INDIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 13 April 1936, Page 11

INDIA

MISSIONARY’S EXPERIENCE. 39 YEARS ' IN EAST BENGAL. Ail interesting visitor to Palmerston North at present is Miss E. Beckingsale, of Wellington, who is attending the Easter camp of the Young Women’s Baptist Bible Class Union • at the Showground. A petite woman, with snowy hair and a bright smile, Miss Beckingsale worked for 39 years as a missionary in East Bengal, India, where she lived a life of glowing testimony to her faith. Miss Beckingsale retired from the missionary field about two years ago. Interviewed by a “Standard” representative. Miss Beckingsale said she had resided in the town of Brahmanbaria, in the district of Tipperah, which, although quite small, had a population of one and a-half millici; people. There she was engaged in general missionary work, and she also had a dispensary and treated between 7000 and 8000 patients a year. Miss Beckingsale mentioned that she was a trained nurse, and had received special maternity training at Edinburgh. She had helped to carry out rescue work among widows and children in India.' The children would otherwise have been sold. Some of them had been trained as teachers and nurses, and were now helping on the work. LOW-LYING COUNTRY. The whole country, continued the visitor, was very low-lying, and for five or six months of the year most of it was under water. Their work had then to bo carried out by boat. Most of the people were engaged as agricultural labourers, some having small plots of land, but nearly all of them working for land-owners. The wages were very poor, from 4d to Gd a day, and in bad times the remuneration was less. At one time, retailed Miss Beckingsale, the Government was not able to pay more than lid a day on relief work. The people were nearly all low-caste Hindus or Mohammedans, and caste was very strong. Among the better classes, however, caste and idol worship were beginning to lose hold. Those who became Christians had to go through great persecutions, and. this made the work of the missionaries very difficult. Miss Beckingsale recalled the experience of a young lawyer, who, on becoming a Christian, was turned out of his home and disinherited by his father. This lawyer had just been starting out in his profession, but his practice failed through boycotting. Fortunately, there was a happy ending, as he had been placed as a Government clerk in a town where he was not known. Another great triumph was the conversion of a Brahmin priest, who had become a radiant Christian. The five misisonaries at the station at Brahmanbaria were the only Europeans there. There was another station at Chandpur, 80 miles away, both being conducted by the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society. At the latter there was a hospital in charge of Dr Nola Ivory, of Wellington, ainl wonderful work was being carried out there for women and children. There were missionary schools at both centres, which were acknowledged as tliei best in the district. WOMEN OF INDIA. The women of India were very illiterate, continued Miss Beckingsale; only about per cent, of them cuii.J be regarded as literate. In the citii ~ however, a groat awakening was taking place among the high-caste woineiy a proportion of whom were going u for education. Some were also doing good civic work, and acting as Justices of the Peace. An All-India Y\ omen’s Conference was of interest, and this agftated for improvement ol conditions as regards women, as, for example, the giving up of child marriage and making legal the re-marriage of widows. Sonic of the native States were taking a leading part in reform, the president of the conference being ■ the Rani (queen) of Travaneore. Ac. Act had been passed prohibiting the marriage of boys undbr 18, and gii.s under 14, and, although not strict./ observed, it had had the effect ol awakening the conscience of the people. arid increasing a desire towards a liigher marriage age. There were one and a-half million widows under six years of age in India, and still a number of children were married very young. Miss Beckingsale said she had seen a baby, who could-not walk, carried in her father’s arms and married ,although this occurrence was not common. Among the high-caste people, some girls did not marry now until 15 or 16 years of age. < Speaking of widows, Miss 'Beckingsale said that those who had the courage were re-marrying as a protest against the prohibitive law. - MARRIAGE CEREMONY. Miss Beckingsale gave an interesting deesription of a marriage ceremony. The bridegroom, she said, was brought to the bride’s house in a palanquin, with a musical band and torches, and was not allowed to put his feet on the ground. The bride'was carried out and set beside him, whereupon the priest performed the ceremony', repeating Sanskrit (old sacred language) verses. Sacred grass was then twisted round the fingers of both bride and bridegroom. The mail had then to repeat a number of things, and the girl to walk seven times round her husJ band, and drop flowers on him. As the girl’s face was veiled with a sari, she had to be led round by another woman. The bride and bridegroom next exchanged garlands. The couple then* went inside, and the bridegroom saw the face of his wife for the first time, and vice versa, if the bride was not too modest. A girl of six or seven y r ears often found herself married to a man of 40, and the knot was irrevocably tied, as there was no divorce in Hinduism. A marl, however, could procure another wife. HINDUS AND MOHAMMEDANS. A very bad feeling existed between tjie Hindus and Mohammedans, the visitor told the interviewer. The strong monotheistic beliefs of the Mohammedans clashed with the idolatory of the Hindus. Illustrating this, Miss Beckingsale said that among other things the Hindus worshipped the cow, and the Mohammedans incensed them by killing the cow and eating the beef. At a certain festival the Mohammedans killed a cow as part of the'religious rite and to atone for .their sins, and then ate the flesh. This' very, often 'caused trouble, especially in the cities where the Hindus and Mohammedan temples were close together. -The Mohammedans had been known to kill a cow in order that the blood might run into a nearby Hindu temple. The Hindus, in. return, had no scruples about marching in front of a Mohammedan temple, * playing music and singing, which the Mohammedans hated and thought wrong. One of the problems of self-government in India would be the bad feeling between these two faiths, although some of the better class were trying to bring about a unity of feeling. Miss Beckingsale’s fund of informa-

tion brought to light interesting particulars of the Nationalist Movement in India. This was a movement agitating for self-government, she said, and had made people realise the power of united action. But for this movement, India woidd probably never have got tlie measure of self-government it was now being granted. There had been a good deal of disturbance in this regard, and money which would otherwise have been spent in social uplift, health, etc., had had to bo used to pay for police and the upkeep of prisons. Mentioning Mahatma Gandlii, the visitor said lie had made himself unpopular by 7 working for the uplift of the low-caste people,- this not lfeing as popular as politics. Ho now suffered from very pad health. At one time Gandhi had been the idol of the people, and they’ had made images ol him and worshipped them. STEEPED IN HISTORY. Tndia was a country steeped in history, continued the • missionary. '1 he old Mogul emperors had built temples by slave labour, which they had inlaid with semi-precious and precious stones. These had been looted at the time of the Persian invasion in the seventeenth century. The temples were most prominent at Delhi and Agra. There were yyonderful old tombs, and some beautiful old architecture. “GOING AHEAD.'’ Under the British Government, India was going ahead. This was the bright note on which Miss Beckingsale concluded the interview. The new‘Delhi, built by the British Government, was a wonderful city. And the BritishIndian feeling? Yes, that was definitely improving, too.