Norwich bulletin., 1922-04-20

many holy men are more faker than fal1ir.
 Nowhere else have men, through religion, so detached themselves from the passions and ffivohties of worldly life. Nowhere has religion so seasoned unmitigated misery. Nowhere has re- ligion been the cloak for more blatant beggary and disgusting deception. No where is religion more potent politi- cal factor.
 More than two thirds of the peo- pie of India are Hindus. Modern Hinduism grew out of Brahmanism, and is still called by that name. The earlier belief was in one amnipotent but impersonaI Being, whose personal manifestations were Brahma, the Creator; yishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer and Reproducer. Brahma has few followers. Vishnu is wcFshipped by millions upon whose foreheads is painted a device called the namam consisting of a vertical red line inside U-shaped figure in white clay. But the favorite god of many | Hindus is Siva.
 'When Buddha gained followers in l India, the Brahmins accepted so em- | asculated the gentle faith of the Bud rhists that they drove Buddhism into : Ceylon, Burma and the Far East, so ! that the religion of the Hindu, modi fled by the teachings of Buddha, pre- vades India from Benares to Conjeeve- ram and from Kumbakonam to Ala 1 habed.
 When the various Mohammedan conqperors poured in over the north ern passes they brought their religion with them, so that India has more Mohammedans than Turkey ever ruled and the assemblage of the Faithful in the Great Mosque of Delhi forms one of the largest congregations of the 1 followers of Mohammed to be found anywhere. The nsitiveness of this AIoslem group over alleged insults to the Khalif or Sultan of Turkey has done much to eomplfcate world poli- tics. With more than 66 million Mo- hammedans within it's boundaries, India ranks at the top of the list of Moslem lands. But Indian Moham- mechanism is strongly tinged with Hin du culture and has lost much of the militant quality which distinguished it in the days of Baber and Akbar.
 '"The Sikhs broke away from the orthodox Hindu faith under the leader ship of Nanak, who was born in the Punjab, near Amritsar, the capital city of the Sikhs in 1469. Sikh means
 disciple and these schismatics once
 worshipped their Gurus, or teachers
 but later transferred their devotion to
 the Granth, or holy book which pro-
 claims their faith and principles. The
 Sikhs abolished caste, that curse and blessing of Hindu society, and their
 militant ardor has given them a stand
 ing out of all proportion to their mem
 bership of three millions.
 India has nearly four million Christians, mostly Roman Catholics Anglicans and Baptists but with large
 numbers of Syrian Christians, whose
 patriarch lives in Antioch. Most of the Christians are found in Madras Presi- dency and on the Travancore Coast. } From Peshawar to Cape Comorin
 India contains many Animists among
 the hill tribes and aboriginal race:
 and even the Buddhists Of Burma holt
 to some Animistic beliefs, whose in I fuence is felt throughout the land } 1.-Two of the most interesting bu
 numerically unimportant religious } group rather than a religion, agi-e e . with the Hindus in many principles . ascribe a soul to every animal how : ever small and seek to secure releas
 from the bonds of transmigration. Ac
 cording to their belief, only the monk l, can attain Nirvana. Their homes fo 3 decrept animals are world famous ant their temples are noted for the in i tricacy of their carvings and tn
 wealth of ornament which distinguish l es them.
 '"The Parsis are descendants of tn l fire WorshipperS who were excellej l from the region of Baku on the Gasp
 ian Sea by the Mohammedan con : quests. These followers of Zoroaste1 s whose ability as merchants has givel ,. them unusual econimic strength, re e fuse to defile the elements, and expos : their dead to Vultures rather than burr l. or bury them. They assert that fire
 simply a symbol for their God 0