The Hindu - Indian Newspapers in English Language from eight editions.

caste identity

Essays tracking the contentious careers of caste in distinct regions of India from a historical perspective

Rajan Gurukkal

CASTE IN HISTORY: Ishita Banerjee-Dube — Editor; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 695.

This book is an anthology of 22 scholarly essays/excerpts grouped under four sections of sub-themes: Caste and Colonialism, Caste in Practice, Caste and Politics and Caste in Everyday Life. The book opens with an enviably analytical introduction by the editor, Ishita Banerjee-Dube, who seeks to highlight the mutual articulations of caste and history in modern India, by indicating issues and themes for further study and discussing some of the salient examinations of caste in the psychology and anthropology of the subcontinent and some of the key debates around caste identity.

Official basis

Patrick Roche’s essay in the first section examines the social and cultural geography of the colonial city of Madras and offers an insightful interpretation of it as the East India Company’s spatial articulations of caste in the 17th and 18th centuries. Next is Bernard Cohn’s path-breaking analysis of people’s self-reflection as induced by the enumerators’ questions, and the elites’ new self-consciousness as brought about by the colonial administrators’ construal of Indian society. Followed by that the excerpts from G.S. Ghurye’s work argue that though the elaborate treatment of caste in the census report had provided an official basis for the old caste spirit, the colonial imposition of a uniform law and other imperial administrative measures had shattered the caste integrity in the country.

P. Samarendra’s essay demonstrates how the colonial state left its imprint through the making of a uniform register of Indian people that firmly established caste as a Hindu institution. Richard Saumarez Smith’s analysis of administrative records suggests that a shift in the understanding of the Indian society in the 19th century was indicative of a change in the nature of the rule itself.

The excerpt from H.H. Risely’s influential book Peoples of India (1908), offers a very early reflection on the interface of caste and nationality. In the second section, Frank Conlon’s essay unravels the processes and elements of the constitution of Chatrapur Saraswat Brahmans in the 18th century and their subsequent emergence as a new ‘jati’. The excerpt from Dennis Templeman’s work on “caste mobility” and “social evolution” of the Nadars of Tamil Nadu underlines the problem inherent in the terminology of caste.

Community identity

The essay by Raymond Lee Owens and Ashish Nandy analysing the “entrepreneurial behaviour” of the lower caste Mahishyas and upper caste businessmen in Howrah, explains why the former perform better as factory owners than their higher caste counterparts.

Shail Mayaram’s essay on the Meos/Mewatis of Rajasthan highlighting the overlap between the Hindu and Muslim, Sudras and Adivasi identities in constructions of community by the Meos effectively critiques the characterisation of kingship and sovereignty from above and the given-ness of the Hindu-Muslim, caste-clan identities. Kalpana Ram’s essay explores how the physical landscape is symbolic of the marginal status of the Mukkuvars of Kanyakumari, and interprets what caste means and how it works within a relatively non-stratified community.

Transformation

Anand Pandian’s essay on the anti-Kallar movement unveils the link between colonial characterisations of certain castes and the rise of peasant resistance by examining how the representation of Kallar as criminals in British records was used by the peasants to overcome the Kallar domination. Rosalind O’ Hanlon’s essay maintains how the inversion of brahmanical myths led to the emergence of a distinctive Maratha identity and demands for equality. Sekhar Bandopadhyaya’s essay on the Namasudras provides a historical account of their transformation into one of the first backward communities in the early 20th century in order to claim special rights from the colonial administration.

The essay by Eleanor Zelliot explores the background and ideology of Gandhiji and Dr.Ambedkar to show how the two leaders were at odds with each other concerning the problem of untouchability and the means of its abolition. The excerpt from an essay by Rajni Kothari pondering over the renewed debate on caste in the 1990s against the background of exploding caste identity and consciousness puts forward the argument that the caste system itself had got transformed through its use in politics. Ashutosh Varshney’s essay, keeping in mind how caste-based politics tied to universal franchise-democracy has helped reduce inequality in the south, argues that the assertion of Dalits and backward castes in North India is a “southernisation” process.

The last section starts with a forceful fragment from the life account of Viramma, an illiterate storyteller from South India. Next is Vasant Moon’s essay on growing untouchables in Maharashtra. Kancha Ilaiah’s essay is a bold political statement about why he is not a Hindu.

Mark Juergensmeyer’s is an emotive description of life in the city of ex-untouchables of Punjab. Lastly, Sourabh Dube’s essay underscores in the light of testimonies of Satnamies of central India that the nature of power in the caste order is ensnared by the ritual hierarchy, kinship, and symbols of colonial polity. The collection is indeed a highly useful volume even for specialists.

The Hindu - Indian Newspapers in English Language from eight editions.