Book Title: Jainism and World Problems
Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

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Page 228
________________ JAINISM AND WORLD PROBLEMS true value is destroyed by his inability to put himself in the attitude of a judge. 220 Sudra Mukti" Similar remarks apply to the highly critical "Sudra Mukti," which presents a problem that is not one to be easily solved. The author's criticism is here also forceful and piquant, but again I am not satisfied that he has dealt with the subject in its entirety. The most important question that arises in this connection is: is there absolutely no difference, or at least no material difference, between the physical and mental constitution and capacities of a person belonging to one of the twice-born castes and a sudra? Now, it seems to me that there must be some such constitutional difference between them, otherwise why is a sudra attracted into a yoni that is inferior and low. Whether this difference is really material is the next question that arises in the mind. But the author does not touch these questions at all, and bases his arguments purely upon certain stray passages in the Jaina Scriptures. The result is that while much of what he says seems not unreasonable, acquiescence with his views is out of the question simply because his investigation is not scientific in any sense of the term. On the whole, it seems to me that it would have been more advantageous if the author had proceeded to compile a reliable chronicle of the Jaina tradition instead of attacking it mercilessly and unscientifically. I am appending here quotations from two of McDougall's books to show that modern scientific opinion is entirely in favour of the view that all races and men are not equal by any means. "But the assumption that all men and all races are created equal is a false assumption. The inequalities of natural endowment among men of the same race are too great to be denied by any sane and impartial person; although some journalists of the ultra-democratic and cosmopolitan tendency love to repeat Jefferson's glittering generality and Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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