The Salt Lake tribune. [volume], July 21, 1907, SUNDAY MAGAZINE, Page 5, Image 33

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f OMINOUS MUTTERINGS ARE bvwilliamt. eH
el,t,:9o7,l,oB.r NOW BEING HEARD IN INDIA -. i
1 i j- ' 1 1 r " ,-if 7m :
t v , iff " - 1 I - ? " I
JgJALCUTTA, India, July 20. Tt is sc I
7vXXB ignoranco of tho world's big news !
'bo unaware that there is at present j
'2jlndia a widespread sentiment of ic
Mxt) if not actual revolt, against Great
pitaiii, which may at any time find
spradie expression in revolution. Great !
.thin, with the sclf-confideneo of the
jjiig, does not seem to be paying
'jph attention to the matter, although
v.lo persons, recalling that this year
tVks the fiftieth anniversary of the
-liiny, are nervously calling 'public at---tion
to certain disturbing signs.
one who gets as close to the nn
Vfas as the missionary does which is
closer than any other white man
jjjiws that the foremost subject of
jjpght and agitation among them is
'jit they consider their wrongs at
i-JJ hands of the government, They
. an that they are being dealt with in
rKjbaudcd and oppressive fashion;
they are denied anything npproach
'atffn. proper measure of sclf-goveru-,vt,'
that tho public ofliccs are ojien
Mhcm in a decreasing degree, and
atf in short, India is being ruled for
wwclfnrc of Great Britain, and not
'India for the Indians" Cry.
'ijfow,- a fair-minded observer cannot
hny means agree with, all of the
ait'ttions of tho Indian agitators; nor
dftghc withhold a great deal of ad
location for tho fairness and disin-
4lfetcdncs3 of the British officials,
hctfcrthelcss, ho is bound to recognize
. aft seriousness, not 10 sav ominous
iloal?of this' -Swadeshi" or "India for
'Jflndians" agitation. Without put
iujerfmuch credence in the talk of a na
r,sjal uprising against the white man's
sti,r (as onc precaution, the native
a !ps have never been permitted to
jfe artillery since tho mutiny) it can
. ftilbo denied that the deep-flowing,
tincrcasing and widely-manifested
uli'Rof India's national sentiment is
nd jjthy of most serious consideration.
jtarAf every city of the empire the
old yatleahi" signs may be seen in
, tftfndancc on the stores of tradesmen
eaHMhave pledged themselves to deal
Ijjnflin-rnade wares exclusively. This
bnorcia)t and industrial side of the
ipjriadcshi;' movement has a direct re
?Mn to the industrial teaching in mis-
sion schools. The native papers are
full of ''Swadeshi'-' talk; and it is not
wholly absent from the praiseworthy
national missionary organization which
Indians have organized the object be
ing to further tho evangelization by na
tive Christians alone, unaided by for
eigners. Furthermore, one frequently
runs across "Swadeshi" mass meet
ings; I found one under way in College
square here, with hundreds of students
listening eagerly to the impassioned
speeches. It was rather surprising that
the Y. M. C. A. student lenders were
able to gather a crowd, fully half as
large, only fifty yards away.
Tho oriental dearly loves intrigue
and agitations; especially is this true
of the Bengali "babus," or educated
Bengalis, who are foremost in the
"Swadeshi" movement. The Bengali,
contemptuously declares the Briton,
is an idle, boastful talker, and neither
a fighter nor a worker. My own in
quiries developed tho repeated assur
ance on the part of informed persons,
that the "Swadeshi" movement has
not, to any perceptible degree, at least,
extended to the villages, which contain
90 per cent of the native population
Bearing in mind the undoubted Chris
tian revival which is to bo found in
some parts of India, and the potency
of this new national movement, it is
ovident that mission work here is bound
to take an' added interest during the
next few years.
Making Men of Outcasts,
Whatever tends to put the stamina
of manhood into this people contributes
indirectly to the missionary undertak
ing. For the first and last factor of
Indian life is the caste system, which
dooms the majority of the people to
a lot esteemed lower than that of the
cow. If it were not for this caste sys
tem, with its unbridgablc divisions, no
foreign power could long control this
nation of three hundred millions of
people. This same spirit of "karma
kismet" fate, which leads a man to
dull acceptance of his lot, rather than
to a cherishing of the spirit of self
improvement and ambition which marks
the Westerner, keeps back tho nation
from development, so that its golden
age is in the past. The greatest need
of India is simply men.
As is well known, the converts of
the missionaries, have been chiefly
from the lowest classes those who are
below caste, in fact, the outcasts, the
sweepers. Having nothing to lose by t
accepting Christianity, thousands of
these have embraced" the gospel; audi
they are today entering the CJirislian
church in large numbers. The motives J
of many are doubtless mixed, but they
at least afi'ord the missionary material
on which to work. The material is not ,
of the best, but it is human. Llerc, ns
in all heathen lands, it is to be borne
in mind that the missionary is really j
after his converts' grandchildren; no :
missionary known to me expects to sec !
a completely transformed and Chris- I
tinaized people come out of raw
heathendom.
So he bears with the shortcomings
of his Christians. lie laboriously tries
i to set them on their feet, and though
they fall a hundred times from the :
ideals of self -respect; and self-support,
coming to him with tho bland assur
ance, " irou are my father and my
mother; please help inc." he does not
lose heart. For he has ever before his
eyes the spectacle of outcasts who have
been made over into noble men and
women by tho power of the Christian
religion.
How Sons Excel Fathers.
Undoubtedly the missionaries arc
transforming their people. One of the
Methodist missionaries at Lucknow
pointed out to me a young man be
longing to their church, the youngest
of three sons, whose father never
earned more than eight rupees a month
in his life. All the boys arc products
of tho Methodist school, Ono of them
is secretary to the Governor, and all are
in Government employ, winning thoir
places in competitive examination; and
the salary of the most poorly paid is
150 rupees a month, or nineteen times
that of his father. This is tho sort of
thing that is being accomplished all
over India.
The schools of India are the crown
ing glory of mission work; thoy are
the mills of which manhood and
womanhood is the finished product. Of
a few of them I shall speak more in
detail next week, in my final article
upon India. They are a distinct and
powerful contribution to the forces
which arc creating a modern national y jH
consciousness in Tni!i;i.
One phase of missions to which the
government contributes its support,
linanci:il and. otherwise, is the inilus- jH
trial school work. The Indian in 'H
proverbially unprogressive and unin
ventive; the mission schools are teach-
ing the manual arts and in modern jH
fashion, so ihat new enterprises for ilw
winning of the livelihood are being ere
aled and old ones revived.
For the Christians, be it understood.
are practically a caste by themselves
in most places. They are cast oiT by
their families, friends and co-religion-
ists; and its is necessary that some jH
means of livelihood, not dependent upon
neighborhood favor, be taught them. ...
Thus industrial training has a most
practical relation to missionary sue-
cess; since not all, nor, in .these days
of great ingathering, a very' large per-
cent age of the native Christians can be
employed by the missionaries in any ca-
pa city.
The powerful social leverage which is
exerted by female education in a land
where women are kept "behind the
curtain," is almost incomprehensible to
one accustomed to the liberty of the
West, and lo the equality of the sexes.
The missionaries have far-sightedly set
to work to make the very springs of
Indian society Christian.
Snakes and Plagues. ' H
Physical hardships are more numor
ous lor missionaries in India than for
those in any oriental land. I came lo
India in the hot season; some mis- H
sionarics were cruel enough . to gloat fl
over this fact, for most travelers sgo H
India only in its delightful "cool"
season, and then wonder why anybody
should complain of tho climate. Tho H
missionaries have my sympnthy; pco- H
pie who work as thoy do in a tempera-
turo ranging up to 150 degrees are not H
out for a pleasant time. Trving to ac- fl
company them on their rounds nearly
finished me; hereafter I prefer to read
about their labors in a book. jH
Accustomed though the American , H
be to the plague as an occasional lior- i
Continued ou Page Sixtcouu t