she shortly afterward died. Let it not be thought that this is
an isolated case. He who is familiar with Indian life knows it is not,
for daily he has to witness the woful limitations which caste imposes
upon human sympathy.

Caste has also degraded manual labour. The loss of caste by any
Brahman who follows the plough is only an application of this rule in
the highest quarters. Caste has taught the people of this land that
humble toil, however honest it may be, is more than mean; it is
sinful. There are millions of the higher castes of India who deem it
honourable to beg, and dignified to spend their years in abject
laziness, but who would regard it as unspeakable degradation to take
a hoe or a hammer and earn an honest living by the sweat of their
brow. Nor will their caste rules permit of their undertaking such
work. And this spirit has passed down the ranks until it pervades the
whole of society in India, with the consequence that manual labour is
universally regarded as degrading, and with the further natural result
that a horde of five and a half millions of lazy, wretched, immoral,
able-bodied, religious beggars are burdening this land. And thus
mendicancy is made honourable at the expense of honest toil. It should
be further remarked that there are a number of begging castes, in
which all work is proscribed and mendicity exalted into a divinely
ordained profession!

Moreover, caste makes it impossible for India to become a commercial
country. So long as foreign travel is banned and contact with other
lands is regarded as a sin against heaven and caste, there is little
hope that the people of this land will distinguish themselves in that
kind of trade and commerce which has made India's mistress, Great
Britain, so illustrious in wealth and dominion.

And it is this caste spirit which so easily made the great peninsula
of India a prey to the "tight little island" many thousands of miles
away. For not only has caste made the Hindus an insular people, it has
also so divided them that they do not realize any common sentiment,
save that of opposition to the State, or seek any common good. Hence
they have for many centuries been the easy prey of any adventurers who
sought to overcome and despoil them. A genuine national feeling and a
patriotic sentiment are all but impossible in the land. And all
intelligent Hindus acknowledge this sad condition at present, and many
of the best of them publicly maintain that nationa