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India to most represents a land of mysticism and romance. Its beauty is augmented by the mystery of its dance and temples and its incomprehensible religion. These concepts crumble to the dust after reading this book which lashes out mercilessly at this land's antiquated modes
of living and thought. Baronte who has lived in India a good twenty i years paints a picture of India which brings into focus many aspects of India's life which are unknown to most. We know the beauty of the Taj Mahal and the opulescence of the Indian Princes and a bit of the filth and squalor to which the greater portion of Indian population is subjected. We also have a token familiarity with what the caste system implies.
Baronte, who is preoccupied only with the Hindu religion, strips the religious connotation from the caste system and labels the caste what they actually are “trade unions”—the “Potters”, the “Weavers”, the “Washers”, the “Toddy Drawers”, the “Carter”. The members of these castes share the same mode of existing and with few exceptions can never escape the confines of this “Religious Iron-Ring”. Doomed are the members of one caste never to look upon a higher caste's face, primarily because of their lowly trade.
Baronte writes considerably on the Hindus preoccupation with sex and the worship of the lingam, the symbol of Siva, god of the force of destruction. The author is by no means objective in his narrative. His description, for example, of the preparation of girls (some as young as three years) for sexual intercourse is replete with protestations of disgust and abhorrence, as are his lurid detailed accounts of always savage and sometimes cannibalistic rites of some of the Hindu castes. Although the author cannot conceal his anger at these conditions and is too often noticeably shocked, the fact remains that so would the most mildly civilized people.
The value of the book lies in that other books of recent print tell of the amazing progress that India has made but have not cle