HPB-Caves-14: Difference between revisions

Who amongst Europeans ever dreamed of a country where every step, and the least action of everyday life, especially of the family life, is controlled by religious rites and ''cannot'' be performed except according to a certain programme? In such a country all the important incidents of a man's life, such as conception, birth, passing from one period of life to another, marriage, parent status, old age and finally death, as well as all the physical and physiological functions of everyday routine, like morning ablutions, dressing, eating, ''et tout ce qui s'en suit'',<ref>And everything that follows it (Fr.). – Ed.</ref> from a man's first hour to his last sigh, everything must be performed according to a certain Brahminical ritual, ''on penalty of expulsion from a caste''. The Brahmins may be compared to the musicians of an orchestra in which the different musical instruments are the numerous sects of their country. They are all of a different shape and of a different timbre; but still every one of them obeys the same conductor. However widely the sects may differ in the interpretation of their sacred books, however hostile they may be to each other, striving to put forward their particular deity, every one of them, obeying blindly the ancient custom, must follow like musicians the same directing wand, the laws of Manu. This is the point where they all meet and form a unanimous, single-minded community, a strongly inseparably united mass. And woe to the one who breaks the symphony by a single discordant note, willingly or by accident! The elders (inherited position in Hindus) and the caste or even sub-caste councils (which are numerous), whose members hold office for life, all of these hold members of their community in the "iron gloves". There is no appeal against their decisions, and this is why expulsion or – as in common expression – “excommunication” from the caste is one of the most dreadful calamity, entailing truly formidable consequences. The “excommunicated member” is worse off than a leper, the solidarity of the castes in this respect being something phenomenal. The only thing that can bear any comparison with it is the solidarity of the disciples of Loyola<ref>The Jesuits. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola Ignatius of Loyola] (1491-1556) was a Catholic priest and theologian, who founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). – Ed.</ref>. If (strictly following all the demands) members of two different castes, united by the sincerest feelings of respect and friendship, may not intermarry, may not dine together, are forbidden to accept a glass of water from each other, or to offer each other a hookah, it becomes clear how much more severe all these restrictions must be in the case of an “excommunicated one”. The poor wretch must literally ''die'' to everybody, to the members of his own family as to strangers. His own household, his father, wife, children, are all bound to turn their faces from him, under the penalty of being excommunicated in their turn. There is no hope for his sons and daughters of getting married, however innocent they may be of the punishing sin...

“I have two daughters,” he explained, “one five, the other six years old. If I do not find a husband for the eldest of them in the course of the coming year, she will grow too old to get married, nobody will think of espousing her. If I allow myself to be excommunicated from the caste, both my girls will be dishonored and miserable for the rest of their lives. Then the old mother, who is so superstitious, as a result of such a family shame, will certainly commit suicide: she has more than once threatened me with suicide...”

A wise saying: “Being lagged behind one’s own, one could not join somebody else,” seems to be purposely composed for this ill-fated nation. It is in vain to imagine that the exclusion of both the Mohammedan and Hindus<ref>Europeans very often fall into the error of confusing the Indian Muslims with the ''Hindus''. The former are even offended by this name, and call themselves the Indian ''Moguls''. Those are the Semites, and the Hindus of the Aryan tribe differ in everything from them.</ref> Indians from the civil service is only the result of an unjust, cowardly politics out of fear to attract their sworn enemies to governing the country. This state of things must be attributed entirely to the social ostracism, to the contempt felt by a “superior” for an “inferior” race (as Englishmen think), which plays a more important role than is generally believed, even in England. This undeserved contempt, expressed on any occasion to the natives (including Muslims here), expands every year between the two nations an abyss that they will not fill up for centuries. Here are two examples.

“All of us, the natives, are the children of the same unfortunate our mother, India,” he told us recently, in his usual Oriental and highly poetic style. “The sons of the same bitter fate, we should together share it, and not rub salt on the wounds by the strife between two fanatical religions.”

Thus driven into a corner, S***, a brilliant writer and a speaker, familiar with the political direction of the Cabinet of Calcutta as with his own pocket, failed to find words to answer and said a paradoxical nonsense: “Don't forget,” he mumbled, “that ''we are exiles'' in this country; that you, the Hindus, according to your own mind, need us, and that ''it would be unfair to force us to serve your country without a good reward''. You, the natives, are obliged to pay us: our needs, finally, are more than yours...”

“Exiles?..” he exclaimed finally. “Are you exiles? Who asked you to come here from overseas to save us? Don’t you...”

And to an ardent protest of the owners, he added:

He was sitting there, bending over his cup, and speaking quietly, apparently, maintaining full composure. Just a spoon, with which he mechanically tapped on the saucer, was shaking slightly in his hand, and his black eyes were bloodshot and glowed...

Our Russian readers will find strange, monstrously incredible the following remarkable fact: the main obstacle between this ex-Brahmin family and the conceited Anglo-Indian society is ''their conversion to Christianity'', although violent as all such conversions of the last two centuries in Portuguese Goa, where they were baptized through the prison and the Inquisition with its refined tortures. Not because they are Catholics, but simply for the reason that they were once Hindus and that they as the despised mulatto of America, have, according to the expressive terminology of the local highly-educated society, “the blood of Ham”; because they are descendants of “lower” race (half-castes) and along with the “Eurasians” (that is, Euro-Asians, a name formed from the merging of Europe and Asia) are despised both by the natives and the European Christians. If they were pure Hindu idolaters, Parsis or the sons of the Mohammedan prophet, then twice a year they would still have the chance to be invited to one of those buffoon balls in the “government house” when this house, like a barrel with herring, is packed with many thousands of natives who are on par with wall decorations are placed in a circle in several rows and then forgotten.

For the sake of the clearest understanding of the natives of India, we have here discussed the question, perhaps, more than it should be done; nevertheless ill-fated Hindus prefer temporary humiliations and the physical and moral sufferings of the “purification,” to the prospect of general contempt until death.  

These, at any rate, were the explanations of our ''babu'' when we expressed our astonishment; so it was our concern to make the most of our chance, and to thank Providence for this rare opportunity. The one, who once was allowed not only to share, but even to be present at dinner of a Brahmin, that one becomes, as it were, sacred in his eyes. Not only the host himself, but even all the members of his caste look at such a lucky man as to belonging at least ''de jure<ref>By law (Lat.). – Ed.</ref>'' to their caste. But how rare, almost impossible, are such cases!..