ed that caste is the foster-mother of all
the manifold social evils of the land. In pre-caste days in India such
evils as child marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, temple
women, excessive marriage expenses, etc., did not exist. They are a
part of the caste regime supported and perpetuated by its authority.
Remove this mighty compulsion, and these institutions would soon
become things of the past.

Another evil of this organization is that of ignoring the ethical and
spiritual standard and of measuring everything from a purely formal
and ceremonial standpoint. All life is reduced into an unceasing
ritual under the perpetual priestly surveillance of caste. All that it
asks of man is outward conformity. He may disbelieve and hate every
commandment of his faith; but if he conforms, he is a faithful son. On
the other hand, he may be a man of unblemished character, and he may
even intend to be obedient to caste; but if, some night, a few enemies
were to thrust into his mouth and compel him to swallow a piece of
beef, no power could save him from the dreadful punishment that would
follow. A man may write a tract in condemnation and ridicule of all
the gods of the Hindu pantheon and still remain an acceptable Hindu;
but if, in the agony of a burning fever, he should drink a spoonful of
water from the hands of a Christian or of a Pariah, his caste would
doom him to perdition for it.

In other words, the whole system directly cultivates, in all the
people, a hollowness of life which does more than anything else to rob
India of her manhood and which makes nobility of character and ethical
integrity most difficult things among the Hindu community. A Brahman
gentleman described the whole system as a "vast hollow sham." And such
it is.

VI

Paradoxical though it may seem, caste spirit is more prevalent and its
influence more dominant in India at the present than in the past; yet
there is more defiance and violation of caste rules and more frequent
and sure evidences of the speedy termination of its reign than at any
previous time.

It has ruled so long and so supremely in this country that the Hindu
accepts it without questioning; and it has become more than a second
nature to him, even a necessity of his being. What would be
intolerably irksome to a Westerner is to the Hindu a matter of course.
To the rank and file of the Hindus, caste has ceased to be a matter of
question. It is the only order of life with which he