Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8.58

c6.s8.58

Looking down on so many conflicting issues, it is not easy for the untrained observer to adapt himself quickly to those spontaneous readjustments which every bird’s-eye view demands. This sketch is fated to get out of date rapidly; perhaps the situation which it summarizes has recently suffered more than one assault. However powerful may be the force of conservatism and inertia peculiar to the East, traditional organization is attacked by Western influence and by the ideas and habits which it favours. In choosing its many assistants the Anglo-Indian Government pays no attention to caste nor to its prejudices, but is guided solely by personal merit. Army and administration throw people of all classes together in an intimacy which would once have appeared intolerable. Custom has been successfully assailed both by thought and deed.