Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-20
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BookloVer

Caste in India, from the caste Of the
highest Brahniins to that Of the lowest
"untoucnables," is perhaps the most
stubborn force to be reckoned with by
those who wish to bring India into line
with ideas of Western civilizations. Low
ell Thomas, in his book, india: Land Of
the Black Pagoda,' says that the Brah-
Minis divided the Hindus into thousands
of castles, which are now subdivided into
many more subcastes. "Some one has
said that India is not country but a
religious controversy. If you ask an
Indian what he is, instead of replying
that he is a Bengal or a Madrasi or
a Punjaubi, he will tell you that he Is a
Hindu or a Muhammadan or a Parsee
or Jain or Buddhist or a Sikh or
Theosophist, or some other of midas
one thousand and one religious persua-
Sions." The four original classes of Hin
duism are the priests or Brahmins, the
kings and military leaders or KShattri-
vas, the merchants or Vaishyas and the
slaves or SudraS. The only escape from
caste is by reincarnation, after death,
carnation may work downward as well
as upward; Sudra may find himself
reincarnated pig instead of a Brah-
min. Lowell Thomas is not hopeful
about the elimination of caste in some
millennial future of India. He says: "AS
to castles breaking down. because of
Western civilization and railways-it
will happen when the Ganges flows
backwards from Calcutta to Kedar-
nath."
A caste in India not so much writ
ten about as the Brahmins and the
Mr.. Thomas devoteS a chapter to this
caste and its disconcerting habits,
somewhat suggestive of those of gang
sters who have had all the advantages
of our Western civilization. Members
of the Indian criminal tribes are pop
lllarly known as "CrimS" and "are the
most snobbiSh criminals in the world,
for they have their own separate Hindu
caste" They worship the crow and
hope in future incarnations to become
crows. They number about $4,000, 900.
Every child born among the crows is
a criminal and SO recorded in the books
of the Indian police. Further, every
child goes through many years of pre-
liminary tutoring and then through a
postgraduate course in the science OF
picking pockets and burgling houses
and the gentle art of clipping bangles
from the ear-lobes of Indian dowagerS,
just as the Honorable Reginald Fitz-
what goes to Elton and Balliol." Paradise
is the immediate reward of one killed
while engaged in the practice of the
crime which Is his sacred calling. Mr..
Thomas vouches for the truth of the
almost incredible statement that two
distinguished Rajahs belong to the
criminal caste. Their training has car
ried them far from the traditions Of the
caste, but in order not to break caste
they must commit a crime at least once
a year. So they arrange a friendly
interchange of thefts. They do this
once every year in much the same
spirit that we observe Christmas"
They exchange visits and each leaves
in a conspicuous place some trif1ing
object, such as a jeweled betel-nut box
or a wrist watch, which the other
secretes in the folds of his sunptuouS
robe. OF course the police are not
notified. The religious ceremony Is
accomplished and they are able to sleep
that sweet innocent sleep Of the man
who has done his duty in that state OF
life to which it has pleased God to
call him."
X y
Women play an important part in the
criminal caste and often the female OF
the species becomes more deadly than
the male THE Grim intelligence
corps is made up entirely of women
spies Disguised as simple gipsies, these
adroit Jezebels go about selling baskets.
This enables them to get in touch with
the garrulous women of the villages
without exciting suspicion, and gives
them the desired opportunity to ex-
tract bits of useful information from
witless housewives. Soon they
have gathered enough knowledge of viii
1age affairs, from silly women and
tickle men, to enable them to make
their plans. Then the spies report to
their chief, who calls his councillors to-
tribes do a considerable part of the
more dangerous work. In addition to
acting as spies they also carry all of
the loot. Most men in Southern Hin
dustan wear the mereSt excuse for a
loin cloth. This makes 1t impossible
for them to conceal much stolen prop
erty about their persons. But with the
women it is different, for they are able
to carry a great deal under their
dresses. It is only under the
most exceptional circumstances that the
law juStifies a policeman in searching
a woman" Hard as the lot of the In
dian woman is, according to Katherine
Mayo, she still seems to have some
perquisiteS.
Sinclair Lewis in his address given at
Stockholm last week on receiving the
Nobel prize for literature belabored sew
eral American writer's. He especially
blames William Dean Howells for his
tanning influence over Mark Twain and
Hamlin Garland. Howells, he says, was
actually able to take Mark Twain, per-
haps the greatest of our writer's, and
put that fiery old savage into an intel
lectual frock coat and top hat" He
says that the influence of Howells is not
altogether gone today, since "he is still
wOrshiped by Hamlin Garland, an au-
thor who should have been in every way
greater than Howells, but who, under
HowellS' influence, changed from
harsh and magnificent realiSt into
genial, insignificant lecturer. Mr.. Gar
land is. SO far as we have one, the dean
of American letters today, and as our
dean he is alarmed by, all the younger
writer's yet the same Hamlin Gar
land, as young man, wrote two of the
most valiant and revelatory works of
realism, Main Travelled Roads and
Rose of butchers Coolly.' 1 read
them, as a boy in a Dutch prairie
village in Minnesota, in just such
an environment as was described in
Garlands tales. They were vastly
exciting to me. I discovered
there was one man who believed Mid
western peasants sometimes were bewil-
dered, hungry and vile. And, given this
vision, was released to write of life
as living life. I am afraid Mr.. Gar
land will not be pleased, but actually
annoyed to know that he made it posi-
bic for me to write of America as see
it and not as Mr.. William Dean HowellS
nd IL &c q alntca-