he most serious
concern of their life. And yet all of them are regarded, and rightly
regarded, as Hindus. Indeed, in the Hinduism of today, especially as found
in South India, can be found living amicably together and without any
apparent sense of incongruity or conflict the lowest type of fetishism, an
ardent devil-worship, an engrossing ceremonialism, a worship of the higher
Brahmanical deities, a thoroughgoing pantheism and a pure theism. I have
witnessed in our district, side by side, a hideous fetish, a gross idol of
a local demon, an image of Vishnu who is the best of Brahmanical gods,
while in an adjacent hamlet lived families who belonged to none of these
cults but who gave themselves to a belief in, and practice of, a vague
theism which is farther removed from the fetishism of their neighbours
than is their religion from the highest type of Christian teaching.

Thus Hinduism may be viewed as an immense cloth of many colours; which
colours have been patched together without any reference to harmony or
consistency. In other words, that religion is a big mass of mutually
inconsistent and undigested beliefs, practices and ceremonies. It has not
only mutually antagonistic philosophies, it has also three different ways
of salvation, 330,000,000 gods and as many laws and customs which, though
binding as the laws of the Medes and Persians, are nevertheless,
absolutely wanting in consistency and in unity of purpose and teaching. In
the words of Sir Alfred Lyall,--"The general character of Indian religion
is that it is unlimited and comprehensive, up to the point of confusion;
it is a boundless sea of divine beliefs and practices; it encourages the
worship of innumerable gods by an infinite variety of rites; it permits
every doctrine to be taught, every kind of mystery to be imagined, any
sort of theory to be held as to the inner nature and visible operation of
the divine power."

It has been the wont of Brahmanism not to directly antagonize and
overthrow the old and the opposing cults, but rather to absorb them. Note
here its fundamental contrast with Christianity. It meets its rival with a
smile of appreciation, then seeks to fraternize with it, after which it
approves and appropriates and finally absorbs it.

In the Madura District of South India, where I have lived, the Brahmans,
upon their first arrival, found all the people given to the worship of
their village demons. They said to them, practically,--"We do not w