New-York tribune., 1919-05-25
Humans Sacrificed
Still to Hindu Gods.
Says Col. Nurani
" Woman Salvation Army
Leader, Here From Cal
cutta, Tells of Difficult
Task Facing Institution

There are still instances of human
sacrifice in Calcutta, India" says Colo
mel Nurani, of the Salvation Army, who
is now in New York taking her first
vacation in twenty-siX years from her
job Of destroying gods and demon wor-
ship among the heather of her adopted
country. Nurani Is the Indian name
for Clara and means Queen of Light.
which IS the title conferred on the
colonel by the natives of lndia Her
real name is Clara Case
These instances of human sacrifice, y
says Colonel Nurani, reach the public
as murder cases, but we Salvationists
know they arc really sacrifices made to
ke~ the most eNacting Of all the
demon gods. Calcutta is constantly
saturated with the blood of sheep and
other animals. offered in sacrifice bv
the natives, but at times the Worship
pers become convinced the animal sac
ritice is not appeasing their god, and
then human beings are marked out and
run down"
Helped Destroy Many Idols
Colonel Case is making the Salvation
Army Rescue Home and Hospital. in
East Fifteenth Street, her headquarters
while in New York. She arrived a few
days ago after a trip half way around
the world and across the continent,
and expects to complete the circle
upon her return trip. During her So
journ IN India she has helped DESTROY
hundreds of idols.
when we began our work in India.
twenty-six years ago the colonel
said, "conversions were few because
the devil priests had such hold on
the people. BY the end of three months
we had converted 5000 demon Worship
pers, including a number of the
priests, and had destroyed great
number of idols. The fear and awe Of
the idols of the demon worshippers
are so great that the Salvation Army
officers have to do the destroying
Very seldom will native touch the
demon god with the hand of destruc-
ton, even after conversion
"They seem to believe that tho god
has power to inhict evil upon them till
the last atom of his temple and his
image has Disappeared The women of
the Salvation Army destroy the idol
the men tear down the temple.
Request Must Be Unanimous
"Whenever an idol is to be DESTROYED
the request must come from the vii
layers. The whole village comes over
to the Salvation Army headquarters
with the announcements: we won't
H. y.
want you to destroy our temple
Every man in the village must sign
this statement If one fails to sign
the destruction of the idol will be
illegal. Usually there are from thirty
to fifty houses in a village. The head
man comes forward and presents the
key Of the heather temple to the
women of the Salvation Army as a
token that they are privileged to de-
stroy the god The work of beating
the swami to pieces then begins. After
that is accomplished the men start to
tear down the temple, the converts
singing: Storm the forts of darkness,
bring them down, down, down
I'VE have to be very careful to avoid
accidents of any kind during the proc
ess of breaking the idols and tearing
down the temples. Should an acct
dent occur some among the natives
would be sure to believe it was the
vengeance OF their god and all our
work of conversion would be undone.
The Salvation Army now has 2,910
comm ssioned officers, 5,l36 local Off
Gers. 568 institutions and $50 day
schools in India. About 10000 natives
are being cared for in these institu-
tlons. The population of India is esti-
mated at 3l5 900 900, making it one of
the most thickly populated countries in
the world. ltr population is three
times that of the United States.