THE QUEEN AS A HINDOO GODDESS.
[To TUB EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—Possibly I have hesitated too long for this communica- tion to be of interest, but not having seen anything of the kind recorded in your, or other, columns, I venture to send it on the chance of its getting inserted. I am a missionary in the largest and most important city of Northern India; and my work in connection with the famines of 1897 and 1900 brought me into close relations with all sections of the com- munity. When our beloved Queen-Empress died the whole city was deeply impressed, and women in the Zenanas felt that the Golden Ago for women had passed away. On the Friday night preceding the day of the funeral the leading members of the influential Kshatri community held a meeting to consider what form their Memorial Service should take. They decided that they would procure a large portrait of the Queen, carry it as a corpse, followed by thousands, through the city to the river Jumna, and there cremate it, lavishly paying all the honours due to a Hindoo goddess. Some, however, doubted whether this intended honour would be acceptable to the Commissioner and Deputy-Commissioner, and early on Saturday morning, when the sun had scarce risen, I was informed that a gentleman wished to see me. He entered, followed by a servant bearing a large picture of her late Majesty Queen Victoria. He then explained the object of the picture, and the resolution of the previous evening, and asked me to tell him frankly how in my judgment the two authorities above referred to would be likely to regard it. I immediately disclaimed all ability to interpret the views of the gentlemen concerned, and offered with considerable hesi- tation the poor substitute of my own. With Oriental polite- ness he hastened to assure me that it was for that he came. I then told him that whilst appreciating to the full the honourable motive which underlay the proposal, I could not but regard it as an utterly unsuitable way in which to pay honour to a Queen who not only in name, but in character and profession, was an honour to the Christian faith. The idea was abandoned, and in this city at any rate Queen V ic- toria Kaisar-i-Hind was not reckoned amongst the divinities of
the Hindoo Pantheon. She may get there yet when her statue arrives, and is placed in the heart of the city, as we hope to place it. Nevertheless, I felt it my duty to try to prevent this latest attempt at apotheosis. That it is my only personal connection with the process of god-making must be my excuse for troubling you with this epistle.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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