Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India (Volume 3) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 edition. Excerpt: ...one; far more so than I had conceived; it gives them no moral precepts; it encourages them in vice by the style of its ceremonies, and the character given of its deities; and by the institution of caste, it hardens their hearts against each other to a degree which is often most revolting. A traveller falls down sick in the streets of a village, (I am mentioning a fact which happened ten days ago, ) nobody knows what caste he is of, therefore nobody goes near him lest they should become polluted; he wastes to death before the eyes of a whole community, unless the jackalls take courage from his helpless state to finish him a little sooner, and, perhaps, as happened in the case to which I alluded, the children are allowed to pelt him with stones and mud. The man of whom I am speaking was found in this state and taken care of by a passing European, but if he had died, his skeleton would have lain in the streets till the vultures carried it away, or the magistrates ordered it to be thrown into the river. A friend of mine, some months ago, found a miserable wretch, a groom out of employ, who had crept, sick of a dysentery, into his court-yard. He had there remained in a corner on the pavement two days and nights. Perhaps twenty servants had been eating their meals daily within six yards of him, yet none had relieved him, none had so much as carried him into the shelter of one of the outhouses, nor had any taken the trouble to tell their master. When reproved for this, their answer was, " he was not our kinsman;" " whose business was it V " How did we know that the Sahib would like to be troubled?" I do not say that these are every day instances: I hope and believe not; nor would I be understood as denying that alms are, to religious mendicants, ...