Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s7.5

c6.s7.5

The two stable elements are the Chief and the Council, or *Panchayat*. There are, it is true, certain castes which we are told have no chief, for example, the Kachis of Poona.¹ This is undoubtedly a very rare exception, which would confirm what is in any case apparent, that the principal authority is vested in the representative council of the caste. In reality it resides in the caste as a whole, and this rudimentary constitution is singularly democratic. If we seek an example of jurisdiction directly exercised and of penalties inflicted *proprio motu* by a chief or his representative, we shall find it in a caste of Jainas, essentially ecclesiastic, the chief of which is a veritable Guru, the superior of a religious fraternity rather than the chief of a caste.² I, for my part, have difficulty in believing what Elliot reports : without making any positive statement, he asserts of the chiefs of the Banjara caste that their authority has never been strong enough to inflict capital punishment.