The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 76

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76

The Lutheran Pioneer.

that their offspring were expected to sit on the
same bench with the Christian Pariah boy. One
prominent man declared that the school must be
boycotted. The missionary, however, remained firm,
and the headmaster stood by him. ‘The other
teachers, all heathen Hindus, clandestinely worked
against the missionary and headmaster. A dele-
gation of 15 Brahmans waited on the missionary
with the intention of bringing about the removal
of the Pariah boy. ‘They claimed that their boys
were made unclean by coming in contact with the
Pariah, and that, if they continued to send their
children to the school, they would lose caste. The

While the missionary spoke, he stepped up
closely to one of the Brahman men. As he did so,
the Brahman quickly retreated, lest he become con-
taminated by coming into contact with the mission-
ary. Such is the Hindu caste spirit. They draw
their drinking water from the filthy temple-pools,
in which the sacred oxen bathe themselves for hours
at a time, and where they wash their own dirty
clothes, but they fear to come into contact with a
cleanly washed and dressed Christian Pariah boy,
or even with a missionary !

As the conversation progressed, one of the gentle-
men admitted that he had attended a mission school.

Lower Secondary School of the Missouri Synod Mission at Ambur, East India.

missionary told them that the Christian Pariah boy
was cleaner than their sons; that more frequent
baths would be a good thing for their boys; that
‘their ridiculous caste spirit was nowhere else to be
found, not even in Japan, a country which they
claimed to admire so much. In answer to this, these
men claimed that God had created the four castes,
the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras,
and that they, the Brahmans, who had sprung from
the mouth of Brahma, could not possibly associate
with a casteless Pariah. - The missionary insisted
upon the equality of all men before God, and de-
clared their caste spirit to be nothing but foolish
pride. ¢

He claimed that the Christian religion was sweet
for the tongue, but that he had no power to swal-
low it.— Alas! India is full of such men. They
have experienced the sweetness of the Gospel, but
they are not willing to accept it, because they fear
to lose caste.

On leaving the missionary, the gentlemen prom-
ised to once more consider the matter, mildly
threatening, however, to open a school of their own.
But the final outcome of the whole matter was that
no new school was opened; and notwithstanding the
Pariah remained, the Brahman boys are gradually
coming back. One of the head teachers of the
school, a heathen, who had secretly helped to stir