Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 69

ADVANTAGES OF CASTE
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other in the world have produced the same effect as the
distinction of caste among the Hindus.
After much careful thought I can discover no other
reason except caste which accounts for the Hindus not
having fallen into the same state of barbarism as their
neighbours and as almost all nations inhabiting the torrid
zone.
Caste assigns to each individual his own profession
or calling
and the handing down of this system from
father to son, from generation to generation, makes it
impossible for any person or his descendants to change
the condition of life which the law assigns to him for any
other.
Such an institution was probably the only means
that the most clear-sighted prudence could devise for main-
taining a state of civilization amongst a people endowed
with the peculiar characteristics of the Hindus.
We can picture what would become of the Hindus if
they were not kept within the bounds of duty by the rules
;
and
penalties of caste, by looking at the position of the
Pariahs, or outcastes of India, who, checked by no moral
restraint, abandon themselves to their natural propensities.
Anybody who has studied the conduct and character of
the people of this class which, by the way. is the largest
of any in India 2
will agree with me that a State consist-
ing entirely of such inhabitants could not long endure,
and could not fail to lapse before long into a condition of
barbarism. For my own part, being perfectly familiar with
this class, and acquainted with its natural predilections
and sentiments, I am persuaded that a nation of Pariahs
left to themselves would speedily become worse than the
hordes of cannibals who wander in the vast wastes of
Africa, and would soon take to devouring each other.
I am no less convinced that if the Hindus were not kept
within the limits of duty and obedience by the system of
caste, and by the penal regulations attached to each phase
of it, they would soon become just what the Pariahs are,
and probably something still worse. The whole country
—
—
1
This is true only of Southern India, where the Pariahs number
They form one-seventh of the total population of the Madras
5,000,000.
Presidency.
Of late years the degraded condition of these outcastes
has attracted much attention, ami a great deal is now being done to
elevate them morally and materially.
Ed.