Caste and Race in India c5.36

c5.36

In Eastern and Southern Bengal² and in Gujarat and the whole of Southern India there is no distinction of food as "Kachcha" and "Pakka" for the purposes of its acceptance or otherwise from anyone but a member of one's own caste. In Gujarat³ and Southern India, generally speaking, a Brahmin never thinks of accepting water, much less any cooked food from any caste but that of the Brahmins, and similarly all the other castes or groups of castes more or less follow the principle of accepting no cooked food from any caste that stands lower than itself in the social scale. This rule does not apply with the same strictness to accepting water. Again as a rule, a lower caste has no scruples in accepting cooked food from any higher caste. Thus all the castes will take cooked food from the Brahmin.