THE CONVERSION OF INDIA
Missions still in the experimental stage. Effect of
education on conversion. Brahmins and conversion. Caution
needed in time of famine. People applying for work; caution
again necessary. India and dissent; rival organisations,
effect on the heathen; dissenters drawing to the Church.
It is an evidence of the perplexity which attends mission work in
India that many apparently elementary principles are still undecided
questions and subjects of discussion. Things are still in the
experimental stage. Almost every conceivable form of missionary
enterprise has been attempted; but the result is that no one method in
any department stands out as being signally better than another.
Perhaps the only definite conclusion that has been arrived at is the
obvious one, that the man is of more importance than the method, and
where there has been marked progress it has always been the
personality of the worker, sanctified and energised by God's grace,
which has been the moving power.
The conversion of India has been a slower and more difficult task than
some people at one time anticipated. Possibly it has been hindered by
too much haste at the outset. India has to be gradually educated up to
Christianity. At one time it was thought that the best way to do this
was to provide an advanced secular education, and that the mind thus
elevated would be ready to grasp and accept spiritual truths. No doubt
this has been the result in a few instances, but the more general
outcome has been that secular interests have become so absorbing that
spiritual matters have been crowded out, and the mind has proved less
rather than more receptive.
Great efforts have been made to reach the so-called "high-caste" men
of India. This was done, partly under the idea that their traditional
intelligence and opportunities of education would make them specially
capable of religious thought, and partly because it was felt that the
conversion of some of the leading men of India would surely result in
the conversion of the rest. There have been many notable conversions
of Brahmins, so that these efforts cannot be said to have been wholly
without result. But it must be added that the results do not seem
commensurate with the amount of labour and money which has been
expended in this particular direction. It was, perhaps, not
sufficiently taken into account that mere intellect may in itself be a
barrier to the reception of spiritual truth, unless there is also the
grace of humility and the desire to be taught. A Brahmin who has been
trained from his earliest boyhood to think himself worthy of divine
honour, naturally finds it difficult to sit at the feet of a foreign
teacher who preaches the need of repentance.
Nor does the conversion of a Brahmin lead to the conversion of other
Indians to the extent that might have been expected. Possibly the
unpopularity of Brahmins as a class, although they are still to some
extent venerated and feared, may partly account for the fact that the
conversion of some of them has not made others anxious to follow their
lead. In the case of low-caste people the conversion of a few has, in
many instances, led on to the conversion of large numbers. The
multitude of village folk who have, at various times, pressed forward
for baptism has been in certain places a real perplexity. The clerical
staff has been wholly inadequate to deal with them, and the greater
part of their instruction has had to be left to lay teachers, not very
competent for the task.
In some of the earlier famines missionaries were not always
sufficiently alive to the risk of people professing a desire for
Christianity, when their real motive was the hope of getting special
consideration when famine relief was distributed. In some districts
serious lapses took place after the distress was over. It is now the
almost universal rule in missions, in order to avoid the risk of
imposture, not to baptize any converts during the period when a
district is suffering from famine. The time of probation before
baptism has also been gradually prolonged in most Church missions. But
some workers, in their natural eagerness for the extension of Christ's
kingdom, are perhaps too ready to accept the protestations of ignorant
people in poor circumstances who say that they wish to become
Christians. The work which is given to them as a test is, almost of
necessity, lighter than that which they have previously been
accustomed to do. Whether the limited amount of genuine spiritual
desire probable in such cases should be accepted as sufficient, is
difficult to decide. Some of the older missions, with an experience
covering a long period, make it their invariable rule not to accept a
religious inquirer for definite instruction if he is out of work. He
is told that he must first get work, and then come for instruction.
Not unfrequently people who come to a mission applying for work, say
that if this is provided they are willing to become Christians. When
the village church of St Crispin was building, quite a number of
Hindus at different times asked for the post of caretaker of the
building when completed. And when it was urged in reply that a
Christian church ought to have a Christian caretaker, several of them
said that if the post was given to them, they were ready to conform as
regards Christianity. Some dissenters still baptize rashly, with
scarcely any probation and less teaching, and some have drifted so far
from gospel truth that they receive converts into their society
without baptizing them at all.
India has both suffered and gained from the number of religious sects
who have sent missionaries to convert her. No religious society seems
to think its machinery complete unless it has a mission in India. The
point of view from which she may be said to have gained from this is,
that where the need of workers is so great, any Christian teachers who
are in earnest are, in a sense, welcome. Nor are theological
differences so acute in the pioneer stage of work, when only
elementary principles are being taught. But, on the other hand, the
result is a bewildering multiplication of missionary efforts. Apart
from the amount of conflicting and erroneous teaching which is
ultimately the inevitable outcome, there is a great waste of energy
and funds in the support of a number of organisations which might be
concentrated into one. Also, rivalry amongst missions of conflicting
opinions has resulted in mission stations being planted in close
proximity to each other. Roman Catholics in particular are offenders
in this respect. The consequence is that, while on the one hand some
districts are overdone with mission workers, on the other hand there
are vast tracts of country without any.
The varied forms in which Christianity is thus presented is not so
great a stumbling-block to the heathen people as might be thought
likely. Hindus and Mohammedans are themselves divided up into such
numerous sects that they are not much surprised to find that such is
the case amongst Christians. But it is amongst earnest-minded Indians
who have been baptized by dissenters that difficulties develop. As the
spiritual energies of the convert from Hinduism become more
pronounced, he often begins to crave for what the religious system in
which he finds himself is unable to give. If such souls come into
touch with Catholic influences, they often discover that it is the
grace of the sacraments which their souls are needing, and there is
amongst Indian Christians a fairly steady flow from dissent into the
Church.