caste because of alleged infidelity to her marriage-vows. The caste punchayet not only fined her, but ordered her to shave her head. She felt the indignity of this latter so much that she at once committed suicide. Whereupon the caste committee was hauled before a court of justice and punished for its cruelty to the woman. This happened notwithstanding the fact that they were the mouth-piece of that organization which was to them highest authority. Later, in Benares, a cultured gentleman, who had recently returned from England, was called upon, through the instigation of a neighbor, to meet the tribunals of his caste, and to perform the offensive rites of prayachit which is generally incumbent upon one who has returned from a sea voyage. He charged, in the civil court, the man who had thus roused his caste against him, and the man was punished by the court for this castely act.

It is a revelation to the people that there is a higher law of the land to which they can appeal to secure redress against the acts of their own caste. This is one of the most important steps in advance toward the overthrow of perhaps the most debasing social and religious system in the world.

Movements for the alleviation of the condition of women in India are multiplying, and are very significant. The vernacular proverb, in more languages than one, declares that "to educate a woman is like putting a knife in the hands of a monkey." Yet a strong movement for the education of woman is found all over India at the present time. During the last five years nearly 50 per cent has been added to the female school population of India. One million girls are being trained in the schools of India today, and, what is more significant than this is that there are 10 colleges for women in that land in which 400 women are being prepared for B.A. One hundred and ten of these are Christian women, a striking fact when we remember that the Christian community is only about 1 per cent of the population of the country. Another suggestive fact is this, that from the Brahman community, of whom there are 15,000,000 in India, there are only 32 women in col

lege; and yet the men of the Brahman caste are the most advanced of all Indians in education. The common people of India also are increasingly seeking education for their daughters.

The spirit of service has also recently begun to take possession of that people. Hinduism is essentially a selfish faith. It reveals no altruism. As one has said, it requires but two, the man and his God, for the fulfillment of Hinduism; while Christianity requires three, man and God and the other man. Altruistic service has been almost entirely wanting in Hinduism from the first. The realization of its ideals is found in the monk, in the loneliness of the wilderness. Philanthropy-the love of man as suchwas hardly known in that land until the Buddha came; and when that faith left India, as a separate faith, the ideal again returned and centered in the individual himself until Christianity arrived with its social humanitarian passion. It is now bearing fruit in the new organizations recently created among Hindus for service. A beautiful illustration of this is the "Seva Sadan" in Bombay, an institution which aims to train women for service-women of many faithsamong their fellow Indians. It is a noble institution in a land and among a people who have always regarded woman as capable only of dependence and of menial service.

Witness also the "Social Service League" of Bombay which is specially designed to prepare its members for service among men. Likewise the "Students Brotherhood" of Bombay, whose aims are similar to those of the other leagues and are expressed in the following six items:

(1) To promote the moral and intellectual development of its members, and with this in view to arrange for weekly classes, public lectures, social and literary gatherings, etc.

(2) To bring together all communities desirous of raising the moral tone of the rising generation, and of guiding them in their aspirations for worthier lives.

(3) To bring together, for purposes of ethical study, students of various schools and colleges and others interested in such students and to place within their reach opportunities for wholesale social intercourse.

(4) To form and maintain a library with a view to placing wholesome literature within the reach of the members.

(5) To publish literature calculated to advance the aims and objects of the society.

(6) To foster and encourage the spirit of practical benevolence and social service, provided always that the brotherhood shall not promulgate any distinctive religious or political doctrine.

There is a fine ring to the motto of the Brotherhood:

Let us work as brothers

And let us work for good.

Then comes "the Servants of India Society," which is flourishing under the direction of its leader, the Hon. Gokhale, who is the most distinguished Indian statesman of the day. These "servants" distinguished themselves during the recent famine in going from house to house, collecting money to relieve the sufferings of the people. They wrought much good in that way. Then behold the "Society for the Depressed Classes," through which Brahmans and others are endeavoring to help the outcastes (those people who through them have been debased and banned through the centuries) to attain unto education and other progressive blessings.

These and many other similar organizations in India are very significant of the new India which is abandoning more and more its selfishness and taking unto itself the great lesson of altruism through Christian teaching and example. The whole organized social service idea is the most striking note of India today, and the most remarkable deviation from the orthodox self-centered individualistic system of the land.

2. The Racial Tension

The race conflict is today world-wide in its sweep. Never was it so tense and never did it threaten so much to create national and international difficulty as at the present time. It is not only the German people who are clamoring for a place "in the sun." All the yellow and brown races are coming to a racial self-consciousness and are demanding larger rights and, in most cases, equal rights with the white man. The arrogant claims of the man of the West to rule the world by his own prowess in his own way and for his

own interest is defiantly challenged by the colored races. They now rise in a new consciousness of racial dignity and of moral worth, and are asking the white man, "Who made thee ruler and judge over us?" I have never known this tension to be so great or the sentiment so strong and universal in India as it has been recently, owing to the unjust treatment of Indians in South Africa and, more recently, in Canada. They do indeed definitely say that they "do not fight for equal political rights, they recognize that in view of the existing prejudices, immigration from India should be strictly limited, provisions being made for entrance of a sufficient number annually for reason of the wear and tear." These quoted words were written by an Indian authority. This race conflict is not only acute, it is also unique in that land. It is to the everlasting credit of Great Britain that she has taught the people of India to claim as men those rights which are so dear to all. In all her 200 colleges the 37,000 students are inspired constantly by their English teachers to realize their manhood and to hold most dear all rights incident to that manhood.

In that land the racial difficulty is different from that in other countries. It is unique and peculiar in two particulars. (a) In the first place, it is not the conflict between superior and inferior races, as we are apt to characterize the racial conflict in this country. It is rather the meeting and the conflict of two long separated Aryan brothers, whose common home was somewhere, either in Central Asia or in Europe (authorities disagree). These two brothers were reared in the same home. They prospered and multiplied and finally, say, some four thousand years ago, separated; each to seek his fortune elsewhere. One found his promised land in western Europe, the other in southern Asia, in the peninsula of India. Each triumphed over his enemies in the new land and built for himself a home and founded a civilization all his own. By a strange and unique Providence these two brothers, after millenniums of separation, have come together and are jostling each other upon the plains and mountains of India. The Aryan white of the West (the Anglo-Saxon) and the

Aryan brown of India (the Brahman) have thus met each other face to face under, by no means, pleasant circumstances. The one has triumphed in war over the other and claims superiority and precedence over him. The Western brother regards himself as the rightful owner of that land, and rides rough-shod over the sensibilities and rights of the man of India. But look at the Brahman; he is the most imperially, yea divinely conceited human ever known, and perhaps has a right to reveal this attitude of mind; for has not the destiny of India been largely in his hands during these many centuries? Perhaps no individual has ever, for so long a time, and so exclusively, dominated over a race as this man has who has wielded his unique power in India. Intellectually he has not only been preeminent, but he stands today as the intellectual paragon of that land, as he has indeed perhaps the brightest mind among all men. The wonderful systems of thought which have dominated that land and people for so many centuries are they not largely the product of his brain? Is he not also the founder and fashioner of society in that land-a society whose every law and custom aims at his aggrandisement and glorification, and has always substantially added, if possible, to his social prestige? Has he not believed and felt that a touch or the shadow of a white man pollutes him as truly as does the touch and shadow of a pariah? Even the shaking of the hands of a Brahman by King George, Emperor of India, would necessitate religious ablutions on the part of that Brahman in order to cleanse himself from the touch of the white man!

Religiously this Brahman is not only supreme among the people of India, he is deemed divine; he is the son of the creator, Brahmâ, and hence is called the "Brahman," and receives the worship due to his father. Many millions in that land worship him faithfully, and, with proud selfconsciousness, he accepts their devotion and faith as his due!"

Thus, this man of the East regards himself as more than primus inter pares among the people of India. He holds

THE JOURNAL OF RACE DEvelopment, VOL. 5, No. 3, 1915