CASTE SYSTEM IN BRITISH PERIOD

 

CASTE SYSTEM IN BRITISH PERIOD

The various vich's on caste are based either on impressionistic understanding or on the spiritual tents which we referred to earlier. Lines of distinctions between varma and caste and caste and class have not been expressed about the caste system. One is that caste is an undesirable and harmful institution because it serves the interests of the entrenched and dominent caste groups, contrary to this is the view that custe is functional institution, as it ensures division of labour orderliness and regulation of behaviour of its members though endogaing and caste panchayats. 

The caste system has been considered as a coercive system. It compels members of a caste to follow certain rules of marriage and inter - personal relations. The freedom of the individual is curtailed by the corporate strength of the caste system. Due to these divergent views it is difficult fo arrive at a precise definition of caste. 

The whole caste system as it has come down to us, bears unmistakable evidence of Brahmanical origin". The Brahmans, according to Max Mailler have been the

strongest advocates of the caste system. They have created the vast divisions in Hindu Society. The Brahmanas and cruelly punished those who questioned the caste system and their supremacy. The principle of exclusion / inclusion or seclusion / resulted in diversification of caste groups. 

Occupational roles and rituals:

However caste has never been a static system. The prevalence of thousands of castes and sub castes and many more clans and sub clans within these Easter is a proof of diversification, differentiation and change in the caste system. Intercaste or mixed marriages, migration, change in occupations. The Buddhist movement, the impact of Islam, the impact of the British, and several other factors have made caste not only an adaptive but also a living system of social relations. 

The British Raj encouraged the continuity of the caste system by favouring some caste groups with higher status and by granting them titles and land. The system was basically investigation and the British never

discouraged caste based inequalities, injustices and discriminations on the country Britsh administrators and ethnographers defined caste in terms of its

"functionality" to society and culture in India. The have emphasised inter caste and intra - caste harmony and discipline with the implicit objective keeping people divided into caste and sub - castes so that they did not unite against British colonial rule in in India.