Caste helped in protecting
the vast majority of Indian population living in villages against MORAL
CORRUPTION.
The British planter, Robert
H Elliot,(1837-1914) who by virtue of
his isolation from other whites, had to socialize with the natives of
Mysore (now Karnataka) ,and had reached “intimate terms’ with them in the later
half of the 19th century. During his plantation career in Mysore
which lasted for 38 years, he had
employed a large number of the poorer of the better(upper) castes in
various capacities, as well as
a large number of Pariahs or labourer caste on
his coffee estate. Due to these circumstances of his living in Mysore, he was confident that he became suitably
qualified to be ‘a tolerably competent
judge as to whether CASTE did or
did not exercise a favorable influence on the morals of the people”.
In the following passages,
he argues that CASTE helped preserve the morals of the people and prevented/protected
them, from taking to the vices of their
conquerors, including the White Men.
Further he brings to our attention the sad
plight of the Todas of the Nilgiris, who were outside the pale of Caste, and
thereby loosing its various advantages.
And he cites that in the case of the
Coorgis, caste was never a hindrance in education
of its female members.
Excerpts : “Having taken into consideration the advantages
of caste in acting as a moral restraint amongst the Indians themselves, I now
purpose to inquire how far caste has acted advantageously, or the reverse, in
segregating the people
socially from the conquerors who have overrun their
country.
If the advantages of caste are striking and plainly apparent as regards the
moral points I have alluded to, (ie absence of sexual promiscuity and alcoholism amongst caste members) they
seem to me to be infinitely more so when we come to consider the happy
influence this institution has had in segregating the Indians from the white
races. And here, I cannot help indulging in a vain regret that the blessings of
caste have not been universally diffused amongst all inferior races. How many
of these has our boasted civilization improved off the face of the earth? How
much has that tide of civilization which the first conquerors invariably bring
with them effected? How much, in other words, have their vice, rum, and
gunpowder helped to exterminate those unhappy
races which, unprotected by
caste, have come in contact with the white man? Nor in India itself are we
altogether without a well-marked instance of the value, for a time at least, of
an entire social separation between the dark and white races; and the Todas,
the lords of the soil on the Nilgiri Hills, furnish us with a lamentable example
of what the absence of caste feeling is capable of producing. We found them a
simple pastoral
race, and the early visitors to the hills were struck with
their inoffensive manners, and what was falsely
considered to be their greatest
advantage—freedom from caste associations. But what is their condition now? One
of drunkenness, debauchery, and disease of the most fatal description. (sexual diseases ?) Had the much-reviled caste
law been theirs, what a different result would have ensued from their contact
with Europeans! Caste would have saved
them from alcohol, and their women from
contamination: they would thus have maintained their self-respect; and if, at
first, separation brought no progress nor shadow of change, it would have at
least induced NO evil, and education and enlightenment would in time have
modified these caste institutions, which, to a
superficial observer, seem to be
productive of nothing but evil.
We have now seen that social contact with whites, without any barrier between
them and the inferior races, is not, in a moral point of view, a very desirable
thing in any part of the world. But if there is a moral consequence, we may
also point to a mental one, which exercises an immense influence: I mean the
overwhelming sense of inferiority which is so apt to depress casteless races. I
believe, then, for savages, or for people in a low state of civilization, it is
of the greatest importance that they should have points of difference which may
not only keep them socially apart, but which may enable them to maintain some
feeling of superiority when coming in contact with highly-civilized races. Nor
is it necessary that the feeling of superiority should be well
founded. An
imaginary superiority will, I believe, answer the purpose equally well. “We don’t touch beef, nor would we touch food
cooked by Englishmen or Pariahs.”seem but poor matters for
self -congratulation. But if these considerations prevent a man from forming a
poor opinion of himself, they should be carefully cherished. On these points,
at least, a feeling of superiority is sustained, and therefore the tendency to
degradation is diminished. But if on all points the white man makes his
superiority felt, the weaker people speedily acquire a thorough contempt for
themselves, and soon become careless of what they do, or of what becomes of
them. Their mental spring becomes fatally depressed, and this circumstance has
probably more to do with the deterioration and extinction of inferior races
than most people would be inclined to admit.
[vide Sproat’s “Studies of Savage Life”] Nothing, then, I believe, chills the soul
and checks the progress of man so much as a hopeless sense of inferiority; and,
had I time, I might turn the attention of the reader to the universality of
this law, and to the numerous instances that have been collected to prove the
depressing and injurious effects that even nature, on a grand and overwhelming
scale, seems to exercise on the mind and spirit of man—how it makes him timid,
credulous, and superstitious, and produces effects which retard his progress.
But to advance further to this point , however interesting it may be, would
only tend to distract the attention of
the reader from the subject with which
we are mainly concerned.
If the remarks hitherto made are of any value, they undoubtedly tend to prove
that all inferior races have
a tendency, in the first instance, to adopt the
vices rather than the virtues of the more civilized races they may come in
contact with. Assuming, then, as I think we have every right to do, that this
statement is universally true, it is evident that the social separation
maintained by caste has been of incalculable advantage. On the other hand,
however, a number of disadvantages have been indicated by various writers; but
only one of them seems to me at all worthy of serious attention. It has been
asserted that this segregation has impeded advancement, that it has prevented
the Indians learning as much from us (British) as they otherwise might, and
that it has impeded the mainspring of all advancement—education. Here, I
apprehend, the argument against caste, as far as rural populations are
concerned, utterly fails, and, in a province contiguous to my own, a most
signal instance to the contrary can be pointed to. Few people have more proudly
segregated themselves than the Coorgs; nowhere is the chastity of women more jealously
guarded; and yet they were the first people in India who desired and
petitioned for female education. And
how, then, can it be for one moment asserted that the tendency of caste is to
check the progress of the people? "
EXCERPT
FROM
Robert H. Elliot. “Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in
Mysore.” iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. (Chapter VIII CASTE)
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