History of India-VIII (c.

1857-1950)

-Aishwarya Mukhopadhyay

Critically examine the consolidation of identity vis a vis caste during the late 19 th century colonial India
with special reference to any two regions. Also assess the role of state apparatus in the formation and
consolidation of such an identity.

The articulation and consequent assertion of caste identity can be attributed to British Orientalists, administrators and
missionaries, as well as Indian collaborators, namely Indian reformers, social thinkers and political actors. Colonialism could
be sustained by what Bernard Cohn called ‘cultural technologies of rule’1, and thus, by giving primeval importance to the
caste system, the British were able to charter new significant identities for the Indians. This cultural effect of colonialism in
reality, led to what Ashis Nandy calls ‘colonisation of the mind’, wherein the coloniser’s intervention in the mental sphere of
the subject affects central aspects of the knowledge systems of the individual. The colonialists made promises of modernity,
but could never fully implement it, for it was limited by the idea of colonialism. 2

G S Ghurye blamed the British for the stringency of caste. With the coming of the British, caste became a religious system
and lost its social status, becoming more uniform and far more pervasive. In this paper, we will first look at the policies and
intellectual ferment of the early 19 th century, followed by a detailed study of the census, its immediate and long-term effects
on the urban and rural population. We will then move on to individual cases of Western India and Punjab to understand how
the lower caste Dalit articulated and asserted their distinct identities

Western observers saw Hindus to be prisoners of an inflexible hierarchical Brahman centred system, and this insistence,
argues Susan Bayly led to the creation of the caste order. The early western scholars, like Alexander Dow (1768) used the
terms ‘caste’, ‘tribe’, ‘community’ interchangeably. 3 Abbe Dubois performed an anthropological survey of India on behalf of
the British, and came to the conclusion that it was best to not interfere in the religious matters of the people in the
subcontinent. Caste was inseparable from the “idyllic village community” which Colin Mackenzie, Thomas Munro typified
to be the feature of India. With James Mill’s writing coming to the fore, the Manusmriti became the oft-consulted source for
caste by the British.4

When the British set out to rule India, it was important to gain knowledge and to find collaborators to consolidate the
different areas. It was believed that knowledge and data about the new subjects could be used to tax or police subjects, and
the need of the hour was to “systemise” the knowledge. Thus, the British subjected their new citizens to what Bayly calls
‘essentialisation’. Caste featured heavily in these early documents, primarily gazettes and reports.

It was post-1857, that we see the trend to report people according to their “qualities and essence” 5 and the categories of caste,
tribe and ethnoreligious community got a permanent place in the colonial census. Bayly argues that this led to two important
things: one, an increasing awareness dividing Hindus and non-Hindus and two, it contributed to the view that Indians were
slaves to an unchanging and rigid caste system. To Susan Bayly, the Indian society came to look like traditional caste society
because the British made it look so- caste helped them obtain and interpret knowledge they sought. Importantly, the chief
source of information for the British was the priestly Brahmin class and the commercial population, and the Company
treated them as authoritarian sources on ‘native law’ and custom. It was with Reverend William Ward’s description of
Brahmanical tyranny of Maratha that we see caste being depicted as being oppressive, and gradually we see the idea of
moral degradation under Brahmanical rule, gaining ground.

The growth of the Census and the ‘ethnographic state’

The most logical way to get information of the people was by conducting a census survey. The colonial census of 1871-72
was a significant step taken by the British to collect data of the subcontinent. The importance of the exercise lies in the fact
that the views of the coloniser of the colonised, forever changed the way in which the native citizens of India viewed
themselves to be.

1
Bernard Cohn describes cultural technologies of rule to be colonialism’s use of native institutions and their
histories to build up its own technologies of imperial rule over the colonised, which could even go on to shape
the future of the community.
2
Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton University Press,
2011), 10
3
Ibid., 20
4
Though there were significant regional variations and reality of caste was different on ground, as Lord
Elphinstone later pointed out
5
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008), 98
Reverend M. A. Sherring’s influential three-volume work entitled Hindu Tribes and Castes (1872) sought to give a detailed
account of castes in India. Nicholas Dirks describes it as a “prelude to the census”. 6 Unlike earlier attempts which relied on
textual categories, it depended more on empirical knowledge. He explained caste as a Brahmanical invention which had
made the Hindu totally religious and totally servile.

By the time of the census, caste had become especially important both because of strongly held official views. According to
Bernard Cohn, the census of 1872 was carried out with such “imperfections both in administration and in conception” 7 that
we can rely little on the census for accurate information. There was little cooperation from the native population, a great deal
of reliance on rumours, and it differed from province to province for certain categories like education and literacy were not
accounted for. The census often missed out on villages and settlements due to lack of staff and relied on police circles
(thanas), who often supplied inaccurate information.

The British felt that caste and religion were the key sociological phenomenon required to understand the Indians. To govern
well, information was paramount, and with the idea of martial races gaining ground, and of certain castes being hostile to the
British, the British felt it was a necessary step to collect information. However, Cohn asserts that it was not just intellectual
curiosity but also was based on the “deeply held beliefs about Indians by the British.” 8 The knowledge of caste would go on
to shape policy in the 19th century with regard to property and other aspects of daily life. The principle of organisation was
thus to place caste in the four varnas, or categorise them as Outcastes and Aborigines. The census according to Bayly led to
people being familiarised with the orientalist perspective.

Several problems arose while collecting: problems which would resonate and create new identities for Indians in the future.
Standard lists of caste names were made, but caste with its various regional variations became difficult to classify: for
example, almost 2,300,000 people were dropped from the 1891 census for their caste could not be identified in the paradigm
provided. There was also an acute problem relating to the presentation of the data. It was very difficult to rank caste, for
“popular voice (of the region) designates as inferior” or superior. The British, confused about position of castes like
Kayasthas and Khandits approached Rajendra Lal Mitra and later other learned scholars like Tara Prasad Chatterjee, Asvini
Kumar Basu who ranked the castes, citing sacred texts and legends.

Colonial ethnographic curiosity took caste as fundamental to the understanding of Indian society, in official writings caste
became most imp subject and classificatory schema for organising India’s social world. The ‘ethnographic state’ was driven
by the belief that India could be ruled by anthropological knowledge to understand and control its subjects and to represent
and legitimate its own mission. Though caste overlapped, it never made Risley or the British doubt their methods. H H
Risley’s ethnographic study was based on these views, but he felt that race was the basis of caste in India. Risley’s 1901
census combined the race and caste questions, and through the anthropomorphic measurements, he believed he had
confirmed his hypothesis that social precedence was the based on a scale of racial purity.

A classic anthropological text is H. H. Risley’s The People of India (1908) which summarises his views on the origin and
classification of the Indian races based on historical speculations and anthropometric research. The stress on and trust in
anthropometry was informed by the caste system’s strict endogamy. Risley’s views on caste as a social system and force
dominated discussions on caste. For Risley, caste has an ambivalent status. It was both religious and social, anarchic, yet
encouraging monarchy. On the one hand, the caste-ridden Indian history cannot build national sentiment but on the other, the
caste system itself could be the basis for political awakening among caste groups. It is the colonial situation that resolves
these contradictions. Caste could, Risley thought, be made into a virtue out of its necessity. It could accommodate and shape
a gradually developing class society, perhaps even softening its potential conflicts and antagonisms. Thus, caste was
expressed as the defining feature of India. British colonial assumptions about the absence of politics and the overpoweringly
divisive force of caste as a social principle still informed the discourses on caste.

“The spirit of caste attained its apotheosis with the census. A vehicle for the consolidation of imperial ideology, the census
became the means for the collection of empirical knowledge the likes of which could not have been imagined by previous
commentators.”9 The census questioned people’s identity, and almost half a million people were confronted by the question
of who they were and where they stood in society. We see the formation of caste sabhas and their petitions to have their
caste positions changed, like the Mahtons who claimed Rajput status and were given the status of hunter-gatherers. What is
important was that there was the growth of an awareness regarding caste and its social standing, as identity was becoming
increasingly crystallised under a newly formed centralised state. Bayly points out how women were excluded in census as

6
Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton University Press,
2011), 46-47
7
Bernard S. Cohn, "The Census, Social Structure, and Objectification in South Asia," ed. Ishita Banerjee Dube,
in Caste in History (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012), 28.
8
Ibid., 32
9
Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton University Press,
2011), 48
members of individual caste, and thus, cases of hypergamy were often overlooked. The census also established moral worth
and purity of castes and became important for identifying communities which were man enough to serve the colonial army. 10

Caste, race, morality

In the late 19th century, we also see the growth of the idea of race, put forward particularly by William Jones. Jones’
linguistic discoveries emphasized on the historic kinship between European and Asian cultures and treated the Vedic texts to
be the coming of Brahmanisation in India, and led to the development of the Aryan race, where Aryans were seen as the
heroes of great adventurers of migration and conquest. This ‘pure and primeval religion’ introduced the four-fold varna
system, theorised Jones. Linguistic kinship thus proved racial kingship, and identified the shared Aryan legacy. Thus, the
idea came to be that it was natural for Indians to be ordered by varna-jati, compatible with good order.

However, there was also considerable suspicion regarding the caste system: groups whom the British found ‘dangerous
criminal vagrants’ and ‘sinister’ were defined as thugs, who came to be a fixed social group. Entire tribes and castes were
labelled as thugs and were criminalised under the ‘Criminal Tribes and Castes Act’ (1871, 1911). With the growth of
ethnology and a growing number of Indians being absorbed in the urban intelligentsia, caste prejudices of the British grew
stronger. The Bengal Mutiny of 1857 was led by the Brahmans, and the British were convinced that they needed safer
recruiting grounds, say Punjab or Nepal, areas which were relatively casteless.

The colonial state operated through the powers of coercion and surveillance and in the 19 th century, caste became the
measure of new order which defined high and low status. At the beginning of the 19 th century, society was still flexible with
varna-jati norms, but at the end of the 19 th century, identities became more fleshed out, as to who was ‘clean’, and who was
‘polluted’.

The Indian articulation of caste

These writings helped shape ideologies of nationhood, of faith of the colonised Indians in the final half of the 19 th century.
The Indians appropriated and reformulated the contemporary racial theories in their treatment of caste as a critique, or
defended it as an essential part of the Hindu being. 11 The literati became familiar with the western orientalist scholars and
denounced social tyranny exercised by the priestly and secular Brahmans. We see the growth of a class of Indian
professionals: doctors, lawyers, the bureaucracy and the commercial class. They went on to establish colleges, libraries,
debating societies and created the public sphere and a new civic society, typified by the growth of the native gentleman. We
also see the significant growth of anglophone journals and voluntary associations and a vigorous native press.

There was a group of commentators who identified themselves as reformists and believed in modernising Indian values and
campaign against social evils. A leading proponent, T V Vaswani said “caste…was entirely evil to the true genius of our
Race”12. The rhetoric of the new nation would often combine Hindu faith and Aryan heritage. The immediate reaction to the
census was the growth pf caste organisations and associations, to discuss how their communities could achieve a credible
reputation, with an emphasis on ‘pure behaviour’ like adopting teetotalism. The Arya Samaj and other Hindu revivalist
organisations involved themselves in campaigns of religious conversion or shuddhi (purification) for social upliftment of
lower castes and restore status in the Hindu social order. This idea was supported by the belief that Indians possessed
“absolute standards of purity, utility and reason”. 13 The idea of readmitting low caste converts to Islam, Sikhism and
Christianity to their old faith by purification was also entertained.

There was also the growth of a discourse where caste was viewed as an “idealised corporation” 14 where jatis were vested
with moral messages for modernising the Hindu nation. S V Ketkar advocated for a scientific approach to the analysis if
caste, extolling the doctrine of four varnas to be a healthy one, but at same time, dismissing the Aryan superiority theories.
Significantly, the Prarthana Samaj’s corporate food sharing ceremonies stand testimony to this discourse: the ritual included
aspects of bhakti congregationalism and at the same time, modern symbolism of European styled public banquet. This
discourse aimed at fighting caste oppressions, but not for a state of castelessness.

We also see a trend to take up practices of higher castes like the sacred thread to fight against caste, especially by the
advocates of the Arya Samaj and Swami Vivekananda. The growth of the reformist press continued to endorse the ideas of
ancient light skinned Aryans and dark-skinned aborigines as the cause of caste.

The impact on the agrarian sector

10
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 125
11
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 144
12
Ibid., 156
13
Ibid., 162
14
Ibid., 166
In the 19th century, there was a growth of superior landlords who found themselves clinging to inherited lordships in the most
volatile agrarian regions. They often had Rajput titles or a Ksatriya status. This was also the time of widespread assimilation
of the bania, which led to the emphasis on Brahman cantered norms and values. This was further influenced by
socioeconomic change.

During the 1820-40s the stagnant market conditions were depressed the value of agricultural land. This was compounded by
high revenue rates of the Company. In the mid-19 th century, with the extension of agriculture in northwest Punjab,
Coimbatore, and the intensification of agriculture in Tanjore, Bihar and eastern United Provinces, areas of agriculture were
afflicted by volatile social market conditions, rapid population growth and social unrest. It thus became difficult to maintain
distinctiveness of elite, and the hiring of agricultural labours was becoming expensive.

Meanwhile, the Bengal Army, which had been recruiting from among Brahmans, retained the marks of honour for serving
sepoys. They fostered a formal Brahmanical sense of caste” like adoption of vegetarian diet. Bayly argues that the
distinctiveness of the Bhumihar caste was created by the British. In the 1840s, the British recruited from the martial races-
Sikh Jats from Punjab and Dogras from the Himalayan hill-states. However, post 1857, the British recruited groups without
caste prejudices, like the “casteless” Pathans and Gurkhas.

This made the sepoy gentry worried about their jobs and the chief consequence was the hardening of the boundaries between
superior landed groups and low impure caste. The worst hit were the elite rural groups and the retention of paid field
servants was becoming problematic. Thus, the only way left was to coerce those who could be identified as menials, with an
obligation to serve. Hence, varna-jati rankings introduced by the census were implemented with great severity. To be twice-
born was to hold a divinely mandated right to exact dues and deference from lowly case, for example, the Kurmis or Goala
tillers, who held tenancies founded themselves identified as shudras.15

Colonial policy also invented traditions of obligatory labours for those defined as low in caste terms. This was manifest
through the Awadh Rent Act (1868), which conferred rights on superior landowners revenue payers who were not confirmed
for share-cropping tenants and dependent labour groups. 16 In later decades, the licence to demand beggar was also given.
This led to widespread unrest in the late 19 th century. The spread of the devotional spiritual revivalist movement like the
Arya Samaj changed the identity and the perception of communities. For example, the Arya Samaj had a role to play in the
crystallisation of Jat identity in Punjab.

Case Study: Maharashtra

The context of caste radicalism in Maharashtra and the anti-caste discourage can be prominently trace to Jyotirao Phule, who
was born in the non-Brahmin Mali caste. Rosalind O’Hanlon has traced various influential factors that made Phule a social
revolutionary thinker and an activist. These included family, school, the local community, the social system, the religion,
heterogeneity of the institutions, individuals, newspapers and the British administration. The new vernacular press was also
one of the significant agents in changing his personal life and to participate in the social reform movement. Along with these
influential factors, he also got the help, cooperation and encouragement from some of his friends from Brahmin community.
They were Babu Padmanji, Moro Vithal Valavekar and Krishanarao Rathnaji Sangle shared common social concerns
towards the upliftment of shudras and women. The informal discussions with his friends were important influential factors.
He was also inspired by Mitchell's arguments on caste, religion and psychological similarities. These factors made him think
about the Indian reform system.

He significantly constructed a counter-history asserting the injustice meted out to the shudras and atishudras by the invading
Aryans. What Phule did was not only express a drive for abolition of caste system but an explanation of how it arose and a
theory of exploitation through which all of Indian culture and history to be understood. He rewrote the mythology as a
historic battle between “Aryan Brahmins” and “Dravidian others”, and he connected popular culture with socioeconomic
exploitation, as a result of the victory of the Aryans. The Dravidian Ksatriyas, who were the warriors were referred to as the
Bahujan Samaj (majority community) who through the trickery of Arya Brahmins had been “enslaved and divided” by
means of the caste system. 17 He pointed that the whole cultural identity they followed was thus forced upon by the Aryans.
He was focussed on cultural and ethnic factors with regard to exploitation, which he linked to economic and political factors.

In his book Gulamgiri Phule equated the ‘golden age’ of the indigenous people of India or the present lower castes with the
age ruled by the mythical king Bali and his officials, who were worshipped by the then Maratha women and were much
popular in the local common saying like “May all evils disappear and Raja Bali’s empire be restored.” Phule presented king
Bali as the mightiest king of the indigenous people of India whose kingdom was spread as far as Banaras. 18 He traced the
origin of the most of the major customs practised in the 19thCentury Maratha Pradesh like presenting ‘tali’ or dish of

15
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008), 205
16
Ibid., 206
17
Omvedt, Gail, “Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India.” Economic and Political Weekly
6, No. 37, (1971): 1974
offerings to Khandiba, customs of ‘vida ucalane’ or accepting challenges, Sunday as holiday etc., in the glorious epoch of
Kshatriya rule of Bali.

Phule used the concept of slavery as a” concept-metaphor” to explain the caste system. Inspired by Thomas Paine and
Protestant Nationalism, he believed that the assertion of the lower caste could be only done by a critique of the caste system.
The Satyasodhak Samaj or ‘The Truth – Seeking Society’ was founded in 1873 by the joint organizational effort of Mahatma
Phule and his circle. It was the attempt on the part of Phule and his associates to institutionalize his ideology and stands
which appeared as the first organization completely dedicated to the cause of lower caste Marathas of the 19 th century
Maratha Pradesh. According to Anupama Rao, the caste radicals entered the secular, political sphere from the religious
sphere by universally used terms like ‘public exclusion, segregation and civic disability. Thus, in the 19 th century we see the
caste radicalism movement entering secular domains through cultural means and making demands for ‘rights’ which makes
them political in nature.

Central to the caste radicalism in Maharashtra, is the formation of the Maratha state itself, for the state is rooted in caste-
based tensions. The Marathas consolidated their claim under Chattrapati Shivaji in 1674. The Maratha dominance provoked
challenges to Brahmanical authority with ritual idioms. The controversy of the Peshwa lineage itself lay in their claim to
Ksatriya lineage, particularly to the Sisodia Rajputs of Udaipur. Brahmans rejected this twice-born status and instead argued
the shudra status of the Bhosles. This controversy between the Chhatrapati and Brahmins kept surfacing throughout the 19 th
and 20th century. With the East India Company kept away from arbitrating this issue, arguing that religious question did not
fall under its domain, thus creating the political as a secular sphere. Thus, it was the use of the secular domain through public
institutions that the Dalits asserted their identity, and used them as a tool for social mobility.

Foremost among them was the Mahar caste who became an important voice in the anti-caste movement. The role of the Arya
Samaj leader, Dayanand Saraswati and Balgangadhar Tilak where the redemption of the downtrodden communities could be
done through shuddhi or purification.19 Importantly, Gopal Baba Valangar and Shivram Janba Kamble drew on Phule’s
reimagined history to portray Dalits as the Dravidian Ksatriyas, hence fit for employment in the British Army. Here they did
make some progress economically. However, by 1892, Mahars were excluded from the army, as the British officially
adopted the ‘martial races theory’. A significant result of the colonial policy was the access to resources for a limited time by
Mahars and the subsequent emerged an educated group who would now use print media to spread their ideas.

Valangar, deeply moved by Phule’s criticism of Brahman hegemony, write a Petition Letter in 1888, offering a critique of
caste exclusion of and in 1894, wrote to H H Risley providing a “genealogy of Dalit humiliation and suffering. He
historicised Dalit’s social exclusion from the Peshwa period. According to him, the key reason for the degradation of status
of the Dalits was the consumption of carrion. Valangar went on to find the Anany Dosh Parthak Mandali (ADPM) and hence
became frequent contributors to the newspaper Sudharak and Din Bandhu.

While the discourse was becoming increasingly political, the issue of women became more and more pertinent. According to
Rao, there was a “powerful critique of reproduction of caste through the regulation of gender. Phule started a home for
abandoned upper caste widows and Valangar addressed the ideological reduction of women and lower castes to “beasts of
burden”.20 An interesting formation in this context was the Satyasodhak jalsas (folk drama) which criticised the irrationality
of Hindu ritual and the exploitation of peasantry. These ‘tamashas’ became extremely popular for their coarse language and
simple message- evoking the gana (people) as leaders. The satyasodhak activists politicised through marriages by
emphasising on the self-respect and that there was no need for the Brahmans. It showed that such marriage was an explicit
challenge of social reproduction of caste through sexual regulation of women, thus challenging the sacerdotal and ritual
power of Brahmins. Schools for training priests were established to rethink of caste identities around the axis of gender and
sexuality, which demarcated emergent non-Brahmin and Dalit narratives.

It was also the time where Marathas were becoming a group asserting their identity, we see the growth of the idea that
Marathas were the original Ksatriyas and the idea of Maratha purity sought to legitimise through ‘ritual incorporation’ and
create the Ksatriya identity. They represented a startling new departure from older social and cultural forms, and was to be,
in its own way, an instrument of radical social reform. In the manner of many newly created traditions, it rapidly assumed
the status of a long-established cultural fact. 21 There was a shift from Phule’s criticism of religious orthodoxy and Aryan
identity for Ksatriya Marathas and represented them as purer than the Chitpavan Brahmans, who had questionable origins.
The Marathas urged non-Brahmins to take up the thread ceremony and the Vedic rituals and erased the illegitimacy Phule
attributed to the scriptures. Thus, Maratha identity was a challenge to Brahmanical power, but located itself within the caste

18
Rosalind OHanlon, Caste, Conflict, and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in
Nineteenth-century Western India (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1985), 155
19
Anupama Rao, The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India (Ranikhet: Permanent Black,
2010), 44
20
Ibid., 51
21
Rosalind O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict, and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in
Nineteenth-century Western India (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1985), 304
system. And assigned an exclusive varna status of ksatriya. The discourse was actively masculinised and became a major
source of conflict. The Ganpati-Shivaji melas were countered by the Chatrapati melas.

Gender and genealogy were central to the emerged non-Brahmanical public sphere as the sexual exploitation by the
Brahmins was emphasised on. The growth of printed material, like Deshache Dushman, which branded Brahmans as the
foreign traitors, described as ‘Satan’ and ‘cobra’. As a counter, Tilak in Maharatta wrote how the Marathas were cowardly
and violent group targeting women. This echoes Partha Chatterjee’s idea of cultural nationalism which revalued Hindu
domestic through women’s alignment with the spiritual interior of the nation. Thus, this anticolonial nationalism was derived
from colonial categories and were reactive to the colonizer’s discourse about the colonized. Thus, the Brahmin woman was
personified elements of non-Brahmanical critique and was the rallying point of the Brahmans.

Dalit masculinity was centered around the reform of gender within their community. This was voiced through the Murali
system. The muralis were young Mahar girls who were married off to the god Khandoba to fulfil a vow. Though they were
seen married off to a God, they also labelled it as prostitution. They were seen as erotic and lewd, and were attached to the
tamasha performances. Soon muralis became equated with prostitutes and it came to light that the practice was often
engaged in to deny muralis from owning ancestral prosperity. The practice went on to get banned and the degradation of
Dalit women became a popular issue around which demands of gendered respectability was based on, and reconstituted Dalit
masculinity.

Thus, even the Dalits like the Brahmins associated women’s status with community status, but at the same time, also
focussed on demarcating themselves from Brahmans by o the significance of clothing and jewellery. However, it becomes
clear, in some way, the Mahars had adopted the Brahmanical sense of morality, which had been perpetuated by the British.

Case Study: East Punjab

In Punjab, the phenomenon of Dalit mobility was not along the same line as Dalit mobility as in other parts: through
conversion of Sanskritization. The Christian converts, confined to the Chuhra caste did not make a difference and they were
continued to see them as “lowly converts socially, intellectually, morally and spiritually” from the upper-class Christian’s.
Even the Sikh converts found little mobility as 80% of administration posts were controlled by Jat Sikhs compared to the 5%
Dalit Sikhs.22

To understand the articulation of caste identities, one must first understand the social background. Brahmins in Punjab are
denied the status of sacred or holy persons and have been replaced by Jat-Sikhs. Social status in Punjab was closely
associated with the ownership of land. Jat Sikhs constituted 33% of the state population and owned more than 80% of the
land, while the Dalits were the second largest group, who were landless and were reduced to agricultural labourers. The
important principles of caste hierarchy are different in Punjab- based on manual labour, martial status and hold over the
politics in the state. The sturdy military background of the Jat Sikhs further reinforced their dominance. Dalits constituted
29% of the population and are divided into 39 sub-castes scattered within four religions.

The alternate Dalit agenda is known by the name Ad or Adi Dharm (original primal religion). It is rooted in the belief that the
Dalits are the indigenous people of the Punjab area. Similar to Phule’s reconstruction of history, the alternate Dalit agenda
also revolves around a new reconstruction of history.

The most argued that Dalits were native to Punjab and had their rich culture and heritage. The Aryans an attacking, reduced
them to the category of untouchables. The need was to thus articulate an alternative innovative philosophy to free society
from the binaries of pure and polluted. Dalits should not shy from the forced low social status, through relocation of their Ad
Dharm movement popular because it was a struggle against local structures of social domination and the emphasis of a
separate Dalit identity. Guru Ravidass, a Dalit Sant was the central figure of the movement. His idea was rooted against the
system of untouchability and anchored an enlightened vision of an egalitarian social order (Begumpura). The movement was
centered around Ravidass’ image, his poetry became the evolutionary text and legends were deployed about him as
illustration of lower caste pride and power.

The movement was against conversion as it was more about the explicit assertion of Dalit identity. The ‘pure’ to Ravidass
was one who works with his own hands, rather than live on earnings of others. What made Guru Ravidass most popular was
his fight against untouchability and his standoff with pundits of Banaras. He expressed his bhakti as radical poetry- which
exposed the atrocious treatment received by Dalits. His form of bhakti was completely new, as he refused to adopt the
cultural window of upper caste or embrace other religions- he “contested social exclusion without compromising Dalit
identity.”

There were also legends created by people regarding Ravidass’ life which made him more popular- his declining of paras
was symbolic of his resolve for unearned wealth which was Brahmanical. Only the handwork could land one with pure
status. He thus attributed dignity to manual labour. Ravidass’ bhakti reflected “democratic and egalitarian tenets of pre-

22
Ronki Ram, "Beyond Conversion and Sanskritisation: Articulating an Alternative Dalit Agenda in East
Punjab," Modern Asian Studies 46, no. 03 (2011): 652
Aryan cultural heritage.”23 His bhakti was based on social protest’ by wearing the dhoti worn by Brahmans, sacred thread
and tilak, at the same time continuing his traditional occupation. He expressed his bhakti through bani (spiritual philosophy)
as poetry based on non-violence. He prevailed upon the oppressors to abandon the path of violence. The Brahmans reacted
claiming that Guru Ravidass was a Brahman in his previous life, but due to a Chamar wife, that he was born a Chamar, the
brahman knitted layers of mythological narratives about the mythical high caste.

The idea of Begumpura was the great ideal that Dalit were now inspired to attain a place without discrimination, free from
taxes. Restrictions of movement and worries of livelihood. Thus, the movement of seeking separate Dalit identity through
religious regeneration, cultural change and political assertion, rather than traditional mediums of social mobility through
conversion and Sanskritization.

Babu Mangoo Ram Mugowala, founder of Ad Dharm articulated a new agenda- he aimed to achieve Dalit assertion through
spiritual regeneration, cultural change and socio-economic emancipation. He asserted Dalits were never born Hindus, they
were the oldest inhabitants of the land, and Ad Dharm was the oldest religion. He called for all lower castes to come together
and fight for eradication of untouchability. The only way to regain status was by reviving Adi Dharm, which would restore
their dignity. In the 1931 census, Dalits reported themselves as Ad Dharmis. 24 Ad Dharm came to coalesce identity formation
process of the Ad Dharm movement in the state. The Ad Dharm movement picked up in early 1920s and came to portray
Dalits as a group separate and distinct and believed in competing independently for their civil rights, rather than joining a
bigger movement. Mugowala complied a separate text-poems of Ravidass and other Dalit sants- the Ad Prakash Granth.
Dharmis were asked to boycott books like Manusmriit and Sastras. The movement was later carried forward by Ravidass
dera, in 1942, who devised their own rituals, slogans, kirtan amd festivals and aims to uplift the Dalits by building schools,
hospitals etc.

Conclusion

Thus, during the colonial period, with the growing importance of colonial texts and through colonial initiatives like the
census, recruitment to the colonial army and different legislations, the British were able to create a rule of difference through
cultural technologies of rule. The consolidation of caste identity was through the reinvention of caste along British lines,
who tried to identify western ideas of religion, like canonical texts in the Indian context, thus, transforming Hinduism and
the society with new sharply demarcated boundaries. For the Indian people, the British census and legislation acted as a
catalyst for an increased consciousness of caste as caste status became an increasingly significant factor in attaining material
status. While the original intent of the census may have been to gather data to assist governments in dealing with natural
disaster and famine relief, the effect of the analysis of that data went far beyond these goals. Ultimately, the census provided
data that allowed the British to have a much deeper effect on Indian society than might otherwise have been possible. Thus,
the British played a predominant role in the creation of caste identities in 19 th century India.

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23
Ibid., 674
24
Ibid., 685