socially to the lowest level. Nothing was more honorable for a Sudra, according to, the
Manu Shastra, that to serve the Brahmins and other higher castes.
The social laws accorded the Brahmin class distinctive privileges and an honored place in
society. "A Brahmin who remembers the Rig Veda", says the Manu Shastra, "is absolutely
sinless, even if he debases all the three worlds." Neither any tax could be imposed on a
Brahmin, nor he could be executed for any crime. The Sudras, on the contrary, could never
acquire any property, nor retain any assets. Not allowed to sit near a Brahmin or touch him,
the Sudras were not permitted to read the sacred scriptures!
India was drying up and losing, her vitality. Divided into numerous petty states, struggling
for supremacy amongst them, the whole country had been given to lawlessness, mal-
administration and tyranny. The country had, furthermore, severed itself from the rest of
the world and retired into her shell. Her fixed beliefs and the growing rigidity of her iniquit-
ous social structure, norms, rites and customs had made her mind rigid and static. Its pa-
rochial outlook and prejudices of blood, race and color carried within it the seeds of destruc-
tion. Vidya Dhar MaHajjan, formerly Professor of History in the Punjab University College,
writes about the state of affairs in India on the eve of Muslim conquest:
"The people of India were living in isolation from the rest of the world. They were so much
contented with themselves that they did not bother about what was happening outside
their frontiers. Their ignorance of the developments outside their country put them in a very
weak position. It also created a sense of stagnation among them. There was decay on all
sides. There was not much life in the literature of the period. Architecture, painting and fine
arts were also adversely affected. Indian society had become static and caste system had
become very rigid. There was no remarriage of widows and restrictions with regard to food
and drink became very rigid. The untouchables were forced to live outside the towns."
ARABIA
The idea of virtue, of morals, was unknown to the ancient Bedouin. Extremely fond of
wine and gambling, he was hardhearted enough to bury alive his own daughter. Pillage of
caravans and cold blooded murder for paltry gains were the typical methods to still the
demands of the nomad. The Bedouin maiden, enjoyed no social status, could be bartered
away like other exchangeable goods or cattle or be inherited by the deceased's heir. There
were certain foods reserved for men which could not be taken by women. A man could have
as many wives as he liked and could dispose of his children if he had not enough means to
provide for their sustenance.
The Bedouin was bound by unbreakable bonds of fidelity to his family, blood relations
and, finally, to the tribe. Fights and forays were his sport and murder a trifling affair. A mi-
nor incident sometimes gave rise to a sanguine and long drawn warfare between two po-
werful tribes. Oftentimes these wars were prolonged to as many as forty years in which
thousands of tribesmen came to a violent end.