encouragement to Indian artists; but it seems clear that it has failed to bring sober critics to the acceptance of all that Messrs. Havell and Coomaraswamy teach. No one who wishes to understand India ought to fail to look through Mr. Havell's exquisite book, Indian Sculpture and Painting, and the volumes of reproductions published by Dr. Coomaraswamy. Until quite recently the cultivation of music in India was left largely to nautch-girls. Here also the new national spirit has proved creative. Keen interest in the best Indian music, both vocal and instrumental, is being shewn in several quarters. The Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, or Academy of Indian Music, was established in Lahore in 1901, but has now its headquarters in Girgaum, Bombay. Local musical societies have appeared in a number of places, one of which, the Poona Gayan Samaj, or Song Society, may be mentioned. Sir George Clarke, when Governor of Bombay, and also Lady Clarke, did all they could to encourage these efforts. Within the Christian Church, the Rev. H. A. Popley of Erode, in South India, has done excellent service in adapting the best Indian music to Christian uses. Several Europeans have recently written books on Indian music. LITERATURE. - Indian Sculpture and Painting, E. B. Havell, London, Murray, 63s. Essays on Indian Art, Industry and Education, E. B. Havell, Madras, Natesan, Rs. 1 as. 4. Essays on National Idealism, A. K. Coomaraswamy, Madras, Natesan, Rs. 1. The Music of Hindustan, by A. H. Fox Strangways, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1914, 215. net. 5. POETRY The youngest son of Debendranath Tagore1 is Rabindranath Tagore, who is by far the most prominent literary 1 See p. 39, above. 2 See his portrait, Plate XI, facing page 376. man in India to-day. For many years he has been the acknowledged king of Bengali literature. His songs and hymns are on every lip, and everything he writes is treasured. When he delivers an oration in Bengali, or when he sings some of his own songs, his power and charm are inexpressible. Quite recently he translated a number of his short devotional poems into rhythmical English prose; and, by the advice of his friends, they were published in England, under the title Gitanjali. He is now recognized as one of the greatest literary men of the Empire; and European opinion as such is expressed in the award of the Nobel prize for literature to him. But the chief fact to be realized about him is that he is the very flower of the new nationalist movement, representing at their very highest the noblest motives that have stirred the people of India since the new century began. His position is central. Though he is the son of Debendranath Tagore,' he no longer holds his father's religious position. He expects, as he said to me a few months ago, that the regeneration of India will come through gradual change within the body of Hinduism itself rather than from the action of any detached society like the Brāhma Samāj. Even when he tells his readers in Sādhanā that his religious faith is a purely Indian growth, owing nothing to the West, he is still the child of his day; for the modern Nationalist has no difficulty in finding every Christian principle and practice in ancient Hinduism. Mr. Tagore sums up in himself all the best characteristics of modern nationalist thought and feeling. He is an eager educationalist, maintaining at Bolpur, Bengal, a Boarding School in which two hundred boys receive an education combining the best traditions of the old Hindu teaching with the healthiest modern methods. A good modern 1 P. 39, above. education is given; the health of the body is secured by athletics; and music and daily worship, in the simple and severe manner of the Brahma Samāj, are used to purify and strengthen the religious nature.1 Mr. Tagore feels as keenly on social questions. Never shall I forget the magnificent oration which I heard him deliver in Bengali, on Indian Society, in the Minerva Theatre, Calcutta. The loftiness of the speaker's character, his brilliant diction, and the superb strength and music of his utterance moved me very deeply, and produced an extraordinary effect on the great audience. His proposals were scarcely practical, and no one has attempted to carry them out in action; but one could not fail to realize his insight into the urgency of the whole social problem or to feel the heart-throb of nationalism in every sentence. The universal appeal of Gitanjali3 is due largely to the lofty religious feeling which inspires the work, and to the sincerity and simplicity of the style, touched with the colour and fragrance of the East, but largely also to the character of the religious ideas of the poems. There is sufficient Hindu phraseology and form, drawn from the exquisite Bengali lyrics of the Chaitanya movement, to distinguish these poems from European work and to give them a most engaging freshness; yet the dominant beliefs are Christian and in full harmony with modern thought. There is no karma, no transmigration, no inaction, no pessimism, no world-weariness and hatred of sense in this lofty verse; but there is the perception that nature is the revelation of God; there is everywhere the joy of meeting Him in sun and shower; there is the dignity and 1 The school is described in the Modern Review, May, 1913. 2 July 22, 1904. The address was reported in the Bengalee next day. worth of toil, deliverance won only by going down where God is, among "the poorest and lowliest and lost," the duty of service, the core of religion found in righteousness, life won by dying to self, sin recognized as shame and thraldom, and death as God's messenger and man's friend.1 1 This essay was written before the striking appreciation appeared in the Times Literary Supplement of May 16, 1914, and before the author had seen the review in the Spectator of Feb. 14, 1914. CHAPTER VI SOCIAL REFORM AND SERVICE 1828-1913 SOCIAL service and reform are so closely intertwined with religious thought and effort in every land, and especially in India, that it may prove useful to students to have a connected account, however brief, of the various movements and organizations which have influenced the people of India socially during the past century. I. HISTORICAL OUTLINE The Indian social movement is a direct outcome of Christian missions and Western influence; and all communities have felt the impact in a greater or less degree. The primal impulse was communicated by the Serampore Missionaries to Ram Mohan Ray, and by him to the Hindu community; and, throughout the whole history, Christian teaching, effort and example have done more than anything else to quicken the movement. Ram Mohan Ray scarcely touched the question of caste, but he condemned polygamy, and he spoke and wrote against widow-burning with so much force and convincing power as materially to prepare the way for Lord Bentinck's act.1 Under Lord Bentinck the British Government entered on a new policy of very great significance, the putting down of certain social and religious customs which had for many 1 Above, p. 33. |