through the contempt and ill-treatment that they have received for the past thousand years." They live the Sialkot and adjoining Districts and in Jammoo Territory, and according to the Census Returns numbered 104,203 souls; of the 40,448 persons in Megh Carpentry Class. Megh Brahmacharis of Gurukula, Hardwar. British territory only 111 or less than 3 per 1,000 were literates. They are of fair complexion and have regular features of the Aryan stock, they cremate their dead and observe other Hindu rites and cere monies. They are weavers by profession and do not engage in any filthy trade or more nued occupation; they also work as village menials and agricultural laborers. The Hindu contempt for the outcasts is proverbial; he considers their touch a pollution and he will not allow them to sit on the same carpet or to draw water from his wells or to visit the temple or other places of worship. Thanks to the British Government a new spirit had come over the land. The Meghs seeing the benevolent activities and reforming zeal of the Arya Samaj looked up to it for help; for years they attended its weekly meeting on equal terms, and the intelligent among them contito press their claims for removal of social ostracism. The first thing to be done was to take away from them the stigma of "unthouchableness" and allow them to come as the Lord Bi shop says, "in contact with men who no longer despised them, no longer treated them as untouchables, no longer treated them worse than their cattle, but recognised their manhood, visited them in their homes. and held out to them the right hand of brotherhood, then at once their self-respect was restored and gleams of hope appeared upon the horizon of their cheerless, hopeless lives." The Aryas being a "microscopic minority" among the Hindus looked helpless; the magnitude of the task for a time unnerved them, as they knew that the opposition and persecution would be tremendous. But the cause of the weak and the depressed triumphed eventually and on the 14th March 1903 the Sialkot Arya Samaj resolved unanimously that the Meghs be 'purified' at the anniversary meetings to, be held on the 28th and 29th idem. Mahant Ram Dass, a Megh priest, with 3,000 followers, joined the procession on 27th March 1903, but an agitation was started against the innovation, and the uhammadan head-men, hose menial servants the or Meghs were, succeeded threats and mis-representions in dissuading a rge majority from taking e step. Only 200 Meghs mained firm and they ere 'purified.' The opposion on the part of nonindus was persistent and rong and the Arya agats, as the Meghs call emselves after "purificaon," were persecuted and osecuted remorselessly. ne orthodox Hindus held eetings to excommunicate e Aryas and for a time e prospects were very oomy. The even-handed stice of the British authoies-the name of Mr. F. Connolly, I. C. S.. puty Commissioner, will long remain enshrined the heart of the cominity-saved the moveent from collapse and the uddhi work went on eadily. During the past n years Over 36,000 eghs have been reclaimed d their social status perptibly improved. Realising that the 'puriation' ceremony was not ough to raise the Meghs cially and economically e Arya Samaj thought ith Mr. C. F. Andrews at there was no "way so actically helpful under esent circumstances as the Swamy Satyananda Saraswati who performed the first "purification" ceremony of 200 Meghs. ay of education." It has "the immense Ivantage of displaying real human symthy and a desire to share with the Dorest the greatest blessing mankind is received." Secondly, education is ot "pauperising but on the contrary ads to greater self-respect. It opens out > them new ideas of the value and ossibility of progress, and enables them > take part in their own uplifting." oon after the first 'purification' it was solved in June 1903 to open idustrial Primary School at Sialkot for he exclusive use of Megh boys, because an as observed by Sir Sir Valentine Chirol, "they are unable to attend the ordinary schools owing to the idea that it is pollution to touch them." Religious and literary education is literary education is imparted in Megh Schools in Hindi so that the students may not hanker after clerical service; efforts are made to teach them some handicraft so that they may be able to earn a decent living and lead clean lives. We are working on the sound advice given by Sir George Clarke, Governor of Bombay, to a Deputation of the Depressed Classes Mission: An Arya Samajist Megh Bagat, victim of a Rajput's fanaticism. "Education is a valuable means of imparting self-respect and enlarging the horizon of thought but I hope you will not confine your efforts to literary education alone. The depressed classes are already doing useful services to India but the supply of handicrafts is inadequate and it is important that they should acquire a sense of the dignity of hand labour and not be induced to regard clerical work as the ideal." During the past three years Lower Primary Schools have been started in six villages where the Megh population is considerable. The following table shows the number of pupils attending the various schools maintained by the society. and books are supplied gratis. Of the 70 boys reading at Sialkot 28 are in the Upper Priamary Classes; a weaving loom of improved pattern which cost Rs. 200 wa purchased and the services of an instructor were engaged but the experiment did not prove a success. A tailoring class is in working order and a wholetime tutor teaches pupils. A carpentry workshop has been added where under a qualified Mistri instruction and training is given to boys. A Drawing Master teaches drawing to the students. Three Megh boys have been trained for mission work and they are employed as itinerant preachers; two 70 April April 1912. 1914. Sialkot Industrial 48 37 20 Kila Sobha Singh 19 32 Zafarwal Marala 22 27 Tanda Phukilian 33 246 The village schools serve also as feeders to the Central School at Sialkot to which are sent boys who pass the Lower Primary Examination. The demand for more education is now persistent in the community, and applications are being constantly received for more schools but for want of funds the society is not able to comply with the requests. The Sialkot Industrial School Industrial School is not a Local Institution but it is for the benefit of the whole community. A Boarding House is maintained here at considerable expense. There are at present 45 boarders; the parents being poor supply only atta and all other articles of food are provided by the Sabha. To one-third of the boarders, whose guardians are very poor or who are orphans, food, clothing others after passing the Upper Primary Examiation are working as teachers. Two Megh boys are reading as free boarders in the Gurukula Academy at Kangri, Hardwar, on equal terms with high caste students and two are receiving instruction with other Hind boys at the Gujranwala Gurukula which prepares candidates for the Matriculation Examination of the Punjab University Three students who passed the Upper Primary from our school are prosecuting their studies in the secondary department of the local Ganda Singh Hindu High School. The Sabha provides them with board and lodging. A number of young men, the list includes 24 names, who were educated in our school are settled in life and are earning their living as carpenters, tailors, smiths from Rs. 15 to Rs. 30 An industrial bank registered under the Co-operative Societies Act has been established to assist the community Megh Panchayats have been organised to in procuring cotton yarn at Mill prices settle disputes among the members, and it is very seldom that they now have Megh School at Qila Sobha Singh. recourse to law courts. The members of the Arya Samaj mix with them socially on equal terms and eat food cooked in their houses; the educated Hindus no longer longer despise them and the social boycott of the orthodox Hindus has considerably slackened. The leaven is doing its work and all admit that the social status of the Meghs has been raised and their outlook widened. A certain amount of self-respect has been created, and though a good beginning has been made with the uplift movement, that which has been accomplished is but an infinitesimal part of the work which awaits the reformers. As remarked by H. E. the Governor of Bombay we admit, "that to bring about the social changes which are necessary to give to the Depressed Classes their rights as men and brothers, must be the work of individuals and of Indians," but Sir Valentine Chirol is also right, when he approvingly quotes the remark of an earnest social reformer : "A Government within easy reach of the latest thought with unlimited moral and material resources such as there is in India should not remain content with simply asserting the equality of men under the common law and maintaining order but must sympathetically see from time to time that the different sections of its subjects are provided with ample means of progress. When one-eighth of the people are in a chronically depressed and ignorant condition, no Government can ignore the urgent necessity of doing what it can for their elevation." Our most pressing necessity has for many years been a decent but commodious building at Sialkot where instruction may be imparted to the Meg boys in industrial and literary subjects up to the Middle standard. The school is at present held in the Arya Samaj Mandir where also live the boar ders. For many reasons that building is not a suitable one and much in convenience is at times felt. The Arya Samaj moreover wants to locate therein its girls school which teaches to the Middle standard: it is no longer available for Megh uplift work. The Indus trial School requires work shop rooms and ordinary class rooms with the acommodation prescribed by the Department. The matter of providing a suitable school building has from the start engaged attention, but the difficulty securing of a good site. In August 1904 a was the small plot of land opposite the Samaj Mandir was purchased for Rs. 992 but it was not till May 1910 that a larger plot adjoining it was secured for Rs.5,000. A plan was prepared and on 24th January 1912 the foundation stone was laid by the Deputy Commissioner, Colonel F. Popham Young, (now Commissioner, Rawalpindi Division) who delivered on the occasion a very encouraging speech. "I must preface the few remarks which I have to make to you by thanking you for the kind and graceful reception which you have accorded to my wife and to myself. I do not propose to detain you with any lengthy speech. For I feel that it is only necessary for to deliver to the members of the Sialkot Arya Sama a message of encouragement, of congratulation, and of good will. My presence amongst you here to-day, and the presence of these other ladies and gentlemen who are not members of the Arya Samaj is du to the recognition on our part that when any section of the great Indian community engages in any work which has for its object the welfare of the poor and the depressed it is the sacred duty of each and all of us to offer to that work any encouragement which lies in our power. During his recent brief stay amongst us, His Im perial Majesty King George V has addressed his Indian people on more than one occasion in words which are still ringing in our ears. He has told us how near to his heart lies the cause of education in India. And he has in his fina message impressed upon us the necessity for dwelling together in unity, if India is to work out her ow |