1 Ml HIS Tty
2 K
3 Preface.
4 tion to render service is forgotten, or at any rate less
5 keenly felt than it was originally, and so by decrees privileges
6 are established without any corresponding obligations. I do
7 not think that any novelty can be claimed $or this view, but I
8 think that the parallel suggested is a new one. I will not
9 attempt to work it out in any detail, but I may give an
10 instance of its practical working. The Hon'ble Mr. H. J.
11 Maynard, I.C.S., has pointed out in a paper read before the
12 Punjab Historical Society that Indian Rijas used caste and
13 the governing bodies of caste as administrative agents.
14 Not only did they do so hut in all probability they created
15 governing bodies within the caste for administrative pur¬
16 poses. They probably used what lay to hand, but where
17 th ey found no agency ready to hand they created or de¬
18 veloped new institutions on existing and customary lines.
19 The result was that new castes could be created, old castes
20 promoted and existing castes sub-divided by the creation oi
21 privileged sub-castes within them. But the political con¬
22 ditions of India being what they are the privileges thus
23 bestowed seem to have remained, when the justification for
24 their existence had long been forgotten. In a small State
25 like Kahlur the Raja probably promoted the outcasts Koli to
26 a recognised status within the pale of caste because he needed
27 Ms services as a soldier : whereas the Katoch Raja refused
28 to remove the ban on the Rolls of a tract like R4jgin,
29 where the clan is pretty numerous because he had no need
30 of their services in a military capacity.1 Where the Rajd.
31 ■was autocratic or powerful and above all where he had a
32 divine power behind him, he could bestow the thread or
33 caste, even it would seem, on individuals ; and doubtless
34 he could, in extreme cases, resume his grant. But it is
35 characteristic of the East, just as it was of the West,
36 that privileges tend to become hereditary even where they
37 are not conferred expressly in tail or remainders and we
38 rarely, if ever, hear of degradation from caste being made
39 by royal authority. Within itself caste is democratic and
40 intensely jealous of its privileges. It is no doubt ever
41 ready to expel offending members, especially women who
42 offend against its moral code, and to split itself up into
43 sub -castes which observe its canons with greater or Less
44 rigour. But nearly all the forces at work combine to mam-
45 tain privileges rather than enforce duties. And by a veiy
46 » The late Sir James Lyall says the negotiations hav.e always fallen t'kr°a8l‘
47 bribe offered* a, not sufficient' > We may conjecture that in earlier .
48 might have even compelled the Katoch Eaja to adopt as liberal a pohey as was impose* 9
49 SaMfc.