(From a letter)
Sir — If we were only true to ourselves and to our better moments of life, India would not be what it is at present. Progress and reform are so painfully slow. I feel we would take four centuries, nay more, for what Japan was able to achieve in 40 years! Look at your society, its social life and its religious practices; the education and amelioration of women is proceeding at a very leisurely pace. Look at the standing disgrace of the early premature widowhood of so many of your young and deserving sisters! It is certainly a creation of your social system. Look at your present day marriages. The ‘Mitakshara’ tells you and your Hindu Law Professor dins it into your ears that even in those ancient days, a marriage for money consideration was an Asura form looked down upon! A third pressing matter comes uppermost to my mind, in the days of non-Brahmin agitation and the 80 per cent of Madras going sullen and unrepresented! The unification of all the various sects with intermarriage and free social intercourse, is absolutely necessary, and it is a step long overdue.
Julius
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