Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 399

DECEMBER, 1923)
BOOK-NOTICES
369
duction, and oxcellent footnotes illuminate the A STUDY OF CASTE. By P. LAKSHMI NARASU. pages of the actual diary. From the record of
K. V. Raghavulu, Mint Street, Madras, 1922 Dupleix's dubash one obtains many & sidelight upon the difficulties confronting the Governor
This essay which fills one hundred and sixty of Pondicherry, and upon his incurable addiction pages of fairly small print is for the most part to intrigue. His personal vanity also is illustrat. an exposure of the merciless character of the Indian ed in more than one entry; and Mr. Dodwell caste-system and a plea for its abolition. At includes injudicious nepotism also among the the same time the author, who has evidently read Causes which contributed to ruin his ambitious
widely and thought deeply, traces the history schemes. There is no doubt that Dupleix failed
of the system from the earliest ages and conchiefly because he could not adjust the measure
traste its effects upon Indian society with the of his grand schemes to that of his limited resour
progress achieved by those who follow other sysces and because he was far too ready to use the
tems of religion and sociology. "Mutual ropuldisreputable trickery practised by the decadent
sion, hierarchical organization, and hereditary Indian princes of his time.
specialization," he writes, "are the three main The diary proves that the Maratha cavalry
characteristics of Caste," and he proceeds to show fully lived up to the reputation which they ac
that, while on the one hand it is directly responsible
for Auch questionable customs as those of childquired in other parts of India, for nearly every reference to them
marriage and the prohibition of widow-remarriage, speaks of their wholesalo plundering of villages. Other interesting entries are
| it has also exercised, and still exercises, a most
disastrous influence upon national politics, national concerned with the dominant influence of Madame
education, national intellectuality and Duploix and the escapo of Hasan-ud-din Khán
nationfrom Fort St. David, which is reminiscent of
al eugenics. Caste, according to the author, Shivaji's famous escape from
had its origin in magic and metaphysice : it crushes
Agra. The influence of Madame Dupleix, the Portuguese half
the individual under its dead weight, and hinders
progress by killing all consciousness of liberty. caste, had apparently superseded that of Ananda
So long as casto endures, India can never advance Pillai to a large extent during the period covered
along the true path to responsible government by this volume. We read of her dealing direct with vakils in reference to money matters and
and can never develop & real sense of national issuing orders for the interception and censoring
patriotism. Reading these severe strictures on of letters. But perhaps her most amazing tour.de
the salient feature of Hinduism, one cannot help force was the forciblo baptism of Muttâyan, brother
rocalling to mind the pious hope expressed in the of Duploix's writer, Ranga Pillai,
Report on Indian Constitutional Reform that the
while he was on his death-bed. The diary describes her
ballot-boxes and the hustings of the new era would going to the dying man's house, driving away
tend to soften the asperities of the Caste system. the relatives and others who were present, and
If we are to believe Mr. Narasu-and his wellthen saying "mantrame" over him and anointing
written treatise demands perusal by all who inter. him with oil. Ranga Pillai, in an agony of fear
est themselves in India-nothing short of the and anger, rushed to Dupleix, foll at his feet and
complete abolition of Caste and the radical exbogged him to put & stop to Madame Dupleix's tirpation of all religion based on caste, will enable outrageous conduct. Al be received in reply the millions of India to weld themselves into a was a threat of beating. The dying man was
cultured and united nation. Pessimistic se this then removed by Mademo's orders to the house view is, we fear that it contains more than an of a Christian, where he expired; and the final
element of truth, and that India may be unable scone dopiote this bigoted and intriguing woman,
to achieve the political and social progress that with a military guard round her, placing the
she so greatly desires, until she has cast aside the corpse in an ivory palanquin and accompanying
priestly heritage of the dead centuries and found it to the Christian cemetery withi acolytes bearing
her own soul. Mr. Narasu puts the point more tapers, Roman Catholio priests reading from the
plainly."Priest-ridden, karma-obsessed and maya. Scriptures, sacred music and a feu-de-joie of
enslaved mentality is the source of all the miseries craskers! This astonishing Botion, with which,
under which the Hindus are groaning. Spiritual be it noted, no respectable Christian priest in
slavery, fatalism and superstition have smothered Pondicherry would have anything to do, must
all power of self-reliance and all sense of freedom." have shaken Hindu society in that town to its Casto is responsible for this degradation of spirit, foundatiora. Volume VIII e a worthy compan and caste must therefore disappear, if India is ion to the previous issues of the Hindu agent's ever to leave the valley and scale the heights diary.
that guard the Promised Land. 8. M. EDWARDES.
8. M. EDWARDIL