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130 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the contrast between Musalmans and Hindus, by saying that the worst that can be said of a Muslim was that he had a tasteless mess which he called a dish fit for kings, and wanted all to share it with him, thrusting it down the throats of such as did not relish it and would rather not have it, while his Hindu brother, who prided himself on his cookery, retired into the privacy of his kitchen and greedily devoured all that he had cooked, without permitting even the shadow of his brother to fall on his food, or sparing even a crumb for him. This was said not altogether in levity ; and in fact, I once asked Mahatma Gandhi to justify this feature of his faith to me.”
What answer the Mahatma gave to his question, Mr. Mahmed Ali did not disclose. The fact is that however much the Hindus may wish, Hindu religion cannot become a missionary religion like Islam or Christianity. It is not that the Hindu religion was never a missionary religion. On the contrary, it was once a missionary religion—indeed could not but have been a missionary religion, otherwise it is difficult to explain how, it could have spread over an area so vast as the Indian continent.* But once a missionary religion, Hinduism perforce ceased to be a missionary religion after the time when the Hindu society developed its system of castes. For, caste is incompatible with conversion. To be able to convert a stranger to its religion, it is not enough for a community to offer its creed. It must be in a position to admit the convert to its social life and to absorb and assimilate him among its kindred. It is not possible for the Hindu society to satisfy this prerequisite of effective conversion. There is nothing to prevent a Hindu, with a missionary zeal, to proceed to convert an alien to the Hindu faith. But before he converts the alien, he is bound to be confronted with the question : What is to be the caste of the convert ? According to the Hindus, for a person to belong to a caste he must be born in it. A convert is not born in a caste, therefore he belongs to no caste. This is also an important question. More than political or religious, man is a social animal. He may not have, need not have, religion ; he may not have, need not have, politics. He must have society ; he cannot do without society. For a Hindu to be without caste is to be without society. Where there is no society for the convert, how
*On the question whether the Hindu Religion was a missionary Religion and if it was, why it ceased to be so, see my essay on Caste and Conversion in the Annual Number of the Telugu Samachar for 1926.