CUSTOMS OF EAST AND WEST
The up-to-date Hindu traveller; his outfit. Habits of East
and West so different. The English toothbrush. The Indian's
toilet; its publicity. Women's dress. Taking food with the
fingers; defence of the custom; the touch of the meat-eater.
Servants of Europeans. English hospitality restricted by
caste. The Rajah's dinner-party. Instance of mutual
misunderstanding. Regrettable results of rudeness. The true
religion unites.
In spite of the fact that East and West do not always hit it off
happily together when travelling, it is then, more than at any other
time, that the up-to-date Hindu tries to follow European customs. His
bedding, his pillows, his rug-straps, his tin travelling trunk, are
all modelled on English lines; although excess of colour and
ornamentation indicate Indian taste, and the articles themselves
partake either of the flimsy nature of most Indian modern productions,
or else they are cheap goods from Europe made expressly for the
foreign market. He is nicely dressed in European clothes, but he wears
a turban which he takes off and puts up on the rack, just as the
Englishman does with his sun tope, displaying either a pigtail of
varying dimensions, or else hair cut in English fashion, and the
pigtail so reduced that it is invisible. He has a watch which he
often consults, and he is interested in the punctuality or otherwise
of the train, and will perhaps verify this by frequent reference to
his time-table. Possibly he will amuse himself by reading an English
magazine or novel from the bookstall. Yet, in spite of this outward
conformity to the English model, he is still as completely an Indian,
and as little of an Englishman, as when he wore his _dhota_, or even
when he thought his loin-cloth sufficient clothing. The result of this
is that, except where the crowded state of the train makes it
impossible, the Englishman and the Indian as a rule naturally
gravitate into different compartments, not from mutual antipathy, but
because the habits of the two nations are so different that travelling
together makes practical difficulties.
The nature of some of these mutual difficulties may be indicated.
Indians are extremely particular about cleaning their teeth. But the
English custom of using a toothbrush, which is only renewed after a
period of uncertain duration, is looked upon by the Indian as a most
objectionable practice. To retain, and to carry about with you in your
bag an instrument which has been used for such a purpose, he feels to
be an indication of great want of refinement. His own "toothbrush" is
the first finger of his right hand, sometimes supplemented by a small
twig taken from a certain tree, which twig he throws away after the
operation. The process is carried out with immense energy, and it is
accompanied by alarming guttural sounds. The manipulator has with him
a brass vessel, from which he takes deep draughts of water, which he
squirts out again with great force. He generally chooses a public
place for this toilet operation, such as the front doorstep of his
house in a crowded street. The extraordinary publicity given to many
domestic matters, with which we are accustomed to associate the idea
of privacy, tries the feelings of the Englishman just as much as the
sensibilities of the Indian are shocked by the permanent toothbrush.
To the new-comer from England the dress of the average Indian woman
looks rather scanty. But, on the other hand, the skirts of English
ladies, sometimes trailing behind them, and possibly gathering up
unknown defilements, awaken in the Indian feelings of disgust.
No Hindu, of whatever rank, would ever think of taking food in his own
country except with his fingers. In serving rice and other food to
guests at a feast, the hand is always the agent used for the purpose.
Indian Christians, except the few who have become completely
Europeanised, rarely take their food in any other way. The arguments
used by an Indian in defence of the custom were reasonable. "We always
wash," he said, "before we eat, so we know that everybody's hand is
clean. And after the meal, before we go to other duties, we wash our
hands again. You, on the contrary," he went on to say, "eat with
spoons and forks which have been in the mouths of hundreds of
different people. You leave them to be cleaned by servants who often
do the work carelessly, and who are perhaps dirty themselves."
Using fingers habitually, instead of spoons and forks, is popularly
looked upon as indicative of rudimentary civilisation. But it should
be added that those who have always been accustomed to eat with their
fingers do so with dexterity and neatness. And no one who has seen
Indians at their meals would be disposed to say that this method of
eating suggests the idea of lack of refinement. But to eat rice
elegantly with the fingers needs that your Indian social education
should have begun in early childhood.
The Hindu's objection to having his food or water touched by
Christians or people of low-caste arose, not so much from any notion
of inferiority of station, but chiefly from the nature of the food of
these classes. It was the touch of the meat-eater, in the days when
the Hindu was more strict in his observances than he is now, which
brought pollution. Contact with Christians was obnoxious because they
eat all kinds of meat, including the sacred cow. Low-caste Hindus were
much to be avoided, because they even eat animals which have died from
natural causes. The Hindu servants of most Europeans are chiefly drawn
from the ranks of this class, because they are the only Hindus who are
willing to handle dishes containing the uncanny food of the
Englishman.
Nowadays meat is eaten more or less frequently, either openly or in
secret, by nearly all classes. But to the orthodox Hindu it is a
matter of wonder that we allow people of what he considers a degraded
class to minister to our wants. The native women who act as ladies'
maids and nurses, and who are said to be handy and adept, are mostly
drawn from the same class, and many Indians are puzzled that an
Englishman should be willing that his wife and children should be
ministered to by these women.
Governors and other important Government officials make formal calls
on leading Hindus in native cities, and stay for ten minutes or so
talking polite platitudes, and the Hindu in return puts in an
appearance at the Governor's levee. But this, though good as far as it
goes, does not do much towards bringing about real mutual
understanding. The caste restrictions, which make it impossible for an
orthodox Hindu to take food with a Christian, add greatly to the
difficulty. A dinner-party in which English and Indians were
judiciously intermixed, if it were possible, would do much towards
bridging over the gulf. When Indian Rajahs entertain English guests,
which they do in English style on a most lavish scale and with truly
princely hospitality, the host himself cannot share in the meal, and
only puts in an appearance at the end of the banquet to take part in
the speech-making.
Here is a curious instance of a complete misunderstanding, arising
entirely from the different customs of East and West. A Brahmin
student told me, as an example of the intolerance of the British, that
a young Indian friend of his in London had been requested by an
English family to leave the house because he had bare feet. I asked
for particulars, and the Brahmin said that the young Indian, having a
letter of introduction to this family, went to present it. As the day
was very hot, while he was waiting in the drawing-room he took off his
shoes and stockings. In his own country this would have been a
perfectly natural thing to do. In fact, in his own home ordinary
politeness would have made him leave his shoes at the door. The
maidservant who had ushered him in, returning for some purpose, was
amazed to see what the visitor had done, and went and reported the
fact to her mistress. She, probably thinking that they had either a
madman or a would-be thief to deal with, sent to request him to leave
the house, which he did indignantly, and wrote to his friends in India
to tell them how he had been insulted by the proud English.
The rudeness of the thoughtless or ill-bred Englishman is very
regrettable, because it is productive of that feeling of soreness
which lies at the bottom of a great deal of the smouldering discontent
which, from time to time, makes itself apparent amongst the upper
classes in India. And some of the younger Indian men try to retaliate
as far as they dare, by being in their turn off-hand and cheeky. There
are indications that the same sort of spirit is spreading to some of
the lower classes, which might easily become a source of serious
danger. Anyhow it tends to make the process of amalgamation between
the two races increasingly difficult and slow.
There is a great charm about many Indians, and by those who set
themselves in earnest to understand them and to cultivate their
friendship, a great deal of happy progress can be made. But it must
always be remembered that there cannot be complete unity of heart
without the true religion, and it is only by their mutual
incorporation into the household of God that Indians and Englishmen
will become one nation.