The record-union., 1894-03-07
HINDOO LIFE And MANNERS.
Interesting Lecture by Learned
Hindoo Speaker.
Social Life In India-Domestic and Fam
lily Customs-Caste and What
1t Is, and Its Origin.

ton by b. b. Nagarkar, a Hindoo scholar
and orator, who spoke upon the Social
Life of the Hindoos." He is an easy,
fluent, earnest talker, witty at times and
bold in his utterances. He holds the at
tention of his audience easily and with
out much apparent effort. He makes no
endeavor at oratory, contenting himself
with directness, distinctness and orderly
marshaling of the subject in hand.
An outline of his discourse will serve
to inform the reader of its character. But
as he spoke for an hour and half. OF
course not more than sketch of his re-
marks is here attempted.
The American people he had found in
his six months association with them
are in the Cimerian darkness of deplor-
able ignorance concerning India and her
people. He said that not in reproach or
Extensively but because it is simple fact
that the American people ought to know
and which it is right they should know.
What is needed Tor India and for all
other nations is sympathetic interest in
and study of India by other peoples.
He divided his subject into four heads,
social eXcluslvenesS, female secluSion OF
the Zenana, the united family and caste.
Social exclusiveneSs in the HindOo
character is a reprOacn in the eyes OF
Americans and EurOpeans-it is offensive
but not so intended by the Hindoo. In
America social amenities center in eating
and drinking. Beef and wine and the
social board represent the primodial cells
of all social affinities among Americans.
Not so in India.
You may know the Hindoo for years,
touch shoulders with him daily on
Change, greet him day after day, yet he
may never ask you TO dine with him or
accept your invitation to eat with you. 1t
is a social understanding with Hindoos
that foreigners should be so treated, and
ages have not very perceptibly shaken
this beliefamong the 25O,000.OO0 OF India.
This social exclusion is the source of
much misunderstanding among our
American friends, said the speaker, some
of whom dash through the great conti-
nent-the wonderful, marvellous cOnti-
nent-in three weeks, return home aCd
write three bulky volumes of criticism on
India and its people.
The Hindoo is exclusive as Americans
understand the word society" not as
the Hindoo lnterprets it. The cruelty he
has experienced from the people OF the
little island England, the wrong he has
so long suffered, have made him suS-
picious of all foreigners, and it will take
long time to render him social, as the
rest of the world translates the word.
The foreigner may ingratiate himself
with the orthodox HindoO; the latter will
meet him; he will barter with him, go on
'Change with him, be ruled by him, but
he will not eat with him. He will not
dine with those not OF his caste. 1t is
part of his nature. 1t is born with him;
it is his religion. This social exclusive
ness is the most outstanding character
istic OF the Hindoo socially. 1t may give
way in time, but it will bea long time, and
after vastly more of western influence
has operated in India.
Female seclusion means the retiracy of
women in what Americans may term the
harem. but improperly; it is the Zenana,
the wOman'S apartments in the home.
This seclusiOn clips the Hindoo woman's s
freedom; she has no such liberty as her
American sisters enjoy, but she does not
feel it to be bondage or degradation TO be
secluded. The custom is not HlnduS-
tanee. 1t came to the Hlndoo ages ago
from the Moslem. 1t is a Mohammedan
institution. In some parts of India,
where Mohammedanism longest held
sway, the custom is most rigid. In others
it is relaxed greatly, and in come can
scarcely be said to be adopted. 1t is per-
nicious in its extremity, and is the bane-
ful result of Moslem contact.
When the Mohammedans came into
India with their religion they raided
HindOo homes, they stole the Hindoo
women; they were guilty of unspeakable
Outrages. So the Hindoo was driven to
keep the women of his household, his
wives and daughters, within doors, and
guard them from Moslem touch. So it
grew into custom, and through ages has
crystalliZed into social law.
Here your women, said he, go about
freely and without fear, but in the north
ern provinces of India you may walk
miles and miles through crowded streets
and never see or hear of a woman, and be
led to think that in those great popula-
tions there is but one sex. In the south
the seclusion is much less severe, and in
some westernized centers is little felt, yet
nowhere in India has woman the free
dom she enjoys IN America.
Here you live in the open with each
other and no blush comes to any. Your
wives and daughters sit with you at table,
move with you on the highway. But in
India the men have their own hours
and places for devotion and amusement
and the women theirs, separate and apart.
In some places the houses of worship
have two apartments, one for each sex,
and in some parts the women have their
own parks, promenades and gardens,
where a man never intrudes. But in
Calcutta and Bombay, and such places
largely EuropeaniZed, such stringent
customs do not prevail.
At the time this seclusion of women
came upon India by the Moslem incur
sion it is worthy of note that the women
OF Europe were not so free as to-day,
while before that time the women OF India
were freer than the women of Europe
were in the fifteenth century.
The united family is the third charac-
teristic of Hindoo social conditions. 1t
is a composite family system. With you
Americans and Europeans, said Mr.
Nagarkar, the young man of % marrles
the young woman of %. and at once. per-
hapS within the hour, these two, this dual
lie, sets up an independency, may be in
hotel, in boarding house, in a cottage,
or in mansion. 1t is a new family; two
at first. perhaps three with the servant
and presently baby adds to the popula-
ton of the new group, and the old one is
left to itself, losing thus its members one
by one. 60,
meaning in India. There when the son
marries he brings his wife to the home of
his father and mother, and the united
family grows larger. Their children are
born and grow and marry and come back
to the ancestral roof and the united fam
lily swells. until the parents die and then
lnaynap the brothers may disagree and
branch out to set up two or three founda-
uons for other ancestral homes.
Thus it may happen that the united
family consists of one dozen, two dozen,
thAeS UoHeui MY OA AloA0 p0OPAo iNluS
and loving beneath one roof and clinging
together as one. Sometimes the daughter
of the family nlarries i'll, in that she has
not husband who can well provide for
her alone, and then she brings him TO the
ancestral home and he and sGe are well
come and all unite for common comfort
and aid.
This is the old patriarchal system. and
it will long so continue. Not all Hindoos
approve of it, but the masses are welded
10 it. Do they quarrel under this sys-