The Influence of the Political, Social and Religious Measures upon Caste during British India

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the changes within the caste system produced during colonial India. The reason for choosing to analyze this subject it is because caste represents one of the key concepts of Indian civilization, giving its socio-cultural distinctiveness. Appeared in Ancient India, the caste system is a very elaborate and disputed phenomenon of social stratification, which is still present in today's Indian society. The political takeover by the British from the Mughals had important consequences also on Indian society. During British rule, which lasted from the eighteenth century until 1947, the caste system evolved and expanded into more than 3,000 different castes. Even though significant changed were brought to the caste system, it had not been removed. Interestingly, the British instead of eradicating the caste system, they actually have strengthened and reshaped it. This article will focus on the changes brought by the British to the Indian society, during the colonial period. Some of the political, social or religious measures influenced directly the caste system, however others being actually consequences of the colonization. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Headnote

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to present the changes within the caste system produced during colonial India. The reason for choosing to analyze this subject it is because caste represents one of the key concepts of Indian civilization, giving its socio-cultural distinctiveness. Appeared in Ancient India, the caste system is a very elaborate and disputed phenomenon of social stratification, which is still present in today's Indian society. The political takeover by the British from the Mughals had important consequences also on Indian society. During British rule, which lasted from the eighteenth century until 1947, the caste system evolved and expanded into more than 3,000 different castes. Even though significant changed were brought to the caste system, it had not been removed. Interestingly, the British instead of eradicating the caste system, they actually have strengthened and reshaped it. This article will focus on the changes brought by the British to the Indian society, during the colonial period. Some of the political, social or religious measures influenced directly the caste system, however others being actually consequences of the colonization.

Keywords: caste, British India, caste system, colonialism, modernity, measures, census.

1. The Religious Measures

1.1. Sati and the Situation of Widows

Although at the beginning of their occupation, the British government promised that it would not intervene in Hindu religious practices, several reforms passed and were impose in India. One of these was GovernorGeneral William Bentinck's law from 1829, which made sati illegal in company territories. Sati, also spelled suttee, was the Hindu practice in which a newly widowed wife chose to be burned or buried alive with her husband's corpse. By custom high-caste widows were not allowed to remarry and a wife demonstrated her extreme devotion to her dead husband by becoming a sati. The woman who chose to become a sati, it was commonly believed, was reunited with her dead husband in the after-life. The custom was not mandatory for Hindu women and was never widely practiced, occurring mostly in the higher-caste in the Ganges River valley, Punjab and Rajasthan.1 Nevertheless, for "Christian missionaries and officials like Bentinck, an evangelical Christian, sati symbolized all that was evil and barbaric in an idolatrous Hinduism."2 Missionaries in Bengal had long campaigned against the practice, but British officials feared that interfering with a religious practice might provoke an uprising. According to Sati Regulation XVII A. D. 1829 of the Bengal Code, the burning or burying alive of a widow was a "culpable homicide". If she was drugged, obliged to be burned or buried with her dead husband, the offense was considered to be murder. Nevertheless, Bentinck's regulation provoked no mass protests or uprisings. The only protest came from a group of Calcutta Hindus, who sent an 800-signature petition to the Privy Council3 in England asking without any success for the law's repeal.4 In 1856, another law was imposed by the British, which allowed the widows to remarry. After 1829, and the prohibition of sati, the widows were expected to have an austere life as their punishment for having a bad karma, because they did not take good care of their husbands and let them die. Moreover, according to the custom widows were supposed to shave their heads, wear only simple white saris and no jewelry. They were forbidden from eating food with condiments or any type of meat.5

1.2. Caste Disabilities Removal Act and Conversion to Christianity

Another reform, which had important consequences on Indian society, was the Caste Disabilities Removal Act of 1850. This law did not, as may be expected from it its title, remove civil disabilities existing between caste but facilitates conversion to another religion or admission into another caste. According to this Act, if a person changes his or her religion, and even caste, would not loose his or her property.6 The Caste Disabilities Removal Act was encouraging the Hindus to convert to other religions, especially to Christianity.

During the British occupation, a large number of Hindus mainly those coming from the lower-castes or the untouchables converted themselves to Christianity. In order to escape their condition and due to the promises made by Christian priests, many Indians accepted to be converted to Christianity. Conversions have taken place both on their own will, but also a large number were forced by the British officials. By converting them to Christianity, the British wanted to keep the Indians under control, not only economically and politically, but also religiously. Between 1888 and 1892, the so-called Evangelical Society, did mass baptisms, but built also in the process new schools and churches. Although, the priests convinced the Hindus to convert by claiming that inside Christian communities the Indians will be equal and their rights will be respected, the distinction between castes and the discrimination against the untouchables was still felt in the Indian Christian communities. Discrimination based on caste in Christian communities was much stronger in southern India, while in the north it was almost nonexistent among urban Protestant congregations. This was due to the fact that in south, entire masses of population or villages were converted to Christianity, which did not lead to any change in the social status. The transition to Christianity, did not removed the humble condition of low-castes or untouchables. Thus, there were separate places in churches for believers coming from lower-castes and many times it was forbidden for the untouchables to enter churches, or to attend religious services at the same time with the caste members.

2. The Political and Social Measures

2.1. Situation in the Indian Army

One of the reasons for the Indian Rebellion of 1857 was the General Service Enlistment Act of July 25, 1856. According to this Act Indian soldiers must serve wherever the British government sent them, regardless of caste customs. This measure was taken because there were cases of insubordination, such as the one happed 4 years prior to this law, when 47 Sepoys from a Bengal regiment had been executed for refusing to break caste customs and to board ships bound for Burma.7 Furthermore, the Sepoy Rebellion from 1857-1858 changed not only the nature of the Indian army, but also the British relations with Indians in ways that influenced greatly the future of Colonial India. Only few events have been so thoroughly debated as the Sepoy Revolt, that had been seen as the beginning of the struggle for independence. The revolt occurred in the Bengal army, which was the most important in India. Various factors may explain the revolt like: the disaster provoked by the expedition in Afghanistan, also the rumors alleging that the British will convert by force all the Sepoy to Christianity. In 1856, two measures taken by the Company seemed to confirm these rumors: the first was cancellation of the Sepoys' privilege from the Bengali army, regarding the exempt to serve abroad, which was protecting them from violating any religious prohibitions; the second one was the introduction of the Enfield shotgun, whose pack cartridges had to be broken with teeth, causing a contact with cow's or pork's fat, both being prohibited by Hindus, or Muslims. In addition, a great contingent of the Bengali army was coming from Oudh, which was annexed in 1856.8 Another reason for the Sepoy Rebellion was the fact that the Indian army was composed largely of the members of higher-castes, such as Brahmans and the Rajputs. Until 1857, the number of soldiers had grown to 271,000 men, and European officers were only one of every six soldiers.9

The army had had its origins in the independent forces hired by Bengal, Bombay and Madras Presidencies. After the rebellion, the army was unified under the British Crown. A special commission presided by Lord Peel was formed in order to reorganize the Indian Army. Only British officers were allowed to control artillery and the ethnicity of regiments was deliberately mixed. Moreover, the ratios of European troops to Indian troops increased. For example, in Bengal there was one European soldier for every two Indians, in Bombay and Madras, one for every three.

The army also recruited Indian soldiers differently after 1857. Lord Elphinstone opined that it was desirable that men of different castes should be enlisted in the Army, while Major-General H.T. Tucker went further and insisted on the necessity of keeping the country under British domination through the policy of dividing and separating into distinct bodies the nationalities and castes of the members recruited in the Army.10 Moreover, the pre-mutiny army had had many high-caste peasants from Oudh and Bihar, the post-rebellion army recruited soldiers from regions where rebellion had been weaker and among populations now identified as India's "martial races": from Punjabis (Sikhs, Jats, Rajputs, and Muslims), from Afghan Pathans, and from Nepali Gurkhas. By 1875, half of the Indian army was of Punjabi origin. 11

2.2. British Censuses

The earliest forms of official classification in India were the British censuses, which had profound impact upon caste. The Indian historian Padmanabh Samarendra believes that birth of caste is directly linked with the census operations in colonial India. The census from the middle of the nineteenth century was considered to be a unique project due to its methodology and agenda. Instead of using older texts or information, the British decided to conduct a direct survey of the population all over India. The enumerators went to the people with questionnaire in order to count the population and classify it under different attributes such as: age, sex, religion, caste, occupation, etc.12 The collected data from all the Indian provinces was put together for comparison and analysis.

The first census of the nineteenth century based on direct survey of the population took place in North-Western Provinces, on the January 1, 1853. The objectives of this census were rather limited: caste was expected to identify the communities and "facilitate classification [of the population] into 'agricultural' and 'non-agricultural'".13 One of the major difficulties that the enumerators encountered while conducting the census was the introduction of the caste classification. During the survey the officials observed that the Indian society is not actually based on varna system. The British enumerators confused varna with jäti, and tired to fit all the jäti into the four varnas: Brahmans, Ksatriya, Vaishya and Südra. Moreover, in the 1865 census report Sikh, Jain, Goshain, Jogee, Sunni etc., shared the same space in the caste table with Brahamns, Ksatriya, Vaishya, and Südra.14 Both British officials and Indians were very confused about caste classification. When Indians were asked to mention their caste, many named: "an obscure caste... a sect... a sub-caste... an exogamous sept... a hypergamous group... may describe himself by... occupation or... the province or tract of country from which he comes".15

Although, the census wanted to be an uniform project all over India, the differences between jäti made this process very difficult to be full filled successfully. If in the North-Western Provinces the "higher-caste of Hindus" were classified into thirteen caste: Brahmin, Bengali, Jat, Jain, Kshatriya, Kayasth, Khatri, Kashmiri, Marwari, Punjabi, Sikh, Sarawaks, Vaishya,16 in the census of Oudh from 1867, the caste-table was divided in nine groups: Europeans, Eurasians and Native Christians, Higher castes of Muhammadans, Muhammadans converts from the higher castes of Hindus, Lower castes of Muhammadan, Higher castes of Hindu, Lower castes of Hindu, Aboriginal castes, Religious mendicants and Miscellaneous.17 Furthermore, Denzil Ibbetson, in his introduction to the Census of 1881, from the Punjab region, argued that the Indian caste was rather a social than a religious structure. People's conversion from Hinduism to Islam had actually no effect on caste.

Another problem, which the British officers had to deal with, was the caste hierarchy. In order to determine the higher-caste and the lower-castes, the enumerators used the following principle: if a person accepts food and water from another person, but that person does not want to take back, it means that he or she is from lower caste than the person who provided food and water. Many scientists have challenged this principle because it cannot be generally applicable to all regions of India. For instance the members of Koeris caste from Uttar Pradesh did not accept water from Brahmans. Therefore, according to the theory of the British officers the members of the Koeris caste should be placed upper than the Brahman caste, which was not the case. Instead of clarify the hierarchy and the particularities of the caste system to the Europeans, this classification raised more questions for them.18

Although, none of the nineteenth century's censuses managed to clarify the situation of the caste, the British realized that the reality is totally different than the Hindu religious textbooks. Referring to Manusmrti, W.R. Cornish commented in his "Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency" that: "It is plain that in a critical inquiry regarding the origin of caste we can place no reliance upon the statements made in the Hindu sacred writings. Whether there was ever a period in which the Hindus were composed of four classes is exceedingly doubtful."19

2.3. Caste Associations

During the British Raj, cities like Calcutta, Bombay or Delhi began to attract a large number of people from rural areas. The immigrants with their traditions of caste started to congregate as far as possible, according to the customs of their castes. The tendency for every large caste was to live in isolation from other caste, and to form its own association comprising all members of the caste speaking the same language. "In the large majority of cases, the caste-consciousness is limited by the bounds of the village and its organizations do not extend beyond the village area".20 The main functions of these new organizations were: to further the general interests of the caste and particularly to guard its social status in the hierarchy from actual or potential attacks of other caste; to help poor people of the caste; sometimes to try to regulate certain customs of the caste by resolutions passed at the annual meeting of the members of the caste; to start funds to provide scholarships for the needy and deserving students of the caste, usually at the secondary and college stage of education, and sometimes even to help them to proceed to foreign countries for higher academic qualifications, etc.21

Caste associations used the new publishing technologies in order to create and disseminate, on a wider region, caste histories and all kind of informational pamphlets that aided the construction of these organizations and their identities. The rise of caste associations was also the basis of the political groups. Because politicians wanted to expand their parties and to have more members in order to win the elections, encouraged caste groups to combine with other to create a kind of "supercaste identity".22

3. Indian Society During British Raj

3.1. Urban Life in British India

The politic and economic measures taken by the British influenced greatly the Indian society, both urban and rural. British institutions and economic structures reshaped life in towns and cities and in the countryside. New British buildings were redecorating with their modem architecture the cities, while British technologies and administrative structures reorganized urban public spaces and public life. In rural India the accent was put on exports shifted from agricultural production for local consumption and exchange to farm products, which were being sold not only across the subcontinent, but also outside India.

These changes had an enormous impact on caste system. New jobs appeared and there was more freedom in the matter of choice for occupation. Also people's perception about some particular jobs changed due to the technological development. For instance, jobs as tailoring or shoe making, which in the past were reserved only for lower-caste or for the untouchables, changed during British Raj due to new techniques and craftsmanship. These occupations had started to be appreciated in public esteem partly because of the new machinery, making them easier and less tedious. Therefore, they started to attract more people even from the highercaste. Because the economy of India was developing fast, a more systematic working labor was demanded. If in the past an untouchable could never work or even stay in the presence of a caste member, now they had to work side-by side. Whatever restrictions caste used to impose on the choice of occupation largely ceased to guide individuals. The modernization of the economy led to an extensive shifting of the old lines of division between occupations. Many members of the Brahman caste were engaged in almost any occupations, excepting those of casual laborer, sweeper or scavenger. Also many members of the various artisan castes became teachers, shopkeepers, bank clerks or architects.23

Not only the mentalities of the people regarding labor changed towards caste, but also when it came to food prohibition. For instance, the growth of city life with its migratory population has increased the number of hotels and restaurants. The exigencies of office work have forced city people to put aside their old ideas of purity and accept the new changes. Moreover, if in the past the caste-Hindus could only accept food cooked by other Hindus coming from a higher-caste, or at least the same as theirs, now because Hindu restaurants had not been easily or equally accessible during office hours, they had to eat food prepared by Christians, Muslims or Sikhs.24 Similarly, in Hindu eating-houses if the manager could not be able to reserve accommodation for members of different caste, Hindus had to take their meals in the company of people of almost any caste. What was originally done under the pressure of the caste customs it became a matter of necessity and later a routine. At the beginning caste-Hindus were being repulsed of the idea of eating in the same room with a lower caste, but in order not to lose their jobs they had to adapt the new city life. However, these changes were very visible and available only in urban areas, meanwhile the villages were remaining the same, under the ancestral caste regulations. These freedoms from caste-restrictions about food or job, seen through the cities, were being cast aside when the city people returned to their villages.

3.2. Nineteenth Century Indian Renaissance

Over the course of the nineteenth century the British presence and power in India altered the physical, economic, social, and even domestic landscapes of urban towns and cities across the subcontinent, introducing into them the structures, ideologies, and practices of a British-mediated colonial modernity.25 The British also brought with them a casteless culture and a literature full of thoughts on individual liberty. With the introduction of English education many of the intelligent minds of the country came in closer contact with the religion of the rulers and with some outstanding personalities among them.

One of the consequences of these changes in the Indian society was the appearance of the "Nineteenth Century Indian Renaissance", known also as "Bengal Renaissance". Even though the use of the term "renaissance" is understood differently than in Europe, this phenomenon represents a cultural movement, which focused on the discovery of rationalism in India's past, in order to reposition the religious and philosophical traditions within the critical terrain of reason.26 The movement was started in Bengal, by Raja Rammohun Roy, who is often described as the "Father of Modem India". He was bom in an upper-caste and worked for the East India Company before retiring to Calcutta as a wealthy zamindar in 1815. After he retired, Raja Rammohun Roy started to publish articles in English, Persian and Bengali newspapers, on different aspects of the religious and social life. He was deeply concern and totally against idolatry and the practice of sati. In Calcutta he got in contact with Christian Unitarianism, which motivated him to contest the missionary claim of Christianity superiority. He opposed priest-craft, polytheism and wanted to reform Hinduism. Roy believed that the purest form of Hinduism is in the texts of the Vedanta, thus he translated Upanishads into Bangla in order to demonstrate that ancient Hindu scriptures propagated actually monotheism.27 In 1815, in Calcutta, Roy founded Atmiya Sabha organization, which in 1828 became Brahmo Samaj ("Society of Brahma"). This movement emerged as a major religious movement of the middle-class educated Bengali, based on the essential principle of monotheism. It expanded throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, gaining new followers and splitting several times over issues of practice.

After Roy's death in 1833, the leadership of Brahmo Samaj was taken over by Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore's grandfather. He provided the movement with a better organizational structure and ideological consistency. By the end of the century Brahmos functioned almost as a separate caste within Bengali Hindu society. The members had their own religious beliefs and practices, their own "churches" and their own social rituals. Their children's marriages were arranged within the Brahmo community.

3.3. Socio-religious Reformist Movements

During the 1860's, Brahmo was greatly influenced by one of its members: Keshab Chandra Sen (1843-1884). In 1866, Sen decided to leave Tagore's movement and create his own - Brahmo Samaj of India, a society in which members could aggressively practice their religious beliefs. "Sen's Brahmos refused to wear the Hindu sacred thread or to perform Hindu rituals or death ceremonies, practices that provoked violence, ostracism, and disinheritance from converts' families."28 Keshab Chandra Sen focused not only on missionary activities, but also on social reforms. Because of his beliefs and opinions, the movement became more radical. He opposed the caste system, promoted the remarriage of the widows and inter-caste marriage. He also wanted more rights for the women and demanded a higher caste status for the Brahmo preachers. Sen traveled with missionaries throughout India in order to spread Brahmo faith and to create ashrams for Brahmo converts who needed shelter.

However, when Sen ignored Brahmo reforms in order to marry his daughter to a Hindu prince, younger members decided to leave him and form a new association. In 1878, they formed the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj ('The People's Brahmo Samaj"), a sect with even more reformist practices particularly in regard to women. The female members of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj wore petticoats under their saris and ate at European-style tables using Western utensils. They were also allowed to study math and science 29 and were encouraged to go to college.

In 1869, inspired by Sen's missionary lectures, Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901) decided to initiate a West Indian religious reform group, in Bombay called the Prarthana Samaj ("Prayer Society"). Mahadev Govind Ranade was a Chitpavan Brahman from the Konkan region who became a lawyer and later judge in the Pune region. Although, Prarthana Samaj shared some of Brahmo's ideas, especially on monotheism and on the desirability of reforming caste customs, particularly in regard to women, but because of orthodox pressure it was difficult to translate these beliefs into practice. Moreover, Ranade spent much of his life working for social reform. In 1861, he founded the Widow Re-marriage Association and the Deccan Education Society to promote girls' education. However, when his first wife died in 1873, Mahadev Govind Ranade did not marry a Hindu widow, as he had long advocated. Instead he accepted to marry an 11-year-old bride chosen for him by his father.30

In northwest India, Swami Dayanand Saraswati founded Arya Samaj in 1875. This religious movement had similar ideas with Brahmo Samaj. Its members also attacked idolatry, polytheism, ritualistic religion dominated by the Brahman priests and were against child marriage, but encouraged widow remarriage, inter-caste marriages and female education. Although, Arya Samaj's followers denounced untouchability and repudiated caste system, their leader Swami Dayanand Saraswati upheld the fourfold var?a division and invoked the authority of the Vedas as the most authentic Indian religious texts. He considered the Vedas to be the only "scientific truths", and therefore the religion based on these texts was superior to Christianity and Islam.31 His aggressive reformist ideas failed to convince the orthodox Hindus, nor the Brahmanos. Arya Samaj remained rather marginal in eastern and western India, in contrast with Punjab and North-western Provinces, where it had many branches spread all over the regions.

These social and religious reform movements of the nineteenth century had impact only on a narrow social space and the reformist spirit appealed to a small elite group that was composed primarily by economic and cultural Indian beneficiaries of colonial rule. For instance, in Bengal only a small number of Western educated elite, who were generally known by the term bhadralok (gentlefolk), took part in reform movements. Usually they made money as junior partners of the British officers and free merchants, or consolidated their position as small landholders. They were the "new men", who took advantage of English education in order to fill in the various new professions and administrative positions. Most of them were Hindus, and although caste was not a major criterion for membership, they belonged to the "twice bom caste". In the nineteenth century the issue of the untouchability was not on the list of concerns of the reformist movements. The Indian historian Sekhar Bandyopadhyay considered that "there was very little or no attempt to create a reformist social consciousness at the grass-roots level, where religious revivalism later found a fertile ground."

3.4. Rural India

Although, British rule reshaped Indian towns or cities and the urban Westernized Indian elite explored the ideas and practices of colonial modernity, in rural India a much larger population struggled to deal with the consequences of higher land revenues, commercially oriented agriculture, famine and diseases. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries India was predominately rural, having an agricultural society. In 1901, 90% of India's total population of 284 million was concentrated into villages, and the rest of only 10% lived in approximately 2,100 towns and cities.33

Even that the records for nineteenth century village life are limited, scholars believe villages were populated by multiple castes and subcastes, having differences names for the same caste, in different regions of India. Religious and social relations in northern villages were structured through local castes and subcastes of varna identifications. Hereditary service relationships, called jajmani relations, bound village service and subordinate castes to the dominant caste of a village.

In order to understand the land relationship in the villages and for the purpose of revenue collection British officials redefined rural life. For instance, in permanent settlement regions, such as Bengal, land ownership was awarded on the basis of prior zamindar, which had the status of tax collector. In later settlements, particularly in south India, land ownership was awarded on the basis of land cultivation. However, in both types of settlement, landholdings became further subdivided over time, either as a result of divisions due to inheritance or because landowners subleased their lands to subordinate cultivators. Further, by the twentieth century, large numbers of peasant households both owned land and worked as tenants on other families' lands.34

Between the 1860s and the 1920s the commercialization of agriculture reshaped rural India, altering the crops planted as well as patterns of rural relationships. Indian agriculture expanded from 1881 to 1931 and the number of agricultural workers rose at 28%.35 However fluctuating world markets could easily destroy peasant economies, based on the growth of crops for export. Both rural indebtedness and loss of land became major rural problems in this period.

During the first century of British rule there were a series of uprisings called "restorative rebellions".36 Local rulers, Mughal officials or dispossessed zamindars, started most of them. In many cases local peasants, coming from lower-caste, whose main purpose was to reinstate the old order or to restore the agrarian relations, supported these rebellions. For instance, the most important happened during the British rule were: Halba rebellion (1774-1779), Bhilai revolt (1822-1857), Paralkot uprising of 1825, Taraour revolt (1842-1863), Koi revolt of 1859 or 1910 Bhumkal rebellion. Not all of these revolts were started in villages, some of them happened in tribal communities, which later were called Schedule Tribes. Tribals were forest-dwelling communities linked by kinship rather than caste and found throughout the subcontinent. In the nineteenth century, tribals represented approximately 10% of the total Indian population. British laws gave land and tenancy rights to peasant farming populations that paid land revenues, but not to tribal communities that used the forests for hunting and gathering. The main reason for the tribal uprisings was the fact that the British government tried repeatedly to force the tribal communities of northeastern Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat and Madras into cultivation, in order to pay land taxes.37

4. Riots and National Movements against Caste System

Since the time of Buddha and Mahavira numerous movements emerged in order to challenge the caste system There have been many instances in which members of the upper castes, some being even Hindu priests, tried to change the caste system and to improve relations with the lower castes or the Dalits. In the thirteenth century, although Dnyaneshwar, who was a Brahman priest, was excommunicated, taken outside the caste, did not stop to criticize Bhagavad Gita. Other excommunicated Brahmans, such as Eknath, fought for the rights of the untouchables especially during the period of the Bhakti movements.38 Many Bhakti preaches, who were called "saints" rejected the caste discriminations and accepted all castes, including the untouchables. After their encounter with the expanding Islam, they "elaborated egalitarian doctrine that transcended the caste system and encouraged individuals to seek personal union with the divine."39

4.1. Non-Brahman Movements in South and West India

During the British Raj, appeared movements, which questioned the fundamentals of the caste system and wanted to chance this social organization. One of these notable movements was the non-Brahman movement started in Maharashtra, in 1873, by Jyotirao Phule (1827-1890). Jyotirao Phule was an untouchable from the Mali caste40 in Poone (Pune), who decided to start an association called Satyashodhak Samaj (Truthseekers' Society). The purpose of his organization was to unify the lower castes against the Brahman domination. Phule argued that Brahmans were the progeny of the foreigners, of the Aryans, who "had subjugated the autochthons of the land and therefore the balance now needed to be recessed and for achieving that social revolution, he sought to unite both the non-Brahman peasant castes as well as Dalit groups in a common movement".41 Although, he was coming from a modest family, with rather little education, he understood the necessity of educating the masses of the lower castes. In 1851, Phule opened a primary school for the untouchables from Pune. For Phule the British were liberators, who came to India to free "the disabled Shudras from the slavery of the crafty Aryans".42 The nonBrahman movement in Maharashtra developed two parallel tendencies. One was conservative, led by richer non-Brahmans, who reposed their faith in the British government for their salvation. After 1919, they organized a separate and loyalist political party called the Non-Brahman Association. This party hoped to prosper with the help of the British rulers. The other one was radical and represented by the members of the Satyashodhak Samaj. They developed a "class content" by articulating the social dichotomy between the bahujan samaj - the masses, and the shetji-bhatji - the merchants and the Brahmans. Although, at the beginning the members of Satyashodhak Samaj opposed the nationalism of the Brahman-dominated Congress, by the 1930s the non-Brahman movement in Maharashtra was gradually attracted by the Gandhian Congress.43

During the 1920s and 1930s, while northern India Hindus and Muslims were arguing and split the nationalist movement, in south India the lowercaste and the untouchable leaders were defining Brahmans as their main political opponents. In Madras, E. V. Ramaswami Naicher, later called 'Periyar" or "the wise man", founded the Self Respect Movement in 1925. The aim of this movement was to create a society where backward castes have equal human rights, and to encourage backward castes to have selfrespect. Periyar's movement rejected Sanskritic Aryan traditions, emphasizing instead on the shared Dravidian heritage of Tamils. For him and his followers the British were a force for equality, while the Brahmandominated Congress stood for social oppression.

Another leader who rejected high-caste Sanskritic traditions was Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956), an untouchable leader from the Mahar community of Maharashtra. Ambedkar was not only a jurist, historian, philosopher and anthropologist, but also a great political leader, orator and a prolific writer. He received a law degree and a Ph.D., studying in England and the United States. When he returned to India in the 1920s, Ambedkar organized a Mahar caste association and led region wide struggles for the rights of untouchables. For Ambedkar caste was not a racial system. It was a socially mandated system of graded inequalities whose internal divisions kept lower castes from opposing the top.

4.2. Gandhi's and Ambedkar's Fights Against Untouchability

Since 1920, the Dalit emancipation became an important political issue in Colonial India. Leaders such as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi led various campaigns, fighting against the inequality of caste. Although they had a common goal, namely to put an end to the untouchables' oppression, Gandhi and Ambedkar used different strategies in their campaigns. The policy of divide et impera carried by the English settlers, it was the opposite of Gandhi's ideas. The British were preaching a "protective discrimination", displaying sympathy in dealing with Dalits, when in fact they were practicing negative discrimination through the patronage of the Brahmans in colonial institutions.

Through his politics, Gandhi argued that the ritual degradation of the untouchables is a perversion of Hinduism. In 1920, he tried to persuade the Congress to accept a non-cooperative resolution in which it was stipulated that the abolition of the untouchables is necessary in order to achieve swaraj.AA An addendum of this clause mentions the incorporation of a reform of the caste system in the struggle for independence. This represented an indicator of Gandhi's attempt to unite the diverse Indian society under the national emancipation. During the civil disobedience movement he sought to change people's opinion, urging Hindus to "eliminate the sin of the intangibility", at the same time he urged the lower castes to participate in the national policy of civil disobedience. Gandhi, when was referring to the untouchables, was calling them "Harijan", which means "God's children".

Rather than attacking the ideological bases of the caste system, Gandhi sought to improve gradually the conditions for those coming from lowercastes. He tried to persuade the upper-castes to have a less strict interpretation of traditions. In this way he tired to diminish the abyss between the conservators and the radicals, whose policies stressed the common divisions that have split national unity. Although he had a great number of supporters, not everybody agreed with his ideas. At the beginning of 1925, a number of merchants from Bombay, among who were included some of the leading public men had a meeting of orthodox Hindus. Almost every speaker denounced what they called "heresies of Gandhi" in respect of untouchability, and declared that the Hindu religion was in danger at his hands.45

Gandhi wanted to minimize the threat posed by communalism46 of the national independence movement. In the 1930s, the caste issues also gained a political aspect leading to intensification of the differences between the policies taken by Gandhi and Ambedkar. Because of the civil disobedience movement, the British politicians invited Indian leaders such as Gandhi and Ambedkar to discuss the future system of government over a series of Round Table Conferences. Gandhi refused to take part in the first one, which took place in London between November 1930 and January 1931, but he was persuaded to participate in the Second Round Table Conference in September-December 1931. Following the discussion from the Second Round Table Conference and the campaign led by Ambedkar, the British adopted a law in August 1932 - Communal Award, according to which not only the Muslims, Anglo-Indians, Indian Christians and Europeans, but also the depressed classes (untouchables) had separate electorate. Gandhi, who was then in Yeravda jail, saw in it "a grim British scheme to divide the Hindus".47 He believed that the provision of separate electorate would politically separate the untouchables and would permanently block the path of their integration into Hindu society.48 Gandhi began to appeal this decision and to persuade Ambedkar to compromise. However, B.R. Ambedkar saw in the provision of separate electorate the only hope of securing political representation for the untouchables. When the 1932 Communal Award was announced, Gandhi began a fast to the death in protest. Between September 18 and September 24 he took neither food nor water, as the Congress leaders, Ambedkar and British officials scrambled to define a new agreement. The Poona Pact, signed on September 24, replaced separate electorates with reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes, how the untouchables started to be called after 1932.49 Ambedkar, who had held out against great pressure and had feared that all untouchables might be blamed for causing Gandhi's death.50

Gandhi was considered by his contemporaries as being a hypocrit, especially in dealing with B.R.Ambedkar. He tried to undermine Ambedkar's influence on people by putting doubt on his Dalit origin. Gandhi argued: "I say it is not a proper claim which is registered by Dr Ambedkar when he seeks to speak for the whole of the Untouchables of India... I myself in my own person claim to represent the vast mass of the untouchables." 51

During the mid 1930s, as a reaction to Ambedkar's popularity, Gandhi modified his rhetoric on caste to better place himself as the leader of the "depressed classes": 'The present caste system is the very antithesis of Varnäsrama. The sooner public opinion abolishes it, the better."52 Gandhi also tried to resolve the hostilities expressed by the Harijan communities toward him by admitting: 'They have every right to distrust me... Do I not belong to the Hindu section miscalled superior class or caste Hindu, who have ground down to powder the so called untouchables?" 53

The distance between the ideas of Gandhi and Ambedkar had decreased in the last years of the struggle for national independence. As a result, D.R. Naraj theorized that the opposition in the 1930s caused both leaders to modify their approach, compromising with the other and moving toward synthesis54. An example would be in the 1940s, when Gandhi decreased emphasis on the civil "Harijan campaign" towards calling for state intervention through legislation against the practice of untouchablity highlighting the methodological shift from religious to political reform. On the same line, he has been more outspoken in support of the places reserved for Dalits, a measure he had been less enthusiastic about when accepting the 1932 Poona Pact.

Sometimes B.R. Ambedkar's approach towards caste was described as an extension of Gandhi's, especially because he always interpreted the struggle as civil rather than religious movement. Ambedkar's primary difference with Gandhi was that the Dalit cause was his sole political mission. Unlike Gandhi, Ambedkar assumed a intrinsic link between the caste system and untouchability: 'The outcaste is a by-product of the caste system. There will be outcastes as long as there is castes."55

Ambedkar had various strategies and in a speech at Barli Takli in 1924, he discussed religious conversion, redefinition untouchability and civil disobedience. Moreover in 1927 he launched a confrontational satyagraha, by publicly burning Manusmrti. Gandhi opposed to this and also to the militant movements, which Ambedkar had led. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar also encouraged the Dalits to drink from the wells reserved for Brahmans, in spite the notion that untouchables were inherently polluting. Such militancy was denounced not only by Gandhi, but also by many Congress leaders. However, one can easily see similarities between his methods and the salt satyagraha, which Gandhi led in 1930, because of the salt laws imposed by the British. Both sought to use provocative actions to highlight the injustices against their social groups. Ambedkar did not share Gandhi's scruples about cooperating with the British, as for him the goal of achieving caste emancipation was greater than the means of liberation.56 In 1936 Ambedkar formed the Independent Labor Party in order to "advance the welfare of the laboring classes."57 In addition, after the 1937 elections Ambedkar attacked the Congress by claiming that poor results, which reflected their reform agenda, did not match the aspirations of the masses.58 However, during the 1940s the Dalit assertion was increasingly incorporated within the mass nationalism led by Congress.

Conclusions

The subject of caste system during colonial India is a very important topic, not only because of its complexity, but also because of the marks left on the political, economic and religious life in India. Although, since Antiquity within the caste system have happened many changes, during British India the concept of caste suffered numerous modifications due to various factors such as: colonization, modernity, nationalism, religious and social reform movements, etc. The study of colonial India plays a crucial role in the present and future of the Indian society. Analyzing the caste evolution during this period, from a historical perspective, means actually to understand every aspect of people's life. It is generally conceded that the history of the colonial period in India, of the last two centuries, is an unavoidable preface to an understanding of the present.

Even though at the beginning of the British occupation they promissed that the government will not intervene in Hindu religious practices, several reforms passed and were impose in India. For instance, in 1850, Caste Disabilities Act allowed Hindu converts to Christianity to inherit property, and a subsequent 1856 law allowed Hindu widows to remarry. In the same year Lord Canning's government also passed a reform act directed at soldiers in the military. The 1856 General Service Enlistment Act ordered Indian soldiers to serve wherever the British government sent them, regardless of caste customs and concerns. Most of these measures had limited effect at the time they were passed. But, taken together, they showed a government more ready than ever before to create a British colonial state in its Indian territories - regardless of the concerns, prejudices, or religious practices of its Indian subjects. Moreover, under the British occupation, the members of lower-castes and untouchables had improved their social status, however the caste anti-discrimination measures were been taken by national progressive movements, instead of the British government. The government was more concerned about the reorganization of the elections by creating new electoral lists, in which to be included the untouchables and lower castes.

The way the caste system is today is actually due to the modifications happened during the colonial period. Not only the measures taken by the British officials, influenced the caste, but also indirect factors such as: colonisation, modernity, which led to essential modification of the Indian way of life and thinking. In that period appeared new jobs, caste associations and political parties, religious and social leaders expressed their ideas and opinions through the newspapers, etc. The censuses also played an important role in reshaping the caste system, as well as the political, social or religious measures taken by the British. The Indian caste system is a rather flexible system of social stratification and in continuous changing according to both internal and external factors.

Footnote

1 Judith E. Walsh, A Brief History of India, Facts on File Inc., New York, 2006, p. 57

2 Ibidem, p. 104.

3 Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom. Its membership is mostly made up of senior politicians who are (or have been) members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

4 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 104.

Footnote

5 Ibidem, pp. 56-57.

6 G.S. Ghurye, Caste and Race in India, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 2011, p. 273.

Footnote

7 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 108.

Footnote

8 Michel Boivin, lstoria Indiei, trad. Daniela Zaharia, Ed. Corint, Bucharest, 2003, pp. 91-93.

9 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 112.

10 G.S. Ghurye, op. cit., p. 284.

11 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 112.

Footnote

12 Padmanabh Samarendra, "Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste" in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 33, August 13, 2011, pp. 51-52.

13 W.C. Plowden, Census of the North Western Provinces, 1865, Vol. I: General Report and Appendices, A, B, C, and D, Government Press, Allahabad, North Western Provinces, 1867, p. 1, apud Padmanabh Samarendra, "Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste" in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 33, August 13, 2011, p. 52.

14 Ibidem, p. 53.

15 H.H. Risley, Census of India, Vol. I: India, Part I: The Report, Bengal Secretariat Press, 1901, p. 537, apud Padmanabh Samarendra, "Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste" in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 33, August 13, 2011, p. 56.

Footnote

16 J. C. Williams, The Report on the Census of the Oudh, Vol. I: Report, Oudh Government Press, Lucknow, 1869, p. 86, apud Padmanabh Samarendra, "Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste" in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 33, August 13, 2011, p. 53.

17 Ibidem.

18 Thomas P. Deepu, Caste System and Caste Divide, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, pp. 7-8.

Footnote

19 W.R. Cornish, Report on the Census of the Madras Presidency with Appendix, The Government Gazette Press, Madras, 1871, p.122, apud Padmanabh Samarendra, "Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste" in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. XLVI, No. 33, August 13, 2011, p. 54.

20 Ibidem, p. 299.

21 G.S. Ghurye, op. cit., pp. 297-299.

Footnote

22 Diane P. Mines, Caste in India, Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2009, p. 44.

Footnote

23 G.S. Ghurye, op. cit., p. 296.

24 Ibidem, pp. 294-295.

25 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 126.

Footnote

26 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 151.

27 Ibidem, pp. 151-152.

Footnote

28 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p 135.

29 Ibidem.

Footnote

30 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., pp. 135-137.

31 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., pp. 154-155.

Footnote

32 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 156.

33 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 142.

Footnote

34 Ibidem, pp. 142-143.

35 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 143.

36 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 159.

Footnote

37 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., p. 146.

38 Bhakti movement is a Hindu religious movement in which the main spiritual practice is loving devotion among the Shaivite and Vaishnava saints.

39 Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in PreModem Times, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, p. 120.

40 Mali caste is a gardener caste in Maharashtra.+

Footnote

41 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 346.

42 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., pp. 147-148.

43 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 347.

Footnote

44 Term used to denote self-governance, winning independence from foreign rule.

Footnote

45 G.S. Ghurye, op. cit., p. 294.

46 Communalism is the term used in South Asia to denote attempts to promote primarily religious stereotypes between groups of people identified as different communities and to stimulate violence between those groups. In South Asia, "communalism" is seen as existing primarily between Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. In contemporary India, "communalism" designates not only the conflicts between extremist religious communities, but also those between people of the same religion but from different regions and states. Caste Political parties are generally considered to play an important role in stimulating, supporting and/or suppressing communalism. The sense given to this word in South Asia is represented by the word sectarianism outside South Asia.

Footnote

47 Gregory Williams, Dr. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, different approaches to the Dalit question, p. 2.

48 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., pp. 323-324.

49 Palme R.Dutt, India Today and Tomorrow, People's Publishing House Ltd, Delhi, 1955, p. 104.

50 Judith E. Walsh, op. cit., pp. 195-196.

51 D. Hardiman, Gandhi in his time and ours, London, 2003, apud Gregory Williams, op. cit., p. 3.

Footnote

52 Gregory Williams, op. cit., p. 3

53 B. Chandra, India's Struggle For Independence, New Delhi, 1989, apud Gregory Williams, op. cit, p. 3.

54 D. Hardiman, Gandhi in his time and ours, London, 2003, apud Gregory Williams, op. cit., p. 3

55Ibidem.

Footnote

56 Gregory Williams, op. cit., p. 5.

57 Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, op. cit., p. 356.

58 B.R. Ambedkar, What Congress and Gandhi Have done to the Untouchables, Bombay, 1946.

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