Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s6.13

c8.s6.13

From stern necessity the life of the invaders remained during the course of their slow conquest, if not nomadic, at least far from settled. We can follow the wanderings of some tribes; this mobility was very unfavourable to the organization of a political constitution, but very favourable to the maintenance of old institutions. The hazards of local struggles, moreover, could not fail to react on the state of the tribes, which in many instances were broken up. While preserving the tradition of hereditary customs, the fragments were reconstituted under the action of necessity and new interests, topographical or otherwise. The exclusive rigour of the genealogical bond must have been somewhat impaired by this. The way was open to diversified principles of grouping.