Is the Arya Samaj a Seditious Body?

WHILE on this subject, we should like to draw the attention of the authorities to the following remarks entered in the Nurmahal School log book by Mr. W.S. Hamilton, Deputy Commissioner: “This school has been deprived of recognition, because the members of the Managing Committee took a prominent part in the agitation against the Rowlatt Act. The exaggerated laudation of the early Indian civilisation, which is a part of the doctrines of the Arya Samaj, inevitably leads to contempt of the present British Raj when adopted by the half educated. It is for this reason the Arya Samaj Schools, unless they be well managed and staffed, are a danger to the country.” The obiter dicta in the above passage deserve more than passing notice because they contain not only an attack upon the doctrines of a most important religious body like the Arya Samaj, but enunciate a dangerous maxim. If Mr. Hamilton’s views were carried to their logical conclusions, even a legitimate pride in one’s past could be banned as something, if not positively seditious, at least, undesirable, as having a tendency to bring into contempt the British Government established by law. We were hitherto under the impression that the Arya Samaj was no longer regarded as a seditious body in official circles. That there are still officials —diehards of the type of Mr. Hamilton — who persist in the old belief, is clear from the extract we have quoted above. Every Indian worth his salt should not only take pride in India’s glorious past, but, what is more, he should gather inspiration from it. Loyalty to the British Government is surely not incompatible with loyalty to one’s past traditions, Mr. Hamilton’s dictum notwithstanding.