Social Structure, Ideology and Language

Caste among Muslims

Pervaiz Nazir
The question whether the concept of caste can be applied to the system of social stratification of a community
professing a faith other than Hinduism has often been posed in the abstract, ascribing an 'essence' to caste, as well
as according a determinative role to religious ideology independent of the context in which it is articulated. This paper
is an attempt to address this question through a linguistic analysis of some of the categories used in the context of caste,
and argues that though caste existed among Muslims in traditional rural Punjab, caste labels became increasingly
important only to the extent that the individual was able to acquire an identity independent of the clan or lineage to
which she or he belonged.

THE problem of the existence or otherwise
of caste among Muslims in south Asia has
been an object of analysis for a long time.
The main concern of this analysis has been
the question whether this concept can be
applied to the system of social stratification
of a community which professes a faith
other than Hinduism [Ahmad 1978:2]. This
question has often been posed in the ab-
stract, attributing an 'essence' to caste, as
well as according a determinative role to
religious ideology independent of the con-
text in which it is articulated.
I have attempted in this paper to address
this question by relating it very briefly to
the disintegration of the caste system
among Muslims with particular reference
to this community in Punjab. I have ar-
gued that the caste system did exist among
Muslims in traditional rural Punjab, and
that caste labels have become increas-
ingly important only to the extent that the
individual has been able to acquire an
identity independent of the clan or lineage
to which he or she belonged. I have sug-
gested that this process might be better
understood if we attempt a linguistic analy-
sis of some of the concepts used in the
context of caste. This approach to under-
standing the relationship between ideol-
ogy and social structure in the context of
caste may also be useful for understanding
other forms of social stratification.
both of which are determined by birth. Since
there is lack of fit between the two statuses,
caste cannot exist among Muslims, because
in the classical caste system there is an
overlap in these statuses. Though both the
concepts represent status acquired by birth
and both are characterised by relatively
strict endogamy, one's zat status cannot be
changed in one's lifetime while the status
under quom can be so changed for it is
determined by one's occupation (39-40).
This collapsing of two distinct concepts and
equating both with the Indian caste by writ-
ers such as Barth (1960) and Leach (1960)
has, for Wakil, led to the belief that caste
exists among Muslims.
According to Wakil the "general corre-
spondence of 'caste 1 and occupation in the
Indian system and lack of this in Pakistan
may explain at least in part the apparent
confusion and lack of 'goodness 1 of fit
between quom and caste" (43). Moreover,
the rules of endogamy for zat and quom
differ: for the former endogamy is a require-
ment whilst for the latter it is a preference
based on functional considerations within
the local economy and the local social divi-
sion of labour (44).
However, both Wakil's method of analy-
sis and his conclusions are untenable. The
terms zat and quom (as well as biraderi—a
patrilineal descent group) are used inter-
changeably among Muslims in Punjab. These
occupation. It should be noted, however,
that this lack of 'good fit' between zat/quom
and occupation exists within the Hindu/
Indian model of caste as well, and in itself
does not imply the absence of a caste sys-
tem, for, as I have stated, among the Mus-
lims of Punjab, zat, quom and biraderi are
used interchangeably. The apparent fluidity
and interchangeability of the concepts and
their meaning merely expresses in a differ-
ent way the underlying structure of caste
among Muslims, as we shall see.
Some writers follow a religious/ideologi-
cal approach while analysing caste, and
maintain that caste is an institution peculiar
to Hindu India. Thus the question that im-
mediately suggests itself is whether it is
possible to speak of Muslims in south Asia
as having a 'caste system' at all, or there
exists among them only a system somewhat
resembling it. The latter view, that the term
caste cannot properly be applied to Mus-
lims, is implicit in the following passage:
[There] are groups and classes of people
among the Muslim population... who are
organised more or lesslike the Hindu castes...
but they are less rigid because Islam, theo-
retically at least, permits marriage between
c l a s s e s of b e l i e v e r s in Islam [Karim
1956:126],

HIERARCHIES OF STATUS
An interesting attempt to address this
question is Wakil's (1971) model of the
Punjabi Muslim society based on concepts
of zat, quom and biraderi. His conclusion is
that there are no castes among Muslims. He
arrives at this conclusion by highlighting
the fact that there are two hierarchies of
status, each analytically independent, in
Punjab, the implication being that an analy-
sis in terms of a monolithic caste model
(derived from the India/Hindu model) is
inapplicable and unwarranted here (39-40).
These two hierarchies and the supposedly
independent analytic categories of zat and
quom, for Wakil, refer to status positions
may or may not imply occupational status.
A change in occupation need not result in
change in quom. The evidence provided for
the analytical distinctiveness of zat and
quom is weak. For example, a barber Cnai')
-is placed in a zat group, Bhatti, and his quom
is nai. However, among Punjabi Muslims
Bhatti is not a zat but a got or subcaste
usually ofjat and rajput castes. Wakil lumps
together castes 'proper' such as saiyad, rajput
and arain and gots or subcastes such as
cheema which is a jat got. and chaudhry
which is an honorific assumed by the
landowning castes. Conversely, quoms or
occupational categories such as barber and
blacksmith arc also considered, in Punjab,
to be zats, and retain this caste status even
when they are no longer in their traditional
This writer clearly regards a certain degree
of rigidity and particular rules prohibiting
intermarriage as the necessary attributes of
a caste system. This conclusion, b^sed on a
religious/ideological approach to caste, is
similar to Wakil's based on a 'secular'
analysis.
A contrary view suggests that in spite of
the ideology of equality in Islam the influ-
ence of the Hindu caste system has led the
Muslims of south Asia to acquire certain
distinct characteristics [Levy 1930:72]. And
that this has resulted in Muslim social
organisation resembling strongly the Hindu
caste system, so that saiyads, sheikhs,
mughals and afghans correspond to the Hindu
categories brahmins and kshatriyas [ibid:73J.
Moreover, the Muslim castes are divided

Economic and Political Weekly December 25, 1993 2897

into roughly three main categories: the ashraf
(nobility descended from Arabs, Persians,
Turks, Afghans and converts from upper
class Hindus); the ajlaf or lower status castes
such as village artisans; and the arzal, which
consisted of the lowest castes comprising
village menials such as leather workers and
landless labourers.
Another writer who has addressed him-
self to the problem of caste among Muslims
takes the Islamic doctrine of social equality
as his starting point, but maintains that caste
is found among Muslims:
The Hindu caste system is ...entirely incom-
patible with the tenets of Islam. And amongst
those Muslims of foreign descent whose
ancestors brought the religion of the Prophet
into India, practice corresponds with theory.
But the same cannot be said of Muslims that
have converted from Hinduism... [M]any
converts, when they have changed their faith,
did not change or only partially changed
their social customs. In theory Islam should
not admit the validity of any alien custom
which is contrary to. or in conflict with its
own doctrines. But in practice. Islam has
accepted the situation [Blunt 1931:189-91 ].
However, this particular opposition be-
tween Islamic doctrine and Hindu social
practices is entirely misconceived. For the
latter is an aspect of a concrete social reality
whilst the former is a set of integrated
concepts, or ideology. Thus it is not at ail
illuminating to be told that the Hindu caste
system is incompatible with Islamic tenets,
or that in practice Islam has accepted cus-
toms normally associated with the Hindu
castes. Of course, one does not come across
in Islamic writings the theory of society
divided into four hierarchical varnas
(brahmin, kshatriya, vaisya, and sudra).
Nor is it relevant to seek out the historical
origin of social practices associated with
caste. The important thing is to know
whether it is possible to discern among
communities which call themselves Mus-
lim a structure of social relations that is in
some sense similar to the one implicit in
the classic caste system.
In order to do this, it is necessary to make
a distinction between a caste system and
caste labels: the former refers to a local
system of hierarchically ordered corporate,
groupings involving social division of labour,
occupational specialisation, unequal depen-
dence, and recruitment by birth only; the
latter refers to a set of non-local, noncorpo-
rate named groups which provide a ranking
hierarchy, and which do not involve occupa-
tional specialisation, unequal dependence,
and recruitment by birth only.
By defining the caste system in this way,
we concentrate on the pattern of relationship
between groups and not on the cultural
idiom in which this structure of relation-
ships is expressed. It may be argued that by
following such a methodological approach
2898
our initial problematique has been circum-
vented in an arbitrary way and that we have
thus ignored the 'essence' of the caste sys-
tem. This, however, is not as serious an
objection as it might at first appear, for the
object of this analysis is to formulate an
analytical question and not to label a par-
ticular phenomenon. So that if the Hindu
idioms of pollution and ritual are regarded
as necessary elements in the definition of
the caste system, then clearly the phenom-
enon I need to discuss can be described as a
caste system only if this idiom is present,
and not otherwise. But this qualification
does not affect my main problem, which is
to examine the conditions for the existence
of a particular kind of closed system of
stratification.
The problem, in effect, resolves itself into
two questions which I shall attempt to an-
swer in relation to evidence from among
Muslims of Punjab. Firstly, what have been
the primary factors determining stratifica-
tion and social status in the changing condi-
tions of the Punjab? Secondly, in what way
are these reflected in the meaning of the
word zat which is commonly employed as
the Punjabi equivalent of the English word
caste?
KINSHIP GROUPINGS
In order to answer these two interrelated
questions I need to point out as referent the
principal kinship groupings in the tradi-
tional rural Punjab. Briefly, these were:
named clans, consisting of a number of
lineages, which are divided into major
segments (owning land), and these again
subdivided into what may be called local
descent groups (holding and working units
of land). Within any particular locality (vil-
lageor circle of villages) the population was
divided into three broad socio-economic
categories; the landowning cultivators
(zamindars), artisan/service castes and land-
less agricultural labourers/tenants, the latter
two categories often being collectively re-
ferred to as the kamins. All three categories
may also fit into the category of ashraf, ajlaf
or arzal mentioned above. The last category
invariably comprised the majority. The
landowning cultivators were generally the
dominant groups in terms of power ('taqat'),
honour ('izzat'), and prestige ('ma'an').
The kamins were divided into a number of
descent groups each of which was
characterised by a particular specialisation,
and all of which were together dependent on
the landowners for their protection and live-
lihood [Nazir 1981]. From an economic
point of view, the various descent groups of
zamindars and kamins co-operated to main-
tain the overall system of production and
consumption on the basis of a traditional
social division of labour. This consisted of
obligations between the various occupa-
Economic and Political Weekly
tional groups which served to co-ordinate
economic transactions in what was essen-
tially a non-monetised, largely self-suffi-
cient economy. Each group provided the
skills and resources peculiar to it, and re-
ceived in return other services and com-
modities to which it was entitled by status.
This system, common to much of south
Asia, is called 'sep' among the Muslims of
Punjab and 'jajmani' in other parts of the
subcontinent [Nazir 1991:84; Ahmad
1977:66]. Under this system, the artisans
and service castes of carpenters, smiths,
potters, water-carriers and so on, received
from the cultivators their traditional shares
of crop at harvest. These rights and obliga-
tions were fixed by tradition, and the provi-
sion and consumption of services and com-
modities, which were not by any means
equally distributed, reflected an unequal
distribution of power in the local social
formation. Moreover, the 'purchasing'
power of the various groups was determined
not by a fluctuating market but by hereditary
status.
According to this system (seporjajmani),
the principle of allocating social and eco-
nomic roles in the community was com-
bined with a pattern of rank and prestige
which defined the unequal privileges and
obligations. An inextricable part of the re-
ciprocal economic relations between the
various occupational groups was a system
of social stratification defining the ranking
position of the various clusters.,The actual
rank and prestige accorded to the different
categories is, however, somewhat difficult
to determine in precise terms from the mate-
rial available. But it appears that, for
Muslim villagers at any rate, the landown-
ers occupied the highest rank within the
local community; a situation unlike that
among the Hindus where brahmins occu-
pied the highest status-ranking [Dumo :
1527:119-201; Nazir 1991].
The Punjabi term which was employed to
designate these clusters of roles and the
ranking position associated with them was
zat, a word whose fuller meaning is dis-
cussed below. The system which I have
described here briefly I refer to as caste
system, and the groups thus linked to each
other, zats.
Thus the social and economic identity of
the individual depended on his membership
in a given descent group. The group owned
certain rights and occupied a fixed position
in the social system, and the privilege of
exercising these rights was available to the
individual only as a member of one or other
descent group. The possibility of individual
contract was virtually non-existent, and there
was little place in the system for individual
reciprocity [Nazir 1981:287].
Since the status of the individual was
exclusively determined by patrilineal de-
scent, the kinship principle was most perti-
December 25, 1993
nent in defining the limits of the different
zats. Thus, while on the one hand, marriage
served to reinforce the cleavages between
different groups since it was the necessary
step in the recruitment of new members into
the group, it reinforced the common identity
of members of similar groups on the other.
So that, for example, a carpenter from one
local descent group married as a rule into
another local descent group of carpenters
and not into a descent group of leather-
workers or cultivators. The relationships
between the various zats were provided for
by the system I have already described and
not by marriage alliances. In fact, marriage
alliances and reciprocal obligations of the
sep system were as a rule regarded as being
mutually exclusive.
The strict principle of zat endogamy
should be viewed as a cultural expression
of the group relations that I have dis-
cussed; it was not essential to the mainte-
nance of hierarchically ordered, mutually
(but unequally) interdependent, closed
groups, as is implied by some of the writ-
ers mentioned above. In fact, individual
marriages across zat barriers were not
entirely absent in many Muslim commu-
nities; but this did not subvert the basic
structure of the zat hierarchy, because zats
recruited their m e m b e r s unilineally,
through the patrilineal group.
Similarly, with regard to pollution which
is considered to be another main element in
the definition of caste among Hindus, Mus-
lim communities which had been converted
from Hinduism often continued to practice
traditional customs and entertain traditional
ideas about the social organisation of soci-
ety. Thus one writer, taking up a somewhat
extreme position, observed that:
[I]n the east of the Punjab conversion has
absolutely no effect on the caste of the
convert... His social customs are unaltered,
his tribal restrictions are unrelaxed, his rules
of marriage and inheritance unchanged; and
almost the only difference is that he shaves
his scalplock and the upper edge of his
moustache, repeats the Mahommedan creed
in a mosque, and adds the Musulman to the
Hindu wedding [Ibbeston 1881:178].
Undoubtedly, some converted Muslim
communities continued to conceive of zats
in terms of a scale of purity and impurity.
But the absence of this notion of relative
group purity in the western Punjab, and its
gradual abandonment in the eastern and
central regions, did not of itself involve the
destruction of the caste system among the
Muslims. This was because the ideology of
the equality of all Muslims could only be
articulated within the system of the prevail-
ing social and economic inequalities, which
were reinforced by the system of acquisition
of status by birth implicit in the caste sys-
tem. However, Muslims did not need the
Hindu notion of pollution to keep zats apart
Economic and Political Weekly December 25, 1993
and ranked. In fact, one aspect of the so-
called process of 'Islamisation' consisted of
reconstituting the notion of pollution, which
serves to maintain social distance between
groups, into an entirely different one. For
among Muslims impurity ('paledh') and its
polar opposite purity ('taharaf) are in a
sense absolute individual states. All indi-
viduals are liable to the first, and may achieve
the second, just as they may reclaim them-
selves from the one or lose the other. The
Islamic notion of pollution cannot therefore
be used to define social distance in the way
the Hindu notion is. But among Muslim
communities where the Hindu concept is
absent, the hierarchical ordering and mu-»
tual separation of zats was expressed in
terms of different notions, notably those
of honour (izzat), power (taqat), and pres-
tige (ma'an).
C O L O N I A L POLICY
The factors which eventually brought
about the gradual demise of the caste system
among the Muslims included among them
not mere conversion but also the British
colonial policy, which facilitated the devel-
opment of a capitalist penetration of the
economy and the extension of Muslim law
to the rural areas whereas previously it had
been confined to the urban areas. This was
recognised by lbbetson, who normally placed
much emphasis on the cultural expression
of caste, often minimising its structural
basis:
[There can be no doubt that both the... rules
of Hindu caste, and the tribal customs that
bind both Hindu and Musulman, have lately
begun to relax, and with far greater rapidity
among the Musulmans than among the Hin-
dus. And this difference no doubt is really
due to the difference in religion. There has
been within the last thirty years a great
Musulman revival in the Punjab; education
has spread, and with it a more accurate
knowledge of the rules of the faith; and there
is now a tendency, which is day by day
growing stronger to substitute the law of
Islam fortribal custom in all matters, whether
of intermarriage, inheritance or social inter-
course [1881:79].
It has been argued that the redefinition of
ownership rights and the growth of a capital-
istic economy under the British tended to
dissolve the corporate organisation of lin-
eages and local descent groups [Nazir 1981].
The development of a market in land, as well
as an increase in the new sources of liveli-
hood available to individuals, opened up the
possibility of individual mobility through
the accumulation of personally acquired
wealth. In the legal sphere, the extension of
Muslim law to the rural areas led to an
emphasis on individual status, personal
ownership, and bilateral inheritance. In fact,
the female line assumed an importance for
the status of .the individual that it never had
before, for women were now able to accu-
mulate and transmit property in their own
right.
The consequence of all these new Condi-
tions was the tendency for individual con-
tractual relations to replace group status
relations. In other words, the cluster of
rights and obligations implied by zat mem-
bership began to split up. Economic and
political power as well as rank and prestige
were no longer inevitably determined to-
gether by membership in the zat.
The Punjabi name for the occupational
groups I have described is zat which is the
same as the Urdu word zat. Urdu dictionar-
ies give the meaning of the word variously
as 'possessor, owner, person, self (ie, a
person's self or a thing's self), breed, tribe,
caste, sort, kind' [Piatt 1884:576; Hares
1929:63 and 312]. Among the meanings of
the adjectival form of this word (zati) arc the
following: essential, natural, original, fun-
damental, personal.
Although it is rather difficult to trace
historically the usage of this word, there is
nevertheless a logical consistency in its
meanings despite the change in the institu-
tions to which they relate. However, the
clue to the principle significance of this
word lies in its senses of 'possessor',
person' and 'kind'. In the caste system as
analysed above, the status of the indi-
vidual was determined by his membership
in a given group. It was the group which
owned the rights to the direct sources of
livelihood (e g, land) and to traditional
services from other corporate groups. It
was the group which provided the indi-
vidual with political support and social
rank, as well as the standards to which the
individual was expected to conform. The
individual's personal status and social cat-
egory were defined by his membership of
a particular zat. As has been mentioned,
however, the breakup of the caste system
i n v o l v e d the r e d e f i n i t i o n of the
individual's identity. Ownership rights
were now invested in the individual. Rank
and sources of livelihood were no longer
determined together; both could be ac-
quired, to some extent, individually.
OWNERSHIP RIGHTS
The shift in the focus of ownership
rights is demonstrated by the definition of
the legal notion of personal necessity
employed by British courts after annex-
ation. Originally, rights and liabilities had
been vested in the corporate group, but
now they came to be vested in the indi-
vidual. Thus one aspect of the meaning of
zat was identified with the individual as
against the group. This, in turn, led to the
view that necessity ('zarurat') should also
be defined in individual terms.
2899
 In the traditional caste system, of course,
zati zarurat would have referred to the ne-
cessity of the proprietory group. Thus zat
becomes in one sense identical in meaning
with the word apna, 'personal, although it
is interesting to observe that even apna as a
pronoun may still signify either 'my' or
'our*. Therefore the distinction between
collective and individual has to be made in
terms of a different pronoun, mera, 'my'.
Identity in the sense of rank and prestige
was now sought elsewhere, through mem-
bership in large noncorporate named groups
such as saiyad, shaikh, rajput, jat. These
were now understood to be zati in a special
sense, whose meaning only partially over-
lapped that of zat in the caste system. Thus
to the question; What is your caste? the
answer would be given in terms of occupa-
tion: I am a caipenter [Eglar 1960:29]. Or in
terms of m e m b e r s h i p in one of the
noncorporate groups: I am a sheikh. How-
ever, both rank and occupation continued to
some extent to be determined by familial
connections, for the transmission of prop-
erty continued to be a function of the family,
though by no means as systematically and
inevitably as in the caste system.
Although property by itself did not imply
rank, it nevertheless became essential to it.
In fact, rank came to be determined in part
by the caste label, e g, Saiyad (one who
c l a i m s d e s c e n t f r o m the Prophet
Muhammad), in part by the nature of the
occupation, and in part by wealth. More-
over, access to all of these in some measure
became individual. In contrast to the previ-
ous situation, it was no longer simply mem-
bership in a unilineal descent group that
determined rank. Since such descent groups
referred to large noncorporate groups, these
continued to be considerable in terms of
their status and power in the different parts
of (Muslim and Hindu) society. This ambi-
guity may be seen in the way the label 'jat'
is used in Punjab. The jats are listed in
census reports and are spoken of by ethnolo-
gists as a caste, but the jats as a-group are
clearly not the same as the corporate jats in
the caste system.
The word jat in Punjabi means herds-man
or cultivator, and it assumes slightly differ-
ent forms in different parts of the province'.
In eastern Punjab the word is jat; in central
Punjab it is ja^i; in south-western Punjab it
is jagdal, while the term jat (with a"soft 't')
here denotes camel-rearer or shepherd. In
the western Punjab the word jat is applied
generically to a congeries of groups: jats
proper, rajputs, and various groups of
mixed origin who have nothing in com-
mon save their Muslim religion, agricul-
tural occupation, and subordinate posi-
tion. The term rajput is generally applied
to those groups which have attained politi-
cal supremacy.
2900
The numerous clans collectively known society assign the various hereditary offices
as jats have diverse traditions of origin by in the ritual? And the answer for Hindu and
which each seeks to establish its status Muslim communities will of course be dif-
with reference to other groups. Thus, for ferent.
example, the langah claim Afghan origin, The question, however, can be posed in
the tahim and lilia Arab origin, while the obverse, following our alternative
others claim Mughal, Awan or Quraish conceptualisation of the problem: In what
origin. Rose, in his glossary of Punjab way does the social stratification in this
tribes and castes, observes that in the society relate to such factors as ownership
Muslim west, and access to sources of livelihood? The
where the landowning and cultivating classes answer to this question might be similar for
are organised on a tribal basis... stress is Hindu and Muslim communities located
always laid on a man's tribe or clan and not within a hierarchically structured, complex
on his status or 'caste' terms, Rajput or Jat, totality such as in the subcontinent but be
more freely, but in the vaguest possible way different for those in relatively simpler and
so that a Muhammadan Jat tribe in Gujran wala egalitarian tribal groupings. In either case,
or Gujrat will appear now as a Rajput and a however, it would be a weak methodologi-
decade later as Jat, or vice versa, or half the cal approach to construct a definition of
tribe will return itself as Rajput and the other caste (as attempted by some writers men-
half as Jat, as caprice dictates [1911:361 ]. tioned above) which describes the 'essence'
Clearly, the status significance of the of caste, as if this were some self-evident
label jat varies considerably from one local- natural object, apprehended but not under-
ity to another. And whether one claims to be stood. Actually, what one needs are method-
a jat of rajput, Arab or Afghan origin de- ological guidelines which allow us to ask
pends on what rank one can effectively relevant questions. For the value of a defini-
aspire to. The possibility of individuals and tion lies not in its supposed descriptive
families moving from one 'caste' to another accuracy, but in its analytical use.
is openly acknowledged in Punjab, and ex-
pressed in the well known Muslim proverb: References
4
'The fust year I was a butcher, the next a
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Shaikh; this year if prices fall, I shall be-
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come a Saiyad" [Blunt 1931:184]. The de-
Ahmad, S (1977): Class and Power in a Punjabi
sire to achieve rank is legitimised by claim
to distinctive origin because a person's pres- Village, New York.
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as the word Asl indicates. For Asl is used to Swai, Lahore.
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a 'noble person or gentleman'. tion in Swat, North Pakistan' in E R Leach,
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It is not unreasonable to assume that in the
West Pakistan, Cambridge.
traditional rural Punjab (i e, before the Brit-
Blunt, W (1931): Tne Caste System of Northern
ish arrived to categorise the entire popula-
India, Oxford.
tion in a number of 'castes'), these caste
Dumont, L (1972): Homo Hierarchicus, London.
labels would have had a very limited value
Eglar, Z (1960): A Punjabi Village in Pakistan,
for the individual within a local rural com-
New York.
munity where his corporate zat defined his
rank and origin for him. It is now under- Hares, W P (1929): An English-Punjabi Dictio-
standable as to why under early British rule nary, Lahore.
people did not always know to what 'caste' Hocart, A M (1950): Caste, London.
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STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES
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In this analysis of caste among Muslims,
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I have deliberately avoided a religious defi-
Levy, R (1930): The Social Structure of Islam,
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ence to it would obscure important struc- Nazir? F (1981); Transformation of Property Re-
tural similarities between Hindu and Mus- lations in the Punjab', Economic and Political
lim communities. For the definition with Weekly, XVL:8.
which one starts determines the kind of —(1991): Local Development in the Global
questions we can ask of a particular society. Economy, Aldershot.
Thus, if we were to begin, for example, with Piatt, J T ? 1884): A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical
Hocart's definition that "castes are merely Hindi and English, London.
families to whom various' offices in the Rose, H A (1911): A Glossary of the Tribes and
ritual are assigned by heredity" [1950:201], Castes of the Punjab, Lahore.
its value would consist in the fact that wecan Wakil, P A (1971): 'Zat and Quom in Punjabi
ask the question: In what way does this Society', Socio log us.
Economic and Political Weekly December 25, 1993