{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 159,
  "chapterName": "1921. C. F. Andrews on Indian Independence",
  "pageFrom": 326,
  "pageTo": 329,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 326,
      "ocrText": "326\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nvocation, and as such are being drawn closer into the family circle.\nBy permanent members we mean those who have committed\nthemselves to the ashram as a life call.\nMen are often attracted to one another at first by each other's\nidealisms. As they live and work together in close contact they\ncome to know more and more of each other's failures and angula-\nrities. This is a critical stage in fellowship. Have they the inner\nconsciousness that they are children in the father's house and that\ntheir disunion would wound His love? Have they had the expe-\nrience of that wonderful suffering love of Christ that has forgiven\nthem so much? If so, will they not also forgive one another\nand continue a love which will only grow deeper the more it\nforgives? This is why the basis of the ashram family (as expressed\nin the constitution) is personal loyalty (i.e., faith) and devotion\nto Jesus Christ. We do not enquire into a man's creed or theolo-\ngical views or Church connection, as his real fitness and capacity\nfor sharing in the ashram family will be made clear in the daily\nround of life. We also realize that the 'Inner Light' illumines\nmany honest souls who have not named the name of Christ, and\nsuch also we welcome to come and share in following the Light\nthat shineth more and more unto the perfect day...\n159. C.F. ANDREWS ON INDIAN INDEPENDENCE\n(1921 A.D.)\nThe English missionary, C. F. Andrews, who became a close asso-\ncite of Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most influential of that small\ngroup of missionaries who were openly sympathetic to the Indian\nNationalist movement. Like Gandhi, he was more concerned with the\nmoral and spiritual consequences of continuing British rule than\nhe was with the political implications. It is his concern with the degra-\ndation of the Indian spirit consequent upon colonial rule that is the\nmain theme of the document reproduced here. Cited in Marjorie\nSykes, C. F. Andrews, Representative Writings, pp. 74-78.\nAfter many varied experiences in the British colonies I have\nbeen carried forward step by step to the conclusion that the goal of\nIndian freedom lies outside the British Empire. To arrive at\nsuch a conclusion has been no easy thing for me; it has repre-\nsented the complete transformation of the hopes with which I\ncame to India nearly eighteen years ago.\nIt is not the political, but the moral and spiritual side of this\ngreat issue of Indian independence which interests me most deeply.\nIt involves, for me, a great issue still, an issue as wide as humanity,",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 327,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n327\nthe breaking down of the 'white' race supremacy which I hold\nto be the greatest menace on earth today. The question therefore\nis not one of politics, but of humanity.\nThis does not mean that foreign conquest is always, imme-\ndiately, a disaster. The reign of Akbar was an untold blessing\nto India. But to prolong a foreign rule appears invariably to\nlead to disaster. And the whole controversy with England at\nthe present time is that its rule in India has lasted too long.\nTwo historical maxims put foreward by Sir John Seeley, con-\ncerning Indian independence, long ago attracted my attention.\nThese have seemed to me to be profoundly disturbing. They have\nforced me to see how deep the evil of dependence lies, and how hard\nit is to eradicate it. The first maxim may be quoted in Sir John\nSeeley's own words, as follows: Subjection for a long time to a\nforeign yoke is one of the most potent causes of national deteriora-\ntion. I wish every word of this sentence to be very carefully noted.\nNot every subjection, but subjection for a long time, is a potent\ncause of national deterioration.\nThe evils that arise, when subjection has eaten into the soul of\nthe people, are only too well known. There is a slow undermining\nof the very foundations of truth and honesty and fearlessness of\ncharacter, when everything is to be gained by accommodation\nand flattery. No material benefits can compensate for these\nvicious effects of foreign rule upon the truthfulness of the people's\nlives. There is the terrible fact of history to be faced. To remain\nany further in a state of dependence within the British Empire\nwould appear to mean an increasing measure of national deterio-\nration. We must, therefore, at once awake and shake ourselves\nfree.\nI have said to myself again and again, in silence: If this inde-\npendence, which is every Englishman's birthright, has made my\nown life free and fearless, what right have I to enslave others?\nHow can I refuse to allow the same freedom to every Indian?\nI had no answer to that question except to acknowledge the truth\nit contained.\nIn the European Middle Ages there was a striking phrase\ndescribing anything which brought stagnation upon the future;\nit was called the mortain, the dead hand. I have seen the dead\nhand of an essentially foreign rule, such as British rule must always\nbe, laid upon many things in Indian life that were vitally precious.\nArt, music, poetry, architecture, may for a time be quickened into\nactivity by the impact of a foreign culture; but the dead hand'\ninevitably creeps forward, if the impact is prolonged. In the life",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 328,
      "ocrText": "328\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nof the villages of India, changes which brought the shock of novelty\nhave also brought the shock of destruction. We can see the\ndeadening touch of foreign interference upon many beautiful\nand natural village customs. I am eagerly longing to see this\n'dead hand' removed from India altogether and the country\nonce more entirely free and independent.\nIn very early days, while these thoughts were present with me,\nthere came one of those sudden revelations of the truth, which\nare given like a flash from time to time. In the year 1907, at\nAligarh, there had been a dispute between the students and the\nEuropean staff. This had led to extreme bitterness, and provoked\na College strike. The students refused to go back until their\nwrongs were righted. Early one morning at Delhi, Moulvi Nazir\nAhmed and Munshi Zaka Ullah, whom I revered most deeply\nfor their singular beauty of character, came to me with tears in\ntheir eyes to tell me that the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College\nat Aligarh, the darling treasure of their hearts, was on the point\nof ruin. They asked me to come with them to Aligarh, and we\nwent together. I could feel the outraged spirit of the students,\ntheir resentment, their sense of humiliation and injustice. During\nthat very night, when we were present at Aligarh, the insulted\nstudents burnt their college furniture, their beds and mattresses,\ntheir tables and books. The flames mounted to the skies, a symbol\nof the students' own flaming indignation. Later, after the strike\nwas over, I asked Moulvi Nazir Ahmed what words of advice he\nhad spoken to the students. He told me that he had said: 'You\nare slaves. What can we do? Get back to your books and work.\nYou are not free men, but slaves.'\nThese terrible words of the Moulvi Sahib whom I passionately\nloved, haunted me like an evil dream. Was that all the counsel\nhe was able to give these young men at the very opening of their\nlives? Was that in very truth these students' true position? Were\nthey slaves? The more I thought over it, the more I found that\nthe words had truth in them. This foreign subjection was a servi-\ntude of the soul, more insidious than any outward slavery. How-\never much it might be disguised by a pleasing exterior, the true\nfact remained.\nI went over and over again, in mind, Sir John Seeley's maxim,\nwhich I had just discovered: Subjection for a long time to a foreign\nyoke is one of the most potent causes of national deterioration.\nThe words for a long time stuck in my mind. I said to myself:\nThis clearly must be ended. It was not long after this that the\ncentral thought of Indian Independence became firmly established\nin my mind. I have tested it since by a hundred experiences\nabroad, but it has stood the test.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 329,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n329\nI have maintained in times past, and would still maintain,\nthat the widespread teaching of English was of great benefit to India\nin the past. It was one of the most potent means of giving that\nshock, or stimulus, which India needed at one time in her history\nto rouse her out of sleep. It has given ideals of political freedom\nand of national unity, which have been invaluable. But the\nfuture of India, now that the shock and stimulus have been given,\ndemands a return at all points to the mother tongue of each great\nprovince and the teaching of all subjects (except English itself)\nthrough the mother tongue. Dangers now lie ahead of India\nowing to the divorce between the English-educated men (who are\nforming a class by themselves) and the agricultural and town labour-\nrers. Nevertheless, it is almost inconceivable in the present cir-\ncumstances that such a vital educational change as this can take\nplace, unless India ceases to be an integral part of the British\nEmpire.'\nThe second of the two historical maxims presented by Sir\nJohn Seeley forces Indians into a dilemma from which there appears\nto be no escape. He faces the ultimate question of the withdrawal\nof the British Government from India. With regard to such a with-\ndrawal, Sir John Seeley appears to think, the people of India have\nso lost the powers of self-government and self-defence, that to with-\ndraw the British Government would be the most inexcusable of all\ncrimes. The situation is as follows: If dependence and subjection\nto the foreign rule of the British Empire continue, then national\ndeterioration of India is likely to increase. Yet withdrawal of\nIndia from the British Empire is becoming more and more difficult\nbecause of the dependence of Indians on British protection. The\nsentence implies that India has no way out of her difficulties.\nWe are involved in a vicious circle.\nI have thought over this problem for many years; and I confess\nI could find no solution. But quite lately there has appeared to\nme to be one pathway out of this terrible dilemma. If India could\nbe granted, before it is too late, some genius who could stir up the\nspirit of independence throughout the whole country, then there\nmight be hope. If India could produce such an inspiring and\nunifying personality, then all might yet be well.\nAnd surely this is what is happening today. At this most\ncritical moment in Indian history, when subjection and dependence\nwere becoming unbearable, we have been given one who has\nroughly shaken our age-long conventions and has uttered the\nmantram: Be free be slaves no longer'!\nWith such a volcanic force as the personality of Mahatma\nGandhi, there will be much destruction. But the new life-urge",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}