Sunday, February 24, 2013

LAZY AND IDLE HINDOOS- BUT THEY CONTRIBUTED 24.44% of WORLD GDP




Many  well-meaning citizens of this country lamented the loss of two days work, and the consequent productivity loss to the nation, due to the two day general strike called for by the trade unions.

 Similar concerns were expressed by another influential Protestant Missionary, Rev. Claudius Buchanan,(1766-1815), and friend of Rev. William Carey, in 1805 while serving as Vice Provost at Fort William in Kolkatta.  Rev.Buchanan ‘s observations &  intentions towards Hindioos are very clear in his essay titled, “Memoir  of the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India; both as  a Means of Perpetuating the Christian Religion among our own Countrymen; and as a Foundation for the Ultimate Civilization of Natives.” In the essay , Buchanan sets forth a rationale for an Anglican Establishment in India as follows :- Let us first establish our own religion among ourselves, and our Asiatic subjects will soon benefit by it. When once our national church shall have been confirmed in India,the members of that church will be the best qualified to advise the state as to the means by which, from time to time, the civilization of the natives may be promoted.” (www.wmcarey.edu/carey/buchanan2/est.htm)  In the Contents of the essay listed, Part II deals with Civilization of the natives, in which Chapter V is titled “The numerous holidays of the natives an impediment  to their civilization.”

Excerpts  from Chapter V.
 “1.Another obstacle to the improvement of the natives is the great number of their holidays. These holydays embody their superstition.......

2. In the Hindoo calendar there are upwards of an hundred holydays; and of these government  recognises officially a certain number........During  those Hindoo holydays which are officially  recognised, the public offices are shut up, on account of the festival (as it is termed) of Doora Puja, of  (www.wmcarey.edu/carey/buchanan2/38.jpg) Churruck Puja, of  Rutt Jattra, or of some other.  But great detriment to the public service arising  from the frequent  recurrence of these Saturnalia, govt. Resolved some years ago to reduce the number, which was done accordingly......

3. (Footnote +  on page 39) No people  require fewer days of rest than the Hindoos; for they know nothing  of the corporal exertion and fatigue  from labour, which in other countries  render regular repose  so grateful to the body and spirits. ---In what other country  would it be considered a means of promoting the happiness  of the common people, to grant them so great a portion of the year to spend in idleness and dissipation ? The indulgence operates here as it would in any other country; it encourages extavagence, licentious  habits,  and neglect of business among themselves; and it very seriously impedes the business of the state, and deranges commercial negotiation.” (www.wmcarey.edu/carey/buchanan2/39.jpg)

Till 1700, or till the 1700’s, India had contributed 24.44% of the World GDP. In the same period, Protestant Britain’s share is only 2.88%. (See the  table above). The majority ‘idle’ and ‘licentious’ Hindoos, and the minority ‘Musalmans’ between themselves were able to produce 24.44%  of World GDP. And the gentlemen from England had landed here to buy , the goods and other supplies produced by this’uncivilized natives’.

Surely The Hindu Approach Towards Work (KARMA)  WAS Optimal, and that is the prescription for the modern world to save itself from disaster!!!!

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