Page images
PDF
EPUB

BY THE HON'BLE MR. M. GOKUL PRASAD.

The year has been one of decided progress in the cause of temperance. The number of shops for sale of country spirits has been appreciably reduced, and there is a likelihood of further reductions in the following years. The fixed-fee system has been tried with success in Bombay and Ferozepur, and the excise officers themselves are alive to its advantages. The work of advisory committees has been appreciated by the Government, and it is certain there will be many more such committees in the near future. The populated parts of some of the cities have been rid of the liquor shops and others will, I hope, follow the example. The hours of sale have been restricted and the restrictions placed thereon have been more strictly enforced. Experiments in some parts of the country of allowing liquor to be sold in sealed bottles only and ordering sales off the shops in other parts of the country, have certainly resulted in smaller consumption; the sale of liquor on days of festivals, both Hindu and Mahomedan, has been stopped with advantage in some places and the prohibition is going to be extended to others. The preachers have done good and useful works, a feeling against drink has been created amongst certain sections of the depressed classes who had been up to very recent times largely addicted to drink. The temperance councils and advisory committees have been more alive to their responsibilities and have shown activities in various directions and their efforts have to an appreciable amount been crowned with success. The attitude of the Government has been uniformly sympathetic, and the workers in the cause of temperance cannot but congratulate themselves on the advance made in our cause.

Gentlemen, before I close my address I would like to put forward a few suggestions for carrying on our work in the coming year. Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary by several people in high authority, I am an advocate of total prohibition. It is only by totally prohibiting the manufacture, import and sale of intoxicants that one can expect a real decrease in the evil. That this evil makes a man unfit to perform military, naval and other duties which require a sound body in a sound mind is amply evidenced by the ukase of the Czar prohibiting the manufacture and sale of Vodka in Russian territories,

the well known order of the President of the French Republic against the manufacture and sale of absinthe throughout France and her colonies, the last appeal of Lord Roberts to the British nation, the message of Lord Kitchener to British troops, the speech of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe at Gibraltar, the utterings of Field-Marshal Viscount Wolsley, Field-Marshal Sir John French, the Hon. Josephine Daniels, Secretary of the United States Navy, and others, and last though not least, by the King-Emperor's lead in the cause of total abstinence by prohibiting the use of alcoholic drinks in the Royal household. I might well say that the world is much nearer to total prohibition than it ever was before. If a poor country like Russia could forego a revenue of millions of pounds, and France could notwithstanding its gaiety and liveliness and the enor mous expenditure of the present war do without absinthe, there seems to be no reason why the poor Indian should not be made to do without drink. It would make him the richer in body and soul and the loss of revenue will, I am sure be made up by the decrease in crime and disease and progress in so many other departments of life and India will be the richer in its better and consequently a more prosperous people. Wher there are so many forces working in furtherance of our cause, we ought not to lose this golden op portunity, and our efforts should be energetically directed towards taking steps for the success of our cause. Attempts should be directed towards a larger dissemination of temperance literature the organisation of special temperance meetings in schools and colleges, and a more vigorous and systematic attempt should be made to have perio dical lectures accompanied with magic lantern show, wherever possible, to make them attractive for the younger people and the ignoran masses. The preachers should also direct thei attention to caste associations and panchayats and address them about the evils of intoxicants

[blocks in formation]

mor

The reform must come mainly for amongst ourselves, the people, and then we will be in a much stronger position to influence the policy of the Government for the better. (From the Pre sidential Address to the All-India Temperance Con ference.)

[merged small][ocr errors][graphic][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic]

Bond of Union Among Indian Theists.

BY THE HON. DR. NIL RATAN SIRCAR, M.A., M.D.

HAT is it, then, that serves as the bond of union among the Indian Theists? No doubt, in some of our churches there have been internal bonds in the shape of creeds, liturgies and Samhitas (ceremonial codes), though, as we have seen, even these creeds are coming to be more and more elastic, if not nominal or obsolete. But in the absence of a common subscription or confession or a common ceremonial or personal law, is there a Theistic community or communal life? The answer is clear. The de facto bond is membership of some Theistic congregation based on similarity of convictions, aspirations and ideals, partly religious and partly social; and as new Samajas are formed, or the existing ones multiply or subdivide, the common hopes and ideals will become more and more indefinable in terms of positive formulation, until, in the end, with the widening of religious ideals, there will be only one congregation left, that of the worshippers of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful God, held together in the Church Universal, the Church of all time. That is the only congregation that lasts, that runs like a golden thread through the web of time. All other churches are aisles of this one church, choirs within this one congregation.

But in the meanwhile we have also some negative bonds and marks. We are bodies of practical reformers, and like all such bodies, whether in the social or in the religious field, we are held together by our practical programme of reform, at any rate until our reforms are accomplished. We, who are mainly of Hindu extraction, have rejected certain practices of the orthodox community; we have had no need to reject any tenets or dogmas, as Hindu orthodoxy insists on none. We have rejected idolatry, idolatrous ceremonials and Samskaras (sacraments), caste, non-adult marriage, the Zenana system, and the compulsory celibacy of widows. These negative marks, by dividing us from the orthodox Hindu folds, have drawn us together. But as reform associations, our Theistic bodies have a peculiar character. Some reforms, as in matters of food, drink, dress, can be practised by individuals independently of social acceptance. Some require co-operation of other individuals, or of the general body of the people, or of the State itself,

Reforms may also be divided according as they do or do not lead to excommunication from general social intercourse, according as they are or are not usually inherited from father to son, or according as they do or do not require or obtain any State recognition. Social and religious reforms generally require co-operation, are often under a social ban, and are likely to be inherited.

.

The Theists in rejecting idolatry, caste, and non adult marriage, became pronounced reformers of this type, and naturally formed a community with a social cohesion based on marriage and commensality among themselves. They also required and obtained legislative sanction. In the absence of a general Civil Marriage Act, a special marriage facility was granted by the State in their case, viz., the removal of the disability under which they laboured in contracting marriages in accordance with their own programme of reform. But Indian Society is rapidly passing to the stage in which a legal provision for a Civil Marriage Act without reference to religious persuasion or creed is one of the decencies, if not the necessaries, of civilized life; and when this is secured, the cumbrous Act III. of 1870, with its curious negative declaration will become a dead letter. Not a special Brahmo-Marriage Act, but a general Civil Marriage Act without any declaration, positive or negative, as to the religious persuasion of the parties concerned, should be the objective of our efforts. A special Brahmo-Marriage Act is likely to present grave difficulties, whether we define a Brahmo by creed or ceremonial; or maintain registers for the purpose of the Act, or leave the matter to the declaration of the parties themselves. A general Civil Marriage Act, on the other hand, will give a general relief in the simplest and most effective way. Indeed, large numbers of our orthodox brothers will also profit by such an Act to provide a safeguard against polygamy and other risks to which the orthodox marriage bond is now liable, as well as to celebrate intercaste and adult marriages and the remarriage of widows. Further, a Brahmo-Marriage Act will be a barrier against the rapproachment of the orthodox community and the Theistic reformers, while a Civil Marriage Act will hasten their union.-(From his Presidential Address to the All-India Theistic Conference.)

BY KAVIRAJ JAMINI BUSHAN ROY KAVIRATNA, M.A., M.B, F.C.U, M.R.A.S.

HERE is ample evidence to prove that the root principles of the science of medicine were first preached in Arabia by Indian physicians and professors and that the Charaka and the Susruta were translated into the Arabic language. From Arabia Ayurveda travelled through Egypt to Greece, thence to Rome and from there, again spread all over Europe and gradually throughout the world. Of course, the principles of Ayurveda do not any longer retain their original shape, but, transformed and developed and named afresh by different peoples in different countries, they have given birth to various systems of medicine. Many Western savants have expressed their opinions in this connection, and I may cite a few of them here.

Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle, M.A., PH. D., C.I.E., says in his Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India:

Probably it will come as a surprise to many, as it did to myself, to discover the amount of anatomical knowledge which is disclosed in the works of the earliest medical writers of India. Its extent and accuracy are surprising when we allow for their early age, probably the 6th century before Christ, and their peculiar methods of definition. In these circumstances, the interesting question of the relation of the medicine of the Indians to that of the Greeks naturally suggests itself. The possibility, at least, of a dependence of either on the other cannot well be defined when we know as an historical fact that two Greek physicians, Ktesias about 400 B.C. and Megasthenes about 300 B. C. visited and resided in Northern India.

Next, in his History of Medicine Dr. Max Neuburgher writes:

as well as

"That Greek medicine adopted Indian medicaments and methods is evident from the literature. The contact between the two civilisations first became intimate through the march of Alexander, and continued unbroken throughout the reign of Diaduchi and the Roman and Byzantine eras. Alexandria, Syria and Persia were the principal centres of intercourse. Indian physicians, means and methods of healing are frequently mentioned by Graeco-Roman and Byzantine authors many diseases, endemic in India, but previously unknown. During the rule of the Abbasides, the Indian physicians attained still greater repute in Persia whereby Indian medicines became engrafted upon the Arabic, an effect which was hardly increased by the Arabic dominion over India, Indian influence, in the guise of Arabic medicine, was felt anew the West. The apparently spontaneous appearance in Sicily, in the 15th century, of Rhino-plastic surgery bespeaks a long period of previous Indo-Arabian influence. The plastic surgery of the 19th century was stimulated by the example of Indian methods, the first occasion being the news, derived from India, that a man of the brickmaker caste had by means of a flap from the skin of the forehead fashioned a substitute for the nose of a native,"

Ignorance of Ayurveda has on more than one occasion led Western physicians and medical writers to draw erroneous conclusions. For instance, Dr. William T. Councilman, M.D., says in a System of Medicine, a work edited by Doctors Osler and Macrae, that "the first description of the disease small-pox, which leaves no doubt as to its nature, is given in the well-known treatise by Rhazes in the 10th Century." But the fact is, that long before this time the symptoms and treatment of Masurika (small pox) were discussed in the Charaka and the Susruta. And it is his ignorance of this fact that is responsible for the erroneous and misleading conclusion which Dr. Councilman has arrived at. It should, therefore, be the duty of this Conference to point out all such errors and omissions with the help of evidence and thus uphold the glory of Ayurveda. It is a matter of congratulation that many Western medical men have been able to realise the greatness of Ayurveda. The illustrious Surgeon, Sir Havelock Charles, when Professor of the Calcutta Medical College, often used to say to his pupils :

I am only repeating to you what the Aryan medical science preached two thousand years ago and am reproducing to you only a small fragment of the lesson taught by Charaka.

And the great regard Sir Havelock has for the Vedic system of medicine is shown by the extract from Charaka inscribed on the marble tablet placed by him on the wall opposite the staircase of the Calcutta Medical College. Dr. Clarke of Philadelphia observed after a perusal of the English translation of Charaka :

If the physicians of the present day would drop from the Pharmacopoes all the modern drugs and chemicals and treat their patients according to the methods of Charaka, there will be less work for the undertakers and fewer chronic invalids in the world,

Speaking of the same work, Dr. Paul Bartholomew says:

I have been exceedingly struck with the profound meanings of many passages which indeed go beyond anything that I have met before in medical literature.

The above extracts, scanty though they may be in comparison with the greatness of Ayurveda, conclusively prove that many Western medical men have realised, in part at least, the glorious position which that system of medicine occupies in the world.-(From his Presidential Address to the All-India Ayurvedic Conference.)

« PreviousContinue »