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    Cohn

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    {THE STUDY OF INDIAN SociETY AND cuLTuRE 137 ‘the Africans have adapted European institutions to wn political ends es of India offer a mach different situation from the American Indian or the Affican to study long-term change under colonial and post-colonial conditions. ey re patil declan rer orogied ans in the eighteenth eentury as being 2t relatively Tevel as European society. In India there was settled and a variety of eraft production on a large scale, institutions of kingship. a legal system based ‘on written law, taxation based on regular assess- ‘with record-keeping, and military forces roughly d along lines similar to those of Europe. Many of the and economic roles familiar to Europeans: clerks, stax officals, generals, bankers and traders, existed, In there was a multiple cultural-religious system based dl texts, both Hindu and Muslim, with a wide range ual specialists and scholars. ively speaking, British domination until the middle of th century had little direct effect on Indian socal, and cultural life. As a result of British revenue ents, there was some circulation of personnel in the a5 land became marketable and as new methods of tion of land through the use of British administrative ares allowed non-military groups access to control ‘New groups who tended to take advantage of the established by the British fitted into the traditional ‘or were placed on top of the existing structure ‘over life-styles well established by the eighteenth Notes on the History of the Study of Indian Society and Culture* ‘The study of social change and acculturation has become over the last thirty-five years one of the anthropologists ‘major activities. Until quite recently the American Indians and ‘African and Latin American societies and cultures have been the locus of most social change and acculturation studies. The American Indian studies have tended to focus on the ‘overwhelming effects that white American society has had on tribal groups. The African studies have tended to focus on the dlrect and indirect political effects of European incursions. The study of acculturation in Latin America has empha- sized the initial effects of Hispanization, the destruction of indigenous Indian society, and the emergence of complicated new patterns of culture. These studies have taken a total system view of the societies in relation to overwhelming. political, economic, and social power which were directly oF indirectly applied to indigenous societies. ‘The America? Indian studies have illustrated how persistent indigenous patterns have been and toa large extent how effective America? Indians have been, in the face of often overwhelming press lure, in maintaining many of their indigenous patterns. I” ‘Affica by and large the studies indicate that in the political ‘This casay was republished in Siar and change Indian Society, ‘Milton Singer and Bernard S. ohn (Chicago: Aldine Pres, 1968 IE STUDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND THE CASTE SYSTEM, have been recorded observations on Indian society he third century a,c, It is usefil in considering more ments in the study of socal change in India to briefly the nature and content of the observations and ns which observers have made ofthe Indian social 138 THE stuDY oF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE “srupy OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 139 Nee e nitate the ATi: Akbar, late sixteenth-contury gazet- For the period 327 me. to 1498, thee are scattered accouy cription of Akbar’ court, revenue, and adminis of Indian society written by foreigners. ‘These travel fem, presents the view thatthe four varnas were included Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Grecks, Jews, orn the body of Brahma at the creation of the Chinese, and, increasingly from A.b. 1000 onward, Art srecognizes that there are internal divisions within Turks, Afghans and Persians. Most classical accounts of Ind Hamas, but follows Brahmanic theory in attributing society follow Megasthenes, who had the advantages fo the mixture of the original varnas through direct observation of parts of India, But as Lach comments: 7 lly, as can be seen in the lists of military and given in the Ain-Akbar, the Mughals that the operational level of the Hindu ‘Although he was an acute observer, Megasthenes was handicap ped by his ignorance of the native languages, Like many Eure pans since his time, he was unable to penetrate deeply into ‘hought, literature and history of the country simply by lo pees she level of the varnde:beit atthe leyel ia oe ee based socal categories such as we are familiar with in ‘Megasthenes described Indian society as being divided in seven classes: (1) philosophers who offer sacrifices and form other sacred rites; (2) husbandmen who form the b of the population; (3) shepherds and hunters; (4) those wl work at trades and vend wares and are employed in bodil century literature on the Indian caste system. The ‘of Indian society, which we will se is so typical of European views of India, of a theoretical d society which sees the four major ideological es of Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra the system, existed functionally along with the on the part of the Mughals to operate with localized leaste groups. labour; (5) fighting men; (6) inspectors; and (7) counsellog and assessors of the king.® Megasthenes also noted that cach of these seven ‘classes’ were endogamous and that one could ‘not change his occupation or profession. From the context of his account it would appear, as with many subsequ € View of the Caste System of the Early European Travellers ‘observers, that’ Megasthenes’ data came mainly {ro ‘observation of urban political centres. It is also interesting (0 note that, atleast in the materials of Megasthenes which ha survived he makes no reference tothe va theory ‘Although there was regular and extensive contact betwee DR pcioss aiantly comombanteccon Rome and India through direct trade contact, Romal Boh Arabs (Moplshs),.Sreian Christians, Jews accounts, although fuller on geographic information, add litle foreign peoples, and an area in which the hierarchic in the form of sociological information to our knowledge, Boe nasser bat! becriorornesiesoiusrctet of the stratification system in early Indi, extreme forms. The Europeans were aso fascinated The earliest Arabic accounts follow the classical view of a aineal snd palycccove prone Indian society in reporting the division of Indian society int® observers like Duarte Barbosa® naively seven classes.* Al-Biruni (973-1030) appears to have bee? ely reported major cultural features of the caste familiar with Sanskrit sources and does mention the fo¥% h continue to be recognized as central today: the vvarna theory of the caste system.” In the seventeenth cen‘ I foe Bears the signiGcance of pakabeo ‘many translations were made from the Sanskrit literatuf nto unoxchbty, the brs t0 commensal into Persian by Indo-Muslim scholars.” Abu'l Faz! ‘Alla Boas gccups, sarelagonshiy peocassesoe direct observers of the Indian caste system in ‘were Portuguese adventurers, administrators, sand priests, who began primarily on the Malabar direct experience with Indian society. Malabar {THE STUDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 141 jn Madras, studied Hinduism from a Dutch-speaking pan, Padmanubha, in the 1630s. Roger's account of gis was published in 1670, twenty years afer his death, 3 Padmanubha’s Dutch translation of Bharthari’s 140 tum stupy oF INDIAN SocIETY AND CULTURE to caste," the application of sanctions within castes to main. tain caste customs,"® and the relationship between caste and political organization. Striking in Barbosa’s description is his matter-of-fact and objective approach in trying to describe what he saw and ‘what he was told; he presents his description of the caste system, organized as a hierarchy with Brahmans on top and Untou- chables at the bottom. There is no reference to the Hindy theory of the vamas and no moralizing about the benefits of cvils of the system, In many respects European accounts for the next 250 years do not progress much beyond Barbosa’, reporting. Unlike many of the Europeans who followed him to India, for shorter or longer periods, Barbosa knew an Indian vernacular well and was recognized by his contemporaries for his linguistic abilities. ® ‘Although there were others over the next 250 years who became fascinated with Indian society, most accounts by Europeans which circulated in Europe tended to focus on the Mughal courts and on political and commercial matters rather than on Indian society itself. Jean Baptiste Tavernier, « French merchant and traveller who made six voyages to the Middle East, India, and South-East Asie between about 1631 and 1667, wrote accounts of hs travels that are typical ofthe ‘works of this period." He describes im detail the various routes and points of interest historically and commercially in his travels in India, much like a forerunner of Murray's guide to India."” He provides 2 history of the reign of Aurangzeb, mainly based on oral evidence, and extensive discussions of ‘commercial activities. Finally, Tavernier reports on various Hindu beliefs, rituals, and customs. This reporting is based ‘on conversations with Brahmans and on eyewitness reports ‘The caste system recetres ‘very brief notice. Tavernier base his views on what he ‘ascertained from the most accom” plished of their pricyt’"" that is, chat although there a? believed to be sevenry-ta castes, ‘these may be reduced (0 four principal [castes], from which all others derive the ‘origin’."” Tavernier and other European travellers appear *® ‘have had ltue difficulty in finding Brahmans to discuss Hind" ism with them, ‘Abraham Roger, the first chaplain at the Dutch factory # ELOPMENTS IN THE LATER EIGHTEENTH AND EARLY [NINETEENTH CENTURIES he establishment of British suzerainty in the later eight tury, the rapid acquisition of knowledge of the classic~ ‘of India by a few British officals, the need trative purposes ofa knowledge of the structure of society, and the intensification of missionary activities, tic knowledge of Indian society began to develop ‘rapidly from 1760 onward. Three major traditions h to Indian society can be seen by the end of the ‘century: the orientalist, the administrative and ry. Each had a characteristic view, tied to the of roles which foreign observers played in India and the ‘which underlay their views of India ‘The Oriomalie tigh there was some knowledge of the learned tradi- of India, both Hind and Muslim, before the middle of th century, it was not until the post-Plassey m that a cumulative knowledge of Persian and Sanskrit ‘vernacular languages began to develop which enabled ish to begin to comprehend the depth and range of texts sir contents through which the religion, philosophy, ory of India began to become known to. Europeans der Dow, an officer in the East India Company's Was one of the first to publish a translation of one standard Persian histories of India, Tarikh-i-Fwrish- ch was published as The History of Hindustan in. 1768— ‘As was typical for the period, Dow prefaced his ons with a number of essays, One on the nature of Government, one on the effects of British rule in A Dissertation Concerning the Customs, Man- 144 THE sTupY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE [sruDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 145 ‘retaining but a feeble sense of moral obligation, yet obstinat, country fell into the hands of Musulmanss the their disregard of what they know to be right, governcg no where to be found in Bengal: almostall have fal- malevolent and licentious passions, strongly exemplifying She class of shoodris, and shoodus have sunk to the effects produced on society by great and general corruprigy Meir own cattle.” ‘manners, and sunk in misery by thet vices, Hedped on the/casne systear appeats not toave Grant fle eat the cast system, the legal syste, go. Bie nishonerhs whsednetorecccty to ‘ment, and above all the despotic role of the Brahmans sat they thought was the social basis of Hinduism. ‘control:the sociery are'the cause of the degraded state of hose who converted to Christianity were merely Destin eaten batiopicey ecg Iateucrcrss teas far the rest ofthe Hindu population sas maintained by the religious system, the only hope for i dnd as long as an individual who converted cut improvement of Hindus and Hindu society lies in the cls Beate rcivbt soceeysthere was ade hopeer tin of Hindoism, This canbe acomplsied by govern fbeChrstaniy through normal channels of oxs- dipportlod sikighly cteciveseantpag byiChran eet teil cheer sais cner th nn poplin Cast foun hemlves having to ake on oral conomc I panretanl br eas lose Bepoatiny for tons av well providing them bby missionaries and by the evangelicals on Indian soci Pestiion™ r Claudius Buchanan, St John Shore, Willam Cavey, fetaret te sonais in thet tng wi to William Ward all produced extensive works in much the san nin Hindus and Hindu society along the lines indicated feor iuGrer's Qhereclaec fa Vere inet rs, crcl Bhowever, by-product of thee prowty in Wiliam Ward's Accu ofthe Wriings, Religions Bi tex made tor conbutore to the cn nero the Hinds, ongaly publed at Serampore 1 Patan socery. Ts partly cane out ofthe in four volumes, but subsequently republished with translations ofthe Bible and religious tats ne the thangs in conte and ile 1818 wan DD, te ne Misses: Sekaye che tet esclingtiote tly tnd type of documenation’ of the conderinaion of fa Indian angeage ie Willam Carey's Dialogues Seer outta cake een Seeker fo FucltatetheAcring ofthe Benge Lanse, ehenn High eecy tho bed up he che ee ne as ae woes: Fete racers crete eres eat ri a forerunner of modem language teaching mate- ine spell we but we fe bee shee farming language through the oral method, Pe eee eee ol aia vctwens rics pes oP ‘everyday examples of the depravity of the Hindu, sutte and their tenants, zamindars and their officials, purdah, sale of children into salvery, veneration of the cow’ and fishermen, cultivators, and various types of worship of idols, and the caste system. ‘The caste syst! The different social and occupational groups are seas desenbed by Wiliam Ward: Despsidng peclrosty ws ciey would" bial ik iG Tacaps a a te i GN an Corel on ; GG ton Cue ed eee ol ‘Adams, who eame to Bengal asa Baptist minister this system, however specious in theory, as operated ke arly nineteenth century, was commissioned to do ‘Chinese national shoe, it has rendered the whole nation crippl indigenous education. These were highly laudatory Unter etl erlune of hy sbemteaic prere redid vemcelreducaoh-andfepored bramhuns have sunk into ignorance, without abating an atom ‘on the continued vigour of indigenous education in irchios oonpeteronea olan farteataamaay oo Det ts che idle ofthe ncn eneury Rober 146 tue stuDy oF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE Caldwell spent fifty years of his life in South India. His study ‘Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family 9 Languages, was onc of the first systematic accounts of Dravidian languages and was to have considerable indiveg cffect on the politics of South India, Stephen Hislop, + mis. Sionary in Central India, provided some of the earliest ang most useful descriptions of the tribal peoples of Cental India, In the twentieth century, Charles Freer Andrews and Edward Thompson were important interpreters of changing Indian society in relation to the rise of nationalism. and were consistent defenders of India and Indians in the face of official British policy. “The orientalis and the missionaries were polar opposites in their assessment of Indian cute and society bu were accord as fo what the central principles and institutions ofthe society were, They agreed that it was a society in which rl Bious ideas and practices underlay all socal structure; they Agreed in the primacy of the Brahman as the maintainer of the sacred tradition, through his control of the knowledge of the sacred texts. Both groups essentially accepted the Brahmanical theory of the four vamas and saw the origin of castes in the intermixture through marriage of the members Of the four vamas. Neither group related what they must hhave known was the structure ofthe society on the ground to their knowledge of the society derived from textual study and discussions with learned Brahmans, There was litle attempt on the part of either to ft the fcts of political org nization, land tenure, he actual functioning of the legil system or the commercial structure into their picture ofthe society derived from the texts. Both the orientalists and the missionaries agreed that Hinduism as practised within the Mate acidetarieeeacegien: =e carly nineteenth centuries was filled with ‘superstition’ 39 ‘abuses’ and chat by and large the Hindus were debased and licentious, Their major differences lay in thatthe orientalis admired in theory the civilization and religion embodied #8 the texts and saw the difficulties of Indian society as bein fall from a golden age. The missionaries saw the society 29 cculture as always having been corrupt, pernicious, and fille with absurdities [que STUDY OF INDIAN SocIETY AND cutTuRE 147) 1ces in view of the missionary and orientalist to their respective social backgrounds and their 2 ‘The orientalists tended to be dicated and from the upper classes of Great Britain; fs Sir William Jones, were trained as scholars before in India and they wanted to treat Sanskrit and earning with the same methods and respect as one iat European learning. Their general political and tance was conservative in that they accepted the status saw stability and order in the theory of caste Robertson, one of the Scottish moral philosoph- although not a Sanskrit or Persian scholar, was a or of early studies of Indian tradition, argued: object of the first Indian legislators was to employ the most iI means of providing for the subsistence, the security, 13s of all the members of the community over which Sided. With this view, they set apart certain races of men ff the vatious professions and arts necessary in a well Society, and appointed the exercise of them to be ted from father 10 son in succession... . To this early Sf the people ino estes we! must ikewist atte + peculiarity in the sate of India; the permanence of its fons, and he immutability in the manners of its inhabit ‘What now is in India, always was there, and is likely stil co ptinve; neither the ferocious violence and iliberal fanaticism of jomedan conquerors, nor the power ofits European masters, effected any considerable altration, The same discinetions ondition take place, the same arrangements in civil and society remain, the same maxims of religion are held in the same sciences and arts are cultivated." ‘of the orientalists in India were concemed with judi- its ofthe East India Company, as were Halhed, Jones, ke, In their role as judges they were confronted. ns who by the nature of court action appeared to be ;rveyors of false testimony, dishonest, and cheats. ‘ther hand they were studying Sanskrit legal treaties is and were impressed with the leaning and jon of Hindu law. They were trying to apply to the cases they were hearing on the grounds that be best governed under their own law rather 148 THE SrUDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE pip STUDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE 149) and firsthand experience had considerable ge of the actual functioning of Bengali society. The standings leading to permanent settlement were a8 function of philosophical and social conceptions general nature of society and polity and the goals h policy as they were a misunderstanding of the d facts of Bengali social structure.” ion to the duties which some British officials had to in collecting and studying information about Indian ety, some British, official and non-official, out of and curiosity began to study and write on Indian from first-hand observation in relatively objective |. William Tennant, a military chaplain, wrote a two- work, Indian Recreations: Cons than under imported British law. The gap between the way Indians behaved in the courts and what the ‘orientalist judge believed was the law and the theory of the society was seen ag a fall from an older and better state of society caused by the imeervention of foreign rules, Muslim and European, ‘The missionaries with much the same perceptions and information interpreted the situation differently because of their differences in background. They largely came, particu larly the Baptist missionaries, from lower orders in British society; they were committed to reform of their own society as well as of Indian society, and they were concemed with ‘changing India rather than with maintaining the status quo. ‘THE GROWTH OF AN EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONING OF INDIAN SOCIETY Penorgraly, published Rdnbaieh in lene, ‘The period 1757 to 1785 was a time in which the officials of ‘contains a collection of careful observations of agti- the East India Company in Bengal hid to develop an admi- tal practices in upper India (see vol. 2). Tennant’s goal nistrative system capable of maintaining law and order and instruct himself about the ‘condition of a numerous producing in a regular fashion income to support. the living in a state of society and manmers to me almost administrative, military, and commercial activites of the fnew..”” His information was based on personal company and to provide a profit fr ts owners. Through this vation, ‘conversations and writings of several intlli- period the company officials had to arn from scratch a grat ives of India, both Mussulmans and Hindoos', and deal about India, Indians, and how they had been governed. sation with the most intelligent of the Honowr- The assessment and regular collection of land revenue, i spany's civil and military servants’. In shore, he became clear by Warren Hasting’s time, requited considerable the techniques which were typical of the catlest derailed knowledge of the structure of Indian society. As the mn of anthropologists down to the beginning of East India Company in Madras, ia Mabarashtra, and in uppot ch century: observation and interviews with key India came into contact with and had to establish relations formants and knowledgeable Europeans, Tennant ‘with a wide range of states, « knowledge of Indian politic] Eiparticulac village, thirty-aig miles fom Banaras, history and a working knowledge of the internal politic Out a thousand acres and a population of a thousand. structure of Indian states became a necessity. Helly mentions the crops and the methods of cultivation Persistently, inquiries into the ature of land tenuce it also gives a brief description of the occupations of the Bengal were made, and collections of documents and recorés of previous rulers were assembled to determine what right and duties various persons connected with the production ©! agricultural products had. Although it is clear that many of the efforts 10 learn the nature of Bengal rural society wel? confused and incomplete, none the less there were an increas ing number of officals like James Grant and John Shore, wh? fa excelent discussion ofthe relationship of cightecnth-centary Social andl economic theory to Drtsh revenue policy in Bengal it Guha. A Rule of Proper far Bengal: Ax Esa onthe es of Pera , Pais, 1963. Fora fall discussion ofthe development ofthe the growth ofempirial knowledge of Bengali land system. see etrodction to The Fifth Report is Company «1812, vole}, Caleta, 917. 150 ‘Time STUDY OF INDIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE incipal villagers in ation tothe zamindar, the paar, Pra sya (grain weigher), he describes the carpenter, tae eh, wradhermen, barbers, porters, Chamats, Airs, blacker ce maker), ba (genealogist), shepherds, and ai oesrnan of the village. Tennant notes that the most a eran acupation (by impliaton respective af cst) mae ach, of whom dere were about 100 in the village, ee eivad five aces of grain,z day and one rupee foreach Sreqo annual plowing seasons eee Male ok caetal descripion of ral sity in rea es Getealeure was provided by HT. Colebrooke Teen lth erly Saket scholars Is nteresting that Ce ere Nanote, Remarks on the Husbandry and Inter ono Bengal before he was Er along in the Ioring of Semin heswokk combines satiseal material and summaries Sensi epors with his own observations and provides Sete description ofthe culivation of most of che soot Seta crops, cotton, indigo, sugar cine, and opiom. Clebrooke bev tha by and large Benga wa lhe aero Ind was capable of becoming even Mote So rovPirare developed and manufacrring increased, He ws

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