Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s2.46

c7.s2.46

I have elsewhere had occasion to show,¹ in an article on the Indian theatre, how the Hindus proceed in order to establish theoretic teaching. A liking for classifications and a contempt for facts, a disregard of our idea of logic, and a superstitious respect for formulae—all these characterize their mental outlook, which conspires with the tyranny of the scholastic mind and the uncontested domination of a sacerdotal class to foster the growth of systems and to lend to the most artificial of these an entirely unmerited prestige. What is true of literature is no less true of religion and law, and we must not be shocked in India by opinions which elsewhere might be regarded as rash. The Hindu never hesitates to make generalizations regardless even of those reservations which to us seem most indispensable.