CASTE SYSTEM: OCCUPATIONAL PROBLEM

 

CASTE SYSTEM: OCCUPATIONAL PROBLEM

The hereditary association of a caste with an occupation has been so striking that it has occasionally been argued that caste is nothing more than the systematization or occupational differentiation. Even though a caste is not only associated with an occupation but has a limited kind of monopoly over it, it is not rue to say that every member of the caste practises that

occupation exclusively. 

Wikipedia Caste knowledge.

This kind of association is suggested when, for instance the term Kumhar is translated as Potter, and Dhobi as washerman But, generally speaking, most castes also practise agriculture in a attion to their traditional occupation.

A Kutnhar may be an agriculturist in the monsoon months, and a trader for a brief period after the harvest, often, the artisan and servicing do not have an adequate income from their traditional occupations and they therefore work on land, either as tenants or as casual labourers. It could be argued that, in the context of a growing population, the occupational aspect

of the caste system would have broken down completely if the surplus in the artisan, trading and servicing castes had not been either absorbed in agriculture of able to migrate to other areas.

Traditionally, agriculture (used broadity to

include even mere landownership) was common occupation for all castes. The profession of arms was also practised occasionally by the non-Ksatriya castes, including Brahmins and the locally dominant peasant groups.  To associate a caste invariably with a single occupation is an oversimplification. 

Even "agriculture" can mean a variety of things : landownership, tenancy and labour. Each may be practised exclusively or in combination with the others. Sometimes cultivation includes processing the grown crop into a sale able grown for a factory, includes the processing of cane into jaggery and its sale to a middleman. Again, different members of a family may have different occupations. All women cook and they may also take some part in agriculture. Women of the artisan castes may in addition participate in the caste craft. 

Occupations are also classified into high and low, those practiced by the high castes being regarded as high Mannual labour is looked upon as low, and certain occupations like swineherding and butchery are considered to be polluting. Among Muslims, only artisan castes such as the left, Darzi, and Julaha are associated with traditional occupations. Priests tend to come more from the Syed and Shaikh castes than from the others. Among the Sikhs, the traditional occupa is often practised along with agriculture. Jat's are generally landowhers, while the Mazhabis are agricultural labourers. Sikh Tarkhans are carpenters. An occupation which is indispenable everywhere except among the Sikhs is hair-cutting. By, the Sikh Nai renders other services : he clips the nails of his patrons; he carries news of birth, marriage and eath. He is also a masseur.

An individual in a caste society lives in a

hierarchical world. It is not only the people who are divided into higher and lower groups, but also the food they eat, the dress and ornaments they wear, and the customs and manners they practise. In India's dietetic hierarchy the highest castes are usually vegetarians and teetotallers. Even in meat there is a hierarchy. The highest non-vegetarian castes eschew chicken, pork and beef. Wild port is superior to domestic pork, since the village pig is a scavenger. Eating beef in rural India means eating carrion and it comes accordingly under a

double ban. Liquor is prohibited to the high castes. 

Elaborate rules govern the acceptance of cooked food and water from another caste. Food cooked with ghee, milk or butter is called pakka food and may be accepted from inferior castes. (Higher castes buy sweets from the Halwai because he is supposed to be cooking them with ghee). Kacha food, on the other hand, is food cooked with water and it may be accepted normally only from one's own or equivalent or superior castes.

 When two castes are contending for superiority, they stop accepting cooked food and water from each other. Sometimes, a very low caste refuses cooked food or water from a high caste. We have already mentioned the instance of the Kannada Holeya. The explanation of these usages lies in the history of inter-caste relations in the area in question, and in particular, in the attempts of individual castes to raise themselves up. 

There are exceptions to the general restrictions on the acceptance of food and water. Food or drink which has been sanctified by being offered to a deity in

a temple may not be reused even though the cook is from a low caste. (The cooks in the famous Jagannath temple at Puri are Barbers by caste) Significant social also

occur. Further, women tend to observe test actions more strictly than men, and the old more strictly than the young. Among the highly Westernized sections in the big

cities, such restrictions are minimal.

In North India, hukka smoking offers an index of caste status. Castes which may share, on occasions, a single hukka are equals. Thus Jat's and Ahir's may smoke

from the same hukka. Sometimes the Lohar (Blacksmith) and Khati (Carpenter) are allowed to smoke frm the same hukka as the Jat and Ahir. The Nais (Barber), like many other castes, have their own hukka.

drink as obtained among Muslims are common to them all.  As for the Sikh's, Sardar's have reservations about kaccha food cooked by Mazhabis, but accept liquor brewed by them.

Each caste has a culture which is to some extent autonomous: 

there are differences in dress, speech,

manners, ritual and ways of life. The higher castes wear fine clothes and gold ornaments while the lower castes wear coarse material and silver ornaments. The speech of the higher castes is refined while that of the lower castes is rugged. Traditionally, the lower castes were prohibited from taking on the dress, ornaments and customs of the higher, and the offenders were punished by the village panchayat.

The concept of pollution plays a crucial part in maintaining the required distance between different castes. A high caste man may not touch a low caste man, let alone accept cooked food and water from him. Where the two castes involved belong to either extreme of the hierarchy, the lower caste man may be required to keep a minimum distance between himself and the high caste man.

In Kerala, a Nayadi had to keep 22 m. away from a Nambutri and 13 m. from a Tiyan, who himself had to keep 10 m. away from a Nambutri. A few decades ago, in most areas of South India, there were rules which said down what parts of a high caste man's house the others could enter. The rules of pollution, at least so as inter-caste relations were concerned, were more clearly elaborated in South than in North India.

There is a broad line between Caste Hindus and Harijans in the matter of pollution. The village barber and washerman will not serve Harijans, and the latter have to provide for these from a lower end of a river or canal than the high castes and they may not use the Caste Hindu well. 

The breaking of pollution rules results in the higher castes becoming "impure", and the latter have to perform certain purificatory rites to regain their normal status. Where the breach of the rule is serious, as when a high caste person eats food cooked by a Harijan or a high caste woman has sex relations with a Harijan, the offender may be thrown out of caste irrevocably. 

The idea of pollution is present among the Sikh's.

The Mazhabis have a well of their own everywhere, and in rural areas they may not be allowed to enter the houses of Sikh high castes beyond the cattle-yard.

The culture of each is to some extent peculiar to itself, and this is related to the fact that the lower castes are barred, at least in theory, from taking over the customs and rituals of the higher castes. Only the "twice-born" castes are entitled to study the Vedas and perform rituals in which Vedic mantras are chanted. 

Traditionally, the Brahmin was exempt from captial punishment and his land was assessed at a lower rate. 

These restrictions and disabilities operate fully against the Harijans - they may not use Caste Hindu wells or enter temples and teashops. In some parts of the country they were prohibited from entering the high caste streets. The high castes also kept away from the Harijan ward of the village.

Among the Sikhs, Mazhabi wedding parties are not accommodated in gardwara's as they are regarded as impure. Among Muslims however lower caste groups are not subjected to disabilities. The Christians on the west coast of India observe caste restriction : there are separate pews from the Brahmins and Harijans some churches, and very rarely, even a separate surch for the Harijans. 

Villagers are subject to the two-fold control of caste and village panchayats, (Caste panchayats, however, are not will developed among Brahmins). When the disputes concern law and order in the village - for example, setting fire to some - one's hayrick, grazing cattle on another's land, stealing fuel or vegetable -it is reported to village elders who may levy a fine on the offender or subjec him to corporal punishment or declare a boycott against him. In a martial dispute the council of the concerned caste is the proper body to adjudicate. But the village council may take a hand in the dispute. 

Where a man is accused of having sex or

commensal relations with a member of a lower caste, his own caste or the council of the locally dominant caste, or the village council might be called upon to adjudicate. Punishment may include a fine, temporary outcasting and fine, or permanent outcasting.