Gandhi Before Gandhi

SR No.: 007501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai
Publication Year: 2009
Total Pages: 198
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & History
File Size: 34 MB

Page 22

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI4
Ignorant and irresponsible statement by Bishop Caldwell & its answer by Virchand Gandhi
Answering to the criticism that Indians worship Shiva, a God of destruction, Mr. Gandhi replied:
My statement may be objected by distinguished Ecclesiastics, such as Bishop Caldwell, who has lived in India for many years and said that the Hindus worship Gods of destruction, however acquaintance with us will prove that we do not worship Gods in the sense it is conveyed, but they represent to us ideas of retribution and penalty and destruction of the wrongdoing and misdoing of man, and we choose to appease there wrath and propitiate justice by approaching the methods of a holy life". This same Bishop says further, "The people of India worship Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna and various similar gods. The very names of these divinities are unknown in any other countries. These are worshiped as Gods by the people of India alone. If they were really gods, they would certainly be gracious to the people of India. They would certainly give proof of it by abasing the white men, who do not worshiped them, and by exalting their worshipers; they would bestow on the Hindu unbounded wisdom, power and prosperity, and would probably give to them the government of the rest of mankind. How widely different is the condition of the Hindus, the supreme government of every part of India is in the hands of Christians."
To answer this, Mr. Gandhi further says...
"It has become an article of faith with most of the orthodox Christians
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that the Hindus are liars. All sorts of abuses are heaped on the people of India from the Himalaya to Ceylon, and, without exception all these calumnies proceed either from the missionaries or the English officers. We accord them their rights as we do even to the tiniest animalcule the right to live and be happy in their own way, if they let us alone, but when we find that these little creatures are annoying us, we have to brush them aside. The statements of these missionaries made about the Hindus, their religions and life, are never an admirable illustration of their methods and zeal. When I first came to know in this country, from missionary sources that in India women threw their babies into the Ganges and that people threw themselves under the car of Juggrnaut, I doubted whether in the blackest and most intolerant days of the Christian Church, any villainous priest ever invented more bare-faced falsehoods or malicious slanders like these."