Caste in India: The Facts and the System c5.21

c5.21

It will be readily understood how important is the answer which we have to give to this question and to many others related to it; and it will be further understood why I lay so much stress on what I call the problem of tradition, if it is realized that literary work in India has been the almost exclusive monopoly of a privileged class; that the ideas and systems of this class, with its prejudices and its pretensions, have always influenced its attitude and its manner of presenting facts, more especially those facts which they have drawn from outside. Many initial difficulties remain to be solved before the final answer can be given.