Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s7.40

c6.s7.40

In such cases the caste in its decisions employs graduated methods of repression. It imposes fines, generally not very heavy and assessed in proportion to the means of the persons, as is fitting in a rather poor country. The proceeds are applied either to some charity or to communal festivities.¹ Among its characteristic sentences are the performance of purificatory penances, the provision of repasts to which the condemned must invite the caste, and finally and above all, absolute or temporary expulsion. The punishment varies not only, as one would expect, with the offence, but also according to custom with the degree of their humiliation. The caprice of the judges and certain personal considerations are allowed more or less openly to play their part. A certain case will in one place entail perpetual expulsion, whereas in another it will seem adequately punished by a mild penance. The available information is not consistent.