The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 1 (of 4)Crooke, William
History
The tribes and castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume 1 (of 4)
Crooke, William
Caste -- India -- History; Hindus -- India; Tribes -- India -- History
[Distinctions of the occupational type.] 14. To return to the
occupational type of caste, there is here, as Mr Ibbetson [31] has
already pointed out, a further distinction. There is the true
occupational caste like the Nâi, Chamâr, or Bhangi, and there is the
trade-guild association, which is much more flexible than the former,
and is generally found in towns, and bears a Muhammadan name, like the
Darzi, Âtishbâz, or Nâlband. This form is most unstable at the present
day, and one of the main difficulties of the classification of caste
statistics lies in the fact that from one decennial period to another
new groups are constantly organizing themselves by a process of fission
from other groups. Thus the Bâghbân, or gardener, is an offshoot of the
Kâchhi, the Sangtarâsh or stone-cutter, from the Gonr, or others who
engage in similar industries, the Mewafarosh, or fruit-seller, and the
Sabzifarosh, or seller of herbs, from the Kunjra or greengrocer. Here,
in fact, we can stand and watch the creation of new so-called castes
before our eyes. And the process is facilitated by the creation of new
religious groups, which base their association on the common belief in
the teaching of some saint or reformer. Most of these sects are
connected with the Vaishnava side of Hinduism, and are devoted to the
solution of much the same religious questions which beset the searcher
after truth in western lands. All naturally aim at the abolition of the
privileges and pretensions of the dominant Brâhman Levite, and the
establishment of a purer and more intellectual form of public worship.
CHAPTER V.
EXOGAMY.
1. No enquiry into the social relations of the Hindus can leave out of
account the thorny subject of the origin of exogamy. By exogamy is
generally understood the prohibition which exists against a man
marrying within the group to which he belongs: to follow Mr. D.
McLennan’s definition, [32] exogamy is prohibition of marriage between
all persons recognized as being of the same blood, because of their
common blood—whether they form one community or parts of several
communities, and accordingly it may prevent marriage between persons
who (though of the same blood) are of different local tribes, while it
frequently happens that it leaves persons of the same local tribe (but
who are not of the same blood) free to marry one another. “Endogamy,”
on the other hand, “allows marriage only between persons who are
recognised as being of the same blood connection or kindred, and if,
where it occurs, it confines marriage to the tribe or community, it is
because the tribe regards itself as comprising a kindred.”
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