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THE MEMOIRS OF A CAT
gatorily) by the masses throughout the middle-ages. Magnificent temples and cxpensive religious ceremonics do not cvidence piety; they are tokens of vain glory on the part of the ruling class, and monuments to the misery of the masses. The squandering of national wcalih on such unproductive purposes necessarily obstructs the economic development of socictv. Instead of being in circulation and thereby reproducing itself, the greater part of national wcalth, representing the unpaid labour of the masses, is converted into heaps of granite and gold. Such a systein means ever increasing exploitation of the masses, which takes the forms of slavery, forced labour, and serfdom; castc system is the peculiar form that slavery was given in India.
The cult of simple life and renunciation of things temporal offers moral and religious justification for the poverty of the masses on which mcdiacval socicty is based. To outgrow economic backwardness and the corresponding low intellectual and cultural level, a people must reject this pernicious cult. Preachers of this cult, be they sincere saints or talkative philosophers, objectively are defenders of mediaeval backwardness. A country cannot develop industrially and prosper commercially beyond the rigid limits set by feudal. patriarchal social relations, so long as the masses of its people remain satisfied with the most primitive conditions of life. An increase in the necessities of
