India, Its Life and ThoughtJones, John P. (John Peter)
Religion
India, Its Life and Thought
Jones, John P. (John Peter)
India -- Civilization; India -- Religion; Missions -- India
Next to it come the schools. Millions of youth are trained in them
daily to regard caste as an unworthy classification. All sections are
taught in the same classes; they play in the same playground. In both
places the lower often excels the higher caste boy. The seeds of
equality and a common regard are thus constantly sown among the youth
of all sections of the land. If it astonished the recent educational
(Moseley) Commission which went from England to the United States to
study the educational conditions there, when it saw the children of
the President of the country studying side by side with the children
of day-labourers, so must it seem wonderful, and wonderfully good, to
a student of social conditions in India, to behold the child of a
Pariah and that of a Brahman preparing, side by side, in the
schoolroom, for the responsibilities and the blessings of life.
Many other agencies similar to the above are doing their benign
levelling work.
The government, however, is the great leveller. In all its gifts of
offices, in all posts of honour and influence, it distributes its
blessings with strict impartiality, so far as caste is concerned. It
wisely ignores all social distinctions and depends upon qualifications
of culture and character when it seeks men to conduct its affairs.
This is something unprecedented in the land of Manu. That the outcast
should stand an equal chance with the high castes for positions of
honour and emolument was unknown in this land of sharp distinctions.
And even more fundamental than this is the blessing of equal personal
and political rights. In ancient India, such an idea was never
entertained. Before British rule entered the land it was never dreamed
that priest, prince, and beggar--and that Brahman and Pariah--had
equal rights before the law. To-day they all recognize the justice of
this and expect it.
Finally, the advent of Christianity, with power, into the land has
brought a new death-knell to caste supremacy. We have seen that Indian
Christian converts abandon all other customs and superstitions with
greater facility than they do those of caste. Its roots have sunk
deepest into the soil of their nature. But let it not be thought that
they do not grow stronger against caste than they used to be. In the
Indian Christian community there is developing a most encouraging
movement toward the complete eradication of caste sentiment and
observance within the Church itself. They are more sensible than ever
before of the gross inconsistency of a man's taking upon himself the
sacred name of Christ and at the same time submitting to the dominance
of caste. Indian Christian anti-caste organizations are now at work
seeking to drive out of the Church of God in India this Antichrist,
and to cultivate the true spirit and amenities of Christian fellowship
and fraternal communion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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