India's Problem, Krishna or Christ

by John P. Jones

The Indian Christian, as we have seen, is a recent product, so far as Protestant Christianity is concerned. And yet we are glad to witness a marked development in the life and character of those who are connected with the Protestant missions. It is true that fully one-half of the Christian community there found has been connected with our faith no [pg 129] more than a quarter of a century. But as we compare these recent accessions to our faith with those Christians of a second, third and fourth generation we are much encouraged by the growth in Christian character and principle which is taking place. I have often studied these differences between the recent convert and the Christian-born member of the community. I have also compared those of the second, with those of the third and fourth, generation of Christian heritage; and I have been much encouraged to see that our faith is adding to its power over the life and character of the native Christian community as the years and generations increase. And if the work continues, with the present insistence and vigour, it will not take many generations more before Christianity will have become thoroughly indigenous, because it will have developed a type of character in that land fully in harmony with its own genius and teaching.

It is necessary, however, in considering this question, that we remember specially that the antecedents and the environment of the native Christian have been entirely Hindu. His ancestral faith has coloured, and must colour, largely his religious preceptions and conduct. Let it not be thought that, when a man abandons Hinduism and becomes a Christian, he thereby, once and for all, drives out of his mind all those prepossessions, prejudices and superstitions which he has inherited from the past. It will take a long time for him to separate himself from these and their influence. Many of them will probably cling to him during his whole life. It is as much as we can hope that Christian truth will take increasing [pg 130] possession of his mind and gradually supplant the old and unworthy beliefs of Hinduism.

There are moreover certain elements of truth in that old faith which we do not care to eliminate from his mental furnishing, but which must find new adjustment and be properly located in the new religion which he has adopted.

It should also be remembered and made prominent in our consideration of this subject that the people of India are an Oriental people and are the children of the tropics and, as such, will always remain and must remain very different from us of the Northwest. Their climatic and meteorological conditions, their outer, physical life, their social customs and the trend of their civilization, have always been, and will continue to be, far removed from our own. Nothing could be more fatal to our success in our effort for the conversion of India than the idea that we must in every respect mold them after the pattern of Western life and habits. A large portion of their life is the result of the conditions which I have mentioned and must largely remain unchanged; and it would be folly for the missionary to regard these as a part of the faith to be supplanted, and to teach that western social customs are inseparable from Christianity and must be accepted by the Orient with our faith. The Christian of India will always be, and it is well that he should be, differentiated from the Anglo-Saxon Christian.

It should also be remembered that the people of India, at least the masses, are low in civilization. It should not be expected that those who are in that low estate, when they become Christians, will leap [pg 131] with one bound into the full possession of a high civilization and be clothed upon with some of those beauties of western life and character which we inevitably associate with the term, “A Christian Gentleman.” They, indeed, become truly and sincerely the disciples of Christ; but they will, at the same time, manifest some of the crudities and weaknesses of the low social grade of which they have been and still remain a part. They should not be judged by standards Western or of a high civilization.

Looking, then, at the native Christian of India let us have regard to his condition socially, morally, religiously and spiritually.

(a) Studying this product of the Christian faith in that land from a social standpoint we find encouragement. He differs from his Hindu neighbour by a growing freedom from the trammels of caste. He feels, in his best moments, that caste has been and continues to be the greatest curse of the land, that he has been emancipated from it, and that he is ambitious to enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free. And yet, unfortunately, he does not remain constantly in the possession of this sane mind. The roots of the caste system have reached down into the lowest depths of his being. Even at times when he believes that he is absolutely independent of caste considerations, there is in him a blind persistence which clings to caste bondage. I have often felt that Hinduism can be dispensed with by our convert with vastly more ease in all other particulars than in its caste feelings and affiliations. This relic of the past clings to him with a tenacity which is phenomenal and most sad. Though everything [pg 132] teaches him that this caste system is the greatest enemy of Christianity and will prevent any one who believes and practices it from fully imbibing the spirit of Christ; and though he aspires to be an earnest and an efficient Christian and to love all his brethren, this remnant of Hinduism in his heart returns to rob him of the joys and blessings of his Christian birthright. I have seen this frequently disfigure what would otherwise have been a beautiful Christian character. I have witnessed it blast the prospects of Christian congregations dooming them to stagnation and death. I have known it to palsy the arm and deaden the heart of more than one Christian worker.

All this is inevitable when we remember the mighty influence and the long continued dominance of caste in that land. But even at this point, where the missionary finds the greatest discouragement, there are marked signs of progress. So long as the missionary fought this evil alone there was little hope of success. But, during the last few years, the conscience of the native Christian Church itself has been roused on this question. The Indian Christian today, as never before, has the conviction that this caste evil saps the spiritual life of every member and of every church which entertains it, and that it is his supreme duty to fight it steadily in his own heart, home and church. And there is an increasing number, especially of the young Christians, who are pledging themselves to an unceasing warfare against the demon caste. Christians are also organizing themselves into Caste Suppression Societies. All this is highly encouraging, but needs large furtherance and [pg 133] development before the native Christian can be said to be freed from this most subtle curse of the ancestral faith.

The old Hindu Joint Family System is the foster-mother of the caste idea, and it is cheering to see native Christians increasingly abandoning that system for the Western idea of home which encourages thrift, independence and liberty among the various members of a family and clan.

In India, for many years to come, this blight of social narrowness, exclusiveness and divisiveness will affect more or less the native Christian character and give colour to the native Christian Church. For centuries it may prove the weak spot of Indian Christianity.