The Hindoos as They Are: A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal — John Shaqi
The Hindoos as They Are: A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in BengalSivachandra Vasu
Religion
The Hindoos as They Are: A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal
Sivachandra Vasu
Hindus; India -- Social life and customs; Women -- India
[3] The following scene will clearly illustrate the point. At an
assembly of some females on a festive occasion, among other current
topics of the day, the conversation turned on the religion of the _Sahib
logues_(Europeans). Impelled by a sense of duty and justice no less than
by the convictions of conscience, I admired the disinterested exertions
of the Christian Missionaries in endeavouring to spread among our
benighted countrymen the benefits of a good education as well as the
blessings of a good religion. Fearlessly encountering all the dangers of
the deep, which, happily for the cause of human advancement, have now
been greatly minimized, renouncing all the pleasures of the world, and
fortifying their minds against persecution, suffering and reproach, they
come, not only among us but travel through the most uncongenial climes
"to preach Christ." The remarkable disinterestedness and self-denial of
some of these Missionaries is a bright reality, to appreciate which is
to appreciate Christianity. Before the propagation of the religion of
Christ, said I, the most admired form of goodness was centred in
patriotism or the love of one's own country, but Jesus brought with him
a new era of philanthrophy, the main pervading principle of which is a
spirit of martyrdom in the cause of mankind. Can we find traces of such
catholicism in our Hindoo Shaster? The universal fatherhood of God and
brotherhood of man is only practically enunciated in the religion of
Christ. The females were all struck with the noble, sublime, yet humble,
forgiving and disinterested virtues of the religion of the _Sahib
logues_. But a pert young female, quite unschooled by experience and too
much wedded to wordly attractions, rather thoughtlessly replied that
"the act of giving education is a good thing in its own way, so far as
it affords a means of earning money, but why do the _Padrees_
(Missionaries) strive to convert our Hindoo boys, and thereby compel
them to forsake their parents to whom they owe their being? What
advantage do they gain by such conversions? This is not good. Brahmo
religion does not demand any such sacrifice. Why do the heads of the
_Padrees_ ache for this purpose? They ought to give all their money to
us, poor women, that we may buy ornaments therewith." Such is the low,
grovelling idea they generally have of Christianity. It is useless to
argue with them, simply because their minds are completely saturated
with deep-rooted prejudice, and narrow, debased, selfish views.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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