THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12085, 14 August 1917, Page 8

THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.

The population of India is far more diverse than is generally thought. They talk about 150 different languages, and are divided up into forty-three distinct nationalities. There are 2378 main castes, besides a hrge number of subcastes. There are 200,000,000 Hindus, from which, fortunately, we can draw lighting men; 60,000.000 Mohammedans, while among tho Hindus there are 50,000,000 of degraded people of .no caste, whoso touch, or even shadow, is supposed to cause pollution. The girls are of all sor'ts, bright little things "with pounds'/worth of gold ornaments round their necks and. arms and in their ears and noses. These are Brahman children, who must be. married before they are ten, and are then kept secluded in their mothers' homes till the final marriage ceremonies are complete, when they aro passed on Vo the houses of their mothers-in-law. A Brahman or Hindu girl has refined features, and in figure is what th> French call petite. Their carriage is erect, their limbs are beautifully mouldfd. and their every action is graceful. With regard to families, twenty people will frequently Jive in the same house dependent on a solitary wage-earner. Limited in number but mighty in influence are the Parsees, who hold the wealth of Bombay in the hollow of their hands and dwell in the loveliest mansions around the coast. They conform to European customs, and live as much like Europeans as it.is possible for a coloured race. They build hospitals and colleges after the European, manner. Their women are not merely well educated, but as free to travel and to max with men as the. women ot an alien ra.ee. Yet these people the Jews of India as they have been called, still worship the sun, and in tho'r Towers of Silence lay out their dead to be. devoured by the birds of tho air. The reason is. that they refuse to defile the (dements of earth, fire and water with dead bodies, and so deliver them up to ha torn to pieces by the vultures.