INDIA TO-DAY

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 87

INDIA TO-DAY

THE MENACE IN BENGAL. HOTBEDS OF SEDITION. Bomb-throwing, train-wrecking, and assassinations in Bengal make the hackneyed stave: " Lo ! th« poor Indian," a veritable j barb of satire. Concerning the Indian, the army officer will tell you one thing, and the civil servant another, but the partywho gets nearer to the truth is the missionary, who read and writes in the book of tue lives of the people. New in Dunedin is the Rev. John Takle, with his wife and two children. He is a New Zealander by adoption- and grace, and passed his student days in Dunedin, which he left for India as a missioinary for the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society, having its own field in Eastern Bengal. Mr Tal Ie has been 13 years on the field. This is his second furlough. Interviewed by a Times reporter yesterday, Mr Takle spoke with an intimate knowledge of many burning questions, which place the situation in Bengal in a new and an alarming light, especially for those who h.ive relatives and friends in prominent position in the affected districts. Mr Takle's - headquartars are at Brahmanbariah, near the Brahmaputra, but not on it, and here the political agitation practically started. AT KALI'S SHRINE. " We, and the ladies with us, were insulted constantly. I. myself, have been threatened with bombs, and I have been burned in effigy," said Mr Takle, by way of an introduction. "You can imagine that the agitation was prettv considerable. A leading agitator came to Brahmanbariah. where he he!:' a great demonstration, and declared that the peoole of India would never be satisfied until their wrongs had been avenged in the blood of Englishmen. The same agitator had addressed a meeting at another olace, where he urged that,, acoordinjr to the Sacred Books, human beinga should be sacrifice to the goddess Kali. In the words of the agitator (translated) : . That is not permitted now. i>i;* wo can still slay goats. Supposing we get a number of -white goat? 'meaning, of course, Europeans). With such seditious utterai.ees />li <.vei the country, what could you «xpeei; but that the whole place should he in a perfect; ferment? _ These kinds of addresses have been poisoning the minds oj? young students, who are really no* accountable for their words or ?,etionr. anarchy came. AGITATORS AT WORK When I left the mission field to come to Calcut J T. I was surprised to see ir? the night thirty miles of fires burning on either side of the railway. Through +he carriage windows I noticed that these fires were 200 yards apart, and then I understood Native policemen patrolled between each fire, and these precautions were necessary

to guard the night trains. Only the night before from four to five bombs had here been hurled at the passing train with the set purpose of killing Europeans. I just quote this instance to show how serious is the situation. You see there is no use pooh-poohing the idea of anarchy and insurrection. " I suppose a good deal of mischief is effected by placarding," suggested the reporter. "That reminds me," replied Mr Takle, "I have already told you that the movement first started at Brahmanbariah. Well, for a long time native agitators used to come at night and paste seditious notices on the walls of our mission church. In these placards Mohammedans (who had remained loyal to the British) were urged to bring their guns and big sticks and drive 'these sons of pigs' (the British) into the sea. This meant incitement to rebellion." In reply to a question, Mr TaJde stated that the Mohammedans formed 75 per cent, of the population of the district. A HANDY PRETEXT. "Is the partition of Bengal a real or imaginary grievance," was the next question. " The Hindu agitators," replied Mr Takle, "are always .making it known that the partition of Bengal is the cause of the present unrest. As a matter of fact, it is nothing of the sort. It was merely a pretext for an agitation whereby a widespread movement could be engineered against the white man.* Who were the prime movers? In the first place they were mostly high-caste Hindu families near Calcutta, who had had for long the monopoly of subordinate Government positions in Bengal, as it used to be in the old days. . They understood that, under the new order of things, since the majority of the population of Eastern Bengal are Mohammedans, they would not get the monopoly of positions as before. The newly-constituted Government of Eastern Bengal, out of justice to the people of the new province, decided that the Mohammedans should have a larger share in the Government employments. The necessity for this can be easily understood when you remember that for every five Mohammedans employed by the Government there were 35 Hindus. You can imagine that an agitation would start at once. A Hindu firmly believes that he is born to rule, and that we ourselves and the Mohammedans are interlopers. Therefore, the grievances of these high-caste Hindu families formed a pretext for wholesale dissat.sfaction with the Government." THE QUESTION OF CASTE. "•How does the low-caste man stand in regard to the question?" asKed our representative. * "A very strong point," said the missionary. "The agitators usually belong to high-caste or commercial families, but about two-thirds of the Hindu population belong to the agricultural and artisan classes, which are despised by the higher castes. All over India to-oay it is understood by thi3 majority that the high-caste man wants self-government; or, in other words, to take the government, out of the hands of the British and put it into his own for his own selfish ends and with no intention of benefiting the majority or raising the low-caste man in the social scale. They want all benefits for themselves. In Eastern Ben.al this is most marked. There, is a certain section of these low-caste peoples, called Nomasudras, _ who have su. ed a movement in , opposition to the iagu;ators and in favour of the British." Do you consider ihe British in India to be as black «« they arc painted? Mr Takle was afraid that that individual, testimonial from the low-caste peoples themselves. Nearly every every week these people Lai told him how much they preferred an English to a native judge any day. The native judge could be either bought over or talked over by the high-caste folk. Asked how high and low castes viewed missionaries in general, and himself in particular, Mr 'Takle acknowledged that ' in.the very midst of the agitation,although they wern opposed to him ar.d his opinions, and several silly students had threatened to do away with him by moans of bombs, the vast majority of the people of his town had elected hirn to thj position which corresponded to that t Z mayor in this country. Ail the same, speaking as a missionary, ho felt that at such a time of crisis he could act as a buffer, so to speak, between the Government and the people; he might be the means of bringing about a better feeling. AN ENGLISH INCITER. How has Keir Bardie's visit affected the position? our reporter inquired. Mr Takle replied that he would give a could not know very much cbout India, or Indian affairs, since be was there for only three months. It took many lifetimes to really understand India, but, as was usually the case with travellers who spend only a biief period in the country, he had gone Home and written a book, as though he knew all about it. When one remembered that from the time of Mr Keir Hardie's arrival till his departure he went round under the wing of a high-caste agitator, it was easy to see that he would be unlikely to come into contact with the grievances, of the low-caste peoples, brought about by high-caste oppression. Mr Keir Hardie -was unlikely to have understood the great problems with which missionaries had to deal every day. In his book ho had dogmatised, as missionaries with 20 years' service would never dare to do. and no one came into closer touch with the native than the missionary. Mr Keir Hardie was neither regarded as a silly white man, nor was he taken seriously. He was used as a tool. He did not light the flame of insurrection, hut had merely fanned it. There were certain individuals, military and civil, who needed exposing at times. It was flic same in any country. When cases of oppression occurred, the missionary was always the first to sta'"' t.) for the native. "In fact,' said Mr V "we do not look upon the people adia as a subject race. Wo would rather look upon India as Britain's ward—to train her for the time when she will be able to look after her own affairs, which, as you say, won't be in our time. BIBLE OR KORAN. In answer to further questions Mr Takle said they had seven missionaries, sent out from the Baptist Churches of New Zealand, for their present staff. Dr Pettit, from the Hospital at Dunedin, was to leave shortly for the Chaupur Medical Mission, which was part of the work, to relieve Dr North, who was going Home. In addition to the staff, which was wholly supported by New

Zwalend Baptist Churches, there were over 20 native preachers, teachers, and Bible women. Mr Takle does a great deal of literary work in the native language among the Mohammedans in Bengal. He is a. specialist in matters connected -with the Mohammedan religion. Questioned on thic, subject, Mr Takle considered that the great fight of the future in the East would not be between Buddhism and rationalism, Theosophy, or Christianity, but between Mohammedanism and Christianity. Why? Because a great deal of Mohammedan teaching is truth, and it is the most aggressively missionary religion the world has everknown. Every Mohammedan was a missionary for his faith. Mr Takle is the author of an interesting pamphlet entitled " Islam's Challenge to the Christian Church." In it he shows how the- challenge is being taken, up. The struggle, he says, will be desperate. Here is an extract: " The God of Islam is said to be merciful; but when the Kioran save that he deliberately created millions of souls for hell fire, I think you w r ill agree with me that he comes far short in the .spirit of love and mercy." The booklet is full of such thoughtful passages, and gives the reader an insight into the faith which says God is God and Mahomet is his prophet. Mr Takle is taking a lecturing tour among the churches of Ne%v .Zealand, and hopes to urge and impress upon Christian people the need for doing something to arrest the alarming spread of Mohammedanism. BLOODLESS VICTORIES. In view of the grave unrest, the scathing hot-beds of sedition, the increase of Mohammedan converts among untutored races, cur 3'eporter asked the missionary if he did not see the need for a strong military will at the head of all India—a power that would crush sedition, and make secure our dominion in the East. Would not such be effected more speedily by arms than sermons? There was an idea of Lord Kitchener as the next Viceroy. Mr Takle replied: "I do not approve of fighting. As Lord Cromer said, 'We can deal with the political aspect, but the religious, which is so strongly developed with' Mohammedans, we.rannot cope with at all.* The struggle would not be with the sword, but between the Christian and Moslem creeds. Already the former was touching the people. In many "parts of India to-dav. Christian methods were being adopted. Christian phraseology was in use. Instead of the Young Men's Christian Association there was the Young Men's Hindu Association : in place of Christian Endeavour societies were the Buddhist Endeavour societies; instead of the W'ider Catechism there was the Aryan Catechism; and, at Mrs Besant's college at Benares the Hindu Catechise. Instead of the imitation of Christ they had" the imitation of Krishner, sold cheap on the sfr«?fc>*.s~.i>f Calcutta. Thia showed that Christianity, ~witfa her high standard of morality, was commanding respect and approval, even though it so kv only reached the imitative stage. And has the partition of Bengal been of any use? "Speaking of many of the Eastern Bengal towns and villages, I can say from knowledge and experience that the partition .has benefited them much. My own station (Brahrnanbariah) has benefited quite 75 per cent, in the way of better supervision, more grants from the Government, better roads, and sanitation. The revenue is spent in Eastern Bengal now. instead of bein"- sent, as form'prly. to Calcutta to be handled and divided. There is no doubt about it; old Bengal, with its 80 million people, was too unwieldy to govern, and places at the extreme eastern limit were wholly neglected This is altered now."