Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s7.23

c8.s7.23

In India the caste continues the customs of antiquity; it even develops them in several respects along their logical lines; but it loses something of the impulse which had created the primitive groups, and does not renew its spirit. Diverse conceptions mingle with or replace the genealogical tie which bound the first societies. In thus modifying and becoming castes they find no regulating principle within themselves, but overlap, each isolated in its own jealous autonomy. The social order is immense, without defined limits or organic life—a confused mass of little independent societies reduced to a common level.