Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s7.38

c6.s7.38

This jurisdiction is based solely on custom, and is necessarily thwarted by the rival action of laws administered by the territorial power, however weak it may be; it is split up amongst a number of unequal and independent bodies which are sometimes hostile to one another. It cannot be wondered at, then, that such a jurisdiction is capricious. Moreover, in our own time, under the strong hand of British administration, these tribunals are losing their hold, like many of the ideas and prejudices on which their authority is based. This is not, however, a post-mortem that we are conducting: the institution is falling into decay, but its motive-force is not broken: it still works, although slowly and irregularly.