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The author attempts a psychoanalytic interpretation of certain sociopsychological facts about India. More particularly, she promises a study of the ethics of work among the Indian working castes. Actually, we learn less about them than—in a rather chaotic fashion—about the caste of the Brahmans and about cow worship. The Hindu attitude towards work is generally characterized as being 'hypocritical'. It seems to us that this expression would be more justified with regard to our own society than to Hindu ideology which leaves dirty work for the lower castes as something ethically suitable for them alone. The Brahman who uses things made out of the leather of a cow is not a hypocrite. He does not have to pretend not to use such things as the use of leather is absolutely justified, not only because the leather is not identical with the living cow, which it would be a sin for the Brahman to kill, but because the leather worker who produces such articles for the use of the Brahmans as well as of everybody, does so according to the Karma and is fulfilling his ethical duty. The author also sees hypocrisy in the fact that the ascetic practices of the Brahman are not sublimations; but rather distorted satisfactions of instincts.
The history of the Brahman's coming to power is also discussed, but in an unsatisfactory way. We read first that the invaders subdued the Dravidians who became the lower castes; but no mention is made of the fact that the invaders were already divided into castes, and that the Brahman shared the advantages of being a member of a ruling class with the Kshatriya, the fighter, whose relative power varied in different periods of the later development.
The Brahman is held responsible for the entire Hinduistic creed which he is said to use for the purpose of obtaining personal wealth. The author does not even give him the credit of having faith in the religion he created. But—and that is one of the most interesting problems of the psychology of orga