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RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

IN INDIA

BY

J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A.

LITERARY SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG MEN'S
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, INDIA AND CEYLON

AUTHOR OF

"A PRIMER OF HINDUISM," "THE CROWN OF HINDUISM

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New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1915

All rights reserved

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THE

HE HARTFORD-LAMSON LECTURES ON "THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD" ARE DELIVERED AT HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAMSON FUND, WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED BY A GROUP OF FRIENDS IN HONOUR

OF THE LATE Charles M. LAMSON, D.D., sometime President OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, TO ASSIST IN PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY FIELD. THE LECTURES ARE DESIGNED PRIMARILY TO GIVE SUCH STUDENTS A GOOD KNOWLEDGE OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY, BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLES AMONG WHOM THEY EXPECT TO LABOUR. AS THEY ARE DELIVERED BY SCHOLARS OF THE FIRST RANK, WHO ARE AUTHORITIES IN THEIR RESPECTIVE fields, it IS EXPECTED THAT IN PUBLISHED FORM THEY WILL PROVE TO BE OF VALUE TO STUDENTS GENERALLY.

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PREFACE

TOWARDS the close of 1912 Dr. W. Douglas Mackenzie, President of Hartford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn., invited me to deliver, as Lamson Lecturer for 1913, a course of eight lectures on Modern Religious Movements in India. The subject was extremely attractive. It was clear that to bring these many movements together, arrange them in related groups, and set them forth as varying expressions of a great religious upheaval would be a far more illuminating piece of work than the description of them as units ever could be. But the difficulties involved in the proposed investigation were so great that it was only after much inward questioning as to whether I ought to dare the task that I decided to attempt it.

The first difficulty of the subject lies in the fact that the majority of these numerous and very varied movements, scattered over every part of India, have never been described before. In the case of a few of the more noteworthy, excellent monographs do exist. The following books and pamphlets proved of signal service in my investigation:

Śāstrī, History of the Brahma Samaj (including the Prarthanā Samāj); Griswold, art. Ārya Samāj in ERE.; Griswold, The Chet Rami Sect; Griswold, Mirza Gḥulām Ahmad, the Mehdi Messiah of Qadian; Griswold, The Radha Swami Sect; Griswold, Pandit Agnihotri and the Deva Samaj; Chirol, Indian Unrest. There are also sev

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