OCR Text |
Show CASTE A BARRIER IN INDIA Snobbery Sifted Into Fanatical Relig loui Faith Pale Description of Social Conditions. First of all caste is a question ot birth, and there is no entry except by birth. A worker in a coal mine may become a part owner thereof, and his daughter marry a peer, and his grandson grand-son become a peer of England. No millions will enable the low caste Hindu Hin-du to marry into a Brahman family or even to touch the hand, or throw his shadow on the food pf a Brahman in India. If a man is excommunicated by his caste fellows in India,, no one of the caste will eat with him, accept water from his hands or marry him. His own wife will not touch him or speak with him. He is dead to his family The barber even will not shave him. or cut his hair, or his toe nails. A Brahman clerk has been known to distribute legal documents by throwing them down at the end of the village street in which live his low caste brethren. Letter carriers have been known to refuse to enter the houses of, or to permit themselves to come Into personal contact with thpse of a lower status than themselves. them-selves. if one could- picture to oneself social so-cial snobt.ery lifted Into a fanatical religious faith. It would be a pale description de-scription of the iron subdivisions of caste In India. There Is no patriotism, and can be none, in a country thui divided against itself. Scribner's Magazine. |