Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8.60

c6.s8.60

This decay is attested on all sides. One must not over-estimate the ground already won ; but the tendency and its future consequences cannot be mistaken. Now is the time to study caste if we wish to catch it alive and in action. Doubtless this infiltration and imitation of European ideas is extremely superficial; it has not yet penetrated very far into the lower strata of this immense and tenacious population. But once the high castes are shaken they may rapidly bring down the system. The prestige of the Brahmanic class is the corner-stone of the whole organization. It is there that the complexity attains to some sort of unity; this disconcerting confusion is to some extent brought into line by the Brahmanic observances which it accepts and by the Brahmanic domination which it sanctions.