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 INDIA

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INDIA

that is, what remains outside the actual sovereign powers exercised by the native princes. When any Indian chief dies without an heir, or leaving a minor heir, or proves himself incapable of ruling, the British Government steps in and administers the afifairs of the State tlirough their agent, and exercises what has been named by Sir William Lee- Warner ("Protected Princes of India", p. 330), substituted jurisdiction. In such case it is the Gov- ernor-General of India or the local governors that conduct the administration, while the British Indian Legislatures are unable to extend their authority over the native subjects of Indian Princes or their territory. It is the prerogative of the Crown and not of the Britisli-Indian Legislatures, whose enactments may be introduced only by the British executive authority by means of special orders. In the exercise of the substituted jurisdiction, as in Mysore during a long minority administration, a large number of Indian legislative enactments have been introduced in several Native States. The Native States administrations have also built up their legislative code on the model of the British-Indian legis- lation. Thus we shall find that there is no State in which the Indian Penal Code or some cotle like it has not Ijeen introduced with all the provisions relat- mg to offences against religion (Sec- tions 296-298 Indian Penal Code). But there is not a single Native State which can boast among its legislative achieve- ments any enact- ments similar to the Caste and Religious Disabilities act (XXI of 1851), which de- clares as illegal " such laws or u.sages as inflict on any person forfeiture of rights or prop- erty or 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". It is a master- piece of British statesmanship and policy of toleration and equal protection of all religions. That it should not find a place in the statute book of a State like Mysore governed on the highest lilieral principles, in which a native Catholic of the State rose to the emi- nent position of a judge of the Mysore High Court and then that of a member of the Council of .Admin- istration, and in which Christianity thrives splendidly side by side with Hinduism and every other religion, is an enigma which outsiders are at a loss to under- stand. The agitation for the introduction of legis- lation on the lines of the British-Indian enactment in the large Native States of Mysore and Travancore has failed woefully.

But for this flaw in the administration of the Native States, it must be said to their credit that the principle of religious toleration has been generally respected by Indian princes and rulers. There have Ijeen some rare instances in which the British Gov- ernment has found it necessary to interfere on the score of religious intolerance of a chief. One of the notable cases was the refusal of Lord Ripon to allow the Maharajah of Indore to restrict the freedom of religious worship of the Canadian mis- VII.^7

DCNKAK, .SPITI. InI'1

sionaries within their own houses and in their own premises, a privilege which has extended to their converts and dependents, the native subjects of His Highness. Though there are native rulers, who have not surrendered a jot of their internal sovereignty over their native suljjects, yet their very existence is toler- ated and guaranteed on the condition of their main- taining a just and peaceful administration combined with toleration of all religions — if not equal protection of all religious bodies and sects. The latter condition of equal protection could not be exacted from Indian chiefs by a European Government which boasts of an established Church supported by the State at home — though it has practically kept itself free from such an entanglement in India. So every Indian State has its established church — generally that of the religion of the chief — maintained out of public funds. Many a ruler has at the same time extended his patronage to religious commimities other than that to which he belongs by grants of land to their places of worship and nemnuks or allowances to their

religious ministers. There are numerous Christian education- al and charitable institutions in native States, which have received large grants-in-aid from Indian chiefs and darbars. Christian bishops and mission- aries are generally treated with marked respect and receive every courtesy from darbars and their of- ficers. Christian re- ligious propaganda is, it is true, looked upon with disfavour Ijy the people especi- ally those of higher castesof Hindus, and with the almost im- passable barriers of caste or fanaticism the progress of Christianity is necessarily slow in India, and slower still in most Native States which support an estab- lished church. Foreign missionaries in some States suffer from the prohibition against their acquiring lands, but this prohibition does not apply to na- tive Christians, in whose names any number of lands can be purchased for the use of missions. On the whole. Christian missionaries have to be thankful for the liberal principles on which native administrations are conducted under the guiding hand of the British Government.

Ecclesiastical Literature. — From the Catholic point of view nofhing in the way of a complete general historyof the Church in India has yetbeen written, though the materials for such a work are abundant and might easily be collected. They consist chiefly of the records and histories of the different relis- ious orders, collections of official documents, monographs on particular missions and biographies of eminent missionaries — as well as occasional literature of various kinds. Some rather scanty general histories have been written by Protestants; but most of them are vitiated by a marked animus against Rornan Catholicism, and have to be read with caution. The following is a somewhat promiscuous list of works, most of which are easily .accessible: On the Thomas Christians. — Mackenzie, Christianily in Travancore (1901): Medltcott, India and the Apostle St. Thomas (1905); Raulin. Historic Eeclesice Mala- bariciF (Rome. 1745): Geddes, The Church of Malabar and the Si/nod of Diamver (1694): Philipos, The Sudan Church in Mala- bar (1869): Kennet. .S(. Thomas. Amstle of India (1882); Milne Rae. Sijrian Church in India (1S92): Howard. Chris- tians of St. Thomas (1S64). Concerning the Portuguese. — Lafi- tau, D'Touverles el conquctes des Portuguais (1533): O Chronista de Tissiiaru: SouzA, .tsia Portugufsa (1666); Du Barros, Dec- cadas (1777); Dellon. Relation de I Inquisition de Goa; FoN- SECA, Sketch of the City of Goa (Bombay, 1S7S); Bidlarium