Excerpts from a book written
in 1820 before caste consciousness became polarized to the extent we see now :-
“ For my part, having been in
a situation to observe the character of the Hindus and having lived amongst
them for many years, as a friend, I have formed an opinion upon this subject(about
caste) altogether opposite. I consider the institution of castes amongst the
Hindu nations as the happiest effort of their legislation; and I am well
convinced that if the people of India never sunk into a state of barbarism, and
if, when almost all Europe was plunged in that dreary gulf, India kept up her
head, preserved and extended the sciences, the arts and civilization; it is
wholly to the distinction of castes that she is indebted for that high
celebrity.
We have it in our power to
form some judgment of what the Hindus would degenerate to, if the restraint of
the division , the rules and the police of castes were abolished, by
considering what the Pariahs of India are; who, being exempt from all
restrictions of honour and shame, which so strongly influence the other castes,
can freely and without reserve abandon themselves to their natural
propensities.
Every man who carefully
considers the character and conduct of such a class of men as this, being the
most numerous of all, I think will agree with me, that a state consisting
entirely of such members could not long endure, and could not fail to decline
very quickly into the worst degree of barbarism. For my own part, who know the
inclinations and sentiments of this species of men, I am persuaded that a
nation of Pariahs, left to themselves, would speedily become worse than the
hordes of cannibals that wander in the deserts of Africa, and would soon fall
to the devouring of each other. (Comment here of Rev.G.U.Pope who had
translated this book from the French original –“ I do not imagine that Pariahs
will, on the whole, be found to be more immoral in their habits than any other
tribe of Hindus”)
I am no less convinced, that
the Hindus if they were not restrained within the bounds of decorum and of
subordination by means of the castes, which assign to every man his employment,
and by regulations of police suited to each individual; but were without any
curb fit to check them, or any motive
for applying one, would soon become what the Pariahs are, or worse; and the
whole nation sinking of course into the most fearful anarchy, India, from the
most polished of all countries, would become the most barbarous of any upon
earth. (Comment by G.U.Pope here – “Some of the Abbe’s statements, ( and the
general experience of Europeans confirms them) seem to shew that the Hindus are
far from being among the most polished nations of the earth.”)
The legislators of India set
out from that grand principle which has
been recognized by all the ancient legislators , that no man is to be permitted
to be useless to the commonwealth. But they saw, at the same time, that the
people for whom they acted were naturally so indolent,(aversion to work or exertion) and that this propensity was so
greatly aggravated by the climate, that unless every individual had a profession or employment rigidly
imposed, the state could not exist, but must quickly tumble into the most
deplorable anarchy, and end in savage barbarism.
Those legislators, being also
well aware of the danger of all innovations in matters political or spiritual,
and being desirous to establish durable and inviolable rules for the different
castes into which they divided the Hindu people, could find no surer basis of
an orderly government than the two grand foundations of religion and policy.”
(pages 10 & 11, of the book
‘Character, Manners & Customs of the People of India and of their
institutions Religious & Civil’
written in 1820 in French by the Abbe J.A. Dubois, Missionary in the
Mysore, With Notes, Corrections and Additions by Rev.G.U.Pope)
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