Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/103

castes and create new tribes and castes, based on worship or theological doctrine. A man who becomes, for example, a Mahānubhāva or Lingavat (Lingāyat) loses his caste and becomes a member of the caste of Lingāyats or Mahānubhāvas. But even in this process the old caste distinctions are not entirely obliterated. Even those Hindus who join the sampradāya of Christ or the Christian religion are proud of lineage from a high Hindu caste.^[1] These sampradāyas do one distinct service: those people from low caste, who cut off their relations with their own low caste by joining a sampradāya, gain in status. They lose the old status connected with the caste and gain the status gained by the sampradāya. A Mahāra who belongs to a Mahānubhāva sampradāya finds his status raised thereby; the same case happens if that Mahāra becomes a Christian.

Will these sampradāyas ever succeed in breaking the old social orders? I think not. The sampradāya system (the religion system) of social organization has its weak points.

The sampradāyas which take recruits from the lowest castes degrade themselves in the social hierarchy. This law is true of societies of all kinds and of all localities. I have seen in the college fraternities in America that if any fraternity take the Jews in, the fraternity itself is lowered in status. The Jews seem to be conscious of the above-given law. Even though they occasionally make "converts" from the Christian people, it seems very doubtful whether they would extend the membership of the tribe

1. ↑ I have known various cases where Hindus who join the caste of Christians are averse to marriages with those Christian families who were Mohamedans prior to the conversion. I have also seen that Christians whose forefathers were of Mahāra caste would find it almost impossible to get girls from the Christian families of Brāhmaṇa descent.