Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s8.11

c6.s8.11

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.