Bateille, Srinivas, Damle and Shahani - Caste - A Trend Report and Bibliography

7/16/2019 Bateille, Srinivas, Damle and Shahani - Caste - A Trend Report and Bibliography

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CASTE:ATREND REPORTAND BIBLIOGRAPHY

by

M. N. SRINIVAS (Professor of Sociology, University of Delhi)Y. B. DAMLE (Reader in Sociology, University of Poona)MISS S. SHAHANI (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Delhi)

ANDR BETEILLE (Lecturer in Sociology, University of Delhi)

I

The phenomenon of caste in India has engaged the attention of observant individuals,both foreigners and Indians, since early times. The first foreigner to record hiscomments was Megasthenes, a Greek, who, as early as the 4th century B.c., remarkedon the way in which caste restricted the choice of a spouse and of an occupation.He was followed, over the centuries, by many others who came to India as traders,travellers, missionaries, and, in the last two hundred years, as administrators.

Besides foreign obervers, Indians also wrote about caste. There was a difference,however, in their approach, for they wrote not like alien observers who found caste

very different from the society they were used to in their own countries, but as men

deeply involved in, and concerned with, the system. They did not aim at givinga description of a unique mode of social stratification to people unfamiliar with it,but with

justifyingit to themselves and

others,all of whom were members of Hindu

society. The early writers, most of them Brahmins, conceptualized caste as a fourfolddivision of society, first mentioned in the I~rg Veda, and called it varna. But at thesame time they mentioned occupations and groups which they did not try to placewith reference to the four Vanlas. During the post-Vedic period, an attempt was madeto reconcile the varna idea with the fact of the existence of several endogamousgroups. These several castes, it was stated, originated from alliances and mis-alliances between the four original varna. (The four varna did not, however, includethe Untouchables who constituted a fifth category of outcastes.) The ancient texts

which make up a large part of the Hindu sacred literature present an &dquo;ideal&dquo; versionof caste, and do not show much correspondence with facts. The theological notionsof .ram.rara (rebirth), karma (the idea that a mans present birth is decided by deedsdone in a previous incarnation), and dharma (moral or religious duty), were broughtin to support the observance of caste practices. Finally, Brahminical thinkers

developed and systematized concepts of pollution and purity which so effectivelygive expression to, and also strengthen, the hierarchical distances prevailingbetween castes.

II

One important effect of British rule, and of the incursion of European missionaries,was the stimulation of intellectual interest in the history, art and architecture, lan-

guages, especially Sanskrit, and the races and religions of India.Astudy of theSanskrit texts and of the religious ideas of the Hindus brought to light the greatimportance given to caste by early Hindu thinkers. Scholars such as Max hi3Her,Monier-Williams, Wilson, Colebrooke, Zimmer, Muir, Jacobi and Bahler devoted

themselves to Indological studies, making use mainly of the old Indian texts. Theirwork sparked an intellectual interest in men like B. G. Tilak,A. Coomaraswamy,


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V. Sukhtankar and P. V. Kane, all of them belonging to a generation which had beenput on the defensive by the incursion into India of West European culture and ideas.These modern thinkers, unable to defend siittee, thuggee, slavery, infant marriage, andthe whole range of customs and institutions which they suddenly saw as social evils,became self-critical and defensive. But the gradual piecing together of Indias past,thanks to the labours of Indian and

Europeanscholars, did much to restore national

self-respect.The discovery of Sanskrit by the Western world led to the translation of many

ancient Sanskrit texts into English and German. This in turn brought about a &dquo;book-view&dquo; of ancient Indian culture and society, a view which had its own serious short-

comings. The exact dates of the authorship of a majority of the texts are still uncertain,scholars differing widely in their respective estimation of the dates, the regions fromwhich the authors hailed are not always known, and there is a deplorable tendencyto accept as historically or factually true all that is mentioned in a text, even where

there are contradictions between one text and another. Because of this approachto the texts, scholars tended, until very recently, to accept as axiomatic the view thatthe modern multiplicity of castes grew out of the Vedic fourfold division of society.The &dquo;explanation&dquo; of modern Indian social institutions was sought in the &dquo;facts&dquo;culled from the texts-the older the text the more authoritative the explanationoffered in it-and uncritical Victorian anthropology was used to reconstruct Indian

&dquo;history&dquo;.Atypical work of this kind is E. K. Pillais Origin and Development of Ca.rte,published as recently as y 5 ~. It draws heavily on the Vedas and Smritis. Both raceand Hinduism are treated as

importantfactors in the

developmentof the caste

system, and even totemism and ancestor-worship are considered relevant. The

approach to the study of caste is a strange blend of old-fashioned, uncritical and

speculative ethnology, and Indology.While Indologists were concentrating on the sacred literature of the Hindus,

another class of writers on caste was coming into existence. British administrators,most of them official of the Indian Civil Service, with intellectual interests, inquiredinto the customs and manners of the people of the areas they were working in.

They wrote about what they actually observed, even though their observations weremade in a theoretical framework which has now become outmoded. Some of these

administrators collected useful, though somewhat superficial, information aboutcastes in their areas. Baines, Nesfield, Blunt, Crooke, Russell, Sherring, Steele,Thurston, Enthoven, Risley, OMalley and Hutton are the names which come

readily to ones mind in this connection.Afew civilians, including Nesfield, Risleyand Hutton, more than merely collected data: they tried to investigate the connection

prevailing between caste and race, and between caste and occupation. Thanksto the curiosity of British officials, the gazetteers, the reports on castes and tribes,

the settlement reports, the learned journals and the decennialcensuses

becamerepositories of valuable ethnographic data. The collection of data for the censuses,however, was marked by the claims of ambitious castes to belong to much higherdivisions than their neighbours were willing to concede them. They took on fancy

1 Prof. J. Filliozat writes of the Dharma Shastras: "Possible motives of reform, however, deprive them ofthe nature of descriptive documents. Even when they are completely of this nature (descriptive documents),their value is diminished becaure of the uncertainties regarding the exact period in which they were originallywritten and whose customs they noted. Finally, there is uncertainty concerning the extent and the localization, in

space as much as in time, of their application. Their use in the history of social phenomena and their

conditionsof

development requiresa verification

by comparisonswhich can

preciselybe furnished

by chance evidence from texts of other schools." (Foreword to Dr. D. R. Chananas Slavery inAncient

India, New Delhi, I960.) (Italics ours.)


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and high-sounding names, and demanded, often with success, to be known by theirnew names. This, apart from breaking the continuity in classification and makingfigures in one census not comparable with the next or previous one, caused a gooddeal of ill-feeling among the local population.And since the twenties, nationalistIndians had begun to feel that the recording of caste data in the census and govern-ment records increased the fissiparous tendencies in Indian society and they urgedthat the census inquiries should not include caste. (They also disliked the showing oftribals separately from the Hindus.) After the attainment of Independence, theIndian Government decided not to record caste in the census. However, they couldnot carry out their intentions fully for the Constitution provided certain safeguardsand privileges to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and theAnglo-Indians whichnecessitated recording their figures separately in the 195 census. Thus the latter

gives, for the whole of India as well as for each State, figures for the ScheduledCastes and Tribes by sex, livelihood, and rural-urban classification. ForAnglo-

Indians, however, figuresare

given only by sex.Besides the Indologist and the administrator, a third class of persons also becameinterested in caste, and wrote extensively about it. These were the Christian mis-

sionaries, who, in the course of their proselytizing activities, and in their schools and

hospitals, came into close contact with the local population.Abbe Dubois Customs,Manner.r and Ceremonies of the Hindus (Oxford, 3rd edition, igo6), Mrs. SinclairStevensons The Rites of the Twice-born (Oxford, 1920), W. H. Wisers The Hindu Jaj-mani System (Lucknow, 1936), and Stephen Fuchs The Children of Hari (Vienna,1950), are typical examples of the contributions made by foreign missionaries towardsthe understanding of Indian social institutions including caste. Of these, Wises

study is remarkable for its method as well as its content: it is surprisingly modein,being based entirely on the intimate field-observation of a single village, and it doesnot indulge in any speculations about the alleged history and origins of caste.

III

While much of the material recorded by these Western intellectuals was of aninventorial type, there was also some theorizing on caste. Risley is known for his

attempt to link up caste and race. Two Indian scholars who followed in the foot-

steps of Risley were G. S. Ghurye and D. N. Majumdar. Ghurye, who received his

training under Rivers, Haddon and Hobhouse, has written a standard monographentitled Cafte and Race in India (1932). The first edition of the book included a chapteron caste and race which was, however, deleted in the subsequent editions, but hasbeen replaced in the latest edition which bears the title Caste arrd Class in India (19 5 8).

Ghurye triesto

providea

history ofthe

institution ofcaste

from Vedictimes to the

present day. Part of this history is, by its very nature, speculative. In the latter partof the book, however, he makes a brave attempt to study the efFects of British rule,nationalism and other modern forces on caste.

Senart, Bougl6 and Hocart are prominent among the earlier theoreticians of thecaste system. They drew mainly from literary sources and all three wrote their bookson caste in French. While Senarts study was translated into English in I 9 30, HocartsCasts was translated only in I 9 j o and Bougl6s work has not yet been translated in its

entirety. Hocart, it must be mentioned here, tried to compare Indian caste with castein Ceylon and with the system of social stratification obtaining in Fiji.


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Max Weber is another important theoretician and his study of Indian religion(Tbe Religion of India, Illinois, 19 5 8) was translated into English only in 19 5 8.AmongWebers source materials are censuses and reports which provide data which are

always superficial, and occasionally, not quite accurate. Weber also made use ofhistorical and Indological material. His chief interest was in religion, and he tookaccount of caste

mainlyas it

appearedin the sacred

texts,and used recent data

onlyto obtain a more dynamic view. Both his theoretical interests and the kind of datawhich he used, led him to view caste in all-India terms, and he did not realize sufficientlythat caste was a highly localized phenomenon. This is not to deny the value of hisstudy which contains many penetrating insights into caste and Hinduism.Another group of studies deserves mention if only for the fact that it stemmedfrom the empirical tradition which later led to a fruitful blending of theory and field-work. W. H. R. Rivers, S. C. Roy, J. H. Hutton, J. P. Mills, V. Elwin, W. V. Grigson,

and C.von

Firer Haimendorfare

among those who made painstaking studies oftribal communities which enjoyed only minimal contact with the plains Hindus.David Mandelbaums brief and stimulating article, &dquo;Culture Change among the NilgiriTribes&dquo; (American Anthropologist, Vol. 43, 1941, pp. ig-z6), describes a caste-likeinterdependence of four montane groups, the Kotas, Badagas, Todas and Kurumbas.The study by Stephen Fuchs, already mentioned, is also significant in shedding lighton untouchability from the tribal end.The above situation held good until the end of the Second World War when,

for the first time, trained social scientists from India, the U.K. and the U.S.A., startedmaking intensive and systematic studies of Indian social life. There is, in their work,a fusion of theoretical interests and data collected in the field. In the main, they haveconfinedthemselves tomaking intimate studies of small areas, including single villages,or individual castes. This is in direct contrast to the previous macrocosmic and specu-lative studies based on a minimum of observed data. The modern field-worker

spends a fairly long time in the selected field of study, sufhcient to know the inhabi-tants intimately; he also has the concepts and techniques to analyse the data which

he has collected. One of the first results of this kind of study is to provide a pictureof the day-to-day relations between castes inhabiting a village or town. There is ashift in emphasis from varna to jati. The varna are only four, and they have an all-India spread, whereas jati.r are innumerable, small, endogamous and local groups.While the position of each varna is definite and immutable and is supported by longtradition, the position of several jati.r, especially in the middle regions of the hierarchy,is vague, and permits, if not encourages, disputes regarding mutual status.There are other discrepancies too between varna and jati. For instance, a caste,

.believed to have a particular varna status, is found to be practising an occupationthat is actually associated with some other varna. The varna model is unable to explainthe facts of caste as they are found in the field-situation, and there is an increasedawareness of the tremendous complexity of caste. Instead of the picture of a static,immutable, India-wide, fourfold hierarchy, we find one in which there are innumer-able small groups, even in a single linguistic area, and mutual rank between them isvague, arguable and alterable. The caste system is also seen to vary from regionto region. Caste at the all-India level may be said to be made up of several distinct

regional, hierarchical systems and the varna system provides, to some extent at least,a common language which makes ranking in one region understandable in another.


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IV

M. N. Srinivass Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India (Oxford, I 9 j 2)marks a definite swing away from the speculative search for origins. It draws atten-tion to the discrepancies between varna and jati, and to the importance of the latterat the local level. It also tries to show how a dominant group, owning land and havingmartial traditions, is able to claim Ksbatrba status even though many of its rites andcustoms are not those of the classic ICrhatriyas. The study contains, at least in germ,two concepts which have influenced recent research-Sanskritization and dominant

caste.~

The concept of Sanskritization can be briefly presented in the authors own words.&dquo;The caste system is far from a rigid system in which the position of each componentcaste is fixed for all time. :Movement has always been possible, and especially so inthe middle regions of the hierarchy.Alow caste was able to rise to a higher positionin the

hierarchy by adopting vegetarianismand

teetotalism,and

by sanskritizingits

ritual and pantheon. In short, it took over as far as possible, the customs, rites andbeliefs of the Brahmins, and the adoption of the Brahminical way of life by a lowcaste seems to have been frequent, though theoretically forbidden. This process hasbeen called Sanskritization in this book, in preference to Brahn-unization, ascertain Vedic rites are confined to the Brahmins and the two other twice-born*

castes.&dquo; (Srinivas, 195 2, p. 30.)The concept was developed largely around the change in the position of the martial

Coorgs who were probably marginal to Hinduism in earlier times, but who, when

they came into contact with Brahmins and Lingayats, castes enjoying a high ritualstatus, began to imitate them and at the same time laid claims to being Kshatriyas.

Srinivas developed this idea further in his &dquo;Note on Sanskritization and Westerni-zation&dquo; (if); 6), in which he pointed out that, in caste, mobility occurred for entire

groups, as against class in which individual persons, or families, achieved a higherstatus. In Hindu caste, Sanskritization is an important part of the process of social

mobility. Westernization also provides a channel of mobility, and occurs more

among the higher castes. In fact, while the higher castes are getting more Western-

ized, the lowercastes are

gettingmore

Sanskritized. But the processes of Sanskritiza-tion and Westernization are not mutually exclusive, and the lower castes are not

exempt from Westernization. In modern India, the two processes are linked together.It is possible, however, to envisage Westernization occurring without Sanskritizationand vice versa.

The idea of dominant caste is implicit in the works of earlier writers. In the Coorgstudy, however, we have the picture of a group which, because of numerical, economicand political dominance, moved up in the caste hierarchy by Sanskritizing its ways.

This concept was also developed separately in Srinivass article &dquo;The DominantCaste in Rampura&dquo; ( i ~ S ~), where he listed numerical strength, political and economicpower, ritual status, and Western education as the criteria of dominance. When all

the criteria were found present in a single caste, it enjoyed decisive dominance.

Examples of castes which enjoy such dominance are to be found in several parts ofIndia. Political life in modern India, especially at the State and lower levels, cannotbe understood without reference to dominant caste. The idea also provides a clueto the understanding of the political structure in pre-British India and the mainten-ance of law and order in rural areas. Dr. B. S. Cohns paper, &dquo;Some Notes on Law

and Change in North India&dquo; ( i ~ 5 ~), throwssome

lighton

the problem.On

the basisof research carried out in a talu,~a of Jaunpur district in Eastern Uttar Pradesh,


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Cohn defined the position of the Thakurs as the controlling power in the area in which

they were dominant. The Thakurs conquered the area in the seventeenth century,and they acted as the local rulers, except in some areas where lineages of Brahmins,Bhumihars,Ahirs, Jats or Gujars replaced them. In the eighteenth century, theselocal ruling lineages of Thakurs were subordinate to the rulers of the successorstates of the Mughal Empire. The British continued to recognize them as ruling

lineages, and entrusted them with the collection of land revenue, and the maintenanceof law and order. They were eminently suited for discharging both these tasks.Matters which could not be settled by a caste panchayat, and disputes between castes,were referred to the dominant Thakurs who, because they were landlords, could

exercise a fair amount of control over the other castes through their social, economic,ceremonial, and traditional ties. They claimed that their voice was final in matters

concerning the traditional social order and it was part of their prerogative to enforcethe rules of the caste system, while the Brahmin was only adviser to the ruler, and

interpreterof the law.

The concept of dominance shows that it was not always, or even usually, theBrahmin who dominated the caste hierarchy, contrary to the views ofAbbe Dubois

and others who believed that the whole system had been created by the machinations

of the Brahmins to exploit it to their own advantage. This view is a popular one withreformers and politicians, and persists even today, as can be seen in B. N. Nairs

book, The DJtlafl7lC Brahmin (19 5 9). In actual fact, however, a caste which owned land

exercised an elective dominance, regardless of its ritual status. The Brahmin castes were genuinely dominant only when they owned land. Where land was owned byother and lower castes, the Brahmin retained his high ritual position, but had littleinfluence in secular matters, and even in ritual matters, he was likely to be brushedaside by a leader of the dominant caste. It was the landowning castes which were themost influential.

Even though Brahmin castes do not dominate everywhere, there is a tendencyfor the &dquo;Brahminical model&dquo; to prevail, and values and aspirations associated withBrahmins are upheld by all castes. The process of Sanskritization is closely linkedwith the Brahminical model. But the existence of the Brahminical model should not

be interpretedto mean that the

authorityof the Brahmin extended

everywhere.For instance, the enforcement of the sacred laws, mentioned in post-Vedic literature,was the prerogative of the ruler. Ghurye, referring to the sacred laws of theAryanswrites, &dquo;Much of the law proper is treated ... under the heading duties of the

Kshatriya.&dquo; (1957, p. S 4) ~There are also other models besides the Brahminical model, viz.: the Kshatriya

and Vaishya models. The existence of the Kshatriya model provides castes with aset of attitudes which makes them both respectful and responsive to authority. This

explains why Hindu castes imitated the ways and customs of not only Hindu kings, but

also Muslim and British rulers. D. F. Pocock has pointed out in his article &dquo;TheHypergamy of the Patidars&dquo; (1933) that the kingly model is represented, at the local

level, by the dominant caste which claims to be Kshatriya.The shift which has taken place in Indian sociology from the study of varna to_jati

is important indeed, but it should not be interpreted to mean that the varna conceptis useless and needs to be jettisoned. We have already seen that it provides modelsfor imitation by different jati.r. Also it makes the caste system of one region intelli-

gible in another, though this usually involves over-simplification and even distortion.

More important,an

aspiring caste states its goals in 1arna, and not jati,terms.

A jatiwhich claimed the same status as a locally higher one would incur the wrath of the


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latter, and of the dominant caste which would favour maintenance of the statues qua.Sanctions would at once be brought to bear on the ambitious caste. But a claim tobelong to a varna which is outside of, and beyond, the local hierarchy, would notarouse the same amount of hostility. These and a few other points are made inSrinivass brief paper &dquo;Varna and Caste&dquo; (i~S4).

It has been asked whether the village is a proper isolate for study in India. Srinivas

(yS2) has stated that the village has a vertical solidarity while caste has a horizontalsolidarity and that each loyalty cuts across the other. Dumont and Pocock (1956)argue, however, that what appears to be &dquo;village unity&dquo; is only the discipline imposedby the locally dominant caste. According to them, therefore, it is caste which is theproper unit of study. D. N. Niajumdar ( 1 9 j 8), however, has used the term &dquo;horizontalsolidarity&dquo; in an entirely different sense to mean the uniting of equal castes for thepromotion of their common interests. He has assumed that some castes are equal toeach other. Our contention is that the so-called equality does not prevent ideas of

mutual superiority being entertained. This does not, however, prevent the comingtogether of near-equal castes for political and other purposes.Dumont and Pocock are perhaps ignoring the bonds which arise from the occupa-

tional interdependence of hereditary groups, from the continued sharing of common

experience-flood, famine, epidemic, feast, fast and festival-and from an investingof territorial areas with religious values. Caste unity and village unity are both real:members of the same caste are distinguished territorially, while members of the samevillage are distinguished on the basis of caste. Such distinctions enable a systemof cross-cutting ties to be created which prevents either type of tie from imposing toogreat a strain on the rural social system.Two important concepts deserve mention here. One of them is Redfields idea

of Great Tradition and Little Tradition. He developed this concept to explain the

position of the peasant community vis-h-vis the wider society of which it is part,a problem which does not trouble the investigator of a primitive, non-literate com-munity. The towns and cities are centres of the Great Tradition, while villages areexpressions of the Little Tradition, and there is communication between them.McKim Marriott (i~S S) used this concept in his study of Kishan Garhi, an Uttar

Pradesh village, and he tried to explain the interaction of the Great and Little tradi-tions in terms ofcaste interaction. To Marriott,, the extensive and highly differentiatedcaste system is &dquo;a living monument to a primary adjustment among tribal peoplesemerging into a civilization of greater organized range and scope&dquo;.At the presenttime, according to Marriott,, the mobility of castes often occurs as a movement

away from the Little Community into the Great Community, the Sanskritization ofthe Coorgs being a good example of this process. Lastly, Marriott, believes that theelaborate ritual ranking of castes in the Little Communities of India must have beendeveloped outside the

villagesin sophisticated centres, that is, in the Great Com-

munities. (It may be added here that jati is an expression of the Little Communityand llama of the Great Tradition.)

It is now generally recognized that villages and castes are not isolated entities,but are part of a much wider political, economic, legal, religious and social system.Others besides Marriott have also tried to analyse this relationship; for instance,Bailey who emphasized economic ties in Orissa, and Srinivas who analysed the relationbetween religion and social structure among the Coorgs.D. F. Pocock, in a study of the Patidars of Gujarat, described the dynamics of caste

as a process of inclusion and exclusion. He argued that each caste tries to includeitself with the higher castes and, at the same time, dissociate itself from the lower


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castes. This process being widespread, the castes above refuse to accept the inclusionjust as the castes below try to elbow their way in.Asimilar process is found to occur

among the different levels within a caste, where an informal hierarchy based on seculardifferences is maintained by the attraction towards upper levels and the repulsiontowards lower levels. Inclusion and exclusion may be, however, defined as aspectsof a much wider hierarchical process, and not peculiar to a caste system. For instance,Warner and Lunt observed that in Yankee City the inclusion of some, and the exclu-sion of others, from membership of formal associations, helped to place individualsin a &dquo;class&dquo; hierarchy (Tbe Social Life of aA10dern Community, Yale, i~5o).

VI

In recent years, there has been a shift in emphasis from the &dquo;religious&dquo; to the

&dquo;secular&dquo; aspects of caste. Indias embarking on a programme of systematic economicdevelopment has resulted in a keen and almost clinical interest in the socio-economicfactors hindering progress. Applied or &dquo;action&dquo; research has been encouraged by theResearch Programmes Committee of the Planning Commission and a few other

agencies.Agood deal of the sociological research done by theAmericans in Indiahas a welfare or &dquo;action&dquo; bias. Studies have been undertaken of village leadership,power structure, communication of ideas, factions and so on, and the underlyingconcern has been to assess the future of democracy in India, and the success, or other-wise, of

community developmentprogrammes. Oscar Lewis

(1954),in his detailed

account of the factions in a Jat village, asserts that a knowledge of factions is vitalto the development worker. In this village, there were six factions: two were neutral,and the other four were divided into two hostile groups, consisting of two factionseach. The neutral factions, though likely to be ignored because they were notaggressive like the other factions, provided the only channel of communication whichexisted between the several groups in the village. Contacting one of the hostilefactions immediately cut off the ofhcial or the village worker from its opponents.To Oscar Lewis, factions are well-defined groups to be found in every caste,

and each faction has a long history of development and combines with other groupsin the village in order to pursue its interests. The opening up of new economic and

political opportunities in recent years has sharpened factionalism. Lewis studiesfactions not so much for their theoretical interest as for their pragmatic implications.He emphasizes that they are semi-permanent informal groups existing within theformal structure of the village. Pocock ( i ~ S 7) refutes this idea, and says that thefactions in a village are not related to caste, and certainly not inherent in it, but rather

they are interest groups, secondary in nature to kin and lineage, and not coextensivewith either, and

tendingto

permanence onlyin so far as the

particularinterests and

possibilities of conflict in a village remain the same over a long period of time. In

Gujarat, Pocock found that what appeared to be factions in the Patidar caste were

actually groups of Patidar families together with those members of lower castes whowere economically dependent upon them. Here again, the part that factions play inthe dynamic aspects of the permanent social structure has not been analysed.

It may be mentioned in this context that sufficient attention does not seem to have

been paid to the relationship between factions and dominant caste. Factions are

noticed, and become significant in developmental work only when they involve the

dominant caste, or when there is rivalry between two dominant castes neither ofwhich enjoys decisive dominance. Factions have also not been studied with reference


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to patron-client ties, and to their providing a set of bonds which run counter to caste,and occasionally, across villages as well.The &dquo;pragmatists&dquo; have also paid attention to rural leadership. Leaders are needed

to take villagers on to the path of development. The concern with the twin problemsof development and democracy has led Drs. R. Park and I. Tinker to bring togetherin one volume a series of essays entitled &dquo;Leadership and Political Institutions inIndia&dquo; (1960). Some of these essays are based on field-research, and point to the

general conclusion that most leaders develop in the important castes, that traditionalleaders still command respect (though leaders of a different and more modern typeare also emerging) and that, except very rarely, there is no such thing as an overallleadership of the village. Village leaders are always leaders because they belong toleading castes.The economic aspects of caste have been studied from two points of view: (i) the

study of the traditional economic pattern, known widely as the jajmani system; and

(2) the effects of technological and economic change on caste.The jajmani system was first studied in detail by Wiser (1936) in the course of a

field-study of a U.P. village. He found that the servicing and the artisan castes in thevillage were bound by tradition to perform certain services for certain families,usually of the dominant, landowning castes. The bond was traditional and hereditary,and continued for generations. The masters, for whom the services were performed,are the jajman (from the Sanskrit word)ajamana) and the servants are called kamin.The jajman pay the servants in grain, clothing and, sometimes, cooked food. The

quantity givenas also the manner of

payment

are both determined

bytradition.

Services, like those of the sweeper, are rewarded by payment once or twice a year,usually at the harvest; other services like those of the tailor, or the goldsmith, are

paid on a piece-work basis. But the payment is in kind, and is usually determined

by tradition. Such a system of payment is ideally suited to a subsistence economy inwhich cash is scarce, and there is a minimum of social and economic mobility.While the jajmani system, under different names, prevails all over India, cash

payments are made in north-western Mysore where commercial crops are grown.The only study we have of this is by E. Harper ( I 9 j 9). For lack of a vernacular name,

he calls it the &dquo;Malnad System&dquo;. Its distinctive features are: the use of money, saleof services in a free, competitive market; and a cash crop (betel-nut) which, for

centuries, has been exported to other parts of India, and on which the economy isbased. Harper claims that the AIa/nad g has the ryeight of tradition behind it. It is notknown where else, outside of the Malnad, such a system prevailed. Those areas inwhich commercial crops have been grown for a long time (e.g. parts of Gujarat)need to be investigate.The effects of recent political and economic changes on the caste system have been

studied

byF. G.

Baileyin his book, Caste and the Economic FrorJtrer

(1957).Bailey found, in his Orissa village, that the old caste hierarchy had been organizedaround those groups which owned most of the land. The extension of administration

under the British rule led to the integration of the area into a wider economy, andcertain new economic opportunities presented themselves to the villagers. These

opportunities were mainly taken advantage of by the immigrant castes who had noshare in the ownership of village land. They used their new-found money to buy outsome of the old landowners, as the owning of land was still a symbol of prestige.The establishment of Paw Britannica resulted in an increase in the population, and this

meant that at the village level, ancestral land was partitioned into uneconomic pieces.This often forced the smaller landowners to sell their land to the newly-rich. The


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I44

redistribution of village land was followed by changes in the political structure, that is,in the power alignment of castes. It is important to note that the struggle which thenew opportunities brought about occurred in a caste idiom. E. K. Goughs recentarticle (1960) also traces the effects of economic changes on the caste system of Kum-bapettai, a Tanjore village.

VII

The institution of caste has changed in significant respects in the last one hundredand sixty years, but scholars differ about the kind of significance which should beattached to these changes. Some consider that caste is on the way out, while otherspoint out that while the pollution aspect of caste has weakened, and while there isalso a loosening in certain other aspects, caste has shown a tremendous capacity foradjustment to new conditions. Caste-consciousness is keen, and expresses itself in

manycontexts.

The changes occurring in caste can be studied at various levels: village, region,State, and all-India. Ghurye, in his well-known work, has discussed the changeswhich occurred in the caste system under British rule, and the relation of caste tonationalism. Later, Srinivas, in a series of papers, and in his presidential address totheAnthropology andArchaeology section of the Indian Science Congress, 1957,discussed the role of caste in modern India. Selig Harrison (1956), Maureen Patterson(19 5 4), and N. K. Bose (19 5 8), among others, have also discussed changes in caste atthe State level inAndhra, Maharashtra and Bengal respectively.The consolidation of power by the British in India meant the cessation of warfare

between rival chiefs or princes, and this was followed by the expansion of the economywhich until then had been stagnant. The new technological innovations such as therailway and telegraph, and the construction of roads, which made effective thepolitical integration of the country, also brought new economic opportunities to thepeople. The changes which British rule brought in its wake have not been studiedsystematically except for Baileys study. The latter shows how, in an Orissa village,the traditional social structure underwent changes under pressure from economic,

political and social forces let loose under British rule.Besides the changes in the economy, the introduction of a legal system whichdid not take into account the castes of the litigants, adversely affected the power ofcaste councils. The idea that courts of law should treat litigants on the basis of whatthey had done or said, and that they should not be treated according to the castethey come from, was an entirely novel idea in Indian history. The existence of courtswhich were superior to caste councils, and which had, on occasion, the power to

punish caste leaders who sat on the councils, naturally undermined the authority ofcaste, though perhaps not to the same extent as is

imagined.Rural folk made use of

both the caste councils and the law courts. Though the British professedly refusedto interfere in matters of religion and morality, they provided a body of special laws,operative in the British courts, which permitted intercaste marriage, and refused to

give a legal sanction to untouchability. Later, they even provided certain concessionsand privileges for the backward castes in appointments to government jobs, financialaid in education, and reservation of seats on local self-governing bodies.

Conscious and organized protests against caste were made by such associations astheArya Samaj and the Prarthana Samaj. The abolition of caste was considered to be

an essential part of the revival of Hinduism, and intercaste marriages were advocatedfor the dissolution of caste. In Maharashtra, Jyotirao Phule, a Mali by caste (garden-


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I45

cultivator), opened schools for non-Brahmin children, and even for untouchables.The agitation in favour of the non-Brahmin castes was carried on, in the first twodecades of this country, by the Maharaja of Kolhapur and other social reformers.The reform movements, aided by urbanization, industrialization and the advent of anew economy, led to a gradual lessening of the rigours of pollution. Also, withina

single caste,barriers between sub-castes

beganto

disappear.But the

non-Brahminmovement heightened caste-consciousness in all sectors of society, and urbanization,Westernization and the beginnings of self-rule gave new opportunities for this con-sciousness to find expression.

In South India (Srinivas, 19 5 7), a more or less similar situation existed except thatthe Brahmins were more powerful, though they havenow been more or less completelydisplaced as the result of a prolonged and bitter anti-Brahmin movement. Brahminshad not only captured the important posts in the administration in the old provinceof Madras and in the princedom of Mysore, but they were also important landowners,and therefore dominated at the village level as well. The near-monopoly which theBrahmins had of the posts in the administration led to a movement in which all thenon-Brahmins combined to agitate for the reservation of a percentage of posts to thelatter. They made alliances not only across caste and linguistic boundaries, but evenacross religious boundaries in order to displace the Brahmin. When dyarchy wasintroduced in I9 I 9, the Justice Party of Madras, the spokesman for the non-Brahmincastes, joined the government while the Congress kept out of ofhce. During its tenureof office the Justice Party did a great deal for the non-Brahmin castes, building into

the administration discriminatorymeasures

againstthe

Brahmins. In all this, it hadthe consent, if not the encouragement of the British who needed a counter to the

growing nationalist movement which, in the South (including Maharashtra), wasbeing led, at least in the earliest stages, by the Brahmins.The nationalist movement led by Mahatma Gandhi swept the avowedly casteist

parties out of power in the elections of 1937. This did not lead to any weakening ofthe role of caste in politics, as the non-Brahmin castes, realizing the relative ineffec-tiveness of openly casteist parties, entered the Congress. This gradually resultedin the political parties recognition of the claims of dominant castes to a share inpower and ofiice. Not giving representation to the dominant castes meant runningthe risk of political extinction. The need to draw in members of the dominant castesresulted not only in raising to power men who were aware of their indebtedness totheir castes, but also to an increase in caste-consciousness everywhere. As the domi-nant castes are only a few in each region, this resulted in widespread frustration.

Because Indian social life is mainly articulated through caste, any organization orassociation that is formed to further social interests, whether these be in the political,economic, educational, or any other sphere, tends to be coloured by caste. In fact,

castes often organize themselves in order to further the interests of their members.Rudolph and Rudolph (1960) have argued that in a country which has recentlyadopted the democratic political system and which has a large number of illiterates,the organization of caste enables the people to participate in the national and state

political processes. This role is an important one in the absence of well developedinterest-groups and voluntary associations. By organizing itself in this way, caste hasfilled an important gap in political life, and has provided an illiterate electorate witha direct link with the legislatures and political parties.

Interest groups, which cut across caste barriers, may also be formed. Intra-caste

economic heterogeneity occurs in all castes except those in which the majority ofmembers are desperately poor, being either landiess labourers, or petty traders or


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artisans. When internal economic differentiation is found in many castes there is a

tendency for economic interests to cut across caste. This does not, however, meanthat ties based on &dquo;class&dquo; completely supersede those based on caste. Both are present.The sociologist knows the importance of caste in Indian social and political

life, and finds it diHicult to concede that caste will disappear soon from India. Thisconclusion of his is

interestingin view of the fact that the educated

Indian, broughtup on liberal and socialist ideas, wants an egalitarian social order (&dquo;a classless and caste-less society&dquo;) to be created in India. The Indian Constitution has abolished untouch-

ability. The Indian Parliament has passed the Prevention of Untouchability OffencesAct (195 5), which punishes those who try to prevent Harijans from having access to

wells, restaurants, temples and other public places. But Harijans in rural areas havenot yet been able to benefit substantially from thisAct because most of them are

dependent upon the high castes for their livelihood. In some places they have beenbeaten up for trying to assert their rights.

It is necessary here to state that the relation between caste and politics is intricateand complex. While caste is an extremely important factor in Indian political life,it is only one of the factors in a complex situation. The role of caste at various

political levels and in different parts of the country has to be studied in a systematicway. Historical data will also have to be

used. Here is a field in which historians,

political scientists and sociologists can co-operate.

VIII

Field-studies carried out in India by British, or British-trained scholars, have been

either &dquo;lone-wolf&dquo; studies, or consisted of teams made up of husband and wife.

They have generally preferred qualitative and impressionistic studies, and have been

sceptical about the usefulness of results based entirely upon responses to question-naires. But some of them have used quantitative techniques when they found suchuse necessary. For instance, F. G. Bailey andA. C. Mayer have made use of quanti-tative data at some points in their field-studies. Scarlett Epstein has made an extensive

use of statistical techniques in her study of the social effects of economic change intwo Mysore villages (to be published shortly by l~-ianchester University Press).

Scholars from the U.S.A., or those trained inAmerican universities have, on the

other hand, shown a predilection for quantifying their data, and for the lavish use of

questionnaires, attitude surveys, social distance scales, and even &dquo;sociograms&dquo;.They also prefer to work in teams in order to bring to bear a multi-disciplinary

approach to the solution of &dquo;social science problems&dquo;. Thus a combined team ofIndian andAmerican scholars gathered data for two villages in Uttar Pradesh.

Oscar Lewis, in his study of Rampur,made use of data collected for him

bya team of

Indian investigators. It must be pointed out here that the employment of investiga-tors either because of the magnitude of the project, or because the director is busy withadministrative matters, or because of the ignorance of the local language, bringsabout a separation between the collector of primary data and its interpreter. Thatsuch separation exists in other social sciences, and is probably inevitable in tacklingmacrocosmic problems, does not make it any the less regrettable. The importanttheoretical advance made in social anthropology in recent years is at least partly dueto the fact that the collector and interpreter of data are one and the same person.There have been only a few urban studies and they are in the nature of general

economic surveys, which for some odd reason are called &dquo;socio-economic&dquo; studies.


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147

The social parts of these studies are conspicuous by their absence, sometimes evenreference to caste being omitted presumably because the authors desire to appear&dquo;progressive&dquo;. Where caste is recorded the data are packed into tables and nothingis said about intercaste relations. The most that can be expected from this type ofstudy is the recording of the strength of each major caste without reference to itssubdivisions. Dr. I. P. Desais

studyof

&dquo;HighSchool Students in Poona&dquo;

(ys 3) is,however, an exception, an attempt being made in it to find out the relation betweencaste, class and the use of educational opportunities.

IX,

Purity and pollution are two related concepts which play an important part in thehierarchical ordering of castes, and their relations with each other. They have

received much attention from students of South Indian communities. It is surprisingthat sociologists studying other parts of the country have not paid equal attention tothem. Hocart, Srinivas, and Gough, working in the South, stress the ritual aspectof caste, while D. N. Majumdar, Oscar Lewis, morris E. Opler and Bailey lay a greaterstress on its political and economic aspects. There appears to be a North-Southdichotomy as far as the stress on ritual factors is concerned.At first sight this wouldseem to be due to purity-pollution ideas being less important in the North. Butwhat is perhaps more likely is that these ideas are also important in the North, but

theyare related

differentlyto the caste

hierarchy. Comparativestudies of the relation

of pollution-purity concepts to the caste hierarchy in different areas of India arecalled for. Such studies have to be undertaken soon, for purity-pollution ideas are

becoming weaker, especially in the urban areas.

Attempts have recently been made to determine the rank of castes with precision.McKim Marriott (19 5 9) has distinguished between &dquo;attributional&dquo; and &dquo;interactional&dquo;theories of caste ranking. By &dquo;attributional&dquo; theories he means those theories whichrank castes according to ritual and &dquo;ascriptive&dquo; criteria. These range from theoriesheld in the Dharmasastras to those held by certain social scientists. Marriott, seriously

objects to the use, by social scientists, of ritual criteria in ranking castes. Rankdoes not always follow ritual criteria: for instance, certain non-vegetarian castes take

precedence over vegetarian castes. Also, ritual criteria are not easy to use, as in thesituation where washing clothes is polluting when practised as an occupation, butnot so when washing ones own clothes. Then again, there is no sure way of weight-ing the diflerent ritual criteria, and there is no doubt that not all criteria have the same

importance. Finally, castes with the same ritual attributes often have dissimilar status.There is an uncritical tendency to evaluate ritual factors according to statementsmade in the Dharmasastras.

Instead of an &dquo;attributional&dquo; theory, Marriott has put forward an &dquo;interactional&dquo;

theory of caste ranking which takes account of the actual relations existing betweencastes. Such a theory does not ignore ritual criteria, but places them according totheir role in real interactions of castes. Thus, Srinivass ranking of castes is criticized as

being &dquo;attributional&dquo;, but his concept of dominance is classed as &dquo;interactional&dquo;,as it bases rank on position in the power structure, irrespective of &dquo;attributes&dquo;.Marriott himself applies his theory to the facts of Kishan Garhi, an Uttar Pradesh

village.Marriott, however, gives up his case when he says that the &dquo;attributional&dquo; theory

applies more in South India while the &dquo;interactional&dquo; theory applies more in the


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148

North. If this is really so, the &dquo;interactional&dquo; theory does not take precedence over the&dquo;attributional&dquo; theory as each theory holds good in separate areas. Any claim to

greater validity for the &dquo;interactional&dquo; theory should be based on its being able to

explain much better than the &dquo;attributional&dquo; theory the facts of both parts of India.Afurther contribution towards a systematic evaluation of caste rank has been

made, again byMarriott

(1958),in his

conceptof the

&dquo;elaborateness&dquo;of

ranking.Marriott argues that in assigning rank, consistency between the different criteria ofrank has to be taken into account. E. Kathleen Gough (y 5 ~) developed, from herSouth Indian studies, the idea of &dquo;onerousness of servitude&dquo;. In Kerala and Tanjore,where Gough worked, there was a broad division of castes into lords and vassals.The &dquo;lord&dquo; castes were those who owned the land, and the other castes were related

to them in traditional forms of servitude. The more onerous, or unpleasant, the typeof service that a caste rendered to the lords, the greater was its ritual distance from

them. This concept was developed for a particular area. It is a moot point whetherit can be applied elsewhere.

Pauline Mahar (i ~ 5 ~) has worked out a questionnaire in which the respondent isasked to state which castes he will allow to touch, to sit on his cot, use his utensils,and so on. These various actions are arranged in a scale which gives an immediate

diagrammatic picture of the distances between castes. Or, even more briefly, thedistances can be given in scores. Mahars scale takes account of only one kind ofcriterion-the ritual. But similar scales could be made out for other criteiia.

We may now ask the question whether a total or general rank can be ascribed to a

caste. Dr.A. C. Mayer ( y S 6) madea

study of thecaste

hierarchy ofa

Malwa villagein terms of the various criteria of rank. The criteria he took into consideration were

commensality and traditional occupation in the ritual sphere, and ownership of land,education and actual occupation in the secular sphere. Can rank in different sectorsbe summed up into general rank? Prima facie, this looks like an impossible task.The people themselves stated that caste X was equal or inferior or superior to Y,but then they had mainly ritual considerations in mind.

Mayers construction of separate hierarchies for each criterion represents a way of

studying caste rank. Consistency between the different hierarchies may provide anindication of &dquo;general rank&dquo;. The lack of consistency would indicate some confusionor controversy over rank, and it may give a clue to possible changes in the local

hierarchy.Aquestion which arises in this connection is whether there exists a ten-

dency towards consistency in ranking. If economic or political rank is higher thaniitual rank, will the latter catch up with the former in course of time, and vice versa?

How does consistency come about ?

Scaling techniques in the determination of caste rank would necessarily involve the

assignment of weights to the different attributes. Weights can only be assigned

legitimately to quantifiable attributes. In all othercases

they tend to involve subjec-tivism. Again, there is such a great diversity in the caste observances of different

regions-and even within a region-that it is very difhcult to make any but thebroadest comparisons. If the purpose is only to systematize caste rank within a

scheme for purposes of analysis, it would appear that the sheer fact of reducing data

to a form that fits into a scale would slur over all the finer distinctions that make a

full analysis possible. For one thing, it would not provide a proper idea of eitherthe &dquo;attributes&dquo; or the &dquo;interactions&dquo; of caste that Marriott speaks of. The items on

the scale

pertainto behaviour in relation to other castes. But is any scale a substitute

for the actual study of what one may call the total complex of interactions betweencastes ? The grouping together of items on a scale may be accidental, and may not


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149

represent items which are actually interrelated in the system. If the items are decided

upon after an extensive preliminary investigation, the knowledge gained therebywould obviate the need for any further investigation. Even if a scale can be quicklyand easily prepared, it is hard to believe that it can avoid the defects of any methodthat tailors data to fit into some form, and cannot therefore take account of what

appear to be relatively trivial data. Even here,a

scale for ritual distance may involverelatively less difficulty, as ritual distances make up a socially recognized and formalhierarchy, the rules of which are agreed upon by all concerned. But when itemsin a secular hierarchy are to be evaluated, and weighted, it is extremely unlikelythat consistency will be found. Not all forms of wealth, for example, have the samevalue. Then what are the relative values of land, gold and cash? Does wealth

acquired from land give a status different from that conferred by wealth acquiredfrom trade? Which is the more important status determinant, a mans educationor the occupation he follows ? Where a scale is based on the values of the peoplewho are the subject of the study, not only will there be differences between one areaand another which may make inter-regional comparisons extremely difficult, but alsothe criteria chosen may have no applicability outside an area. Thus the sharing ofa hookah and the mode of sitting on a cot are definitely North Indian traits whichare not found in peninsular India.

X

In India, caste has been widely considered to be the peculiarity of the Hindus andHinduism. Parallels have been drawn between Hindu caste and the racial divisions in

the Southern United States. Similar parallels have been drawn also with other societies,past and present, by Hocart, Ghurye, and others. But it seems fair to say that the onlygenuine parallels to Hindu caste are to be found in communities which, thoughprofessing other faiths, live with or near Hindu communities, within what Leachcalls &dquo;the pan-Indian civilization&dquo;. Caste is found to be a feature of Muslim societyin India (Ansari, y 5 S-S 6 ; Gupta, y 5 6; DSouza, y 5 ~), and of Ceylon (Ryan, 195 8).The

essaysedited

byLeach

(1960)deal with caste in Sinhalese and Tamil communities

in Ceylon, and among the Muslims of Swat in North-West Pakistan.It is likely that those Hindus who were converted to Islam continued to regard

themselves as castes, while foreign, conquering groups of Muslims, likeArabs andPathans, fell into the position of upper castes. This seems to be true of Muslimcastes all over India, as shown in accounts of Muslims as far apart as Uttar Pradeshand Kerala. These castes observe social distance in somewhat different ways from

the Hindus, with a stress on deference and privileges rather than ritual status andideas of pollution and purity, though Muslims do consider certain low castes to be

polluted because of the occupations they follow. They regard their priestly castesas sacred and practise avoidance towards unclean castes, but intercaste relations

among Muslims are not subject to as many taboos as among Hindus. Even the ruleof endogamy is not as strict as among the Hindus, and marriages outside caste oftenoccur. Again, Muslims have only jati.r, and no vama, the latter being exclusivelyHindu.

Muslims outside India also have caste, as shown by Frederick Barth in his studyof the Pathans of Swat (1960). Barth does not try to explain the origins of caste

amongthe

Pathans,but instead he concentrates

uponan

analysisof the

existingcaste hierarchy in Swat, and traces its relation to traditional occupations. The systemis found to diverge markedly from the Hindu system. First, the political system


16/17

I50

consists of the mutual opposition of landlords, aided by their respective adherents.There is no formal council to regulate the political life of the landlord caste, and eachlandlord is on his own, as it were. The greater the number of clients that a landlordcan command, the greater is his strength. The balance of power in the communityis maintained by the opposition of these landlords to each other, mainly in the form

of the feud. The political unit, therefore, consists of a landlord, and his clientsfrom other castes, who perform certain traditional services for him, and who alsosupport him in his political struggles. There is no political organization of the casteas a whole, equivalent to the Indian panchayat.Membership of the Pathan caste is ascribed by birth, in the classical manner, but a

Pathan loses that membership as soon as he loses his land. This is not the same as

being outcasted, for a person is expelled from his caste for violation of caste rules orfor flouting caste authority. In the case of the Pathans, however, ownership of landseems to be even more critical than birth into a

hereditarygroup.

An examination of the other castes shows that here again there are striking diver-

gences from the classical Indian system. Members of an occupational caste are

designated by the name of the occupation. It is possible for individuals to changetheir caste, simply by changing their occupation. The change in occupation is not

accompanied by a change in name, but after two or three generations, the family dropsthe old caste name, and adopts the name of its present caste and occupation. TheSwat system, therefore, appears to be an extremely modified version of the caste

system.

Caste is also present in Buddhist societies, on the fringes of the Indian sub-continent. But, as with the 1B,Iushms, it is a highly modified version of Hindu caste.Sinhalese caste is believed to have been borrowed directly from India. Ryan (19 5 3)says that the Sinhalese are descendants of Indians who migrated from North-EastIndia before the sixth century B.C., while the Ceylon Tamils are descended fromTamilians who migrated very much later. Both these societies are organized as caste

systems, but of two distinct types. The Tamils have a system closely akin to that

obtaining on the mainland, with this difference that the Brahmins are not as stronglyentrenched as in South India. The Sinhalese have a caste

systemwhich would

appearto be a modified version of the pristine Indian system which was exported to Ceylonwhen it had &dquo;not yet been redefined and crystallized under Brahminical domination&dquo;.It is more loosely structured than Hindu caste, and has few of the strictures and tabooswhich regulate intercaste relations among Hindus. Both the caste systems came from

India, and they were perpetuated by the continued contact with the country of origin.Sinhalese caste, like Muslims caste in Swat, lacks an organization such as the pan-

chayat, which can effectively discipline its members, and which can organize thecollective interests of the caste. Yalman (1960) shows that Sinhalese castes are

maintained largely through the component kin-groups, and that village tensionstend to develop between kin-groups and their adherents, rather than between castes.The weakness of caste as a political unit may account for the relative ease with whichSinhalese castes lose their hierarchical connotations in the cities, and take the form of

a plural society. The essence of a plural society is the fact that the different ethnic

groups in it are bound together only by market relationships. Sinhalese caste is alsoat once distinguishable from Hindu caste by the lack of an ethical and theologicalsuperstructure, including the concept of varna, and by the insufficient development ofritual ideas and

practices.Another Buddhist caste system deserving of attention is that of the Newars of

Nepal. The Newars are divided into two groups, Buddhist and Hindu each being


17/17

I5I

organized on caste principles. Both groups share a large body of ritual, but they callin different priests, and subscribe to different religions. Haimendorf ( i ~ 5 6) foundthat the Newar castes had caste organizations similar to the Indian caste panchayat,but Newar caste differed from Indian caste in so far as &dquo;the rigid endogamy of indi-vidual castes and sub-castes, considered so often as the main point of the Hinducaste

system&dquo;was absent.

It is interesting to note that the ability to trace caste origins to India has a hier-archical value.Among the Newars, certain Sheshyo clans were ranked as higher,and these claimed an Indian origin. In Ceylon, too, several Sinhalese castes preserverecords pointing to an Indian origin, and these records are often chronicles of caste

pride.

XI .

Finally,we

list belowa

number of topics whichwe

consider deserve to be investi-gated in a systematic manner:

i. The inter-relation between caste and class. This topic should be studied inIndian, Ceylonese and Pakistani towns and cities, and an attempt should be madeto find out how far, and in what sectors, caste relations are giving way to classrelations.

2. The relation of factors such as caste, class and rural-urban residence to the

utilization of educational facilities.

3. The study of bureaucracy at different levels with a view to understanding therole of caste, class and allied factors in it.

4. The study of the part played by caste in trade unions, and in the political lifeof the country at different levels.

S . The study of the urbanization of selected castes in different parts of the country.6. The relation between caste and economic development. Does caste hamper

occupational mobility? Is there a tendency for the benefits of economic

development to be siphoned off to the high castes, thus increasing the gulfbetween high and low castes ?

7. The study of dominant castes in different parts of the country, particularlywith reference to the new economic and political opportunities which plannedeconomic development, universal suffrage, and decentralization of power,offer them.

8. Studies of hypergamous castes such as theAnavil Brahmins and the Patidarsof Gujarat, the Rajputs of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Brahmins of Bengaland the Nayars of Kerala.

9. Comparative study of the role of purity-pollution ideas in the caste systemsof North and South India.

Bateille, Srinivas, Damle and Shahani - Caste - A Trend Report and Bibliography

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Transcript of Bateille, Srinivas, Damle and Shahani - Caste - A Trend Report and Bibliography