Page:Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies.djvu/28

xxii than any other with the material and social conditions of the people themselves, but he is himself the author of a most authoritative work on the moral and material progress of Southern India under British rule. At the meeting referred to he observed:—

'The Abbé was a most remarkable character, and a study of his life cannot fail to be of profit to us all. It has been said, and said truly, that one half of the nation does not know how the other half lives. The difficulties which a foreigner has of understanding the inner life and modes of thought of a people to which he does not belong may indeed be said to be immense. The Abbé surmounted these difficulties by devoting thirty years of his life to his subject. To effect his purpose he adopted the garb, the manners, and, as he says, even the prejudices of the people among whom his lot was cast; won their respect and confidence; and was held by them in quite as much reverence as one of their yogis or gurus. The quotations from his work show his shrewd common sense, clear-sightedness, and perfect candour. Any account given by such a man of the manners and customs of the people amongst whom he lived must in any case be instructive, and I for one look forward with great interest to the forthcoming revised edition of the Abbé's work.'

In many respects the Abbé displays a truly wonderful insight into things. For instance, in his finally corrected work there is a passage (evidently a late interpolation) in which he sums up in a few brief sentences his opinion of British dominion in India, and which is all the more remarkable as coming from a Frenchman. In that passage he remarks:—

'The European Power which is now established in India is, properly speaking, supported neither by physical force nor by moral influence. It is a piece of huge, complicated machinery, moved by springs which have been arbitrarily adapted to it. Under the supremacy of the Brahmins the people of India hated their government, while they cherished and respected their rulers; under the supremacy of Europeans they hate and despise their rulers from the bottom of