separately by themselves, no doubt these changes might furnish material for a substantial volume, for no person would now be so foolish as to repeat the assertion so long maintained unchallenged that the Hindu nation is completely apathetic, unchanging, and non-progressive in the modern sense. But in editing the Abbe's work I have confined myself to modifying such statements as seemed to require modification, and have avoided as far as possible any digressions that were not suggested by the text itself.
Petty local differences in civil and religious affairs are a marked feature of Hinduism, just as almost innumerable subdivisions and sub-sections and sub-sub-sections are a marked feature of the caste system. Hence it is that much which is perfectly true of one locality is false of another; and accordingly it is impossible to describe the many details of Hindu life and character without mental reservations as to possible exceptions. Nevertheless, there are certain broad, fundamental principles underlying these many differences and inequalities; and it is upon these that the Abbé rears the fabric of his extraordinary work. Moreover, the Abbé appears to me to avoid the many pitfalls of this uneven field of investigation with peculiar skill. It would be wrong to say that all his observations are generally applicable or perfectly just, but, taken as a whole, they are remarkably true and unprejudiced.
I am here tempted to quote at some length the observations concerning the Abbé and his researches made by a prominent Hindu, the Honourable Dewan Bahadur Srinavasa Raghava Iyengar, CLE., at a meeting of the Madras Presidency College Literary Society in May, 1896. This gentleman is well fitted to express an opinion on a subject of the kind, for not only has he been for some years past Inspector-General of Registration in Madras, a department of the public service which in its dealings is in closer touch
