26 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



tion to the particular problems presented by the un- 

 touchable class, which are principally characteristic of 

 Southern India, there is also the All-India problem of 

 the general condition of the peasantry. Recent settle- 

 ment operations in certain parts of Northern India have 

 revealed that in some places, the average agricultural 

 laborer is not infrequently compelled in time of stress 

 to mortgage his personal liberty. In return for a small 

 sum of money, which he may happen to need at the mo- 

 ment, he agrees to serve the man from whom he has bor- 

 rowed. The money is not repaid, nor is it intended to 

 be repaid; but the borrower remains the life-long bond 

 slave of his creditor. For his work he merely receives 

 an inadequate dole of food, and to all intents and pur- 

 poses is in the position of a medieval serf." (From 

 "India in 1919," pp. 12^-126.) 



In its religious aspect caste fixes the status of the in- 

 dividual by birth, and birth alone. It determines what 

 a man shall do and the manner of his doing it for the 

 whole of his existence on this earth. By identifying 

 conduct with religion many things which are not desira- 

 ble from the standpoint of sanitation and health are in- 

 dissolubly linked through caste with the Hindu religion. 

 These may not be interfered with by the British gov- 

 ernment, which has held the good-will of India in the 

 past, largely because it has been neutral in religion, and 

 has made it its policy to interfere in matters religious as 

 little as possible. It is true that Government interfered 

 with the custom "Suttee" whereby the widow was burnt 

 alive upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband, but it 

 did not gain any popular credit for this interference. 

 The widow was and still is regarded as the actual cause 

 of her husband's death, and possessed of an evil spirit. 



