enlightenment have borne their natural fruit, and demanded a pure faith, which has already sprung up in the shape of Deism.  Enlightenment, then, will produce a pure faith, which will in time react on society, and push it forward with accelerated speed.  Now, it cannot be denied that caste laws do retard the free and unfettered adoption of a pure faith; and if we assume that a pure faith will in turn become a cause, or even an accelerator, of progress, then it is certain that, as regards the peoples of the towns, caste, as retarding the adoption of the most advanced principles of religion, is an undoubted calamity.

We have now looked at the bearings of caste on three very important points—­its moral bearing amongst the Indians themselves, its effects in maintaining a social separation between the white and dark races, and its effects in retarding the adoption of a religion which involves the entire abolition of caste laws.  In the first place, we looked at the effects of caste laws on the rural populations, and came to the conclusion that on all these points caste has operated, and continues to operate, advantageously.  In the second place, we looked at its effects on the peoples of the towns, and came to the conclusion that caste confers on them no advantages, while it is often productive of serious evil.

Let us now glance for one moment at the causes of the general outcry which you everywhere hear against caste institutions, and at the same time suggest the line of conduct that the people of the towns ought to adopt with reference to this question.

And here I need not occupy much space in indicating the causes of that abuse of caste which has always been so popular with my countrymen.  In fact, if we admit the truth of the facts and arguments hitherto adduced, these causes are so apparent that the reader must have already anticipated the solution I have to give.  Caste, as we have seen, is a serious evil to the peoples of the towns.  Now, it is amongst towns and cantonments that our principal experiences of this institution have been acquired, and the educated natives of the Indian capitals, feeling all the evils and experiencing none of the advantages of caste, are naturally loud in its condemnation.  Hence the cry arising from all Europeans and a trifling section of the Indians, that caste should be abolished from one end of India to the other.  But how is it that no response comes from these country populations amongst whom I have lived?  How is it that these shrewd-headed people[37] are so insensible to the evils of caste, and that you never hear one word about it?  The answer is extremely simple.  They have never felt these evils, because for them they do not exist.  If they felt the pressure of caste laws as do the people of the towns, the outcry would be universal, and the institution speedily done away with.  Need I add that when the people of the country are as advanced as the people of the towns, that then, and not till then, will the pressure, which is now confined to the latter, be universally felt; that then, and not till then, will this institution, being no longer suited to the requirements of the age, be universally discarded.