Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s2.26

c6.s2.26

We have to deal with vast territories, where races differing in origin and habits jostle and mingle with one another; where groups are intermixed and unequally developed; split up *ad infinitum*, are easily changed about, and are sometimes engaged in bitter struggles amongst themselves. Must we therefore abandon the attempt to give a picture of the caste institution as a whole? The attempt cannot indeed fail to be incomplete, but it will not necessarily be false and misleading. Whatever incongruities may be cloaked by the apparent unity of the system, it is really based on many fundamental analogies. It will be enough to remember that no assertion should be regarded as absolute, that the relationship of facts leaves room for a multitude of fine shades of difference, and that only the most general characteristics are common to the whole domain.