Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/162

liquor and animal food, which encourages destruction of life to satisfy the palate, was treated as a heathen prejudice; though fortunately, with the growth of higher ideas of morals, the Christian missionaries do not nowadays insist on taking away this part of heathenism from their converts.

Not only by trying ruthlessly to kill heathenism in its converts has Christianity tended to produce similarity, but also by promoting or creating a positive feeling of brotherhood. The Church insists that those who join the Christian faith are and should be considered as brothers. All the Christians again meet in church, and thus promote intercourse between the members of the theophratry. With the Christian population there are many things common. They have a common tradition, common holidays, common customs, a common master, and some common ideas. If the racial difference among men brought together under a common church is not too great, all the tribes become unified.

I have admitted that religions (theophratries) do exert a unifying influence, and still I have maintained that the religions are anti-social in their nature. These two statements should not be regarded as inconsistent. The process of contact has some advantages over religions. The process of contact does not oppose the idea of a territorial society, while the process of religions does. The process of religions tries to create a social group, based on belief and worship, and irrespective of the territory which the people may occupy. Thus, in fact, religion does more to disintegrate a territorial society than to integrate it. Those who wish to promote social integration in a certain territory, by creating nationalism or imperialism, should beware of