342 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

INDIA.

Conditions of the Problem. A first step to the understanding
of India is to appreciate her size, and the variety of her peoples.
India is not a country on the European scale, but a continent
equal in area to Europe without Russia, and each of the separate
Provinces is the size of a large European State. There are over two
hundred native languages and dialects, though only about half a
dozen have a very wide currency. Less than one per cent, of the
population can use English, but this minority is to be found in all
parts of India. As to religious belief, two-thirds of the people are
Hindus, and rather more than one-fifth Muhammadans. There are
smaller groups of. Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Parsis,
and about ten million people following primitive cults. Most of
these faiths involve much ceremonial observance, and festivals
and processions sometimes provoke violent conflict between
different religious communities; Hindu-Muhanimadan antagonism
has been a particularly difficult problem. An important part of
the Hindu faith is the caste system. The "Aryan" peoples of
North India, who invaded the country centuries ago, and built
up a great civilisation, divided themselves into four castes,
representing priests, warriors, traders and labourers; the darker
skinned peoples whom they subdued, were "outcastes". By now
the system has lost much of its original nature, and the number
of different castes has greatly increased. The chief results to-day
are, first, the privileged position of the Brahmins, the old priestly
caste, between whotft and the rest there is a greater difference
than between any other castes; second, the presence, particularly
in South India, of large numbers of outcastes, whose economic
and social position is seriously depressed. In some parts of India,
they are excluded, so far as is possible, from any intercourse
with their fellow-human beings, and even their touch is regarded
as a pollution. The distinctions are less marked in other districts,
where Hinduism is less prevalent, or the influence of progressively
minded Hindus, who regard "Untouchability" as a reproach to
their faith, has been at work.