Caste and Race in India c12.84

c12.84

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.