Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/172

and Brāhma-samāja, which open their doors to them. I have also seen some Mahānubhāvas converting one Mohamedan, and the Jains converting a Parsi to their fold. This door of the sampradāyas is at present the only door for civilized races to enter Hinduism, that is, to become members of the Hindu community. Yet there are other ways for the foreigners to get in which may become open later; but before they become so it is necessary to reform Hinduism. It may well be said here that however the Brahmins may blame the sampradāyas, specially those of the Ārya-samāja and Brahma-samāja, they may thank these for the above-mentioned service they render at present.

When we think of reforming Hinduism, that is, reforming the entire Hindu civilization, we shall have first to consider its drawbacks, and this is not an easy task. Still a few prominent defects may be noted.

The most important drawback of the Hindu social system is its lack of integration. Hindu society is divided into watertight compartments of over three thousand castes and of many more sub-castes. The result is disunion of the people, the worst type the world has ever seen. The sampradāya system of social organization, which has united castes and tribes, has achieved a unity of the people in Mohamedan and Christian countries by the rise of two strong sampradāyas. The sampradāyas in India have failed to achieve unity. It is not because the founders of the various sampradāyas were not men of the order of Christ or Mohamed; but the Indian sampradāyas have failed because the intellectual tradition in the country was so great and extensive that the sampradāyas appeared to be very narrow. Sampradāyas could not have given to the