New Ideas in India During the Nineteenth Century by John Morrison

Author:John Morrison [Morrison, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Study Aids, Study & Test-Taking Skills
ISBN: 9781409903963
Google: tl5hOQAACAAJ
Publisher: LULU Press
Published: 2008-04-15T03:06:24+00:00

CHAPTER XIII

HINDU DOCTRINES—HOW THEY CHANGE

"As men's minds receive new ideas, laying aside the old and

effete, the world advances. Society rests upon them; mighty

revolutions spring from them; institutions crumble before their

onward march."

—Extract from Mr. Kiddle, an American writer, which occurs in

a letter "received" by Madame Blavatsky from Koot Humi in

Thibet.

Will the new religious organisations survive?

The four new religious organisations described in the preceding chapters may or may not survive—who can tell? What would they become, or what would become of them, in the event, say, of the great nations of Europe issuing from some deadly conflict so balanced that India and the East had to be let alone, entirely cut off? The Indian Christian Church, hardly yet acclimatised so far as it is the creation of modern efforts, would she survive? The English sweet-pea, sown in India, produced its flowers, but not at first any vigorous self-propagating seed. The Brāhma Samāj, graft of West on East, and still sterile as an intellectual coterie, how would it fare, cut off from its Western nurture? The Ārya Samāj—what, in that event, would be her resistance to the centripetal force that we have noted in her blind patriotism? The reactionary Theosophists—after the provocative action had ceased—what of them? Would not the Indian jungle, which they are trying to reduce to a well-ordered garden of indigenous fruits, speedily lapse to jungle again? We shall not attempt to answer our own questions directly, but proceed to the second part of our programme sketched on p. 122. How far then have Christian and modern religious ideas been naturalised in New India, whether within the new religious organisations or without? Whatever the fate of the organisations, these naturalised ideas might be expected to survive.

Modification of doctrines.

Elements of Christianity being naturalised in India—three.

We recall the statements made on ample authority in an earlier chapter, that certain aspects of Christianity are attracting attention in India and proving themselves possessed of inherent force and attractiveness. These, the dynamical elements of Christianity, were specially the idea of God the Father, the person of Jesus Christ, and the Christian conception of the Here and Hereafter. For although Hinduism declares a social boycott against any Hindu who transports his person over the sea to Europe, within India itself the Hindu mind is in close contact with such modern religious ideas. The wall built round the garden will not shut out the crows. Indeed, like the ancient Athenian, the modern Hindu takes the keenest interest in new religious ideas.

To comprehend the impression that such new religious ideas are making, we must realise in some measure the background upon which they are cast, both that part of it which the new ideas are superseding and the remainder which constitutes their new setting and gives them their significance. In brief, what is the present position of India in regard to religious belief; and in particular, what are the prevailing beliefs about God?

Indian beliefs about God—Polytheists; Theists; Pantheists.

A rough classification of the theological belief of the Hindus of

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