Vagrant, Menial (so-called) and Artisan Castes, Punjab, 1883: II
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
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Division of the subject
Having discussed the land-owning and Agricultural and the priestly, mercantile, and professional castes, I now turn to the lowest strata of Paujab society, the vagrant and criminal tribes, the gipsies, the menials,, and the artisans. These classes form in many respects one of the most interesting sections of the community. Politically they are unimportant ; but they include the great mass of such aboriginal element as is still to be found in the Panjab, their customs are not only exceedingly peculiar but also exceedingly interesting as affording us a clue to the separation of the non- Aryan clement in the customs of other tribes, and while the industries of the Province are almost entirely in their hands an immense deal of the hardest part of the field-work is performed by them.
At the same time they are precise ly the classes regarding whom it is most difficult to obtain reliable informa tion. They are not pleasant people to deal with and we are thrown but little into contact with them, while the better class of native groups most of them under one or two generic terms, such as Chuhra, Dum, or Nat, and thinks it would degrade him to show any closer acquaintance with their habits. I have roughly divided these castes into eleven groups. First I have taken the vagrant, hunting, and criminal tribes, then the gipsy tribes, then the scavenger classes, the leather-workers and weavers, the water-carriers, fishermen and boatmen, the carpenters, blacksmiths, stone masons and botters, the goldsmiths and saltinakers, the washermen, dyers, and tailors, the oilmen, butchers, cotton scutchers, wine distillers, and other miscellaneous artisans, the menials peculiar to the hills, and finally the Purbi menials of our cantonments.
These classes may be grouped in two different ways, according as the classification is based upon their ethnic and occupational affinities, or upon their position in the industrial oeconomy of the country. I shall first consider them from the former point of view.
Origin and evolution of the lower menials
It appears to me that starting with an aboriginal and vagrant stock, there are two continuous series of gradations leading from that stock to the weavers at least on the one hand and probably to the water-carriers on the other, and that no line can be drawn anywhere in either series which shall distinctly mark off those above from those below it. For specific instances of the manner in which these occupations shade off one into another I must refer the reader to the following pages. But I will endeavour to exemplify what I mean by an imaginary series. Suppose an aboriginal tribe of vagrant habits, wandering about from jungle to jungle and from village to village, catching for (he sake of food the vermin which abound such as jackals, foxes, and lizards, and eating such dead bodies as may fall in their way, plaiting for themselves rude shelter and utensils from the grasses which fringe the ponds, living with their women very much in common and ready to prostitute them for money when occasion offers, and always on the watch for opportunities of pilfering, and you have the lowest type of gipsy and vagrant tribes as we now find them in the Panjab. Now imagine such a tribe abandoning- its vagrant habits and setthng- as menials in a village. Being no longer nomads they would cease to hunt and eat vermin; but They would still eat carrion, they would still plait grass, and being what they were, the filthiest work to be performed, namely that of scavengering-, would fall to their share.
They would then be the Chuhra or scavenger caste as they exist in every village. Suppose again that a section of them, desirous of rising in life, abandoned plaiting giass and scavengering and took to tanning and work ing in leather, the next less filthy work available, as their occupation, and modified their primitive creed so as to render it somewhat more like that of their Hindu neighbours, but being still specially concerned with dead animals, continued to eat carrion : we should Then have the Chamar or tanner and leather-worker. And finally if, desiring to live cleanly, they gave up eating carrion and working in leather and took to weav ing, which is (I know not why, unless it be that weavers' implements are made from grass by the outcast classes of grass-workers) considered only less degrading, they would become the Julaha of our towns and villages and be admitted under semi-protest within the pale of Hindu ism. Or they might skip the leather-working stage and pass threct from scavengering to weaving.
Now if all this were merely speculation upon what is possible, it would mean little or nothing. But when we see that changes of this sort are actually in progress it seems to me that the suggestion may mean a good deal. We see the vagrant classes such as the Bawaria and Aheri tending to settle down in the villages and perform low menial offices; we see the Dhanak converted from the hunter of the jungles into a scavenger and weaver ; we see the Chuhra refuse to touch night-soil and become a Musalli, or substitute leather-working and tanning for scavengering and become a Raugreta ; we see the Khatik who is a scavenger in the east turn into a tanner in the west; we see the Koli Chamar abandon leather-working and take to weaving, and turn into a Chamar- Julaha or Bunia; we see that in some districts most of the Moclus are weavers rather than leather-workers ; and we find that it is impassible to draw a hard and fast line anywhere between vagrancy and scavengering- at the bottom and weaving at the top or to say that such a caste is above and such a caste is below the line, but that each caste throws out off-shoots into the grade above that which is occupied by the greater number of its members.
Origin of The water-carrying classes
In the second series of changes we have not so many examples of the intermediate steps. But it is natural that the upward movement in the social scale which every tribe is fain to make if possible should not be confined to one definite direction only.
Some of the vagrant castes have like the Bawaria abandoned the eat ing of carrion and become hunters of higher game, though not perhaps quite relinquishing their taste for vermin ; some while retaining their nomad habits have taken to specified forms of labour like the Od or Changar ; oThers have settled down to cultivation like the Mahtam or to crime like the Mina ; while others again have taken to the carrying trade like some sections of the Baujaras, or to the pedlar's business. But there is a group of these tribes who are distinctly water- hunters ; who catch, not deer and jackals, but water fowl, fish, and crocodiles or tortoises, who live in the fens or on the river-banks, weave huts for themselves from the pliant withies of the water-loving- shrubs, and make twine and rope for their nets from the riverside grases. Such are the Kehal, the Mor, the Jhabel. And on giving up eating crocodiles and tortoises and con fining themselves to fish, these men are as it were received into society, as is the case with the Kelials.
The Jhabels again have advanced a step further, and are a respectable class of boatmen and fishermen. Now the Jhinwar, Kahar, and Machhi caste are the basket-makers, boatmen, fishermen, and water-carriers, and among the Musalmaus the cooks of country. Is it not possible that they may be but a step, a long one jx'rhaj^s, in advance of the Jhabel? I find that in the hills, where Hindu customs hsLxe probably preserved their primitive integrity most completely, Brahmans will drink from the hands of very many people from whose hands they will not eat ; and the Sanskrit Scriptures make the fisher man the descendant of a Sudra woman by a Brahman father. It is stated that the Ramdasia or Sikh Chamars have taken largely to the occupation of Kahars or bearers,^' though this may not and probably does not include water-canying. The series of steps is not so close as in the former case ; but I think that the suggestion is worthy of further examination.
Effect of religion upon occupation
I have pointed out that with the rise in the social scale, the original religion would be gradually modi fied so as to bring It more Into accord with the religion of the respect able classes. As a fact it is curious how generally the observances, if not the actual religion of these lower menials, follow those of the villagers to whom they are attached. Chuhras and the like will bury their dead in a Musalman and burn them in a Hindu village, though not recog nised by their masters as either Hindu or Musalman. But it Is not un commonly the case that the open adoiition of a definite faith, the sub stitution of Islam or SIkhism for that half-Hindu half-aboriginal religion which distinguishes most of these outcast classes, Is the first step made in their upward struggle ; and It Is very commonly accompanied by the abandonment of the old occupation for that which stands next higher In the scale. The scavenger on becoming a Musalman will refuse to remove night soil, and on becoming a Sikh will take to tanning and leather Avorking. The tanner and leather-worker on becoming a Musalman will give up tanning, and on taking the Sikh pahul will turn his hand to the loom, and so forth. I quote a very Interesting note on this subject by Sardar Gurdial Singh, one of our Native Civilians : —
Of the bhagats enumeratccl in Bhagatmal several were of low castes. Thoy were all reformer-! of the dark ages of Hindustan, They addressed The people in their vernacculars and did away with the secrecy observed by the Brahmanical teachings and removed the barricr in the way of reform presented by the diflicuity of the language (Sanskrit) through which the Brahmins taught their system of religion. Amonrj other-; was Kabir a Julaha, Sadhna a Kasai, Nam Deo a Clihimba, and lRavi Das a Chamar. Their writings have been quoted in The Adi Granth, the Sikh scriptures. Que of the reforms coutcmplatcd and partially carried out by Slkhism was the abditiou of caste system and opening the stuly of Theology and the scripturoi (Uimhi) tu every class, even the Chuhras and Chamars who were mentioned in Dharm Shastras as having no adhikar.Taking advantage of this, some of the
'The word adlukar means fitncs.sj and those castes were said to tiavo no adhikar who wore not fit to listen to the Hindu Scriptures. lowest classes received Sikh baptsim (pahul and became Sikhs. They gave up their mean occupation and took to other means of livelihood. They also changed their name and gave np as much social intercourse with the unconverted members of their tribe a-; they possibly could. Thus the Chamars on their conversion to Sikhism took the name of Ravi 'Tus, (he first Thagat of their tribe, to show that they followed his example. Ravdasia is the correct form of the word. But it was «;oon confounded with the name of Ram Das, the 4th Sikh Guru, and pronminced Ramdasia.' The word is still prononced a Ravdasia by most of the Sikhs. Similarly Chhimba Sikhs call themselves Namabansis from Nam <' Deo.
The Chuhras on becoming Sikhs took the names of Mazhabi ((just as that of Dindar on conversion to Islam) and Rangreta. No one of the Rangretas follows the occupation of a Chnhra, but they have been rightly classed with Chuhras. Similarly if the Bunidasias do not follow the oocupation of Chamars, it is no reason to separate them from that caste, So if a Ramdasia is .julsha, that is a weaver, and if he is a ' Bazzaz ' that i.; a draper, his caste remains unchanged. If a Chamar, a leather-worker becomes a Sikh and receives the ' pahnl' to-day, he at once joins the Ramdasia=. The Ramdasias do recives the daughters .'n marriage of ordinary Cliamars, But give them pahul ' before associating with Them. A Ramdasia would not drink water from the hands of an ordinary Cliamar :un less be becomes a Sikh. The Mazbi Sikhs also keep themselves! aloof from the Chubras, in exactly the same manner as Ramdasia- do from Chamars.
It is quite true, as the Sardar points out, that the Ramdassi is still a Chamar and the Rangreta still a Chuhra. The change has been re cent and is still in progress. But how long will they remain so ? Their orighi is already hotly disputed and often indignantly denied, though the fact of new admissions still taking place puts it beyond the possibility of doubt. But there can be little doubt that they will in time grow into separate castes of a standing superior to those from which they sprang ; or more probably perhaps, that they will grow to be included under the generic name of the caste whose hereditary occupation they have adopted, but will form distinct sections of those castes and be known by separate sectional names, even after the tradition of thoir origin has faded from the memory of the caste. And there can, I think, be as little doubt that some of the sections which now form integral parts of These lower occupational castes would, if we could trace back their history, be found to have been formed in a precisely similar manner. The tradi tion of inferior origin and status has survived, and the other sections, perhaps themselves derived from the same stock but at a more remote date, will hold no communion with them ; but the precise reason for the distinction has been forgotten. The absence of the hereditary theory of occupation among the people of the frontier and its effect by ex ample upon those of the Western Plains, have already been discussed in sections 343 and 348.
Growth of sections among the menial castes
But if these occu pational castes are recruited by new sections coming up from below, they also receive additions from above. The weavers especially may be said to form a sort of debateable land between the higher and the lower artisan castes, for a man of decent caste who from poverty or other circnmstances sinks in the scale often takes to weaving, though he per haps rarely falls lower than this. The Ijarber, carpenter, and blacksmith classes have in Sirsa been recruited from the agricultural castes within
il do not think the; i quite correct. The rabdasi;!si or Raidavi Chamars are Hindus and the Rnmdasi are Sikh,-!. But it may be that the Ravdasi are analogous with the Nanak panthi Sikhs who are commonly reckoned as Hindus, while the RamdaSi correspond with the Singhi or Govindi Sikhs proper. As the Sardar points out presently, the RamdIsis re ceive the pdhul, an institution of Guru Govind ; while the Babdasis du not. (See further section 606 infra.) the memorY of the present generation, and it is hardly posible that what has so lately happened there should not haye earlier happened elsewhere. When a hitherto uninhabited tract is settled by immigrants of all classes pouring- in from all directions, as lias been the case with Sirsa during the last fifty years, the conditions are probably especially favourable to social change. People who have hitherto been separated by distance but who haye the same caste name or the same occupation, meet together bringing with them the varying customs and distinctions of the several neighbourhoods whence they came. They do not as a rule fuse together, but remain distinct sections included under a common caste-name, though often reluctant to admit that there is any community of origin or even of caste, and refusing to associate or to intermarry with each other. There is a great demand for agricultural laliour and the artisan tends to become a cultivator ; old distinctions are sometimes forgotten, and new sections are continually formed. To use technical language, society is more colloid than in older settled tracts where the process of crystallisation, for which rest and quiet are necesssary, is more advanced ; and diffusion and osmose are correspondingly more easy and more active. But what is now taking place in Sirsa must have taken place elsewhere at some time or other. Almost all the menial and artisan castes are divided into sections which are separate from each other in custom and status ; and though in many cases these distinctions are probably based upon geographical distribution and consequent variation of customs, yet in other cases they probably result from the fact that one section has risen and another fallen to its present position.
The higher and hill menials
The higher meninl classes present, so far as I see, no such continuity of gradation as we find among the outcasts. The Kumhar or potter with his donkey is perhaps the lowest of them, and may not improbably belong by origin and affinity to the classes just discussed. The blacksmith, carpenter, and stonemason class form a very distinct group, as also do the washermen and dyers. The oilman and butcher is perhaps lower than any of them, and it appears that he should rank with the weavers, though I do not know that there is at present any connection between the two classes. the goldsmiths seem to stand alone, and to have descended from above into the artisan classes, probably being by origin akin to the mercantile castes. Among the menials of the hills, on the contrary', the continuity of the whole class now under consideration is almost unbroken. The outcast classes are indeed separate from the higher artisans in the lower hills ; but as we penetrate further into the Himalayas we find the scavenger class working as carpenters and blacksmiths, and the whole forming one body which it is almost impossible to separate into sections on any other basic than the present calling of the individual.
The oeconomical divisions of the menial classes
The second or ceconomical basis upon which these menial and artisan castes may be classified will be dismissed with a very few words. The whole group may be broadly divided into three sections, the vagrant classes, the village menials, and the indcbendent artisans. The vagrant classes serve no man and follow no settled calling. The independent artisans work, like the artisans of Europe, by the piece or for daily hire ; and in urban communities, as distinct from the village community which is often found living in a towji the lands attached to which they hold and cultivate, include all industrial classes and orders.
But in the villages there is a very wide distinction between the village menial and the independent artisan. The carpenter, the blacksmith, the potter, the scavenger, tho leath or- worker, the wnter-earrier, and in villages where the women are secluded the washermnn, — all classes in fact whose services are required in husandrv or daily domestic life — are paid not by the job, but by customary dues usually consisting of a fixed share of the produce of the fields ; and the service they are bound to perform is often measured by kind and not by quantity. Thus the potter has to supply all the earthen vessels, and the leather-worker all the lenthcrn articles thnt are required bv his clients. Those artisans, however, whose services are only occasionally required, such as the wenver, the oilman, and the dyer, are paid by the job ; not usually indeed in cnsh, but either in o-rain, or by being allowed to retain a fixed proportion of the raw material which their employers provided for them to work upon. The goldsmith occupies in the village a semi-mercantile position, and is a pawnbroker as much as an artisan; while the other crafts are scareely represented among the rural communities.
The internal organization of the menial classes
The elaborate orga nisation of the menial nnd artisan classes, whether based upon the tribal organisa tion of the agricultural communities whom they serve, or following the type of the trades-guilds proper of the towns, has already been alluded to in sections .352 and :356. The subject is one of which we know little, yet a more accurate knowledge of the details of these two types of organisation could hardly fail to throw much light upon the evolution of caste. Especially would it be in teresting to trace the points of similarity and of difPerence between the respective systems where the occupation is hereditary and partakes of the nature of other castes, and where it is individual and the guild is little more than a voluntary association. The question of how caste and guild rules are reconciled in cases where the guild includes men of many castes, and what happens when they conflict, is also one of considerable Interest. That the organisation is singularly complete and the authority wielded by it exceed ingly great, is beyond the possibility of doubt ; and it is a common observa tion that disputes between members of these classes rarely come before our courts for adjudication, being almost invariably settled by the administrative body of the caste or guild. This may be a survival from old times, when such courts or officers of justice as existed would probablv have declined to be troubled with the disputes of low caste men.
See also
Vagrant and Criminal (so-called ) Tribes of the Punjab, 1883
Vagrant, Menial (so-called) and Artisan Castes, Punjab, 1883: II
