Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Caste and Class in India (D.D. Kosambi)
Caste and Class in India (D.D. Kosambi)
Guilford Press
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Under this title,Paul Rosas (science & society, 1943,vu [1943], No.
2, p. 141-167)attemptsto give a descriptionand an explanation of the
extraordinarysocial phenomenon that passes under the name of caste
in India. Both "facts"and interpretation ard open to objection,so that
a few remarksupon them may be of use for clarification.
Almost everystatementof a general nature made by anyone about
Indian castes may be contradicted. The Brahminsare not to eat meat
nor any food derived fromthe taking of life But Vedis Brahminsate
beef,KashmiriBrahminsdo eat meat, those in Bengal fish,withoutlos-
ing caste. The Sarasvatsin Goa eat fishregularlyand venison on occa-
sion, but touching an egg or a chicken would be an incredible per-
formancefor any of them. Again, the sudra, lowest of all castes, has
no access to templesor to book learning under the traditionalsystem.
We may ignore the developing and semi-anglicizedcity schools here,
but even in otherwisevery conservativevillages, I have seen sudra
teachersinstructingBrahmin boys in book-learning;in the most sur-
prisingcase, the teacherwas autodidact, and taught even Sanskrit,the
traditionalsacred language preservedonly for the upper castes,to sons
of Brahmins,and in the precinctsof the temple. Caste is supposed to
exist only for the Hindus, but here class phenomena cut across the re-
ligious barrier. There are good Roman Catholics in Goa who regard
themselvesas Brahmin Christians,and remembertheir family before
forcibleconversionsome four centuriesago; they will prefer to take
drinkingwater or food froma Hindu Brahmin,but not froma "sudra
Christian." The point here is that these Brahmin Christiansand the
Hindu Brahminswith whom theydeal on such curious termsare both
membersof the land-owningclass by long and conservativetradition.
Seeing the great diversityof features,it will be necessaryto take a
large view of the caste institutionas such. But the view that Rosas
gives, identifyingthe four-castedivision with a class division arid the
general castes with tribal divisions is neverthelesstoo large, obliterates
too many details to be useful. There are and always have been prince-
lings,even kings,who belonged to castesother than the ksatriya,which
*4ft
244 SCIENCE AND SOCIETY