CASTE –SECULARISM NOT SUITABLE FOR INDIAN DISPOSITION !!!???

Whatever  be said against Caste, it is ‘closely intertwined’ with religion, as Missionary experiences in this matter reveal.  Missionary frustration in getting converts from the ‘higher and middle castes’, results in hatred against  Caste System, Brahmins and Hindu Religion. Missionary accounts though highly prejudiced

   reveal the veneration of caste institutions, by the people of India. As a corollary to the whole situation, SECULARISM does not suit the Indian disposition !!!!

Quote “It is one of the peculiar difficulties that Christianity has to encounter in dealing with Hindus of the higher and middle castes, that the religion of the country is so closely intertwined with the usages (customary practice) of Hindu society. The more punctilious a high-caste Hindu is in the performance of his religious ceremonies, and in the maintenance of his caste purity and exclusiveness, the higher are supposed to be his claims to social respectability. It is not necessary for him to be a believer in the doctrines of his religion; but it is absolutely necessary, if he is a man of " good caste" and in affluent circumstances, that he should carefully practice all its rites. He cannot keep his place in society, he cannot claim to be regarded as a gentleman, without affecting (pretend to have or feel) to be superstitious. A poor low-caste man may be as careless as he likes about his religious duties ; but one who occupies a respectable position in society cannot choose but show himself ceremonious, just as an English gentleman cannot choose but live in a style appropriate to his rank. Hence, to propose

to a Hindu of respectability to abandon all the usages of his sect and caste, and embrace a foreign religion, sounds in his ear like asking him to abandon the proprieties (conformity to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals) of life and become a Pariar. No class of people are so enslaved to custom and precedent as those who are wealthy and luxurious without being enlightened.”

All Excerpts From

Caldwell, Robert, 1814-1891. “Lectures on the Tinnevelly missions : descriptive of the field, the work, and the results : with an introductory lecture on the progress of Christianity in India.” London : Bell & Daldy, 1857. iBooks. (pages 57, 58 of 185)