The record-union., 1894-06-05
SIDDHU RAMS LECTURE.
He Talks Vigorously About India and
Brahminsm.
Nearly All the Ills of His Country He
Attributes to Superstition-A
Genuine Entertainments.


was crowded last evening to hear Slddhu
Ram of Mooltan, India, talk OF his coun-
try and the Brahmins. The speaker was
presented by the Museum Association to
fill one OF its lecture dates.
Siddnu Ram has studied the English
tongue with a view of using 1t IN pubic
speaking, but fourteen months, he says,
vet he was easily understood and COM
rnanded the language surprisingly well.
He is wholly unconventional-hls lectur-
ing is conversational; earnest. energetic
talk, with no effort at oratorical effect, but
with a sincerity and vigor, and boidness
and freedom of expression that rather
aurprises al American audience. His
frankness of statement and his plain
spoken criticism of Americans and Eng
lishmen was something startling at times,
and at times elected great laughter, but
it was approbative merriment, not
offensive.
His talk, his frank conversational de-
livery and free criticism OF the Brahmlns,
the caste to which he was born. but re-
pudates, lasted over an hour and quar-
Ter, but no person left the crowded rooms
and the deepest interest was manifested
in his recitals throughout.
At the conclusion of his lecture he an
swered q number OF questions pro-
pounded orally or sent up IN writing.
In some of his responses he manifested
an adroitness in avoiding giving oHense,
that excited admiration and applause. by
request he intOned some sentences IN
Sanscrit, and politely obliged the ladies
by explaining why his people wear the
turban, and showed how 1t is built up.
He sharply rebuked American people for
their disposition 10 stare and be rude IN
remark when one in strange costume
appears on our streets, and suggested
that should some OF our costumery that
his people hold to be unhealUhtul and un-
graceful, be paraded on the streets Of his
own city, there would be no rude remark
or vulgar staring by his people.
His lecture can scarcely be presented in
synopsis satisfactorily. But it may be
said that he explained how he came 10
America as one of the Commissioners of
India to the Worlds Fair; why he re-
mains for time, to learn and add to his
store of knowledge. He described briefly
the location, topography and fertility OF
India, and explained that every variety
of commercial product known any
where is TO be found also in India, or can
be produced there. he declared 1t to be
the most fertile soil on earth, but the ln-
dustrial conditions are the most depressed
and pitiful.
The people are called Hindoos, but it is
only their hickman a term applied to
them after they were conquered by the
Moslem. and in the Persian means
'sblack slave" But after ages of appli-
cation it has come to be accepted, because
his people did not know its true meaning
until it was too late. The true titular
word for the natives of India is "Aryans."
He then sketched the evils under
which his country suffers, all due to
superstition and ignorance among the
common people, to priestcraft and to con-
quest. These are Brahminism and caste
which is due to it; child betrothal and
marriage and perpetual widowhood;
image worship and female secluslon, due,
as is child marriage, to the impress made
by the Moslem conquest, and which were
not original with the Aryan. a large
number of other ills he named, but the
chief were the foregoing.
Brahminism he denounced roundly as
the curse OF India, device of priestcraft,
having such a hold upon the people and
so enchanting them in superstition, cere-
monial and tribute paying that 1t keeps
them poverty stricken and IN the depths
OF a slavery that is worse than owner
ship in human beings.
How Brahminism arose, how it super
seeded the ancient religion of the people
of India, and which was monotheism
with justice, mercy, loving kindness,
equality of the sexes, charity and good
will to men as its jewels, he explained at
length. How Brahminism maintains its
hold upon the people through supersti-
tious traditions cunningly kept alive be-
fore the people; the slavery TO ceremonial;
pilgrimage: worship of millions of idols;
the doctrine of multiplicity of gods; the
adhesion to child marriage; the doctrine
of the subiection and degradation OF
women as inferior beings to such degree
that the wife, mother, sister and daughter
IN hn fT1a a q mt N nj nj NJ
the constant round of religious festivals;
the never-ending tribute of money, food
and clothing to the Brahmins, to the inn
poverishment OF the peOple-all these he
dweIt upon with an earnestness that at
times became pitiful from its depth of
feeling and the lamentation of the
speaker, whose love for his people and
desire for their emancipation from super
Stition and error none can doubt who
heard him.
But this emancipation, he declared,
cannot come through efforts TO christian
ize, because the Hindoo is jealous of his
religion and finds in the Christian re-
ligion so much that he cannot reconcile
to reason. Education. monotheism and
the reintroduction gradually of the old
literature of India, will, he believes, soon
est emancipate the HindooS from Hindu
ism.
Mohammedism and it's companion,
Brahminism, and the attempted correct
i've OF both, Buddhism, are responsible
for seven-tenths of the ills of his people.
TO the introduction of spirituous liquors
by Christians and some other of the vices
of Christian civilization, are due some
part OF the remaining percentage. The
smallest part is to be attributed to vices
chargeable to neither of these, but aug
lnented by them.
He illustrated some of the Hindoo
superstitions by anecdotes; the hold of
the Brahmin upon the people through
craft by simple but interesting reeitals:
and the unreason and foolishneSs of GER
tain ceremonies and observances by de-
scription of them, and OF silly customs
in the household, in the temples, and in
the care and rearing of children.
He compared some of the follies of be-
lief among his people TO Christian science
healing, spiritualism and quackery among
the Americans and English. As TO
''adepts" and the mysticism talked of by
the followers of Madame Blavatsky, he
pronounced them to be without worthi-
ness OF consideration. In India these
things have no standing and are prac-
tically unknown as reputable. Indian
jugglery, so much written of in America
and by authors of travel so much lauded
he unhesitatingly denominated shum-
bug" Indian jugglers are adroit and
cunning, but not more so perhaps than
are those we have. As TO their so-called
miraculous doings, the stories are all
false, coined to make books sell and the
narIators talked about. Some of the
tricks are mere chemical ones, and two of
these he explained, in response to ques-