India's Problem, Krishna or Christ. John P. Jones
(e) Medical Work.
(h) Organizations for the Special Activities of the. Native Christian Community.
Present Day Missionary Problems.
Missionary Results—(Continued)
Chapter II.
The Religions Of India.
India is the mother of religions. No other land has been so prolific in religious thought or has founded faiths which have commanded the allegiance of so large a portion of the human race. While the Aryans of the West have been content to borrow their faith from the Hebrews; Indo-Aryans have produced the most wonderful and mighty ethnic religion (Brahmanism) and also one of the three great missionary religions of the world (Buddhism). A third of the human race today cling with devotion to these two products of the fertility of the mind, and the spirituality of the heart, of India.
India's toleration for other religions has been marked. For twelve centuries she has been the asylum of Zoroastrianism. Nearly nine-tenths of the followers of that ancient cult of Persia found and still enjoy a hospitable home in India. There are more of the narrow, bigoted followers of Mohammed among these tolerant people than are found in any other land—even in the wide domains of the Sultan. Christians also have lived, practically unmolested, in this great land almost from Apostolic days.
Thus not a few of the great Faiths of the world are at present represented, and are struggling either for existence or dominance, in the land of the Vedas.
[pg 055]
The principal faiths of the land, with their adherents, were as follows, according to census of 1891:
| Hindu | 207,731,727 |
| Sikh | 1,907,838 |
| Jain | 1,416,638 |
| Buddhist5 | 7,131,361 |
| Parsee | 89,904 |
| Mohammedan | 57,231,164 |
| Jewish | 17,000 |
| Christian6 | 2,284,000 |
Let us consider these faiths briefly. It will be seen that Christianity has, as its followers, only one per cent. of the whole population of the land.
(a) Judaism.
The Jewish Community in India numbers only 17,000; these are found mostly in Bombay and Poonah. Perhaps the most interesting colony of them is that on the west coast in Cochin. I had the pleasure of visiting them in 1897. There are 1,500 of them divided into two sections—the White, and the Black Jews. There is a marked racial difference between the two. The Blacks were originally the slaves of the Whites as is shown by their historical documents. It is not known when the Whites came to India. Some think that they fled there during the Jewish exile. More likely they came upon the dispersion during the first century of our era. The purity of their blood and the remarkable fairness of their complexion indicate that the settlement has [pg 056] been from time to time reenforced from northwestern countries. They are an exceedingly conservative people; and in their two synagogues, they conduct their worship perhaps more like the Jews of twenty centuries ago than do any other representatives of that race today. The day-school connected with the White Synagogue closely resembles the little school which our Lord attended at Nazareth.
(b) Mohammedanism.
About one-fifth of the whole population of that land is connected with the religion of the great prophet of Arabia. This is a number largely in excess of the whole Mohammedan population of Turkey. It is very suggestive that this faith finds larger growth under the peaceable protection of the Indian, than under the semi-barbarism of the Moslem, government.
This religion was carried into India in 711 A. D. at the point of the sword; and its establishment and success for centuries was owing to the same method. This community is not evenly distributed all over India; for, more than one-third of it is found in Bengal alone, where it furnishes the majority of the population. More than one-half of the adherents of this faith in India are converts from Hinduism. These were gathered in former centuries when the Mohammedan power was dominant, and when to be a member of any other faith than Islam was regarded as a disability. The Mohammedans of the country are, on the whole, physically more sturdy and vigorous than their neighbours. Government, in its treatment of the people, has to conciliate and regard [pg 057] with favour this class more than the Hindus who are four times their number. They possess a great deal of religious bigotry which is intrenched behind their dense ignorance. There is a no more ignorant element than this in the population of India; only six per cent. of the men are able to read and hardly any of the women; and they seem, even today, to have a positive aversion to the schoolhouse. Mohammedanism had, during the days of its dominance, considerable influence in the land; but it did very little to improve the material, moral or religious condition of the people; and it is a significant fact that, comparing today the adherents of Islam in India, with those of Hinduism, the latter are found not inferior in life, morals and aspirations to the followers of the prophet.
The converts gathered from Mohammedanism by Christianity are few, though not so few as ordinarily represented. In North India encouraging success has been achieved by missions for this class. But in South India, where their numbers are fewer, efforts in their behalf have not been so well organised and have produced smaller results. It is a hard task to reach and to move this class, owing not only to the important truth of monotheism, which they hold with great enthusiasm, but also because of the supreme ignorance which blinds them equally to the weakness of their own, and to the excellence of the Christian, faith.
(c) Parseeism.