caste sentiment was so strong that the family of the
voyagers felt compelled to bring an action for libel against the
publishers of the circular. They lost their case, as no offender had
been mentioned by name, and the tyranny of caste thus indirectly
received the support of the courts.

Of course it would still be easier to discover instances of the tyranny
of caste than the assertion of liberty, even among highly educated men.
In this matter of emancipation also, North India is far ahead of the
South. While minister at the court of Indore, 1872-75, the late Sir T.
Madhava Rao, a native of South India, was invited to go to England to
give evidence on Indian Finance before a Committee of the House of
Commons. _On religious grounds_ he was not able to accept the
invitation.[14] Nor is it generally known that the Bengali nobleman who
represented his country at the King's coronation in London belongs to a
family that is out of caste. If the newspapers are to be believed, an
orthodox Bengali Hindu was first invited to attend the coronation, and
was "unable to accept." Had that gentleman accepted and gone, his
example might at once have emancipated his countrymen. But he did not
know his hour. "There is a venial as well as a damning sin," we may
note, in regard to this crossing of the sea. "A man may cross the Indian
Ocean to Africa and still remain an orthodox Hindu. The sanctity of
caste is not affected. But let him go to Europe, and his caste as well
as his creed is lost in the sea."[15] An orthodox Hindu has never been
seen in Britain.

It is worth noting also, that in earlier times it involved loss of caste
to go away South, even within India itself, among the Dravidean peoples
beyond the known Aryan pale in the North. Thus, slowly the cords of
serfdom lengthen.

Towards the fourth of the offences against caste, namely, the adoption
of a new religion, the general attitude has likewise changed, although
to a less degree. In large towns, at least, the convert to Christianity
is not so rigidly or so instantaneously excluded from society as he used
to be, and the Indian Christian community, although small, is now in
many places one of the recognised sections of the community.

This certainly may be asserted, that the modern Hindus are being
familiarised as never before with non-brahman leaders, religious and
social. Neither of the recent Br[=a]hma (Theistic) leaders, the late
Keshub Chunder Sen and the late Protap Chun