Now a caste has an unquestioned right to excommunicate any man who is guilty of breaking the rules of the caste and when it is realized that excommunication involves a complete cesser of social intercourse, it will be agreed that as a form of punishment there is really little to choose between excommunication and death. On the other hand, if the group is intolerant, and does not bother about the means it adopts to stifle such individuals, they will perish and the reform will die out. If the group is tolerant and fair-minded in dealing with such individuals, they will continue to assert, and in the end will succeed in converting their fellows. But whether the reform will continue depends upon what scope the group affords for such individual assertion. The assertion by the individual of his own opinions and beliefs, his own independence and interest - as over against group standards, group authority, and group interests-is the beginning of all reform.
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