CRIME , CASTE & CHRISTIAN EUROPE.

I  caution that some if not all might experience “COGNITIVE  DISSONANCE” after reading this posting. In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.(Wikipedia)

All along we had been taught that CASTE is an excrescence of Hindu India, and that the civilizing mission of the White-men & their religion, had extricated the masses from the dark depths to which they had sunk. With such propaganda, the gullible among  us are even now thinking that the ‘colonizers” had “SAVED” us by putting in place law & order, new social institutions, infrastructure  & DEMOCRACY, which we understand now are proving to be tenuous.

At one point of time, the men doing research on  crime in England, had toyed with the idea of introducing the CASTE SYSTEM  in Europe. Such was the effectiveness of Caste in maintaining a peaceful social order. Since it posed a barrier to conversion, the Missionaries started maligning that institution, and it was later on taken up by Leftists, Reformers, Ambedkarites etc. Daily in newspaper reports, we see condemnation of caste indirectly & directly.

The following passage from the book “Crime & Its Causes” is very informative.

Quote : “Those remarks of Sir William Hunter afford an insight into the coercive power exercised by the caste system on the Indian population. Without that system it is probable that the criminal statistics of India would present as high a proportion of crimes of violence and blood as now exists among the peoples of Southern Europe. But with that system in active operation, the evil influence of climate is completely neutralized and India at the present moment enjoys a remarkable immunity from violent crime. With the example of India before us we are justified in coming to the conclusion that homicide and crimes of a kindred nature need not necessarily be the malign products of climate. Whatever climate has to do with fostering these offences may be obviated by a better form of social organization. It would be ridiculous to dream of basing western society upon Indian models; but at the same time India teaches us a lesson on the construction of the social fabric which it would be well to learn. The tendency of western civilization at the present time is to herd vast masses of men into huge industrial centres. It is useless discussing the abstract question whether this is a good thing or a bad; we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that it is a process forced upon communities by the necessities of modern industrialism; and we must accordingly make the best of it. In our efforts to make the best of present tendencies, and to render them as innocuous as possible to social welfare, there is one point at least where India is able to teach us an instructive lesson. In India a man seldom becomes, what he too often is, in all our large cities, a mere lonely, isolated unit, left entirely to the mercy of his own impulses, constrained by no social circle of any description, and unsustained by the pressure of any public opinion for which he has the least regard. In India he is always a member of some fraternity within the community; in that fraternity or caste he feels at home; he is never isolated; he belongs to a circle which is not too big for his individuality to be lost; he is known; he has a reputation and a status to maintain; his life within the caste is shaped for him by caste usages and traditions, and for these he is taught to entertain the deepest reverence. Caste is in many of its aspects a state in miniature within the state; in this capacity it performs a variety of admirable functions of which the state itself is and must always remain incapable.”

All Excerpts From

William Douglas Morrison. “Crime and Its Causes.” iBooks. (Pages 56 -7of 231 )- First Published in 1891, by London Swan Sonnenschein & Co., LIM. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. William Douglas Morrison had worked in H.M.Prison, Wandsworth.