Thread by @gauravsabnis

#trivia quiz. Who wrote this -

"Well, you Hindus, you say all the present sufferers belong to the class of sinners of the previous births. Good. You say the present oppressors were saintly people in their previous births, hence they enjoy power. Let me admit that your ancestors'

' were very shrewd people, they tried to find out theories strong enough to hammer down all the efforts of reason and disbelief. But let us analyse how far this argument can really stand.

From the point of view of the most famous jurists punishment can be justified only from'

'three or four ends to meet which it is inflicted upon the wrongdoer. They are retributive, reformative and deterrent. The retributive theory is now being condemned by all the advanced thinkers.
Deterrent theory is also following the same fate. Reformative theory is the only one'

'which is essential, and indispensable for human progress. It aims at returning the offender as a most competent and a peace-loving citizen to the society. But what is the nature of punishment inflicted by God upon men even if we suppose them to be offenders.'

'You say he sends them to be born as a cow, a cat, a tree, a herb or a best. You enumerate these punishments to be 84 lakhs. I ask you, what is its reformative effect upon man? How many men have met you who say that they were born as a donkey in previous birth for having'

'committed any sin? None. Don't quote your Puranas. I have no scope to touch your mythologies.
Moreover do you know that the greatest sin in this world is to be poor. Poverty is a sin, it is a punishment.'
[...]

'What do you think shall be the fate of a man who has been born in a poor and illiterate family of say a chamar or a sweeper. He is poor, hence he cannot study. He is hated & shunned by fellow human beings who think themselves to be superior having been born in a higher caste.'

'What about the punishment of those people who were deliberately kept ignorant by the haughty and egotist Brahmans and who had to pay the penalty by bearing the stream of being led in their ears for having heard a few sentences of your Sacred Books of learning—the Vedas?'

'My dear friends! These theories are the inventions of the privileged ones! They justify their usurped power, riches and superiority by the help of these theories. Yes! It was perhaps Upton Sinclair, that wrote at some place, that just make a man a believer in immortality and'

'then rob him of all his riches and possessions. He shall help you even in that ungrudgingly. The coalition amongst the religious preachers and possessors of power brought forth jails, gallows, knouts and these theories."

Smart young man!