The desire of India

THE DESIRE
OF INDIA

S.K.DATTA

PRESENTED BY

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THE DESIRE OF INDIA

THE

DESIRE OF INDIA

SURENDRA KUMAR DATTA

B.A., M.B., Ch.B.

LECTURER IN THE FORMAN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, LAHORE.

RECENTLY TRAVELLING SECRETAEX OF THE STUDENT

VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY UNION OF GREAT

BRITAIN AND IRELAND

LONDON

YOUNG PEOPLE'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT

78 FLEET STREET, E.G.

1909

■SfoOlO

sv

J 90?

TUKNHULr. AND SPEAKS. PKINTKRS- KDINBUKGH

EDITORIAL NOTE

Like '' The Uplift of China," this text-book
on India is issued conjointly by a number
of the Missionary Societies in Great Britain
for use in Missionary Bands and Study
Circles. Full particulars regarding its use
for this purpose, " Helps for Leaders,"
and other aids to study can be obtained on
appHcation to the Missionary Study Depart-
ments of the various Missionary Societies.

It has been found impossible to deal with
all sides of missionary work in India within
the limits of a single book. It has seemed
best, therefore, to concentrate attention in
this book upon the immense bulk of the
population, which is to be found in the
villages. All problems' relating to the
educated classes have been deliberately
excluded, but it is hoped that they may
form the subject of a future text book.
Similarly the 60,000,000 Muhammadans
in India have been almost entirely ignored.

The spelKng follows that adopted in the
new Imperial Gazetteer of India. It is not

vi The Desire of India

entirely consistent, for while in the majority
of words certain recognised rules are fol-
lowed, there are some well-known names in
which the traditional spelling has been
retained.

Cordial thanks are due to the Indian
missionaries and other friends who have
read the manuscript and the proofs, and
have rendered help in other ways in the
preparation of the book ; and to the various
private friends and Missionary Societies
who have provided the photographs with
which the book is illustrated.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

In tlie preparation of this text-book the
writer desires to acknowledge his indebted-
ness to many authorities on Indian subjects.
The published writings of Sir W. W. Hunter,
Sir H. H. Risley, Messrs Crooke and Thiu-ston
are standard works which no student of
Indian ethnography can afford to neglect.
For a study of the purer aspects of the
Vaishnavite and Saivite cults as expressed
in the two great vernaculars of the north
and south — Hindi and Tamil respectively —
the contributions of Dr Grierson and the
Rev. G. U. Pope are invaluable. The
standard Uves of missionary statesmen by
Dr George Smith form the best intro-
duction to a knowledge of missionary
development in India during the nineteenth
century. For valuable criticism and sug-
gestions, and for help willingly rendered by
friends, the author's thanks are due.

A word of personal explanation is neces-
sary as to how this book came into being.
The writer confesses to an obvious disquali-

viii The Desire of India

fication for the task. He has had Httle
experience of actual missionary work and
even of Indian village life. Nevertheless,
he was led to undertake the preparation
of this text-book because of the oppor-
tunity afforded of stating the case for
Christian Missions from the point of view
of the Indian Church. That this has been
successfully done he can scarcely hope.
The imperfections of this book are most
obvious to himself. A deepened sense of
the possibiHties of the Indian Church in the
outlook and policy which guide Western
Christendom in its efforts to evangelise
India is what the writer pleads for. Six
years of close personal contact with the
people of Great Britain have revealed how
small a place the Indian Church has in the
thought and prayer of the Christian public.
India's evangelisation Hes with the Indian
Church. It needs and demands the prayer,
sympathy and fullest co-operation of the
Churches in Christian countries. The situa-
tion in India is critical, and while the
ideals of his educated countrymen have the
writer's fullest sympathy he fears that a
purely political propaganda may tend to
absorb their efforts and outlook. Whether

Author's Preface ix

India will be saved from such a contingency,
which will retard her higher welfare for
centuries, depends very largely upon the
Indian Church. The salvation of India
may come about through the growth of a
strong, vigorous Christian community. It
may also He in the purpose of God to raise
up an Indian Christian teacher, some
prophet or evangehst with a knowledge of
Christ as St Paul knew Him, and an under-
standing of India, such as that possessed
by the north Indian saint Tulsi Das, whose
message foiu* centiu*ies ago reached the
hearts of miUions from Bihar to the Punjab.
To claim from God such gifts for India is
the privilege of those into whose hands
this book may find its way.

S. K. Datta.

July I9O8

NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION

Vowel Sounds

a has the

; sound of a in ^ woman.'

a

»

„ a in ' father.'

e

ii

vowel-sound in 'grey.'

i

}}

sound of i in ' pin.'

i

}^

„ i in ^pohce.'

o

}>

„ 0 in ''bone.'

u

!y

_,_, ?^ in '^ bull.'

u

}}

„ u in ^ flute.'

ai

}}

vowel-sound in '^mine.'

au

3?

,, „ in ' house.'

dh and tk (except in Burma) never have the
sound of tk in '^ this ' or '^thin/ but should be pro-
nounced as in ' wood-house ' and ' boat-hook.'

CONTENTS

Editorial Note

PAGE
V

Author's Preface . . .

vii

Note on Pronunciation

X

CHAP.

I. The Land and its Inhabitants

1

II. The Life of the People

35

III. India's Search

72

IV. India's Invaders

112

V. Christianity in India

147

VI. Problems and Methods

192

VII. The Indian Church .

230

VIII. The Need of India .

266

Chart of Indian History .

286

Appendices .

288

Bibliography

297

Index ....

303

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Rock at Trichinopoly , .

The Himalayas: View from the Walls of Delhi

Relief Map of India . . , .

Tod A Men and Women

A Roadside Scene : A Stretch of Southern Coast

The Great Indian Desert : A Roadside Scene
in the South ......

Photograph from Survey Map of lisDiA. (By

permission) . . . .

Ploughing and Winnowing ....

Fro7itispiece

facing page

4

12

20
25

29

37
41

Xll

The Desire of India

facing page

Rice Culture ....... 44

Winnowing and Grinding the Corn . . ' . 48

Famine Animal : Famine Children , , . 53

Brahman (S. India) : Jat (N. India) . . 61

Village Street and Village Well ... 68

Tope marking spot where Buddha first

PREACHED : Buddhist rock-cut Temples . 76

Benares ........ 84

An Ascetic: A Hillside Idol . . . . 93

Worship of the Snake God : Ascetic before

Image of Ganesa ..... 97

Bathing at Sivaratri Festival . . . 100

The Well of Salvation and the Burning Ghat

AT Benares ....... 108

The Tomb of Akbar the Great . - . . 125

Railway Station : Mouth of the Ganges . 140

The Maharajah of Travancore . . . 157

A Children's Feast ...... 165

On the Way to Church : A Christian Home 172

A North Indian Village : A Shanan Village

IN Tinnevelly . . . . . . 181

A Christian Family and their Offering . 189

A Mission Hospital : Patients and their Friends 197

A Group of Orphans : Orphan Girl gathering

Wood 204

Village Preaching ...... 212

Industrial Training School .... 221

Preaching by the Wayside : Group of Cate-

* CHisTs ........ 236

Church in Santalia : Church in Gond Country 245

A Christian Family : Santal Biblewomen . 253

A Village School : Biblewomen at Work . 260

A Convert and her Son : A Christian Baptism 268

A Plague Camp 276

THE DESIRE OF INDIA

CHAPTER I

THE LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS

For centuries Western nations have looked The Wealth of

upon India as a land of marvellous wealth, ^ ^^'

and the splendours of her kings have seemed

beyond the power of imagination. It was

the story of India's wealth that sent

Columbus in quest of the Western route

when he discovered America. It was this

story that excited the cupidity of Europe,

and led to the estabhshment of British

rule in India. Closer investigation has

revealed how disappointing have been

these dreams of riches. India's material

resources do not approach those of China,

and it is questionable whether her people

have the capacity to develop them with the

vigour and energy of the European and

MongoHan races. India's wealth lies in

her people. Their spiritual genius and

their rehgious instincts are her best and

most precious treasure. Her greatest sons

The Desire of India

(reo graphical
Position.

The Northern
Triangle.

have ever been possessed with a passion to
know the Real and the Infinite, and have
pursued it with earnestness of purpose.
Their children have entered into a heritage
of spiritual capacities and ideals, the de-
velopment of which may mean the enriching
of the world.

The country of India Hes between the
8th and S5th degrees of latitude north of
the Equator. In form it resembles two
unequal triangles, one placed upon the
other and having as their common base
a hne running east and west through
Karachi and Calcutta. This line nearly
coincides with the tropic of Cancer. The
southern triangle, therefore, Hes within
the tropics, and the northern one just
within the temperate zone. The latter
embeds itself in the main mass of
the continent of Asia, and in doing so
rears for its defence the greatest natural
barrier in the world — the Himalayan
mountains. The lower triangle, or penin-
sular portion, by its projection divides the
Indian Ocean into the Arabian Sea and
the Bay of Bengal.

The northern portion of the country
has very weU - defined mountain ranges

The Land and its Inhabitants 3

forming the northern boundary, and the
outlying Sulaiman range marks the
western Hmits. Similar ranges boimd
it on the east. The northern and
eastern angles of the triangle admit
great water systems, namely the Indus
and Brahmaputra rivers respectively.
The southern boundary is formed by
the Vindhya mountains and the ad-
jacent ranges, together with the densely
wooded uplands by which these are ap-
proached. Within these Hmits we have
a vast plain, almost barren of forest growth,
for the most part of exceptional fertihty,
consisting in its eastern and northern parts
of a rich alluvial soil, while in the west the
vegetation is less abundant and for
thousands of square miles the country
is a desert waste.

Peninsular India is a contrast. It con- The Southern
sists of two well-marked portions — a
central rocky plateau known as the Deccan,
buttressed by the mountainous ranges
called the Western and Eastern Ghats,
and the comparatively flat and largely
alluvial strips of coast land. The
Western Ghats, which are the steeper and
more striking, riui parallel with and very

4 The Desire of India

near the coasb line. The Eastern Ghats
are composed of low, irregular moun-
tainous spurs with a gradual slope towards
the sea. They recede from the coast as they
pass southwards, and join the Western
Ghats, thus forming the Nilgiri Hills,
which continue southwards almost to Cape
Comorin as a central mountainous ridge,

A few geographical features of the
country are worthy of a more detailed
account.
The Himalayas. The Himalaya mountains (Himalaya =
" the abode of snow ") consist of an aggre-
gation of ranges extending over a length of
1500 miles. The southern or outer range
includes some of the loftiest peaks in the
world — Everest and Kinchinjunga. > A
series of undulating dips 13,000 feet above
sea-level leads us to the second or inner
range, passing over which the explorer
descends into the Indo -Tibetan trough.
North of him, fresh mountains bound the
almost unknown snow-driven and lake-
scattered plateau of Tibet. In this
trough three great rivers have their origin.
From lake and mountainside within a few
niiles of each other rise the Indus, the Sutlej,
and the Brahmaputra. Here it is that

THE HIMALAYAS

VIEW FROM THE WALLS OF DELHI

The Land and its Inhabitants 5

Hindu mythology has placed Mount Kailas,
the Elysium of Siva, and the centre of the
world. Here the ocean was hiu^led down
by the gods, and encircled the mountain
four times, when out of it four streams
flowed, one of which was the sacred Ganges.
On the rising slopes around he some of the
most extensive glaciers found outside the
Arctic region. The melting of the summer
snows and the cataclysm of the loosened
avalanche probably suggested to the
imagination of the bard the ocean falling
from heaven. The Indus, the Sutlej, and
the Brahmaputra owe their waters, and
the plains of North India their irrigation,
to this kindly dispensation of nature.

Himalayan scenery is as varied as it is Himalayan
beautiful. The tangled jungles and marshy, ^^"^^y-
malaria- stricken wastes which form the
southern approaches qui-ckly give place to
a region where the plants remind the
traveller of the south of Europe. Still
higher the red blossoms of the rhododendron
give a richness of colour to the dark and
almost Hmitless forests of pine and cedar.
In the uppermost Hmits an arctic barren-
ness and chmate hold the mountains in
their grip. The traveller never forgets

6 The Desire of India

the marvellous contrasts he beholds, as a
few hours of travel bring him from the
midst of subhme, awe-inspiring heights
into the well- cultivated, terraced fields of
the lower range, with the Indian corn bow-
ing under the weight of the ripening grain.
In front of him, in the valleys below, lie
smihng fields of rice ; a backward glance
reveals the dark forest- clad heights tower-
ing hundreds of feet above, over- topped
and over-mastered by a range of cold grey
barren peaks ; the unmelted winter snow may
often be seen lying in some hollow, and the
whole scene is tinted by the glow of a
tropical sunset. The ranges are crossed
at very high altitudes by passes which form
the means of access to the highlands of
Asia, and through which journey the hardy
highlanders, driving their flocks of moun-
tain sheep or their herds of the bushy -
tailed yak, to deposit their burdens in the
marts of Simla, Mussoorie or Darjeehng.
The Romance The early fancies of nations have often
Rive4^.^^ woven a web of romance round some

geographical feature of their country.
Jewish exilic literature reveals a strange
passion for Jerusalem. The fruitful plains
of Mesopotamia and the easy luxury of

The Land and its Inhabitants 7

Babylon failed to blot put the memory
of the loved city set on a hill. Some
mountain, some stream^ some particular
glade or forest finds its way by unerr-
ing instinct into the highest expression
of a people's thought. Among an agri-
cultural and pastoral people, whose happi-
ness is conditioned by the prosperity of
their crops, in its turn dependent on an
adequate water supply, is it any wonder
that the imagination has been captured
by their mighty rivers — the Indus and
Sutlej, Ganges and Brahmaputra,
Narbada and Tapti, Godavari and Kistna
and Cauvery ? Their sources are often
veiled in mystery. Breaking through in-
accessible mountain ranges or impassable .
jungle, they bring Hfe to the soil and food
to men in the sun-baked northern plains
or the low-lying alluvial tracts of the
coast provinces. The rivers of India are
a veritable gift of God.

Indian rivers belong to three main groups Divisions of the
— those of the great northern plain, those ^^^^ -^^ ^^'
draining the tract of country east of the
Western Ghats, and the Narbada group of
rivers which drain and irrigate central
India and the northern portion of the

8 The Desire of India

Bombay Presidency proper. The Indo-
Gangetic system, consisting as it does of
no fewer than a dozen great rivers, may be
further divided into two groups, namely
the Indus and its tributaries which fall
into the Arabian Sea, and the Ganges and
its tributaries which fall into the Bay of
Bengal. The dividing watershed is a low
crest of land running southwards from
Simla. To the west the drainage passes
into the Indus, to the east into the Ganges.
The Ganges. Mythology has long speculated as to the

origin of the Ganges. The waters are
celestial in origin as well as in virtue. A
hermit, whose austerities had endued him
with special power, prayed for a stream
that would cleanse from the defilement
of sin, and elicited from Siva the well-
merited reply, " 0 foremost of men, I am
well-pleased with thee. I will do what
will be for thy welfare — I will hold the
Mountain's daughter on my head."
Through his tangled locks to this day the
waters continue to flow. At an altitude
of 13,000 feet, in a great ice- cavern,
the river has one of its sources. Flomng
for over a thousand miles through " Arya-
varta," the ancient cradle of the Hindu

The Land and its Inhabitants g

race and the sacred ground upon which
their deeds of valour have been wrought
and their songs of victory sung, the silent
witness for centuries of their joys and
sorrows, and the mother who has borne
upon her expansive bosom the ashes of
thousands of India's pious children to their
last resting-place, the Ganges is inseparably
bound up with the hearts and Hves of the
people. It is sacred to them by ties of
sentiment, of tradition, and of gratitude.
It has stood through the ages as the symbol
of Divine beneficence. To its sacredness
nothing else approaches, and popular fancy
derives from it the sanctity of other Indian
rivers through the agency of subterranean
streams.

The towns and cities on the banks of the Benares.
Ganges are sacred. Benares (Kasi) and
Allahabad (Prayag), together with Hardwar,
where the river as a mountain stream
finds its way to the plains, form the chief
places of pilgrimage in India. To die in
Benares is salvation assured. Her streets
and " ghats " are continually crowded with
pilgrims, and with ash-besmeared ascetics
whose cupidity finds an easy prey among
the thousands who seek spiritual reward

lO

The Desire of India

and consolation. It was Benares that
Buddha chose to be the first place where he
preached his doctrines. It was there also
that Hinduism reasserted itself nearly a
thousand years afterwards. Besides the
regular places of worship " every niche,
corner, and empty space upon the ghats
and in the walls of houses is occupied by
some rehgious image, mutilated statue
... or square hewn-stone. . . . The weU
of Manikarnika filled with the sweat of
Vishnu, forms one of the chief attractions
for pilgrims, thousands of whom bathe in
its foetid waters. Stone steps lead down
to the edge crowded with worshippers
whose sins are washed away by the effica-
cious spring."

Allahabad or Prayag, the holy city, is
situated at the confluence of the Ganges
and the Jumna. During December and
January there is held on the vast plain
outside the city a great rehgious fair at
which no less than 250,000 people are
present. At full moon enormous crowds
bathe in the sacred river.

Hardwar is a much smaller town built
near the gorge where the Ganges opens out
upon the plains. It has been a sacred spot

The Land and its Inhabitants

II

for at least 2000 years. Hindus flock to
it from many parts bringing the ashes
of their loved ones to throw into the sacred
stream. The first day of the Hindu solar
year witnesses the greatest assemblage of
pilgrims to commemorate the anniversary
of the appearance of the Ganges upon
earth. When the propitious moment
arrives each pilgrim struggles to be the
first to plunge himself into the waters of
the sacred pool.

The six years' pilgrimage from the Ganges' Pilgrimages
source to its mouth and back again is even to^Mouth!^^^
yet carried out by some devout spirits for
the expiation of sin, and " a few fanatical
devotees may yet be seen wearily accom-
pHshing this meritorious penance by
measuring their lengths." Innumerable
pilgrims bathe themselves in the waters
m the hope of washing away their sins,
and carry back to their distant homes
vessels filled with holy water — a constant
reminder of what has been accompUshed,
and a spiritual solace to themselves and
their households.

The Indus rises at an altitude of 16,000 The Indus,
feet in the trans -Himalayan trough, near
Mount Kailas. It travels north-west for

12 The Desire of India

160 miles and then enters the kingdom of
Kashmir through some magnificent gorges.
Here it dashes itself against boulders, rocks
and the mountain- sides, hterally cutting
its way to the easier courses of the plains.
The gorge where it bursts through the
western Himalayas is said to be 14,000 feet
of sheer depth. The five tributaries of this
river give irrigation as well as its name to
the greatest wheat producing tract of India
— the Punjab, which provided the first
Indian home to the ancient Aryan con-
querors whose colonies settled on the banks
of its rivers.
The Great Let US fix our attention upon the trapt of

Northern Plain. |^^^ between the Himalaya and Vindhya,
an area two and a half times the size of
the British Isles. It was once the bed
of an ancient sea. As the waters receded,
there poured into it streams of human life.
On these plains great battles have been
lost and won, and kingdoms have floiu-ished
and have decayed. They have given to a
great world-rehgion its birthplace, formed
the scene of its missionary conquests, and
witnessed its downfall. To-day, over half
the population of the Indian Empire find
here their home. The welfare of the people

RELIEF MAP OF INDIA

The Land and its Inhabitants 13

of these plains — village-strewn, and teem-
ing with the life of one hundred and sixty
millions of men and women and children —
is one of the crushing problems of Indian
administration. "It is here," says a
writer of note, " that you may see un-
broken continents of wheat, of millet, and
of Indian corn, endless seas of rice, and
Umitless prairies of sugar-cane and indigo.
It is here you will find the teeming millions,
the network of canals and railways, the
seething life of India. Down the ancient
sea-bed the Muhammadan invasion ebbed
and flowed, and up this same vaUey from
the east the opposing force of British in-
fluence crept hand over hand. The battles
of history were fought in the intermediate
plains until step by step the desultory
conquerors from the north were beaten
back or subdued . . . and peace and tran-
quilHty were restored to milHons of raiyat
(peasant) cultivators, who while battle raged
over their heads ploughed and reaped
annual harvests on this wide - spreading
belt of fertile soil."

It is necessary that we should study still The Races of
more closely the tremendous volume of °^
human life to be found in the 200,000

14 The Desire of India

villages scattered over the north . Indian
plain. The student, as he observes
with critical eye the characteristics of the
people, finds himself in the midst of the most
perplexing variety of races and languages.
The racial origin and inter-relationships of
these peoples form an almost insoluble pro-
blem, as there are no sufficient grounds on
which to base conclusions. Attempts have
been made to solve the problem by a study
of the language, and by careful skull
measurements. The two methods do not
always lead to the same results. It seems
probable, however, that at some time in
the far distant past the plains of north
India were inhabited by a fairly homo-
geneous race, approaching in physical
characteristics the people of the south.
Whether these people, known as the
Dravidians, were the real aborigines of
India, or were themselves immigrants at
some still earlier date, cannot here be dis-
cussed. At some period before the
Christian era, two distinct influences were
brought to bear upon them — an Aryan ^

1 The Aryans^ as is shown by their language^ belonged
to the Indo-European stock from which most of the
peoples of Europe have sprung.

The Land and its Inhabitants 15

influence from the north-west, and a
Mongolian influence from the north-east.
The result is that we have at the present
day three main racial types inhabiting three
clearly marked geographical areas. While
these types shade off insensibly into one
another, and are by no means exclusively
confined to the geographical areas to which
they belong, they are distinct in their
physical characteristics and easily recog-
nised.

The Indo-Aryan type, which probably indo-Aryans.
represents most purely the original Aryan
invaders, is to be found in the area of the
Indus and its tributaries, including the
Punjab, Sind and the north-west portion
of Rajputana. The features of the people
of the Indo-Aryan tract approximate to
those of the European. Apart from the
Brahmans, whose claim to purity of blood
even in the north is disputed, the chief
representatives of the Indo-Aryans are
the Rajputs and the Jats.

The Rajputs come of princely race. In
the deserts of Rajputana they have reared
ancient kingdoms, and observe among
themselves a type of feudahsm. About
nine milHons are scattered over north India.

i6

The Desire of India

They are warriors and keep ever fresh the
memory of the past, the deeds of their race,
and the length of their ancestry. In the
southern Punjab and in the United
Provinces they are agriculturists, but

will not deign to touch the plough,
and invariably hire labour to do their
work.

The Jat is a typical yeoman, and the best
cultivator in all northern India. " His
knowledge of crops," says Mr Crooke, " is
unrivalled and his industry unceasing.

The Land and its Inhabitants 17

Every member of the family, from the old
crone down to tiny children, shares in the
field work." His struggle to obtain a liveH-
hood makes him very obHvious of the rites
of rehgion. The Jat is freer than many
other Hindu races from the social re-
strictions which the Brahman would impose.
He is known, for example, to practise
widow remarriage.

In the area of the upper Ganges, which in- Aryo-Dravidian.
eludes all the territory watered by the
Ganges and its tributaries up to the point
where it makes a sudden bend to the south
about 300 miles from its mouth, and which
comprises the United Provinces of Agra
and Oudh together with the Commissioner-
ship of Bihar belonging to the Bengal
Province, the admixture of blood between
Aryan and Dravidian seems to have been
greater. The type is a mixed one, but
is easily distinguishable from both the
Indo -Aryan and the Dravidian. On the
other hand the higher strata of society
show markedly the European type of face.
The population has a large number of Jats,
Rajputs, and Brahmans.

In the area of the Brahmaputra and lower Mong-oio-
Ganges, including Bengal proper and a large ^^^^ ^^"*

1 8 The Desire of India

portion of the Eastern Bengal Province,
the immigrant race was not Aryan, but
Mongohan. The Bengali is one of the most
easily recognised types in India. In the
higher castes in Bengal, however, there are

traces of Indo -Aryan ancestry. These
higher castes, numbering about three and
a half millions of people, form a very
important community in India. From
their ranks have been drawn some of the
most distinguished lawyers, physicians,
journalists, and Government administrators
that modern India has known, and their

The Land and its Inhabitants 19

services have not been limited to Bengal,
but have been rendered throughout north
India. The same class has also furnished
not a few scholars and reUgious and poHtical
leaders whose ideals have touched the Hves
of the educated pubhc throughout the
country.

Apart from the diversity produced by J^^^^^^jJ^f^J^Jg^^
marked racial differences and by the forces
of two great rehgions, Hinduism and Islam,
north India presents a babel of languages.
BengaU, Hindi (including Urdu), and Pan-
jabi are the prevaihng languages and belong
to the Indo-European family. Each is
spoken by millions of people. Urdu, called
by Europeans Hindostani, is the Persianised
form of that dialect of Hindi which is spoken
in the neighbourhood of Meerut. It arose
during the Muhammadan occupation of
India, and hence became the poHte language
of the north. It is used by the upper
classes in the Punjab and in the United
Provinces, and by aU Muhammadans in
the latter area. In other parts of India
the Muhammadans speak corrupt forms of
the Urdu language, but the common idea
that it can be understood in all parts of the
country is mistaken. It has a large and

20 The Desire of India

increasing literature. In addition to these
prevaiUng languages many others are
spoken. On the north-eastern frontier and
in the country adjoining it are to be found
no fewer than fifty - six languages be-
longing to the Indo-Chinese family. The
most important of this group is spoken
by not much more than a quarter of a
miUion of people, and one of the languages
included in the hst at the last census was
spoken by only four persons. Over half
a dozen languages belonging to the
Indo-European family are spoken in the
areas lying on or near the north-west
frontier.
Peoples of the With regard to peninsular India it is more
vindhyan difficult to make generahsations. Rising

Slopes. ^ o

up southward from the plains of northern

India are the slopes of the Vindhya Uplands.
For many generations they were the
boundary of Aryan civihsation, which,
though it ultimately pierced this natural
barrier, never completely conquered it.
Vindhya itself means " the divider." Cen-
turies after the Aryan immigration this
range formed the chief defence of the Hindu
kingdoms of the south against their
Muhammadan foe. The hills are low,

The Land and its Inhabitants 21

sparsely covered and often barren. " On
these low bare stony hills the heat of the
summer sun beats with terrific force. Parts
of the country in drought and desolation
vie with the rainless peaks which surround
the Gulf of Suez or Hne the Arabian desert."
In other parts water is to be found. Along
the Son river valley some of the most
beautiful scenery in India may be seen.
This great inaccessible belt of country is
inhabited by races distantly alhed to the
people of the northern Gangetic valley, and
resembling even more closely the users of
the Dravidian tongues of southern India.
Untouched by the Aryan civilisation of
their northern and southern brethren they
continue to Hve their primitive Hfe, and
practice their barbarous rites. Shy, ever
on the alert, they find their natural enemies
in the races and rulers of the plains
below. The Kols, the Santals, the
Gonds, and the Bhils, are becoming peace-
able people and more trustful. The change
at the same time means often the triumph
of Hinduism. Slowly but surely these
races are being brought under its in-
fluence, and are being gathered into its
fold and given over to the slavery

22

The Desire of India

of caste and the supremacy of the
Brahman.

The Deccan. The Deccan ( = " the South "), with the

low-lying coast-lands at the foot of the
Ghats, is the India of the earher years of
the British Empire. On its coast, east and
west, the first European colonies were
founded, — Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish,
French, Danish, British. Here were
fought the battles for supremacy. Here
also were made the first efforts to
christianise India. The south is the cradle
of the Christian Church, and in it has been
reared by far the larger part of the Christian
community.

Its Rivers. With the exception of the Narbada and

Tapti in the very north-westerly corner,
all the chief rivers of the Deccan flow east-
wards right across the Peninsula into the
Bay of Bengal. These rivers are the land-
marks of the country, and upon them also
depends, as in the north, the well-being of
the cultivator, his family and his cattle.

The Narbada. The Narbada river rises in the heart of
the Vindhya hills in wild and desolate
country. It " bubbles up gently in a small
tank in one of the undulating glades on the
summit of the mountain." It meanders

The Land and its Inhabitants 23

through green meadows till it reaches the
very edge of the plateau over which it
dashes in a glistening cascade. Lower
down, near the city of Jubbulpore, it flows
through a narrow gorge, the walls of which
are of pure marble. The river here flows
with a tremendous velocity. StiU further
down it disappears into a dense jungle,
and emerges upon the rich alluvial plains
of the northern corner of the Bombay
Presidency, finaUy entering the Arabian
Sea, 800 miles from its source. Colonel
Sleeman in his " Rambles and Recollec-
tions " gives the legend of the Narbada,
and comments on the high esteem and
veneration in which it is held by the people.
" Any Englishman," he says, " can easily
conceive a poet in his highest ' calenture
of the brain ' addressing the ocean as ' a
steed that knows his rider,' and patting the
crested billow as his flowing mane ; but
he must come to India to understand how
every individual of a whole community
of many milhons can address a fine river as
a Hving. being — a sovereign princess, who
hears and understands all they say, and
exercises a kind of local superintendence
over their aSairs without a single temple

24 The Desire of India

in which her image is worshipped or a
single priest to profit by the delusion. As
in the case of the Ganges, it is the river
itself to whom they address themselves,
and not to any deity residing in it or pre-
siding over it — the stream itself is the deity
which fills their imaginations and receives
their homage."
The Cauvery. The same may be said of the other rivers
of south India — the Mahanadi, Godavari,
Kistna and Cauvery. The Cauvery is to
the Tamils of southern India what the
Ganges is to the Hindus of the northern
plain. Legend makes the river the daughter
of Brahma, the Supreme One, born into
the world as the daughter of a devout
ascetic. To bring bliss to her reputed
father she became a river which would
purify from all sin. At the source of the
river stand ancient temples frequented
every year by numbers of pilgrims. In its
course lie three islands celebrated for their
sanctity : Seringapatam, Sivasamudram,
and Srirangam. Round the island of
Sivasamudram the river flows in magnifi-
cent cascades and rapids.
The Coast-lands Though not Comparable in magnitude
0 t e ou . ^^ ^Y^^ great northern plain, the coast

A ROADSIDE SCENE

e-'^ ^'e-

A STRETCH OF SOUTHERN COAST

The Land and its Inhabitants 25

districts of peninsular India resemble it
in many respects. In these districts are
to be found the great populations of the
south. The low-lying plains bordering the
sea on the west coast " represented in
mediaeval ages most of the wealth and
strength of India, and are still noted for
their great fertihty." Of even greater
importance is the immense tract of undu-
lating plain on the east coast, with its
numerous delta formations stretching from
the mouth of the Mahanadi to Cape
Comorin, a length of over 1000 miles. A
few miles broad in the north, it reaches a
breadth of a hundred miles in the south.
These lowlands " are lands of palms and of
rice cultivation ; of architectural develop-
ment ; of magnificent temples and decora-
tive monuments of the Hindu faith ; of
busy centres of native culture and industry,
where alone throughout the length and
breadth of the continent evidences of a
really indigenous art may be found."

The southern peninsula is peopled almost The Marathas.
entirely by Dravidian races, the exception
being the Maharashtra, a tract of country
which Hes immediately south of the Vind-
hyas, and extends to the Kistna river.

26 The Desire of India

Its eastern boundary is the Wainganga, an
important tributary of the Godavari.
It seems probable that some Scythian
tribes found their way along the western
boundary of the north Indian plain,
and took possession of the mountain fast-
nesses of this country. They became by
intermarriage with the original races the
ancestors of the Marathas, who may there-
fore be classed as Scytho-Dravidians. Their
predatory habits in the past have made
them feared throughout India.
The Dravidian The Dra vidian races of the south, like the
peoples of the north, are very largely
occupied with agricultural pursuits. They
are responsible for the cultivation of
the alluvial tracts of the Madras Pre-
sidency. Apart from these pursuits they
have shown, unlike many other Indian
races, the capacity for emigration. As
coolies they are found in other parts^ of
the country as well as in Ceylon, Burma,
Africa, the Straits Settlements and British
Guiana. Under the stimulus of the Hindu
faith and Indo- Aryan culture the Dravi-
dian races have had a great history. Art,
literature, sculpture, and architecture were
developed with a vigour and originality that

Races.

The Land and its Inhabitants 27

were almost unknown elsewhere in the
country. The Dravidian races have
shown remarkable capacity for organising
themselves for the common good.

South India, as well as north, furnishes The Languages

, -,. 1 £ J* 'J. p of South India.

an extraordmary example 01 diversity 01
language. Marathi, spoken in the Maharash-
tra, belongs to the Indo-European family.
Of the Dravidian languages four stand out
as prominent — Telugu, Tamil, Kanarese,
and Malayalam. Telugu is said to be one
of the most beautiful languages of India.
Tamil has a great hterature. These four
languages together are spoken by over
fifty millions of people. Nine minor lan-
guages belonging to the same group are also
spoken, mostly by the non- Aryan races in
the Vindhyan uplands such as the Gonds.
Kurukhs and Khandos.

Passing references may be made to the Ceylon,
province of Burma and the island of Ceylon.
The former has very httle in common with
India, though it is politically a portion of
the Indian Empire ; the latter has much
in common, but is poHticaUy separate.
Ceylon has very well-marked physical
features. The northern portion of the
island is a plain, the central and southern

2 8 The Desire. of India

parts are mountainous. The vegetation
shows tropical luxuriance. The population
is about three and a half millions. The
northern portion of the island has a very
large Tamil element ; the southern portion
is inhabited by the Singhalese proper.
There is in addition a prosperous and in-
fluential community descended from the
old European settlers and known as the
" burghers."

Burma consists of the tracts of land on
either side of the valley of the Irrawaddy,
with its delta, and the two coastal strips,
the western one called Arakan, and the
eastern and southern strip called Tenas-
serim. To the west of the Irrawaddy are
the Yoma mountains with peaks a little
over 4000 feet. The Shan states He to the
east of the river, and extend to the Salween
river. The Irrawaddy valley and the two
coastal strips are very fertile. The uplands
are fringed by a zone of teak-producing
country. The population of Burma is
about ten and a half millions, and is
largely MongoUan in character. The pre-
vaihng rehgion is Buddhism. One char-
acteristic of Burma is its large Hterate
population. Over a third of the male

THE GREAT INDIAN DESERT

A ROADSIDE SCENE IN THE SOUTH

The Land and its Inhabitants 29

population can read and write, and the
number of women who are Hterate is greatei
than in any other part of India.

To the stranger in India nothing is so Diversity of
impressive as the extraordinary diversity ^^"^^^'
which continually meets him — diversity of
landscape, diversity of races, and diversity
of language. The luxuriant vegetation of
the Western Ghats and the graceful cocoa-
nut palms rising from the deep green of the
mountain sides, viewed from the decks of
a Hner as it approaches the harbour at
Bombay, soon disappear as the railway
ascends the steep incHnes, and the rocky,
boulder- scattered, dark-soiled plateau of
the Deccan is reached, with its patches of
scrubby overgrowth, where the dwarfed
broad-leafed sell is the only tree that seems
able to exist. Still further north He the
stretches of the Indo-Gangetic plain where
no gradients retard or accelerate the speed
of the passing train. Far away to the west
are the treeless sandy wastes of the Punjab
and Sind, interspersed with great fertile
tracts adjoining the rivers and the reclaimed
areas where virgin soil breaks into luxuri-
ance under the influences of immense canal
systems. To the east are the tropical and

30 The Desire of India

malaria- stricken marshes of Bengal^ where
annual inundations have been turned by
the industry of man into a blessing. Tracts
of country, in total area equal to the
whole of England, produce rich harvests
of rice. From such scenes where the
monotonous flatness of the landscape be-
comes oppressive a few hours of travel
bring us into the almost impenetrable and
water-logged jungle tracts of the Tarai,
inhabited by the panther, leopard, tiger
and elephant. Finally, the snow-capped
peaks of the Himalayas come into view,
and we are transported from tropical
luxuriance into Arctic barrenness. These
are some of the contrasts. The south
is an unknown India to the north.
Standing on the Ghats a few miles
from Comorin and looking northwards,
one can see to the west the well-
wooded and overgrown terraces of Tra-
vancore, the graceful outHnes of the cocoa-
nut and areca palms adding beauty to
the landscape. To the east stretching
far away to the north are the undulating
" fiery-red " sand plains of Tinnevelly and
Madura ; in the hollows appear oases
of the plantain- tree ; in the deltas of the

The Land and its Inhabitants 31

rivers fields of green paddy may be seen ;
and on the horizon a fringe of feathery
palmyra groves rises sheer from the sands
of the burning plains.

The races of India present a diversity of Diversity of
type, habits, language, manners, customs ^^^^'
and clothing, greater even than the diver-
sity of the country just described. They
include the short, broad-nosed, scantily
clothed peasantry of Madras and the rude,
uncouth, aboriginal tribes who subsist on
roots and berries, and for whom an apron
of leaves and grass suffices. In striking
contrast to the latter tribes are the high
cheek-boned Marathas of the Deccan,
who are among the bravest races of India,
or the Brahmans of Poona, who for in-
tellectual acuteness are second to no other
race in the world. In the same part of
India are the Parsis, who by their wealth,
culture and ability exert an influence far
out of proportion to their numbers. The
races of the north include the astute
Bengali, the proud Rajput, the labour-
loving Jat, and the short, sturdy, warHke
Gurkha, whose features show his MongoHan
origin, the stohd peasantry and the tall,
hthe-limbed Sikh of the Punjab. In the

32 The Desire of India

bazaars of Peshawar may be seen swathed
in ample garments the fanatical, full-
bearded frontier man, the hero of
many a tribal dispute, who carries his life
in his hand, and never forgives an enemy.
Such are the diversities of human types to
be found in India. It has been truly re-
marked by Mr Crooke " that the Punjabi
differs in physique, language, and tradition
as much from the Madras! as the Nea-
politan from the Scotchman." This
diversity of peoples and languages consti-
tutes one of the great difficulties in the
introduction of Christianity into India.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER I

These questions are intended to enable students
to make sure that they have grasped the important
facts in the chapter. They are not intended to
replace the "Helps" for leaders of Missionary
Bands or Circles, issued by the different Missionary
Societies and containing full suggestions for the
conduct of each meeting. Application for these
should be made to the Missionary Society with
which the Band or Circle is connected.

1. What are the principal natural features of
north and south India respectively, and what are
the chief respects in which the two divisions of the
country differ from each other f

The Land and its Inhabitants 33

2. Name the chief rivers of India, indicating the
three groups into which they naturally fall.

3. What place do they hold in the life and affec-
tion of the people ?

4. What are the reasons which have led to the
Ganges being considered sacred ?

5. What places on its banks possess a special
sanctity ?

6. In what ways do the feelings of the people
towards their rivers find expression ?

7. What is the place of the Himalaya range in
Indian sentiment ?

8. Name the leading languages of India (cf.
Appendix B).

9. Mention the most important characteristics of
the following parts of India: The Himalayas, the
Ganges Valley, the Punjab, the Vindhyan slopes,
the Deccan, the coast-lands of the south.

10. What are the distinguishing marks of the
Rajputs, the Jats, the Bengalis, the Gurkhas, the
people of the North- West frontier, the inhabitants
of the Ganges Valley (Aryo-Dravidian), the Mara-
thas, the Dravidian races of the south }

11. Can India, in spite of its diversity, be re-
garded as a unity, and, if so, on what grounds ?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, New Edition, vol. i.

chaps, i., vi., vii.
Crooke — Natives of Northern India.
Rice — Occasional Essays on Native South Indian

• Life.
Sleeman — Rambles and Recollections.

34 The Desire of India

Bradley-Biut — Chota Nagpur.

Bradley-Birt — Story of an Indian Upland.

Beach — Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions,

pp. 343-60.
RicHTER — History of Missions in India, pp. 1-17.
Jones — India's Problem, chap. i.
Numerous popular works on India.

Fuller particulars regarding the books referred to
will be found in the Bibliography at the end.

CHAPTER II

THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE

It is impossible within the limits of a single
chapter to give a description of every
aspect of Indian life. In these pages the
life of the towns will be left out of account,
and attention will be concentrated on the
countless villages which afford a home to
the vast majority of the population.

The importance of the villages of importance of
India for understanding the life and
the genius of the people cannot be
over-estimated. Leaving out of account
certain administrative areas (Baluchistan
and Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, and Aden), the population of
India in 1901 amounted to 282,991,063, or
eight and a half times that of England and
Wales, which the same year returned a
population of 32,526,075. An analysis of
these figiu:es under the head of Rural and
Urban populations brings out a striking
fact. The figures are as follows : —

36 The Desire of India

COUNTRY URBAN RURAL TOTAL.

England and

Wales . . 25,054,268 7,471,807 32,526,075
India . . 28,170,276 254,820,787 282,991,063
Eastern Bengal

and Assam . 736,933 30,224,526 30,961,459

Thus England and Wales with a mere
fraction of the population of India have an
urban population which falls short of the
corresponding figure for India by only
about three millions. On the other hand
the rural population of India is nearly
thirty and a half times as large as that of
England and Wales. For further com-
parison let us take the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam, which has a
population very nearly as great as that of
England and Wales. The distribution of
urban and rural population, however, is in
marked contrast. The urban population is
under three quarters of a million, while the
rural includes 30,224,526 souls, distributed
in nearly 92,000 villages. It needs all the
imagination of which we are capable to
appreciate these facts. Immense tracts
of country, with a total area which
would cover the whole of Europe except-
ing a part of Russia, are strewn over with

PHOTOGRAPH FROM SURVEY MAP OF INDIA.

[By permission

The Life of the People 37

more than half a million villages, each
having less than 5000 inhabitants.

A missionary book published a short time The District
ago has brought before its readers with° amparan.
pecuKar vividness the picture of a single
district in the Bihar division of the Bengal
Presidency, where till recently, with the
exception of a small Roman Catholic
mission, there was no other Christian
agency. In size this district of Champaran
is for India an ordinary district. It is
situated east of the Gandak river, which is
a tributary of the Ganges. Two of its
important towns, Bettiah and Motihari,
easily recognisable on the map, with the
town of Chanpatia, have a total popula-
tion of nearly 45,000. Yet the district,
ISO miles long by 55 broad, contains a Httle
over one and three quarter milhons of
people distributed over 2,622 villages.
More than half of the latter have under
500 inhabitants. —

In these villages true India is to be Conservatism of
found — inscrutable, unchanging. Here ^^^^_X^Hf:i£s.
have been built her social institutions, and
that passive strength which for centuries
has defied the invader and proved imper-
vious to all new ideas. The village com-

38 The Desire of India

munity is a self-centred commonwealth,
with little dependence for its welfare on the
outer world. It is an agricultural or-
ganisation, its simple needs being satisfied
by its own efforts. For their material
welfare the inhabitants desire peace, a
productive soil, and a seasonal, yet adequate
rainfall. In some parts of India this last
may be looked for with greater certainty
than in others, though always there is the
haunting fear that this year's prosperity
may give place to next year's drought.
Picture of a Some of the villages of north India have

Village. a charm unparalleled elsewhere. " One of

the prettiest sights in India, ' ' says Mr Crooke,
" is a Jat village on a morning in the cold
weather. The fields round the site are
masses of green, darker and more luxuriant
near the houses, where a plentiful supply
of manure is forthcoming. The oxen work
the creaking wheels at the numerous weUs ;
the air is fuU of the song of men and boys,
as the bag is hauled full of water to the
sm^face. The stream trickles along in-
numerable channels, and is directed into
each Uttle plot by the ready hands of the
girls. The spare yokes of cattle chew the
cud lazily at the mangers close by. The

The Life of the People 39

old people sit under the trees, the women
spinning, the men smoking and gossiping.
All displays a scene of rural peace and
prosperity which it would be hard to equal
in any country in the world." It is perhaps
due to the benevolence of nature that this
idyUic picture is possible. The wonderful
skies, the fields in many shades of green
and gold, the crisp, sharp cold of the
northern plains and the distant hills draw
to themselves the attention of the traveller,
and cause him momentarily to forget the
meanness of the huts and the squalor and
insanitation of the village streets, where
disease and death are fostered by the
ignorance of the inhabitants.

The village site usually covers a small area The Appearance
upon wliich the houses are compactly built,
small and miserable in their appearance.
The roofs are low, and consist usually of
thatch, or thatch covered over with clay.
The material of the walls depends on the soil.
Where stone is not available — and this is
the case wherever much arable soil is found
— unburnt bricks, set in and covered with
clay, are largely used. The more prosper-
ous houses have often a porch built of burnt
bricks set in cement. The interior of most

40 The Desire of India

houses is enclosed by a high wall forming
a courtyard which hes between the entrance
and the dwelHng-rooms. Entering the
courtyard, a miscellaneous assortment of
objects meets the eye. On one side stand
the mangers at which the cattle contentedly
feed ; occupying another portion of the
not too spacious courtyard is the village-
cart built to sustain the shocks of the
primitive country roads, which flow rivers
in the rainy season, and, furrowed by the
ponderous traffic, bake to a granite hard-
ness under the rays of the sun. A tree
branch, forked and rough - hewn, shod
with a plough-share, is the chief and
the most compUcated instrument the
farmer possesses. A verandah usually
protects the entrance to the one or more
dwelhng-rooms. Space is found in a corner
for a small fire-place, round which is a clean
swept and newly plastered area, where the
necessary arrangements for cooking are
made. A few beds will also find a place
here, or in the adjacent rooms, where also
the scanty wardrobe and the few valuables
are stored. Upon this part of the house
the farmer's wife usually bestows a good
deal of care. The children, when still too

PLOUGHING

WINNOWING

The Life of the People 41

young to wander into the village street,
find within the house ample opportunity
for exercise, pla3dng under the watchful eye
of their mother as she carries on her simple
domestic duties.

The daily Hf e of the peasant is one round The Round of
of labour. To the uninitiated it may ap- ^^'^^ '^°^^-
pear an easy one, but the monotonous
drudgery of sowing crops, watering the
fields and reaping the harvest makes the
men appear prematurely old ; while the
domestic duties of the women, the rearing
of their children and the hard manual
labour which they undertake, bring on an
early decay. With the first advent of the
monsoon in early June, the cultivator
begins to plough his fields. From morning
till evening he is at work with his patient
oxen. Backwards and forwards they go
with slow-measured tread. The ground
is torn up — not a very deep furrow, but
sufficient for the farmer's purposes. With
great care the weeds are removed, and the
seed is sown. Then comes a time of patient
waiting — not idle, for the fields have to be
watered if the rains fail at the critical time,
the seedlings have to be protected from the
depredations of birds, and a constant

42 The Desire of India

weeding has to be kept up lest they, should
be choked. Where irrigation is by canals,
a close watch has to be kept on the quantity
of water that reaches the fields. Measures
have to be taken to prevent an unfriendly
neighbour from diverting the water into
his own lands. The latter is no infrequent
occurrence, and is the most fruitful cause
of the feuds which are waged with bitter-
ness and even with personal violence.
The Cultivation Over large tracts of the northern plain, and
° ^^^' especially in Bengal where more than 50,000

square miles are grown with it, rice is the
chief crop cultivated. The rice is sown in
mu'series, and the seedHngs are trans-
planted to inundated fields, the water being
obtained from the overflow of a, swollen
river or from some canal system. Almost
all the inhabitants of the villages, men,
women and children, turn out and become
for the ensuing weel^s a race of amphibians.
Most of the day is spent in the water trans-
planting the tender shoots into the soft
soil.
Harvest Time. The harvest in north India comes in the
months of September, October, and even as
late as December. It is a time of rejoicing,
though hardly of less toil. Armed with

The Life of the People 43

' small hand-scythes the farmer and his family
retainers and serfs go forth to bring in the
harvest. Threshing the corn follows the
days of harvest, and to the housewife there
remain further days of toil, when with the
other women of the household she has to
take her tiu'n at the grindstone to provide
her husband and her children with food.
Meanwhile the men are again preparing
for work. The ploughing recommences
late in the year. The seed is again sown,
and by April another harvest is at hand.
The month of May is often a time of short
respite. Then weddings are celebrated,
and pilgrimages to some sacred shrine or
river, or even to the sacred cities of the
Ganges, may be carried out. The Indian
farmer has many difficulties to contend
against, such as imperfect implements,
badly regulated water- supphes, the torrid
heat of summer, through which no man
can pass unscathed, and the malaria
which invariably follows the inundation
necessary for the great rice-crops. Yet
through all these vicissitudes the villager
passes patiently and even content, bearing
his trials " with exemplary fortitude and
resignation."

44 The Desire of India

viiiag-e The villager has short periods, of re-

laxation, when he takes his simple pleasures.
In the summer evenings after sunset groups
of men gather at their favourite haunts,
such as within the main porch of a neigh-
bour's house or near the adjacent village
well. There they may be seen sitting cross-
legged on the ground, or on mats or on the
low bedsteads so common in North India.
The affairs of their neighbours, as well as
their own, are discussed with freedom if not
with vehemence. The village gossip and
scandal is repeated, and at a later hour will
be retailed to their wives and female
relatives. Prospects of the season's crops
wiU be discussed, comments will be made
on such subjects of unfaiUng interest as the
rents, taxes, water-dues, or the law- suits
in which they or their friends are engaged.
The pipes are lit and their gurgle alternates
with the dull drone of human voices. On
rare occasions a wandering musician and
bard will regale the company with music
and song. The stranger within their gates
will speak of the world which he has seen, of
the glory of distant cities and the wonders of
' the railway, or he may extol the merits of

a particular shrine or the virtues of some

The Life of the People 45

distant saint from whom he has obtained
a boon. More often the conversation turns
on magical cures that have been performed,
or on mysterious appearances which have
heralded some disaster or point to an im-
pending calamity. It is at these humble
gatherings that the attitude of the village to
new and strange institutions is determined.
The new hospital, dispensary or school are
here discussed, and upon them judgment is
passed.

The daily toil of the women of India in The Position
the villages calls for special treatment. As °^ ^°"^^"-
a girl-wife the woman is brought to her
husband's home and is disciphned in her
new duties by a not over- considerate
mother-in-law or elder female relative.
The lot of woman is a heavy one. Her
ordinary domestic duties are exacting.
The housewife begins the day by bringing
her supphes of water from the village well,
and attending to the needs of her husband
and children. She cooks the midday meal
and may have to carry it out into the fields.
She grinds the corn and husks the rice.
With her pressing duties and maternal
cares her opportunities for relaxation and
pleasure are very Hmited. Often she has

46 The Desire of India

to undertake heavy tasks in the fields, as
in parts of Bengal where the women are
solely responsible for transplanting the
tender rice seedhngs. The women of the
lower classes are an important factor in
the supply of labour. Hundreds earn their
liveHhood by carrying burdens or by be-
coming harvesters and general agricultural
labourers.
Their Seclusion. It is erroneous to suppose that the great
bulk of the women of India are rigorously
secluded. Every household of any respec-
tabiUty has its special women's quarters,
but the women are more or less free, and
usually a woman is mistress of her own
household, and her will is submitted to in
most domestic matters. She determines
for example what will be spent on a family
function such as the marriage of a daughter,
or what pilgrimages will be made or
ceremonies performed. The seclusion of
women is confined to the upper ranks,
and in some parts of the country it is
practically unknown. The practice is
looked upon as the mark of social
position. An authority teUs us that al-
though " the system has not been adopted
by the lower castes in the North, and not

The Life of the People 47

generally adopted by the Hindus of the
West and South, yet it has affected pubUc
opinion and thereby restricted the Hberty
of woman to a great extent throughout the
country." A far greater social evil is the
early marriage of women, and the con-
demnation to perpetual widowhood of
thousands whose husbands have died when
they were mere children.

Reference has been made in a previous The Monsoon,
chapter to the influence of the rivers of
India upon the life of the people. But
the agricultural and pastoral welfare of
the country does not depend upon these
alone. They in their turn are dependent
partially on the rain ; and their capacity
to irrigate is limited to the adjacent tracts
of land, suppHed either directly by them-
selves or by their subsidiary canals. What
of the vast areas of country which are
not irrigated by either river or canal ?
Their prosperity is conditioned by the
seasonal incidence of a sufficient rainfall.
During the beginning of May rural India
awaits news of the coming rainfall ; tele-
graphic communication from the coast
towns keeps the interior informed of the
passage of the moist currents from the Bay

48 The Desire of India

of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. About the
middle of the month showers are reported
on the west coast of India, and the
northerly portions of the east coast. The
rain clouds pass over the Western Ghats,
after depositing a very large amount of
their moisture on their seaward face,
and traverse the interior in a north-
easterly direction. This is the great
south-western monsoon, upon which the
agricultural prosperity of the northern
plain and of central and western India
depends. It lasts till the end of August,
and in some parts even till the end of
September. The current from the Bay of
Bengal recurves over the Peninsula giving
rain over the tracts east of the Western
Ghats. It gradually recedes towards the
south, and is exhausted by the end of
December. A south-westerly current now
springs up and brings rain again — though
in much Hghter showers — over northern
India. To this special kindly dispensation
of nature India owes much, and the
spiritual instinct of her people has given
recognition to this in their worship.

The constant regularity of the south-
western monsoon is occasionally broken.

WINNOWING THE CORN

GRINDING THE CORN

The Life of the People 49

Then anxiety creeps into the faces of the
peasantry. The farmer wonders how the
crops are to spring up when each day the
sun pours its rays pitilessly on the earth,
and the soil hardens under their influences.
The millions who have no land or cattle
of their own, and hence no credit with the
money-lender, speculate as to what their
fate will be. Anxiety soon gives place to
actual want ; the skies are as brass, un-
clouded and hopeless ; the cattle — among
the chief assets of the peasantry — grow
lean, and their owners scour the country-
side for the green spots where they can find
fodder for their beasts. Such expedients,
however, are soon exhausted. The cattle
now begin to perish ; this in fact is the first
great tragedy of an Indian famine. The
scene is one which must live in the minds
of those who have witnessed it. Take for
instance the terrible days in the summer of
the year 1900 in the Guzerat division of
the Bombay Presidency. Great tracts of
level plain, which in the ordinary course
would have been covered with the most
luxuriant crops of grain and rice, were a
scene of awful misery. Not a blade of grass
or sign of vegetation was visible save the

so The Desire of India

gaunt lineaments of leafless trees., from
whose branches every vestige of foHage had
been stripped by the desperate inhabitants
in the effort to find food for their cattle.
So serious did the state of things ultimately
become, that the Government was com-
pelled to organise relief-trains in which
cattle were transported outside the area of
devastation.
The Loss of The greatest tragedy is the wastage of

human life in spite of all the efforts made
by the Indian administration. It is with a
feeling of horror that we turn to the details
of the Indian famines. During the last forty
years of the nineteenth century no fewer than
six great famines devastated large, populous
and usually prosperous parts of the country.
The past eight years have not effaced the
memory of the famine of 1899-1900. A
missionary, in his annual letter, gives his
experience in the Nizam's Dominions :
" It has been a year one hopes never to see
the like of again. By the road-side, on
the road itself, in corners of streets, in the
midst of busy traffic and in the fields, the
dying were found ; and, where possible,
helped back to life and hope. Everywhere
was death and dumb despairing woe. Many

The Life of the People 5 1

a Hindu and Muhammadan to-day thanks
God for life and hope restored through the
pity of Christ by His people who lovingly
gave for His sake. Our spiritual efforts,
it is true, were lessened through the famine,
but the spiritual work accompHshed by
that messenger of God is, I verily beheve,
greater than if ten missionaries had been
filHng the district with the story of Christ."
The number of deaths in the Bombay
Presidency rose from the yearly average of
somewhat over half a million to one and a
quarter millions during the famine year of
1900.

The bright side of the picture must not Efforts of Relief.
be forgotten, indeed any account of the
last famine would be incomplete without
reference to the heroic efforts made by the
Government of India and by private
agencies — mostly Christian — to save
human hfe. The memory of that effort
will ever Hve in Indian history. The
words of Lord Curzon, than whom there is
no greater authority on the famine of 1900,
may be quoted. " Numerous cases of
devotion, amounting to the loftiest heroism,
have been brought under my notice. I
have heard of EngHshmen dying at their

52 The Desire of India

posts without a murmur. I have seen
cases where the entire organisation of a vast
area and the Hves of thousands of beings
rested upon the shoulders of a single in-
dividual labouring on in silence and solitude
while his bodily strength was fast ebbing
away. I have known natives who, inspired
by his example, have thrown themselves
with equal ardour into the struggle, and
have uncomplainingly laid down their Kves
for their countrymen. Particularly must
I mention the noble efforts of the missionary
agencies of various Christian denomina-
tions. If ever there was an occasion in
which their local knowledge and influence
were likely to be of value, and in which
it was open to them to vindicate the highest
standards of their beneficent calling, it
was here ; and strenuously and faithfully
have they performed the task."
Caste. No account of the village would be com-

plete which failed to consider the social
structm-e of the community, especially in
its relation to the institution of caste.
The stringency which requires that the
unclean sections of the community should
live without the village site, that upon
other sections should fall special functions,

The Life of the People 53

that certain members should be exempted
from particular duties, are all the conse-
quences of a social order which is one of the
outstanding characteristics of India, and
which to the western mind is summed up in
the one word " Caste."

The chief distinguishing marks of a caste Recognition of
are the recognition of a common ancestor Ancestor?"
and the pursuit of a common calling. A
caste consists of groups of famihes, all of
them claiming to be descended from a 1
common mythical or traditional ancestor, |
who may be " human or divine." This
common ancestry gives to the caste a I
common name, such as Brahman, or Rajput.

The members of a caste usually profess Pursuit of a
to follow the same calling — in fact caste is caiHng"
said to be based on a community of function.
The Brahman for instance is the priest,
or rather he has the quahfications necessary
for that caUing. Those not belonging to
the caste can never create the right to
follow it. On the other hand every Brah-
man does not exercise the priestly office,
for the reason that the vocation is over-
crowded, or because he or his ancestors
found some more profitable or congenial
means of subsistence. Considerable lati-

54 The Desire of India

tude is allowed him as long as the new
profession he chooses does not involve
ceremonial pollution. In Bengal Proper,
only one Brahman in six, in Bihar one
in thirteen, in Orissa only one in thirty-
four, is found to exercise the function
of priest. Brahmans " are found in large
numbers among agriculturists, soldiers
and policemen, clerks and other more re-
spectable calHngs." In such a calhng as
agriculture they probably would refuse to
do the actual manual labour of tilhng the
fields, and depend generally on hired or serf
labour. This latitude of taking to other pro-
fessions is also allowed within certain limits
to other castes.
Contrast with Each caste forms an exclusive social unit.

Social Distinc- xi i i -i -i i p • .

tions Elsewhere. Its members are prohibited irom mter-
marrying or eating with those not belong-
ing to the caste. The existence of ex-
clusive groups with such restrictions as to
marriage and eating in common is not
peculiar to India. They are known to have
existed among Greeks, Germans, and other
peoples. Even in modern Europe pubHc
opinion recognises certain restrictions as
regards marriage and social intercourse.
But in India these restrictions have be-

The Life of the People 5 5

come hardened into an iron law, and the
system has attained a rigidity unparalleled
elsewhere. The maintenance of caste
pm*ity has become the chief duty of life.
In other lands social distinctions can be
overcome ; it is possible for a man to pass
from one social grade to another. But in
India a man's caste is his destiny, irrevo-
cably fixed from his birth. The calling he
may piKsue and the character of those
with whom he must associate are un-
alterably determined, and nothing he can
ever do will make any difference in his
position. The division into castes has been
reinforced by tradition, by religion, by
the individual's outlook on life, so that
these differences have come to be regarded
as inherent in the nature of things, and to
the people themselves " a formula of Hfe."

When some caste law has been broken Strictness of
the elders of the caste meet together in ^^ ^ " ^^'
solemn conclave. The accused is con-
fronted by witnesses of his offence, which is
invariably the breach of some caste law or
etiquette, such as eating in the house of
a person of inferior degree or failxu'e to
conform to the punctilious regulations
when marrying a son or a daughter. The

56 The Desire of India

offence proved, the accused is either ex-
communicated or is forgiven after he has
made obeisance and given some sign of his
humihation. In addition a fine is extracted
from him, and he usually feasts his fellow
caste-men. The Abbe Dubois, who at the
beginning of the last century lived as an
ascetic for many years among the people
of southern India, gives us some inter-
esting experiences of the rigidity of caste
law. A number of Brahmans, he tells us,
at some domestic function unwittingly
allowed a Sudra to eat with them. When
the matter came to hght they were subjected
to the most rigorous purificatory rites
before they were re-admitted to caste.
An Illustration. An example of an even more heinous
crime against caste-law is given us by the
same authority. " A marriage," he writes,
" had been arranged, and, in the presence
of the family concerned, certain ceremonies
which were equivalent to betrothal amongst
ourselves had taken place. Before the
actual celebration of the marriage, which
was fixed for a considerable time afterwards,
the bridegroom died. The parents of the
girl, who was very young and pretty, there-
upon married her to another man. This

The Life of the People 57

was in direct violation of the custom of the
caste, which condemns to perpetual widow-
hood girls thus betrothed, even when, as
in this case, the future bridegroom dies
before marriage has been consummated.
The consequence was that all the persons
who had taken part in the second ceremony
were expelled from caste, and nobody
would contract marriage or have any inter-
course whatever with them. A long time
afterwards I met several of them well-
advanced in age who had been for this
reason alone unable to obtain husbands
or wives, as the case might be."

There is a behef which has gained wide Number of
cm:rency that only four castes exist in ^^ ^^'
Hindu Society — the Brahman or priest,
Kshattriya or warrior, Vaisya or trader,
and Sudra or labourer. This division
has practically no value, for it merely
indicates the traditional Hindu classi-
fication and is not in accordance with the
facts as found to-day in the villages of India.
The Brahman still exists, but the other
three no longer exist as castes, and corre-
spond to no well-defined social divisions.
In their place there is an innumerable
number of castes which denote a variety

ss The Desire of India

of functions, particular cults and, among
the lowest in the social scale, particular
tribes that have been brought into the fold
of Hinduism, or even nationalities which
have accepted an Aryan civihsation. A list
of castes has recently been prepared with
much care and it " includes 2378 main castes
and tribes, and 4S races or nationalities."
The Brahmans. With these complicated principles as a
background, we are enabled to understand
better the social order prevalent in an
Indian village. Speaking generally, the
whole community divides itself under four
heads — the Brahmans, the agricultural
class, the village functionaries, and the
outcaste tribes. The Brahmans, who
usually do not exceed more than half a
dozen f amihes in a small village, occupy
themselves in many ways. Some are the
hereditary priests, others are small land-
holders or superior tenants. They are
usually prosperous, for whatever their
occupation they are the recipients of many
favours from the inhabitants, upon whom
it is incumbent to make them presents
and to feast them on the occasion of every
domestic event and at particular seasons.
They are consulted on all occasions. The

The Life of the People 59

priest is requested to examine the horo-
scopes of the boy and girl who are to be
married ; the auspicious days for beginning
ploughing, sowing and reaping are decided
by him. For all these offices he receives
gifts. The Brahman is conscious of his
superiority, yet he is obsequious to his
wealthier and prosperous clients, while he
is intolerant to the lowest sections of the
community, whose impurity is so great
that they are unworthy to receive his
ministrations. The Brahman population
of India amounts to over fourteen and three
quarter millions.

The agriculturists form the bulk of the The Agricultur-
Indian population. By a convenient re- ^^
striction of the term they include all the
castes who are small landlords, who may
or may not till the soil themselves, and who
employ Brahmans to perform their cere-
monies. These classes form the strongest
element of the village community. The
Rajput (though often his claims to social
status are much higher), the Jat, the Ahir
of north India, the Maratha Kunbi of
western India, the Vellala and the Kalian
of the Tamil country are important mem-
bers of this class.

6o The Desire of India

The Jat is the finest specimen of the
agriculturist. He is independent and in
social usage has been known to defy
Brahmanical authority. To his inde-
pendence he adds a remarkable capacity
for work. The Jat is peaceably disposed
if he is left alone, but resents interference
in his affairs. He is known occasionally to
take to a predatory existence, will organise
expeditions for plunder, and will do any-
thing, it is said, "from gambling to murder."
The homely wisdom of the villager describes
him accurately in the proverbs which are
current. " The Jat Hke a wound is better
when bound." His lack of culture is thus
summed up by the countryside : " Though
the Jat grows refined he will still use a mat
for a pocket-handkerchief." Testimony is
borne to the assiduity with which he and his
wife and children occupy themselves. " The
Jat's baby has a plough handle for a play-
thing." " The Jat stood on his corn-heap
and said to the king's elephant-drivers,
' Will you sell these little donkeys ? ' " ^

In south India, especially in the Tamil
country, the Vellala corresponds to the Jat

^ ^'^ Census of India/' vol. i.^ Ethnographic Appendices,
pp. 74 ff.

"^

02 «

23 En

The Life of the People 6i

farmer. A prosperous member of the caste
may own a farm of about 200 acres, and
will possess forty to sixty bullocks for
ploughing ; to these he may add a con-
siderable number of sheep and goats. For
help to cultivate his land he is dependent
on his caste-fellows — usually poorer rela-
tions. For the more menial tasks he calls
in the unclean castes, whose dwelhngs near,
but not within, the actual village site are a
common feature throughout the country.
Over these people tradition and custom
have given the Vellala certain rights.

Apart from the trials of famine, of flood The Problems
and of disease, the great peasant class q^ss. ^^^^^"*
suffers in other ways. The villager is the
subject of the oppression of officialdom.
He pays his taxes to the State and is often
made the prey of petty functionaries who
threaten to reassess his fields on a higher
scale unless he buys them off for a con-
sideration. To pay his taxes in a lean
season, to raise funds for a law-suit (for
which he has a passion), or to provide for
the marriage of his daughter, which he does
with a prodigahty that is often ruinous, he
has recourse to the money-lender, whose
exorbitant demands may lead to loss of the

62 The Desire of India

small holding which has been with his an-
cestors for many generations. Towards the
relief of the agriculturist much beneficial
legislation has been directed. It may save
him from many enemies, but whether it
will teach him to restrict his expenditure
where the honour of his family is concerned,
such as at marriages or funeral ceremonies,
is very questionable. Still the interests of
the cultivator class are paramount, for it
forms the bulk of the community. " The
peasant," says an English writer, " with his
pair of lean oxen and rude plough, is the
pillar of the Empire, and our task in India
is only half done as long as we neglect
any feasible methods for advancing his
interests."'
TheViilag-e The functionaries of the village are an

important element in the community.
They include the carpenter, blacksmith,
jeweller, money-lender, barber and palan-
quin bearer ; and in many village com-
munities the writer, who keeps a record of
the fields with their proprietors or tenants,
the washerman, the potter, the brick-
layer, the basket-maker, the oil-presser, the
shepherd, the musician, the devil-dancer,
and the fortune teller are also to be found.

Functionaries.

The Life of the People 63

These castes^perhaps with the exception
of the village writer — hold lower rank than
the castes classified above as agriculturists.
The touch of a number of these castes is
considered by the Brahman as defiling.

Lastly, there are the out- caste tribes who TheOut-Caste
are not permitted to reside within theJliUS
village. They are employed by the peasants
as field-labourers. Apart from this they
may exercise particular functions, such as
that of leather- workers. As a typical
case the Madigas will afford a good ex-
ample. They are one of the leather-work-
ing castes of the Telugu country. Their
huts are miserably built, the dimensions
rarely exceeding 10 feet square. Their
belongings include some earthen pots — if
prosperous a few brass ones — to which
they may add a cot or two, a few low stools,
and if fortune is very propitious a cow and
some fowls. A writer who has Hved among
them tells us that " only one-third of the
Madiga population is above absolute want.
. . Many a day in the year they go
hungry, glad if they can get a meal of boiled
grain of a kind that is cheaper even than
rice, and a Httle pepper water over it to give
it a relish." Perhaps it is due to their lack

64 The Desire of India

of other means of subsistence that some of
these polluting classes are known to feed on
carrion. For this they are abhorred by the
caste-people of the village. So unclean are
they considered that they are not allowed
to pass along a Brahman street, much less
allowed to enter the house of a Brahman.
Even the agriculturists have scruples about
admitting them within their doors. The
Abbe Dubois records a case where an out-
caste was murdered for having the audacity
to enter the house of a Brahman.
These castes are not permitted to use the
village well. Sometimes special wells are
sunk for them, or they have to be content
with the water which hes in some stagnant
pool. Perhaps the saddest sign to-day is
the callous regard the average Hindu has
for the Madiga and his kind. This may be
due to generations of inheritance, but even
the educated Hindu has not been awakened
to his responsibihties to these his brethren.
Very often the only notice that he takes
of them is when he brings against the work
of Christian missions what seems to him
the weightiest argument — namely that most
of the converts come from these depressed
classes. It is Christianity that brings to

The Life of the People 65

them for the first time the prospect of
social advancement and the stimulus of
hope.

To give an adequate survey of the whole The Charm of
of Indian village life is an impossible task. ^ ^^^
Its complexity is only equalled by the
diversity to be found throughout the
length and breadth of India. Social con-
ditions, practices and customs vary with
different parts of the country and make
generahsations as undeshable as they are
untrue. Yet enough perhaps has been
said to indicate some of the characteristic
features of village hfe in India. That life
is not without much human interest. We
have followed the people into their villages
and fields, sat by them in their homes, and
seen them take their innocent pleasures.
Their simple manner of existence and the
fewness of their wants give to Indian rural
life a romantic charm. We get a gHmpse
of the Indian peasant while " the
whole machinery of life and death is in
full play and our villager shouts to the
patient oxen and lives his life. Then
gradual darkness and food with homely
joys, a little talk, a little tobacco, a few sad
songs, and kindly sleep."

66 The Desire of India

The Darker But the sombre has to be added to the

picture to give it truth. Passing reference
has been made to the iniquities of child-
marriage and the prohibition of widow-
remarriage, whereby the Hves of many
innocent creatures are marred for ever.
The child- widow is the drudge of the house-
hold. Her life is exposed to temptation,
as she is driven to desperation by the
cruelty of her circumstances. She is con-
temptible in the eyes of her fellows ; tradi-
tion has ordered that her very presence is
inauspicious. She may not share in the
joys of even her own family.

The Influence Caste has served in the past a useful
purpose. To it is due the permanence and
tenacity which has characterised Hindu
society in the face of strong influences of
disintegration, such as have resulted from
foreign invasions and lack of stable govern-
ment. To every individual caste-law pre-
scribes in daily Hfe a course of action ; it
fosters an attitude of reverence to members
of the higher castes, of friendhness to those
of equal status, and of antipathy to those
of lower degree. Caste stands for the point
of view of the community and excludes the
rights of the individual. This attitude has

of Caste.

The Life of the People 6y

been a moral power, for it lays down certain
lines of conduct and expects obedience.
Thus caste has placed upon the community
the reponsibility of providing for the poor
within its pale. In India accordingly there
is no necessity for a Poor Law.

On the other hand the system shows its Tyranny,
clearly certain great evils. The community
spirit is confined to the narrow limits of
single castes. Nationality in the truest
sense becomes impossible. The strictness
of caste law regarding individual action is
cruel. A man may think or believe what-
ever he likes and is tolerated, but departure
from established custom is met with the
severest punishment. On the other hand,
a man guilty of a heinous moral offence,
if he keeps the rules and submits to the
customs of his caste, goes uncondemned.
A Hindu authority enumerates seven crimes
which he terms " the only acts which now
lead to exclusion from caste." Six of
these acts involve merely ceremonial im-
purity, such as travelling in Europe or
America, or pubhcly eating beef or pork ;
the seventh is " embracing Christianity or
Muhammadanism." Immorality is not
punished except in the case of women.

68

The Desire of India

Life of little
Value.

When a man becomes a Christian,, caste
brings its fullest penalties to bear upon
him, often with -a '';ferpcity that seems
inconceivable. The Hindu writer already
quoted says that " if a man were to espouse
Christianity or Muhammadanism his own
parents would exclude him from their home
and disallow intercourse except on the
most distant terms. He cannot have even
a drink of water under his parental roof
except in an earthen pot which would not
be touched afterwards by even the servants
of the house." The persecution often does
not stop here. Occasionally those desiring
to become converts have been kept cap-
tive for years, and some have even been
murdered. It is conceivable that the
tyranny of caste may be modified in
years to come, and that the enormous
power of the system may be exercised in
the interests of morahty. ^Vhere Chris-
tianity joins issue with it is in the denial
which caste gives to the equaUty of man
andjto the worth of individual personality.
Human life is of little value in India.
Lives are spent in grinding poverty and
bitter toil, and even the power of aspiration
1 seems to be taken from men. Villages are

VILLAGE STREET

VILLAGE WELL

The Life of the People 69

blotted out by famine and pestilence, and
yet the people do not pause to inquire
whether such tragedy is preventible. In
the plague- stricken areas, when the disease
is at its height, some may attempt to escape,
but the bulk of the population quietly
awaits its doom. The villagers look into
the faces of their companions and wonder
which of them will be next struck down.
There are thousands of children to whom
the opportunity of life is never given,
hundreds of women who perish prema-
turely, worn out with their toil, whom
early marriage, neglect and unhygienic
surroundings have killed. Not one of us
who beheve in the eternal value of the
individual soul can view with unconcern
this wastage of human Hfe. The Uves of
the dwellers in the innumerable villages of
India are precious in the sight of Christ,
and in His eyes every soul possesses an
infinite capacity and worth.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER II

1. What are the chief contrasts between Indian
and English village life ?

2. In what ways and to what extent is the life of
the people in India dependent on the monsoon ?

JO The Desire of India

3. What is the position of woman in the social
life of India ?

4. What are the chief interests of the Indian
villager ?

5. Name the four main divisions of Indian society.

6. Wherein lies the special importance of the
agriculturist class ?

7. What are the chief features of caste ?

8. In what respects has caste as a social institu-
tion been of advantage to India.

9- In what respects has it acted against the best
interests of the people ?

10. How far is caste as a social institution com-
patible with the spirit of the Christian religion }

11. What seem to be the ?hief social needs of
India }

12. In what ways would Christ's teaching about
the value of man make a difference in the social life
of India ?

13. Is there any evidence in this chapter to show
that Christianity has already begun to make such a
difference ?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

General

Crooke — Things Indian.

Dubois — Hindu Manners^ Customs and Ceremonies.

Padfield — The Hindu at Home.

BosE — Hindoos as They Are.

Day — Bengal Peasant Life.

Pandian — Indian Village Folk.

See also References to chapter i.

The Life of the People 71

Russell — Village Work in India.
Carmichael — Things as They Are.
Denning — Mosaics from India.
Hodge — Caste or Christ.
Clough — While Sewing Sandals.
Barnes — Behind the Pardah.

The Women of India
Fuller — The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood.
Ramabai — The High-Caste Hindu Woman.
SoRABJi — ^Between the Twilights.
Storrow — Our Indian Sisters.
Jones — India's Problem^ chap. v.

Caste
Census of India (1901), vol. i., chap. xi.
Imperial Gazetteer, vol. i., chap. vi.
Mylne — Missions to Hindus.
Morrison — New Ideas in India, chap. iii.
Denning — Mosaics from India, chaps, xv., xvi.
Carmichael — Things as They Are, chap. xi.

CHAPTER III

India's search

The Complexity HiNDUiSM is a gigantic social and re-
ligious structure. The system of caste,
rigid and unchangeable, riveted together
by Brahmanical authority, is its framework ;
built into it are indefinite and intricate
religious elements, such as diverse rites and
practices, opinions orthodox or otherwise,
sentiments sublime and degraded, crude
mythologies, bold and untrammelled philo-
sophical speculations. These varied ele-
ments tell the story of a great search, and
give significance to Indian rehgious history.
The records include the sacred canon called
the Vedas, which is the earhest in point of
time, and numerous other works, which
form the scriptures of many cults and
sects.

The Vedas. The Vedas consist of three portions — the

Mantras, the Brahmanas, and the Upani-
shads. The Mantras consist mainly of
metrical hymns of prayer or praise. The

India's Search 73

earliest of these hymns are invariably ad-
dressed to the great powers of Nature, and
the reason is evident. The first colonists,
who belonged to an Indo-European race,
had settled as a pastoral people in the
plains of the Punjab and their welfare was
conditioned by the benevolence of nature.
The Brahmanas are prose compositions
which deal chiefly with ritual. The Upani-
shads are in a manner appendices to the
Brahmanas, written either in prose or
verse. They contain the basis of Hindu
philosophy. They are usually incoherent
treatises with a great deal of matter that
is obscure and tedious. Yet in them are
ideas which were afterwards amplified and
elaborated into philosophical systems.
They voice the deepest feehngs of the human
heart, oppressed and baffled by the sense of
mystery which veils reahty. Suppressed
often by weary detail and vain repetition,
yet unspent as it traverses the intervening
centuries, the cry of souls in spiritual
agony every now and then reaches our ears,
as, for example, in such a prayer as this :
" From the unreal lead me to the Real,
from the darkness lead me to Light, from
death lead me to ImmortaUty."

74

The Desire of India

Landmarks of

Religious

History.

Buddha.

The pathway which leads from the Vedas
to modern Hinduism is very tortuous.
For part of its course it is completely
obliterated, yet along it are certain great
landmarks. Of these particularly pro-
minent are the two heresies of Buddhism
and Jainism., the two philosophical systems
of the Vedanta and the Sankhya, which
have their roots in the Upanishads but
were not systematised till centuries later,
and the two mythological personalities of
Vishnu and Siva, round whom have grown
up, and to whom have been affiliated, an
enormous number of sectarian cults.

Of India's sons, Siddhartha, surnamed
Gautama, and known to history as Buddha,
may be said to be the greatest, and he has
a place among the world's noblest seekers
after truth. Although forgotten in India,
his name and his memory live in China,
Japan, Burma, Siam, and Ceylon. Sid-
dhartha's father was head of the compara-
tively small and pohtically insignificant tribe
of the Sakyas, who occupied the tract of
country corresponding to the modern
district of Gorakhpur, about two hundred
miles north of Benares, and his wife, Maya,
was the daughter of a neighbouring chieftain.

India's Search 75

In giving an account of Buddha's life, the
historian has great difficulty in sifting the
facts from the mass of legends which the
centuries have accumulated. There is a
story of a miraculous annunciation and a
still more miraculous birth. Siddhartha
is born in the forest of Lumbini as his
mother journeys to her early home. He is
received and tended by the gods who sur-
round his mother. She dies a few days
after the birth of her son. Then follow
accounts of his early years, and of his
pre-eminence in all feats of strength.

He married, and a son was born to him. His
His days were spent in luxury and indul- ^enunciation,
gence, but a change was brought about in
his Hf e as he faced the great problems of Hf e
and death. Sick at heart, he resolved to
leave home that very night. He rose from
his bed, and saw around him on the floor
the minstrels who had been engaged to
entertain him. " To him that magnificent
apartment, as splendid as Sakka's residence
in heaven, began to seem like a charnel-
house full of loathsome corpses. Life,
whether in the world subject to passion,
or in the worlds of form, or in the formless
worlds, seemed to him hke staying in a

j6 The Desire of India

house that had become the prey of devour-
ing flames. An utterance of intense feehng
broke from him — ' It all oppresses me !
It is intolerable ! ' — and his mind turned
ardently to the state of those who have
renounced the world. Resolving that very
day to accomplish the Great Renunciation,
he rose from his couch and went to the
door." Calling for his horse, he mounted
it, and travelled for many miles. Having
dismissed his servant he became a hermit.
" I will perform the uttermost penance "
was his resolve. For six years he continued
his austerities, till he " perceived that
penance was not the way to wisdom."
He next went as a mendicant to Benares.
His five companions whom he had gathered
forsook him, believing that he had failed
in his ideal. Finally, after a period of
terrible temptation by Mara and his hosts,
under the sacred Bo-tree at Gaya the light
came to him and he became Buddha or
" the Enlightened One."
His first The next step in his life was to declare

iscip es. i^^g doctrine, which he did in the deer-park

near Benares to his five companions who
had forsaken him. Buddha attracted to
himself certain kindred spirits upon whom

TOPE MARKING SPOT WHERE BUDDHA FIRST PREACHED

BUDDHIST ROCK-CUT TEMPLES

India's Search 77

sorrow weighed heavily as the inevitable ac-
companiment of life, and who had probably
themselves experienced the bitter tragedy
of the irretrievable break-up of old beliefs
without the discovery of new truths to
gladden and strengthen their fainting hearts.
An order was founded into which all men
were admissible without distinction. It
had the power of a religious society, the
members of which were inspired by a com-
mon ideal and bound together by the ties
of affection and mutual esteem. Over
them ruled one who had sought truth and
who believed that he had found it, and the
tender quahties of whose heart transcended
the despair of his doctrine.

The doctrine of Buddha may be sum- Buddha's
marised as follows. Existence is sorrow. ^^^ ^^'
This is the starting-point, and it was this
which led Buddha to make his system the
means of escape from human woe. Exist-
ence therefore is essentially an evil and its
cessation the highest good. All pain is due
to the desire to Hve and to our desire to
satisfy the demands and cravings of Hfe.
The individual is nothing but the combina-
tion of certain qualities. These are bound
together by the cravings and desires of a

78 The Desire of India

previous existence which have the power of
persisting. After death these quahties dis-
appear, but immediately they are again
associated together by this strange, persist-
ing, potential power. The form they
assume is determined by the amount of
merit or demerit accumulated in a pre-
vious existence. In Buddhist theology
this determining factor is termed karma.
Another life is thus created, and lives subject
to the pain which invariably accompanies
existence. By our ignorance, therefore,
we increase the sum-total of human sorrow
in causing life after our death to come into
being, whereas the enlightened mind is free
from desire and cravings. It has bHss
in this Hfe, and accumulates no power
to rebind the disintegrated quahties
after death into a new existence. This
state of annihilation has been termed
'' Nirvana."
The Secret of It is possible that the community and
Buddhism. ° monastic order which Buddha founded
would have perished in obscurity, if certain
pohtical events had not taken place. Two
centuries after the death of the founder,
Asoka ascended the throne of Magadha,
where Buddha himself had preached. This

India's Search 79

Emperor embraced Buddhism and pro-
pagated it throughout India. None the
less the power of the rehgion lay in the life
and memory of its founder. " Besides
its doctrines and precepts," says M. Barth,
" Buddhism had its institutions and its
spirit of discipline and propagandism, a
quite new art of winning and directing
souls ; it had, especially, Buddha himself
and his memory, which remained a living
one in the Church. We cannot, in fact,
ascribe too much in the conquests of Bud-
dhism to the personal character of its founder
and to the legend regarding him. . . .
These narratives form one of the most
affecting histories which humanity has ever
conceived, . . . they have gained more
souls for Buddhism than its theories re-
specting existence and Nirvana."

Buddhism ceased to exist in India as a The Decay

, !•• Pi ii PPM I of Buddhism.

paramount rehgion aiter the liith century
A.D. To-day it is practically unknown,
and its founder has a position as a minor
incarnation in the Hindu Pantheon.

Only passing reference can be made to Jainism.
Jainism, the second great heresy. It has
sm-vived the centuries, whereas Buddhism
was engulfed. It is now confined to a small

8o The Desire of India

though prosperous community in . central
and western India.
TheVedanta The next landmarks are the Sankhya

Philosophy. ^^^^ Vedanta philosophies. Consideration
of the latter will be necessary to the ex-
clusion of the former, as it is much more
closely alhed to the religious thought of the
common people. Reference must be made
to the sources of the Vedanta system. Its
roots lie in the Upanishads. Two great
names are associated with its systematisa-
tion as a philosophy, namely, those of
Badarayana and Sankaracharya.
Sankaracharya. Sankaracharya stands pre - eminent
among Hindu theologians. He was born
in south India in 788 a.d. Being a
Brahman by birth, he was invested with
the sacred thread at an early age. Soon
afterwards he declared his intention of
renouncing the world for a Ufe of asceti-
cism, and to prepare himself he became the
disciple of a Brahman. His days of pre-
paration being over, he travelled to Benares
— the centre of Hindu learning — and there
began his life-work by writing his great
classical commentaries on the Upanishads
and Vedanta Sutras. He travelled through
India preaching his message in the schools

India's Search 8i

of learning and overthrowing the philosophic
atheism and the idolatry of Buddhism.
He established priories in various parts of
the country to keep alive his doctrine.

The Vedanta, as formulated by Sankara, is His Teaching.
comparatively simple. He recognises one
reality named Brahma (the neuter noun is
used), which has no attribute and no hmita-
tions. Nothing else exists save Brahma.
This truth is expressed by the Vedantist
in the famous phrase " one only without
a second." Within ourselves we are sure
of an existence which is none other but
Brahma, not merely a part of Brahma,
but the absolute, whole, undivided reality.
Nothing besides it exists. That self within us
is termed Atma, in fact Atma is Brahma.
To know this great truth is salvation, — not
the means of salvation but salvation itself.
" I am Brahma," is the final beatitude.
But this theory gives no explanation of the
external world, of individual souls, of
human society and morahty. " The whole
world is only an illusion," says the Vedantist,
" which Brahma as magician evolves from
himself and by which he is no more affected
than is the magician by the illusion which
he has produced." Because of ignorance

82 The Desire of India

the soul is unable to conceive itself as
Brahma, and is thus enthralled in the chain
of birth and death. The soul after death
is reincarnated in some form, whether good,
such as a celestial being or Brahman, or
bad, such as a lower animal or out- caste,
according to the merit or demerit accumu-
lated by works performed in a previous
life. Even though the new existence is in
heaven, this state is not the best, for the
highest life is only attained when ignorance
disappears and one can say " I am Brahma."
Then the " round of rebirths " ceases, and
the soul attains emancipation. Deep in the
thought of India is the implication " that
all individual existence is an evil." A stern
moral justice rules the world, for the
doctrine of harma with the doctrine of
transmigration teaches that what a man sows
that shall he reap. The seeming injustice
of the fact that some men are in conditions
of happiness and others of sorrow, is made
explicable when we remember that every
man is receiving to-day the reward or
punishment of a past existence. This
doctrine of " deeds " and of transmigration
is the very warp and woof of the rehgious
conceptions of the common people.

India's Search Ss

The ideas and terminology of Sankara illustrated in
have been accepted in a crude form by ^^^^^^^•
many Indian religious teachers — especially
by numbers of ascetics whose garb betokens
their calling and whose use of the Vedantic
phraseology invests them with an air of
learning. The following incident is taken
from the Hfe of Dr John Wilson, a mis-
sionary of the Free Church of Scotland.
" Wolff went also with Dr Wilson to see
one of the celebrated Yogis, who was lying
in the sun in the street, the nails of whose
hands were grown into his cheeks, and a
bird's nest upon his head. Wolff asked
him, ' How can one obtain the knowledge
of God ? ' He repHed, ' Do not ask me
questions. You may look at me, for I am
God.' Wolff indignantly said to him,
' You will go to hell if you speak in such
a way.' "

The philosophy of Sankara has little Ramanuja.
comfort. Its sentiment of " sweet to be
wrecked on the ocean of the Infinite " can
be the desire of very few. More than three
centuries after Sankara's death another
theologian called Ramanuja commented on
the Vedanta Sutras. Ramanuja was the
■founder of modern Indian theism as taught

sufficient.

84 The Desire of India

by Ramanand and his successors. Like
Sankara he taught the existence of " One
all-embracing being called Brahma, or the
highest Self or Lord/' the possessor of every
moral attribute. Human souls when eman-
cipated from rebirths for ever dwell with
him. Salvation is by the "grace of God."
Philosophy In- Side by side with the philosophies and
rationalistic systems there has existed the
popular rehgion of the people. There is a
curious incident in the Ufe of Sankara which
illustrates this. When he had become
famous he went home to see his mother, who
was lying on a bed of sickness — probably
her last illness. " Her thoughts," says
his biographer " all turned to the other
world. She desired her son to discourse to
her on things that would bestow peace and
salvation on her. He began to preach to
her his high philosophy, so the mother
desired him to discourse to her of things she
would understand." Whereupon, accom-
modating himself to the difficult situation,
he gave praise to Siva. Very pathetic is a
recorded prayer of Sankara. His philo-
sophy left no room for worship and devo-
tion, for there is no object to whom prayer
can be directed, or upon whom the heart

India's Search 85

may rest. And yet the craving apparently
was still present, and probably he gave
utterance to the aspirations and desires of
his heart. " Oh, Lord," he says, " pardon
my three sins. I have in contemplation
clothed in form Thee who art formless ;
I have in praise described Thee, who art
ineffable ; and in visiting shrines I have
ignored Thy omnipresence."

Popular Hinduism conceives the Im- Popular
personal Spirit as making itself known
under three forms — Brahma (masculine, not
Brahma, neuter), the Creator, Vishnu, the
Preserver, and Siva, the Destroyer. Modern
Hinduism concerns itself mainly with the
last two persons of its trinity. Both are
closely related to certain accessory divinities,
such as Ganesa and Subrahmanya, the two
sons of Siva, Rama and Krishna, the two
most important incarnations of Vishnu, or to
female divinities, such as the wives of Siva
and Vishnu. Brahma apparently needs no
remembrance ; his work of creation is done,
and nothing can undo it. Probably not
more than three temples exist to his honour
throughout India. On the other hand the
worship of Siva and Vishnu forms the
very heart of the later Hindu rehgior.

86 The Desire of India

The Worship Siva in the J popular mind is connected
of Siva. with the worship of the male creative energy.

Temples contain his emblem, a smooth,
upright stone, which is adored by his
votaries. On some high festival such as
the Sivaratri, the night of Siva, he receives
homage from many worshippers whose
adherence to him is more or less nominal,
and who restrict their attention to such
particularly suitable periods. The interior
of the temple is usually plain. In front
of the symbol is often an image of the sacred
bull Nandi, the inseparable companion of
the god. Behind, in a niche, appears the
image of Siva's spouse. Outside, above the
doorway or upon the wall of the temple
court, the quaint figure of their son Ganesa
is to be seen. His corpulent human body
surmounted by the head of an elephant
is a familiar object throughout India. The
worshippers, after some prehminary purifi-
catory rites, are admitted into the sanctuary
and prostrate themselves in front of the
sacred emblem. Each then in turn lays
on the stone a number of hel leaves, and
pours upon it the sacred water which he
holds in a little brass vessel. During the
ceremony there is constant ringing of beUs

Indians Search %7

and clapping of hands, while formularies
are muttered by the priest, as if to attract
the attention of the god to the petitions of
his people.

In the south, Siva is adored by thousands Tamil Saivite
as the supreme being who was incarnated to ^y"^"^-
help men in their struggle through life.
To the praise of Siva, Manikka Vasagar, in
the seventh century of our era, composed
his famous Tamil Saivite hymns, known
under the title of the Tiru-vasagam, which
are the most popular Tamil sacred utter-
ances. Dr G. U. Pope tells us that they
have touched the hearts of the vast
majority of the Tamil- speaking people
with a power somewhat akin to that
of the Psalms. " These poems," he says,
" are daily sung throughout the whole
Tamil- country with tears of rapture, and
committed to memory in every Saiva
temple by the people, amongst whom it is a
traditional saying that ' he whose heart is
not melted by the Tiru-vasagam must have
a stone for a heart.' ... It is impossible
to read the poems without a feehng that
the sage was a sincere seeker after God, whom
in ways that he then knew not of he has
since been permitted to know and worship."

88 The Desire of India

The Worship Vaishnavism is the more popular creed
of Vishnu. everywhere in India, with the possible

exception of south India. Vishnu is
worshipped especially in his incarnations as
Rama or Krishna. The temples are less
numerous than those of Siva, probably
because of the expense. For the latter
deity only the sacred symbol is needed.
For the former a human figure has to be
constructed, and the ceremony or ritual
is much more elaborate ; the image is
roused every morning from its slumbers,
washed and bathed, decked with ornaments,
fed and finally put to sleep every evening.
Among the household gods Vishnu is repre-
sented by a small black pebble, and to it
the same reverence is shown.
The incarna- Vishuu, the Preserver, appears in the
tions of Vishnu, ^^^i^ ^g ^j^ incarnation whenever mankind

is in some special trouble. Nine times has
he thus appeared. Two of these incarna-
tions appear largely in the popular worship
of the people — the incarnation as Rama,
the hero of the famous epic, and that as
Krishna, the cowherd. To these two it
will be necessary to refer at some length.
The Story of The Ramayana, which celebrates the
Rama and Sita. ^qq^^ of Rama and the devotion of his wife,

India's Search 89

Sita, through many trying years of banish-
ment, is a great epic poem consisting of
24,000 stanzas. Its reputed author is the
poet Valmiki. The most popular version is
the one in the Hindi language written by
Tulsi Das, Rama, the hero and heir to the
throne of Ayodhya, is banished from the
kingdom for fourteen years by his father's
order. Accompanied by his brother and
wife he leaves home. His father dies and
Rama is invited to return home and
assume the sovereignty which is his by
right. This he considers would be an
unfilial act, as his period of banishment has
not expired. The story deals with the
adventures which befell him and his com-
panions, such as Sita's abduction and her
rescue by Hanuman, the monkey-god.
Her faithfulness to her husband, Rama's
suspicions, and the ordeal through which
she passes to prove her fidelity are dwelt
upon in the epic. The manner in which
Sita bears her trials touches a chord of
sympathy in many Hindu hearts. The
epic has human interest, and hence its great
influence as a moral force.

" To the milUons of Hindus," says an its influence.
Indian writer of note, " Sita is a real human

90 The Desire of India

character— a pattern of female virtue and
female self-abnegation. There is not a Hindu
woman in the length and breadth of India
to whom the story of suffering Sita is not
known, and to whom her character is not
a model to strive after and imitate. And
Rama too, though scarcely equal to Slta
in the worth of his character, has been a
model to men for his truth, his obedience,
and his piety. And thus the epic has been
for the millions of India a means of moral
education, the value of which can hardly
be over-estimated." " May your husband
be like Rama . . . and your brothers-in-
law like Lakshmana," is the common bene-
diction of a Hindu lady to a girl of her
acquaintance.

Rama, in north India, is the incarnation
of God. Many requests are made to him,
and his name has become a word of saluta-
tion when friends meet one another. His
influence is due to the work of such men as
Ramanand, who was the contemporary of
John Wycliffe, Kabir, who lived at the same
time as Luther, and Tulsi Das. What the
last accompKshed was by means of the
vernacular and Hindi version of the Rama-
yana, a production the influence of which

India's Search 91

is unparalleled in northern India. By the
proclamation of faith in God and in Rama
his servant, he saved Hindi -speaking India
from the sensuaKsm of Bengal encouraged
by the Krishna cult. Perhaps in the whole
range of Indian literature nothing is more
beautiful than this recorded prayer of the
Indian saint, Tulsi Das : " Lord look Thou
upon me — nought can I do myself. Whither
can I go ? To whom but Thee can I tell
my sorrow ? Oft have I turned my face
from Thee and grasped the things of this
world, but Thou art the fount of mercy,
turn not Thou Thy face from me . . .
When I looked away from Thee I had no
eyes of faith to see Thee where Thou art,
but Thou art all-seeing. I am but an
offering cast before Thee . . . Remember
Thy mercy and Thy might, then cast thine
eyes upon me and claim me as Thy slave.
Thy very own. . . . Lord Thy ways ever
give joy unto my heart. Tulsi is Thine
alone, and 0 God of mercy do unto him
as seemeth good unto Thee."

Krishna, as an incarnation of Vishnu, has Krishna.
a larger number of followers than are found
in any other Vaishnavite sect, including
even the followers of Rama. One phase of

92 The Desire of India

Vaishnavite belief must be emphasised.
The methods of salvation which Hinduism
with its tolerance has admitted are many.
They may be said to be of three distinct
types. In an earlier section of this chap-
ter the knowledge of Brahma has been
referred to as bringing salvation, and it is
theologically known as the method of
knowledge (jndn mdrg). The whole ritual
of Hinduism, domestic and communal, is
another means of salvation — namely, the
pathway of works {karma mdrg), Vaish-
navism brought the individual soul into
contact with a personality who had lived on
earth and among mankind, and taught that
devotion to and faith in such personahties
led to salvation ; this is the pathway of
devotion (bhakti mdrg). This relation-
ship is regarded as existing between Rama
and his votaries, but much more between
Krishna and his worshippers. " In Krishna,
I take my refuge " is the initiatory vow of
his disciples. Krishna is even less histori-
cal than Rama. He appears as a warrior
statesman in the Mahabharata, another
ancient epic parts of which are older than
the Ramayana. His conversation with one
of the heroes is recorded in the Bhagavad

India's Search 93

Gita, of which many translations exist in
the English language, notably one by
Sir Edwin Arnold entitled the " Song
Celestial." But we can treat of Krishna
only as known to the common people.
Late Brahmanical literature records his life,
which was one of immorahty and deceit.

It is only right that reference should be Kali Worship,
made to certain cults which have sprung
up in connection with Saivism and Vaish-
navism. Saivism has its votaries who
worship his wife Parvati, better known
under her other titles of Durga and Kali
Kali may be said to be the goddess of
Bengal. She loves the sight of blood and
executes dire vengeance on her enemies.
Her influence is very great. Every year,
when north India celebrates the deeds of
the Ramayana, Bengal gives itself up to
the ghastly ritual of the Kali worship.
Thousands of animals are slain to appease
her lust for blood. Throughout the year
her shrines are besieged by people who
desire boons, or who desire to avert her
wrath.

Even darker rites are connected with immoral
Kali — namely the Tantric worship. We
can only be grateful that they are restricted

94 The Desire of India

to a very small, and what seemingly is a
dying, community. The form of Krishna
worship which celebrates his amom*s and his
mistress Radha has on the other hand
fouled the imagination of countless men
and women, and is a standing menace to
purity and clean Hving in India.
Religion of the We have traced the religion of the sacred
Peopk°" writings, and of reUgious leaders who are

recognised as orthodox, but their ideas
do not represent those of the common
people, who only on days of high festival
repair to the temple of the recognised gods,
such as Vishnu and Siva. The social
customs and the ritual observed at birth,
marriage and death are more or less ortho-
dox, though this is true only of the better
castes. But in times of distress, for bless-
ings on the daily task, for protection from
disease, for health to a loved one, it is the
local village deities who are invoked. In
northern India, there is a vague beUef
in a supreme personal god called Isvara,
due very probably to the teaching of re-
ligious leaders like Ramanand, Kabir and
Tulsi Das. But Isvara is too great to be
concerned with the world and his creatures.
The latter are delegated to the charge of

India's Search 95

minor deities whose relation to Isvara is,
as an Indian servant put it, " that of
underlings to an official."

To the common people the world is an Malevolent
insoluble riddle. All around is the unseen, ^^^"^ ^^^'
peopled with unknown terrors, such as the
gods of various diseases, the malevolent
dead — usually the spirits of such persons as
in this Kfe have met with an untimely end,
the evil eye, ghosts, and the dire influences
of the Black Art. In order to obtain
happiness in this hfe these must be ap-
peased, usually by gifts and propitiatory
sacrifices. When the avenging goddess
of pestilence stalks through the land,
offerings consisting usually of animals and
fowls, rice and fruit are collected from
the various households of the afflicted
village. A procession is formed to the
village boundary, the animals are killed
and their blood poured out on a stone ;
the provisions are eaten, and the basket
with the rice left at the place of sacrifice.
It is beheved that the goddess has thus been
led to the village borders, and has crossed
into the lands of the next village.

The trees are haunts of unknown terrors, Popular
especially the fipal tree. Terrible evils are ^^^^^

96 The Desire of India

sure to befall a village if this tree is injured
by human hands. The masonry platform
round the tree, with the little twinkling oil
lamps and the portions of food upon it, is
a famihar sight in every Indian village.
Occasionally the evil powers may be out-
witted by human ingenuity. A mother
who has lost two or three children in suc-
cession will give her next child a name
signifying that it is worth nothing, and will
thus avert the jealousy of the evil power.
A name such as " Idiot " may be given or,
as in southern India, a Muhammadan or
Christian name. It is on record that a
child whom the mother desired to preserve
from evil was called " Rapsan " a cor-
ruption of the proper name " Robertson."
Another means of protection is to invoke
the aid of the minor gods who are bene-
volently inchned towards men. Thus the
villager strives to attain the friendship
of Hanuman the monkey-god. His familiar
lineaments are to be seen at many a village
shrine. To him the simple offerings and
prayers of the people are made. Near by a
well appears the portly human figure of
Ganesa, with his elephant's head, painted
a bright yellow ; a few faded marisfolds.

WORSHIP OF THE SNAKE GOD

ASCETIC BEFORE IMAGE OF GANESA

India's Search 97

some leaves or a garland of bedraggled
jasmine form his only adornment. They
are the gifts of some humble votary who
desires protection for his crops from bHght
or from drought. The reHgious efforts of
the villager are directed to devising means
of escape from the unknown terrors,
which surround him. Among some of the
aboriginal races of the Chota Nagpur
plateau the Christian Church is supposed
to have special powers of protection from
these influences. " It is a general belief,"
writes a missionary historian, " that Bhuts
(evil spirits) have not power over the
followers of Christ."

The stone by the roadside with some Divinities to be
distant resemblance to an animal, tree or where. ^^^^
divinity, the meeting place of two streams
or rivers, a branch with a curious, gnarl,
some mysterious glen, some mountain peak,
are all objects of reverence. For may not
the Supreme who is everything, every-
where, the only existence, thus show him-
self to men ? In the struggle of Hfe, with
its perplexities, trials, sorrows, and cala-
mities, with the future all unknown, is it
not well to have friends in the unseen world
who will give protection from the mal-

98 The Desire of India

evolent influences which are constantly
ready to overwhelm mankind ? A poHce
officer told the Bishop of Madras that in the
year 1904 two little boys who were herding
cattle thought they heard the sound of
trumpets proceeding from an ant-hill. They
told the story in their village, whereupon
the inhabitants turned out to worship the
deity ifi the ant-hill. The fame of this
special favour of the gods spread through-
out the district. " Every Sunday as many
as five thousand people, men and women,
assembled before the ant-hill, and might
be seen prostrate on their faces in wrapt
adoration."
Relig-ion not a Immorality is not rebuked by religion.
No public opinion exists which protests
against evil. In the temples the proud
Brahman rules supreme, with his greed for
money and his rapacity which feeds on the
credulity of the people. Within the holy
precincts themselves vice often reigns. To
many of the great temples girls are attached
as attendants and are dedicated to the
god. They are called by their parents in
fulfilment of a vow '' deva-dasis," or the
" slaves of the god." In the name of
religion these hapless creatures are con-

Moral Force.

India's Search 99

demned to a life of shame. The barbarous
practice of child-marriage and the unre-
lieved misery of the child widow continue
in the name of reUgion and custom. Un«
truthfulness is rampant if it will serve a
personal end. The perjury of witnesses
in the civil courts is a constant menace to
the course of justice.

The people themselves talk of the present The Dark Age.
as the " Dark Age," referring to the dis-
abiUty under which heaven and earth seem
to labour when everything is *' out of
joint." Perhaps no other term describes
better the rehgious condition of the people.
The merchant, the grain- dealer, the banker
strive for prosperity. The majority of the
people labour under the sense of grinding
care and poverty. They have no time to
give to their souls. A certain minimum
of religion is necessary in order that
fortune may be propitious and prosperity
granted. Thus it comes about that
punctilious regard is paid to the due per-
formance of certain social rites. No
religion in the world observes with such
punctiliousness the innumerable details
attendant upon every domestic event, such
as natal and ante-natal rites, the rites of

lOO

The Desire of India

initiation when the youth dons for the first
time the sacred thread, the visible sign of
the " twice-born " higher castes, the rites of
betrothal and marriage, the daily rites in-
cluding the early morning bath and those
which besiege the preparing and eating of
every meal, occasional rites such as on
building or entering a new home, ploughing
the first furrow, or bringing in the last sheaf
of the harvest. Most of these rites ^o back
for their authority to the Code of Manu.
They are all observed with more or less
rigidity, and with a tenacity that seems
remarkable in these utihtarian days.
Worship and Of daily dcvotioual worship the common

estiva s. people have little, though among the

Brahmans and the more prosperous members
of society certain reHgious exercises are
carried out each day. They consist for
the most part of ablution and purificatory
acts and the repetition of certain sacred
formulae. The religious festivals form an
important feature of the religious life of
the people. They correspond to the saints'
days of the Christian calendar, except that
gods take the place of saints, and fanciful
mythological events are celebrated instead
of a sacred memory. The Holi, or the

Wi

'•i^r.^ -'

India's Search loi

spring festival, is a very great event in the
north, when the people give themselves
over to a few days of rejoicing and pleasure.
The amours of Krishna are celebrated by
immoral songs and indecent pantomimes.
The Melas or sacred fairs have a large share
in the rehgious life of the people. Such, for
example, are the bathing fairs which usher
in the cold weather. They are usually
held on the banks of sacred rivers, or at
shrines where the waters of the adjoining
tanks possess special virtue. Immense
crowds plunge themselves into the water
calHng on their special deities, to whom
they look for salvation and forgiveness.
Liberal fees are paid to the Brahman
guardians of the temples for the privilege
of entering the inner courts and laying the
offerings before the sacred image. The
pilgrims often combine business and pleasiu-e
with their rehgious duties. The farmer
attends the cattle and horse marts which
are open during the season of pilgrimage,
and makes his annual purchases or dis-
poses of his own live-stock. The women
and children haunt the Httle booths and
shops where they purchase trinkets and
toys for their friends and relations.

I02

The Desire of India

Funeral

Customs.

Views of the
Hereafter.

Funeral customs and rites need more
detailed mention for they, above all others,
throw some hght on the mind of the people
as it dwells on the great questions of life,
death and a beyond, even as the l^urial
service of the Christian Church would give
one who was ignorant a very accurate idea
of the faith and hope that is in us. The
dying are placed by the relatives on the
ground, for it would be perdition to die
on a bed or couch ; a lighted taper is
placed in the right hand to guide the soul
into the next world. Ceremonies, held
frequentl}^ during the first year and then
annually on the anniversary of death, are
useful in bringing ease and comfort to the
soul as it wanders through the unknown
tracts of the unseen.

Mention has been made of the doctrine
of " Transmigration." The soul after
death is recreated in some form, animate
or inanimate, man, beast or plant, a god,
Brahman, saint or out- caste, according to
its deeds in this life. This belief is universal.
Dr Pope, the great Tamil scholar, once told
the following story about an Indian friend.
Just before the former made his final
departure from India after many years of

India's Search 103

service, both were sitting talking, when
their conversation was interrupted by a
bird singing in a tree. " I know not what
friend of mine," said Dr Pope's companion,
" long since passed into the unseen, is
singing to us in yonder bird, but I am older
than you and must expect to soon die. If
then in your distant home you hear a bird
sing Hke that, think that it may be myself,
for I will come and sing to you if I can."
Every Hindu has a firm conviction of a
hereafter, although that future may be
wrapped in impenetrable mystery. The
relationships of love and of friendship are
for ever dissolved. To the mother who
loses her child, this hope can bring but httle
comfort. It is as if she had lost a son in a
great unknown city, where she knew that he
lived but had not a ray of hope that he
would ever be found, or that she would
ever hear of him again. Take for example
this pathetic dirge sung in south India by
a mother on the death of a child : —

I

" Oh ! the apple of my eye^ oh ! my dai-hng, my
bhssful Paradise^
Oh ! the apple of my eye_, where hast thou hidden

thyself ?
Oh ! my golden bead, oh ! my eyes,

I04 The Desire of India

Oh ! my flower, where hast thou hidden thyself ?
Is this anyone's curse on me ? Oh ! the apple of
my eye."

Priests and The religious leaders of Hinduism are

Ascetics. numerous. First and foremost are the

Brahmans, the hereditary guardians of its
ritual and its social order. Their functions
and their position in the village community
have already been described, but special
emphasis must be laid on the fact that the
Brahman rarely acts as a spiritual guide.
He is essentially a priest and not a teacher.
Another class of priests ministers to the
superstitious instincts of the people. These
belong to the lowest castes and are the
survival of an aboriginal priesthood which
Hinduism has absorbed. They include
the exorcists, medicine-men, witch-finders,
evil averters and devil-priests whose primi-
tive shrines have a place of importance in
the minds of the common people. The
wandering mendicants and the ascetics
form a third religious order. They typify
to the people the ideal life which has cut
itself loose from the ties of this world.
The ascetic is an object of reverence, if not
of awe, because his accumulated merit has

India's Search 105

endowed him with power which, if he so
desires, he can use to injure mankind.
The rehgious teacher or guru is also an
ascetic who has followers both celibate and
householders. The former Hve with him
and receive instruction from him. The
latter after initiation submit themselves
to their spiritual preceptor, who either visits
them in their respective villages or receives
their gifts at the headquarters of the order,
where they Hsten to his teaching, admoni-
tion and exhortation.

The ceremonies and practices and forms Contradictions

o 1 T p p TT* 1 * 1 of Hinduism.

01 behei 01 Hmduism are so numerous and
contradictory that their mere detail is
oppressive, and to obtain any clear idea
of the system as a whole is no easy task.
To some it appears to possess lofty spiritual
ideals, while to others gross materiaHsm
is its most striking feature. Both views
include elements of truth. We must con-
stantly bear in mind that the Hindu, what-
ever his conduct may be, Hves in a world
which he considers valueless. The urgency
of his daily physical needs and the deadening
influences of his hopeless outlook on Hfe
may enslave him to the things of sense.
This is doubtless the condition ia which the

io6 The Desire of India

vast majority of the people ordinarily live.
Yet the vanity of the world is a thought
to which they are always ready to respond.
Beneath the materiahsm of common life
lies this fundamental behef of Hinduism.
In the lives of many there are occasional
moments of aspiration, of passionate and
self-sacrificing desire. How otherwise can
we explain the pilgrimages of the thousands
of devotees who throng the , shrines of
India ? Among them are men and women
who have travelled thousands of miles to
expiate their sin — the sin of usury, of
sensuahty, of greed, of uncharitableness.
Its Fundamental To the Hindu the external world is un-
^^ ^' real and he is ever oppressed by the con-

sciousness that behind the things of sense
is the unseen world continually exerting
its influence upon the Hfe of mankind in
ways that are inexpUcable. The fear of
the unseen and the delusiveness of the
seen continually haunt him. His luxuriant
imagination detects symbohsm everywhere
and in all things, pure and foul, good
and evil, in love, passion and hate. In this
ever-shifting world of impermanence the
soul wanders, finding temporary abode in
human form or in that of a lower animal.

India's Search 107

or even it may be in a rock, stone or tree.
Side by side with this conviction of the
unreality of the world of sense there is
deeply ingrained in the Hindu mind the
idea of retribution. The deeds of a past
existence hound a man through this present
life. Good and evil actions whether done
intentionally or inadvertently have a re-
tributory force, and a man is continually
reaping a harvest sown in the unknown
and unremembered past. Nothing avails
to ease his lot, and thus he struggles in the
morass of existence. Every endeavour to
extricate himself sinks him even more
deeply and hopelessly. It is these behefs
that are ultimately responsible for the
deadening influences of Hinduism.

The Hindu theory of Hfe and of the uni- its Failure,
verse blunts the finer feelings, and its
hopelessness is subversive of morality and
truth, and antagonistic to progress and
reform. The moral practice of the people
is not on the whole very different from that
of western peoples. The moral standard
however is lower. Hinduism has no bar
ofJpubHc opinion at which tyrannous social
custom and immorality may be arraigned.
We cannot forget that many Indian re-

io8 The Desire of India

ligious leaders have inculcated high and
noble sentiments, but Hinduism shows its
impotence to correct or even to condemn
moral and social wrong. The greatest evil
is not caste, nor untruthfulness, nor cruelty
to the individual, nor immorality. All these
are symptomatic of a diseased mind. The
reform needed is more radical than to break
down the tyranny of caste, prevent child-
marriage, rescind the restrictions against
widow remarriage, purify the temples
and ennoble the worship of the people.
It is nothing less than to give India a new
outlook upon the world and human life.
India's Need of Hinduism is frankly agnostic regarding
those great truths which alone can save
and give hope to a nation — the righteous-
ness of God and the moral order of the
universe, the Fatherhood of God and His
redeeming love for mankind, the eternal
value of the human soul and hence of this
life in which man is afforded his oppor-
tunity to develop character. These are
the truths of which all peoples have in
greater or lesser measure caught a gUmpse.
The great seekers of India have striven
after them, but have never attained any
definite assurance regarding them. To

Christ.

India's Search 109

mankind they were revealed in their fulness
through the life and death of Christ. He
alone has the power to make men and nations
beheve that these truths are eternal verities
and to render it possible to build upon them
individual and corporate Hfe. Given an
India with a hold on these fundamental
truths revealed in Christ we may trust her
to work them into her life and experience.
Round them she will weave her imagination,
her devotion and her love.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER III

1. What is the general character of the Vedas ?

2. Mention the chief landmarks in the course of
the development from Vedic religion to modern
Hinduism.

3. What was the problem for which Buddha was
driven to seek a solution ?

4. Enumerate the facts which show the sincerity
and earnestness of his search.

5. Wherein lay the secret of his influence ?

6. Compare the answers to the problem of
existence given by Buddha and Sankaracharya
respectively.

7. Mention any other seekers after God referred
to in this chapter.

8. What need of the human heart is met by the
belief in the incarnations of Vishnu as Rama and
Krishna ?

no The Desire of India

9. What are the three methods of salvation re-
cognised by Hinduism? Which is nearest to the
Christian teaching ?

10. What is the general idea of God possessed by
the common people ?

11. In what respects are morality and religion
less closely united in Hinduism than in Chris-
tianity ?

12. How would you explain the care and punc-
tihousness with which religious rites are performed
in India ?

13. Does the natural disposition of the people
of India seem to be more or less religious than that
of western peoples ?

14. What can Christianity add to the Hindu
conception of God ?

15. What is the value set by Hinduism on human
life ? What is the Christian view ?

16. Is there any reason for believing that, if India
were to accept Christianity, she might in some re-
spects interpret it more faithfully and successfully
than western nations have done ?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

General

Hopkins — The Religions of India.
Barth — The Religions of India.
MoNiER- Williams — Brahmanism and Hinduism.
MoNiER-WiLLiAMS — Hinduism.
Geden — Studies in Eastern Religions.
Crooke — Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of
North India.

India's Search m

Gordon — Indian Folk Tales.

Oakley — Holy Himalaya.

Lyall — Asiatic Studies.

Deussen — Outline of Indian Philosophy.

Macdonell — History of Sanskrit Literature.

Dubois — Hindu Manners^ Customs and Ceremonies.

Buddhism
Rhys Davids — Buddhism : its History and Litera-
ture.
Rhys Davids— Buddhism (S.P.C.K.).
Oldenberg — Buddha.
Warren — Buddhism in Translations.

Hinduism and Christianity
Slater — The Higher Hinduism in its Relation to

Christianity.
RoBSON — Hinduism and Christianity.
Haigh — Some Leading Ideas of Hinduism.
RicHTER — History of Missions in India^ chap. iv.
Jones — India's Problem^ chaps, ii.^, iii..
Lucas — The Empire of Christ, chaps, iii., iv.

Special Subjects

Oman — The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India.
Oman — The Brahmins, Theists and Muslims of

India.
Westcott — KabTr and the Kabir Panth.
Gazetteer of India, Vol. II., chap. xi.

CHAPTER IV

India's invaders ^

The earliest days of Indian history are
wrapped in mystery so impenetrable that
speculation is the only resort of writers on
the subject. Of one thing we are sure —
that in the hterature of the Indian people
are to be found the earhest thoughts of any
Indo-European race. The Rig- Veda, the
most sacred book of the Hindu Canon, re-
cords the ideas and rehgious feelings of a
very ancient race belonging to the same
stock as that from which most of the nations
of modern Europe have sprung. Entering
India from the north, these Aryan im-
migrants colonised the land of the five
rivers, or the Punjab. Here they came into
contact with many tribes of another stock.
Some they conquered, others made their
submission to them and became " the
hewers of wood and drawers of water "
to the Aryan colonists. Others fled to the

1 The Historical Chart on pp. 286, 287 should be studied
along with this chapter.

Indians Invaders 113

hills and inaccessible parts of the country,
and with the more powerful there were
occasional alHances. The conquerors them-
selves were not always united, internecine
war was not unknown, and a temporary
alKance of an Aryan tribe with some power-
ful tribe of the enemy was often resorted
to as an expedient to restore the balance of
power. To these events it is impossible
to assign dates, but some historians have
suggested the period from 2000-1500 B.C.

It is only when alien nations have touched A History of
the hfe of India that the veil is lifted and
some accurate history becomes possible.
In fact the history of India may be con-
veniently grouped round these invasions to
which the country has been subject. Seem-
ingly secure behind the mountainous
defences provided by nature to guard the
northern frontiers, and the expanse of sea
which for centuries made access impossible,
the inhabitants have been harassed by
foreign invaders to whom the tempta*tion
of reputed wealth and the prospect of an
easier Hvelihood have been irresistible.

By a curious coincidence the story The invasion
commences — ]ust as it closes m our own ^j^g Qj-^^t,
day — with a European invasion. Alex- 326 B.C.

114 The Desire of India

ander the Great at the early age of • twenty
had succeeded his father on the throne.
Two years later he began his campaigns
in Asia. After inflicting a crushing defeat
on Darius, King of Persia, he entered India
through the mountainous passes of the
north-western frontier. In the month of
May, 326 b.c. Alexander appeared on the
banks of the Jhelum — called by the Greeks
the Hydaspes. Immediately opposite on
the other side of the river was intrenched the
powerful north Indian monarch, Porus, with
an immense army, consisting (as the Greek
historians tell us in a probably exaggerated
account) of no less than " 30,000 efficient
infantry, 4000 horse, 300 chariots and 200
elephants." The battle which ensued re-
sulted in the complete triumph of the Greek
forces. Porus submitted to Alexander, and
was confirmed in the position of a vassal
prince over the territories which he had so
recently ruled as an absolute monarch.
Its Temporary Alexander continued his progress through
the country till he came to the Beas River.
Meanwhile, his troops became disheartened
by their continual exertions and the heat
of the climate, while their rear was con-
tinually threatened by the tribes they had

Effects.

India's Invaders 115

recently subjugated. Alexander was at
length compelled to leave India, marching
with part of his army through the sand-
wastes of Sind and through Baluchistan,
while his general, Nearchus, conducted
the remainder in ships up the Persian
Gulf. Thus ended Alexander's attempt
to found an empire in India ; he failed in
his object, and though he had proved in-
vincible in war his power was temporary
and unstable. In less than two years from
the evacuation of India by the Greeks,
Alexander died at Babylon. " India
remained unchanged," says a modern his-
torian. " The wounds of battle quickly
healed ; the ravaged fields smiled again
as the patient oxen and no less patient
husbandmen resumed their interrupted
labours, and the places of the slain myriads
were filled by the teeming swarms of a
population which knows no limits save
those imposed by the cruelty of man or
the still more pitiless operations of nature.
She continued to live her fife of " splendid
isolation " and soon forgot the passing of
the Macedonian storm. No Indian author,
Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the
faintest allusion to Alexander or his deeds."

ii6 The Desire of India

Asoka, Alexander's withdrawal was the signal for

272-232 . . revolt. Chandragupta, a soldier of fortune,
made himself master of India and founded
a native dynasty. His military power
was very great, and he created a mar-
vellously efficient and comprehensive ad-
ministration. His grandson Asoka, who
succeeded to the throne in 272 B.C., is one
of the most famous names in Indian history.
He reigned for forty years. In the tenth
year of his reign he invaded and conquered
the kingdom of the Kalingas, which corre-
sponds to the sea-board tract known to-day
as Orissa. The bloodshed was enormous,
and aroused in Asoka's nature a revulsion
towards war, which probably led to his
conversion to Buddhism. In one of his
rock-cut edicts he says : " His majesty
feels remorse on account of the conquest
of the Kalingas, because, during the sub-
jugation of a previously un conquered
country, slaughter, death and taking away
captive of the people necessarily occur.
Whereat his majesty feels profound sor-
row and regret." Having embraced the
Buddhist religion, which to Buddhism
" was probably as great an event as the
adoption of Christianity by Constantine,"

India's Invaders

117

he spent the remaining years of his hfe in
the propagation of that faith, not by the
tyranny of the sword but by the arts of

peace. Over thirty of his edicts have been
found cut on rock and pillar, all of which
breathe an earnest desire to promote the
spiritual welfare of his subjects.

ii8 The Desire of India

His Missionary Not content with bringing the blessings
of his rehgion to his own subjects only, he
planned great missionary campaigns which
had as their objective the kingdoms with
which he had poHtical relations. In the
XIII. Edict, he says, " This is the chief est
conquest in his Majesty's opinion — the
conquest of the Law of Piety ; this also is
that effected by his Majesty both in his
own dominions and in all the neighbouring
realms as far as 6000 leagues." Asoka's
brother was himself head of a monastery
in south India, and with four other monks
went to Ceylon and gained that island for
Buddhism.

His Character Asoka's reign brings us to the height of
a great rehgious movement. Buddha had
taught the sacredness of hfe. Asoka
carried the principles of the master into the
details of government. The Law of Piety
was the ultimate standard in the affairs of
his kingdom. The rock- cut edicts, of
which mention has been made, chronicle
what progress had been achieved, and what
were the desires of the king. They com-
memorate no victories or extension of
empire but the earnest desire of a sincere
man who felt the responsibility of his

as Ruler.

India's Invaders 119

position and endeavoured to make his
people happy by the teaching and practice
of a faith in which he himself had found
peace. Some of the matters with which
his edicts deal illustrate what has been
said about Asoka's character, e.g., " The
Sacredness of Life," " Provision of Comforts
for Men and Animals," " The Practice
of Piety," and "Toleration." One of
his edicts deals with the prompt despatch
of business, and he orders that the people's
business be brought to him at all times.

The Maurya dynasty, to which both Break up of the
Chandragupta and Asoka belonged, ceased ^^"^^°"^-
with the death of the latter to hold its
pre-eminent position. Provinces on the
outskirts of the empire, both in the south
and north-west, seceded and formed in-
dependent kingdoms. Another dynasty
succeeded to the throne of Magadha but
its influence was small and unimportant.

Events, however, were occurring in New Move-
Central Asia which were the ominous ^^^^^ ^" ^^^^'
warnings of a coming storm. Again and
again have those unknown uplands, where
Aryan, Semitic and Mongolian civilisations
have had their meeting - ground, been
the storm centre of Asia. Strong vigor-

120 The Desire of India

ous races have been born there, and
invasions of Persia, India and eastern
Europe have been " the overflow of
the teeming cradleland of Central Asia."

About the year 165 b.c. a nomadic tribe
in north-western China defeated a kindred
tribe, the Yueh-chi, who were compelled
to move westward and in their turn dis'-
placed the Sakas or Scythians. This latter
race marched southwards and ultimately
made its way into India and ruled in parts
of the Punjab. The Yueh-chi themselves
spread later into the Punjab. About 100
A.D. they spread all over north-western
India with the exception of southern Sind,
probably as far east as Benares. The
greatest king of the race was Kanishka.
The dynasty had very extensive inter-
national relationships ; for example, an
embassy was sent to Rome on the ac-
cession of Trajan. Kanishka himself in-
flicted a defeat on the Chinese Imperial
forces, and a prince of the blood of the
Chinese dynasty was detained a hostage
in the hands of the conquerors. Kanishka
was a Buddhist and possibly did much to-
wards the introduction of that rehgion into
China. Kanishka's successors soon sue-

India's Invaders 121

cumbed to Indian influences. His grand-
son had a Hindu name, and his coins ex-
hibit the figure of the Indian god Siva
attended by the bull Nandi.

From the uncertainty of the third J^^ '* Golden
century we pass to the " golden age "
which followed the years of the native
Gupta Dynasty which lasted from S20-455 •
A.D. Learning and philosophy flourished ;
the people were contented and prosperous.
The fall of the Gupta Dynasty was brought
about by invasions such as have proved so
disastrous to the kingdoms of India. Into
the valley of the Oxus various barbarous
tribes poured themselves, and there they
divided into two main streams. One
entered European Russia in 373 a.d. and
came into conflict with the Roman Empire,
the other found its way into India and
threatened and finally overthrew the Gupta
Dynasty. The conquerors were Hinduised,
as has always been the case with these early
tribes who have from time to time invaded
the country.

It would serve no purpose to give further The influence
details of Indian history prior to the great Pefsonaifties.
Islamic invasions. Sufficient facts have been
given to show how much permanence of

122 The Desire of India

government and the authority of law and
order were dependent on strong personahties.
We fail to see a society which gradually
developed principles and institutions of a
stable administration.
The The rise and progress of Islam constitute

Invasion^? ^" ^^ astonishing episode in history. After
the conquest of Persia the Arabs turned
their attention to India. They invaded
the western borders and penetrated as far
as the city of Multan. But their occupa-
tion was temporary, and the new influences
they introduced were quickly forgotten.
Persia, however, in the course of time be-
came a Turkish kingdom, and on the out-
skirts of the empire a disaffected Turkish
chieftain carved out a State in the inhospi-
table and mountainous region which corre-
sponds to-day to Central Afghanistan.
Ghazni was the new capital. Mahmfid,
the greatest ruler of the dynasty, invaded
India with hordes of rude and un-
civilized followers, who, in sixteen cam-
paigns (1000-1026 A.D.) wrought devasta-
tion in the north of India. It was not, how-
ever, till nearly 200 years later that Delhi
became the permanent capital of India,
which was thenceforward governed from

India's Invaders 123

within, though by an aHen king. These
200 years had done very Httle to influence
India. Muhammadan domination was
recognised at least in the north, but it had
in no way changed the thought, concep-
tions or ideals of the people. Four
dynasties followed, some reigns marked
by vigorous rule, others — and they were the
majority — a hopeless failure. The people
still continued uninfluenced ; on the other
hand their rulers themselves had succumbed
to the Hstlessness and general inertia of the
races whom they governed.

The Central Asian upheaval of the past The Coming- of
had not spent its force, and new races were ^ ongois.
drawn into the vortex of empire building.
In 1221 the Mongols under Ghingiz Khan
turned their attention temporarily to India.
It was the beginning of a new invasion.
Eighty years later, they returned and
harassed the Indian border from 1296-
1305. Almost a hundred years later still,
Taimur (Tamerlane), who was a follower of
Islam, invaded India but retired very soon
after the sack of Delhi, which was carried
out with awful cruelty. He says himself
in his journal — " All my army, no longer
under control, rushed to the city, and

124

The Desire of India

Babar founds
the Mughal
.Dynasty.

Akbar the
Great.

thought of nothing but kilhng, plundering
and making prisoners." For three days
the streets of the city ran blood. Thousands
were slain, and taken prisoners.

To Taimur's grandson Babar it was
given to permanently occupy India. Delhi
was again taken, and, in spite of the diffi-
culties of climate, an army clamorous to
march home, and courageous Rajput
chieftains who bade defiance to the con-
queror, Babar persevered in his purpose
of ruling India. It was but a miUtary
occupation. Babar died four years after
he had proclaimed himself emperor of
India — the first of a great dynasty.

It fell to his grandson, Akbar, to consoli-
date the Mughal power. Akbar came to the
throne in 1556, two years before Ehzabeth
became Queen of England. He ruled for
forty-nine years. More than any other
aUen king Akbar brought himself near
to the common people. His tolerance in
an age of intolerance and his attempt to
rule by conciliation and justice, in days
when the sword was the highest arbiter
and ordinary rights of men were denied to
all save those who acknowledged the faith
of the rulers and when greed and rapacity

India's Invaders

125

were unchecked by the ordinary principles
of humanity, mark out Akbar as one of the
greatest names in the history of India. He

\

EMPIRE

OF

AKBAR THE GREAT.

subdued Rajputana, though he never
crushed the spirit of its rulers. He made
efl&cient his control over the governors of
provinces far south and east. He surveyed
the land, and carried out a revenue settle-
ment, the principle of which lasts up to
the present day. Though he failed in his
attempt to abolish Suttee, he instituted

126 The Desire of India

many social reforms. Most notable was his
toleration in religion. All religions were put
upon a political equality, and Jews, Parsis,
Hindus and Christians were invited to his
court to discuss with the Mullahs about
religion. He finally promulgated a new
eclectic faith, containing elements drawn
from all these reUgions. He sought for
men of the highest intellect and char-
acter to advise him in the affairs of state.
Above all he made use of Hindu talent and
Hindu methods in governing his vast
empire. His wise and broad statesman-
ship had its reward. The empire which
he strengthened and consolidated might
not have seen such a speedy downfall if his
humanity and toleration had been shared
by those who succeeded him on the throne.
The Break up For a Httlc ovcr a hundred years, Akbar's
Empire!^"^^^* empire was carried on almost unimpaired
by his descendants, in spite of the in-
efficiency of some and the narrow and
bigoted intolerance of his great-grandson
Aurungzeb. This stabihtyis a tribute to
the deep and strong foundations of Govern-
ment laid by Akbar. Aurungzeb died in
1707, and the break-up of the Empire
began.

India's Invaders 127

The century which followed was one of internal Wars of
awful bloodshed. Never had the people ^c^^fj^^*""^^^
been so harassed or war so universal.
Fresh invasions from the north harried the
surrounding country. Delhi was twice
sacked, and during a festival the sacred
city of Muttra was entered by 25,000
horsemen. An eye-witness tells us that
" they burned the houses together with the
inmates, slaughtered others with the sword
and lance, hauhng off into captivity
maidens and youths, men and women,"
and we are told that districts which had
once been thickly populated were " swept
bare of inhabitants." The southern and
eastern provinces with the decay of the
central authority declared their independ-
ence. Hindu powers, like the Marathas
in the west and the Sikhs in the Punjab,
dashed themselves against the tottering
bulwarks of the Empire. The coast dis-
tricts from Bengal to the extreme south
were the scene of the struggles for supremacy
between the English and the French.

The Muhammadan occupation of India The influence of
is a very great fact in the history of t}^^ ^^^^^ on India.
coimtry. To estimate its influence is not
easy, the present age not being sufficiently

128 The Desire of India

far away from it to survey it in its relation
to succeeding events. The following
judgment of an authoritative writer may
however be of interest. " A new vernac-
ular, a multitude of exquisite monuments
of the Moslem faith, a few provinces still
owning Muhammadan rulers, a large
Moslem minority content to dwell among
' infidels ' and to obey the behests of the
Christian 'from the distant islands of the
West— such are the chief legacies of Islam
to India . . . The conquerors of India
have come in hordes again and again, but
they have scarcely touched the soul of the
people. The Indian is still, in general, what
he was in spite of them aU." ^ The minority
is a powerful one, for over 60,000,000 of
people at the last Census returned them-
selves as Muhammadans. This population
is made up of descendants of the original
invaders and of converts frequently made
by force. Many of the latter, especially in
Bengal, belong to the lower strata of society
which had been untouched by Hinduism.
The Zenana In the institution of the Zenana or

^^ ^"^' seclusion of women, Muhammadan rule

markedly affected Hindu society. The

1 S. Lane Poole, ^'^ Mediaeval India/' pp. 422-425.

India's Invaders 129

system does not exist among Hindus in
south India, but in the north it is a sign
of respectabihty, and while even there
only the upper classes are affected, the
reflex influence which has retarded the
development and progress of women has
been pernicious.

The stern uncompromising monotheism Monotheistic
of Muhammadanism had its influence on
Hindu rehgious thought. From the
fourteenth century onwards numerous
cults have arisen which have combined
monotheistic ideas with elements of Hindu
pantheism. Their leaders have included
rehgious teachers hke Kabir and Guru
Nanak, the latter of whom founded the
rehgion of the Sikhs. The former was a
weaver and a Muhammadan. When a boy
he is reported to have scandahsed his co-
rehgionists by crying " Ram, Ram " during
his play. At his death his body was claimed
both by Hindus and Muhammadans.

The eighteenth century brought the East The Growth of

Tj-r. £ x£ -xi. British Rule.

India Company face to race with many
problems, chief among which were wars
with rivals such as the French, and with
hostile Hindu and Muhammadan dynasties.
In Bengal the battle of Plassey in 1757,

British Rule.

130 The Desire of India

and in Madras the battle of Wandiwash in
1760, led to British supremacy through-
out eastern India. In 177S the various
territories were unified under a Governor-
General, and Warren Hastings was appointed
to the office. By 1805 the Company was
the paramount power throughout India.
Various parts of India have since been
annexed— Sind (1843), the Punjab (1849),
Lower Burma (1852), Oudh (1856), and
Upper Burma (1886).
Character of The British occupation in the opening

years of the nineteenth century meant
security and peace. It would be no ex-
aggeration to say that during the previous
century the country flowed rivers of blood.
Invasions, the rise and decay of petty
principaHties, the rivalries for supremacy,
the predatory warfare of the Marathas — all
brought about the murder of thousands of
peaceable and industrious peasants, whose
only desire was to. be left alone. The
East India Company was driven to the
estabHshment of order and security for the
sake of its own finances, and not because
it reahsed its moral responsibiHty for the
millions of fives committed to its charge.
The national conscience was, however,

India's Invaders 131

awakening in England, and on the renewal
of the Company's Charter in 1813, a clause
was inserted which directed that a sum
of £10,000 from a revenue of seventeen
millions sterHng be " applied to the re-
vival and improvement of literature and
the encouragement of the learned natives
of India, and for the introduction and
promotion of a knowledge of the sciences
among the inhabitants of the British
territories in India."

The administration of Lord William Ben- Reforms under
tinck, who was Governor-General of India Bentinck. ^^^
from 1828-1835, gave form to the working
of what we have just termed the " national
conscience." Patient, conscientious and
hard-working, Bentinck strove after a high
ideal. He reduced unnecessary expendi-
ture, promoted education and established
a medical school in Calcutta. Perhaps he
is connected most closely with the aboUtion
of widow burning, known as the rite of
Suttee. On December 4th, 1829, he carried
a Regulation through the Council, making
those who aided and abetted the practice
guilty of the crime of " culpable homi-
cide."

The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was a time The Mutiny.

132 The Desire of India

of testing. It shook British supremacy to
the foundation, but, thanks to the heroism,
devotion and undaunted resolution dis-
played during those dark days it emerged
stronger than it had been before. The
Mutiny also emphasised the necessity of
the British people undertaking their
responsibiHties in India with more serious-
ness and seeking a better imderstanding of
the people whom they had been called upon
to rule. The East India Company was
abohshed and India was made an integral
portion of the British Empire.
The Queen's " We hold oursclvcs bound to the natives

Proclamation of ^^ our Indian territories," so read the
Queen's Proclamation of 1858, " by the
same obhgations of duty which bind us to
all our other subjects ; and those obliga-
tions, by the blessing of Almighty God, we
shall faithfully and conscientiously fulfil.
Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of
Christianity and acknowledging with
gratitude the solace of rehgion, we disclaim
alike the right and the desire to impose our
convictions on any of our subjects ... It is
further our will that, so far as may be, our
subjects of whatever race or creed be freely
and impartially admitted to offices in our

1858.

India's Invaders 133

service, the duties of which they may be
quahfied by their education, ability and
integrity, duly to discharge."

Every year the India Office in London ideals of British

J , P T I.T ■• 1 Administration.

issues a modest lono publication rarely
exceeding 200 pages in length, with the
following title : " Statement exhibiting
the Moral and Material Progress and Con-
dition of India." The title aifords an
excellent summary of the ideals of British
administration, and in the following para-
graphs an attempt will be made to describe
briefly the chief influences which are being
brought to bear on India as the result of this
last invasion to which she has been subject.
Just as the eighteenth century was a period
of war, invasion and struggle, the nine-
teenth has been one of consoHdation and
conciHation. The greatest gift that has
been given to India is the gift of internal
tranquiUity and good government.

The material influences are both varied improvement
and efficient, and have brought about a^ransport^
transformation in India that is almost
beyond behef. Perhaps nothing will bring
this more vividly before our minds than
some description of the methods and
manner of transport existing in India in the

; 134 The Desire of India

first half of the nineteenth century. Mr
John Bright, in 1858, is reported to have
said that in a single English county there
were '' more travellable roads than in the
whole of India." It is recorded that an
English lady was fifty-one days travelhng
from Agra to Allahabad — a journey which
is now done under twelve hours. Lord
Roberts in his early days spent three months
in travelling from a place in the immediate
vicinity of Calcutta to Peshawar, whereas
under sixty hours in the train is sufficient
to-day.
The Spread of In 1853, the first sectiou of Indian
Railways. railway was opened from Bombay to Thana,

a distance of twenty -one miles. To-day,
above 30,000 miles of railway are being
worked, and over 10,000 miles more are
projected. The number of passengers
carried in 1906 was no less than 271,063,000.
Railways are agencies by which food can
be distributed in areas where there is
scarcity. They also have given a tremen-
dous stimulus to trade. The passenger
traffic includes enormous numbers of pil-
grims, to whom distant shrines have been
made accessible. In the early days of
railway enterprise " it was not realised

India's Invaders 135

how important a part pilgrimages to the
numerous sacred shrines and rivers all
over India play in the daily life of the
population. A trip to PurT or Hardwar,
or any other of the popular Hindu shrines,
is no longer a formidable undertaking.
The cost is comparatively trifling. . . .
No rehgious festival is now held without
bringing, often from very long distances,
thousands of devotees. . . . Even Mecca
has been brought within reach of the
faithful, and large numbers of Muham-
madans, not only from India but also
from Central Asia, now undertake the
pilgrimage."

Among great works of public utility irrigation,
irrigation takes a prominent place. In
every part of India such works are
a prime necessity (though not always
practicable), except in Eastern Bengal in-
cluding Assam, where there is always an
adequate rainfall. Wells, reservoirs, and
canals form the chief methods of irrigation,
the last being perhaps the most important
achievement in Indian administration. The
Lower Ganges Canal, 616 miles in length,
with distributaries extending over 2600
miles, and irrigating over a million acres

136

The Desire of India

Posts and
Telegraphj

Education.

of land, is now surpassed by the .Chenab
Canal in the Punjab, which irrigates nearly
two milKons of acres. In the Madras
Presidency the water of the Godavari and
Kistna rivers has been diverted into canals
which have rendered an area with 2,000,000
people immune from famine. " No similar
works," says Sir John Strachey, " approach
in magnitude the irrigation works of India,
and no pubhc works of nobler utiUty have
ever been undertaken in the world."

Closely allied with the railways and roads
are such works as the estabUshment of the
Post Office and Telegraph, which are bind-
ing the country together as nothing else has
done in the past.

The moral condition and progress of
India must be due in part to influences
termed " material," such as have been
enumerated above, together with the
institutions of pubhc security such as the
police and the courts of justice, a vast
system of both of which has been estab-
lished in India though their efficiency and
purity have often been called in question.
The one thing, however, which must con-
dition moral progress is education. While
brave efforts have been made to impart edu-

India's Invaders 137

cation, the result has been largely a failure,
due both to the indifference of the people
in the villages, and to the lack of sufficient
aid from the State. Taking the abiHty
to read and write as the standard of educa-
tion, the most advanced class in India is
the Parsi community, the majority of whom
are Hterate. The aboriginal hill tribes of
Bengal, Madras, and the Central Provinces
are the most backward. Taking the
country as a whole, only one out of every six
boys of school-going age is under instruc-
tion ; of girls the proportion is one in fifty.
The schools are comparatively few and in-
efficient. The parents, as a rule, have Httle
desire to send their boys to school, consider-
ing that they are far more usefully em-
ployed in herding the cattle, or following the
oxen to the watering-place near the village
well. Sometimes a boy will be sent to the
district school, which attracts the young
aspirants from the whole country-side.
They will come from miles around having
tramped through fields, forded canals and
streams, or ferried themselves across the
floods. The school buildings are primi-
tive, and sometimes "a shed for cattle
at night does duty for a school-room by

138 The Desire of India

day." Often the shelter of trees is the
only accommodation provided.
The Work of The unit of administration in India is the
Administration, u Dig^rict." Apart from the native States
there are in the Indian Empire 250 such
districts. Each has on an average an area
about three-fourths of the size of Yorkshire,
and a population of nearly a million. The
head of a district is usually a European Civil
Servant, who combines in himself a variety
of functions. He is responsible for the
prompt collection of the land- dues, and the
efficiency of the police ; he is a magistrate,
and is invested with the power of the law
to punish crime ; in fact, he is the chief
representative of the government in the eyes
of the people. To him the Government
looks for information, and through him are
issued its commands. Part of the year he
spends touring through his district. To
the villager the district officer's spacious
tents and retinue of clerks, servants and
orderlies are a familiar sight. The extortion
and petty tyranny of the latter make the
peasant desire their speedy departure. The
headmen will meet the district officer under
the canvas awning of his tent, and " chat
with him about the prospect of their crops.

India's Invaders 139

the assessment of their lands, the opening of
a new school, some local quarrel regarding a
right-of-way, the dacoity which occurred in
the village last summer, and the many other
details in which the ' Sarkar ' (Government)
touches their daily life." If he is a man
with insight and sympathy, he will be
remembered with affection, and his name
may be handed down for generations. The
folk-songs of Kulu in the Western Hima-
layas, commemorate the virtues of a popular
district officer and his wife. In BeUary,
even to-day, nearly a century since he left
the district, the name of Sir Thomas Munro
is held in reverence, and children are named
after him " Munrol " and " Munrolappa."
The Indian peasantry, above all people, are
responsive to the kindly word and to sym-
pathy which understands what they love
and hold sacred. A British official has it
on record, that on one occasion when he
was serving as an executive officer in Bihar,
a few lines from the Ramayana of Tulsi
Das, addressed to the humble village folk,
made official relations friendly at once.

Connected with the work of administra- Petty Officials,
tion are the vast hosts of officials. The
heads of departments, rarely exceeding

I40 The Desire of India

half-a-dozen Europeans, have their head-
quarters in the district town. Subordinate
to them are the revenue collectors and the
village writers who keep the records of
assessments, the junior judges and magis-
trates, the pohce ofi&cials, the irrigation
officials who regulate the supply of water
to the fields from the government canals,
the department of health with its doctors
and vaccinators, the inspector of village
schools, and the teachers of the principal
high-school. It is with the subordinate
officials that the peasant comes into contact
when he pa^^s the land and water- dues,
when he lodges a plaint against his neigh-
bours in the Civil Courts, or finds himself
at the railway station waiting for a train
to take him to the local market town or to
a place of pilgrimage. By all and sundry
he is subjected to petty oppressions, and
experience teaches him that much patience
and a judicious use of regulated gratuities
bring him nearer to the goal of his desires
and hopes.
India still A brief survey of the administration of

Unchanged. India gives some idea of the complexity of
its concerns. It is like some great machine
the test of which is its efficiency. It is con-

RAILWAY STATION

MOUTH OF THE GANGES

India's Invaders 141

tinually being examined to see where lie the
defects, and heroic efforts to remedy them
are equally constant. Yet the great mass of
the people is unchanged, and remains pos-
sessed of the same beUefs, the same institu-
tions and the same ideals. They view with
wonder the marvellous organisation and
capacity which have erected this machinery
to regulate their affairs, but beyond admira-
tion they do not go. The imagination of
the peasant has not been captured. His
heart has not been won. The rulers of
India are far away from him, and between
lies the efficient but unsympathetic and
pitiless machinery of administration.

As to the desirabihty of the connection The
between Great Britain and India no reason- BntSi^Ruie °
able person can doubt, even when viewed
from the point of view of India alone. Yet
this has been denied. " Centuries hence,"
wrote Spencer Walpole, " some philosophic
historian . . . will relate the history of the
British in India as a romantic episode,
which has had no appreciable effect upon
the progress of the human family." Indian
history is full of episodes. Conquering
nations have hurled themselves against the
kingdoms of India and the people have been

142 The Desire of India

subjugated. But these vicissitudes have
been viewed with indifference as the people
have waited for the next turn of fortune
which would relieve them from oppression.
The hundred and fifty years of British
supremacy are as a day, a mere event in the
almost unmeasured span of Indian history.
But these are days of tremendous oppor-
tunity, for India has always had a place for
truth. It is something to which all that
is best in her will respond.
The Need for A grave problem is being faced in India,
^isswnary ^^^ .^ involves the clash of two oppos-
ing ideals. British rule is working for
the material prosperity of India. Good
government has been given to the country,
and works of pubHc utihty have been
carried out to the benefit of the vast
peasant population. But engrossed though
the people seem in satisf^dng their material
wants, India has other ideals, expressed
by those mystic longings and spiritual
desires which may be traced throughout
her history. The high ideals of her re-
ligious leaders, and the wayward luxuri-
ance of the religious imagination of the
people in their worship, the endless myth-
ology, rites, ceremonies and pilgrimages all

India's Invaders 143

bear witness to this. Here on the deeper
and truer side the present rule does not
touch her Hfe save to disintegrate and
violate. The administration is frankly
secular — it cannot be anything else ; to the
people it is impiously worldly and defiant
of divine authority. When the calamities
of Hfe pour down upon the people they
acquiesce in their fate, feeHng that Divine
mercy could hardly be expected in this
" dark age " when sacrilege and irreligion
are rampant and the " Sarkar " itself
acknowledges no supreme and super-
natural power to whom obedience is due.
The days have departed when " in every
village the little boys squatted under some
spreading tree or in a mat-hut writing and
ciphering on the strewn sand, listening to
stories of gods and heroes from a poor but
holy preceptor." In time of national
calamity the state ordains no ceremonies ;
during an epidemic the officers of health are
busy with cleansing the village huts, and
testing the purity of the wells. In the eyes
of the people the rulers of the unseen world
are being flouted, and their revenge on
mankind is sure. To give to India a
message which she will understand and

144 The Desire of India

which will touch her heart — the message of
the love of Christ, is the responsibility of the
Church. This alone can give completeness
to the work which Great Britain is carrying
on in India to-day.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER IV

1. Enumerate the invasions to which India has
been subject at various periods in her history.

2. To what extent did India attain poHtical unity
under Asoka? How long did the unity last?

3. To what extent was the administration of
Asoka inspired by a religious ideal ?

4. At what period did Muhammadanism become
a political force in the life of India? When did
India pass permanently under Muhammadan rule ?

5. To what extent did India attain political unity
under the Mughal dynasty ? How long did the
unity last ?

6. What permanent influence has the Mughal
rule had upon India ? How far has this influence
been religious ?

7. To what extent has India attained political
unity under British rule ? How long has this unity
lasted ?

8. To what extent have the relations of England
with India been inspired by a moral ideal ?

9. What benefits has British rule conferred upon
India ?

10. What has Britain so far failed to do for
India ?

India's Invaders 145

11. What still remains to be accomplished in the
matter of education ?

12. How does the period of British rule compare
in length with the total course of Indian history
from the Aryan invasion ?

13. Is it conceivable that British rule may pass
away like other alien dominations and that India
may remain uninfluenced ?

14. Are there any respects which we may hope
that British rule is touching the lives of the people
more deeply than the administrations of Asoka and
Akbar .?

15. Is the British system of administration touch-
ing the lives of the people at their deepest point }

16. Is there anything further required if the
responsibility of Britain towards India is to be
adequately discharged ?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

General

Imperial Gazetteer, vol. ii.

Hunter — Brief History of the Indian People.

Various volumes in '^^The Rulers of India" Series.

Early History

Smith — Early History of India
Smith — ^ Asoka.

DuTT — Civilisation in Ancient India.
Ragozin — Vedic India.

Muhammadan Rule
Lane Poole— Mediaeval India.

146 The Desire of India

Malleson — Akbar.

British Rule

Frazer — British India.

Lyall — Rise of the British Dominion in India.
Strachey — India : its Administration and Progress
Hunter — The India of the Queen.

CHAPTER V

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA

An ancient legend connects the name ofTheBe-
the apostle St Thomas with an early at- Christianity,
tempt to evangelise India, but the tradition
rests on no trustworthy historical basis.
There is better evidence in favour of the
statement of early writers that about the
year 193 a.d., Pantsenus, the head of the
catechetical school at Alexandria, went to
India as a missionary. In the following
centuries there are occasional references in
the writings of travellers to the existence
of Christians in south India and Ceylon.

The origin of the present Syrian Church The Syrian
in India is obscure. It is beHeved to be
the survival of an attempt made by the
Persian Church before the end of the sixth
century to evangelise Asia. The arrival
of the Portuguese in India in the sixteenth
century and the consequent influence of
the Roman Church threatened the exist-
ence of the Syrian Church, which was

147

148 The Desire of India

finally compelled to enter into a compact
with Rome practically surrendering its
independence. A secession, however, took
place and the seceders aUied themselves with
the Patriarchate of Antioch. The latter
section is known as the Syrian Church or
Jacobites. The Jacobite section is ruled
in India by a Bishop who visits the various
parts of his diocese. The articles of
behef are simple and essentially Christian,
but there have crept into the life of
the Church many heathen practices and
abuses. The Jacobite portion of the
Church is confined to Travancore,
and numbers about a quarter of a
million.
Francis Xavier. The Portuguese colonies gave Rome
and her missionaries their opportunity,
and Goa, the capital of Portuguese India,
was for generations the chief missionary
outpost in southern Asia. It was there
that Francis Xavier landed in 1542, and
it was there that the Jesuits instituted the
horrors of the Inquisition. The total time
Xavier spent in India, including two later
visits, does not amount to more than four
and a half years. His intellectual and
spiritual attainments were of a very

Christianity in India 149

high order, yet the large number of
Christian adherents gathered by his
efforts in India was due less to the
power of his message than to what seems
to us the questionable methods which he
adopted. Indeed Xavier had few quali-
fications to preach the Gospel to the people.
He was ignorant of the language and was
content to convey his message by the
mechanical repetition of a few sacred
formulae translated into the native tongue.
His zeal, enthusiasm and heroic sacrifice
must win our admiration ; but he failed,
and the Roman CathoUc Church since his
time has failed, to build up in India a
Church with any high moral and spiritual
quahties.

Immediately to the north of Madura is The Danish tIj^
the present day district of Tanjore, which
was once the seat of a small Hindu kingdom.
The Raja ceded to the Danes in 1621 the
coast town of Tranquebar, with a few
square miles of adjoining territory. Here
a Danish, trading settlement was founded,
which in the providence of God was to be
the first place in India where the people
had presented to them " in their own
tongue the pure word of God," Frederick

ISO The Desire of India

IV. had been crowned king of Denmark
in 1699. One of the chaplains at his court
was a saintly Lutheran minister, Dr Liitkens,
" a man of earnest piety, whose soul longed
for the conversion of the heathen to
Christ." In 1704, ninety years before
William Carey began his work in India,
Frederick commissioned Dr Liitkens
to obtain missionaries for his Indian
and other possessions. None being forth-
coming in Denmark, Dr Liitkens com-
municated with friends in Germany, where,
under the leadership of A. H. Francke,
Professor at Halle, a spiritual awakening
was making its influence felt. Two men,
both Germans, were secured as the result of
these negotiations — Bartholomaus Ziegen-
balg and Heinrich Pliitschau.
Ziegenbaig. The two missionaries landed at Tranque-

bar on June 9th, 1706. They encountered
great difficulties, chief among them being
the opposition of their own countrymen.
Pecuniary difficulties were overcome by
the most rigid and pinching economy.
Ziegenbalg with his usual industry laboured
to master the Tamil language, and was soon
able to prepare some religious treatises
in that language. He had at first to rely on

Christianity in India 151

getting them copied by hand when a number
were needed. A printing press was sent
out to him, and a period of Hterary activity
began. Schools were established, and
preaching was carried on in many villages.
Before his death in 1719, Ziegenbalg had
completed a translation of the New Testa-
ment and of the Old Testament as far as
the Book of Ruth — the first translation of
the Scriptures ever made into any Indian
language.

The greatest figure in the missionary Christian
history of the eighteenth century was Schwartz.
Christian Frederick Schwartz. When he
was a student at HaUe the call to work
among the Tamils in south India came in
a strange manner. A new edition of the
Tamil Bible was being prepared by
Ziegenbalg's successor, the missionary
Schultze, who had returned from south
India. Schwartz and another student
were reconmiended to help in correcting
the proofs. They acquired the language
in order to do this, and shortly afterwards
received an invitation to accept the vocation
of a missionary. His biographer tells us that
Schwartz made a journey home to obtain his
father's permission. Here everything seemed

152 The Desire of India

unfavourable; for, being the eldest son, he
was considered the chief prop of the family,
and no member of it would beHeve that his
father could be brought to consent to such
a project. Schwartz, however, stated with
great seriousness his wishes and the motives
which had influenced him, and his father
replied that he would take two or three
days to consider it. The important day
arrived, and the family waited with anxiety
for the decision — the young candidate for
this arduous undertaking afraid of a re-
fusal, the rest equally fearing a consent.
At length his father came down from his
chamber, gave him his blessing, and bade
him depart in God's name ; charging him
to " forget his native country and his
father's house, and to go and win many
souls for Christ."
His Life in On July 16th, 1750, Schwartz landed at

Cuddalore. For nearly half a century he
laboured in south India, forgetting indeed
his native land, for during that whole
period he never returned home. His life
was spent in Trichinopoly and Tanjore,
from which places as centres he made
excursions, usually on foot, preaching in
the villages and reasoning with all kinds.

India.

Christianity in India 153

and classes of men, on the roadsides, under
the trees and in the market places. We
find him in the palaces of kings, within the
precincts of temples, in the hovels of out-
castes, ever dominated by the missionary
purpose. He was on terms of friendliness
with all classes, and no other missionary
even in modern times has enjoyed the con-
fidence which was given to Schwartz. " His
abode was a single room mth space just
large enough to hold his bed and himself,
and in which few men could stand up-
right. A dish of rice and vegetables dressed
after the manner of the natives was what
he could always cheerfully sit down to ;
and a piece of dimity died black and other
material of the same homely sort sufficed
him for an annual supply of clothing."

Early in the year 1762 we meet him Trichinopoiy
entrenched in the stronghold of Hinduism,
the city of Trichinopoiy. Grim and
massive stand out the bold outhnes of the
great " Rock," surmounted by its temple
of Ganesa. To the south of the city lies
the temple of Siva, beyond which stretch
far away towards the sea the " rust-
coloured " plains of Madura and Tinne-
velly, which his faith, audacity and prayer

154 The Desire of India

were to make strongholds of the Indian
Church. To east and west he tracts of
country green with the luxuriance of paddy-
growth, groves of cocoanut and avenues
of tamarind. Immediately to the north
flows the Cauvery, embracing within its
arms the densely wooded island of Sriran-
gam, whose Vaishnavite temple continually
sent forth its challenge to the lonely
German missionary. Temples, sanctuaries
and villages dot the landscape with such
profusion as speaks at once of the vastness
of the population and the impregnable
strength and power of its ancient faith.
" As I looked down," writes a missionary
a century later, " on the crowded houses
and the seething multitudes that filled
the streets of the town, and then on the
surrounding country . . . my heart
seemed to sink at the magnitude of the work
which lay before me. Even the thought
of Gideon's dream of the ' cake of barley
bread ' was hardly sufficient to encourage
me."
Schwartz's Schwartz was the one figure in the con-

Methods and temporary history of south India who
seemed to stand above the political
struggles, the clash of arms and the din of

Christianity in India 155

battle. For the first half of his career he
was witness of the death-struggle in which
France and England were engaged. Later,
the peace of the country for which he had
given his Ufe was threatened by the de-
predations of Haidar Ali and the Marathas.
He boldly entered the troubled arena of
human affairs, championed the cause of
right, and unremittingly proclaimed his
message. It was an exceptional period
and needed exceptional methods. We find
him ministering to the spiritual needs of an
EngHsh garrison, or after a battle speaking
words of comfort to a dying soldier, or
defending the truth in the coiu^t of kings.
We follow him to the armed city of
Seringapatam, where as a British envoy
he dehvers his message to the despot of
the Deccan — the only Christian, as Haidar
Ali was assiKed, who would not deceive
him. As the trusted adviser of the Raja
of Tanjore, Schwartz laboured for his
welfare and struggled to suppress corrup-
tion and seciu'e justice for the poor. In
the midst of these responsibihties Schwartz
never forgot the work of preaching the
Gospel to which he was called. His position
of influence secured for the Gospel free

156

The Desire of India

Later
Developments.

Beginning's in
North India.

course in south India, and won for him
and his colleagues an exceptional oppor-
tunity. Schwartz was the founder of the
Reformed Church in southern India. To
his enthusiasm and personal influence,
and to the singleness of purpose which
characterised him, is due the strength
of the Church at the end of the eighteenth
century.

From the very earliest days the English
Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge (S.P.C.K.) had given much financial
support to the Danish Mission ; in fact, since
Schwartz founded the Trichinopoly Mission
it had supported him and his work. As
missionary enthusiasm in Denmark and Ger-
many dechned, this Society undertook the
responsibility of working the missionary
stations in south India, though the mission-
aries continued to be recruited from the con-
tinent of Europe. The Tranquebar Church
at the time of Schwartz's death probably
included 18,000 Christians, some of whom
had previously been Roman CathoHcs.

It is not quite accurate to say that till
the end of the eighteenth centiu-y no
Christian work was done in Bengal. A
year after the battle of Plassey (1757),

THE MAHARAJAH OF TRAVANCORE

Christianity in India 157

Kiernander, a Swede employed by the
S.P.C.K. at Cuddalore, removed to Calcutta
and carried on work there, chiefly of a
pastoral kind. The Moravians too had
attempted some work which had proved a
failm*e. European life in Calcutta was
corrupt. Missions and missionaries were
in disfavour, and when Robert Haldane
with other kindred spirits desired to sail
to' India to preach the Gospel permission
was withheld. Missionary work had yet
to be vindicated as Schwartz had vindi-
cated it in south India. It was left to
WiUiam Carey to do this for north India.

The story of Carey's effort to rouse the William Carey
Church in his native land to its opportunity
is in some respects even more romantic
and heroic than his missionary career.
He was born in 1761 in Northampton-
shire, the son of a parish clerk. At the
age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a
shoemaker, and at twenty had a small
business of his own. During these
years he endeavoured to lay the founda-
tions of learning by applying himself with
great diligence to the study of Latin and
Greek. In the meantime he had passed
through a spiritual crisis, and was in request

iS8 The Desire of India

as a preacher in the Baptist chapels.
When he was twenty-four he was appointed
minister of a small congregation at Moulton,
and his salary was fixed at £15 a year. He
now kept a school during the day, ministered
as well as he could to his congregation, and
plied his trade and sold shoes to keep soul
and body together. The Rev. Andrew
Fuller tells us of a visit which he paid Carey
at Moulton. On the wall of his room was a
map, " consisting of several sheets of paper
pasted together by himself, on which he
had drawn with a pen a place for every
nation in the known world, and entered
into it whatever he met with in reading,
relative to its population, religion. . . .
These researches on which his mind was
naturally bent hindered him, of course,
from doing much at his business, and the
people, as was said, being few and poor,
he was at this time exposed to great hard-
ships. I have been assured that he and
his family have Uved for a great while to-
gether without tasting animal food, and with
but a scanty pittance of other provision."
His Efforts to It was at a meeting at Northampton that
Rouse Interest, ^^le older Ryland asked the younger
ministers to propose a subject for their

Christianity in India 159

next discussion. No one seemed to re-
spond to the invitation, when Carey rose
and suggested that they should consider
" whether the command given to the
apostles to teach all nations was not
obhgatory on all succeeding ministers to
the end of the world, seeing that the ac- -
companying promise was of equal extent."
Ryland is said to have rebuked him in the
following words : " You are a miserable
enthusiast for asking such a question.
Certainly nothing can be done before an-
other Pentecost, when an effusion of mira-
culous gifts, including the gift of tongues,
will give effect to the commission of Christ
as at first."

The cobbler minister seemed to have no a Famous
peace ; his mind was oppressed by the '^^a-ct-
knowledge that an unsaved world needed
Christ, and that the Church was not worthy
of her Master's commission. He finally de-
termined to address the Church at large.
This he did by pubhshing in 1792 his
famous tract entitled, " An Enquiry into
the Obligations of Christians to use Means for
the Conversion of the Heathens in which the
Religious State of the Different Nations of the
World, the Success of Former Undertakings

i6o The Desire of India

and the Practicality of Further Under-
takings are considered, by William Carey,''
It was the most comprehensive survey of
the religious conditions of the world that
had ever been produced, and was marked by
succinctness and terseness of expression,
and by conviction that was unrivalled.
He ends his appeal to the Church with the
following words : " What an harvest must
await such characters as Paul, and EHot
and Brainerd, and others, who have given
themselves wholly to the work of the Lord.
What a heaven it will be to see the m3rriads
of poor heathens, of Britons amongst the
rest, who by their labours have been
brought to the knowledge of God. Surely
a crown of rejoicing like this is worth
aspiring to. Surely it is worth while to
lay ourselves with all our might in pro-
moting the cause and kingdom of Christ."
A Memorable At Nottingham in the same year he
preached a sermon before his brother
ministers in which occurred the famous
words, " Expect great things from God,
attempt great things for God." After the^
service he appealed to his brethren to
consider the subject of world- evangelisa-
tion. This he did with such earnestness

Sermon.

Christianity in India i6i

and conviction that it was arranged to
consider at the next meeting a plan " for
forming a Baptist Society for propagating
the Gospel among the Heathen." The
ministers met at Kettering, and after
founding the Society subscribed £13, 2s. 6d.
towards the funds.

In January 179S Carey and a surgeon Carey Sails for
of the name of Thomas were appointed
missionaries to India. They landed at
Balasore in November of the same year.
The East India's Company regulations
against missionaries were so stringent that
Carey was obliged to take service as an
indigo -planter. This step was also
necessary to keep himself and his family,
for the small funds of the Baptist Society
could hardly aSord to support him. In
1799 reinforcements were sent to India,
including two missionaries whose names
will ever be connected with that of Carey
— William Ward, a printer, and Joshua
Marshman, who had once been a weaver.
The regulations of the Company were
stringently enforced, and the master of the
American ship advised the party to land
at Serampore, which was a Danish posses-
sion. This settlement received them, and

tion.

162 The Desire of India

they were joined by Carey and began
their work, which was to open wide the
door for missionary work among the
millions of north India.
Bible Transla- Preaching in the surrounding villages
was carried on with much vigour ; schools
were opened, and Carey, Marshman and
Ward began the great work of their hves —
the preparation of the Scriptinres in the
languages of India. Of this work it is
necessary to give a fuller account. Carey
mastered BengaK, Hindostani, Sanskrit,
Hindi and Marathi, and during the next
thirty-four years he and his colleagues
were responsible for the translation or
pubHcation of the Scriptures in forty
languages or dialects. Among these lan-
guages was Chinese. The following is
a characteristic example of Carey's dili-
gence. Almost immediately after his
arrival he began a study of the Bengali
language, in which hardly any Hterature
existed. He translated portions of the
Scriptures, and read them to hundreds of
natives to test the accuracy of idiom and
meaning. He found that a knowledge of
Sanskrit was necessary to help him in his
work, and he became the second greatest

Christianity in India 163

Sanskrit scholar of his time. Two years
before his death he was busy bringing out
the eighth edition of the BengaH New
Testament. The energy displayed by the
" Serampore Trio " is almost incredible.
They estabUshed a great printing-house and
a paper manufactory, and made their own
type for the languages in which they
pubhshed. Carey founded a college for
higher education, where he and his assist-
ants laboured. In the meantime Carey
was earning £1500 a year as professor at
the East India Company's College in
Calcutta, the whole of which he devoted
to missionary work. Marshman and his
wife carried on successfully a school for
European children. Thus did Carey and
his colleagues send the influence of Christian
truth into various parts of India which
up till the year 1813 were otherwise in-
accessible to missionary influence.

Schwartz and Carey were essentially Growth of the
pioneers. During the lifetime of the spTrit "^^
latter a period of missionary expansion
began. The details of this expansion can-
not be given here. It is worth while, how-
ever, to try to understand something of
the struggles, hopes and fears of those who

1 64 The Desire of India

urged the duty of bringing the Gospel to
the people of India. The early efforts of
Carey had given birth to the Baptist
Missionary Society, and in a rising tide of
missionary enthusiasm, there were founded
before the year 1800 the London Missionary
Society, the Church Missionary Society, and
the Scottish Missionary Society, all ready
and eager to give the Gospel to India.
The door, however, was not yet open. The
coast districts of Madras with considerable
territories in the interior, the whole northern
plain even to the upper reaches of the
Ganges, and practically all the west coast
— each of these areas supporting vast
populations — were administered, ruled and
taxed by the East India Company. Carey
and his colleagues in the Danish Settle-
ment of Serampore viewed with wistful
eyes the immense territories, to the popula-
tions of which the Gospel was denied be-
cause a Christian Government refused to
permit missionary work. Even the Com-
pany's chaplains, some of whom nobly
preached to the people around them in
addition to their labours among Europeans,
encountered much opposition from their
countrymen.

Christianity in India 165

The East India Company's Charter by The Opening of
Act of ParKament came under revision
every twenty years. William Wilberforce,
whose name will be for ever connected
with the anti-slavery movement, and other
leaders of reHgious hfe in Great Britain,
determined that at the next opportunity
pressure should be brought to bear upon the
Company to change its attitude towards
missionary work in India. The Charter
was to be renewed in 1813, and before it
actually reached the Parhamentary stage,
a fierce struggle was fought in the country
between the champions of the Company's
views and their opponents. On the eve
of the decision more than 800 petitions
praying that hberty should be granted
for missionaries to proceed to India were
laid on the table of the House of Commons.
The issue imited the Christian forces of the
country irrespective of denomination. The
battle was won, and Wilberforce thus re-
cords his feehngs after his great speech and
victory. " It was late when I got up, but
I thank God I was enabled to speak for
two hours, and with great acceptance . . .
and we carried it, about 89 to 36 ... I
heard afterwards that many good men had

1 66 The Desire of India

been praying for us all night." India was
now open to any British missionary who
might desire to preach the Gospel. A
Bishopric was also established at Calcutta,
with the whole of India and Australia as
the diocese.

For the missionary societies the year
1813 was the beginning of a period of
feverish haste and activity. Missionaries
were sent out to India, and place after
place was occupied. To the supporters of
missions it was the day of opportunity.
The sin of a Christian power had hindered
the Gospel : upon the Church rested the
responsibility to go forward and redeem
the time that had been lost. To get an
idea of what took place we have only to
imagine what might happen in a similar
situation in Great Britain if it were still
unevangelised. Missionary effort would
seek out the areas of largest population
and importance, and plant in them mission
stations. We can well imagine Lancashire
being selected, and missionary activities
radiating out from Liverpool, with an
extending chain of stations along the
Mersey and its tributaries, to reach the
immense manufacturing populations. An-

Christianity in India 167

other area to be occupied would be the
Clyde district of Lanarkshire, and stations
would probably also be planted at Leeds,
Bradford, Sheffield, and Wolverhampton,
and all along the upper reaches of the tribu-
taries of the Humber, to touch the indus-
trial hfe of Yorkshire and the Midlands.
If these areas are multipHed a hundred
times, and an effort made to imagine a
population more than ten times as great,
some idea will be gained of the missionary
problem as it presented itself in India after
181S. Great centres and areas of population
on the chief highways and waterways and
trade-routes had to be occupied. The
gigantic basin of the Ganges and its tribu-
taries up to Delhi became the field of
operations of the Baptists and of the
Church Missionary Society. The Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel took
over the old missions of the S.P.C.K. in
Tinnevelly and Tanjore, and opened new
centres. The London Missionary Society
conceived an even more ambitious scheme.
They had already a floiu*ishing work in south
Travancore, and a smaller, though scarcely
less successful, one near Calcutta. They
now planned three great chains of stations

i68 The Desire of India

right across India. The first followed
the Cauvery and its southern tributary ;
the second ran along the Penner river,
through the Telugu country, to the Western
Ghats : the third, the weakest one, in-
cluded Calcutta and Benares. In addition,
two coast districts on the east and west
respectively were occupied. The London
Missionary Society had over-estimated its
strength, and was later compelled to retire
from some of its territories. The Wesleyans,
with more caution, proceeded up the
Cauvery districts into Mysore, where they
hold to-day a pre-eminent position.
Further Pro- The work of expansion continued to

^^^^^' make progress. The Charter of 1833 threw

open the whole of British India to Christian
missionaries irrespective of nationality, with
the result that American and Continental
missionary societies gradually entered the
field. The former have shown great activity
in estabhshing missions in unoccupied areas,
and the latter in quiet and unostentatious
ways have built soHdly whatever they have
undertaken. In the meantime the older
societies strengthened their work, and as
new areas came under British rule ex-
tended their efforts to these territories

Christianity in India 169

Calamities, such as the Mutiny of 1857 and
successive famines, have periodically called
attention to the needs of India, and have
frequently led to new societies | beginning
work in the country.

Among those who followed Carey were Distinguished
Alexander Dufi, whose educational work
in Bengal falls outside the scope of this
book ; John Wilson, John Anderson and
Stephen Hislop of the Free Church of
Scotland, founders of missionary work in
western, southern and central India ;
Samuel B. Fairbank of the American
Board (A.B.C.F.M.), whose work for
the Marathas will long be remembered ;
John Newton and C. W. Forman of the
American Presbyterian Church, and Robert
Clark of the Church Missionary Society,
who were pioneers in the Punjab, to be fol-
lowed later by missionaries of the Church
of Scotland. In southern India, Rhenius
of the C.M.S., Corrie, Bishop of Madras,
and the two Bishops of Tinnevelly, Sar-
gent and Caldwell, were the builders of
the Tinnevelly Church.

Such in briefest outHne is the story of God-fearing
the impact of Christianity on India. InomSSs"^" •
considering the expansion of missionary

170 The Desire of India

effort it must not be forgotten how much
pioneer work has been due to the efforts of
God-fearing officials of the Government,
chaplains as well as la3niien. The work of
Henry Martyn and his translation of the
New Testament into HindostanT can never
be forgotten, nor the work of Heber,
Daniel Wilson, Cotton and their successors.
Laymen also in the East India Company's
Civil Service and Army have done much for
the Gospel, among whom are such names
as those of Charles Grant, and, in later
times, the two Lawrences, Sir Donald
M'Leod and Sir Herbert Edwardes.
Missionary It is not possible to obtain perfectly trust-

worthy statistics regarding the missionary
forces in India.^ The round numbers given
here may be regarded as a conservative
estimate. They refer to India, exclusive
of Burma and Ceylon : —

Ordained Foreign Missionaries 1,100
Lay do. do. . 300

Women do. do. (other

than Missionaries' wives) 1,200
Indian Workers . . . 12,000
Indian Protestant Christian

Community . . . 854,000

1 Cf. Appendix F.

Statistics.

Christianity in India 171

The total missionary agency viewed out Neglected
of relation to the problem of India ap- ^^^^^^•
pears vast. This idea is soon dispelled
by a closer examination of the facts. Cer-
tain districts, especially those along the
southern coasts, have been occupied in the
sense that missionary stations have been
planted in a number of centres, but this
does not mean that the missionary force
is in any degree adequate to reach the *
villages in the surrounding districts. On
the other hand, there are immense areas
almost as untouched to-day as they were
half- a- century ago. Such are the Native
States of the Punjab and Bombay, the Up-
lands and ancient Hindu kingdoms of the
Central Provinces, the desert tribes and
feudal principalities of Rajputana, all of
which have great territories. Though the
population is often sparse, the total number
of inhabitants runs into millions. Gwalior,
the largest state in the Central Indian
agency, has a population of three millions.
Sixteen of its nineteen districts are un-
touched. " At least two out of the three
millions are beyond the reach of the Gospel. ' '
We turn to the plain of the Ganges, where
peace and good government have been

172 The Desire of India

established for a century and where there is
a teeming density of population. In north
Bengal only one in a thousand is nominally
a Christian, and we are told that " there
is one ordained missionary to every two
milhons of the population." In Bengal,
excluding Bihar, there are to-day numerous
sub -divisions, each with half a milUon in-
habitants, unoccupied by any missionary.
Bihar. • Bihar itself, with 22,000,000 of souls, is

a plea and continual challenge. Nature
has endowed its plains with immense
fertility, even as its sons have enriched its
past with glory and sacred tradition. Its
shrines and ancient monasteries speak of
the days when, at Gaya, Gautama Buddha
sought and found enhghtenment and
preached his message roaming through its
fields. Asoka Maurya consecrated Bihar,
— ^the land of monasteries, as its name im-
phes — to the sacred enterprise of estabHsh-
ing a world rehgion. Since then its plains
and its hills have been the Holy Land of
Buddhism. Every year pilgrims flock to
it from Ceylon, Burma, and even China
and Japan. The people are attractive,
their rural Hfe has made them simple
and honest, and Hinduism is purer than in

ON THE WAY TO CHURCH

A CHRISTIAN HOME

Christianity in India 173

many other parts of India. As far as Chris-
tianity is concerned the country is hardly
touched. No fewer than ten districts
have no resident missionaries. " In days
past," says a recent writer, " great move-
ments have stirred this old land ; but the
people have yet to see the wonder-working
power of the Spirit of God."

The rise of the Christian Church in India The Distribu-
is a story of unique interest. As Indian Protestant
Christianity had its beginnings in the south Christians.
it is not surprising that its numerical
strength should lie in that part of India.
This is true both of the total Christian
community, including Roman Cathohcs
and Syrians, and of the Protestant com-
munity. Two -thirds of the former and
half of the latter are foimd to-day in the
south. The Protestant Christians are con-
centrated in four separate and compara-
tively small areas. The first or " Tamilo-
Malayalam " area is the most southerly,
heel-Hke portion of the peninsula, best
marked by drawing a Hne from the eastern
port of Tranquebar to the western port of
Cochin. The second, or " Telugu " area,
is the wedge-shaped portion of country
driven in between the two Native States

174

The Desire of India

of Mysore and Hyderabad (Nizam's
Dominions). Its base corresponds to the

Tranquebar

MAP SHOWING AREAS IN WHICH PROTESTANT CHRISTIANS
ARE MOST NUMEROUS.

coast line from a point a little north of
Masulipatam nearly up to the city of

Christianity in India 175

Madras. This area is smaller than the lin-
guistic tract known as the Telugu country.
The third, or " Aboriginal " area is the
Chota Nagpur division of the Bengal
Presidency with the adjoining Santal
Parganas. The fourth or " Rohilkhand "
area is a tract of country occupying the
western portion of the United Provinces.
It is larger than the administrative division
of Rohilkhand and includes for our pur-
poses the districts of the Meerut division.
The following table will indicate the dis-
tribution of Protestant Christians : —

1. Tamilo-Malayalam area

213,946

2. Telugu_

230,838

3. Aboriginal „

79,732

4. Rohilkhand „

94,752

619,268
The Protestant Population of the

rest of India 235,599

Total 854,867

The growth of the Church in the four Mass Move-
areas referred to has been in the main "^®"*^-
the result of movements which to the mind
of some have recalled the early days of

176 The Desire of India

Christianity when thousands were added
to the Church. To the student they raise
great issues. They may also shed much
hght on the future progress of Christianity
in India. These movements have been
termed not inappropriately " mass move-
ments." The remaining paragraphs of this
chapter will be devoted to a consideration
of these movements. Other results of the
influence of Christianity upon India will
be dealt with in a succeeding chapter.
TheTamiio- The Tamilo -Malay alam area includes

Are^^^^"^ Travancore and Tinnevelly, where the
Christian Church saw its first beginnings
under Schwartz. The adherents are almost
exclusively Shanan (or Shanar) by caste.
The caste is not easy to place in the
social scale. It is not the lowest, and
yet to ordinary Hindu society the Shanan
is unclean, and is prohibited from entering
the temples. Among the members of this
caste Christianity is firmly rooted. The
Shanan community. Christian and non-
Christian, in TinneveUy amounts to nearly
450,000, one-third of whom are either
Roman Catholic or Protestant Christians.
For the best account of the Shanan people
and the Christian Church we are indebted

Christianity in India 177

to Bishop Caldwell, the greatest Indian
missionary of the S.P.G. The movement
towards Christianity began in the days of
Schwartz, whose helper Satthianadhan
visited Tinnevelly and instructed a large
number of people, no fewer than 4465
adult persons being baptised during the
next twenty years. The baptisms became
so rapid that Janicke, visiting Palamcotta
in 1792, said, " There is every reason to hope
that at a future period Christianity will
prevail in the Tinnevelly district." But
within the next few years the Church
dechned, owing to lack of pastoral care.
In 1825, a thousand famiUes were under
instruction in the mission of the C.M.S.
Four years later this number had risen
sixfold. In 1841, 2000 were baptised in
one district, including all the members of
seven large villages.

Pettitt of the C.M.S. tells us a strange Conversion of

story of some villagers who were under vmage.^^
instruction. The Brahman landlord, hear-
ing of this, summoned the headmen and
charged them with having gone to " learn
the Veda." While protesting their inno-
cence they admitted that certain of their
number had been guilty. The Brahman

178 The Desire of India

interrupted their apologies. " I see," he
added, " that some of you have an inkling
for Christianity and so we shall have
quarrellings and disturbances in the village
and no peace, a state of things which I will
not allow. Hear my decision therefore.
If you all like to remain in your religion,
remain, but if you prefer to become Chris-
tians I have no objection. In that case you
may turn your devil temple into a chiKch."
The whole village was baptised two months
later, and the temple became a Christian
place of worship.
Results of the The Church continued its marvellous
Famine of 1877. increase. In 1851 Bishop Dealtry visited
Tinnevelly and confirmed 4000 people.
The high-water mark in the history of the
TinneveUy Church was reached in the year
1877. That year has been made ever
memorable by the great famine which
desolated the south. Ordinary missionary
work was retarded in a heroic effort to save
human life. Relief was rendered to Hindu
and Christian alike ; hundreds were saved
from starvation and death. In a few
months 30,000 Shanans placed themselves
under Christian instruction, not so much
with a view to material gain as that they

Christianity in India 179

had felt the attractive power of love, " The
conviction prevailed " so wrote Bishop
Caldwell, " that whilst Hinduism had left
the famine-stricken to die, Christianity had
stepped in like an angel from heaven with
its sympathy to cheer them with its effectual
succour." The Christian Church, including
adherents under instruction, numbered
nearly 100,000 souls.

Missionary work has been carried on in Work of the
south Travancore since 1805 by the London
Missionary Society with similar results
among a caste closely aUied to the Shanans
of Tinnevelly. A Church, including to-day
over 60,000 adherents, represents the out-
come of this work. Less extensive move-
ments towards Christianity among a few of
the lowest castes have added to the strength
of the Church in the Tamilo -Malay alam area.

These movements have not been confined The Teiugu
to the Tamil country. Further north in the
Telugu country one of the most marvellous
ingatherings took place. For nearly forty
years the American Baptists had worked
in the Nellore district. The results had not
been such as to give much encouragement.
Then came the great famine of 1876-1878.
Upon tbe missionaries and their helpers

i8o The Desire of India

fell the heavy burden of distributing relief.
To give work to the people the Madras
Government constructed a canal through
the district. Mr Clough, one of the
missionaries, contracted to obtain labour
to construct three and a half miles of
this canal, and gathered the people in
the adjacent district by hundreds. He
appointed as overseers his " preachers,
teachers, colporteurs and others." During
the " intervals of rest " the people were
gathered together and instructed. In these
days of trial and darkness the message was
brought to thousands. The scene must Uve
in the minds of those who witnessed it —
the parched and barren country, the great
mounds of earth, as they were heaped high
up on either side, the thousands of men,
women, and even children who added their
share to the work. The Christian camp
consisted of five hundred huts built of
bamboo and palmyra leaves, and "up-
wards of three thousand cooHes, besides
old men and women and small children,
who were supported gratuitously." The
coohes were constantly changing. The
wages paid enabled some to betake them-
selves to their own homes. When the

A NORTH INDIAN VILLAGE

A SHANAN VILLAGE IN TINNEVELLY

Christianity in India i8i

famine was over, the camp was broken up
and the coohes scattered themselves all
over the country. The message sowed in
such surroundings was not lost, and the
love and sympathy of those six months
brought a great ingathering. It is not for
us to decide whether the motives of those
who desired baptism were the highest
motives, but thousands desired to become
members of the Christian Church. After
the famine was over many requests for
baptism were made. So persistent were
the demands that the missionaries could
not refuse. On the 3rd of July 1878, 2222
men, women and children received the
sacred rite. Before the end of the year
9606 converts had been received into the
Church. The Church in Ongole rose to
1204. A year later Mr Clough reported
that he had visited the Ongole field. " I
visited ninety-eight villages, where our
people Hve, saw delegates from perhaps
one hundred other villages, and baptised
one thousand and sixty-eight persons on
profession of their faith in Christ." It is
estimated that no fewer than 10,000 were
gathered into the Chiu-ch. The Church
continued to grow, and by the end

l82

The Desire of India

Further
Accessions.

Aboriginal and

Rohilkhand

Areas.

of 1882 the Ongole field had 20,865
members.

" In 1890," says Rev. David Downie,
" another remarkable movement took place,
resulting in the largest number of accessions
since 1878. The quarterly meeting at
Ongole was an unusually large one, and
before it closed S6S were baptised. The
interest was unusually great, and as large
numbers were reported ready for baptism
... a second meeting was called. On
the latter day 1671 were baptised on
profession of faith. By the first of March

1891 this number was increased to 4037.
At Cumbum some 3500 were baptised
between October and March. . . . The
total accession will not fall far short of the
great ingathering of 1878."

We have sketched two extraordinary
movements. Lack of space precludes us
from giving a detailed account of the move-
ment in the "Aboriginal" and "Rohilkhand"
areas. The movement in the latter area was
the most marked feature in the decade from

1892 to 1902. The Methodist Episcopal
Chiurch of America shows in this area an
increase from 20,000 to 90,000 adherents.
Even more striking was the increase of

Christianity in India 1 8 3

communicants from 9700 to over 52,000.
In the " Aboriginal " area there is a steady
movement towards Christianity. A fact
recorded in the Bengal Census Report
sheds an interesting light upon it. The
greatest accessions to Hinduism, Muham-
madanism, and Christianity took place
precisely in the same part of the Province,
namely in the Chota Nagpur division.
In other words, the aboriginal people are
being influenced by three competing re-
ligions. Whole tribes, which in 1891 called
themselves non-Hindu, in 1901 returned
themselves as members of a Hindu caste,
having within ten years attached them-
selves to Hinduism as a regularly con-
stituted caste. Islam and Christianity
have met with similar successes, whole
populations taking refuge within their
pale.

The movements referred to are the larger other Move-
ones. Many smaller ones have taken place, "^^^^®-
or are still in progress. In the Bengal
district of Krishnagar a movement on which
large hopes were built reached its height
in 1838, but has since completely ceased,
and shows no signs of going forward. Move-
ments are taking place among the Chuhras,

1 84 The Desire of India

or scavenger caste, in the Punjab, and
among the Mangs and Mahars in the
Bombay Presidency. From the latter caste
the mission of the American Board
(A.B.C.F.M.) has had large accessions.
Features of All these movements to which reference

Sts^°^^" ^^^ ^^^^ made have certain elements in
common. First, there is the very obvious
one, that the converts do not come as
individuals but in numbers. Whole
villages, as we have seen in Tinnevelly,
and the same thing is probably true else-
where, have become Christian. The secret
of such movements lies in that communal
spirit which caste has so emphasised, in
virtue of which persons do not hve as in-
dividuals, but as parts of their caste or
tribe. " However convinced of the truth
of Christianity," says Bishop Caldwell,
" they may be, they can rarely be persuaded
to act upon their own convictions inde-
pendently of the course of conduct adopted
by their neighbours. They prefer to wait
till a party has been formed, and if the
party becomes tolerably strong, it then not
only dares to act for itself, but often brings
with it the entire village community. When
a movement of this sort is in progress no-

Christianity in India 185

body likes to anticipate his neighbours and
nobody likes to be left behind."

Another characteristic of these mass Confined to a
movements is that they confine themselves
to a single caste or tribe. In Chota Nagpur
and SantaHa the aboriginal races have been
swept into the stream. In Rohilkhand
the Chamars or workers in leather and the
Chuhras, i,e, the scavenger or sweeper
caste, have been thus influenced ; in the
Telugu country the Madigas or leather-
workers, and the Malas, who rank higher
in the social scale than the former and form
the bulk of the agricultural labourers. In
the Tamil group the Shanans are " the
chief Christian staple." The Shanan is
the palmyra 1 cUmber and toddy-drawer
of the south. Up to the year 1857, when
the Christian community in Tinnevelly
numbered 50,000, only 1000 persons be-
longed to the better Sudra castes, such as
the Vellalas, and only one TinneveUy
Brahman was known to have been baptised.
Thus picturesquely did Caldwell describe
the invariable concomitance of the Shanan
and Christianity. " Hitherto from a
variety of causes," he writes, " Christianity

^ A south Indian Palm.

i86

The Desire of India

Resulting
Drawbacks.

The Fruits of
Famine.

and the palmyra have appeared to flourish
together. Where the palmyra abounds,
there Christian congregations and schools
abound also, and where the palmjnra dis-
appears there the signs of the Christian
progress are rarely seen."

The disadvantage of this identification
of Christianity with a single caste is illus-
trated in the following incident recorded
by a Bengali evangeHst working in the
" Rohilkhand " area, where such large
accessions have taken place from two
particular castes. " In most villages," says
this Christian worker, " they think that
Christianity is only the religion of the
sweepers . . . the people kept themselves
at a safe distance from us to avoid pollution
by touch. After a few days we discovered
that they had never known a Christian of
this country who was not a sweeper. . . .
A young Brahman followed us one after-
noon after preaching and purchased an
Urdu New Testament. We saw him
following us in the midst of taunts and
reproaches of his village people, some calhng
him ' Bhangi ' (sweeper)."

National calamities such as famine have
brought in their train large adhesions to

Christianity in India 187

the Christian faith. On the other hand
all these movements have been preceded
by years of patient work. On occasions
where special love and sympathy were
shown there followed a movement towards
Christianity.

These movements on the whole have given Results of Mass

1. T T Movements.

very encouragmg results. Indigenous
Christian communities are being founded,
with a higher code of morals and with
better education than their neighbours.
The Shanans have shewn administrative
abihty, and have proved their capacity
to bear financial and other responsibilities in
the support of their own Church. Nothing
can be more refreshing than to wander into
the midst of these humble, simple and
honest folk, see them in the great churches
which have been built to afford them ac-
commodation, and witness their offerings of
grain, poultry, or garden produce. On
some high festival it may be a favourite
goat, or even a cow which these Christian
labourers consecrate to God for the pur-
poses, of the Church and His work.

These great movements are confined to Their Limited
particular areas, and all are not continu- ^^^^"^•
ously in progress. Indeed the older ones

1 88 The Desire of India

seem to show signs of retrogression when
there are no powerful causes operative to
urge them forward. The total results may
be great, but compared with the mass of
the population they are small and insignifi-
cant.
Hindu Society Furthermore it is questionable whether
Untouched. these movements have much effect in in-
fluencing the great bulk of Hindu Society.
Castes in India are rigidly self-contained
units in the social order. What one caste
does has little or no influence on other
castes, and this is especially true where the
lowest are concerned. An illustration may
help us to understand how this comes
about. If all the foreigners in London,
such as waiters in hotels, hair-dressers and
others, whose lives are hved under condi-
tions of poverty in the East End, were to
accept a new set of ideas or change their
faith, what influence would it have on the
bulk of the people in London ? The
adoption of a new faith or political creed
by a body of aliens, whose interests and
habits of thought are different from those
of the mass of the people and who have
not the franchise, cannot have any far-
reaching effect on British public opinion.

Christianity in India 189

Some may be disposed to question the truth
of this analogy, and it leaves out of account
certain important facts. It must be re-
membered that the classes among whom
the mass movements have taken place form
a very large section of the population of
India, amounting to one-sixth of the whole ;
and that the children and grandchildren of
the out- caste converts exert an increasing
influence in the national life. Moreover,
while the conversions from the higher
castes are comparatively few and represent
no large movement, yet such converts
taken together make an important com-
munity, and some have been men of
marked influence. At the same time it
would be fooHsh to shut our eyes to the
fact that, so far as accessions to the Church
on any large scale are concerned, Hindu
society in the strict sense is still practi-
cally ujitouched. The sturdy peasant
who ploughs iiis fields, the grain- dealer
who sits cross-legged in his little booth in
the village street, the merchant, the village
scribe, the Brahman, as yet remain
unchanged. To reach them with the
Gospel of Christ, to lead them into the
Christian fold, to so endue them with the

I90 The Desire of India

spirit of love that Shanan and out-caste
become their brethren in Christ, is the
problem which the Christian Chm'ch has to
solve.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER V

1. What is known with regard to the early be-
ginnings of Christianity in India ?

2. What share had Denmark^ Germany and
Great Britain respectively in the work of the
Danish-Halle Mission?

3. Compare the lives of Schwartz and Carey in
respect of the conditions under which their work
was done^ and the characters and methods of the
two men.

4. Describe exactly the advance in the w^ork of
evangelisation which was made in the year 1813
and the years immediately following.

5. If a hundred new missionaries were being sent
to India^ how would you propose to distribute them
over the country in view of the facts given in this
chapter ? (It may be assumed that the missionaries
are connected with the societies working in the
fields where the recruits seem to be most needed.)

6. With reference to each of the four areas in
w^hich Christians are most numerous, state the
reasons which have led to the rapid growth of the
Church.

7. If you were a missionary, and a mass movement
should take place in your district, what would pro-
bably be the chief problems requiring your attention ?

8. In what respects do the facts mentioned in

Christianity in India 191

this chapter show the system of caste to be a
hindrance to the evangeUsation of India ?

9. In what respects do they show it to have
helped the growth of the Church ?

10. To what extent does the analogy! of the
acceptance of a new faith by foreigners in Great
Britain seem to you to be apphcable to the situation
in India ?

11. Give as clear a summary as possible of the
work which has already been accomplished for the
evangelisation of India^ and of the extent and
nature of the work that still remains to be done.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

History of Missions in India

RicHTER — History of Missions in India^ chap. iii.
Warneck — History of Protestant Missions-, pp. 290-

324.
Jones — India's Problem^ chap. vi.
Stock — History of the C.M.S.
LovETT — History of the L.M.S.
Pascoe — Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G.
Caldwell — Lectures on the Tinnevelly Mission.

Schwartz and Carey

Richter — History of Missions in India^ pp. 96-143.
HoLCOMBE — Men and Mighty chaps, i.-iii.
Mylne — Missions to Hindus^ pp. 114-131.
Smith — Life of William Carey.
Myers — Life of William Carey.

CHAPTER VI

PROBLEMS AND METHODS

Problems and
Methods.

The Inacces-
sibility of the
People.

The evangelisation of India is beset with
difficulties so serious that to predict its
ultimate success is to make no ordinary
demand on the faith and loyalty of the
Christian Church. For nearly a century
large sections of the people have been open
to new influences, yet the day of triumph
appears to be indefinitely delayed. Per-
plexing problems emerge at every stage.
It is the necessity of deahng with these
problems that has given rise to the various
methods of missionary work.

In the very first stage the difficulty of the
inaccessibihty of the people has to be over-
come. The problem appals us by its
magnitude and complexity. To begin with,
there is the purely physical difficulty of
reaching the people. This was impressed
upon us when we considered the vastness
of the country with its countless
hamlets and villages — those self-centred,

192

Problems and Methods 193

self-contained communities which are the
bulwarks of conservatism. Still greater
and more comprehensive is the social and
mental inaccessibility of the people. Take,
for example, the visit of a missionary to a
village in Central India, that very neglected
portion of the country. In size the village
may approach a small town. On the
advent of the strangers a crowd gathers,
curiosity is awakened and the objects of it
are scrutinised. A hymn is sung, an address
given, perhaps a few books are sold, and
the missionary passes on to the next village.
The people were accessible in so far as they
heard and saw, but the final test of accessi-
bility Kes elsewhere. It is not merely the
ears of the people that the preacher has to
reach but their minds, and their minds are
closed by a wall of prejudices.

The general attitude of the people to The Barrier of
Christian preaching is one of antagonism.
It does not need much imagination to see
why there should be this opposition. The
missionary comes apparently as the enemy
of the ancient Hindu faith. His aims seem
to threaten its institutions, which to the
vast majority of the people are their most
sacred heritage, on which their hopes in

194 The Desire of India

life and in death depend and to .which
they cling with exceptional tenacity.
Behind the missionary is the whole
strength of British Rule, making his
person inviolable. His presence brings
defilement. The flesh of the sacred cow
forms his diet, and to the ignorant strong
wine is his drink. In the eyes of the people
he is the habitual companion and champion
of the low-castes, whom the Hindu sense of
ceremonial purity keeps without the village
site. Indian Christian Evangelists do not
suffer from all these disadvantages, but on
account of their connection with the Euro-
pean and as those who have broken with
the Hindu social system they have to face
difficulties almost equally great.
Absorption in The whole motive of the missionary is
Daily Toil. misuudcrstood. Indeed the failure of the
people to understand what he desires and
longs for is to him the hardest trial to bear.
To the mind of the peasant religion is the
affair of those who have leisure and who can
afford to turn away from the world and to
forsake a life of v/ork and labour. A lady
missionary in the Telugu country relates
how, on teUing some women that her object
was to teach them the truth, she was met

Problems and Methods 19s

with the following retort : " Yes, it is true.
But what is the use of all other things if
you have not money to buy rice with and
live ? And how can we fold our hands
together and pray, ' Swami ! Swami ! '
when we are poor and have to work all the
time ? " In response to appeals to turn to
Christ and accept Him answers hke the
following are given : " What shall we gain
by this ? " or, " Will you provide for us ? "
A Christian convert is often asked : " How
much were you paid to change your
faith ? "

A certain writer speaks of the " Mental Mental
Seclusion of India," and asserts that the differences
Indian mind is inherently different from the
European mind. Literature abounds with
references to the sphynx-hke attitude which
India presents to the European observer.
This fact, although the emphasis laid on it
is often exaggerated, gives rise to a very real
problem in the work of evangehsation. The
Indian mind has developed along different
Hues from the EiKopean, and hence its con-
ceptions seem so different. Phrases and
terminology which are simple enough for
Christians may have another meaning, or
fail to convey any meaning at all, to those

196 The Desire of India

brought up in a different environment
and inheriting different traditions.
irent Ideas The idea of " sin " has to the Christian
Ttion? ^ personal meaning. It is he individually
who bears its guilt. To the ordinary Hindu
the idea represents a breach of caste law.
So long as he remains a member of " caste "
and has a regard for its ordinances he feels
safe. The man who tells a dehberate
falsehood without reaHsing its heinousness
would consider his salvation imperilled
if he were to eat with another whose caste
was lower. Every missionary report
records in no uncertain terms the problem
which is being continually faced — the
failure on the part of the people to reahze
the guilt of sin. To take another example,
the idea of salvation is conveyed in
some languages by a term which means
emancipation, that is freedom from the
cycle of birth and death. These differences
of thought and training seem to separate
Hindu and Christian by a great gulf,
the one with his clear-cut conceptions of
sin, righteousness, salvation, and justifica-
tion, the other with his whole character,
temperament, and stock of ideas built on
a nebulous pantheism. The bridging of

A MISSION HOSPITAL

■^^,^

PATIENTS AND THEIR FRIENDS

Problems and Methods 197

the gulf appears often to be a hopeless
task.

The attempt to solve these problems Methods of
results in the missionary methods of which Problems. ^^^
so much is heard. The missionary has
sought, and must continue to seek, some
means by which he may disarm suspicion,
gain the confidence of the people, find some
pathway into their minds, and give expres-
sion to ideas which they can clearly grasp
and appreciate.

The mission station with its two human- Medical Work
ising influences of the hospital or dis-
pensary and the school is the great means
of disarming suspicion and of changing an
attitude of antipathy to one of friendHness.
The mission hospital or dispensary is for
this particular purpose the greater force
of the two. While only one in twenty of
the 10,000 mission stations and out-stations
has a medical institution, over two millions
of people come under the influence of these ,
hospitals or dispensaries. The influence of
a hospital is extraordinary. It reaches
far and wide, its constituency is drawn from
whole districts, and with its name bene-
volence is always associated. Thus tersely
does the historian of the London Missionary

198 The Desire of India

Society state the value of medical missions :
" As knowledge of the Indian people and
their customs increased it became evident
that western medical skill might open a
wide and effectual door into the hearts and
minds of the natives. . . . The missionary
goes to them with a message which from
its very nature and terms must arouse the
deadly hostihty of all that is native and
characteristic within them. The medical
missionary through the channel of a body
healed, of a pain banished, of a crippled
faculty restored, starts at a much greater
advantage." In 1838 a medical man be-
longing to this Society began work in
Travancore. " People of every caste, even
the Brahmans " he recorded, "flock to me
for advice. I have free access to all and
have great reason to believe that good will
be done." Special reference to medical
work by women and for women is necessary,
for its influence is even more profound.
It touches the family life very closely and
thus ultimately reaches the men belonging
to the households helped. The medical
mission work done on the north-west
frontier by the Church Missionary Society
deserves special attention. It is the only

Problems and Methods 199

method that has been devised to reach the
untamed border tribes with any degree
of success.

The second institution of the mission Mission
station which has been referred to is the
school. Like the hospital it is a very
valuable means of overcoming the pre-
judices and inaccessibiHty of the people.
It does this in two ways. It serves as a
means of contact with the parents of the
children. Its privileges are sought by the
more influential leaders of pubhc opinion,
and thus it is a means of access to those
who could not be reached otherwise. Still
more important is the opportunity whjch it
a^ords of gaining the confidence and
affection of the pupils, and bringing them
into daily contact with Christian truths in
their impressionable years.

Tlie mission schools and colleges have a Results of
total of nearly half a million scholars, work. ^°"^
Many thousands — ^probably the majority
of the pupils — pass through a mission
school without being influenced in any
effective measure towards Christianity,
although they read the Bible and some learn
to entertain a f eehng of reverence for Chris-
tianity and Jesus Christ. Tlie education and

200 The Desire of India

themoralinfluence are good, but further they
do not seek and do not receive. Yet some-
times the deeper chords of Hindu reHgious
Kfe may be touched. Many an educational
missionary will speak of his experience of an
eager face and an attentive eye, of the
visits that were paid to him after school or
college hours, of occasional heart-searching
conversations, of earnest correspondence
about rehgious matters. Not often is there
an advance beyond this stage. The boy
becomes a man and a member of Hindu
Society. He is usually friendly, but as a
rule the old desires and ideals are crushed
and overlaid by the things of this world.
The greatest need of educational missionary
work is workers whose object will be the
making of " a supreme Christian impression
rather than a diffused Christian atmo-
sphere." The instruction in mission-
schools is necessarily largely secular,
efficiency is demanded in return for govern-
ment grants, only a fraction of the time
can be given to v/hat is termed " Bible
teaching " and the most direct Christian
influences cease when this is over, save
perhaps for a Sunday school class which
most pupils attend. The absence of larger

Problems and Methods 201

results from^ missionary education has not
been owing to any lack of soundness in the
method. It has been due largely to the
insufficiency of the forces engaged in the
work. The missionary himself is often too
overwhelmed with other duties to devote
sufficient energy to the spiritual side of the
work. He has often to content himself with
non- Christian teachers. The full harvest
from missionary schools will be reaped
only when the Christian forces are
strengthened by doubling, if not quad-
rupling, the workers, both Em-opean and
Indian, at present available for this par-
ticular work. Even as it is, mission
schools have exerted a far-reaching in-
fluence. It would be a great mistake to
estimate that influence merely hj the
results in baptism. They have been slowly
creating an atmosphere favourable to
Christianity, and have left a deep mark
on the Hves of hundreds of pupils who have
not taken the final step of pubhc profession
of Christianity.

Considerably older than the educational Bible
methods of missions is the method of '^"^"^^^^'^"^
hteratiu*e. The first German missionaries,
and in fact allpioneer missionaries, attempted

202 The Desire of India

a translation of the Scriptures. The work
began with Ziegenbalg's and Schultze's
translations into the Tamil, and later the
heroic efforts made by the " Serampore
Trio " to give the Scriptures in the various
tongues of India. Land-locked on almost
every side by British territory in which
they were not allowed to propagate the
Gospel, they determined to appeal to India
by the printed page. Hence that strenu-
ous endeavour and feverish haste with
which Carey, Marshman and Ward in-
cessantly laboured. Imperfect though
many of the translations were, some of
them formed the basis of later revisions.
At the time of Carey's death the Bible
" was pubHshed in six of the Indian
languages, the New Testament in twenty-
three more of the Indian languages, and
portions of Scripture in ten languages in
addition." To-day translations in more than
fifty languages exist. Perhaps the difficulties
of a translation and the need for frequent
revision are best shewn by the Urdu or
Hindostani version of the Bible. The New
Testament was completed in 1741 by the
German missionary Schultze, and pub-
lished by the University of Halle. In 1808,

Problems and Methods 203

Henry Martyn finished a fairly correct and
idiomatic translation, which was revised
by various committees subsequently.
During 1844, a translation of the Bible
based • on that by Henry Martyn
was pubhshed. A Baptist missionary
next made a translation which appeared
three years subsequently. Over twenty
years later Martyn's translation was re-
vised. In 1892 the version was again re-
vised, a first edition of the revised New
Testament appearing in 1900.

To the labours of many missionaries, influence of

J • n i J.1, • ' 1.' ^he Scriptures.

and especially to theu* conscientious accuracy
and appreciation of Indian idiom some
very faithful and Uterary translations of the
Scriptures are due. The British and
Foreign Bible Society, up to the year 185S,
had pubhshed nearly 16,000 copies of the
Scriptures in three languages of India.
Up to the end of 1906, in the ten chief
languages of the country over 16 J millions
of copies had been published. This total
leaves out of account the nearly two score
other languages of India in which this
Society has pubhshed translations. The
deep and far - reaching effect of the
Scriptures can hardly be calculated. That

204 The Desire of India

they influence the majority of those into
whose hands they fall can scarcely be
asserted. Yet occasionally the effect of
the message is profound. The following
story told in Dr Smith's Life of WilHam
Carey throws some light on what the
influence may be. Seventeen years after
Carey had finished his first translation,
" when the mission extended to the old
capital of Dacca, there were found several
villages of Hindu-born peasants who had
given up idol-worship, were renowned for
their truthfulness, and, as searching for a
true teacher come from God, called them-
selves ' Satya-gurus.' They traced their
new faith to a much worn book kept in a
wooden box in one of their villages. No one
could say whence it had come ; all they
knew was that they had possessed it for
many years. It was Carey's first Bengali
version of the New Testament. ' ' In addition
to translations of the Scriptures, numbers
of Christian leaflets, tracts, and a few
periodicals are issued and distributed over
large areas.
Orphanages. The luicertain element in all Indian

affairs is famine. It places on the admini-
stration a tremendous burden both of

Problems and Methods 205

money and responsibility. It diverts the
ordinary course of missionary work. Yet
it opens up new avenues of influence and
gives the missionary and his helpers great
opportunities for succouring the people in
their dire need. In one province alone
two missionaries were responsible in 1897
for a thousand children. The Rev. A.
Campbell reported that in a little over six
months he and his assistants had minis-
tered to the wants of eight thousand people.
As a permanent heritage of Indian famines
there are a hundred and five orphanages
conducted by Christian Missions, with seven
thousand orphans in them. These figiu-es
include only institutions with fifty or more
children. Scores of others exist with a
much fewer number in each. We may
safely say that Protestant Missions have on
a moderate estimate ten thousand children
whom they are rearing. The United Free
Church of Scotland alone has within the
past seven years spent over £60,000 on
famine orphans. The orphanages have not
yielded all the results hoped for. The great
difiiculty is to bring strong vigorous and
moral influences to bear on the children in-
dividually. Their environment is neces-

2o6 The Desire of India

sarily somewhat artificial. In recent
years better results have been achieved
in some parts of the country by placing
the children in selected Christian homes.
The responsibiUty of rearing thousands of
orphan children has imposed on missionary
workers a heavy burden which has been
cheerfully undertaken. This work of
Christian benevolence has brought home
vividly to the minds of the people an idea
which Hinduism lacks — a sense of the
value of human hfe. The far-reaching
influence of this message is seen in the fact
that in imitation of the Christian institu-
tions orphanages have in recent years been
founded by Hindus themselves.
The Mission The Mission Station is the chief centre of

Cen^rT ^^ ^ activity in a district. It is the base from
which operations are directed, and the
headquarters of the medical and educa-
tional work. It is the centre from which a
pastoral care is exercised over the Christians
in the surrounding villages. Round every
station is a certain definite area of country,
with rarely more than half-a-dozen out-
stations. The local care of the latter
is entrusted to native workers usually
termed " catechists " or " readers." The

Problems and Methods 207

chief means of contact with the people
is the hospital or school, just as in
England the Sunday School child is
often the means of introduction to the
parents.

Every year the missionary sets apart a itineration,
certain season for travelling round part of
his district with its hundreds of villages,
in which regular preaching has been im-
possible. When he arrives at some hamlet,
an introduction to one or more people is
not a matter of difficulty, if the hospital at
the mission station has been doing effective
work. A father or mother, a brother or
sister, in whom the attention and care
of the hospital have worked wonders,
will have made the whole village eager to
see the faces of those who possibly may
become their benefactors. Perhaps the
missionary himself carries a chest of
medicines, and the men, the women and
the children come flocking for rehef.
The local school for caste or non- caste
children has to be examined and inspected,
and verdict passed on its efficiency. The
few Christians — usually of the poorer and
humbler sort — are catechised and further
instruction is given them.

208

The Desire of India

Reaching the
Women.

The woman missionary gets her. oppor-
tunity with the women in their households.
It may be the plaintive notes of a hymn
sung to a familiar melody, or a story which
has an underlying meaning, that holds the
attention of the assembled women in the
courtyard of a friend's house. The Hves of
many women are so sombre ; the death of
a favourite child, the waywardness of a
husband or the prospect of being left a
widow with all the terrible accompaniments
of that position cast a deep shadow
over the lives of many. A word of
sympathy and comfort has often brought
much joy and light into the hearts of these
lone creatures, and made them more re-
ceptive of the truth of the love of Christ.
These opportunities rarely come with the
men, who are often most easily reached
through their wives. The woman mission-
ary's opportunity, if she have the gift of
sympathy and tact,, is boundless.
Zenana Work. The women of the Upper classes in many
parts of India are shut up in zenanas and
must be visited in their own homes.
Zenana work is confined for the most part
to the cities and the small towns and
larger villages where the wealthier families

Problems and Methods 209

have their residence. To such families
women medical missionaries and teachers
have more or less access, and often friend-
ship or intimacy springs up. The visita-
tion is usually undertaken on the condition
that reKgious instruction will be per-
mitted. Here again, if the reception
is at all cordial, influences may be set to
work which will touch the male members
of the household.

The rehgiou's fairs afford a special oppor- Preaching at
tunity for the preaching of the Gospel.
Usually they are held at some sacred spot
in the vicinity of a tank, on the banks of a
river, on a hilltop, or round some local
shrine such as the grave of a saint, the
memory of whose good deeds and the
abiding virtue of whose tomb to cure
diseases or grant a boon make it an object
of reverence. At such places thousands
of men and women will gather. To most
it is a time of recreation and a welcome
change from the weary routine of Hfe.
Booths are erected where vendors of food,
toys and trinkets carry on business with
hundreds of customers. Many bathe in
the sacred waters, and make their offerings
to the shrine desiring some boon. A

2IO The Desire of India

mother will ask for a son to be the stay
and support of the family and to perform
the last funeral rites for his aged parents.
A few come seeking rest and peace, such
as those whom life has saddened, desiring
to expiate the sin which has led to their
sorrow. The annals of Indian rural life are
full of the stories of such who seek and yet
never find. To the local fairs of the
people the Christian evangeUst travels.
He too sets up his booth. A little music
and a few hymns will gather the crowd,
often good-humoured and willing to listen
but rarely open to conviction. Questions
will be asked, serious and trivial ; then
the crowd melts away unimpressed and
untouched save for the diversion that has
been enjoyed. Every Indian crowd has
its emotions touched by a hymn and takes
delight in a rehgious argument.
Seekers after Occasionally however, the heart of some

^"^ ■ seeker is laid bare and one of the under-

currents of Indian reHgious life revealed.
Missionary reports often record such
incidents in the work. Thus on a single
page of a recent report, an Indian evangelist
gives his experience of two great religious
fairs near the city of Agra. At one a high

Problems and Methods 211

caste, prosperous Hindu slipped unostenta-
tiously into a service and was deeply im-
pressed by its simplicity and purity, con-
trasting markedly with the elaborate and
meaningless ritual with which he was
famihar. Another seeker was an ascetic who
had once been a medical practitioner. " He
once held a Government post, but there
was something which impelled him to
throw up his lucrative appointment and
become a sannydsi in order to attain the
perfect bhss of the soul. He came to me
as an advocate of Vedantism, and after
daily talks of an hour or so during Mela
days he asked for a Bible. I was greatly
struck with his frankness and simplicity
of motive." On this same occasion the
evangehst met a company of seven mendi-
cants, who called themselves Christians.
The leader claimed to be Christ, " because,
he said, ' Christ dwells in me,' and he sup-
ported his claim by a verse from St John's
Gospel. He had a wooden sword hanging
round him which he called the ' sword of the
spirit.' " Superficial though his knowledge
was, it was rehgious enthusiasm which had
swept him and his followers into the ranks
of rehgious mendicancy. At another fair

212

The Desire of India

the evangelist tells us of one whose earnest
and attentive look attracted attention.
He accepted a tract which shewed " the
futihty and vanity of bathing in the
Ganges with the object of washing away
of sins and obtaining heavenly bHss," and
after four days returned seeking instruction.
He had once been a soldier in the British
army, rising to the position of corporal,
but after ten years of service had sought
his discharge to become a rehgious mendi-
cant. In spite of much persecution he
was baptised. The preaching and presence
of evangelists at the rehgious fairs of the
people are amply justified. Christianity
is brought near to the people, and instances
are recorded in which a sentence or two
from an address have been repeated in a
distant home and have brought forth fruit.
Such preaching affords an opportunity
of attracting the true seeker.
The People's Th^ inaccessibiUty of the people is the

View of cause of much heart-searchins;. "Am I

Mission Work. , , .

getting near the people ? is a question
the missionary often puts to himself. It
may serve some purpose to attempt to take
the view-point of the people and enquire
how the machinery of missionary effort

Problems and Methods 213

appears to them. The institutions of
Western Christianity are alien to the
genius of the people. If it were possible
to conduct a pious Hindu round a mission
station, with its extensive grounds, large
hospital buildings and schools, and the
mission house in the centre, he would not
feel instinctively that this was a rehgious
institution. " Yes," he might reply, turning
to the missionary, " this is a philanthropic
place, you will accumulate much merit and
in the next Hfe you will be born a Brahman
or god." The people look upon the
missionary as possessed of unhmited means,
and therefore in a position to indulge in
acts of benevolence for which he will reap
the reward in some other existence. They
feel that he is their friend, and in times
of trial and suffering they turn to him
for support. But he does not represent
their religious ideal. This ideal is not
one which the peasant as a rule con-
templates as possible for himself. The
materiahsm engendered by his cares and
sordid poverty preclude any such idea.
But the ideal which he cherishes in his heart
as the highest expression of the religious
life is that of the philosopher and ascetic.

2 14 The Desire of India

The Ascetic Nobody Can fail to be impressed by the

fact of the enormous power wielded in
India by the Sadhu or professional ascetic.
In life he is an object of reverence. After
death his tomb may become a shrine to
which thousands of pilgrims will flock to
ask a boon. Nearly five millions of ascetics
hve on the alms of the people. Ash-
besmeared and having the scantiest of
clothing, their famihar forms may be
seen in every part of the country — by the
banks of a river, among the ruins
of some ancient shrine, without the gates
of the city, or taking their rest beneath the
shade of a j)i'pal or many-limbed banyan
tree. Among their ranks are harboured
some notorious criminals, and many are
themselves moral wrecks. Yet to them
the unstinted reverence of the people is
paid. The ascetic has broken with the
world — at least his appearance gives
him that character. In the history of
Indian religions the ascetic has a pre-
eminent position. Ascetics like Sankara,
Ramanand, Kabir, and Tulsi Das gave
India a great spiritual message. The
imagination of the people is captured
by such leaders. A few of them become

Problems and Methods 215

the spiritual guides of a select number
of followers whom they nurture in the
faith, and upon whom by visitation and
exhortation they leave a strong impres-
sion.
The methods of Indian evangeHsation its Relation to

, . .,1 ,1 T J* 'J 1 -1 the Problems of

are at variance with the Indian ideal, and Evangelisation,
the Church seems to lose in consequence.
The possibihty and desirabiHty of mission-
ary societies adapting their methods to
the Indian ideal have been questioned.
The reasons urged against such a course
seem to be final. The foreign missionary
has to contend against the influences of the
cHmate, and for him asceticism such as the
people understand is well-nigh an im-
possibility. Although he Hves as simply
as possible and denies himself many things,
yet his hfe is immeasurably above that of
the ordinary peasant. The advisability of
adopting the ascetic hfe may also be ques-
tioned on the ground of principle. The
assumption in the Indian mind is one that
behttles the value of this present hfe. The
Hindu in his highest moments would assert
that life is an evil and not worth develop-
ing. Can the Christian Church accept
such a view ? Would the Church by adopt-

2i6 The Desire of India

ing methods of asceticism be regarded
as giving its adhesion to this erroneous
principle ? Can the Indian ideal of
asceticism be reconciled with the teaching
and spirit of Christianity ? This is one of
the large problems which has to be faced
in the work of evangehsing India.
The strength The problem of caste stands in the very
of Caste. fore-front of the difficulties in the way of

evangeHsation. Even after a century of
new ideas it is the chief, innermost and
most impregnable fortress of Hinduism.
Breaking with caste is to the ordinary
man as foreign as the desire to become
an animal. The taking of such a step is
beyond the bounds of possibility. This
is true not only of the milHons who
because of their antipathies are unap-
proachable and whose sordid materialism
seems impenetrable, but even of that
choice remnant who hunger and thirst after
righteousness. These last are appalled at
the prospect of breaking with caste. Every
missionary knows a few such — the house-
wife with the pathos of her story who has
been led by the sympathy and tender-
ness of some Christian woman to know and
live upon the love of Christ ; the growing

Problems and Methods 217

youth whose affection has been won during
his school- days by his Christian teacher and
who has sought and found power through
the Gospel; or the occasional Nathanaels
of Indian village Hfe who have felt the
spell of Christian purity and hoHness.
The rehnquishing of caste is the occasion
of much stumbHng even to these. The
missionary annals of India are full of
incidents which tell of men and women
who beHeved and yet held back, the final
step being too great for them to take. The
first baptism in western India due to
Protestant missionary effort had an extra-
ordinary sequel. A Scottish missionary,
himself an eye-witness, leaves us the follow-
ing account : "I well remember the sensa-
tion produced when the first Hindu pro-
fessed his faith in Christ. Sometime after
his baptism the Lord's supper was to be
dispensed. Mr Hall was about to dispense
the elements, when the professed convert
suddenly rose up and exclaiming, ' No, I
will not break caste yet,' rushed out of
the chapel."

Even when personal antipathy to the its Tyranny,
loss of caste is overcome, other factors are
present which make the step almost impos-

2i8 The Desire of India

sible. Hinduism is excessively tolerant to
heterodoxy of belief ; nothing however is
a greater blow to its dignity than the
violation of its social order. Hinduism
will strain to the uttermost, and exercise
the most intolerable tyranny to prevent
one of its members from leaving the fold.
The convert's own parents will adjiu'e him
by all that is holy not to disgrace them.
The question is not merely one of social
disgrace but also of ceremonial impurity,
which touches the family and even the
caste thus involved ; it may be said
to threaten their salvation. Wives have
been known to travel with their children
to the distant shrines of Benares to purify
themselves from the taint when a husband
and father has accepted baptism. Violence
is not uncommon. Witnesses will perjure
themselves in the civil courts in their attempt
to prove that a convert is a minor over
whom parental guardianship is obhgatory.
Occasionally the darker methods of poison
may be a final resort to save the honour and
purity of the family. In every case com-
plete ostracism is sure to follow. The
young convert leaves his home, parents,
brothers and sisters, wife and children for

Problems and Methods 219

ever, destitute and penniless with all the
old ties of affection completely severed.
Can we wonder that men and women fear
to make an open profession of their faith ?

Connected with the general problem of Caste within
caste is its influence on the convert. The ^ ® ^^"'^^^•
question how far the Church may tolerate
the prejudices of the Hindu convert in
his relation to other Christians belonging
to the degraded sections of the Indian
community is a perplexing one. Thus the
missionaries of the old Danish-Halle Mis-
sion, such as Schwartz, gave recognition
to certain practices arising from caste feel-
ing. When Bishop Heber visited the
southern portion of his great diocese,
complaints were made to him about these
practices which in a letter he describes as
follows : " With regard to the distinctions
of caste as yet maintained by professing
Christians, it appears they are manifested —

(a) in desiring separate seats in Church ;

(b) in going up at different times to receive
the holy communion ; (c) in insisting on
their children having different sides of the
school ; {d) in refusing to eat, drink, or
associate with those of a different caste."
In the biography of Bishop Wilson (one of

220 The Desire of India

Heber's successors) there is a curious dia-
gram of the interior of a church in south
India. In one part of the church sat the
Christians who had belonged to the recog-
nised castes of Hinduism, and another part
was reserved for Pariah Christians.

Efforts to Root Wilson in a letter to the missionaries
ordered that no one was to be baptised
unless he renounced caste and its practices.
This led to a serious crisis in the Church in
south India. At a meeting of caste Chris-
tians, at which the Bishop exhorted them,
a stormy scene ensued. One of the Chris-
tians was heard to shout, " When it is
written in the Scriptures that we are to
take the Sacrament with Pariahs we will
do it and not before." Other Churches
took strong measures to cleanse them-
selves of this evil, some of which were
perhaps hasty and unwise. One missionary
society instituted common meals which
should be a test of the prejudices of their
adherents. This led to the suspension of
seventy-two persons including thirty-two
catechists.

Difficulty of The whole question of caste distinctions

em. .^ ^^^ Church bristles with difficulties.

Heber gave the controversy its terminology

Problems and Methods 221

when he asked whether " the practices
complained of are insisted on as religious
or as merely civil distinctions." In south
India especially, considerable prejudice
exists among Christians of the upper castes
against free inter-marriage and even against
eating with those of a lower caste. Similar
prejudices are found even in Christian
countries. For the removal of these
artificial barriers more dependence must
be placed on the growth of a strong Chris-
tian sentiment than on the exercise of
ecclesiastical discipline. On the other
hand, the Church cannot tolerate caste
distinctions when the high- caste Hindu
refuses to partake of the Sacrament with
the Pariah. The situation calls for wisdom,
sympathy and tact. It has been urged that
the strong attitude against caste distinc-
tions taken up by missionaries is keeping
back converts from the upper classes. The
proportion of Christians of the more respect-
able castes to those drawn from the out-
caste community is considerably lower at
the present day than it was a century
ago, when Schwartz and his colleagues
adopted a more tolerant attitude. This,
however, may be due to the overwhelming

Christianity.

22 2 The Desire of India

accessions from the lower castes during
the past seventy years, rather than to any
actual diminution in the number of converts
from the upper strata of society.
The Danger to Hinduism has always in its corporate
action shown a tendency to split into cast^
units. The sectarian movements within
itself have shown the same tendency.
Many centuries ago a reform movement
sprang up in south India, the adherents
of wliich called themselves the Lingayats.
While still in a sense a corporate body, it
is split up into the ordinary Hindu castes
and thus its influence as a vigorous pro-
pagating body is neutraHsed. The danger
of Christianity in India, as the present
Bishop of Madras has pointed out, " is
not simply that it may perpetuate the
divisions of Western Christendom, but
that it may add to them a hundredfold
by spHtting up into an infinite number of
caste Churches . . .In some Roman
CathoUc mission districts of south India
I have seen in quite small villages two
churches, one for the high- caste and one
for the low- caste Christians." We have in
Hindu society Brahman Vaishnavites and
Stidra Vaishnavites, and thus throughout

Problems and Methods 223

the innumerable castes. It will be fatal
to the influence and power of Indian
Christianity to have every Christian sect
broken up into Brahman, Siidra, and Pariah.
This is the rock on which every spiritual
movement in India has spHt.

The inaccesibihty of the people of India, The Success of
caused by their mental attitude, their Effort"^^^
outlook on hfe and their social institutions,
is a difficulty that may appear at first
sight insuperable, and the methods by
which the attempt has been made to over-
come it may seem inadequate for the
purpose. Such a view is not supported
by the missionary experience of the past
century. Wherever a mission station has
been estabhshed, and its workers have
shown to the people their capacity for
faithful, loving and sympathetic service,
the confidence of the latter has always
been gained and opposition has been
vanquished. Missionaries have been
loved and esteemed far above any other
class of persons in the community, and
their influence has become the paramount
moral force in the district.

On the other hand, missionary methods insufficiency of

1 ,1 . . , • , the Forces.

have not been given an opportumty on a

224 The Desire of India

sufficiently large scale. There are in. India
less than two thousand mission stations with
not more than eight thousand outstations.
Many of the latter receive only very occa-
sional visits from the missionary. In con-
trast with these figures, there are over half-
a-million villages which have to be reached.
Surely it is not reasonable to expect that
these thousands of hamlets can be in any
sense influenced hj the Gospel, or that
the attitude of the minds and hearts of
their inhabitants can be changed, through
the visit of a few Christians once a year.
The mental inaccessibility of the people,
to which reference was made in the earUer
part of this chapter, is closely related to
their physical inaccessibility. Very often
the Hindu peasant fails to appreciate the
message of the preacher because he does
not know the Christian as a man. For this
time is needed — it may be years. The
present Christian forces in India are in-
adequate to allow of this intimate contact
between missionaries and the people. The
sense of the tremendous need and the
continual desire to preach the Gospel to
every creature in the district are so over-
whelming that work tends to become

Problems and Methods 225

diffuse. With the present force it can
hardly be anything else. The Christian
worker is not allowed time to cultivate his
acquaintances, to get to know them and to
gain their affection. The power of medical
missions to open up avenues of access has
been demonstrated beyond doubt, but is
there anyone who will asseri that the
method has been used to the full in India ?
Of the two thousand mission stations, not
more than about a fourth have a hospital or
dispensary, and even where these exist, their
influence is often restricted by the physical
strain placed upon the few and insufficient
workers. Open doors cannot be entered,
and opportunities which present themselves
are lost for ever.

Apart from the inadequacy of the mis- The Results
sionary force, we have to take into account
the enormous difficulties which have to be
faced in attempting the evangelisation of
India — the rigid barriers of caste, the
misconceptions and prejudices of people,
and the fierce hostihty of a numerous and
able priestly caste, the interests of which
are bound up in the maintenance of the
existing religion. It is a marvel how much
has been accomplished in spite of these

226 The Desire of India

difficulties. Thousands have been swept
into the Christian Church by the mass
movements, and are being welded into a
powerful lever which -will shake to the
foundation the social system of Hinduism.
A new conception of the value of human
hfe and of the human soul has been intro-
duced among the people. Hundreds of
Indian Christians have as individuals been
willing to accept Christ in the teeth of
terrible persecution. A new and high
standard of personal morality has been
set, and is associated even in the minds of
non-Christians with the Christian rehgion.
These are achievements which may well
furnish reason for encouragement and hope.
The Task to be To delude oursclvcs with the thought
ccompis e . ^^^^ ^^^ difficulties will melt away or that
successes are greater than they really are
will only delay the final triumph of Chris-
tianity in India. It is becoming apparent,
after a hundred years of Christian Missions,
that the work of evangelising India is
greater and harder than was thought.
To know and appreciate -the whole truth
should call forth the heroism and sacrifice
of the Church to give and to dare in the
name of Christ and above all to claim in

Problems and Methods 227

faith His promise : "I say unto you,
if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed
. . . nothing shall be impossible unto you."

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VI

1 . If you were an Indian villager_, what would be
your general attitude to the foreign missionary ?

2. To what extent would you expect to make a
permanent impression on an out-of-the-way English
village through a single isolated visit ? Would you
be more or less likely to make such an impression
on an Indian village ?

3. Could a religious address that would be suit-
able for an English audience be expected to make
an impression upon a village in India ?

4. Compare the advantages of a hospital and a
school as a missionary agenc)^

5. What reply would you make to anyone who
proposed to estimate the results of educational
missionary work solely by the number of baptisms
resulting from it ?

6. Were the "Serampore Trio" right in devoting
their main energies to the work of Bible transla-
tion ?

7. What reasons might be urged for and against
the devotion of a large amount of money and time
by a missionary society to the establishment and
conduct of orphanages ?

8. If you were a missionary would you be dis-
posed to devote the greater part of your energies
to institutional work (hospitaJ, school^ etc.) or wide-
spread preaching (itineration^ visiting fairs^ etc.)?

2 28 The Desire of India

9. To what extent does the Indian ideal of
asceticism seem to you reconcilable with the
Christian ideal ?

10. What reasons might a Hindu who was a
secret believer in Christ urge against taking the
step of outward confession by baptism ?

11. What answer would you give to these objec-
tions ?

12. Have we at home any difficulties parallel to
the presence of caste feeling within the Indian
Church ?

13. What seems to you to be the right attitude
to take towards those who as Christians still retain
their old caste prejudices ?

14. What dangers threaten the Indian Church
through the influence of the caste spirit .^

15. What appear to you to be the chief reasons
for an immediate and very large increase of the
missionary forces in India ?

16. In view of the difficulties which beset mis-
sionary work^ do the results already achieved seem
to you to vindicate the methods adopted .^

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

General
RicHTER — History of Missions in India, chap. v.
Jones — India's Problem, chaps. viii._, ix.
Mylne — Missions to Hindus.

Mental Inaccessibility of the People
TowNSEND — Asia and Europe, chap. viii.
Lucas — The Empire of Christ, chap. iii.
Hume — Missions from the Modem View, chap, iii

Problems and Methods 229

Medical Work

Vines — In and Out of Hospital.

RiCHTER — History of Missions in India^ pp. S4<Q-S55.

Women s Work

Carmichael — Things as They Are.
Denning — Mosaics from India^ chaps, viii.-x.
HiNKLEY — A Struggle for a Soul.
Fuller — Wrongs of Indian Womanhood.

Itineration

Russell — Village W^ork in India.

Newboult — Padri Elliott of Faizabad^ pp. 132-200.

Caste

RiCHTER — History of Missions in India^ pp. 255-262
Lucas — The Empire of Christy chap. v.
See also references to Chapter 11.^ p. 71.

CHAPTER VII

THE INDIAN CHURCH

The Twofold The influence of Christianity upon India has
Christianity. been of a twofold character. On the one
hand, it has given rise to a comparatively
small but growing community of Christians
— gromng in numbers, outlook, moral
purpose, and influence. On the other hand,
it has introduced a whole series of new moral
and religious ideas, the influence of which
is felt far beyond the limits of the visible
Christian Church. There are move-
ments and tendencies at work among the
people which have no outward connection
with the Christian community, and which
yet are indebted to Christianity for in-
spiration and stimulus, and are indirectly
and slowly making the thought of India
more Christian. These two results of
Christian influence in India will claim
our attention in the present chapter.
We shall take first the more indirect
influences.

The Indian Church 231

The reader requires to be continually influence of
reminded that references to the small but the^Educated "
influential educated community have been ^^^^s^^-
excluded from the scope of this book. The
influence of Christian ideas, however, upon
this section of the population has been so
marked that some account must be taken
of it, if we are to understand the real nature
of the impact of Christianity upon India.
The higher education of the country is in
the hands of the State, and the western
education imparted by Government and
native institutions, as well as that given in
missionary colleges, is the means of trans-
mitting directly or induce ctly Christian
ideas. The debt which the south of India
owes to the Christian College at Madras
cannot be estimated. The college has been
the means of disseminating Christian ideas
throughout the whole Presidency. A number
of the most influential leaders of Hindu
society have had their education in
Christian colleges. The ferment of Chris-
tianity has begun to act, and its results
are remarkable in the religious, social and
poHtical spheres.

One of these results is seen in the rise New
of a number of rehgious sects such as the

232 The Desire of India

Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj, both of
which are theistic. The Brahmo Samaj is
a form of Unitarianism. In its early days
it made a great impression on the educated
classes throughout India. The Arya Samaj
is more nearly allied to Hinduism than to
Christianity. It upholds the Vedas as the
only authoritative sacred canon, and has
built upon them a theistic system of
belief.
Spread of Dr John Morrison, a missionary of the

Christian Ideas. ^, i.£Gj.ij-i,- 4.1.1

Church 01 bcotland, m his recent book,
" New Ideas in India," after surve5dng the
rehgious movements among the educated
classes during the nineteenth century, de-
clares that there are certain elements in
Christianity which are being " naturahsed "
and grafted on to the rehgious heritage of
India. " Monotheism," he tells us, " tend-
ing more and more to the distinctively
Christian idea of God, our Father, is com-
mending itself and being widely accepted.
Secondly, Jesus Christ Himself is being
recognised and receiving general homage.
In a less degree, and yet notably, the
Christian conception of the Here and the
Hereafter is commending itself to the minds
of the new educated Hindus,"

The Indian Church 233

Social reform, while vigorously prose- Social Reform,
cuted by small sections of the educated
Hindu community, has not made much
progress during the last few years. Yet
the earnest spirits who take the lead in
desiring it have been peculiarly indebted
to Christianity for a new conception of the
value of human Hfe and of the true position
of woman. There is a growing sentiment
against early marriage, and some even
advocate strenuously the re-marriage of the
Hindu widow. A striking result of the in-
direct influence of Christianity is the in-
creasmg number of benevolent institutions
which have been estabhshed din-ing the last
twenty-five years in emulation of similar
missionary institutions. A few hospitals,
a growing number of orphanages, schools
and colleges bear witness to the increased
value placed on human hfe.

These movements and new influences Masses not yet

, 1 , 1 1 n p T J • touched by New

have scarcely touched the masses 01 India, ideas,
but some of them may do so in the future.
The Arya Samaj has preachers whose duty
it is to reach the villages. The leaders of
these new sects, however, have not as yet
made any attempt to live among the people
and win their hearts by love and sympathy.

2 34 The Desire of India

New Sense of There are at the same time other forces
Ufe. °^^ ° at work among the masses which are in-
directly imparting to them Christian ideas.
The value of life has been raised by the
establishment of lasting peace in India.
The nineteenth century is a contrast to
the internal dissension which previously
divided the country and the incessant
bloodshed of the nine cenl.uries preceding
British rule. Stable government has been
the means of preserving many thou-
sands of lives. Benevolent institutions,
such as hospitals, and the extraordinary
measures taken to save life during the
famines, have had a moral influence upon
the people. A new sense of what it means
to be a human being and to possess human
rights is slowly coming to birth.
Christianity the There are many indications which point
Ground^f ^^ Christianity becoming the standard

Moral Forces. j-Qund which all the moral forces of the
country tend to rally. Across the pathway
of Christian progress are the walls of sordid
materiahsm, buttressed by bigotry and
caste prejudice. As the work progresses
it touches incidentally men and women
whom the spirit of God has prepared
for a spiritual message. Christianity has

The Indian Church 235

spiritual quality and awakens response in
the hearts of seekers after truth in whatever
fold they may be. Whenever a Christian
mission has established its right to the con-
fidence of the people it begins to exert a
strong moral influence throughout the com-
munity. This right is gained only after
years of permanent work by the methods
of medical relief, the school, and annual
itinerations in the district, all directed by a
strong and sympathetic personahty.

In a certain missionary station in north An illustration

T J • 1 1 1 T_ • 1 p fro"^ North

India sucn work has been carried on tor india.
the last fifteen years. At first the people
were hostile, and the influence of the mission
was Hmited to some adherents drawn from
the humbler castes and a few others who
were attracted by the advantages of medical
relief. The work has progressed. The
kindness and love wilHngly poured out
have broken down barriers which seemed
insuperable, and the sympathy shown has
touched many lonely hearts and sorrowing
families. Access has been gained by the
women missionaries to practically every
house of importance in the district. The
work among the men is under the care
of an Indian pastor and evangelist who was

236 The Desire of India

himself a convert from Hinduism. By
his sincerity and sympathy he has made
his influence felt throughout the dis-
trict and has attracted to himself, and
gained the confidence of, a number of
non-Christian rehgious leaders, all of whom
are striving to raise the spiritual level of
their respective followers. One of these
is a Sikh fakir ^ who coimts among his
adherents certain wealthy landowners,
superior tenants and farmers, whom he
continually visits and exhorts to faithfully
observe the teachings of their founder.
Guru Nanak. Every year the Christian
pastor sends out in his own name, and in the
name of his non-Christian friends, an invita-
tion to the prominent people in the district
to a religious festival. Several hundreds of
peasants assemble and each of the leaders.
Christian and non-Christian, makes an
appeal to those present to live better and
hoHer Hves. The Christian has in this way
the opportunity of laying the claims of
Christ before the assembled company.
Prejudice has been so far overcome that
the people listen reverently and acknow-
ledge that the message is a spiritual one
and demands at least their respect.

PREACHING BY THE WAYSIDE

GROUP OF CATECHISTS

The Indian Church 23;

Even among the common people there The Chet
have been several movements which have
arisen under the influence of Christian
ideas. Reference has already been made
to the strange sect which grew up in Bengal
as the result of a single copy of the Scrip-
tures. The last twenty-five years have
brought to light a similar movement in
the Punjab, represented by the sect called
the Chet Ramis, which incidentally throws
light on the extraordinary fascination which
reHgious ideas have for the people.

Chet Ram was born in 18S5. His father The Founder of
was a native of the Lahore district, and was
a prosperous shopkeeper. The Christian
terminology and facts — the latter more or
less distorted — which bulk largely in his
teaching were probably obtained when
he served the British army as a water-
carrier in the second Chinese War. On
his return he came under the influence
of a Muhammadan teacher, who probably
added to Chet Ram's stock of Christian
ideas. On the death of his master he con-
tinued the career of hermit and seeker. In
a poem composed by him in the vigorous
Panjabi of the district he relates how one
night Christ met him and commanded him

238 The Desire of India

to bxiild a Church and place therein the
Bible. The concluding lines declare his
convictions : —

" Then my soul realised
That Jesus came to give salvation.

"^ Day by day His love increased towards me
And people came to salute me.

" I realised it was Jesus God
Who appeared in a bodily form."

His Followers. His followers consist of monks and lay
brothers. The latter are householders and
follow their respective calHngs. The former
have their central shrine, where Chet Ram's
ashes are buried. They usually carry on
their journeys a cross on which is in-
scribed their creed : — " Help, 0 Jesus, Son
of Mary. Holy Spirit, Lord God, Shep-
herd. Read the Bible and the Gospels for
salvation." The total adherents and sym-
pathisers, even on a liberal estimate, do not
exceed five thousand. Chet Ram was an
unbalanced visionary, addicted to the use
of narcotics. The monks of his order
perpetuate this vice, defending it on the
ground of the physical hardships they have
to encounter. Clergy and laity are honest
and simple, yet ignorant and mostly illi-

The Indian Church 239

terate. The sect admits to its ranks the
adherents of all rehgions. It observes,
however, the distinctions and prohibitions
of caste.

The Chet Rami movement as such has Significance of
no futm-e. It has contributed little to the
evangehsation of India. It is suggestive,
however, of some of the lines along which
the propagation of Christianity may travel.
It is a warning as to what may happen.
On the other hand, it suggests that Christian
ideas, however indefinite and crude, are
afloat and that a certain permeation has
taken place. Further, it makes e\adent that
there is an opportunity for the true Christian
prophet, called from among the people
with a message from God, disciplined by
the study of the true genius and history
of Christianity and in Hving contact with
the springs of Hindu thought, feeling and
sentiments.

We pass now from the indirect influences The Indian
of Christianity to study the chief and most ^^^ '
tangible result of missionary work — the
Indian Church. It transcends in impor-
tance everything else that has been done.
Its imperfections, the paucity of its members,
the uninfluential character of most of its

and Influence.

240 The Desire of India

adherents are obvious, and these, defects
have so often been referred to by European
and Hindu, that Nehemiah's request might
well be the prayer of the Indian Church :
" Hear, 0 our God ; for we are despised."
Yet in the Providence of God, this unworthy
instrument may be used to further His
Kingdom in the world.
Its Growth The Christian Church has shown extra-

ordinary growth dm-ing the last half
century. The nature and causes of this
growth have been discussed in a previous
chapter. A reference to the tables in the
appendices will give some idea of its ex-
tent. From 1850 to 1900 the Protestant
Churches show an increase of adherents
from 91,000 to 854,000. The increase
in the last decade was most striking,
being 53 per cent. The nature of this
increase has been already commented
upon. It consisted of large, comparatively
homogeneous sections of the community
who transferred their allegiance to Chris-
tianity, such as the Shanans of the south,
the Madigas and Malas of the Telugu
country, the Kols of Chota Nagpur, the
Chamars and Chuhras of north India, and
the Mahars of western India.

The Indian Church 241

Two elements in the Christian Church High Caste
need special mention. The first of these
consists of the occasional converts from
the higher castes who are received into
the Church. The number is comparatively
small in individual areas, but is substantial
when the country is considered as a whole.
Some members of the Indian Church hold
prominent positions of trust, and usually
discharge their duties with conscientious-
ness and efficiency. The influence of the
Christian community and especially of its
upper ranks is rapidly growing.

Another important element in Indian The Reformed
Christianity is the Syrian Church, refer- y"^^®'
ence to which has already been made.
Excluding the Romo-Syrians the com-
munity numbers nearly 300,000 adherents,
who owe their allegiance to the Patriarch
of Antioch. Efforts were made during the
nineteenth century by the Church Mission-
ary Society to bring about a reformation
within the Church itself. The original plan
was a failure, but 50,000 members of the
Jacobite Syrians term themselves the Re-
formed Syrians. They hold the same beliefs
as evangeHcal Christians generally. The
movement is progressing slowly and may

242 The Desire of India

result in a welcome addition to the mission-
ary forces in India.
Influence of the The Christian community is better edu-
Community. cated than the non-Christian members of
the castes from which it is drawn. The
Hteracy of the Christians in south India is
much greater than that of either the Hindus
or the Muhammadans. The Christians
follow next to the Brahmans in general
literacy. The results achieved by Chris-
tianity among the depressed classes are so
striking that the development of these
classes within the Church will be very
rapid. They will be welded into a strong,
vigorous, and homogeneous community.
Christianity is building up a confederation
of the depressed classes, is disciphning them,
educating them, and ennobhng their char-
acters and hves. In contrast with the
unity of the Christian Church, Hindu
society, in spite of its strength, is broken
up by castes and is not homogeneous.
Leading Indian The Christian Church has produced men
who have shown both spiritual insight and
devotion to the cause. Among them, are
Schwartz's helper Satthianadhan, who laid
the foundations of the Tinnevelly Church ;
Devadasen, the faithful pastor of the Church

Christians.

The Indian Church 243

at Nagercoil ; K. M. Banerji and Nehemiah
Goreh, whose refutations of Hindu Panthe-
ism are the most important contributions
made from the Christian side to the Hindu
controversy ; Mathura Nath Bose, the
devoted missionary of Gopalganj ; and
Pandita Ramabai, whose yearning for the
womanhood of India has seen its reward
in many women and children added to the
Church.

The story of Nilakantha Goreh, Brahman, Nehemiah
Hindu pundit, Christian theologian and °^^ '
saint, is extraordinary and romantic.
From his youth upwards he was trained
at Benares in Hindu philosophy and in the
subtleties of its dialectic. " I despised
Christianity," he wrote afterwards, " and
thought it was a rehgion fitted for ignorant
Mlechchas ^ only, and that it could not be
compared with our philosophies, and I even
ventured so far as to undertake the refuta-
tion of Christianity." Thus he continued
holding controversy with Christian apolo-
gists. To strengthen his position he ob-
tained a copy of the Bible, but his pure
nature came under the spell of the Sermon
on the Mount. After many conversations

^ Unclean out-castes.

244 The Desire of India

with a Christian he resolved to change his
faith and communicated his decision to his
relations. Attempts were made to dis-
suade him, but they were of no avail. He
was baptised in 1848. His controversies as
a champion of the faith which he had so
recently despised made a profound impres-
sion in the first years of his service. Four
prominent non-Christians — two Hindus,
a Parsi and a Muhammadan — were con-
verted. For many years his headquarters
were in Poona, and his life received much
inspiration from the Society of St John
the Evangelist, while to his high and
spiritual attainments they also owed a
great deal. To the end of his days, he was
a wandering mendicant, reasoning with
Hindu scholars and urging the claims of
Christ. In his private life he showed
" the intense devotion and self-denial of
the Brahman missionary ; his genuine
humility and modesty, as well as his pro-
found erudition, set off the external mode of
his Ufe. His poverty, his emaciated look,
his plain mendicant-like attire made him
regarded by the people as a Sadhu — the
beau ideal of a Christian missionary."
His greatest published work was " A

CHURCH IN SANTALIA

M^

&

CHURCH IN GOND COUNTRY

The Indian Church 245

Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philo-
sophical Systems," but he made many other
contributions to the controversy. His
power lay in his life and devotion. He was
called to his rest on the 29th October 1895.

That a high- caste Hindu should conse- Mathura Nath
crate himself to the service of the despised
out- caste, to redeem and to minister to
his needs and to uplift him, is something
aHen to Indian rehgious history. The
educated community of Calcutta was
filled with amazement when Mathiu-a
Nath Bose, a distinguished graduate
in Arts and Law of the University of
Calcutta and a college lecturer, announced
his intention of surrendering his position
and emoluments for the purpose of Hving
among the Chandals of the Faridpur dis-
trict, 150 miles north-east of Calcutta.
" It was a wild, wide waste of swamps,"
we are told by his friend Dr Hector. " Dur-
ing the rainy season from July to October
it was under water, and the only means of
locomotion was by boat. But necessity
has no law ; and the DOor out- castes set
themselves to raise huge mounds and on
these they built their homesteads."
Poverty and a precarious livelihood had

246 The Desire of India

inured them to great hardships. During
the season they cultivated rice and jute,
at other times fishing, mat-weaving, and
basket-making provided them with em-
ployment.
His Conversion. Mathura Nath Bose in his early
days had shown great contempt for
Christianity. He is said to have torn to
fragments a copy of the Gospels which
was offered to him by a missionary. In
Calcutta he entered the college of the Free
Church of Scotland, attracted by the
educational advantages it offered, but de-
termined that nothing would induce him
to accept the Christian teaching which was
imparted. A period of doubt and stress
came upon him, and he longed " for the
priceless blessing of the pure heart, and of
the peace of conscience which accompanies
it." A friend in whom he confided took
him to some meetings of the Brahmo
Samaj . There he heard extracts read from a
book compiled by the founder. Ram Mohan
Roy, and they seemed to bring to him a
spiritual message. He obtained a copy and
read it with great eagerness. The work
was entitled, " The Precepts of Jesus, the
Guide to Life," and contained voluminous

The Indian Church 247

extracts from the Sermon on the Mount.
He found Christ and was baptised after
two years of consideration and preparation.

For a few years he held some important His Life of
teaching posts, but then there came to him ^®^^^^^-
the call of the oppressed and out-caste.
He responded to it with a glad heart. He
accepted a subsistence allowance from a
Bengah Christian, and from 1874 to his
death in 1901 he carried on his work in spite
of many difficiilties. Cut off from his old
interests, from his friends and from in-
tellectual society, he faithfully continued
at the work which God had given him to
do. He entered into the hves of the people,
became one of them, and touched their
hearts with his message. He was a hymno-
logist of no mean power, and we are told
that " his hymns were saturated with the
unction of his heart and his hfe, and are
among the sweetest and most inspiring in
the BengaH Hymnal." His spirit and in-
fluence hve in the Bengah Church, and his
hfe has called forth the spirit of Christian
service in other parts of India.

Pandita Ramabai, and her work are Pandita
unique in the annals of Indian rehgious ^^"^^^^^•
history. The daughter of a Hindu scholar,

248 The Desire of India

she inherited from him mental vigour and a
love for knowledge. The nomadic life of
early years developed her resom'ces under
adverse circumstances. The horrors of a
famine, which ultimately took from her the
parents whom she loved, and early widow-
hood endued her with sympathy for the
suffering and the child-widows of India.
With characteristic independence Ramabai,
when quite young, carried on a crusade
of social reform among her own people.
The evidence she gave upon female educa-
tion and the proposals she made before
the Indian Education Commission of 1882
showed such ability that she sprang to fame
immediately. To prepare herself for a career
as an educationahst she came to England
where she was baptised with her daughter.
An invitation led her to America, where she
made an appeal on behalf of the "High-
caste Hindu Woman."

She returned to India and founded at
Poona a home for Hindu widows, her
friends in America having become re-
sponsible for the financial side of the
scheme. The work prospered, but was
temporarily threatened by extinction when
some of the widows decided to be baptised.

The Indian Church 249

The great famines of 1896-1897 and of 1900
gave Ramabai her opportunity. Before the
earlier famine she asked that God would
give her a great increase of conversions
and prayed for a number of widows far
in excess of anything her institution
could hold. On the outbreak of famine
she travelled to the Central Provinces.
When the famine was over she had be-
tween five and six hundred women and
children. Accommodation was found for
them in the country some miles from Poona.
As the result of a spiritual awakening a great
number of the women were baptised. Dur-
ing the year 1900 further accessions to her
home took place and she received nearly
two thousand orphans. The responsi-
bility of this gigantic enterprise has rested
very largely on her. Financial crises and
unsympathetic criticism have made the
burden sometimes intolerable, but she has
faced difficulties with assurance and faith.
The story becomes more remarkable when
we remember how cramped and fettered
is the Kfe of an ordinary Hindu lady, how
timorous her heart when she contemplates
the outer world. In Ramabai we have an
example of a woman whom God has used to

2 50 The Desire of India

further His purposes. Her courage and her
faith are among her outstanding quahties.

The work of those Indian Christians to
whom reference has been made was of
a special kind. It has been enacted on
a stage under the gaze of the public eye,
and is of a type which is expressible
to the western Christian spectator.
There is other work being done in India
which is not capable of this clear expres-
sion. Out of view and limited by their
own language or caste area is the work
of many humble men who, unnoticed by
the wider world, are none the less respond-
ing to the demands made upon them, and
so far as their surroundings give them
opportunity are faithfully serving the
kingdom of God. Anyone with even a
slight knowledge of Indian village work
will recall Christians — not many perhaps,
but at least a few — ignorant and often
illiterate, who have yet in their simple
way shown much zeal and devotion.
There are the familiar stories of aged men
and women who have thought nothing of
a ten-mile walk through floods and unsafe
roads to take their places in the house of
God on Sunday morning. Memories arise

The Indian Church 251

in our minds of white -haired men quiver-
ing with emotion and incoherence wheii
making an effort to express the arti^es
of their belief. "I'll tell you, sir the mean-
ing of it," said Bishop Caldwell's venerable
friend after an unsuccessful effort to repeat
the creed, " We are all sinners and the
Lord Christ undertook for us all, and if we
believe in Him we shall be saved. I know
that, and that is all I know."

Nothing in the history of the Indian Catechists.
Church is finer than the testimony which
is borne, often in the face of adverse cir-
cumstances, by the Christian " Catechist "
or the village " Reader." The position
of these men is not enviable. Isolated
from strong Christian influences, they
often slide into a kind of slothful pro-
fessionahsm. Their duty is to assist the
missionary in his evangelistic efforts. If
placed in an independent charge they
have the oversight of a small company of
Christians, for whom they conduct ser-
vices ; they also hold evangelistic meet-
ings to reach the non- Christians, seek out
and help enquirers and introduce such to
the missionary whenever he may happen
to visit the station. Often the catechist

25 2 The Desire of India

fails to rise above his surroundings and
temptations, but his position is so difficult
that sympathy must take, the place of
condemnation. The people look upon him
as a hirehng, one who preaches because
he is paid to do so. The missionary in
their eyes has influence in the world — he
is a member of the dominant race. The
catechist has none and is therefore to be
spurned. With the Christians he is not
popular. From his decisions there are
continual appeals to the missionary. Yet
among these workers there are some whose
spiritual influence is remarkable, and who
by their exemplary lives attach to them-
selves the esteem and affection of the whole
countryside.
A Particular In One of the villages of India there has

lived for some years, unknown beyond his
own district, a Christian teacher, by birth
a member of the lowest caste. At an eailj
age he came under the influence of a
Hindu spiritual teachier, and finally when
he had exhausted the stores of learning
of his director, became in his turn a
spiritual guide to his fellow caste-men in
another village. Seated one day in state
at his shrine, he had a conversation with a

Illustration.

^**^^ n "^^-fi

A CHRISTIAN FAMILY

SANTAL BIBLEWOMEN

The Indian Church 253

Christian missionary who had once been a
prominent British official in the same
district. The conversation was animated,
and was marred only by the extraordinary
animosity and pride of the saint as he sat
at his shrine. The interview was not for-
gotten and weeks afterwards the man
travelled many miles to seek another inter-
view Avith the missionary. It was the
time of worship and he entered the humble
Christian Chm'ch. Upon his ears fell the
words of the prayer, " Thy service is
perfect freedom," or as the vernacular
version has it, " Thy service is kingship."
The truth began to be revealed to him and
he found Christ. To-day he continues his
work as a Christian catechist. Disease
has taken his sight from him, but he con-
tinues to labour for Christ, strong in a faith
built upon prayer and the knowledge of
God. He has outUved the humble tradi-
tions of his caste, and has by his spiritual
power overcome the prejudices of the higher .
castes and brought to them a message
which they have shown themselves willing
to receive from him.

The weakness of the Indian Christian Weakness of
Church as a whole is very obvious. Its church!^"

254 The Desire of India

greatest need is a spiritual awakening.
The ignorance of its members, the old
superstitions, the constant relapses into
pagan customs of those who were swept
into the Church by mass movements have
to be taken into account. Even more sad
are the selfishness, the desire for gain, the
petty envies and jealousies of the more
prosperous. The bhght often settles even
on the convert whose heroic sacrifices have
given promise of much future spiritual
power. Baptism seems to become to the
convert " that final goal of Christianity,
to reach which he must make the one
supreme effort of his life ; and having
made it, he may settle down into an assured
spiritual content which will remain un-
disturbed for the rest of his Hfe both here
and hereafter." This spiritual defect lays
its restraining hand on the propagating
power of the Church, and neutralises its
influences on the ^ human hfe around.
. Grievous must be the sorrow of the young
convert who, on taking his place in the
Christian Church after fierce persecution, dis-
covers its worldliness and spiritual poverty.
Lack of a Still more serious is the lack of ideal in

Spfrit^"^'^^ the Indian Christian Church. Its con-

The Indian Church 255

ditions and environment make it difficult
for the Church as a whole to be possessed
by a great and comprehensive ideal. The
majority of its members are Hmited in
their view by the narrow bounds of their
district. The conception of anything
larger can rarely be brought home to them.
The greater number cannot read, and most
are poor and engrossed in earning what is
at the best a precarious livelihood. The
members of the Church have often come
over to Christianity in a body and the re-
sponsibility of advancing the Kingdom
does not weigh upon them. Even those
who are better educated do not feel suffi-
ciently their responsibiHty for the evangel-
isation of India. To many the Christian
Church exists to estabhsh a position of
influence and power for itself, and beyond
that they have no ideal.

The Indian Church has failed on the whole Absence of a
to produce a distinctive theology capable xlfedogy.^
of reaching the minds and hearts of the
people. The religious history of India
would lead us to look for something of this
kind. Yet the nearest approach to a dis-
tinctively Indian interpretation of Christ
has come from a non-Christian sect, the

2 56 The Desire of India

Brahmo Samaj. The cause is not .far to
seek. Indian Christianity is as yet a
western product in the process of being
grafted on to India. The children of
converts know Httle of, and care less for,
the whole heritage of Indian thought and
religion. They are brought up with a
stock of Christian ideas in a society of
their own. The conversion of their parents
has severed all the old relationships. An-
other consideration which throws light on
this barrenness of the Indian Christian
rehgious mind is the fact that up to
the present the members of the Church
have been drawn from castes which
do not afford a soil in which theological
ideas naturally spring up and come to
harvest. There have been Christians Hke
K. M. Banerji and Nehemiah Goreh, but
the converts from the castes which show
special philosophical aptitudes are few and
insufficient to form an intellectual society in
which there can be a free interchange of ideas.
New interpretations of Christian doctrine
will scarcely be possible till the intellectual
level of the Indian Church is raised either
by greater accessions from the Brahman
class, or by an extraordinary develop-

The Indian Church 257

ment of the mind of the out-caste people who
form the bulk of the Christian community.

Poetry and not systematised philosophy is A Native

1 r» 1 ^ 11 -IP Hymnology.

the product 01 the undeveloped minds 01
primitive peoples, and already there are signs
of an indigenous hymnology in southern
India among the Shanan Christians and to
a lesser degree in the north. It was a
Pariah who composed many hundreds of
years ago the sacred Kural of the Tamil
country. Its influence is extraordinary,
and the lessons it inculcates are profound.
For literary excellence nothing else in the
south can compare with it. When we
consider the power of poetry as a moral
influence and as a vehicle for conveying
rehgious ideas, as we have seen exemplified
in the Ramayana and in the " Sacred
Utterances " of Manikka Vasagar in the
south, we can see how the growing h5mi-
nology of the southern Indian Church, if
fired by God's Spirit, may give utterance
to divine truth in a language that will
be understood by the people.

It is usual to test the value of the Self-support.
Christian Church in mission lands by en-
quiring how far that Church is self-support-
ing, self-governing and seK-propagating.

258 The Desire of India

Let us take first the question of self-
support. Among the mass of the people
poverty is very great. For example, among
the Christians connected with the Anglican
Communion in the Telugu country, number-
ing in all twenty-nine thousand, the average
income of a family — not of each individual
— ^is two shilhngs a week. Yet each member
of every family contributes nearty a penny
a week. In the Tamil country where the
Christians are more prosperous the amount
given is considerably higher. In Tinne-
velly the Christians largely support their
pastorate. It may be said that where-
ever large mass movements have taken
place the Christians are taking upon them-
selves increasingly the financial responsi-
bility for their ChiKches. In some cases
they go even further and support evangelists
among their non-Christian brethren. The
Tinnevelly Christians support two Tamil
missionaries and seven Telugu evangehsts
in the Nizam's Dominions. The more
prosperous — as in every country — give less
than the poor, and congregations in the
cities, which count among their members
the comparatively affluent, are the ones
which need most support.

The Indian Church 259

The Indian Church is not self-governing. Self-
Western sectarianism has been perpetu- ^°^^^
ated to the detriment of Indian Christianity.
Yet there are movements towards union.
Chief among them was the union of the
majority of Presbyterian Churches in the
country. Seven out of a possible thirteen
decided to constitute themselves into the
Presbyterian Church of India. From this
Union a secession of Presbyterians from
the south took place in order that they
might enter into a wider union with other
Churches. Consent to do this was gladly
given. The dominating influence in the
Indian Christian Church is the foreign
missionary element, but there is a tendency
in certain sections of the Church to ehminate
this preponderance. What form of govern-
ment the Indian Church mil finally assume
is not clear, indeed whether it will accept
any of the types developed in the west is
questionable. There is a feehng abroad
which deplores the perpetuation of Christian
sectarianism and a growing tendency to-
wards union.

The Indian Church is marred by many Possibilities of
defects, yet its virtues are not few, and it church!^"
may be used of God to fulfil His purpose

26o The Desire of India

for India. Of one thing there can be no
doubt. It alone has the capacity of over-
coming the inaccessibiUty, both physical
and mental, of the milhons in whose hearts
the light of truth has not yet dawned.
The missionary problem is not how the
Western Church can with its western
apphances add materially to the numbers
of the Church. Rather it is how Western
Christianity can co-operate with and
strengthen the hands of the Indian Church,
so that the Church as such will bring about
the evangehsation of India. Acceptance of
this principle will mean a readjustment,
though not a radical change, of present
methods, a new emphasis and a new stan-
dard whereby to measure progress. Further,
it will involve a deliberate attempt to
develop Indian leadership and resources,
and will lead to an enquiry into the most
effective methods of training Indian
Christians both in school and college. For
many years to come, a much more numerous
foreign missionary body will be needed
for the purposes of evangelisation and of
training the members of the Indian Chiu*ch.
To these needs \^e shall refer in the next
chapter.

;-?*•, ?^»^-^^

1

i

A VILLAGE SCHOOL

BIBLEWOMEN AT WORK

The Indian Church 261

The Indian Church has experienced in Spiritual

, £ • -r 1 .• • Awakening.

recent years a season 01 spu"itual stirring.
The two great famines with the attendant
misery, the terrible pestilence which has
devastated great tracts of country, tha rise
of the national spirit in the poHtical hfe
of the country, and above all the prayers
of many thousands of Christians all over
the world, have stirred the Church, and
stagnation has given place to dissatis-
faction and aspiration. More service and
giving has been called forth than ever
before in its history.

A movement which focusses these forces The National
is the National Missionary Society, founded socfetT.^^^
in December 1905. It has done good work
in the short time that it has been in ex-
istence. The object of the Society is the
evangeUsation of the unoccupied areas of
India by means of Indian agency under
Indian management. What the future
progress of the Society mil be it is difficult
to predict, but it has an extraordinary
opportunity for attempting new methods
which foreign missionary societies are pre-
cluded from using. The danger lies in its
becoming a copy of these societies, with
no other difference than that of employing

262

The Desire of India

other

Missionary

Efforts.

The Future
of the Church.

Indian workers instead of European
ones.

The work of the National Missionary
Society has been anticipated by various
Churches. To the work of the Tinnevelly
Christians in the Telugu districts refer-
ence has been made. The Presbyterian
Church in India is bestirring its adherents
to a recognition of their duties. The
Baptist Christians in Bengal have also a
flourishing missionary society.

These indigenous movements have be-
fore them many problems. They ma^T^ in
the future mould themselves in Hindu
forms, adopting for example the ascetic
ideal transfigured by zeal for Christian
service, and follow in the footsteps of the
early Franciscans. To those who know
and love India and understand the occa-
sional spiritual influences which have swept
over her life, such personalities as Tulsi
Das must suggest the figure of an Indian
prophet claimed and sent forth by God to
his own people to preach the good tidings
of the Kingdom. It may be, however, that
the evangelisation of India will come about
rather by the slower and more exacting
method of the growth of a Christian com-

The Indian Church 263

munity, efficient, well-equipped, a potent
factor and the bond of unity in the
corporate and national life of the people.
The building up of a Christian society of
this character, as distinct from movements
which, initiated by great teachers, have
ultimately become mere sects within the
pale of Hinduism, will be something new in
the religious history of India. Yet this
more than anything else is needed, since
the Hindu social order, in spite of its
many virtues, has ever proved a check to
progress and a menace to every spiritual
movement, a dehberate enslavement of
the individual, a denial of the worth
of the human soul. These are days
of discipHne for India. She is being
purified and renewed. The rise of the
Christian Church is her ultimate, her only
hope. It is necessary for her people to
experience these long years of probation.
The Indian Church when purified will
give to the world a rich store of spiritual
experience and devotion.

264 The Desire of India

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VII

1. In what ways is the spread of Christian ideas
(e.g., with regard to the vahie of human life) a help
to missionary work ?

2. Does this spread of Christian ideas make it
more likely that the people will ultimately acknow-
ledge Christ, who is the source of these ideas-, as
Lord ?

3. What conclusions would you be disposed to
draw from the account given in this chapter of
religious co-operation between Christians and non-
Christians in a district in north India ?

4. What lessons does the story of the Chet Ramis
seem to you to teach ?

5. What are the more important elements which
make up the Indian Christian Church ?

6. Which of the three lives of Indian Christians
narrated in this chapter seems to you to illustrate
most strikingly the power of Christianity ? Men-
tion the grounds of your opinion.

7. Do these narratives furnish evidence that the
Indian Church is able to produce capable leaders
of its own ?

8. Are there any reasons why the Indian cate-
chists should have a special place in our prayers ?

9. W^ould you expect that a man who had con-
fessed Christ in baptism at the cost of severe per-
secution would be an exceptionally spiritual and
zealous Christian ? Is this always so in reality ?

10. What are the chief weaknesses in the Indian
Church ?

1 1 . How would you account for the fact that, in
spite of the religious capacities of the Indian people.

The Indian Church 265

the Indian Church has not as yet made any distinc-
tive contribution of its own to the interpretation of
Christ?

12. What advantages has the Indian Church in
comparison with the foreign missionary body as a
force for the evangehsation of India ?

13. Are these advantages of such a kind as to
render unnecessary a great increase of foreign
missionaries ?

14. In view of the facts about India contained in
this chapter^, what seem to you to be the chief aims
of missionary pohcy ?

15. What are the chief problems which lie before
the Indian Church ?

16. In what wa3^s can the Church in the W^est
best render help to the Church in India?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

New Ideas and Movements
Morrison — New Ideas in India.
LiLLiNGSTON — The Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj.
RicHTER — History of Missions in India^ chap. vi.
Jones — India's Problem^ chap. xi.
Report of Decennial Missionary Conference^ Madras
(Appendix).

The Indian Church

Gardner — Life of Father Goreh.

Dyer — Pandita Ramabai.

Satthianadhan — Sketches of Indian Christians.

Smith — Twelve Pioneer Missionaries^ pp. 234-274.

RicHTER — History of Missions in India^ chap, vii.

Jones — India's Problem^ chaps, iv., x.

CHAPTER VIII

THE NEED OF INDIA

Three Divisions The problem of the evangelisation of India
Sodety? ^^s to be Considered in relation to three

(I) The OTeat divisions of the people, to reach each

Outcastes. * ^ ^ .

of which different methods are required.
These three divisions of society have up to
the present been influenced in varying
degrees, but the results so far achieved
point to the ultimate triumph of Chris-
tianity. The first division includes the
lowest castes of Indian society, which
Hinduism has abandoned, and for which it
feels Uttle responsibihty. That they
should perish is a matter of Uttle con-
cern, except in so far as such a contin-
gency would deplete the labour market
and interfere with the operations of agri-
culture. Among this section of the popu-
lation there is a growing movement towards
Christianity, which has swept thousands,
and probably will sweep miUions, into the
Christian fold.

The Need of India 267

The second great division consists of the (2) The Bulk
millions belonging to the recognised Hindu lo^et^"
castes. It includes the bulk of the popu-
lation and represents the strength of India,
governed by caste and controlled by the
Brahmans and their allies. Work among
this section, though it has been carried on
for many years, is still in its initial stages
and has so far been largely preparatory.

Within the bulwarks of Hinduism the (3) The Edu-
third division of the population is to be ""^^^^ ^^^^^^^•
found — the small but influential section
which has been inspired by western civilisa-
tion and is the conscious or unconscious
interpreter of Christian ideas to the people.
The educated classes, in spite of their
refusal to admit the fact, are the chief allies
of Christianity in the camp of Hinduism.
Their antagonism is often the result of
misconception, and is aroused more by the
pohtical associations of Christianity than
by its spiritual message.

To sum up the situation, we find on the The Present
one hand a social upheaval in the lower ^1^"^^-°"-
strata of Indian society, and on the other
a ferment of new ideas among the leaders
of Hindu life. These taken together seem
to herald far-reaching, and possibly re-

268

The Desire of India

The Present
Opportunities.

Opening's in
the Telugu
Country.

volutionary, changes. The opportunities
and the difficulties which are thus presented
are the appeal of India. This chapter will
be devoted to a consideration of their
significance.

India oSers to-day great opportunities
of gathering into the Church thousands
who are desirous of entering it. It cannot
be too often reiterated that there are
literally thousands among the depressed
classes who are claiming from the Christian
Church the opportunity of developing body,
mind and spirit. Apart from Christianity
there is no hope for them. The Church
in India finds itself unable to respond
to the demands that are pouring in
upon it.

The situation in the Telugu country has
become so critical that the Bishop of
Madras recently asked that the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel should
for reasons of strategy temporarily refrain
from extending its educational work in
order to put its whole strength into the
Telugu mission and the work of instructing
large Mala communities. It is his con-
viction that in the Telugu country alone
there are 2,000,000 people who desire

The Need of India 269

instruction. The reports sent to the Com-
mittee 01 the Church Missionary Society
by their missionaries and evangehsts in the
Telugu country are pitiful to read, so
constant is the appeal for reinforcements
for means to go forward. " Crowds of
people," writes an evangeUst, " are
asking us to enrol their names as en-
quirers, but we have not the teachers to
send them." Another says that during
six months there were more than seven
hundred applicants for baptism, but as it
was not possible to cope with the work,
their names were not even taken down.
In one single district this mission had
5000 enquirers. " Under the circum-
stances," one of the missionaries writes,
^' it may seem immaterial that o¥/ing to the
necessity for retrenchment the Itinerating
Band has had to be broken up, but it
cannot be regarded as other than a matter
of deep regret that at a time of such un-
rivalled opportunity the wide-spread pro-
clamation of the Gospel should in any way
be checked." The missionaries of the
London Missionary Society also have their
hands full deahng mth hundreds of apphca-
tions for baptism. The same thing is true

270

The Desire of India

Opportunities
in Other Parts
of India.

The Need for

Immediate

Action.

of the Wesley an Missionary Society in the
State of Hyderabad.

These movements are not confined to
the Telugu country. Similar, though
smaller, movements are appearing all over
India, among the depressed classes. Bishop
Thoburn of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of America tells us that in the
United Provinces, where already great
extensions of work have taken place,
" more than 100,000 are now waiting to be
received into the community," but the
resources of the Church cannot cope with
the demand for teachers.

In these districts where " movements "
are visible, the Church ought to be ready
to place an army of ordained men, lay
evangelists and women workers to reap the
harvest which God in His providence is
causing to appear. These movements may
soon begin to show signs of cessation. The
flood-tide may begin to retreat and may
never return. We have already seen that
in the " Aboriginal " area Hinduism and
Islam are proving the rivals of Christianity
and becoming a menace to its advance.
The change of Hfe which Christianity
works among these outcastes is marvellous.

The Need of India 271

It purifies, raises and regenerates them,
lifting them into a condition far in advance
of their previous gross paganism. Outside
the pale of Hinduism are fifty miUions of
outcastes. Many of these are manifesting a
desire to enter the fold of Christianity, and to
the others it would not be difficult to show
its power and blessings. These facts should
help us to understand better the words of
Christ : " Lift up your eyes and look on the
fields ; for they are white already to harvest."

The baptism of these thousands and their a Weighty
reception into the Christian Church involve Responsibility.
grave responsibilities. " To have brought
people into the kingdom," says Bishop
Mylne, "is to have pledged the honour of
Christendom to their training in the prin-
ciples of the Gospel." It is only at the
peril of irretrievable damage to the cause
of Christ that the Church can refrain from
undertaking the teaching of these multi-
tudes. In the recent revival in the Khassia
Hills in eastern Bengal, nearly 8000 people
were converted in a few months. God is
answering prayer abundantly. The ques-
tion suggests itself : Is the Church worthy
of such a gift ? Will it rise to its new
responsibihties ?

272 The Desire of India

Influence on The mere fact of such large accessions

Castes from ^, . . . t , i e

which Converts to Christianity and the growth oi strong
^^^^' Christian communities are having a marked

influence both on the tribes and castes
from which the converts come and on
alHed castes. These facts must be viewed
with alarm if resources cannot be found
commensurate to cope with the need.
Among the Malas the growth of a Christian
community more prosperous and more
respected than its brethren " exercises
a powerful influence on all non-Christian
Malas who come even in the slightest
degree under the influence of Christian
teaching, to induce them to become
Christians."
Influence The influence does not, however, stop

mgh^er^c^stes. ^^^^' During the past few years it has
spread to the lower strata of Hindu society
proper, that is, to some of the castes that
have a recognised status. The Sudra
castes in south India form the bulk of the
Hindu community and are " the artisans,
farmers, possessors of cattle and the land-
owners in the villages in which they dwell."
In the Telugu country sixteen millions out
of a population of twenty millions belong
to these Sudra castes. Among them for

The Need of India 273

some years Christianity has met with a
tolerance which is as remarkable as it is
unusual. A missionary working in this
area reports that he has personal know-
ledge of some hundreds of conversions from
what he terms " the respectable middle
classes," and points to the singular fact
that in every case the convert was permitted
to remain a member of the family. Chris-
tianity among the majority of the popula-
tion in some parts of the Telugu country
is becoming " an alternate religion."
A definite movement towards Chris-
tianity is reported among the basket-
makers, called Wadderas, and tank-diggers
of the Telugu country who form castes
within the recognised pale of Hindu society.
In a single missionary district within the
last few months nearly 2000 Siidras have
been baptised, and a similar number are
under instruction. This whole movement
among the lowest castes and among the
Sudras is very significant and of great
importance. " If wisely guided and en-
com"aged," writes the Bishop of Madras,
" it may well spread rapidly and gather into
the Church all the Wadderas in this part of
the Telugu country and then lead to a

274 The Desire of India

similar movement among still higher castes.
There are already signs that the wealthy
caste of Komatis or merchants is beginning
to be influencedj and if a movement once
begins among them, the whole of the Sudra
community will be shaken to its
foundations."
The Influence We must pass now to the fundamental

of the Educated ■, -I'lii ii p i

Classes. and seemmgly msoluble problem oi reach-

ing Hindu society proper. Here we meet
with conditions altogether different from
those which have just been studied. The
educated classes, who form the third of the
three sections into which we have divided
Indian society, do not fall within the scope
of this book, but they are related so closely
to the problem of reaching Hindu society
that some reference to them is necessary.
As has already been mentioned, they are
the conscious or unconscious alHes of
Christianity. Their significance hes in the
fact that they are helping to diffuse new
ideas among the people. Their influence
is far out of proportion to their numbers,
and they are in an increasing degree the
natural leaders of the people. The Church
has sought to win and to influence this class
through its educational institutions, which

The Need of India 275

have succeeded in attracting large numbers.
Here again opportunities have been lost
through lack of a sufficient number of
Christian teachers. Hundreds of addi-
tional teachers are needed in the missionary
schools and colleges of India to cope with
the opportunities and to rightly influence
the boys and young men who pass through
missionary educational institutions.

The attempt to reach and influence the Effort to reach
bulk of Hindu society is still only in its only Beginning;.
initial stages. Christian missions have
hardly touched the actual problem. The
work has been so far largely preparatory,
opening up avenues of approach and over-
coming the inaccessibility of the people.
The value of medical and educational work
from this point of view has already been
considered. Once again, however, it has
to be said, that the openings that present
themselves cannot be taken advantage of
on account of the lack of workers. If it
were possible to lay before the reader an
account of the work done by any one of the
medical missions in India, the story would
be one that would fill the heart with joy.
We should rejoice over human pain reheved,
men and women taught for the first time

276 The Desire of India

the value of their own hves, prejudice
broken down, and souls brought into touch
with the love of Christ. Mingled with our
joy, however, would be sorrow on account
of opportunities lost because there were none
to lay hold of them — openings into homes
and villages, which it was impossible to enter
because those who had prepared the way
could go no further, burdened as they were
by the pressing details of immediate de-
mands upon their strength. There is deep
pathos in the mere physical needs of the
people, which there are not sufficient
workers to meet. But behind these lies
a deeper need, the desire of India for
spiritual comfort and satisfaction. Op-
portunities of meeting this need are also
being lost day by day because of the in-
sufficiency of the Christian forces.
Concentration To enter into these openings a multitude
of men and women are required, who will
have time to concentrate their work. In
a previous chapter it was stated that the
enormous areas which are often worked from
a single mission station are a continual temp-
tation to make the work diffuse. In order
to allow missionaries to concentrate their
efforts, it is necessary to reduce the size of

Needed.

The Need of India 277

mission districts. This can be done only
by a multiplication of mission stations and
of the present missionary staff, or by
deliberately working only one corner of
a district for which responsibihty has been
undertaken. To do his work successfully
a missionary must be content to deal with
the few. Time and close intimacy are
needed to overcome the prejudices of the
people and to enter into their Hves with
sympathy and love. Thus alone is it
possible to touch them and obtain oppor-
txmities of helping them spiritually.

This is no condemnation of itinerant Fields still
work. Recognition has already been given Unoccupied.
to its importance in disseminating truth, in
reaching individual seekers, and in afford-
ing opportunities of visiting Httle groups
of Christians far away from the influences
of Christian intercom's e and teaching.
Moreover, it is scarcely possible to leave
vast areas in complete neglect. Not only
are there many large districts in India in
which not a single missionary resides, but
many others having a large area and im-
mense population are worked by soUtary
missionaries with very inadequate help.
Of the fifty districts of the United Pro-

278 The Desire of India

vinces, seven, each with a population of
nearly a million, have no missionaries, and
nine have each only one resident missionary.
Under such circumstances the worker is
constantly torn by conflicting desires to do
his work thoroughly and at the same time
to meet the needs of the hungering multi-
tudes in the regions beyond. Christian
missions have as yet scarcely had an
opportunity of presenting the Gospel
effectively, and yet we are impatient for
results.
Larg-e Increase The inadequacy of the Christian forces
Needed^ i^ India calls for speedy action. Re-

inforcements are needed to lay hold of the
present opportunity among the depressed
classes, to win the influential educated
classes, to strengthen and develop the
efforts to reach Hindu society and to
prevent these efforts from being spasmodic
and diffuse. The Missionary Conference,
representing the various Protestant
Missionary Societies at work in India,
which met in Madras at the close of the
year 1902, after a careful survey of the
situation asked that the missionary staff
in India should be doubled, in order that
there might be one missionary to every

The Need of India 279

fifty thousand of the population. It
appealed to the Chinch in Christian lands
to provide men and women who would help
in all departments of work — ordained men,
teachers, doctors, mu"ses, women workers,
writers, and journaKsts. To all such there
are presented abundant opportunities of
influencing for Christ the ideals, institutions
and Hfe of a nation long apathetic but now
beginning to awake from the torpor of ages.

Great as is the need of workers from Prayer for the
the Churches of Christendom, equaUy great ^"^^^" ^^"''^•
is the need of prayer for India — for her
people and for the Church which God in His
providence is building up. The outstand-
ing need of the Indian Church is a spiritual
awakening, not a mere emotional revivalism
but a deep quickening of its Hfe, a new
purpose and determination, and above all a
reaHsation of its missionary vocation.

To imderstand what might be accom- its
pHshed by the Indian Church we must ^pp°'^""^^^''-
remember its opportunities of touching the
life of the people, of entering into and
appreciating their di£&culties. No one has
shown greater capacity to reach the Brah-
mans with their ancient learning than
Nehemiah Goreh, always zealous in the

28o The Desire of India

cause, noble-hearted and earnest, whose
Christ-like Hfe gave power to his words and
example. If Christianity is to make pro-
gress, it is necessary that such men should
be raised up who will enter the very strong-
hold of the Hindu faith and bear witness to
the Truth. Others are needed to shepherd
congregations all over India. Here hes
an opportunity for the strongest young men
in the country to build up a Church in-
spired by the ideal of service. The Indian
Church must provide teachers to train its
youth in missionary service. It may be,
if we are faithful in prayer, that God will
give His message to a succession of Indian
evangehsts, who with passion and devotion
will renounce everything to preach the
Gospel in the villages of India. Tulsi Das
touched the heart of the people of North
India with the story of Rama; it may be the
purpose of God to raise up Christian hymn-
writers and preachers who wiU thriU the
hearts of the peasantry with the story of
Christ and of His love to men and power to
save. These are not Utopian dreams.
Their fulfilment depends upon our faith
and prayer. The missionary work of the
Indian Church caUs for special sympathy

The Need of India 281

and prayer. There is need of stimulus to a
forward move, of self-sacrifice that offers
of service may be forthcoming, and of
vision that the missionary work may
become a corporate effort of the whole
Church.

Such are some of the needs of the Indian The Need of
Chiu'ch. On the part of foreign missionaries y"^P^^^y-
there is need of sympathy in their dealings
with it. Failure to appreciate the great
questions at issue may result in a stunting
of its growth. Failure to trust it, though
its mistakes are only too apparent, and to
guide it with sympathy and with love, will
be fraught with the most serious conse-
quences to Indian Christianity and the
missionary cause.

There is a real danger that in considering The Appeal of
the many problems which India presents, Britain^ ^^^^
the reader should adopt the attitude of a
mere spectator and view with unconcern
the issues that are at stake. Their very
vastness is apt to lay its paralysing touch
upon the imagination. The last century,
and even the last decade, has brought India
nearer to the British people, but the pathos
of the Hves of its miUions has not as yet
touched the heart of the Church. In-

282 The Desire of India

dividuals have understood and have given
their Hves on its behalf, but the great
majority even of Christian people are
still indifferent. With many the range
of their interests is so narrow, and
the power of imagination so poor that
to feel for others is difficult. Within the
circle of British interests and yet beyond
the range of the nation's sympathy, India
Hes " a whole world in wilderness — a
world of secrets which you dare not pene-
trate and of suffering which you dare not
conceive."
Christ the only The tragedy of India is the failure of
ope o n la. jjjj^^j^jgj^ ^^ bring peace and joy to the

millions who inhabit its plains, to protest
against evil and overcome it, to conquer
despair and fill with hope, to befriend the
unfortunate and the outcaste, and to reveal
the love of God. This is a serious charge
to bring against an ancient reUgion, within
the pale of which have arisen noble seekers
after truth. Yet the redemption of India
is not with Hinduism. Once every twelve
years at the confluence of the Ganges and
the Jumna in Allahabad a great fair is held,
the most important event in the Hindu
Calendar. Pilgrims travel to it by the

The Need of India 283

thousand. The railway authorities alone
are said to collect a milHon tickets, while
the city and surrounding country con-
tribute another milUon and a half of people
to the throng. The sands are crowded with
an eager multitude, to many of whom it is
the occasion of their life. They come
desiring to purify themselves from the
taint of sin, or to obtain some blessing.
Nearly 100,000 ascetics and Brahmans
minister to the spiritual needs of this con-
course by practising upon the worshippers
the most outrageous and flagrant fraud
and deceit. An eye-witness tells us that
in one of the numberless enclosures is an
altar. Upon it stands a priest " who on
receipt of a rupee rings a bell and shouts
out the offerer's name before the image of
the deity and turns round to receive another
fee from the next suppliant. What most
disgusts is the utter levity and shameLess
greed with which he does it all, laughing
and jesting the while in marked contrast
to the earnestness of the worshippers."
Surely we have here a parable which speaks
of the earnest search of milHons, the failure
of Hinduism to meet it with any spiritual
message, and the heartlessness which takes

284 The Desire of India

advantage of the hopes and aspirations of
mankind. The redemption of India, the
satisfaction of her desires and the enlist-
ment of her spiritual capacities on behalf
of the kingdom of God are the duty and
privilege of the Church of Christ.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VIII

1. Which of the three divisions of Indian society
mentioned in this chapter seems to you from the
point of view of missionary strategy the most im-
portant object of missionary effort ?

2. What reasons might be urged in favour of
concentrating missionary effort on the out-caste
community ? *

3. What reasons might be urged in favour of
concentrating such effort on the educated classes ?

4. What reasons might be urged in favour of
concentrating such effort on the sections constitut-
ing the bulk of Hindu society ?

5. What consequences would follow if the Church
should fail to shepherd and train those whom it has
admitted into its fold ?

6. Wherein lies the importance of the spread of
Christianity among the Sudra castes ?

7. Why is concentration of effort so vitally im-
portant in the work of evangelisation ?

8. Is such concentration justified in view of the
fields that are still unoccupied?

9. Does the request of the Madras Missionary
Conference seem to you a reasonable one ? What

The Need of India 285

increase in the missionary forces would be required
to meet it? (Cf. Statistics on p. 170.)

10. What seem to you to be the chief needs of
the Indian Church }

11. Bearing in mind the ideas expressed in
Chapter IV., in what terms would you sum up the
responsibility of Great Britain towards India ?

12. Is it certain that Hinduism cannot meet
India's need ? Why }

13. What practical response is possible to the
appeal of India ?

CHAUT OF INDIAN HISTORY

AND SUCCESSIVE INVASIONS FROM THE NORTH

B.C.

1500

1400

1.300

1200

1100

1000

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

1 100

POLITICS

RELIGION

■ Vedic Period.

Period of Brahmanism. Composition of Brahmanas
and first Upanishads.

Buddha (596-508). Vardhamana, founder of the
Jains (599-527).

Invasion of Alexander the Great (327-6). Chandra-
srnpta, Maurva Emperor of North India (322-297).

Asoka (272-232).

Buddhism through Asoka's influence becomes a
vi^orld religion.

Scythian (Saka) Invasions.

A.I>.

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

1600

1700

1800

1900

--L

<

xn

>
o
Iz;

<

<
fa
o

Q

fa
xn

Yueh-chi (Mongolian) Conquest of North-West
India.

Kanishka.

Tiruvalluva (Tamil poet, author of Kural).

Gupta Empire established over North India.

Hinduism begins to supplant Buddhism through-
out India.

Invasion of the Huns.

Introduction of Nestorian Christianity into South
India.

Manikka Vasagar.

Sankaracharya (788-828).

"

Q -^ O

;^ 2 ^
g ^ <i

<l f» s
ffi -^ s

Invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni (1001-26).

Ramanuja.

Second Afghan dynasty founded by Mahmud of
Ghor.

Taimur invades India, (1398).

Ramanand.

Kabir (1410-1518). Guru Nanak (1469-1538). Chait-
anya (1486-1527).

Vasco da Gama discovers Cape route to India (1498).

Francis Xavier reaches India (1542). Tulsi Das
(1544-1624).

Babar defeats Delhi Emperor (1526). Akbar the
Great (1556-1605).

Robert de Nobili, Jesuit Missionary (1605-56).

EuRlish East India Company founded (1600). Aurungzeb (1658-
1707). Eise of Maratha power (1660-80).

STRUGGLE
FOR DOMINION

Ziegenbalg founds Danish-Halle Mission (1706).
Schwartz (1750-98). Carey reaches Calcutta (1793).

Break up of Moghul power. Struffgle of French and EneUsh. Battle
of Plassey (17571. Warren Hastings first Governor General (1774).

BRITISH
SUPREMACY

New Charter of East India Company permits missionary work (1813).
Alexander Duff (1830). Keshub Chunder Sen (1B38-64). Arya
Samaj founded (1875).

Indian Mutiny (1857). Annexation of Sind (Wi'J), Punjab (1849),
Oudh (1856), Lower Burma (1852), Upper Burma (1886).

288 The Desire of India

APPENDIX A
AREA AND POPULATION

Area in

Total

Province, State, or Agency.

Square Miles.

Population.

Ajmer-Merwara

2,711

476,912

Andamans and Nicobars .

3,143

24,649

Baluchistan

45,804

308,246

Bengal ....

115,819

50,722,067

Bombay (including Sind

and Aden) .

123,064

18,559,561

Burma ....

236,738

10,490,624

Central Provinces and Berar

100,345

11,991,670

Coorg ....

1,582

180,607

F,a,stern Bengal and Assam

106,130

30,961,459

Madras ....

141,726

38,209,436

North-West Frontier Pro-

vince ....

16,466

2,125,480

Punjab ....

' 97,209

20,330,339

United Provinces of Agra

and Oudh

107,164

47,691,782

Total, British Territory 1,097,901 232,072,832

Appendices 289

AREA AND FOl'JJhATlO^— Continued.

states and Agencies.

Baluchistan

86,511

502,500

Baroda State .

8,099

1,952,692

Bengal States .

32,733

3,940,462

Bombay States

65,761

6,908,648

Central India Agency

78,772

8,628,781

Central Provinces States

31,188

1,631,140

Hyderabad State

82,698

11,141,142

Kashmir State .

80,900

2,905,578

Madras States .

9,969

4,188,086

Mysore State .

29,444

5,539,399

Punjab States .

36,532

4,424,398

Rajputana Agency .

127,541

9,723,301

United Provinces States

5,079

802,097

Total, Native States

675,267

62,288,224

Grand Total, India

1,733,168

294,361,056

290

The Desire of India

APPENDIX B

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION
ACCOEDING TO LANaUAGE

Bengali

44,624,048

Malayalam .

6,029,304

Western

Lahnda

3,337,917

Hindi

39,367,779

Sindhi

3,006,395

Bihari

37,076,990

Santali

1,790,521

Eastern

Western

Hindi

20,986,358

Pahari .

1,710,029

Telugu

20,696,872

Assamese .

1,350,846

Marathi

18,237,899

Central Pahari

1,270,931

Panjabi

17,070,961

Pashto

1,224,807

Tamil .

16,525,500

Gond .

1,125,479

Rajasthani

10,917,712

Kashmiri .

1,007,957

Kanarese

10,365,047

125 other In-

Gujarati

9,928,501

dian Ver-

Oriya .

. 9,687,429

naculars

Burmese

7,474,896

spoken by

8,154,445

Appendices 291

APPENDIX C

DISTEIBUTION OF POPULATION
ACCOEDING TO PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONS

Occupation, or Means Total Actual Workers.

of Livelihood. Supported. Males. Females.

Agriculture .... 191,691,731 60,827,087 27,520,631

Earthwork and General Lab-
our (not agricultural) . 17,953,261 5,803,321 4,043,577

Provision of Food, Drink and
Stimulants . . . 16,758,726 4,796,381 3,330,834

Provision of Textile Fabrics
and Dress . . . 11,214,158 3,507,767 2,210,543

Personal, Household and
Sanitarj^ Services . . 10,717,500 3,760,267 1,805,703

Mendicants (non-religious) . 4,222,241 1,572,479 860,636

Commerce .... 4,197,771 1,380,654 222,998

Provision and Care of Animals 3,976,631 2,199,278 346,579

Administration by State or
by Local Bodies . . 3,814,495 1,307,999 70,973

Transport and Storage . 3,528,269 1,484,481 76,805

Provision of Leather, Hides
and Horns . . . 3,241,935 1,149,243 251,956

Priests and others engaged
in Religion . . . 2,728,812 971,869 178,656

Medical Practitioners, Mid-
wives, etc. . . . 520,044 133,477 70,644

Professors, Teachers, etc. . 497,509 180,523 11,979

Barristers and others en-
gaged in the Law . . 279,646 76,577 315

292

The Desire of India

APPENDIX D

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION
ACCORDING TO RELIGION

Hindus .

207,147,026

Sikhs ....

2,195,339

Jains ....

1,334,148

Buddhists (mainly in

Burma) .

9,476,759

Total .

.

220,153,272

Muhammadans

.

62,458,077

Animistic

8,584,148

Christians : —

Roman Catholic .

1,202,169

Syrian (Roman) .

322,586

Syrian (Jacobite, etc.)

248,741

Greek, Abyssinian, etc.

1,718

Protestant (European

and Eurasian) .

173,615

Protestant (Native)

845,3521

Minor Dencminations

and Denominations

not returned .

129,060

Total .

•

2,923,241

Carry forward,

1 This figure, like the others in this table, is taken from the
Government Census of 1901, and includes Burma. The Statisti-
cal Tables prepared from Missionary sources and presented to
the Calcutta Missionary Conference in 1901 give the Protestant
Native Christian community as 978,936.

Appendices 293

Brought forward,

Parsis 94,190

Jews 18,228

Minor Eeligions and Religions not

returned 129,900

Total 294,361,056

294 The Desire of India

APPENDIX E

THE GROWTH OF THE PROTESTANT
CHRISTIAN CHURCH

(From the Statistical Tables presented to the
Calcutta Conference)

Native Christian
Com m unity.

Organised
Congregations.

Native
Pastors.

1851

91,092

267

21

1861

138,731

291

97

1871

224,258

2,278

225

1881

417,372

3,650

461

1890

559,661

4,863

797

1900

854,867

5,362

893

Note. — The above figures refer to India only, ex-
cluding Burma and Ceylon. If Burma is
included the figure for the Native Christian
community for 1900 is 978,936. A serious
discrepancy exists between the number of
Protestant Christians returned by the last
Census report, and the Calcutta Missionary
Conference Tables (see Appendix D) ; the latter
exceeds the former by about 130,000. This
figure is practically the same as the number of
Christians in the government tables whose
denominations belonged to a " minor " denomina-
tion, or did not state their specific denomination.

Appendices 295

APPENDIX F

NOTE ON MISSIONARY STATISTICS

The authoritative source for Missionary Statistics
relating to India is the set of Tables prepared by
inquiry in India for the Calcutta Missionary Con-
ference in 1901 : Protestant Missions — India, Burma,
and Ceylon, Statistical Tables, 1900: Calcutta, 1902.
A summary of these Tables appears in the Report
of the Decennial Missionary Conference held at
Madras in 1902. Owing to the different meanings
attached by the different societies to the words
" missionary," " communicant," " adherent," the
figures under each head are not absolutely accurate,
though the discrepancies are not serious. In
Beach's Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions
(pp. 24-5) there is a carefully prepared table based
on the Reports of the different Missionary Societies
working in India (chiefly for the year 1900). In
The Christian Conquest of India (Appendix E), pub-
lished by the American Young People's Missionary
Movement in 1906, there is a similar table based
on Missionary Society Reports of a later year.

,^te>-;.^^"^;

^«ujj i~*„;^ -^

-c!r^':^'~-^t>!^*^^2Li^

•^S

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list includes both ivorks of reference and more popular
hooks. The books likely to he of most service to students are marked
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GENERAL

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Press, £5 net ; single vols. , 6s. net each.. )
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1905-06, 1907. (Wyman & Sons, Is. 3d.)

The three foregoing publications are the authoritative

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of the Gazetteer are descriptive, and are well worth

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An encyclopsedia giving much interesting information on

matters relating to India.
Crooke, W. North- Western Provinces of India. 1897.

(Methuen, 10s. 6d.)
Crooke, W. Natives of Northern India. 1907. (Constable,

London, 6s. net.)
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6s.)
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(Black, Is. 6d. net.)
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A useful short history of India.
Lane-Poole, S. Mediaeval India under Muhammadan Eule.

Story of the Nations Series. 1903. (Fisher Unwin, 5s.)
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(John Murray, 4s. 6d.)
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(Clarendon Press, 2s. 6d.)
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(Fisher Unwin, 5s.)
Richards, W, J. The Indian Christians of S. Thomas,

otherwise called the Syrian Christians of Malabar. 1908.

(Bemrose.)
Smith, Vincent A. Asoka. Rulers of India Series. 1901.

(Clarendon Press, 3s. 6d.)
Smith, Vincent A. The Early History of India. 2nd ed.

1908. (Clarendon Press, 14s. net.)

The most recent and best account of Indian history up to

the Muhammadan invasions.
Strachet, Sir John. India : Its Administration and Progress.

(Macmillan, 10s. net.)

RELIGIONS

Barth, a. The Religions of India. 1891. (Kegan, Paul, 16s.)
Bhattacharta, J. N. Hindu Castes and Sects. 1896. (Thacker,

16s.)
CroOKE, W. The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern

India. 1897. (Constable, 2 vols., 21s. net.)
Davids, T. W. Rhys. Buddhism. 1894. (S.P.C.K., 2s. 6d.)
*Davids, T. W. Rhys. Buddhism : Its History and Literature.

1904. (Putnam's Sons, 6s.)
Davids, T. W. Rhys. Buddhist India. Story of the Nations

Series. 1903. (Fisher Unwin, 5s.)
Deussen, Paul. Outlines of Indian Philosophy, with an Ap-
pendix on the Philosophy of the Vedanta. 1907. (Prob-

sthain, 2s. 6d. net.)
Dubois, Abb^. Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. 3rd

ed., 1906. (Clarendon Press, 6s. net.)
*Geden, a. S. Studies in Eastern Religions. 1900. (Kelly,

3s. 6d.)
Gordon, E. M. Indian Folk Tales. Sidelights on Village Life in

Bilaspore, Central Provinces. 1908. (Elliot Stock, 3s. 6d.)
Grant, G. M. Religions of the World. 1895. (A. & C. Black,

6d. net. and Is. 6d. net.)

Bibliography 299

*Haigh, Eev. Henry. Some Leading Ideas of Hinduism. 1902.

(Methodist Publishing House, 2s. 6d.)
*H0PKINS, E. W. The Keligions of India. 1895. (Ginn & Co.,

8s. 6d. net.)

The best book for beginning a serious study of the subject.
LiLLiNGSTON, FRANK. The Brahmo Somaj and Arya Somaj in

their Bearing on Christianity. 1901. (Macmillan, 2s. 6d.

net.)
Lyall, Sir A. Asiatic Studies : Keligious and Social. 1899.

(Murray, 2 vols. , 9s. each. )
Macdonell, a. a. a History of Sanskrit Literature. 1900.

(Heinemann, 6s.)
Mitchell, Murray. Great Eeligions of India. 1905. (Oliphant,

5s. net.)
MONiER-WiLLiAMS, M. Brahmanism and Hinduism. 1887.

(John Murray, 18s.)
MONIER- Williams, M. Hinduism. 1901. (S.P.C.K., 2s. 6d.)
Oldenberg, H. Buddha : His Life, Doctrine, etc. 1882.

(Williams & Norgate, 18s.)
Oman, J. C. The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India. 1903.

(Fisher Unwin, 7s. 6d. net.)
Oman, J. C. The Brahmans, Theists, and Muslims of India.

1907. (Fisher Unwin, 14s. net.)
*KoBSON, John. Hinduism and Christianity. 1905. (Oliphant,

3s. 6d. net.)
Slater, T. E. The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity.

1903. (Elliott Stock, 6s. )
Warren, H. C. Buddhism in Translations. 1906. (Ginn & Co.,

Westcott,'g. H. Kabir and the Kabir Panth. 1907. (S.P.G.,

2s. 6d. net.)
WiLKiNS, W. J. Hindu Mythology. 1900. (Thacker, 7s. 6d.)
WiLKiNS, W. J. Modern Hinduism. 1907. (Thacker, 7s. 6d.)

MISSIONARY WORK AND PROBLEMS

Arthur, _ William. A Mission to Mysore, 1908. (Methodist

Publishing House, 5s. )
Barnes, I. H. Behind the Pardah, 1898. (Marshall, 3s. 6d.

net.)
Barnes, I. H. Between Life and Death, 1901. (Marshall,

3s. 6d. net.)
Beach, H. P. Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions.

1903. (S.V.M.U., 16s. net.)
Caldwell, Lectures on the Tinnevelly Mission, 1857. (Belland

Baldy, 2s. 6d.)
Chamberlain, Jacob. In the Tiger Jungle, 1897. (Oliphant,

3s. 6d.)
Chamberlain, Jacob. The Cobra's Den, 1900. (Oliphant, 3s.

6d.)
Clough, E. R. While Sewing Sandals, or Tales of a Telugu

Pariah Tribe, 1899. (Hodder & Stoughton, 6s. )

300 The Desire of India

*Denning, M. D. Mosaics from India, 1902. (Oliphant, 6s.)
Dennis, J. S. Christian Missions and Social Progress, 1906.

(Oliphant, 3 vols., 31s. 6d.)
Elwin, E. H. Indian Jottings, 1908. (Murray, 10s. 6d. net.)
Fuller, Mrs M. B. The Wrongs of Indian Womanhood, 1900.

(Oliphant, 5s.)
Hacker, Rev. I. H. A Hundred Years in Travancore, 1806-

1906, 1908. (Allenson, 2s. 6d.)
Hart, Rev. W. H. Everyday Life in Bengal, 1907. (Metho-
dist Publishing House, 3s. 6d. )
*Hinkley. a Struggle for a Soul, 1906. (R.T.S.)

A series of well-written short stories relating to missionary

work in India.
""Hodge, J., and Hicks, G. Caste or Christ, 1906. (Morgan &

Scott, 2s. and Is. 6d.)
A series of graphic sketches of missionary work in Bihar.
Hume, R. A. Missions from the Modern View, 1905. (Revell, 4s.

6d. net.)
Hunter, R. History of Missions of Free Church of Scotland

in India and Africa, 1873. (Nelson, 3s. 6d.)
Jackson, John. Lepers, 1906. (Marshall Bros., 3s. 6d.

net.)
* Jones, J. P. India's Problem : Krishna or Christ, 1905. (Revell,

5s. net.)
A valuable study of various aspects of missionary work.
Lewis, E. Chenna and His Friends, Hindu and Christian,

1899. (R.T.S., 2s 6d.)

Longridge, G. a History of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta,

1900. (Murray, 6s.)

Lovett, R. History of the L.M.S., 2 vols. 1899. (Frowde,

21s. net.)
Lucas, Bernard. The Empire of Christ, 1907. (Macmillan &

Co., 2s. 6d. net.)
Mason, C. A., Lux Christi, 1902. (Macmillan, 2s. net.)
Morrison, John, New Ideas in India during the Nineteenth

Century, 1902. (Macmillan, 7s. net.)
A very interesting and instructive study of the ways in

which Christian ideas have permeated and intiuenced the

thousrht of the educated classes.
Mtlne, Bishop L. G., Missions to Hindus, 1908. (Longmans,

3s. 6d. net.)
Oakley, E. S., Holy Himalaya, 1905. (Oliphant, 5s. net.)
Pandian, T. B., Indian Village Folk, 1898. (Elliot Stock,

4s. 6d.)
Pascoe, C. F., Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G., 1901. (S.P.G.,

7s. 6d.)
Decennial Missionary Conference, Madras, Report of, 1902-

1903. (Christian Lit. Soc. for India, 2s. 6d. net.)
Ramabai, Pandita, The High-Ca^te Hindu Woman, Pandita

Sarasvati, 1901. (Revell, 2s. 6d. net.)
*Richter, Julius, History of Missions in India, 1908. (Oliphant,

10s. 6d.)

A most thorough and exhaustive account of missions in

Bibliography 301

India from the earliest times to the present day, supersed-
ing all previous works on the subject. Indispensable for
purposes of reference.

EOUSE, C. H. Indian Missionary Pictures. 1894. (Baptist Mis-
sionary Society, Is. 9d.)

-"Russell, N. Village Work in India. 1902. (Eevell, 3s. 6d.)

An interesting account of the methods and problems of
village work.

*Small, a. H. Yeshudas. 1907. (M'Niven, Wallace & Co.,
Is.)

An interesting and suggestive story of a seeker after truth.

Stock, Eugene. History of the Church Missionary Society.
1899. (C.M.S., 18s. net.)

Storrow, Rev. E. Oiu- Indian Sisters. 1898. (R.T.S., 3s. 6d.)

Taylor, H. F. L. In the Land of the Five Rivers. 1906.
(Black, Is.)

Telford, Rev. John. Short History of Wesleyan Methodist
Missions. 1907. (Methodist Publishing House, 2s. 6d.)

Thoburn, Bishop. The Christian Conquest of India. (Y.P.M.M.,
2s. net.)

Tyack, Lena. Hands Across the Sea. 1908. (Wesleyan Mis-
sionary Society, 2s. net.)

*ViNES, C. E. In and Out of Hospital. 1905. (C.E.Z.M.S.,
Marshall Brothers, Is. 6d. net.)

An excellent account of medical mission work among
women.

Wilson-Carmichael, a. Overweights of Joy, 1906. (Morgan &
Scott, 4s. 6d. net.)

Wilson-Carmichael, A. Things as They Are, 1904. (Morgan k
Scott, Is. 6d. net. and 2s. 6d. net.)

MISSIONARY BIOGRAPHY

Men of Might in Indian Missions. Helen H. Holcomb. 1901.

(Oliphant, 5s.)
Sketches of Indian Christians. S. Satthianadhan. 1896. (Christian

Lit. Soc. for India, 2s. 6d. net.)
Twelve Pioneer Missionaries. George Smith. 1899. (Nelson,

7s. 6d.)
Caldwell, Reminiscences of Bishop. J. L. Wyatt.
Carey, Life of William. George Smith. 1885. (John Murray,

16s.)
Carey, Life of William. J. B. Myers. 1887. (Partridge,

Is. 6d.)
Clark, Robert, of the Punjab. H. M. Clark. 1907. (Melrose,

7s. 6d.)
Day, Lal Beharl G. Macpherson. 1900. (Clark, 3s. 6d.)
Duff, Life of Alexander. George Smith. 1899. (Hodder &

Stoughton, 6s.)
Elliot, J, A. (" Padri Elliott of Faizabad.") A. W, Newboult.

1907. (Methodist Publishing House, 3s. 6d.)

302 The Desire of India

Emslie, Dr W. Jackson. ("Seedtime in Kashmir.") 4th ed.

1891. (Nisbet, Is. net.)
Fox, H. W. G-. Townsend. (Seeley & Co.)
French, Bishop T. Valpy. H. Birks. 1895. (Murray, 30s.)
Fuller, Mrs Jenny. ("A Life for God in India.") H. S. Dyer.

(Revell, 2s. 6d. net.)
G-oreh, Life of Father. C. E. Gardiner. 1900. (Longmans, 5s.)
Heber, Bishop. Dr George Smith. 1895. (John Murray, 10s. 6d. )
Lela, Chandra. An Indian Priestess. A. Lee. 1902. (Morgan

& Scott, Is. 6d. net.)
Leupolt, C. B. Recollections of an Indian Missionary. 1873.

(S.P.C.K., Is. 6d.)
Leupolt, C. B. Further Recollections of an Indian Missionary.

1884. (Nisbet, 7s. 6d. and 5s.)
Macdonald, Kenneth S. J. M. Macphail. 1905. (Oliphant, 5s.)
Martyn, Henry. Saint and Scholar. 1892. George Smith.

(R.T.S., 10s. 6d.)
Murdoch, Life of John. Henry Morris. 1907. (Christian Lit.

Soc. for India, 4s. net.)
Noble, R. T. John Noble. 1868. (Seeley, 2nd ed., 3s. 6d.)
Petrie, Irene. Mrs Carus Wilson. 1900. (Hodder &Stoughton,

6s.)
Ramabai, Pandita. The Story of Her Life and Work. Helen S.

Dyer. 1900. (Morgan & Scott, 3s. 6d. )
Reed, Mary. Missionary to Lepers. John Jackson. 1899.

(Marshall, 2s. 6d.)
SwARTZ, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of C. F.

Hugh Pearson. 1839. (Hatchard, 2 vols.)
Tucker, Life and Letters of C. M. (A.L.O.E.) Agnes Giberne.

1896. (Hodder & Stoughton, 7s. 6d.)
Wilson, Life of John, of Bombay. Dr George Smith. 1878.

(John Murray, 9s.)

INDEX

AH references to Countries, Languages and Races; and Mountains
and Pdcers are groicped under the heading Geography.

Aborigines, 21, 27, 182, 185, 240,

270
Akbar, 124-126
Alexander the Great, 113, 115
Allahabad, 9, 10, 134, 282
American Missions, 168, 169,

17H, 182, 184, 270
Anderson (John), 169
Arya Samaj, 232, 233
Ascetics, 83, 104, 214, 236, 244,

283
Asoka, 78, 116 et seq., 118, 172
Assam, 135
Atma, 81
AuiTingzeb, 126

B

Babar, 124

B. & F. Bible Society, 203

Banerji (K.M.), 243, 246, 256

Barth, 79

Benares, 9, 10, 76, 80, 120, 212,

218, 243
Bentinck (Lord William), 131
Bhagavad Gita, 93
Bible, 162, 201, 203, 238, 243
Bishop of Madras, 98, 222, 268
Black Art, 95 [see Superstitions)
B. M. S., 161, 164, 167, 203,262
Bose (Mathura Nath), 243, 245
Brahma, 81, 82, 84, 85, 92
Brahmo Samaj, 232, 256
Brahman, 15, 16, 53, 54. 56, 57,

58, 60, 72, 80, 98, 100, 101,

104, 176, 198, 222, 283
Brahmanas, 72, 73
Bright (John), 134
British Kule and Influence, 13,

128, 129, 130, 132, 141, 168,

194, 234, 281

Buddha and Buddhism, 10, 28,
74 et seq., 93, 116, 118, 120,
172

Burma, 28, 130

Calcutta, 131

CaldweU (Bp.), 169, 177, 179,

184, 251
Campbell (Rev. A.), 205
Carey (William), 150, 157 et seq.

169, 202, 204
Caste, 52-57, 66, etseq., 185, 188,

196, 216, 219, 222, 234, 239,

241, 244, 272
Catechists, 251
Ceylon, 27, 118
Champaran, 37
Chandragupta, 116, 119
Chenghiz Khan, 121
Chet Rami, 237 et seq.
Child Life, 66, 99, 233 {see

Women and Zenana)
Chota Nagpur, 97
Christian, Effect of becoming,

68, 96, 97, 186, 195, 213, 217,

235, 242, 272
Clark (Robert), 169
Clough, 180, 181
C.M.S., 164, 167, 169, 177, 198,

241, 252, 269
Continental Missions, 149, 156,

168
Converts, 64, 244 et seq. , 252
Corrie, 169
Cotton, 170

Danish Halle Mission, 149, 156
Dark Age, 99

304

The Desire of India

Dealtry(Bp.),l78

Deities and Divinities {see gods)

Delhi, 123, 124, 127

Devadasen, 242

Downie (Rev. D), 182

Dubois (Abbe), 64

Duff (Alexander), 169

E

East India Company, 129, 130,

132, 163-165, 170
Educational Missions, 199, 231
Edwardes (Sir Herbert), 170
English and England, 127, 131
Ethnology {see Geography)

Fairbank (Samuel), 169
Fakir, 236 {see Ascetic)
Famine, 48 et seq., 69, 179, 186,

204, 234, 249
Festivals, 94, 100, 135, 209, 237

{see Mela)
Forman (C. W.), 169
Free Church of Scotland, 169,

205
French, 127, 129
Fuller (Rev. Andrew), 158
Funeral Customs, 102, 103

Ganesa, 85, 86, 96, 103
Gautama Siddhartha, 74 {see

Buddha)
Gaya, 76
Geography.

Countries, Languages o.nd
Races {see Aborigines), 1,
2, 13-15, 18, 31
Aryan, 12, 14, 15, 17, 112,

113, 119
Bengali, 17. 18, 42, 91, 93,
127, 128,' 129, 156, 183,
205, 247
Bihar, 172
Burma, 28, 130
Deccan, 3, 22

Dravidian, 14, 16, 17

Hindi, 18, 89, 91

Hindostani, 19

Jat, 15, 60

Maratha, 127, 130

Mongolian, 15, 123

Rajput, 15, 124, 125

Sikh, 127, 129, 236

South India, 27, 28

Tamil, 87, 150, 151, 202,
258

Telugu, 268, 273

Urdu, 19
Mountains

Himalaya, 2, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12

Vindhya, 3, 12, 20
Rivers, 6, 7, 22

Brahmaputra, 3, 4, 5, 7

Cauvery, 24

Ganges, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 172,
282

Indus, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11

Irawaddy, 28

Jumna, 10, 282

Narbada, 7, 22, 23
Gods, 95, 94, 97, 100
Golden Age, 121
Goreh (Nehemiah), 243, 256, 279
Government officials, 169, 253
Grant (Charles), 170
Greeks, 114, 115
Gupta Dynasty, 121
Guru Nanak, 129, 236

Haldane (Robert), 157

Hall, 217

Hanuman, 89, 96

Hardwar, 9, 10, 135

Hastings (Warren), 130

Heber, 170, 219, 220

Hector (Dr), 245

Hindu Society and Christianity,

108, 188, 263, 266, 274
Hinduism, 5, 10, 72 et seq., 78,

82, 85, 94, 104, 108, 119, 128,

206, 216, 218, 220, 232, 236,

242, 266, 270
Hislop (Stephen), 169
Holi, 100
Human Life, value of, 68, 206,

233, 234

Index

305

Immoralities connected with
worship of Kali, and with Holi,
93, 100

Indian Church, 194, 22C, 230,
235, 239 et seq. , 242, 253 et seq.,

Invasions, 13, 120, 121, 122,

127
Irrigation, 135
Isvara, 94, 95
Islam, 123, 127, 128, 237, 242,

244, 270
Itineration, 207

Jacobites, 148, 241
Janicke, 177

K

Kabir, 90, 94, 129, 214
Kali, 93

Kiernander, 157
Khassia Hills, 271
Krishna, 85, 88, 91, 94, 101

Lawrence, 170
Lingayats, 222
L.M.S., 164, 167, 168, 179, 197,

M

Mahabharata, 92
Manikka Vasagar, 87, 257
Mann, Code of, 100
M'Leod (Sir Donald), 170
Marriage, 61, 66, 69
Martyn (Henj-y), 170, 203
Marshman (Joshua), 161, 202
Mass Movements, 175 et sec

183, 187, 233, 266, 271
Maurya Dynasty, 119
Medical Missions, ] 97

Mela {see Festivals), 101, 211,
282

Metempsychosis {see Transmi-
gration)

Missionary work, 142, 147, 166,
170, 173, 192 et seq., 206, 212,
215, 222, 223, 234, 239, 242,
243

Mlechchas, 243

Moghul Dynasty, 124, 126

Monsoon, 47, 48

Moravians, 157

Morrison (Dr John), 232

Muhammadan {see Islam)

Mullah, 126

Mutiny, 131, 169

Muttra, 127

Mylne (Bp.), 271

N

National Missionary Society,

261, 262
National spirit, 67, 267, 279
Need of Christ (India's), 108

282
Newton (John), 169
Nirvana, 78

0

Ongole, 181, 182
Orissa, 116
Orphanages, 204, 249
Outcastes, 64 etseq., 243

Pettitt, 177

Philosophy, 84, 85
Pipal tree, 95
Plassey, 129, 156
Plutschau (Heinrich), 150
Pope(DrG. U.), 87, 102
Portuguese, 147, 148
Posts and Telegraphs, 136 ,
Prejudice, 193

Priests, 104 {see Brahman, As-
cetics)
Protestant Christians, 173 et seq.

3o6

The Desire of India

Q

Queen's Proclamation, 132

R

Railways, 134

Rama, 85, 88, 90, 91, 92, 129,

280
Ramabai (Pandita), 243, 247
Ramanand, 84, 90, 94, 214
Ramanuja, 83

Ramayana, 88, 89, 92, 93, 96
Ram Mohan Roy, 246
Religion not a moral force, 98
Results, etc. , 225 d seq
Rhenius, 169
Rig Veda, 112
Rites, 96, 99, 100
Roberts (Lord), 134
Rome and Roman Catholic, 120,

121, 147, 149, 156, 173, 176,

222
Ryland, 159

S

Sacredness of Life, 118, 119

Salvation, 195

Sankaracharya, 80, 81, 83, 84,

214
Sankhya, 74, 80
Sargent, 169
Satthianadhan, 177, 242
Schultze, 151, 202
Schwartz (Christian F.), 151 et

seq., 163, 176,219, 221, 242,
Scotland, Church of, 169, 232,

246
Scotland, Free Church of, 169,

205
Scottish Missionary Society, 164
Serampore, 150. 163, 164, 202
Sermon on the Mount, 243, 247
Shanan or Shanar, 176, 178, 179,

185, 240, 257
Sin, 195
Sita, 89
Siva and Saivism, 74, 84-86, 93

94, 121
Smith (Dr), 204
Social Reform, 233

Society of St John the Evangelist,
244

Song Celestial, 93

Statistics, 35 et seq., 170, et seq.,
197, 199, 202, 203, 240, 268,
271, 273, 283 {see Appendix)

S.P.C.K., 156, 157

S.P.G., 167, 177, 268

St Thomas, 147

Superstitions, 95, 98, 102, 104

Suttee, 125, 131

Syrian Church, 147, 173, 241

Tantric Worship, 93
Temple women, 98, 99
Theism, etc., 83, 129, 232, 248
Thoburn (Bp.), 270
Tinnevelly, 176, 177, 178, 184,

242, 258, 262
Toleration, 119, 126, 132
Trajan, 120

Tranquebar, 149, 156, 173
Translation of Bible. 162, 201 et

seq.
Transmigration, 82, 102
Transport, 133, 134
Trinchinopoly, 153
Tulsi Das, 89, 90, 91, 94, 214,

262, 280
Twice-born, 100

U

Union of Presbyterian Churches,

259, 262
Unoccupied fields, 277
Upanishads, 72, 73, 74, 80

Valmiki, 89

Veda, net seq., 112, 232

Vedanta, 74, 80, 81, 83

Vellala, 60, 185

Village life, 35, 37-39, 41-44, 60,'

62, 65, 66, 68, 99, 224, 233,

250
Vishnu and Vaishavism, 10, 74,

85, 88, 91-94, 222

Index

307

w

Walpole (Spencer), 141
Ward (William), 161, 202
Wars, internal, 127
Wesleyan Missionary Society,

168, 170
Widows (child), 66, 99, 233
Wilberforce (William), 165
Wilson (Bp. Daniel), 170, 219
Wilson (John), 83, 169
Wolff, 83
Women, 45, 46, 69, 98, 99, 208,

233, 234, 248 {see child and

widow)
Worship, 100 {see festivals

Xavier (Francis), 148

Yogi,

Zenana, 128, 208 {see women)
Ziegenbalg (Bartholomaus), 150,
202

,-

Date Due

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L. B. Cat. No. 1 137

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Datta, Surendra Kumar, a,
The desire of India /

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