1 THE MODERN HINDUS. 45
2 and Egypt Mahomedans eat and drink with Christians, the Indian Musal-
3 man would neither dine with a Christian nor eat food prepared by him.
4 The Mahomedans of India, as far as the common people are concerned, are
5 an exclusive community. Respectable tribes marry only in their own class,
6 and are much restricted as to giving their daughters in marriage to persons
7 of an inferior tribe or caste, or receiving daughters of such families, In
8 Mahomedan countries other than India such distinctions are unknown.
9 The habit of ages has made caste prejudice inherent in the people. It
10 has, as it were, become their common law. Buddhism, which professes a
11 common brotherhood among mankind, waged a war of centuries against
12 caste, but was not accepted by the people, who relapsed into caste. In
13 Ceylon, where the faith of Buddha has survived, caste is found side by
14 side with it. The great Nanak preached social equality of all races and
15 tried to unite all creeds by one common tie, but his followers, after strug-
16 gling for years to establish the doctrines of their leader, have now surrounded
17 themselves with a fence of caste more or less impassable.
18 The caste system is only technically bad. It may be said to be morally
19 bad if it created hatred and abhorrence of one another among people, from
20 pride or an affectation of superiority. But, generally speaking, it has not
21 that effect in India. It is to the Hindus simply what in Western countries
22 are the social ties and restrictions observed by people who enjoy the benefit
23 of a superior education. The distinction observed by the ancient Romans
24 between patrician and plebeian was essentially a caste distinction. The
25 hereditary distribution of employments among the ancient Egyptians bore
26 a close analogy to caste. What, however, in India is known as the caste
27 system is rather an unwritten law of nations by which they bind them-
28 selves to one another in matters social and religious. Everybody in Europe,
29 everybody in Arabia and Persia sets up his separate table. Persons of a
30 certain standing in society ordinarily marry only among people of position
31 equal to their own. They shrink from the idea of forming alliances, or
32 even of mixing, with people of inferior social status to themselves, lest their
33 dignity, or their influence, should decline, or be lost. This is virtually the
34 observance of a custom analogous to the caste system of India, with only
35 this difference that the Hindus have carried their system too far; they
36 have made it too rigid. Caste, then, properly speaking, is not peculiar
37 to India.
38 _ The Government of India, which tolerates all religions, has not inter-
39 fered with the caste system of the country. Yet, so far as its own action
40 is concerned, it has wisely ignored caste. The streets of a town are open
41 equally to Brahmins, Saiyads, chamdrs and sweepers. Education in schools
42 is given equally to the sons of princes and of banids, of nawabs and of dhobés.
43 All sit on the same bench, or the same floor, and are instructed by the same
44 tutor, In jails, as in hospitals, all are treated alike. No preference is
45 given to the people of one class over those of another. State appoint-
46 ments are open to all. The son of a shopkeeper or of an oilman, if he
47 possesses the necessary qualifications, is as eligible to fill the highest
48 appointment open to a native as. is the son of a nawab or a prince.
49 Certain sections of the community have already planted their foot on the
50 social ladder. As education spreads, as people appreciate the system of a
51 free, enlightened and impartial Government more thoroughly, the rigid
52 distinctions of caste will be quietly, calmly and imperceptibly removed, al-
53 though, as long as the sun shines on the soil of India, as long as the cultiva-
54 Caste in India not a
55 new thing,
56 Policy of the Govern.
57 ment in regard to
58 diverse castes and
59 religions prevalent
60 in India.
61 Probable future of
62 tor ploughs his land, as long as the flower imparts its sweet odour to the 3;
63 garden, so long will the caste system remain in India. It is the sacred
64 the caste system of
65 a.
66 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com