Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s6.31

c6.s6.31

It may be a matter of surprise that I have not yet dealt with the religious aspect of caste. In a type of society like that of the Hindus, in the main very primitive, the religious idea is not connected with every fact or every cog in the machine, and it is precisely one of the most outstanding characteristics of Brahmanic civilization that religious inspiration is everywhere present, and orders all its activities. Our analysis is none the less entitled to distinguish between the elements which are especially religious and those which, for all that they are under more or less remote religious influences, are dependent on what we generally consider as the social system.