Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/168

would have been glad to see the earth converted into hell so that the change may turn the human mind from the world and its pleasures towards something which they knew to be higher and permanent. It is almost foolish to expect any social betterment from the philosophers of this school. To add to these classes, there were some religious reformers who really wanted to make some important changes in the social organization. But these men played the parts of quacks and barbers instead of physicians and surgeons when they attempted to remedy the social evil.

However unpalatable it may seem to us, and however humiliating it may be to our pride, we should be prepared to confess that the greatest achievement done towards the integration of our society is achieved by a foreign race of invaders, who have succeeded in bringing the whole of India under one strong control, and who have compelled the various warring races and nationalities in the country to forget their feuds in common subjection. They have helped us not only by forcing a political unity on almost the whole of India, but by bringing to our door the products of Western civilization. They have made it possible for all peoples of India to come together and to know each other. Even the common hatred which we occasionally feel on account of some unwise actions of the representatives of that nation towards it, draws us nearer. More than this, we have come to realize what the abolition of caste system means by vivid and concrete examples of the European nations, the observation of which has become more possible for us. If we look behind we find that often those who championed the abolition of caste did not at all know what the abolition of caste meant. To a large number, these words simply meant only the suppression of the Brah-