Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s6.31

c8.s6.31

The former masters of the soil, too numerous to be entirely subjugated, suffered the ascendancy of a more gifted conqueror; but even where they completely lost their independence, they preserved in the main their native organization. They were rather converted than subdued by a centralized force; they certainly helped to maintain throughout the country an element of instability and fluctuation. The tribes continued to jostle one another in the guise of small semi-autonomous nationalities, so that this aboriginal population raised against the development of an organized political government a formidable obstacle which has never been surmounted. Their example upheld the cause of archaic institutions, and thus in every way encouraged the survival of those conditions which prevailed when the conqueror entered the country.