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 INDIA

735

INDIA

British Indian Statute Book relating to religious societies. It confers on bodies associated for the pur- pose of maintaining religious worship certain powers in respect of (1) appointment of new trustees in cases not otherwise provided for, (2) vesting their proper- ties in these new trustees without a formal instrument, and (3) dissolution of the societies by three-fifths of their number at a meeting convened for such purpose. Questions regarding the validity of the appointments of any trustee, as to whether any person is a member of a .society, etc., can be submitted for adjudication to the High Court. This Act confers only certain ena- bling powers on religious as.sociations, and allows High Courts to interfere only when there are certain disputes within an as.sociation.

One of the striking features of the British Adminis- tration in India — the result of its respect for the cus- toms of the people — is that by far the great mass of them are allowed to regulate their laws of succession, inlieritance, property, etc., according to their im- memorial usages. The enactments reganling succes- sion, wills, etc., are intended for com- munities who are supposed not to have any set usages to fall back upon. The State scrupulously avoids interference even with the usages of converts to Chris- tianity. In Abra- ham V. Abraham (9 M. I. A., 195) the Privy Council held, "The profession of Christianity releases the convert from the trammels of Hindu Law, but it does not of necessity involve any change in the rights or relations of the convert in mat- ters with which Christianity has no concern, such as his rights and interests in, and powers over, property. The convert, though not bound as to such matters, either by the Hindu Law or by any other positive law, may by his course of conduct after his con- version have shown by what law he intended to be governed as to these matters." A recent de- cision of the Bombay High Court has gone so far as to recognize the legal existence of the peculiar system of Hindu co-parcenership among the native Christians of Kanara (S Bom. L. R. 770). It is inter- esting to note how, where the State has thought fit to pass special enactments as to marriages and dissolu- tion of marriages among Christians or converts, the usages of the Roman Catholics have been duly re- spected, as in the Christian Marriage Act of 1S72 (Sec- tions 9, 10, 30, .32, 65), and the Dissolution of Native Converts' Marriages Act, 1866, Section 34, which pro- vides that "nothing contained in this Act shall be taken to render invalid any marriage of a native con- vert to Roman Catholicism, if celebrated in accord- ance with the rules, rites, ceremonies, and customs of the Roman Catholic Church." Such laws or usages as inflict on any person forfeiture of rights or property, and may be held in any way to impair or affect any right of inheritance, by reason of his renouncing or havmg been excluded from the communion of any religion or being deprived of caste, have been declared illegal by Act XXI of 1851.

The only apparent exception to the policy of equal favour to all religious communities is the modest en-

Benares

dowment of the established religion by the main- tenance of Protestant Anglican Bishops and civil chaplains, and churches under their control and their establishment. This arose from the fact that the ofBcers of the East India Company, who established British dominion in India, consisted mainly of .Anglican Protestants; and while the East India Company took good care to maintain old Hindu antl Mohammedan religious edifices and the estalilishments of their min- isters of worship which had been endowetl and main- tained by previous rulers, it was but natural that it should have provided for an ecclesiastical establish- ment needed for the majority of its officers. The Government of India Act, 1833 (3 and 4 Will. IV, c. 85), while authorizing the Anglican ecclesiastical in- stitution provides for the appointment of two chap- lains of the Church of Scotlanil on the establishment of each presidency. " Provided always that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the Covernor-General in Coimcil from granting from time to time to any sect, persuasion, or community of

Christians, not being of the United Church of England and Ire- land, or of the Church of Scotland, such simis of money as may be expedient for the purpose of in- struction or for the maintenance of places of worship."

In the last respect the Government of India cannot be said to be partial to Chris- tians as compared with non-Christians; since it spends large sums of State money over a number of non - Christian reli- gious edifices and institutions in con- tinuance and perpet- uation of the practice of their predecessors in the government of the coimtry. This is done either directly by periodical payments, or indirectly by means of inams or grant lands free from assess- ment. The Anglican ecclesiastical establishments had their origin in the ancient chaplaincies attached to the East India Company's factories in India.

The Roman Catholic religion comes in for rather an insignificant share of the State's bounty. Catholic troops are allowed the ministration of Catholic priests, but the State does not mamtain them on anything like the scale extended to Anglican chaplains — the expenditure on Catholic military chaplains and their establishments, etc., for the whole of the Indian Army amounting to Rs. 284,000 per annum. (The rupee varies in value from 30 to 32 cents.) An instructive commentary on this part of the sul^ject is furnished by the figures of expenditure in the Bombay Presidency. The Church of England costs Rs. 289,708 per annum; the Church of Scotland Rs. 34.435; while the Catholic Church receives only Rs. 10,374, or about equal to the salary of one Anglican senior chaplain. (The monthly allowance of Rs. 500 given to the archbishop is for statistical returns.) Compare this with the annual cash allowances given to non-Christian temples and mosques, amounting to not less than Rs. 255,000; in addition to the enormous revenues derived from lands presented to them by the State, on which the mere assessment (which of course is not recovered) comes to close on Rs. 900,000. In other words, the British Government spends on non-Christian temples and