//. <5", A/ ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ Presented by Gb (^A^ .T?. VAj ^-V^O n ill ifSS^ti m B W^mk'-^ _^ . lu. ^^^I^HI^^''^ w^te^ ■^^^■^P 7R«^ hi if i ^^H( /''^ '^^m 'i \^ ^ J^ 1 *># Hindi '1'k.mi'I.k ai Pai hankot FAR NORTH IN INDIA * NOV 8 1911 Far North In India" "^^'^ A SURVEY OF THE MISSION FIELD AND WORK OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE PUNJAB BY WILLIAM B. ANDERSON AND CHARLES R. WATSON ILLUSTRATED REVISED EDITION The Board of Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church of North America PHILADELPHIA, PA. Copyright, igog COPVRIGHT. igii BY THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA To THOSE WHOSE LIVES ARE ALREADY BUILT INTO CHRIST'S KINGDOM IN INDIA AND TO THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OF AMERICA, TO WHOM IS ENTRUSTED THE SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY OF WINNING INDIA FOR CHRIST PREFACE Foe many years the need has been felt tor a handbook which would portray, in broad out- line, both the character of the field and the development of the Mission in India, of the United Presbyterian Church of X. A. In at- tempting to present a picture of this field and Mission, the illuminating and popular method has been followed which is so widely used by the Young People's mission study movement of our country. A sketch of the country and of its people, together with a brief historical sum- mary and a survey of the religions of the land, has been first presented. An acquaintance is thus formed with the mission field, its outstand- ing characteristics, and the conditions of mis- sionary work. At this point the story of mis- sionary effort is introduced, with the hope that the earlier chapters will lend coloring and life to what must necessarily be the briefest sort of a summary. vii viii PKEFACE Two facts present difficulties which have not been wholly overcome, and which leave, there- fore, their impress on almost every chapter. On the one hand, the subject treated is not wholly distinct and separable from other sub- jects. Although comprising a population as large as that of Pennsylvania, the mission field of the IlAited Presbyterian Church is but a section of the great Province of the Punjab; and this Province is itself only a limited section of the whole of India. The Punjab has been generally selected as the unit for description under the several headings of Country, People, History, Kcligions. Some references have been made to matters relating to other sections of the country, or to India as a whole, to assist the reader in keeping the true perspective. Never- theless, caution should be used in any general- ization, for what may be true of one section, or province, may not apply at all to another. A chapter has also been introduced to relate the missionary work of the United Presbyterian Church to the great missionary movement in all India, of which it is a part. The otlier, and chief difficulty experienced, was that of brin^-inff within the limits of a small book the double sketch of missionary conditions and of missionary work. This book cannot lay any claim to thoroughness of treatment. Its PEEFACE ix value must lie in the direction of its compre- hensive, though not detailed, treatment of a great enterprise. This extreme limitation of space and the largeness of the subject presented, will account for innumerable omissions both in the description of the field and the narrative of missionarv work. The book is sent forth with the earnest hope and prajer that it may advance the Kingdom of our Lord, and hasten the day when the " diadem of India" shall be given imto Him Who is alone worthy to receive it. CONTENTS Chapter Pagh I. The Country. By the Rev. W. B. Anderson . 15 II. The People. " " '* 39 III. The History. " '« " *« " 75 IV. The Religions. " •* " " " 103 V. General Survey of Missions. By the Rev. C. R. Watson 135 VI. Early Days of the Sialkot Mission. '• " 175 VII. Recent Missionary Work. '« *• 225 VIII. Final Triumph. " '* 263 Appendix I. Census Statistics of India . 292 II. Statistics of Sialkot Mission Field . 293 III. Statistics of Sialkot Mission . 294 IV. Rules for Pronunciation 299 V. Glossary . . , . 300 VI. Bibliography 307 INDEX 310 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Page Hindu Temple at Pathankot . . . Frontispiece Typical Unirrigated Jungle Land . . . . .24 Group of Jungle People . . . . , . . 85 Court of Punjabi Peasant's Home . . . . .48 Purdah Women ........ 56 Village Women ........ 56 Tomb of Ranjit vSingh ....... 91 Typical Indian Fakirs . . . . . . .11,3 Mohammedan Mosque . . . . . . .121 Hindu Priest .121 Golden Temple at Amritsar . . , . . .128 William Carey 161 Alexander Duff .161 Sialkot City Boys' School 169 Founders and First Workers 184 Congregation of Village Christians ..... 221 Missionary Itinerating ....... 232 Pasrur Workers at Dinner ...... 232 Memorial Hospital at Sialkot 253 Gordon ^Mission College ....... 253 Missionaries at Annual Meeting ..... 256 The United Presbyterian Synod of the Punjab . . . 272 Girls' Industrial Home . 280 Famine Children 280 Diagrams, etc. . . pages 62, 63, 192, 269, 276, 277 Map of Mission Field End of Book THE COUNTRY '* And I saw the blue, holy Ganges, the eternally radiant Himalayas, the gigantic banyan forests, with their wide, leafy avenues, in which the clever elephants and the white-robed pil- grims peacefully wander; strange, dreamy flowers gazed at me with mysterious meaning ; golden, wondrous birds burst into glad, wild song." — Heine. ** Truly, to understand the facts of work for Christ in any land, we must strip it of all romance and of everything which is unreal." — Miss S. S. Hewlett, India. * * For as the earth bringeth forth its bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth be- fore all the nations." — Isaiah. THE COUNTRY FOE the past three centuries European nations have been entering India through the back door. This en- trance to India is very well suited for business purposes, the harbors are good, the construction of railways has been easy, the country is densely populated, and all things have lent themselves to utility, as they should for the traffic of the back door. At this time our interest is cen- tered in the northern end of India, where around the noble front entrance we may find less of the commercial interest, but where is found the richest of India's ancient historic legend and poetry and art. India is a kite-shaped tract of land wonder- fully shut out from the rest of the world and shut in to herself, by the ocean on the southern sides, and the mountains on the northern sides. To early India the southern oceans meant the end of the world, except for a little struggling trade carried on by ships from far away lands that seemed to her like dreams, and her con- nection with the outer world, as much as she 2 17 Da^m of History 18 FAK NORTH IX INDIA had of it, was from the north. Here, away in the extreme northern point between the tower- ing snow-capped columns of the Himalayan walls, has been built, by the Architect of the continents, the front door of India. This majestic entrance is called the Khyber Pass. From ages away beyond the most ancient mem- ories of history, it has been the door through which pilgrims, and traders, and armies, and colonies have entered the enchanted land to the south. The land in which we are now particularly interested, the Punjab, lies in the northern part of this great kite-shaped tract, and so has been the part of India nearest to the rest of the world. It must have been its pleasant mountain valleys and fertile fields which first attracted the white races from central Asia. As the Punjab was the first seat of empire of the white race, it was its civilization which spread over the rest of India. In it are the ruins of the oldest cities in the land. By its streams were written the most ancient of the Vedic Hymns, which have been the sacred scrip- tures of the Hindu peoples for tliou sands of years. Controlling the entrance to the whole land, it was able through the centuries to gain much from the passing trade. While it had to bear the brunt of unnumbered attacks from the THE COUNTRY. 19 north, it had an advantage in the mingling of the blood of different races of colonists left by each wave of empire that swept over it. From a present-day point of view, the Pun- jab, because the last reached and the last con- quered of British possessions, is often thought to be among the less important of India's prov- inces; but, certainly from the point of view of the past, and probably also from the point of view of promise, she is the most important of them all. India has taken her name from the river that must first be crossed after entering the Khyber Pass — the Sindh, or Hind, or Ind, now called the Indus. The oldest name for the river seems to be Sindh, but why it was so named cannot even be surmised with any satis- Name faction. Flowing into the Indus river, there is the fan-shaped system of waters — the Sut- lej, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab, and the Jhelum — from which the Province takes its name ; for ages past, it has been the land of the Panj (five) Ab (rivers). The Punjab is a rude triangle having for its sides the Indus River, the Himalaya Moun- Area tains, and a line running east and west to inter- sect these. The southern line is greatly curved inward by the State of Rajputana, and the northeastern by the State of Kashmir. The 20 FAE NORTH IN IXDIA area of all India is 1,766,642 square miles. That of tlie Punjab is 128,706 square miles, or ''a little larger than the combined territories of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Delaware.""^ While all India is only about three-fifths the size of the United States, she has a population Population about four times as large. Her population! in the census of 1901 was 294,361,056. This gives to all India a population of 167 persons to the square mile. The population! of the Punjab in 1901 was 24,754,737, with an aver- age density of ISO to the square mile, and a maximum density of 650. This density of population will mean more to one who re- members that the density in the United States is only 21.4 to the square mile. Again, in con- sidering the density, it must be remembered that there are great tracts that are most sparsely settled. Arable land being thus limited, makes the great population a burden to the land, as In- dians are so largely an agricultural people. It may be noted that, wdiile in England over one- half of the population lives in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants, in India less than one-fifth of the population lives in cities of such size. From the earliest dawn of history the Aryan * Robert Stewart, "Life and Work in India," p. 96. t Census of 1911: All India, 315,001,099; Punjab, 24,172,201. THE COUNTRY 21 has been known as a farmer. Perhaps his dear- est and most familiar gods have been Indra, the god of the heavens, or of rain, with his spouse Sita, the fruitful goddess of the furrow. Even the rural population, however, does not live in isolated farmsteads, as in Western countries, but in small villages. While so small a proportion of India's population lives in large cities, about 90 per cent, of it lives either in cities or vil- lages. India is really a great nation of vil- lages. Geologists tell us that at one time the Hima- laya Mountains were the shore of the Indian Ocean, and that the plains of India were the floor of the sea. When traveling hundreds of miles across India, with the plains losing them- selves on every side in the hazy distance, with no relief of mountain or even rolling prairie, anTpuSi one can even now easily imagine oneself look- ing over the great level reaches of the ocean. India consists of a vast plain, with a line of hills aloug the southwestern coast and across the center from east to west. Cross this plain in a direct line for TOO miles to Jhelum near the northern border of the Punjab, and you have risen only about 700 feet above the level of the sea, but yon stand facing the great Himalayan Mountains with their foothills less Rivers 22 FAK NOETH I:N^ INDIA than a Imndred miles away, and their peaks of perpetual snow towering 15,000 feet above. The Punjab is really the creation of these mighty mountains and of the five rivers which they give her, and from which she takes her name. Most of the surface of the Province to the south and east is made up of broad, flat, sandy plains lying between the rivers, while the northeastern border and northern point are made up of broken spurs of the mountains, standiug out barren and for- bidding, but often sheltering smiling mountain valleys. The view of the mountains and plains from the mountain tops is most sublime. The hills slope quickly away to the plains, and the plains melt far out into the distance, giviug such a panorama of hill and valley and watered plain as could be imagined from no other place than a balloon. The rivers through most of the year present the appearance of a broad strip of sand lying a few feet lower than the surrounding country. Cutting sluggishly through this bed of sand is a cloudy stream of water. One wonders if these are the famous rivers that make the Province. In the months of the summer rains, however, these cloudy streams become wide rolling floods, covering the sandy beds from side to side, and sometimes going far afield. THE COUXTRY 23 The increase of the volume of water is not only very marked but often very rapid, not only be- cause of the great downpours of the monsoon season, but because the water is shed into these streams from vast tracts of precipitous moun- tain sides. Often, in a day, hundreds of parched beds of dried mountain streams will become foaming torrents rushing toward the rivers and swelling them to mighty floods. The soil of the plains is fertile, and, in the climate which prevails, will yiehl a maximum of harvest with a modicum of work, provided always that there is abundant water supply. soU In the plains of the Puujab, the farmer is de- pendent for the chief harvests upon water sup- plied from wells or from tlie canals fed by the rivers. The laud is farmed in the most primi- tive way. There are vast tracts of country in an almost rainless region, that lie over sections where wells would be too deep for irrigation by cattle power. Millions of acres of such land have been redeemed through the canals opened by the government in recent years. Simply by supplying water and plowing and sowing, these deserts have been converted into the rich- est fields of waving grain. There are almost no forests in the Punjab. Many centuries since, the great forests that once existed were destroved for fuel and build- 24 FAR XORTH m IXDIA Forests Climate ing. The government is making strenuous ef- forts to preserve what forests remain, and does much to encourage the planting and preserva- tion of trees. Every government road and many village roads are lined with trees which make some little provision for needed wood, and make a grateful shade for travelers from the burning Indian sun. In considering the climate of India, it is necessary to remember the vast extent of India. From the southern point at Ceylon in the south, to the northern point of the Punjab, is over 2,000 miles. While southern India is tropi- cal, with Ceylon lying only about five degrees from the equator, the northern Punjab is as well up in the temperate zone as is Georgia. Thus it may easily be understood that a thing stated quite truly of the climate of Ceylon might be utterly false of the climate of the Punjab. Just as what would be true of Florida might easily not be true of Maine. Moreover, there are conditons of mountains and deserts and winds, that make the understanding of the climatic conditions of the greater part of India exceedingly difficult. Ceylon, with its tropical situation, ocean winds, and distance from the desert, has a constantly hot climate. The Punjab, 2,000 miles to the north, has a much hotter summer, because of THE COUNTRY 25 the desert winds and the absence of ocean in- fluences, but it has a cool winter. The year in the Punjab is divided into tw^o seasons, the hot season and the cold' season. Al- though the month of ^larch is often hot to the European, the hot season cannot be said to begin until April. Rain is very rare in March, and one might say that it never rains from the first of April till about the end of June. In April the wdieat is harvested, and also other grains that may be in the fields at that time; through !May and June the gi'ound is bare and baked. Every blade of grass and every plant that cannot reach down many feet to the mois- ture below, is burned up. Except for the dusty green of the trees and shrubs, the landscape is as desolate as that of the most desolate winter at home. During these months the hot wind blows. It is the desert wind from the southwest, and its heat simply cannot be imagined by a Wes- terner, nor compared to anything but a blast from a furnace. Stepping from the cool shade of the bungalow into this hot wind, one will !»**«»•« . . . Heat sometimes experience a sensation of '^ taking away the breath," something like that expe- rienced on stepping from a warm room into a sharp wind in zero weather. This wind, while fiercely hot, is very dry and pure, so it 26 FAE NORTH IN INDIA is not so oppressive as it would otherwise be. The temperature steadily rises during the months of the hot winds until it sometimes reaches a point as high as 120 degrees in the shade in the Punjab, while at Jacobabad, just southwest of the Punjab, the government ther- mometer is said to have registered as high as 127 degrees. Not only is the sun hot, but the Indian sun has a peculiar intensity of heat. During these months its rays are almost unbearable, while even during the winter months, when the Wes- terner will be wearing woolen clothing for pro- tection from the wind, he must never go into the sun without having his head protected from its rays by a pith helmet or a hat of double felt. Such conditions of heat as these make neces- sary, for the Westerner, houses that will pro- tect him from the sun and the hot wind. For this reason the houses of Europeans in India are built with walls about two feet thick, with very liigli ceilings, and with flat tile roofs covered with about six inches of earth. The rooms must also be spacious, for at this season of the year the house must be kept tightly closed from morning until evening. In the latter part of the season of the hot winds, even the nights do not seem to offer re- lief, except from the glare of the sun. In his soon THE COUXTRY 27 own climate the AVesterner knows that tlie hot wave is a ''wave," and that it will shortly pass, but in India he knows, with practical certainty, that each day will be hotter, and each night more stifling than the last, until the longed- for monsoon comes with its relief toward the end of June. The monsoon season, or the season of the sum- mer rains in the Punjab, begins between the 20th of June and the 10th of July. After waiting for long weeks for the coming of the Jhe Mon. rain with its accompanying coolness, some day in the midst of the fierce heat there is heard a distant noise like the booming of heavy artil- lery. Very gradually it becomes a more distinct and continuous rumble, and through the shim- mering haze of the heated plain is seen advanc- ing a rolling mass of copper-colored clouds. Overhead the sky is blue, and all around there is an oppressive and ominous calm, but, under the mass of cloud and reaching from it to the earth, is a great bank of copper-colored dust, advancing with the cloud. As the mass of cloud nears the zenith, the spectator is enveloped in a column of dust and runs to shelter. For a little time there is almost complete darknes?, and then, above the continuous roar of thunder, there is heard the rattle of great drops of rain on the baked roof. Then the rattle becomes 28 FAE NORTH IN INDIA the sound of a torrent and the monsoon has broken; the rain may last without cessation for hours. The ground, tliat for weeks has been baked hard in the sun, is then covered witli pools of water. In a few days the ground is green with a rank growth of grass and weeds in every direc- tion, and during the weeks of the monsoon season that follow, life seems to burst from every side. During this season, from the end of June to the middle of September, there is rain almost every day in the favored parts of the province. The air becomes clear, but it is now so full of moisture that, although the temperature is not so high, the heat is very trying and enervating. It is at the end of this season that the climate is most cruel. It is then that malaria is most prevalent. In the month of September it is most depressing to live in the plains, even if one is not suffering from fever, for so large a propor- tion of the population will be so suffering. This malarial fever is the most common enemy of the European in India, and seems to be that which so undermines his constitution that he falls an easy victim to many other foes. The '' cold season " of the Punjab may be said to begin with the middle of October (although the days are still quite hot), and to THE COUISTTRY 29 continue until the end of March. From tlie first of Xovember until the middle of January, the Punjab has perfect weather. It is like an unbroken Indian summer. Every day dawns radiantly, and passes through a cloudless sky to a rosv setting. Verdure is abundant, the air is soft and pleasant, and all things combine to make the land a perfect dream. Beginning some time in January and con- tinuing generally a month or six weeks, is the season called the winter rains. Sometimes there is very little rain during these weeks, but the sky becomes overcast, and the air is gener- ally raw, and sometimes even piercing. Some mornings during this season there will be white frost, and sometimes a sheet of ice about the thickness of a pane of glass will form upon ves- sels left in exposed places. The critical point in the climate of India is the monsoon. It is the monsoon that makes India. When there is a rainfall there will be a harvest, and when the monsoon fails there will be famine. Compared with the agricultural products the other products of the Punjab are insiguificant. Of all products the largest is wheat, of which 8,504,995 bushels were exported in 1906. The only other inaportant agricultural products which are exported in quantities are cotton, Dell^htfol Winter Coininer- cial Pro- ducts 80 FAR XORTII IX INDIA sugar, tea, and salt. From neighboring states are imported clarified Lntter, timber, avooI, chnras (an intoxicant made from hemp), fruits, rice and skins. The market for some articles of European product is opening rapidly, but the increase in the use of snch articles is con- fined to the cities. There are five large cotton factories in the Province, and a large woolen mill at Dhariwal, Gnrdaspnr District. There are large flonr mills at Delhi, and carpet mills at Amritsar. Coal is taken from two places in the Salt Range, and shows an output of about 28,000 tons a year. Salt is a government monopoly and is taken from the salt range in large quantities. Animals Among the wild animals of the Punjab are the tiger, bear, wolf, leopard, jackal, deer, ibex, and monkey. In most parts of the Province, except near the large military posts, game is abundant. As in all other parts of India, reptiles are numerous, and many of them are venomous. Among the most common and poisonous snakes are the deadly cobra and l-arait. The common domestic animals are the ele- phant, the camel, the buffalo, the horse, the cow, the sheep, and the goat. Of these, the elephant is now rarely used, while the camel THE COUNTRY 31 is one of tlie most ]iopular servants of man in the Pun jab. In many great tracts no wheeled vehicle is ever seen, and all the products of the country are carried out for many miles on the backs of camels. To the foreigner, the buffalo is a great, ugly hulk of an animal, with over- grown body and short legs, long, curved horns, and pig-like skin. To the Punjabi, it is a beautiful and much beloved pet. It is a power- ful animal and is used everywhere for drawing, at the plow, in the cart, and at the irrigating well. The buffalo cow gives a large quantity of milk which is much like cow's milk in taste and consistency. The cow is inferior to the American animal, and has a hump over the shoulders. The ox is much used as a draught animal. The horse is small and inferior, in general, although some breeds of the far northwest are quite good, and the government is doing much to develop the quality of the stock. The Punjab is one province of the general government of India. The one to whom the Govern- ed ^ ment rule of this great empire of India is entrusted by the Crown is called the Viceroy. The ad- ministration of the provincial government is conducted by the Lieutenant-Governor, ap- pointed by the Viceroy, subject to the approval of the Crown. The Province is divided into 32 FAR XORTH IX INDIA Revenue Army Native States districts, which are subdivided into tehsils* This is like the division of a state into coun- ties, and of counties into townships. There are in this Province six groups of districts called circles, having over each an officer called a Commissioner. Each district has an officer over it called a Deputy Commissioner, and each tehsil an officer called a tehsildar. There are 27 districts in the Province, and an average of four telisils to a district. The Lieutenant- Governor and the Commissioners are all Euro- peans. A few of the Deputy Commissioners are Indians, while all the tehsildars are Indians. These officers are both executive and judicial. Apart from these there are other judges. The highest judicial court is the chief court with its six judges. In the service of the civil government of the Province there are about 20,000 police. The total government revenue approximates $20,000,000. In this Province is stationed an army of about 20,000 British soldiers, and 46,000 native soldiers. Aside from the territory which is wholly under British rule, are the native states which are still under the rule of their native princes — * Pronounced tai-siF THE COUNTRY 33 in regard to all internal affairs. Of these states, there are 34 in the Province. Of course, one of the greatest modern de- velopments in the Punjab has been the rail- Kaiiwaya ways. The main line of the Xorth Western Railway runs through the east of the Province from Delhi to Peshawar, a branch line runs from Attock to Multan, do^\Ti the valley of the Indus River on the West, and joins the line running from Lahore to Karachi. Beside tliese there are many other branch linest. Altogether there are about 2,000 miles of railway in the British part of the province. Owing to the nature of tlie country the building and operat- ing of railways is easy and cheap. The rail- ways and telegraph are owned by the govern- ment. Over one-half of the land under cultivation is cultivated by means of irrigation, either from irrigation wells or canals. The irrigation from wells is a slow and tedious process. The water is raised to the surface by means of earthen pots bound to ropes which run over a wooden wheel turned by a sweep power which is operated by oxen or buffaloes. The government has opened a large system of irrigating canals, and brought much land under cultivation. To give some general idea of these canals the following is 3 34 FAK NOETH IX INDIA quoted from an article by Rev. J. Howard Mar- tin:* '' The Clienah Canal: Work was begun in 1892, the canal was in operation by 1897, and its complete report was presented in 1904. It is 250 feet wide, and, counting its branches, has 10,000 miles of channel. The volume car- ried is 11,000 cubic feet per second. This means a river of 300 feet of surface, and a depth of 10 feet flowing at a velocity to carry a discharge about six times as large as that of the Thames Eiver. Over 2,000,000 acres w^ere irrigated last year, and it commands altogether over 4,600 square miles, or almost the area of Connecticut. The cost of the en- tire canal was something over $10,000,000. Ten years ago the region through which this canal runs was a desert. The water lay from 80 to 120 feet below the surface of the soil. The rainfall, always uncertain, was on the average, perhaps, not more than five inches in the year. With the exception of snakes and lizards, the country was devoid of animal life. One might travel miles in death-like silence. The only income the government had from it was a few thousand rupees a year for grazing rights, which often had to be remitted because •^Annual Report on Foreign Missions, 1906, p. 76 THE COUXTRY 35 of the lack of rain. The inhabitants were professional horse and cattle thieves, to govern whom cost almost as much as the revenue. The change is marvelous. The population is now something like a million, over 200 per square mile. Look in what direction you may, it ap- pears to be one vast field, and you are always in sight of half a dozen villages. The land revenue alone is $3,500,000. The water reve- nue pays all the cost of the up-keep of the canal and 23 per cent, on the investment. In lOO-t the export from this canal region to Europe, via Karachi, was $138,000,000." The opening of this vast irrigation tract has been a matter of vast importance to the infant Church in India. The Church in the Punjab is made up largely of people from the depressed classes who are almost serfs of the soil. The existence of these people under the old order has been most pitiable, because of their poverty a7id degradation. Mr. ^fartin points out how the opening of this region has given employ- ment to a vast army, and how in ten years the wages of the laboring man advanced over i'50 per cent. This has dravm thousands of the Christians of the older districts to the new colonies where they have found ffor them) lucrative employment and comfortable homes. 36 FAR NORTH m INDIA United Presbyte- rian 3Iis- sion Terri- tory A great number of them have also become renters of land^ and from serfdom have risen to be their own masters. In the aivision of the territory by the con- vention of missions, the territory assigned to the United Presbyterian Church includes the following civil districts : Attock, Rawal Pindi, Jhelum, Sargodha, Lyallpur, Gujranwala, Sialkot (part), Gurdaspur. In some of these districts more than one principal station has been opened, until now there are 12 principal stations. This territory does not form a block regular in shape. It lies in a wide strip from the Indus River on the w^est in the point of the Punjab, and stretches south from Attock about 200 miles to Lyallpur. Then almost at right angles a narrower strip stretches out from this to the east. At the easternmost point of this strip is Pathankot, which is about 200 miles from Lyallpur. Here in this district containing 24,223 square miles with its 5,075,000 of population, centers the interest in India of the L'nited Presbyterian Church. The providence of God and the courts of the Churches have drawn the lines around this mucli and said : ''This is yours to possess for Christ." We have said: ''We will possess it.'' To those who have looked THE COUXTRY 37 upon it, it seems a goodly land and one to be desired. Oh, that we might arise and really possess it for the King! THE PEOPLE ** This work in India is one of the most crucial tests the Church of Christ has ever been put to. The people you think to measure your forces against are such as the giant races of Canaan are nothing to." — Bishop French, India and Arabia. ' ' Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to pro- claim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn. ' ' — Isaiah. n THE PEOPLE The Dra- vidiaa THE population of India is made up of people of two races, the Aryan and the Dravidian. Throughout the cities and villages of India these races exist side by side ^Hth their strongly marked race charac- Two Races teristics. In centuries long past tliere was a mixing of races, but for thousands of years the races have existed practically without intermar- riage because of the strict caste rules of society. The older of these races in India is the Dra- vidian. This name is derived from that of an ancient kingdom in the south, and is used simply for want of a more descriptive name. About all that is definitely known of their origin is that they are a non-Aryan race, and were in India before the Aryans came. It seems probable that about 4,000 years ago the plains of India were inhabited by this black race, living in a rude civilization, and subsisting by hunting and a crude agriculture. Probably these people came from the west and may have been related to the races of most ancient Egypt 41 42 FAR NOETH IN INDIA and Assyria. It seems quite possible that they are of Hamitic origin. In the eastern hill valleys and along the east- ern plains, it is evident that from time to time there have been incursions of Mongolian people, and the eastern non-Aryan- races of to-day show strongly marked Mongolian race characteristics. In the faintest dawn of history that glimmers through the early Yedic hymns are allusions to these dark-skinned races. The descriptions found there correspond to the Dravidian men of to-day. Probably about 2,000 years before Christ, there came stealing down through the north- western passes of India a white race from the high plains of central Asia. It is not known Advent of whether these Indo-European invaders were the Aryan ^ . ^ . i i i i driven from their own land through some unre- corded national calamity, or whether they came prompted simply by the spirit of adventure that is so characteristic of the Indo-European. For whatever reason they came, they evidently were charmed with the sunny valleys of the northern Punjab, and resolved liere to pitch their tents, pasture their flocks, and till the fields. From these forefathers has sprung the Aryan race that has spread itself all over India. This Indian is blood brother to the Greek, and the Latin, and the German, and the British. lie THE PEOPLE 43 at once began to rule wherever he planted his foot in India, and he has never ceased to be the ruler. The Aryan of the Punjab is likely freest from taint of the despised Dravidian blood, for, at the first impact of the races, there seems to have been hot encounter and bitter race hatred. From the first, in the north, the abo- rigines were either driven out or reduced to the condition of slavery. The race, however, has sufi'ered less here from race stagnation than in the other parts of India, from the fact that, from time to time, there have been conquering races coming in from the north, and leaving a residue as governors or as colonists. In the blood of the Punjabi will be found strains of the blood of the Tartar, the Scythian, the Per- sian, the Afghan, and the Greek. The Aryan of the Punjab is generally of a very light brown complexion, of medium height, slender and extremely graceful. His features are finely chiseled, his hair blue-black, rather coarse, and straight. His eyes are large, dark and lustrous. The general physical effect is much more one of grace and beauty than of strength. The Dravidian is much darker in complex- ion, heavier in build, and has very irregular features. The Aryan ot the Punjab 44 FAE NORTH IX IXDIA Of course, between these two distinct types, there are the lower castes of the Aryan race, where there has been at some time a mingling of the races. The people dress in cotton garments, either white or dyed in very bright colors. Both men and women are fond of the most brilliant colors in dress, and on a holiday the streets of a city look like a flower garden full of the brightest Men's blooming flowers. Amons^ the men the almost Costume • i i i i • i i t universal head-dress is the turban, it may range, in size and material, from a few folds of the coarsest cloth around the head to many yards of the richest and most costly fabric; it may be a pure white, or any color the wearer may fancy. The upper garment is a long, loose shirty which is worn outside the trousers. The lower garment differs among the different people of the Punjab, lien in cities, and all men in the extreme north, wear very loose, baggy trousers drawn tight at the ankles, and in the case of some Hindus they are worn very tight from the knees to the ankles. On the feet are worn low shoes without stockings, which are slipped off on entering a house, or in any case where a Westerner would remove the hat. Often the men of the south, and always the peasants of the south, wear a skirt formed of a single piece of cloth tied in a knot THE PEOPLE 45 at the waist, and hanging below the knees. These four garments form the usual suit of clothes of the Punjabi man. While working in the field or at his trade, he will lav most of them aside. In the warm weather it is the common thing for a farmer in the field, or a laborer, to lay aside all but the loose skirt, and to tuck it up around his loins, and so work almost naked in the hot wind and the blistering sun. Of course there are variations of this dress. Some add a vest to this suit, and some a vest and coat. Some of the suits of the wealthy are most gorgeous with colors and needlework, and are very costly. Except for the head-dress, the dress of the women is not very difi'erent from that of the women's 1 /• 1 1 Costume men. Instead oi the turban the woman wears a scarf or shawl. This is never laid aside in the presence of men. It may be white, but is usually of some bright color. The upper gar- ment of the woman is a loose blouse hanging nearly to the knees. The lower garment is a loose divided skirt. On the feet are worn low shoes without stockinets, which are removed on entering the house. The clothing of the women seen in the streets is generally made of coarse and cheap material, for, even among the Hindu women who may venture into the street, it is not considered in good taste to wear in public 46 FAR XOETII ITS" IXDIA European Costume Houses anything but the simplest clothing. Some of the garments shown to the ladies in the zenanas, however, are of the finest and richest material, the material for which India has been famous for ages. One suit was disydayed, made of cloth of gold, which cost E.200 (nearly $70) a yard. ]\rany of the Indian men among the educated classes are beginning to wear clothes cut after the European fashion, but with such a suit they almost invariably wear the turban, or fez, on the head. Excepting Christian women, Indian wo- men always wear the native dress. The homes of the people always impress one from the West as being most liumble. In the villages, and in many parts of most of the cities, the walls of the houses are made of sun- dried brick, and, of course, are plain and ugly. Even the houses of most of the wealthy, while built of burnt brick, are straight-walled shape- less, and without any architectural beauty. The wonderful Taj Mahal and some of the beautiful shrines and temples of India strike one as marvels of beauty amid a great mass of monotonous plainness. The houses of the poorest of the people are mere huts, w^ith mud walls and an earthen roof supported by beams of crooked wood. The houses of the ordinary farmers and even of the THE PEOPLE 47 more well-to-do, but less pretentious, are built of sun-dried brick. There is a courtyard at the front in which are kept cows, and horses, and goats, and sheep, and chickens, or any live stock possessed. In fine weather this is the place where the cooking, and sewing, and spin- ning, and other household duties are performed. At one side of this courtyard is the dwelling containing one large room for general use. In this room may be found almost anything pos- sessed by the family. From this room usually open one, two, or three small rooms whose only light and ventilation are received from the general living room, which is lighted and aired only through the one door. If there should be a window, it has no glass, of course, and is opened only on rare occasions. In the cold weather ventilation is a thing un- thought of. In the early days the houses in the villages were built compactly for mutual pro- tection. The need of this is now past, and the Government is making every effort to teach the people to construct their dwellings on more sanitary principles. In the canal colonies where the Government can absolutely control the construction of dwellings, the villages and cities are built with wide streets, and every house has a large courtyard. The houses of the wealthv are much more 48 FAK XOETH IN^ I:N^DIA pretentious, but as has been said they are not beautiful. All such houses are built with a view to the seclusion of women. At the front entrance to this house is a vestibule opening at one side into a room called the gentleman's sitting-room. Here the man of the house re- ceives his friends, and this is as far as a man ever goes into the house of a friend, unless he be a near relative. If he should spend the night there, he will likely sleep in this room, or one opening from it, his food being cooked within and sent here to him to be eaten. Open- ing straight through the vestibule is a door that leads into the courtyard. In the less preten- tious homes of the rich, this is the living and working place of the women, and this is the part of the house where the men of the imme- diate family come to eat and sleep. Sometimes the building surrounding this court is only one story, and sometimes it is two stories high. In these courtyards is lived that home life of India which is never seen by foreign men. It is be- cause of the absolute seclusion of these homes that some of the w^orkers in Indian missions must be ladies. In the more pretentious houses of the wealthy there may be two or even three of these inner courts, opening the one off the other. Hoiiiei.ife Home dccoration is a thing almost unknown 'J- —, ■/. _ THE PEOPLE 49 in India. The houses are generally large and repulsively bare. If a family be wealthy enough to possess draperies and hangings, as some do, these things are carefully folded away from the dust and glare, and brought out only on some great family occasion. The home life would be very unattractive and bare indeed, if it were not for the aifoction- ate nature and sunny dispositon of the Indian himself. When one has grown accustomed to the surroundings, much domestic beauty may be recognized in the little group gathered around the evening fire in the courtyard, if there be but one wife in the home, and if there be children there, and real affection between husband and wife. Entering into all the life of India, social, political, commercial and religious, is the great institution of caste. Caste has done and is caste doing more to forge the chains that fetter prog- ress in India than all other agencies in India together. While the customs of Hindu caste have to some extent been carried over into Mo- hammedanism in India, there is no such institu- tion in ^Mohammedanism itself. The Hindu believes that the human race is divided into four great divisions as follows : 1st, the Brah- mans. These are priests and are said to be born from the mouth of the Creator. They are to 4 60 FAR NORTH IN INDIA be implicitly obeyed in all things, and are to be worshipped by those of the other castes. 2nd, the Kshatriyas. These are the kings and warriors. They are born from the arms of the Creator.. In things pertaining to the govern- ment they are supreme, but must act on the counsel of the Brahmans in all things pertaining to the Brahmans, or to religion. 3d, the Yaisyas. These are born from the thighs of the Creator. They are farmers, tradesmen, and craftsmen of the upper crafts. 4th, the Sudras. These are born from the feet of the Creator. They perform all the menial services for the upper castes. These are simply the great divisions of caste. Each caste is divided into almost countless sub- divisions. Among the Brahmans alone there are 1886 castes. Among the Kshatriyas there are 590 castes. Altogether there are over 3000 castes, the members of which may not inter- marry, and generally may not eat with those of another caste. While the above explanation is the mythical one generally accepted and believed by the people themselves, of course it is only mythical. Origin of The real explanation of caste is no doubt to be found in the coming together of two races, one of which was much superior to the other in power to subdue and rule, and which had THE PEOPLE 51 already strong racial prejudices, so that it de- veloped racial hatred and a strong contempt for the weaker race. From the time of the entry of the Aryan into India he arrogated to himself all the position of the favored of the gods and the heaven-born. "With his pride of race came the desire to keep his blood pure from the taint of that of the lower race. He only could be counted heaven-born who was pure from taint of blood, so the Brahman is the man, presumably, of pure Aryan blood. In spite of his race pride and his desire to keep his blood pure, lie found that his race inter- married with the lower race. There would, no doubt, be marriages of convenience and policy as the Aryan of the J^orth came into contact with the stronger aboriginal nations to the south. This mingling of the races seems to have gone on to such an extent that the white man could no longer cut himself off entirely from the mixed races, and so society became graded. There was the outcaste black man. Then there was the mulatto, a grade bettor ; and then, higher in the series, the quadroon and the octoroon; and, then, the heaven-born Brah- man. Race pride was so strong, and race jeal- ousy so bitter that, finally, laws grew up that forbade the intermarriage of members of tlior;e castes with those of another, and that forbade 62 FAE XOETII IX INDIA the inferior man to touch tlie food, even, of tlie superior, and the man of the superior caste to eat the food so touchedu This caste system is bound to strangle the Evils of best in the nation. It kills the best in the Caste commercial and industrial world because a man must be born to his trade or his pro- fession. He can have no ambition to rise to anything better. Socially, he is worse fettered. His every act is regulated by caste rules; what he eats and how he eats it; whom he marries; who serves him and whom he serves ; restrictions as to travel ; abject subservience to those in authority over him; every act and tliought of his social life must be regulated by caste rules. It fetters the race. Marriage must be within limits of a narrow circle, thus cutting oif the race from the vigor coming to it through wide matrimonial selec- tion. Spiritually he is absolutely bound. He is born into a caste and can hope for no deliver- ance in this life from all that it may mean. Xo man can become a Hindu, he must be horn one. The only hope held out to the man of the lower caste is tliat at the next birth he may be born into a higher one. India to-day is writhing helplessly in the chains of caste, and her own reformers realize tliat the first reform that must be effected is THE PEOPLE 53 to free her from this system. The strength of the system and its grinding power can be understood only by becoming acquainted with the pitiable condition of the people of the lowest caste, or outcasts, and the tyranny practised upon them by those of the castes above them. The following is a quotation from an old rule concerning the treatment of Sudras : ^' 1. He (the Sudra) must amass no wealth lest he become proud and give pain to the Brahmans. " 2. If he use abusive language to one of superior caste his tongue is to be slit. '^ 3. If he advise a Brahman about religious duties, hot oil is to be dropped into his mouth and ears." The religious penance for killing a Sudra was the same as that for killing a cat, dog, frog, lizard, or one of various other animals. One cannot but pity the high caste man in his slavery to his caste, but one can scarcely control his indignation when seeing the abject slavery of the low caste man to those of superior caste. Western civilization with its leveling forces of raihvay, postal system, and a new order of ^i^asfe"*'* society, and Western education and liberality of thought, to say nothing of Christian ideals and example, are doing much to break down 64 FAK :N^0RTH I^" IXDIA caste in India, but it may still be truly said of India that she is a groveling slave to caste. Famii Family ties in India are very strong. The System ancient Hindu form of government was patri- archal. The father of the home was not only its ruler, but its priest, and he continued to be such as long as he lived. In India the father is still the head of the whole family, to all its generations, as long as he lives. When sons marry, they ordinarily bring their wives to the home, and all continue to live in one house. Property that is accumulated often goes into a common estate to be divided at the death of the father. At the death of the father, the oldest brother becomes the head of the family and receives honor as such from all members of the family. This system has some advantages in ministering to economy in living, but its gen- eral moral effect upon the members of the family is not at all desirable. When Christian young men marry, they almost invariably estab- lish homes of their own, leaving father and mother, and cleaving to the wife, according to the teaching of the Word, and the effect is easily seen in Christian society in India. The family system has had one beautiful effect upon Indian society; it has created a very marked reverence for parents, and for old age in general. A man will ordinarily take all THE PEOPLE 55 manner of abuse from liis father in a spirit of utter meekness, and a big, coarse, wicked, mur- derous looking Afghan has been seen to stand and allow his angry father to belabor him with a heavy walking-stick, without making any sign of protest or resentment. Children are generally married very young. MarHage Sometimes betrothal takes place in the youngest infancy, and it is not an uncommon thing for children really to enter the marriage relation- ship at the age of ten or twelve, and, indeed, it is not at all unusual for girls to be mar- ried younger than this. Of course the mar- riage ceremony is often performed when they are the merest children. Indian writers and speakers often insist that these marriages are simply a ceremony, and that actual marriage does not take place until later in life. One living in India, however, can easily testify to the fact that many girls are actually wives at ten or twelve years of age, and there are little mothers of twelve and thirteen years of age. There are very plain rules among the Hindus, stating that girls should be married before they have passed from the age of childhood. A translation of one of their rules is given below: "If she (a girl) is not married before she becomes a rajaswala (i. e., before the tenth year), her father, mother and elder brother all 5G FAE NOETH IX IXDIA of them shall go to hell." (Quoted from Sat- yarath Prakash, P. 90, where the rule is contra- dicted.) The doctors in mission hospitals tell tales of horror about these child marriages that make one almost ashamed even to be called human. Among Mohammedans actual mar- riage does not take place until young manhood and womanhood,. Of course child marriage is never countenanced among the Christians. Very generally among the higher families of the Mohammedans, and often among the high- est families of the Hindus, the women of the Seclusion of home are secluded. The seclusion of women Women seems to be more prevalent in the Punjab than in the countries farther south, owing to strong Mohammedan influence. Mission ladies tell of many homes visited where wives have been taken in as girls, and never have seen the out- side world again. To them, the world has been brick walls reaching up to a blue sky. The consolation of the secluded woman in her mode of life is that she is so secluded because of her husband's great love for her, and his jealousy over her. She pities or despises the woman whose husband thinks so little of her that he is willing to allow her to go about in public to be seen by other men. The stuntedness and nar- rowness of the life of a woman, so shut in from the world, imable to have intercourse with other CL 3 > THE PEOPLE 57 minds even through reading or writing, living out her narrow, unwholesome life in her little family world, cannot be imagined. A convert to Christianity from a noble fam- ily of the Punjab who had been reared in such a home, was asked whether he did not think the seclusion of women a good thing for the pro- tection of women in such a land as the India of to-day. He replied that the seclusion of wo- men, instead of being a protection for the women of his land^ was a screen to hide all manner of evil, and that the greatest social blessing that could be conferred upon India would be to remove caste, and to do away with the seclusion of women. It is into such homes as these that the zenana missionaries go, with their message of liberty, their songs of joy, and their faces full of the love of God and the tender sympathy of Jesus Christ. The place of woman in Indian society is most unenviable. By the laws of the land she is practically the property of man. In Hindu society she is married in childhood to protect her from the brutality of man. If childless, {J^^*"*?*" she may be superseded by another wife. If her husband should die, she is the most miserable of creatures, an Indian widow. She must become the drudge in the home of some relative of her Womam 58 FAE NORTH IX IXDIA husband, and she may never marry again. In India there are 25,891,936 widows. If a Mohammedan, the woman may be one of a number of wives, and may be divorced by her husband in a day, on the slightest pretext, or without any pretext, and often the only thing left to her is death or a life of shame. Belong- ing to any caste she may be married against her own will to some most cruel man, four, five, ok even six times her oAvn age, and be compelled to live with him until his death plunges her into the more desperate state of widowhood. It must not be understood by the above that all women in India are miserable, nor that all men are brutal. In many homes there is real love and domestic happiness, and a marked characteristic of the Indian is the passionate fondness of parents for children, but the posi- tion of woman is such that her happiness must depend on the whim of her husband. The contempt with which women are looked upon is sometimes expressed to missionaries when they attempt to open schools for girls. The men will say, ^' Why do you open a girls' school ? Can you teach cattle to read ? " The coming of the East into contact with the West is changing, though very slowly, the posi- tion of woman. Many Christian girls are Avell educated, and many Hindus and Mohammedans THE PEOPLE 59 are now desiring to marry educated wives, and to have their daughters educated. The religion of Jesus Christ will do no greater thing for India than to free her w^onien, and dignify her womanhood. One of the most striking things among the people of the Punjab is the diversity of their languages. The language of the aborigines of ,^t-^J*'*Ja ^ the Punjab seems to be almost or entirely lost from the tongues of to-day. Of course, with the spread of the Aryan race, there was the spread of the Aryan language, some early form of Sanskrit, until it became, no doubt, the lan- guage of the Punjab. In the southern part of the Province this language still exists in the modern, and much modified form, of Hindi. The language most universally spoken among the educated people of the Punjab is the lingua franca of India, the Urdu. In its present pol- Languages ished form, it is really the gift of the Mogul Puiyab Empire to India. When the Moguls came into India, they found spoken the various dialects derived from the Sanskrit and Dravidian lan- guages. It was their policy to adapt them- selves, in so far as possible, to the people among whom they ruled, but in speaking the langu.age of the people they brought in a great mass of Persian words, and even Persian grammatical forms, and many Arabic terms which abounded 60 FAK :N^0KTH m INDIA in their religious speech. The conquered people quickly began to talk in the dialect of the con- queror, and so there sprang up the language of the court and the camp, and it was called Urdu, which means the language of the camp. This language was carried all over India in the days of the Mogul Indian Empire, and till to-day it is the common language of educated Indians. liamed^by ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ language first learned by the mis- missionaries g^onary in the Punjab, for although he will not be able to talk familiarly to the masses through this medium, in speaking it he can generally make himself understood anywhere. He can always use it in talking with educated men, and in it he will find most of the native lit- erature of the Province. When he has learned this lauffuao'e he has not by anv means finished his task, however. He will always have at least one or two other languages or dialects to learu, that he may talk freely with the com- mon people of his district. The work of the women missionaries must be done almost en- tirely in some other dialect, for the women rarely understand Urdu at all. In the Province of the Punjab, the written languages (beside the classic languages of Persian and Sanskrit) are Urdu, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Mahajani, Lahnda, Tankri, Kirarki, and Pushtu. The spoken lan- guages are as follows: Urdu, Balochi, Pashtu, THE PEOPLE 61 Kashmiri, Lahnda, Punjabi, Eajastliani, AVest- ern Hindi, Western Pahari, Gipsy, Himalayan, and others. In our own mission districts, at least the following are used to a considerable ex- tent in some places : Urdu, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Lahnda, Pushtu, Pahari, Punjabi. If the mis- sionary speak Pushtu among Pahari-speaking peasants, he will not be understood at all, and if he read his Gurmukhi Testament among Push- tu-speaking people, he will be reading in a lan- guage entirely foreign to them. The most commonly spoken language among the people of our mission districts is the Pun- jabi. This language, however, has a great num- ber of dialects, varying according to location or religion. Some idea of the difference in vocab- ulary may be gathered from the following ex- ample given in the Punjabi of the Mohammedan and in that of the Hindu. This example is the first verse of the first chapter of the Gospel According to John, and is quoted from the Pun- ^jj'jjj^a*ijf ^^ jab Census Report, where it is given as a fair sample illustrating the difference of dialects. It is as follows: Mohammedan Pimjabi, ''Mud- lion Kalam si ir Kalam Khuda de nal si, te Kamal Khuda si" ; Hindu Punjabi, ''Ad rich sahad si, or Sahad Parmesur de sang si, ata Sahad Parmesur si." It is difficult for one whose language is 62 FAR NOETH IN INDIA an & IT/ 1 I? fo IP ft 5 1^, S: /|o il'II cp-) IV) iv )SS rtu W <&•' _ cB) re g ** ''*^ JO Ft IP ;r IF ""I ^, *8