IN INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 5

IN INDIA

CASTE CUSTOMS

WILL THEY GO?

AX AXCIENT PROBLEM

■""5-asto.is one-of. the strangest facts of world.. history. Divisions and class aristocracies, and racial

barriers are common to every country, but none:are so rigid as the amazing' caste -'cleavages of India. Nobody knows-just how caste customs originated. History is not India's strong point;'.we. have to guess most of her early-history by chance, reference and deductions ifronr her voluminous philosophic and religious literature. The, Sanskrit term for caste, which still survives In the common tongue, means, colour,' and it seems fairly certain that 1 when the Aryans came down into India they kept themselves rigidly separate iroin the darker Dravidian races that'are the aboriginals of India. We ourselves (writes J.H.A. in the Melbourne"Age.) are Nordic Aryans, coining probably from the same stock as the pure - Indo Aryan. The Brahmins >of Cashmere aro. still almost as fair as Europeans, and even iv the south,vwhere-the sun has darkened tho whole) race,-Brahmins are fairer than the lower caste Hindus, much fairer than -the outcy.ste. In the. earliest Vedic- literature (the ''BilOYedaV)-there.is.but one reference.to.the :four. castes.. . That passage speaks of the Brahmins (prieats) as being: born-from the head of Brahm, Kshatrias "(warriors')' as being from his chest ..atid' arms, Vaishyas (artisans, merchants/, etc.) come from his body and thighs, and Sudras (low caste menial ; workers) from' his feet; but, since this reference is .so isolated; it is probably a later interpolation. But throughout the Vedas the fair and learned; Aryan is constantly at variance with.the base and ignorant dasyei. By the epic period, "which produced a> literature abounding in historic legend,: the four castes are an established fact.' of social life,-the Brahmins and KsTiatfias are the aristocracy, the priests and princes, the Vaishyas are the middle class, the niore or' iess educated workers, while the Sudras are tho despised outcastes. : THE: CASTES SUBDIVIDED. We; -.find India now with the four great; dastes-. mostly curiously subdivided. The Brahmins and the Kshatrias are divided into family groups, while the Vaishyas: are separated into a hundred . guilds. Carpenters keep -rigidly to themselves. They may be friendly with everybody,' but they will neither dmc uor' marry ' with any but a carpenter. Tho son of a carpenter does not stop ;to. wonder what career he may mark out for himself. He loams his trade from! his father, and carries on his father |s work. While he is yet a boy his father and mother choose for him a .bride: from another carpenter's family. The betrothal is a lifelong contract, and no boy over thinks of looking round-among the girls of another.caste to find a mate. He never sees a,girl- outside his own family eircle-except the low-caste women, for they '.alone, venture outside their homes. -One sees them in hundreds and thousands, for the population is so dense -in, India that it is not at first apparent that all caste women keep strictly behind tho walls of their own zenanas.' This "purdah" system most wonderfully assures the purity of the caste. Blacksmiths, drink sellers bankers, clerks, silversmiths, potters, all keep similarly to themselves; they pever...intermarry; they never interdine; they never seek another occupation.- , ■•-■■■ While Hindus as a general rule of life never eat; food except that cooked in their • own liome< by their own people, yet there are certain rules which modify the very: restricted life such rigid rules imply. "Any man may take food from the hand; of a Brahmin, and there are certain foods cooked in butter that are made by a special vaishya sub-caste, tho confectioners, and these, with the sweets he sells, can be bought and eaten by everyone. The sweets are most nutritious/ Milk in various forms and many of .the different kinds of grain are used in making them. They are al. ■ways-cooked in melted butter, and, unlike :our own sweets, are cooked day t>y day, and eaten while they are still

fresh. They aro much more a food than merely a dainty extra. Bice, potatoes, vegetables, bread, anything cooked in- water, must be cooked by one of the family or by a Brahmin. Even when a Brahmin cooks for many they never cat at a common table. I'iich sits separately, and the floor or ground around him is freshly washed. A Hindu eats or drinks from no vessels but his own, and always with, his fingers. The idea of putting a spoon or other utensil in his mouth that has been in the mouth of another is quite repugnant.

DISINTEGRATING INFLUENCES. C'usto has held its own for centuries, rind not.without assault. Buddha was born about COO years before Christ. He was a wonderful man, tho founder of a great religion. Three hundred years after his death there were Buddhist monasteries all over India, and Buddhism held its own for centuries. But somehow Brahminism, which is the name for Hinduism, which especially emphasises Brahminical laws, prevailed and gained way, till now there is hardly a Buddhist in India. There are millions of Buddhists in Ceylon and Burmah, Tibet and Eastern China, but very few in India.

The Mahometan influx came from the eleventh century onward. There are 67,000,000 Mahometans in India now, and the Mahometan sense of brotherhood is very strong indead. There is no caste among Mahometans, but they have been influenced by Hindu thought and example this much that few Moslems will eat with anyone but tho "people of the Book" (Moslems, Christians, and Jews). Some Mahometans will not eat with any but' their-co-religionists. Yet Hindus have kept their caste laws rigidly intact. When a Hindu becomes a Mahometan or a Christian he is most strictly exiled from ■ his caste fellows—he is outeasted, his closest relative, his dearest friend, will eat nothing that his hand has touched, nor can he marry anyone without 1 taking his partner "similarly from the fold.

"WELL IT LAST?

The question is will history repeat itself? Will caste retain its grip'? Will the 67,000,000 Moslems, tho 5,000,----000 Christians, ever bo absorbed again as the Buddhists were? All tho indications ' are tho other way. The whole trend-of modern life is to bring the peoples, of the world, closer together, and the Brahmin, as he rinds himself more and more one with the world at large, must, sco the utter absurdity of holding that a fifth-rate Brahmin is by the accident of his birth infinitely superior to a first-rate outcaste. He must sooner or later see that eating and drinking and marrying are not the final and vital matters of religion. In the.big cities interdining among men is becoming quite common, while in the university hostels most students will eat with any or all of their fellows. In school hostels where . twenty years ago each caste group cooked its food at a separate fire now all will sit in the same room for.meals.

The outstanding leaders of .Indian thought Mr. Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, in season and out of season denounce caste as the thing that is chiefly responsible for the impotence and backwardness of India. The newer sects of• reformed Hinduism, the Brahmo Samaj and the , Arya Samaj, equally _ repudiate the need for caste restrictions. But the innate conservatism of Indians in the mass,,and the ignorance of tho villagers, who are the huge majority of the India people, makoit unwiso to predict a landslide of opinion, though some things indicate it.