Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 646

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BRAHMIN [NFLUENCE
IX
again, with feelings no less
or expose to wild beasts children
Others,
drown
born under unlucky
stars.
HINDUISM
unnatural,
who happen
either
to be
Furthermore, have they ever,
these Brahmins, represented to the people over whom they
exercise such paramount influence, how shamelessly they
violate nature by placing the sick, whose recovery is des-
paired of, on the banks of the Ganges, or of some other
so-called holy river, so that they may be drowned by the
Have they ever attempted
floods or devoured by crocodiles
to restrain the frenzy of those fanatics who, in their mistaken
devotion, foolishly allow themselves to be crushed under the
wheels of the cars of their idols, or throw themselves head-
long into the stream at the junction of the Ganges and the
l
Jumna
What
1
?
a consoling contrast does the sublime religion of
Jesus Christ offer to him who knows how to appreciate its
How inestimable do its holy precepts, its sweet
blessings
and pure morality, appear in comparison with the hideous
and degraded doctrines which I have here so reluctantly
Of a truth, it is God Himself who has not
sketched
permitted His Divine attributes to be attached to a false
!
!
religion.
But some
will say that the iniquities which have roused
indignation are due far more to vicious conditions of
But
civilization than to perversity of religious principle.
I may reply, what is then the object of true religion, if it is
not to correct such vices I The priests of a religion who
advise, encourage, or permit crimes to be committed which
they could prevent, take upon themselves the whole re-
sponsibility for the evil.
And in this the modern Brah-
mins are so much the more to blame because they have
done their best to distort and render unrecognizable the
my
Government nowadays to extirpate it have succeeded in making these
Dubois.
infanticides less frequent.
It is pretty certain that the
The Census Report for 1891 states
deliberate putting to death of female infants is a practice that in the
present day, at all events, is confined to exceedingly narrow limits.
.
On the whole, even in Rajputana, the Census returns show that the
But many a girl
practice must be very restricted in its operation.
is allowed to die unattended where medical aid would be at once called
Ed.
in if the son were attacked.'
1
Attempts at suicide are now punishable by law. Ed.
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