“It seems hard to believe that in this civilized day there should exist anywhere, such preposterous absurdity as are practiced in India in the name of religion”
“Although England has ruled here for more than a century, and the Protestant missionary societies have spent upwards of a hundred million gold dollars in trying to make converts to Christianity, the mass of people still adhere to the ridiculous practices of the ancients”
“We find them worshipping snakes and monkeys and held in awe by the false pretenses of charlatans and sorcerers”
“Although the message of the Nazarene has gone afar, it has affected India so little that the dead are still burned on the banks of the sacred river or left in towers for the vultures to devour”
“Fiction Writers Outdone”
“The four marvelous books which the Brahmins wrote were inscribed on pages of gold and the most versatile fiction writer of modern times could not produce more fanciful nor elaborate tales...”
“Old Religious Shell Game”
“There is no trick to which Brahmin priests will not resort in order to excite the fervor of the worshippers, and thus enrich themselves by the offerings of the ignorant”
“Although the oracle is out of date in most countries where pagan priests impose upon the people, it is still worked in India with great success”
“Sometimes the idol itself addresses the awe-struck crowd of people, who listen with their hearts in their mouth as the image of stone finds voice and threatens them with dreadful punishments if their flow of offerings is not increased”
“Crazy Acts of Votaries”
“The belief that generosity and physical ordeals are the means of winning the favor of the gods is so general, that many worshipers give themselves over to disgusting and ridiculous acts of fanaticism”
“The forms of this religious frenzy takes are innumerable...
“A Glimpse of Barbarism”
“The scene of one of the Pujas is a glimpse of ancient barbarism. Around the image are prostrate supplicants, the women praying for male children and the men asking the favor of the destruction of their enemies”
“Such idolatrous scenes as this leave an unpleasant impression on the mind of the spectator. The bleating goats struggling in the hands of their gory executioners, the uncanny sounds of paganism...”
“And the shining faces of the half-crazed fanatics swarming around their gaudy idol, makes one wonder if the real reason for India’s misery and degradation is not the disobedience of the divine command: “thou shalt have none other gods but me”
Left caption: “ A Hindoo Temple”
Right caption: “A Religious Hindoo Fanatic”
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
"Hindoo Applicant Drags History to Prove Eligibility to Order"
"HIS SKIN IS OF SWARTHY HUE"
#HindooHistory
"The Independent Order of Odd Fellows confronts a problem in ethnology that has driven the officers of the Supreme lodge of Illinois almost. to distraction."
"Bastanta Bonnarjee, an East Indian and a Hindoo of the highest caste, has applied to the Central Park lodge for admission to membership in the order, and when well on his way to the fulfillment of his wish the proceedings were suddenly halted by the question of his color"
"The present struggle in South Africa has done much to distract attention from the fearful ravages of the Indian famine"
#HindooHistory
"There is, however, one point in connection with this periodic scourge which Britishers would do well to bear in mind, says a prominent member of the Indian Civil Service in Pearson's Weekly"
"To inspire a spiritless race like this with the desire to help itself is not the least among the multitudinous trials of the famine relief officer"
"The British discuss giving 'dominion status' to India. This, nominally, would put India in the position of Canada or Australia as a self-governing part of the British Empire"
"These two pictures show you some of the gentlemen that feel ready for self-government. To be sacred, the bull must be pure white. If he has a calf only partly white, whatever isn't white is painted white and then he is a perfectly good sacred bull"
The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., 1911
"HINDUISM: THE SUPREME FACT OF INDIA"
"If it were any other country but India, I might write last of the religion the people profess, but since it is India, it is the first thing to be considered"
"This Man's Shadow Believed to Put Curse On Person Upon Whom It Falls"
"Caste Barriers Being Destroyed by Church Work in India, Survey Indicates"
#HindooHistory
"If a member of a higher caste in Southern India passes within 65 feet of a Pariah, or member of one of the lowest castes, he believes himself defiled"
"Even the shadow of a lower caste defiles the body of a high caste person upon whom it may fall. Members of the mason caste, the blacksmith caste and the leather-maker's caste extend their pollution 30 feet"
"If I were asked to describe India the first remark that would spring from my lips would be, 'It is a land of idols.' It would be impossible to compute the number of idols that there must be at the present time in India."
"The Hindoos pretend to have 333,000,000 gods, and these are represented by innumerable idols, so that we are quite bewildered with the thought of taking the census of the idols of India"