Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-08
HINDU INVASION

BellinHham by the workers of thai
district, is en- route to Los Angeles
due to arrive today, the following facts
concerning these people have been col
lated from several sources that the
people OF Southern California may
have an intelligent opinion concerning
them.
There are approximately 29S, 100000
people in India and unlike any other
people who may come to America they
are caste-ridden to a degree which the
average man who has never been
among them cannot realize. From
birth to death man is what he was
born to be in caste and may never
hope to escape the decree for himself
or his children.
There are four principal castles or
divisions among them. of which the
Sudra is the lowest and held In great
est contempt. He is classed with dogs
all hope here or hereafter. Many of
those in Bellingham were of the Val
syas and Rajput castles, which include
the soldiers and farmers of the coun-
try, while the Brahmin caste, or
priests, are held the highest of all.
No man of either of these castles may
deal with or even touch the body of
one lower than himself without losing
his caste standing and being forever
dishonored. The Brahmin shaves his
beard off and does not wear turban,
and may not eat flesh meat of any
kind, being forbidden to eat OF that
which once had life. The Vaisyas and
Rajputs may eat the hare, deer or
sheep, but not beef, as the cow is a
sacred animal. The Sudras are like
the dogs and wander from place to
place and starve.
One writer who has studied them at
first hand says of them in a recent
issue of the Pacific Monthly:
''It may help us to decide whether
the East Indians are desirable immi-
grants or not by glancing at the con-
ditions which prevail in their home
land. 1t is a land under curse, or,
Of the caste system. of gaunt-eyed
famine, and of poison-breathing
plague.
''The caste system; with its IRON
bound regulations, holds the people of
India in its cruel and relentless grasp,
and from its DEGREES there is no ap-
peal. From birth to death the victim
Of this system is bound hand and foot;
for him there Is neither liberty, nor
hope of freedom. If he is born a
too low to spit upon, creature so
debased that his mere touch would
def1le one of higher caste. There is
neither outlook nor uplook for him nor
for his children after him; worth, nor
wealth, nor energy, nor any other
thing can raise him to a higher level,
and unlike the other castes he can sink
no lower. For he is classed with the
dogs and unclean creatures, and is
denied all benefit Of hope here and
hereafter.
More than a hundred million of
India's people are always hungry and,
weakened by lack of food, have not
the power to resist the epidemics which
sweep over the land.
"Of sanitation they have not the
faintest idea; in consequence the water
supply is polluted, the very air filled
with infected dust.
millions of people perish in the
prolonged agonies of starvation during
the frequent famines. In the famine
of 1900, which ragged throughout the
Punjab and the central provinces, more
than eight millions of people died from
lack of food. These famines are fol-
lowed by devastating epidemics-chol-
era, smallpox. fever and the dread
bubonic plague, the latter disease alone
claiming more than a million and
quarter of victims during the year of
1905. While these diseases originate
in the overcrowded and foul slums of
India, they threaten the world at large,
especially the bubonic plague, which
thrives not only in the tropics, but
where the thermometer hovers around
zero, and which, through the instru-
mentality of rats, has been brought to
Honolulu and San Francisco, to Liver
pool and Hongkong.
do you wonder when you look at
India, with its low wages and high
taxes, its famines and plaques, its
absence of all incentive toward ad-
vancement, that the dam which for
so long has held the people in check
is weakening? Do you wonder that
the East Indians are turning their
faces westward toward the land Of
progress and opportunity" :,
Being British subjects they are at
liberty to enter the United States at
will. the only requirement being that
they pay the two-dollar head tax and
transportation from any Canadian port
to American soil. The American i'm
migration officials in British Columbia
state the case as follows:
GAS we have no discretion in the
matter of their admission. they being
British subjects, the only thing we can
do is to enforce the regulations very
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