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RELIGIONS OF THE EMPIRE.CONFERENCE IN LONDON.A Conference on Some Living Religions within the Empire was opened at the Imperial Institute last week and will be continued until the end of this week, .under the auspices of the School of Oriental Studies and the Sociological Society. The organization devolved on an executive committee under the chairmanship of Sir Denison Ross, Director of the School, of Oriental Studies! Great interest is being shown in the proceedings.A message of loyal greeting was sent to the King at Balmoral, and in reply Sir Denison Ross received the following telegram from Lord Stamfordham :—“I am commanded to express the thanks of the King to you and the members of Conference for your kind message of loyal greetings to his Majesty.”A “word of greeting” was read from the Prime Minister, who wrote :“Many religions and many creeds live in amity within our Empire, each by their different way leading our peoples onwards towards some ultimate light. I welcome cordiallythe objects of the Conference and the knowledge which surely it spreads amongst us that our peoples in the aspirations of the spirit, also ‘walk not back to back, but with a unity of track.’”Sir Denison Ross stated that in their endeavour to secure papers by representative speakers on all the important religions of the Empire not widely known in this country, the promoters had failed only in the case of Confucianism.Sir Francis Younghusband, in his inaugural address, said that included in the Empire there were more Mahomedans than Christians, and at least twice as many Hindus as Mahomedans ; also many millions both of Buddhists and of adherents of primitive religions of every grade. Even in the oldest of these religions there were . signs of vigorous life. I The British Government aimed at being strictly impartial in its dealing; with .all these forms of faith, but this necessary neutrality of the State 1 did not mean indifference to religion as such.. The ultimate basis upon which the British Empire should stand must be religion. If the component nations of the Empire could be sure that with all their differences they were at heart working for the best things in life, then they would be able to hold firmly together even in the laxative times of peace.Pandit Shyam Shankar, formerly a Professor at the Central Hindu College, now the Hindu University of Benares, who was introduced as the exponent of orthodox Hinduism, drew a hearty cheer from the audience when he said that such a conference was a token of the religious toleration of the British Government, which deserved the appreciation of the world and a tribute from that Conference.The Conference devoted one day’s sittings to Islam, which stands second only to Hinduism in the number of its adherents acknowledging the rule of King George V. The three expositions of views laid before the Conference included those of a community only a generation old—that of the Ahmadins, whose leader, Haz-rat Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, described as the “second successor of the Promised Messiah,” was present, and had prepared a paper which was read by one of his secretaries. Oilier papers were contributed by the Khwaja Kamal ud Din, head of the Woking Mission and the author of a recent English translation of the Koi'an, on “The Basic Principles of Islam,” and by Sheikh Kadbim Do-jaily, a learned Arab of Baghdad, expounding the views of the Shiah branch of Islam.Another day’s proceedings had reference to Buddhism, which, like Islam, is divided into two main streams. The Hinayana. or Southern, branch is located chiefly in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam, and had two interpreters from the first-named coun-try-Dr.: W. A. de Silva, of Colombo, and Mr. G. P. Malalasekera, a young Sinhalese who is on the teaching staff of the School of Oriental Studies. The Mahayana, or Northern, branch is found among the Malays, in certain portions of the Empire contiguous to India, and also in China, Tibet, and Japan, and was expounded by Mr. Shosen Miyamoto, a lecturer at the Imperial University of Tokyo.A varied programme, ranging from Zoroastrianism to Jainism and the mystic cult known os Sulis.ni, was proceeded with on the fourth day’s sitting; and 08 the. following day attention was directed to two important modern reform movements out of Hinduism, the Brahmo Samaj and the Arva Samaj.—London “Times,” October 2nd, 192-1,
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Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser
Akaroa, Canterbury, NZ
Fri, Nov 14, 1924
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