HINDOO IDOLATRY. (Hansard, 31 July 1838)

Lord Ellenborough

had to present four petitions against encouraging Hindoo Idolatry, and he did not think it right to present them without making a few observations on the subject to which they related. The points which the petitions embraced were threefold. The petitioners prayed, 1st, that the East India Company should cease to derive any pecuniary advantage from idolatrous worship; 2d, that the company should cease to have any connexion or interference with the appointment of officers to the different temples; and, 3d, they further prayed, that there should no longer be bestowed on the religion of the Hindoos and Mahometans, those outward marks of respect which it had hitherto been the practice of the Indian government to manifest towards those religions. To a very large portion of the prayer of the petitioners he could agree. He was ready to diminish the tax on pilgrims, so as to do away with all pecuniary profits which the company might now derive from that source, and on which was founded the assertion, that they gave encouragement to idolatry. It was a mere question of finance, whether that tax ought not to be diminished, and if became a strong and general matter of feeling, that it was wrong for a Christian government to derive any profit from a tax of this kind, no financial consideration ought, in his opinion, to be allowed to stand in the way of a compliance with that feeling and desire. As to putting an end to all interference with the appointment of officers in the temples, he conceived, that the practice ought to cease wherever it could be effected without great inconvenience. But the last point (that which related to manifesting marks of respect to the religion of the natives) was one that deserved the most grave and serious consideration. It had hitherto been 830 the invariable practice of the government in India to bestow ou ward marks of respect on all religions professed by the natives of that country; and he must say, that if it were the intention of her Majesty's Government to discontinue those outward marks of respect, they must proceed with the greatest caution and circumspection. Because, if they did not, they would afford an opportunity to ill-disposed and designing persons—they would afford the means to such persons of encouraging a feeling and apprehension in the minds of the natives, that Government, in consequence of the withdrawal of those outward marks of respect, entertained an intention to interfere with that perfect toleration and protection which had hitherto been extended to all religions; and he did assure her Majesty's Government, that his firm conviction—a conviction not lightly taken up—was, that the moment such an apprehension was entertained by the people of India, there would be no safety for the life of any Christian in India. Such an impression would infallibly lead to the massacre of all European Christians in that country. It would, in fact, form the commencement of a series of evils and misfortunes which it was dreadful to contemplate. The welfare, peace, and prosperity of India, depended on the continuance of our imperial Government there. Let that, once be shaken, and India would for years exhibit scenes of massacre and bloodshed; therefore, he would say, that no consideration on earth, if he were connected with that government, should induce him to proceed hastily in departing from that custom which had hitherto prevailed, of showing outward marks of respect to those religions, and of affording to them full protection and toleration, In other points he thought, that the prayer of the petitioners might be complied with. Before he sat down, he wished their Lordships to hear a character of the people of India Very different from the idea which the petitioners perhaps entertained of them. That character was given by a very great man, one of the greatest men whom this country ever sent to India, by the man who knew India best, and whom the people of India loved the most—Sir Thomas Munro. In answer to a question put to him in 1813, when the renewal of the company's charter was under consideration (and he entreated the petitioners to consider well what sort of a people it 831 was with respect to whom, on a most delicate point, the Legislature was required to interfere)—in answer to a question put to him on that occasion Sir Thomas Munro said, I do not exactly know what is meant by civilizing the people of India. In the theory and practice of good government they may be deficient; but if a good system of agriculture, if unrivalled manufactures—if a capacity to produce what luxury or convenience demands—if the establishnent of schools for reading and writing—if the general practice of kindness and hospitality—and, above all, if a scrupulous respect and delicacy towards the female sex, are amongst the points that denote civilized people, then the Hindoos are not inferior in civilization to the people of Europe.

Lord Brougham

said, this was a most important question, inasmuch as it affected 70,000,000 or 80,000,000 at least of our fellow-subjects. He entirely agreed in the view which his noble Friend had taken of the matter. Many petitions had been presented on this subject in the last Session; but in the present they had been far more numerous. It was, indeed a most important and a very delicate question. It was a mere delusion to suppose, because we differed from these people in religious opinion, that we should manifest our opinion by showing any thing that, looked like slight or disrespect to their religious ceremonies. Such a course in matters of this nature was a mere begging of the question. It was merely saying, "You are wrong, and we are right, and therefore we will treat you with contumely." All that ought to be done was to meet them on their own ground, and by argument to show them that they were wrong, and that we were right. Anything beyond that was monstrous, it was intolerance, it was injustice, it was cruelty, nay, it was destruction. And Christian as well as Pagan, would perish in the ruins which an improper interference with the religious ideas of the people of India would occasion. That the East-India Company should not receive anything in the shape of revenue from the Juggernaut, or other superstitions of India he thought was most proper. That proposition he considered to be perfectly correct. If we declared that we were right, and that they were wrong, we ought surely to derive no benefit from that which we held to be grossly erroneous. As to the outward marks of respect which were shown to those religions, no man's opinion was 832 thereby compromised. They manifested no deference to the opinions of those people, as if they who attended believed, that their religious ceremonies were praiseworthy. What was done elsewhere? Why, we were not Roman Catholics, and yet our troops turned out in Catholic countries when certain ceremonies were performed. Prussia, too, which was not Catholic, yet paid Roman Catholic priests, and he wished that the same thing could be done here. Certainly the utmost caution ought to be used in approaching this subject. What was the course taken with respect to that most inhuman and criminal custom, the burning of widows? In the first instance Lord Minto consulted the most learned pundits he could find on the subject, and even he paused before he would put an end to the system, a consummation which he left to his successor, Lord William Bentinck.