History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c21.46.3

v2.c21.46.3

For the present they should rest content with equality in public places, public services and before the law and at the most entry into public temples. But if they indulge in the tall talk of destroying the caste system at one stroke and requiring that all caste Hindus should dine with them and inter-marry with them, they may find that at least two hundred millions of caste Hindus will be dead opposed to them, and the cause of the removal of the evils of untouchability is bound to suffer a set-back. Besides it should not be forgotten that the amelioration of the condition of untouchables is bound up with the problem of the poverty of the entire rural population of India. It should not be supposed that all the untouchables are the poorest of the poor. I know from personal knowledge that many among certain classes of untouchables like the Mahars and Chambhars of the Deccan are economically better off than the ordinary cultivators in many villages. The *mahars* are hereditary village servants in the Deccan and they recover from every householder bread every day as part of their remuneration or a certain measure of corn from the threshing floor. Vide Grant Duff's 'History of the Marathas' (ed. of 1863 vol. I p. 23) for the *balutedars* (village servants) among whom the *mahar* occupies an important place and Hereditary Offices Act (Bombay Act III of 1874, section 18) for Legislative recognition of their ancient rights.