Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s2.16

c6.s2.16

Is it to the persistence of memories and to the enmities which they awaken that we must trace the dissensions which are perpetuated in many places between various castes? They are all the more striking as the peoples concerned are by nature the more peace-loving. The most lasting and notorious hostility is that which, in the south of India, divides what is called the ‘right hand’ and the ‘left hand’. The two sets correspond roughly, it seems, to a division into artisan and agricultural castes.¹ It has never been possible to explain its origin and history. So much is certain, that their rivalry has been and still is the source of violent quarrels which divide the population into opposing camps. Certain privileges claimed by one or the other ‘hand’, if ever so slightly infringed, kindle the conflict.¹ It has often provoked risings which ‘spreading from place to place, have sown trouble over a wide stretch of territory and given occasion for all kinds of excesses which often end in bloody battles’.