{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 168,
  "chapterName": "1929. Radhakrishnan on the Attitude of Christian Missionaries to Other Religions in India",
  "pageFrom": 345,
  "pageTo": 345,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 345,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n345\n168.\nRADHAKRISHΝΑΝ ΟΝ ΤTHE ATTITUDE\nOF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES TO OTHER\nRELIGIONS IN INDIA (1929 A.D.)\nIn this portion of his book, East and West in Religion, Sarvepalli\nRadhakrishnan surveys critically the changing attitudes of Christian\nmissionaries towards non-Christian religions in India since the advent\nof the East India Company's rule. East and West in Religion, pp.21-25.\nThis point can be illustrated by a reference to the delicate ques-\ntion of the attitude of the Christian missionaries in India to Indian\nfaiths. This attitude has changed somewhat in the same way as\nhave the political relations between Great Britain and India. The\nlatter may be broadly distinguished into the three stages of (1) The\nEast India Company, (2) The British Empire, (3) The British\nCommonwealth of Nations. In the first stage, India was simply a\nfield for exploration. She had no rights of her own and John\nCompany did not believe it necessary to treat her with any respect,\nmuch less reverence. The Christian missionaries of that day did\nnot recognize anything vital or valuable in the Indian religions.\nFor them, the native faiths were a mass of unredeemed darkness\nand error. They had supreme contempt for the heathen religions\nand wished to root them out, lock, stock and barrel. It is a natural\ntendency of the human mind to suppose that its own god is God of\nall the earth, while all other gods are mumbo jumbo' made with\nhuman hands. Bishop Heber's famous hymn brings out admirably\nthis attitude of iconoclasm. That Christianity is the one true reli-\ngion and all other religions are utterly false has been the belief not\nonly of the rank and file in the Christian Church but also of many\nChristian men and women of high intellectual standing. This\nagressive propaganda lacked the one thing needful-charity.\nIn 1858, after the great Indian Mutiny-a mutiny was necessary\n-the British Government took charge of India and recognized\ncertain rights and interests of the Indian people; but India became a\ndependency, a means to an end, and the interests of Great Britain\nwere paramount. All the same, it is an improvement on the condi-\ntions of the East India Company. Similarly the Christian mis-\nsionaries of the second stage realized the futility of aggressive\npropaganda, and did not dismiss the Indian faiths as a mass of\nsuperstition and a sink of iniquity, but regarded them as posses-\nsing some virtues of their own. For a religious development\nexisting over forty centuries and attaining spiritual heights which\nchallenge comparison with the best products of other religions\ncannot be set aside as having no survival value. The other systems\ncame to be regarded as a preparation, and Christianity as a crowns\nand completion of them all. While the first attitude is reminiscent",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}