Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s1.9

c6.s1.9

This solution has to-day assumed more importance than ever, but has also become less difficult. The relationship established between the Indo-European languages has brought the Āryan conquerors of India very near to us and aroused our curiosity about them. The affinity which has been revealed little by little between ancient peoples, not only in religious tradition but in the elements of social organization, has strengthened those bonds which were formed at first by a similarity of idiom. From this community of language and customs has there not been a tendency sometimes to draw too sweeping conclusions as to community of race? Certainly the common origin of institutions which, having dominated the past of our remote ancestors, are still evident in our own times, endows the different stages of evolution through which they have passed with a peculiar interest for us, and, if I may venture to say so, with an unusual piquancy.