The Aligarh College, under a series of capable English principals and professors, is training up a new generation of Muḥammadan gentlemen in an atmosphere of manly culture and good breeding, with high ethical ideals. The yearly meeting of the Educational Conference both works practically for the advancement of enlightenment among Indian Muḥammadans and also affords an opportunity for exchange of thought and propagation of reforming ideas. Thus some years ago a leading Muḥammadan gentleman known as the Agha Khan, when presiding over the Conference at Madras, trenchantly impressed upon his hearers that the progress of the community was chiefly hindered by three evils: by the seclusion and non-education of women, by theoretical and practical fatalism, and by religious formalism; an enlightened self-criticism which commands sympathy and admiration. The questions of polygamy and female seclusion are being actively debated in the press and otherwise, and some leading Muḥammadan gentry have broken the ordinance of the veil and appear in public with their wives and daughters in European dress.

As far as regards theological thought, competent Indian observers are of opinion that the rationalism of Sir Syed Ahmad is not at present being developed; but that there is rather a relapse towards a passive acceptance of Muslim orthodoxy.1 Still, there is no doubt that the movement has tended to increase openness and fairness of mind among the educated classes.2

A few educated Indian Muḥammadans during recent years have reached a more advanced position. Mr. S. Khuda Bukhsh, M.A., one of the Professors of the Presidency College, Calcutta, has published a volume entitled, Essays, Indian and Islamic, which the present writer has not seen, but which is characterized as follows by one of our best scholars :

He has read his Goldziher and accepts his positions. He knows what a monogamous marriage means and confesses frankly the gulf between it and marriage in Islam; and he does not try to prove that Islam does not sanction polygamy. 1 P. 347, below. * Weitbrecht, p. 7.

With similar candour he views the other broad differences of East and West. How, then, is he a Moslem? He would go back to the Koran and Mohammed and would sweep away all the labours of the schoolman by which these have been overlaid. Above all he is fascinated by the music and magic of the Koran. That book and a broad feeling of loyalty to the traditions of his ancestors are evidently the forces which hold him.1

It is probably true, as the Right Hon. Syed Amir Ali said to me, that there are very few indeed who are ready to follow Mr. Bukhsh. For the modern conservative movement among Muslims see p. 347.

LITERATURE.-Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, by General Graham, London, Hodder, 1909. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Madras, Natesan, The Spirit of Islam, by Syed Amir Ali, Calcutta, Lahiri and Co., 1890. Essays, Indian and Islamic, by Khuda Bukhsh, London, Probsthain, 1912, 7s. 6d. net.

as. 4.

1 D. B. Macdonald, IRM., April, 1913, p. 378.

CHAPTER III

REFORM CHECKED BY DEFENCE OF THE OLD FAITHS

1870-1913

We have seen in the historical outline that about 1870 a great change began to make itself manifest in the Hindu spirit. The educated Indian suddenly grew up, and shewed that he had a mind of his own. Religiously, the change manifested itself in a disposition to proclaim Hinduism one of the greatest religions. The same temper appeared among Buddhists, Jains, Muslims and Parsees; but the movement shewed itself, first of all, among Hindus. It also took many forms. We propose to divide the many movements and organizations incarnating this spirit into two groups, according as they defend only a part or the whole of the ancient faith. This chapter will deal with those that defend only a part. Every movement in this group opposes Hindu idolatry; but several of them worship their gurus, a practice which leads to idolatry. The attitude to caste in all cases is very ambiguous.

1. THE ARYA SAMĀJ

1. This powerful body, which during the last twenty years has expanded rapidly in the Panjab and the United Provinces, is so completely the creation of its founder that a brief sketch of his life is the indispensable introduction to a study of the movement.

For the first thirty-three years of his life we have a very clear and informing witness, a fragment of an autobiography, dictated by him, and published in the Theosophist, in October

ΙΟΙ

and December, 1879, and November, 1880.1 This sketch seems to be on the whole trustworthy. It certainly enables us to trace in some degree the growth of his mind during the period which it covers.

In the small town of Tankārā,2 belonging to the native state of Morvi, Kathiawar, Western India, there lived early last century a wealthy Brahman, named Ambā Sankara. He held the position of Jamadar of the town, which his fathers had held before him, and was a banker besides. He was a devout Hindu, an ardent and faithful worshipper of Siva. To this man was born, in 1824, a son, whom he named Mūla Sankara. The father was above all things anxious that the boy should prove a religious man and should accept his father's religion. Accordingly he was careful to give him a Hindu education. By the time he was fourteen the boy had learnt by heart large pieces of the Vedas and had made some progress in Sanskrit grammar.

At this time the first crisis in his life occurred. As the incident is one of the most vivid episodes in the Autobiography, we give it in his own words:

When the great day of gloom and fasting-called Śivarātrī - had arrived, this day falling on the 13th of Vadya of Magh, my father, regardless of the protest that my strength might fail, commanded me to fast, adding that I had to be initiated on that night into the sacred legend, and participate in that night's long vigil in the temple of Śiva. Accordingly, I followed him along with other young men, who accompanied their parents. This vigil is divided into four parts, called praharas, consisting of three hours each. Having completed my task, namely, having sat up for the first two praharas till the hour of mid

1 Republished as an introduction to the English translation of the Satyarth Prakash, by Durga Prasad.

2 For the name of the town I am indebted to Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson of Rajkot, and also for the names of the father and the son.

3 Pp. 2-3.

night, I remarked that the Pujaris, or temple servants, and some of the lay devotees, after having left the inner temple, had fallen asleep outside. Having been taught for years that by sleeping on that particular night, the worshipper lost all the good effect of his devotion, I tried to refrain from drowsiness by bathing my eyes now and then with cold water. But my father was less fortunate. Unable to resist fatigue, he was the first to fall asleep, leaving me to watch alone.

Thoughts upon thoughts crowded upon me, and one question arose after the other in my disturbed mind. Is it possible, -I asked myself, that this semblance of man, the idol of a personal God that I see bestriding his bull before me, and who, according to all religious accounts, walks about, eats, sleeps and drinks; who can hold a trident in his hand, beat upon his damaru drum, and pronounce curses upon men, is it possible that he can be the Mahadeva, the Great Deity, the same that is invoked as the Lord of Kailash, the Supreme Being and the Divine hero of all the stories we read of him in his Puranas? Unable to resist such thoughts any longer, I awoke my father, abruptly asking him to enlighten me, to tell me whether this hideous emblem of Śiva in the temple was identical with the Mahadeva, of the scriptures, or something else. "Why do you ask it?" said my father. "Because," I answered, "I feel it impossible to reconcile the idea of an omnipotent, living God, with this idol, which allows the mice to run upon its body, and thus suffers its image to be polluted without the slightest protest." Then my father tried to explain to me that this stone representation of the Mahadeva of Kailash, having been consecrated with the Veda mantras (verses) in the most solemn way by the holy Brahmins, became, in consequence, the God himself, and is worshipped as such, adding that, as Siva cannot be perceived personally in this Kali-Yuga - the age of mental darkness, we hence have the idol in which the Mahadeva of Kailash is worshipped by his votaries; this kind of worship is pleasing to the great Deity as much as if, instead of the emblem, he were there himself. But the explanation fell short of satisfying me. I could not, young as I was, help suspecting misinterpretation and sophistry in all this. Feeling faint with hunger and fatigue, I begged to be allowed to go home.