To state the difficulties in our way, suffice it to say that caste is a development of at least three thousand years, and all the social manners and customs of the Hindus are so modeled and interrelated as to fit the caste system. The more highly organized a system, the harder it is to change, and the caste system is no exception to this rule. We find revolts against this system from the very earliest period up to to-day, and most of them succeeded only in multiplying the evils. Principles antagonistic to the system were forced into society by the swords of the Mohammedans, by the bayonets of the Portuguese, and by the organized missions of Europeans and Americans of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but they all failed to make any impression.
The extent of the work which we have to do is also a matter to be seriously considered. Of the three hundred millions of people in India, two hundred millions are Hindus, and eighty millions are Mohammedans. The two hundred million Hindus are made up of diverse racial elements, speak about nineteen developed languages, and over one hundred dialects. They are again divided into over three thousand castes, most of them having subcastes. One of these castes, i.e., that of the Brahmins (Brāhmanas),[1] is divided into over eight hundred subcastes. None of them inter marry and most of them do not dine together.
The extent of the prejudices which we have to overcome is by no means a negligible factor. The social distance between man and man is too great for a Westerner easily to imagine. A Brahmin is a holy man, while
- ↑ The correct Sanskrit word is Brāhmana. Brahmin is a popular English corruption of that word.
