UNIT 12 SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION AND

DISPRIVILEGED GROUPS
Structure
12.0 Objectives
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Pre-Colonial Social Discrimination and the Colonial Impact
12.3 Regional Variations: South India
12.4 Western India
12.5 Northern and Eastern India
12.6 Continuity and Change in Colonial India
12.7 A New Consciousness: Some Regional Examples
12.8 Let Us Sum Up
12.9 Key Words
12.10 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

12.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this Unit you will be able to:
 learn about various forms of social discriminations in different parts of
India,
 understand the impact of Colonial rule on the existing social system and
how the changes camein it, and
 explain the growth of a new consciousness among the disprivileged
groups and how did they try to change to existing social order.

12.1 INTRODUCTION
Indian society being based on caste gave birth to different kind of social
discrimination and created two broad social orders-privileged and disprivileged.
In this Unit we have tried to introduce you to various forms of social
discrimination and disprivileged groups in different parts of India. Social
discrimination existed in India long before the beginning of the colonial rule. But
the establishment of colonial rule brought changes in economic and
administrative system which to a great extent influenced the existing social
system in India. How and to what extent the change came in India social system
have been discussed in this Unit. Here we have also touched upon the process of
social mobility among the lower and intermediary castes and also the challenge
by some disprivileged groups to the age long Brahmanical domination in the
society.
 12.2 PRE-COLONIAL SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION
AND THE COLONIAL IMPACT
There is no doubt that social backwardness and disprivilege emanating from
social discrimination predates colonialism. The hierarchical division of society
with assigned ranks, functions and distinctions under the varna system
constituted the structural framework which regulated economic and ritual
relationship. Viewed from the economic angle, the jatis were hereditary, closed
occupation groups and was probably related to efforts to eliminate competition
and ensure security of employment and income. Moving up within this
hierarchical structure was not completely ruled out but it was rare. Two fixed
points marked the extreme ends of the hierarchical orders Brahmans on the one
end and untouchables at the other. Most of the marginal groups belonged to the
lower orders and were forced to live a precarious existence. By the time colonial
rule made its presence felt in the second half of the eighteenth century, the
situation had become somewhat fluid, though not to the extent of eliminating
social discrimination. But as India became a colonial appendage to a capitalist
world economy, new economic relationships began to take shape. The policy of
de-industrialisation deprived the rural artisans of their hereditary occupations
and, in course of time, undermined the basis of a non-competitive and hereditary
system of economic organisation at the rural level. The service castes found if
difficult to get their payments in the way they got under the jajmani system. In its
efforts to maximise the revenue collection, the company resumed various forms
of rent-free tenures resulting in the impoverishment of those service groups who
were dependent on them. The insistence on contract, enforced by law and law-
courts, meant that those who had access to the new system could thereby
manipulate its levers and consolidates their position in society. Viewed in this
light, the colonial rule denied many of the subordinate social groups their means
of subsistence and, in course of time relegating some of them to the degraded
level of ‘criminal tribes’. But at the same time, by undermining the old economic
basis of social organisation colonial rule fuelled an already developing tendency
towards mobility. It also indirectly rendered possible the growth of lower caste
protests in future. While pliable elements among the rural elites were
successfully accommodated within the framework of the British revenue system,
the intransigents were rendered powerless by the destruction of forts and
disbandment of local militias under British rule. In course of time the dominant
groups in different parts of India consolidated their position by manipulating the
institutional framework of the colonial rule.

12.3 REGIONAL VARIATIONS: SOUTH INDIA

What then was the position of subordinate groups who were subject to social
discrimination? The nature of discrimination differed from region to region in the
early years of the nineteenth century. In large parts of the Madras Presidency the
bulk of the agricultural labourers, belonging to low caste groups, were said to
have been reduced virtually to conditions of slavery. This was evident from the
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first major survey of the conditions of agricultural labourers undertaken by the
Madras Board of Revenue (1818). The Madras Presidency was divided in three
major areas. Of these, the Telugu region was relatively free from bondage
system. But in the Tamil country especially in the wet districts – and in the
Malabar and Kanara region, a large portion of the laboring class lived in a state
of bondage. In districts like Chingleput and Tanjore, the condition of the
untouchable’s castes called Pallans or Paraiyans was really deplorable. Here the
old Hindu institutions were reinforced by the British legal system, giving a fresh
lease of life to power and influence of certain higher castes. There was a group of
Braham landowners, forbidden most types of manual labour by the rules of their
caste, who were letting their lands to tenants or employing hired labourers to do
the task they could not do themselves. What is interesting in all this is that what
some historians call agricultural servitude was sanctioned by caste system.
Likewise, in Malabar the Cherumans, corresponding to the Paraiyans in
Tamilnad, were almost exclusively treated as slaves. Buchanan, in course of this
travels in early years of the nineteenth century, found that in Palghat by far the
greater parts of the work in the fields was performed by Cheruman salves. They
could be sold, mortgaged and rented out. From Malabar Buchanan moved to
Kanar where he found an equally harrowing situation. Men of low caste
occasionally sold their younger relations into slavery in discharge of debts. In
short, available evidences on South India suggest that agrarian bondage was quite
widespread in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Case-studies of some select subordinate groups outside the agrarian sectors show
the same process of social discrimination at work. A recent survey of the Nadars
of Tamilnad demonstrates that in the early nineteenth century they were counted
among the most oppressed caste. They were economically differentiated between
higher ranking Nadars and lowely Shanars or toddy-tappers. Various disabilities
were heaped upon the Shanars. They were, of course, forbidden entry into
temples. Wells were strictly forbidden to their use; they were denied the right to
carry an umbrella, to wear shoes, golden ornaments, to milk cows, to walk in
certain streets: and their women were forbidden to cover their breasts. Indeed a
Nadar could not even approach a Brahmin within twenty-four paces. A few
Shanar families, who settled as minorities in areas north of Tirunelveli,
confronted even more humiliating conditions. They were even denied the service
of barbers and washermen used by the caste Hindu of the villages. Gradually,
among the main body of Shanars emerged a mobile body of traders who traded
country liquor and jiggery sugar. When the Poligar Wars ended in 1801 both the
trading and toddy-trapping Shanars moved on northwards to the Maravar country
and settled in ‘Six Nadar Towns of Ramnad’. But the locally dominant castes of
the region, the Maravars, Tevars and Kallars associated them with the lowly,
polluted, toddy-tapping Shanars. It is not surprising that the Nadars constituted a
fertile ground for conversion to the Christianity. They would be in the forefront
of the later day anti-Brahman movement in the region.
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 12.4 WESTERN INDIA
Farther up the western coastline of India there was another striking instance of
institutionalised social discrimination in South Gujarat. Recorded in the early
nineteenth century British records as Halipratha, it was a formalised system of
lifelong and often hereditary attachment of the low-caste Publas to the Anavil
Brahmans who owned the best and the largest lots of land. In some regions the
attached farm servants also included a section of Kolis called gulam Kolis. The
condition of service was not contractual. It usually began when an agricultural
labourer wished to marry and founded a master ready to pay for it. The debt thus
incurred attached the servant to the master for life. It Increased in the course of
years thereby rendering repayment virtually impossible. The Halis were not sold
though their service could be transferred to another master. The ritual domination
of the high caste Brahmans over low caste Dublas was consolidated in an
exploitative relationship of all-encompassing nature. The master had the right to
the labour of the servant and his wife as maid in the household.
In Maharashtra the idioms of dominance and discrimination were no less
pronounced. In eighteenth century Maratha kingdom, Brahmanical dominance
was backed up by the state power of the Peshwas. There was a strong connection
between Maratha polity and caste by the authorities. In the directly administered
(swarajya) regions of the eighteenth century Maratha kingdom, the state took an
active role in maintaining and enforcing rules and economic aspects of caste
society. In 1784 the government formulated rules of worship at the holy places of
Pandharpur which explicitly stated that the untouchables were not allowed to go
near their own shrine close to the main temple. “The place is so narrow and
crowded that the visitors are touched to one another and the Brahmins are
opposed to this. Therefore the untouchables should perform worship from near
the stone lamp (in front) of the image of Chokhmela or from a nearby
untouchable hamlet..” In another instance the Mahars of the Konkan region
demanded some Brahman priests of the place to officiate their marriage
ceremony. Despite the support from the local officials this demand was turned
down with a heavy hand. The state offered the untouchables to have their
marriage officiated by their own priests and warned, “if they trouble the Brahmin
priests in future, no good result will come out.” In other words, the Maratha state
power mediated caste relationship in the region and ensured the Brahmanical
hegemony in society. Baji Rao II, himself a Chitpavan Brahman, distributed
generous sums of money to large number of Brahman scholars in Pune, to enable
them to devote their time to religious scholarship.
When the Company took over the administration after the fall of the Marathas,
the state’s active support of the Hindu religious values was withdrawn. This, of
course, did not immediately signify any major change in the condition of the
lower castes. As the Company’s administration engrafted itself on the Indian
society, it depended on Indian subordinates at eh lower levels. The upper castes,
in view of their earlier access to educational opportunities, gained a strategic
mediatory position between the Company’s government and the larger masses of
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western Indian society. This effectively buttressed their already dominant
position in society. But the relatively stagnant position of the lower castes and
untouchables made them fertile grounds for missionary propagation. In western
India in the nineteenth century the missionaries did their utmost to persuade their
audiences that eh Hindu religion had deprived them, as Shudras, of their real
rights in matters of education and religion. There was a preponderance of higher
castes in general and Brahmans in particular in administration, far in excess of
their numerical proportions in the populations as a whole. “Far from breaking
down inequalities in western Indian society, British rule looked as though it
might reinforce them by adding to the older religious authority of Brahmans, a
formidable new range of administrative and political powers.” Critical observes
like Jotirao Phule and his followers drew the natural inference that a rejection of
the religious authority of the Brahmans and of the hierarchical values on which it
was based, formed the precondition for any real change in their condition.

12.5 NORTHERN AND EASTERN INDIA

The foregoing survey of social discrimination in some selected region is not
meant to suggest that elsewhere in India the condition of the lower orders of
society was any better. One purpose was to highlight some glaring instances of
domination. In fact, some recent surveys of the Chandals in Bengal, the Doms in
Bihar, the Bhuinyas in south Bihar or the Chamars in large parts of northern India
show how these groups were subjected to similar processes of rigorous
discrimination. The Namasudras of Bengal, earlier known as Chandals, formed
marginal groups, relegated to the level of Antyaja. The barbers, washer men and
sometimes even the scavengers refused their services to them. In the social feasts,
they were required to sit at a distance from the rest and clear up their own dishes.
It has been shown that their lowest position in the purity-pollution scale
corresponded to their inferior economic status via-a-vis men of the higher castes.
The Maghaiya domes, like the Lodhas of south western Bengal, were
marginalised to such an extent that they were ultimately branded as criminal
tribes. The Bhuinya oral traditions which record the memory of their
subordinates to the mostly Brahman maliks, remember their incorporation in the
Hindu caste hierarchy as a ritually impure caste. They were initially treated as
Kamias providing labour services to the high caste maliks ultimately ending up as
a kind of bonded labour. The Chamars, including Mochis are found in every part
of India, thought they are most numerous in the UP and in the bordering area of
Bihar on the east and of the Punjab on the north-west. They occupied an utterly
degraded position in the village life. Apart from their customary profession, they
were often called upon to perform beggar services by the landlords.
In concluding this section let us recapitulate its basic points. First, there was a
very strong linkage between caste and ritually governed entitlement to resources.
This obviously implied that low ritual status went together with precarious
existence. Moreover, this was an existence wrapped up by multiple badges of low
status. Second, while most of these practices predate colonial rule, the latter, in 159
 turn, precipitated certain change in the position of subordinate social groups on
different parts of India. Notable among these was the disintegration of the
relatively non-competitive structure of the village society.
Check Your Progress 1
1) Write in brief the various forms of social discrimination existed in South
India? Answer in 100 words.

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2) ‘Politics has a positive role in the continuation of the caste domination’.

Explain this statement in 100 words in the light of the castes system
existed in Western India.

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3) Read the following statements and mark right(√) or wrong(×).

i) Mobility within the caste system is not possible.
ii) The colonial rule by undermining the old economic basis of social
organisation helped the social mobility.
iii) Lower status in the caste hierarchy did not deprive the lower
castes from taking part in ritual ceremonies with the higher castes.
iv) Agrarian bondage was quite widespread in South India in the early
years of the 19th century.

12.6 CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN COLONIAL

INDIA
Viewed in retrospect, the first century of the British rule may be termed as a
period of gestation. During this period two apparently contradictory
developments were taking place. Social discrimination which prevailed in myriad
variety of forms in different parts of India initially got a new lease of life. The
upper caste elites consolidated their position in many different ways. After some
initial reverses in some areas, they adjusted themselves with the new revenue
system. They adroitly utilised the new opportunities for administrative and
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political power by the use of their skills. A high degree of literacy rendered them
extremely useful to the new regime. Their growing familiarity with the Anglo-
Indian law and the functioning of the law courts gave them advantage over their
low-caste opportunity waiting for them. Finally, the early British attitude of
studied non-interference in social matters of the Indians precluded the possibility
of any major structural change in society through legislative and other means
backed by state-power.
But during the same period a very different kind of development was taking
shape which, in course of time was to undermine the ritual and social hegemony
of the upper caste elites. The caste system allowed for mobility at the
intermediate levels while preserving the top and bottom levels fixed. The fact that
upward mobility was not entirely ruled out gave a certain strength and resilience
to the system as a whole.
Interestingly, however, in course of the first century of the British rule, the
bottom level also began to stir. Some of the idioms of social and ritual dominance
which the lower orders had, under the weight of tradition, internalised over time,
came to be seriously questioned. Initially, of course, there was predicable
opposition from the dominant upper castes. But the material basis of the caste
bound system of discrimination began to change. The penetration of market
forces at the rural level offered some opportunities in some regions which ran
contrary to the occupation-based jati system. In some regions it was even
possible for members of submerged caste to emerge as zamindars, taluqdars or
subinfeudated tenure holders. There was a marked tendency among many of
them to “sanskritize” their behaviour. It has been pointed out that acquiring
symbols of sanskritization need not be taken as meek emulation of the upper
castes. It also meant the appropriation of certain symbol and certain codes of
conduct which had been the excusive preserves of the upper castes. In some
communities missionary activities opened up new possibilities of educational and
consequently material advancement. In the changing perspective, the ideology of
hierarchically divided society failed to carry conviction especially among the
victims of social discrimination. There was indication of the emergence of a new
consciousness as a result of which what had earlier been implicitly accepted as
‘duty’ came to be construed as ‘disprivilege’.

12.8 A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS: SOME REGIONAL

EXAMPLES
The articulation of this new consciousness, however is a complex phenomenon
and therefore can hardly be reduced to simple formulations. Reference has
already been made to the growth of sanskritizing tendencies among some caste
groups. There were others who found in Christianity a means to escape from the
grim realities of their precarious existence. In Travancore education and
Christianity had given the Nadars hope of a release from their sufferings under
the dominance of the Nair landlords. In response to pressures from the Christian 161
 Nadars and the missionaries, the government issued a proclamation in 1829,
permitting native Christian women to cover their breasts in the manner of the
Syrian Christians and the Mopla Muslims. This triggered off the famous ‘breast
cloth controversy’ which culminated in the Royal Proclamation of 1869.
This has been regarded as the first major movement among the depressed classes
to remove the badge of servility. But regions and among the society groups
where proselytisation was not quite successful, the missionary polemic against
Hindu social practices informed the ideas of many of the indigenous reformers.
Moreover, the humanist content in some Indian social reformers’ critique of
hidebound Hindu society raised the level of general social consciousness. What
was historically more important though was the spirited attempt on the part of
some lower caste groups to improve their position by themselves. Although most
of such attempts lie beyond the time frame of this paper, some early indications
may still be noted. Despite regional variations in the mode of expression and
mobilisation, there were some common features. A relatively prosperous group
among some of the submerged castes took the lead in regulating the social
behaviour of their caste brethren. Having done that, they then began claiming
higher ritual status which was generally resisted by the upper castes. It is at this
stage that eh ground was prepared for an imminent caste conflict. Occasionally
one finds certain sects promoting caste solidarity and thereby helping the process
of mobilisation. The gradual introduction of electoral politics and the census
operations from the last quarter of the nineteenth century gave a distinctly
political touch to the lower caste movements.
A prosperous section among the Namasudras of Bengal, comprising mainly of
landowners and rich peasants, initiated the move to sanskritize their caste
behaviour and asserted the claims of a higher status. This was predictably
thwarted by higher castes, Undaunted by this rebuff, the Namasudra leaders
displayed an attitude of defiance to the social authority of the higher castes,
organised their caste brethren within the Matua sect and embarked on a policy of
protest. Interestingly, while challenging the moral authority of the higher castes,
the Namasudras were effusive in their protestations of loyalty of the Raj. In due
course the Namausdra protest developed a distinctly ‘separatist’ overtone. In
Tamilnadu, the mercantile upper stratum of Ramnad Nadars set up ‘common
good funds’, which was used, inter alia, for the welfare of the community. They
also began to sanskritize their manner of life and asserted a high kshatriya status.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century they became powerful enough to
challenge the ban on temple entry and in 1895 forced their way into the Sivakasi
temple. This was followed by retaliatory attacks on them which were ultimately
taken to the courts. Although the judgement went against the Nadars, they gained
a good deal of sympathy. Moreover, through litigation and intermittent rioting a
sense of communal solidarity was fostered. This solidarity was to yield good
divided in the present century. In Travancore, the low caste Iravas had long been
subjected to higher caste domination. By the end of the nineteenth century there
emerged a sizeable number of educated youth who were deeply satisfied with the
162 treatment meted out to them. Influenced by Sri Narayana Guru and the SNDP
Yogam, the Iravas soon made the temple entry issue a rallying point of the
community. The Mahars of Maharashtar, like several claimed Kshatriya status
and demanded preferential treatment from the government. They began to
organise themselves under Gopal Baba Walangkar towards the end of the
nineteenth century and ultimately emerged as the core group in Ambedkar’s
movement.
Check Your Progress 2
1) What was the impact of the Colonial rule on Indian social system?
Answer in 100 words.

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2) How did different disprivileged groups try to move up in the caste
hierarchy? Answer in 100 words.

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12.8 LET US SUM UP

Thus in the beginning of the twentieth century, the caste society was on the
threshold of a restless future. Although it was too early to visualise the end of
social discrimination, it was probably too late to attempt to restore the older inter-
caste equations. In many parts of India submerged caste were smarting under
multiple disabilities. But there were others in other areas that had begun to form
their own identities on the basis of radical redefinitions of their own positions in
the system. In the process, caste identities became the most effective rallying
point in the lower caste movements for economic and political rights.

12.9 KEY WORDS

Hierarchical Division: In this Unit it is used to explain division of Indian society
into various social groups which are placed into different ranks like higher,
middle, lower, etc. on the basis of purity-pollution.
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 Jajmani System: It is a system of economic, social and ritual ties among
different caste groups in a village. Under this system some castes are patrons and
others are
Purity-Pollution: It is an abstract notion which considers certain activities,
objects and occupations ritually purer, for example Vegeterianism is considered
purer than non-vegetarianism. Both these concepts are necessarily relative to
each other.
Sanskritization: Adoption of social and religious practices of the upper castes by
the lower castes in order to move up in caste hierarchy is called Sanskritization.
Social Mobility: Movement or changing of position of any social group in social
hierarchy is called social mobility.

12.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

EXERCISES
Check your Progress 1
1) Your answer should focus on deplorable condition of the agricultural
labourers, various social disabilities imposed on lower castes, etc. See
Sec. 12.3.
2) You have to write in this answer that how the upper caste domination was
backed by the state power, how the Maratha policy ensured the
Brahmanical hegemony in the society, etc. See Sec. 12.4.
3) i)× ii)√ iii)× iv)√
Check Your Progress 2
1) Your answer should highlight how the Colonial rule on one way helped
the continuation of caste system and on the provided avenues for upward
social mobility, etc. See Sec. 12.6.
2) You have to write about the process of mobilisation by disprivileged
groups along caste lines and how through socio-ritualistic reforms they
tried move up in the caste hierarchy. See Sec. 12.7.

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