The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.44

c11.44

The question has frequently been put point blank: How did Hindu pessimism originate? I believe that the answer, or at least a partial answer, may be made with some degree of certainty, to wit: India herself, through her climate, her nature, and her economic conditions, furnishes reasonable ground for pessimism. As regards economic conditions political economists say that the value of human life in any country may be estimated by the average wage of its earners. A low caste servant may to-day be engaged for a wage of five cents a day out of which he must, owing to caste laws, find his own keep, and possibly that of a family besides. India's nature is more malignant than that of any other civilised country. The floods of great rivers devastate at times entire districts; per contra, when the rains are withheld at the time of the capricious monsoons, famine with plague or cholera in its wake, decimate the population. The tribe of venomous serpents and the blood-lust of the tiger claim their regular quota of victims.