Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8.1

c6.s8.1

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.