Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 73

CASTE PENALTIES
said,
by a
rich
Brahmin who had been convicted
33
of
having
intercourse with a low-caste Pariah woman.
He was, however, sentenced to this severe penalty, not so
much on account of the immorality of his action, seeing
that in the opinion of the Brahmins it was not immoral
at all, but on account of the low-caste person who had
been the partner of his incontinence. There are various
kinds of delinquencies in connexion with which a caste
may take proceedings, not only against the principal
offenders, but against those who have taken any part
whatever in them. Thus it is caste authority which, by
means of its wise rules and prerogatives, preserves good
order, suppresses vice, and saves Hindus from sinking into
a state of barbarism.
It may also be said that caste regulations counteract to
a great extent the evil effects which would otherwise be
produced on the national character by a religion that
encourages the most unlicensed depravity of morals, as
well in the decorations of its temples as in its dogmas
had illicit
and ritual.
In India, where the princes and the aristocracy live in
extreme indolence, attaching little importance to making
their dependants happy and taking small pains to inculcate
in them a sense of right and wrong, there are no other
means of attaining these desirable ends and preserving
good order than by authoritative rulings of the caste
system. The worst of it is, these powers are not suffi-
ciently wide, or rather they are too often relaxed.
Many
castes exercise them with severity in cases that are for the
most part frivolous, but display an easy and culpable
indulgence towards real and serious delinquencies. On the
other hand, caste authority is often a check against abuses
which the despotic rulers of the country are too apt to
indulge in.
Sometimes one may see, as the result of
a caste order, the tradesmen and merchants of a whole
district closing their shops, the labourers abandoning their
fields, or the artisans leaving their workshops, all because
of some petty insult or of some petty extortion suffered by
some member of their caste and the aggrieved people will
remain obstinately in this state of opposition until the injury
has been atoned for and those responsible for it punished.
;