Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8: VII. Disintegration and Multiplication of Castes
Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8
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VII. Disintegration and Multiplication of Castes
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FROM the beginning I have put the reader on his guard against the common illusion of regarding caste-organization as a permanent structure divided up into watertight compartments, as a system whose harmonious and reasoned practice is upheld by its claim to immutability. I must return to this aspect of the subject. A sketch of its fixed characteristics would run the risk of giving wrong impressions, if we did not see in action some, at any rate, of the agents which bring variety, mobility, and life into this vast organism. It is incessantly stirred and modified by the leaven of reform; the hierarchical principle which pervades it tends to conservatism and stability. These are the two great conflicting currents of influence.
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All those who have observed Hindu society at close range are agreed in noting the existence of a constant stir and change in the composition, rank, and occupations of the castes. One of the most farseeing goes so far as to declare that if descent constituted a presumption in favour of the claims of the following generation, it is mere presumption modified or weakened by an infinite number of circumstances.¹ It is impossible to open any of the documents which are accessible to us without coming across a multitude of facts and affirmations, which show us in this world of neighbouring and overlapping corporate bodies a continued movement of disintegration and reconstitution.
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¹ Ibbetson, p. 172.
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The large castes with a generic name—the Brahmans, the Rajputs, the Jats—are, properly speaking, only collections of castes; the real unity is in the subdivisions, sub-castes, clans, or whatever one may choose to call them. I have already said this, and it is important to bear it in mind. The name of Rajput is only an honorific title, the unity of which embraces a multitude of tribes and castes, differing in origin, profession, and custom. The Jats of the Panjab are, beyond all doubt, a mixture of exceedingly diverse populations, and the Jat is not far wrong when, questioned as to his caste, he gives the name of a clan which is his true corporative homeland.²
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² Ibid., p. 427.
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Even these sections are subdivided and their names diversified. Thus it is that, among the Brahman, Vaidya, and Kāyasth castes in Bengal little groups called *dals*, *samājas*, sometimes *melās*, are formed, which soon close for their members the horizon of the caste, whether it be mere proximity which has first brought them together or whether they are distinguished by some usages which a man of exceptional influence has induced them to adopt.¹ It is in these same little groups that there exists the element of innovation, through the medium of which, thanks to the gradual infiltration of new practices, a more general change of ideas and habits may be developed. Meanwhile the first result is to multiply the subdivisions and castes. Sections are formed which are very small in numbers; the admission of modifications of every kind is more free because the agreement of a small group is sufficient to institute them. A particular usage can give birth to a new caste, but there are other factors also.
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¹ Guru Proshad Sen, *Calcutta Review*, April 1890, pp. 335, 339-41; Nil Kant Chatterjee, ibid., July 1891, pp. 129 et seq.
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First, geographical distribution. It is by reason of their dispersion that the Jainas of Northern India have formed six castes, which are distinguished by no occupational speciality.² Migration invariably transforms into a special caste the sect which has broken away from its original body. The fact is particularly apparent among the Brahmans, who have preserved unusually precise memories of their origins; but it holds good in every degree of the scale.³
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² Nesfield, §§ 199, 200.
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³ Cf., e.g., Ibbetson, § 343.
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Religion is involved also. Although the caste may have succeeded in resisting the hostile influence of Islam, and often imposed itself upon the followers of a creed which theoretically is by no means in sympathy with it, Islam has certainly made its influence felt, since its invasion of India, in those regions where it has established itself most firmly. Many of the professional classes in the west are divided into corresponding Hindu and Muslim tribes.¹ The difference of ideas concerning external purity alone is of a nature, if not to abolish common names, at least to weaken common ties and create real schisms. It is very probable that the warrior classes into which these ideas have penetrated have reverted in some cases to the status of mere tribes since the Muslim conquest has loosened the bonds of the caste.² The propagation of the Sikh doctrine has also contributed to the evolution of several castes. They discovered in adherence to the sect a means of raising their social status, a conclusion all the more natural since Sikhism theoretically eliminates the idea of caste. It is also noticeable that this improvement of status is always accompanied, and undoubtedly justified in part, by the abandonment of certain occupations reputed to be degrading.³ The very superstitions of the non-Aryan tribes may have exerted an influence in their own way, if it be true, as good judges maintain,¹ that groups of priest-sorcerers have been incorporated as Brahmans. The Ojha Brahmans of the North-West Provinces, for example, amongst others, are said to be of not more distinguished origin.
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¹ Ibbetson, § 619; Nesfield, § 98.
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² Ibbetson, § 456.
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³ Ibid., § 567.
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¹ Cf. Lyall, *Asiatic Studies*, pp. 175-6 and pp. 172 et seq.; Nesfield, pp. 63, 79.
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In the very heart of Hinduism several castes or sub-castes owe their individuality to religious schisms. The Lingayats of the Deccan ² clearly form a special class founded on their attachment to the Sivaite cult of the *lingam*. Whatever may be the particular reasons which have split them up into five castes, it is again by virtue of a religious consideration, of the sacerdotal role which has devolved upon it, that the first, that of the Jangamas, has separated and secured for itself the most important position.
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² Steele, pp. 105 et seq.
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From time immemorial India has swarmed with sects, and their growth is far from complete. Fresh sects spring up almost yearly, only, it is true, to be, as a rule, very rapidly absorbed in the rising tide of Hinduism which is considered orthodox despite its composite character.
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In general, these religious movements, narrowly circumscribed, merely give birth to a group of ascetics who are sworn to mortification and celibacy, and therefore exclude the first condition of the caste, heredity. They are recruited by voluntary affiliations, or add to their numbers children procured from other castes. But many of these fraternities, composed of both sexes, turn more or less into hereditary castes, sometimes very restricted, such as the Araḍis and the Bhāraḍis of Poona.¹ The Vairāgis are very much more numerous;² subdivided into several sections on the model of the true castes, they do not yet form a strictly hereditary caste. Development is more advanced among the Gosains, who, having admitted marriage, now constitute fully practising castes.³ Certain sects, like those of the Bishnoïs in the Panjab, founded in the fifteenth century by a Rajput of Bikanir, have never had either the semblance or the rule of a religious order; they furnish a perfectly clear example of people under the domination of a common heresy abandoning their primitive group to form themselves into an autonomous body.⁴
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¹ Poona Gazetteer, I, 444, 446.
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² Steele, pp. 109 et seq.; cf. Guru Proshad Sen, *Calcutta Review*, July 1890, p. 59, as to their position in Bengal.
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³ Nesfield, § 144.
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⁴ Ibbetson, § 123.
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The movements which are thus produced in the castes, and which are incessantly modifying their position, may be either individual or collective. Certain people, thanks to powerful protection or to trickery and corruption, find means to introduce themselves singly into various castes; this happens most frequently in the frontier territories, where observance is less strict.¹ Men of every caste have been known to be made Brahmans by the caprice of a chief.² Some castes are far from strict, and will under certain conditions readily open their ranks to all comers.³ Some nomad or criminal tribes gladly accept recruits for a consideration.⁴ The characteristic changes are made, however, by more or less compact masses.
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¹ Ibbetson, §§ 422, 423.
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² Elliot, I, 148; Nesfield, p. 79.
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³ Cf. Nesfield, § 80, on the Banjaras.
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⁴ Ibbetson, § 577.
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These changes follow, as one can observe, two contrary tendencies. Certain castes or sections are formed by groups raising themselves in the social scale; others, more numerous, resign themselves to a degradation imposed by circumstances. In the rules which, according to the Brahmanic system, dominate the life of the caste—rules of purity, domestic laws or religious beliefs—we discover the pivot of these movements.
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Aboriginal populations, still far from civilized, gradually become Brahmanized. By slow degrees they enter the pale of Hinduism by a procedure which Lyall has skilfully disclosed.⁵ Risley,⁶ analysing in turn this evolution, distinguishes four types. A certain number of chiefs, having acquired some landed property and the importance which it entails, surround themselves with Brahmans who invent for them a genealogy and a legendary origin; or else groups of aborigines throw themselves into the arms of some Hindu sect and discard their primitive nomenclature. Again, a whole tribe will enrol themselves under the banner of Hinduism, creating thereby a new caste; or finally, the evolution comes about slowly and is made manifest by the change of name. In all these cases this development is marked and authorized by the adoption of Hindu festivals and religious usages, the practices of purification, and the laws which govern marriage, and, above all, by the respect lavished on the Brahmans, who are recognized as priests and religious leaders of the tribe. Examples abound on all sides: the Mīnas of Central India,¹ the Bāgrīs² of the North-West Provinces, the Khaṇḍs and Santiās of Orissa,³ and numberless others. The process is always the same.⁴ These facts explain why several Rajput clans bear the name of non-Āryan tribes; there can be no doubt that they belong to them by birth.⁵ It would be no more surprising to discover that many Rajputs of the Panjab were drawn from the debris of several clans or castes as their accession to landed property gradually conferred on them a growing social importance and coloured their ambition.⁶
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⁵ Asiatic Studies, p. 103, al.
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⁶ Ethnogr. Gloss., pp. xv et seq.
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¹ Hearn, *Aryan Household*, pp. 301, 306.
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² Elliot, I, p. 9.
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³ N. K. Bose, *Calcutta Review*, July 1891, p. 110.
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⁴ Ibbetson, §§ 545-7; Nesfield, §§ 118-20.
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⁵ Nesfield, pp. 16-18.
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⁶ Ibbetson, § 339.
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The same thing happens in the case of castes which have existed for a long time within the Hindu community. An Ahiri clan, contemptuous of its former associates, forms itself into a special caste by introducing a few reforms, such as condemning women to regular seclusion and abolishing second marriages for widows; ¹ the Chamars, who abandon the degrading occupation of leathercraft for weaving, become Julaha Chamars, pending the time when they may be considered Julahas by full right. Some Chuhras who give up the occupation of sweepers are transformed into Murallis. There are innumerable other instances.
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¹ *Calcutta Review*, July 1891, p. 109.
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The converse process is still more frequent. The illegitimate children of the Karana caste in Orissa have formed themselves into a special group.² In the same province a caste of Chattarkhais has been recruited from all sorts of people who have lost their social status by being fed in ‘relief-kitchens’ during the last famine. It has even been rapidly subdivided into two sections according to the former rank of the new-comers.³ Whilst preserving their title and the use of the sacred thread, the Brahmans themselves, who officiate for the despised classes, fall into disrepute which isolates them strictly from their fellows. The handling of the plough is not less fatal to them. We see among the Thāvīs, the Dhūnsars, and the Dharūkrā, Brahmans ¹ who, by breaking these and other laws, have not long since given up the right even to the title which formerly secured to them a remnant of superiority and respect. Although they lay claim to a Brahmanic origin, seclude their women, and wear the thread, the Tagas in the Panjab are no more than a criminal caste of robbers.² It can be imagined that the same degradation occurs still more easily in the humbler castes—Rajputs, Banias, and others. It is useless to add to the list.
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² Ibbetson, § 441; cf. also Atkinson in the *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1884, p. 44.
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³ Risley, p. viii.
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¹ Ibbetson, §§ 423, 534, 586.
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² Ibid., §§ 282-3.
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By the factors which modify the condition of the groups we may judge of the principal considerations which govern their hierarchy. This hierarchy is very punctilious, but far from being invariable. The general tendencies are altered by special circumstances, especially by historical events. At a given moment the power of a province may have fallen to the representative of a class which from its origin did not seem destined to wield authority. The agrarian race of the Kunbis at Poona go so far as to adorn themselves with the title of Kshatriyas. This claim is not unconnected with the important part played in the seventeenth century by one of its members, Śivājī, as founder of the Maratha power.³ All things considered, what governs precedence is the degree of fidelity with which each caste conforms, or professes to conform, to the Brahmanic teaching either as regards marriage or external purity, or as regards the occupations or accessory customs of which I have attempted to give some idea. It is, above all, the supposed impurity of their trades or of their food which is responsible for the humiliation of the lowest castes, those who are commonly called outcasts.¹ It is easy to imagine that every one is scrupulously on his guard against these people, since the essential formula is to have no dealings with those who are inferior and defiled.
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³ Poona Gazetteer, I, 284-5.
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¹ Ibbetson, p. 153.
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It is characteristic of the highflown vanity of the various groups that they set particular store on establishing completely imaginary connexions with castes like the Kshatriya and the Vaiśya of the Brahmanic system, which have no reality, at least in our own times. It cannot therefore be prompted by any genuine tradition; it is out of date, and inspired, like the whole hierarchical scheme, by the sacerdotal theory.
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It is not astonishing, then, that the whole ordinance is crowned by the supremacy which it assures to the Brahmans. All their privileges and the often extravagant respect with which they are treated have been often described.² It is not an exaggeration to say that the domination and prestige of the Brahman caste are the most incontestable characteristics of Hinduism.¹ This tendency is so strong that a caste such as might arouse much prejudice and contempt may, in spite of all this, be treated with lasting esteem for the sole reason that it displays superior fidelity to Brahmanic practices.² However low certain groups may be, however much their company may contaminate the Brahmans who consent to officiate for them, the mere circumstance of their assistance is enough to make the caste vastly superior to those who do not enjoy the Brahmans’ administrations. The mere name of Brahman is a very eminent title. The very sections that the Brahmans of good stock despise the most, such as the Josis of the North-West Provinces,³ are, for the reason that they are Brahmans, profoundly revered by the great mass of the population.
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² It suffices to refer to the Abbé Dubois.
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¹ Ibbetson, pp. 111-12; exceptions, as well as being very rare, are generally based on some definite motive. The case of those Santals of Bengal who, at the time of the famine, preferred to die of hunger rather than touch food prepared by Brahmans is a piquant reaction of the scruples fostered by orthodox teaching.
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² Ibbetson, § 532.
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³ Nesfield, p. 68.
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This aspect of the ‘ gods of the earth ’ is not bound up solely with their religious character.⁴ It extends to those representatives of the class whose occupations and ordinary life would of themselves afford no title to it. Respect which is properly religious is lavished on all kinds of ascetics and teachers, of whom a very large number are not Brahmans. Conversely, sects whose heterodox belief should easily detach them from the Brahmans and the prejudices of caste, like the Jainas,¹ and even some Muslims, continue to show a most abject deference to them, and to desire them as priests of their cult. Still less does the Brahmanic prerogative descend to the level of the sectarian conflicts between Viṣṇuites and Śivaites. The Brahmans are generally pleased to affect an attitude of disdain towards these divisions.
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⁴ Ibbetson, pp. 108, 112, 131. It is by virtue of the same tendency that the Jainas adorn themselves with the sacred thread which places them amongst the Dvijas (Dubois, I, p. 15).
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¹ Ibbetson, p. 112.
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Looking down on so many conflicting issues, it is not easy for the untrained observer to adapt himself quickly to those spontaneous readjustments which every bird’s-eye view demands. This sketch is fated to get out of date rapidly; perhaps the situation which it summarizes has recently suffered more than one assault. However powerful may be the force of conservatism and inertia peculiar to the East, traditional organization is attacked by Western influence and by the ideas and habits which it favours. In choosing its many assistants the Anglo-Indian Government pays no attention to caste nor to its prejudices, but is guided solely by personal merit. Army and administration throw people of all classes together in an intimacy which would once have appeared intolerable. Custom has been successfully assailed both by thought and deed.
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Notwithstanding their haughty contempt for the barbarians, the Mlechchhas, whom theoretically they regard as veritable *outcasts*, it is difficult for the Hindus not to feel some admiration and fear for their powerful masters, which gives these so-called Pariahs a singular prestige. Relations of every sort with these barbarians so greatly superior in civilization are not only frequent, but even appear honourable and flattering. The vanity of imitation incessantly undermines traditional instinct and its scruples. Meat finds its way on to the table of many Brahmans ; pollution contracted by a voyage overseas and by the infractions which it entails is no longer regarded as calamitous. On every side rules are relaxing, custom is weakened, and gradually from one small group to another the movement of evolution is discerned. Caste jurisdiction necessarily gives way before the strong and regular administration of England ; it loses at once in extent, in precision, and in authority.
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This decay is attested on all sides. One must not over-estimate the ground already won ; but the tendency and its future consequences cannot be mistaken. Now is the time to study caste if we wish to catch it alive and in action. Doubtless this infiltration and imitation of European ideas is extremely superficial; it has not yet penetrated very far into the lower strata of this immense and tenacious population. But once the high castes are shaken they may rapidly bring down the system. The prestige of the Brahmanic class is the corner-stone of the whole organization. It is there that the complexity attains to some sort of unity; this disconcerting confusion is to some extent brought into line by the Brahmanic observances which it accepts and by the Brahmanic domination which it sanctions.
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What does this mean? Is this unity primitive? Is the Brahmanic organization of the castes at the very root of the system, or does it only mark its most recent form?
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The question is of vital importance. The lengthy details into which I have entered must be excused, since they are designed to prepare the ground for its examination.