Many hard things have been said about the Brahman caste and have
not been undeserved. The Brahman priesthood displayed in a marked
degree the vices of arrogance, greed, hypocrisy and dissimulation,
which would naturally be engendered by their sacerdotal pretensions
and the position they claimed at the head of Hindu society. But
the priests and mendicants now, as has been seen, contribute only a
comparatively small minority of the whole caste. The majority of the
Brahmans are lawyers, doctors, executive officers of Government and
clerks in all kinds of Government, railway and private offices. The
defects ascribed to the priesthood apply to these, if at all, only in
a very minor degree. The Brahman official has many virtues. He is, as
a rule, honest, industrious and anxious to do his work creditably. He
spends very little on his own pleasures, and his chief aim in life is
to give his children as good an education as he can afford. A half or
more of his income may be devoted to this object. If he is well-to-do
he helps his poor relations liberally, having the strong fellow-feeling
for them which is a relic of the joint family system. He is a faithful
husband and an affectionate father. If his outlook on life is narrow
and much of his leisure often devoted to petty quarrels and intrigues,
this is largely the result of his imperfect, parrot-like education
and lack of opportunity for anything better. In this respect it may
be anticipated that the excellent education and training now afforded
by Government in secondary schools for very small fees will produce a
great improvement; and that the next generation of educated Hindus will
be considerably more manly and intelligent, and it may be hoped at the
same time not less honest, industrious and loyal than their fathers.