Page:The Modern Review (July-December 1925).pdf/594

568 mraka. were removed bag and baggage from Bimdhagaya m Februray 1910. To-day the mahant is receiving the support of Govt, and Govt, profes­ sors and officers of the Archaeological Dept are moving heaven and earth to show that the Temple at Buddhagaya is Hindu! After thirty years they hav3 opened their eyes to write against the MahaBoc hr Society and my poor self. „ _ fir. HarDyal’s suggestion was anticipated by me in 1891, but we could not get land to build the college near Buddhagaya as the land was the property of mo Saivite sanyasis. The Hindus recognize the Lora Buddlta as the 9th avatar of Vishnu, but they belong to the sect of Vaishanvas, while msiant is a saivite utterly opposed to the religion ot Buddha Bhagavan. . -he Hindus can allow the Moslems and Christ­ ians to do. what they like in India, but the Bucdhists being a small minority are not tolerated. So great is the' spirit of animosity which they ha»B towards the Buddhists. Hinduism, has allowed 65 millions of human beags to live like pigs and are called untouchables. V uat an irony to say that Hinduism takes within its fold all religions. The Moslems and the Chris- • bars are converting the untouchables but Brahmameal orthodoxy is fighting tooth arid nail to keep the untouchables in a state of degradation. Hinduism maxes men of non-Brahaman caste to stagnate ani degenerate. The Brahmans dislike the Cohese, Tibetans and Burmese, because they eat meat, while the Moslems and Christians kill daily throughout India thousands of cows and calves and no "protest is raised. The fact of the matter is that the Brahmans dis.ike Buddhism because it preaches a spiritual democracy and softens the hearts of the savages to oecome gentle and tolerant. For a thousand years Brahmanism has gradually dedined and Moslems are gaining converts from the Endu fold. There is no hope for the masses un­ der . Brahmanical supremacy. Pushya Mitra the con?nander:in-chief of the Buddhist emperor tamed traitor and assassinated his master and began persecuting the Buddhists. The Brahmans tai ok that the asvamedha sacrifice is a greater achievement than the spiritualization of millions of pscple. Brahmanism is only for the Brahmans, not for the Sudras. It is an oligarchy of priestly hureaucrats trampling down the rights of the people who do not belong to their caste. Brahmanism crushed the spirit of the lower classes and the Mslem invaders subjugated India. The religion of the Lord Buddha is. absolutely needed if India is to become again great. The backbone of the nation is broken by the priestly.class. A thousand mahants can never make the Buddhists fmget the holy site where the Prince Siddhartha became enlightened. The Christians were disallowed to own their holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and after 700 years they have secured the holy site. Tire mahant and the British government may make every effort to prevent the Buddhists from Inking possession of their own holy shrine but the time may come when they will see the right­ eousness oE the claim of the Buddhists. Till then iris Buddhists shall wait with patience.

contention that India should not change her-religion. The words quoted are indeed" to'.be found in th8 pages of The Light of the East. But, as you are well aware’ since you kindly reproduced tire passage and part of its refutation, they do not represent the views of our Monthly but views which it opposed and at least tried; to1 refute. In other words ' Politieus has quoted a purvapaJcsa and not our sidhanta. Which proves that the old rule given to writers ‘to verify their quotations’ is not suffi­ cient. They must also carefully read the context of these quotations-. I do not of course suspect thegood faith of your- contributor. G. Dandoy, S. J.. Editor of The Light of the East. Reply

.THe -Editor of the Light of the East points out that the passage quoted by me from it does not represent the views of that monthly but views which it opposed and tried to refute. The refutation did not seem to me to be very con­ vincing, at least from the Extract in the Modern Beview which alone I bad the privilege to read. But what I was concerned with was not the refut­ ation, but the arguments which, were sought to be refuted, and I was careful not to suggest that a the arguments I was quoting represented the views of the Editor. I find that the Editor is fair enough not to suspect my good faith. That being so, I have no objection to publishing the Editor’s letter so that it may be distinctly understood that the able arguments put forward in his mazagine about the evils of change of religion were not the views which the editor approved but were opposed to Ms own views. PoLiTictra

Prof. Tripurari Chakrabarti has contributed an article to the Calcutta Review in defence of the Calcutta University against Professor Jadunath Sarkar’s criticisms of that institution. Mr. Chakrabarti’s article contains some irrelevant matter about which much need not be said.

He objects to the use of the words “Kartabhaja and Maharaja sects”.

The Kartabhajas are an Indian sect, the members of which surrender their judgment blindly to their leader or guru. When a body of educated men, elected or appointed to assist in the deliberations and to shape the policy of an academic institution follow a similar line of action, the result is that they prove false to the responsibilities of their position and they become helpless like children in the absence of their autocratic leader. The reign of law and the continuity of system and policy are impossible among such human sheep. See back numbers of this Review for instances, (esp. the inside view of the Calcutta University as given by one of its staff.) The words Maharaja sect have nowhere been used by Prof. Sarkar with reference to our academics. Its application elsewhere has been justified by the new Swaraj leader of Bengal.

Mr. Chakrabarti speaks of the “followers” of Prof. Sarkar and refers to what one of them has written in a daily paper. This Review has nothing to do with what is published in other journals. As for “followers”, what lucrative head-examinership