RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN INDIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 10, 12 July 1909, Page 3

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN INDIA.

TO THE EDITOR. „ Sir,— ln view of the divided opinion on tins subject in New Zealand, I think the following extract may prove of interest to many of your readers. It is from the Pen °£ # c ?% v - T " E - Slater - a missionary of the L.M.S., who writes under the heading of "Back on a Brief Visit to India, m the March number of the society's Chronicle. He says:— "I was struck with several signs of progress I had an interesting conversation with the Inspector-General of Education,-" an enlightened Parai gentleman. He sketched tor me the scheme just adopted by the Mysore Government, for the introduction oi moral and religious instruction in the State schools and colleges, by which Hindu, Mohammadan, or Christian pupils may be taught in their respective religions, provided their number is not less than twenty m each case. It is recognised that the tendency of the present system of secular education has trained the intellect and not the character and is not, therefore, sending forth a generation of good and useful citizens For various reasons, the homes of the pupils have ceased to impart such instruction as m former times; while the influence! of religious teachers and of public wor- | snip has almost disappeared. The consequence is that irreverence and disrespect for authority have been on the increase. Modesty and self-restraint have given place to vanity and aggressiveness. It, is hoped that this new departure which must at first be in the nature of experiment, but which is worthy of all encouragement, may prove a step in the in g thi^ eCfcl °"-- \ la to be noted tha * in this case, as in others, a native state is m advance of British India. Of course the scheme is opposed in some quarters ° n ? A 1 , end u *Bed that English literature and history were so permeated by a reli!!S Bpir A Ift* n °! hi ? s more was reSi n " *■* i. h u S lted fche case of the \vlL V ' ho ui lad not been touched by K£ } ho^ hi > and who. therefore, knew no development or progress They «rere s.mply stereotyped fossils, of no rj Vhat^f r In , hel J?ws the couAtry for ZffhSl, ? o^y, hope of progress lay with the educated classes. The above hough there js a desire on the part of -he Goyernment to introduce a conscience clause in connection with Bible teaching » — X am, etc. °' A.M.