336 OWEN BERKELEY-HILL
A religion which preaches an * everlasting consciousness' so far from affording him solace only tends to drive the Hindu into further depths of distraction. J. Then as regards the character trait of irritability and short
^_ temper. It is awell-known characteristic of Hindu legendary asceticism
f: that its votaries are insanely short-tempered and vindictive. Incal-
culable is the trouble wrought in legend by the maledictions ot irascible rishis.'^ No one can deny that as a general rule the Hindus exhibit a disastrous propensity to quarrel, especially in the family circle, and to this trait is added, what is still worse, vindictiveness. Reference has already been made to the miserhness, meanness and pettiness of the Hindus, and as these traits are so well known there is no call to notice them further. That love of orderliness which we may observe as a conspicuous feature of Hindu religious ritual, is rarely met with in the guise of the power to organise, except perhaps in the pursuit of wealth. The tendency to dictate and to tyrannise is such a notorious trait of all Oriental character that it is not surprising to find it a prominent feature of Hindu character. Indeed one of the most odious manifestations of tyranny may be regarded as quite peculiar to the Hindus, and that is the tyranny of the higher castes, especially the Brahmans, over those of lower caste. Obstinacy is so typical a character trait of the Hindu that its various manifestations have been the tlieme for innumerable dissertations on the 'changeless East'. It was to this trait in the Hindu character that Mattliew Arnold referred in his celebrated lines:
The East bowed low before the blast, In patient deep disdain; ^ She let the legions thunder past,
Then plunged in thought again.
It will appear that when we come to consider the question of the source of the antipathy that is felt by other races, especially the European and African, for the Hindu, from the standpoint of
- anal-erotic complexes, the answer to it is not very difficult to find,
for we see how the anal erotism of the Hindu produces a congeries of character traits which are the very antithesis to those of Europeans, especially the English. The character traits of the English people ' William Archer: India and the Future, p. 20S.
