Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/110

so included a person may become a full-fledged Hindu.

As the inclusion of a foreigner in the Hindu community is rendered extremely difficult by the Hindu caste system, so also is the case with exclusion of a Hindu by the Hindu community. Unless a person joins a non-Hindu caste like the Christian or the Mohamedan caste by accepting its "religions," that is, its social membership, a Hindu will not cease to be a Hindu.

In order to explain the fact mentioned above it is necessary to explain the exact nature of excommunication and its place in the Hindu social theory.

I have used the word excommunication in a sense wider than the one which is usually attached to it. I have used this word to express the ideas conveyed by the word "bahiṣhkāra" (bahis = outside, kāra = making or putting), which means cutting off the relations. This word includes the ideas conveyed by the words, excommunication (religions), ostracism, and boycotting.

As English and American readers may be ignorant of the "bahiṣhkāra," so also Indian readers are likely to be ignorant of the meaning of excommunication, as it is understood by the Western world. I first try to explain the terms, excommunication, ostracism and boycotting.

According to the Christian conception, excommunication is the highest ecclesiastical censure and the judicial exclusion of a baptized person from the fellowship of the visible Church of Christ. It is intended not so much to punish the culprit, as to correct him and bring him back to the path of righteousness. Excommunication is distinguished from