Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/162

146 most heinous offender against the law of God and man. But probably the most correct interpretation is that furnished by the broad and eclectic Bombay Review. That worthy reviewer has ascertained, by light of the most recent researches in Persia, that Dustoor is the father of that disastrous system of dusturi which is eating up the Municipality, the Commissariat, and every other Department of State. This is a hit. It shows how many others, besides the priest-ridden Parsis, are writhing in the cruel grip of the Dustoor. The Municipal Commissioner, the Commissary General, the Railway Agent, the Viceroy, the Secretary of State, all, all are under the baneful influence of this father of Dustoori. Worse still, the Ráo Sáhib Vishwanáth Náráyan Mandlik, in his great work on Hindu Law, openly says that Dustoor means Custom. Cruel custom has been the ruin of India's social life, and Ráo Sáhib Vishwanáth Náráyan Mandlik, C.S.I., F.R.A.S., conclusively proves that the Dustoor is Custom itself! Truth is stranger than fiction.

Such, then, is the origin of Dustoor. There