Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/73



LL Hindus, to-day, form a single community, at least in consciousness. Again, no person who is either a Christian or Mohamedan can be called a Hindu. A person who is formally converted to any of these religions is excluded from Hindu society. Though Hindus are thus separated from other religious communities, it should not be imagined that they are united by a bond of a common system of doctrines. There is, in fact, no system of doctrines, no teacher or school of teachers, no single god that is accepted by all the Hindus. Again no amount of deviation from the established doctrine, or disregard of any book, or even of some customs, would cause a person to fall from Hinduism; that is, become liable to exclusion from the Hindu community. The Hindu community may be compared to a faggot held together, not by any band that would bind all the sticks, but by a number of bands, every one of which would bind groups which are variously formed and overlap. Some of the sticks would be firmly bound in the faggot and others would be less so. If a stick breaks any of the bands that tie, it would still be bound by the rest, and would thus be kept bound within the faggot.

The ties which bind Hindus are many and varied. The most important of them are considered here,