The record-union., 1897-11-09
A SILENT REVOLUTION.
How the Native Hindoo Press Re-
CARDS Christianity.

How the Native Hindoo Press Re-
CARDS Christianity.
1t is with no ordinary interest that
one finds cropping out in a heather
community either expressions of SEN
timent or statements of fact favorable
or unfavorable to Christian, and espe-
cally missionary. work among them.
These expressions also carry additional
weight when they emanate from what
we would suppose to be unwilling
sources. Some of the native periodicals
of India furnish from time to time this
/ sort of testimony, not always wlttlng-
ly nor willingly 1t is found some
times in appeals to Hindoos to rouse
themselves to a greater display or
energy in antagonizing the Christian
forces operating among them or IN irnl-
tating their methods. Sometimes there
seems to be concession of the bene-
fits resulting from the presence and
teachings of the Christian missionary.
A few quotations will be sufficient TO
illustrate this subject A Hindoo
newspaper, the Indian School Reform
err" has the following: "One thing
which the Christian missionaries have
done to us We have reason to be thank
full for, and that is the social elevation
of those whom it is deflement for the
caste Hindoos to touch. If it is posSl-
bic for any religion. as a religion, 70
make the whole world kin, it seems to
us that this universal kinship can be
realized by Christianity" Another
newspaper. the "Hindoo," candidly but
not cheerfully, accords credit to Christ
ianity as the patronizing force among
the low-caste people. 1t says: Be
tween the Hindoo community proper
and the pariahs there is little love. In
deed, of the lower castles of the Hindoo
society and of the outcast population
the Christian missionary seems to be
the only and the most willing and COM
petent protector and regeneration That
this should be reflects no credit on
Hindoo society; yet it is fact, and no
reasonable Hindoo can ignore the great
work that these ministers of a foreign
religion did in elevating a large class
| of people who are supposed to be at
| tached to our social system. but whom
the leading classes of our society have
| done their best to degrade and sink. "
| The "Hindoo." at another time dis
cussing the influence of the education
of girls and the absence of caste re-
strictions among a native Christian
community, declares that this will
| eventually give them an advantage
| which no amount of Intellectual pre-
cocity can compensate the Brahmins
| for" This remark was provoked by
the fact that it appeared. from the ma
circulation examinations of that year,
that of nineteen female candidates who
were successful seven were native
Christians, and of the HindooS there
were none; and that in the higher eX-
animation for women Sixty-one We're
| native Christian women. out of two
hundred and thirtyfour candidates,
and only four We're HindooS. The va
riouS industrial schools of the Bombay
presidency enrolled seven hundred and
| thirty-nine pupils, of whom seventy
| five were caste students, seventeen
We're low caste or outcasts, and only
five We're Brahmins. The editor said,
| in reviewing these facts: "The native
Christians are very poor community,
and it does great credit to them that
| they so largely take industrial educa-
/ ton" This condition of things is not
always complacently viewed by the ma
/ tive HindooS. One Well-knoWn CAL
| cutta vernacular daily paper adds:
Can ruin be far off under circum-
stances as these?" In truth, the silent
operation of Western educational forces
| is making of India a new nation, and
| the measures are such as will neces-
sarily turn society bottom side up.
Among the native Christian commun-
ity early marriages are less common
the Christian community naturally he
comes more and more physically and
mentally superior, the number of in
telligent wives and mothers is steadily
and rapidly on the increase, and of
all this Improvement the native Christ
ian society has the lions share. All
these forces are in operation out of
sight, but they are just as certainly
revolutionary, being ruinous to Brah-
minism, and leaving the Moslem COM
munity which antagonizes the educa
tion of women far in the rear.-New
York Methodist Review.