LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CASTE AND RAILWAYS.
pro THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:1 am surprised to read in the Spectator of September 15th, that "Caste has survived, and will survive, the creation of a Railway system in India." The account I received from a missionary of considerable experience in the neighbourhood of Hoshungabad was that a high-caste native will go along a railway-train, peeping into one compartment after another in the hope of escaping contamination, till the train is on the point of starting, when a porter, with a "Now, Sir, are you going by this train or not ?" will hustle him into the nearest carriage, to the detriment alike of his superstitions and of his conscience. All the more imperative is it, since European -inventions have thus a disintegrating effect upon ethnic morals, to supplement them with an actively moralising,—i.e., with a
Christianising influence.—I am, Sir, &c., E. P. F.
[Our correspondent is mistaken. Except in part of Madras, touch with an inferior, though it is avoided, is not held to break caste. Moreover, any particular rule of caste may- be suspended by a whole caste, without caste, as a system, suffering. .—ED. Spectator.]
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