"SLAVES OF THE GODS" [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—You and your reviewer deserve great credit in that you are attempting to stem the tide of calumny and exaggeration that has recently set in about the " immorality" of the Indians. Does anyone suppose that if the Indian peninsula was inhabited, not by Hindus, but by a Mixed bag of Belgians, Welshmen, Greeks, Englishmen, and French under the same appalling conditions of extreme poverty and overcrowding and lack of education, and under the same tropical sun, that there would not be at least as much inunOrality as there is at present ? From what I have seen of Europe since I first began to travel in Europe twenty-six years ago, I suggest one would probably find more.
I was several years in India as a doctor, mainly occupied in preventing the spread of venereal disease amongst British troops. Naturally this brought one into contact with the worst side of Hindu civilization. As a keen archaeologist I never lost an opportunity of visiting the temples, and only on very rare occasions did I see any of the temple maidens that are supposed to be so numerous and so immoral. Certainly the ones I saw looked happy and well fed—they may have been immoral—but the fact that they were cheerful and apparently well cared for impressed me because it is so rare to see that in India.
It is possible that amongst the 300 million who inhabit India there may be a minute percentage of frenzied fanatics who indulge in extraordinary practices, such as the eating of cow-dung. But I do not believe that one Englishman in fifty who lives and works in India has either seen or heard of such a thing. I do not think I was unobservant, for I was interested in the ritual and mythology of Hinduism, but I never heard of the practice. Hinduism may or may not be a vile superstition. I am personally not concerned to defend it, and I have no particular sentimental feeling for the Indians, but at least we ought to be fair to other races and religions.
The deplorable thing is that young Englishmen proceeding
to India and believing—as they are now being taught to believe—that Hinduism is a vile superstition, concerned with the keeping of brothels and the eating of cow-dung, will be less and less inclined to treat the Indian with any considera- tion. On his side the Indian, realizing that we have con- demned his philosophy of life, his religion, and his morals, will be less and less reconciled to our remaining in India as his governors.—! am, Sir, &c.,,
• ARTHUR OSBURN,
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