Show letter leiter from india byl BI 1 mgt gt me marivin rivin 0 brown IL U S army N he here le it jg is the endom end of one more day in this land of ever chenel chent ng nf aspects one day I 1 tid nia rayaS ms A eva fi greatly fascinated by all the intrigue that india ikla has to offer and the next day dayi I 1 am completely led fed up with the squalid condit conditions lons of these people to try and understand dundei stand jbf indian is a life s work in itself some of my fellow soldiers treat them with utter distaste others c ignore them completely but somehow I 1 tind find it far more interesting to try to t understand u them lerret out the little things that make them happy As iam I 1 am writing this la Is a constant beat of drums about three hundred yards tram from the camp it Is significant of some celebration probably a marriage about which they ato are very happy they are a rare care tree free people and oi bf the little english they seem to understand the ille word tomorrow is probably most used of all the reason for or that Is that they do not believe in hurry hurrying liag as tuii their ir life has hag no ap arr ent future as they just go along existing day after day one ot of the most interesting epli episodes I 1 in tha ilie indian recent life I 1 Is e brought about by the present war situation for instance when an indian boy enlists in the army he the huge sum equivalent to sixteen cents per day out of which lie ho must buy his own meals this in itself tells an enormous story of the individual financial problem existing in this country these hoys boys immediately consider chams elves acry prosperous with all this money andi and manage to save four cents per day this Is a very airall step towards gindlin development but with the am aid of we americans americana spending lour dough with alth cirel careless ejus abandon perhaps someday the india wll will come io to the realization that he to is worth more than a few ew cents a day ands and set out to do things which will make this country one of enormous wealth and prosperity ebe while there are mani places that t would rather be this has proved io fo be irk a these few months a liberal education I 1 hare a ni all beater ox at america than I 1 ever had before gating back to these indian soldiers 7 one of the greatest problems Is represented in ending floding the boys continued ora MS bel paga paca jv rrt continued train from dage cage one the hindu and Molia madans are bitter enemies so far as their own respective religions rell giona are concerned con cornEd and this means that each ach laga class must leave its own cooks cooka as they ar aro not po matted by their religion to eat food that la Is cooked by anyone other thap their own denomination fri alton for instance it if the alia dow of a hindu should tall on oil the food in ili the of being foga Is con coil viii rali ra h cooked by a Molia hamadan Mo madan the food Is considered defiled and they will wil I 1 not touch it strangely enough the hoys boys of the indian navy regardless gard less of their religious condic bios must pledge to eat and accept the food irrespective of the faith of the cook this condition in the navy navys Is just another an other step toward indian advancement there still remains tre tremendous mendouh room loom for improvement for foi instance the caste system which has always been the curse of indian progress Is still to a great extent gy by tho casto caste system 1 I mean tut that each indian la Is born to to a certain occupation which lie he riest continuo tor for cherest th the erest lest of his life it if the work vork of his father Is tat pat of farming fanning he lg Is expected to a farmer marry many into a fannins far s faintly frint ly and raise his hild reil to bo be farmers this takes neav all incentive tb advance or branch out into other lines of en hven the most ambita ambitious oil dian would realize the futility of k t ying ing to to break reak away from his paste easte as he be would not only be os by his own people but lie he would not be taken in by indians of another caste however this condition is ili more prevalent in in india ila than in ili the larger cities the love life of india does not appeal to me in ili any respect the bride bilde and groom gloom are not of their own owl cho choosing as their families aready al leady have made their decision suany times nett netter hr have seen ell each ch other prior to thedah ot of the wedding obviously such a marriage Is devoid of love though love here heie like anany many other things Is one of oc unknown quantity the bride after her marriage dimmed enters purda seclusion and she must not appear outside her hame with or without her husband as the arl mere re glance at her by another man renders her unchaste cli aste occasionally Ocasio nally the wife may find it necessary to visit her parents or some friends but when she is prepared to leave her ber home she enters a carriage which has drawn curtains around it afo so that no on can gaze upon liar har it Is not uncommon tor for an indian woman to stay in her home from the time at her marriage marr lago until her dying day Is just another condition which the indian people themselves would like to remedy yet the fear of their religion with its many restrictions keeps old traditions alive all ve this confinement coli of women does not hold true to the lament caste because they odust utilize the members bithe of the entire household bo 0 eke out a meager ex istance I 1 continued next week |