Caste and Race in India c12: Chapter VIII. Caste: Recent and Contemporary
Caste and Race in India c12
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Chapter VIII. Caste: Recent and Contemporary
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WE have seen that the Brahmin was at the apex of the hierarchical organization of caste and that the Hindu kings upheld the institution with the help of their civil power. With the advent of the British as the political head of society things were bound to take on a different aspect. The British brought with them their own traditional form of government, and as Christians they could not have much sympathy with the institutions of the Hindus. As prudent foreigners wishing to consolidate their power over a strange land and people they decided to leave the peculiar institutions of the country severely alone except where they egregiously violated their cherished ideas of government. They introduced a system of education which did not demand of the learners any change of religion. Ideas and behaviour patterns, very different from those to which the people were accustomed, were thus presented as isolated from religion. The policy of comparative non-interference naturally gave scope for the revolt of the castes that were not quite comfortable under the Brahmin supremacy. Later on with the incoming of the modern industrial organization and the growth of industrial cities, large numbers of peoples congregated in cities of mixed populations, away from the influence of their homes and unobserved by their caste or village people. This is the background of the picture of contemporary caste. In this chapter we shall trace the consequences of these circumstances on our institution.
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Early in the history of the British rule the practice of the rulers over the three Presidencies was not uniform. In Bengal one of the Regulations, while recognizing the integrity of caste organization, allowed suits for restoration of caste to be entertained by the ordinary courts.¹ It was held that cases of expulsion from clubs or voluntary associations were of an entirely different nature from excommunication from caste.¹ In Bombay, however, the pertinent regulation expressly provides that no court shall interfere in any caste question, "beyond the admission and trial of any suit instituted for the recovery of damages on account of the alleged injury to the caste and character of the plaintiff arising from some illegal act of the other party."² Social privileges of the membership of a caste are held to be wholly within the jurisdiction of the caste. It is only when a complainant alleges that a legal right either of property or of office is violated by his exclusion from the caste that a suit may be entertained by a court of law.³ This autonomy of caste, it is further held, exists only under the law and not against it. Hence caste-proceedings must be according to usage, giving reasonable opportunity of explanation to the person concerned and must not be influenced by malice.⁴
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¹ Kikani, p. lii.
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¹ Kikani, p. 7.
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² Kikani, p. iii.
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³ Kikani, p. 182.
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⁴ Ibid., p. xii.
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This recognition of the integrity of caste for internal affairs did not protect the institution from inroads on some of its very vital powers. The establishment of British courts, administering a uniform criminal law, removed from the purview of caste many matters that used to be erstwhile adjudicated on by it. Questions of assault, adultery, rape, and the like were taken before the British courts for decision, and the caste councils in proportion lost their former importance. Even in matters of civil law, such as marriage, divorce, etc., though the avowed intention of the British was to be guided by caste-customs, slowly but surely various decisions of the High Courts practically set aside the authority of caste.
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The first British administrators on the Bombay side employed, as early as 1826, officials like Borradaile and Steele, to make compilations of the various usages and customs of the many castes of the presidency. These pains-taking officers made useful compilations. But similar compendiums were not prepared in other provinces. The result was that the Widow-remarriage Act of 1856 contained clauses practically violating the customs of some of the so-called lower castes. While legalizing the marriage of a Hindu widow, this Act deprived such a remarried widow of all her rights and interests in her deceased husband's property.
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Fortunately the courts have taken a reasonable view of these sections of the Act, and have decreed that the Act with its restrictive clauses applies only to those widows who could not, without the aid of this Act, remarry according to their caste-usage. Widows of castes allowing remarriage forfeited their rights and interests in their deceased husband's property only when caste-usage enjoined such forfeiture.¹
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¹ Mayne, pp. 779-82.
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So early as 1876, the High Court of Bombay ruled that "Courts of law will not recognize the authority of a caste to declare a marriage void, or to give permission to a woman to remarry".² When any caste-council, in utter ignorance of its changed status, ventures to step in as a tribunal to try one of its defaulting members, it is promptly made to realize the force of law. It is well known that one of the most usual methods in the old regime of detecting an offence was to submit the accused person to an ordeal of varying intensity. Recently the caste-council of Pakhah Rajputs of Ahmedabad submitted a man and his mother, both accused of witchcraft, to an ordeal usual in such cases. As one of the suspects failed to come out successful, the council demanded penalty for the alleged crime. A suit was filed for recovery of this penalty but was dismissed as being against policy. Thereupon one of the persons lodged a complaint for defamation against the persons who had complained against them to the caste-council.³
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² The Times of India (Bombay), 30th June, 1928.
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³ Mandlik, p. 430.
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The hereditary and prescriptive right of the Brahmins to act as priests to all castes of the Hindus, with only a few exceptions, has been the one uniform and general principle inhering in caste-society through all its vicissitudes. Later on we shall describe the attitude of the people towards this question; but here we should like to point out how certain decisions of the High Courts have emboldened the non-brahmanic castes to dislodge the Brahmins from their monopoly of priesthood. In Bengal and in North India generally it is now settled that there is no office of priest recognized as such in law, and a householder may employ anyone he likes for the performance of any priestly service and pay the fees to him. A similar view has been taken in the Madras Presidency.⁴ When in the Maratha country the non-Brahmin reformists started the practice of performing their religious rites without the aid of the Brahmin priests, the latter lodged a complaint asking for an injunction against the persons so violating their rights. The High Court of Bombay decreed that people could engage any priest they liked, and were not at all bound to call for the services of the hereditary priests; but unlike the High Court of Madras, they decreed that the hereditary priest must be paid some fees by way of compensation.¹
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⁴ Kikani, p. vi.
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¹ Lutthe, vol. ii, p. 373.
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This opens the way to the dissolution of the only bond holding together the diverse castes, viz. the employment of common priesthood.
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The Caste-Disabilities Removal Act of 1850 dealt another blow at the integrity of caste. The Act does not, as may be expected from its title, remove civil disabilities existing between caste and caste, but facilitates conversion to another religion or admission into another caste. Notwithstanding any custom of caste disinheriting a person for change of caste or religion, this Act provides that a person does not forfeit his ordinary rights of property by loss of caste or change of religion.
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Regarding the most important aspect, and almost the only surviving one, viz. that of prohibition against marriage outside the caste, the practice of the British courts has varied. In some early cases it was held that marriages between persons belonging to different divisions of the Brahmins or the Śūdras were invalid unless specially sanctioned by custom; but recent decisions decree otherwise. In a Madras case when a Hindu, belonging to the Śūdra class, married a Christian woman, turned into a Hindu, the marriage was accepted as one between members of different divisions of the Śūdra class and therefore valid. Integrity of caste was so far recognized that the Court held that where a caste regards marriage as valid and treats the parties as its members, the court cannot declare it null and void.²
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² Mayne, pp. 108-9.
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Social reformers, however, were not satisfied with the existing state of affairs, and legislators tried to introduce bills legalizing intercaste marriages. The Special Marriage Act of 1872 made it possible for an Indian of whatever caste or creed to enter into a valid marriage with a person belonging to any caste or creed, provided the parties registered the contract of marriage, declaring inter alia that they did not belong to any caste or religion. The clause requiring the solemn renunciation of caste and religion by the parties to a civil marriage was considered a great hardship and a moral dilemma by all progressive elements in the country. To add to this grievance, members of the Brahmo Samaj, who were regarded as outside the purview of this Act, were held, by a decision of the Privy Council to be Hindus for the purposes of the Act. Marriages of Brahmo-Samajists could no longer be valid unless the parties signed a declaration that they did not belong to any caste or religion. Continued agitation was carried on by reformers to liberalize the marriage law. Owing partially to the apathy of the Government and the hostility of the conservative section of the Hindus, both B. N. Basu and Mr. V. J. Patel, one after the other, failed in their efforts in this direction. It was only in the Reformed Legislature that Sir Hari Sing Gour succeeded in getting a pertinent bill passed into law, though not in the original form intended by the first reformers. It is known as the Special Marriage Amendment Act of 1928. It applies only to Hindus including Jains, Sikhs, and Brahmos. Persons marrying under the provisions of this Act, to whatever caste they may belong, need not make the declaration prescribed in the Act of 1872. This advantage, however, is gained not without a substantial sacrifice. If two Hindus belonging to different castes marry under this Act they are not required to renounce their religion in declaration but have to forfeit certain of their personal rights as Hindus. They cannot adopt. On their marriage they cease to be the members of the joint family to which they previously belonged. Whatever rights in the property of the family would have accrued to them by survivorship under the Hindu Law cease. As regards their own property they will be governed by the Indian Succession Act and not by the Hindu Law.¹
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¹ The Legislative Assembly Debates, vol. iii, pp. 3899-926.
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Under the old regime of caste certain sections of Hindu society which were regarded as untouchable were devoid of many of the civil rights. The question of removing their disabilities and placing them on a footing of civil equality came up for consideration before the British administrators. In 1856 the Government of Bombay had to consider the case of a Mahar boy, who was refused admission to the Government School at Dharwar. The principle involved in the case occupied the attention of the Government for about two years. Finally in 1858 it was announced in a press-note that " although the Governor-in-Council does not contemplate the introduction of low-caste pupils into schools, the expenses of which are shared with Government by local contributors and patrons who object to such a measure, he reserves to himself the full right of refusing the support of Government to any partially aided school in which the benefits of education are withheld from any class of persons on account of caste or race, and further resolves that all schools maintained at the sole cost of Government shall be open to all classes of its subjects without distinction".¹ In a press-note of 1915 we still find the complaint that contact with Western civilization and English education had not successfully combated the old ideas about untouchability. It further refers to the " familiar sight of Mahar and other depressed class boys in village schools where the boys are often not allowed to enter the schoolroom but are accommodated outside the room on the verandah ". In 1923 the Government issued a resolution that no grants would be paid to any aided educational institution which refused admission to the children of the Depressed Classes. By this time the practice of segregating the Depressed Class boys was fast disappearing especially in the Central Division of the Presidency. In many Local Board and Municipal schools Depressed Class pupils are now allowed to sit in their classes like boys and girls of the caste Hindus.
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¹ The Bombay Chronicle, 31st March, 1924.
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While the Bombay Government was thus enforcing the right of the Depressed Classes to equal treatment, the Madras
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N.B.—John Wilson wrote in 1877 : " Few, if any, of the Antyaja are found in Government schools. This is to be ascribed not only to the Brahmanical fear of contamination and the general caste prejudices of the people, but to the want of firmness on the part of the Government educational authorities as has been the case in some instances of the agents of the missionary bodies." (Indian Caste, vol. ii, p. 45.)
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Government had on its Statute-book so late as the end of 1923 a law empowering village Magistrates to punish the offenders of the lower castes by imprisonment in the stocks, though the Government had definitely pledged itself in 1914 to discontinue this inhuman practice.¹ In 1925 a Bill was introduced in the Madras Legislative Council to put under statute the principle of a resolution passed in the previous session of the Council throwing open all public roads, streets, or pathways, giving access to any public office, well, tank, or place of public resort, to all classes of people including the Depressed.²
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¹ Forward (Calcutta), 7th November, 1923.
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² Bombay Chronicle, 1st May, 1925.
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In the Reformed Constitution the Depressed Classes have special representation in Local and Legislative bodies by nomination.
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The majority of the castes which were under various disabilities, excluding the Depressed Classes, were non-Brahmin. The uniform laws of the British did not recognize any of these disabilities as lawful. Yet the services were mainly manned by Brahmin and allied castes, who were the first to profit by English education. Their traditional attitude towards caste naturally influenced their dealings with the non-Brahmin classes. This situation gradually awakened some of the non-Brahmin leaders and sympathetic officers of the Government to demand special treatment to those half-submerged classes. As a response, Chatfield, the Director of Public Instruction in Bombay, allowed in 1878 some concessions in the matter of fees in primary schools to the boys of some of these castes. Later on were instituted scholarships in secondary schools and colleges for boys from some of these classes.
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The early non-Brahmin leaders had also urged upon the Government the necessity of special representation for their members both in the administrative bodies as well as in the services. For a pretty long time this appeal remained unheeded. The cry was, however, taken up by the late Maharaja of Kolhapur,³ and a strong case for it was made by him at the time when Montague came to India to consult the people and the Government of India as regards the future form of Government. In the reformed constitution framed by Montague and Lord Chelmsford special representation through mixed electorates was conceded to the non-Brahmins. Under these provisions the whole Hindu populace in the Bombay Presidency is divided into three sections: Brahmins and allied castes, the intermediate classes formed by Marathas and others, and the backward classes including the so-called untouchables.¹ This classification, with the addition of other Indians like the Parsis in the appropriate sections, is also followed in recruiting the various services. A Resolution of the Government of Bombay Finance Department, dated 17th September, 1923, expressly prohibits recruitment to the lower services from the advanced class of Brahmins and others till a certain proportion of the posts are held by members of the intermediate and backward classes.² It is because of this avowed intention of the Government to see certain castes represented in the services of the Province that heads of Government Institutions, while inviting applications for vacancies under their charge require the applicant to state his caste and sub-caste.³
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³ Memorandum prepared by the Government of Bombay for Submission to the Indian Statutory Commission, 1928, (1929), p. 228.
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¹ Ibid., p. 44.
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² This resolution was modified by a later one, dated 5th February, 1925, wherein the absolute restriction on the recruitment from the advanced classes was removed.
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³ See notices by the Dean of the Grant Medical College and the Principal of the Gujarat College in the *Times of India*, 20th April, 1926.
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British administrators, following the popular practice, have used caste names as a convenient mode of description of persons. The Police Reports while giving details about offenders also mention their caste. The Railway risk-note, that every sender of parcels has to fill in and sign, had, at least till very recently, an entry for the caste of the sender.⁴ This cannot be regarded as intended to give or elicit information as regards the person's occupation. There is a separate entry provided to describe one's profession. Perhaps the caste-entry has been inserted to enable the officers concerned to form a rough estimate of the moral character of the person.
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⁴ G.I.P. Railway Risk-note. Form "B" B.I.P.—176-9-24-30000.
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The unique institution of caste did not fail to arouse intellectual curiosity among the more intelligent of the Britishers in India, officials as well as non-officials, and our understanding of the institution is largely helped by their work. Some of the early officials like Elliot, Dalton, Sherring, and Nesfield, evinced their interest in the subject by collecting information and publishing it with their comments. Later officials, however, adopted the easier method of utilizing the decennial census for collecting and presenting the information and indulging in the theories of the origins of caste.¹ This procedure reached its culmination in the Census of 1901 under the guidance of Sir Herbert Risley of ethnographic fame. With a view to help "us towards presenting an intelligible picture of the social grouping of that large proportion of the people of India which is organized, admittedly or tacitly, on the basis of caste" the Census Commissioner changed the classification of 1891 into one based on "social precedence as recognized by the native public opinion at the present day and manifesting itself in the facts that particular castes are supposed to be the modern representatives of one or other of the castes of the theoretical Hindu system". And this procedure Risley chose in spite of his clear admission that even in this caste-ridden society a person, when questioned about his caste, may offer a bewildering variety of replies: "He may give the name of a sect, of a sub-caste, of an exogamous sect or section, of a hypergamous group; he may mention some titular designation which sounds finer than the name of his caste; he may describe himself by his occupation or by the province or tract of country from which he comes."² Various ambitious castes quickly perceived the chances of raising their status. They invited conferences of their members, and formed councils to take steps to see that their status was recorded in the way they thought was honourable to them. Other castes that could not but resent this "stealthy" procedure to advance, equally eagerly began to controvert their claims. Thus a campaign of mutual recrimination was set on foot. "The leaders of all but the highest castes frankly looked upon the Census as an opportunity for pressing and perhaps obtaining some recognition of social claims which were denied by persons of castes higher than their own."³ In 1911 the Census-reporter for Madras wrote the following:
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¹ See Kitts, p. 1.
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² India Census, 1901, pp. 537-8.
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³ Bengal Census, 1921, p. 346.
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"It has been pointed out to me by an Indian gentleman that the last few years, and especially the occasion of the present census, have witnessed an extraordinary revival of the caste spirit in certain aspects. For numerous castes 'Sabhas' have sprung up, each keen to assert the dignity of the social group which it represents." 1
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It is difficult to see any valid public reason for this elaborate treatment of caste in the Census-reports. The Government have never avowed their intention of helping every caste to retain its numbers and prosperity. Nor have they any time helped a particular caste because it registered numerical decline or economic dislocation. Not even the declared policy of the Provincial Governments to provide special representation either by election or nomination to certain classes of people necessitates an enumeration of the people by their castes. For this representation is not dependent on numbers. It is not proportional. All that the particular officers of the Government have to do is to determine in the light of their experience whether a particular person is one who can legitimately claim to belong to one of the three large groups of the population, devised for political purposes. And a Court of Law in any disputed case will settle the point by reference to the usual practice of the people. The conclusion is unavoidable that the intellectual curiosity of some of the early officials is mostly responsible for the treatment of caste given to it in the Census, which has been progressively elaborate in each successive Census since 1872. The total result has been, as we have seen, a livening up of the caste-spirit.
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In the old regime one caste used to petition the sovereign to restrain another caste from carrying a procession through a particular street or from using a particular mark. Such cases are on record in the Diaries of the Peshwas. The British Government in India by their declared policy effectively discouraged such interference and thus removed some of the occasions for a demonstration of the bitter caste-spirit. On the other hand, the desire of the Census officials to give an intelligible picture of caste by means of nice grading of contemporary groups has provided a good rallying point for the old caste-spirit.
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¹ Madras Census, 1911, p. 178.
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The one undisputed consequence of the promulgation of a uniform law and of certain administrative measures has been the removal of almost all the legal inequality in the treatment of different castes—particularly the so-called low-castes. Only in the case of the Depressed castes has the Government not proceeded to the logical end. One of the disabilities that these castes, which are proud to call themselves Hindus, and which the higher castes eagerly claim as of their fold in a controversy about political representation of the Hindus, is that they are denied access to Hindu temples. They are required to stop outside the temple proper in the compound and satisfy themselves that they have had a glimpse of the idol of God. A devout Hindu feels very strongly that his homage and prayer to God must be paid in full sight of the idol of God. Hindu religion is not an established church. There are temples for the idols of God maintained by private individuals or by public trusts. The latter sometimes receive grants from the State. The famous temple of Parvati at Poona is such a one. The Depressed classes want to visit the temple as other caste-Hindus do. The trustees refuse to allow them the right. The Government of Bombay, who make a substantial grant towards the maintenance of the temple, have not yet thought fit to intervene as a matter of public policy. We fail to see how the Government, that has accepted the principle that whichever institution is maintained either wholly or partially with the help of public money must impose no bar on any person merely because of his caste or creed, can contemplate with unconcern the distressing plight of the Depressed classes for a practical demonstration of their elementary rights. It is clearly the duty of the Government, still sadly undischarged, to declare that the problem of access to the Hindu temples that receive any support out of the public money, must be solved on a basis agreed to by the representatives of all the classes of the Hindus, and that failing such an agreement, grants of money from public funds should be stopped.
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The British Government, we have seen, did not recognize caste as a unit empowered to administer justice. Caste was thus shorn of one of its important functions as a community. Individual members might, therefore, be expected to feel less of the old feeling of solidarity for their caste-group. But nothing of the kind is observed to have taken place.¹ First, though a caste could not administer justice, the Government would not set aside the customs of a caste in matters of civil law unless they were opposed to public policy. Caste thus retained its cultural integrity. Secondly, many other aspects of the British Administration, some of which like the Census have been dealt with above, provided more than sufficient incentive for the consolidation of the caste-group. Mr. Middleton, one of the two Superintendents of Census Operations of 1921, makes eloquent remarks about the effects of the British Administration on caste in the Punjab. He observes: "I had intended pointing out that there is a very wide revolt against the classification of occupational castes; that these castes have been largely manufactured and almost entirely preserved as separate castes by the British Government. Our land records and official documents have added iron bonds to the old rigidity of caste. Caste in itself was rigid among the higher castes, but malleable amongst the lower. We pigeon-holed every one by caste, and if we could not find a true caste for them, labelled them with the name of an hereditary occupation. We deplore the caste-system and its effects on social and economic problems, but we are largely responsible for the system which we deplore. Left to themselves such castes as Sunar and Lohar would rapidly disappear and no one would suffer . . . Government's passion for labels and pigeon-holes has led to a crystallization of the caste system, which, except amongst the aristocratic castes, was really very fluid under indigenous rule . . . If the Government would ignore caste it would gradually be replaced by something very different amongst the lower castes."² The situation in the Punjab, cannot be taken as typical of other provinces. It is well known that the Punjab was not much influenced by rigid caste-system. Yet the process of pigeon-holing and thus stereotyping has undoubtedly counteracted whatever good results might have ensued from the dethronement of caste as a unit of the administration of justice.¹ The total effect has been, at the least, to keep caste-solidarity quite intact.²
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¹ During the recent Civil Disobedience movement the influence of caste was clearly visible in Gujarat.
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² Punjab Census, 1921, pp. 343-4. The last remark of Mr. Middleton appears to us to be an overstatement even in the case of the Punjab, where caste has been more fluid than elsewhere in India.
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¹ N.B.—We are glad to note that as a result of the agitation carried on by the Jat-Pat-Torak Mandal of Lahore the Government of India made some concession in the matter of the filling in of the column for caste at the Census of 1931 in the case of persons who do not conform to the practices of their caste.
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² Compare J. Murdoch, *Caste*, 1887, pp. 38-42, and also the quotation from Sherring therein; and Rev. John Morrison, *New Ideas in India*, 1906, p. 83.
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The relations of an individual member to a group in which he is born, and to which he is bound by ties, traditional, sentimental, and cultural, in a society where almost everyone belongs to one of such groups, and none can hope to have any respectable status without his group, are such that they are not susceptible to change as a result of legal enactment, administrative rules, or judicial decisions. Though caste has ceased to be a unit administering justice, yet it has not lost its hold on its individual members, who still continue to be controlled by the opinion of the caste. The picture of the control of an individual's activities by his caste, given in 1925 by an eminent social worker of Gujarat, convinces one, by its close similarity with our description of caste of the middle of the nineteenth century, that as regards at least this aspect of caste, there has been almost no change during the course of three-quarters of a century. She observes: "On our side of the country, I mean in Gujarat, the greatest hindrance to all social reforms is the caste. If I want to educate my girl, the caste would step in and say you should not do it. If I wish to postpone my children's marriage till they are sufficiently grown up, the caste would raise its hand and forbid me. If a widow chooses to marry again and settle respectably in her home the caste would threaten to ostracize her. If a young man wishes to go to Europe for bettering his own or the country's prospects, the caste would, though perhaps nowadays give him a hearty send-off, yet close its doors on him when he returns. If a respectable man of the so-considered Untouchable class is invited to a house, the caste would deliver its judgment against that householder and condemn him as unfit for any intercourse."³
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³ Lady Vidyagauri Ramanbhai as reported in the *Indian Social Reformer* (Bombay), 5th September, 1925.
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It must have become clear by now that the activities of the British Government have gone very little towards the solution of the problem of caste. Most of these activities, as must be evident, were dictated by prudence of administration and not by a desire to reduce the rigidity of caste, whose disadvantages were so patent to them. The most important step they have taken is the recent regulation in some of the Provinces that a definite percentage of posts in the various services shall be filled from the members of the non-Brahmin or the intermediate castes, provided they have the minimum qualifications. This was originally the demand of the leaders of the non-Brahmin movement. And it is the most obvious remedy against caste-domination. But the obvious is not necessarily the wisest. We contend that the restriction on the numbers of the able members of the Brahmin and the allied castes, imposed by this resolution of the Government, penalizes some able persons simply because they happen to belong to particular castes. When in the case of certain services recruited by means of competitive examinations, some vacancies are offered to candidates who have failed to attain a particular rank in the examination, on the ground that they belong to certain castes, which must be represented in the higher services of the country, it clearly implies that even the accepted standard of qualifications and efficiency is abandoned. The result has been the pampering of caste even at the cost of efficiency and justice. The Government of Bombay, in their memorandum submitted to the Indian Statutory Commission, 1928 (p. 94), complain that the District School Boards, where the non-Brahmins have had a majority, "have almost in every case attempted to oust the Brahmins regardless of all consideration of efficiency." Yet this action is only a logical development of the attitude of the Government which nursed, rather than ignored, the spirit of caste.
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On the whole, the British rulers of India, who have throughout professed to be the trustees of the welfare of the country, never seem to have given much thought to the problem of caste, in so far as it affects the nationhood of India. Nor have they shown willingness to take a bold step rendering caste innocuous. Their measures generally have been promulgated piecemeal and with due regard to the safety of British domination.
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It may be argued that, if the British masters of India did not take any comprehensive steps to minimize the evil effects of caste which they openly deplored, it must be said to their credit that they did not at least consciously foster the institution. But in the face of the utterances of some responsible British officers, after the Mutiny of 1857 was quelled, it is not possible to endorse this view. The Mutiny opened the eyes of the administrators of the country as well as of the students of British Indian history to the potentialities of caste. It was almost the unanimous opinion of persons connected with the Government of India that the deep causes of the Mutiny were to be found in the fact that the Bengal Army was composed largely of the higher castes, viz. the Brahmins and the Rajputs. The special Commission presided over by Lord Peel, which was appointed to suggest a reorganization of the Indian Army, took evidence from many high officials who were sometime or other closely connected with India. Lord Elphinstone opined that it was desirable that men of different castes should be enlisted in the Army, while Major-General H. T. Tucker went further and insisted on the necessity of keeping the country under British domination through the policy of dividing and separating into distinct bodies the nationalities and castes recruited to the Army. Such being the general tenor of the main bulk of evidence the Commission recommended that "The Native Indian army should be composed of different nationalities and castes and as a general rule mixed promiscuously through each regiment". Lord Ellenborough advised the same, but clearly pointed out that the recommendation was based solely on the ground of British interests and not on the consideration of efficiency of the Army. He lamented the fact that if the suggested procedure were adopted "we must abandon the hope of ever again seeing a native army composed like that we have lost. It was an army which, under a General that it loved and trusted, would have marched victorious to the Dardanelles".¹ Ever since then the Indian Army has been studiously purged of the higher castes. The lesson of the Mutiny, viz. that the safety of the British domination in India was very closely connected with keeping the Indian people divided on the lines of caste, was driven home to the British rulers. Some officials like Sir Lepel Griffin thought that caste was useful in preventing rebellion,¹ while James Kerr, the Principal of the Hindu College at Calcutta, wrote the following in 1865: "It may be doubted if the existence of caste is on the whole unfavourable to the permanence of our rule. It may even be considered favourable to it, provided we act with prudence and forbearance. Its spirit is opposed to national union."² The maxim of "divide and rule" began to be preached by historians and journalists alike.³ Because the Mutiny was largely the work of soldiers of the high castes of Brahmins and Rajputs, there was a clamour in England that the high-caste sepoys should be exterminated.⁴ Suspicion of high castes therefore dates from the Mutiny. The valuable lesson so dearly purchased was not going to be lost. It being repeated in the form of the general principle of "divide and rule" could not have failed to influence the policy and conduct of later officials. It is well to remember in this connection that even the Roman Church, in its desire to propagate its faith, was prepared to accommodate caste in its practical programme, though it was opposed to the humanitarian principles of the Church. Pope Gregory XV published a bull sanctioning caste regulations in the Christian Churches of India.⁵
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¹ Report of the Peel Commission on the Organization of the Indian Army, 1859, p. 14, and Appendix, pp. 6, 10, 147.
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¹ *Vide* Murdoch, *Caste*, p. 43.
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² Kerr, p. 301, footnote.
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³ L. J. Trotter, *History of India under Queen Victoria*, vol. ii, 1880, p. 91. and *The Times of India*, 3rd July, 1897 (leading article).
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⁴ Edward Sullivan, *Letters on India*, 1858, pp. 124-5.
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⁵ *Encyclopædia Britannica*, 11th Ed., vol. v, p. 468 (*a*).
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The British brought with them a casteless culture and a literature full of thoughts on individual liberty. With the introduction of English education many of the intelligent minds of the country came in closer contact with the religion of the rulers and some outstanding personalities amongst them. As a result some Indians like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore started movements which aimed at liberalizing religion and practising the brotherhood of man. The Brahmo Samaj had not only monotheism to preach but also to establish a brotherhood wherein man shall not be divided from man because of caste. The Bombay Prarthana Samaj, inspired by the ideals of Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, has also thrown caste overboard as far as its tenets go. While this movement of repudiating caste was being fostered, other capable Hindu minds thought of remodelling Hindu society after the pristine ideals supposed to be enshrined in the Vedas. Swami Dayanand preached that the fourfold division of the Hindu people should be substituted for the manifold ramifications of contemporary caste. The one important innovation that this school of thought carried out in their programme of reconstruction was that even the fourth class of the Hindu society, viz. the Śūdras, could study the Vedas.¹ Viewing both these movements as an outsider one cannot but be impressed by the manifest success of the Arya Samaj movement of Swami Dayananda. Speaking of the Prarthana Samaj of Bombay, it will be very hard to point out examples from among its high-caste leaders, who, when they had to arrange for the marriages of their sons or daughters, made any effort to practise the ideal they preached. Nay, some of the eminent leaders of the Samaj while openly denouncing caste, busied themselves with the affairs of the caste-groups in which they were born. The greater popularity of the Arya Samaj, compared with that of the Prarthana Samaj, is due to the following reasons: First, the Arya Samaj tried to revive the ancient purity of the Vedic society and thus appealed to the traditional sentiment of the people; secondly, the sincerity of the members of the Arya Samaj was much better demonstrated in actual practice; and thirdly, its chief centre of activity was transferred to the Punjab, where caste has been flexible.
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¹ See the account of the Arya Samaj given by Pandit Harikishan Kaul in the Punjab Census Report for 1911, pp. 133-6.
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Movements against caste of a more militant nature were not slow to arise. In 1873 Jyotirao Phooley of Poona, though a man of Mali caste and of comparatively little education, started an association of members called the Satyashodhak Samaj with the purpose of asserting the worth of man irrespective of caste. The breadth of his vision and the extent of his reforming activities led him to proclaim in his books and to carry out in his practice a revolt against the tyranny of the caste-system. He exhorted the non-Brahmin castes not to engage any Brahmin priest to conduct their marriage ritual, which he tried to reduce to a very simple procedure. He had perceived the necessity of educating the class of people to whom his appeal was directed, and had started primary schools both for boys and girls of the non-Brahmin castes as early as 1848. The catholicity of his mind is further proved by the fact that Phooley started in 1851 a primary school for the so-called untouchables in Poona, the very centre of orthodoxy, where, only fifty years before that, persons of these castes could not even move about during the best part of the day.
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Phooley's was a revolt against caste in so far as caste denied ordinary human rights to all the members of Hindu society, and not merely a non-Brahmin movement to cast off the domination of the Brahmins. In his writings he demanded representation for all classes of the Hindus in all the local bodies, the services, and the institutions.¹ The movement did not receive any support from the Brahmins in general. Only stray individuals like Ranade showed sympathy with it. Even among the non-Brahmins the progress of Phooley's ideas was slow. It was the late Maharaja of Kolhapur who infused new life into the agitation, so much so that Montague and Chelmsford, in their Indian political reforms, had to grant some of the demands.²
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¹ Phooley, pp. 25, 33, 50, 63.
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² This demand for representation in the services was first made in a petition addressed by the artisan castes of Madras to the Board of Revenue in 1840. "All classes of men, to the destruction of Brahmanical monopoly, should be appointed to public offices without distinction." John Wilson, *Indian Caste*, vol. ii, p. 89, footnote.
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It would be interesting to know the ideas of the late Maharaja of Kolhapur, who did so much for the recognition of the non-Brahmin movement. On the eve of the announcement of the Indian reforms he said: "If castes remain as they are, Home Rule in the sense it is meant will result in nothing but a kind of oligarchy. This of course does not mean, I may tell once more, that I am against Home Rule. Surely we want it. Under the present circumstances, however, we must have the protection and guidance of the British Government until the evil of caste-system becomes ineffective. To prevent Home Rule from culminating in oligarchy, we must have communal representation at least for ten years."
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It will teach us what our rights are. Once we know them, communal representation can be dispensed with." 1
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The purpose for which this staunch advocate of the non-Brahmin movement urged communal representation is by now more than achieved. An analysis of the membership of the various local bodies in the presidencies of Bombay and Madras clearly proves that the non-Brahmins know their rights and are generally keen to conduct a strong campaign against any measure which they feel unjust to them. A number of motions tabled and questions asked in the Bombay Legislative Council tell the same story. 2 The activity of a Madras association of non-Brahmins and handicraftsmen further illustrates this. One Brahmin member of the Government of Madras during Lord Pentland's tenure issued an order that the Vishwakarmans—handicraftsmen—must not suffix the word "Achary" to their names but that they must continue to use the traditional word "Asary". The said association memorialized to the Governor, as the word "Asary" carried some odium in the eyes of the people, protesting against the order, which they described as a stab in the dark. Not being able to move the Governor to cancel the order they sent a petition to the Secretary of State. 3
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Rao Bahadur A. B. Latthe, the biographer of the late Maharaja of Kolhapur, evidently realizing that the case for special representation cannot be sanctioned on the plea urged by his late hero, seeks other grounds—grounds that one knowing Indian conditions is sure to declare as likely to continue for at least a few generations—to support a worse form of special representation. He observes, "Unless, among the Hindus, caste disappears altogether, there is little chance of avoiding political expedients, like communal electorates though their harmful results are obvious." 4
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There are other leaders of the non-Brahmins who are at pains to proclaim that their movement, including their insistence on strict reservation of posts in the various services, is not inspired by any anti-Brahmin feeling. Others again assert that the large class of taxpayers represented by the non-Brahmin classes must have an adequate share of state-support in the form of reserved posts.
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¹ Latthe, vol. ii, p. 404.
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² Memorandum submitted by the Government of Bombay to the Indian Statutory Commission, 1928, pp. 527-9.
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³ The Times of India (Bombay), 25th October, 1924.
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⁴ The Indian Social Reformer (Bombay), 3rd January, 1925. We are glad to note that during the progress of the Round Table Conference Latthe has changed his view and is prepared to forego such special representation.
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The logic of these arguments is transparent, and opposed to the accepted criteria of nationality and the guiding principles of social justice. Nevertheless only a microscopic minority, even of the small number that recognizes the evils of these demands, propounds that communalism must be abandoned. The Chairman of the Reception Committee of the meeting of the Madras non-Brahmin party in 1924 made a strong appeal "to abandon the communal policy pursued hitherto and transform the party into an organization representing the forces working for reform along constitutional lines into which everyone without distinction of caste, religion, or colour would have free admission".¹ The party did not accept this wholesome principle of development until late in 1930.
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¹ The Indian Daily Mail (Bombay), 14th October, 1924.
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What are the interests which the leaders of the non-Brahmin movement wish to safeguard by means of special representation? If there are any such interests, are they identical for all the castes that are officially included in the category of non-Brahmins? These are questions which it is not at all easy for the protagonists of the movement to answer. The economic interests of the artisans, the tenant-farmers, landlords, and mill-workers are not identical. All these are very well represented in the non-Brahmin group. Nor has there been any attempt, to our knowledge, on the part of the Brahmins during recent times to penalize these classes of people simply because of caste-feelings. If any such legislation were introduced the British element in the Government of the country could effectively checkmate it.
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The non-Brahmin castes can be regarded as one group only in social matters because the attitude of the Brahmins as regards food and social intercourse, and religious instruction and ministration towards them, has been uniform. There has been enough awakening in the country for the Brahmins not to try the dangerous path of imposing legal restrictions in these matters. Even the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee decided in 1925 that "the gradation of merit based on birth should not be observed in Indian social life".¹ Whatever liberalizing of the Brahmin attitude in this respect has taken place during the last forty years is mainly due to education and social reform campaign and not to the very recent reserved or communal representation.
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¹ The Bombay Chronicle, 2nd May, 1925.
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Reserved representation is thus not necessary. Nay, it is harmful in so far as it tends to perpetuate the distinction based on birth. Co-operation in the satisfaction of the needs of common social life through the machinery of Government is one of the potent factors that have dissolved tribal bonds and created nation-communities. This co-operation may be based on both territorial contiguity and affinity of interests. Special representation for some castes, which have, as shown above, interests that are neither common to them, nor necessarily conflicting with the interests of other castes, means the negation of such co-operation. In countries where the nation-community is strongly built up on the basis of the feeling of unity no such principle is recognized for the representation of the different interests, even when they can be parcelled out into groups with conflicting interests. Thus we have not heard of "labour" claiming special representation in the British Parliament. Where it is a question of engendering a feeling of unity the people must be made to co-operate irrespective of their caste. It is only by such activity that the feeling of nation-community can be created. To harp on the caste-differences and to allow special representation is to set at naught the fundamental condition for the rise of community feeling.
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Certain types of non-Brahmin leaders find it easy to secure a seat on the legislature or a local body through the door of reserved representation, and that is the main reason, perhaps, why they are so strong in claiming it. But they fail to see that their example would be soon followed by many of the large castes that comprise at present the non-Brahmin category and their chances of an easy seat would be very much diminished. That this is not mere imagination will be clear to anyone who has followed the history of the demand for special representation in Indian political life. Ere long we shall witness the situation of many different castes that are individually large enough, each clamouring for special representation.¹ National life will thus be reduced to an absurdity. As it is, the non-Brahmins in the Bombay Presidency, wherever they could have their way, have shown unmistakable tendency to be anti-Brahmin and to harass their Brahmin employees in the matter of transfers, etc.² Perhaps, in the name of justice and efficiency, the time has come when the interests of the Brahmins have to be protected against the majority-party. All points considered, special representation is unnecessary and harmful.
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¹ Between the time this was written and is appearing in print the Marwaris of Calcutta put forward a plea for special representation.
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² Memorandum submitted by the Government of Bombay to the Indian Statutory Commission, 1928, p. 229.
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It has been mentioned above that the other demand of the non-Brahmins, which is already granted, is reservation of posts in the various services. This feature has latterly been so far insisted upon by the party that a journalist of long standing recently described it as "immediately and on the surface a movement to secure a larger share of offices in the administration".³ The principle is also liable, like representation, to be reduced to absurdity by separate demands by individual castes, officially forming the non-Brahmin group. There are the clearest indications of this development in the nearest future. Not long after the declaration of this policy by the Madras Government it was faced with this situation. "The hundreds of small communities into which Indian society is divided were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity which was so conveniently afforded them, and began to clamour for special representation in the Legislature, local bodies, the public services, and even educational institutions. The Government, in which also the non-Brahmin element was very influential, tried to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for the plums of office, but naturally could not succeed. It created jealousies and enmities which have now reacted with disastrous effect on the party."⁴
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