Caste in America

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 19, 1910

The Sioux City Daily News of recent date contains an article from the pen of Tishi Bhutia. The News says that this gentleman is a Hindu, twenty-five years of age, who has recently been graduated from Harvard University, and is now studying law in New York. He is the only Hindu who ever worked his way through an American college, and the only Hindu who ever studied American law. He came to America as the protégé of Lady Curzon, with the understanding that he was to work his way through school. This article was written by him to young Americans, and prepared especially for the Daily News:—

“In order to come to America I was forced to measure off fifty miles of dusty roads with my prostrate body. That was because I was of high caste in India, and caste is the thing that prevents the progress of India.

“Of course I did not expect to find caste in the United States, because I had heard it was a free country.

“In India a man is born to sweep, or to carry water, or to cook, or to do some special work of his caste. Brahmins—men of my caste—are not supposed to work for a living. They must die first. But in your country I found distinct caste lines. I had promised Lady Curzon to work my way through Harvard.

“‘It’s hard to find something to do for money,’ said a schoolmate of mine at Harvard.

“‘I don’t know,’ I answered, ‘I found a job taking care of a furnace to-day,’ I said.

“‘He laughed at me. I got more furnaces to attend to. Altogether I made ten dollars a week from them; and whenever it snowed, I cleaned off sidewalks, and made as much as two dollars in an afternoon.

“Yet there were many students who suffered for lack of funds because their ideas of their position—in India we would call it caste—prevented them from doing menial work.

“Down in Wall Street I see many young men in old clothes, tattered and worn. They are men who have lost their money. But they will not go to work. They think their position in life prohibits them. That is American caste.

“Progress, to twentieth century eyes, is absolutely necessary, but one from the Old World is constrained to question whether the penalties of progress do not overbalance her advantages.

“I am struck with the lack of unity in your families. Each member of the family strives to reach high in the social scale. I read in your dailies case after case of separation, of divorce, of parents against children and children against parents; of murders, of suicides, of grasping greed for gold that gives might strength over right, and gives wealth to the few and crushes in poverty the many.

“Your Christian religion is the greatest and best religion in the world. Brahman though I am, I must admit it. It is a religion that teaches you to love one another. Our religion does not teach us that, but it teaches each man to care for himself as best he can. Our religion could not make the world happy, because it is selfishness. Your religion teaches unselfishness; that is bound to brighten the lives of others and make this world a better place.

“I have been in your country several years, working quietly and watching you.

“If you would all follow the Christian religion, you would make the whole world happy.

“India is in darkness, and so are other Oriental countries. Our religion gives us angry gods, who must be appeased by our sufferings. Your God is kind. He teaches you to be kind to each other and to all other men. Why don’t the people of the United States let their religion make them happy?

“Or does each man consider that it is not his religion, but that the religion belongs to the United States government, and entitles it to be called a Christian nation? Why are you so proud of being a Christian nation when so many of you do not live as Christians?”