CASTE SYSTEM: JAJMANI

 

CASTE SYSTEM: JAJMANI

(1) Jajmani relations are permanent. The jajmani rights are permanent. A 'jajman' or patron cannot remove has 'parjan' (servant) at his well. His difficulty will not be in dismissing him, but in finding a substitute.

(2) Jajmani system is hereditary. The Jajmani rights are property rights and hence are inherited according to the law of inheritance. 

(3) Barter system. The exchange of services is not based on money system but on barter system. The serving fairly gets things in exchange for the services rendered by it; though in some cases it may also get money. As a matter or fact the relationship between the Jajman and Parjan is not one of the employer and servant. The Jajman looks to all the needs of his parjan and helps

him whenever it is so required.

The Jajman's system is advantageous as

 (i) It provides security of occupation the occupation being hereditary; 

(ii) It provides economic security as the

Jajman looks after all the needs of the serving family.

(iii) It reinforces the relations between Jajman and his parjan which are more personal than economic. 

But the Jajman system once useful in Indian society has gradually been reduced into exploitation of the lower castes. The higher castes exploit. He lower caste people. Who find themselves helpless before the money power of their patrons. The Jajmani system suffers from all the evils of caste system. Due to the impact of urbanization and the growth of rapid means of transport the Jajmani system is getting disintegrated; yet it may not be denied that the functional interdependence of caste is a marked feature of the Indian caste system is

the villages.