C.C.C.

Evening Star, Issue 20570, 23 August 1930, Page 2

C.C.C.

Ta® Lambeth Conference has given a [deliverance on Christian Union. Apropos of this the following incident is suggestive. Some time ago an English professor and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, a Mohammedan. spent a day together discussing the problems of the Orient and the Occident. At the end the Chief Justice said: “ There are three things that hold humanity apart, and curiously enough in your language they all begin with; the same letter* the letter G. They, are Caste, Colour, Creed.” * » » * Everywhere to-day the world is groping after a deeper unity of life—life individual, social, national, and international. The barriers that separated th* classes throughout the world are tending to break down. Progress may he [ slow, unnoticed, perhaps,, on any, extensive scale. 'But it is like the progress of an iceberg swimming into warmer seas. In outward appearance it looks steadfast, majestic, irresistible, but it is being slowly sapped away in thb deeps below, and the end is inevitable. So humanity is being drawn closer together. The forces that, have kept asunder are being surely and steadily undermined, and _ unity, not uniformity, is its ultimate goal. Of all the sundering causes that still keep it from unity of life nonehave been more effective than the ■ three • C’s—Caste, Colour, Creed—thus tersely summed up by the Indian Chief Justice., They have been so in the past; they are so today. Let us see that. ■ • ' \ '* * Caste. Most of us know, at least, by hearsay the ! divisive influence of caste in India. ; If we march . past us the total population of r.the, entire world every fifth person would be an Indian. In India there are, broadly speaking, four great divisions of the people. These four classes are separated from each other by an hnpassable chasm. They do not intermarry nor exchange hospitalities; they have no sort of domestic relations, with , one another. There are millions of what are called •“ Untouchables ” that live a life little removed from that of the animals below them. And all four classes move within a circle-of ideas totally. distinct from, indeed almost. incomprehensible

to, each other. But we must take caro that wo do not bring ourselves within the description of the fool given In the Proverbs —one “ whose eyes are in the ends of the earth.” Wo need not go to India for illustration of caste. We can find-plenty of illustrations of its divisive force in our own country and among our own people. One has only to move through society anywhere and he will find abundance of these. Even within the church caste is common enough. It is, in fact, one of the efficient causes of its weakness and of its power for good. We read a story of a Brahmin who attended an evangelistic meeting at which converts were telling in-glowing terms how Christ had saved them. Ho got up and said: “You people say you are saved. So am I. As Christ has saved you, so Krishna has saved mo,” The missionary in charge of the meeting replied ho was glad to hear it. “Now,” he continued, “wo are going down to the outcast quarters to mis with the poor people there and see what we can do for them. Will you jbin us? ” The Brahmin thought for a moment, and then.said: “Well, sahib, I am saved, but I am not saved that far.” Christendom can supply abundance of professed believers among whom the limits of salvation and caste are as distinctively drawn as those of the Brahmin, But we need not labour the point of tho sundering influence of caste among individuals and nations. Wo must distinguish, of course, between a class and a caste. A class is a section of society separated from the rest —but for their good. Thus the medical profession is a class by itself, but it is not a caste; so is tho legal; so is tho clerical. But the class is ever in danger of becoming a caste—i.e,, a group existing, not for the benefit of the whole, but tho benefit of itself. That is what we are everywhere threatened with to-day. The capitalist is becoming a caste in this sense. So are tho workers. We hear of class war—i.e., tho war of caste, tho war that, unless it is somehow averted, will work havoc in the nations. « * ' «■ * The second sundering C is that of Colour. We are in a comparatively slight degree familiar with it in this country. The yellow man, if not a pariah, is too often regarded with contempt or open hostility. And yet tho future —if the white races go on as they are doing—is with tho yellow man. A competent observer says tho Chinese are the most capable and efficient race in the world. “ They are a deep and pure strain, whoso weaklings have not been fostered. Their life force as a race is unequalled, while their powers of physical work leave all white races behind them. They have no military skill. But so capable a race can acquire it easily. When it acquires modern knowledge and modern science—i.e., when it gets going with its appalling energy—the old economics of the world are liable to go up in smoko.” In America and

South Africa the colour problem is tho problem. Gandhi had this story in his paper, ‘ Young India/ not long ago. Some Christian clergymen wero on their way to the Holy Land. A negro clergyman from the Southern States was to' travel with them. The others objected, and his passage was refunded and compensation rpaid. Thus they got rid of the coloured would-be companion. If they do these things in the green tree, what may we not expect in tho dry? So the white Labour unions keep all coloured men out of skilled positions—-not skill, but colour, bars their way. It is the same, or worse, with the negroes in Africa, and yet tho negro is not a dying race; tho white one is. Read the books of that keen, cool, far-travelled observer, Richard Curie. Ho predicts a great struggle for world supremacy between tho white races on the one hand and tho black and yellow races on the other. Other well-informed observers agree with him.

If things go on as they arc doing what the ultimate issue will be is not difficult to forecast. On tho ono hand wo have a huge army of coloured races who have been treated with contempt and exploited by the white man for generations. They are simple, strong, easily fed, toughened by hardships, getting familiar with the latest science, and eager to wipe out old scores with the white oppressor. And on the other hand you have an indiscriminate mass of diverse peoples devoured by luxury, pleasure-loving, highly educated, but using.their knowledge only for individual or class advancement. So, it comes about, as Mr Curie points out, that the white raco is honeycombed within with enemies of its own creation, whom it has educated free of cost, unable to assimilate true knowledge, yet determined upon selfexpression. These men and women, filled with jealousy of each other, become Labour agitators, Communists, fomentors of every kind of strife, hating all that is superior, and secretly bent on pulling the whole structure down. Ho bids us take note of tho crowds of men and women whom free education is turning into parasites; men and women who acquire enough cunning t.o despise manual labour, and who try to earn a living without hard work; third-rate musicians, singers, painters, cinema supers, tipsters, touts and the flotsam of the race courses, tho middlemen, tho commission agents (the astutest forms of parasites), “who batten on the producers and greatly increase the cost of living. These and tho like have just learned enough to take tho line of least resistance. They produce nothing. They' fail to pull their weight in the boat, and they are secretly hostile to tho solid citizen.” It is easy to forecast the destiny of such people when tho great racial collisions of the future take place. « * « * Tho third C is Creed. It is needless to elaborate tho divisive power of creeds. We have only to look around us ,to see it. Even within tho bounds of Christendom creeds keep asunder those who would otherwise bo friends indeed. Tho multiplicity of sects, their dislike of each other, their cut-throat, shameless, and wasteful competition are a scandal to religion and a laughing stock ■to tho world. When a broader view is taken religious beliefs are potent barriers to unity, Tho Chinese regard all others as foreign devils. The Japanese believe -they have descended directly from heaven. Tho Mikado signs, himself as “ Manifest Deity.” AVhen somcono suggested that they had 'no moral code in their ancient literature, tho reply was: “Wo wero by nature moral, and needed no moral code. The Chinese wero not by nature moral; so Confucius had to come to them as a law-giver.” Tho United Sta... ourselves, call their country “Gods Own Country.” An American proudly intimated that fact to a Scotsman, and tho latter replied caustically: “Then you have lost your accent.” Tagoro bitterly remarked that Jesus Christ Himself could not got into God’s own country, because first of all ho would not have tho necessary cash, ami, second, Ho would bo an Asiatic. This gives ( point to the remark of the Bean of tho Chicago University Chapel tho other day: “It is in vain that tho missionary holds up the white man’s Cross for tho Indian to see; it is hidden behind tho white man’s pocket bookami tho white, man’s sword.”

* * * * In view of tho tremendous sundering power of these three C’s—Caste, Colour, Creed—the prospect of racial unity seems a far-off dream. Yet tho issue must bo faced, for the trend of tho world forces is making humanity a unit in spite of itself. Peoples were kept apart by mountains and rivers and seas till they had in some degree learned tho sacrednoss of human life and the law of self-sacrifice. Had they been brought together before this had been achieved they would have destroyed each other. But now all these barriers are down. Distance has been annihilated, and all tho races of mankind aro neighbours. Tho problem is to make them conscious of their ncighbourlincss and tho duties that it entails. In other words, tho supremo problem of tho hour is how to dissolve the barriers of Caste, Colour, and Creed, so that tho enforced external oneness shall become an inward spiritual, unity. That problem must somehow be solved, or the legend of tho Kilkenny cats willbecome a reality for tho human race; How it is to be done is what is now exercising the best minds of tho world. Back of caste and colour lies creed. Tho final solution must "be sought in religion. No other motive sullies the dynamic that will resolve differences of caste and colour. And there is only one religion that professes to do this. In that remarkable book, ‘ Christ at the Hound Table,’ the writer tells that one day a Hindu, a Moslem, and a Christian, seated-in tho train in India, were discussing tho Hindu-Moslem clash. Tho Moslem, a highly-educated gentleman, said: “No, wo cannot expect to get Home Hide. The Hindu and the Moslem will try to get the best of each other, and then finally, after exploring all avenues, they will become followers of Christ, for it is Christ alono Who is uniting the world everywhere.’’ Tho fact is undoubted, and tho reason for it lies in the essential

nature of Christianity. Tho Mohammedan world, with its 25,000,000, is founded on a book. It is a religion of rules, of commandments. It is therefore unprogressive. • When you know tho rules and commandments there is nothing more to learn. So wo see Mohammedanism going to pieces before our oyes. Shelley’s prophecy is coming true: The moon of Mahomet arose, but it shall set, While blazoned as on Heaven’s eternal noon The Cross leads generations on. And why? Because no book by itself can ever be a final solution. It must be a person. Laws, rules, commandments, doctrines are effective only a> they are incarnated in a person—a person who can win absolute trust, reverence, love, sacrifice, service. Grant the assumption of Christianity, and yon have such a Person; you have it nowhere else.