Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



339 



THE PARIAHS OF TO-DAY. 



Resli.t of Caste in India. 

 In the mid-July number of the Revue de Paris 

 -Marguerite Glotz takes up the pitiable case of the 

 pariahs in India. 



DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS. 



We learn that the pariahs number over fifty millions 

 — more than one-si.\lh of the population of India. 

 J?flonging to no caste, impure from birth, they are 

 despised and hated and condemned to perform the 

 lowest and most degrading labour. They are the 

 untouchabk-i ; they li\e apart from other men, and 

 are deprived of the solace of religion, for they may 

 not enter the temples. They dwell in wretched hovels, 

 and altogether their misery is terrible. Surely thev 

 have need of religion ; yet it is a religious law- which is 

 the cause of all their suffering. But in their passive 

 submission, their resignation to what has alwavs been, 

 and must continue to be. they bear no grudge against 

 the gods. The same religious law which has brought 

 about their moral misery is also the cause of their 

 material destitution. The untouchables may not own 

 land, which in India is the chief form of wealth. The_\- 

 may not cam a living by business of any kind. How, 

 indeed, could they procure the money necessarv } 

 Moreover, no one would buy from them or touch the 

 things soiled by contact with them. Their only resource 

 is day-labour, such as agriculture. They are paid very 

 little, and unemployment is frequent. Povertv, igno- 

 rance, bad feeding, in.sanitary surroundings, make tiie 

 hygienic conditions of the untouchables deplorable. 

 Cleanliness is impossible, and leprosy and ophthalmia 

 are among the fliseases which attack them. 



INKRTIA, MENTAL AND MORAL. 



Children who adopt the paternal profession as in 

 India rarely desire anything else. The system of here- 

 ilitary specialisation opposed to all spontaneous choice 

 of a vocation makes routine beings. In such a society 

 every innovation, every attempt at progress seems a 

 I rime. For the untouchables the yoke of custom is 

 equally rigid. Their position seems quite irrcmerliablc. 

 Who is impure remains impure, and the hostilitvof the 

 men of caste seems ineradicable. In India the system 

 iif caste i.s an invincible obstacle against union. No 

 political power has yet been able to unify the countrv. 

 liach caste seeks to .safeguard its own particular inde- 

 pendence. i)rivilegcs, and dignity, and there is nothing 

 in common between men pure and impure — neither 

 interests, ideas, nor hopes. In consequence of the 

 immobility imposed on individuals by the repine of 

 I aste, all emulation and personal desire to l:)ctter one's 

 position are lacking in Indian society. There .seems 

 absolutely nothing which can stimulate an untouch- 

 ible ; he is infinitely more degraded than anv sl.ur. 



I'llABISALSM OF CASTE. 



.\mong other tilings, the rif^imc of c.iste h.is il.ve- 

 loped vanity, envy, narrow judgment, and a taste for 

 I'.a'-fern distinction.'^ — Pharisaism, in short, with evcrv- 



thing that is poor, egotistical, and unintelligent. Tin 

 people of caste know nothing of charity ; pitv and 

 benevolence are extinguished by the e.xclusive con- 

 sciousness of the duties of caste. But it is among the 

 untouchables that the most disastrous moral con.se- 

 ([uences of caste are to be .seen. Rejected by society, 

 they are not aware that they have any social duties ; 

 exciting nothing but horror and contempt, they have 

 no sense of human dignity or any notion of individual 

 virtues. 



WHAT IS ENGLAND DOINO .' 



The disunited condition of the country- which caste 

 brings in its train is for England a pledge of peaceful 

 rule. It delays economic progress, and the English do 

 not desire the economic emancipation of India ; thev 

 desire to exploit the resources of the colony for them- 

 selves. They care little for the emancipation of the 

 untouchables or for the moral welfare of India. Their 

 administration is directed to practical results. Thev 

 are not even making primary education compulsory, 

 and it is doubtful whether it will reach the children of 

 the untouchables. Hitherto education has been largely 

 in the hands of missionaries, who have also done much 

 for women. To bring Brahmins and untouchables 

 together both would have to be Christianised. No 

 Work could possibly require more patience and energy 

 than that which proposes to combat hostile egoism and 

 the enormous force of a religion of inertia caused bv 

 the common mode of feeling and acting of more than 

 200 millions of men. 



"INDIA FOR THE INDIANS": 



The Rioai. Principle of British Rule. 



The Round Table for September contains a paper 

 on India and the Empire worthy of the highest 

 traditions of the British review. It contains a rapid 

 survey of the history of India bef( ro as well as after 

 it came under British control. Perhap; its most 

 distinctive contention is given in. this paragraph : — 



The position of the British in Indi.i, indeed, cannot be under- 

 stood until it is realised that in internal polity they represent 

 India anil not Enijland. T" speak of Hriii-,li rule is strictly a 

 misnomer. It is nearer the truth tn say that the (;overnment is 

 conducted chiefly by Knjjiishmen, representing in fact, if not in 

 democratic the<iry, the people of India. It is literally the 

 (government of India. More than this since the Kriiish 

 assumcil responsibility for the Kovcrnmcnt of Inilia, not only has 

 their policy in India been an essentially Indian pulicv, but 

 Indian interests have profoundly inlluenci-d Uritisli policy. 

 Knt;land ha.s become a first-class .\sialic I'owcr Ix'cause her 

 Bovcrnment represents India. Her policy in the linsl is mainly 

 directed to protect the safely of her Indian subjects. 



What i.s uni(|ue in India is the astounding moral 

 ascendency of the English. The writer maintains 

 that the ideal goal is clear, that India acquire the 

 status of a self-governing dominion, independent, in 

 control of her own internal affairs, a lojal and willing 

 partner with the other units of the Empire. To this 

 end, the most e.s.scntial thing in the me.inlime is to 

 retain the good- will anri respect of the people oi India. 



