India's Problem, Krishna or Christ Part 22

Some of these activities, indeed, _seem_ to come directly from none of the organized agencies of Christianity in the land. But they are only apparently so. They are among the thousand subtle influences which work in a quiet way in the minds and life of the people and which suddenly, from time to time, break upon our sight through their results. An ill.u.s.tration of this kind occurred not long ago. It is said that one of the vernacular versions of the Gospels accidentally fell into the hands of a Mohammedan Moulvi, or teacher, in North India. It had been prepared and published by the Bible Society. The Mussulman read the book with eagerness, chiefly with a view to find new arguments against the divinity of our Lord and the heavenly source of our faith. But, as he read, he was so impressed with the wonderful narrative and the unique beauty of the character of our Lord, that he surrendered himself to him as his Saviour and found in him peace and rest. Sometime later he met a Hindu fakir, named Chet Ram, who was earnestly in search of the truth. The Mohammedan convert joyfully told him of his newly found Saviour and gave him his copy of the New Testament that he might find for himself the same blessing. The Holy Spirit carried the Gospel message of life into his heart also, and he accepted Christ and at once began to preach him unto his friends and neighbours. This work he performed faithfully; and he gathered around himself many who accepted his following, short creed;-"I believe in Jesus Christ the Son of Mary and in the Holy Ghost and in the Father to whom prayer should be made and in the Bible through which salvation is to be received." Chet Ram died some time ago; but there are today found, scattered through the villages of North India, thousands of his followers who subscribed to his brief creed and who always carry upon their persons a copy of the Scriptures. So far as I know, these people have never come into contact with Christian workers, but have been led simply through a study of G.o.d's Word, under the guidance of G.o.d's Spirit, unto Christ the Saviour of the world.

It is one of the most encouraging facts connected with Christian influence in India that one so often and unexpectedly meets its manifestations in individual life and inst.i.tutions. Suddenly he comes across little streams of influence whose source may be unknown, but which do a great deal towards fertilizing thought and producing a harvest of religious results throughout the land.

The general subject of the influence of the West upon the East has been recently raised in the very interesting and thought-provoking book on "Asia and Europe" by the English writer, Meredith Townsend. He stiffly maintains that the West never has, and, probably, never will, seriously and permanently influence the East in thought and life. While there is a semblance, yea an element, of truth in his contention, so far as the past is concerned, it fails to apply to the India of the present and must fall far wide of the mark in the future. Many years have elapsed since the author of "Asia and Europe" left India; and he is not conversant, at first hand, with the mighty revolution which is taking place there at present.

He fails, for one thing, to appreciate the wonderful influence of modern scientific discovery as a unifier of all peoples and as the handmaid of western life and thought and of Christian conquest. I need refer only to one of these modern agencies-the telegraph. The election of Mr. McKinley as president of the United States was known to me in India before it was known to nine-tenths of the population of this land.

The calamity which recently befell Galveston, Texas, was not only known to Hindus, the very next day; the price of cotton went up in South India villages as a consequence of that sad event. The generous offerings recently contributed in America for the famine sufferers in India were actually distributed to them in food the next day after they were offered!

Can these things, and a thousand like them, which enter into the every-day transactions of East and West, have no permanent influence upon the relations of these once remote but now neighbouring people? Isolation has everywhere given way to intercourse and mutual dependence; and that means community of life and thought which produces fundamental action and reaction.

Under these new and marvellous conditions the former "mental seclusion of India," so unduly emphasized by Mr. Townsend, is rapidly yielding and must utterly pa.s.s away. It will, however, not pa.s.s away simply because of the influence of the West upon the East, but rather because of the mutual action and reaction of East and West. The East will approach the West because, to a large extent, the West will have learned to appreciate, and to draw in sympathy towards, the East. Herein lies the secret of the future oneness, or at least of the communion, of the two great hemispheres.

India is, therefore, in this matter, facing today such conditions as never before existed there; and these are to further considerably the work of revolution which our religion is bringing to pa.s.s in that land, and which such pessimists as Mr. Townsend are wont to ignore.

That keen philosopher and high authority upon India, Sir Alfred Lyall, is right in his antic.i.p.ation when he claims that India "will be carried swiftly through phases which have occupied long stages in the lifetime of other nations."

Considering, then, the leavening influences and the general results of our faith in that land we shall see them in many inst.i.tutions and departments of life.

(_a_) In laws which the government of India has enacted during the last century.

There has been a steady conflict between the enlightened government of the white man and the inhuman customs of the people of that land. The Christian sentiment of the members of the government, and of other Christians outside of that circle, has ever rebelled against and sought to put down the grossest evils which obtain there.

And the fact which we need to emphasize here is that these evils have been directed and protected by Hinduism itself and are an integral part of its ceremonies and teachings. Whenever the government has sought, by legislation, to do away with these inhuman rites and customs it has been bitterly opposed by Hinduism and has been met by a general uprising of its followers against what they have called religious interference and persecution. Thus the suppression of Thuggism was a definite attack upon a religious inst.i.tution, for the Thuggs never committed a murder, save as a part of their worship of the G.o.ddess Bhowanee to whose service they had dedicated themselves and to which the blood of the innocent traveller (as they thought) was the most welcome sacrifice its devotee could offer.

Hence the difficulty which faced the government in bringing these religious murders to an end.

Suttee was also regarded as a high type of religious devotion. For the widow to immolate herself upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband was not only the supreme test of wifely devotion, it was also preeminently the highest religious act possible to her; and it brought to her a future bliss which was painted in glowing and attractive colours by the sacred books of her faith. It was not strange, therefore, that the State hesitated, for a long time, to abolish by law this hideous custom, whereby in the year 1817, for instance, two widows were burned daily in the Bengal Presidency alone.

It was in the face of extensive protest and threats by orthodox Hindus that the government abolished it. "Previous to 1857, 150 human sacrifices are said to have been annually offered in Gumsur, a city in East Central India; and the abolition of that horrible custom raised such a storm of opposition among the Hindus that an eight years' war was the result. More than 2,000 victims were rescued from sacrifice and handed over to the care of the missionaries." In like manner infanticide was encouraged for centuries in the land as an act of religious devotion which was possessed of great efficacy. In the name of religion and with the promise of its highest blessings mothers were led to feed the crocodiles of the sacred Ganges by throwing to them their own infants.

It seems hardly possible that human beings could regard the prohibition of that inhuman and unnatural act as a piece of injustice and an interference with the rights of conscience. And yet it was so regarded!

Not fewer than twenty laws have thus been enacted in that land, during the last century, with a view to putting an end to religious customs which robbed thousands of people, annually, of life itself and deprived many thousands more of the most elementary and inalienable rights of human beings. So it has become penal to do any one of the following things, all of which were regarded as expressions of the highest religious devotion and were committed with the sanction of the ancestral faith and under the inspiration of its benediction: to burn widows; to expose parents to death on the banks of the Ganges; to offer up human sacrifice; to murder children, either by throwing them into the Ganges, or by the Rajpoot secret method of infanticide; to encourage men to throw away their lives under temple cars and in other ways of religious devotion; to encourage various forms of voluntary self-torture and self-mutilation; to outrage girls under a certain age.

How much hath the Spirit of Christ wrought in that land during the century by saving the lives of millions of poor innocent creatures from the ravages of a savage faith and an inhuman religious devotion!

Thus, in India today the laws protect the people, old and young, from the old murderous customs of its religion, and gives a sanct.i.ty to life and a protection to the innocent and a check to the mad, suicidal tendency of the religious fanatic, such as India never before knew. And all this has been done in the teeth of their religion and notwithstanding the persistent cries and protests of the religious leaders of the people.

I have already mentioned the fact that the obscene and the impure have in many ways been fostered by that faith, and that the government has thus far been unable to find courage to apply to religious temples, symbols and rites that legislation which it has enacted against the obscene in literature and in the ordinary life of the people. And yet, we are encouraged to find there this anomaly today,-that men, for translating and publishing obscene portions of the Hindu scriptures, have been punished in accordance with this law. The day will, doubtless, soon come, it must come, when this legislation against obscenity will be enforced without exception in favour of temple cars and sacred objects and rites.

In reference to caste observance the State has been more courageous and has absolutely ignored cla.s.s distinction among its subjects. No one who has not lived in the East can realize how radical and important this policy is in that land of cla.s.s distinctions based upon religious injunction and revelation. It seemed absurd and unrighteous to that people that the august and sacred Brahman and the unclean and outcaste Pariah should be regarded as equal before the law, and that a pauper should enjoy, with a prince, the same protection and blessings from the State.

Regardless of immemorial custom and religious injunction, the government has become the great leveller-it has ignored entirely, in all the rights and privileges which it has to confer, every caste distinction and cla.s.s privilege and disability which Hinduism had created and sacredly maintained for centuries. And it adheres stiffly to its Christian principle of the equal rights of all its subjects.

(_b_) Moreover, Hinduism itself is being gradually transformed under the search-light of a present Christianity.

Not only has it been compelled, from without, to give up some of its inhuman practices, it has also voluntarily, from very shame, relinquished some of its grossest evils.

There is a very interesting conflict now going on in Hinduism-between the ultra-conservatives and the progressives. This latter cla.s.s is composed almost entirely of men who have been educated in mission and government schools, and who have been influenced by Christian light and life.

I do not expect much from a Christianized Hinduism any more than I do from a Hinduized Christianity. And yet we cannot be unmindful of, nor ungrateful for, that growing sense of shame which leads that faith to conceal, if not to abandon entirely, some of its worst crimes against man and to adorn itself in such a way that it may not too violently shock the sensibilities of a people who are living under the growing light of a Christian civilization.

This is what the ancestral faith of India is now intent upon doing, at least so far as the changing situation compels. The influence of educated Hindus upon the pundits and other religious guides of the land is increasing annually, and is steadily in favour of religious reform and of a broad and enlightened interpretation of Shastraic deliverances upon religious customs. For example, a few years ago, sea voyages were strictly prohibited to all Hindus. No exceptions were allowed and excommunication was the inevitable penalty for the violation of this religious injunction.

Today hundreds of Hindus, impelled by an ambition for the best education and for a broad culture, annually travel to England and to other foreign lands. Though some of those men are punished for their temerity in defying this sacred injunction of their faith, it is remarkable how many pundits arise to defend such travel and to reduce the opprobrium which overtakes a sea-travelled man. Indeed, every year adds to the ease with which such a man can avoid punishment for going abroad.

Until recently, Hinduism had no way of reinstating a man who had deserted his ancestral faith and had thereby broken caste. Today this subject is up for discussion, and many of the religious leaders are pointing to pa.s.sages from their Scriptures which justify such a reinstatement and are showing methods by which it can be effected. In consequence of this not a few back-sliding Christians have recently found an open door to reenter their ancestral faith. This is an important move; but I doubt whether it will cause Christians to lose any converts save those who are not sincere and who would therefore be better outside than within the Christian Church.

A generation ago few Hindus in the villages of the land would fail to defend polytheism and idolatry as an essential part of their faith. At present the Christian preacher, as he travels among these same people, finds universal a.s.sent to his declaration concerning the unity of G.o.d. I have hardly met one villager in the land who maintains today that there are really "G.o.ds many." Polytheism is not defended but explained away, and idolatry, it is claimed, is only an accommodation-a kind of religious kindergarten-for the sake of the very ignorant, and "for women and children." But of course, pantheism is the Hindu's conception of the divine unity.

Whenever an educated Hindu defends his faith, in an argument with a Christian, he never quotes as scriptural authority the more recent writings of their faith-the Tantras and Puranas, which are the storehouse of legend and myth, of myriad rites and customs and are the refuge and joy of the orthodox and conservative pandits;-he discards these and falls back upon the most ancient writings, which are the exponents of nature worship and of vedantic philosophy. Or he will extol the Bhagavat Gita, which is an eclectic attempt to unify and approve the conflicting philosophies of Brahmanism.

In these, and in many other ways, Hinduism finds today new presentation and defence. It is not the thing it used to be. And yet in matters of fundamental importance it is and will remain unchanged. In some respects these changes make that ancient faith less vulnerable to attack. In the words of Doctor Robson,-"The influence of Christianity upon Hinduism has been rather to strengthen its rival by forcing it to abandon certain positions which weakened it, and bringing it more into accordance with natural religion. But Hinduism remains the same. The contest is coming to be between the ultimate principles of the two religions, and these are irreconcilable."(14) Yes, it will be a good day for Christianity when the great contest is thus narrowed down, and when the deepest teachings of the two faiths will be placed in clear and simple juxtaposition.

One serious source of danger in this controversy lies in the Neo-Hinduism which interprets Hinduism in the light of Christian truth and modern thought. Hindus formerly maintained that the teachings of Christianity were false. Now they tell us that most of its truths were taught by their own faith even before the Christian era! Through the allegories of their Shastras, and under the guidance of the fertile imagination of that Englishwoman, Mrs. Besant, they find equally the best Christian truth and most recent results of modern scientific discovery taught by their ancient scriptures! Mrs. Besant has even discovered that the ten incarnations of Vishnu are based on strict evolution principles and follow that order.

She claims, indeed, that many of the most recent discoveries in the physical universe were antic.i.p.ated and promulgated three millenniums ago by Hindu rishis. This of course is a method of insanity which will soon give way to a newer craze. For the present it helps to evade or confuse the issue in certain minds; but as it is in itself a subst.i.tution of nonsense for argument and reason it will not long deceive any one, not even the poor Hindu.

And just as, under the present Christian regime, Hinduism is rapidly being transformed, no less truly does the Mohammedan faith undergo change. There is a new Islam arising in India. That faith cannot be preserved in its rigid integrity under the aegis of a Christian government; therefore in India the faith of the great Arabian prophet has undergone marked transformation during the last century and a half. Its religious leaders there are rationalists who scrutinize and criticise the Koran with the boldness of the higher critics of the Bible. They both urge that the Koran has no permanent authority on moral questions, and also insist upon progress in all religious matters.(15)

This young Mohammedan party of progress have found a vigorous leader in Judge Amir Ali Sahib, a brilliant writer, who hesitates not to explain away or antagonize all those teachings of his faith which lie athwart the path of progress and enlightenment.

He avows, in his book on "The Spirit of Islam," that his purpose is to a.s.sist "the Muslims of India to achieve intellectual and moral regeneration under the auspices of the Great European Power that now holds their destiny in its hands." "The reformers," he further writes, "are congratulated that the movement set on foot is conducted under a neutral government." Thus a Mussulman writer declares that the highest reforms can best be conducted under a Christian government!

All this is ill.u.s.trative of that leavening influence of our faith as it comes into contact with and permeates the spirit and teaching of these and other religions of that land.

(_c_) Another marked result of Christianity in that country is seen in the att.i.tude of many thousands of Hindus who live contiguous to the Christian communities found there.

In the first place we see it among the common people. I have already referred to ma.s.s movements which have largely helped to strengthen the Christian Church in the past. Those movements have only just begun; they will continue and increase in the land. Day by day Christianity is commending itself to the people in a thousand ways. In times of famine, when the old religious leaders of the people-the Brahmans-render no help and manifest no sympathy, yea more, are as rapacious as ever, the loving sympathy of Christians there and in far off lands, and their outgoing charity and their substantial help to the famine stricken and the suffering-all this does not fall in vain upon the susceptible mind of the people.

This work of Christianity in uniting the world through brotherhood and sympathy seems wonderful to a people who are crushed and robbed by the wretched divisiveness of their own terrible caste system. They recognize also the truth and the life which Christianity presents in contrast with the debasing idolatry and the senseless, all-pervasive ceremonialism which haunt them.

It is not surprising therefore that we see, not only certain ma.s.s movements towards our faith but also, on the outskirts of the Christian community in every district, a growing number of doubting, halting ones-those who have done with their ancestral faith and who are attracted by the religion of Christ, but who are so much afraid of the terrible demon, caste, that they dare not openly accept Christ and unite with G.o.d's people through baptism. They linger on the outside, hoping for some great tide of influence to come, soon, to carry them, without persecution, into the kingdom. Their att.i.tude of mind is encouraging, and the missionary hopes for the day which will furnish the strength and opportunity for this great host of weak and doubting ones to make its decision for Christ and to enter, in ever-increasing numbers, into His Kingdom.

I have come into daily, close touch with many men and women of this cla.s.s.

They, at the same time, encourage and exasperate one. They give evidence of the strong influence of our faith upon them-they have ceased to visit Hindu temples, they decline to worship the family and tribal G.o.ds, they lose no opportunity to denounce the idolatry and superst.i.tions which have debased them, and they always speak to their friends a warm word for Christianity and often attend its meetings in their village. But there they continue to stand. They are the slaves of caste fear and of social inertia. While, however, they stand and wait they often say the word and give the encouragement which enable others to accept Christ openly and to enter the Christian fold.

They are also always glad to send their children to our schools and are willing to have them instructed in the truth and guided into the life of our faith. They often contribute towards the support of Christian pastor or teacher, and in various other ways evince their sympathy and reveal their intellectual a.s.sent.

For instance:-In Tinnevelly there is a hall built by such a Hindu to commemorate the late Queen Victoria, in which lectures and entertainments are held. Christian ministers are frequently asked to pray at these gatherings; and former years have witnessed requests by the donor for prayer, from well-known ministers and bishops. Such appreciation of Christian worship is very pleasing, particularly as the proprietor is a member of a committee that has the oversight of nearly 300 Sivite temples in the district.

They also show their appreciation of the medical work of Christian missions. In the city of Madura stands one of the finest hospitals in the country. It is the property of the American Board, but was erected, at an expense of $14,000 by members of the orthodox Hindu community as a monument of their appreciation of the mission physician and of their confidence in the mission and its work.

(_d_) Another marked feature of the religious life of India, at present, is the existence there of several new cults or religions. They not only add picturesqueness to the religious situation, they also reveal the unrest of the people and their desire for something better than the orthodox faith of their fathers furnishes them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sacred Tank In Madura Temple.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hospital For Men, American Madura Mission.]

Having become dissatisfied and disgusted with their ancestral religion, they are striving in every possible way, short of being Christians, to seek for something better and higher. This is what we should expect. In the many schools and colleges of the land the subtle metaphysics of the East is supplanted by the modern philosophy of the West; their own bewildering ancient rules of logic are replaced by the more rational processes of the West. So that every university matriculate and graduate of India is today crammed with ideas, and trained in methods of thinking, which make a belief in practical Hinduism and in much of its philosophy an impossibility, if not an absurdity.

Thus we see in that land today a number of movements and organizations which are a protest against orthodox Hinduism and are carrying the people, in thought and sympathy, from the past to the present, from the old to the new. Most of these movements are merely half-way houses between Hinduism and Christianity. They are with faces more or less turned towards the light and possess the progressive spirit which, in some cases, cannot fail of landing their members, at no distant date in the Christian fold. For instance, we have in western India the _Prartanei Somaj_ (prayer society); in north India the _Arya Somaj_ (Aryan society), and in Bengal the _Brahmo Somaj_ (society of G.o.d).