Religious Nationalism (1895-1913)

CHAPTER V

RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM

1895–1913

IN this last section of our period a frightful portent flamed up in India, anarchism and murder inspired by religion. But, fortunately, there seems to be good reason for believing that the outbreak of violence will prove a lurid episode in a time of great and better things. Facts seem to justify our marking off these years sharply from the preceding; for new ideals and passions which are visible in their best literature and noblest activity as well as in anarchism distinguish it clearly from earlier times. Yet there is a certain continuity: the new spirit is a further stage of the movement which began a century ago, a further unfolding of what has been latent in the Awakening from the beginning. The notes of what we tentatively call Religious Nationalism seem to be as follows:

A. Independence. A distinct advance in thought and action made itself manifest about 1870. Young India began to think of political influence and to defend the ancient religious heritage. Yet there was a sort of half-dependence on the ideals and the thought of others, which gives the time an appearance of unripeness. In this new era we have the assertion of the full independence of the Indian mind. The educated Indian now regards himself as a full-grown man, the equal in every respect of the cultured European, not to be set aside as an Asiatic, or as a member of a dark race. He claims the right of thinking his own thoughts; and he is quite prepared to burn what he has hitherto adored and to create a new heaven and a new earth. This adult self-confidence was immeasurably strengthened by the victory of Japan over Russia. Every Asiatic felt himself recreated by that great event. To all Asiatic lands it was a crisis in race-history, the moment when the age-old flood of European aggression was turned back. The exultation which every Indian felt over the victory lifted the national spirit to its height and gave a new note of strength to the period.

B. A new nationalism. The patriotism of to-day makes the feeling which inspired the Congress seem a very bloodless thing indeed. Men now live at fever-heat, carried beyond themselves by a new overmastering devotion to the good of India. But there is clear sight as well as passion. The new nationalism is much more serious and open-eyed than the thin old politicalism. It is burdened, tortured, driven forward by the conviction that the whole national life needs to be reinspired and reborn. Full proof of the depths to which the Indian mind has been stirred may be seen in this, that in all the best minds the new feeling and the fresh thought are fired by religion, either a furious devotion to some divinity of hate and blood, or a self-consecration to God and India which promises to bear good fruit. Finally, whether in anarchists or in men of peace, the new nationalism is willing to serve and suffer. The deluded boys who believed they could bring in India’s millennium by murdering a few white men were quite prepared to give their lives for their country; and the healthy movements which incarnate the new spirit at its best spend themselves in unselfish service.

I. ANARCHISM

Before we attempt to describe the murderous propaganda we had better endeavour to realize what curdled to such bitterness the spirit of many of the most generous young Indians of our days. What were the causes of the sudden storm of furious hate?

1. The fact that India is under a foreign government. The first thought of the man filled with the new spirit is that this is utterly wrong, something which simply ought not to be. India ought to be guided by her own ideals and ruled by her own men. Her present rulers loom up as tyrannical aggressors, thieves of the nation’s rights, ruthless destroyers of her priceless ancient heritage.

2. The race-hatred and race-contempt of Europeans. I am not one of those who believe that the Englishman behaves worse in his imperial position than other nationalities would do, if they were in his place. Indeed, I am inclined to think that, in comparison with others, he stands fairly high. Yet the fact remains that there is a percentage of Europeans in India — soldiers, mechanics, shop assistants, business men, with a sprinkling even of professional men, army officers, and civilians — who continually shew contempt and hatred for Indians and speak of them as an inferior race, and who from time to time assault Indian servants and subordinates, and treat educated Indians with the grossest rudeness. This behaviour of a small minority of our fellow-countrymen, which at all times has produced very serious results, necessarily stirred the fiercest passions, when national feeling and Indian self-respect rose to flood-tide.

We must also frankly acknowledge that every piece of self-complacent, ill-informed, unsympathetic criticism of Indian religion, society and life, whether written by tourist, missionary or official, helped to inflame the sense of wrong and to embitter the resentment which the imperial position of Britain necessarily creates.

3. Lord Curzon. Perhaps no man was ever so well prepared for the viceroyalty as Lord Curzon was. Certainly no man ever toiled harder in the position, or worked more disinterestedly for the good of India. His insight and his unsparing labour are already producing their fruits in higher efficiency in education and many other departments of Indian life. Yet it was his tragic destiny to be more furiously detested by the educated Indian than any other Englishman. The cause lay in his self-confident and arrogant spirit and manner. Twenty years earlier they would have scarcely provoked comment; but, contemporaneous with the rise of the Indian mind to independence and national dignity and with the emergence of Asia from her secular slavery to Europe, they stung India to fury and worked wild ruin.

4. The inner antagonism between Hindu and Western culture. When the modern Indian reached self-consciousness and self-confidence, there could not fail to come a violent reaction from the attitude of reverence for the West which had guided his scholar-footsteps. Trained to think by his modern education, he could not fail to turn back to the ancient culture which lived in him and make the most of it. The period of training had been too repressive, too fully dominated by the West. The reaction was bound to come. Thus the old passionate devotion to Hinduism flared up and increased the passion of the anarchist; and his perception of the inner antagonism between Hindu and Western culture-ideals at once justified and embittered his hatred.

5. Exaggerated praise of India and condemnation of the West. This more than anything else was the cause of the ruinous folly which marked so much of the teaching and the action of the anarchists. Dayānanda, the Theosophists, Vivekānanda, Sister Niveditā and all that followed them talked in the wildest and most extravagant way in praise of Hinduism and Indian civilization and in condemnation of Christianity and the West; so that they actually led the average educated Hindu to believe the doctrine, that everything Indian is pure, spiritual and lofty, and that everything Western is materialistic, sensual, devilish. I do not believe that these leaders had any sinister political motive for this policy. Sir Valentine Chirol is inclined to go too far in this matter. What they did they did in the hope of making their followers devoted and enthusiastic Hindus, and of rousing them to toil for the benefit of India. But you cannot sow the wind without reaping the whirlwind. If it be true that Hinduism and Indian civilization are purely spiritual and good, and that Christianity and Western civilization are grossly materialistic and corrupt, then the average Hindu was quite right in drawing the conclusion that the sooner India is rid of Europeans and Western influence the better: we are already on the very verge of the doctrine of the anarchists. These leaders are directly responsible for a great deal of the wildest teaching of the assassin press. It is not merely the general attitude that is common to the revivalists and the anarchists. It is as clear as noonday that the religious aspect of anarchism was merely an extension of that revival of Hinduism which is the work of Dayānanda, Rāmakṛishṇa, Vivekānanda and the Theosophists. Further, the historical is almost as close as the logical connection. Dayānanda started the Anti-cow-killing agitation in 1882.¹ The movement grew until, in 1888, it had reached colossal proportions; and in 1893 Tilak made it one of his most potent tools. Kṛishṇavarma was a pupil of Dayānanda; Lājpat Rai was for many years one of the chief leaders of the Ārya Samāj; and Vivekānanda’s brother Bhūpendra was one of the most influential of the anarchist journalists of Calcutta.

The history of Indian anarchism cannot be written yet.

The most salient facts may be found in Sir Valentine Chirol’s Indian Unrest;¹ but every careful reader of that useful volume must feel very distinctly that there are many facts as yet unknown which are needed to make the growth of the movement intelligible. We mention here only the names of the leaders.

So far as can be seen at present, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a member of the sept of Brāhmans that led and governed the Marāṭhas, formed the earliest centre of the propaganda known as anarchism. The Anti-cow-killing agitation already referred to was one of several experiments which he tried in seeking to rouse his people to energetic political action; but in 1895 he organized a great celebration of the birthday of Śivaji, the chieftain who, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, made the Marāṭha tribes an iron army and a united nation to resist the Muḥammadans. This widespread commemoration of the Marāṭha leader in 1895 is significant, because in it for the first time all the features of the Extremist propaganda stand out clear; and there is unquestionable proof that it contained the poison of anarchy; for within two years it worked itself out in murder in the streets of Poona. For this reason we take 1895 as the date of the arrival of the new spirit in Indian history.

Two other men can be discerned as generators of the anarchical spirit, alongside of Tilak, between 1900 and 1905. These are Śyāmaji Kṛishṇavarma in London and Bipin Chandra Pāl in Calcutta. The former, who had been a personal friend and pupil of Dayānanda, lived in India House, London, edited the Indian Sociologist, and filled many a young Hindu student with the poison of hate and murder. Here perhaps was the chief centre of the cult of the bomb. Bipin Chandra Pāl edited a journal, called New India*, the settled policy of which was to publish every tale that could be found and exaggerated to fill the Indian mind with the bitterest hatred and profoundest contempt for Europeans, and to urge Indians to train themselves physically to be able to fight those blackguards.

The following paragraphs by the Rev. C. F. Andrews of Delhi describe very faithfully the effect of the Russo-Japanese war upon India:

At the close of the year 1904 it was clear to those who were watching the political horizon that great changes were impending in the East. Storm-clouds had been gathering thick and fast. The air was full of electricity. The war between Russia and Japan had kept the surrounding peoples on the tip-toe of expectation. A stir of excitement passed over the North of India. Even the remote villagers talked over the victories of Japan as they sat in their circles and passed round the huqqa at night. One of the older men said to me, “There has been nothing like it since the Mutiny.” A Turkish consul of long experience in Western Asia told me that in the interior you could see everywhere the most ignorant peasants “tingling” with the news. Asia was moved from one end to the other, and the sleep of the centuries was finally broken. It was a time when it was “good to be alive,” for a new chapter was being written in the book of the world’s history.

My own work at Delhi was at a singular point of vantage. It was a meeting-point of Hindus and Musalmans, where their opinions could be noted and recorded. The Aligarh movement among Muhammadans was close at hand, and I was in touch with it. I was also in sympathy with Hindu leaders of the modern school of Indian thought and shared many of their views. Each party spoke freely to me of their hopes and aims. The Musalmans, as one expected, regarded the reverses of Russia chiefly from the territorial standpoint. These reverses seemed to mark the limit of the expansion of the Christian nations over the world’s surface. The Hindus regarded more the inner significance of the event. The old-time glory and greatness of Asia seemed destined to return. The material aggrandisement of the European races at the expense of the East seemed at last to be checked. The whole of Buddhaland from Ceylon to Japan might again become one in thought and life. Hinduism might once more bring forth its old treasures of spiritual culture for the benefit of mankind. Behind these dreams and visions was the one exulting hope — that the days of servitude to the West were over and the day of independence had dawned. Much had gone before to prepare the way for such a dawn of hope: the Japanese victories made it, for the first time, shining and radiant.¹

Now, in contrast with these glowing lights, let us place some of Lord Curzon’s acts as they seemed at the time to educated Indians. He gave an address at Calcutta University Convocation in which he suggested to a listening nation that they were a nation of liars. He created and passed a Universities’ Act which was meant to introduce a number of much-needed reforms into the higher education; yet, honestly or dishonestly, almost the whole native press interpreted it as meant to curtail Western education among Indians, and thereby to weaken their influence in the country. Then there came, in 1905, the Partition of Bengal. It is now perfectly clear that some serious change in the administration of the province was urgently required; and there seems to be no reason to doubt that Lord Curzon believed he was carrying out the best policy; but he paid but little attention to Bengali feeling and opinion, and some of the speeches which he delivered in a tour through the province were provocative in the last degree. In any case, his action infuriated the educated classes of Bengal; the whole country was soon rocking in sympathy with them; and an unscrupulous propaganda roused the wildest passion, excited the students beyond measure and led to many riots.

It was these events that gave the Anarchist party their opportunity. Immediately a new type of journalism appeared in Calcutta. The chief writers were Aravinda Ghose, who had been educated in England, and had then spent some years in the service of the Gaekwar of Baroda, his brother Barendra, Bipin Chandra Pal and Bhūpendra Nath Dutt, a brother of Svāmī Vivekānanda; while Tilak and his followers continued the campaign in the West, and Lāla Lājpat Rai and some other Āryas did all they could to rouse the Panjab. A long series of murders and attempted murders of Europeans and Indians was the direct result of this writing and of the secret plotting of men who are not yet fully known.

Perhaps the most amazing fact in the whole sad history is this, that the Moderate party, which until now had controlled the National Congress and had led the educated community, were swept off their feet and dragged behind the Anarchists, almost without a word of protest, until the Congress met at Surat in 1907; when the two parties actually came to blows, and the gathering had to be broken up. This fact, and the terrible catalogue of murders which was steadily lengthening out, at last convinced the Moderates that they must dissociate themselves from the teaching of the Anarchist party. Then the tide began to turn. Fewer of the high-strung, unselfish students fell into the toils of the men who planned the murders. In June, 1908, Tilak was arrested and sent to prison for six years for seditious writing. Lord Morley, who was Secretary of State for India, and the Viceroy, Lord Minto, had the new Councils Act passed in 1909, which proved that Britain is really anxious to go forward and give educated India a gradually increasing share in the government of the Empire. The King’s visit touched the hearts of the people of India as nothing has done for many years; and the rearrangement of the two Bengals helped to heal old wounds.

The results have been priceless. There is now a clear perception of the fact that Indians must co operate with the British Government in order to bring in the better day for India. Things look distinctly promising.¹

The following are the chief notes of Anarchist teaching:

1. Indian civilization in all its branches, — religion, education, art, industry, home life and government, — is healthy, spiritual, beautiful and good. It has become corrupted in the course of the centuries, but that is largely the result of the cruelty and aggression of the Muḥammadans in former times and now of the British. The Indian patriot must toil to restore Indian life and civilization.

2. Western civilization in all its parts, — religion, education, art, business and government, — is gross, materialistic and therefore degrading to India. The patriotic Indian must recognize the grave danger lurking in every element of Western influence, must hate it, and must be on his guard against it.

The inevitable result of this has been race-hatred such as has never been seen in India before. The Anarchist press was filled with the uttermost hate and bitterness.

3. India ought to be made truly Indian. There is no place for Europeans in the country. Indians can manage everything far better than Europeans can. The British Government, Missions, European trade and Western influence of every kind, are altogether unhealthy in India. Everything should belong to the Indians themselves.

4. Hence it is a religious duty to get rid of the European and all the evils that attend him. The better a man understands his religion, the more clear will be his perception that Europeans and European influence must be rooted out. All means for the attainment of this end are justifiable. As Kṛishṇa killed Kaṁsa, so the modern Indian must kill the European demons that are tyrannically holding India down. The blood-thirsty goddess Kālī ought to be much honoured by the Indian patriot. Even the Gītā was used to teach murder. Lies, deceit, murder, everything, it was argued, may be rightly used. How far the leaders really believed this teaching no man can say; but the younger men got filled with it, and many were only too sincere.

5. The whole propaganda was marked by a complete disregard of historical truth. The most frightful distortions of past events, and the foulest slanders both of the Government and of individual Europeans went the round of the press, and did their poisonous work.

LITERATURE. — The New Spirit, by Bepin Chandra Pal, Calcutta, Sinha, Sarvadhicari & Co., 1907, Rs. 1 as. 4. Life of Aravinda Ghosha, by Rama Chandra Palita, Calcutta, the author, 1911, Rs. 1 as. 8. Indian Unrest, by Sir Valentine Chirol, London, Macmillan, 1910, 5s. net.

Anarchism flung itself against the British Government and fell back broken. The whole movement was a pitiful piece of waste,—waste of energy, patriotic feeling, literary skill and human life. One cannot look back upon it without a very heavy heart, as one thinks of all the dignity and worth of the character and feeling which were perverted and flung away. But the same high love for India and will to be spent for her sake have found healthy channels for themselves along various lines. In all these movements the main notes of the period ring out very distinctly: the end in view in each case is the national advancement; the religious sanction is always in the background, even if it is not distinctly expressed; the work is of the nature of unselfish service; and high passion inspires the whole. We subdivide the movements into four groups, industrial, social, artistic and poetic.

2. INDUSTRY, SCIENCE, ECONOMICS

The Swadeshi Movement (svadeśī = belonging to one’s own country), an agitation for the strengthening of Indian industries, arose in Bengal in Lord Curzon’s viceroyalty under the stimulus of national excitement. Indians were urged to buy goods of Indian design and manufacture; articles and books were published, exhibiting the vast natural resources of India, the abundance of cheap labour available, and shewing how much India loses through importing what might quite well be made in the country. The movement was later contaminated by an organized Boycott of British goods, which was accompanied by much violence and social tyranny, disturbed business for a while, and embittered relations between the races, but entirely failed to divert the natural course of trade. The legitimate movement, however, has been distinctly useful. The educated classes began to think of economic questions, and every Indian industry was encouraged and quickened. Under the same impulse a society was formed in Calcutta for the purpose of sending young men to Europe, America or Japan to receive industrial or scientific education. When these students began to return from study, a supply of trained workers became available for the furthering of native industries. Between 1905 and 1907 a considerable number of new manufacturing and trading companies were formed in various parts of India, but above all in Bengal. Cotton, jute, leather, soap, glass and other manufactures were attempted. There was at least one steam navigation company. Several Banks and Insurance Companies arose. All have not proved successful by any means from the business point of view; indeed, in the end of 1913, a number of Indian banks collapsed; but experience has been gained; and in a number of cases considerable progress has been achieved.

There has also been an increase in the number of students reading science, agriculture and economics at the Universities; and several Indians have written wisely and well on economic questions.

3. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SERVICE a. Help for the Depressed Classes

One sixth of the whole population of India, a vast mass of humanity outnumbering all the people of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, have for some two thousand years been held down by Hindus at the bottom of society, in indescribable ignorance, dirt and degradation, on the ground that they are so foul as to be unfit for ordinary human intercourse. According to the orthodox theory, every man born among these people is a soul which in former lives lived so viciously that his present degradation is the just punishment for his former sin. They are called Outcastes, Untouchables, Pañchamas, or the Depressed Classes. What sort of a national danger this mass of crushed humanity is to India, every student of sociology and politics will readily realize. These people belong to many different races, and are found in every part of India, sometimes in small, sometimes in large groups. Their poverty is in most cases pitiable. Their religion consists in pacifying diabolic powers by means of animal sacrifice and various forms of barbaric ritual.

More than a century ago Christian missionaries attempted to win some of these groups for Christ; and at quite an early date they met with some success; but it was not until the year 1880 that anything startling occurred. The years from 1876 to 1879 were marked by a frightful famine, which brought indescribable suffering and lamentable loss of life in many parts of the South of India. Christians could not stand idly by in these circumstances:

Hundreds of thousands of people were dying in the Tamil and Telugu countries. Government was doing what it could in face of the hopeless mass of misery. There were few railroads, and grain brought from other countries by sea rotted on the beach at Madras while people two hundred miles away starved for lack of it. At this crisis missionaries everywhere co-operated with Government in the work of relief, raising funds among their own supporters at home, carrying out earthworks, and so finding employment for many poor people, and doing all that pity and their close contact with the people enabled them to do to help the sufferers.¹

The result was that to these poor down-trodden people the contrast between Hinduism which held them down, and Christianity which did all that it possibly could to save them, began to be dimly visible; and, after the famine was over, they came to the missionaries in thousands for baptism. Such movements have occurred in several distinct parts of India. When such a movement begins, it usually lasts for a number of years, and then dies down. Or, it may slacken and then increase again.

Wherever it has been possible to give sufficient attention to this work, very remarkable results have been secured. When missionaries began to appeal to these people, Hindus jeered at them, saying they might as well attempt to uplift the monkeys of the forest. Certainly, at first sight, they are most unpromising material, physically, socially, mentally, morally. Yet the truth of Christ and loving Christian service have worked miracles. They have responded nobly, and great advances in physical well-being, in education, in society and the family, and also in religion, have been won.

One of the most remarkable features of the work is this, that Hindus and Muhammadans all over India at once give the baptized Outcaste a new standing. He is no longer untouchable and beyond the pale, but is received as other Christians are.

For many years the work went on without causing much comment from the Hindu side; though, now and then, some educated man would refer to Christian success among these people either in scorn or in bitter anger. But, just about the time when the new nationalist spirit was spreading far and wide, fresh currents of thought began to shew themselves both among the Outcastes themselves and among educated men.

Groups of these Outcastes who had not become Christians had begun to realize that the doctrine which for so long had justified their miserable condition was false, and that it was not held by missionaries or the British Government. The hope that they might be able to throw off their chains began to rise in their hearts. These new stirrings appeared in different parts of India. First of all, came the Tiyas of Malabar, and, later, the Vokkaligas of Mysore. In the case of both these peoples the rising is so remarkable that we have dealt with them alongside of Caste movements.¹ Another noticeable case is the rising of the Mahars of the Marāṭha country. They met in Conference at Poona in November, 1910, and drew up a Memorial to the Earl of Crewe, Secretary of State for India, begging that certain privileges which their fathers enjoyed in the Indian army should be restored to them. In this connection they speak of the many Mahars who fell wounded or died fighting bravely side by side with Europeans, and with Indians who were not Outcastes. But much more important than this claim of theirs is the spirit shown in the Memorial, and the statements they make to the Secretary for India. The following are a few sentences taken from it:

As British subjects we cannot, we should not submit to ordinances which are entirely foreign to British ideas of public justice and public honour. We are sick of the bondage which the barbarism of Hindu customs imposes upon us; we long to enjoy the perfect freedom which the British nation and the British Government desire to offer impartially to all those who are connected with them as British subjects.

We would, therefore, earnestly appeal to the Imperial Government to move on our behalf. We have long submitted to the Jagannath of caste; we have for ages been crushed under its ponderous wheels. But we can now no longer submit to the tyranny.

Our Hindu rulers did not recognize our manhood, and treated us worse than their cattle; and shall not that nation which emancipated the Negro at infinite self-sacrifice, and enlightened and elevated the poorer people of its own commonwealth, condescend to give us a helping hand?

The kindly touch of the Christian religion elevates the Mahar at once and for ever, socially as well as politically, and shall not the magic power of British Law and British Justice produce the same effect upon us even as followers of our own ancestral faith?

A similar story may be told of the Namaśūdras of Bengal. They are amongst the very lowest classes of the country; yet we find them in Conference in April, 1910, seeking to plan for their own advancement, and stirring each other up to various items of social reform.¹ A few months later a still more interesting event took place in the Panjab:

An incident which would appear to be queer, under existing conditions, is reported to the Hindustan from Jullundur. To the reflecting mind it appears to be but the beginning, feeble though it be, of a spirit of retaliation against the most inhuman and degrading treatment meted out by Hindus and Mussalmans alike to the depressed classes for centuries past. The sweepers of Jullundur have started a society called the Valmika Samāj to defend their interests. They do not think themselves to be in any way inferior to their Hindu or Mussalman compatriots.

At the last Dussehra fair they opened a shop vending sweetmeats for the benefit of members of their own community. The following is the translation on the board: — “Let it be known to the High-born that Hindus and Mussalmans are prohibited to buy sweets here. Chuhras and all others are welcome.” ¹

Somewhere about 1903 the whole problem began to be discussed in the Indian press. Orthodox Hindus still condemned the missionary propaganda in violent terms, but far-sighted men gave utterance to other ideas. Here is what the Hon. Mr. G. K. Gokhale said at a public meeting in Dharwar in 1903:

I think all fair-minded persons will have to admit that it is absolutely monstrous that a class of human beings with bodies similar to our own, with brains that can think and with hearts that can feel, should be perpetually condemned to a low life of utter wretchedness, servitude and mental and moral degradation, and that permanent barriers should be placed in their way so that it should be impossible for them ever to overcome them and improve their lot. This is deeply revolting to our sense of justice. I believe one has only to put oneself mentally into their places to realize how grievous this injustice is. We may touch a cat, we may touch a dog, we may touch any other animal, but the touch of these human beings is pollution. And so complete is now the mental degradation of these people that they themselves see nothing in such treatment to resent, that they acquiesce in it as though nothing better than that was their due. Moreover, is it, I may ask, consistent with our own self-respect that these men should be kept out of our houses and shut out from all social intercourse as long as they remain within the pale of Hinduism, whereas the moment they put on a coat, and a hat and a pair of trousers and call themselves Christians we are prepared to shake hands with them and look upon them as quite respectable? No sensible man will say that this is a satisfactory state of things.²

At a later date Mr. Gokhale’s political instincts led him to give utterance to another wise word:

The problem of the depressed classes really went to the root of their claim to be treated on terms of equality with other civilized communities of the world. They were all of them asking — he might even use the word clamouring — for equal treatment by other communities. He thought they were entitled to do that, and they would be unworthy of their manhood if they did not agitate for it. But they would deserve to have it only when they were prepared to extend the same treatment to those who expected it at their hands.¹

The Ārya Samāj was probably the first body that proposed to outflank the missionary movement:

While the people of India increased in 1891–1901 at the rate of 1½ per cent, native Christians increased at the rate of over 30 per cent. Just consider for a moment what Christian missionaries are accomplishing in India, though they come here from the remotest part of Europe. They beat even the Arya Samajists, in spite of their preaching the indigenous faith of the country. The reason is that the Arya Samajists have not yet learnt to work among the masses who form the backbone of India. It is high time for us to realize that the future of India lies not in the hands of the higher classes but of the low caste people, and if we devote the best part of our energy in raising the status of the masses, we can make every Indian household resound with the chanting of Vedas at no distant date. But where are the men, where is the sacrifice ? ²

Later, certain Hindus took up the same position; but others pointed out that the policy of raising the Outcaste is contrary to Hinduism and must certainly tend to break up the religion. The following is a sentence from the Mahratta : ³

Now we know that the result of educating the depressed classes must be in the long run to weaken, if not utterly destroy caste.

Yet, in spite of many cries of danger, the conscience of India has been waked. Men realize that it is wrong to hold down the Outcaste. Then the new Nationalist consciousness feels so distinctly the need of unifying the nation and of strengthening every element in the population that the problem of transforming these fifty millions of crushed Indians into vigorous citizens is felt to be one of the most pressing national problems. Hence the best men have turned to action.

The Brāhma Samāj and the Prārthanā Samāj were the first bodies outside the Christian Church that gave any attention to the depressed classes ; but their work has never risen to such dimensions as to make it of great importance. The Prārthanā Samāj in Mangalore has been working among these poor people since 1898, and the Brāhmas have a little work going on in East Bengal. In 1906, however, things began to take a more practical turn. The Depressed Classes Mission Society of India was founded in Bombay that year. It shows clearly the influence of the most recent developments of the national spirit ; for the philanthropic aim of the work is largely sustained by national feeling ; and people of any religion may take part in the work. As a matter of fact, however, the leaders throughout have belonged to the Prārthanā Samāj, though they have received a great deal of support from Hindus. The following gives a sketch of the aims of the Society, its work and its finances:

The object of the Society shall be to maintain a Mission which shall seek to elevate the social as well as the spiritual condition of the Depressed Classes viz. the Mahars, Chambhars, Pariahs, Namsudras, Dheds, and all other classes treated as untouchable in India, by (1) Promoting education, (2) Providing work, (3) Remedying their social disabilities,

(4) Preaching to them principles of Liberal Religion, personal character and good citizenship.

Work of the Society

The present organization and work of the Society, which is described at length in the last annual report, a copy of which accompanies this representation among other enclosures, may be summarized as follows:—

The Society has under it fifteen centres of work in and outside of the Bombay Presidency, viz. Bombay, Poona, Hubli, Nagpur, Yeotmal, Thana, Satara, Mahableshwar, Malvan, Dapoli, Akola, Amraoti, Bhavanagar, Mangalore, Madras. Of these the first five, being incorporated branches, are under the direct control of the Executive Committee of the Society and the rest, being only affiliated, are independent in the management of their own local affairs. The Headquarters are in Parel, Bombay, and the Society is registered as a charitable Body under Act XXI of 1860. It has at present in all thirty educational institutions of which five are Boarding Houses, four are technical institutions, one is a middle school and the remaining are primary schools. The number of pupils on the roll on the 31st December last was 1,231 and the total expenditure of the Society on its educational work last year was Rs. 20,304.11.5 for which the total Grant-in-Aid received from the Government and the local municipalities for the year was Rs. 1,956. Of the thirty institutions sixteen are incorporated and fourteen are affiliated to the Society.¹

It will be seen that this Society, which was started in Bombay some seven years ago, has roused people in many parts of Western and Southern India to the duty of doing something for the Outcaste. The Society is therefore an organization of real value, and may do still larger work in the future. It will be noticed that the work of the Mission is practically confined to education, except in so far as it seeks to rouse public opinion. A similar society exists in Calcutta, but it has not grown to any strength.

Several of the sectarian groups are attempting to gather in Outcastes to their fold, and all of them follow the educational method which the Depressed Classes Mission uses. I have not been able to get detailed reports of these activities, perhaps because in most cases the work done is small. The Ārya Samāj probably does more than the others. The Deva Samāj has three schools in distinct centres in the Panjab. The local Sikh Associations called Singh Sabhās do what they can to induce Outcastes to become Sikhs. Some Hindus in the Mysore State have organized what they call The Hindu Education Mission to help the children of the Outcastes of Mysore. Three day schools and two night schools have been already started. The Theosophists of Madras have also a few schools for the same class. Muhammadans in the Panjab, and also in Malabar have succeeded in persuading groups of Outcastes to become Muslims.

But by far the most significant and important fact to be observed with regard to this whole question is the fact that the conscience of India has been roused by what missions have done; and it is now perfectly clear that, whether sooner or later, whether through the Christian Church or through other agencies, the Outcastes of India will inevitably escape from the inhuman condition in which Hinduism has imprisoned them for two thousand years. Thus in far-distant India, and in the twentieth century, Christ fulfils once more His promise to bring release to the captive. Perhaps the clearest proof of the change in the attitude of the Indian public generally to this question will be found in a small volume, called The Depressed Classes, containing twenty-three addresses and papers by Hindus, Christians, Theosophists, Āryas, Brāhmas, and Prārthanā Samājists.

Many signs of the working of this new spirit may be observed. The Director of Public Instruction in the Bombay Presidency observes that during the last few years a great change has come over local boards and other bodies; there is now far less objection to Outcaste children taking places in the ordinary schools.¹ Mr. T. B. Pandian has succeeded in raising money to dig a number of wells for Outcastes in the Tamil country.² Quite recently the Hindu community in a centre in the Panjab held a ceremony to begin the practice of allowing these untouchable Outcastes to use the ordinary wells.³ So the leaven works.

Yet it is very important to observe that, though the activities of the Depressed Classes Mission are of considerable value, the fact that it can do no vigorous religious work seriously weakens its results. “The kindly touch of the Christian religion elevates the Mahar at once and for ever,” as the Mahars said in their address to the Earl of Crewe; while the Depressed Classes Mission can merely give a little education and moral advice.

LITERATURE. — The Outcastes’ Hope, by G. E. Phillips, London, Y. P. M. M., 1912, 1s. net. The Depressed Classes, by many writers, Madras, Natesan, 1912, Re. 1.

b. Universal Education

One of the most striking manifestations of the new national spirit is the Bill which Mr. Gokhale laid before the Viceroy’s Council in the winter of 1911-1912, for the purpose of extending primary education all over the country. The method proposed was to give local authorities the power, under certain conditions, to make primary education compulsory amongst the people under their jurisdiction. For various reasons the Bill was rejected, but it served a very useful purpose in familiarizing the educated classes with the reasons why universal education is desirable, and in evoking the opinions of the native press on the subject. Thus, though it failed to pass, the Bill undoubtedly forwarded the cause. Some step for the furtherance of universal education will have to be taken ere long.

c. The Servants of India Society

In Poona there is a Hindu College called the Fergusson College, the professors of which receive very small salaries and do their work for the love of India. The quality of the education is high; and a number of most devoted public servants have been trained in its work. Amongst these the most brilliant is the Hon. Mr. Gopāl Krishṇa Gokhale, C. I. E. He served as one of the professors of the College for twenty years, from 1885 till the end of 1904. He then set himself to the formation of a society, the aim of which should be devoted and life-long service to the people of India.

The following paragraphs give the substance of an interview which the writer had with Mr. Gokhale in the National Liberal Club, London, in June, 1913.

The Society, which was established in 1905, is called the Servants of India Society. Its headquarters are in Poona, where there is a Home specially built for the training of the workers; and there are Branches in four of the provinces of India, Bombay, the Central Provinces, Madras and the United Provinces.

Only University graduates or men who have done successful public service are admitted as members. When a young man wishes to become a member, he lives in Mr. Gokhale’s house for a short time, or in the Home, so that he may learn by experience what the society is, and so that the other members may have an opportunity of gauging his temperament and character. If he is thought suitable and if he wishes to go into the work, he becomes a student. For five years he receives a salary of only thirty rupees a month, and spends every year four months in study in the Home in Poona, six months in practical work in that Branch of the society to which he belongs and two months at home. The purpose of the whole movement is to create by means of practical work a higher type of worker. The progress of India is the great aim in view. There is a clear perception that, if India is to be a nation, the communities must become united. Hence in all the work of the society the aim of bringing Hindus and Muḥammadans together in real brotherhood is kept in view. Young Hindus are sent to live among Muḥammadans, to help them by loving service to the utmost of their power, just as missionaries do.

Images PLATE XI. RAJCHANDRA RAVJIBHAI. THE HON’BLE G. K. GOKHALE, C. I. E. RABINDRA NATH TAGORE.

The society is open to young men of any race or religion; and there is a keen desire on the part of the leaders to get members other than Hindus. One Muḥammadan is already a member. There is no attempt made to bind the men together religiously. There are no common prayers in the Home. Each man is left to order his own devotions as he thinks best. Yet Mr. Gokhale holds that the aims in view, and the serious renunciation which membership imposes, are in themselves deeply religious. No demand is made that a student should give up caste; yet brotherly feeling in the Home is so rich and deep that no caste distinctions are kept. Members are not asked to become celibates; but life in the Home during the four months of training is monastic. The students are completely under the guidance of the First Member, Mr. Gokhale. During the five years of their training they are not allowed to deliver public addresses or to write to the magazines, without first submitting the matter to the First Member.

The work of the society is carried on under the direction of the Branches. Those who are members give their whole time and work to public service, while the students give their annual term of six months. A few of them are told off annually to make arrangements for the meetings of the National Congress. They do all they possibly can to help such movements as primary education, female education, and the uplifting of the Depressed Classes. In Berar a great deal has been done to help the Co-operative Credit Societies of the Province. During the serious fodder-famine from which Gujarāt suffered in 1912, ten members and six volunteers were fully engaged for ten months, and did priceless service.

After the five years of studentship are over, a member receives only fifty rupees a month of salary, even if he be a married man with a family. There are at present twenty-six members in all. The expenses of the society already run from twenty to forty thousand rupees per annum. Mr. Gokhale raises the bulk of this large sum himself from private friends.

The following paragraphs copied from a brief prospectus of the society ¹ will give a clear idea of the spirit of the undertaking:

For some time past, the conviction has been forcing itself on many earnest and thoughtful minds that a stage has been reached in the work of nation-building in India, when, for further progress, the devoted labours of a specially trained agency, applying itself to the task in a true missionary spirit, are required. The work that has been accomplished so far has indeed been of the highest value. The growth during the last fifty years of a feeling of common nationality, based upon common traditions and ties, common hopes and aspirations, and even common disabilities, has been most striking. The fact that we are Indians first, and Hindus, Mahomedans and Parsees or Christians afterwards, is being realized in a steadily increasing measure, and the idea of a united and renovated India, marching onwards to a place among the nations of the world worthy of her great past, is no longer a mere idle dream of a few imaginative minds, but is the definitely accepted creed of those who form the brain of the community — the educated classes of the country. A creditable beginning has already been made in matters of education and of local self-government; and all classes of the people are slowly but steadily coming under the influence of liberal ideas. The claims of public life are every day receiving wider recognition, and attachment to the land of our birth is growing into a strong and deeply cherished passion of the heart. The annual meetings of Congresses and Conferences, the work of public bodies and associations, the writings in the columns of the Indian Press — all bear witness to the new life that is coursing in the veins of the people. The results achieved so far are undoubtedly most gratifying, but they only mean that the jungle has been cleared and the foundations laid. The great work of rearing the superstructure has yet to be taken in hand and the situation demands on the part of workers devotion and sacrifices proportionate to the magnitude of the task.

The Servants of India Society has been established to meet in some measure these requirements of the situation. Its members frankly accept the British connection as ordained, in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India’s good. Self-Government within the Empire for their country and a higher life generally for their countrymen is their goal. This goal, they recognize, cannot be attained without years of earnest and patient effort and sacrifices worthy of the cause. Much of the work must be directed toward building up in the country a higher type of character and capacity than is generally available at present ; and the advance can only be slow. Moreover the path is beset with great difficulties ; there will be constant temptations to turn back ; bitter disappointments will repeatedly try the faith of those who have put their hand to the work. But the weary toil can have but one end, if only the workers grow not faint-hearted on the way. One essential condition of success in this work is that a sufficient number of our countrymen must now come forward to devote themselves to the cause in the spirit in which religious work is undertaken. Public life must be spiritualized. Love of country must so fill the heart that all else shall appear as of little moment by its side. A fervent patriotism which rejoices at every opportunity of sacrifice for the motherland, a dauntless heart which refuses to be turned back from its object by difficulty or danger, a deep faith in the purpose of Providence which nothing can shake — equipped with these, the worker must start on his mission and reverently seek the joy which comes of spending oneself in the service of one’s country.

Mr. M. K. Gandhi,¹ who did such excellent service in the struggle with the South African Government for justice for the Indian, has signified his intention of becoming a worker under the Society.

d. The Seva Sadan

The progress of thought and the march of events, working together in India, have forced many women’s problems to the front during the last few years.

The Seva Sadan, or Home² of Service, was founded in Bombay in July, 1908, by Mr. B. M. Malabari, the Parsee Reformer whose pamphlet on Child-marriage and Widow-celibacy published in 1887 is mentioned above,³ and Dayaram Gidumal, a Hindu from Sindh, a retired judge. These two vigorous men collected large sums of money and guaranteed a steady income for the institution. During the last three years they paid in Rs. 45,000 between them, and raised an Endowment and Building Fund of Rs. 82,000. But Malabari is dead, while Gidumal has fallen away from social reform; so that the Seva Sadan must now rely on other friends.

Perhaps the following lines cut from one of their publications will most readily give a clear idea of the work:

OBJECT:—Social Educational and Medical Service (Seva) through Indian Sisters, regular and lay. The Society maintains the following institutions:—

1. A Home for the Homeless.
2. An Industrial Home with various departments.
3. A Shelter for the distressed.
4. A Dispensary for Women and Children.
5. Ashrams (or Sisterhoods) — Hindu, Parsi and Mahommedan.
6. A Work-Class, also Home Classes in Chawls (i.e. large tenement houses). All these are for the benefit of women.

A resident lady doctor gives her whole time to the work; and two others give a certain amount of help. A social service nurse is also available for outdoor work; and there are lay sisters, Hindu, Parsee and Muslim, who move about among the poor. Young probationers are sent for training to various medical schools.

The society also publishes tracts for free distribution on medical, sanitary and moral subjects.

The Home has now its own building in Gamdevi Road, Bombay. The annual expenditure is about Rs. 20,000.

There are branches in Poona and Ahmedabad which are also doing excellent work.

One might reasonably mention here certain other forms of social work, such as Widows’ Homes, the Social Service being done by students, and especially the Nishkāma Karma Maṭha,¹ which is very similar in purpose and in work to the

Seva Sadan; but our aim in this chapter has been to group together the new movements which shew a decidedly nationalist purpose, while in other chapters we have dealt with those which are more sectarian in character,¹ or are clearly inspired by social considerations.²

4. FINE ART AND MUSIC

The Government School of Art, Calcutta, has been for several years the centre of a very promising revival of Indian painting, sculpture, wood-carving and other fine arts. Mr. E. B. Havell, who was for several years Principal of the School, has been the leader of the movement; but he has been ably seconded by a group of very promising Indian painters, the most prominent of whom is Mr. Abanindra Nath Tagore. The purpose in view is to produce a genuinely Indian school of art. A number of beautiful reproductions of both ancient and modern pictures have been published at moderate prices by the Indian Society of Oriental Art, which is closely connected with the Calcutta School; and in London the India Society is doing similar work.

Mr. Havell and Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, who is connected with Ceylon, have for several years led a crusade to convince the world that Indian art has high spiritual qualities which set it at least in the front rank of the world’s art, if not in advance of all other art. This high argument, which is parallel to the claims made on behalf of Hinduism, Buddhism and other Oriental faiths by the revivalists, has proved of large value; for it has led to a far more intelligent appreciation of Indian sculpture and painting than was possible in former years, and to the recognition of fine qualities in them hitherto unnoticed, and has also given great encouragement to Indian artists; but it seems clear that it has failed to bring sober critics to the acceptance of all that Messrs. Havell and Coomaraswamy teach. No one who wishes to understand India ought to fail to look through Mr. Havell’s exquisite book, Indian Sculpture and Painting, and the volumes of reproductions published by Dr. Coomaraswamy.

Until quite recently the cultivation of music in India was left largely to nautch-girls. Here also the new national spirit has proved creative. Keen interest in the best Indian music, both vocal and instrumental, is being shewn in several quarters. The Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, or Academy of Indian Music, was established in Lahore in 1901, but has now its headquarters in Girgaum, Bombay. Local musical societies have appeared in a number of places, one of which, the Poona Gayan Samaj, or Song Society, may be mentioned. Sir George Clarke, when Governor of Bombay, and also Lady Clarke, did all they could to encourage these efforts. Within the Christian Church, the Rev. H. A. Popley of Erode, in South India, has done excellent service in adapting the best Indian music to Christian uses. Several Europeans have recently written books on Indian music.

LITERATURE. — Indian Sculpture and Painting, E. B. Havell, London, Murray, 63s. Essays on Indian Art, Industry and Education, E. B. Havell, Madras, Natesan, Rs. 1 as. 4. Essays on National Idealism, A. K. Coomaraswamy, Madras, Natesan, Rs. 1. The Music of Hindostan, by A. H. Fox Strangways, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1914, 21s. net.

5. POETRY

The youngest son of Debendranath Tagore¹ is Rabindranath Tagore,² who is by far the most prominent literary man in India to-day. For many years he has been the acknowledged king of Bengali literature. His songs and hymns are on every lip, and everything he writes is treasured. When he delivers an oration in Bengali, or when he sings some of his own songs, his power and charm are inexpressible. Quite recently he translated a number of his short devotional poems into rhythmical English prose; and, by the advice of his friends, they were published in England, under the title Gitanjali. He is now recognized as one of the greatest literary men of the Empire; and European opinion as such is expressed in the award of the Nobel prize for literature to him.

But the chief fact to be realized about him is that he is the very flower of the new nationalist movement, representing at their very highest the noblest motives that have stirred the people of India since the new century began. His position is central. Though he is the son of Debendranath Tagore,¹ he no longer holds his father’s religious position. He expects, as he said to me a few months ago, that the regeneration of India will come through gradual change within the body of Hinduism itself rather than from the action of any detached society like the Brahma Samaj. Even when he tells his readers in Sădhană that his religious faith is a purely Indian growth, owing nothing to the West, he is still the child of his day; for the modern Nationalist has no difficulty in finding every Christian principle and practice in ancient Hinduism.

Mr. Tagore sums up in himself all the best characteristics of modern nationalist thought and feeling. He is an eager educationalist, maintaining at Bolpur, Bengal, a Boarding School in which two hundred boys receive an education combining the best traditions of the old Hindu teaching with the healthiest modern methods. A good modern education is given; the health of the body is secured by athletics; and music and daily worship, in the simple and severe manner of the Brāhma Samāj, are used to purify and strengthen the religious nature.¹

Mr. Tagore feels as keenly on social questions. Never shall I forget the magnificent oration which I heard him deliver in Bengali, on Indian Society, in the Minerva Theatre, Calcutta.² The loftiness of the speaker’s character, his brilliant diction, and the superb strength and music of his utterance moved me very deeply, and produced an extraordinary effect on the great audience. His proposals were scarcely practical, and no one has attempted to carry them out in action; but one could not fail to realize his insight into the urgency of the whole social problem or to feel the heart-throb of nationalism in every sentence.

The universal appeal of Gitanjali ³ is due largely to the lofty religious feeling which inspires the work, and to the sincerity and simplicity of the style, touched with the colour and fragrance of the East, but largely also to the character of the religious ideas of the poems. There is sufficient Hindu phraseology and form, drawn from the exquisite Bengali lyrics of the Chaitanya movement,⁴ to distinguish these poems from European work and to give them a most engaging freshness; yet the dominant beliefs are Christian and in full harmony with modern thought. There is no karma, no transmigration, no inaction, no pessimism, no world-weariness and hatred of sense in this lofty verse; but there is the perception that nature is the revelation of God; there is everywhere the joy of meeting Him in sun and shower; there is the dignity and worth of toil, deliverance won only by going down where God is, among " the poorest and lowliest and lost," the duty of service, the core of religion found in righteousness, life won by dying to self, sin recognized as shame and thraldom, and death as God’s messenger and man’s friend.¹

Footnotes