Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/75

 THE ANAL-EROTIC FACTOR IN HINDU RELIGION 329

we may now proceed to examine some of the more marked and universal traits of character and temperament of the Hindus with a view of ascertaining, if possible, whether the singularity of the mental make-up of these people, as well as the antipathy they invariably display towards other religions whose main-spring, so to speak, lies in a totally different category of ideas can be traced to the distinctive type of sublimations and reaction-

■ formations of their anal erotism. Ernest Jones ^ writes: 'the most typical sublimation product of

the " retaining " tendency is the character trait of parsimony, one

of Freud's triad; in the most pronounced cases it goes on to

actual miserliness. ' No one conversant with Hindu character

probably not even a Hindu himself, would hesitate to admit that

as a class the Hindus are niggardly and avaricious, especially the

Brahmans and Vaisyas, or trader caste. This trait of the Hindu

character is piquantly dealt with in one of Rudyard Kipling's

stories. 8 Although the facts as narrated are made to proceed

from a disreputable European, they represent so much that is so

true that 1 cannot refrain from quoting the whole passage: 'A

year spent among native States ought to send a man back to the

Decencies and the Law Courts and the Rights of the Subject with

a supreme contempt for those who rave about the oppressions ot

£|. our brutal bureaucracy. One month nearly taught an average

"=" Englishman that it was the proper thing to smite anybody of I

mean aspect and obstructive tendencies on the mouth with a ~-|


 * '| - shoe. Hear what an intelligent loafer said. His words are at least

as valuable as these babbhngs. He was, as usual, wonderfully

drunk, and the gift of speech came upon him. The conversation

. -: — he was a great politician, this loafer — had turned on the

.• poverty of India. "Poor?" said he. "Of course it's poor. Oh, yes,

- d — d poor. And I'm poor, an' you're poor, altogether. Do you

■ ; . expect people will give you money without you ask 'em.? No, I

tell you, Sir, there's enough money in India to pave Hell with if you could only get at it. I've kep' servants in my day. Did they I ■ ever leave me without a hundred or a hundred and fifty rupees

put by — and never touched ? You mark that. Does any black , man who had been in Guv'ment service go away without hundreds an' hundreds put by, and never touched.? You mark that. Money.?

• Ernest Jones: op. cit. ■

= 'From Sea to Sea' Vol. I, p. 196. .., _ , '