Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 27

VALUE OF DUBOIS' RESEARCHES
xxi
separately by themselves, no doubt these changes might
furnish material for a substantial volume, for no person
would now be so foolish as to repeat the assertion so long
maintained unchallenged that the Hindu nation is completely
apathetic, unchanging, and non-progressive in the modern
sense.
But in editing the Abbe's work I have confined
myself to modifying such statements as seemed to require
modification, and have avoided as far as possible any digres-
sions that were not suggested by the text itself.
Petty local differences in civil and religious affairs are
a marked feature of Hinduism, just as almost innumerable
subdivisions and sub-sections and sub-sub-sections are a
marked
which
feature of the caste system.
is
Hence
perfectly true of one locality
is
it is
that
false of
much
another
;
and accordingly it is impossible to describe the many details
of Hindu life and character without mental reservations
Nevertheless, there are certain
as to possible exceptions.
fundamental
broad,
differences
Abbe
and
principles
inequalities
;
and
underlying
it is
these
rears the fabric of his extraordinary work.
over, the
Abbe appears
to
me
many
upon these that the
to avoid the
many
More-
pitfalls of
uneven field of investigation with peculiar skill. It
would be wrong to say that all his observations are generally
this
applicable or perfectly just, but, taken as a whole, they
are remarkably true
I
am
and unprejudiced.
here tempted to quote at some length the observa-
tions concerning the Abbe and his researches made by a
prominent Hindu, the Honourable Dewan Bahadur Srina-
vasa Raghava Iyengar, CLE., at a meeting of the Madras
Presidency College Literary Society in May, 1.896. This
is well fitted to express an opinion on a subject
of the kind, for not only has he been for some years past
gentleman
Inspector-General of Registration in Madras, a department
of the public service which in its dealings is in closer touch