LIFE IN INDIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 April 1939, Page 6

LIFE IN INDIA

SIDELIGHTS ON MISSIONER’S WORK FLOODS RUIN CROPS & HOMES. VISIT TO LEPER COLONY. Interesting observations on life in India are contained in a letter received by a Masterton resident from the Rev. J. E. Jones, formerly curate at St. Matthew’s and now engaged in mission work in India. Mr Jones writes as follows: — September 9, 1938: I have just returned from an exhausting twb days’ travel by boat, on flood relief work. Heavy general rains during the last three months in the upper reaches of the Ganges and on the Himalayas far up north, has resulted in the steady rising of the rivers. The country is so flat that when the rivers break their banks, they cover nearly all the land. The Nadia District here is suffering terribly in consequence, for the rice and jute crops were not ready for harvest, and the waters rose so quickly that most of the crops were inundated and destroyed. The erstwhile green and fertile countryside resembles nothing now so much as the open sea, strangely studded here and there with trees and bounded by villages on the horizon, a sea across which we journey in a boat with mast and sail complete, over the submerged crops several feet below.

I have seen today whole villages in ruins, the people homeless crying out for food. When the water laps gently at the foundations of a mud-walled house it spells destruction. The solid clay soon turns to softest mud, unable to support the weight of walls and roof above. So down they crash, and the mushroom roof of thatch sitting in the water is the pathetic relic of what was a home. To feed and house and clothe these poor people in the winter months ahead is going to be a big job. We have managed to carry on the school,, by bringing in by boat the Christian,' Hindu and Moslem dty-boys to our hostel. October 6; The water has now subsided about four feet and much of the land is open again for cultivation. Where it is possible the farmers are busy ploughing or “scratching” in preparation for their winter crops, so important now that they have no rice. The Government, the churches, and individuals are giving what they can to help with food and clothes, seeds and rebuilding. I am writing this not from Chapra but from Purulia where I am spending a few days, and I want to tell you about the important work here —the Leper Colony and Hospital , for it is a real expression of the compassion of Jesus. Purulia is over 250 miles west of Calcutta within sight of the hills of Central India. Consequently is is a cooler , and healthier spot than the lower plains of Bengal. Here, first under the Lutheran Mission and now under the C.M.S., has developed a truly wonderful work of healing and evangelism. Leprosy like T.B. is a frightful scourge in India, and the leper in every land is still an outcast from society. But here in Purulia has grown up a big colony of lepers, a hospital for treatment and research a dispensary for outpatients, separate homes for healthy boys and girls of leper par- . ents, and again observation homes for those on the border-line.' It is indeed a big work. The outpatients alone number over 500 a week. The colony consists of 850 members —a whole village—all lepers. The. 'grown-ups” are divided into families, about 12 in each, so there are about 57 of the family—groups, besides the children’s homes. Of course many of them are quite illiterate and their contact with the colony is often their first contact with Christ. So every day in Church, big classes of men and women are given teaching about the Christian faith, and are taught to read and write. The services on Sunday are an inspiration. The church is packed with people sitting on the floor as the custom is in India. Indeed it is tremendous to join with them in worship, to hear their responses, and to feel their simple devotion and faith. These people, some blind and horribly deformed, many with fingers and toes eaten away by this fell disease, some on crutches minus limbs —in spite of their defoimities they sing and smile and generate an atmosphere of hope and happiness.