Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/177

In political and social matters, the consideration of religion, god worship and so forth ought to be discouraged. Hindus will have to give up the social dogma that all Mohamedans and Christians are Mlechchhas. But as a pre-requisite of the dogma it would be necessary to create the idea of equality of all tribes.

In order to accomplish this equality the doctrine of purity and pollution will have to be abandoned.

In order to weld the different tribes together and prevent the continuance of the feeling of inequality the restrictions on marriage also must be removed.

All these changes again are to be accomplished in the orthodox manner, that is, without the creation of a new theophratry (sampradāya), or without the promotion of an existing theophratry.

To reform Hinduism is therefore to transform Hinduism into Indianism, or what is popularly called Indian Nationalism. This task is not an easy one. Simple newspaper agitation ringing the word "Indianism" or "Indian Nationalism" into the Indian ears, asking every Indian to call himself "Indian" and reject the more restricted group-terms like Maratha, Bengalee, Hindu, Mohamedan, or Parsee, is not likely to bring about the change. The question is not of the name, but of the barriers. In fact, Frenchmen and Russians are separated from each other by less social barriers than the Marathas and the Bengalees, though the latter groups may be anxious to be called by the name Indian, may even be proud of the name, and are united together by the ties of common interest, political and economic. Indians, in order to reach Nationalism, have to go through a process through which the Europeans have gone, but more rapidly.