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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
Circular to Editors in India and Ceylon.
The subjoined correspondence, with a few necessary words of explanation, is printed by the Theosophical Society for the information of such editors, in India and Ceylon, as may have unintentionally done it and its President the grave injustice of copying the recent libel of the Colonial Empire and Star of India, without subsequent retraction after Col. Olcott’s unanswerable letter of protest and denial appeared in the Times of India. The Society most cheerfully concedes the right of a free press to criticize it in every decent and legal way. It would be too much for it to imagine that its views upon religious and scientific matters would be acceptable to a majority of papers. But the Society’s officers will not permit any antagonist, even a missionary, to assail it with libellous diatribes. Fair play is all it asks or expects; and that, fortunately, the noble provisions of British law secure to all alike who live within its jurisdiction, and appeal to its Courts.
The Missionary organ, the Dnyanodaya, of the 12th instant did contain the apology demanded by Col. Olcott, and his letter to the Times of India, translated into Marathi, was reprinted verbatim.
Correspondence.
Bombay, 21st May 1879.
To
The PUBLISHER of the “DNYANODAYA.”
Sir,
My client, Colonel Henry S. Olcott, a member of the Delegation now in India and President of the Theosophical Society, has consulted me with reference to an article in the Dnyanodaya of Thursday[3] last, headed “Antecedents of the Theosophic Party.” The article in question, which is in Marathi, refers to a libellous paragraph in an English paper called The Colonial Empire and Star of India (a copy of which is added) and then proceeds to comment upon it. This paragraph, as you are aware, was copied into the Times of India, newspaper, of the 8th instant, and the truth of the allegation contained in it denied by my client in a letter written by him to the Editor of that paper, and published in its issue of the 13th instant. To that letter was appended a foot-note by the Editor that he was “glad to insert the letter and so set Colonel Olcott right in the opinion of his Indian friends.”
With the full knowledge, therefore, that there was no truth whatever in the allegations contained in the paragraph alluded to, you wilfully and maliciously copied it into the Dnyanodaya of the 15th instant; well knowing that the base imputations therein made would harm the reputation of my client and the other members of the Delegation of the Theosophical Society; and not only did you do this, but you added to the offence by appending comments of your own. You have thus rendered yourself liable to be prosecuted in the Police Court for defamation, and unless you at once tender to my client an ample apology for the harm done to him; and, by as prominent a paragraph in the next issue of the Dnyanodaya as the article complained of, publicly acknowledge that the comments you have made and the extract you have given are without one particle of truth in them, I am instructed to institute criminal proceedings against you, and that without further notice.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Circular to Editors in India and Ceylon. by Seervai, K. N. (signed as K. N. Seervai)
- ↑ Correspondence. by Turner, Allan F. (signed as Allan F. Turner), Bombay, May 21, 1879
- ↑ The word “Thursday” is underlined by hand; “May 15” is written opposite it in the right margin. The writer has not been identified.