The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-07-15
Che @aily 8nlletin.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1885.
M0HAMMEDANlSM IN INDIA.
THE GREAT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
MoHANNrEDANIsM AND HINDUISM.


As regards the influence of the
Moslems in India, there is much to
be said, both good and bad. That
the Mussulman faith is superior as
an ethic institution to the Brahmanic
belief may well be doubted. If the
principles which govern the lives of
the best Brahmans could be clearly
and succinctly taught, they would
be found to contain excellent ele-
ments of public morality. Unfor-
tunately, however, Brahmanism is
dressed and adorned with a multi
tude of symbolism and tawdry idola-
try which only confuses the simple
minded, and furnishes food for the
sarcasms of the wise. The danger
of symbolism is everywhere the
same. The ignorant will always
confound the symbol with the attri-
butes of that God in whose honor
symbols are invented.
1t is for this reason that Brahma-
nism, or Hinduism, by which l
mean to signify the principal Brah-
manic sects of worship now preva-
lent in India, has degenerated into
the grossest idolatry so far as the
mass of Hindus are concerned. Mo-
hammedanism, on the other hand,
has maintained in great measure
its original faith in an invisible and
supreme God. This is due to the
extreme simplicity of the religion in
its beginnings, excluding as it does
every kind of image worship by the
prime prohibition, "Thou shalt not
make craven image of anything
having a soul" That is the way
the prophet wordcd his command,
and it has been interpreted to mean
every living thing. Mohammedan
rulers have never even stamped their
coins with portraits of themselves,
but only with superscriptions and
dates.
But the Hindu mind is naturally
very imaginative, and is not easily
satisfied with any simple form of
belief. The northumberland pan
theon offers some especial attraction
to each individual, and, as among
the Egyptians of old, every man
may carry his god in his pocket,
without any particular disbelief in
his neighbours favorite deity, who
may be quite as powerful, but is not
so sympathetic to his own taste. On
the whole, a Hindu is more likely to
turn atheist than to become Mo-
hammedan, and the conversion of
Hindus to Christianity has been en-
tirely insignificant. The only con-
versions of any historical Importance
were those of St. Francis Xavier,
who made Christians of the inhabi-
tants of Goa, in Southern India, by
military process of persuasion now
no longer employed in matters OF
religion.
The Mohammedans brought with
them to India their faith, their
strong, manly characteristics, and
their wonderful architecture, which
has entirely pervaded the land. 1t
is almost always possible to dis
tinguish Mohammedans from Hindus
atsight. They generally wear boards,
whereas the Hindu is shaved, save
for his mustache; they are more
erect, more muscular, and of holder
aspect; they wear their clothes
differently, for all Mohammedans
button their white linen garments OF
their cloth cafstans as we do-that
is to say, the left side is brought
over the right-whereas all Hindus
button the right side of their coats
over the left. But wherever there
are Mussulmans, there you will fine
their graceful minarets and mosques,
their domed sepulchres and solitary
tombs, their light balconies and
pointed door-ways, contrasting with
the heavy architectures of the Hin
dus.
There are to be found in private
dwellings in Ahmedabah, Mussul-
man city in the west of India, such
specimens of beautiful design and
exquisite workmanship as are hardly
to be met with anywhere else.-