Let us now say a few words as to the line of conduct that should be adopted, as regards caste, by those who are desirous of freeing themselves from the restrictions of that institution.

In the first place, the opponents of caste should not weaken their case by talking nonsense; and, in the second place, they should remember, above all things, that, to use a common saying, “if you want a pig to go to Dublin, the best thing you can do is to start him off on the way to Cork.”  I shall now enlarge a little on both of these recommendations.

To illustrate my first suggestion—­and to this suggestion I shall again have occasion to allude further on in this chapter—­a few sentences may be devoted to glancing at some of those remarkable conclusions which sound so well in the observations one often hears when anything is said about India.  The tendency of caste, you will hear it gravely urged, is to elevate the upper classes on the highest possible pinnacle, and keep the Pariah grovelling in the dust.  “What,” continues the speaker, “keeps the Brahmin at the top and the Pariah at the bottom?” Why, let me ask in turn, is a cow’s tail long, and a fox’s tail bushy?  Is it in this nineteenth century that we are to try and din into people’s ears that the upper classes in India were at the top of the social scale, and the Pariah at the bottom, centuries before caste, in its present shape, ever existed, and that the relative position of the two races would continue with little change if caste was to be abolished to-morrow morning?  “What,” gravely asks another, “has prevented the peoples of India uniting into one grand nation, and destroyed all hopes of political fusion?” Nor, to many, would the absurdity of the question be apparent till you asked them what has prevented all Europe becoming one nation; or, to take things on a smaller scale, till you asked what prevented the Highland clans forming themselves into a nation.  In short, whenever a man is in difficulty, and at a loss to account for anything connected with the state of the people of India, he takes refuge in caste, combined, perhaps, with what is called native prejudice, though what that last means I do not pretend to explain.  Now, it is not improbable that some of my readers may have heard of Holloway’s pills, and we know, in fact, that thousands believe that medicine to be an efficacious remedy for every constitutional ailment.  Only swallow Holloway, and you are a cured man.  Well, the abolition of caste, with an incredible number of people, is, in like manner, confidently pronounced to be a universal remedy for all the political and social complaints of India.  Remove that, and you will at one stroke secure social liberty, national unity, the removal of idolatry, and, some even are rash enough to affirm, the universal adoption of Christianity.  Such, then, are a few examples of the nonsense you will hear commonly talked about caste, and I think I need not waste time in pointing out that the opponents of caste must take very different ground if they wish to obtain a hearing from the peoples of India.