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MODERN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

BY J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A., D.LITT. (OXON.)

LITERARY SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, INDIA AND CEYLON

AUTHOR OF “A PRIMER OF HINDUISM,” “THE CROWN OF HINDUISM”

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1915.

THE HARTFORD-LAMSON LECTURES ON “THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD” ARE DELIVERED AT HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAMSON FUND, WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED BY A GROUP OF FRIENDS IN HONOUR OF THE LATE CHARLES M. LAMSON, D.D., SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, TO ASSIST IN PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY FIELD. THE LECTURES ARE DESIGNED PRIMARILY TO GIVE SUCH STUDENTS A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY, BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLES AMONG WHOM THEY EXPECT TO LABOUR. AS THEY ARE DELIVERED BY SCHOLARS OF THE FIRST RANK, WHO ARE AUTHORITIES IN THEIR RESPECTIVE FIELDS, IT IS EXPECTED THAT IN PUBLISHED FORM THEY WILL PROVE TO BE OF VALUE TO STUDENTS GENERALLY.

PREFACE

TOWARDS the close of 1912 Dr. W. Douglas Mackenzie, President of Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn., invited me to deliver, as Lamson Lecturer for 1913, a course of eight lectures on Modern Religious Movements in India. The subject was extremely attractive. It was clear that to bring these many movements together, arrange them in related groups, and set them forth as varying expressions of a great religious upheaval would be a far more illuminating piece of work than the description of them as units ever could be. But the difficulties involved in the proposed investigation were so great that it was only after much inward questioning as to whether I ought to dare the task that I decided to attempt it.

The first difficulty of the subject lies in the fact that the majority of these numerous and very varied movements, scattered over every part of India, have never been described before. In the case of a few of the more noteworthy, excellent monographs do exist. The following books and pamphlets proved of signal service in my investigation:

Śāstrī, History of the Brāhma Samāj (including the Prārthanā Samāj); Griswold, art. Ārya Samāj in ERE.; Griswold, The Chet Rami Sect; Griswold, Mirza Ghulām Ahmad, the Mehdī Messiah of Qadian; Griswold, The Rādhā Swāmī Sect; Griswold, Pandit Agnihotri and the Deva Samāj; Chirol, Indian Unrest. There are also several valuable biographical works — notably, Max Müller’s Rāmakrishṇa, Prof. M. N. Gupta’s Gospel of Śrī-Rāmakrishṇa, Dayānanda’s Autobiography, and Solovyoff’s Modern Priestess of Isis, — which enable the student to see, in a measure, the genesis of the movements to which they are related. But, apart from these two groups of good authorities, it was necessary to conduct the investigation almost entirely by personal visits and interviews, or, less satisfactorily, by correspondence. By these means nearly all the fresh matter in the following chapters was gathered. A small amount of the new material comes from another source, viz., the apologetic and propagandist literature of the various movements; but, with the exception of certain systematic statements of creed (e.g. Rādhā Soāmi Mat Prakāsh, A Dialogue about the Deva Samāj, and Leadbeater’s Textbook of Theosophy), these innumerable booklets, pamphlets and tracts in many tongues have provided only a scanty gleaning of significant facts.

But the subject carries within it a still more intimate difficulty. Even if abundance of information were forthcoming about any one of these most noteworthy uprisings of the Indian spirit, there would still remain the difficulty of understanding it, the possibility of totally misconceiving the forces that have created it, of fastening one’s eyes on externals and failing to feel the beatings of the heart.

Others must decide whether I did right in attempting the task, and how far I have succeeded in it. What weighed with me was the fact that my past experience had given me a partial preparation for the work, and that my present circumstances afford me unusual facilities for getting the necessary information.

I spent in Calcutta eleven years as a Professor in a Missionary College and five as an Association Secretary among educated non-Christians. During those sixteen years I was constantly in touch with Chaitanyas, Brāhmas, Āryas, Theosophists, followers of Rāmakṛishṇa and young men interested in other North India movements. Two pieces of work arose from this contact: Gītā and Gospel (1903), a booklet dealing with the Neo-Kṛishṇa Movement in Bengal, and art. Brāhma Samāj in ERE. (1909).

During the next five years my duties required me to travel all over India with little intermission and to deliver religious addresses in all the important towns. I was thus brought into personal contact with men of almost every type of religious belief; while my one study was Hinduism.

A recent modification of my work has given me special opportunities for interviewing individuals and learning facts with a view to these lectures. Fresh arrangements, made by Dr. J. R. Mott and the Committee in New York, have enabled me since the spring of 1912 to spend the summers in England in literary work and the winters in India lecturing and teaching. The invitation to give the Lamson Lectures reached me late in 1912. That winter I visited Bombay, Jubbulpore, Allahabad, Benares, Lahore, Calcutta, Puri, Madras, Conjeeveram, Bangalore, Mysore City, Palamcottah, Madura, Trichy, Tanjore, Kumbakonam, Pudukottai; and almost everywhere I was able to have long conversations with intelligent men about the sect or movement they were interested in, to visit buildings, and to pick up literature and photographs. The summer of 1913 was spent in Oxford, preparing the lectures. This enabled me to use the Bodleian Library and the British Museum and to consult many men in and about London who have special knowledge of certain of the movements dealt with. After delivering the lectures in Hartford, Conn., in October, 1913, I returned to India, and visited Poona, Hyderabad (Deccan), Bangalore, Madras, Trichy, Madura, Palamcottah, Nagarcoil, Trevandrum, Quilon, Calicut, Tellicherry, Calcutta, Jamalpore, Jubbulpore, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Agra, Lahore, Rājkot (Kathiawar), Bombay. I thereby gained much fresh information, and was able to settle scores of questions which had arisen in my mind in the course of writing the lectures.

Thus, one way or another, I have had personal intercourse with adherents of all the movements described in this book, with the exception of a few of the smallest and most obscure.

I have felt cramped for want of space. To deal with the whole subject adequately would have required two volumes instead of one. I have thus been compelled to compress the matter very seriously everywhere. I trust this has not resulted in making my sentences and paragraphs unintelligible. It certainly has reduced the last chapter to rather an arid catalogue of facts. Necessarily, the eight lectures delivered in Hartford contained far less material than the book does.

Though I have done my utmost to secure accuracy and to avoid misrepresentation, the movements are so varied and so intricate that there must be many omissions and mistakes. Criticism will therefore be very warmly welcomed. Letters calling attention to errors and omissions, or suggesting fresh points of view, may be sent either to 86 College Street, Calcutta, or to Oxford.

So many friends in every part of India, and also in England and America, have helped me in conversation and by correspondence that it would be impossible to make a complete list of them. I wish here, however, to express my heartfelt gratitude to every one who has given me personal assistance, whether much or little; for, without them, the book could never have been written. I mention in the footnotes the names of those who have helped me at the most critical points, because in these cases it is necessary to give the source of my information. But my gratitude is quite as great to those whose names are not mentioned.

The portraits scattered through the text may help readers to seize in a more vivid way the character and temperament of the men and women who created these religious movements. A few of them are new, but all the others have been published before. Of these, some are quite well known; but the rest, having appeared only in obscure Indian books and periodicals, must be quite new to the general reader. In any case it seems worth while bringing them together as a series of religious leaders.

My debt to my friend Dr. H. D. Griswold of Lahore is very great; for considerable sections of my third chapter are built upon his scholarly monographs mentioned above; and he revised the whole work for me in manuscript. To him and to another friend, the Rev. John McKenzie of Bombay, who kindly did for me the troublesome work of revising the proofs, I offer my unfeigned gratitude and thanks.

11 FRENCHAY ROAD, OXFORD, October 30, 1914.

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES

A Historical Retrospect. — A Historical Retrospect of the Theosophical Society, by H. S. Olcott.

Chhajju Singh. — The Life and Teachings of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, by Bawa Chhajju Singh.

Collapse. — The Collapse of Koot Hoomi, a reprint of articles from the Madras Christian College Magazine.

Dubois. — Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, by J. A. Dubois.

ERE. — Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

Gospel of R. — Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛishṇa, by M.

HBS. — History of the Brahmo Samaj, by Siva Nath Sastri.

IRM. — The International Review of Missions.

ISR. — The Indian Social Reformer.

Karaka. — History of the Parsees, by Dosabhai Framji Karaka.

Miss Collet. — Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, by Sophia Dobson Collet.

MPI. — A Modern Priestess of Isis, by V. S. Solovyoff.

ODL. — Old Diary Leaves, by H. S. Olcott.

Proceedings. — Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.

Ranade, Essays. — Religious and Social Reform, A Collection of Essays and Speeches, by M. G. Ranade.

Richter. — A History of Missions in India, by Julius Richter.

Sinnett, Incidents. — Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, by A. P. Sinnett.

Social Reform in Bengal. — Social Reform in Bengal, by Paṇḍit Sītānātha Tattvabhūshaṇa.