The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s9.t9.4

c14.s9.t9.4

The Mussalmans were as defective and therefore as guilty in this respect as the Hindus. It should not be reasonable to attribute this defect, guilt or sin to Hinduism as a religion or as a system of caste-ridden social groups. The Moslems who observe neither the religious rites of the Hindus nor the *mores* and customs of the Hindu castes do not equally appear to have recognized the utility, nay, the necessity of sending their would-be statesmen and generals to the Western countries for training in the new arts and sciences. The *Meiji* (enlightenment) era that commenced in Japan in the middle of the nineteenth century along with the first objective demonstration of Western superiority ought to have commenced in India in the middle of the seventeenth century, the epoch, say, of Aurangzeb and Śivāji, or perhaps in the middle of the sixteenth century, the age of Akbar and the Vijayanagara Empire.