Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/182

It may seem strange to some philosophers who believe in the monogenic doctrine that various peoples, though descended from one stock, should now refuse to mix. But there is no cause for surprise. It is indeed true that men differ from their neighbours very slightly. If we start to make our observations from Australia northward into different directions, reviewing the various native tribes of the islands in the Indian ocean on the way, going first through Siam, China and Japan to Kamschatka, and from there to America, and secondly, going from Ceylon to Kashmir and from there westward to England, it would be extremely difficult to tell where one ethnic type ends and the other begins. We may find the same gradual change in dress, customs, manners and beliefs. One people resemble their neighbours and the latter resemble the people dwelling further on. But if we take two extremes we may find a vast difference. The racial hierarchy of America is not without a meaning; the status of various European and Asiatic races in America may roughly be said to be in proportion to the distance from the Atlantic. The reasons are not difficult to seek. During the early stages of human development and culture mankind migrated slowly, and thus differentiated very gradually, and has thus developed the differences, small indeed, if only neighbours are considered, but great if we compare two peoples living at a great distance. Had the concourse of races followed similar lines, that is, each race would have met with the neighbour and not the people greatly removed, and again had they moved to each other very slowly, giving time to produce uniformity, physical and cultural, then great race prejudices would not have been given rise to as they exist now.

Thus the cause of the race question and immigration