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I
CHRISTIANITY AND EDUCATION
IN INDIA.
LECTURE
A
DELIVERED AT ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LONDON,
NOVEMBER 12, 1871.
BY
A.
JYRAM
ROW,
OF MYSORE.
PUBLISHED
BY THOMAS
MOUNT PLEASANT, RAMSGATE.
Price Sixpence.
SCOTT,
�»ae
�HINDU
EDUCATION.
Ladies and Gentlemen,—The subject we are come
together this evening to consider is one, the import
ance of which it is scarce possible to estimate too
highly. Viewed in its integrity—in the vastness of
the interests at stake on its proper solution—interests,
not simply of a speculative character, but as connected
with the destinies of a considerable portion of man
kind, I should be more sanguine than wise if I
flattered myself that I could do the barest justice
to it.
Agitated as is the human mind in our times with
thousands of questions, more or less directly bearing
on human advancement, I know none more exciting
in their immediate interest, more momentous in their
ultimate results, in short, more imperative in their
demand on our deepest attention, than those which
have for their solution the complicated phenomena of
social science. Of these, the subject of education, it
will be conceded on all hands, must ever stand out
prominently as the question of questions.
But it is not the question of education in general
that I propose to myself, but the more circumscribed
one of Hindu education. I propose to bring before
you the present state of education in India, its short
comings, and the nature of the emendations it stands
in need of, if it is to succeed at all in the object for
which it has been undertaken. I may further pre
mise that I shall deal with the subject, not only in
its bearings on the regeneration of India, but also in
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Christianity and Education in India.
its wider relations to the advancement of science and
the promotion of human welfare in general.
It is well known that in India there are two
systems of education working side by side,—the one
secular and the other religious,—the one conducted
by the Government, the other by Christian Mis
sionaries sent out by this country for the conversion
of the Hindus. Now to take the last first.
rar be it from me to ignore the noble spirit that
supports this enterprise; and farther still to traduce
wantonly, or speak in a spirit of levity of, anything
connected with it. So long as these magnificent
efforts on your part at self-sacrifice are made under
the conviction that we, pagans and heathens, are lost
uidess brought to embrace your faith, and bend our
knees to your idols; so long, I repeat, we cannot be
too grateful. But sooner or later the truth must out,
and, I am sure, you will bear with me, if my very
gratitude for what you are doing for us compels me
to speak candidly the bare unvarnished truth on the
subject. I can conscientiously state, then, and every
one who has any personal knowledge of India will bear
me out in this statement, that Christianity, in spite
of all the efforts of all its zealous apostles, has not
succeeded, and is never likely to succeed, in the land of
the Hindus. It is a notorious fact that, notwith
standing the unremitted operation now nearly for a
century of a vast machinery, specially designed for
this purpose, and worked under the most favourable
auspices, Christianity cannot name its proselytes from
any part of the more intelligent and educated classes
of our community whose total number at any time
could not be counted on one’s fingers. Not less
notorious is the fact that nine hundred and ninetynine out of every thousand of the converted Hindus
are from the very dregs, the Parias, of our population.
There is scarcely, too, one in a thousand among them
who can so much as conceive the simplest points of
�Christianity and Education in India.
5
divergence between the faith he has abandoned and
the faith he has embraced.
The rationale of this inevitable state of things is
not very far to seek. The whole of the Hindu com
munity, for our present purpose, may be divided into
four classes, not in accordance with the ordinary
distinction of castes, but with the mental peculiarities
observable among them. Our first division will com
prise those who have received no education, either
English or Hindu ; the second, those who possess an
elementary knowledge of English, with a tolerable
acquaintance with their own literature; while the
third shall hold together those who, not being satis
fied with the rudiments of education vouchsafed them
by their thrifty Government, have pushed their
curiosity into the forbidden precincts of science, as
far, at least, as their unassisted efforts might avail
them, and have made themselves familiar, if not with
the more recondite truths and processes of its various
departments, at least with their general results, and
the more fundamental methods of inductive investiga
tion. There remains now the fourth class to cha
racterize, which, after the above assignments, must
evidently consist of those Hindus who, though devoid
of English education, and a knowledge of European
science, are yet the repositories of all that is highest
and soundest in Hindu philosophy and Hindu science,
such as they may be. Now to review each class, in
order, in its relations to Christianity and the possible
points of contact between them, where alone the
latter might exert any influence.
We have seen that the characteristic of our first
division is the absence of all education. And hence
the presence of ignorance in unmitigated intensity.
Now ignorance and superstition must ever go
hand in hand.
The rampant extravagances of the
latter are a necessary consequence of the former.
The same faculty of analogical reasoning, which
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Christianity and Education in India.
under due subordination to wide inductions and
subject to continued processes of verification or correc
tion, results in the highest triumphs of science, leads,
in the absence of these safeguards, to the grossest
fallacies of thought and belief. Fetishism is a natural
concomitant of this stage of our mental development.
There is no place here for either metaphysical or
positive conceptions. There is as little possibility of
metaphysical abstractions making impression upon the
dim consciousness of ignorance, as of the comprehen
sive generalisations of positive science being grasped
by its narrow faculties.
Hence the only religion
possible at this stage is the religion of sense. The
more sensuous the conceptions, the more tangible the
images presented for adoration, the firmer is their
hold upon the ignorant mind. The slightest infusion
of anything like abstraction is eschewed and thrown
out as unassimilable with its simple organisation. Now
Christianity, with its medley of dogmas and theories,
half fetishistic, half metaphysical, has far less chance of
success here than a religion that is purely fetishistic.
The one is easy of comprehension to the most un
tutored mind; while the other bristles up with
inconsistencies incapable of reconciliation by the
subtlest intellect. Further, if sensuous accessories
are at all requisite, stocks and stones, idols and
oracles, are far better helps to devotion than the
pulpit or the priest—the surplice or the sermon.
But independently of the intrinsic unfitness of
Christianity, the conduct of the missionary is scarce
better fitted to ensure success. It is very rarely that
he masters the vernaculars sufficiently to make him
self easily intelligible to his native audience. Even
where this superlative merit is achieved by the
grumbling apostle, he scarce forgets the whiteness of
his skin, his easy five hundred a year, or his com
fortable bungalow, with its pankas and tattees, when
he sees the dark masses rolling on before him,
�Christianity and Education in India.
7
doomed to work under a tropical sun. When he
addresses himself to them, perhaps once in a week,
and for half an hour in a thoroughfare, he is full as
conscious of his superiority as when lolling on
cushioned sofas in the luxurious abandonment of a
midday repose ; or when driving his beautiful phaeton
and pair of an evening through fashionable walks, to
enjoy the glories of a setting sun or the grateful
breezes of approaching night. It is beneath him to
mix with them freely—to talk to them familiarly—
and therefore to understand how to influence their
minds effectually. Is it a matter of surprise, then,
if his hebdomadal harangues, more remarkable for
periodic sententiousness and dramatic accompani
ments of voice and gesture, than earnestness of
purpose or common sense, should fall on careless ears ?
And yet this is the class from which the ranks of
Hindu Christianity are oftenest supplied. We have
seen there is nothing specially adapted in the new
religion, nor anything specially attractive in the
behaviour of the missionaries to bring about such a
result. Is it then an easy frame of mind in these
ignorant Hindus or their indifference that supplies
the explanation? No, they are bigoted enough and
tenacious too, like other Hindus, in what they consider
to be right, not to succumb to ordinary influences.
It is their poverty, or vitiated course of life, that
makes them take refuge in a change of social con
dition. The converted Hindu is always provided for
by Christian munificence, if not in every case liberally,
at least in a way to satisfy every reasonable demand
of nature. Can you wonder, then, if a few unfortu
nate or unprincipled Hindus would gladly take
shelter under a religion that does not leave the poor to
starve, nor compel the idle to work. But this same
supply which feeds expiring Christianity in India,
and gives it for a time a delusive appearance of
vitality and growth, carries with it, in reality, in'
B
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Christianity and Education in India.
evitable seeds of decay and death. The contempt
and disgust, which these dissipated and ignorant
wretches engender in every mind, are in themselves
a sufficient bar to its progress among the better
classes.
But enough of this. Let us proceed to our second
division—those Hindus, namely, who have received
a tolerably good English education, and are therefore
in a position to come more directly under the influence
of the Missionaries. Do these, at least, profit by the
light so considerately proffered them ? I am afraid
the position of Christianity is more hopeless here
than in the last case. I am afraid what is recom
mended to them as light, is looked upon by them
more as an ignis fatuus, decoying them to deeper
sloughs of error and superstition, than as an unmis
takable beacon leading to the calm haven of truth.
Whatever defects may have been laid at our door by
European opinionists, intelligence at any rate—at
least one kind of intelligence—has never been denied
us, even by the boldest amongst them. It is nothing
strange, therefore, if the same exercise of faculties which
leads the inquiring Hindu to question his own beliefs,
leads him also to question others recommended in their
stead. Once the spirit of Scepticism roused in him,
he knows no moderation. In his eyes authority be
comes mockery—faith impotence.
Free from the
magic of superstition, he becomes conscious of his
own strength. No dogma is too sacred—no explana
tion too plausible, to escape his rude challenge.
Hence, it is easy to conceive what treatment Christi. anity, with its manifold defects, has to expect from
his tender mercies. He pounces upon the thousand
metaphysical difficulties which surround its doctrines
and which have puzzled the ingenuity of its highest
philosophers, without being brought one step nearer to
a satisfactory solution. Nay, he rips open its very
fundamental conceptions, dragging to light every
�Christianity and Education in India.
9
•inconsistency, inconsequence, and self-contradiction
lurking or enshrined therein; while their helpless
champion, trembling with horror but unable to stop
this work of vandalism, wonders if heaven’s wrath
had spent its lightnings.
Meantime, the havoc pro
ceeds. The shattered images crowd on every side,—
the different attributes of the Godhead, so necessary
to Christian Orthodoxy, but so irreconcilable with
one another, and, therefore, incapable of predication
together; the strange doctrine of prayer, so useless if
God be just, so impious, so blasphemous, if it implies
his openness to flattery or adulation ; the enjoined
duty of a simultaneous belief in Predestination and
Free-Will, an impossibility both of thought and fact;
the necessity of inherited sin, and salvation through
the sufferings of an innocent God, a conception more
allied to wild caprice or wanton blood-thirstiness,
than any notion of justice or equity possible to hu
man intelligence, and yet a conception constituting
the essence of a Christian’s speciality as respects the
other believers in the Unknown and Unknowable: and
to crown all, this very salvation, worked through
centuries of human suffering and crowned with the
sufferings of a God, proving no salvation to the
greater part of mankind, who could scarce help
wondering if it might not be a deception of the
unholy Spirit working in the dark for our ruin: a
scheme, in short, so clumsy and unavailing, though
brought out in such wanton defiance of every law,
natural and moral, and worked with all the tentative
skill of Supreme Wisdom, improving upon itself
through experience of five thousand years, that it
leaves as much sin, suffering, and ignorance now in
the world as when it found them; a scheme, in fine,
which even human pride might blush to own.
Such is a rough sketch of the pugilistic skill of our
Hindu controversialist of the second class. 'If he
bares his breast to the fist of his antagonist, he ex-
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Christianity and Education in India.
acts a like courtesy from the opposite side. He knows
not the meekness that would present you the second
cheek to smite, when you have smitten the first.
But this would not do. This is contrary to all
acknowledged precedents and rules of Missionary
warfare in all heathen lands. Give but not receive,
is its motto ; and it is not our modern Missionary
that would derogate from his dignity as an infallible
mouthpiece of Pure Wisdom so low as to forget this
excellent precept. But whether from this motive or
from a lurking suspicion in his own breast that
“ Something is rotten jn the state of Denmark,” it is
a significant fact, the Missionary ever avoids an
educated Hindu. Though the conversion of one such
would be far more favourable to his cause than that of
a thousand ignorant unprincipled wretches, he never
attempts to convert him. It is almost ludicrous to
see the studious solicitude with which the anxious
apostle shuns all contact with him as with a dreaded
imp of evil. But unfortunately, as ill luck sometimes
would have it, his care is not always successful. Very
often some enterprising Hindu ferrets him out actual
ly to pay off for many a blow and poisoned shaft
aimed at him and his beliefs from behind his back.
And then, when once they are brought face to face,
the former, in whose constitution a love of contro
versy may almost be said to be hereditary, and now
smarting too from a sense of injury, hurls at his
antagonist every objection in its most damaging shape
with all the ingenuity of a Hindu brain; while the
latter, goaded to the quick and surprised out of his
usual reserve, but unable to maintain even a show of
contest, either flies into a passion, which is worse than
defeat, or gets entangled in platitudes, which produce
only mischievous merriment in his opponent.
But this is not all. The educated Hindoo, however
ignorant of science himself, does not fail to see,—and
living as he does in the nineteenth century can he
�Christianity and Education in India.
11
help seeing?—that the identical faith, which is so
strongly recommended for his adoption in India, is
exposed to a life-and-death struggle from the rapid
advances of science in the very land of its highest
triumphs, in the very cradle of its early successes.
Under these circumstances, is it not a matter of course
that the intelligent Hindoo should not rush forward
blindly to embrace what seems to him not only the
losing, but the erroneous side ?
If then Christianity has no chance, as we have seen,
with our first and second classes, how much more
unlikely is it that it should succeed with the third,
which comprises the most advanced amongst us:—those, that is, who combine, to a knowledge of the
English Language, a tolerable acquaintance with the
results of modern science and the principal processes
of its investigations ? It is not those, who have learnt
to regard the constancy and uniformity of Nature aa
the highest dicta of experience and the only foundation
of sure knowledge, that would accept your arbitrary
interpositions, sudden suspensions, and unnatural
intersections of natural laws, as any thing more than
the vagaries of a morbid imagination.
It is not
those, who have learnt to trace the operation of un
alterable causes, not only in the progressive develop
ment of life, not only in the gradual formation of our
globe, nor yet only in the slow emergence of the
system to which it belongs, but quite as well in the
general evolution of the whole universe in all its
details, and from times reaching backwards beyond
the power of calculation, that would believe them to
have failed or been set aside during one insignificant
life-time, on one insignificant spot of earth, for the
immediate benefit of one insignificant [art of one
insignificant race. It is not such, therefore, that
would swallow, at the bidding of the missionary, any
miracles that it might please him or his book to pro
pound. It is not down the throats of such that the
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Christianity and Education in India.
missionary may hope to cram his speaking donkeys
and suns that stand paralysed in their course. Nay,
they would not condescend even to wonder at the
existence of such beliefs in our times. To them,
credulity begot of ignorance and fostered by prejudice
supplies the necessary explanation.
But their position does not stop here. Armed
with positive knowledge, and commanding every
avenue to error, they fear not to charge into the
heart of the enemies’ camp. Their lance is at rest for
no ordinary prize. It seeks the heart-blood—the
sine qua non—of all superstition and error. In other
words, they join issue with their opponents on the
question of those very beliefs, without which not only
Christianity, but every other religion, in the usual
meaning of the term, becomes impossible. They con
tend, in short, that the popular idea, that what we
call the soul or mind is an independent entity, a some
thing quite distinct from the body and capable of
existence without it; and the supplementary notion,
that there is a conscious personal being, who is the
creator and ruler of the universe; are, to say the least
of it, notions which find support neither in nature
nor in reason.
Instead, therefore, of Christianity making any pro
gress among our third class Hindus, they are more
likely to contribute to its final and general rejection
by their countrymen.
But what of the fourth division 1
With the
Hindus belonging to this class at least, it might be
imagined, there must be better hope.
Neither
acquainted with modern science nor blind to the
gross superstitions common among their less educated
brethren, they must surely be more favourably
disposed to receive Christianity if properly presented
to them. Unfortunately for the cause of unfounded
hopes, the probabilities once more go hard against
such fond anticipations. The state of society in India,
�Christianity and Education in India.
13
in respect of beliefs and principles of action is, and
has been for a long time, very much like what that of
Greece and Rome used to be in their palmiest days.
In Rome and Greece, we know, the beliefs of the
higher and more educated classes—of their so-called
philosophers—had very little in common with the
superstitions of their less advanced countrymen. If
they tolerated them, or rather if they seemed them
selves to share in them, it was only from prudential,
self-interested considerations. They knew, too, that
all men could not be philosophers, nor was it desirable
that all should be. Something very similar to this
obtains now in Hindu Society. The Philosophers
or Pundits of India are not what they seem. If they
encourage the popular beliefs, it is purely from motives
of policy and self-interest. Their philosophy is too
subtle for the mass, nor is it their interest to
popularize it. They are the priests of the nation ;
and you know how everywhere the priests are jealous
of knowledge among any but themselves.
Their
power everywhere is in a direct ratio to the ignorance
around them.
Accordingly the Brahmin has two
schools—the esoteric and the exoteric, the one full of
ceremonies, prayers, penances, with all the remaining
paraphernalia of religious denomination, the other, of
philosophic discussions relative to the explanation of
the phenomena of the universe. The former is meant
to satisfy the wild cravings of untutored imagination
and utilize the emotional energies of aboriginal nature
for purposes of social economy; while the . latter
furnishes gratifications to choicer spirits seeking in
tellectual luxuries and contemplative repose.
Now of all the systems of philosophy I have any
knowledge of—whether the systems of ancient Greece
and Rome, the Peripatetic, the Sceptic, or the Epicu
rean ; their later developments in those of the schools ;
or still later forms—the modern systems of Kant,
Cousin, and Hamilton—I have no hesitation in pro-
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Christianity and Education in India.
nouncing the Vadantic philosophy of the Hindus the
most logical and profound. It makes the nearest ap
proach, I know of any, to the strict requirements of
modern scientific thought. In its fundamental aspects,
it is enough to add here, it resembles the system of
Mill and Bain.
It is a. well-known fact that Buddhism, in its origi
nal purity, was an offshoot of Hindu philosophy.
Buddha, who was familiar with its deepest mysteries,
but who. endeavoured to organize them into a religion,
was obliged, evidently to meet the grosser apprehen
sion of the masses, to make a compromise between the
requirements of logical precision and the necessities of
a practical reduction. It was accordingly an abortion
between philosophy and religion ; an unsuccessful
attempt to reconcile the rational and emotional natures
of man. It would neither satisfy the conditions of
pure reason, nor give scope to the full play of feeling.
And yet this system, abortive as it manifestly is, has
been pronounced,, even by European critics, the most
rational religion in the world. How much greater
must be the superiority then, of that philosophy over
all religions, of which Buddhism is but an offshoot,
and an inferior offshoot too !
There is.one circumstance connected with this phil
osophy which at first has a very misleading effect: I
mean the peculiarly difficult and almost mystical
phraseology in which its doctrines are couched. But
this, far from, being a demerit, ought to constitute a
recommendation in its favour, since it enabled the
enunciation of the subtlest and profoundest truths in a
language singularly consistent, accurate, and powerful.
Anything more than a hasty glance at some of its
principal features would be not only out of place, but
would demand far more space and time than can be
afforded in a lecture like this. I shall select, therefore,
a few salient points for comparison.
The Berkleyan theory of what is improperly called
�Christianity and Education in India.
15
Idealism, which reduces both the objective and subjec
tive worlds to Permanent Possibilities of Sensation,
and which is beyond doubt the most logical theory
yet conceived by the European intellect, is distinctly
stated, and enforced by powerful reasoning in this
Philosophy of the Hindus, now so many centuries old.
When it enunciates the grand truth that the internal
and external worlds are merely the varying manifesta
tions of oue and the same principle ‘ Maya,’ the
ignorant dabbler in Hindu philosophy translates the
word in its ordinary acceptation, and pronounces the
doctrine absurd. If he had only the patience to master
the language in which it is closed before jumping to a
conclusion, he would find that, as in English or any
other language, the popular and philosophic significa
tions of words are different, and sometimes almost
contradictory. The ordinary meaning of ‘Maya’ is
certainly delusion, but the philosophic value of it is as
certainly—the system of phenomena in contradistinc
tion to noumena—the totality of existence, real and
potential, regarded as possible or actual groups of sen
sations. So that the theory of ‘ Maya,’ as it is gene
rally called, is far from being what it is ignorantly
taken for. On the contrary, it is the enunciation of
the doctrines of the school of Mill and Bain in strict
philosophical language.
The modern theory of evolution, again, is plainly
shadowed forth in this philosophy, where it resolves
the first cause, not into an unmeaning change of
expression—“ a guiding and controlling intelligence”
—but into a principle, unconscious, self-existent, and
ever-changing—a principle of which concrete existence
in all its varieties is only an expression of varying
aspects. Thus the only First Cause that this philosophy
recognizes, is the first cause also of modern science—
matter with its properties.
One more point worthy of notice here is the theory
of necessity or fate. The first cause itself is subject to
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it; rather necessity is itself one of its properties. Hence
it followed also that everything in the universe, being
but a manifestation of the first principle, is equally
necessary in respect of its co-existence or sequence.
This doctrine, it will be seen, is nothing more nor less
than the general uniformity and constancy of nature
which forms the ground-work of science. It is true
this doctrine, under the name of Asiatic Fatalism, has
been ridiculed by persons who neither understood its
unassailable foundation in fact, nor could distinguish
between its legitimate consequences, awful enough, to
confuse their narrow apprehension, and the illegiti
mate or unnecessary ones imported into the question
by their own incapable reasonings. But however
ignorantly ridiculed, or whatever preposterous effects
have been ascribed to it, the doctrine itself stands up
a sublime monument of Hindu thought at a time when
even the bulk of educated intellects of Europe are not
prepared for its intelligent reception.
Even the common version of the Hindu Trinity
is a fallacy of misconception. The popular notion of
the three deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva is
merely a flesh and-blood personification of the three
fundamental generalisations of our philosophy, of the
universe. These are respectively the constructive, the
restorative, and the degenerative or destructive prin
ciples in nature. They were no doubt suggested by
a careful observation of the operations of natural
agencies around us. Their truth is now acknowledged
by all, and requires no special amplification. Only it
deserves to be remarked how even such a simple belief
of the uneducated Hindu as that in the three gods,
turns out to be merely a stultification of the wisdom
of his philosophers, who centuries ago recognised
principles of nature but recently discovered by modern
science.
If we had time we might dig deeper into this won
derful philosophy, and bring to light richer ores of
�Christianity and Education in India,
xy
truth and reasoning ; but we must stop. Nor will
such work be necessary for our present object, if what
we have seen of it, slight as it is, has given us some
idea of the rich stores of wisdom that are the birth
right and pride of the Hindu Pundit. Is it this Pun
dit, then, that would renounce such a legacy of sublime
conceptions for the no-philosophy and bad science of
the missionary ?
Thus the chances of Christianity in India are small
indeed, after every allowance,—bad enough with the
first class, but worse with the second, and worst of all
with the third and fourth. Hence is its present un
satisfactory condition. Hence, too, its no better future.
As for the good which the missionaries are doing in
India in the way of imparting elementary English
education to the people, I gladly bear testimony to
their comparative success. But here, again, to show
our true gratitude to our benefactors, we, Hindus, can
do nothing better than try to convince them, as early
as we may, how absolutely unnecessary are these vast
sacrifices on their part for this purpose. India has
never been known to be a poor country. We can
stand perfectly well upon our own resources. Only
like the magic gate in the Arabian Nights’ Entertain
ments, the portals of our hidden energies open to no
sound but that of wisdom. Let but a little more dis
cretion and wit be infused into our administrative
element, and we shall never hear again the irrational
clang of debts and deficits. What we want is not
alms from others’ riches, but only wise direction to
develope our own. Our revenue, wisely expended,
would not only defray all governmental expenses, but
would leave a surplus more than enough for the con
struction and working of the most efficient educational
machinery ever known.
Under these circumstances can we d o betteT than re
mind our simple well-wishers, that ch arity had better
begin at home. Looking on the condition of the
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Christianity and Education in India.
working-classes in this country, can any body doubt
for a second that they need every farthing, that the
superfluous wealth of their more favoured country
men could ever spare ? Neither need I insist that
they alone deserve these good offices—at least deserve
them with far greater right than we may ever pretend
to do.
Having thus completed our survey of the position
of Christianity in India, let us now turn to the other
system of education, which is being conducted by the
Government in a purely secular spirit. It may be
desirable, however, to dispose of a preliminary diffi
culty in our way, relative to the supposed duties of a
Government. It may be, and it has been, asked if
the Government of India is under any obligations to
do more for its people in the way of their education
than the Governments of other countries, such as
those of Europe, for instance. To this question I
must reply, Yes. India is now in a phase of its
existence, in which it is weak enough to require a
guiding hand, but is strong withal to prove recal
citrant whenever its sense of justice is outraged—a
phase, in consequence, in which its destinies are
trembling in the balance, in which the highest delicacy
and foresight are requisite in those who have its
management to bring about results in any degree
conducive to the promotion of human welfare and
progi e 5S.
Such considerations, I admit, are of no higher
validity than those which have for their basis the
good of mankind. But unless dreamy transcendent
alism and empty inanities are to sway our notions,
I know no considerations more sacred or more bind
ing in any code of morality than these. If, therefore,
our Government be upright in its intentions, and not
mercenary—if its highest object be the advancement
of our race in mental and material prosperity, and
not the squeezing out the means of luxurious subsis-
�Christianity and Education in India.
19
tence for its officials from an enraged people, alike to
the detriment of its own stability and the welfare of
a whole nation :—if, I say, our Government be what
it ought to be, and my happy experience of seven and
twenty years justifies me in asserting that it has been
such in every essential element; then it will do for
the attainment of this noble object whatever will
conduce to it. Unflinching discussion and free ventila
tion of the opinions of every one interested in the
issue are necessary, not so much to cavil with what
has been done, as to show how best may be done
what yet remains to be done.
I shall proceed, therefore, to express my views
boldly on this much neglected subject, under the con
viction that they will meet with that amount of con
sideration which, if not their intrinsic worth, at
least their sincerity will demand from every thought
ful person.
In the Government system of education, then, the
one feature that stands out most glaringly is the
utter absence of what we understand by scientific
education from first to last in general instruction.
Nay, even what is taught is taught in an exceedingly
unscientific way. It is not only in respect of the
sort of instruction vouchsafed, but also in respect of the
manner in which it is imparted, that we have to com
plain of being left strangely behind the times. In
fact, such a state of things is inevitable so long as
the character of the staff of educational officers there
employed continues to be what it has been hitherto.
Throughout the whole educational staff in the Madras
Presidency, I cannot now recollect one name known
to science or philosophy. Beginning from the Pro
vincial School Head-Master up to the Director of
Public Instruction inclusive, the reign of ignorance
is supreme—ignorance in everything that constitutes
the real essence of knowledge. One might almost
stagger with dismay, if it did not border on unmiti-
�20
Christianity and Education in India.
gated contempt, to see the sublime innocence displayed
by these bearers of western light for the illumination
of the east:—innocence, sublime indeed, since it is
innocence in respect of those very sciences and
systems of belief, engendered thereby, which con
stitute the highest triumphs of modern western
civilisation.
Now to refer for a few seconds to the immense dis
advantages which a want of scientific education en
tails upon a nation. In the present day this reference
need not detain us long. It is enough to recollect
that every step forward in civilisation has been due
to some advance in science. In the world in which
we live we are surrounded by powers, conservative as
well as destructive, a knowledge of which, to some
extent at least, is necessary for our continued exist
ence ; while life, with any degree of comfort and
success, is possible only when we have mastered
them to considerable detail, and can utilize them
for our own purposes. Further, Nature is an inex
orable mistress. The slightest infringement of her
laws, whether through ignorance or perversity, is
alike avenged with the severest penalties. In the
reign of natural law reparation is impossible. It is
a deduction from the persistence of force that if we
make a single false step, we must be content to carry
its consequences with us to the grave. Hence the
inadequacy, the disadvantage of any system of educa
tion which does not include a knowledge of nature.
There is yet another aspect of the question, which
might bear a little further handling. I allude to the
rapid increase of population, particularly in civilised
countries, whose pent-up energies, under accumulating
pressure, must, in longer or shorter periods, find a
vent, as they have found already so often even under
less imminent circumstances, in acts of aggression or
wars of extermination against one another, or against
less favoured races. How helpless must be the con-
�Christianity and Education in India.
11
'dition of a people, then, who, from want of requisite
culture, are unable either to avert or withstand these
destructive irruptions! I know the time is yet far
off, thank our stars, when these volcanic outbursts of
human energy will become general. But is it the
less certain on that account, or should we be justified
in enjoying the delicious repose of the present in the
fancied security of a distant future ? No, we shall
not be a second too soon in urging upon our govern
ment the necessity of making us the best return for
our money in their power—of starting us with a fair
chance for the imminent struggle for existence looming
before us—for the threatening future so pregnant
with mysterious fates.
There is yet another consideration we might urge
with less selfish motives. The sooner an equilibrium
is established between the different civilised nations
in respect of power of self-maintenance or strength
of resistance, the better will it be for all parties con
cerned. The hurricanes of human violence that have
swept so often over the globe with such destructive
fury would have lost much of their vehemence if in
equalities in the distribution of power and the conse
quent tendency to a convective rearrangement had
been less pronounced.
But irrespective of negative considerations, are there
no positive benefits in the course I recommend to
accrue to mankind in general 1 I answer unhesitat
ingly, yes ! The process of natural selection, founded
as it is upon the fixation of favourable proclivities
through inheritance, and the elimination of un
favourable tendencies in the struggle for existence, is
a process not less operative in the evolution of
organic functions than in that of organic forms.
Further, there is no reason why a process, through
which such high results have already been achieved,
should not continue to bring about results higher
still. In point of fact, it is not only man that has
�22
Christianity and Education in India.
been evolved from lower forms, but higher races of
men are being developed from lower ones. It is true,
in this latter process, the operation of the principle
is far from being unobstructed as hitherto. But
though at several points along its line of action, its
force is being deflected for a time or even retarded
by antagonistic contact with the peculiar agency of
man’s psychological nature, which itself has brought
about; still its ultimate triumph is not for a moment
to be doubted. We have only to look into the past
history of mankind, imperfect as it is, and then
project ourselves in imagination into the future a
few centuries hence, when the conditions of existence
shall wax more stringent, and the struggle for sur
vival more violent, to be satisfied of the truth of
what I contend for.
Such being the case, does it not follow that the
better the materials presented for this law to work
upon—when the time should come for its unrestricted,
at any rate, more steady operation, the higher will
be the results attained 1 Is it not evident, too, that
the sooner we set about improving the general con
dition of mankind in order that, when the day
shall come, there may be always enough of the
to
best and highest type available to cover the whole
ground of survival without adulteration, the more
effectually shall we have assisted nature in its
progress to a glorious destiny 1 Now with such views
as these before us, both as to the present and the future,
can it be doubted for a moment that India, with its
already two hundred millions of people, covering in
extent no inconsiderable part of the habitable globe,
and endowed with powers of vitality and resistance
by no means contemptible, is destined to play a
significant part in the future history of mankind, or
that every step in human progress will be influenced
by the state of preparation and reach of antecedent
advancement, with which it shall enter the contest 1
�Christianity and Education in India.
23
Hence, even from a cosmopolitan point of view is
the course I recommend rendered a crying necessity.
But, independently of remote advantages, which,
however real, lose half their importance to the ordi
nary mind from their distance, are there no conside
rations of less equivocal significance and of a more
immediate bearing upon our collective interests 1 The
answer once more must be in the affirmative. We
have seen already that true progress consists in nothing
so much as in a successful cultivation of science—a
deepening insight into nature and her operations.
No amount of mere literary accomplishments—no
amount of mere analytical skill, if employed only in
the manipulation of a few abstract mathematical ideas
-—can avail us amidst the rigid and unbending pheno
mena of concrete existence.
Now, of these concrete phenomena, which cannot
be evolved deductively from a few comprehensive first
principles, no class of them is of more vital import
ance to us than that whose explanation we term
sociology or social science. Though there is scarcely
a department of natural knowledge which does not
in the long run, either directly or indirectly, contri
bute to our advancement, it must still be granted
that some are more useful to us in their immediate
results than others. A large proportion of our know
ledge is purely speculative, and has no bearing upon
our practical interests; while every additional cor
relation of its various factors tends more to the equili
brium of thought than utility in the ordinary accep
tation of the term. Hence those correlations which
result in useful applications naturally excite greater
interest in us, and are of more immediate importance,
than those which are purely of a theoretical character.
From this point of view, it is needless to remark'
the correlations of social science must evidently take
the precedence. But, unfortunately, in proportion to
their usefulness is also their difficulty.
Their satis-
�24
Christianity and Education in India.
factory establishment can be accomplished only by
those who combine to a knowledge of the other
sciences a familiar acquaintance with the different
methods of investigation applicable to different groups
of phenomena.
The truth of this statement will
become manifest when we recollect the position which
sociology assumes in the classification of the sciences
founded upon the principle of progressive complexity.
The social philosopher has to lay under contribution,
for the elucidation of his subject, not only the agencies
peculiar to itself, but also those regulating the condi
tions of other phenomenal sequences.
But further
more, not to speak of correct generalisations to be
achieved in this difficult science—even for a careful
sifting and selection of proper materials for arriving
at such—a preliminary knowledge of the kind we
have characterised is indispensable.
To know what
order of facts may be eschewed as having no bearing
upon any particular question in hand, and what order
are to be seized upon and tabulated for purposes of
further elaboration, is in itself a process possible only
under a previous scientific culture.
Now for a satisfactory settlement of many a con
tested point in social science, I know no country
better calculated to supply the necessary data than
Hindustan. The very fact that India contains such a
large population, broken up into so many races, each
speaking a different language and each presenting
different peculiarities, physical, social, intellectual and
moral; while yet a thread of broad community in
several respects runs through them all; must in itself
be a sufficient argument in its favour. Even a careful
observation and intelligent tabulation of these
interesting differences, with a running commentary
on the obvious causes thereof, placed alongside of
the results of a similar process applied to points of
resemblance, must I conceive inevitably lead to no
ordinary consequences. I feel convinced that as a
�Christianity and Education in India.
25
knowledge of the classic language of India first led to
the creation of a science already rich in results, but
richer far in the results it has yet in store for us, so
it is only a thorough knowledge of social institutions,
religious beliefs and other characteristic circumstances
connected with the Hindus that will place social
science on a sure scientific basis. We may almost
predict the various lines along which such a know
ledge is likely to extend its influence, after what we
know of the growth of philology and geology within
the last few years. In fact there are several points
of close resemblance between geology and sociology.
The customs, habits, beliefs, languages, &c. of the differ
ent nations are as it were the different strati cal systems
of social geology; while those preserved in their
literatures are the entombed fossils of anterior states,
wdiich taken with the present are capable of affording
as consistent and satisfactory an explanation of social
evolution as geology does of organic development.
The countries of Europe, as seen within the historical
period, are in one sense enough to illucidate the later
steps in this evolution ; in the same way as the
latest or tertiary rocks are sufficient to explain the
comparatively recent passage of man through the
three stages of flint, bronze, and iron.
But just
as for the comprehension of the far deeper and more
searching question of his origin, a careful study
of the earlier systems—the mesozoic and the palyozoic
—was found necessary; so a discriminating knowledge
of the more aboriginal institutions and literatures of
the eastern nations is indispensable for the explanation
of the more important problem of the genesis of society.
But of all eastern countries, no land presents, within
such a comparatively small area, a larger or a more
varied field for research than India. No country, too,
comprises within itself such varied systems of living
and dead forms of social life, reaching to the remotest
past, as India once more. Hence it is manifest the
�26
Christianity and Education in India.
study of India from a sociological point of view must
be of the last importance.
This, however, can be done with any approach to
efficiency only by those who are most intimately
familiar with the phenomena concerned; and are
capable at the same time of such intelligent work. It
must be evident therefore that it is only Hindus that
can successfully undertake this all important task. But
Hindus, though Hindus they be, would be worse than
useless if they had not the requisite preliminary
training. As for strangers attempting to accomplish
this end without native agency, they might as soon
attempt the merest impossibilities for aught one cares
about the result. So long as Europeans and Hindus
are what they are, no matter whose fault it is that
they cannot understand and do not sympathise with
one another, such must continue to be the case.
Hence an additional reason, the last but not the least
weighty I have herein adduced, why the Hindus should
receive a scientific education.
And now having thus brought these few reflections
on Hindu education to a close, it only remains for
me to thank you sincerely for the kind and indulgent
hearing you have accorded to my unequal attempt to
handle a subject full of the deepest interest and im
portance.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Christianity and education in India: a lecture delivered at St. George's Hall, London, November 12, 1871
Creator
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Row, A. Jyram
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 26 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Turnbull and Spears, Edinburgh.
Publisher
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Thomas Scott
Date
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[1872]
Identifier
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G5483
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Education
Christianity
India
Hinduism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Christianity and education in India: a lecture delivered at St. George's Hall, London, November 12, 1871), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Christian Education-India
Conway Tracts
Hinduism
India