PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 725 



people. A little more than a century ago a mutiny of native troops at Vellore 

 was due to injudicious attempts to change a form of headdress which they 

 believed to be a symbol of their religion or caste; ignorance of the condition of 

 the Santals allowed them to be driven to frenzy by the extortions of moneylenders 

 which culminated in a serious outbreak ; the greased cartridges of the Great 

 Mutiny, and the revolt against measures, adopted in defiance of native feeling, 

 to check the plague epidemic, teach a similar lesson. 



In India at the present time ' the old order changeth, yielding place to new ' ; 

 and at no period in the histoiy of our rule was it more necessary to effect a 

 reconciliation between the foreigner and the native. While the tabus of marriage 

 relations and commensality will for an indefinite period prevent the amalgamation 

 of the races, much of the present disquiet is due to ignorance and misunderstand- 

 ing on both sides. The religious and social movements now in progress deserve 

 the attentive study of the British people. In religion various attempts are being 

 made to free Hinduism from some of its most obvious corruptions, to harmonise 

 Eastern and Western ideals, and to elevate the former so as to enable them to 

 resist the pressure of the latter. Such is Vedantism, a revival of the ancient 

 pantheistic philosophy, which not only claims supremacy in India, but asserts 

 that its mission is to replace the dying faiths of the Western world. The spread 

 of monotheism, as represented by Bhagavata beliefs, is equally noteworthy; and 

 the effect of the revival of the cults of Ganpati, god of luck, and of Savaji, the 

 Mahratta hero, on the political situation in the Deccan deserve the most careful 

 consideration. 



The social movement is the result of that fermentation which is in progress 

 among the subject peoples in many parts of the world. While the educated 

 Indian claims social equality with the foreigner, he is occupied with a serious 

 problem at his own doors. The degraded castes, popularly called the ' untouch- 

 ables,' are revolting against the obloquy which they have long endured at the 

 hands of the higher races. Many of them have sought relief by joining the 

 Christian or Muhammadan communities, and the process of conversion is so 

 remarkable as to excite the surprise and alarm of the orthodox classes. Measures 

 have been designed to improve their almost intolerable position. It remains to 

 be seen how far any concessions which are likely to satisfy them can be reconciled 

 with the ideals of the caste system. 



It is true that the people of India prefer to celebrate many of their religious 

 and social rites free from observation of the foreigner, and that there are for- 

 bidden chambers in the Oriental mind which no stranger may enter. But the 

 experience of those best qualified to express an opinion is that a sympathetic 

 interest in the religious and social life of the people, so far from tending to 

 increase the existing tension, is a valuable aid towards the promotion of mutual 

 goodwill and sympathy. Orthodox native States not only show no aversion to 

 ethnographical inquiry, but are themselves actively engaged in such surveys. 

 Even the Rajputs, who ordinarily display little taste for scientific work, are 

 beginning to undertake the collection of the bardic chronicles which embody their 

 tribal folk-lore and traditions. 



When the divergencies in the beliefs and institutions of the foreigner and 

 the indigenous races are realised and understood, a compromise must be effected, 

 each side discarding some hereditary prejudices— the Hindu that aversion to the 

 manners and customs of the European which is the chief barrier to the promotion 

 of intercourse between the races ; the European that insularity of thought which 

 makes it difficult for him to understand all that is valuable in novel types of 

 belief and culture, as well as that lack of imagination which inclines him to 

 exaggerate what seems to him intolerable in the economical condition, the social 

 organisation and beliefs of races whose environment differs from his own. 



Anthropology has thus a practical as well as a scientific side. The needs of 

 inquirers whose interest mainly lies in the investigation of survivals and in the 

 stages of evolution in culture and belief can, as I have endeavoured to show, be 

 met only by the adoption of improved methods of inquiry and a more rigorous 

 dissection of evidence. Unfortunately the inadequate resources of the societies 

 devoted to the study of man, as contrasted with the extent of the sphere of 

 inquiry and the importance of the savage or semi-savage races as factors in the 

 progress of the Empire, prove that the practical value of anthropology is as yet 



