Caste in India by LOUISE M. SCHOLZ

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1911

Caste in India

By LOUISE M. SCHOLZ

LOUISE M. SCHOLZ

THE caste system is one of the greatest evils in India; and it is indeed a miracle to save a soul from among the heathen. It can not be done by our own strength; it cost Heaven the experience of Calvary to win souls.

We are in a great battle, the powers of light are fighting against the powers of darkness; but we know Satan would not trouble to fight if he saw nothing worth attacking. The people believe that our religion is a good one, but they argue that its acceptance results in the destruction of caste.

What is caste?—It is not merely birth, nor class, nor a code of rules, though it includes all these; it is a great system of evil. Miss Amy Wilson Carmichael, a missionary in South India, speaking of caste, says:—

“A boy twelve years old resolved to be a Christian; his clan, eight thousand strong, were enraged. There was a riot in the streets; in the house the poison-cup was ready—better death than loss of caste. Another boy took his stand, and his caste men got hold of him afterward. The next time he was seen, he was a raving lunatic; the caste was avenged. These things are not confined to one part of the field.”

“A poor low-caste woman and her husband learned the way of life in their home, and both thought of becoming Christians. The village soothsayer warned them that their father’s god would be angry, but they did not heed him. Suddenly their baby died. This was too much for their faith then, and both went back to their idolatry. A few years afterward their eldest child began to learn to read; and the mother’s faith revived. The soothsayer and her husband reminded her of the infant’s

fate, but she was brave, and let her child learn. Then her cow suddenly died. ‘Did we not tell you so?’ they said. For a moment she was staggered, but she recovered, and became more earnest in her faith. So the soothsayer threatened more.”

“A caste meeting was called to determine what could be done with this woman. The husband attended the meeting, and was treated to some rice and curry; before he reached home, he was taken violently ill, and in three days he died. The relatives denounced the woman as the cause of her husband’s dysentery and death, took her only son from her, and entreated her to return to her father’s gods before they should all be annihilated. They gave her two weeks to fast and to mourn for her husband. Then, finding her mind as firmly fixed on Christ as before, they sent her to Burma, which meant as much to her, who had never been away from her native village, as to be sent to a foreign country. Remember, the caste was ‘low;’ and you can judge, perhaps, what the hate would have been had the caste been ‘high.’”

Look at caste in the kitchen, and see how it rules there. The kitchen of every Indian household is a kind of sanctuary, or holy ground. The mere glance of a “holy ground” man of inferior caste makes the finest delicacies uneatable; and if such a glance happens to fall on the family supplies during cooking, when the ceremonial purity of the water used is a matter of almost life and death to every member of the household, the whole repast must be thrown away as if poisoned, and the family is for that day without dinner. According to their belief, food thus contaminated would, if eaten, communicate a taint to the souls as well as to the bodies of the eaters,—a taint which could be removed only by long and painful expiation. Sir Monier Williams, quoted as a great authority, says: “Think of the defilement which would be contracted if a member of the household who had broken caste took any part in the cooking; it would never be allowed. Such a woman could take no share in the family life. Her presence, her shadow, and above all, her touch, would be simply pollution. Therefore, and for many other reasons, her life at home is impossible.”

In commercial life if a merchant becomes a Christian, no one will patronize him; for it must be remembered that every occupation in life represents a particular caste. A man, either a blacksmith or a carpenter, wants to become a Christian; he loves his trade, and he can not attempt to learn other work. “Let the Christians employ him,” you might say. Some do; but this involves other questions far too complicated for discussion here.

I was once called to attend a baby who suffered from infection, a native barber having lanced an abscess. It was lying on dirty rags, with its wounds exposed to the dust, and moaning so piteously that it made my heart ache. I pleaded with the parents to let me take the child to our dispensary, so that I could give it the necessary treatment. I offered them a room, and a place for cooking by themselves, if they would come with the child; but no, he might die away from home, and that would disgrace their caste. It was not that they were heartless, but they would rather see their baby die in torture than destroy their caste.

A low-caste man, who had only a little child and his brother left of all his relatives, was brought to our dispensary on a bullock-cart. He had suffered from dysentery and dropsy for more than a year; and, as he had no one to care for him, I succeeded in keeping him in one of our rooms, where he died fourteen days afterward. Because he died in a Christian compound, we could not get men to bury him, even those of his own caste refusing. At last they offered to bury him for six rubles, or about two dollars. I could not give this amount; so we put him on our gharry, and took him two miles from our bungalow, to the river, where we buried him.

A child of twelve may be legally held competent to undertake the responsibility of wifehood, but six years more must pass before she may be legally held free to obey her conscience; she is never really free. A widow in India may be legally free; a wife, never!

Do you wonder why the work goes so slowly in India, compared with other countries? This is one glimpse of one phase of a power which is only a name at home—caste. It does strange things, hard things, things most cruel. All who fight it are agreed that it is the strongest foe to the gospel of Christ on the fields of India. Sometimes it seems to me that if only the people at home could understand things as they really are, more prayers for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would ascend to God.

Calcutta, India.