Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s3.12

c22.s3.12

Caste-system was bad, but it had two compensating features. One was that since the low classes were 'distinguithed only by their occupations' and they intermarried, there was occupational and vocational mobility and also perhaps some sort of social Sanskritization. Another is that it had (and has) an heirarchical structure, and even low caste people feel proud of being superior to some other lower castes, Thus a Teli feels himself superior to an Ahir, an Ahir to a Chamar, a Kahar to a Pasi, and so on. In Bengal, the land of mass conversions, caste pride among low caste Hindus was as pronounced as elsewhere. About the Dom, sometimes also called Chandela. H.H. Risley says that he will eat the leavings of others, but "no Dom will touch the leavings of a Dhobi, nor will he take water...or any sort of food or drink from a man of that caste." "Pods or Chasi, a fishing, cultivating and landholding caste of lower Bengal" will eat the leavings of Brahman, but Vaishnava Pods abstain from all kinds of flesh. Rajbansi, a synonym for Koch, wear sacred thread in Bihar.¹⁷