The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-18
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
NIV.-Tyranny of the Caste System.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

Bombay, India.-PartIy religious and
partly social. partly Industrial and part
" tribal, the Hindu system of caste is
the most cruelty tryannical and absolute
~ powerful form of discipline to which
human beings are subject When a Hindu
baby is born its status in life is already
fixed He knows. as soon as he knows
ANYTHING, what occupation he viii follow,
what food he will eat, what clothes he
viii wear. what girl he will marry. and
how every detail of his life will be ordered
until death. OF course there are numer-
GUS instances OF individual escape from
the rules thus laid down, but for ali but
the thOusandth man. the 207, 900 900 Hindus
Of India came into the world with their
lives arranged, and their rank ordained.
The system is so complex and intricate
that volumes are necessary to explain
It's workings in detail. There are more
than ?, 40G recognized castles, and each one
has its distinguishing and peculiar fed-
ture According to the Indian theory, the
whole system had its beginning in the
establishment Of four great castes-the
Brahmans. or priests; the Kshattriya, or
warriors; the Vaisya. or merchants and
farmers; and the Sudra, or servants. The
three higher castles were call ID twice
born, and were originally Aryan stock.
Their race pride and superior strength
caused them to put the aboriginal inhah-
itants in the lowest class of mental
service.
The word caste" is from the Latin
through the Portuguese "casta." meaning
pure of race, and was applied first
because Of the fact that the various
classes of Hindu society generally forbid
intermarrfage. The Hindu word for caste
means literally color and it was along
the color line that the first divisions i'm
Hindu society were marked out. Through
countless ages the process of evolving
new castles has blOtted out the sharper
distinctions Of color. but there are still
apparent gradations. The naughty Brah-
ma of TQanarae fa of suIaf vol
low skin. not nearly so dark as that Of a
JaDanesc. And the Pariah of southern
Indian is in no wise proud of his black
ness. which is that Of the blacklist Afri-
can intensified. The Brahmsn is at the
top of the system and it is ne who bane-
fits by its rigid discipline The Pariah
is at the bottom. or almost at the bottom
for even below this lowest caste there are
0utCRst people upon whom even the Par
iah looks down with ineffable sCOrn.
Caste is the keystone of Hindu society.
india has never been united under one
government. it has never had less than
a hundred different LANGUAGES, it has
never had a common religion. il has never
had national ideal But it has always
had caste. and the system is as powerful
in one mart Of the country as in another.
the people may belong To diff
ferent races and speak entirely different
tongues.
The influence of the railroad and postal
system upon caste is one of the most
striking features of the Indian life of to-
day. In one wav the introduction Of mod I
ern civilization has served to break down
the caste lines. a Brahman has found
that he may ride in the same third-Class
railway carriage with a Pariah without
being any the worse for wear at the end
Of the journey. And the Pariah has found /
that he has not been struck dumb or car I
ried off bodily to hell because of his .dar- |
ing approach to the heavenly twice /
born yellow man and his sacred thread. I
Hindus of all castes have learned that it /
Is DOSsible to cross the BLACK water " /
as they call the ocean, without great
danger. That discovery has given rise 1
to the Hindu emigration problem. The /
spread Of English education has tempered /
thu fanaticism of the -high-caste Hindu /
and he sometimes will deign to sit at 1
table with his English lords and masters /
Some of the younger generation will 90 /
so far as TO eat the UnClean food pre- /
Dared in the unholv Christian kitchen. /
provided they are quite sure no account /
Of their trausgTessiOn will reach the ears
Of the lower castles
But among the uneducated the effect of /
the cheap railway transportation, cheap /
hostage and free education has been TO !
strengthen and buttreSS the whole caste
system. The HiuduS Of scores Of widely i
sc parated sections of the country have
nean brought into communication for the /
first time in history. The crafty Brah- |
man has not failed to take advantage Of /
the opportunity.
The strictest rules Of caste have been
selected as a model. and communities Iiv-
ing under standards of greater iaxity
have been brought up sharp with threats j
IF loss Of caste. The English government
has been nXerting itself for years TO in
luce the Hindus to permit the remar riage
# widows But now the BrahmanS
through thef~ newspapers and religions
journals. hold out the hope of rise in
taste to any tribe or caste which will
abandon the remarriage of widows and
which will institute the custom of infant