily reunion was complete, and joy again crowned their humble home.

'No one can measure the influence of the example of Appaji and Jayavant in their own village and in all the

A VILLAGE WEESTLER YS

region. Many Maratha boys are crowding tlie village schools and several have gone to the boarding-school. Some of them believe in Christ and intend openly to follow Jayavant's example by being baptised. The strength of the Satya Shodak Samaj and other agencies of reform among the middle classes grows. More and more of the slow-moving but substantial farmers, who form the backbone of India's life, are saying openly that they will all some day become Christians. When will that day come? Who can say? Appaji and Jaya- vant will tell you, if you ask them, that a great move- ment among the Marathas is near at hand. They are praying and working for it. Who knows but that they may be the very ones who are to play a leading part in the winning of the middle-class millions of India?

,But for these missionaries, these humble orders of Hindu society will for ever remain unraised. ... To the Christian missionaries belongs the credit of having gone to their humble homes, and awakened them to a sense of a better earthly existence. This action of the missionary was not a mere improvement upon ancient history, a kind of polishing and refining of an existing model, but an entirely original idea, conceived and carried out with commendable zeal, and oftentimes in the teeth of oppo- sition and persecution . . . the heroism of raising the low from the slough of degradation and debasement was an element of civilization unknown to ancient India. — An Eminent Brahman Official in the Travancore Cen- sus of 1901

IV

Out o£ the Mire

We have come on our bicycles through the narrow, winding street of a little Indian village and are passing out through the large iron-bound gate in the village wall, when we hear sounds of quarreling.

''ArSj Rama ! Get out of my way ! Your fpther was a donkey and your ancestors were pigs ! Get out of my way, I say !" More and still more abuse pours in loud tones from the mouth of an old woman. She is one of a crowd of Indian ^^outcastes" gathered in an open space between the village proper and the group of tumble- down huts which make up the outcaste quarter. They are unkempt, and their scanty clothing is, for the most part, ragged and filthy, l^ow they are pushing each other angrily.

As the circle opens for a moment, one can see what it is all about. There on the ground is the bloody car- cass of a dead bullock. Its hide has been stripped off and taken away as a precious prize. Those nearest are trying to hack off pieces of meat. They are spotted with blood. When those of the outer group try to come up to get their share, they are roughly pushed back by those who are nearer.

A fourteen-year-old boy breaks from the group and runs toward his house with a great strip of meat. He wears a dirty little cloth about his loins, — nothing more. His body is covered with dirt, and there are sores upon his legs and head.

A few in the group are muscular. The majority are

75-

76 INDIA 01^ THE MAECH

thin and weak. They are ''Mahars" by caste, the scav- engers of the village, and the prize over v^^hich they are quarreling is the flesh of a bullock that had fallen dead in the village that morning.

A fine looking village headman walks by with averted face in which one can clearly read his dislike of the scene. To him, as to all Hindus of good caste, the bul- lock is a sacred animal. He loathes the thought of eat- ing its meat, and as for touching the flesh of an animal that has died of disease, it is utterly disgusting to him — just as it is to us.

A boy from the outer group sees us and comes running up to appeal for our support. ^'Eama and his brothers will not let our party have any of the meat. They claim it all. Bali to han pili/' ^

"Is it their turn to do the village work ?" we ask.

"Yes," he replies ; "but always when it is our turn, we have allowed their party to have some of the meat. That has been the custom of our village."

By this time Eama and the rest have seen us. They all know us as the missionaries who are the special friends of their village and in charge of its little Chris- tian school. Probably from a sense of shame, the quar- rel subsides. Some come up to say salaam to the sahibs, while others remain at work about the carcass.

It is a typical scene in an outcaste quarter of an Indian village. Picture to yourself 53,000,000 people sentenced by society to live lives like this. Outside of each village are the outcaste quarters where such people exist in little dark mud huts. There may be several

1 A native saying, meaning, "The strong man twists others' ears."

OUT OF THE MIEE 77

outcaste groups living in separate quarters near the same village. It is one of the most pathetic aspects of their life that each panchama, or outcaste, group keeps aloof from every other. Those among them who regard themselves as higher despise the lovt^er, just as the high- caste man despises them all. The Mahars despise and hate the Mangs, who are their fellow-outcastes. In the same way the Malas of South India will have nothing to do with their neighbors, the Madigas. So the whole vicious system of dislike and contempt goes on.

The Mahars are better off than many other similar groups, but I have introduced you to them because they are the outcastes whom I know best. They clean the village of dead animals and other refuse, and eat the meat. They are, in general, the village servants and messengers. At all times a certain number of them are on duty in the village to do anything that the head- man may ask. Like other outcastes, their moral stand- ards are low, and they have no strong principles against cheating and stealing. Yet they will carry hundreds of rupees of village money to the treasury of the dis- trict and never dream of touching any of it. That is part of their caste morality. If they could not be trusted with money, they would lose their job as village servants.

In return for their services to the village, the Mahars of each village receive a poor piece of land called hadola, or the place of bones, because here they are sup- posed to deposit the bones of the village animals. They also have the right to beg from door to door in the vil- lage during the time when it is their turn to do the village service. Jingle-jangle go the iron chains on the end of the Mahar's stick as he waits in front of a

T8 II^DIA OlS" THE MAECH

€aste man's door. He dare not knock or shout ; lie must simply jangle his stick. ^'Who's there?" shouts the farmer. "Maruti Mahar/' answers the outcaste. The farmer's lip curls. "Here, throw him this," he says, and gives his wife a broken piece of bread. Or, if he likes Maruti, he may send him out a measure of uncooked grain. Poor wages, yet no Mahar will surrender his right to take a turn at the village service or his claim on the hadola land. These things are all he has. If you ask him about it, he may answer with a shrug and a native saying, '^Anterun pangarun paJiun pai pasarale paliijef meaning, "One must pay attention to the size of his blanket in stretching out his legs." Without his ^^rights" he would have no position in society at all ; so he clings to his beggar privileges and is even ready to fight for them.

Each of the panchama castes has its ovni peculiar position in society, its moral standards, its own duties. Some are rope makers, others are leather workers. Many of them have little other occupation than that of farm laborers, and some are almost slaves of the caste men who own the farms on which they work. They all eat meat, — most of them the meat of the sacred cow, and many of them the carrion flesh of dead animals. This is what pollutes them most in the eyes of high-caste Hindus.

A few individuals among them have become mod- erately prosperous as farmers or traders. Others have gone off to the city to work in the mills and in various sorts of "coolie" labor, living for the most part in the city slums. But the great majority remain in the country, clinging to the fringe of the village. In times

OUT OF THE MIKE Y9

of good harvest they may have enough for a meager living, adding now and then to their regular food a gruesome feast on the cattle that die in the village. When things go v^ell with them, it is truly wonderful to see how quickly they forget their privations. They love a wedding feast, and at such a celebration often show that they have not forgotten how to joke and laugh. But what can they do when the rain fails and famine comes? They are naturally the ones who suffer first and most, A missionary from South India wrote that he had ^'seen a man come home late at night to a family of 'Kve persons with a smile of triumph at his success, and all he had brought in a filthy pot as his day's wages was a mess of millet gruel about equivalent to the porridge which two English children take for break- fast, and this was the sole nourishment of five persons for that twentv-four hours. The householder next door

t/

had failed altogether, and he and his family had gone hungry to bed after drinking a little salt and water at food time." ^

How does it happen that one-sixth of all India's people have for thousands of years been living in such a way as this ? The answer seems to be in one Indian word varna^ which, in this use, means classes based on color — "color prejudice." Two great waves of invasion swept down over India from the north, — first, the brown Dravidians, then, the white Aryans. They found al- ready settled in the land tribes of darker people of a low civilization. Some of these moved farther south. Others were driven into the mountains and forests, where they became the ancestors of the wild hill tribes

2 Godfrey Phillips, The Outcastes^ Hope, p. 10.

80 IITDIA ON THE MARCH

and hunter people. Still others the conquerors made into serfs, and these became the village ontcastes. The customs of these serfs were repulsive to the conquerors. Partly in self-protection, partly in contempt, they re- fused to let them live in their villages. They would neither eat with them nor have any social intercourse with them.

I have been in a village in which the villagers had just made a barricade of thorns to prevent Mahars from defiling one of the streets of the village by walking in it. In some parts of India the outcastes must get out of the road when a high-class man comes anywhere near, in order that they may not pollute the air he breathes. The outcaste may not study with the caste child in school. Perhaps he is allowed to sit on the veranda and to get what instruction the teacher deigns to give him there. The outcaste may not use the village well. Some- times his wife and children have to go two miles to draw and carry home every drop of water used. Do you wonder that they are often dirty ? ISTo outcaste is ever allowed inside the Hindu temple. He would be murdered if he tried to go in. So he builds his own little shrine outside the village or simply puts a rock up on end, smears it with red paint and worships that. Pear of demons, goblins, and the mysterious powers about him is the principal element in his religion. He often tries to win the favor of these powers by strange sacrifices and self-torture.

Until Christianity came, India had not dreamed of any better life for the outcastes. ^^As soon may a black puppy be changed to a white one as a barber become a Brahman." So writes a popular Indian author. Manu,

OUT OF THE MIEE 81

the great Hindu lawgiver, speaking of certain outcastes, lays down the following rule: ^'The abode of a Chan- dala and a Swapaca must be out of the town; they must not have the use of entire vessels ; their sole wealth must be dogs and asses. Their clothes must be the mantles of the deceased ; their dishes for food, broken pots ; their ornaments, rusty iron ; continually must they roam from place to place. Let no man who regards his duty, religious and civil, hoid any intercourse with them, let their transactions be confined to themselves, and their marriages be only between equals." Hindu- ism taught that outcastes were suffering in their present life the just penalty of sins committed in some previous existence. Thus it was religion itself which forged the shackles and riveted them on the outcaste. Does it not seem almost impossible to think of any religion teaching such things ? It is only human to try to help those who are weak and poor. Yet v/ith the high-caste Hindu, it came to be part of his religious duty to keep the outcaste down.

The pitiful fact is that even the outcastes themselves have generally accepted their lot as part of the divine order. A few of them have won their way to fame as poets and religious leaders, but only a very few. Until recently almost none of them have tried to rise or have thought that they could rise. Have you ever seen a group of prisoners with their striped prison suits and their dull, lifeless faces ? India's outcastes are not bound by steel handcuffs or chains, but they go about with the hopeless look of prisoners. For per- haps two thousand years their ancestors have been out- castes. Meet one of them anywhere and ask him, '^Who

82 INDIA ON THE MARCH

are you ?'' He will look up sometimes with callous in- difference, sometimes with apology and shame, and say, "I am a Mahar," or, "I am a Mang." That is all he thinks you would care to know. He does not tell you his name. He is just one of that group, like the pris- oner who is known by his prison number.

"Don't you want to be clean ?" asked a missionary of a filthy pariah woman. "Why should I want to be clean? I am a pariah," was the frank reply. I have seen a high-caste girl of twelve in the city street scream- ing filthy abuse in shrill, angry tones at an outcaste girl of her own age. She picked up mud from the dirty street and threw it at the sweeper child, who made no reply but ran away, a look of fear and utter hopelessness on her face that I shall never forget. Which of these girls do you pity more — the one doomed to be always an outcaste, or the one whose religion made it natural for her to treat another little girl of her own age in such a way ? Try to think of a rural village in North Amer- ica in which the farm hands may not live with the farmers or drink from their well, but every night must go to a little huddled slum clearly separated from the rest of the village. Off in still another quarter are the cobblers and shoe dealers and butchers. Their children may not follow any other trade than that of their par- ents. They too must live out their lives in the same huts. Despised outcastes from birth ! Can you imag- ine it ?

It is one of the wonderfully oeautiful things about a true Christian that he always tries to help the poorest and the lowest. Paul won most of his converts from among the slaves and lower classes of the Roman Em-

OUT OF THE MIRE 83

pire. ^Tor behold your calling, brethren," be writes to the Christians of Corinth, ''that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called : but God chose the foolish things of the world, that ho might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are."

Christian missionaries would have been false to their Master if they had not gone to the outcastes. One of the greatest mission stations in India began by the win- ning of a few miserable outcaste beggars living in a poor- house. Everywhere it has been from these classes that most of the Christian converts have come.

Do you wonder that many of them turned to a re- ligion which recognizes them as real men and women rather than as little better than slaves, especially when the missionaries not only talked about God's love, but also made the message vital by starting hospitals, es- tablishing schools, working to secure for the outcaste some of his rights as a man, and by a thousand expres- sions of Christian friendliness ?

Yet modern missions had been in India for sixty years before any large number of the outcastes caught the meaning of Christianity for them. It was the famine of 1876-79 in South India that led them to come into the Church by whole groups and in large numbers. That was a terrible famine. People died by the mil- lions. The missionaries threw themselves into relief work. During the famine, they did not baptize any con-

84 INDIA ON THE MARCH

verts. All they could tliink of was to try to save the lives of those who were starving. *But all the time, they were preaching better sermons than words could express. ^'These missionariesj although they are white people, care for us.'' That was the first and most surprising thought to a people used to nothing but contempt from the upper classes. '^They tell us that their God cares for us too. They are ready to start schools for our children. Shall we not become Christians?"

So they talk it over among themselves. Some urge the step. Others cling to their old worship. After a while a part go to the missionary and say that they want to become Christians. He welcomes the group and asks them whether they are ready to give up en- tirely their idols and worship the one God who is their heavenly Father.

^^Yes, Excellency. The Hindus keep us out of their temples. Our own gods have done us no good. We will give them up."

"And will you go to church regularly and learn how to worshi]3 and live in the Christian way V

"Yes, Excellency."

"And will you give up immoral living, stealing, and the eating of the flesh of dead animals ?"

Probably they have known beforehand that these ques- tions would be asked and have already made up their minds.

"Yes, Excellency. Send us a Christian teacher, and we will try to do all these things."

"And will you send your children to school ?"

"Yes, we will."

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OUT OF THE MIKE 85

So the Christian teaclier is sent, and they are en- rolled as inquirers. The missionary comes to their village as often as he can to encourage them in their purpose. After some months, if they keep their prom- ise and show signs of true Christian character, they are haptized.

It was something like this that happened in South India after the famine days about forty years ago, and from that day to this ^^mass movements" have been go- ing on in different parts of India all the time. Over two hundred thousand have become Christians in the Telugu country to the south. Far north in the Punjab the outcastes of whole regions have been baptized. Prob- ably not far from a million outcastes have become Chris- tians in the last ten years.

In many parts of India the numbers who now desire to become Christians are overwhelming. They are far greater than the missionaries or Indian Christian lead- ers can handle. I went with Pastor Samuel through the villages of his parish in the Madura District. Every- where eager groups came out to speak with him.

^'You have many inquirers in your parish,'' I said.

He looked up quickly and answered, ^^I could baptize a thousand this year if I had money enough to send them a few teachers." He could find the teachers, but he did not have the money for their salaries — only sixty to eighty dollars a year each. Bishop Pred B. Pisher of the American Methodist Episcopal Church in his inter- esting book, India's Silent Revolution, tells of being at a conference where 91,000 people who wanted to become Christians had to be refused because there were no

86 Il^DIA ON THE MARCH

teachers to send. With a larger force of missionaries and Indian pastors and teachers probably ten million would commit themselves to the Christian life in the next thirty years.

In some of the mass movement areas no person is now received into the Church nntil his entire village group is ready to come with him. ^'Go back and win your village and then come to me/' is what the mission- ary says to the inquirer. To have all come at once lessens persecution and gives the community greater strength to meet it. The caste system has made it nat- ural to treat the outcastes in masses. That is the way the caste men treat them. They themselves naturally think that way and act that way. It is only after they become Christian that many of them show strong indi- vidual character. .

One of the most interesting ways of solving the prob- lem of getting Christian leaders for the mass movement has been the training of the headmen of the outcaste communities in short courses — the ^'Plattsburgs" of the Christian campaign. The missionaries invite anywhere from twentj'^-five to two hundred of these headmen for a course lasting two or three weeks. Bishop Fisher de- scribes such a course: '^A popular method is learning hymns. The Indian Christian hymn is no dilettante matter. It is frequently two hours long and sometimes covers Christ's birth, death, and resurrection, winding up with a long series of observations on what sort of life a Christian should lead." ^ At the end of the course, the headmen go back to teach their communities what they have learned.

^India's Silent Revolution, Fislier, p. 98.

OUT OF THE MIRE 87

Have I made it look like an easy and simple thing for outcastes to become Christians ? I hope not. Often it is far from easy. They have to make a break from their v^hole past. Frequently they have to suffer bitter persecution. The wonder is that they almost alv^ays stand firm under it. There is a bigoted village off in the far corner of the district in which I worked. Most of the outcastes in this village were baptized. The castemen then refused to employ them in the village work or in their fields. A little while afterwards a mob of caste villagers attacked them with sticks and left some of them half dead. The injured men were taken to a dispensary, but the castemen bribed the doctor not to make a true report. They also bribed the police ofii- cial to whitewash the case. A little later some castemen, in the dead of night, set fire to the thatch roofs of the huts of some of the outcastes, leaving them homeless as well as penniless and in daily fear of fresh attacks. But the outcastes did not renounce their Christian pro- fession, and I marvelled as T saw the way these ig- norant villagers stood firm. Finally the castemen of the village stopped their persecution and accepted the situation.

But persecution like this is growing less. One of the most interesting results of the work of Christian missionaries in India has been its effect on the attitude of the best Indians toward the outcastes. The Arya Samaj, a powerfid and vigorous reform movement, is actually offering to put the outcastes through a cere- mony whereby they may become ''Touchables'' and rec- ognized members of the Hindu community. Lala Lajpat Eai, the best known leader of the Arya Samaj, frankly

88 INDIA ON" THE MAECK

acknowledges that educated Hindus are alarmed at the numbers of outcastes who are becoming Christian. He calls upon his countrymen to give up their prejudices and admit the outcaste. He says, ^'The Christian mis- sionary is gathering the harvest, and no blame can at- tach to him for doing so. He is in this country with the message of his God, and if the Hindus forsake their ovni people, he, in any case, will not fail them."

The following is from a vivid description of the cere- mony whereby an outcaste group was actually ^^con- verted" to Hinduism by a member of the Arya Samaj. The account tells of the steps taken for the purification of the outcastes and of the assembly of the higher caste people to see the final ceremony. ^^After taking the vow of clean living and clean thinking, and pouring in his libation to the fire, the hour-before-human-shaped- soulless animal rises up at the command of the teacher, metamorphosed into a full-fledged human being, with a distinctly perceptible light of the soul shining in his features. The high-caste men of the village take candies offered by his hands, lead him to the village well, and permit him to draw water out of it. The body, with its newly possessed soul, quivers at the unexpected in- dulgence and hesitates for a moment ; but the fraternal encouragement of the whole village community gives him heart, and, led by the Guru^ he walks up the steps of the well and pulls the rope. His centuries-old dis- abilities are removed by this one act, his self-respect is restored to him, and his sense of humanity completed. Por though a Sudra still, he is no longer untouchable, his touch pollutes no more." How many have thus been

OUT OF THE MIRE 89

restored to Hindu respectability, as an indirect result of Christian missions, it is impossible to say. Probably it runs up to over 50,000. Liberal Hindus have started a ^'Mission to the Depressed Classes'' which sends its high-caste ^^missionaries" among these people. It is not too much to say that the work of the Christian mission- aries is rapidly raising the entire position of fifty-three million people.

Yet the efforts of all non-Christian agencies are still feeble indeed compared to those of Christians. Others do not have the compelling motive which Christ gives. The Mission to the Depressed Classes, with all the praise it receives from rich and influential Hindus, is really a very small affair. ^'After all," said a leading ^Nationalist, ^Vhen it comes to practise, Christianity alone is effecting what we I^ationalists are crying out for; namely, the elevation of the masses."

Perhaps the very best work which the missionaries are doing to win the high-caste people of India to Christ is done when they are not working for them at all. It is done when the missionaries turn their backs on the quarters of the caste people and go into the little dirty panchama huts to raise the level of the life of the de- spised outcastes. This is the real Christian gospel, — an object lesson in Christian brotherhood. It is sham- ing and stimulating all India to higher ideals.

An interesting fact about the winning of the out- castes is that in the very districts in which many out- castes have become Christian, the sturdy middle classes are now moving toward Christianity. ^'If you work for these pariahs, we will never become Christians," they

90 INDIA ON THE MARCH

said to the missionaries at first ; but now they are say- ing, ^'If your religion can do so much for these people, e'an it not help us too ?"

What sort of Christians do these outcaste Indians make ? All sorts. Some are very crude and low. Some are among the noblest Christians to be found anywhere in the world. When we see what poor Christians many of us in ''Christian" America are, with fifteen hundred years of Christianity back of us, we shall not expect all of these people, who have been living in the mire, to become pure saints at once. They have set their faces toward the light. That is the important fact.

The leading Christian of a large district in India is Vinayakrao Uzagare.* His father was an outcaste and became the first Christian in all that region. The father endured much persecution^ but in the end he won his own relatives by his patience and persistence. Vinaya- krao grew up in a Christian home and went to a Chris- tian school. He was a ''second generation Christian." They are the real test of what Christianity can do for the outcaste, because Christ has a chance at them from childhood.

Vinayakrao was a large, athletic boy. He was so strong that he could never find another boy of his age powerful enough to be a real opponent. He loved to wander in the fields and mountains near his home and was not afraid of anything. His father gave him the best education he could — that of the Ahmednagar High School, and Vinayakrao took a position on the rail- road. Frank and open, with force of character that

4 Vinayakrow Uzngare.

OUT OF THE MIRE 91

went well with his physical power, he had every promise of success in business. But he felt a call to go into Christian work. So he gave up his business prospects, studied in a theological seminary, and went out on a salary of seven dollars a month as the pastor of a little native church far from the city.

There he threw himself into the service of his church and Christian school. He won such respect that a Brahman of the town was glad to teach in his school, and all classes in the town turned to him. British Gov- ernment officials noticed and praised his fearless fight against evil and his power for good. After a time he was put at the head of the Christian school system of the entire mission district. Then, by the general re- quest of his colleagues, he was made superintendent of Christian work for the district. He is now doing the work that a foreign missionary formerly did and is doing it in many ways better than a missionary ever could do it.

Generous to a fault, he gives of his small income till he himself sometimes goes almost in rags. Brave, he will nurse a man who has the most fearful of Indian diseases, Asiatic cholera, or will take a stand that he feels is right against fiercest opposition. Yet he will labor with loving patience to try to win a man or to settle a quarrel. If the caste people of that region were to choose the man whom they would most trust to be their representative, I am convinced that they would choose none of the educated Brahmans and none of the village headmen, but this son of the outcaste quarter whom Christ has transformed. I am proud to count

92 II^DIA ON THE MAECH

him in the little inner circle of my intimate friends.

Miracles ? You do not have to turn to the record of past ages to find them. Just come with me some day to the village of Kolgaon and meet this man who has a thousand years of degradation behind him. First go into the outcaste quarter in which his father was born. Then come and look into his face and talk with him of his people. You would come away, as I always come away from a talk with him, wondering at the Power that has molded from an outcaste such a nobleman of God and such an apostle of Christ. All over India you can find such men. Most of them will never be heard of beyond their own districts. It is they who are the backbone of the Christian campaign in India.

There are other Christians of outcaste origin who are more brilliant and no less devoted than Yinayakrao. Among them are some who have won high position in law and medicine and who are now leading citizens of Indian cities, received as equals by Brahmans and Englishmen. One of the brilliant students of a great American university in recent years was such an In- dian. 'No American student could excel him in charm of manner, in instinctive refinement, or in Christian consecration. He earns all his expenses while in Amer- ica by lecturing on India, and he is so popular and suc- cessful that he was offered five thousand dollars a year if he would become a regular lecturer. But he has ded- icated his life to the service of his own country, and he is going back to work for India.

When I think of India's outcastes, I am reminded of one of nature's greatest miracles. Out of the mold of

OUT or THE MIKE 93

vegetable matter, througli the pressure of the ages, she has formed the great coal beds on which our factories de- pend for power and our homes for heat. Then from this same material, by a process so long that we can only dimly imagine it, nature has fashioned diamonds. So, from the crude human material of the outcastes of In- dia, God is fashioning diamonds like Vinayakrao. And He calls us to be his partners in this great work.

From tlie Marathi New Testament

Luke 19:10

The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

V

Born To Be Robbers

Tevak" ^ was excited. He had every reason to be, for he was out on his first real "expedition." He was a well- built, muscular boy of sixteen, a Piramalai Kallar ^ by caste. "Piramalai" means, "behind the mountain," and "Kallar" means, "robber." The Piramalai Kallars toot refuge centuries ago behind the E^aga-Malai or Snake Mountain in the Madura District in South India. Thence they have spread over a wide section of dry country where they till the rocky soil, which yields them only a scant living in good seasons. It is utterly in- adequate when the rains fail, and then ? Why, there are plenty of well-to-do merchants to be robbed. The Pira- malai Kallars scarcely need this incentive of necessity to crime, for robbery is the very spice of life to them.

Think of being born into a family and into a com- munity where every male is expected to be a robber and where a good father will not consider giving an attrac- tive daughter to any young man who has not proved his worth by his skill and boldness in several dacoities, or stealing expeditions !

Had Tevan received any education ? Oh, yes. Prom early boyhood he had been taught by his father how to move about safely and noiselessly at night, how to place the deadly knife securely in his knotted hair where it would be ready for an emergency, how to tell lies suc- cessfully in case of need, and how to cover his tracks when he was pursued. This teaching had been rein-

1 Tevun. 2 Pirumullai Kullar.

95

96 INDIA ON THE MARCH

forced by many a tale of bold attack and thrilling es- cape told at the village rest-house, where the men gath- ered in the evening. Moreover, he had learned the simple traditions and practises of the primitive Indian farmer and had become skilled in bull baiting — the favorite sport of the Kallars.

Had he learned to read and write? Of course not. How would that help him to steal or to plow? And did he know that stealing with possible murder was wrong ? How should he ? He had gone regularly with his family and fellow-villagers to worship the little black image of Kuruppan which stood on a platform under a tree. They asked Kuruppan's blessing when they started out on a dacoity, and they offered him their thanks when they returned successful. It was their god who gave them skill and cunning. He was the god of robbery. ^The official takes bribes, the merchant sands the sugar, but we choose a more open, courageous way of gathering the loot," is what his father might say if he were reproached for a robbery. But Tevan would have no such answer to make. He would simply be amazed if anyone should hint to him that stealing was wrong. ^^I am a Kallar," he would reply, and that would seem to him enough. To betray a comrade would be wrong, but to steal and lie and even, if necessary, to murder were his duty as a Kallar and would win him favor with God and man.

And so, in the year of grace 1918, he was standing on tiptoe, waiting for the word to go forward into his first adventure. It was a big adventure, and that he had been chosen was an indication of how promising a pupil he was. This was not an affair of cattle stealing

BORIST TO BE EOBBEES 97

or even of breaking into a native merclaant's house. They were planning no less than to rob a certain un- popular English officer, Robertson Thurai (Honorable Mr. Eobertson), who was on a tour of the district and was making his temporary headquarters in a traveler's bungalow thirty miles from Tevan's village.

For one thing, Robertson Thurai had refused to pay five rupees a month to a Kallar "watchman" for his house. These watchmen do not watch. They merely come around once a month for their pay ; but it is un- derstood that no Kallar will rob a house whose owner pays tribute. Robertson Thurai had not only refused to pay, but had sworn roundly at the Kallar who came to offer this service and had driven him away from his bungalow. Tht^ Kallars had other things against Rob- ertson Thurai. He had made a court decision that bore heavily on some of them. So this robbery had a double motive. They were seeking both booty and revenge.

There were eight Kallars in the party, and they had tramped the thirty miles that day. !N^ow it was two o'clock in the morning, and they all stood barefooted, their dark brown bodies naked save for a loin cloth and greased so that they might easily wriggle out of any- one's gTasp. The word to start was given. Tevan's father, Vellian, laid his hand on his son's shoulder as a last token of warning and encouragement. Then, silently, they slipped into the compound of the trav- eler's bungalow where Robertson Thurai was staying, and past the sleeping servants on the veranda.

Inside, they paused long enough to allow their eyes to become used to the darkness. They could tell where the Thurai's bed lay by the noise of heavy breathing.

98 INDIA O^ THE MARCH

Tevan and one other had been assigned to that comer. The other carried a heavy stick and stood over the sleeper, ready to clnb him into unconsciousness if he woke np during the operation. Tevan slipped between the bed and the wall, where he felt cautiously in the corner. His hand struck the cold, smooth surface of a gun-barrel placed near at hand by the English officer for his protection. He raised the deadly weapon quickly and crept noiselessly out, stopping only to grasp a ser- vant's bundle which his foot stumbled against near the door. He was the first back at the rendezvous; soon two more came, stooping under the weight of a heavy trunk which they had carried out of the sleeping-room so silently that no one was disturbed.

When all had returned, a, formidable amount of loot lay piled before them, including a large steel dispatch box which probably contained money. They had the Thurai's watch and pocketbook as well.

"Kuruppan has blessed us," said the leader. "Let us hurry away before the alarm is given." So without waiting to return for a second haul, they started. Earlier in the night they had "borrowed" a cart and a pair of bullocks, and long before daybreak they were on their way to their village, most of the party sleeping in various positions of discomfort in the crude two-wheeled cart, while the leader drove the bullocks, keeping a sharp lookout for danger.

^NTow it was unfortunate for the success of Tevan's first expedition that this particular Englishman hap- pened to be having a poor night. It was not long after the robbers had started, before Robertson Thurai woke up and flashed his night light to see what time it was.

BOEIT TO BE ROBBERS 99

He was wide awake at once wlieii tie realized that his watch was gone from the table. He climbed out from under the large mosquito net which covered his bed and quickly took in his losses — the rifle, the trunk, and, most of all, the dispatch case which, it happened, con- tained important documents. With a few strides he was out and shaking the sleeping watchman with no gentle hand. ^'Get up P' he said.

'^Oh — oh. Excellency, I have not been asleep, but was just resting,'' lied the scared man, holding up an arm to protect himself from the expected blow. In a moment the compound was alive with activity, and in another moment Mr. Robertson was dressed and striding to the shed where his car lay. A few minutes later, and he was out on the road.

The second unlucky circumstance of that night for the Kallars was the fact that the police superintendent of the Madura District was camping only fifteen miles away from Mr. Robertson in a village on the same macadamized road, and it was scarcely more than half an hour before he too was jumping from his bed, aroused by Mr. Eobertson's call. Soon two automobiles, each with an English sahib at the wheel, and with four Indian policemen crowded in, were tearing back over the road. It took the police sahib only a short time to recognize the work of the Piramalai Kallars, and his plan of cam- paign was formed at once. One automobile load was to go ahead as far as the roads would carry them toward the Snake Mountain country; then they were to spread out and watch the most likely roads and paths. The police superintendent borrowed horses from the robbed official for himself and his posse and, following the rough cart

100 IN'DIA OIT THE MARCH

tracks in preference to the main road, galloped after the escaping robbers.

At about ten o'clock in tbe morning, Tevan was en- gaged in the occupation which is the delight of every Indian boy. He was driving the bullock cart, sitting- cross-legged on the base of the tongue of the cart, shout- ing abuse at the lazy, red bullock, uttering indescribable clicks and guttural shouts at the black and tan one, and occasionally leaning forward to start up the tired animals by twisting their tails. In the cart the trunk no longer appeared. It had been forced open, and its contents, together with the rest of the loot, had been dis- tributed among the band. The dispatch case too had been broken open and the money removed. Trunk and dispatch case had then been dumped into a convenient clump of bushes beside the road.

Suddenly every drowsing Kallar in the cart was wide awake. Around a bend in the cart track behind them trotted two horsemen in khaki, one of them an English- man. They were both clearly policemen, and at once the Kallars realized that they were on their trail. To stay in the cart was to court certain arrest. So, each one grabbing his loot, they scattered. The horsemen spurre/i their horses to a gallop and were upon the cart before Tevan, whose attention to the bullocks had been so absorbing as to prevent his catching the first warning of danger, could get away. The boy had not run a hun- dred paces when the police sahib was upon him, and he found himself looking into the muzzle of a revolver. He was handcuffed and tied to a tree by the folds of his own turban. The two policemen then galloped after the other escaping robbers. Soon one more was brought in,

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BORN TO BE ROBBERS 101

and Tevan saw with dismay that it was his own father, who had lingered in the hope of being able to help him.

Tevan and his father, knowing that further conceal- ment was both impossible and undesirable, told their names and village. The English superintendent started at once for the village, while the Indian policeman rode beside the cart in which sat Tevan and his father, both securely handcuffed. A man from a near-by village was impressed for the service of driving the cart.

The dispatch case and trunk were recovered, and Tevan and his father were duly locked up. But the superintendent had taken a liking to the athletic robber boy, with his open face and keen look. He was given a light sentence as a first offender, and the superin- tendent had a special little talk with him before he went to prison.

"Do you not see how foolish it is to steal V^ he said. "Even if you had escaped this time, you would have been caught and sent to jail some day before long. Who will now till your field and get bread for your mother and the family?"

"God alone knows," answered Tevan.

"The Sirkar (Government) does not want to keep you in jail," continued the kindly official. "It wants to teach your people better ways of earning their living. We are ready to give lands and schools and to help your people in every way. While you are here in prison, you will have a chance to learn to read and write. You will also be taught some trade. I shall keep my eye on you. If you do well, I will see that you are given a scholarship in a boarding-school and are trained to be a leader of your people."

102 INDIA OK THE MARCH

Tevan saw both the truth and the kindness of the superintendent's attitude. It was the latter that utterly surprised him and won him. He had always looked upon all police officials as his natural enemies and the enemies of his people. ^'Salaam, Thurai/' was all the boy replied, but in his tone, the big Englishman rightly read his intention to try. Erank and open himself, Tevan accepted without suspicion the direct words of the Englishman, and set about to make the best use of his two years "in school," as his people jokingly spoke of it. He threw himself into all the activities of the place and by his cheery way soon became popular with most of the wardens as well as with his fellow-prisoners.

True to his word, the police superintendent kept his eye on Tevan. His greatest problem was to deal with the inherited tendency to crime of many of the 200,000 Kallars of the Madura District. He was one of the leaders in the Government project for solving this prob- lem by education and by offering the Kallars a new chance. He liked these sturdy, sport-loving, fearless people, and Tevan seemed to him to promise to become one of the best of his type. He was glad, therefore, at the end of the term, that the boy had done so well that he could renew his offer of a scholarship in a boarding- school.

When Tevan was released, he went straight to his village and home. Things had not gone well with his family. During the first winter his little sister had died of malnutrition. 'Now, however, the crops were good, and an uncle recently released from prison was caring for the family. Greatly to his surprise, Tevan's mother favored his going away to school. "What good

BOKN TO BE KOBBEES 103

for you to stay here? Soon you will again be in jail, and we will be left helpless. Go and study and come back to start a school for our village, so that our boys may learn something better than robbery — and living in prison." After a short visit at home, Tevan went to make use of his scholarship in the Training School at Pasumalai.

There he was surprised to find a score more of boys of his own caste, all sent as Government scholars with the hope that they would go back as teachers and leaders of their people. He was even more surprised one day to meet a fine Kallar who had become a Christian preacher and to learn that already many of his people had become Christians. He had heard of Christian Kallars before, but there were none in his village or among his relatives, and he had never thought about the matter.

In course of time the influence of the daily Bible lessons and the worship in the Pasumalai school brought their natural results, and Tevan decided to make the great break from his past traditions and training and become a Christian.

With the same zest that he formerly found in thoughts of a dacoity, Tevan is now looking forward to the gi^eat adventure of winning his people to a higher life. ISTo less courage or patience or ingenuity or skill will be needed for his new enterprise. He is one of a little group which proposes to conquer the prejudices and to change the habits and beliefs of a whole people. To many this seems a ridiculous and impossible task, but not to Tevan. He is going back to open a school in his own village. He intends to have a playground

104 INDIA ON THE MAECH

and to start competitive sports. He wants to help the poorer Kallars to find farms on some of the public lands which the Government is ready to give for the purpose. Lately the Government is succeeding in get- ting pancliayets, or village committees of Kallars, to be responsible for ending crime and helping education. The final solution of the problem of these attractive and , promising robbers is not going to be easy, but the way seems clear. Seventy-five new schools have re- cently been started for Piramalai Kallars. Forty-one of their boys have been placed in boarding-schools. Over a thousand of them are already Christians. They were at first distrusted and persecuted by other Chris- tians, but now they are held in high respect. There is every prospect that many more will join the church soon. The Indian Church needs their courage and their strength. The Government and the mission can count on Tevan's help in all their plans for his people. He will do everything in his power to see that they are won to whole-hearted discipleship to Christ.

There are many criminal castes like the Kallars. They are found in all parts of India. They differ greatly among themselves in language, in race, in methods of life, and in work. Some are bold robbers. Others confine themselves to picking people's pockets in the streets. Some specialize in stealing cattle. Others make and pass counterfeit coins, but consider thieving wrong. Some steal by day, but not by night. Others work only at night. Many of these criminal tribes are wandering gypsy people, going from place to place, telling fortunes, dancing, working as black-

BORIS' TO BE ROBBEKS 105

smiths or farm laborers, or in other ways, but always with an eye out for a chance to steal. There are as many as five million who are classed as belonging to criminal tribes in India. All teach their children their own particular skill, all pray to some deity like Kuruppan whom they think of as helping in their crime.

Gopal is a twelve-year-old "graduate" of the regular school for thieves run by the criminal tribe of Sanaurhia of ISTorth India. He has skilfully stolen hundreds of rupees' worth of Oriental cloths from the shelves of rich merchants, while his gang diverted atten- tion by a violent quarrel in the street in front of the shop. But some day the merchant will be too watchful, and little Gopal will be put behind the bars.

Maruti is a Bowrie by caste. The members of his gang commonly travel dressed as holy men, and Maruti goes as a chelae or disciple. One of the gang, dressed as a bangle seller, has gone ahead and gained entrance to the women's quarters of a rich man's house, as is always possible for a seller of these bright glass ornaments, which are the delight of all Indian women. He comes back and tells the gang where the money-box is kept. That night the practised hands of the Bowries, with the special tools which they always carry with them, dig a hole in the mud wall of the house. Maruti wriggles through and returns with the money-box.

Shankar is a Bhampta boy. The Bhamptas are famous railway thieves. He and a fellow-Bhampta get into the "fire wagon," where, when opportunity comes, he slips to the floor. With the help of skilful toes and a sharp little knife, he opens and rifles the bags of

106 INDIA OI^ THE MAECH

the other travelers, while his companion covers hira with his loose clothing.

Gangabai is a graceful girl of twelve, or should we call her a woman, since she is already married? She is a member of the gypsy tribe of Kan jars, and so is trained to dance and sing. With a group of her fellow- Kan jars, she went into a busy bazaar where one of the men' of the party sat down with his drum between his legs, while another got out a flute. Tom-tom-tom, tom-tom-tom, went the drum, and Gangabai's feet began to move, and her graceful body and arms, to sway in time with the music. At the sound of the drum, a crowd soon surrounded the little open space, for Indians love to watch the nautch, or dance. They wagged their heads and grunted in approval; many also tossed big copper coins to the players. Meantime the skilful fingers of the other members of the Kan jar party had been at work loosening the folds that held the money in many a waistband. That night it was a happy party that gathered for their dinner in front of the crude little skin tents of the Kanjars' gypsy camp out in the open country. But their pleasure was soon turned to despair when a group of policemen came and, finding loot in the little tents, marched all the men, including Gangabai's father and her husband, off to jail.

What can be done with these millions of people who are using so much skill and daring in injuring other people, and who themselves live such a pitiful life, hated and feared by all and in turn fearing ordinary people as their enemies ? Indian jails are always full of them. Thousands of policemen are employed in

BOEN TO BE KOBBEES 107

watching them. The midnight roll-call of all who are registered as criminal tribesmen is one of the Govern- ment's devices for preventing and also for detecting crime, l^atnrally the tribesmen resent this bitterly, for not only does it seem to them a hateful intrusion into their home life, but it is a very effective way of keeping the men from all night expeditions, unless, in- deed, they can bribe those who come to take the roll.

Simply to punish those who are found out will not redeem them. For hundreds of years successive gov- ernments have tried this method, but the tribes have gone right on teaching their children criminal ways. Somehow the whole plan of life of the criminal tribes must be changed. ''Spirit of our fathers, help us. Save us from the Sirkar and shut the mouths of the police." This is the regular prayer of one of the tribes. ''God has sent us to earth to punish the avaricious and the rich. Without us what would the judges do ?" said one of them when he was on trial.

Can they ever come to look differently upon them- selves and other people ? Can they become good citi- zens ? Yes, they can. That has been proved. It is a long, long road. The habits and beliefs of generations do not disappear in a night. It seems almost impos- sible to change their attitude of suspicion of people in general and of government in particular. Then how can these tribes ever be won to normal, happy lives ? By getting hold of the children. That is the principal answer. Put the children in schools where they learn to think and act like other children. Show them that ordinary folks are not their enemies. Teach them that there is a God who cares for them and their people

108 IITDIA 0]Sr THE MAECH

just as He does for everybody else. Really win the children, and where will the criminal tribes be twenty years hence ? A few old hardened offenders will be left, but young recruits will not be added, and the vicious system will be broken.

But you cannot really win the children without doing something for their parents. Moreover, the Govern- ment naturally wants to stop crime now. It could not be satisfied with any plan which would allow the older criminals to keep right on stealing.

One of the ways in which the Indian Government is meeting the situation is through the establishment of some very interesting institutions called Criminal Tribes Settlements. In the parts of India where such centers exist, when a man is convicted of crime, his wife and children are put into the settlement. After a time, if the man and his family behave well, he is released from jail and allowed to live with them in the settlement. But it is clearly understood that the minute any of the family group commits a crime, back he goes to prison. Sometimes a whole community of its own accord asks to be put into a settlement. They are tired of wandering about, always hounded by the police, and never sure of getting enough to eat.

A little while ago two hundred and fifty men, women, and children were marched into one settlement. A band of fifteen hundred had been looting and terroriz- ing a whole region. When they were followed and dis- covered by the police, they scattered into the woods. These two hundred and fifty were all that were caught, and they were brought to the settlement to be restrained and, if possible, reformed.

BOEW TO BE ROBBERS 109

The keynote of the settlements is friendship. That is the only power that can win these wild people. Be- cause it is the business of missionaries to show friend- ship to needy people, the Government has quite natu- rally asked different missions to conduct such settle- ments. The Salvation Army has been a pioneer in this work, but several of the most important settlements are now in charge of other missions — for the most part American missions.

One of the earliest and most successful among these is the Industrial Settlement for the Erukalas of South India, conducted by Samuel D. Bawden, whose big body and generous spirit give him an unusual power over the ^'Crims'' in his charge.

Scattered over India there are now over thirty set- tlements for criminal tribesmen, with missionaries in charge who know the language of the people and mingle with them freely. The number is steadily increasing, for they are proving a great success. Some are very large and some, very small. One that had a large tract of land far off in a mountain valley started with only twelve families and aimed to teach them how to be good farmers. At the opposite extreme is the set- tlement at Sholapur with four thousand ''crims" from many tribes living next to a busy manufacturing city of 125,000 people. They earn their living by working as ordinary laborers in the mills, but live apart in a regular city of huts which make up the settlement.

There are a thousand children of criminal tribes- men in the schools of this one settlement — that will mean a thousand less criminals and a thousand more intelligent useful men and women a few years hence,

110 II^DIA OIsT THE MARCH

if the schools are well run. It is an intensely interest- ing problem to know how to plan these schools so as to develop all the keen ability of the children and to direct their restless activity into useful lines. As you can well understand, there must be activity for body as well as for mind in such a school. You should see the keen look of enjoyment on the faces of the students when the time comes to line up to march to the swim- ming tank for the regular plunge. Yes, a daily bath is part of the regular school routine, and you can imagine the shouts of delight as the children jump in. Then there is industrial work in the school itself and drill in the playground, besides ample time for their own spontaneous games and for competitive sports, which satisfy their inherited desire for excitement and exploit.

Under all the work of the school there lies a simple, natural Christian motive. The children alj. join in singing the Christian hymns and in repeating the Lord's prayer. They are taught Bible stories and come to trust the God who loves, but does not hate; who wants them to help, not to harm their fellows. In this way the settlements are seeking to get to the bottom of things. Gradually the children, and even their parents, are coming to feel that instead of Kuruppan and many other deities who were supposed to delight in crime, they have a God who calls them to love and to service. Instead of crime seeming to them right, it gradually begins to look wrong. Their whole attitude of life, their way of thinking and living is being transformed.

But the criminal tribes are wild people, and they have some gruesome customs. When they are stirred,

BOEN TO BE BOBBERS

111

they are like a herd of stampeding cattle. Those in charge of the settlements have some exciting experi- ences. Here is a story told by Mr. Strntton who was in charge of the big settlement for four thousand ^^crims" in Sholapur of which we have already spoken. He forbade the holding within the settlement area of an annual sacrifice of buffaloes, which was one of the re- ligious ceremonies of one of the tribes in his care. It was not only cruel and revolting, but it was also most unsanitary. If they must have this sacrifice, Mr. Strut- ton insisted that they go off somewhere into the country to do it. He writes :

"We had a great time over it. Five hundred of them rioted. They said I could kill them if I liked, but they would have their sacrifices. They even went so far as to take up children by a^ arm and a leg before the staff and threaten to dash their brains out, swinging them around their heads, if they were not allowed to go on with their festival and sacrifice. It was any- body's show for a while, and I really thought they were going to get out of hand myself, as the women were beating their heads on the ground and encouraging the men to defy the 'sahib.' I locked three of the ring- leaders up and made all the others sit do^vn and talk it out, and in the end, they gave in. But it was a great game of bluff while it lasted, and though they had to take their animals two miles out and kill them immedi- ately, instead of by the old slow-torture process, they were in the best of humor that night and laughed like children as they recounted the row of the morning among themselves. I liberated the men who had been locked up, after taking thumb impressions and four

112 INDIA Olf THE MARCH

hundred rupees' security from all their leaders that they would give no further trouble. So now the Dussera sacrifices are a thing of the past."

The Kaikadis used to get gloriously drunk in con- nection with one of their annual religious festivals. As a result last year they had. a terrible fight, and when the officers of the settlement tried to stop it, the brawlers turned upon and beat them. This was a very serious offense, and next day twenty of the men were sentenced to go to prison. The head of the settlement gave them a talk on the results of drinking and offered to release two of the men at the end of the first month, if the entire community would for that month do with- out drink; to release two more after another month on the same condition; and so on till all were released. The Kaikadis got together and decided to accept his offer. They actually <3arried out their decision and gave up their old and honored custom. Instead of a drink- ing bout, they substituted a feast at the time of that festival. In this way another vicious custom was abol- ished.

The progress of Christianity in these criminal tribes has been greatest among the Piramalai Kallars with their thousand converts, but many are being won from other groups as well. Here is the simple story of a con- verted murderer which will show what sort of men and women the "crims" can become, when Christ has won them to Himself. This murderer's name was Mesoba Londhe, and he was the leader of a gang of robbers. As a young man he and his companions thought no more of killing a man on one of their expeditions than they would of killing a chicken. Mesoba was caught in a

BOEIT TO BE ROBBEES 113

robbery and put in prison. There be learned to read. When be was on bis way borne from jail, anotber robber gave bim some little Cbristian, books wbicb be bad just received from a missionary. Mesoba read tbem, and somehow tbeir message of a God who was ready to for- give and receive all men touched bis heart. Then and there be decided that be would become a Christian. He began at once to teach his family and friends what he had learned. He was as fearless in bis new adventure as he had been in robbery. Somehow Christianity had changed him. He had had a terrible temper, but that was gone. He entirely gave up robbing. People began to call him the ^^ISTew Man."

The missionary heard of him and came to bis vil- lage where they started a little church, and Mesoba, after he had been trained for the work, became its pas- tor. He served as pastor without any salary, earning his living by working as village watchman. By his simple faith and his life of loving service, he won hun- dreds of former robbers to become Christians. And the people in all that region blessed Mesoba for what he had done to make their lives safer and happier.

In India today the Son of Man is coming to seek and to save those who were lost, and He is claiming &ve million of her people who were born to be robbers. Doesn't it look like a man's job to be His agents in win- ning these promising people ?

VITAI LAMP ADA

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night —

Ten to make and the match to win — A bumping pitch and a blinding light.

An hour to play and the last man in. And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat.

Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote

"Play up ! play up ! and play the game ! "

This is the word that year by year

While in her place the School is set Every one of her sons must hear,

And none that hears it dare forget. This they all with a joyful mind

Bear through life like a torch in flame. And falling, fling to the host behind —

"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

— 8ir Henry Newholt

VI

Scouting in India

The beautiful hill station of Kodaikanal ^ lies on the broad summit of a mighty mountain range seven thou- sand feet above sea level. It is like going into a differ- ent country to climb the steep path from the hot plains and to find ourselves in a land of cool breezes and showers, with groves of tall, graceful eucalyptus trees here and there on the slopes and with peaches and pears growing in the orchards. We are standing near the little lake that nestles among the hillsides and cottages.

"Kodai" is the most popular of the hot weather re- sorts used by South India missionaries, and some of them are right in front of us now in the open field near the lake. At least two hundred men and women, boys and girls, are gathered for a baseball game between Can- ada and the United States. Judging by the noise, they are having a good time over it. That stocky man over on first base, who plays with a truly professional air, surely must have been a varsity player! Yes, he was a star ball player in his college days. How he is enjoying himself, now ! As you hear him "talk back" to the um- pire, you will scarcely believe me when I tell you that he is the venerable head of an important theological seminary. That pitcher, who seems to know how to double himself up in all the proper bowknots before he delivers the ball, was also an all-round athlete in his college days and is now a Y.M.C.A. secretary among the students of India. The little man out in center

1 Kody-kah'nul.

^ :' 115

116 INDIA ON" THE MARCH

field held a two-mile record for several years before lie came out to try to help the villagers of India. In the group of missionary players there are two or three varsity football men, a state tennis champion, and other real athletes, as well as some who never were in college athletics. There are also several fine, strapping boys on ,the two teams, pupils who are studying in the Kodaikanal school for missionary children.

It really isn't high-class ball. We will have to acknowledge that! Some of these men have been out of the game for twenty-five years, and others never were players, but all are having the time of their lives. When the game is over and the final yells exchanged, some of the players gather to talk over the coming tennis match between the missionary club and the GymJcJiana, or club of other visitors at Kodai, who are, for the most part, government officials and army officers. That match is the greatest event of the summer season — and more than half the time the missionary club wins.

We shall find boats on the little lake and row across to the school where its eighty pupils are getting an American education in the heart of India. They are certainly an alert and attractive looking group of real American boys and girls. Incidentally, when they come back to America, they do well in athletics and stand high in their classes.

As we come up to the school from the lake shore we find some of the boys lying under a tree exchanging stories about their hunting experiences when they are with their families "down on the plains." Jack tells about shooting a vulture whose wings measured ten feet from tip to tip. Donald follows with a story of stalking

Rev. J. R. Chitambar, the first Indian principal of Lueknow Christian College, a type of the devoted and capable Christian leader that schools and colleges are sending out into the life of India. These men and women are eager to give their Motherland the greatest service they can render— that of making Christ her leader and king.

SCOUTIITG IN" INDIA 117

a fine, big deer. Harry describes how bis fatber and be suddenly found themselves facing a pair of big wolves which were coining toward them on a lonely path. The wolves got away, but later on that same day Harry's father shot a wild boar. Bill caps the climax by telling how, when he was off elephant hunt- ing with his father and was lying alone in the bushes, a great Bengal tiger went by within ten feet of him.

Between them, these boys and girls can jabber most of the languages of India. One comes from the heart of the wild Bhil country, another, from the great city of Calcutta, and the others, from cities and villages all over India. It took one of them five days to reach the school from his distant home.

Why are their parents living in these places ? There are about fifty-five hundred missionaries settled all over India, and almost half of them are from the United States and Canada. Let us see what they are doing.

We shall begin up in the foothills of the Himalayas near Dehra Dun. We are in the midst of a group of Indian Boy Scouts gathered around the camp-fire. Evi- dently they are on a hike and are having a very good time over it. Their leader is a slim six-footer and plainly an American. Yes, he is a missionary, — and a typical one, too, — Kev. Henry E. Ferger. A few years ago he was an American Boy Scout. When he went to India, he could see no reason why Indian boys should not have a chance to be Scouts. So in 1918 he started, with fifteen school-boys, the first Boy Scout troop in that part of India. At about the same time, here and there, other young India missionaries who had been Scouts at home were starting troops.

118 INDIA OI^ THE MARCH

Mr. Ferger and liis Scouts are keen for hikes. Once they went to Simla, where the Viceroy invited them to visit him and give him a demonstration. That was a great event in their lives. But trips like this one into the mountains really mean the most to them all because they are thus brought very close together. Indian boys are wonderfully responsive to their big white brothers when they really are brothers. Of such a hike as this, Mr. Ferger wrote :

^^The day school closed, I started on a two-weeks' tramp back into the Himalayas, with ten of my Scouts. . . . We carried our own packs — a new experience for them in a land which knows little of the dignity of labor and where coolies abound at all railway stations. Shoulders ached and legs got tired and a few feet got blisters the first few days, but that soon passed over. Four of us were Christians, one Mohammedan, and six Hindus — four of these. Brahman, the highest caste. ... I lived on Indian food, for we did our own cook- ing. Hindus, Christians, and Mohammedans ate to- gether, forgetting caste (sheltered from the public eye) and thus living out the Scout ideals of brotherhood. Leaves were used for plates, and fingers (as always by the natives), to eat with. It was an absolutely new experience for the boys. I was able to get much closer to them than ever before — especially one memorable night when our bedding did not arrive, and we seven had to sleep on the floor on one thin mattress and under one blanket! And at seven thousand feet elevation it was cold, even inside the rest-house."

With this background you can understand how the Scout troop at Dehra Dun has made its record. A part

SCOUTING IN INDIA 119

of its last report reads: "The present strength of the troop is fifty-one, of whom fourteen are King's Scouts. Of these, ten have their first grade all-round cords (for six proficiency badges), and SiYey their second grade cords (for twelve badges). Three others have passed their First Class tests and eighteen others, their Second Class tests. Sixteen are as yet only Tenderfoots, though many of these have done ;^art of their Second Class tests.''

It is not so easy for high-caste Indian boys to catch the Scout idea of service as it is for American boys. This story shows how these boys of many castes are try- ing to be good Scouts. "The two chief religious fairs of the year in Dehra Dun come early each spring, and the latter of the two has just taken place. Our Scouts did splendid work at these, serving the people in many ways. We had the fly of a tent pitched in the center of the fair, which was held in the streets and bazaars surrounding the large Sikh temple here. This was a place where people could sit and rest. At one side we had a low platform with several large tubs. These the Scouts themselves kept constantly filled with drinking water from a near-by well. It was quite a thing to get the boys to draw and carry the water themselves, for usually in the East any such work is considered be- neath one's dignity.

"The most interesting task was down at the third- class ticket office at the railway station the next day when the crowds were leaving. We went there three hours before the train was to leave. There was a big crowd about the ticket office, fighting and struggling to get to it, the biggest and strongest, of course, winning

120 INDIA ON THE MARCH

out. We soon changed that, making them form a long single line and gradually take their turn in good American style. This was the first time any of them had ever done this, I suppose, hut they soon caught on and appreciated it, even if it v^^as contrary to their ex- perience. At times there were sixty in line."

Mr. Ferger has now hecome Scout Commissioner and tells' of a Scout Rally of eleven hundred Indian Scouts who came together to meet the Chief Scout, General Baden Powell. There are ahout twenty thousand hoys in India today who are learning Scout hrotherhood and service. For the most part, they are doing this with the help of such missionaries as Henry Ferger.

But long hefore there was such a thing as a Boy Scout movement, missionaries had heen trying to awaken in Indian students the love of sport and enjoy- ment of real service which they were sure were hidden somewhere in every true hoy. If you want to know how an out-of-doors Englishman can make over hoys and gradually do much to clean up the whole life of an Oriental city and district, get Tyndale-Biscoe's Charac- ter Building in Kashmir. Tyndale-Biscoe was a great hoxer in college, and in many ways a Theodore Roose- velt sort of man. He came out to India to run a small high school in Srinagar in the heautiful valley of Kash- mir. Kashmir is a veritahle garden spot watered hy countless streams on which the lazy househoats move amid orchards of plum and apple and gardens filled with roses, while, rising on every side are the mighty snow- capped peaks of the Himalayas. The people are fair and tall, hut rather effeminate. To quote from Mr. Tyndale-Biscoe's own story of his work there :

101 SCOUTIKG IK INDIA

"Twenty-nine years ago, I fonnd myself for the first time in Srinagar-a huge rabbit-warren sort of place of 125)00 inhabitants. All streets crooked all streets narrow all streets filthy. The stench of the c ty had reacri me long before I entered it. One wonld have roSt.thatthe%treetsh^d^eenW^^^^^^

nrpvpntina: any one irom using xuem, -^^ preveuiiUfa o. j «V,onps and sizes had

cobbles, stones and rocks of ail shapes an been thrown down indiscrimmately so that pedestrians had to pict their way frona rock to rock avoiding, if possible the lakes of putrid filth that lay be ween.

^ "The male sex pushed all women and children out of the path, but made way for cows and the pariah dogs, Is the former have horns and the latter possess teeth. AU this and much more, showed me the lie of the land tndte need of a change, even in the unchangeable Eatt. Now if one desires to change or const- a thing, it is usually wise to commence at the bottom Whatbetter beginning could one desire than a school of young boys, and what better training-ground could boys have than a city like Srinagar? . , , . .1,^ Wg

"I shall never, never forget my first sight of the boys in the school hall twenty-nine years ago. Some two hundred dirty, evil-smelling human bemgs, squattmg on the hall floor with mouths open, a vacant expression on their faces, and with fingers either messing w th heir f ce , noses, or ears, or else holding i^repots under the r foul garments shaped like long night-gowns, the tmes from the charcoal and the heat of their bodies thickening the atmosphere of this low-ceilinged room. As of ten :s not the only clean part about the Brahrnan boys was the daub of red paint plastered from the fore-

122 INDIA OTT THE MARCH

head down the bridge of the nose, put on fresh every morning by the priest, to show that they were worship- pers of the god Siva. These creatures I was to call boys! * Jelly fish' was the only appropriate term to apply to them."

He determined that these jelly fish should become men, and he tells us how he went about to accomplish it. He could not imagine a healthy boys' school without sports, and, because the school was on the river, he de- cided to begin his athletics with rowing. But the boys refused, "l^o Brahman must ever use a paddle or oar, or in any way propel a boat, as that would lower their caste to that of the despised boatmen. . . . This prob- ably was the root of the whole business; namely, that the act of pulling an oar might produce muscle on the arms, and, as muscle was only worn by coolies, my worthies might be mistaken for such low-caste beings. 'No Brahman had so vulgar an appendage as muscle on the arm."

This doughty Englishman was not to be daunted by age-long prejudices like these. At the start he fairly forced his young teachers and his boys to row. ISTow all the high schools of Srinagar have crews on the river, and the frequent regattas are great events in the city. It was the same story in regard to swimming. At first he threw the boys into the river. JSTow several of them each year pass a test which requires them to swim three miles.

Tyndale-Biscoe never forgets that the aim of all the athletics is Christian service. The school has a metal badge which the boys are proud to wear. It bears the school crest and the motto, ^'In all things be men."

SCOUTING IN INDIA 123

They are taught that if they wear that badge, they must always be ready to help anyone whom they see in diffi- culty or danger. One of their regular ways of service is to take the patients in the hospital out for a row on the lake. First, they have to paddle a mile to the hospital landing. Then, they have to help and some- times even to carry the patients the two hundred yards from the hospital. ^Those who are unable to walk soon find themselves riding on Brahmans from the hospital to the boats. Mohammedans on the backs of Brahmans ! 'No wonder some of the Brahmans of the old school open their eyes at the sight and mutter mutterings. But the school boys take the patients out just the same and give them a fine ride in the lake, singing as they paddle. Before these boys have got the patients back in the hos- pital and their boats back at their own landing, they have spent from three to five hours in serving their sick fellow-citizens."

And they do even more significant things. Once a great fiood came rushing over the lower parts of the city, and a group of outcaste sweepers was caught on the roof of a mud house which was rapidly dissolving in the fiood. There were plenty of boats near by, but no regular boatmen would come to their aid because, forsooth, they were outcastes ! Fortunately for them, one of the school boats came up looking for chances to help. It took several journeys to rescue all those who were on the roof, and as the work went on, the high- caste boatmen cursed the school boys for so defiling their caste. "But the boys gave them cheers for their curses and went right on till all the outcastes were saved."

124 INDIA ON THE MAECH

Mr. Tjndale-Biscoe tells with just pride the follow- ing story of another flood rescue : "One of the junior teachers, a slightly built fellow, but a credit to his ath- letic training in the school, was attracted by the cries of many women huddled together on a piece of dry ground which was fast growing less and less on account of the increasing waters. Close by were several boat- men in their boats, who were keeping an irritating dis- tance and bargaining with those terrified women for an impossible salvage. The young master was naturally enraged at their brutality. Off went his coat, and the next second he was in the flood; before the astonished crowd could gasp he was in one of the boats. Out went the boatmen, but not before the young teacher had seized the paddle, with which he soon brought the boat to shore and rescued at his leisure the crowd of women; while the boatmen, robbed of their prize, vented their rage in their usual way, a la best Billingsgate, recounting the terrible things they would do to the young athlete when they got hold of him."

In 1918 the school records showed the following list of deeds done by the boys:

Lives saved from drowning . . . . . .19

Help given to women 92

Help given to children 60

Help given to old men 23

Help given to blind folk 17

Help given to neighbors 60

Help given to animals 15

Help by parties of boys in 11 fires

Help by groups who taught a night school several

months 300 sick folks were taken on a total of 56 trips Other services of many kinds were rendered by

groups of boys

SCOUTIl^G IIT INDIA 125

Remember that the inspiration of all such work by the pupils and teachers of this school is Jesns Christ. Every student has as his first lesson each day a study of the Bible. There are other high schools in the city to which the people of Srinagar and the rest of Kashmir can send their boys, yet in spite of the shocking acts of the boys in swimming and rowing and actually defiling themselves by serving outcastes, and in spite of the Bible study, the school has grovni in twenty-nine years from two hundred students to fifteen hundred. It is today probably the greatest means of real progress in the whole of Kashmir. The manliness and enthusiasm of this unique Englishman are changing the entire life of the country. Or is it not rather the spirit of Jesus Christ in Mr. Tyndale-Biscoe that is making the change ? That is the way in which he would want to have us put it. He says : "At present my fellows look at Christ Jesus as the most perfect man, who went about doing good, and they wish to walk after Him, and one's hope is that, walking after Him, they will find Him and, finding Him, will trust Him with their all as their Savior and King, and go forth to fight for right, not only with the school shield on their breast, but under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. ... I prophesy that Kashmir will one day be won for Christ."

Henry Ferger and Tyndale-Biscoe are just two of India's educational missionaries. All over India you will find others, many of them young men and women who are working in mission high schools and colleges, as well as in connection with village schools and district boarding-schools, training-schools for teachers, medical schools, and industrial schools.

126 INDIA OW THE MARCH

There are almost as many schools for girls as for boys — and there ought to be still more. 'No service America can render to India is greater than that given by strong, happy, American college girls to the weak and needy women of India, the victims of so many age- long wrongs. In the days of beginnings of educational work for women a Brahman said to a woman mission- ary, "First teach our donkeys to read, then teach our girls." The great pioneer of educational missions in India, Alexander Duff, is reported to have remarked, "To try to educate women would be like trying to climb a wall a hundred feet high, with nothing but bare hands and feet to help you — such are the obstacles in the way." But Isabella Thoburn and other women mis- sionaries dared to believe that Indian girls could be educated. Someone has well said that they earned the right to join the Psalmist in exclaiming, "By my God I have leaped over a wall."

Today women graduates of mission high schools, nor- mal schools, medical schools, and colleges are scattered over India carrying sweetness and light wherever they go. It was largely the faith and enthusiasm of Lilavati Singh, one of Isabella Thoburn's own students, that per- suaded her to open a Woman's College in Lucknow. This mischievous Indian schoolgirl became a brilliant leader of Indian education and chairman of the Woman's Department of the World's Christian Student Federation.

Isabella Thoburn and Lilavati Singh, working to- gether, built up the Isabella Thoburn College. This has recently been made the Woman's College of the great new Lucknow University. It is about to move

SCOUTING 11^ INDIA 127

into fine buildings on a spacious new campus of twentj- five acres where it can better meet the critical needs of India's women in this new era.

We can catch something of the spirit of this college by reading extracts from a round robin letter kept up by eight of her alumnse. The first is from Sona, a Hindu girl. ^^My aunt, who is my guardian, is, as you know, companion to the Rani (Queen), and as the Rani is absolutely uneducated and really quite igno- rant and superstitious, I am acting as a kind of private secretary.

"There is such an absence of natural, everyday hap- piness among our Hindu people. I do not know how to account for it. I think of this by myself for minutes at a time, and I do feel there is something unusual in Christianity to explain the happiness I have seen among Christians. But I do not have much time for thinking, for I am usually very busy. I try to enter- tain the Rani by telling her stories. Sometimes I am even guilty of tacking on morals, and even of Spoking them down her throat,' which we were taught in peda- gogy was very poor teaching! But if you only knew the temptation! For instance, she is so very unhygi- enic, especially when it comes to fresh air. She shuts herself in her gloomy apartments and will not come to walk even in her pretty garden which is surrounded by a high wall, and which, therefore, will satisfy Hindu etiquette by keeping her safely secluded from the view of men. But lately, by giving her very simple talks on anatomy and physiology, emphasizing the use of the lungs, she begins to see the value of fresh air. I'm even hoping she'll allow me to invite some of the high-

128 INDIA ON THE MAECH

caste ladies here to hear a lecture on hygiene by 'yours truly' V'

The second is just a word from IN^irmolini — a mem- ber of a reformed sect. "There is such a difference between a Hindu school, however good, and our dear old school. I wish I knew how to bring the spirit of our school into this one. I am trying to practice the example of our teachers."

The third selection is from Shanti, a Christian wife and mother. "Dear girls, you in the hot plains may well envy me in our lovely little Himalayan cottage. Well, if you had married my nice minister-man, you might have had the same joyous lot. Of course, there are disadvantages of living seven days from the rail- way, such as having no congenial children for our tots to play with. ISTaturally, I have to give a good deal of time to their school, as well as the ordinary care they require. Yet I find time to help my husband in his many, many and sometimes very difficult tasks. What else can I do, when we are the only relief agency, the only village improvement society, if you prefer, for a million or more people ? By Ve,' I mean our little mission station here. There is, as you know, a Mission Hospital here, which is closed and has been for a year for lack of a doctor or nurse, so that I have to serve as doctor and nurse for our poor mountain folk for miles around, and all the training I've had is from books ! Then we have a little church and a boys' school, and hope soon to open a girls' school. Oh, the oppor- tunities are endless, and if any of you need or want a change from the plains, where I know too well there are more-than-endless opportunities, do come help us

SCOTJTING IN INDIA 129

away off here. You will find that with all our business, our home is hospitable, for we want it to stand for all that a Christian home should be."

These are just three typical graduates of one of India's mission colleges for women. They are carry- ing into palace, school, and home the spirit of their Alma Mater.

In the same great city of Lucknow are rising the beautiful new buildings of the Lucknow Christian Col- lege for men. This college has over 700 students in its various departments. It is alert to meet the needs of new India and for this purpose has a School of Commerce with nearly two hundred students. Its prin- cipal, or president, is one of its own graduates, Kev. J. E.' Chitambar, a Christian of Brahman blood who has proved his fitness for this high position by his work as a professor in the college, as a minister, and as a District Superintendent of the Methodist Church. Mr. Chitambar will have several American missionaries on his staff. These men are proud to work under an Indian of his ability and devotion.

A sixth of the college students of India are studying in mission colleges. The majority of them are Brah- mans and only a few become out-and-out Christians, but they carry from their missionary professors and from their Bible study something of the spirit of the Master. Most of them become leaders in reform movements, and all their lives they remain friends of the missionary and of Christianity.

There was a great stir all over South India a few years ago when two Brahman boys from two of the

130 INDIA ON THE MARCH

leading families of the great aristocratic city of Ma- dura decided to become Christians. Public meetings were held. The governor of the Province was asked to prevent the baptism. Orthodox leaders started a movement to boycott all mission schools. This move- ment, like many other similar attempts, did not suc- ceed. The boys were baptised, and mission schools continue to prosper. An interesting fact in this case was that the father of one of the boys had been a student at Madura College — a missionary institution. When he was a student, he had, himself, wanted to become an open follower of Christ, and now he abso- lutely refused to try to keep his boy from becoming a Christian.

All over India there are men by the thousands like that father who come from such schools as Tyndale- Biscoe's and from colleges like Madura and Lucknow. Even now they are doing much to bring the spirit of Jesus into the entire life of India. Some day a great Indian leader will arise who will win many of these friends and secret disciples into open, fearless followers of Christ.

A surprising fact is that the attractiveness of Christ and his power to give India the leadership which she needs today is being recogTiized even by students and leaders in non-Christian colleges.

Dr. E. Stanley Jones, a great Christian lecturer to educated Indians, has recently completed a preaching tour over India. He says: ^^Of one thing we are as- sured, the present unrest is not merely political, it has got down into the people. I have met less opposition on this trip than at any time in India.

SCOUTING IN INDIA 131

"At Bulsar tlie crowd was particularly responsive, and again and again broke out in applause at the most definitely Christian statements. Here our meetings were in a Hindu Dharamsala, or Religious Rest- House. . . .

"But at Benares — the holy place of Hinduism — the meetings were the best of all. Principal Dhurva of the Hindu University and some of the Hindu profes- sors of the University were secured as chairmen of the meetings. The Hindu students sent me a special invitation to speak at the University. It was an op- portunity to get right into the intellectual and religious center of Hinduism. I have never had a more respon- sive audience. They filled the hall to overflowing. I was invited back for three other addresses. At one of the addresses the chairman of the meeting, a Hindu professor, in his opening remarks, said: ^I have been attending the public lectures at night, and, while a friend remarked about the speaking, I said that my interest was not in that, but in the one of whom Mr. Jones was speaking. There has never appeared in human history such a great personality as Jesus Christ. I repeat it, Jesus Christ is the greatest personality the world has ever seen.' This he said in a Hindu Uni- versity before a Hindu audience, and there was no dis- sent. . . .

"There is a great and far-reaching change coming over the people in regard to the attitude toward Jesus Christ: bitter resentment and antagonism to Western civilization and to the spirit of white dominance, but a wondrous drawing toward Jesus Christ.

"When we get down to the facts and face them, there

132 INDIA ON THE MARCH

is no other way out except the Christian way. . . . Are we not on the eve of a break ? I believe we are. How long that eve will be, I do not know, hut the break will come/^

My own main job in India was a training-school for male Christian teachers. My boys and I had many a fine, game of atia-patia^ as well as of volley-ball and football. When they first come to the training-school, they do not love games as American boys do. Many of them have had little chance to play, back in their vil- lages, but before they have been long with us, they like to play and to play hard. Our graduates are scattered all over Western India as Christian teachers and Chris- tian preachers. There are probably nine hundred grad- uates of this school now at work. Many of them live in villages where no other man can read. In order that each worker may be generally helpful to his village, our school gives courses in agriculture, in first aid, and in simple sanitation.

The life of many of these villages is so low and crude that it takes real heroism for educated boys to cut themselves off from their more attractive surround- ings and to settle down to their new tasks. On the other hand, if he puts his whole heart into his work, one of our boys can sometimes change the whole life of a vil- lage, making it a cleaner, happier, and better place. Many of these boys are outcast e Hindus when they come to us. They are all Christian before they graduate.

A Brahman Educational Inspector who was examin- ing the training-school said to me, "I met one of your boys the other day, up in Khandesh. He was way out

SCOTJTINa IN INDIA 133

in the jungle teaching in a little Bhil village. I asked him if he wasn't afraid to stay in that wild country alone. He replied, ^I^o, I'm not afraid now. I was at first. I almost decided that I couldn't stay. But when I saw how much these people needed a school, I prayed God to give me courage to stay on.' That teacher was only an outcaste Mahar hefore he became a Christian, wasn't he?"

"Yes," I answered, "he was."

"Well, where did he get the spirit that made him stay on among those wild Bhils ?" he asked.

"I think that it must have come from Jesus Christ," I answered, and the Brahman Inspector bowed his head in assent.

Many other mission schools are sending out into the life of India a constant stream of thousands of Indian Christian leaders, many of them strong and devoted men and women. They are eager to give to their Motherland the greatest service they can render — that of making Christ her leader and king. Would you not like such a chance as Henry Ferger and the rest of us have to mold the lives of boys and girls of India and to help them to become her true leaders in this critical new day?

As a business man speaking to business men, I am prepared to say that the work which has been done by missionary agency in India exceeds in importance all that has been done (and much has been done) by the British Government in India since its commencement. — Sir W. MacJcworth Young, K.C.8.I., formerly Lieu- tenant-Governor of the Punjab

VII Those Poor Missionaries

If I were a cassowary

On the plains of Timbuctoo, I'd eat w every missionary,

Coat and hat and hymn-book too.

Comb with me to Vadala to meet Eev. Edward Fair- bank who is a "typical" general evangelistic mission- ary althougli I'll confess at once that I never saw him with a black ministerial hat on, and I think the cas- sowary would have a rather hard time swallowing any one so strong and subst£.ntial as he is. Vadala is a little Indian village of about five hundred people, twenty miles from the railroad in the heart of village India It is the headquarters of Mr. Fairbank s field, the Vadala district. This district covers an irregular area of perhaps five hundred square miles dotted with little towns and villages in which live over one hundred

thousand people. , ^ -u- „

You will like Mr. Fairbank from the start. Jivery- body does. As soon as you look into his smiling blue eyes and grasp his firm hand, you know that he toois a good scout. He has two outstanding characteristics which impress anyone who meets him, vital energy and sheer friendliness.

For the sake of efiiciency, he generally uses an auto- mobile for his longer trips in his district ; but recently when there was no gasoline to be had, he 3uniped on his bicycle and rode twenty-seven miles into Ahmedna- ear, did his business there, and rode twenty-seven miles back again, just as though he did not live in the tropics

° 135

136 INDIA ON THE MAECH

and were not over fifty years old. He will tell you that it is the healthy ont-of-door life of the district which is keeping him strong. Once when he was rid- ing, he came to a river which was in flood, as Indian rivers often are after a storm. It was important that he should get across, so he waded right in, and when he could wade no farther, he struck out and swam across the rushing stream, hicycle and all.

Somehow his friendliness has transferred itself to his Indian fellow-workers. There is a wonderful at- mosphere of good-will at Vadala. One or two Indians who were inclined to be sour and aloof when they first came there to work, could not long resist this spirit and soon were friendly like the rest. The district has more Christians and more progressive churches than any other in all that part of India ; they take the lead in generous giving and also in managing their own affairs.

There are forty-one village schools in the district into which the children of outcastes, high-caste people, and Christians are all crowding. We must see one of these simple little schools in its crude building, with only a table, a chair, a blackboard, and a map for furniture, which yet is a means of Christian helpfulness in all the village. From these village schools come a con- stant stream of the brightest boys to the boarding-school at Yadala, and from this, in turn, to higher schools. There are three villages in this district, each of which has sent out no fewer than sixty boys to become Chris- tian leaders throughout Western India. One of these boys has just been graduated with a brilliant record from an American theological seminary, and is going

THOSE POOR MISSIONARIES 137

back to be a leader among the educated young men of Bombay.

All over this big district people of every sort look to tbe missionary as their friend. He bas at Vadala a dispensary with a trained Indian doctor. In times of plague or famine, be is tbere to help. Tbe great cburcb wbicb seats thirteen hundred people was built in famine days as famine relief work. Its red-tiled tower can be seen for many miles and is a symbol of helpfulness to all that region. Indians love lawsuits, but never a lawsuit goes to court from Vadala. The people bring their differences to the missionary, and he settles them all with such care and fairness that his decisions have always been accepted. "No wonder that all classes in the Vadala District are friendly and re- sponsive to Christianity.

Once in famine days Mr. Fairbank was riding out from the city to Vadala on his bicycle, carrying a great bag of silver rupees for relief payments. He was de- layed and darkness overtook him. In famine times men become desperate, and many robberies take place. Suddenly a light was flashed at him. He saw a figure on horseback in front of him, and he was told to halt. Then someone called, "It is the Vadala sahib. Let him pass!" And he rode in safety through the band of robbers, carrying his heavy bag of money. He was "their sahib." Even in their desperate straits, they would not rob him.

So he goes about ceaselessly, examining a school here, preaching in simple, direct words to a new group there, settling quarrels, conducting classes for his In- dian fellow-workers, living a true Christian life of

138 INDIA ON THE MAECH

service. He and his wife are pouring their cheer and their faith — their very life — into the lives of these country people whom they love. The friendly, respon- sive Marathas, the thousands of converts, and the fine Christians who go far and wide from this district as leaders, are the natural result of such service.

When the hard day's work is done, Edward Fair- bank loves to go off with his rifle after a deer or play a game with the schoolboys or work in his garden. Listen to his hearty, care-free laugh. How he enjoys a good joke ! You never went on a hike with a better fellow than he is. And back of it all and in it all is the sweetness of a Christian home and the devotion of a wife no less able or attractive than he, who is giving herself just as naturally and beautifully as he is giving himself. A typical ordained missionary! I envy any cassowary who gets him.

Forty years ago Anna Kugler, an attractive Ameri- can girl of fine family, set out for India under the American Lutheran Board. She had the best medical training that America could give her. A brilliant career opened before her in America. But she had re- ceived a letter from a missionary, appealing to her to come out to help the needy women of India. When she asked her Board to send her, they replied that - they were not ready to start medical work and that if she wanted to go out, she must go as a teacher and worker in the Indian home, — a zenana worker. Dr. Kugler accepted this appointment. She was so eager to serve India that she was willing, if necessary, to give up her medical career to do so. Yet she had faith

THOSE POOB MISSIONAKIES 139

that tlie medical work would somehow open up. A present of a hundred dollars made it possible for her to take a few instruments and medicines. With this equipment and a brave heart, she landed in South India — the first woman missionary physician to go to the great Madras Presidency of India with its millions of suffering women and children.

All the equipment for medical work that she had at first was a small cupboard with her few instruments and medicines. Yet patients began to come to her from the day she reached Guntur, and it was not long before they came so fast that she had little time for zenana work. After a while she fitted up a little store- room with a table and a few shelves as her ^^hospital." A veranda served as a waiting-room. Working in this way, in her first year she treated six hundred eases. But soon the medicines were exhausted, and the work had to be closed. Dr. Kugler used this interval for the study of the language and for zenana and school work. Then her fellow-missionaries, out of their own meager incomes, subscribed one thousand rupees, or about three hundred and fifty dollars, for a hospital. Friends at home followed, and the wonderful medical career of Dr. Anna S. Kugler was fairly begun.

At first the doctor had often to submit to indignities from bigoted high-caste Hindus, in whose eyes she was an outcaste. She wrote: "It is true that it was not pleasant to be constantly reminded, as one entered the high-caste Hindu homes, that one was an unclean ob- ject, defiling everything that one touched. It was not pleasant to have all the bed clothes put to one side while one examined the patient, or to have a very ill

140 INDIA ON" THE MARCH

patient taken out of bed and brought out into the court- yard because the doctor was too unclean to go inside. !N^either did one enjoy stooping down and picking up the medicine bottle because one was too unclean to take it directly from the hand of a Brahman. But it was all in the way of opening up the path for those who came later." In these homes she is now honored.

When she went to America for her first furlough, she had already won her way so far that people of every class expressed their deep appreciation of what she had done, and when she returned, three rich men of Guntur gave a hundred rupees apiece for the new hospital property. But it was hard in those days to get money for a hospital for women. Dr. Kugler was determined that the Indians themselves should do a part; so she toured among the villages, treating the peoples' ailments and gathering money. Little by little the hospital became a reality. Pirst, a fine site was bought; then, the dispensary was built; then, the hos- pital itself. All the time she was continuing her deep interest in the schools and other mission work, for her sympathy was as broad as the need of the people. After a time a nurse came from America. Then an- other American doctor was sent out. After fifteen long years of struggle, she had the "finest mission hos- pital in all South India," with a children's ward, ma- ternity block, chapel, nurses' home, and dispensary. In four years the patients treated in the dispensary num- bered 100,779. ISTearly eight thousand operations were performed, and over fifteen hundred children were born in the hospital.

THOSE POOB MISSIOIJAEIES 141

Two typical instances of the influence of Dr. Kugler were told recently by Mrs. McCanley, one of lier fellow- missionaries :

In a second-class railway carriage on tlie train from Gnntur to Bezwada sit a Brahman gentleman and his wife and a missionary lady, all traveling by the night mail to Bezwada. After a little friendly inquiry, the Brahman gentleman tells the missionary this story of his recent visit to Guntur.

"Yes, madam, my wife and I have been staying here in Guntur for the past month in order that my wife might have treatment at Kugler's hospital. My wife has not been well for a long time, and I have spent much on native doctors, all to no avail. Finally a friend of mine in our town in the Kistna district urged me to bring her here to Dr. Kugler for treatment, and I am glad to tell you that today she is going home well. Yes, Dr._ Kugler is a goddess, madam, no ordinary wom^n. We think she must be an incarnation of Lakshmi (Goddess of Healing). Otherwise, how could she do all the wonderful things she does? I am quite powerless to express my gratitude to her for all the pains she took to cure my wife. ^

"Yes, she told my wife much about Jesus Christ, whom she seems to love very much. ^A^en I was a student in college, I too learned about Jesus Christ, but I did not know before I met Dr. Kugler that anyone could be so self- sacrificing for the sake of any god. Why, madam, she used to get up any time in the night and come to my wife's bedside to see how she was, and she herself came every Sunday afternoon and talked to my wife about Jesus Christ and how He could heal her if she sought Him. Well, I intend to try to follow Him more myself after this, for i have seen how He can send a woman away out to this country from far-away America to give her life and all she is to help the women of this country, just because she loves Jesus Christ."

The scene changes. This time a poor Sudra woman is

142 IISTDIA ON THE MARCH

just leaving the hospital with her little eight-year-old girl who had been badly gored by an angry buffalo. The child's face was torn partly off by the buffalo, and the whole cheek had been skilfully sewed up by Dr. Kugler; and now after several weeks the mother is starting out to return with her little girl entirely healed, to her village some thirty miles away. The poor mother, after presenting some fruit and a couple of rupees, as her offering to the hospital, falls at Dr. Kugler's feet, with her hands clasped, and says : "Oh, Amma, what are these small gifts compared with all I owe you? I am a poor worm. You are a great and powerful mother. You have had compassion on me and have healed my child. She would have died but for you. Even had she lived, she would have been terribly deformed, and I could never have found a husband for her. Now she is going out with only a slight scar. This is all due to your great love and goodness. Surely I will remember this Yesu Swami about whom you have told me, because I know you bow to Him only. Yes, He must be a very great Swami to have such a follower as you, and hereafter I shall pray to Him, and not to Krishna and Hanuman, as I used to, for now I know that He must be the true God.''

One of the staunchest friends of Dr. Kugler is an Indian Rajah, M. Bhuyanga Rao Bahadur of Ellore. Dr. Kugler had restored his beloved wife, the Rani (Queen) Chinnamma Rao to health. Later she had saved the life of his son and heir. When he asked what he might do to show his gratitude, Dr. Kugler suggested that he build a rest-house in which Hindu rel- atives could stay while attending patients who were in the hospital. This Rajah got two other Indians to give the land, and he built the rest-house. But that was not all. He had wanted to know the secret of her power, and she had told him that it was in Jesus Christ and had given him a copy of the 'New

THOSE POOR MISSIONARIES 143

Testament. He eagerly read the book and saw in it the medicine that his land needed even more than physical healing. So he translated it into Telugu poetry which Brahmans and all educated Telugus would delight to read. When the new rest-house was dedi- cated, he gave away five hundred copies of his transla- tion to the guests. His youngest child is named An- namma in honor of the doctor. On his very letterhead this Brahman Kajah has printed a picture of the Christ whom he now regards as the hope of India and whom, as he says in the preface to his translation, he first saw reflected in the pure and beautiful life of this American doctor.

The British Government has twice recognized the services of Dr. Kugler to India by giving her "honors." But it is the love of the people which is her priceless decoration. Mrs. McCauley says: "We make bold to say that no white person in all the Telugu coimtry . . . populated by more than twenty million people, is so widely known and revered as Dr. Kugler. She is honored by government officials both English and In- dian, by the educated Brahman lawyer, by the prosper- ous merchant, by the thrifty farmer, by the poor out- caste Christian — by all classes. All seek to do her honor. All seek her presence and help in times of trouble and her approbation and praise in times of success and prosperity."

In her office she has hanging this motto : "Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake," and most wonderfully does she carry out its ideal in her daily life of service to the women and children of India.

144 INDIA ON THE MAECH

Dr. Kugler's hospital is one of a great chain of mis- sionary hospitals and dispensaries which you can now find over India. There are ^Ye hundred of them in all. Some are as crude and primitive as that with which Dr. Kugler began. Others are great plants. Training- schools are preparing Christian nurses. Several medi- cal schools have arisen to train Indian men and women to go out as Christian doctors to bring healing to the millions of Indians who now suffer without help or hope.

When a particularly severe epidemic of bubonic plague broke out in Ahmednagar, the people of every class came to us and said, "If you will send for Dr. Beals, we will be inoculated." We missionaries had been doing everything in our power for years to show the people of Ahmednagar the value of inoculation against plague. They had seen our two thousand Chris- tians in the city go through epidemic after epidemic with scarcely a death, while they themselves were dying by the hundreds. Yet we had not been able to over- come their prejudice against inoculation. Ten years before, Dr. Beals had worked in Ahmednagar for a short time. He had had only a poor dispensary off on one side of the city, yet somehow he had won the confidence of the people in such a way that they came to tell us that they were now ready to give up their prejudice and be inoculated if only he would come to do it. A telegram was sent to Dr. Beals, and he left the work at his hospital, one hundred and thirty miles away, and came.

When the people of Ahmednagar heard the news, crowds thronged the mission high school compound where he was to work. Competent native doctors were

THOSE POOK MISSIONARIES 145

there to take care of those who would go to them. Dr. Ruth Hume was in another room inoculating the women. Dr. Beals spent three very husy days in Ahmednagar, on one of them inoculating over a thou- sand people. As a result of this campaign, the old prejudice of the city against inoculation was hroken. IsTow when plague comes, people of all classes are eager to he inoculated. In this way every year hun- dreds of lives are saved largely hecause of the confidence awakened in the people hy a modest American medical missionary, in whose service the people sensed some- thing of the love of Him who went ahout healing the sick.

Almost every missionary in India has to he more or less of an assistant medical missionary. There is so much sickness all ahout, some of which needs only a little intelligent care, that we simply have to lend a hand. There are children whose eyes are infected and who are neglected until their eyes are injured for life or until they go hlind. All they need is a little attention and a simple remedy to save them from this calamity. Every morning there used to gather on our veranda a group of Indians with various ail- ments to he treated hy Mrs. Clark. The worst cases she sent to the hospital, hut her own hrief hospital training came into daily use as she cared for the simpler cases in her little veranda dispensary. Often when I went among the villages I took with me an Indian medical man, or, if that was not possihle, at least a supply of quinine for malaria and potassium permanganate to disinfect the village wells in time of cholera. Whole villages are exposed to that terrihle

146 INDIA ON THE MARCH

disease, and thousands of people die through the use of impure water, when the main remedy that is needed is a little disinfectant for the village well. I suppose that almost every district missionary is the means of saving many lives hy his simple efforts to help meet diseases and epidemics.

Everyone knows something ahout that terrible, loath- some disease of leprosy, which rots away its victims' bodies little by little — a living death. Indians fear this disease, yet lepers are allowed to live on in their villages and even in their own homes, exposing others to the dreaded infection. Probably there are 250,000 lepers in India. Missionaries, both medical and non- medical, try to do what they can to help them. To make their lives happier and to protect their relatives and friends from the disease, leper asylums have been opened in many places, and missionaries try to bring whatever they can of brightness and cheer and love into these refuges. Here lepers are given the wonder- ful new treatment which may turn out to be a real cure. They are given gardens of their own to work in and opportunities to satisfy other human interests. Even more important, they receive what one of these missionaries calls the "Christ-treatment; something of love and kindness ; someone to care for them and bring relief."

In India missionaries are at work in sixty-one leper asylums and homes for the untainted children of lepers. Some of you have heard of Mary Reed, the American missionary, who, when she was in America on fur- lough, found that she had leprosy. Without a word

THOSE POOK MISSIONARIES 147

to her friends about it, she went back to India and is now in charge of a beautiful leper asylum where she is giving her life for her Indian fellow-sufferers. It is indeed touching to know how real is the in- terest of these lepers in others. Their church comes to mean much to them. They give of their scanty money to all sorts of Christian causes. I have never heard a more beautiful story of real Christian experi- ence than that of an Indian leper girl in Sam Higgin- bottom's asylum at Naini. I first heard Mr. Higgin- bottom tell the story in India, but anyone may now read it in his book The Gospel and the Plow. Her name was Frances, and she was a refined, educated Christian girl. Somehow she became infected; the unmistakable sores of leprosy appeared on her fingers, and she was sent to the asylum. When she first caught sight of the wrecks of women who were there, she turned in despair and exclaimed, "My God, am I going to become as they are!" But some days later when she had become a little more accustomed to her new life, Mr. Higginbottom proposed to her that she try to use her own education in helping the women and children to read and write and sing. Gradually a change came over the whole life of the asylum as a result of her loving service, and with it a change came in herself. One day after she had begun working for her fellow-lepers some time, she opened her heart to the American woman doctor. She told her that at first she had rebelled against her fate, but that gradually she had come to see that God had brought her there because He needed her to work for the lepers. If she had not become a leper, she would never have discovered

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her work. She ended her confession with these won- derful words: "Every day I live now, I thank Him for having sent me here and given me this work to do." Sam Higginbottom says: "The disease has worked its way in her. But her face is always radiant, a smile plays about that pain-wrought face. "No word of com- plaint, ever a word of cheer for him that is weary. Most of the women of the Asylum are now Christians, after having confessed their faith in the God and Savior they have learned to know through Frances."

You have seen how poor the people of India are, especially the outcastes. Probably there are sixty mil- lion who do not get enough to eat except during the harvest time. Is it part of the missionary's job to try to help them earn a better living ? The missionary answers emphatically, "Yes! Jesus fed the hungry, and we would not be true disciples of our Master if we did not try to help men and women and little chil- dren to get enough to eat and enough to wear." Our village schools with their 500,000 pupils help. It is not so easy for the money sharks of India, who always prey upon the poor, to get into their clutches men who can read and figure. Moreover, thousands of boys and girls from dark, one-room, poverty-stricken homes have gone through the village school into higher educa- tion and are now earning fair incomes as doctors, nurses, clerks, teachers, or workers in other useful callings.

Another way in which the missionaries try to help is through Cooperative Credit Societies. Have you ever heard of a missionary banker? Come to Jalna, and I will show you one who has been decorated by

Dr. Anna S. Kugler working with her clerk at the Guntur Hospital which, under h-r leadership, developed in fifteen years from a medicine chest to one of the largest and finest mission hospitals in South India, with maternity block, chapel, nurses' home, and dispensary.

THOSE POOR MISSIONARIES 149

the Government for his services. Rev. W. E. Wilkie- Brown is another "typical'' missionary, a kindly, vigor- ous Scotchman. He found many of the villagers of the Jalna district practically the slaves of the money lender. They had to have money for seed every rainy season, and they had no money to buy it with, so that they had to borrow from the money lender, who was willing to accommodate them for a little matter of sixty or eighty per cent a year. Once in the hands of the money lender, the poor man never gets out. He toils on, and his wife and children toil on. They keep paying of their little earnings on their debt, but it does not grow less. A wedding comes, or sickness, and more debt and more interest are added. Finally, mil- lions of poor people in India give up all hope of ever being free from the money lender and lose interest in their work. They become careless and shiftless as well as hopeless.

To help such poor people, Mr. Wilkie-Brown, with the help of the Government, started a Cooperative Credit Society with a bank which lends money to mem- bers of the Society at nine per cent interest. Every member of the Society is responsible to pay back every loan the bank makes to every other member, as well as those it makes to him. When they combine in this way, even the poor Indians have strength. First they borrow enough money to repay what they owe to the money lender. Then they receive another loan for seed or for a pair of bullocks to cultivate their land or to buy an improved steel plow or to dig a well for irrigation. With their old debts wiped out and with a chance to get on their feet, they go back to their

150 INDIA ON THE MARCH

villages new men. They have been hopeless slaves. "Now they are free. Life has a new meaning to them. There is hope for their children now that they are no longer in the clutches of the money lender.

Mr. Wilkie-Brown will take ns to his desk and let us ,see his big books full of neatly kept accounts. He will tell us the story that lies back of some of these accounts — whole communities made over from shift- less, hopeless, weak, day laborers into thrifty, happy farmers, with enough to eat to keep their families well and enough laid by to pay back their loans.

"Do they really pay back ?" we ask Mr. Wilkie-Brown. ^^Yes, they do," he replies. "Sometimes it comes hard, especially when the harvests fail, but somehow they manage to do it." Then he turns to us with a con- tagious smile of enthusiasm and says something like this : "The best of it all is the way this thing is making over the entire life of the village. The members of the society have to be interested in each other now. They all make it a business to see that no member is lazy or extravagant, and they help out members who are sick or in hard luck. Wherever they have societies, they are asking for schools. Hundreds of them want to become Christians as a result of our cooperative credit. It is the most effective way I've ever found for preaching the gospel."

Many other missionaries are helping to put new hope into India's people through cooperative credit societies. Indeed the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion has established a special Eural Department which is spreading the gospel of thrift through cooperative credit in many parts of India.

THOSE POOR MISSIONARIES 151

Dotted over India there are missionary industrial schools where boys and girls are being taught how to run an automobile or how to make lace, how to pro- duce good furniture or how to grow twice as large a crop as the old methods make possible.

In one of these schools Mr. HoUister of the American Methodist Board manufactured steel plows especially adapted to Indian needs. He taught many boys to make a good living in the manufacture of the plow. He also helped raise the level of agriculture wherever his plows went.

Mr. Churchill of the Congregational Board taught his boys on his improved loom how to weave Indian cloth more than twice as fast as they could on the old village loom.

Mr. Higginbottom of the Presbyterian Board, whose interesting little book we have already referred to, is teaching his boys how, by the use of better seed and by properly preparing the soil, they can raise a crop which will be twice as profitable as the old Indian methods would produce.

I am sitting in my school office when a teacher comes to me. "It's no use, Sahib," he says. "Nama and Ganpat and Maruti and about eight more of those big boys simply can't learn English. They are holding back the entire class."

"We will have to do something about it," I reply. As soon as possible we secure a jack-of-all-trades, who is mostly a mason and carpenter, and who is also a good practical teacher — a very rare man in India. With a rough shed as a shop, he begins working with these big boys. Soon there is a change in the very

152 IW^DIA ON- THE MARCH

look of their faces. They have been dull and sullen before. They simply are not fitted for higher studies, and they do not like regular school life. But they do like this work with stone and wood. The class makes rapid progress. After a time we send them out, and they actually build a schoolhouse from the ground up, and they do the job well. Before long they are all out at work for good wages, as Indian wages go, and are sturdy intelligent members of the community and the church. Whenever I meet one of them, he gives me a grateful salaam for my part in getting him started in life. 'Not all industrial mission work can be so simple or so quickly successful as this was. Many mis- sion industrial enterprises have failed; but more and more of them are succeeding in helping the poorer peo- ple of India.

What is the missionaries' job ? You have seen them off on hikes with Indian boys, settling village quarrels, saving life in hospital and hut, teaching poverty- stricken people how to earn a living. Are the mis- sionaries right in calling all of these things missionary work? In which kind of work would you most like to share?

Sam Higginbottom goes to the heart of the matter when he writes : ^

I think again of that great picture drawn for us in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. The nations are separated from one another as a shepherd separates

1 The Gospel cmd the Plow, Sam Higginbottom, Macmillan Co., pp. 136-137.

THOSE POOR MISSIONARIES 153

the sheep from the goats. The sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left. To those on his right hand He says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- pared for you from the foundation of the world. . . .^' They say unto Him, "Why, Lord, for what do you call us blessed ? What have we ever done ?'^ And Jesus says, "Ye saw me hungry, and ye gave me to eat.'' They say, "Hold on there. Lord, are you not going too fast? making some mistake? We never saw you, let alone saw you hungry." "Oh, yes, you did," Jesus says. "When you went to that little famine-cursed Indian village that had been growing ten bushels of wheat per acre and you taught it to grow twenty, you were helping to feed the hungry. When you went to that village that was growing sixty pounds of poor, short-staple cotton per acre and taught them to grow three hundred pounds per acre of good, long-staple cotton you were helping to clothe the naked. When you went to that village where the well had dried up and you sent a boring outfit and bored down until you had secured an abundant supply of water, enough for man and beast and some over for irrigation, you were helping to give drink to the thirsty. When the doctor opened his hospital for the poor and lowly who otherwise would have no medical aid, he was visiting the sick. When you went to India's outcastes, to her ^un- touchables' whom man despiseth, who have suffered age- long, untellable wrongs in the fearful prison of caste, and freed them from its bondage and caused them to walk as free men, that was done unto Me." "Lord, we never thought of You there or in that degraded state." "Oh, yes; take the veil from that little humble Indian village outcaste, I am there. Inasmuch as ye did it to the lowest and meanest of India's outcastes, ye did it unto Me."

There is work — glorious, fascinating, adventuresome work in India for each one of us. Where is it and what is it?

There are many beautiful things in Hinduism, but the fullest light is from Christ . . . Hinduism has been digging channels. Christ is the water to flow through these channels. — Sadhu 8undar Singh

VIII

Christians Who Count

One of tlie most beautiful sections of India is the Malabar Coast country, which lies to the far southwest. About fifty miles inland rise the high, wooded moun- tains which cut this country off from easy contact with the rest of India. Parallel with the coast and pro- tected from the sea by a long neck of land are quiet backwaters, through which our little steamer slowly glides as we come to visit this land of tropical luxuri- ance. It is a veritable Garden of Eden, with its many little rivers, its great groves of coconut and banana palms, and its pepper vines twined among the trees. Yet it is not the charm of the country which draws us here. It is the unique interest of some of its people, for this is the home of one of the oldest and most significant groups of Christians in the world.

In the summer of 1921 Christian Endeavorers came from all over America and beyond to 'New York for a great convention. A mighty and inspiring throng of sixteen thousand assembled there. It was a great meeting. But every year about thirty thousand of these Malabar Christians gather in a mammoth palm- leaf pavilion in a dry river bed for a religious con- vention. And bear it in mind that, except as an in- vited guest, no missionary has anything to do with this convention. The Indians have entire responsibility for it. In Everybody's World Dr. Sherwood Eddy gives the following vivid description of the 1920 convention at which he was the principal guest and speaker:

155

156 INDIA ON THE MAECH

On the platform at our left are seated the white-robed priests of this ancient church, and upon raised seats on the right are the two bishops in their purple satin robes, with golden girdles and quaint headdresses. One is of the old school, looking like the ancient ISTestorian patriarch of Antioch. . . . The other is a young man, modern, keen, alert, whom we knew as a college student a dozen years ago^ when he decided, one night, to give up his future ambition in the law and to enter Christian work. After completing his education in Canada, he returned to spend his life in vitalizing this ancient church in which he was born. In front of the platform in this great pavilion the Christians are seated. They have been gathering from hundreds of distant villages, coming up like the tribes of old to the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem. All are clad in flowing white garments and are seated on the dry sand of the river bed, the men on the right, the women on the left. As the people unite in intercession, you can hear a distant murmur rising gradually like the sound of the sea. A wave of prayer seems to sweep over the vast audience. The Bishop leads in a last prayer, and we begin the morn- ing^s address. . . . They are turning back to the primitive and simple Christianity of the early days, with an open Bible, fervent prayer, and simple witnessing to the glad news of abundant life. Here is an ancient Indian church, using its own forms of worship and expressing Eastern methods of devotion.

Let me tell you a little of the romantic story of these Malabar Christians. They call themselves Mar Thoma Christians, "the Saint Thomas Christians," be- cause they believe that the Apostle Thomas himself founded their church. It is certain that long before Augustine and his little band of missionaries came to England in 597 A.D., Christian missionaries from Palestine had sailed across the Indian Ocean with their message of hope and joy and had founded a church.

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Alfred the Great heard about these St. Thomas Christians. In 883 A.D. he sent an embassy all the way from England to India "bearing the alms which the King had vowed to send — to India, to St. Thomas, and to St. Bartholomew." The embassy "penetrated with great success to India and brought thence many foreign gems and aromatic liquors." So you can read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. At the time when Alfred the Great sent his embassy, the Mar Thoma Christians were in great favor with the Rajah of the land. They had been given the standing of a high caste in the community and had settled down to a self-contained life much like that of the Hindu castes. Their worship was in the language of Syria, which few of them understood. Hence it had become a dead form. Under these circumstances, it was not strange that they sank into a sort of sleep for several centuries, until they were violently aroused by the coming of the Portuguese to Calicut in 1498.

Imagine the surprise and delight of the Portuguese when they discovered among the strange brown people of India a large body of Christians ! And imagine the delight of the Indian Church in having powerful fellow-Christians from across the seas to encourage and help them! But the joy on both sides was short lived. The Mar Thoma Christians followed the ritual of the Eastern Church and owned allegiance to an Eastern Patriarch. This made them heretics to the bigoted Portuguese who thought that the only true faith was that of the Roman Catholic Church. The Portuguese at once set about to convert them to Rome, but these Indian Christians were obstinate enough to hold to

158 INDIA OK THE MARCH

their own ways. Then the Portuguese, through a clever archbishop, undertook to compel them to obey. This archbishop had power and used it relentlessly. Three bishops of the Indian Church were tortured to death through the Inquisition, and the simple Malabar Chris- tians were brought to outward submission which lasted for fifty years. But when one more of their bishops was arrested, their smouldering resentment broke into open revolt.

Great crowds of them gathered at the sacred Croonen Cross and there swore never more to have anything to do with Rome. All could not touch the Cross as they swore this oath. Therefore long ropes were attached to it; and they held these ropes as they together took the solemn vow which, as they well knew, might bring upon them fierce persecution by the Portuguese. It was a Declaration of Independence which took fully as much courage as that of the American colonies. I^ot all the Mar Thoma Christians joined in this declara- tion; indeed, about two thirds of them still recognize the Pope. But there are now about 300,000 members in the churches which broke from the Poman yoke at the Croonen Cross.

They did not become a strong Church at once. In- deed they clung to their old ways until a few decades ago. Then under the influence of a Church of England mission that had come among them at the invitation of their Metran, or bishop, a reform movement started. Whole congregations decided that they wanted to wor- ship and read the Bible in their own language. "New life came into the Church. Those who held to the old ways objected. Again there were persecutions. A bit-

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ter conservative killed a liberal preacher. A court de- cision took all their church property away from the reformers. That was a hard blow, but they immedi- ately set to work to build new churches. Then they established some fine schools in which to train their leaders. After a time, through the example of the English missionaries, they began to feel that they could not be a truly Christian church unless they in- terested themselves in the outcaste people who lived all about them; so they started a home missionary society which grew until it now has over fifty home missionaries. They also saw that they owed a debt to India as a whole. Consequently they started a for- eign mission far away in another part of India, where their representatives are struggling with a strange lan- guage, eating strange food, and living among people of strange customs.

The reforming Mar Thoma Church has only about 80,000 members, and most of them are not rich. But their religious faith has come to mean so much to them that they are ready to sacrifice in order to give it to others. The women give a little out of every day's food supply for their missionary society. When a daughter is married, the Church receives a tenth of her dowry. These Indian Christians have invented all sorts of devices to stimulate giving and are probably far more generous in their support of their churches and missions than we Americans are in our benevolence. When I was their guest, one of them pointed out to me the place in the mountains near which a Mar Thoma Christian had worked. It was Kev. W. K. Kuruvilla, vv^ho left his friends and went up to live

160 IITDIA ON" THE MARCH

among tlie wild tribe of primitive people called Arayans, whose villages lie in this region. These people lived a life so low as to be little above the animal. They knew nothing of cleanliness or of education till he came. But he went into their homes, and with his own hands showed them how to cook. In every way he shared their life and helped them until thousands became Christian, and their whole level of life was raised. To me, he is a prophecy of what these able, intelligent Mar Thoma Christians, with their ancient picturesque Christianity and their new spirit, may do for India. They bring to their countrymen no new fangled for- eign religion, but one which has been tried and tested for many centuries. It has carried them through bitter persecution, and today it means more to them than ever before. I shall never forget the look of high determination on the fine face of young Bishop Abra- ham when he said to me, ^^Our church has a mission to all of India, and we must carry it out."

But the Mar Thoma Church furnishes only a small part of India's '^ve million Christians. Many others are actively at work bringing Christ into India's new life. The Church of England has a membership of almost 300,000 in India. From one of its ^^mass movement areas" have come hundreds of Christian workers, among them the Bishop of Dornakal, the first Indian Bishop and an outstanding leader.

The "South India United Church" is a union of Congregational, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches of several missions. Each had to sacrifice something of its own in order that they could all agree to unite.

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The result is a great churcli, great in numbers, with about 200,000 members, and great in spirit. Their coming together gave all its members new heart. They said, ^']^ow that we are united we must together start a great evangelistic campaign." And they did. They took as their motto "Each one teach one and each one reach one." Of course not everyone carried out the motto, but many, including ignorant village Chris- tians, did go out and did win others. In some places they started new mass movements. In one mission they added a third to their church membership in ten months. Sherwood Eddy tells of one village congrega- tion which through its own efforts added to its mem- bership in a single Sunday one hundred and twenty- three men and women from fourteen different castes.

Indian Christians of many denominations are con- ducting the large and successful !N'ational Missionary Society which maintains. six missions in different parts of India.

One of the reasons for the new enthusiasm of the Indian Church is the rapid development of beautiful Indian hymns. Indians love music. The men sing as they drive their bullock carts, and the women sing as they grind the grain. You might not think there was much music in the strange quavers of their singing, but it grips them as our music never does. It is now be- coming not an uncommon sight to see Indian Christians, who have been working all day out in the fields, gather in the evening at their rest-house with their queer drums and cymbals as accompaniment and sing hymns for hours together. The Christians of India are be- ginning to go to their great gatherings as the Hindus

162 INDIA ON" THE MAECH

go on pilgrimage. They sing as they pass through the villages on the road and thus carry far and wide the Christian message. I saw one group who in this way tramped with their flags over their shoulders one hun- dred and fifty miles, much of it through strange coun- try, in order to attend a big celebration. All over India we are beginning to have an Indian Church which ex- presses its Christianity in warm, rich Oriental ways.

India has produced many wonderful Christian lead- ers. ISTone are more wonderful than Pandita Kamabai, the remarkable Brahman widow, who became the great- est friend of Indian fallen women and won hundreds of them to a better life in her great Christian institu- tion. There have been men in the Christian Church who have taken high positions in the life of the country — ^men like the fine Indian Rajah, Sir Harnam Singh, and the great political leader, Kali Charan Bannerjea. I have selected three typical Christian leaders of India to whom I want especially to introduce you.

The first is my former neighbor and friend, the late Narayan Vaman Tilak. Tilak was a Brahman of bril- liant ability. One could guess his genius from his remarkable, long, dome-like head. He seemed almost Western in his quick, impetuous movements. And in- deed he was frank to say that he thought India must learn much from the West. Yet one outstanding fact about him was his love for his country. As a boy it surged up in him as a great impulse, and in later life he wrote, "I don't think I have loved my own parents, wife, children, friends, even myself, as much as I love my country."

CHEISTIAITS WHO COUISTT 163

He was a boy in his later teens when a friend's sister lost her husband. She was only a young girl and had scarcely seen this husband, for they had been married as small children and had never lived together ; yet by Indian custom, this girl was to be condemned for the rest of her days to the dreary life of an Indian widow. Tilak saw clearly that the custom of child- marriage and the dooming of innocent girl widows to a life-long agony was a great wrong. It was one of the customs that had to be abolished if his country was to become great. So he quietly offered to marry this girl widow. Thus would he strike a blow for the good of his country. Well he knew that he would be bitterly persecuted and thrown out of his home if he did such a thing, but he had an eager boldness in reform that almost welcomed suffering. In this case, the girl herself refused to consider such a break from custom; but in his offer, young Tilak had shown his character.

He early saw that the caste system must be reformed and that the reformation must begin with religion since caste and other evils were rooted in Hinduism. Because Hinduism did not seem to Tilak to furnish a possible basis for national union, he set out to found a new religion which might save India. In this religion the brotherhood of man was to have a place beside the Fatherhood of God. As he was working out this plan, he chanced to meet a European on a railroad journey. They talked of religion, and this unknown man finally said to Tilak something like this : "The religion which you want for India is the very one which Jesus taught nineteen hundred years ago. Here is a 'New Testa-

164 INDIA ON THE MARCH

ment. Will you read it ?" Tilak laughingly promised to do so, thinking little of the matter. But when he began to read, he became deeply interested. Later he told what the result was when he came to the Sermon on the Mount. We are so used to Christ's teaching that for us it often loses its beauty and becomes almost commonplace. To Tilak it came with the freshness of a great revelation. He said : "I could not tear myself away from those sentences, so full of charm and beauty, which express the love and tenderness and truth which the sermon conveys. In those three chapters I found answers to the most abstruse problems of Hindu philos- ophy. It amazed me to see how here the most pro- found problems were completely solved. I went on eagerly reading to the last page of the Bible that I might learn more of Christ." It was not long before Christ had completely won him.

Tilak had already earned a reputation as a great speaker and a writer of beautiful prose and verse. He began to express his Christian faith in his writings. Although he used an assumed name, his friends recog- nized his style, and persecution began. He lost his position and was reduced to want, but his answer to all this was to take the final step of baptism. This brought even fiercer persecution. His wife took their baby boy and left him. His life was threatened. He was a man of very great affection and was terribly lonely far from his friends and without his family; yet his very loneliness drove him to love Christ more and to find his joy more completely in Christ's fellow- ship.

He began to write Marathi hymns, so beautiful in

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CHEISTIANS WHO COUNT 165

their language that educated Brahmans were eager to read them, and so full of the spirit of devotion that they brought inspiration even to the uneducated vil- lagers. Tilak had the wonderful art of taking popular Indian tunes and of writing for them hymns that sang themselves right into the heart of the people. One day he saw a little group of my Training School hoys sitting under a tree and singing a popular song whose words were filthy, as the words of too many of India's popular songs are. Tilak's heart grew hot within him. These hoys were being trained to bring the pure spirit of Christ into Indian life, yet here they were poisoning their thoughts with such a song! He rushed to his house and under the pressure of strong feeling wrote off to that same tune a Christian hymn. Then he hurried back, found the boys still sitting under the tree and taught them the new hymn. The boys took it up with enthusiasm. It was so attractive that soon it was being sung all over Western India. It is today one of the most inspiring hymns in the Marathi language. Some years afterwards Tilak asked a Brah- man friend if he remembered the original words to that tune. The Brahman thought a moment and an- swered, ^^The only words I know are those of your beautiful hymn."

After a time Mrs. Tilak consented to come to Ahmed- nagar to join her husband on condition that she might *'keep caste" and should not be compelled to give up her Hindu faith. She was surprised and disarmed by the friendliness of the Christians about her. She says that what first made her think seriously of Christianity was the way the Christian boys played with her boy.

166 I]S^DIA ON THE MAECH

They were not always quarreling and abusing each other, but played happily together. She said to her- self, "Here is a religion that makes even the boys play more happily. I would like to have my boy grow up in such a religion." And so, gradually, she herself yielded to Christian influence and became a true Chris- tian.

I cannot begin to tell you of all Mr. Tilak's services to India. He wanted to see a truly Indian Christianity and so helped to establish church festivals similar to those the people knew and loved. The reason our Chris- tians are ready to sing hymns for hours together and to walk many miles to attend Christian meetings is because they have Tilak's wonderful marching songs and hymns to sing on the way. His home was ever open to high- caste inquirers, and a goodly number of them became Christians after living with him. He edited a Chris- tian newspaper. He inspired class after class of men who were going out to become Christian leaders. He taught Indian patriots that Christianity was not a "foreign religion, but a God-given way to save India."

ITon-Christian leaders wanted him to become editor of a great patriotic paper. There was only one con- dition— Christianity must not be mentioned. He was greatly attracted by this opportunity, but said: "I^o, I cannot do it. I must be free to write about the re- ligion which seems to me the hope of our Motherland."

Tilak raised the Christian Church of India to a higher level and gave it a warmer life and a richer message. His greatest service was through his beauti- ful hymns. "No translation of his poetry does it justice. It is the response of the heart of India to her Christ.

CHRISTIANS WHO COUNT 167

The next man to whom I want to introduce you is also a neighbor and friend of mine, but different in almost every way from Tilak, the high-born patriot and poet. His name is Eambhau and he is a neighbor because his village of Khandala ^ is only eight miles from Ahmednagar. He often dropped in to see me, and I frequently went out to see him. Rambhau was nothing but a simple village Christian, rugged of body, but with a serious impediment in his speech and know- ing little beyond his neighborhood. His modest little home was right in the middle of the maliarwada, or outcaste quarter. It was in such degrading surround- ings that he had grown up. As a boy, he had attended the village school; occasionally a native pastor or a missionary had. held a religious service among his people; beyond this, few of the higher influences had touched his life. Yet, somehow, this sturdy villager was not like the people around him.

Perhaps it was partly because a great sorrow had come into his life. Although he and his wife were a little more comfortably off than most in the outcaste quarter and could have given children a better chance, no children had come to bless their home and carry on their name. They were heart-broken, but they talked it over and decided that they would adopt a child. Their choice was strange and novel; they took as their adopted child nothing less than the Khandala Church. It was a very unattractive little church, with no enthusiasm and no warmth of life. In fact it was almost dead. Yet in his steady, common-sense way Rambhau started to nurse it to life again. First, he

1 Kliun-da-la.

168 INDIA ON THE MAECH

set about to see that tlie little Christian school should be made a success. The teacher was rather careless and lazy, and the school had run down so far that we were talking of closing it. Rambhau encouraged the teacher by bringing in pupils. He also, in a kindly way, kept him up to the mark. There was a demand for a night school, but they had no clock and no lamp. A day school could go by the sun, but a night school needed a clock. Rambhau, out of his limited funds, secured both lamp and clock and got the night school under way. The teacher became ill, and it was this simple villager who nursed him and saw that his fam- ily was kept from all want during his sickness.

l^ext, he started what was for him a large project — nothing less than to get for his village a worthy build- ing which they could use for a church. He induced all the Christians of Khandala to give a few days' work in the off season. Eambhau himself gave all his time and whatever money was needed for the work until the foundations were all laid and the mud walls built. Then he came to me and said: "Sahib, we need a church building in Khandala. We have built the walls, but we haven't money enough to build the roof. Can you help us?" I helped him to secure a small sum, and he went off triumphant. By shrewd buying and careful work, he put a thoroughly good roof on the little "church," as he lovingly called the Indian structure.

To the dedication he invited people from all the region, and when they knew that he was planning to give them a simple feast, you may be sure that they hastened to accept. Bands of Christians came from far

CHRISTIANS WHO COUJS'T 169

and near. As each band approached, some of the Khan- dala Christians went out to meet it, singing and sway- ing their bodies in time with the music. Then, all together, they came back, singing as they came. Of course there were speeches. Altogether it was a mem- orable and inspiring occasion in the little village and in all the region. In fact it resulted in the opening of Christian work in two other villages.

By this time Rambhau's child was very much alive, but the dedication had shown him one great blemish. The Khandala Church had no singing-band with instru- ments, such as some of the other village churches had. So Rambhau went to work. First, he collected a very respectable sum from the poor Khandala Christians. Then he trudged in to see me to talk the matter over. Gladly I made up the little amount he still needed, and he went back to Khandala with a set of native instruments. He himself could not sing, but soon he invited me to an evening service, when I was filled with wonder. Those unlettered villagers, in a few weeks, had learned perhaps thirty of Mr. Tilak's in- spiring hymns. After a hard day of work in the fields, they came to the little church and sang and sang and sang for hours until I myself had to go home.

But Rambhau's child was by no means grown up yet. It needed constant care, as every healthy young- ster does. One day when I was in Khandala, I was surprised to see a man in the most advanced stage of leprosy huddled in a corner of the church.

"Who is that V I asked.

Rambhau replied, "That is Bapu, a Christian of Khandala. He has been in a leper asylum, but be-

170 INDIA ON THE MARCH

came lonesome for his village and so has crawled here and is living in the church."

^^But he ought not to live there," I said, and Rambhau agreed with me.

Some weeks later he came to see me. "Sahib, do you remember Bapu, the leper?"

"Yes," I said. "Where is he now?"

"He is living in a hut I built for him. I take him his meals every day. My wife threatens to leave me because I am going to a leper, and she is afraid that I will bring the disease home, but what can I do ? Some- body must take care of Bapu."

"You are doing just the right thing, Rambhau," I said.

"But," he continued, "now Bapu wants to go back to the leper asylum where he can have regular care, and I don't know what to do about it."

"I'll pay his fare," I said, "but it would be hard for me to leave my work to take him."

Rambhau was silent for some time, then he looked up and said quietly, "I'll take him," and he did.

I ordered a special railroad compartment, for of course Bapu could not be allowed to travel with others in a regular car. He was almost helpless now, and with all his loathsome disease, Rambhau had to lift him into the cart that brought him from Khandala to Ahmed- nagar and into the compartment in which those two were to travel for hours together. As I waved them off at the station, I was awed at the quiet Christian hero- ism of this uneducated villager. Any man, however brave, might well shrink from such a journey with such a companion, but Rambhau carried it through. People

CHEISTIAE^S WHO COUKT 171

refused them water. 'No cartman could at first be in- duced to take thein from the train to the asylum, but by patience and persistence he succeeded in getting this poor leper to the shelter where he might end his days in whatever of comfort was possible.

Again some weeks later Rambhau came to Ahmed- nagar. "I am off to see Bapu/' he said. "Before I left him at the asylum, he made me promise to come back to visit him."

He saw the surprise in my face, and his own lighted up when he added, "You see, I cannot desert him. He is my Christian brother."

And so this son of an Indian outcaste quietly set out on a long and expensive journey to visit Bapu, the repulsive leper, because he was his Christian brother! And I, for one, am sure that, when the King shall come in his glory and all the angels with him, among the first to whom he will say, "Come, thou blessed of my father," will be Eambhau, the village Christian of Khandala who adopted the Church as his child.

Of all the people of India, the Sikh of the Punjab is the most striking in appearance. Tall, straight, light- complexioned, with his carefully trained black beard and his high turban, the typical Sikh is every inch a soldier and a gentleman. The Sikh sect grew out of a religious reform, but persecution soon welded its members into a powerful fighting machine. For many generations, by instinct and tradition, they have been fighters. Sundar Singh,^ the next Indian Christian friend whom we are to meet, was born in a Sikh home

2 Soonder Singh.

172 INDIA Olf THE MAEOH

of wealtli. Many of his relatives were soldiers. "Singh" is a common Sikh name meaning "Lion." Sundar Singh has carried into his Christian life the fearlessness of a lion, but none of his fierceness.

Erom his mother, Sundar inherited the deepest re- ligious instincts and longings of India. She was his earliest teacher and led him to regard the life of the sadhu, or saint, as his highest ambition. He playfully says of himself, "I was not a Sikh (pronounced seek), but a seeker-after-truth." When he was only fourteen years old, he suffered an overwhelming loss in the death of his mother. This drove him to be even more eager in his search for truth. He learned by heart the Bhagavad Gita/ the most beautiful Hindu religious book. He read the Sikh Granth * and the Mohamme- dan Koran, but in none of them did he find the peace he sought, and no Indian religious leaders could seem to help him.

As a little boy he had come to know something about the Bible because he had gone to the Christian school in his home village; but he had turned against Chris- tianity as a religion which was contrary to the religion of his fathers and had refused to remain in the Chris- tian school. Of his attitude when he was sixteen years old he says : "When I was out in any town I got people to throw stones at Christian preachers. ... In the presence of my father I cut up the Bible and other Christian books and put kerosene oil upon them and burnt them. I thought this was a false religion and tried all I could to destroy it. I was faithful to mj 3 Bhag-ga-vad Gee-ta. ^Gruntli.

CHRISTIANS WHO COUNT 173

own religion, but I could not get any satisfaction or peace." ®

But the message of tlie Bible and of the Christian preachers had made a deeper impression on him than he knew. One day in the very midst of his hatred, Christ called him as he had called Paul. This is his story of what happened :

I woke up about three o'clock in the morning, had my usual bath, and prayed, "0 God, if there is a God, wilt thou show me the right way, or I will kill myself.'^ My intention was that, if I got no satisfaction, I would place my head upon the railway line when the five o'clock train passed by and kill myself. If I got no satisfaction in this life, I thought I would get it in the next. I was praying and praying, but got no answer ; and I prayed for half an hour longer, hoping to get peace. At 4:30 a. m. I saw some- thing of which I had no idea at all previously. In the room where I was prajdng, I saw a great light. I thought the place was on fire. I looked round, but could find nothing. Then the thought came to me that this might be an answer that God had sent me. Then as I prayed and looked into the light, I saw the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. It had such an appearance of glory and love. If it had been some Hindu incarnation I would have pros- trated myself before it. But it was the Lord Jesus Christ whom I had been insulting a few days before. I felt that a vision like this could not come out of my own imagina- tion. I heard a voice saying in Hindustani, "How long will you persecute me ? I have come to save you ; you were praying to know the right way. Why do you not take it ?'' So I fell at His feet and got this wonderful Peace which I could not get anywhere else. This is the joy I was wishing to get. . . . When I got up, the vision had all disappeared ;

5 For this and the following quotations, see Streeter, The Mes- sage of 8adhu Sundar Singh, pp. 6-10.

174 INDIA ON" THE MARCH

but although the vision disappeared, the Peace and Joy- have remained with me ever since. I went off and told my father that I had become a Christian. He told me, "Go and lie down and sleep; why, only the day before yesterday you burnt the Bible ; and you say you are a Chris- tian now!'^ I said, "Well, I have discovered now that Jesus Christ is alive and have determined to be His fol- lower. Today I am His disciple, and I am going to serve Him.''

Sundar's family used every influence in their power to turn the boy from Christianity. They offered him wealth. They appealed to him not to disgrace the fam- ily name. They threatened him. They persecuted him. Finally, when all their efforts had failed, they disowned him and ordered him to leave home. Some of them even gave him poisoned food for the journey. He was only a boy and the first night after he was sent away from home he spent alone, shivering under a tree. In telling about this night he says: "I began to think: ^Yesterday and before that I used to live in the midst of luxury at my home; but now I am shivering here, and hungry and thirsty and without shelter, with no warm clothes and no food.' I had to spend the whole night under the tree. But I remember the wonderful joy and peace in my heart, the presence of my Savior. I held my 'New Testament in my hand. I remember that night as my first night in heaven."

Sundar was soon baptised and, boy though he was, he set out on his life as a Christian sadhu. This meant that he donned a saffron robe like that worn by the Hindu holy men and went about among the villages

CHEISTIANS WHO COUNT 175

of India preaching and teaching. He took no money and no possessions save his Bible. When people re- ceived him, he accepted their hospitality. Where they rejected him, he went hungry away, to sleep under some tree. At first he worked mainly in the villages of the Punjab, but after a time he felt called to do vvrhat he could to reach the hermit nation of Tibet. Tibet had practically no Christian missionaries. It was protected in part by its mighty mountain ramparts, but more by the fanaticism of its people. Sundar thought that an Indian sadhu might find entrance where a white-faced missionary could not, and in this he was right.

Once when he was working in a particularly bigoted village, he went at night into a cave in the near-by forest. In the morning he awoke to find a leopard sleeping near him. At another time, the head Lama of a Tibetan town seized him and threw him into a well full of the bones and decaying flesh of other vic- tims. Here Sundar expected to die. After he had been there for days, he heard something grating over- head, and the cover of the well was lifted. A rope was let down and he was pulled out of the well ; but before he could look around, his deliverer had disappeared. This wonderful rescue, Sundar Singh himself believes to have been wrought by no other than the Master in person.

However this may be, it is certain that the beautiful spirit in which Sundar Singh takes persecution is no small part of his power. An educated gentleman of the Forest Department who belonged to the Arya Samaj, which is bitterly hostile to Christianity, tells

176 INDIA ON THE MAECH

of seeing Sundar come to a mountain village and be- gin preacliing the love of Christ. Some of the hearers became angry, and one rose and dealt the Sadhu a blow which knocked him from his seat and cut his head and hand badly. Sundar rose, bound up his hand, and with the blood running down his face, asked God's blessing on his persecutors. This act of his, not only won the man who dealt the blow, but also the gentle- man who described the scene. ^ It is one of the crown- ing joys of Sundar Singh's life that his old father has at last become a Christian.

Soon the fame of this young Christian saint went out over the land, and he received invitations from far and near. He traveled all over India. Great crowds of people thronged to hear him wherever he went. Christians, young and old, drank in his words with such eagerness as they had never before shown.

And probably no one has done so much to win non- Christians to Christ as Sundar Singh. They see in him a true Indian holy man, yet they realize that in him there is something higher, something better than they ever saw in the Hindu devotees. There is a new note of victory and of joy in his message. There is a sweetness and love in the way he gives himself to his service which are unique and well-nigh irresistible. In a word, he is a true follower of Christ. Hindus and Christians alike see that God's Spirit is in him.

As his fame grew, Sundar Singh was invited to go to China and Japan. These lands have ever looked to India for religious inspiration, and they turned eagerly to this simple-hearted disciple. Here also great

« Zahir, A Lover of the Cross, p. 14.

CHRISTIANS WHO COUNT 1"'

throngs came to Mm and gained inspiration, even as they had done in India. , c.. t.

In the spring of 1921 the call came to Sundar Singh to bring his message to England and to America, and he accepted. It was a wonderful experience for our practical, workaday. Western Christians to meet such a man In his turban and his saffron robe, his leet clad in Indian sandals, with his spare, erect figure, and his face filled with divine light, he almost seems to be an incarnation of the Master Himself. Indeed few men in all Christian history have so literally followed in the footsteps of our Master as Sundar_ Singh has done. I saw him at Silver Bay with American college students standing about eagerly asking him questions which he was answering out of the richness of his Chris- tian experience. It reminded me of the time, shortly before, when I had seen him in Madura surrounded by a similar group of Indian students. Those who meet him recognize that this Indian Christian has a message of ioy and inspiration not only for India and not only for China and Japan, but also for England and America.

In Sundar Singh the spirit of India_ speaks-the spirit of India transfigured by the spirit of Christ. This spirit says : "We too have our gifts to bring to the feet of our common Master. Send us your Chris- tian missionaries to work with us m breakmg the shackles of our past. We also will work with you m breaking your shackles. You and we together,— the great West and the great East,-shall unite m the world-wide fellowship of Christ."

A Brief Reading List

Conditions in India have changed so rapidly in recent years that the following list has been limited for the most part to books that, have appeared within the last decade. The prices quoted are subject to change. If one were limited to six supplementary books on India, the six that are starred (*) might well be chosen, considering both cost and range. Readers should obtain from their mission boards all denominational literature on India available.

History and Politics

*India Old and Neio. Sie Valet^tine Chikol. 1921. Macmillan

Co., New York. $4.00. India's Nation Builders. D. N. Bannekjea. 1920. Brentano's,

New York. $3.50. Oxford History of India. Vincent A. Smith. 1919. Oxford

University Press, New York. $6.25.

Social and Economic

India's Silent Revolution. Fred B. Fisher and Gertrude M.

Williams. 1919. Macmillan Co., New York. $1.50. Peoples and ProUems of India. Sir Thomas W. Holdeeness.

1912. Henry Holt & Co., New York. 50 cents. Social Ideals in India. William Paton. 1919. United Council

for Missionary Education, London. Is. 3d.

Education

Character Building in Kashmir. C. E. Tyndale-Biscoe. 1920.

Church Missionary Society, London. 3s. *Schools icith a Message in India. Daniel Johnson Fleming.

1921. Oxford University Press, New York. $2.40.

Indian Religions and Christianity

*India and Its Faiths: A Traveler's Record. James Bissett Pratt. 1915. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. $4.00.

Modern Religious Movements in India. J. N. Farquhar. 1915. Macmillan Co., New York. $2.50.

Primer of Hinduism. J. N. Farquhar. 1912. Oxford University Press, New York. 85 cents.

178

A BBIEF READING 3LIST 1T9

Christianity in India

Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier. T. L. Penneix. 1909 J B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. $3.50.

*Building with India. Daniel Johnson Fleming. 1922. Mis- sionary Education Movement, New York. 75 cents.

Goal of India, The. W. E. S. Holland. 1918. United Council for Missionary Education, London. 5s.

Gospel and the Plow, The. Sam Higginbottom. 1921. Mac- millan Co., New York. $1.25. ,

History of Missions in India. Julius Richter. 1908. Fleming H. Eevell Co., New York. $2.50.

India in Gonfiict. P. N. F. Young and Agnes Feeres. 1920. Macmillan Co., New York. $1.40.

Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade. C. E. Tyndale-Biscoe. Seeley Service, London. 1922. 12s. 6d.

''Lighted to Lighten," The Hope of India. Alice B. VanDoren. 1922. Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, West Medford, Mass. 75 cents.

* Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh. B. H. Streeter and A. J. Apassamy. 1921. Macmillan Co., New York. $1.75.

*Outcastes' Hope, The: or Work Among the Depressed Glasses m

India. G. E. Phillips. 1912. United Council for Missionary

Education. London. 2s. . _ _ .,

Pandita Ramahai. Helen S. Dyer. 1911. Fleming H. Eevell

Co., New York. $1.25. ^ ^^

Prince of the Ghurch in India, A. J. C. R. Ewing, 1918. Flem- ing H. Revell Co., New York. $1.00. Renaissance in India: Its Missionary Aspect. C. F. Andrews. 1912. United Council for Missionary Education, London. Is. lOd. . „ ^ „ _

Twice-horn Men. Harold Begbie. 1910. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. $1.25.

Stories about India

Wyes of Asia, The. Rudyard Kipling. 1918. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, New York. $1.00.

Folloiving the Equator. Mark Twain. Harper & Brothers, New York.

India, Beloved of Heaven. Brenton Thoburn Badley in collabo- ration with Oscar MacMillan Buck and James Jay Kmgham, with an introduction by Bishop W. F. Oldham. The Abing- don Press, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Kim. Rudyard Kipling.. 1918. Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, New York. $1.50.

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