Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/131

it. An orthodox Brāhmaṇa would not like to drink water from the hands of a shūdra, but when it comes through a pipe he has no objection to drink it, though theoretically it should cause just as much pollution, because many low castes, even impure Englishmen, may be working on the reservoir of water which gives water to a Brāhmaṇa.

When a society becomes habituated to the use of an "impure" article in a disguised form, it becomes slowly willing to use "impure" articles in a less disguised shape. If many Brāhmaṇas become used to cod-liver oil, then some of them may feel no scruples against eating fish itself. This fall from the standard of purity has another very valuable psychological effect. The abhorrence which a man feels towards other people decreases. An orthodox Brāhmaṇa, I should say most of the Brāhmaṇas to-day, feel that they are superior to the rest of the Hindus, as their bodies are pure, while those of the rest of the Hindus are more or less impure. Hindus in general regard themselves as purer than the rest of the world. One of the most important reasons why Hindus, and among them Brāhmaṇas, regard themselves as purer and more sacred than the rest, is that they are more particular as to what they eat. Thus a fall from the Brāhmaṇical ideals of purity, and even a fall from the ideals of morality, tends to make the people more democratic. It does not mean that a Brāhmaṇa who uses animal food begins to look upon a lower caste man as his equal, but the abhorrence for him becomes much less. Very often we observe men who have occasionally erred, and have left the right path; when they become reclaimed they have a great deal of sympathy for their erring fellow-men, because they realize better that a man who errs is not altogether a bad man, that they have done themselves