HPB-SB-14-142

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

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vol. 14, p. 142	volume 14, page 142 vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 174 A curved blue-pencil mark appears below the letter signed Monier Williams; the writer has not been identified.
Legend HPB note HPB highlighted HPB underlined HPB crossed out <Editors note> <Archivist note> Lost or unclear SBT, DT Restored

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eng • рус

HOSPITAL FOR ANIMALS AT BOMBAY.

The following letter has been addressed by Mr. Dinshaw Manockjee Petit to the Honourable L. H. Bayley, President of the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:—

Dear Sir,—In the month of April, 1881, when your energetic honorary secretary, Mr. K. M. Shroff, called on me along with Mr. Tullockchand Manockchand, a member of your executive committee, for the purpose of raising subscriptions, I expressed to them my views which I have been long entertaining, that the present system of dragging the owners of diseased and disabled bullocks to the Police Court and getting them fined there, instead of relieving the sufferings of these dumb animals and doing the good which the Society has in view, brought misery and ruin to the poor cartmen and added to the sufferings of these poor dumb creatures; thus, if a cartman were fined for driving a diseased bullock he would then be obliged to keep that bullock at home till it was better, and necessarily to keep his other bullock idle. Being thus without his daily income he would be unable to feed properly his bullocks,—both the diseased and the good one, whereby they would be brought into a starving condition. Not only that, but the cartman would be reduced to great distress. To avoid this I suggested that it would be much better if the Society, instead of getting the cartman fined, would open an hospital, where the sick and disabled animals could get proper medical treatment, that the Society ought to buy some bullocks which they should keep in reserve, and give them at a reasonable hire to the cartman in exchange for his sick bullock, which would be retained in the hospital. The cartman would then be able to ply his cart and would be kept from starvation.

I am glad to say that my views were cheerfully supported both by your able honorary secretary and Mr. Tullockchand. They then called upon, and consulted with me, as to how such a desirable object could be carried out with the limited means at the command of the Society. Moreover, as the subscriptions annually raised with some difficulty from the public were too poor for the purpose, I then promised them to present to the Society, for the purpose of the proposed hospital, a piece of vacant ground with a certain sum of money, and suggested that to maintain the same the Society should apply to the native merchants and the local mills for contributions.

Your secretary then had interviews with the native merchants dealing in seeds and cotton, principal among whom were Chattoorbhooj Morarjee, Hurbum Nursey, Khimjee Jiva and Goculdas Madhowjee, who, after consulting with me in the matter, took up, I am glad to say, the idea, and made arrangements for the purpose of paying certain fees upon all imports and exports of seeds and grain and upon all sales of cotton to the local mills. Most of the mill owners also have agreed to pay similar fees. Meetings of these native merchants were then held and resolutions adopted, of which you are fully aware.

I now beg to offer to the Society for the purpose of the said hospital, and on the following conditions, a piece of vacant ground at Chinchpoogly, measuring about 20,000 (twenty thousand) square yards which I will convey to them, and the sum of Rs. 25,000 (twenty-five thousand) for the erection of the building thereof:—

1. That the Society do build a suitable hospital for animals and maintain, the same properly and efficiently.
2. That the said hospital be called “The Bai Sakurbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals.”
3. That if any portion of the said land be purchased from the Society by Government or the Municipality for public purposes, all moneys that may be received for the same should be placed to the credit of an account to be opened in my name in the books of the Society, and the same invested in Government papers which should be kept intact, the interest only of which should be used for the current expenses of the Society. But in the event of the whole of the land being so purchased by Government or the Municipality, all moneys that may be received for the same should be invested by the Society for the same purposes, that is for the purchase of other land and the erection of buildings thereon for the said hospital.
4. That if at any time hereafter the Society, for the want of funds, may be unable to maintain the said hospital and be obliged to abandon it, then only the lands and the buildings that may be, at the time, standing thereon, be reconveyed to me or any lineal heir,—I beg to remain, &c.,

Dinshaw Manockjee Petit.

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The Times of India.

INDIAN STUDENTS IN ENGLAND.

[To the Editor of the “Times of India”.]

Sir,—In the letter I wrote to you about five months ago, giving some account of the career of Pundit ShyamajiKrishnavarma, of Balliol College, at thisUniversity, I stated that he had recently passed an extremely creditable examination in Divinity (including the four Gospels in the original Greek.) I added that this was the first instance on record of a non-Christian student successfully surmounting difficulties which to Asiatic minds, nurtured in a wholly different atmosphere, have hitherto appeared insuperable. Will you allow me to express my regret that in making this statement I unintentionally did some injustice to Mr. C. M. Cursetji, who took his degree in 1867? That gentleman informs me that being a non-Christian he had the option of taking up two extra classical authors instead of the Divinity course, but that he selected the latter entire…y from a wish to study and understand a system of religion that has o…tained so vast a hold on the civilized world. Without doubt all honor is due to Mr. Cursetji for this largeness of mind. At the same time, without detracting from his marits, I venture to point out that his case is not quite parallel. He came to England at an earlier age than Mr. Shyamaji, and was to a much greater degree anglicized in his ideas and opinions. He was not profoundly versed in his own sacred language and sacred books, and being a Parsi, was not fenced around by iron barriers of caste, and prohibited under appalling penalties, from leaving the land of the Aryas to seek interchange of thought and social contact with English Mlecchas in their own country. It is greatly to the credit of Mr. Shyamaji that without giving up one iota of his Sanskrit learning he has opened his mind freely to the reception of European ideas on all subjects. I need scarcely say that even at Benares there are Pundits and Pundits; and that the ordinary stamp of Pundit entrenches himself in dignified isolation and serene self-complacency behind his Veda, his Smriti, and his Darsanas, contemptuously excluding from his mental horizon every other subject except Sanskrit literature, which, in his estimation, comprises all possible departments of human knowledge. Such a man is in openess of mind very little above the level of the inhabitants of a certain remote island in the Pacific, who could not be persuaded that the Ocean was created for any other purpose than to supply them with shrimps. He has no notion whatever of any need of collateral culture or of any advantage to be gained by mental and social contact with Europeans.

Of such a stamp is not Pundit Shyamaji. I had the pleasure of attending the Convocation held in the Sheldonian Theatre of this University last Monday, when he with many others received their B.A. degrees in the presence of a large number of spectators. What Mr. Shyamaji has gained in the way of collateral culture at Oxford may be gathered from the fact of his having passed a highly creditable examination in four subjects—Law, Political Economy, Bacon’s Works, and Sanskrit (the latter especially in its connection with European philology)—proficiency in all four of which was necessary to enable him to take his degree this term. And all this he has accomplished, by dint of hard and persistent study, only five months after attaining the requisite standard in Greek, Latin, and Logic at Moderations. I trust that on his return to his own country he will impart a desire for similar breadth of culture to his brother Pundits. At any rate, he has amply justified the high opinion I formed in India of his industry and ability and of his willingness to receive gratefully the rough shocks and hard knocks by which this University is wont to cure all tendency to pedantry, piggishness, and self-complacency in those who come to her for knowledge.—Yours, &c.

Monier Williams.

Balliol College, Oxford, 22.d December.

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Religio-Philosophical Journal. December 23, 1882.

The Theosophist conducted by Madame H. P. Blavatsky, will henceforth be published at Madras, India. Address all letters for her at that place.

Editor's notes

Sources

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  The Religio-Philosophical Journal, v. 33, No. 17, December 23, 1882, p. 4