Page:Alien Souls by Achmed Abdullah (1922).djvu/158

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THE STRENGTH OF THE LITTLE THIN THREAD

Ibrahim Fadlallah shrugged his shoulders:

"You do not understand, my friend. You cannot get it through your head that it is impossible to destroy caste and to create fraternity by Act of Parliament. Allah—you can't even do it in your own country."

"But modern progress—the telegraph—the democracy of the railway carriage—" interrupted the American.

"You can compel a Brahmin to sit in the same office and to ride in the same railway compartment with a man of low caste, but you can never force him to eat with him or to give him his daughter in marriage. You spoke of those who are educated abroad—and even they, my friend, when they return to Hind, drift back into caste and the ways of caste. For there is a little thread—oh, such a tiny, thin little thread—which binds them to their own land, their own kin, their own caste. And it seems that they have not the strength to break it—this little thread. Ah, yes! Let me tell you something which occurred last year—a true tale—and please do not forget the thread, the little thread—

"Now the whole thing was like a play in one of your theatres—it was staged, dear one, and well staged. The scene was the great hall in which meets the caste

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