Produced by The Bookworm, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
[Transcriber's Notes: vowels with macrons are shown by an equals sign
before the vowel in brackets. [=a]
Bold is surrounded by =equal signs=.
Italics are shown by _underscores_.]
[Illustration: Old India. "You think you know us; you know nothing at
all about us!" and the old eyes peer intently into yours, and the old
head shakes and he smiles to himself as he moves off. Every bit of this
picture is suggestive: the closed door behind,--only a Brahman may open
that door; the mythological carving,--only a Brahman has the right to
understand it; the three-skein cord,--only a Brahman may touch it. Even
the ragged old cloth is suggestive. In old India nothing but Caste
counts for anything, and a reigning Prince lately gave his weight in
gold to the Brahmans, as part payment for ceremonies which enabled him
to eat with men of this old man's social position. Look at the marks on
the baby's forehead; they are suggestive too.]
THINGS AS THEY ARE
MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
BY
AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL
_Keswick Missionary C.E.Z.M.S._
AUTHOR OF "FROM SUNRISE LAND," ETC.
WITH PREFACE BY
EUGENE STOCK
[Illustration: Tamil Text: VICTORY TO JESUS' NAME!]
LONDON: MORGAN AND SCOTT
(OFFICE OF "=The Christian=")
12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.
_And may be ordered of any bookseller_
1905
FIRST EDITION _April 1903_
_Reprinted_ _August 1903_
" _January 1904_
" _November 1904_
" _January 1905_
To the Memory of My Dear Friend,
ELEANOR CARR,
Whose last message to the Band, before her
translation on June 16, 1901, was:
"YOU WILL BE IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT
BY THE TIME THIS REACHES YOU,
[Illustration: Tamil text: THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S!]"
Note
WITHIN a few weeks of the publication of _Things as They Are_, letters
were received from missionaries working in different parts of India,
confirming its truth. But some in England doubt it. And so it was
proposed that if a fourth edition were called for, a few confirmatory
notes, written by experienced South Indian missionaries, other than
those of the district described, would be helpful. Several such notes
are appended. The Indian view of one of the chief facts set forth in the
book is expressed in the note written by one who, better than any
missionary, and surely better even than any onlooker at home, has the
right to be heard in this matter--_and the right to be believed_.
And now at His feet, who can use the least, we lay this book again; for
"to the Mighty One," as the Tamil proverb says, "even the blade of grass
is a weapon." May it be used for His Name's sake, to win more prayer for
India--and all dark lands--the prayer that prevails.
AMY WILSON-CARMICHAEL,
Dohnavur, Tinnevelly District,
S. India.
Confirmatory Notes
_From_ Rev. D. DOWNIE, D.D., American Baptist Mission, Nizam's
Dominions, S. India.
I have felt for many years that we missionaries were far too prone to
dwell on what is called the "bright side of mission work." That it has a
bright side no one can question. That it has a "dark" side some do
question; but I for one, after thirty years of experience, know it to be
just as true as the bright side is true. I have heard Miss Carmichael's
book denounced as "pessimistic." Just what is meant by that I am not
quite sure; but if it means that what she has written is untrue, then I
am prepared to say that it is NOT pessimistic, _for there is not a line
of it that cannot be duplicated in this Telugu Mission_. That she has
painted a dark picture of Hindu life cannot be denied, but, _since it is
every word true_, I rejoice that she had the courage to do what was so
much needed, and yet what so many of us shrank from doing, "lest it
should injure the cause."
_From_ Rev. T. STEWART, M.A., Secretary, United Free Church Mission,
Madras.
This book, _Things as They Are_, meets a real need--_it depicts a phase
of mission work of which, as a rule, very little is heard_. Every
missionary can tell of cases where people have been won for Christ, and
mention incidents of more than passing interest. Miss Carmichael is no
exception, and could tell of not a few trophies of grace. _The danger
is, lest in describing such incidents the impression should be given
that they represent the normal state of things, the reverse being the
case._ The people of India are not thirsting for the Gospel, nor
"calling us to deliver their land from error's chain." The night is
still one in which the "spiritual hosts of wickedness" have to be
overcome before the captive can be set free. The writer has laid all
interested in the extension of the Kingdom of God under a deep debt of
obligation by such a graphic and accurate picture of the difficulties
that have to be faced and the obstacles to be overcome. Counterparts of
the incidents recorded can be found in other parts of South India, and
there are probably few missionaries engaged in vernacular work who could
not illustrate some of them from their own experience.
_From_ Dr. A. W. RUDISILL, Methodist Episcopal Press, Madras.
In _Things as They Are_ are pictured, by camera and pen, _some_ things
in Southern India. The pen, as faithfully as the camera, has told the
truth, and nothing but the truth.
The early chapters bring out with vivid, striking, almost startling
reality the wayside hearers in India. One can almost see the devil
plucking away the words as fast as they fall, and hear the opposers of
the Gospel crying out against it.
Paul did not hesitate to write things as they were of the idolaters to
whom he preached, even though the picture was very dark. _It is all the
more needful now, when so many are deceived and being deceived as to the
true nature of idolatry, that people at home who give and pray should be
told plainly that what Paul wrote of idolaters in Rome and Corinth is
still true of idolaters in India._
Miss Carmichael has given only glances and glimpses, not full insights.
Let those who think the picture she has drawn is too dark know that, if
the whole truth were told, an evil spirit only could produce the
pictures, and hell itself would be the only fit place in which to
publish them, because in Christian lands eyes have not seen and ears
have not heard of such things.
_From_ Rev. C. W. CLARKE, M.A., Principal, Noble College, Masulipatam.
I have worked as Principal of a College for over seventeen years amongst
the caste people of South India, and I entirely endorse Miss
Carmichael's views as to the actual risks run by students and others
desirous of breaking caste and being baptized. While the teaching of the
Bible and English education generally have removed a great deal of
prejudice, and greatly raised the ethical standard amongst a number of
those who come under such influences, Hinduism as held and practised by
the vast majority of caste people remains essentially unchanged. To
break caste is held to be the greatest evil a person can inflict upon
himself and his community, _therefore practically any means may be
resorted to to prevent such a calamity_. It is a commonplace amongst
missionaries, that when a caste man or woman shows any serious intention
of being baptized,--in any case, where caste feeling is not modified by
special circumstances,--the most stringent precautions must be taken to
protect the inquirer from the schemes of his caste brethren.
_From_ KRISHNA RAN, Esq., B.A., Editor, _Christian Patriot_, Madras
(himself a convert).
The question is often asked whether a high caste Hindu convert can live
with his own people after his baptism. _It is only those who know
nothing of the conditions of life in India, and of the power of caste as
it exists in this country, who raise the question._
The convert has to be prepared for the loss of parents and their tender
affection; of brothers and sisters, relatives and friends; of wife and
children, if he has any; of his birthright, social position, means of
livelihood, reputation, and all the power which hides behind the magic
word "caste"; of all that he is taught from his childhood to hold as
sacred.
_From_ Miss READE, South Arcot, South India.
I am not surprised that anyone unacquainted with mission work in India
should be staggered at the facts narrated in _Things as They Are_. But
as one who has worked for nearly thirty years in the heart of
heathenism, away from the haunts of civilisation, I can bear testimony
_that the reality of things far exceeds anything that it would be
possible to put into print_. One's tongue falters to tell of what is
custom in this country. I know a case where a young girl of ten was
placed in such a position that her choice lay between two sinful courses
of life, _no right way being open to her_. I think one of the most
distressing things we have to meet in caste work in this country is the
fact that often as soon as a soul begins to show interest in Christ _he
or she disappears_, and one either hears next that he is dead, or can
get no reliable information at all.
_Extract from_ a letter to Miss CARMICHAEL on _Things as They Are_. (The
writer is a veteran American missionary.)
_I could duplicate nearly every incident in the book_; so I know it is a
true picture, not alone because I believe your word, but because my
experience has been so similar to yours. Many times, while reading it,
the memory of the old heart-break has been so vivid that I have had to
lay the book down and look round the familiar room in order to convince
myself that it was you, and not I, who was agonising over one of the
King's own children who was being crowded back into darkness and hurled
down to destruction, because Satan's wrath is great as he realises that
his time is short.
I wish the book might be read by all the Christians in the homeland.
_From_ PANDITA RAMABAI.
While I was reading _Things as They Are_, I fancied I was living my old
life among Hindus over again. I can honestly corroborate everything said
in regard to the religious and social life of the Hindus. I came from
that part of the country, and I am very glad that the book has succeeded
in bringing the truth to light.
_From_ Miss L. TROTTER.
There is hardly a phase of all the heart-suffering retold that we have
not known: page after page might have been written out here, word for
word.
Preface
THE writer of these thrilling chapters is a Keswick missionary, well
known to many friends as the adopted daughter of Mr. Robert Wilson, the
much-respected chairman of the Keswick Convention. She worked for a time
with the Rev. Barclay Buxton in Japan; and for the last few years she
has been with the Rev. T. Walker (also a C.M.S. Missionary) in
Tinnevelly, and is on the staff of the Church of England Zenana Society.
I do not think the realities of Hindu life have ever been portrayed with
greater vividness than in this book; and I know that the authoress's
accuracy can be fully relied upon. The picture is drawn without
prejudice, with all sympathy, with full recognition of what is good, and
yet with an unswerving determination to tell the truth and let the facts
be known,--that is, so far as she dares to tell them. What she says is
the truth, and nothing but the truth; but it is not the whole
truth--_that_ she could not tell. If she wrote it, it could not be
printed. If it were printed, it could not be read. But if we read
between the lines, we do just catch glimpses of what she calls "the
Actual."
It is evident that the authoress deeply felt the responsibility of
writing such a book; and I too feel the responsibility of recommending
it. I do so with the prayer of my heart that God will use it to move
many. It is not a book to be read with a lazy kind of sentimental
"interest." It is a book to send the reader to his knees--still more to
_her_ knees.
Most of the chapters are concerned with the lives of Heathen men and
women and children surrounded by the tremendous bars and gates of the
Caste system. But one chapter, and not the least important one, tells of
native Christians. It has long been one of my own objects to correct the
curious general impression among people at home that native Christians,
as a body, are--not indeed perfect,--no one thinks that, but--earnest
and consistent followers of Christ. Narratives, true narratives, of true
converts are read, and these are supposed to be specimens of the whole
body. But (1) where there have been "mass movements" towards
Christianity, where whole villages have put themselves under Christian
instruction, mixed motives are certain; (2) where there have been two or
three generations of Christians it is unreasonable to expect the
descendants of men who may have been themselves most true converts to be
necessarily like them. Hereditary Christianity in India is much like
hereditary Christianity at home. The Church in Tinnevelly, of which this
book incidentally tells a little, is marked by both these features.
Whole families or even villages have "come over" at times; and the large
majority of the Christians were (so to speak) born Christians, and were
baptized in infancy. This is not in itself a result to be despised.
"Christian England," unchristian as a great part of its population
really is, is better than Heathen India; and in the chapter now referred
to, Miss Carmichael herself notices the difference between a Hindu and a
Christian village. But the more widely Christianity spreads, the more
will there assuredly be of mere nominal profession.
Is the incorrect impression I allude to caused by missionaries dwelling
mostly on the brighter side of their work? Here and there in the book
there is just a suggestion that they are wrong in doing so. But how can
they help it? What does a clergyman or an evangelist in England tell of?
Does he tell of his many daily disappointments, or of his occasional
encouraging cases? The latter are the events of his life, and he
naturally tells of them. The former he comprises in some general
statement. How can he do otherwise? And what can the modern missionary
do in the short reports he is able to write? Fifty years ago missionary
journals of immense length came home, and were duly published; and then
the details of Hindu idolatry and cruelty and impurity, and the
tremendous obstacles to the Gospel, were better known by the few regular
readers. Much that Miss Carmichael tells was then told over and over
again, though not perhaps with a skilful pen like hers. But the work has
so greatly developed in each mission, and the missions are so far more
numerous and extended, that neither can missionaries now write as their
predecessors did, nor, if they did, could all the missionary periodicals
together find space for their journals.
The fault of incorrect impressions lies mainly in the want of knowledge
and want of thought of home speakers and preachers. I remember, thirty
years ago, an eloquent Bishop in Exeter Hall triumphantly flinging in
the face of critics of missions the question, "Is Tinnevelly a
fiction?"--as if Tinnevelly had become a Christian country, which
apparently some people still suppose it to be, notwithstanding the
warning words to the contrary which the C.M.S. publications have again
and again uttered. Even now, there are in Tinnevelly about twenty
heathen to every one Christian; and of what sort the twenty are this
book tells. Tinnevelly is indeed "no fiction," but in a very different
sense from that of the good Bishop's speech. Again, a few months ago, I
heard a preacher, not very favourable to the C.M.S., say that the
C.M.S., despite its shortcomings, deserved well of the Church because it
had "converted a nation" in Uganda!--as if the nation comprised only
30,000 souls. Some day the "Actual" of Uganda will be better understood,
and the inevitable shortcomings of even its Christian population
realised, and then we shall be told that we deceived the
public--although we have warned them over and over again.
But the larger part of this book is a revelation--so far as is
possible--of the "Actual" of Hinduism and Caste. God grant that its
terrible facts and its burning words may sink into the hearts of its
readers! Perhaps, when they have read it, they will at last agree that
we have used no sensational and exaggerated language when we have said
that the Church is only playing at missions! Service, and self-denial,
and prayer, must be on a different scale indeed if we are ever--I do not
say to convert the world--but even to evangelise it.
EUGENE STOCK.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ABOUT THE BOOK 1
II. THREE AFTERNOONS OFF THE TRACK 5
III. HUMDRUM 18
IV. CORRESPONDENCES 26
V. THE PREY OF THE TERRIBLE 33
VI. MISSED ENDS 41
VII. "THE DUST OF THE ACTUAL" 57
VIII. ROOTS 71
IX. THE CLASSES AND THE MASSES 83
X. THE CREED CHASM 91
XI. CASTE VIEWED AS A DOER 96
XII. PETRA 105
XIII. DEATH BY DISUSE 111
XIV. WHAT HAPPENED 118
XV. "SIMPLY MURDERED" 124
XVI. WANTED, VOLUNTEERS 132
XVII. IF IT IS SO VERY IMPORTANT. . . ? 141
XVIII. THE CALL INTENSIFIED 145
XIX. "ATTRACTED BY THE INFLUENCE" 160
XX. THE ELF 171
XXI. DEIFIED DEVILRY 188
XXII. BEHIND THE DOOR 194
XXIII. "PAN, PAN IS DEAD" 203
XXIV. "MARRIED TO THE GOD" 217
XXV. SKIRTING THE ABYSS 223
XXVI. FROM A HINDU POINT OF VIEW 236
XXVII. THOUGH YE KNOW HIM NOT 249
XXVIII. HOW LONG? 256
XXIX. WHAT DO WE COUNT THEM WORTH? 262
XXX. TWO SAFE 273
XXXI. THREE OBJECTIONS 277
XXXII. "SHOW ME THY GLORY!" 289
APPENDIX. SOME INDIAN SAINTS 303
Illustrations
AN OLD BRAHMAN _Frontispiece_
BANDY CROSSING A POOL _Facing page 5_
A YOUNG TAMIL GIRL 11
A POTTER AT HIS WHEEL 24
A DEVOTEE OF SIVA 26
THE RED LAKE VILLAGE 28
DEATH SCENE 51
WAILING 53
THREE CEREMONIAL MOURNERS 54
CEREMONIAL BATHING 56
AN ANCIENT PARIAH 58
VELLALA WIDOW 66
TYPICAL OLD WIDOW 73
HINDU SCHOOLMASTER AND BOYS 87
SHANAR MOTHER AND CHILD 91
COOKING IN A SHANAR HOUSE 98
FAIRLY TYPICAL VELLALAR 105
CHRISTIAN WIDOW 112
BRAHMAN GIRL 118
THREE TYPES OF BRAHMANHOOD--
KEEN 132
THOUGHTFUL 134
DULL 138
AN OLD WOMAN AND BABY 143
BRAHMAN WIDOW 145
BRAHMAN STREET 147
SHEPHERD-CASTE HOUSE 151
VELLALA CHILD 161
"UGLY DUCKLING" 178
DESIGNS IN CHALK 194
HANDMARKS ON THE DOOR 202
A "HOLY BRAHMAN" 221
WOMAN AND WATER-VESSEL 262
Glossary
AGNI God of Fire.
AIYO Alas! "Ai" runs together almost like "eye." The word is
repeated rapidly, Eye-eye Y[=o] Eye-eye Y[=o]!
AMM[=A] Mother! (vocative case). "A" is pronounced like "u" in
"up." The word is also used by all women in speaking
to each other, and by girls in speaking to women.
AMM[=A]L Lady or woman. "A" is pronounced like "u" in "up."
ANNA One penny.
ARECA NUT Nut "eaten" by the Indians with betel leaf or lime.
BETEL Leaf of a creeper.
BANDY A bullock cart.
BRAHMA The first person in the Hindu Triad, regarded as the
Creator.
BRAHMAN The highest of the Hindu Castes.
BRAMO SAMÂJ A sect of Hindu reformers who honour Christ as a man,
but reject Him as a Saviour.
CHEE! Exclamation of derision, disgust, or remonstrance.
COMPOUND A piece of ground surrounding a house.
COOLIE A paid labourer. "Coolie" is the Tamil word for pay.
CURRY A preparation of meat or vegetables made by grinding
various condiments and mixing them together.
FAKEER Religious beggar.
GURU A religious teacher.
IYER Title given to Brahmans and Gurus.
PADDY Rice in the husk. Paddy fields = rice fields.
PARIAH A depressed class.
P[=U]JAH Worship. "[=u]" is pronounced like "oo."
RUPEE Value 1s. 4d.
SAIVITE A worshipper of Siva.
SALAAM A salutation meaning "peace," used in greeting and
farewell, and often in the sense of "thank you."
The right hand is raised to the forehead as one says
salaam.
SEELEY Tamil woman's dress of silk, muslin, or cotton.
SHANAR A Caste of Palmyra-palm climbers.
SIVA The third person in the Hindu Triad. The Destroyer.
TOM-TOM An Indian drum.
VAISHNAVITE A worshipper of Vishnu.
VELLALAR A Caste of landowners and cultivators.
VISHNU The second person in the Hindu Triad. The Preserver.
THINGS AS THEY ARE
MISSION WORK IN SOUTHERN INDIA
CHAPTER I
About the Book
"We can do nothing against the Truth, but for the
Truth."
_St. Paul, Asia and Europe._
"There is too little desire to know what is the
actual state of mission work in India, and a
regard to the showy and attractive rather than to
the solid and practical. I will try, however, to
avoid being carried away by the tide, and to set
myself the task of giving as plain and unvarnished
a statement as possible of what is actually being
done or not done in the great field of our foreign
labour."
_Bishop French, India and Arabia._
THREE friends sat Native fashion on the floor of an Indian verandah. Two
of the three had come out to India for a few months to see the fight as
it is. And they saw it. They now proposed that the third should gather
some letters written from the hot heart of things, and make them into a
book, to the intent that others should see exactly what they had seen.
The third was not sure. The world has many books. Does it want another,
and especially another of the kind this one would be? Brain and time
are needed for all that writing a book means. The third has not much of
either. But the two undertook to do all the most burdensome part of the
business. "Give us the letters, we will make the book," and they urged
reasons which ended in--this.
This, the book, has tried to tell the Truth. That is all it has to say
about itself. The quotations which head the chapters, and which are
meant to be read, not skipped, are more worthful than anything else in
it. They are chosen from the writings of missionaries, who saw the Truth
and who told it.
The story covers about two years. We had come from the eastern side of
this South Indian district, to work for awhile in the south of the
South, the farthest southern outpost of the C.M.S. in India. Chapter II.
plunges into the middle of the beginning. The Band Sisters are the
members of a small Women's Itinerating Band; the girls mentioned by
translated names are the young convert-girls who are with us; the Iyer
is Rev. T. Walker; the Ammal is Mrs. Walker; the Missie Ammal explains
itself.
The Picture-catching Missie Ammal is the friend who proposed the book's
making. This is her Tamil name, given because it describes her as she
struck the Tamil mind. The pictures she caught were not easy to catch.
Reserved and conservative India considered the camera intrusive, and we
were often foiled in getting what we most desired. Even where we were
allowed to catch our object peaceably, it was a case of working under
difficulties which would have daunted a less ardent picture-catcher.
Wherever the camera was set up, there swarms of children sprang into
being, burrowed in and out like rabbits, and scuttled about over
everything, to the confusion of the poor artist, who had to fix focus
and look after the safety of her camera legs at the same time, while the
second Missie Ammal held an umbrella over her head, and the third
exhorted the picture, which speedily got restive, to sit still. So much
for the mere mechanical.
Finally, I should explain the book's character. "Tell about things as
they actually are"; so said the Two with emphasis. I tried, but the
Actual eluded me. It was as if one painted smoke, and then, pointing to
the feeble blur, said, "Look at the battle! 'the smoking hell of
battle!' There is the smoke!" The Poet's thought was not this, I know,
when she coined that suggestive phrase, "The Dust of the Actual," but it
has been the predominating thought in my mind, for it holds that which
defines the scope and expresses the purpose of the book, and I use it as
the title of one of the chapters. It does not show the Actual.
Principalities, Powers, Rulers of the Darkness, Potentialities unknown
and unimagined, gathered up into one stupendous Force--we have never
seen it. How can we describe it? What we have seen and tried to describe
is only an indication of Something undescribed, and is as nothing in
comparison with it--as Dust in comparison with the Actual. The book's
scope, then, is bounded by this: it only touches the Dust; but its
purpose goes deeper, stretches wider, has to do with the Actual and our
relation to it.
But in touching the Dust we touch the outworkings of an Energy so awful
in operation that descriptive chapters are awful too. And such chapters
are best read alone in some quiet place with God. For the book is a
battle-book, written from a battle-field where the fighting is not
pretty play but stern reality; and almost every page looks straight from
the place where Charles Kingsley stood when he wrote--
"God! fight we not within a cursèd world,
Whose very air teems thick with leaguèd fiends--
Each word we speak has infinite effects--
Each soul we pass must go to heaven or hell--
And this our one chance through eternity
To drop and die, like dead leaves in the brake!
. . . . . . .
Be earnest, earnest, earnest; mad if thou wilt:
Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven,
And that thy last deed ere the judgment day."
[Illustration: This is our bullock-bandy. The water was up to the top of
the bank when we crossed last. The palms are cocoanuts.]