Quote from here:
The White Mughals: Love & Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India by William DalrympleVictorian Evangelicals in the 1830s and 40s slowly killed off the intermingling of Indian and British ideas, religions and ways of life ... Biographies and memoirs of prominent 18th-century British Indian worthies that mentioned their Indian wives were re-edited in the mid-19th century so that the consorts were removed from later editions.
Also, from
The impact of British Christian missionaries on Indian religious, social and cultural life between 1800 and 1857 and elsewhere ...
The British had prepared a scheme for the conversion of India to Christianity. They believed that Indians would find no one to help their cause and would never have the courage to raise their heads. They had appreciated that the religious differences between the rulers and their subjects would always remain hurdles in the establishment of empire and would eventually lead to a revolution. They, therefore, used every means, fair or foul and made every possible effort to destroy the native religions and society.
In such ways Christian missions were, according to historian Brian Stanley, the 'ideological arm of Western imperial aggression'. (Missionary societies spent 2 million pounds per year - equivalent to 2% of government expenditure imposing of British values).
A number of mid-Victorians thought that missionary success would hasten Christ's return and were therefore full of expectation in the founding of a transformed world through the conversion of humanity. Whether facilitating the Second Coming or serving their 'captive's need', those engaged in evangelism further embedded Britain's empire.
But, remember, Lekhraj Kirpalani wasn't born until 1884. I wonder if his criticisms of Hindus as degraded weren't Christian in roots as the evangelists shared similar opinions. So far, no one has turned up any influences such as Theosophical, Masonic, Gurdjieffian, Fabian, "Illuminati" etc behind Lekhraj Kirpalani's cult. I don't think they exist.
You're suggesting to me that you are a Sardar Sikh? It sounds like rather than be their victim, they helped lead you to liberation from religion.
edward wrote:Oh, darling, you are getting a bit touchy-feely here.
I don't understand. Touchy-feely means "openly expressing affection or other emotions, especially through physical contact".
Well, in order to discuss BK matters with your wife, you will have to tread carefully and know specifically what BKism teaches or indoctrinates first in order to avoid setting her off, or exposing weak points which she could grab on and use against you. As Pink has pointed out in his earlier posts, most BK follower's attachment for the BKs is not rational or intellectual.
For example, they say Lekhraj Kirpalani "had 12 gurus" before his "enlightenment" (enlightenment is not the word the use, nor do I think he became completely enlightened, but he had some kind of spiritual or spiritualist awakening after paying a huge sum of money to some kind of sadhu or magi (siddhi?) in Bengal. Court records show he paid 10,000 rupees in 1930s rates -
I calculated the equivalent of £42,000 today (
here and
here) - to be "initiated" into some practise or experience and that after that he underwent considerable personality changes and gave up his business. No one appears to know who or what this, least of all the BKs who want to keep it all a mystery. Their "official" history of him is a white-washed child-like hagiography with few details designed to portray him like a saint.
Of course, "having 12 gurus" really means nothing. It just means he was a rich man (400,000 rupees in 1930s rates) and made donations which was just following social convention. There is a very big difference between just donating to a guru or temple, and actually joining and being initiated into a religious tradition. He amassed great wealth and luxuries, and invited these individuals to his large home to hold satsangs. Again we are told nothing of which lineage or tradition they belonged to.
With respect to Christianity, I always wondered if the '12 factor' was a sub-conscious reference to Jesus Christ and his disciplines. It's strange that a specific number was remember but no other details about them.
So, we have to accept that, in his middle ages at least, he was exposed to religious teachers and, as you suggest, it's reasonable to assume he picked up the some of the tricks of the trade.
The only tradition that clearly comes up in his story is his wife's family tradition, which seems to have been Vallabhacharyan Pushtimarg sect (Krishna Bhakti especially focusing on child Krishna), and that he had a thing for Narayan (whom he later believed he was to become) ... but does that mean anything more than sticking a picture on his business wall and offering food and incense to it as a good luck charm for making more money? His diary from the 1930s does not suggest great depth or complexity.
As to your Celtic mass sexual assault theory, it does not make sense that rapists would give their victims their name. And they did not keep slaves as in the West Indies or America.
The Indian Bidens, for example, were the progeny of a high ranking marriage and I'd suggest, so too were the rest. If you read the histories, you'll find many such stories, and even Westerners adopting both Hindu and Muslim practises. They are so detailed we even known of one high ranking officer undergoing circumcision in order to win the favours of a particular Mogul beauty.