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< Mr. Hastie. (continued from page 14-119) >
of subjects is vigo…ous, its language, terse, racy and flowing. In the last two numbers of this journal we find two articles anent Mr. Hastie’s letters in the Statesman. Mr. Hastie is a missionary, and Principal of the General Assembly’s Institution at Calcutta. In course of a series of letters published in the columns of the Statesman, this Christian gentleman, speaking of the effects of idolatory, used such expressions as—
“It (idolatory) has consecrated and encouraged every conceivable form of licentiousness, falsehood, injustice, cruelty, robbery, murder. * * * and this debasing idolatry produced, according to the painful testimony of native writers themselves, a mass of shrinking cowards, of unscrupulous deceivers, of bestial idlers, of filthy songsters, of degraded women, and of lustful men.”
And, again, “O Bharata-Varsha, the once fair daughter of the Morning, how hast thou fallen from thy throne of pride and become the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth?”
One can not find words in any known language sufficiently hard to pay back this Satan amongst Christians in his own coin. It can only be answered in the way that the Bangabasi has suggested—by the students who are at present prosecuting their studies in the General Assembly’s Institution withdrawing themselves from it and getting admitted into some other Schools and colleges—such as the Metropolitan, the City, or the Oriental Seminary in Chitpore Road. Let the educational Institution, which still retains on its staff such a vile-tongued fool as Mr. Hastie, have to close its doors for want of students. Let the students also take note and make a firm resolution—if they have one iota of respect for the sacred honor of their mothers—instantly to get out of any institution where Mr. Hastie gets in. Let the audacious man who calls us “shrinking cowards” feel that there are bounds beyond which our natural politeness, which he mistakes for cowardice, must not be taxed—that we have manliness enough to retaliate the insult of a filthy being whom the honored missionaries of India are not ashamed to call a member of their brotherhood. It must not also be forgotten that no amount of apology can cover an insult of the kind, and we earnestly hope that we have not spoken all this to mere stones.
The Tribune.
December 30, 1882.
<Untitled> (What, by the way, are our worthy friends…)
What, by the way, are our worthy friends—the socalled patriots, leaders and public men—of Bengal doing? Are not such words as Mr. Hastie has used with reference to their birth and nationality sufficient for a public cause to make? Is it not patriotic to be avenged for the blackest slur that has ever been cast upon the character of their race? Leaders of the society as they would like to be called, is not this worst insult to the whole Hindu Society to which they belong provoking enough for them to lead their constituents to adopt a measure that is calculated to uphold their mothers’ honor? Have their speechifying tongues lost all powers of articulation for thundering in public halls—just to warn their young friends that to continue studies in an institution presided over by such an abomination of the missionary society is to accept the foulest calumny laid at …[2] and doing to make good the time that they have been sleeping over, but if the latter, there is, alas, no hope for the country, and the vile calumniator of the Hindu’s world-acknowledged fair honor will chuckle with triumph!
The Theosophical Society.—The Anniversary Meeting of the Theosophical Society at the Framji Cowasji Hall the other day was one of great significance. It presented an altogether novel scene for modern India. The spectacle of Hindus from all parts of India mustering strong under the standard of the ancient religion of the mighty Aryas in this age of atheism run mad is a happy sight for a genuine well-wisher of the land, while the fact of the presence of European gentlemen of high intellectual worth formed a most important feature in the signs of the time. Such an unusual demonstration unmistakably proves one fact beyond any other, that the cause of the President Founder of the Society and Madame Blavatsky is noble beyond doubt, and that whatever their calumniators may say, these two noble-minded foreigners will, in time that is to come, prosper more than heretofore. We congratulate the worthy and indefatigable Madame and Colonel on their achievement of such a brilliant success, and assure them that, though owing no documentary allegiance to the Theosophical Society, we have every sympathy for the objects of the movement, and will be ever ready to further their cause to the best of our ability.
<[A curved blue pencil stroke appears below the notice.][4]>
The Indian Spectator.
Sunday, December 31st, 1882.
<Untitled> (An English gentleman, who knew the late Mr. Dadoba Pandurang well…)
An English gentleman, who knew the late Mr. Dadoba Pandurang well, thus writes from England. We need scarcely say that the suggestion at the end of the note has our hearty sympathy:—
The notices referring to the career of your worthy citizen Dadoba Pandurang, Rao Bahadur, which appeared in your journal and in all other Bombay papers, have been read here with much interest by those of us who knew him. He was full of years; so that the chief regret is that the later period of his life was clouded by rather more than his share of the “losses and crosses” that are the common lot. But, as I well remember, he was much cheered by that renewed recognition of his proper worth implied in the appointment as Mahratta Translator, a wise mark of favour that I believe he owed to Sir James Fergusson’s Government after being too long treated to the cold shoulder of your local official world. Though Mr. Dadoba had not enjoyed the advantages of the modern collegiate system, he was thoroughly grounded in what acquirements he had attained under the old system, and in, this respect his example might be worth studying by some of your matriculated youths before they go up to the “Previous” examination. In the broader sense of his sterling qualities, consistent and honourable as a public servant or citizen, Mr. Dadoba’s name is well worthy of being perpetuated. Perhaps one of the best ways of doing that would be by means of prizes or moderate scholarships in connection with “sound vernacular education.
Editor's notes
- ↑ What, by the way, are our worthy friends… by unknown author, Tribune, The, Separate ruled editorial paragraph below Mr.Hastie conclusion, same Tribune clipping sequence
- ↑ The upper pasted fragment ends with “laid at”; the lower one begins with “and doing”. The intervening text is missing from the clipping.
- ↑ The Theosophical Society. by unknown author, Tribune, The, Separate anniversary report alongside Mr.Hastie continuation in the Tribune December30 clipping group
- ↑ The writer of the mark has not been established.
- ↑ An English gentleman, who knew the late Mr. Dadoba Pandurang well… by unknown author, Indian Spectator, The, Sunday,December31st,1882; editorial introduction and anonymous letter from England