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Cultures of History
The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India
Once known as "Pariahs," Dalits are primarily descendants of unfree agrarian laborers. They belong to India's most subordinated castes, face overwhelming poverty and discrimination, and provoke public anxiety.
Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, this book follows the conception and evolution of the "Pariah Problem" in public consciousness in the 1890s. It shows how high-caste landlords, state officials, and well-intentioned missionaries conceived of Dalit oppression, and effectively foreclosed the emergence of substantive solutions to the "Problem"—with consequences that continue to be felt today.
Rupa Viswanath begins with a description of the everyday lives of Dalit laborers in the 1890s and highlights the systematic efforts made by the state and Indian elites to protect Indian slavery from public scrutiny.
Protestant missionaries were the first non-Dalits to draw attention to their plight. The missionaries' vision of the Pariahs' suffering as being a result of Hindu religious prejudice, however, obscured the fact that the entire agrarian political-economic system depended on unfree Pariah labor.
Both the Indian public and colonial officials came to share a view compatible with missionary explanations, which meant all subsequent welfare efforts directed at Dalits focused on religious and social transformation rather than on structural reform. Methodologically, theoretically, and empirically, this book breaks new ground to demonstrate how events in the early decades of state-sponsored welfare directed at Dalits laid the groundwork for the present day, where the postcolonial state and well-meaning social and religious reformers continue to downplay Dalits' landlessness, violent suppression, and political subordination.
Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, this book follows the conception and evolution of the "Pariah Problem" in public consciousness in the 1890s. It shows how high-caste landlords, state officials, and well-intentioned missionaries conceived of Dalit oppression, and effectively foreclosed the emergence of substantive solutions to the "Problem"—with consequences that continue to be felt today.
Rupa Viswanath begins with a description of the everyday lives of Dalit laborers in the 1890s and highlights the systematic efforts made by the state and Indian elites to protect Indian slavery from public scrutiny.
Protestant missionaries were the first non-Dalits to draw attention to their plight. The missionaries' vision of the Pariahs' suffering as being a result of Hindu religious prejudice, however, obscured the fact that the entire agrarian political-economic system depended on unfree Pariah labor.
Both the Indian public and colonial officials came to share a view compatible with missionary explanations, which meant all subsequent welfare efforts directed at Dalits focused on religious and social transformation rather than on structural reform. Methodologically, theoretically, and empirically, this book breaks new ground to demonstrate how events in the early decades of state-sponsored welfare directed at Dalits laid the groundwork for the present day, where the postcolonial state and well-meaning social and religious reformers continue to downplay Dalits' landlessness, violent suppression, and political subordination.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published July 8, 2014
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January 13, 2021
Book: The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India
Author: Rupa Viswanath
Publisher: Columbia University Press (8 July 2014)
Language: English
File size: 11196 KB
Print length: 418 pages
Price: 4569/-
In India, caste is the fundamental fact of social structure. It initially referred to the discrepancy between Arya and Dasa (slave). The dissection in Indian society denotes the otherness between the autochthonous (original inhabitants) Dasa and immigrant Arya population. At a later period there was the three-fold and the four-fold division of society. The social stratification in Indian society, commenced with this four-fold division. Its origin remains unidentified. It, however, gained standing at the end of the Rigvedic age. It is in one of the advanced hymns, the celebrated ‘Purusha Sukta’, which an allusion has been made to four orders of society as originating from the sacrifice of the Primeval Being. The names of those four are given there as Brahmin, Rajanya (kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra, who are said to have come from the mouth, the arms, the thighs and the feet of the creator. The four varnas in which the Aryans divided the caste-system -Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (Warrior), Vaishya (Merchant) and Shudra (peasants), did resemble the four functions of knowledge, defence, wealth and labour. This Varna-scheme refers to the broad categories of the Hindu society.
In M.N. Srinivas’ view, for instance, “The Varna Scheme refers at the best only to the particular categories of the society and not to its real and affective units". There are, however, many units within it. Each Varna includes within it several castes. This Varna system, however, does not reflect the real caste division. In reality, the situation is much more complicated. There are hundreds of caste groups in India and they are further subdivided. The major castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras represent only the barest outline of the elaborate caste system. In 1901 about 800 castes and sub-castes were listed. Later it was estimated that if local variations were taken into account nearly 5000 castes and sub-castes could be distinguished.
The caste system in India experienced many fluctuations because of the shifting socio-economic forces. Whatever the origin of the caste may have been, it turned out that even the Indian caste system never entirely realized the caste ideal. In the caste system, each caste was assigned one occupation. To continue both the caste system and the economy intact, each caste would have to maintain itself in each generation through exact reproduction, and no more.
This book voices the tale of what happened when Dalits’ determinations to ameliorate their condition in conclusion forced the issue of their servitude and insensitive living conditions—the Pariah Problem itself—upon the hesitant consideration of the colonial state. Dalits did not do this straight, at any rate not to begin with, but via a small group of Protestant missionaries who were brought into direct contact with them through rural preaching tours.
Missionaries would remain the principal advocates of the Pariah for only a few decades. But their theological clarification of the Pariah’s dilemma—namely, as fundamentally a matter of spiritual squalor—as well as the arguments landed castes would make to the state to prevent missionary meddling in rural practices of caste domination, which they portrayed as a violation of Queen Victoria’s promise of religious detachment, would shape thereafter the way Dalitness would be understood. Such a “spiritualization” of caste, and particularly of the condition of Dalits, would prove to have far-reaching implications, setting the terms for M. K. Gandhi’s famous “Harijan uplift” campaign in the 1930s and forming the basis of the postcolonial state’s caste policies.
The book’s first chapter begins in northern Madras in the late 1890s, with an account of those quotidian forms of subjugation and tacit understandings that defined agrarian labour relations for Madras’s Pariahs. In so doing, it seeks to foreground two features of 1) unfreedom and 2) landlessness in colonial India.
In the second chapter, the author focuses upon the Protestant missionaries and their role in shaping how Pariahs would be received by the colonial state. Beginning in the 1870s, Madras’s Pariahs took Protestant missions by storm, not simply asking but indeed demanding to be converted.
The third chapter analyzes the concrete effects of Pariahs’ alliances with missionaries in the countryside and thereby reveals key features of the labour relations that would shape the future of the Pariah Problem.
According to the author, the instant that marks the conclusive emergence of the ‘Pariah’ as a problem for the state is assuredly the release in 1892 of Collector J. H. A. Tremenheere’s “Note on the Pariahs of Chingleput.” The fourth chapter charts the sequence of administrative mishaps that led to that document and the ways in which missionaries interfered at key moments to channel the state in specific directions.
Missionaries pioneered the view that Pariahness and religion were essentially linked. In the fifth chapter the author hones her sights on how this theoretical twinning entered the language of administration with extensive imports in the late 1890s.
The sixth chapter traces the impact of Britain’s “new liberalism” on the Pariah Problem in Madras. New liberalism, a welfarist ideology that emerged in Britain claiming to resolve a growing number of social questions such as poverty, shaped state policy in the first decade of the 20th century
The following segment in the ongoing story of the evasion of the Pariah Problem concerns the development of a policy to grant Panchamas ownership over their house sites, as I describe in chapter 7.
Chapter 8 follows the violence that erupted when the house-site scheme, against objections, was implemented in parts of Tanjore District, where a government report had confirmed that masters’ use of house sites to threaten laborers was widespread.
The final chapter charts how state interpolation was transformed as the new system of delegation in governance, dyarchy, was put in place. Beginning in 1918, Dalit agents entered Madras’s Legislative Council—the first fruits of a governmental design to call upon this subpopulation of Indians to learn to “represent themselves.”
In the Hindu social system roles are ascribed and confrontation to them was somewhat outlawed. Because of this, the state had a tiniest role to play in the societal sphere. In the course of time, the customary role experienced a change. In the changed scenario the caste came to play a different role. This had its manifestations in the formation of pressure groups and political parties in India. In their new form the caste groups have acquired a new facet. They have become exceptionally competitive. This has resulted in a steady politicization of caste groups. The schism between different caste groups resulted in social tensions.
The upper castes used their customary privileged position as a lever to become operative in the political arena. Conversely the non-privileged caste groups without the benefit of any social resources sought avenues of upward social mobility. Their numerical strength provided them the chance to have a say in politics.
The book teaches us an important lesson. It shows that the situation arising out of caste skirmish was the consequence of a power game in which rising social groups, the Shudras or backward caste groups sought to capture the lever of power through the political process.
The earlier belief that political power was the preserve of the upper castes, received a severe jolt. The broad political scenario remains basically dominated by the numerically weaker upper caste groups because of their superior ritual status.
Economic resources and control over educational and other modern skills, have passed on to the mathematically stronger lower caste groups who have been accommodated in the other ladders of the political ladder. The backward caste people at grass-root level have found ample scope to consolidate their dominance in the rural areas in the wake of the socioeconomic transformation in the post-Independence period.
Author: Rupa Viswanath
Publisher: Columbia University Press (8 July 2014)
Language: English
File size: 11196 KB
Print length: 418 pages
Price: 4569/-
In India, caste is the fundamental fact of social structure. It initially referred to the discrepancy between Arya and Dasa (slave). The dissection in Indian society denotes the otherness between the autochthonous (original inhabitants) Dasa and immigrant Arya population. At a later period there was the three-fold and the four-fold division of society. The social stratification in Indian society, commenced with this four-fold division. Its origin remains unidentified. It, however, gained standing at the end of the Rigvedic age. It is in one of the advanced hymns, the celebrated ‘Purusha Sukta’, which an allusion has been made to four orders of society as originating from the sacrifice of the Primeval Being. The names of those four are given there as Brahmin, Rajanya (kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra, who are said to have come from the mouth, the arms, the thighs and the feet of the creator. The four varnas in which the Aryans divided the caste-system -Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (Warrior), Vaishya (Merchant) and Shudra (peasants), did resemble the four functions of knowledge, defence, wealth and labour. This Varna-scheme refers to the broad categories of the Hindu society.
In M.N. Srinivas’ view, for instance, “The Varna Scheme refers at the best only to the particular categories of the society and not to its real and affective units". There are, however, many units within it. Each Varna includes within it several castes. This Varna system, however, does not reflect the real caste division. In reality, the situation is much more complicated. There are hundreds of caste groups in India and they are further subdivided. The major castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras represent only the barest outline of the elaborate caste system. In 1901 about 800 castes and sub-castes were listed. Later it was estimated that if local variations were taken into account nearly 5000 castes and sub-castes could be distinguished.
The caste system in India experienced many fluctuations because of the shifting socio-economic forces. Whatever the origin of the caste may have been, it turned out that even the Indian caste system never entirely realized the caste ideal. In the caste system, each caste was assigned one occupation. To continue both the caste system and the economy intact, each caste would have to maintain itself in each generation through exact reproduction, and no more.
This book voices the tale of what happened when Dalits’ determinations to ameliorate their condition in conclusion forced the issue of their servitude and insensitive living conditions—the Pariah Problem itself—upon the hesitant consideration of the colonial state. Dalits did not do this straight, at any rate not to begin with, but via a small group of Protestant missionaries who were brought into direct contact with them through rural preaching tours.
Missionaries would remain the principal advocates of the Pariah for only a few decades. But their theological clarification of the Pariah’s dilemma—namely, as fundamentally a matter of spiritual squalor—as well as the arguments landed castes would make to the state to prevent missionary meddling in rural practices of caste domination, which they portrayed as a violation of Queen Victoria’s promise of religious detachment, would shape thereafter the way Dalitness would be understood. Such a “spiritualization” of caste, and particularly of the condition of Dalits, would prove to have far-reaching implications, setting the terms for M. K. Gandhi’s famous “Harijan uplift” campaign in the 1930s and forming the basis of the postcolonial state’s caste policies.
The book’s first chapter begins in northern Madras in the late 1890s, with an account of those quotidian forms of subjugation and tacit understandings that defined agrarian labour relations for Madras’s Pariahs. In so doing, it seeks to foreground two features of 1) unfreedom and 2) landlessness in colonial India.
In the second chapter, the author focuses upon the Protestant missionaries and their role in shaping how Pariahs would be received by the colonial state. Beginning in the 1870s, Madras’s Pariahs took Protestant missions by storm, not simply asking but indeed demanding to be converted.
The third chapter analyzes the concrete effects of Pariahs’ alliances with missionaries in the countryside and thereby reveals key features of the labour relations that would shape the future of the Pariah Problem.
According to the author, the instant that marks the conclusive emergence of the ‘Pariah’ as a problem for the state is assuredly the release in 1892 of Collector J. H. A. Tremenheere’s “Note on the Pariahs of Chingleput.” The fourth chapter charts the sequence of administrative mishaps that led to that document and the ways in which missionaries interfered at key moments to channel the state in specific directions.
Missionaries pioneered the view that Pariahness and religion were essentially linked. In the fifth chapter the author hones her sights on how this theoretical twinning entered the language of administration with extensive imports in the late 1890s.
The sixth chapter traces the impact of Britain’s “new liberalism” on the Pariah Problem in Madras. New liberalism, a welfarist ideology that emerged in Britain claiming to resolve a growing number of social questions such as poverty, shaped state policy in the first decade of the 20th century
The following segment in the ongoing story of the evasion of the Pariah Problem concerns the development of a policy to grant Panchamas ownership over their house sites, as I describe in chapter 7.
Chapter 8 follows the violence that erupted when the house-site scheme, against objections, was implemented in parts of Tanjore District, where a government report had confirmed that masters’ use of house sites to threaten laborers was widespread.
The final chapter charts how state interpolation was transformed as the new system of delegation in governance, dyarchy, was put in place. Beginning in 1918, Dalit agents entered Madras’s Legislative Council—the first fruits of a governmental design to call upon this subpopulation of Indians to learn to “represent themselves.”
In the Hindu social system roles are ascribed and confrontation to them was somewhat outlawed. Because of this, the state had a tiniest role to play in the societal sphere. In the course of time, the customary role experienced a change. In the changed scenario the caste came to play a different role. This had its manifestations in the formation of pressure groups and political parties in India. In their new form the caste groups have acquired a new facet. They have become exceptionally competitive. This has resulted in a steady politicization of caste groups. The schism between different caste groups resulted in social tensions.
The upper castes used their customary privileged position as a lever to become operative in the political arena. Conversely the non-privileged caste groups without the benefit of any social resources sought avenues of upward social mobility. Their numerical strength provided them the chance to have a say in politics.
The book teaches us an important lesson. It shows that the situation arising out of caste skirmish was the consequence of a power game in which rising social groups, the Shudras or backward caste groups sought to capture the lever of power through the political process.
The earlier belief that political power was the preserve of the upper castes, received a severe jolt. The broad political scenario remains basically dominated by the numerically weaker upper caste groups because of their superior ritual status.
Economic resources and control over educational and other modern skills, have passed on to the mathematically stronger lower caste groups who have been accommodated in the other ladders of the political ladder. The backward caste people at grass-root level have found ample scope to consolidate their dominance in the rural areas in the wake of the socioeconomic transformation in the post-Independence period.
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April 28, 2020This book started by showing that both Panchamas and missionaries worked for forms of Christian coexistence. Yet Panchama agency in the conversion process was later denied by many white state officials and caste Hindu advocates as either naive or duplicitous.
Property and caste control is crucial to understanding the slow process of Panchama emancipation from mirasdari lands. Land autonomy for Panchamas was engineered first by the church and later the state. Yet the state found it hard to do so without appearing as favoring Christian conversions of Panchamas. British utilitarian ideology combined with (condescending) social welfarism ran against caste interests of Tamil Nadu. The mirasdari contracts were largely based on the continual indebtedness of Panchamas to the landlords. It is interesting to compare these financial instruments with those used by Banians in the Indian ocean (khiyar) for facilitating slavery in places like Zanzibar. The flexibility of such instruments are often the aftermath of accommodating the social rhythms of slave-based plantations. The rise of English newspapers are also quite an interesting development that may provide further insights into the changing notions of the public in Tamil Nadu and Zanzibar.
Property and caste control is crucial to understanding the slow process of Panchama emancipation from mirasdari lands. Land autonomy for Panchamas was engineered first by the church and later the state. Yet the state found it hard to do so without appearing as favoring Christian conversions of Panchamas. British utilitarian ideology combined with (condescending) social welfarism ran against caste interests of Tamil Nadu. The mirasdari contracts were largely based on the continual indebtedness of Panchamas to the landlords. It is interesting to compare these financial instruments with those used by Banians in the Indian ocean (khiyar) for facilitating slavery in places like Zanzibar. The flexibility of such instruments are often the aftermath of accommodating the social rhythms of slave-based plantations. The rise of English newspapers are also quite an interesting development that may provide further insights into the changing notions of the public in Tamil Nadu and Zanzibar.
August 6, 2017
Rupa Viswanath's The Pariah Problem traces the time during which the problem of the Pariah came to the fore. It starts of in the late nineteenth century and continues till the second decade of the 20th century when the problem transformed through various stages.
The Panchama or the fifth varna were people who lived outside the chathur varna caste system.
They were subjected to inhuman life conditions , living a life of slaves in the feudal agricultural life of India. There were strict strictures which controlled their lives, they were considered untouchable and usage of public resources like streets, water resources and gazing land etc was barred to the people of Panchama caste. The Panchama were tied to the landlords and held no property and were completely dependent on the landlord (Mirasdars) for sustenance. Mostly entire family of Panchamas worked for the Landlords and lived in Ceri(low lying areas which were isolated typically owned by the Mirasdar), they faced constant threat of eviction by the Mirasdars. This is akin to the slave system prevalent in the West which was abolished in the British colonies in the 19th century. So the official introduction to the Pariah problem started with the colonial officials denying the existence of a slave system comparable with that of the West. It was considered to be a gentle servitude with mutual beneficial relationship between the landlord and the Panchama. Hence forth cannot be compared with that of the Western Slave system. This initial reluctance to accept the problem as existing stems forth from two key aspects,
1. The state (represented by the British) had a nexus with the high caste landlords because of the state dependence on them with respect to the revenues. The British in comparison with other rulers
levied heavy taxes on agriculture, hence the underlying system was beneficial to the British.
2. The British administration for its day to day execution of administrative procedures were dependent on the high caste Hindus hence there was a tacit understanding of how the country side works in the Indian Feudal context. The term the author uses to rightly point out the relation is "Caste-State" Nexus.
Land was the major tool in feudal hegomany and access to it was highly guarded. Hence there were rules which effectively prevented the Panchamas to acquire land. Although their capability to accumulate surplus was limited, there were rules like the Darkhast rule which effectively prevented the purchase of land by the Panchama. The rule gives first option to the Mirasdar in buying Poramboke land and the Mirasdar's effectively kept buying land back to prevent Panchamas buying land. In this way the Mirasdar could control the labor and use it to his benefit which is a classic feature of any feudal serfdom.
Missionary and Religious Neutrality.
Unlike most commonly believed the missionaries were highly reluctant in the conversion and working in behalf of the Panchamas. Part of the reason was the Protestant Missionaries wanted to first convert the high caste hindus which they thought will create a domino effect and result in the conversion of the majority of Hindus. And also they were highly uncomfortable with using the realm of material in conversion as they thought that was undermining the spiritual plane. And in most cases it was the Panchamas who approached the Missionaries in issues which they needed help. In this way the Panchamas were able to open a channel to the state with the help of the Missionary bypassing the high caste Hindus. The missionary after the initial reluctance took up the cause of the Panchamas, and the first they tried was acquiring land for the Panchamas and settling them in the form of a cooperative society. The missionary will manage the estate and will also forward loans to the Panchamas already converted to the Christian Faith. In a way the missionary also doubted the Panchamas capability to manage the farm land independently. This was faced with considerable opposition in the country side. The high caste Hindu Mirasdars were genuinely worried with loosing control over the labor and the granting of land was criticized as stepping out of the Religious Neutrality the Queen had promised after the revolt of 1857. This was a very small initiative taken by the missionary and the resultant opposition effectively stalled initiatives for another decade when ideas of what considered Public welfare changed.
The New-Liberal Wave :
In the beginning of the 19th central there was a wave of new liberal wave in Britain which championed for state intervention in public welfare to counter the negative impacts of market economy. This transformed in the Indian context as Panchama welfare. One of the initiatives to give housing sites to Panchamas in the South Presidency. There were varied but strong opposition to the initiative of the government. One of the thing was outright rejection of the argument that the Panchams faced hardship in the current setup and rather it was argued it was a mutual beneficial setup and the government should not interfere with the existing setup. Even a liberal newspaper such as The Hindu argued that interfering with the labor economy will destroy Indian agriculture.
There was also argument that these are done at the behest of the Missionary and the Panchamas are content with the current scheme of things. But in contrast the Panchamas were highly interested in the government scheme and were eager to get house sites to get out of the Mirasdar claims. Violence was let loose on Panchams in various places and innumerable hardships were put on the scheme implementation.
Shifting it to the Social:
The final stage in the Panchama problem was when they started asserting the rights which are granted to any individual belonging to the British empire like access to public roads and wells etc.
This was possible after Dalits were choosen as representative to voice the concerns of Dalits in legislative council. One of the first Dalit representative choosen was M.C Rajah, he spoke in multiple occasions in the legislative council on the everyday hardships faced by Dalits in living their life. In one such incident M.C Rajah brings up the issue of two Panchama men who were forced to get down from a public bus. Although the members were unanimous in condemning it they felt nothing could be done in the realm of the political and work should be done in the social. M.C Raja's plea to punish such acts were turned down and even his plea to cancel the license of the transport company in this issue was turned down. This reluctance of the state in implementing the laws and shifting the ground of the problem to the "Social" from that of the political was the final stages of the Pariah problem.
Rupa concludes that the various problems we see in the handling of the Pariah in still seen even in the present.
The Panchama or the fifth varna were people who lived outside the chathur varna caste system.
They were subjected to inhuman life conditions , living a life of slaves in the feudal agricultural life of India. There were strict strictures which controlled their lives, they were considered untouchable and usage of public resources like streets, water resources and gazing land etc was barred to the people of Panchama caste. The Panchama were tied to the landlords and held no property and were completely dependent on the landlord (Mirasdars) for sustenance. Mostly entire family of Panchamas worked for the Landlords and lived in Ceri(low lying areas which were isolated typically owned by the Mirasdar), they faced constant threat of eviction by the Mirasdars. This is akin to the slave system prevalent in the West which was abolished in the British colonies in the 19th century. So the official introduction to the Pariah problem started with the colonial officials denying the existence of a slave system comparable with that of the West. It was considered to be a gentle servitude with mutual beneficial relationship between the landlord and the Panchama. Hence forth cannot be compared with that of the Western Slave system. This initial reluctance to accept the problem as existing stems forth from two key aspects,
1. The state (represented by the British) had a nexus with the high caste landlords because of the state dependence on them with respect to the revenues. The British in comparison with other rulers
levied heavy taxes on agriculture, hence the underlying system was beneficial to the British.
2. The British administration for its day to day execution of administrative procedures were dependent on the high caste Hindus hence there was a tacit understanding of how the country side works in the Indian Feudal context. The term the author uses to rightly point out the relation is "Caste-State" Nexus.
Land was the major tool in feudal hegomany and access to it was highly guarded. Hence there were rules which effectively prevented the Panchamas to acquire land. Although their capability to accumulate surplus was limited, there were rules like the Darkhast rule which effectively prevented the purchase of land by the Panchama. The rule gives first option to the Mirasdar in buying Poramboke land and the Mirasdar's effectively kept buying land back to prevent Panchamas buying land. In this way the Mirasdar could control the labor and use it to his benefit which is a classic feature of any feudal serfdom.
Missionary and Religious Neutrality.
Unlike most commonly believed the missionaries were highly reluctant in the conversion and working in behalf of the Panchamas. Part of the reason was the Protestant Missionaries wanted to first convert the high caste hindus which they thought will create a domino effect and result in the conversion of the majority of Hindus. And also they were highly uncomfortable with using the realm of material in conversion as they thought that was undermining the spiritual plane. And in most cases it was the Panchamas who approached the Missionaries in issues which they needed help. In this way the Panchamas were able to open a channel to the state with the help of the Missionary bypassing the high caste Hindus. The missionary after the initial reluctance took up the cause of the Panchamas, and the first they tried was acquiring land for the Panchamas and settling them in the form of a cooperative society. The missionary will manage the estate and will also forward loans to the Panchamas already converted to the Christian Faith. In a way the missionary also doubted the Panchamas capability to manage the farm land independently. This was faced with considerable opposition in the country side. The high caste Hindu Mirasdars were genuinely worried with loosing control over the labor and the granting of land was criticized as stepping out of the Religious Neutrality the Queen had promised after the revolt of 1857. This was a very small initiative taken by the missionary and the resultant opposition effectively stalled initiatives for another decade when ideas of what considered Public welfare changed.
The New-Liberal Wave :
In the beginning of the 19th central there was a wave of new liberal wave in Britain which championed for state intervention in public welfare to counter the negative impacts of market economy. This transformed in the Indian context as Panchama welfare. One of the initiatives to give housing sites to Panchamas in the South Presidency. There were varied but strong opposition to the initiative of the government. One of the thing was outright rejection of the argument that the Panchams faced hardship in the current setup and rather it was argued it was a mutual beneficial setup and the government should not interfere with the existing setup. Even a liberal newspaper such as The Hindu argued that interfering with the labor economy will destroy Indian agriculture.
There was also argument that these are done at the behest of the Missionary and the Panchamas are content with the current scheme of things. But in contrast the Panchamas were highly interested in the government scheme and were eager to get house sites to get out of the Mirasdar claims. Violence was let loose on Panchams in various places and innumerable hardships were put on the scheme implementation.
Shifting it to the Social:
The final stage in the Panchama problem was when they started asserting the rights which are granted to any individual belonging to the British empire like access to public roads and wells etc.
This was possible after Dalits were choosen as representative to voice the concerns of Dalits in legislative council. One of the first Dalit representative choosen was M.C Rajah, he spoke in multiple occasions in the legislative council on the everyday hardships faced by Dalits in living their life. In one such incident M.C Rajah brings up the issue of two Panchama men who were forced to get down from a public bus. Although the members were unanimous in condemning it they felt nothing could be done in the realm of the political and work should be done in the social. M.C Raja's plea to punish such acts were turned down and even his plea to cancel the license of the transport company in this issue was turned down. This reluctance of the state in implementing the laws and shifting the ground of the problem to the "Social" from that of the political was the final stages of the Pariah problem.
Rupa concludes that the various problems we see in the handling of the Pariah in still seen even in the present.
February 3, 2022
Eye-opening book. It describes the initiatives taken by the Depressed Castes in the closing decades of the 19th century to free themselvs frall om conditions of servitude imposed on them by the landed castes (mirasdars with a collective right over all the lands in a village), giving rise to the so-called Pariah Problem, and how, through spiritualizing and then socializing caste, the problem was taken out of the realm of politics (where it could be solved by enforcdement of rights) and dropped in the domain of social reform, where "society" itself was expected to solve it through effecting changes in the beliefs and attitudes of caste Hindus. For all the political noises made about the caste issue and all the hand-waving about Ambedkar and Periyar, the Dalit cause is still struck in that limbo, in a state of unstated political disempowerment and at the mercy of caste HIndus, especially the erstwhile landed caste elites who are in control of our politics. The state-caste nexus of the colonial period that was arrayed against the Dalit intersts, which the author set out in great detail, still continues in another form, equally heedless of the history and reality of Dalit lives.
May 18, 2020
A thoroughly researched work, with a strong backing in archival material. Viswanath methodically examines the legal and philosophical arguments and ascriptions that shaped the experiences of this much-maligned demographic in colonial and post-colonial India. The book had a strong focus on demonstrating how the Dalits were (and continue to be) active participants in India's political and religious landscape. The author breaks down the myths of "conversion as salvation" promoted by missionary interests, as well as the myth of "gentle slavery" espoused by caste interests.
January 7, 2021
Essential reading for anyone interested in the relations between caste, capitalism, and colonialism.
August 31, 2017
Rupa Viswanath examines Pariah Problem in India, However -- the title is misleading. It ought to be, Pariah Problem in Tamil Society from 1880's -- Modern times. It seemed to be a big jump talking about India as a whole, there are vast sub-cultures within India, ethnicity. Indians differ on language, ethnicity, caste, religion.
Some highlights of what I learned from the book:
Most Modern people accuse Missionaries of giving material benefits to people who are suffering to convert them. However, I was surprised to find they were reluctant but they took the responsibility of helping them in every area of life.
The author has a vast array of citations, talked to a lot of people. It's a good book to find a reference for sources on Caste issues in Tamil Nadu from 1880's.
You might like this book if you are a scholar, and want to learn about Pariah Problem.
--Deus Vult
Gottfried
Some highlights of what I learned from the book:
Most Modern people accuse Missionaries of giving material benefits to people who are suffering to convert them. However, I was surprised to find they were reluctant but they took the responsibility of helping them in every area of life.
The author has a vast array of citations, talked to a lot of people. It's a good book to find a reference for sources on Caste issues in Tamil Nadu from 1880's.
You might like this book if you are a scholar, and want to learn about Pariah Problem.
--Deus Vult
Gottfried
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