CHAPTER XI

NEW RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS

THE [=A]RYAS AND THE THEOSOPHISTS.

"Let us receive not only the revelations of the past, but also
welcome joyfully the revelations of the present day."

--BISHOP COLENSO.


[Sidenote: The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j.]

III. _The [=A]rya Sam[=a]j_ or _Vedic Theistic Association_--In contrast
to the Sam[=a]jes which are leavening the country but themselves are
numerically unprogressive, are two other organisations--first, the
[=A]rya Sam[=a]j of the United Provinces and the Punjab, and secondly,
the Theosophists, who are now most active in Upper India, with Benares
the metropolis of Hinduism, as their headquarters. These two have taken
hold of educated India as no other movements yet have done. They appeal
directly to patriotic pride and the new national feeling, or, more
truly, are primarily shaped thereby.

Founded in 1875, the [=A]ryas are the most rapidly increasing of the new
Indian sects. In 1901 they numbered 92,419, an increase in the decade of
131 per cent. What ideas have such an attraction for the educated middle