The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-07-18
THE EMPIRE OF INDIA
XIV TYRANNY OF The CASTE SYSTEM

Bombay. India:-Partly religious
and partly social, partly indus
trial and pArtly tribal. the Hindu sys-
tenn OF caste is the most cruelty tyran-
Meal. and absolutely powerful form OF
discipline to which human beings are
subject When Hindu baby Is borh
its status In life Is already fixed. He
knows. as soon as he knows anything
what occupation he will follow. what
food he will eat. what clothes he will
wear. what girl he win marry. and
how every detail of his life will be
ordered until death. OF course there
are numerous instances OF Individual
escape from the rules thus laid down.
but for all but the thousandth man, the
2o7. 100000 Hindus of India came into
the world with their lives arranged,
and their rank ordained.
The system Is so complex and intrf-
cate that volumes are necessary to ex-
plain its workings In detail. There
are more than 2,400 recognized castles.
and each one has its distinguishing and
peculiar features. 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:
ana the Sudra. or servants. The three
higher castles were called "twice-born,'
and were originally Aryan stock.
Their race pride and superior strength
caused them to put the aboriginal In
ha bitants In the lowest class of mental
service.
The word caste" Is from the Latin
through the Portuguese ''casta." mean
ing pure of race" and was applied
first because of the fact that the
various classes of Hindu society gen
orally forbid inter marriage. The
Hindu word for caste means literally
color" and It was along the color line
that the first divisions In Hindu society
were marked out. Through countless
ages the process of evolving new castles
has biottei out the sharper distinctions
OF color. but there are still apparent
gradations. The naughty Brahman of
Benares Is proud Of hts light yellow
skin, not nearly so dark as that OF a
Japanese. And the Pariah of southern
India Is in no wise proud of his black
African intensified. The Brahman Is at
the top of the system. and It Is he who
benefits by It's rigid discipline. The
Pariah is at the bottom, or almost at
the bottom, for even below this lowest
caste there are outcast people upon
whom even the Pariah looks down
with ineffable scorn.
caste IL the hcyStOnc VI tAihah
society. India has never been united
under one government, 1t has never had
less than hundred different Ian
guages, 1t has never had common
religion, IL has never had national
ideal But 1t has always had caste,
and the system is as powerful in one
part of the country as In another, al
though the people may belong to iif-
ferent races and speak entirely differ
ent tongues.
The influence of the railroad and pos
tai system upon caste Is one of the
most striking features of the Indian
life of today. In one way the intro
duction of modern civilization has
served to break down the caste lines
Brahman has found that he may ride
in the same third -class railway car
riage without being any the worse lot
wear at the end of the journey. And
the Pariah has found that he. has not
been struck dumb OF carried OF bodily
to hell because of his daring approach
to the heavenly ttwice-born' yellow
man and hIs sacred thread. Hlndus Of
all castles have learned that 1t is
possible to cross the black water. as
they call the ocean. without great dan
ger. That discovery has given rise
to the Hindu emigration problem. The
spread of English education has tenn
pered the fanaticism of the high caste
Hindu and he sometimes will deign to
sit at table with his English lords and
masters. Some of the younger .gener-
alton will go so far as to eat the up-
clean food prepared in the unholy
Christian Kitchen, provided they are
ouite sure no account of their trans
erosion will reach the ears of the
lower castles.
But among the unedcuated the effect
of the cheap railway transportation,
cheap postage and free education has
been to strengthen and buttress the
whole caste system. The Hindus of
scores of widely separated sections of
the country have been brought into
communication for the first time in
history The crafty Brahman has not
failed to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity.
The strictest rules of caste have been
selected as a model. and communities
living under standards OF greater lax
ity have been brought up sharp with
threats of loss of caste The English
government has been exerting itself
for years to induce the Hindus to per-
nit the re-marriage OF widows But
now the Brahmans, through their
newspapers and religious journals, hold
out the hope of rise in caste to any
tribe or caste which will abandon the
re-marriage of widows and which will
institute IHe CuStOAH VI
riage. Hence whole sections OF the
country where the twin enormities
were not known, have adopted these
terrible practices within the last few
years They have been rewarded by the
Brahmans, who have moved the whole
caste up a peg or two in the scale of
social precedence.
There is a reform movement among
the more highly educated followers of
the Hindu religion which deplores the
existence of caste and all its attendant
evils. But, queerly enough. that re-
form movement has now become a caste
by itself More than a hundred great
castles in India have been formed in
Just that way--by a revolt against the
system The reformers were Stunned
by their fellows, were forced to marry
within their own circle and in time be-
came a new caste. Buddhism was a re-
reform movement in the Hindu religion,
but 1t refused to accept the caste sys-
tenn and bence was banished entirely
from the land which gave 1t birth.
The present race of Hindu reformers,
although they are already accounted a
separate caste, are loud in their denun-
Citations of the evils of the system. They
declare that 1t has produced disunion
and discord: that 1t, has made honest
manual labor contemplate and there
fore has retarded Industrial progress:
that 1t has brought on physical degen-
eracy by confning marriage TO a mar
row circle: that 1t has suppressed in
dividuality; and that, by affording OPP