Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.35

c48.s2.35

§ 48. **Field-labourers.** (16,158,400). The castes which come under this heading are but a fraction of these whose members make their living to a great extent by field-labour. The rapidity with which crops come to maturity in the tropics and the shortness of the time available for each harvest produce an urgent pressure upon the labour supply, which is met by the temporary diversion to the fields of numbers who during the rest of the year follow quite different occupations. Even the normal demand is very great. There is to be taken into account the universal prevalence of agriculture, and the vast numbers of holdings which require more hands upon them than can be furnished by the occupant's own family. Then, again, there are some important operations which are not lawful for the cultivator of high caste, entailing, therefore, the permanent employment of menial hands for the purpose. These are procured from the village servile classes, the rest of whom have their own special caste functions. Thus almost all the lower grades of the rural population contribute a certain quota of agricultural labour. In former days the system of predial servitude was widely spread, and whole castes were assigned to certain families or estates in a district, as on the Malabar coast and amongst Brāhman agriculturists wherever they are found; and though the status of the labourer has been changed under British rule, the practice, on a voluntary basis, still persists. In some other parts of the country the labourers are distributed by families, each ascribed to a certain employer, or patron, from whom they receive special gifts or privileges beyond the mere remuneration of their labour. Finally, there is the constant transition of the landless labourer, by thrift and industry, to the position of petty landholder, not unfrequently accompanied, after an interval, by the severance of this class from the less fortunate of the body in which it was born. Thus, whilst the upper edge of the group overlaps that of the humbler landed classes, the lower is merged in the general body of the impure or servile castes at the bottom of the village community. In the group now under consideration an attempt is made to include only the upper stratum of the castes traditionally dedicated to field labour, and to deal with the rest separately. It must be admitted, however, that it is almost impossible, in view of the different standards in force, to draw the line accurately.