In our country we hear much about some people belonging to the gentry and some to the lower classes. But in the eyes of the Government all are natives without exception. Maharajas, Rajas, Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras-all belong to the same class-that of natives. The law, and the test which applies to coolies, is applicable to all natives without distinction. Thanks to you, O English Government! Through your grace, for a moment at least, I feel myself one with the whole body of natives……. Nowadays we hear it from the lips of people of all castes in India that they are all full-blooded Aryan only there is difference of opinion amongst them about the exact percentage of Aryan blood in their veins, some claiming to have the full measure of it, while the others may have an ounce more or less than another-that is all….And they have come to this country out of humanitarian principles, like the English…..Their religion also is of the same pattern as that of the English! And their forefathers looked just like the English only living under the tropical sun of India has turned them black! Now, come forward with your pretensions, if you dare!! “You are all natives”, the Government says. Among that mass of black, a shade deeper or lighter cannot be distinguished. The Government says, “They are all natives. P-52-53
Out with these differences of white and black, and this nicety about the proportion; of Aryan blood among the natives! How awkward it looks for slaves to be over-fastidious about pedigrees! There was Dom (Pariah) who used to say, “You won’t find anywhere on earth a caste superior to ours. You must know we are Dom-m-m-s!” But do you see the fun of it? The excesses about caste distinctions obtain most among people who are least honoured among mankind. What shall I say of India? Let alone her Shudra class-her Brahmanas, to whom belonged the acquisitions of scriptural knowledge, are now the foreign professor; her Kshatriyas the ruling Englishmen; and Vaishyas too, the English, in whose bone and marrow is the instinct of trade; so that, only the Shudraness-the beast –of-burden ness-is now left with the Indians themselves. A cloud of impenetrable darkness has at present equally enveloped us all….What to speak separately of the distinct Shudra class of such a land, where the whole population has virtually come down to the level of the Shudra?
I don’t advise our intermarriage with nations professing an alien religion. At least for the present that will, of a certainty, slacken the ties of society, and be a cause of manifold mischief. It is a intermarriage between people of the same religion that I advocate. The time is yet (24th January, 1898) very long in coming when marriages of that kind will be widely possible. Besides, it is not judicious now to go in for that, all of a sudden. One of the secrets of works is to go by the way of the least possible resistance. So, first of all, let there be marriage within the sphere of one’s caste-people. Take for instance the Kayasthas of Bengal. They have several sub-divisions among them, such as, the Uttara-rarhi, Dakshina-rarhi, Bangaja, etc., and they do not intermarry with each other. Now, let there be intermarriages between the Uttara-rarhi and the Dakshina-rarhi, and if that is not possible at present, let it be between the Bangajas and the Dakshina-rarhi. Thus we are to build up that which is already existing, and which is in our hands to reduce into practice-reform does not mean wholesale breaking down…..
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