Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/116

IN order to explain the system of bahiṣhkāra, as it operates on modern Hindu society, I feel compelled to introduce some details regarding the social conditions of the present day. I do this in order to accommodate my occidental readers, and I request Hindu readers not to be impatient at my introducing commonplace ideas and facts. It is likely that some occidental readers themselves may feel irritated at my giving a large space in this work to explain the social conditions, instead of theological and philosophical ideas which they may have been looking for. This disappointment of the Western readers would take place only because they have been previously misinformed that Hinduism is some kind of religion.

I shall confine myself principally to delineate the conditions in Mahārāshtra, or the Maratha country, as these conditions are more familiar to me than those of any other territory in India. I shall try to delineate the social composition in the Maratha country, and also the present disorganized state of the society, existing partly through inertia and partly through the clash of the Eastern and the Western traditions rendering social control and social reform difficult.