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 BENGAL.

290

expiatory sacrifices to Kali, they petition Government, or write violent

vernacular press. The reformed Muhammadan husbandmen, therefore, can now stand aloof from the rites of the Hindus. They have ceased to be merely a separate caste in the rural organization, and have become a distinct community, keeping as much apart from their Muhammadan co-religionists of the old unreformed faith as from the This social isolation from the surrounding Hindus idolatrous Hindus. Its third is the second effect of the Musalman revival in Bengal. A Muhammadan, like a result is political, and concerns ourselves. Christian revival, strongly re-asserts the duty of self-abnegation, and places a multitude of devoted instruments at the disposal of any man who can convince them that his schemes are identical with the will of God. But while a return to the primitive teachings of Christ means a return to a religion of humanity and love, a return to Muhammadan first principles means a return to a religion of conquest and aggression.

letters to the

The very essence of Musalman Puritanism The whole conception of Islam is that militant or conclusively triumphant

—

is

abhorrence of the Infidel.

of a church

ruling the stiff-necked unbeliever with a rod of iron.

of India, where unbeliever primitive

it

the

is

either

actively

forcibly converting the world, or

Musalmans who

The

actual state

are in subjection,

and the

who governs them, is manifestly not in accord with the and many devout Muhammadans of the reformed ideal

have of late years endeavoured, by plots and frontier attacks, to remove this anomaly. The majority are not actively hostile, but they look askance at our institutions, and hesitate to coalesce with the faith

system which the British Government has imposed on Bengal. The progress of education, and the good sense of the great majority of the Bengali Musalmans, now leave the aggressively discontented section in

As the Ruling Power has more

a very small minority.

clearly realised

discharged those

Muhammadan population, and more conscientiously duties, the Muhammadan community has become not

only more

but more disposed to cheerfully incorporate

its

duties to the

loyal,

itself into

the existing political organisation.

—

As a result of the spread of education also, movements have been going on since 1830 among the A sect named the Adi-Brahmo adopts a theism based Hindus. on the Veda, and a simple morality, without the superstructure of Brahmanical Hinduism. It includes among its members many persons Another sect, the Brahmos, of high character and social position. often styled the Progressive Brahmos, profess a purer theism and a high They reject the claims of the Veda to divine standard of morality. inspiration, and have to some extent thrown off the more objectionable Babu Keshab Chandra Sen was their bestrestrictions of caste. Thdstic Movetnents

many

.

religious

‘

known

recent leader.

The death

’

of that truly great inan occurred