It is under these surroundings that the institution professes to train and equip boys to be useful citizens and religious and national leaders. The general atmosphere may impress the Westerner as somewhat confining and restricting, isolated from the facts and realities of the surrounding world. The institu tion even undertakes to provide suitable wives, sharing common ideals with the scholar, when the prolonged probation and novitiate are over.
Should our traveller continue in his peregrinations throughout India, he will come upon another magni ficent institution, the Dayananda Anglo-Vedic College, situated on the Lower Mall in Lahore, and bearing the imprint of our hero' s genius. This was established in 1885 by a group of Arya Samajists who were con vinced that the most effective means, in modern times, of preserving the teachings of Dayananda was not only missionary propaganda to which the Samaj stood committed, but also a net-work of educational institu tions financed, conducted and entirely staffed by Arya Samajists. To keep abreast of the times, it was felt that the appeal to the educated classes could only thus be adequately made. To show that progressive Hindu traditions will well harmonise with the latest discoveries of science and the newest teachings of philosophy ; to inculcate reverence for India's past, during the period the young were sedulously engaged in secular learning ; to enlist the sympathy, zeal and intellectual powers of the college under graduates in interpreting and developing the price less teachings bequeathed to them by Dayananda, some such institution was, according to them, necessary. Besides, they were zealous to show that the Samaj was not merely a proselytising machine, but had outlined before it an ambitious educational and social reform programme. It was also felt that thus alone could the danger of Christian missions be minimised and countervailed, since missionary institutions were not purely propagandist, but also educative, organised for medical relief, famine relief and general philanthropic purposes. It is worthy of notice, that the initiation of the Arya Samaj has for the first time called into being a vigorous, aggressive Hindu propaganda, with the object of reconverting to Hinduism converts to faiths like Islam and Christianity, as also for capturing converts from orthodox Hinduism. I have advisedly applied the term Hindu to Aryas, since at the Census for 1912, they returned them selves as Hindus by religion and of the Vedic Dharma by sect.
There was a split among the promoters of the D.A.V. College and members of its governing bodies on the important issue whether Vedic tradition should be exclusively upheld before the rising genera tion of undergraduates, especially earlier in their college career, or whether the English curriculum of studies should occupy a prominent place. Rightly or wrongly, influential men on the Board of Control decided for English education, making ample pro vision for religious instruction, and the performance of sacred rites. There is a hostel, attached to the D.A.V. College, where the scholars live and carry on their studies, in an atmosphere that encourages their religious ideals and provides for strict supervision in other important details. Students of the college, above referred to, carry off a large number of prizes and scholarships every year from the University of the Punjab, as also a much larger proportion of degrees than any other college. No account of the above college would be adequate which does not pay a tribute to the unselfish and patriotic services of Lala Hans Raj, who continued as its principal for more than thirty years, receiving no salary, only a bare subsistence allowance from a generous brother.
It may also be mentioned in passing that admission to the above college is open to all, and that no invidious caste distinctions are tolerated. Professor Sidney Webb, in his introduction to Lala Lajpat Rai's exceedingly interesting volume on " the Arya Samaj," mentions the remarkable instance of a very high-caste Brahmin and his wife, teaching "a score or two " of pariah children, and of living under the same roof with them. The Shuddhi (or reclaiming) work carried on for the social uplift of the depressed classes, by openly admitting them to the Hindu faith, will also tend considerably to weaken the caste consciousness that has so far operated against the " untouchables " and denied them the benefits of a human existence. The cumulative effect of the Shuddhi propaganda, if as vigorously conducted in the future, as in the past, and of the denunciation of caste in theory and principle, may altogether render impossible the anomalies referred to. In exceedingly conservative countries like England and India, class or caste may not be quite possible to abolish, in the near future. Yet the Arya Samaj seems to be animated with the right spirit to destroy the foundations of caste.