Caste and Race in India c5.123

c5.123

Of the major groups about half a dozen in each linguistic region were formed by primitive tribes, which were slowly absorbing whatever ideas they could from the Brahmanic civilization. They were hardly citizens. They lived not as members of towns or villages but of hamlets of their own, and were shunned by the Brahmanized peoples. Apart from their desire to imitate Brahmanic ideals as interpreted by other castes, their bond of social solidarity with other groups was the economic gain that resulted from an exchange of their economic activities with them. More or less similarly circumstanced were the nomadic castes, another half a dozen or a dozen. About five to fifteen groups, mostly artisans and special traders, were peculiar to the towns, where social coherence was the result of common government rather than that of the co-operation of the groups. The remaining castes were distributed among the villages, every village having about fifteen to thirty of them. And it was in the village that caste-society manifested its other aspect, viz. co-operation and inter-dependence. Village society was characterized by the possession of a number of permanent officials and menials, belonging to different castes, each having a definite status in the economic and civic life of the village. In India south of the Vindhyas the system was very highly developed, and the number of such dignitaries varied from twelve to twenty-four belonging to as many different castes. These persons, irrespective of their caste-status, had not only a voice in civic affairs but were also sometimes consulted in purely social and legal matters affecting the private lives of the individuals of any caste, resident in the village. In Northern India the system of village servants, though not so highly evolved as in the south, yet served the purpose of harmonizing different groups, till the super-imposition of a dominant caste had lessened the importance of the village dignitaries that were there. These latter, because of the particular form of land-tenure and revenue system and of their almost servile tenure, had no status in civic affairs, much less were they consulted in the private affairs of the members of the dominant caste.¹ In its pristine glory, however, a village or a town had a council of elders chosen from all castes and representing all the avocations in the locality.