United States or Suriname ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In brief, what is the present position of India in regard to religious belief; and in particular, what are the prevailing beliefs about God? A rough classification of the theological belief of the Hindus of the present day would be the multitude are polytheists; the new-educated are monotheists; the brahmanically educated are professed pantheists.
Whatever the reason, the brahmanical monopoly of access to and inspiration from the Deity is no longer recognised by new-educated India. In like manner, the new religious associations seem to feel themselves directly in the presence of God.
In this volume, the aim has been to set forth the existing thoughts and feelings, especially of new-educated India, and to do so on the historical principle, that to know how a thing has come to be, is the right way to know what it is and how to treat it. The history of an opinion is its true exposition.
But we are dealing with modern, new-educated India, and now we ask ourselves: What does the modern, new-educated Indian mean by salvation? Why does the thought of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ fail to reach his heart?
From the pro-Indian feeling to the anti-British Boycott feeling is only one step along the road that new-educated India is treading. The boycott of British goods in 1905 has been the next step. The provocation alleged by the politicians who organised the boycott was the division of the province of Bengal. The plea of encouragement of native industries we may set aside as an afterthought.
Secondly, in a remarkable degree, Jesus Christ Himself is being recognised and receiving general homage. In a less degree, and yet notably, the Christian conception of the Here and Hereafter is commending itself to the minds of the new-educated Hindus. In the new religious organisations also, the Christian manner of worship and of public worship commends itself almost as a matter of course.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, we may now say that Indian Hindu society consisted of a vast polytheistic mass with a very thin, an often invisible, film of pantheists on the top. The nineteenth century of enlightenment and contact with Christianity has seen the wide acceptance of the monotheistic conception by the new-educated India.
Word Of The Day