Storia do Mogor 281.15
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 281.15
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281.15.1
The reverend Jesuit fathers of Pondicherry were not in ignorance of these Brahman customs, or, at any rate, should not have been ignorant of them — they who know everything; still less should they have overlooked the disagreeables to which those are exposed who infringe these rules. Nevertheless, without regard to the one or the other reason, they undertook about twelve or thirteen months ago to secure their own ends, and for interested reasons (for which they are never at a loss) they resolved to break the rules. They decided to build a house for their Malabar sacristan. This man was of the Mandeli caste, which eats flesh and fish. The house was to be erected at the end of the enclosed area of their garden in the middle of Brahmans' houses, which block the view to the north and form one side of a street, where they dwell and follow their customs, as I have said above.
281.15.2
The Hindu priests opposed it at once, and said that it could not be done, being against their customs. But the reverend fathers troubled their heads very little about this opposition, caring nothing about what might be the consequences provided they secured success in their enterprise. Not to be thwarted in it, they went on with the work as commenced. Thus the judge, to whose jurisdiction appertains this class of dispute, was obliged to repair to the spot to investigate the arguments put forward on both sides. In spite of all the arguments from precedent which the objectors could adduce, he decided in favour of the reverend fathers, acting by habit. He declared that they might continue their work in defiance of any opposition. It was carried to completion, and their sacristan lives in the house at this present time.
281.15.3
The Brahmans, finding their claims and requests thrown out, were in no position to do anything more at Pondicherry to obtain redress for the infraction of their customs. For at that place are a strong fortress and a good garrison. Acting the part of wise men, they endured, though with murmurs, what they could not hinder, neither by argument nor by assertion of customary right, still less by force. They passed it by, hoping to return to it when a favourable opportunity presented itself. This was the opinion at once arrived at by those who know them, and are aware from long experience how acutely these people feel this sort of infringement of their maxims of conduct. Nor have they failed to act as anticipated, as the facts I am about to state will demonstrate. This was the first breach of Brahman customs, as preserved to them by all the nations of Europe who have established themselves on the coast, in order to attract them to settle in their towns and fortresses, with a view to the increase of their trade. The contravention was due to the intrigues of the reverend Jesuit fathers; and this is what I define as the first, more remote, or secondary cause of the persecution about which I have to speak. There was a second custom of these Hindus infringed by these same reverend Jesuit fathers, and this infraction was one of the three far-off and less influential of the causes of the persecution.
281.15.4
At every temple of their idols (called pagodas) there is usually an annexed flower-garden, just as in our parish churches of Europe, without comparing the two, there are grave-yards. This garden is not held less worthy of veneration and respect by these peoples, for every day the officiating priests told off for the purpose gather there the flowers with which they adorn some idols and embellish others. Such gardens are to them what some cemetery is to us where the bodies of saints lie, from which flows some miraculous liquid capable of curing maladies that cannot be benefited by ordinary and natural remedies; or let us say, like some culturable land [46] bequeathed and vowed to any one of our churches, so that the corn produced may be applied for the use of holy men. In this way, just as amongst us a man would be looked upon unfavourably, and be exposed to the fury of an indignant populace, if he began without extreme necessity to cut off a part of the cemetery or the culturable land bequeathed to the church, in order to apply it to other uses, or to destroy it, or to alienate it; so, ceteris paribus, you expose yourself here (in India) to some uprising of these Hindu peoples if you attempt to destroy, entirely or in part, these flower-gardens annexed and devoted to the pagodas. These gardens are held in singular veneration, because from them are obtained the flowers used in certain of their ceremonials.
281.15.5
Matters being in the condition above stated, who would ever have dreamt that the reverend Jesuit fathers, above all, French Jesuits — so wise, so foreseeing, men in these days so highly reputed throughout the world as great politicians, that the ablest in the art of politics flock to their schools to learn new views of it — should have wished to attempt the removal or reduction of one of these flower-gardens, annexed and devoted to an idol temple, with no other title than their own convenience, by setting in motion their intrigues, their credit, and their authority? This, too, in a country where the Hindus muster a thousand — nay, ten thousand — to every single Christian; where dependence must be had upon them for all that is necessary to life and commerce. Nor need we advert to the fact that even their reverences, in the person of the reverend Portuguese fathers of the same society, and all the Christians they have baptized in these regions, dwell under the government and authority of Hindu princes and rajahs or kings of the same Hindu religion. Consequently all these Christian men are exposed to the resentment of those rajahs and the dreadful results that may ensue therefrom.
281.15.6
Nevertheless this is what they undertook some nine months ago, their reasons being, as above recited, their own interest and convenience, also the securing of their ends, their chief and most obvious motive wherever they are to be found. This it is which gives them the various impulses and movements which are displayed in their conduct. Having got it into their heads that they would build another house in addition to the one I have already spoken of — a house for one of their catechists — they chose a site close to one of the temple gardens. Not finding elbow room enough to make an enclosure of the sort they wished, they let it be announced that they possessed rights over a part of the adjoining garden, or even over the whole of it. But not wishing to give trouble to the worshippers at the temple to which it was consecrated, they were content in their moderation to take no more than one corner, solely to make more commodious the house of their catechist. The Hindu worshippers at that pagoda and their Brahman did not fail to resist; they protested against this encroachment and this unjust claim. Anything given and dedicated to a Pagoda is no longer under the control of even the donor, nor can he divert it to other uses. But the reverend fathers were in no wise perturbed at all this. Then the complainants gathered themselves together and once more lodged a petition.
281.15.7
They prayed the judge to appear once more upon the spot to inquire into the case there, and then come to a decision. This was carried out. After hearing the arguments on both sides, he once more came to a conclusion favourable to the fathers. For he could hardly be expected to do otherwise, having the honour of belonging to them as he did, in his capacity of brother of the Third Order of St. Ignatius. What will not one do for one's friends and brethren—above all, when one looks for some return both in this and in the other world! Thus was the dispute decided. No one of any sense fails to see and understand, by the condition described by me of the Hindus at Pondicherry and their Brahman priests, that if they were patient on this, as on the first occasion (although inly raging), it was only because they were waiting for their revenge, in which they would have the best of it. These disagreeables, these infringements of their customs, only provoked them to vengeance; it would not be long before they would burst forth with it in the best way they could, and so adroitly that the same measure could not be repaid to them. The Christians were not the strongest, nor could they dispense with the Hindus, as I have already said. For this reason I call this the second remote and indirect cause of the persecution.
281.15.8
The third cause in illo genere is a sort of persecution that these same Hindus have suffered at Pondicherry by the hands of the aforesaid reverend fathers. It is due to the indiscreet and ill-regulated zeal of the regent of their school — at least, so the Hindus have considered it when talking about it. He would never let them alone, disturbing them at every turn about the customs and modes of action of this country, which is his own. For this reverend father has been brought up from his youth in the country, donned here the habit of the Society, was ordained priest, learned the Malabar language rather well, and got it into his head that he could convert the whole of this Hindudom. The design is praiseworthy, glorious, fitted for an apostolic missionary, but the means [48] which he adopted were valueless. They were contrary to the customs and the maxims of these peoples, more particularly of those who live at Pondicherry. They are mostly persons who congregated there from the country outside in the hope of earning something after the recent re-establishment of the French Company.