The Fellow-Worker

Among the pleasantest memories of our late visit to Bengal is the recollection of the number of delightful friends whom we were fortunate enough to make. Many of these joined our Society, and are now giving it their full sympathy and co-operation. We found among the Bengalis some whom we would be glad to introduce into European social circles as types of the true Hindu gentleman, and whom we would not be afraid to match with their best men for intelligence, graciousness of manner, and purity of character. Unhappily for India this side of native character is seldom seen by the governing class. Through distrust and class prejudice, they have fixed a social gulf between the two races which few have had the boldness to cross. We hear and read from them much about the defects of character in the Bengali Babu, but seldom see justice done to their sterling traits of character. “Babudom”—Babusthan would be the better word, perhaps, if they wanted to invent one—is to most Europeans a synonym of contempt for an Indian nation, which can probably boast among its fifty-five millions (5½ kotis) as great a percentage of intellectual power as any nation of the West; and which, if deficient in the virile courage that makes the warrior, is nevertheless endowed in a large degree with those milder and higher traits which make the philosopher, the poet, and the religious devotee. If these views should strike Anglo-Indians with some surprise they have only to realize that we have met the Bengalis on the footing of equality and fraternity, and have thus been given a deeper insight into their natures than they. But our present purpose is not to enter upon a subject so general, but to introduce to native notice a new magazine just started by a Bengali gentleman of the above type, a Fellow of our Society, for whom we have a sentiment of affectionate esteem. It is called the Fellow-Worker, and is published as the English organ of the Adi-Brahmo Samaj. It is a well-printed magazine, and, if the contents of the succeeding numbers shall come up to the standard of the present one, it is likely to have a prosperous and useful career. We bespeak for it liberal patronage. Next month we will copy from the May number an article on Buddhism and Brahmanism, which will interest our friends in Ceylon.