Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/174

Mohamedan tribes into India as conquerors, Indians had no consciousness of their distinctive character and they did not possess any distinctive name. They continued to maintain the theory of tribal hierarchy with the Brāhmaṇas at the top. Even after the Mohamedan conquerors came they did not give up the theory, but regarded Mohamedans only as a mlechchha or anārya jāti, that is, ignoble caste whose place is at the bottom of society. Now a Christian race has come to rule, but still the theory is not given up. Englishmen and other Christians are classed together among low and ignoble tribes.

Though the Hindus thus produced a universal social philosophy for themselves, the character of the philosophy has not been such as the world would accept. The Hindus again had not sufficient ability to force it on the world. For example, had the Indian princes coupled with Brāhmaṇic wisdom conquered the world, or had the Brāhmaṇas gone all over the world and become priests of the world, as they became priests of the Indians, then their social philosophy would have received universal recognition; but such a state of things never came into existence.

Again, Hindus did not produce any social philosophy which could unite them and inspire them with a mission, till the foreign sampradāyas came into India and threatened to sweep away its civilization altogether. All the tribes absorbed by the sampradāyas of Christ and Mohamed were inspired with such a philosophy and have succeeded in uniting a large number of people.

When we speak about any kind of reform in order to integrate the Indian people, we should have some kind of sociological theory giving us the conception of what we wish to achieve. Unless we have a clear conception of the