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Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s4: III. Hereditary Occupations

Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s4

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English

III. Hereditary Occupations

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A RECENT theory, supported by an exceedingly shrewd and expert judge, has claimed that common occupation forms the very foundation and principle of the caste. This is perhaps the conception which remains uppermost in the minds of those who content themselves with a certain amount of approximate ideas on the subject. But it would be an exaggeration to imagine Hindu society as enclosed according to the occupations of its members in a chessboard of unchangeable and impassable squares. It is true that many castes are called by the name of the profession which in general they follow: potters, blacksmiths, fishermen, gardeners, etc. It is necessary to remember that the names of trades which are presented to us as caste-names really embrace a larger area, and that the true caste, characterized and limited by the marriage laws, is much more restricted. Thus Banyas, or merchants, in the Panjab,¹ to take only one example, are split up into sections under geographical names such as the Agarwals, the Oswals, etc., which, being endogamous, clearly form as many distinct castes. A professional caste therefore does not embrace in one single unit all the people who live by the calling from which it takes its name. It is even a common experience to find gathered under a single trade-name people who very obviously derive from distinct castes and tribes.¹

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¹ Ibbetson, § 532.

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¹ See the case of the Sangtarash or stone-cutters according to Nesfield, *Caste System*, § 62; cf. Ibbetson, § 366. At Poona the Salis and the Sangars are both weavers, *Poona Gazetteer*, pp. 365, etc.

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On the other hand, members of the same caste may earn their living in very different ways, the most notable instance being the low and despised castes, reputed to be of non-Aryan origin. Condemned to perform all the menial tasks, they follow to some extent any and every kind of inferior occupation. The Baris, in the North-West Provinces, make torches and act as barbers,² the Banjaras³ comprise merchants, bards, shepherds and agriculturists. Elsewhere cotton-beaters, oil-pressers, and butchers rub elbows in a single caste.⁴ Examples could be multiplied *ad infinitum*. They are not confined to the lowlier castes. Nesfield⁵ himself explains that among the merchants the professional distinction is practically nil, and that all their castes may engage in trade without possessing prescriptive rights to any one branch. He states⁶ that numbers of people change their occupations without leaving their caste. That is quite evident.

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² Elliot, p. 49.

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³ Ibid., pp. 52-5; on the Kunbis, p. 156.

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⁴ Ibbetson, §§ 646-7.

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⁵ *Caste System*, p. 78.

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⁶ Ibid., § 81.

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It is no less certain that the enormous number of castes devoted to agriculture does not correspond to the same number of professional distinctions, present or past. The castes in this category have shown an incessant tendency to gain ground In proportion as the non-Aryan tribes have drawn closer to Hindu civilization, they have become predominantly agricultural; in proportion as the peace maintained by British rule has discouraged the profession of arms, agriculture has gained in man-power. This is but one of the elements which, from the point of view of allocation, conspire to disturb uniformity.

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Let us begin, first of all, at the very top of the scale. It is perhaps among the Brahmans that there occurs the most complicated mixture of occupations and confusion of trades. If we were to go no farther than the old idea of a caste of Brahmans consecrated solely to religious practice and study and to a life of austerity or meditation, this would be extremely disconcerting. Those who have seen Brahmans girded with the sacred thread offering water at Indian stations to travellers, and who have also seen them drilling among the sepoys of the Anglo-Indian Army, are prepared for surprises of this kind. As a matter of fact, people who proudly bear the title of Brahman and to whom everywhere this title assures great respect, may be found engaged in all sorts of tasks : priests and ascetics, learned men and religious beggars, but also cooks and soldiers, scribes and merchants, cultivators and shepherds, even masons and chair-porters.¹

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¹ Hunter has in this connexion entered into very curious details, whatever may be the value of the theories which he mingles with facts, Orissa, I, pp. 239 et seq. On Brahman cultivators the reader may also compare Ibbetson, § 512, Elliot, I, p. 94 ; on Brahman tradesmen, Ibbetson, § 361 ; and generally, on the variety of the professions followed by Brahmans, Dubois, Mœurs, etc., I, pp. 410 et seq. ; Nesfield, Caste System, § 133, etc.

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There are even more extraordinary facts : the Sanauriya Brahmans of Bundelkhand ² have robbery as their hereditary profession. It is true that they only follow it by day, and the respect of the Hindus for the Brahmans goes so far that, if one is to believe a perhaps ironical proverb, to be robbed by them should be regarded as a favour from heaven. For the rest, there are not wanting other castes of robbers, although of less lofty pretensions.³

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² Nesfield, § 134.

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³ Dubois, I, pp. 5, 77 ; Steele, Hindoo Castes, p. 121 ; Poona Gazetteer, I, pp. 464 et seq.

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This diversity of occupations in the Brahmanic caste is nothing new. A very similar state of things is already sanctioned by the laws of Manu and by other equally venerable authorities. I hasten to add that in many cases these distinctions give birth to those new sub-castes which are to me the true castes; but this result is far from being invariable.

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The intrusion of these numerous peoples, who, inferior to the average level of Āryan castes, cause disturbance and instability in the system, may also have contributed to break down the rigour of the principle. I readily admit that speciality and heredity of occupation have not only been a powerful bond within the caste, but have often been the centre of attraction round which new groups have gathered. In spite of everything it is evident that hereditary community of profession is seriously upset by the arrangement of the caste-system.

Cites (1)