Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-12-13
THE CURSE OF INDIA
CASTE, WHICH FIXES THE STATUS
OF EVERY HlNDoO. 81

No Man Can Rise From the Glass,
However Unclean, In Which He
Was Born--Neither Wealth Nor Sue
cess Affects the Caste of Any One.
In the fixed scale Of descent in India
Bome elasses are merely inferior, while
nome are sssnnclean' or s'untouchable,,"
hut from whatsoever class a man be
horn ii be has no escape but death.
shilaren horn In an @unclean" easre
remain ''tunclean;;p children born In an
inferior caste remain as their fathers
were. Nothing that they can do can
IN the slightest degree change their
situation. They were born 'unclean;"
their ancestors were ''unclean;" their
descendants will be "unclean" till the
end of the chapter.
To give a few illustrations from
many. q weaver Is less ''unclean" than
a carpenter, carpenter is above
house cleaner, a house cleaner Is above
street cleaner, and street cleaner Is
above pariah or no caste man. Every
trade or occupation has it's exact place,
arbitrarily fixed, in the scale of degra-
dation.
Above all the men that labor with
their hands In Whatsoever way are
the tradesmen and shopkeepers, also
with subdivisions Into classes; above
The tradesmen is the useless and now
almost idle warrior class; above the
warriors is the Brahman or priestly
class, and with these grand divisions
the structure of the system is com
plete.
Wealth or material situation or sue
cess has nothing to do with the caste Of
any man. You may hire for your cook
or wallets Brahman Of the purest strain
serene, who for weeks before you en-
gagged him may have been on the verge
Of starvation. The meager beggar to
whom you toss aims In the road may
be OF a very high caste. The well fed
groom, 5resplendent In gorgeous livery,
flashing by on carriage that covers
the beggar with dust, is very likely Of
a caste a mile below the beggar. Time
no more than effort can break down
these walls Of division. One Of the
weaithiest and most distinguished fam
lilies In Calcutta, the lannon's Tagore
family, lost caste about two centuries
ago. Members Of this family hays r.
ceiyed honor from the government,
have conferred great benefits upon city
and country and have heen noted for
their numerous charities and benefae-
lions. One: exerted himself all his lie
to further native education. Another
helped to endow Calcutta university.
All are enormously rich, and all bear
euyiable regulations for goodness, hon
sesty and philanthropy. But the wall Of
caste has never fallen for them They
ARE stiil hated ann ayoidsd hyq their
ccuntrymen exactly a. they were at
the beginning Of their exclusion. In the
streets ef Calcutta To- many a ragged
artisan that wonId not sit on the same
bench with Tagore or touch the end
Of his robe.
Pain, suffering, perjury, even death
itself, is nothing to the Hindoo COM
pared with the loss Of caste. Many a
Hindoo; that In the old days weuId
yield nothing to the most fendish tor
lures quickly surrendered his secrets
whan threatened with something that
would, contamiuate him-a piece of
cowskin, perhaps, Or a glass Of water
that had been touched by pariah. In.
I suppose, thousands of cases persons
that have hopelessly lost their caste
have abandoned their homes and wan
dered miserably along the roads until
death overlook them. Thousands of
others have thrown themselves into the
Ganges or deliberately starved.
Three Brahman girls who had been
degraded by a Mussulman went before
q Judge to demand vengeance and
when the Judge declined to interfere
killed themselves In the courtroom.
At a town called Buj But widow
lost caste BY falling Ia. love with a
man beneath her As loss Of caste by
one member Of tha family degrades
the others also. her eldest son imme-
diately swallowed poison. and died,
+ and his remaining brethren fed the
country. 81 - .&5..
a husband shares a wife's degrade
don. A wife goes down the steps with
q husband. For more than 100 years
q Brahman family OF santipur has
been outcaste because one mentef fell
"a love with the daughter Of shoe
maker Charles Edward Hnsaoil IA
Cosmopolitan Masaaans. \ v.=. ..
Pronunciation.
Here y 2 curious couplet which Illus