ae Wena). cx y 1 \ i- = \ l\ALSEL A Liberal Religion in India Report of a Missionary Tour TOGETHER WITH A Survey of the general Religious Situation among the Indian Peoples “BY REV. J. T: SUNDERLAND, M.A. _—— London BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION ESSEX HALL, ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1896 Special Fund for Work in India. Subscriptions and Donations should be made payable to the order of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and sent to the Secretary, Rev. W. Copeland Bowte, Fissex Hall, Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C. Liberal Religion in India. [Report of a Missionary Tour, together with a Survey of the General Religious Situation among the Indian Peoples. ] | By J.T. Sunderland, M. A. Mr. PRESIDENT, and Friends of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association :—It would ill become me to enter upon the Report which Iam to make to you to-day, otherwise than with words of appreciation of the very great honour which your Association has done me —stranger from another land as | am—by its invitation to go on a mission in its behalf to India. It was only after considerable hesitation that my way seemed clear to accept, partly because so long an engagement would somewhat seriously break up plans formed for the year, and partly because it was natural to shrink from an un- dertaking which it was easy to see must be a difficult and delicate one, and more or less problematical as to its outcome. However, the thought of seeing that wonder- ful land of which I had dreamed all my life, of studying, on the ground, its great historic religions, its peoples and its social institutions, of meeting and greeting our honoured Brahmo Somaj brethren, and of visiting our little Unitarian missions, some of which I had watched with the deepest interest and aided in such ways as lay within my power, from their first beginnings, proved too great an attraction to be resisted ; and, as the result, the first of November found me on my way to the Orient, to carry out, as well as I could, the important mission with which you had entrusted me. 2 Inberal Religion in India I am asked in this Report to do three things, namely,—first, render some account of my stewardship, —that is, to tell you briefly what I have been trying to do; secondly, make such recommendations as seem to me wise, regarding your future work in India; and thirdly, try, if I can, to throw some light upon Indiv’s needs, and upon the prospects of liberal thought among the Indian peoples. All this opens up before us a field so large, so many-sided, and so full of interest, that you will pardon me if I plunge into the midst of it with the least possible of introduction or of preliminaries. Natur- ally, I shall be as careful as possible to avoid going over ground which has already been traversed in the letters from India, published in the Christian Life and the Inquirer, though it will be necessary, in a few cases, for the sake of completeness, or to avoid conveying a false impression, to refer briefly to matters which have been considered there. Nor shall I trouble you with many figures. It must suffice if I give you the very few which seem necessary to enable you to get a glimpse of where I have been, and what I have been attempting to do. Travels. If we include the time spent on the sea in going and re- turning, the journey to India consumed just four months. The time actually spent in India was ninety-two days, or a little over thirteen weeks. Besides the long ocean voyages, I found it necessary to travel within the bound- aries of your great Indian Empire, by railway 7500 miles, by river steamboat 500 miles, by pony cart 200 miles, on horseback 150 miles, by trappa 20 miles,—a trappa being a chair carried on the back of a man, used where the mountain or jungle roads are too steep and rough for a horse. In Calcutta, the capital of India, and the metropolis Laberal Religion in India 3 of Bengal, I spent two weeks, speaking nine times; in Bombay, the metropolis of Western India, two weeks and a half, speaking eight times; in a dozen others of the largest cities in all parts of the land (as Madras, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Benares, Ahmedabad, Jeypoor, Poona, etc)., from two to five days each, speak- ing in each from once to four times. I also visited a number of other smaller cities, generally addressing a congregation larger or smaller in each one; and two weeks were spent in making a tour to and among the Khasi Hills of Assam, in the far north east. Results. Of course, for the,main results of the Indian tour we must look to the future. However, I think we may safely say that a few things, not wholly wanting in im- portance, have already been accomplished by it. First, our little Unitarian missionary posts in India have been personally visited, with the effect, I trust, of giving some new cheer to the workers there, by words of encouragement spoken and by assurances of sympa- thy from the Association in England and the English Unitarian churches ; and also with the result of obtain- ing fuller information than was before possessed regard- ing these missions, which may be of service to the Association in the future. Secondly, I cannot but believe that your action in sending a messenger to India to carry to the Brahmo Soma} your greetings, and an expression of your desire for closer relations, has done something to bring the Brahmo Somaj and ourselves nearer together. I think the very effort on our part to extend to our Eastern brethren a fraternal hand has warmed our hearts to- wardthem. And I am sure that the witnessing of what you have done has warmed their hearts towards you. True, they felt very kindly toward you before. They 4 Liberal Religion in India were very appreciative of the cordial reception you had always given their leaders on their visits to England. They felt that they had in the English Unitarian Churches a body of persons who were kindly disposed toward them, and to a considerable degree sympathized with their thoughts and aims. But yet, to all except the few leaders who had personally visited the West, you seemed very far off; your movement was distant and foreign ; even your literature was hardly more than aname. Nor was this all. I found that many very seriously misunderstood Unitarianism, supposing Uni- tarians to hold views regarding Christ, the Bible, inspiration, the atonement, future punishment, and other doctrines, such as are held only by orthodox or Trinitarian Christians, but which Unitarians empha- tically disavow. These misunderstandings I found constituting a barrier between many Brahmo Somaj people and ourselves. ‘There seemed need of an effort to remove them. By public addresses, private conver- sation, and perhaps, most important of all, by the distribution of literature, I trust I was able to do at least a little toward effecting such a removal. As the mis- understandings were dispelled, and our real position came to be made clear, it was quickly recognized that not only in its spirit and aims, but also in its thought, Unitar- ilanism is essentially at one with the Brahmo Somaj. _ Thus you see what I mean when I express the hope that your mission of the past winter has resulted in bringing the Brahmo Somaj and ourselves a little nearer together. It has done something, I am sure, to help each to understand the other better, and much to enable each to feel the touch of the other’s warm hand and heart. I wish you could have heard the utterances which were made to me everywhere I went, both privately and in the form of resolutions passed with the most enthusiastic acclaim in the meetings held, expressing appreciation of the fraternal spirit which Inberal Religion in India 5 prompted you to send a representative to India, and assuring you that your sympathy and desire for co- operation with the Somajes is reciprocated by them. A third thing that has been accomplished by your mission is some broadcast sowing in India of Unitarian thought. I have already referred to the large number of sermons, lectures and addresses given. In the larger cities, where the demand was for more than one address, my subjects were not always distinctly religious, but sometimes educational, literary, or philanthropic, as the demand might be, bearing only indirectly upon my mission, as, for example, when I spoke before the Students’ Brotherhood of Bombay upon ‘ Longfellow’ ; to a large audience of college students and others in Calcutta upon ‘Emerson’; before the National Social Conference of India, at Poona, to an audience of more than two thousand, upon ‘Temperance’ ; and before the National Congress of India, also at Poona, to an audience of six thousand, upon ‘ Education.’ Generally, however, my theme was definitely Unitarianism, or Liberal Christianity in some of its aspects, and my aim was to make the clearest and strongest presentation within my power of the principles and aims of our Gospel of Light and Love. After the first month in India the invita- tions to speak that came were two or three times as numerous as I could meet. They were from all parts. Many were so urgent that it seemed almost impossible to say no. Could I not prolong my stay, and thus be able to accept at least the more important? Alas! both my own engagements and your plans said that when the fifteenth of February came and the four months were gone, I must turn my steps-homeward. One of the most gratifying features connected with the lectures and addresses was the fact that though Brahmos usually made arrangements for them, and formed an important part of the audiences, yet every- where others came also, and often large numbers of 6 Inberal Religion wn India others. In many cases, even the men who presided, and moved the resolutions of thanks at the close, or otherwise expressed the greatest interest in what had been said, were not Brahmos. In the university cities, as Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, many young men from the colleges came out to hear, and were so much interested that they begged for tracts, not only for them- selves but for their friends, and detained me after the lectures to ask questions, and begged to be allowed to call on me at my hotel to learn more about this gospel, which was so new and so strange, but so interesting, so reasonable, so full of light and hope, so satisfying to their deepest religious longings. I took with me to India about 2500 Unitarian tracts and pamphlets. These, by the most economical use, giving generally only to those who personally solicited them, lasted about half through the Indian tour. After that I could only take the addresses of applicants, with the promise of supplying them from London by mail. Since leaving India I have sent to your Secretary between ninety and one hundred ad- dresses of persons who desire packages of tracts for distribution. I believe all these have been supplied, the packages generally containing about one hundred tracts each, making in all some 9500 tracts sent out from your rooms by post to India, within the past three months. But this is not all. Before setting out on my journey, authorization was given me by your Secretary and Ex- ecutive Committee not only to promise tracts to persons who desired them, but also to offer to Brahmo ministers and missionaries of limited means, and to libraries and reading-rooms where they would be used freely for the public benefit, small donations of Unitarian books. On arriving in India it soon became clear to me that this authorization on your part was wise, and that in no way could a small amount of money be made to go further in disseminating liberal thought among the Indian Inberal Religion in India 7 people, than by a limited number of such donations, carefully made. It also very soon became evident that one of the best missionary agencies we have at command as Unitarians is our periodicals. Accordingly I obtained and forwarded to your Secretary applications for fifty packages of Unitarian books, and for periodicals to be sent for one year to one hundred and fifty-four addresses. I believe that all these packages of books have been forwarded, and that the periodicals named are now going regularly each week or month to the addresses furnished. So much, then, as to the results which have already been accomplished by your action in sending a repre- sentative to India. The Future. What now about the future? In the hght of all that I have been able to learn during the months past, what seem to me to be India’s needs? And what suggestions have I to make regarding the permanent extension of our Indian work ? Before answering these questions, let me say that the conclusions upon which such suggestions and recommen- dations as I shall offer are based, have not been reached hastily. From the beginning of my mission two things have been kept steadily in mind. One is, the importance of seeking for light upon the religious situation in India from every available source. The second is, the necessity of keeping a candid and sober mind, and so far as possible avoiding being carried off one’s feet by mere temporary or local enthusiasms. In one thing at least I have been fortunate, namely, in having been able to come into contact with, and to gain information and suggestions from, a large number of persons, and per- sons representing different classes, as English civilians, military officers, and merchants, who have lived long in 8 Inberal Religion in India the country ; missionaries of different Christian denom- inations, English and American ; Hindus, low caste and high, liberal and orthodox ; Mohammedans, both orthodox and liberal; young men in the Universities; a few scattered Unitarians ; and, most important of all, a large number of the leaders and members of the various Somajes in India,—the Brahmo Somajes, with their different sections, in the East, the Prathana Somajes in the West, and a comparatively new organization which is meeting with much success in the north, the Arya Somaj. From all of these I have endeavoured to obtain light upon India’s possibilities and needs. Especially have I everywhere consulted extensively with our Brahmo Somaj friends, both privately and in meetings held for the purpose. Everywhere I have said to them, ‘Our cause is one. You are on the ground, we are not. You know the situation here better than it is possible for us to know it. We want the aid of your knowledge.’ As a result, wherever I have gone they have given me freely the benefit of their thought and counsel. I mention these facts in order that you may see that the recommendations, or more properly the sugges- tions, which I shall make regarding possible ways of enlarging your India work, are not made in haste, or based simply upon my own observations and knowledge, but are in some sense a consensus of the judgments of many, especially many of our Brahmo friends in all parts of India. Recommendations. If ours were a large and wealthy religious body, with ample resources for foreign missions, I should make many suggestions, some of them involving a con- siderable expenditure of money. Prominent among them would be the establishment, without delay, of missions in three or four of the leading cities of India, Liberal Religion in India 9 namely, Calcutta in the East, Bombay in the West, Madras in the South, and probably one of the larger northern cities as Lucknow or Lahore,—all of which places are not only great centres, but seem to present excellent openings for our thought and work; the appointment of an English missionary to the Khasis to take charge of and greatly enlarge our work in the Khasi Hills; the sending of special representatives to India from time to time, say once in three years, as you have sent me, to spend a winter in travelling up and down, preaching and lecturing in advocacy of liberal religious thought in all the leading Indian cities; co- operation with the Brahmo Somajes in establishing a / strong and well-equipped liberal theological school in India, probably in Calcutta; joining with the Somajes in creating and maintaining a much stronger and more effective liberal periodical than any which now exists in India; and, finally, assistance to various excellent educational and charitable institutions of a liberal char- acter in different parts of India, which are much in need of help, and have asked aid from us. But I am aware that I am not addressing a large and wealthy religious body, but one whose resources avail- able for missions are limited. Hence I refrain from making any of these recommendations, and confine myself to something much more modest ; though no one will be more glad than I if the time shall come when from the smaller beginnings which may be suggested, you shall be able to go on to the larger things. Continuance of Present Missions. The recommendations which I. venture to make are four. (1.) Naturally, the first has to do with the few small missions which you are already maintaining in India, namely, that in Madras, which has been in 10 Liberal Religion in India existence nearly a century; that among the Khasis, which was started six or eight years ago by native converts to our faith, with the aid of Unitarian friends in America ; and the personal mission carried on through correspondence, printing, and lecture tours, by Mr. Akbar Masih, of Banda, in the central north. It seems to me that all these missions should be continued, but with certain possible changes in appropriations and plans of work and management, which I shall take the liberty to suggest to the Mission Committee of the Association. Unitarian Literature for India. (2.) The second recommendation which I would make looks to the formation of plans for the regular and systematic supply of whatever demand there may be in India for our literature. That there are already many minds prepared for our thought, and ready to read our tracts, periodicals, and to some extent our books, the experience of the past winter would surely seem to prove. It may be naturally supposed that the present demand will increase. It would seem the part of wisdom, therefore, to create agencies on the ground, at least to the extent of a book-room in Calcutta, and postal missions, say, in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, to supply this demand. You all know by long experience how indispensable to your Unitarian work in England is your book-room in London. We have found out the same in America; and so, within a few years past, we have established on that side of the Atlantic, in addition to our main book-room in Boston, others in important centres, like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. It was repeatedly urged upon me, by leading Brahmos and others, that this is now a great need in India. Of course, it may be said that our books are kept in ordinary book-stores ; why, then, have a special one for Liberal Religion in India 11 them? But, as a fact, they are kept only to a very limited extent in ordinary book-stores, even in England or America, much less in India. It may be said that it is easy to order them direct from London ; why, then, have a special depository ? Of course, it is true that anyone who knows just what book he wants, and understands just how to order, may obtain the book from your rooms here. But we should remember that to the people of India, London is on the other side of the world, and very few indeed of those who are prepared to read our books either know what our books are, or how to get them from so great a distance. It is generally felt in India that the best place for a depository is Calcutta. Accordingly, while in that city, I made investigations as to what could be done. The most practicable plan seemed to be to find a book-store that would undertake the sale of our works on such terms as might be agreed on with the Association. ! found such a store. The proprietor is not only a well-known bookdealer, but a Brahmo, and, therefore, favourable to our cause, and personally interested in the sale of our literature. He will set apart a certain portion of his shelf-room for our books, and advertise and sell them for a certain com- mission, if the Association here decides that it wishes to enter into such an arrangement. I also made investigations, and to some extent preliminary arrangements, in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras, subject, of course, to your approval, looking to the establishment of postal missions. In Madras, a young man who has been teaching in connection with our Unitarian Church there, and in Bombay, a young business man, both natives, and both thorough Unitar- ians in belief, will undertake to carry on such missions in the two cities, respectively, if desired. They will do the work without compensation, but you will, of course, have to furnish the literature, and bear the expense for postage, advertising, and stationery, and possibly a very — 12 Inberal Religion in India small sum for room rent. In Calcutta, the plan pro- posed is for Brahmo Somaj friends to co-operate with us in the establishment and maintenance of a postal mission. It is believed that from these three great centres, by advertising judiciously in papers that have a wide circulation, the largest part of India can be covered. Regarding the value of postal missions as a missionary agency, I need not speak. Their effectiveness has been well-tested, both here and in America. There would seem to be no reason for doubting that they can be made of much service in disseminating our printed thought among the educated classes in India also. The Education of Brahmo Young Men at Oxford. (3.) The third suggestion or recommendation which I cannot but think I am justified in making, looks in the direction of direct assistance to our Brahmo Somaj brethren,—assistance of a kind which you can render without a very large expense, and yet which I believe will in the end prove of the highest service to their cause, and if to their cause, then in the large sense to ours also. I have in view, aid in the higher education of young men for the Brahmo Somaj ministry : and my suggestion is, that this Association shall offer to bear the expense, either by undertaking to establish special scholarships for that purpose, or otherwise, of three Brahmo students all the while in Manchester College, Oxford; that is to say, of one new student entering each year for a course of two or three years of study. Of course such students should be selected with very great care, and should be young men of exceptional ability, of thorough intellectual training, and of high moral and spiritual gifts and power. But Iam assured that there would be no difficulty in supplying such young men. Indeed, I have in mind three or four such whom I met while in India, from among whom a beginning might well Lnberal Religion in India 13 be made. You wish to co-operate with the Brahmo Somajes. You sent me to India to say so to our brothers there. This would seem to be a way in which you can do it with as few difficulties, and with as sure results of permanent good, as any that opens. The fact that Manchester College sets up no theological tests, and that Unitarians believe in no such tests in connection with theological education, makes it easy for the Brahmo Somaj to accept such an offer of assistance in the education of its ministers. The young men would not be asked to subscribe to anything, or to take any name but their own. They would come as Brahmos, and we should expect them to go back as Brahmos, to work among their own people in their own way, simply carry- ing with them the added power and influence in that. work which would accrue from three years of training and contact with the best religious thought and life of the Western World. Our faith as Unitarians that the / Brahmo Somaj cause is at bottom our cause, seems to make it legitimate for us to extend to our Indian brethren this offer. Moreover, the fact that they have no theological school, at least none that is at all fully equipped, and that the leading minds among them realize that, if their movement is to be one of perman- ence and power, their ministers must be men, not only of consecration, but of such knowledge and training as will enable them to be leaders in the religious thinking of India, seems to make it peculiarly fitting that we should offer them assistance in the form pro- posed—that of the higher theological education of the young men who are to enter their ministry. An English Unitarian Missionary for India. (4.) The fourth recommendation which I find myself impelled to make regarding your future Indian work, is one which I mention with some hesitation. Not, how- 14 Liberal Religion in India ever, because of any doubt as to its importance, but only because the expense which it involves is greater than that connected with any of the preceding suggestions. I hope, however, that it is not greater than you will feel that the Unitarian Churches of England ought to meet, and with a strong and united effort can meet. My re- commendation is that you send at least one English Unitarian missionary to India. As I have already said, I see openings, great openings, for four or five. Can you not send at least one? But he must be a strong man,—strong in knowledge and scholarship, strong in spiritual power, strong as an organizer and leader. Otherwise it will be useless to send him. He need not necessarily be a man of years or fame. In some re- spects a young man is better. But, for a young man equal to the place and the work, I can scarcely conceive of an opening promising wider influence or more splen- did leadership. This is not only my judgment, but the almost unanimous judgment of our friends all over India. To my questions put everywhere to the leaders of the Brahmo Somaj, and others, ‘ What is the most important thing which we as Unitarians can do for India?’ And, ‘What can we do that will most help the Brahmo Somaj ?’ the answer that was almost in- variably given first was, ‘Send to India an earnest, consecrated, able Unitarian missionary to work by our side.’ In connection with the thought of sending out such a missionary, two questions naturally arise. One is, Where shall he be located? The other is, Is there sufficient work for him to do ? Regarding the question of location, I have not much to say. Most of our Brahmo friends urge Calcutta. A few say Bombay or Madras, or one of the great northern cities. Mr. Nagarkar presents some considera- tions which have considerable weight in favour of Bombay or Madras. For myself, I am disposed to Liberal Religion in India 15 think the arguments are strongest in favour of Calcutta. But the question seems to me one of quite subordinate importance, and one that would easily settle itself when a man was once in India, if he devoted himself for the first half-year or year, as [am sure he should, to making himself acquainted with India and its needs, by preach- ing and lecturing, circulating liberal literature, and coming into contact with liberal minds, in all the prin- cipal cities. Work for a Unitarian Missionary. As to whether there is sufficient work for a Unitarian missionary to do in India, and the nature of that work, more is to be said. The first thing that suggests itself as naturally de- volving upon a missionary, if one is appointed, is the supervision of our missionary interests there—those already existing and any others that may arise. It is noticeable that nature creates no organized body with- out a head, and a head connected immediately with the body. This suggests the inquiry, Can we hope to carry on a missionary movement in India without a head, and a head located in India itself? The importance of this matter of immediate local supervision you could not fail to see if you visited the missions we already have. Take the case of Madras. The little Unitarian church in that city is made up wholly of natives. They are absolutely isolated from all other Unitarians. They know nothing about church work or management out- side their own limited experience. They all feel deeply the need of the fostering care and guidance of an English missionary. I do not see any reason for ex- pecting that their movement will ever prosper until it receives the encouragement, the new quickening, and the practical help of such supervision. If they cannot have an English missionary of their own, resident in Madras, 16 Lnberal Religion in India there should at least be one located somewhere in India, who can visit them two or three times a year, and give them counsel, stimulus, and practical direction. The same is true of the Khasi Hills movement. The beginnings that have been made in that distant part of India are both gratifying and surprising. The whole movement is indigenous. I was the first white Unitarian that any Khasi had ever scen. The seed which has been sown there, and which has sprung up in the form of the little congregations and schools which I found, was sown by the printed page. Too much credit can hardly be given to the brave and earnest pioneers, of this movement. But as it grows, it more and more needs direction,— such direction as can be given only by one who has had training as a religious teacher and experience in practical Unitarian church organization and work. The Khasi Unitarians all very deeply feel this. Everywhere I went their first and most earnest request presented to me was, ‘Send us an English Unitarian missionary to teach us and to lead us.’ Previously to my visit among them they had no or- dained minister. All their preaching was by laymen. During my stay we ordained one of their number, who had received a year of training in a Methodist theo- logical school, and who was held in honour by his brethren as a man of superior intelligence and piety. And yet even now they have no guidance or help from outside their own numbers. It is a serious question how long the movement can go on safely in this way. If. we are to continue to encourage it, and give it pecuniary help, as surely we must, then certainly every consideration of wisdom and prudence would seem to urge that steps be taken as early as possible to furnish it with that supervision and leadership which the situa- tion makes necessary, and which the Khasi people them- selves so earnestly desire. Of course, since the field is large, the best thing of all would be to send a separate Taberal Religion in India 17 missionary to the Khasis, to give his whole time and strength to them alone, if you had the means. But if you have not, then the next best thing would seem to be the appointment of a missionary for India, who, as a part of his work, shall have charge of the Khasi move- ment, visiting it from time to time, shielding it from danger, and safely guiding its development. Besides overseeing the missions already in existence, the English missionary would, of course, have charge of any new ones to be established. For example, the - Postal Missions and the Book Room, already referred to. If these are to be successful they must be managed by someone on the ground; they cannot be managed from England. Of course, most of the work connected with carrying them on we expect to be done by our Indian helpers ; but these helpers, however willing or efficient they may be, are acquainted only to a limited extent with our literature, while with our methods of © Postal Mission management they are wholly unac- quainted. Hence the absolute necessity of having in charge of whatever is to be done, an English Unitarian, who is thoroughly acquainted with our literature, who knows how to manage and carry on Postal Missions, and who will put English energy and business method into his work. Another thought in this connection. It is believed by our Brahmo friends that if our English missionary were to locate himself in Calcutta, or even in Bombay or Madras, he would be able within a reasonable length of time, to gather a regular English-speaking congrega- tion. By an English-speaking congregation I do not mean one made up exclusively of English people, but of English, Eurasians, and educated Hindus, for all these speak English with ease. The creation of such a con- gregation would seem to be an important end to aim at. It would much increase the missionary’s influence ; eventually it should contribute something towards his 18 Liberal Religion in India support ; and it would tend to make his work definite and permanent; while at the same time it would in no way conflict with the work of the Brahmo Somajes, since everywhere they conduct their services in the native tongue. Here, then, you have an answer to the question, Is there sufficient work for an English Unitarian mission- ary to do in India?) And yet even this is not all. Beetes the work which I have outlined, of superintending our missions in different parts, including the postal missions and the . book-room, and of building up a local congregation, many other avenues of influence would open to him if © he were a man of any power, such as calls to preach and lecture all up and down the great empire, and to lend a hand in many important ways, in educational, charitable, and philanthropic movements, and, above all, in those movements for social reform and the better- ment of the condition of women which are so vital to the future progress of India. So that, surely, we need have no fear lest he should not have his hands full of work, and work of the very best kind, all of it aiding directly in the social, moral, and spiritual regeneration of the Indian people. The General Religious Situation in India. ' But I fancy I hear some of you saying to me, ‘ All these things which you are giving utterance to in your report are very well, but are they not quite subordinate to another matter—to a question which you have as yet considered only incidentally, but whose importance is so great as to demand full and careful treatment? You have been talking about methods of work in India: are we sure that we want to work there at all? You have been making suggestions regarding instrumentalities and agencies: but what proof have we that India needs Laberal Religion in India 19 or will accept anything which we have to offer? Is not Hinduism better for Hindus than Christianity would be? Or, if reforms in Hinduism are needed, are there not agencies already at work in India, to which we should trust ?’ These are important questions, and questions which are in not a few minds. Therefore they should be met. T shall devote the rest of the time that remains to the task of meeting them as well asI can. In order to do so at all adequately, it will be necessary to glance at the general religious situation in India. The people of India number about 288,000,000. If we divide these according to their religions we shall find them standing approximately as follows :—Hindus "208,000,000, Mohammedans 57,000,000, all others to- gether 23, 000, 000; in other words, more than nine- tenths of the ‘population of India are either Hindus or Mohammedans. Thus, we see that the adherents of these two forms of faith so far outnumber all the rest, that for practical purposes we may say that theirs are the two religions of India. Hinduism. First in importance stands Hinduism. This is the old historic religion of the land. If we would look for its beginning we must go back a thousand years before the Christian era,—and even then we shall not find it. When it first emerges from the dawn, and appears upon the historic stage, it is the remarkable religion of a great and proud race. It early created for that race a great literature. The oldest religion of the world, its career has been as remarkable as it has been extended. It has fought great battles, it has overcome great rivals, it has survived dangers that threatened its life, it has passed through creat transformations, alas! it has suffered great corruptions ; but through all it has preserved a vigour and vitality that are nothing less 20 Liberal Religion in India than an amazement to the student of its long history. No religion is more venerable or imposing ; at the same time none is more subtle, none is more pervasive of the whole life, or more deeply ingrained into the very in- tellectual and spiritual blood and fibre of its adherents. No religion ever adapted itself more completely to every class and condition of men,—not, however, that it may elevate all, but that it may get and hold all within its power. _ The sacred scriptures of a religion are likely to be a pretty just measure of the religion itself. As comprised within the wide limits of the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, we must reckon, not only the Vedas, with their high poetical nature-worship, and the Upanishads, with their profound religious philosophy and noble theism, but the great popular Epics and the later Puranas and Tantras ; and this means that its teachings range all the way from the highest wisdom and the loftiest spirituality down to the wildest vagaries, the most tyrannical ritualism, and the crudest and most debasing superstitions. With such scriptures—so good and so bad, so lofty and so low, so wise and so puerile —we cannot wonder, that Hinduism is a net that sweeps in everything. No religion is so many-sided, none is so elastic, none is so contradictory. It is a market that offers food for all appetites, as well the vitiated and depraved as the healthy and the sound. It is a singer that sings for all tastes, the purest and the vilest alike. It cares little to elevate men, but much to subjugate and hold them. No religion ever more systematically or persistently made ignorance, superstition, and fear, the instruments of its mastery. The Evils of Hinduism. The great central evils of Hinduism, inherent in the very system, are three. Taberal eligion mm India 21 (1.) The first is Caste. Caste means the ignorance of all men except the Brahmins or priest class. It means the subserviency and obedience of all other classes to the priests. The Brahmin or priest holds the keys of life and death, of this world and of the next. He does not want the people educated, for then his power over them will be less. His thought is to rule, not to serve ; to be ministered unto, not to minister. By means of the caste system he is able to hold the people every day and every hour of their lives under a yoke of intellectual and spiritual bondage, the severity of which we of the western world can scarcely conceive. (2.) The second inherent evil of Hinduism lies in the degradation of woman. ‘Think of a religious system that deprives woman of education, even to the extent of reading and writing ; that shuts her up within certain narrow apartments of her home, as in a prison, allowing her no contact with men except in her own family, and none with the great world outside; that compels the betrothal of babes, and the marriage of little half-grown girls; that makes girls mothers at eleven or twelve, thus mercilessly robbing them of their childhood, and making them old before their time ; and then, if they have the misfortune to become widows (and many do become widows while yet only mere children) condemns them to lives of privation, hardship, neglect, and con- tumely, beside which the condition of the galley slave or the prisoner in the chain-gang is enviable. Nor does this degradation of woman stop with her; it reacts upon the man. The home suffers, her children suffer, society suffers, every interest connected with her life suffers. _ Compelled to bear children and assume the duties of maternity when she is so immature, how can her children fail to be puny and weak? ‘The people of India inquire, ‘Why are not our men as large of stature and physic- ally as strong as the Europeans?’ The wisest students of the matter tell us that a large part of the explanation 22 Liberal Religion in India lies here. A race of strong men cannot spring from im- mature child-mothers. Thus does Hinduism, by the degradation of its women, lay the foundation for the physical decay of its whole people. But not physical alone. All other forms of decay follow. What kind of training can a twelve-year-old mother, who has always been kept in ignorance, give to her children? What kind of a companion can she be to her husband? What kind of a place can she fill in society ? What develop- ment can her own moral or spiritual life be expected to reach? What can she be expected to do for philan- thropies, charities, religion—those movements for the moral regeneration of the world, upon which the hope of the future so largely depends, and which in western lands are receiving from our educated and queenly women such splendid support ? No, the degradation of woman means degradation and decay everywhere. In consenting to such degradation India fosters a cancer within her breast that is destroying her life. There is no hope for her except in its removal. - (3.) The third evil of the Hindu religion is its de- basing Idolatry. Idolatry is of many grades and classes. Some forms are much worse than others. Its intellectual and moral influence upon the worshipper, of course, depends largely upon the nature of the idols worshipped. If the idols are themselves ,beautiful, and symbolise to their worshippers powers of beneficence and justice, or supposed divine beings whose characters are pure and noble, then the idol loses much of its power to harm the one who employs it. But if the idols are ugly, and symbolise powers of cruelty, or represent supposed divine beings whose characters are base and unworthy, then the idolatry drags down the worshipper, and in- flicts upon him serious intellectual and moral injury. In ancient Greece the gods were generally portrayed as at least physically beautiful. In India they are gener- ally physically ugly—beings with distorted countenances, Liberal Religion in India 23 or with many heads, many arms, many legs; combina- tions of men and lower animals, and the like. Hinduism numbers its gods by the million. All the powers of nature, all the passions of man, are deified and wor- shipped. There is nothing so high, there is nothing so low, nothing so pure, nothing so impure, nothing so elevating, nothing so degrading, that it does not find a place in the Hindu pantheon. In great Benares, the most sacred city of Hinduism, there is no more popular worship than that of the goddess Durga, or Kali, with her necklace of human skulls, her countenance of inex- pressible horror, and her tongue red with blood. One wide-spread form of Hinduism is Saktism, or the wor- ship of force personified as a goddess. It is impossible to:conceive of teachings more vile or practices more debasing than are common in connection with this form of worship. There are hundreds and thousands of religious temples in India, some of them among the richest and most influential to be found in the land, a part of whose regular equipment is a band of prostitutes. To the Hindu people cobras and other poisonous snakes are sacred; every kind of loathsome reptile is bowed before as a god. Of course, all this is only one side of Hindu worship, but it is the side most closely connected with idolatry and fostered by it. If Hinduism has a side of purity and beauty, it is in spite of its idolatry. The influence of its idolatry everywhere is intellectually to fetter, spiritually to deaden, morally to degrade. Mohammedanism. Turning now from Hinduism to Mohammedanism, what do we find? We discover a condition of things as regards religion in many important respects changed, and yet, in other respects not less important, hardly changed at all, from that which I have just described in connection with Hinduism. We should remember that India contains the largest Mohammedan population of 24 Inberal Religion in India any country in the world. These Mohammedans came to India as conquerors. For centuries they ruled there as conquerors. They are a proud people, who cannot easily forget their past. They do not readily yield to external influences. They believe intensely in their own religion, and do not doubt that it will some time conquer the world. Their religion has certain affinities with Christianity, especially with Unitarianism. It teaches reverence to the Bible, to many of the Old Testament characters, and especially to Jesus. It is strictly monotheistic, rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, and regarding Jesus as a great prophet and a man, not as a deity. The Evils of Mohammedanism. The evils of Mohammedanism are primarily two. (1.) First, its rigidity, its stereotyped character, its unprogressiveness, and therefore its materialism and unspirituality. Mohammedanism in India, as every- where else, has its face turned to the past. It is hard and fixed. It has no wings. It is so wholly a religion of the letter that it cannot be a religion of the spirit, or of ideals. It measures and tests everything by the Koran, finding there its standard, not only of religion and ethics, but also of law, literature, government, diplomacy, all life. Hence, of course, it cannot progress, cannot find new fountains of inspiration, cannot ap- preciate the higher side of life, cannot keep abreast of a new age. It can remember, it cannot create. It holds on to what has been, but is blind and dead to what ought to be, must be, shall be. It is what Christianity would be if Christendom really believed, as it so largely professes, the literal and absolute infallibility of the Bible, and thus really made a book of the far past the standard and measure of our modern thought and civilization. With us our profession is little more than Liberal Religion in India 25 a profession; while we retain it in our creeds, we take care to keep for our actual lives that liberty to think, to accept new truth, to revise our standards, upon which all progress of men and nations, and all genuine intel- lectual, moral and spiritual life for the world depend. But with the Mohammedan it is not so. His acceptance of the infallibility of his sacred book is real; hence the fettering and blighting influence of it upon ‘him is also real. It makes Mohammedan civilizations dead civiliza- tions. It keeps Mohammedan peoples outside the great currents of the world’s advance. It means, to all with whom it has to do, spiritual stagnation and decay. (2.) The second evil of Mohammedanism is the de- gradation of woman,—a degradation quite as great and terrible as that which we found in Hinduism. The wide-reaching significance of such debasement I have already sufficiently pointed out. Hence, I need not consider it again, any further than to note how doubly serious a matter it is that both the great religions of India should unite in fostering this degradation—in nursing this cancer in the bosom of Indian life and civilization. Such, then, very briefly and imperfectly portrayed, is the religious situation in India to-day as I see it, so far as her own leading religions are concerned. This great and remarkable land, one of the earliest in the world to rise to civilization and enlightenment, having a past containing much that is glorious, eager to-day for education, possessed of a not insignificant modern literature, and the creator of an ancient litera- ture larger than the combined preserved literary treasures of both Greece and Rome, and in many re- spects as rich,—this India, that ought to-day to be the glorious leader of thought and enlightenment and pro- gress in the Eastern world, so far as religion is con- cerned lies prostrate and in bonds to an extent that we in the West can scarcely understand. As we have seen, 26 Liberal Religion in India her two great historical religious systems overshadow literally her whole life. She is dominated by them ; she is bound hand and foot by them. ‘There is good in both these religions, and there would be hope for her if only she were free to accept the good and reject the evil. But she is not. Her religions are her master ; she is their slave. They chain her to the ground and will not let her rise. They chain her to the past—not to her great past—the past of her glorious earlier ages when she was spiritually free; not that past when she created her great literature, and was in culture the peer of any land in the West; but to her later, medizval past, of darkness, of fear, of ignorance, of superstition, of slavery—of slavery, not only to political tyrants, but worse still, to supposed infallible books, and to an ignor- ant, selfish, corrupt, and tyrannical priesthood, which has lived by her prostration and fattened on her spiritual blood. India’s Regeneration. Av last she hears, at least faintly, the call of a new age sounding in her ears, bidding her rise and go for- ward to a larger life and a new and nobler destiny. But alas! how can she? Her great religions, whose chains are about her neck, about her limbs, her whole body, her whole soul, bind her to her past degradation and slavery, and wili not let her move. Whence is to come the power that is to break her chains? If deliver- ance and new life are to come to her, it is plain that she must have help, and help from outside herself. From what direction is it to appear ? Who will lend her the hand of aid which she so sorely needs ? There are those who believe that the seeds of India’s regeneration are already planted in her soil, and that all that is now needed is to Jet them grow and come to fruitage. What is it claimed that these seeds are ? Several different varieties are mentioned. Liberal Religion in India 27 As, perhaps, most important, at least as most relied on by certain classes of observers, I may refer to three ; namely, firstly, those political, educational, and indus- trial forces which are being introduced into India through her contact with western civilization, and especially through the occupancy of her land by the British government; secondly, Christian missions—I mean the missions of so-called orthodox Christianity ; for, as you all well know, there is hardly one of the denominations claiming the orthodox name that has not established missionary operations in this great and in- teresting land ; thirdly, that native religious movement of India in which we, as Unitarians, are so much inter- ested, the Brahmo Somaj. To what degree may we rely, for the moral and spiritual regeneration of India, upon any or all of these agencies? And is the reliance to be placed upon them of such a nature as to relieve us ? Let us briefly look at each of the three. Influence of Western Civilization. (1.) As to the influence of the contact of the Western World upon India through commerce, and the occupancy of India by Great Britain, there can be no question that it is very great. India already possesses one of the most extensive and best organised railway systems in the world. The same is true of its telegraph and postal systems. The fact that the whole land is under British government means that there is no part in which the people do not come into more or less contact with English magistrates and courts, English civil servants of one kind and another, and English business men. Moreover, ever since the British have been in power, they have done more or less to establish schools and to promote education—much less than it seems to some of us they ought to have done, and yet enough so that the educational institutions of all grades, from the 28 Liberal Religion in India primary school up to the university, that are found in the land, form one of the important factors to be taken ~ into consideration in studying the India of to-day. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, the English language is coming into use in all parts of India with a rapidity that is astonishing. The government tongue is English ; the courts use English; the most influential and widely circulated newspapers are many of them printed in English ; English books and periodicals are kept on sale at all the more important railway-stations ; the language of travel and the language of commerce is more and more coming to be English. Now, it is easy to see that all these facts have a profound significance. It is impossible but that contact with the civilization of the West through all these channels should have an influence upon Hindu thought, and sooner or later upon Hindu religion. ‘True, such influence is much more slow to operate in the East than in the West; yet it is silently working—working in all the cities and larger towns, working in a thousand unnoticed places, especially work- ing among the young, and in all the colleges and schools. It will go on working. Nothing can stop it. And it will have its effect—first in other matters, but at last, sooner or later, in religion too. Indeed that effect is beginning already to appear. What is the effect ? The answer that has to be given reveals the weakness of the position of those who rely upon such agencies, to more than a limited extent, for the regenera- tion of religion. The effect of all this contact of India with Western thought and life, and the intellectual ferment that it creates, so far as it touches religious beliefs at all, is seldom other than to bewilder, to stun, to create doubt, uncertainty, apprehension, fear,—well if it do not end in permanent scepticism and despair. Nor is this strange. It is only the result that follows from like causes everywhere—on the European continent, in America, in England. The disturbance of an old Lnberal Religion in India 29 religious faith is always and everywhere a serious matter, unless it be accompanied by agencies looking to the establishing of a new and better. But railways and telegraphs and commerce cannot give men a new re- ligious faith. Even schools and colleges of themselves are helpless to do it. And so what do we see in India to-day, among her educated men, among the young men of her colleges, among those generally who have been affected most by Western influences? Just what I have said, almost universal religious bewilderment, and in the case of multitudes a deep and awful suspicion, not only that the old religion, but that all religion, is a supersti- tion and a delusion. Their enlightenment has gone far enough to overturn the old foundations, but alas! not far enough to lay for them those new foundations— deep, immovable, secure, as real as the soul, as firm as truth, as broad as love, as eternal as God—which are the profoundest need of India, and the world. Orthodox Christian Missions. (2.) This brings me to the question, May not India’s religious regeneration be entrusted to the missions of so- called orthodox Christianity ? Among the questions that I paid most attention to, while travelling up and down India, was that of the condition, results and prospects of Christian missions. What did I find? The answer is quickly given. Pro- testantism, after nearly two centuries of missionary effort in that great land—effort in which nearly every impor- tant denomination in the world has earnestly joined— numbers to-day about 700,000 adherents; and Catholic- ism, after a career many centuries more extended, with such missionaries in the field as the great St. Francis Xavier, numbers about 1,500,000 adherents. Catholic- ism seems to be increasing a little faster than Protest- antism, but the growth of neither seems to beencouraging. 30 Lnberal Religion in India Nothing strikes the student of Indian missions more than the great disproportion between expenditures and results. Nearly everywhere progress is slow, and the number of converts few. The most discouraging thing of all, - however, is not this; rather it is the fact, that these missions, in all their forms, are so absolutely powerless ? to touch thinking and influential minds, among either ' Mohammedans or Hindus, or to help those who are losing their old faith, and who, therefore, so deeply need help. Everywhere in India I was told that the converts made to Christianity, both by the Catholic and the Protestant missions, are almost wholly of the lowest and most ignorant class, and that it is one of the rarest of events for a Hindu or Mohammedan of education or rank, or who has grown sceptical concerning his old faith, to be reached. In those very rare cases where such conver- | sions do occur, great pains is taken to proclaim them far and wide, both in India and in Christian lands ; but the very eagerness with which they are seized upon by the }missionaries and heralded, shows the great rareness of {such occurrences. The missionaries themselves feel, }and feel deeply, this failure of theirs to make converts among the thinking and influential classes of the Hindu people, or to cope with the growing scepticism caused by contact with the thought of the West. But their failure is not strange. Nothing is easier than an explanation of it. It simply means that the thinking classes in India do not care to exchange one superstition for another, one credulity for another, one spiritual tyranny for another. We must remember that the average orthodox missionary, while a good and sincere man, is a narrow man, who preaches his ortho- doxy, not in those mild and honeyed homceopathic dilutions which are coming to be so popular in many pulpits of London, Manchester, Boston, and New York, but in the pure form taught him in the theological school, and in the good strong doses which he believes Lrberal Religion in India 31 to be necessary to save the heathen. I say this is something that we must not forget—the kind of ortho- doxy usually preached by the missionaries. Now and then we find a missionary who is theologically broad, but it is very rare. The home churches are afraid to send such. Above all else they want for their mission- aries sound men. And sound men means men who, believe and preach the old dogmatic theology which is so repulsive to the Hindu mind. We see, then, the reasons why orthodox Christianity has so little power to reach the intelligent classes in India, or to counteract the scepticism which is being produced there by the coming in of western thought. And it can never get any more power than it has now, unless it grows broader and more rational; and that means, unless it becomes something else than orthodoxy. Unitarianism and the Brahmo Somaj. (3.) Thus we see that the power needed for the regeneration of India must be sought from some source, not only outside of her railroads, her industrial develop- ments and her secular education, but outside of so- called orthodox Christianity. What is that source ? Can it be any other than that rational, that ethical, that self-evidencing religion of the spirit, which is slowly rising in influence and power in many parts of the world, which is silently gathering into its wide unwalled fold the purest and sincerest souls of every land, which is designated by many religious names, and is often found doing its divine work without a name at all, but which is perhaps best known in the West as Unitarianisn, or Liberal Christianity, and in the East as the Brahmo Somaj ? That this religion is adapted to the wants of India, surely the history of the Brahmo Somaj abundantly proves. That it is India’s hope I do not see how any 32 Lnberal Religion in India intelligent and unbiased investigator can for a moment doubt. It appeals to all classes, not only the simple and unlettered, but the trained and the cultured. It reaches the young men of the colleges and universities. Many of the finest minds of India have given in their adhesion to it. No other religious movement has shown half so much power to save from scepticism the think- ing and inquiring minds of India. It has the immense advantage of being at once native and foreign, and native even more than foreign. It comes to its own, and its own hears its voice, as they will not hear the voice of the stranger, or the orthodox Christian missionary. Helped by many influences from without, in cluse sym- pathy with the best, the freest and the most advanced religious thought of Europe and America, it is yet fresh from the mould of India’s brain, warm with India’s spiritual blood, throbbing with India’s fervent piety. It is the old religion of India at its purest, budding and / blossoming and coming to new and nobler fruitage under the influences of western culture and knowledge. It is the Christianity of Christ, loosed from its bonds, purified from the corruptions of the ages, and born again on Eastern soil in the simplicity of its great founder. I have said it is India’s hope. Are not the reasons plain? It is her hope, because it meets her deepest, most urgent, and most abiding needs. This, then, is the religious situation in India, as I see it. And here is thedoor of opportunity that opens for us as Unitarian Christians of the West, to put forth a helping hand to a people in the East that needs us, and for whom, as I believe, we have responsibility. Not that we are to become Brahmos. Not that we are to identify our religious movement with that of the Brahmo Somaj. They are Hindus; we are Christians. By all their traditions, inheritances, ex- periences, affiliations, they are what they are. By ~ Liberal Religion in India 33 virtue of all the forces, physical, mental, and moral, that are around us, above us, within us, and behind us for thousands of years, we are what we are. Neither of us can become other than what God has intended us to be; nor should we try. But, though our homes are on different sides of the globe, we have discovered a strange spiritual kinship between us. They, by digging down in their soil to the deeper deeps, and we by doing the same in ours, have both come upon the same Fountain of Eternal Love and Life. They have found our Jesus and loved him. Their Gospel is exactly our Gospel— God’s fatherhood, man’s brotherhood, eternal hope for all. Why then should we not extend fraternal hands to each other? And why should we not co-operate in all ways within our power for the promotion of those great ends which we have in common ? India’s call and England’s duty. It is no doubt true that in a certain very real sense, our Brahmo brethren have a greater responsibity for India than we. And for this reason some may thought- lessly say, ‘ Let us do nothing ; let us leave all to them.’ But are we at liberty to do nothing? Have we a right to leave all to them ¢ Does not England owe a duty to India which she cannot roll upon any other shoulders ? England is primarily responsible for shaking India’s old faith. Does not that mean that she is responsible to help her to a new and a better ? We, at this distance, friends and brothers, can little realize how vast as well as how urgent are India’s needs. All that the Brahmo Somaj is able to do by its utmost efforts is to light a little candle in a great darkness. All we can hope to do is to light another. But two lights are better than one. It was only a little candle that Jesus lighted in Galilee and Judea. But how far 34 Inberal Religion in India it threw its beams, and how many other candles were kindled from it ! until at last whole lands and nations walked in the light. Nor are we invited to India for the sake of strangers alone. Our friends need us. Our Brahmo Somaj brethren tell us that we can help them by coming; that our presence will give them new hope, new encourage- ment, new moral support. It is easy to understand this. There is no man who is not made stronger by the touch of a comrade’s hand. Their isolation is great. Their discouragements are heavy. At present all the Christian forces in India are arrayed against them. It will be much for them to be able to feel that at last they have at hand Christian sympathy and comradeship. It will be much, too, if they can have such living connection as even a single worker of ours on the ground will form, between themselves and their friends in the West. Still further. The East is much behind the West in educa- tion, in charities, philanthropies, social reforms, the advancement of women. Our Brahmo friends are inter- ested in all these things. They say, ‘Come, bring us the results of your larger experience.’ In the practical organization of religious activities, too, the East is much behind the West. The Brahmo Somaj movement greatly needs strengthening here. Its leaders urge us to come and teach them the secret of the West’s organ- izing power. Most serious of all, divisions have arisen in the Brahmo ranks,—divisions which have blighted many hopes, chilled the ardour of numbers, alienated many friends, evoked much hostile criticism, seriously checked the growth which was beginning to be so vigorous and full of promise. Cannot something be done to heal these divisions, and to bring into unity and harmony again those who ought never to have been separated? Many voices come to us from all parts of India asking earnestly, pathetically, whether we may not be the agency which God waits to use in healing Liberal Religion in India 35 these sad divisions. Certainly, if we go to India we go knowing no parties, with love in our hearts toward all, and. to co-operate with all. Certainly, too, all seem ready to co-operate with us. But can all give us fellow- ship, and work by our side, without thus drawing nearer to one another. This suggests, at least the possibility that our presence in India may not be entirely without influence as a healer and a uniter. These, then, are some of the reasons why it seems to me that English Unitarians have duties and responsi- bilities toward India which they are not at liberty lightly to put aside. A Missionary Religion. Pardon me if I suggest a single other thought—with which I close. That thought shall take the form of a question. Do we not need to enter the open door which India presents to us, not only for India’s sake, but for our own? I very earnestly believe that no religion is worthy of prosperity, or can prosper, unless it be a missionary religion. Before the orthodox churches of Europe and America began their foreign missionary work, they were, generally, languishing. Their efforts to send their gospel abroad greatly deepened and strengthened their own life. This was no accident. Selfishness always brings death. Unselfishness, and the effort to help others, always bring renewal of life. ‘ Make channels for the streams of love Where they may broadly run, And love has over-flowing founts, To fill them every one. But if at any time we fail Such channels to provide, The very springs of love for us Will soon be parched and dried.’ I believe the Unitarian churches in England will be stronger and able to do more work at home, as the 36 Laberal Religion in India result of efforts earnestly and sincerely made to help those who need their aid in other lands. But if you are to go out into the world at all, as bearers of your priceless gospel, where is it so fitting that you should go as to that great empire, which, because it is England’s dependency, is, therefore, England’s ward ? Norr.—It is interesting to recall that early in this century there was a movemeut among some of the influential natives of India, who even then were looking to Unitarian- ism as best able to help forward their great desire for religious reform.’ Hindu life and thought, however, were not yet ready for change; and the sole lasting result was the small Unitarian congregation at Madras; and more im- portant, the creation of a feeling among enlightened Hindus which, when the desire for pure religion again burst forth in the Brahmo Somaj, still looked to Unitarianism as the one kindred and friendly movement in the great Christian world. 1 The Christian Hxaminer for 1828, p. 267, reports an interesting meet- ing at Calcutta (Dec. 27, 1827), at which the fourth resolution, moved by RAMMOHUN Roy and seconded by Mr. Tate, ‘ invites all Unitarians, whether Christian or Hindu, in every part of India, to form themselves into Associa- tions auxiliary to the ‘‘ British Indian Unitarian Association,” ’ into which those present had just formed themselves. THE INDIAN MISSION. [A Letter which appeared in the Inquirer, July 18th, 1896.] Sir,—It seems to me that great shame will be ours if we suffer this Indian appeal to go unanswered. The proposal of my friend, Mr. Hawkes, that an enthusiastic person in each of our churches should collect sixpences and shillings till the whole is collected, proceeds, I think, on a mistaken assumption. It assumes that what is lacking amongst us is money ; whereas what is really lack- ing amongst us is interest—realisation of the urgency of the call and of our responsibility. The organisation required to collect shillings from thirty or forty people in every congregation in Eng- land could only come into existence if a large number of people all over the country were profoundly interested and eager to give themselves trouble that the appeal might not fail. But evidently that is exactly what is not the case. The very problem is how to create that interest which Mr. Hawkes’s plan assumes as starting- point. Essex Hall and Manchester College are monuments of the fact that, interest once kindled, there is no lack of money amongst us. If one unknown friend can find £500 a year for the Indian Mission, it is manifestly absurd to suppose that, af they wished, the rest of the Unitarians of England could not find a second £500 a year. If there were the interest which Mr. Hawkes’s suggestion assumes, all the money wanted would flow in spontaneously before there was time to begin to put Mr. Hawkes’s machinery in motion. Why, then, is it that even the magnetic personality of Mr. Sunderland, after he has personally appealed to our people in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, and other great centres of population has not touched their imagination, or kindled their sym- pathies more widely? He had a wondrous tale to tell, a romance of the movement of the Holy Spirit over those Indian souls, which one would have thought would enthral by its novel and touching charm. Why isthe response so scant, the sympathy so half-hearted? I think it is because of the innate distrust which the typical Unitarian feels towards Foreign Missions. This, at least, is the objection with which 1 have been met when I have pleaded the cause. Now, that distrust may be grounded in reason or in un- reason, may be just or unjust; but it exists, and it would be a pretty tough job to root it out. But this appeal is not for a Foreign Mission of the ordinary type. and to it the ordinary objections, reasonable or unreasonable, do not apply. Let me, then, in two or three sentences, re-emphasize the points of differ- ence between the Indian appeal and an ordinary appeal for Foreign | Missions, and entreat your readers to weigh their significance. [OVER. The Indian Mission (1) The appeal is not from a British Society wishing to ‘ evan- gelise’ the natives, but the appeal comes ringing across the globe direct from the natives themselves, The young men of the Brahmo Somaj, the native Unitarians of the Khasi Hills, the thoughtful students of the Universities, cry out to us: ‘Ah! you Unitarians of England, how you could help us if you only would! Send us your literature, send us a counsellor and teacher, take our young men and train them, help us in our tremendous battle against the overwhelming forces of superstition and degradation which cover our land!’ What heart, what conscience is there in us if we can refuse an appeal like that? (2) These are educated people that are beseeching us for aid. This is no mission to savages or barbarians, but to men of our own Indo-Germanic blood, the inheritors of a philosophical and religious culture dating back five thousand years, men in contact with Western civilisation, many of them familiar with the best and most cultured thinking of the age. And it is these men who, with one accord, declare to us that in Unitarian Christianity they recog- nise the one religious synthesis which can meet the intellectual and spiritual needs of the most thoughtful of their countrymen. And they petition us to aid them in this great work of spiritual educa- tion. Does it not make the heart ache to think that we can turn away with platitudes about not approving of ‘ Foreign Missions’? (3) These are people to whom and for whom we are responsible. We have conquered them, and hold them bound in subjection to us. We have forced on them contact with Western civilisation— Western civilisation with all its teeming fecundity of new ideas, its magnificent achievements, its searching scepticisms, its gross materialisms, its vices and its crimes. In touch with that the old faiths of these peoples have not been able to live. We have des- troyed and cut off their natural evolution. They ask us now, what we, their masters, have to give them in exchange for the old teach- ings which their clash with us has stricken to the death. God forgive us if we answer: ‘We give you the materialism of the West, but we have no food for the hunger of your souls.’ The responsibilities laid upon us in this matter seem to me, Sir, such as we cannot evade without unfaithfulness and shame. May the love of God and man move our people promptly to do their duty! RicHARD A. ARMSTRONG. Liverpool, July 14, 1896. Special Fund for Work in India. 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