1 CASTE IN THE PANJAB. 9
2 castes and occupations may on adopting a new occupation be admitted to the
3 fraternity which follows it.
4 340. The nature and evolution of the institution of caste.— Thus we see
5 that in India^ as in all eouniries, soeietj is arranged in strata which are based
6 upon differences of social or political importance, or of occupation. But here
7 the classification is hereditary rather than individual to the persons included
8 under it, and an artificial standard is added which is peculiar to caste and
9 which must be conformed with on pain of loss of position, while the rules
10 which forbid social intercourse between castes of different rank render, it
11 infinitely difficult to rise in the scale. So too, the classification being here-
12 ditary, it is next to impossible for the individual himself to rise ; it is the
13 tribe or section of the tribe that alone can improve its position; and this it can
14 do only after the lapse of several generations, during which time it must aban-
15 don a lower for a higher occujiation, conform more strictly with the arbitrary
16 rules, affect social exclusivencss or special sanctity, or separate itself after
17 some similar fashion from the body of the caste to which it belongs. The
18 whole theory of society IS that occupation and caste are hcreditai-y; and the
19 presumption that caste passes unchanged to the descendants is exceedingly
20 strong. But t he presumption is one which can be defeated, and has already
21 been and is now in process of being defeated in numberless instances. As in
22 all other countries and among all other nations, the graduations of the social
23 scale are fixed ; but society is not solid but liquid, and portions of it are
24 continually rising and sinking and changing their position as measured by
25 that scale ; and the only real difference between Indian society and that of
26 other countries in this respect is, that the liquid is much more viscous, the
27 friction and inertia to be overcome infinitelj- greater, and the movement there-
28 fore far slower and more difficult in the former than in the latter. This
29 fi'iction and inertia are largely due to a set of artificial rules which have been
30 grafted on to the social prejudices common to all communities by the peculiar
31 form which caste has taken in the Brahminical teachings. But there is every
32 sign that these rales are gradually relaxing Sikhism did much to weaken
33 them in the centre of the Panjab, while they can now hardly be said to exist
34 on the pm-ely Mahomedan frontier ; and I think that we shall see a still
35 more rapid change under the influences which oui- i-ule has brought to bear
36 upon the society of the Province. Our disregai'd for inherited distinctions have
37 akeady done something, and the introduction of railways much more, to
38 loosen the bonds of caste. It is extraordinary how incessantly, in reporting
39 customs, my correspondents note that the custom or restriction is fast dying
40 out. The liberty enjoyed by the people of the "Western Panjab is extending
41 to their neighbours in the east, and especially the old tribal customs are
42 gradually fading away. There cannot be the slighest doubt that in a few
43 generations the materials for a study of ca.ste as an institution will be infinite-
44 ly less complete than they are even now.
45 341. Thus, if my theory be coiTect, we have the following steps in the
46 process liy which caste has been evolved in the Panjab — (1) the tribal
47 divisions comnon to all primitive societies ; (2) the guilds based upon hereditary
48 occupation common to the middle life of all communities ; (3) the exaltation
49 of the priestly office to a degree unexampled in other countries ; (4) the
50 exaltation of the Levitical blood by a special insistence upon the necessarily
51 hereditary nature of occupation ; (5) the preservation and support of this
52 principle by the elaboration from the theories of the Hindu creed or cosmo-