CHAPTER VIII.

CASTE.

In Krilof's fable of "The Peasant and the Horse," the latter murmurs at

the way his master throws oats broad-cast on the soil. "How much better,"

argues the horse, "it would have been to have kept them in his granary, or

even to have given them to me to eat!" But the oats grow, and in due time

are garnered, and from them the same horse is fed the year following. The

horse, as we have seen, was unable to comprehend the working and the

meaning of his master's acts; and, in the same way, we often see that man

equally fails to comprehend the nature and effect of things around him.

And thus it is, and for long has been, as regards the institution I am now

about to consider. People in general have ignorantly murmured at the

institution of caste; and, having ever looked at it with highly-civilized

spectacles, and having seen especially a number of the inconveniences it

has caused to the educated population of the towns, it has been argued

that caste is the curse of all India. But it seems to me that an

attentive, unprejudiced examination tends to prove that in former times it

was exactly the reverse, and that at the present moment, as far as all the

ignorant rural population is concerned, it may be considered, with

reference to the state of the people, as a valuable and useful

institution.

And here, at the outset, I wish it to be clearly understood that an

immense divergence has taken place between the town and country

populations of India. The former have advanced with rapid strides on the

paths of enlightenment and progress, while the latter, it is hardly too

much to say, have remained almost universally stationary. To argue,

therefore, from one to the other is not only impossible, but absurd; and

it is merely a waste of time to point out, at any length, that what may be

admirably suited to one set of people may be a positive nuisance to

another. With reference, then, to this question of caste, instead of

treating India as a whole, I shall divide it into town and country

populations. In the first place, I shall treat of the effects of caste on

the country populations, amongst whom I have lived; and, in the second

place, I shall offer some considerations regarding the effects of the

institution amongst the people of the towns.

And, first of all, as to its effects on the rural population.

In these observations on caste I shall not commence with any attempt to

trace its origin, nor shall I endeavour to enumerate the countless forms

it has assumed amongst the peoples of the great peninsula. My aim is to

direct the attention of the reader not to the dry bones of its history so

much as to the living effects of the institution. It is certainly a matter

of interest to know something of the peculiar customs of the various

tribes and races; but it is to be regretted that people generally have

rested content with information of that sort, and have seldom attempted to

investigate those points which are, I conceive, mainly of use and

interest. What Indians may or may not do--what they may eat, what they may

drink, and what clothing they may put on--are not matters on which

inquirers should bestow much time. The information most needed, and which

has not yet, or only in the most imperfect sense, been acquired, is as to

what caste has done for good or evil. It shall be my endeavour to solve

that question; and I imagine the solution would be in a great measure

effected if I could, in the first instance, answer the following

questions:

1. How far has caste acted as a moral restraint amongst the Indians

themselves?

2. How far advantageously or the reverse in segregating them socially from

the conquerors who have overrun their country?

On the first of these points I may observe, without the slightest

exaggeration, that very few of our countrymen indeed have had such

opportunities as myself of forming a correct opinion; for very few

Englishmen have been so entirely dependent on a native population for

society. For the first four or five years of my residence in

Manjarabad[31] there were only three Europeans besides myself, and we were

all about twelve miles apart. The natural consequence was that the farmers

of the country were my sole companions; and, as I joined in their sports

and had some of them always about me, terms of intimacy sprang up which

never could have existed under any other circumstances. And further, when

it is taken into consideration that I have employed the poorer of the

better castes in various capacities on my estates, and a large number of

the Pariahs, or labourer caste, it seems pretty clear that I ought to be a

tolerably competent judge as to whether caste did or did not exercise a

favourable influence on the morals of the people. Now, as regards one

department of morals, at least, I unhesitatingly affirm that it did, and

that, as regards the connection of the sexes, it would be difficult to

find in any part of the world a more moral people than the two higher

castes of Manjarabad, who form about one-half of the population, and who

may be termed the farming proprietors of the country. Amongst themselves,

indeed, it was not to be wondered at that their morality was extremely

good, as, from the fact of nearly everyone being married at the age of

puberty, and partly, perhaps, from the fact of their houses being more or

less isolated, instead of being grouped in villages, the temptations to

immorality were necessarily slight. Their temptations, though, as regards

the Pariahs, who were, when I entered Manjarabad, merely hereditary serfs,

were considerable; and there it was that the value of caste law came in.

Caste said, "You shall not touch these women;" and so strong was this law,

that I never knew of but one instance of one of the better classes

offending with a Pariah woman.[32] Some aversion of race there might, no

doubt, have been, but the police of caste and its penalties were so strong

that he would be a bold man indeed who would venture to run any risk of

detection. To give an idea of how the punishment for an offence of this

kind would operate, it may be added that, if one of the farming classes in

this country, on a case of seducing one of the lower, was fined by his

neighbours £500, and cut by society till he paid the money, he would be in

exactly the same position as a Manjarabad farmer would be who had violated

the important caste law under consideration. Here, therefore, we have a

moral police of tremendous power, and the very best proof we have of the

regularity with which it has been enforced lies in the fact that the

Pariahs and the farmers are distinguished by a form and physiognomy almost

as distinct as those existing between an Englishman and a negro. Caste,

then, as we have seen, protects the poor from the passions of the rich,

and it equally protects the upper classes themselves, and enforcedly makes

them more moral than, judging from our experience in other quarters of the

globe, they would otherwise be.

Having thus briefly glanced at caste law, as controlling the connection of

the sexes, let us now look at it from another point of view, which I

venture to think is, as regards its ultimate consequences, of even still

more importance. If there is one vice more than another which is

productive of serious crime, it is the abuse of alcohol; and there is no

doubt that, to use the words of an eminent statesman, "if we could

subtract from the ignorance, the poverty, the suffering, the sickness, and

the crime now witnessed among us, the ignorance, the poverty, the

sickness, and the crime caused by the single vice of drinking, this

country would be so changed for the better that we should hardly know it

again." Regarding it, then, in all its consequences, whether physical or

mental (and how many madmen and idiots are there not bred by

drinking?[33]), it is difficult to estimate too highly the value of caste

laws that utterly prohibit the use of those strong drinks that are

injurious in any country, but are a thousand times more so under the rays

of a tropical sun. And when we come to consider that a large proportion of

the population of India are absolutely compelled to abstain from the use

of alcohol, and that these being the very best, or at least equal to the

very best, of the community, must always have exercised a large influence

in discouraging the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, it is impossible

to refrain from coming to the conclusion that this single fact is more

than sufficient to counterbalance all the evils that have ever been said

to arise from caste.

On two very important points, then--the connection of the sexes and the

use of alcohol--it is evident that caste laws have produced some very

favourable and valuable results; but I do not think we can accurately

gauge their value unless we compare the state of morality existing in

Manjarabad with the state of morality existing in one of our home

counties; and the comparison I have to make, if not very soothing, is, I

am sure, very interesting. Take any one of our counties in Great Britain,

for instance, and compare it with Manjarabad as regards the points I have

particularly referred to, and it will be found that Manjarabad has an

immense superiority. The crimes and misery arising from drinking are

hardly to be found at all in Manjarabad, while the morality of the sexes,

I should think, could hardly be surpassed. Now, there is nothing very

surprising, considering that the people in this country are so heavily

weighted, that this should be the case; on the contrary, it is the natural

result of the circumstances of their worldly situation. But, supposing

that the worldly situation as to the means of support and the

opportunities of marrying were equal, it seems to me perfectly plain that

the people who have a large proportion of the better classes total

abstainers, and who have their society so controlled that the rich cannot

gratify their passions at the expense of the poor, must be in the

possession of a superior morality.

Before closing this branch of the subject, I may allude briefly to what

has been so often attacked by the opponents of caste: I mean the

prohibition of the marriage of widows. This rule exists in Manjarabad, but

I am not aware that any great moral evil arises from it, as a widow can

always contract to live with a man, the difference being that the

ceremonies performed are of an inferior kind. This is not allowed to be a

marriage, but, in fact, it is a marriage, though of a kind held in rather

low estimation. On customs like these, which in a great measure neutralize

the evils arising from the restrictions on re-marriage, it seems to me

that our information is very scanty, and I am not aware how far the

practice alluded to prevails in other parts of India.

Having taken into consideration the advantages of caste in acting as a

moral restraint amongst the Indians themselves, I now purpose to inquire

how far caste has acted advantageously, or the reverse, in segregating the

people socially from the conquerors who have overrun their country.

If the advantages of caste are striking and plainly apparent as regards

the moral points I have alluded to, they seem to me to be infinitely more

so when we come to consider the happy influence this institution has had

in segregating the Indians from the white races. And here I cannot help

indulging in a vain regret that the blessings of caste have not been

universally diffused amongst all inferior races. How many of these has our

boasted civilization improved off the face of the earth? How much has that

tide of civilization which the first conquerors invariably bring with them

effected? How much, in other words, have their vice, rum, and gunpowder

helped to exterminate those unhappy races which, unprotected by caste,

have come in contact with the white man? Nor in India itself are we

altogether without a well-marked instance of the value, for a time at

least, of an entire social separation between the dark and white races;

and the Todas, the lords of the soil on the Nilgiri Hills, furnish us with

a lamentable example of what the absence of caste feeling is capable of

producing. We found them a simple pastoral race, and the early visitors to

the hills were struck with their inoffensive manners, and what was falsely

considered to be their greatest advantage--freedom from caste

associations. But what is their condition now? One of drunkenness,

debauchery, and disease of the most fatal description. Had the

much-reviled caste law been theirs, what a different result would have

ensued from their contact with Europeans! Caste would have saved them

from alcohol, and their women from contamination: they would thus have

maintained their self-respect; and if, at first, separation brought no

progress nor shadow of change, it would have at least induced no evil, and

education and enlightenment would in time have modified these caste

institutions, which, to a superficial observer, seem to be productive of

nothing but evil.

We have now seen that social contact with whites, without any barrier

between them and the inferior races, is not, in a moral point of view, a

very desirable thing in any part of the world. But if there is a moral

consequence, we may also point to a mental one, which exercises an immense

influence: I mean the overwhelming sense of inferiority which is so apt to

depress casteless races. I believe, then, for savages, or for people in a

low state of civilization, it is of the greatest importance that they

should have points of difference which may not only keep them socially

apart, but which may enable them to maintain some feeling of superiority

when coming in contact with highly-civilized races. Nor is it necessary

that the feeling of superiority should be well founded. An imaginary

superiority will, I believe, answer the purpose equally well. "We don't

touch beef, nor would we touch food cooked by Englishmen or Pariahs," seem

but poor matters for self-congratulation. But if these considerations

prevent a man from forming a poor opinion of himself, they should be

carefully cherished. On these points, at least, a feeling of superiority

is sustained, and therefore the tendency to degradation is diminished. But

if on all points the white man makes his superiority felt, the weaker

people speedily acquire a thorough contempt for themselves, and soon

become careless of what they do, or of what becomes of them. Their mental

spring becomes fatally depressed, and this circumstance has probably more

to do with the deterioration and extinction of inferior races than most

people would be inclined to admit.[34] Nothing, then, I believe, chills

the soul and checks the progress of man so much as a hopeless sense of

inferiority; and, had I time, I might turn the attention of the reader to

the universality of this law, and to the numerous instances that have been

collected to prove the depressing and injurious effects that even nature,

on a grand and overwhelming scale, seems to exercise on the mind and

spirit of man--how it makes him timid, credulous, and superstitious, and

produces effects which retard his progress. But to advance further on this

point, however interesting it may be, would only tend to distract the

attention of the reader from the subject with which we are mainly

concerned.

If the remarks hitherto made are of any value, they undoubtedly tend to

prove that all inferior races have a tendency, in the first instance, to

adopt the vices rather than the virtues of the more civilized races they

may come in contact with. Assuming, then, as I think we have every right

to do, that this statement is universally true, it is evident that the

social separation maintained by caste has been of incalculable advantage.

On the other hand, however, a number of disadvantages have been indicated

by various writers; but only one of them seems to me at all worthy of

serious attention. It has been asserted that this segregation has impeded

advancement, that it has prevented the Indians learning as much from us as

they otherwise might, and that it has impeded the mainspring of all

advancement--education. Here, I apprehend, the argument against caste, as

far as rural populations are concerned, utterly fails, and, in a province

contiguous to my own, a most signal instance to the contrary can be

pointed to. Few people have more proudly segregated themselves than the

Coorgs; nowhere is the chastity of women more jealously guarded; and yet

they were the first people in India who desired and petitioned for female

education. And how, then, can it be for one moment asserted that the

tendency of caste is to check the progress of the people?

Having thus glanced at some of the effects of caste institutions as they

affect the rural population, we will now consider caste as it affects the

people of the towns. Following, then, the same order, and directing our

attention to the same points selected for consideration when treating of

the rural classes, let us ask how far caste has operated with the

townspeople as regards the connection of the sexes and the use of alcohol.

And here we shall find that the subject may be dismissed in almost a

single sentence; for caste laws, as regards these points, can never act as

a moral restraint, because the possibility of enforcing them cannot and

does not exist. Nor need I waste time in proving that people in towns,

whether in India, or any other part of the world, may readily do things

which could never escape the prying eyes of a country society.

Then, as regards the segregation from foreigners, it is evident that we

need employ little time, for such of the town populations as have

maintained a fair state of morality amid the evils of large cities, are

not likely to be materially affected by the bad habits and customs of the

white races; and as for those who have never led a steady life, it would

not much matter with whom they mixed. But caste not only brings with it no

good as far as the town population is concerned, but its continuance is

fraught with a multitude of painful and vexatious evils, which meet us at

every turn, for it hampers the actions, and clogs those efforts at

progress which are the natural result of intellectual advancement. And

here I cannot do better than quote the words of a Parsee gentleman, whose

unceasing efforts to aid the progress of India entitle him to be placed

in the very highest rank of those who spend much time and labour to

produce effects which they can never live to see the fruits of. These

remarks of his, which I am now about to quote, were made at the close of a

paper on caste, which I read at a meeting of the East India Association,

and are quoted from the report published in the journal of the

Association. After fully granting that, in the condition of society

existing at the time the system of caste was established, it may have done

a great deal of good, Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji proceeded to remark on the way

the present system of caste interferes with progress among the higher

classes, and then gave several instances to illustrate his observation.

"The great struggle," he said, "which is now going on in Bombay about the

widow-marriage question is an apt illustration of this; and, also, the

fear of excommunication prevents a large body of natives from coming to

this country, and profiting by their visit. It is often said, 'educated

Hindoos ought not to care for this excommunication;' but those who say

that, little think what excommunication means. A man who is excommunicated

may not care for it for his own sake, but he has his family to consider.

What is to be done with daughters? They cannot marry if their father is

excommunicated, and the result is, therefore, most serious to them. I knew

of one instance of a native gentleman who, being excommunicated from his

caste for having visited England, had, on the death of his child, been put

to the very painful necessity of having the body carried by his servant,

without anyone accompanying him."

It would be impossible, I think, to furnish two better instances of the

evils of caste to people desirous of shaking off in any way the habits of

their forefathers; and a more melancholy picture than that of this

unfortunate man setting out with his dead child without a single friend

to accompany him it would indeed be difficult to find. Many other

illustrations might, of course, be given; but enough has been said

already, and we may safely consider it as a settled question that, as far

as the people of the towns are concerned, the sooner caste is abolished

the better.

I may here be permitted to remind the reader that we have considered the

effects of caste, as regards the country population, in two very important

particulars: first of all, as to the morality of the sexes, which is

controlled to such a large extent by caste law; and secondly, we have

looted at the effects of caste as controlling the use of alcohol, and

consequently limiting the crimes and evils that can in most countries be

traced to drinking. On both of these points we have compared an Indian

county with any county in Great Britain, and saw reason to think that

morality, as regards the points under consideration, is better in

Manjarabad than in any British county. And, by facts which may be brought

from many quarters of the globe, we have seen that it is a universal law

that inferior races have a tendency to adopt the vices rather than the

virtues of superior races, and that, therefore, caste laws which enjoin

social separation are of the highest value. We have seen, too, the value

of caste in keeping up feelings of superiority and self-respect. We have

also seen that these caste laws can exist without retarding the progress

of the people, or their desire for education. And, finally, taking all

these points into consideration, we concluded that there were no

drawbacks, and many striking advantages, connected with caste as far as

the country populations are concerned.

In the next place, we looked at the circumstances of the people of the

towns, inquired as to how caste has affected them for good or evil, and

came to the conclusion that not only does no good arise from caste, but

that it is plainly and unmistakably an unmitigated evil.

Keeping these conclusions firmly in mind, let us now advance to the

consideration of a third question, which naturally arises out of those

facts which I assume to have been established.

That question is--How far has caste acted beneficially, or the reverse, in

helping to retard our interpretation of Christianity? Pursuing the same

order as before, let us ask, in the first place, whether caste has, as

regards the country populations, acted beneficially in this as well as in

the other points we have looked at. But, before attempting to answer this

question, it may be as well to offer a few general remarks which tend to

show that, independently of any question of caste, it is hopeless to

expect that any ignorant and generally unenlightened race can possibly

derive any benefit from adopting the formulas and dogmas of a pure faith.

To illustrate this old and well-established truth, let us point to four of

the many instances which may be adduced as decisively confirming it--the

history of Christianity in Europe, of Islam amongst the Indian Mahomedans,

and the history of Christianity in Abyssinia and India. As to the first,

to use the words of Buckle, "after the new religion had received the

homage of the best part of Europe, it was found that nothing had really

been effected." Superstition was merely turned from one channel into

another. The adoration of idols was succeeded by the adoration of saints,

and for centuries after Christianity had become the established religion

it entirely failed to produce its natural fruits, because ignorance

imperatively demanded superstition in some shape or other. To some it may

seem, at first sight, a curious circumstance that the same remarks may be

applied to the history of Mahomedanism in India. The idols were broken and

the one God declared. But how long was it before the people, like the

Israelites of old, fell away from the grand central doctrine of

Mahomedanism--the unity of God? How long was it before the adoration of

idols was followed by the adoration of saints? The exact coincidence,

however, is no more striking than that given causes produce fixed results

with an Eastern as well as with a Western people. When we turn, thirdly,

to Abyssinia, what do we find? How have the dogmas of Christianity fared

there? The Abyssinians did not rise to the level of the dogmas and

principles of Christianity--that we all know. They simply reduced it to

their own level. Look, lastly, at our native Christians in India. I

believe it is quite certain that, in the general opinion of Englishmen,

they are, to say the least, very far from being the best class in India;

in fact, I do not think it too much to say that most Europeans hold them

to be about the worst class of people in India. I confess that I do not

share this opinion altogether. The fact probably is that, in consequence

of their extreme ignorance and generally debased state, they are, in the

rural districts, neither better nor worse than the classes from which they

are principally drawn. In our cantonments, however, and especially in

those where European soldiery abounds, there is every probability of their

being worse than the classes from which they have sprung; and I have

little doubt that the low estimation in which the native Christians are

held is owing to the fact that our countrymen have generally come in

contact with the specimens that have been nurtured amidst the scum of our

Indian towns. Were we to believe the assertions of our English

missionaries, very different conclusions would, of course, be arrived at;

but unless they can show that the lowest and most ignorant classes of

natives, who from their habits, and from having nothing to lose, are under

great temptations, form an exception to all specimens of humanity in other

quarters of the globe, I am afraid there can be little reason to doubt

that the opinions I have expressed are fairly correct. I doubt very much,

in fact, from my intimate knowledge of the lower classes of natives--and

it is from these, as I said before, that our converts are mainly

derived--whether they are capable of comprehending our religion at all. Of

one thing I think we may be quite certain, and that is, that the moment

the missionary's back is turned, these people return to their devils in

the event of any danger or sickness arising. This might be arrived at

deductively with perfect accuracy, and arguing solely from our knowledge

of humanity under certain conditions; but I may mention that in Ceylon

instances of people reverting to their devil-worship are common amongst

the native Christians, and instances might, no doubt, be soon collected in

India, if anyone thought it worth the trouble. While alluding to

missionary assertions, I may mention that the credulity of these gentlemen

seems only to be equalled by the credulity of the British public. If they

would only extend their belief in the goodness of natives a little

further, one might be tempted to sympathize with this amiable weakness.

But the peculiar part of their statements lies in the fact that their

converts have got all the virtue and morality in India, while the

respectable classes of the community seem, by their account, to be very

badly off in these respects. The most curious instance, however, of

missionary credulity that I have met with is to be found in the evidence

of Mr. Underhill, given before the Committee on Colonization (India) in

1859. And it certainly is a surprising result of conversion to find that

the wives of the converts become not only more beautiful, but also more

fertile, than their heathen sisters. Two heathen natives had been heard to

testify to these facts, and it is wonderful to observe the complacent air

of satisfaction with which these statements are accepted by the witness,

who added that this difference evidently arises from the more chaste and

regular modes of life in which they fall.[35]

I have said that the native Christians are probably neither better nor

worse than the lower classes from which they are drawn, and the painfully

truthful remarks given in the note below[36] seem to show that, whatever

may be the case now (and I believe that the low-class converts are

somewhat better than they were then), the converts to Christianity must

have been originally a very indifferent set of people. Christianity,

however, if it did not make these classes much better, at any rate made

them no worse. When we turn, however, to the middle-class farmers, it is

evident that to have converted them, unless that conversion had been

preceded by enlightenment, and a more advanced civilization than they had

hitherto enjoyed, would have inflicted on them an incalculable injury, by

depriving them of restraints which, as we have seen, are in some

particulars of immense importance. To become a Christian, the first thing

required of a man is that he should give up caste, and deliver himself to

the sole guidance of his conscience; that he should give up a powerful and

effective moral restraint; that he should abandon a position which carries

with it feelings of self-respect and superiority, and resign himself to

the degrading reflection that he may eat from the same platter and drink

from the same vessel as the filthiest Pariah; and that this would be

degrading there can be little doubt. Were he an educated and enlightened

man, he would be sustained by feelings which would raise him above the

influence of such considerations. But, in the absence of enlightenment,

sad would be his fate, and melancholy the deterioration that would

inevitably ensue. The way in which that deterioration would take place,

the way in which he would become careless of what he did, or of what

became of him, has been sufficiently indicated in the previous pages of

this chapter; and to give in detail the principal reasons against a change

of faith which involved the abolition of caste, would only be to repeat

what I have already said as to the effect of the institution in

controlling the morality of the sexes and the use of alcohol. Not only,

then, I repeat, would a change of dogma be as unimproving and superficial

as changes of that sort always are with unenlightened people, but a number

of positive evils would follow from the necessary abandonment of the

restrictions of caste; and we may therefore conclude that, as regards the

whole population, the effect of caste in helping to prevent the adoption

of our interpretation of Christianity is of incalculable advantage.

When we turn to the town populations the case is widely different. We have

seen that for them the practical advantages of caste can hardly be said to

exist at all, and therefore a change of religion which involved its

abolition would, as regards any part of the society, at least produce no

evil. Here, at least, we are on safe ground. But this is not all. We see

that with the better classes education and enlightenment have borne their

natural fruit, and demanded a pure faith, which has already sprung up in

the shape of Deism. Enlightenment, then, will produce a pure faith, which

will in time react on society, and push it forward with accelerated speed.

Now, it cannot be denied that caste laws do retard the free and unfettered

adoption of a pure faith; and if we assume that a pure faith will in turn

become a cause, or even an accelerator, of progress, then it is certain

that, as regards the peoples of the towns, caste, as retarding the

adoption of the most advanced principles of religion, is an undoubted

calamity.

We have now looked at the bearings of caste on three very important

points--its moral bearing amongst the Indians themselves, its effects in

maintaining a social separation between the white and dark races, and its

effects in retarding the adoption of a religion which involves the entire

abolition of caste laws. In the first place, we looked at the effects of

caste laws on the rural populations, and came to the conclusion that on

all these points caste has operated, and continues to operate,

advantageously. In the second place, we looked at its effects on the

peoples of the towns, and came to the conclusion that caste confers on

them no advantages, while it is often productive of serious evil.

Let us now glance for one moment at the causes of the general outcry which

you everywhere hear against caste institutions, and at the same time

suggest the line of conduct that the people of the towns ought to adopt

with reference to this question.

And here I need not occupy much space in indicating the causes of that

abuse of caste which has always been so popular with my countrymen. In

fact, if we admit the truth of the facts and arguments hitherto adduced,

these causes are so apparent that the reader must have already anticipated

the solution I have to give. Caste, as we have seen, is a serious evil to

the peoples of the towns. Now, it is amongst towns and cantonments that

our principal experiences of this institution have been acquired, and the

educated natives of the Indian capitals, feeling all the evils and

experiencing none of the advantages of caste, are naturally loud in its

condemnation. Hence the cry arising from all Europeans and a trifling

section of the Indians, that caste should be abolished from one end of

India to the other. But how is it that no response comes from these

country populations amongst whom I have lived? How is it that these

shrewd-headed people[37] are so insensible to the evils of caste, and that

you never hear one word about it? The answer is extremely simple. They

have never felt these evils, because for them they do not exist. If they

felt the pressure of caste laws as do the people of the towns, the outcry

would be universal, and the institution speedily done away with. Need I

add that when the people of the country are as advanced as the people of

the towns, that then, and not till then, will the pressure, which is now

confined to the latter, be universally felt; that then, and not till then,

will this institution, being no longer suited to the requirements of the

age, be universally discarded.

Let us now say a few words as to the line of conduct that should be

adopted, as regards caste, by those who are desirous of freeing themselves

from the restrictions of that institution.

In the first place, the opponents of caste should not weaken their case by

talking nonsense; and, in the second place, they should remember, above

all things, that, to use a common saying, "if you want a pig to go to

Dublin, the best thing you can do is to start him off on the way to Cork."

I shall now enlarge a little on both of these recommendations.

To illustrate my first suggestion--and to this suggestion I shall again

have occasion to allude further on in this chapter--a few sentences may be

devoted to glancing at some of those remarkable conclusions which sound so

well in the observations one often hears when anything is said about

India. The tendency of caste, you will hear it gravely urged, is to

elevate the upper classes on the highest possible pinnacle, and keep the

Pariah grovelling in the dust. "What," continues the speaker, "keeps the

Brahmin at the top and the Pariah at the bottom?" Why, let me ask in turn,

is a cow's tail long, and a fox's tail bushy? Is it in this nineteenth

century that we are to try and din into people's ears that the upper

classes in India were at the top of the social scale, and the Pariah at

the bottom, centuries before caste, in its present shape, ever existed,

and that the relative position of the two races would continue with little

change if caste was to be abolished to-morrow morning? "What," gravely

asks another, "has prevented the peoples of India uniting into one grand

nation, and destroyed all hopes of political fusion?" Nor, to many, would

the absurdity of the question be apparent till you asked them what has

prevented all Europe becoming one nation; or, to take things on a smaller

scale, till you asked what prevented the Highland clans forming themselves

into a nation. In short, whenever a man is in difficulty, and at a loss to

account for anything connected with the state of the people of India, he

takes refuge in caste, combined, perhaps, with what is called native

prejudice, though what that last means I do not pretend to explain. Now,

it is not improbable that some of my readers may have heard of Holloway's

pills, and we know, in fact, that thousands believe that medicine to be an

efficacious remedy for every constitutional ailment. Only swallow

Holloway, and you are a cured man. Well, the abolition of caste, with an

incredible number of people, is, in like manner, confidently pronounced to

be a universal remedy for all the political and social complaints of

India. Remove that, and you will at one stroke secure social liberty,

national unity, the removal of idolatry, and, some even are rash enough to

affirm, the universal adoption of Christianity. Such, then, are a few

examples of the nonsense you will hear commonly talked about caste, and I

think I need not waste time in pointing out that the opponents of caste

must take very different ground if they wish to obtain a hearing from the

peoples of India.

In the second point to which I have called the attention of the reader I

alluded to the general law of opposition, and used a common saying which

exactly illustrates the probable result of violent and ill-judged attacks

on caste. In fact, so apparent is this, that the reader must have already

anticipated the line that, in my opinion, the opponents of caste should

follow. What the opponents of caste should preach is, not the abolition

of that institution, but toleration for the educated and advanced members

of the community who, finding caste an impediment and a burden, wish to

discard it. They should admit that this institution has been, and is at

the present moment, of value amongst the rural populations, but they

should, at the same time, point out that times are changing, and that the

peoples of the towns ask for some toleration, not because caste is

necessarily a universal evil in itself, but because it is, as far as they

are concerned, highly inconvenient. This is the way--and, if this plan

does not answer, I feel sure no other will--that the evils of caste are to

be mitigated, and I urge these views accordingly on the serious attention

of all enlightened Indians.

The reader will have observed that, when pointing out the advantages of

caste in repelling our interpretation of Christianity, I have assumed that

the adoption of Christianity necessarily involves the entire abolition of

all those social distinctions that make up what we call caste. Such have

been the terms on which Christianity has been offered to the peoples of

India by our English missionaries; and I, for one, do most sincerely

rejoice that their hide-bound interpretation of the Protestant faith has

been as promptly as it has been decidedly rejected. But why should

caste--which, as I have shown, can be proved to have produced such

favourable results as regards drinking, and as regards the morality of the

sexes--why should this institution, which in these respects can be proved

to have produced better results than Christianity has over done in Great

Britain--why should this be swept away because you wish to introduce the

religion of Christ? It has been alleged to be entirely incompatible with

Christianity; and were this so, there would, of course, be no more to be

said. But this I wholly deny. It is, of course, incompatible in some

respects with exalted conceptions of the most advanced Christianity; but

there is no reason why Christianity should not be allowed to exist

alongside of abnormal social growths, and why, in short, Christianity

should not be stretched to tolerate caste, in the same way that it was

allowed by the apostles to exist alongside of evils with which the

institution of caste cannot, for iniquity or for general ill effects, be

for one moment compared. Christianity was not held by the apostles to be

an impossibility because the professors of that faith bought and sold

slaves; it was not held so by their descendants for hundreds of years; and

will those interpreters of Christianity whom we have sent to India venture

to assert that the Americans had no right to the name of Christians until

the close of the late war? Slavery was driven out at length, or at least

in a great measure driven out, by Christianity; but Christianity,

remember, had first of all to be introduced; and taking into consideration

the acts of the apostles, the way in which they yielded to the customs and

prejudices of their converts, and the resolution they came to "not to

trouble those of the Gentiles who were turning to God," on what grounds do

our missionaries rest their claim to debar from the advantages of

Christianity those people who, wishing to retain their place in society,

desire to become Christians? This is not the first time that these

questions have been asked. They were asked at great length by Mr. Irving

in his "Theory and Practice of Caste." Hitherto they have been asked in

vain; and owing to the indifference of people in this country, and to the

slavish submission of the laity to the opinion of the missionaries, a

system of attempting to propagate Christianity has been allowed to exist

which has been of incalculable mischief. But I think we may even go

further than this. I think it may be asserted that the line taken up, as

regards caste, by our missionaries has acted more prejudicially to the

interests of Christianity than if we had deliberately dispatched

emissaries to India with the view of preventing the people from adopting

the religion of Christ. These may seem harsh, and I have no doubt they

will prove to be unwelcome, expressions of opinion. They will hurt, and I

am afraid will shock, the feelings of many a good and worthy man. I regret

that this should be so, but I cannot help it. In any case good must arise.

If I am right, as I firmly believe myself to be, the cause of

enlightenment and Christianity will be advanced; and if I am wrong, and it

can be proved that the missionaries are right, they will have as great,

and it may even be a greater claim to public support than they ever had

before. But it must be clearly understood that, as an individual desirous

of propagating truth, I have a right to demand an answer. If that answer

is satisfactory, well and good. If it is not satisfactory, or if no answer

be supplied at all, I would then propose to ask the public here to

consider whether it would not be better to withhold all their

subscriptions from our English, or at least transfer them to such missions

as will consent to attempt to propagate Christianity on the widest

possible base.

In considering this important subject I shall, in the first place, glance

at Bishop Heber's "Letter on Caste;" Bishop Wilson's "Circular;" the

"Report" of the Madras Commissioners; and the "Statement" of the Tanjore

German missionaries. This may seem a formidable list of documents to

commence with, but it is my intention to make only the most cursory

allusion to each, as to consider these papers at any length would occupy

far too much space. Having thus stated the difference of opinions, as

regards caste, between the Germans and the Protestant missionaries, I

shall then proceed to inquire whether caste can or can not be traced to an

idolatrous source; whether it was in any way necessarily wound up with

religion; and whether, further, it is at all necessary that, supposing it

to have been at any time wound up with religion, there should therefore

be at the present day any necessary connection between the religions of

the peoples and their caste customs.

In Bishop Heber's "Letter" of March 21st, 1826, he says that, "with regard

to the distinctions of caste as yet maintained by professing Christians,

it appears that they are manifested--(a) in desiring separate seats at

church; (b) in going up at different times to receive the Holy

Communion; (c) in insisting on their children having different sides of

the school; (d) in refusing to eat, drink, or associate with those of a

different caste."

On the first of these points the bishop observes, with great justice, that

points of precedence have constantly been granted in Christian churches to

people of noble birth and of great fortune, and that in the United States

of America these distinctions were always maintained between the whites

and the negroes. He also points out that a Christian gentleman conforms to

those rules because, if he neglected them, he would lose influence with

his own degree in society, and that a native of the better classes acts

exactly on the same principle. And on this point he concludes that

distinctions of caste in church may still be allowed, provided that due

care is taken to teach the natives that in the sight of God they are all

equal.

With reference to the second point the good bishop says nothing, because,

I surmise, he concluded the going up at different times to receive the

Sacrament was included in his remarks on precedence in church.

As regards the schools, and amongst the children, he observes that caste

must, as to taking places, etc., not be taken into account, "but," he

adds, "even here caution should be observed to disgust no man needlessly."

As to the fourth point, he was decidedly of opinion that, as regards

private meals and social intercourse, we had no right to interfere

whatever.

After alluding to the objections raised by some zealous missionaries to

the processions in marriages and other matters, he intimates pretty

plainly that he has some fears that recent missionaries have been more

scrupulous in these matters than need requires. He then concludes by

saying that "God forbid we should wink at sin; but God forbid, also, that

we should make the narrow gate of life narrower than Christ has made it,

or deal less favourably with the prejudices of this people than St. Paul

and the primitive church dealt with the almost similar prejudices of the

Jewish converts."

The bishop then framed a set of questions as regards caste observances, to

which he required particular answers; but, in consequence of his untimely

death, and of the short tenure of office held by his successors, Bishops

James and Turner, no further official action was taken till the middle of

1833, when Bishop Wilson's "Circular"[38] dealt the most fatal blow to

Christianity that it has ever received in India. For this "Circular"

imperatively declared that the distinction of castes, as regards all the

relations of life, must be abandoned, "decidedly, immediately, and

finally." And in order that this mandate might be intensely galling to the

upper class vegetarian Christian, it was especially ordered that

"differences of food and dress" were to be included in those overt acts

which were to mark out for condemnation the Christian who still clung to

the habits of his fathers in these innocent and, as regards food,

healthful restrictions. To cling to these differences of food and dress,

and to abstain from alcohol, was to cling to caste; and it was especially

ordered that the children of native Christians should not be admitted to

the Holy Communion without a full renunciation of all those social

differences which might distinguish them from other members of the society

in which they lived. This was quite sufficient. "The 'Circular' was read

in the churches of Tanjore. It was received by the native Christians with

great displeasure, and they showed their views by seceding in a body."

Turning now to the Report of the Madras Commissioners, which was written

in 1845, we shall at once see the cause and root of this violent attack on

social usages. For the Commissioners commence their Report by stating that

the institution of caste and the divisions of society were things of

priestly invention, and that, in fact, the whole of Hindoo society, as we

at present see it, originated in, and is maintained by, Hindoo idolatry.

And they further allege that the tyranny of this institution is such as to

be perfectly unaccountable on any other supposition. How any body of

priests had the power to issue and enforce mandates regarding the

extraordinary diversities as to food and dress that we see prevailing

throughout India, where the council sat that issued these decrees, and

where the members of this council came from, they give no account. They do

not seem to have even thought of such questions, and, for evidence of

these astounding assertions, they refer us to what they call "the laws of

Manu,"[39] and to Halhed's "Gentoo Hindoo Code." Caste and idolatry,

then, according to them, are not only inextricably wound up together, but

caste itself was caused by, and is a part of, idolatry; and we are,

therefore, plainly told that it is impossible that a man should abandon

the one without abandoning the other, and that, in other words, the two

institutions must stand or fall together. Leaving this part of these

assertions to be commented on further on, I now pass on to the statement

and arguments of the Tanjore German missionaries.

Shortly after Bishop Heber's "Letter," which I have referred to at the

commencement of these remarks, he drew up a number of questions regarding

caste practices amongst native Christians, to which he required special

answers. These "Articles of Inquiry," as they are termed, were sent to the

Tanjore missionaries, and by them a statement in reply was furnished. They

were asked for their opinion in 1828, and though no date is affixed to

these statements, I conclude that they probably replied towards the close

of that year.

They commence by observing that the distinctions of caste had been

observed since the establishment of the mission by the Rev. Mr. Schwartz,

soon after the year 1762, and that he himself had been guided, partly by

his own discretion, and partly by the example of the clergy of the

Tranquebar Mission, which was started in the year 1705, by those good and

amiable men of whom I have given some account in another part of this

work. These successors of Schwartz, then, observed that they had

persistently imitated the conduct of that able and good man; but that,

while they took care to imitate his caution, and forbearance, they seized

every opportunity of softening the mutual prejudices arising from

distinctions of caste; and they also observe that, in consequence, those

distinctions of caste have gradually lost a great deal of their

importance.

Alluding, in the next place, to the assertion that castes had been

invented and entirely originated by the Brahmins, the authors of the

statement observe that, in the opinion of the most intelligent natives who

were not of the Brahminical order, the social distinctions which

constitute caste existed long before the Brahmins came into the country at

all; and they assert, further, that though the Brahmin priests blended

those social distinctions with their idolatry, and framed a convenient

legend to account for their divine institution, the whole thing was a mere

fiction, which had been invented with the view of adding to the power of

an ambitious priesthood. But the missionaries of Tanjore asserted,

further, that even if the legend of caste was a true one, and that caste

had been a part of idolatry, still those who abandoned the worshipping of

idols and superstitious rites were not therefore to be required to abandon

such practices as had nothing of idolatry about them at all, and they

distinctly declared that no rites of an idolatrous or even mixed nature

were tolerated amongst their converts.

The missionaries then pointed out that their high-caste converts simply

retained these privileges and social customs because they would lose the

respect of their neighbours if they abandoned those marks of station which

they had inherited, and which they looked upon entirely as a civil

prerogative. It was also pointed out that high-caste priests gained ready

access to the houses of the better classes, and had, therefore, bettor

chances of spreading Christianity than Pariah priests, whom no good-caste

native would allow to cross the threshold of his house.

At church those of the upper classes sat on one side, and those of the

lower on the other, and the higher and lower castes went up at different

times to the communion-table.

In the schools no difficulty was experienced, and high and low caste

children sat quite indiscriminately.

As regards social intercourse, they observe that none of their converts

have any objection to partake of food prepared by another caste, as long

as that caste is of superior rank to them, but that no one would touch

food prepared by a man of lower caste than himself. The distinction of

caste was also preserved as regards marriages, though these, of course,

were always solemnized in the church.

Finally, these good and sensible men regret the tendencies of caste, but

seem to consider that more good was to be done by letting it alone, and,

in short, letting it die a natural death, than by forcibly opposing the

prejudices of the people. And they very justly observe, that to oblige a

man of high caste to eat with the lowest is doing force to common delicacy

and to natural feelings of sense, and may be sometimes of serious

consequence to bodily health.

I may here mention that about thirty-five years ago, Dr. Graul, the head

of the Leipsic Missionary Society, visited India, remained there three

years at the various missionary stations, and was firmly convinced that to

interfere with the social customs of the native Christians would be at

once unjust and impolitic. As regards the exact action of the Roman

Catholics at present, I have no information to lay before the reader, but

I know that they always had the wisdom to interfere as little as possible

with the prejudices of the people, as long as they did not involve

idolatrous rites.

Having thus laid before the reader an outline of the views of the

supporters and opponents of caste, I shall now offer the conclusions I

have arrived at, partly from my own observations and partly from the

writings of others. I shall

1. Inquire into the origin of caste.

2. I shall inquire into the sanitary uses of caste, more especially as it

concerns the approaching the communion-table promiscuously, as to the

sitting together in church or other places, and as to its effects as

regards general social intercourse.

3. I shall inquire whether there are not some compensating advantages, as

regards caste institutions, which tend in a great measure to neutralize

the prejudicial effects that arise from people's sympathies and feelings

being confined to the members of their own caste, instead of being evenly

distributed over the human race, considered as a whole.

And, first of all, as to the origin of caste--a point which seems to have

been thought of no little importance by our caste-condemning missionaries.

I confess that I, for my part, do not attach much importance to this

question of the origin of caste, and think it of far more importance to

ascertain its present bearing and effect. But, as many have raised the

question, and asserted that caste had an idolatrous origin, and was the

invention of an idolatrous priesthood, it may be worth while to gather

together such facts as we can lay our hands on regarding this somewhat

obscure subject. And it seems to me that the first thing we have to do is

to clear away the rubbish which has been piled upon it in common with

most Indian institutions--to ask what is evidence, and what is not. Our

missionaries have asserted that caste can be clearly traced to an

idolatrous origin, and that the institution is entirely unaccountable on

any other supposition, and they pointed to the Code of Manu in proof of

that assertion. But, on referring to Mrs. Manning's valuable work on

"Ancient and Mediæval India," we can find no evidence that caste

originated in any special way whatever. And we are told, on the authority

of Mr. Muir, that the sacred books of the Hindoos contain no uniform or

consistent account of the origin of caste, and that the freest scope is

given by the individual writers to fanciful and arbitrary conjecture. The

story that the castes issued from the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet of

Brahma was simply an allegory, which, in the course of time, hardened into

a literal statement of fact. The Brahmins, of course, came out of the

mouth of Brahma; and, considering that they were the authors and compilers

of all the principal books relating to castes and customs, it would have

been extremely odd if they had not exalted their own order, and indulged

in a tone of Oriental exaggeration which was eminently calculated to

deceive, not perhaps, their successors, but the Englishmen who went to

India. But the most curious thing is, that it never seems to have occurred

to our missionaries to suspect that what they took as evidence of facts,

and of a state of things really existing, was, in reality, only evidence

of what an order or set of people could write, with the view of exalting

themselves, and depressing the rest of the society amongst which they

lived. The Brahmins chose to assert that the castes were of divine origin.

They wrote that down and handed it on. We came to India, and finding these

statements ready to hand, have simply swallowed them down, and added them

to the number of illusions existing as regards India. But the facts really

are, that castes and orders of men sprang up, we don't exactly know how.

Brahmin writers described the castes, or at least part of them, and, in

the course of time, the writings were said to have caused the castes,

instead of the castes having caused the writings.

But whatever may be the facts as regards caste, we know that caste can

exist without idolatry, and idolatry without caste; and that though the

Brahmins, with their usual desire to incorporate everything in life with

religion, gathered caste into their garners, and endeavoured to increase

and extend it, still there is fair evidence for asserting that these two

institutions have no necessary connection, and that, as it was perfectly

possible to wind them up together, so it is perfectly possible to unwind

them and produce again an entire separation. In a word, it is perfectly

possible for a man to retain caste, not as believing it to be part of his

native idolatrous religion, but as believing it to be (what it really was

till the Brahmins seized hold of it and attached it to their faith) a

civil institution which had sprung up in remote times, and had been

inherited by him, just as rank and station are inherited in this

country.[40] And that caste can exist without religion, and alongside of a

religion as opposite to Brahminism as Christianity is, we have the most

indisputable evidence supplied by the late Sir Emerson Tennent, in his

"History of Christianity in Ceylon."

"Caste," he wrote, "as it exists at the present day amongst the Buddhists

of Ceylon, is purely a social distinction, and entirely disconnected with

any sanction or pretensions derivable from their system of religion. Nor

is evidence wanting that, even at a comparatively modern period, such was

equally its aspect amongst the natives throughout the continent of India,

by whom caste was held not as a sacred, but as a secular discrimination of

ranks. The earliest notice of India by the Greek historians and

geographers enumerates the division of the people into Brahmins,

Kistrayas, Vaisyas, and Sûdras; but this was a classification which

applied equally to the followers of Buddha" (who preached that, in the

sight of God, all men were equal) "and of Brahma, nor were the members of

either section held ineligible for the offices of the priesthood." And, in

the note below, the reader will find additional evidence which will show

him that caste in Ceylon, just as it originally was in India, can and does

exist merely as a division of ranks, and that it need not at all be

necessarily connected with any idolatrous rites or worship.[41]

Having thus shown how caste did not originate, it may, perhaps, not be

altogether superfluous if I hazard a few remarks as to the way in which it

did probably originate.

The common idea of caste is that it is simply a combination of troublesome

and fanciful restrictions, imposed upon the various peoples of India by

those of the upper classes who desired to keep themselves above the

jostling of the crowd. But this institution (if that be a correct term for

it) arose naturally and regularly out of the circumstances of the times,

and where these circumstances no longer exist, it will as naturally

disappear; and that the last must happen we have seen from, the fact that

altered circumstances have already caused the commencement of its removal

amongst the people of the towns. But the general circumstances which gave

birth to caste require a few words of explanation, and the following

solution seems not an unnatural one.

We know, as a certain fact, that peoples to whom we have given the names

of Dravidians and Aryans entered India from the north and north-west;

that they increased and multiplied, overspread the whole of India, and

reduced the aborigines to serfdom. We also know that these tribes from the

north, who were, comparatively speaking, fair, very naturally regarded the

black, ugly, carrion-eating aborigines with disgust. Hence, naturally,

must have arisen the opinions as regards Pariahs which all the superior

castes hold to this day. Even to have food touched by people of such

abominable habits must have been repulsive, and therefore the separation

into men of caste and men of no caste, or, in other words, into browns and

blacks (for the word for caste means colour), followed as a matter of

course. Caste, then, seems naturally to have arisen from the idea that to

associate in any way with people of bad habits and grovelling ideas is an

intolerable degradation. The superior races, therefore must have

considered it a matter of importance to retreat as far as possible from

the habits of the aborigines; and when we take into consideration the

influence of religion, the natural ambition of the priestly classes, the

splitting up into sects, and the fondness of the Hindoo mind for subtle

distinctions, the rest easily follows. But, though numerous castes arose

amongst the invaders, the main line of demarcation, is still the original

one of race--between the races of the north and the aborigines whom they

found in possession of India. The base, then, of caste, we may rest

assured, was simply the result of a people, or rather of peoples, wishing

to keep themselves uncontaminated when coming in contact with a debased

population.

This was exactly the case with the Jews. They were simply a very strongly

guarded caste, with a number of regulations as to what they were and were

not to eat, and with rules which prohibited them intermarrying or

associating with peoples with whom they came in contact. Many of those

rules may seem to us ridiculous and fanciful, but they were calculated to

prevent the Jews from any chance of adopting the manners and customs of

the peoples around them; and the Indians, having had similar views,

naturally adopted similar means. Such then is a brief generalization of

the causes which led to caste laws, which were, no doubt, carried in some

instances to a ridiculous length, but which were founded in common sense,

and were admirably adapted to carry into effect the opinions of the

superior races.

We have now, in the second place, to consider caste with reference to the

approach of native converts to the Lord's table, the sitting apart of the

various castes in church, and the effects of caste as regards what is

called social intercourse.

The whole difficulty of the caste question, as regards the Sacrament, lies

in this, namely, that a high-caste vegetarian objects to drink wine at the

same time and after a low-caste meat-eater. And here I find a great

difficulty in finding words or illustrations that will at all convey the

feelings of a high-caste vegetarian at the very idea of drinking after a

low-caste carrion-eater. If from the lowest, filthiest, and most poisonous

dens in London, you were to take a man, reeking with beer and tobacco, and

with his clothes crawling with vermin, and presenting, in short, every

appearance of foulness, dirt, and disease; if you were to take that man

and place him between two ladies at the administration of the Holy

Communion, I do not say that they would there and then refuse the

Sacrament on these terms, but I think we may be pretty sure that, from

sanitary motives, if from no others, they would in future take the

Sacrament in a place where they would not be liable to such contact. Their

feelings and senses would be shocked by such contact as I have imagined,

but their sensations would merely bear the same proportion to the

sensations of a high-caste vegetarian Hindoo who had to drink after a

Pariah that a trifling cause of disgust would bear to the most intolerable

and lasting degradation. Now, to people in this country, this may seem an

extraordinary thing; but they will think it less extraordinary when I tell

them that, if I could not take the Sacrament unless amongst Pariahs, I

would never take it again, unless perhaps, I were to put myself bodily

into one of Professor Tyndall's cotton-gauze air-cleansers, and drink the

sacramental wine after it had been boiled at a temperature of 212 degrees,

and passed through a filter. And when I talk of the lowest castes as

carrion-eaters, I must tell the reader that I am not in the slightest

degree guilty of exaggeration, and that they are carrion-eaters in exactly

the same sense that vultures are carrion-eaters. In fact, these men never

get any meat unless that of animals that have died of disease; and as in

these climates decomposition is extremely rapid, the reader can imagine

the result of coming in contact with a man who has, perhaps, a few hours

before been eating a mass of diseased and half decomposed meat. And in

case the reader should not be able to imagine what the result is, I may

mention the following circumstance. A few days after I had killed a bison

I had occasion to point out some pieces of sawn wood which I wished to be

removed from the jungle to my house, and I accordingly took with me a

native overseer, and two coolies to carry the timber. When I was pointing

out the pieces to them, I smelt a strong smell of putrid meat, which

seemed to fill the air so entirely that I at once concluded that a tiger

must have killed some animal and left the carcase near the spot. My

overseer and myself looked about everywhere, but at last happening to pass

the coolies, I at once perceived that the smell arose from their breath,

and on questioning them, I found that before coming to work they had been

feasting on decayed bison flesh. In fact, after killing a bison, we could

never go near our coolies for some days afterwards. But to see a party of

these men sitting like vultures around the carcase of some animal that has

just died of some abominable disease is quite enough to inspire even an

unprejudiced European meat-eater-with the most wholesome horror; and the

reader need not, I think, be surprised at the feelings of disgust which

these men's habits inspire amongst the respectable classes of the

community. But independently of all feelings of disgust, there are

sanitary considerations which are of infinitely more importance, for it so

happens that, at a time when the weather is hottest and the season most

unhealthy, a larger number of animals die; and I have very little doubt

that this eating of rotten meat causes amongst the Pariahs a large

quantity of disease, and especially of cholera, which they would not fail

to disseminate with fatal certainty amongst all classes, were the native

Christians compelled to take the Sacrament indiscriminately. And, in my

own experience, I have observed that cholera has passed through districts,

that the upper classes have been free from it, but that amongst the lower

the victims were many. And the same sanitary reasons that apply to the

Sacrament apply equally well to the mixing of castes indiscriminately in

the churches; for it might so happen, as it frequently does, that fever

and cholera may be prevalent amongst the lower castes, while the higher

may be at that time comparatively free from such diseases. So that, when

we take all these points into consideration, we shall find that the German

missionaries were perfectly right in placing the men of the higher caste

on one side of the church, and those of the lower on the other, and that

they were equally right in allowing the higher castes to approach the

Sacrament at a different time from the lower. I may here remark that I

once mentioned this taking of the Sacrament in a sort of order of

precedence to a clergyman in a country parish, when he told me that

exactly the same sort of thing occurred in his parish, and that the lord

of the manor invariably took the Sacrament first, and, if I recollect

rightly, the parish clerk last; and a special instance of this in a Scotch

parish was mentioned to me not long ago.

The same sanitary considerations will also naturally be of value when we

come to consider that indiscriminate social intercourse which the

missionaries so much insist upon as one of the necessary signs of grace. I

do not, of course, say that it is not advisable, and that it would not be

desirable to see a little more intercourse between class and class than

exists at the present. But between all the better classes there is a much

greater degree of intercourse than our missionaries would have us believe;

and it is not true that one caste will eat only the food prepared by a

person of his own caste. I cannot, of course, say what may be the case as

regards other parts of India; but, as regards my own district, each caste

will eat of the food prepared by any of the castes higher, or at least

purer, than its own. For instance, a Gouda, who will not allow that the

Lingayet caste is better than his own, will eat of food prepared by a

Lingayet, while a Lingayet will not eat of food prepared by a Gouda. And

the explanation of this is, that the Lingayet is a vegetarian, and meat

might have been boiled in the Gouda's pots, while there would be nothing

to offend the Gouda customs in the pots of a vegetarian host. But in these

matters I entirely agree with the good Bishop Heber, who said that we had

no right to interfere in their private life, or to meddle in any way with

their social customs, as long as there was no idolatry in them.

Turning now to the third point I proposed to consider, I have a few

remarks to make regarding the only (from a Christian point of view) solid

objection that can, I conceive, be made to the institution of separate

orders of men; namely, that the tendency of caste is to shut up the

bowels of compassion towards all the world outside of a man's particular

class. And here I confess that I am very much in want of information, and

can think of no unprejudiced individuals to whom to apply for the facts as

really existing in other parts of India. As for books, when I look into

them for any information, I am at once met by quantities of unlimited

condemnations, or a host of contradictory statements. And, as an instance

of the latter, I may mention that in Kerr's "Domestic Life of the Natives

of India" we are informed, at page 31, that "alms are given to the poor

without distinction of caste," while at page 343 of the same volume we are

told that "to extend kindness and hospitality to one of a different caste

is regarded as sinful." But in matters of this sort we want the experience

of individuals who have actually lived amongst the people, as much as

anyone can who is not actually one of them. As for my own part of the

country, I can answer for it that caste has no such effect as has been

alleged to arise from it regarding the extension of hospitality and

kindness to people of various castes; and, as a confirmatory illustration,

may mention that I have found members of every caste assembled at the

house of a toddy man to inquire how he was, and to see whether they could

do anything for him. These toddy-drawers rank at least third amongst the

castes in Manjarabad, and though none of the members of the farmer castes

above them would eat of food prepared in a toddy-drawer's house, yet there

were numbers of both these castes present. This feeling would not, that I

am aware of, go as far as one of the carrion-eating Pariahs, but I am

quite certain that it would extend to any other caste but theirs in the

country. But on this point I do not offer any decided opinion, as, for

what I know to the contrary, acts of kindness and hospitality may, no

doubt, often have been extended even to the lowest. And I may also

mention here that I have slept in the veranda of a farmer's house, in

which members of the family slept close to some of my people, who were of

the toddy-drawer caste above alluded to, and who, I am sure, were quite as

welcome as members of their own caste would have been. But as regards all

these matters concerning the inner life of the people, we know nothing,

unless we actually live amongst them, and sleep in their houses, and, in

fact, see the people at home; and as it is extremely difficult to find

anyone who has done anything of the kind, it naturally follows that it is

almost impossible to find anything like reliable sources of information

regarding native habits throughout India. You may, it is true, stuff your

very soul with information of some sort or other, if you go about asking

questions, but if you do you will find yourself much in the same

predicament that Johnson found himself in his tour to the Hebrides; and

the reader may recollect that the worthy doctor very soon found that

nothing could be more vague, unsatisfactory, and uncertain than the

answers of an unsophisticated simple people, who were not much in the

habit of being asked questions of any sort. However, the reader may, in

the meantime, reasonably infer that the conduct of the people in the rural

districts of India, and situated under similar circumstances, would not

materially differ, as regards matters of caste, from the practice as

existing in Manjarabad. And should that turn out to be the case, it is

plain that those notions, as regards the practice of caste, which have

been so industriously circulated in England, are almost entirely false.

I have said that I proposed inquiring, further, whether there are not some

compensating advantages in this division of the people into castes which

tend, in a great measure, to neutralize the prejudicial effects that arise

from people's sympathies and feelings being more or less confined to

members of their own caste, instead of being distributed over the human

race considered as a whole. Now, it is perfectly true that the tendency of

caste is to weaken the claim that humanity in general has on an

individual; but though the claim of society in general is weakened, it

must be remembered that the claims of each caste on the members of it are

strengthened. And though this fact may militate against an enlarged and

Christian philanthropy, the aggregate force of claims will be found to

amount to a much larger sum than if one part of a society had no more

claim on a man than another. A man of one caste would not, for instance,

perhaps feel that a man of another caste had much claim on him; but he

would distinctly and strongly feel that a member of his own caste had. And

every caste acting on the same principle of supporting and helping its

members, I am convinced that the aggregate force of assistance rendered

must be greater than in a country where there is little or no caste

principle. This may seem a rash assertion, and of course it is one that it

is impossible, as far as I am aware, to prove. But the fact that there is

not a poor-house from one end of India to the other, seems to me a

significant and satisfactory circumstance; and the only way I can account

for there being no need of such a thing is,[42] that caste feeling must

often come in where all other aids fail. Nor are we in this country

without instances of the value of caste feelings, and both the Jews and

the Scotch may still be pointed to as illustrations of what I mean. A

Scotchman still has a sort of caste feeling for a Scotchman, and would do

things for a man, as a Scotchman, that he would not do for people of

either English or Irish descent. This principle may now have lessened, and

is, no doubt, daily lessening. But when I started in India, I very soon

experienced the benefit of this caste feeling; and, as one illustration to

the point, I may mention that, before my estates came into bearing, I was

attended in a long and serious illness by two Scotch doctors (one of whom

attended on me for six weeks incessantly), both of whom resolutely

declined any remuneration whatever. I cannot, of course, positively assert

that these gentlemen would not have attended me on the same terms had I

been an Englishman, but, from my general experience with other doctors, I

am sure that these gentlemen must have been not a little influenced by

caste feeling. And I have no doubt whatever that the way the Scotch get

on, wherever they go, is to be attributed, in no small measure, to the

existence of the same feeling. It may seem to many of my readers that to

use the term caste as a principle which impels one Scotchman to help

another is not exactly correct; and I must admit to having some doubts on

the subject myself. The case of the Jews, however, admits of none; and, if

ever there was a caste of people in the world, in the strict Hindoo sense,

they are certainly an unmistakable example. And what are the results of

caste feeling with them? As to other parts of the world I have no precise

information; but in England I have ascertained from the best authority

that caste feeling has produced some extremely favourable results. In the

first place, Jews are seldom or never found in our workhouses; and all

cases of poverty are carefully investigated by a visiting committee, or

board of guardians, and relief or employment is always afforded to every

Jewish pauper. Then, again, no Jewish child ever was, and no Jewish child

is now, without the means of obtaining elementary instruction; and it

would be difficult to find an English Jew unable to read and write. Means

are taken to secure the attendance of all poor children, and a sound

middle-class education is afforded, while the study of the Hebrew language

is compulsory. There were only, when I obtained my information on the

point, about twenty Jewish (principally foreigners) convicts in England,

and no female convict was to be found.

Another of the principal complaints brought against caste is the fact that

it has a tendency to keep one caste fixed below another; but even here we

shall find some compensating considerations which are of great value. For,

if caste in this respect has a keeping-down tendency, it has also a

levelling one. It may keep one order above another, but within the limits

of that caste order it has a levelling tendency, and in one respect the

poorest of each class feel themselves on a level with the richest. Nor is

a poor man of good caste made to experience the bitter sense of

degradation which falls to the lot of a gentleman who, from poverty and

misfortune, has fallen out of his original class into another far below

him. The Indian may descend into the most humble spheres, but if he

attends to the regulations of his caste he is always a member of it, and

his feelings of self-respect are maintained by the fact that, however

poor, it is quite possible that his daughter may be married by a man of

wealth and position. But in this country, where a man has gone a long way

down the hill, when he has descended--as many gentlemen especially do in

our colonies--into the lower ranks of life, he loses all connection with

people who are of his own rank by birth. I do not, of course, mean to

allege that this want of caste feeling is to be lamented with us, but I am

merely stating facts which seem to me to show the number of ways in which

this much-reviled caste system can be proved to have compensating

advantages which tend to counterbalance the drawbacks of the situation.

Before concluding this chapter, it may be useful to make a few remarks as

to the way in which caste laws act as regards the social condition of

people who have by wealth raised themselves above the general average of

their order; and I shall at the same time notice a few instances that

have fallen within my observation as to the way in which caste laws of

the most stringent nature are occasionally set aside by universal consent.

The old idea we entertained of caste was that, to use the words of

Tennent, "each class is stationed between certain walls of separation,

which are impassable by the purest virtue or the most conspicuous merit;"

or that, to come to more recent times, and to use the words of the late

Mr. Wilson, in his speech before leaving for India, "in India you see

people tied down by caste, and, whatever their talents or exertions may

be, they cannot rise." Now the history of many families that have risen to

eminence entirely belies this assertion, and the evidences are so numerous

that I need not weary the reader by quoting them. But one instance I may

perhaps mention, as the circumstances seem to me somewhat extraordinary,

and a reference to them here may induce some one to make more particular

inquiries in the locality alluded to. Buchanan notices that "in Bhagulpore

there were certain families who, from having adopted a pure life, had

within the memory of man risen from the lowest dregs of the people to the

highest ranks of the nobility." In this instance, however, I cannot help

suspecting that the families must have risen on something more substantial

than their pure habits. But in matters of this sort we are very much in

want (as indeed we are on almost every Indian subject) of more detailed

and particularly substantiated evidence. As regards the subject of low

castes raising themselves in the social scale, I know of no instances that

have fallen within my own observation, but I have obtained information

from other parts of Mysore, the truth of which I have no reason to doubt,

although I would advise the reader to receive what I have to say on this

point with the same caution that he should receive all information which

is even in the smallest degree removed from the experience of personal

observation. With this caution, I may then observe that, from information

I have received, I have ample reason to believe that in the interior of

Mysore there are many families of Pariahs who are as well off, in point of

cattle, cash and land, as the average of the farmer caste, notwithstanding

that the forefathers of these Pariahs were merely the servants of the

farmer tribe. Nor is this all. Many instances, I believe, may be pointed

out of members of the farmer tribe being the tenants of the once-despised

Pariah. The Pariah, it is true, does not reap all the advantages from his

altered circumstances that might be expected in other countries, but it is

a mistake to suppose that wealth does not tell in India as it does

elsewhere.[43] The well-to-do Pariah (and in the Nuggur division of Mysore

I am told there are many such) receives that respect which is invariably

paid to those who have much substance. He no longer stands respectfully

without the veranda of a farmer of ordinary position, but takes his seat

in the veranda itself, and on terms of perfect equality. But the farmer

will not eat with his visitor, nor give him his daughter in marriage. This

to us would be a disagreeable reflection, no doubt; but, in their present

political state, I cannot see that the happiness or prosperity of the

people is in any way affected by these facts, nor am I aware that any one

has attempted to prove that the natural comforts of the people have been

in any way lessened by these social separations.

Turning now to glance at the way in which caste laws are sometimes set

aside, it is impossible to avoid suspecting that the instances given of

caste feeling in these respects, though perhaps true in themselves, are

not fair examples of what would universally occur in cases of emergency

even with the most caste-observing people in India. From the instances

given (and those most commonly given refer to natives preferring to die of

thirst rather than take water from the hands of a person of inferior

caste), people are led to believe that under no circumstances will a

breach of caste take place, or be overlooked if it does take place, by

members of the caste. But the illustration I have to give seem to point to

a contrary conclusion, and if that is the case with people whom I know to

be extremely strict, it seems very probable that we have adopted some very

exaggerated notions as to the rigidity of caste laws. And what has

contributed not a little to these delusions is, that tricky servants

frequently make caste a most convenient pretence for avoiding to do this

or that, or as an excuse wherever an excuse is for any purpose convenient.

But however all this may be, the reader may form his opinions from the

following cases.

The first I have to give of violation of caste law is certainly the most

extraordinary that I ever heard of. The act was, indeed, a remarkable and

touching tribute of regard, or I may even say of affection, on the part of

a native overseer of the farmer caste in Manjarabad, and was a better

monument than any that could have been erected to one of the best and most

unselfish men I have over met. When Mr. W----, my late manager, unhappily

died on the estate, this overseer in question, understanding that it was

considered by us as an honour to the deceased, volunteered to make one of

the carrying party. This extraordinary determination was absolutely

forbidden by the caste potail, or head man, who was present; but Rama

Gouda[44] showed the same coolness and resolution that he always did in

the case of a bear or a tiger, and simply saying, "Let my caste go

to-day," he made one of the carrying party in spite of every remonstrance.

Hundreds of all castes were present, but so strong were their feelings of

regard for Mr. W----, that no notice whatever was taken of the offence

which was so publicly committed. The repugnance of all castes, except the

very lowest, to touching the body of a European, is very well known to

everyone who has been in India, and so fearful was the caste head man of

sanctioning, even with his presence, this violation of caste law, that he

immediately went home.

In the next instance I have to give, one of the Lingayet caste

(vegetarians, and abstainers from intoxicating drinks) was wounded by a

tiger, and there was a caste question raised, as to whether, under the

circumstances, he should take wine. The occurrence came about in this way.

Some miles from my house I once wounded a tiger, somewhat late in the day,

and, owing to the broken nature of the ground, and a general confusion

that seemed to take possession of the people, it seemed impossible to

bring the affair to a satisfactory conclusion, so I went home. The

following morning I returned to take up the track of the tiger, but it was

unluckily reported that the animal had quitted the jungle we had left him

in, so the party (I having been posted at a point where the tiger would

probably break cover, in case the report should prove false), it appears,

blundered carelessly into the place where the animal had been last seen

the evening before. Now, this particular spot was full of a long sort of

reed that grows in swampy ground, so that the people could not see far

before them, and, to make a long story short, it seems that the tiger

bided his time, sprang suddenly into the party, and gave one of them a

fatal bite in the loins. The moment I heard the three roars, I expected

that something disagreeable must have occurred, and, on arrival at the

scene of events, I found a fine young fellow of the Lingayet caste lying

bathed in blood, and my people vainly endeavouring to stanch the wounds.

He was half swooning away from loss of blood, and I offered him some wine

to keep up his strength. This, however, he refused to take, unless the

head man of his village, who happened to be present, would consent. The

head man, evidently wishing to shirk the responsibility, shook his head

doubtfully; but the members of his caste all called out--"It's no matter;

let him drink;" and he drank accordingly. While this was going on, I had a

rough stretcher made, and, doing up his wounds as well as we could, sent

him off on the way to his village. While we were attending to the wounded

man, rather an amusing incident occurred. It appears that when the tiger

charged, one of the party, a toddy-drawer, at once climbed up a tree, and

when the party retreated, carrying off the wounded, he was afraid to come

down. His absence had not been remarked, and when we were engaged in doing

up the wounded man, the toddyman, who had taken heart and come down, slunk

quietly out of the jungle, and startled some of the party not a little, as

they thought that it was perhaps the tiger coming down on them again.

However, this toddyman reported that the tiger was still almost in the

same spot where he had been lying when he made his attack: and I then

proposed we should go into the jungle, and see how we liked the look of

him. But the tiger had given such indications of temper that the main body

of the people seemed to have no desire to see him again, and I think that

only ten (and those mostly my own people) accompanied me. As I was,

Europeanly speaking, single-handed, this may have seemed an imprudent

course, and no doubt it was not altogether unattended with danger; but it

luckily turned out that the tiger was stone dead, though he was lying in

such a natural position that we had some doubts as to whether he might

not be shamming, even when we got within fifteen yards of him. As we were

skinning the tiger, the wounded man (who had by that time only been

carried a few hundred yards) expired: so, observing that it was "written

on his forehead,"[45] we took up our man and our skin, and went home.

These instances of infringement of caste rules will show the reader the

way in which they are sometimes abandoned; and I could mention other minor

points where I have seen them occasionally abandoned. But not only are

these rules thus, on urgent occasions, summarily set aside, but within a

very short distance I have observed an alteration of custom. For instance,

on our side of the river which separates our county from the next, neither

the farmers nor the toddy-drawers will eat of an animal that has even been

touched after death by a Pariah; whereas, on the other side of the river,

the Pariahs who came out shooting not only touched, but carried a couple

of wild boars we had killed. And yet the people on one side of the river

are exactly of the same caste as those on the other. But the fact seems to

be, that many of the minor points of what is called caste law have arisen

from some accident, and in the course of time have hardened into local

customs.

And here, before bringing this chapter to a close, I find it impossible to

refrain from again alluding to the numerous instances where caste has been

made the common scapegoat of every Indian difficulty. What is the meaning

of this? What is the meaning of that? Why won't the natives do this, and

why won't they do that? Caste--and caste is the common refuge; and with

most of our countrymen who have tried to introduce new customs or a new

religion, caste has ever been a handy and convenient peg on which to hang

any difficulties they may meet with, or any problem they cannot readily

solve. In short, it is hard to say what difficulty has not been disposed

of in this fashion. Let us glance at two instances to illustrate my

meaning.

For the first instance, I cannot select, perhaps, a better example than

that afforded by the Rev. G. U. Pope, in the notes he has made when

editing a second edition of the valuable work of the Abbé Dubois. And, in

alluding to these footnotes, it is impossible to repress some feeling of

annoyance that the valuable work of the Abbé should, in an evil hour, have

fallen into the hands of a writer who has thought fit often, in a few

brief and contemptuous words, summarily to dismiss and overrule those

conclusions which were the result of a life spent on more intimate terms

with natives than any I have ever been able to hear of. And Mr. Pope's

statements are the more calculated to impose on the general reader, as he

speaks of having had "more than twenty years of a somewhat intimate

intercourse with the Hindoos;" the fact being that he spent the greater

part (in fact, all but a few years, as far as I have been able to

ascertain) as head of the Grammar School on the Nilgiri Hills, where he

had no more opportunity of having any intercourse with natives than a

Hindoo would have of gaining experience of the natives of England, were he

to take up his residence on the Grampians, and interchange a few words

occasionally with the shepherds of those mountains. But as to what caste

has done. "Caste," says Mr. Pope, "has prevented the Hindoos from availing

themselves of the opportunities afforded them of acquiring the sciences,

arts, and civilization of nations with whom they have come in contact."

Caste, "the great petrifier," we are again told, is the real cause of the

stagnation that everywhere abounds. Caste, again, "upholds immutable

distinctions by arbitrary and absurd laws, which are enforced by

irresponsible authority, and maintains a standard of right and wrong

entirely independent of the essential principles of moral science;" and,

in order that everything may be included at one blow, we are finally told,

in a note appended to the remarks of the Abbé on the moral and social

advantages of caste, that "caste, and its offspring custom, are among the

hindrances to all good in India."

But it is still more curious to observe how men of intelligence and

observation can be led, by the force of inherited opinion, into statements

as to the effects of caste which are actually contradicted by their own

experience. And in Mr. Raikes's interesting work, "Notes of the

North-Western Provinces," we find an instance of how people will always

attribute everything to this universal bugbear. Observing on the pride of

high caste, "which withers whatever it touches," Mr. Raikes informs us

that the Brahmins and Rajpoots of the rich province of Benares will not

touch the plough owing to pride of caste. He next tells us that caste is

little regarded to the north of Allahabad, where, from various causes, the

demand for labour is greater. All of which, being traced to its true

cause, simply amounts to this, namely, that where landed proprietors of

good family are well off they naturally do not care to work, whereas in

another part of the country where they are not well off, or cannot procure

labourers, they do work. In the same way, the author, after telling us

that infanticide has at one time or other been common all over the world,

tells us that in India it is entirely caused by caste. Now, if we take

caste to mean family pride solely, it certainly has influenced the matter,

or at least tended to maintain the evil complained of; but I know of one

instance, at least, in India where infanticide can be traced to

satisfactory causes, and amongst a people who have always been observed to

be remarkably free from what are called caste prejudices. The Toda tribe,

on the Nilgiri Hills, are polyandrists, and, in order to keep down the

number of the tribe, they naturally had recourse to female infanticide.

This they have now abandoned, and my Toda guide very soon told me the

reason. He said, "Formerly we used to kill the females, because we had

little more than the produce of our buffaloes to depend on; but now that

more people have flocked to the hills we can let our lands and get plenty

to eat." He added, also, that the Government had ordered them not to kill

their children; but, unless their means had improved, it is plain that a

Government order would have had little effect. But, as regards this

subject of infanticide, it seems to be a thing difficult to avoid,

whenever conditions arise which are favourable to its extension; nor will

repressive measures alone ever place any very complete check upon it. Like

every other demand, it rises and falls with the necessities of the

situation, and can never be originally caused by anything in the shape of

caste feelings or regulations; and amongst these necessities I, of course,

include the desire to avoid shame, or the prospect of shame in the family,

or starvation, as well as the fact that women are an encumbrance to some

tribes. Some people, I may add, are under the impression that polyandric

habits, when once established, become necessarily a cause of infanticide.

But we have no means of knowing that this was ever the case, while the

Coorgs may be pointed to as a race who once were polyandrous, but who were

never, that I am aware of, accused of infanticide. The explanation of

this, I apprehend, is to be found in the fact that their circumstances

were comfortable enough to preclude any necessity for keeping down the

population.

It is time now that I should bring this chapter to a close, but, as it may

be a convenience to the reader, I think it well, before doing so, to sum

up those conclusions which I assume to have been established; in doing so

I shall, however, merely take notice of those points which seem to me to

be of paramount importance.

In the first place, then, we compared the morality of our British

counties, as regards the connection of the sexes and the use of alcohol,

with the morality of the Indian county of Manjarabad; and having seen

that, owing to caste laws, the morality of Manjarabad is superior, I think

we are justified in concluding that these laws have acted more effectually

than all the religious instruction that has for centuries been lavished on

the people of this country; or, to put the case in shorter terms, we may

assert that, as regards the branches of morality alluded to, caste has

beaten Christian influences.

In the next place we took into consideration the action of our

missionaries as regards caste, and having seen that they have always

insisted on their converts entirely renouncing customs which can be proved

to produce the most valuable results, we came to the conclusion that it

has been a fortunate thing for India that its peoples have rejected our

hide-bound interpretation of Christianity. We then inquired as to whether

the missionaries had any right to debar from the advantages of

Christianity those who, wishing to become Christians, yet desired to

retain their social customs; and, having come to the conclusion that there

is nothing idolatrous in these customs, we have distinctly asked those

interpreters of Christianity whom we have in India to tell us by whose

authority they have ventured to act in a way which, as has been shown, the

Apostles never did as regards the prejudices of their Jewish converts. And

generally, as regards the action of our missionaries in this matter, we

have felt ourselves justified in asserting that our English missions have

inflicted an incalculable injury on the cause of Christianity by

presenting it to the people of India as something that must necessarily

tear the whole framework of their society to pieces.

We then inquired more particularly into the origin of caste, and, having

seen that it never could have originated in the way our missionaries

suppose it to have done, we hazarded a conjecture as to the way in which

it probably did originate, and saw grounds for supposing that the

distinctions of caste came naturally about, and that they were in

principle calculated to effect exactly the same ends that the Jewish

lawgivers had in view when they framed that Levitical law which

effectually prevented the Jews from mingling socially with the races they

lived amongst. We then looked at caste from a sanitary point of view, and

came to the conclusion that in consequence of the carrion-eating habits of

the lowest castes, and of their liability to transmit the germs of

disease, the rules which prevented them from coming into contact with the

higher castes, either in the way of taking the Sacrament, or in any other

way, are of the greatest value. We next inquired into the effects of caste

as regards social intercourse, and especially as regards the exercise of

hospitality amongst people of different castes, and saw reason to think

that the restrictions of caste, with, perhaps, the exception of the very

lowest, formed no bar whatever to the exercise of hospitality. Glancing

subsequently at the action of caste feeling in confining the sympathies of

individuals more especially to the members of their own caste, we came to

the conclusion that, though caste had undoubtedly the effect of

contracting the feelings within a narrow circle, there was to be found a

compensating advantage in the fact that the claims of caste produced, in

the aggregate, a greater amount of charity, and, in short, were calculated

to produce a better general result than would be arrived at in the absence

of caste feelings. And as illustrations of the advantages of this caste

feeling, we pointed to the fact of there being no poor-houses in India,

and especially to the Jews in England, as affording an example of the

favourable effects of caste feeling. After this, we pointed to the fact

that, though caste had the effect of keeping one caste or order of men

above another, it had also a levelling tendency within each caste, and

produced an important point of equality which no poverty can destroy. We

then took into consideration some facts which seemed to show that families

could raise themselves to a higher rank in society by adopting the purer

habits of the classes above them; and we also saw that the influence of

wealth does, to a very great degree, elevate a man of low caste in the

social scale. We next saw reason to suppose that we have hitherto been

labouring under very exaggerated notions as to the stringency of caste

regulations, and two instances were given to illustrate the way in which

caste laws are sometimes set summarily aside. And, finally, we pointed

out, and gave some illustrations to prove, that with most of our

countrymen who have either tried to introduce new customs or in any way to

alter native habits of action, caste has ever been made, and very unjustly

made, the common scapegoat.

One word more. The absolute good that caste has done may be briefly summed

up. It has acted as a strong moral police, and as a preserver of order and

decorum in the community,[46] and it has prevented the spread of bad

habits and customs, more especially that of drinking, as far as large

numbers of the people are concerned.[47] On the other hand, caste is said

to have hindered the progress of the people taken as a whole. But in every

instance where we have really tried the introduction of any art, the

removal of any public crime (as suttee and human sacrifice, for instance),

the improvement of any cultivation, the introduction of education, or of

new means of moving from place to place, we have either found caste to be

no impediment at all, or an impediment so slight as not to be worth

mentioning.

* * * * *

NOTE.--With the view of obtaining information I briefly allude here to two

points with reference to caste and its effects--the (1) curious custom of

the Marasa Wokul tribe in Mysore, and (2) the influence of caste in

developing improved aptitudes which afterwards descend by hereditary

transmission.

As to the first, the mother of a girl is compelled to submit to the

amputation of the terminal joints of the third and fourth fingers of the

right hand on the occasion of the betrothal of her daughter, and in the

event of a girl being motherless the mother of the bridegroom-elect must

submit to the operation.

The custom is alluded to in the well-known work of the Abbé Dubois, and in

the appendix the editor of the second edition confirms the account given,

and quotes confirmatory evidence from Colonel Wilks' "Mysore," in which is

published the legend which is reported to have given rise to the custom.

Colonel Wilks, early in this century, saw some of the women who had been

operated on. The tribe in question lives in the north-east of Mysore, but

after inquiry through the medium of natives in the interior of the

country, I cannot now learn that the custom is continued. Perhaps, being a

disagreeable one, it may have been given up. I should feel much obliged

for any information as to the point in question.

As to the second point, I was informed in 1891 by Mr. Chatterton of the

Engineering College at Madras, that he had many Brahmins under him in the

workshops, and that, though more intelligent than other castes, they are

less efficient, owing to their ancestors never having been practised in

any mechanical work. The influence of caste was here most perceptible, and

he could always pick out the work done by boys whose caste had been

employed in that particular work, and he further informed me that boys

showed poor proficiency in work out of the line of their particular caste.

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Manjarabad is a talook or county on the south-west frontier of

Mysore.

[32] And that, I may observe, was a case in which a toddy-drawer, the

third caste in Manjarabad, was concerned.

[33] I observe in the Administration Report for Mysore, 1867-68, that

nearly all the cases in the lunatic asylum were traced either to drinking

or bhang-smoking.

[34] _Vide_ Sproat's "Studies of Savage Life."

[35] It may be observed here that there are few who know so little as to

the sexual morality of the people around them as clergymen. It does not

become them, of course, to enter into the gossip of the village, nor does

anyone care to broach such subjects in the first instance; and I may

mention here that a relative of my own, a clergyman in a country parish,

told me that if anything went wrong in these respects he was the very last

person in the world to hear one word about it.

[36] The Abbé Dubois makes the following remarks: "During the long period

I lived in India, in the capacity of a missionary, I have made, with the

assistance of a native missionary, in all between two and three hundred

converts of both sexes. Of this number two-thirds were Pariahs or beggars,

and the rest were composed of Sûdras, vagrants, and outcasts of several

tribes, who, being without resources, turned Christians in order to form

new connections, chiefly for the purpose of marriage, or with some other

interested motive. Among them are also to be found some who believed

themselves to be possessed with the devil, and who turned Christians after

having been assured that on receiving baptism the unclean spirits would

leave them and never return; and I will declare it with shame and

confusion that I do not remember any one who may be said to have embraced

Christianity from conviction and from quite disinterested motives. Among

these newcomers many apostatized and relapsed into paganism, finding that

the Christian religion did not afford them the temporal advantages they

had looked for in embracing it; and I am very much ashamed that the

resolution I have taken to tell the whole truth on this subject forces me

to make the humiliating avowal that those who continued Christians are the

very worst among my flock."--DR. ALLEN'S _India_, p. 522.

[37] I may mention here that Sir Bartle Frere, in his paper on "Indian

Public Works," said, with reference to opening up districts hitherto

unpierced by roads, "And here let me observe, in passing, without any

disparagement of my own countrymen, that I have generally found the

agricultural and commercial classes of India quite as intelligent on

points of this kind as the agricultural and commercial classes of our own

old-fashioned country." But I have always found that the people who have

had the best opportunities of judging have formed very favourable opinions

as to the intelligence of the agricultural classes, who are generally

painted as being entirely indifferent, and even hostile, to the best

schemes undertaken for their benefit.

[38] In this Circular of Bishop Wilson's, it is surprising to observe the

contradictions that exist. At one part of the Circular we are told that

the apostle's language is conclusive: and "Seeing ye have put off the old

man, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the

image of Him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew,

circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but

Christ is all, and in all," is quoted as evidence of the Divine wishes.

"So overwhelming," continues the bishop, "is the flood by which all petty

distinctions of nation, caste, privilege, rank, climate, position in

civilization are effaced, and one grand distinction substituted." And yet,

at another part of the Circular, we are told that the distinctions in

civil society are acknowledged by the Gospel, when they are "the natural

result of difference of talents, industry, piety, station, and success."

Another decision of the apostle is quoted in the same Circular, and it is

this--"There is neither Jew or Greek, there is neither bond nor free,

there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus;" and

so, of course, we are all equal in his sight. And yet this is quoted as

being a decision in favour of doing away with the civil institutions of

caste, which are undoubtedly the marks of that "station" which the bishop

tells us is acknowledged by the Gospel, and in no way different from the

station that a member of the House of Lords inherits from his

predecessors. And here, though I do not think that it is advisable to

cling to isolated texts as evidence of the general conduct of the apostles

regarding the prejudices of their converts, I may mention that Peter, in

his first Epistle, says, "Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for

the Lord's sake." And if we take Dean Alford's interpretation of this, and

consider it as equivalent to a command, extending to every human

institution (and I can see no reason why we should not), it is plain that

our missionaries in India, if they wish to follow the examples of the

apostles, should yield to the prejudices of caste as long as they do not

involve idolatrous rites. But it is in the general action of the apostles,

as illustrated in Acts xv. 19, that the safest guide may, I apprehend, be

found; and when, with reference to difficulties as regarding the customs

of their converts, St. James said (Dean Alford's edition), "Wherefore my

sentence is, that we trouble not them which from the Gentiles are turned

to God; but that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of

idols, from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood;" and

again: "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you

no greater burden than [these] necessary things; that ye abstain from

meats offered unto idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and

from fornication; from which, if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do

well;"--when the apostle said thus, I think we ought to feel little doubt

as to the course we ought to pursue regarding the social customs of the

peoples of India.

[39] "The name 'Laws of Manu,' somewhat resembles a pious fraud, for the

'laws' are merely the laws or customs of a school or association of

Hindoos, called the Mânavas, who lived in the country rendered holy by the

divine river Saraswati. In this district the Hindoos first felt themselves

a settled people, and in this neighbourhood they established colleges and

hermitages, or âsramas, from some of which we may suppose Brâhmanas,

Upanishads, and other religious compositions may have issued; and under

such influences we may imagine the Code of Manu to have been composed.

"The Mânavas were undoubtedly an active, energetic people, who governed

themselves, paid taxes to the kins, established internal and external

trade, and drew up an extensive system of laws and customs, to which they

appended real and imaginary awards. This system appears to have worked so

well, that it was adopted by other communities, and then the organizers

announced it as laws given to them by their divine progenitor, the great

Mana. They added passages, moreover, which assert the divine claims of

Brâhmans and the inferiority of the rest of mankind. Such assertions are

little more than rhetorical flourishes, for Brâhmans never were either so

omnipotent or so unamiable as the Code would represent them; nor were the

Sûdras ever so degraded. In Sanskrit plays and poems, weak and indigent

Brâhmans are by no means unfrequent; and, on the other hand, we meet with

Sûdras who had political rights, and even in the Code find the pedigrees

of great men traced up to Sûdra ancestors."--MRS. MANNING'S _Ancient and

Mediæval India_, v. i., p. 276.

[40] As an instance that a man can abandon all religious rites whatever,

and retain his caste unimpaired and unaltered, I may mention that my

native clerk told me that he had done nothing in the way of religion at

all for years; but that, of course, made no difference to him in the eyes

of his neighbours, who didn't care what he did, as long as he did not

depart from the social customs of his caste. I once said to a native

shopkeeper in Bangalore, "What religion are you of?" "Oh!" he answered

with a smile, "no religion at all, sir." But I need not trouble the reader

with further evidence to show that a man may drop his religion altogether

without dropping his caste, and that therefore religion and caste have no

necessary connection with one another whatever.

[41] "Caste, though distinctly denounced by their sacred hooks, and

ostensibly disavowed by the Singhalese themselves, still exists in their

veneration for rank, whether hereditary or adventitious. Thus every

district and every village has its little leader, a preeminence accorded

to birth rather than property; and, by a descending scale, certain members

of the community, in right of relationship or connection, assume an

undefined superiority, and are tacitly admitted to the exercise of what is

technically called an 'influence.' In the hamlets, so universal is this

feeling amongst the natives, so habitual the impulse to classify

themselves and to look up to some one as their superior in the scale of

society, that the custom descends through every gradation of life and its

occupations, and in some of the villages the missionaries found it

necessary to appoint two schoolmasters, even where there was less than

occupation for one--'influence,' as well as ability to teach, being an

essential qualification; and if the individual did not possess the former,

it was most indispensable to associate with him some other who did.[A]

Again, if a village could not furnish a master competent to teach, it was

in vain to procure one from a distance; his 'influence' did not extend to

that locality, and no pupils could he got to attend. Nor was caste itself

without the open avowal of its force, the children of a Vellala or

high-caste family being on no account permitted to enter the school-house

of a lower-caste master. These are obstacles which prevail in all their

original force even at the present day; and in the purely Singhalese

districts, such as Matura, the prestige of caste is so despotic, that no

amount of qualification in all other particulars can overcome the

repugnance to intercourse with those who are deficient in the paramount

requisite of rank."--SIR J. E. TENNENT's _Christianity in Ceylon_, p. 286.

[A] MS. account of Baptist Mission.

[42] In the large towns this remark might not, perhaps, be justifiable.

[43] Since this chapter was written, I have received well authenticated

information of a Pariah, who had acquired both wealth and position, having

been adopted into a superior caste. The caste was not a rich one, and he

no doubt paid heavily for his admission into it.

[44] The farmers in Manjarabad invariably tack on the word "Gouda" to

their names, and it seems to answer for our Mr.

[45] The natives imagine that every man's fate is written in invisible

characters on his forehead.

[46] Abbé Dubois.

[47] It is satisfactory to learn that caste feelings and regulations have

a favourable influence with natives, even when they go to a foreign

country; and it is equally satisfactory to quote the evidence of a

gentleman who laughs at caste as an absurd custom. Mr. W. Sabonadière, in

his work of "The Coffee Planter in Ceylon" writes as follows: "The coolies

who resort to Ceylon are of various castes. Those mostly preferred by

planters are the low castes, such as Pallans, shanars, and Pariahs, as

being more accustomed to and fit for hard work; but, as a class, they are

more given to drink, spend their money more freely, and are more

quarrelsome than the higher classes, whom their caste forbids to drink

arrack or spirits, and who are more cleanly in their habits, better

behaved (as fearing to lose caste), who have land of their own on the

coast, and are more interested in working regularly and gaining their

wages to take away with them."