Hindu has come to regard caste observance as the supreme
claim of his faith. As we have seen, a man may believe or disbelieve any
doctrine he please; that does not affect his status as a Hindu so long as
he is loyal to caste rules and observances. As one has aptly remarked, the
seat of other religions may be in the mind; the seat of Hinduism is
preeminently in the stomach. It is not what he thinks but what and how and
with whom he eats that gives him his religious status.

The Hindu regards himself as socially devoid of any right of initiative
and choice; he has no will of his own. His social conscience is in the
keeping of his caste. This has gained its rules from the past and
exercises no discretion or judgment of its own in the social direction of
its members; but it insists upon implicit obedience, by every one, to past
customs which have crystallized into irrevocable laws. And to these laws
the Hindu is always and everywhere a willing and an abject slave. To
violate any of them is, he well knows, to be recreant to his faith and to
be an outcaste among his people.

(_d_) The Hindu is not strong in character, as Westerners regard strength.
As we have seen, his religion is not favourable to the highest development
of conscience. Hence, sincerity and truthfulness are not among his strong
points. Not only does pantheism undermine conscience, the example of the
most prominent gods of the Hindu pantheon, leads men to prevaricate and
encourages all forms of duplicity. Under these circumstances it were
strange if the Hindu were conspicuous in honesty and in loyalty to the
truth. And in like manner he is wanting largely in those convictions
which, in the West, are so inseparably associated with earnestness,
integrity and lofty purpose. If, to the Hindu devotee, religion is not a
system of truth to be believed and loyally followed, but a series of
ceremonies to be observed and of caste rules to be obeyed, then loyalty to
truth becomes a very secondary matter and integrity of mind will be
regarded by him as of no great moment. Therefore it is that hollowness is
so often found at the core of their life. Lying and stealing are all but
universal. It is said in our District in South India that the regular
price of a court witness is two annas (four cents); and he stands ready to
perjure himself to any extent for this paltry sum. The ordinary Hindu
seems too often to have a predilection for falsehood and uses truth with
rare econo