1 ORIGINAL PREFACE. v
2 on certain sulijectSj f«ieli as religiou and caste, and to express my own views on
3 the matter. I venture to tliiuk tliat these digressions are not the least interest-
4 ing portions of the volume ; and in a report which nmst of necessity consist
5 for the most pai-t of a dry discussion of figures, any passage of general interest
6 is welcome, if only as a relief. But my chief object in entering upon these
7 discussions has been, to draw the attention of my readers to the extraordinary
8 interest of the material which lies in su.'h abundance ready to the hand of all
9 Indian officials, ;ind which would, if collected and recorded, be of such immense
10 value to students of sociology. Our ignorance of the customs and lieliefs
11 of the people among whom we dwell is surely in some respects a reproach
12 to us ; for not only docs that ignorance deprive Em-opean science of material
13 which it greatly needs, but it also involves a distinct loss of administrative
14 power to ourselves. And if aught that I have ^Vl•itten in this report should
15 incline any from among my readers to a study of the social and religious
16 phsenomena by which they are surrounded, I at any i*ate shall be amply repaid
17 for my labour.
18 Moreover, Indian official literature is gradually gaining for itself students
19 from beyond the limits of India, and European scholars are tui-ning to it for
20 the facts of which they find themselves in need. In his Village Communities
21 (pages 34-5) Sir Henry Maine writes of Indian Settlement reports : " They
22 " constitute a whole literature of very great extent and variety, and of the
23 " utmost value and instructiveness. I am afraid I must adil that the Ensrlish
24 " reader, whose attention is not called to it by official duty, not unusually finds
25 " it very unattractive or even repulsive. But the reason I believe to be, that
26 " the elementary knowledge which is the key to it has for the most part never
27 " been reduced to writing at all." I see no reason why an Indian report
28 should of necessity be repulsive or unintelligible ; and I have ventured,
29 here and there, to add at the expense of brevity matter which would perhaps
30 be superfluous if addressed exclusively to Indian officials.
31 The more we learn of the people and their ways^ the more profoundly
32 must we become impressed with the vastness of the field and with the immense
33 diversity which it presents. Not only is our knowledge of the facts as nothing
34 compared with our ignorance ; but the facts themselves vary so greatly from
35 one part of the Panjab to another, that it is almost impossible to make any
36 general statement whatever concerning them which shall be true for the whole
37 Province. I have not always stopped to say so ; and I have not unfrequently
38 made assertions, as it were ex cathedra infallibili. But I would always be
39 understood to mean, in wi-iting of the people, that while I have taken pains to
40 obtain the best and most tnistworthy information available, I only present
41 it for what it is worth, and that it will almost certainly be inapplicable
42 to some parts at least of the Panjab. Yet I do not think that the uncertain