Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s2.10

c6.s2.10

It embraces not only a very great majority of the population of India, but it forms the normal framework of society, and is intimately connected with its religious life. It has been found possible, therefore, not without apparent justification, to regard it as the very soul of this somewhat indeterminate, fluid collection of customs and beliefs which is called Hinduism. A great many doctrines, more or less heterodox, have arisen which—either in clear theoretical terms, or indirectly by the logic of their teaching—attacked its legitimacy or undermined its foundations. These doctrines have either disappeared or lingered on in obscurity; caste has survived indestructible. Islam, having penetrated into India by main force, has won an important place there. Little by little caste has triumphed over natural opposition and distaste, and has seldom failed to draw the Muslims into its irresistible bonds. It is by adopting the official type of the caste that, even in our own times, the aboriginal populations, which have remained longest outside Hindu civilization, force an entry and claim common rights.