Caste and Race in India c12.101

c12.101

The growth of city life with its migratory population has given rise to hotels and restaurants. The exigencies of office work have forced city people to put aside their old ideas of purity. Caste-Hindus have to eat articles of food prepared by Christians, Musalmans, or Persians, because Hindu restaurants have not been easily or equally accessible during office hours. In Hindu hotels, they have to take their meals in the company of people of almost any caste—as the hotel-keeper cannot manage to reserve accommodation for members of different castes. What was originally done under pressure of necessity has become a matter of routine with many in their city life. This freedom from caste-restrictions about food, though seen in the city, is a mere garb that is usually cast aside by city people when they go to their villages. The force of custom and sentiment is so great that it has led the people to create a dual standard of life rather than break with their village folk. Especially is this true of all formal occasions. While this slow and enforced change was taking place special dinners whereat persons sit in a row irrespective of caste have, from time to time, been successfully arranged by some associations. Conscious effort and the force of flux have effected an altogether healthy and appreciable modification in the people's attitude in the matter of supposed pollution imparted through food and drink by certain classes of people. Whereas in Poona a handful of people like M. G. Ranade and others were subjected to social tyranny and ultimately forced to undergo expiatory rites in 1891-2 for having taken tea at a Christian missionary's place, to-day no one even takes notice of the Brahmins dining at the Government House.