RELIGION IN INDIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 May 1931, Page 7

RELIGION IN INDIA

LAND TEEMS WITH IDOLS ADDRESS BY THE REV. JOHN TAKLE “To see gods everywhere is better than to seo gods nowhere. The idolworshipper witnesses to a spirit of reverence and a. feeling of need for God,” said the Rev. John Takle in a sermon preached yesterday in the Richmond Baptist Church, on behalf of the Missionary Society’s special week of prayer and self-denial. “India teems , with idols,” he said. “They are supposed to represent gods and goddesses, evil spirits and deified heroes of ancient hiMorv. They are to be seen in temples, in homes, shops and by the wayside. They are mostly ugly, often half-human and half-animal. Sometimes idols are of a temporary sort and are placed out in the open on the outskirts of the villages to protect the villagers from evil spirits that are supposed to bring cholera, smallpox, fever and hysteria to the people’s homes. There is a section of the Hindu community who find some satisfaction in a lofty philosophy based upon religious ideas, and they can live above the daily idolatrous ceremonies, but even the most enlightened men retain idols in the home for the use of the family. Some Hindu temples in South India are architecturally fine, but within they are squalid to a. degree. These temples are not used for congregational worship, because caste does not allow such fellowship. Usually the space in Hindu temples is sufficient only for the idol and the attendant priest. For most part the interoirs are messy, dark, and in bad repair, and the walls and ceilings are besmoked with the torches that are lit in the temples at night. “Tagore, the Bengal poet, who is not a Christian, but lias been largely influenced by Western education, has a notice on his gate to the effect that no idols are allowed on liis premises. In one of liis poems be appeals to his countrymen in these words: “Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads. Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a.. temple with doors all shut?* Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee. He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy offerings of flowers and incense. Meet Him and stand by Him.’ “Hinduism cannot rise to Jesus Christ’s conception of God os ‘Father,’ nor of man in the terms of brotherhood, because the system of caste is the most binding doctrine of the Hindu faith. Caste dominates Hindu social life, manners, morals and thought. It divides Hindus into over 3000 hereditary groups and 100,000 sub-castes. No man can become a member of any caste other than that into which be is born. If he fail to obey its rules he becomes an ostracised outcast and can never be taken back. There can he no interdining and inter-marriage except by persons of the same caste. Thus, externally, the system shuts off each caste from every other, and the whole Hindu community from the rest of the world. Anything more fatal to the spirit of brotherhood and charity could scarcely be conceived. But the worst feature of the caste system in India is the high caste attitude to a large section of people whose forefathers for 2000 years have sat, abject on the outskirts of Hinduism. They are called ‘pariahs, ‘outcastes’ and ‘untouchables.’ They are huddled together in squalid huts outside the village walls. No one belonging to the higher castes would breathe the air of these segregated areas. The grammars of the Indian languages are caste-ridden, there being three forms of the personal pronoun and of the verb—the honorific, the ordinary and the inferior. And in these enlightened times sixty millions of these depressed people are not given the attributes of human beings. They feed on carrion and drink from stagnant pools. Fearing the anger qf caste people, they are loth to give’their children respectable names, so they call, them pig, dog, scorpion or centipede.f Caste is a strictly religious law controlling society even to the minutest detail. , ~, r/ „ “Much of the work of the N.Z. Baptist Missionary Society has been done in schools established for the children of the depressed classes, and in the laige well-equipped hospital at Ohandpur, where the total outpatients’ attendance last year was 18,286, and the total surgical operations numbered 843. lhe Society has made itself responsible for the evangelisation of one million and a half of the people of Bralnnanbaria and Chandpur in E. Bengal.” , , The speaker went on to point out that though we despised the attitude of the Hindu to the depressed classes, we should remember that the while peoples did not always display the right spirit towards the coloured man. He dare not close our eves to the growing feeling of revolt among the peoples of Asia and Africa against the arrogance and disdain, exploitation and exclusiveness which are apt to accompany superior power and wealth. Six out of every seven people in the British Empire aie coloured people and are called subjec races ’ Does it tend to the best leeli„,r? What the world needs to-day is an interpretation of Christianity th.i shall make us believe in brotherhood, and ready to stand or kneel by the coloured man and say with all sincerity, ‘We are brothers because of Uur Father!’ A coloured woman said: n Christ’s teaching about God m the Lord’s Prayer be true, and our l'athei belongs to 'all races of every tongue and colour, then O Christian people, grant to my people a slice of bread equal o “ °“ As the result of mass movements m India to-day, there is a vast ingathering of outcasts'into the Christian community. In the Panjab, fully two week arc being brought into the ( hu-t----ian church. The motives in coming : not be of the highest, thousands base visions of higher social status, but the* have come to feel the touch of Chn-t upon their lives. From the depressed communities in India, many nien position and influence have been raised up, who, to-day, are outstanding as Christian leaders. Some have been appointed by Government to the positions of judges, magistrates, doctors and schoolmasters, and now in many places high caste children are allowed to attend mission schools and receive education from teachers who were sometime ‘untouchable’ outcasts. Ibis is proof of the excellent result of the missionary movement. ~ “There are also indirect results. Thcic is a mass movement of the Indian mm" toward Christ and His ideals and vJilues. An Indian Christian, named 1 aul, has written a book, m which lie says mat Christ is being recognised cycryw.iere in India to-day by intelligent men as being all men’s ideal. Mr Paul, wlo was one of India’s representatives at the vece.nl Round Table Conference m London, is a man of proved leadership , ho savs that Christ s values are being studied and applied tacitly, even um'onsciouslv, and the. forces of Hindu thought are being tested at those values to see what they are worth, llus is one, of the most stimulating statements of the hour, and it is by a man, who is trusted —one who knows India.