ABHINAV PRIYAM

DR. AMRITA TULIKA

15 APRIL 2020.

Discuss how caste and linguistic identities emerged in colonial

India?
The Dumontian position on India has been that it had become marginalised as a land of caste, on the
other hand, in the view of Marxist scholars the state was epiphenomenal and though states came and
went village communities endured. For sociology and anthropology it was caste that held these vil-
lages intact. Caste here is seen as the foundation and core of Indian civilisation. Weber wrote that
caste not only imposes the position of Brahmanas but is also the fundamental institution of Hin-
duism. He says that without caste there is no Hinduism. Indian society in these terms was headed by
a Brahmanic elite based on spiritual practices. However Nicholas B. Dirks refutes this while argu-
ing that the Indian crown was not as it has generally been pointed out. Kings were not inferior to
Brahmanas and political domain was not necessarily encompassed by the religious domain. State
did form powerful components in Indian civilisation and the Indian society was shaped by political
struggles and processes. The term political is used to underscore the fact that caste structure, ritual
form and political processes were all dependent on the relation of power. These relations were cul-
turally constructed throughout history. The most recent recent cultural construction was by British
colonial rule In which it was constructed as religious basis of Indian society . This became a prom-
inent form of viewing the Indian civilisation. Colonialism in the opinion of Dirks seems to have
created such of what is now accepted as Indian tradition, including the autonomous caste structure
with a Brahmanical head, isolated ceremonies and rituals etc.

The articulation and consequent assertion of caste identity can be attributed to British Orientalists,
administrators and missionaries, as well as Indian collaborators, namely Indian reformers, social
thinkers and political actors. Colonialism could be sustained by what Bernard Cohn called ‘cultural
technologies of rule’, and thus, by giving primeval importance to the caste system, the British were
able to charter new significant identities for the Indians. This cultural effect of colonialism in reali-
ty, led to what Ashis Nandy calls ‘colonisation of the mind’, wherein the coloniser’s intervention in
the mental sphere of the subject affects central aspects of the knowledge systems of the individual.
The colonialists made promises of modernity, but could never fully implement it, for it was limited
by the idea of colonialism. G S Ghurye blamed the British for the stringency of caste. With the
coming of the British, caste became a religious system and lost its social status, becoming more uni-
form and far more pervasive.

Colonial intervention actively removed the politics from the colonial societies . It was necessary for
the British to detach caste from politics in order to rule an immensely complex society by a variety
of indirect means. Dirks also takes us through the contours of Colonel Colin Mackenzie’s collection
to reveal the emergence of knowledge of British colonial sociology. He remarks that originally the
collection does not reveal the origin story of caste but talks about the loss of political regimes, the
collection however becomes implicated and instrumentalist to explain Indian caste for colonial in-
terests.

Caste study became increasingly important, but not only as an integral part of understanding Hindu
community but to understand the colonial sociology of knowledge. The Board of control wrote that
distinctions of caste should be well understood by civil servants and government while it is not cer-
tain as to why not much information can be procured. Nonetheless the assumption, in the view of
Dirk that colonial states could manipulate and invent Indian traditions at will is wrong. At the same
time the contradictory nature of colonial writings needs to be recognised . The power of colonial
discourse was not that it created whole new fields of meaning instantaneously but that it shifted old
meanings slowly through the colonial range of institutions for which the study of caste was judged
necessary. These institutions activated ideological changes subtly with combinations of old and new
meanings which had major consequences for the colonial subjects. Caste achieved its critical colo-
nial positions because the British state was successful in separating caste as a social form from its
dependence on pre colonial political processes. Dirks draws form HH Risely , William Crooke to
understand how the discourse of caste evolves to explain the impossibility of Indian self rule and
social change.

It was post-1857, that we see the trend to report people according to their “qualities and essence”
and the categories of caste, tribe and ethno-religious community got a permanent place in the colo-
nial census. Bayly argues that this led to two important things: one, an increasing awareness divid-
ing Hindus and non-Hindus and two, it contributed to the view that Indians were slaves to an un-
changing and rigid caste system. To Bayly, the Indian society came to look like traditional caste so-
ciety because the British made it look so- caste helped them obtain and interpret knowledge they
sought. Importantly, the chief source of information for the British was the priestly Brahmin class
and the commercial population, and the Company treated them as authoritarian sources on ‘native
law’ and custom. It was with Reverend William Ward’s description of Brahmanical tyranny of
Maratha that we see caste being depicted as being oppressive, and gradually we see the idea of
moral degradation under Brahmanical rule, gaining ground.

By the time of the census, caste had become especially important both because of strongly held of-
ficial views. According to Bernard Cohn, the census of 1872 was carried out with such “imperfec-
tions both in administration and in conception” that we can rely little on the census for accurate in-
formation. There was little cooperation from the native population, a great deal of reliance on ru-
mours, and it differed from province to province for certain categories like education and literacy
were not accounted for. The census often missed out on villages and settlements due to lack of staff
and relied on police circles (thanas), who often supplied inaccurate information.

A discussion on Phule would provide a good idea of the formal institutionalisation of such practises.
Phule was born in the Mali caste and his parents made a living in western Maharashtra. They culti-
vated fruits and vegetables during the reign of Bajirao II , who further impressed by their work con-
ferred on them 35 acres of inam land. Phule’s father sent him to a local Marathi school for primary
education and Scottish mission for secondary education.The heterogeneity of this institution served
as points of contact for newer ideas for Phule. Secondly this environment served a mixing together
of different social groups of student assimilation of which could serve as leading to ideas of social
reforms and religious radicalism. The peer group too emerged as a vital part of the process by which
new ideas were assimilated, As a part of discussion amongst classmates , semi secret associations,
impromptu societies etc. were set up which brought forward new ideas into action by violation of
caste rules. In the schools of Scottish missions the subject presented the natural world devoid of di-
vine or magical significance as available for human analysis and understanding. For a Hindu stu-
dent it turned upside down the beliefs they had accepted without question. The propagation of of
christian truth too had an important emphasis. The schools also admitted boys of untouchable castes
to take a stand against the Brahmanic religious values. It further led to intermingling of castes pre-
viously kept from each other and indiscriminate availability of education. This was to have a lasting
effect on Phule and his circle of friends. His experiences of being rebuked from a Brahman friend’s
marriage due to his caste also had a profound impact on him.

Phule thought it was in education that lay the key to a fundamental change in social attitudes. After
visiting the female school in Ahmednagar he himself opened a school for girls of low and untouch-
able castes and undertook the task of teaching himself. After being thrown out from his father’s
house he and his wife Savitri bai began teaching. They were sort of money and relied largely on the
labour contributions. However with the daksina prize fund he received 75 rupees a month from
which several schools were opened. He said that the failure to educate women was the prime cause
of India’s decline. In 1853 he formed with his colleagues a Society for disseminating education
amongst Mahars and Mangs of Pune explaining the benefits of education.In his own sense of radi-
calism he took this issue to the extent to which Brahmans as a caste might be held responsible for
the condition of low caste and Phule took an extreme stand of providing full education to the lower
caste. The Brahmans in his teachings were criticised throughly for the sufferings of the lower
castes.

His views have been analysed from the play The third eye. The subject of the play was exploitation
of an ignorant superstitious couple by a cunning Brahman priest and their subsequent enlightenment
by Christin missionary. It clearly pointed to the bigotry of Hindu religion representing an ideologi-
cal imposition on lower classes maintained by rituals. There was a virtual monopoly of Brahmanas
in the strategic position of administrative intermediaries between the British and Hindu amasses.
This extended the traditional Brahman prerogative over certain occupation and authority on which
this was based. The effects of Hindu religious attitudes and social regulations on low caste provided
Phule’s main point of concern in the play. Highly conservative ideas of karma and dharma had re-
tained their central position. He was sharply aware of the crucial role played by women in transmis-
sion of traditional culture which was shown in his concern foe women’s education. He regarded
western education with its emphasis on secular and rationalist truth about the external worlds as the
most potent weapons for the liberation of lower castes. His play also pointed out how the brahmans
were giving advices to kunbis and Malis to not send their kids to school when foreign missionaries
came to teach. The need for reservation of a minimum number of lower caste is also expressed by
the cultivator. The need for radical revolution is recognised to uproot the religious disabilities faced
by lower caste under British rule.

He took part in the first attempts in Pune to liberalise attitudes towards the cause of remarriage of
widow, an home was innaugrated for prevention of infanticide where high caste pregnant widows
could come and give birth in secret and return to their families . After 1869 he entered in a literary
phase composing three major works. A ballad of Raja Chatrapati Shivaji Bhosale, he recruits the
figure of Shivaji for construction of a collective identity for all lower castes. It represented Shudras
and ati Shudras as the forgotten descendants of the heroic race of Kshatriya supported by deriving
the term kshatriya from the term kshetra , a field .He argued that this identity had now been con-
cealed in fictions of Brahmanic religious hierarchy. He drew parallel between Shivaji and mythical
King Bali as leader of lower caste. Both to the lower caste and to British government Phule project-
ed Maratha warriors as the real substance of her society. He demanded for a radical reconstruction
of administration itself by posing an ideological battle against the British design of Brahman em-
ployees and Brahmans who held administrative positions. In later days the effect pf this could be
seen when the politicians had to engage in creating such traditions to gain access to mass population
loyalties.
In terms of emergence of linguistic identity the movement has largely been looked at as a develop-
ment of differentiation between Hindi and Urdu. The khari Boli can be divided into distinctness of
Hindi- Urdu. The Urdu and Nagari script come from the classical language of Persian , Arabic and
Sanskrit. Some trace the Hindi Urdu controversy to the medieval era invasion of Muslims, while
some blame the Persianisation of Hindavi for this spill and yet other groups trace it back to Fort
William College which divided two distinct prose style.

The Hindi movement in nineteenth century provides an example of a complex relationship between
language, religion and nationalism. Language and religion has had an enormous influence in the
development of nationalism in South Asia. There are several events that testify this point including
the creation of Pakistan. The study of Hindi movement thus comes to occupy a central space in the
study of development of Hindu nationalist identity.

The constantly misleading image of Hindi stretching over much of the vast North Indian belt has
been reiterated far too many times, however it not being a case. John Gumperz argues that at mini-
mum there exists three strata of speech , one at the village level where the local dialects are spoken .
The second stratum is of regional standards which are relatively homogenous. In Bihar for
example , Bhojpuri , Maithili and Magahi can come under the Hindi rubric. The third spectrum is of
standard Hindi - Urdu which serve as a mother tongue for minority of city dwellers. It originated in
the Khari boli regional standard area and all of it shares a common grammatical base. The most
formal level of Hindi has words mostly from Sanskrit while high Urdu draws heavily from Persian
and Arabic. The two script also has very contrasting visual impressions. Each script has thus strong
links with the sacred language of different religions . Both also claim a very different literary evolu-
tion. While Hindi literature was mostly written in Braj Bhasha , avadhi and Urdu included Dakani
and later northern parts of India.

Urdu’s association with Persian links this standard with a political muslim dominance. Along with
the lengthy continuity of Muslim supremacy went the even longer continuity of Persian as the emi-
nent language of administration in Northern India. When the Government of India replaced Persian
in 1837 its surrogate that is Urdu provided linguistic continuity. It still borrowed extremely from
Persians. Scholars contended that this highly Persianised language was creation of Hindus and not
muslims. Christopher king argues that though this contention is not clear however, the fact that in
North India in 19th century much of Urdu was familiarity had to do with both Hindus and Muslims.
Kayasthas, Kashmiri Brahmans and Khatris specifically were three communities who had strong
ties with Urdu .The linguistic knowledge rested on the fact that one could share the Urdu - Persian
cultural traditions with the Muslim community without jeopardising one’s status as Hindu. The
Hindi movement however came to challenge this assumption in later half of century. Led by Hindus
who had close association with Hindi and Sanskrit learning and were handicapped by competition
for government service started to lay efforts to differentiate Hindi from Urdu and make Hindi a
symbol of Hindu culture. This movement formed much of heightening communal awareness in pre
independence era which further culminated in birth of Pakistan.

King points that Hindi movement in 19th century expressed a Hindi nationalism whose essence lay
in the denial of existing assimilation cultural traditions associated with Muslim rule.With this na-
tionalism other expressions like cow protection and revival of Hindu festivals was also seen. Slo-
gans like Hindi, hindu, Hindustani came to a rise which asserted thee three fold identity of lan-
guage, religion and motherland, However, on the ground Hindus had only a lukewarm support for
Hindi while mostly remained uninvolved. Similar was the response of Muslims to this incorpora-
tion. The Hindi movement encountered opposition from not only Muslims but also Hindus who had
vested interest in Urdu and Persian regional standard. In the promotion of Hindi language, econom-
ic motives were also at play as government jobs had favoured the knowledge of Urdu, thus a Hindi
movement naturally got support aimed at this rectification from a class who did not study Urdu.

However for most of the advocates it had more to do with cultural and emotional aspects. The gov-
ernment’s inconsistent role too added to the communal rivalry. While it did promote the two lan-
guages it still favoured Urdu. The government’s perception of viewing Hindus and Muslims as sep-
arate entity furthered the communal cause. Language however remained an important mode of re-
gional assertion later seen in form of political units based on language. Government of India ap-
pointed Linguistic Provinces commission to study the question of establishing linguistic states.

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References:

• Bayly, Susan. Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern
Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Cohn, Bernard S. "The Census, Social Structure, and Objectification in South Asia." Edited by
Ishita Banerjee Dube. In Caste in History, 28-39. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Dirks, Nicholas B. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2011.
• O’Hanlon, Rosalind. Caste, Conflict, and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste
Protest in Nineteenth-century Western India. Bombay: Orient Longman, 1985.
• Omvedt, Gail, “Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India.” Economic and Po-
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