CHAPTER X

THE NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS OF INDIA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

THE INDIAN CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND THE BR[=A]HMAS

Children of one family.


[Sidenote: Two physical changes on the face of a country.]

When we consider how the face of a country has been altered during the
lapse of time, two great changes may be noticed, both of them due to the
action of man. First we may observe that the whole general character of
the country has undergone transformation. Gone are the ancient forests
of Scotland, which of old in many districts clad the whole countryside,
and with them have gone the wild animals which they sheltered. The
forests destroyed, and the rainfall in consequence less abundant, the
surface marshes and lakes have in many places vanished, taking the old
agues and fevers in their train. Instead of the strongholds of
chieftains in their fastnesses, surrounded by bands of their clansmen
and retainers, has come the sober, peaceful, life of independent
tenants, agricultural or artisan. And so on, down through the general
changes wrought on the face of a land by modern conditions of life, we
might watch the evolution of new features of the landscape. But we turn
to the other kind of change, which is more noticeable at first sight,
and is more directly due to the action of man. Great, laboriously