6th lecture: Caste System

Question 1

Reasons for the Cencus (starting 19th cent)

Answer 1

-> religious manipulation
-> understanding how many
ppl are actually there
(cencus)
-> up the production

=> financial, military and
political needs needed to
be satisfied

Question 2

Who wrote the Description of Hindostan?

Answer 2

Walter Hamilton
- writing about his “statistical information” about india
- he estimated 600.000 ppl in Varanasi VS actual numbers around 200.000

Question 3

Why was the Rebellion of 1857 a critical turning point for colonizer’s caste understanding?

Answer 3

• assumed rebellion
  happened due to lack of
  cultural understanding
• change: eagerness to learn
  about culture ->
• Before only knowledge who
  collects taxes and who owns
  land
• Associated their idea of
  india to their understanding
  of the feudal system,
  ignored the complexity
• History can give them that
  information (who owns land
  etc))
• Rebellion changed that ->
  new ways to understand,
  central: interest for revenue

Question 4

Caste in the Census post 1859

Answer 4

• Huge public project to gain
  information on every person
  in india
• Caste was installed as
  fundamental social category
  for census
  Caste as basic category to
  organise the population
  counts
  also included non-hindus
  into castes in census
• Anthropometric census -> measuring ppl colonial style
  Can tell us something about nutrition etc

Question 5

What were the Brit’s assumptions about caste?

Answer 5

• Caste had a racial
  component through that /
  racial foundation =>
  fundamental assumption
  that allowed concept to
  become so dominant
• Caste groups follow
  principle of absolute
  endogamy
  -> Leads to assumptions there are physical developments within the group

Question 6

Caste, Crime and Vagrancy

Answer 6

• Some caste groups then
  preceived as criminal ->
  1871 Criminal tribes act”
  ○ Categorizing certain
  castes as criminals
  ○ Often nomadic or semi-
  nomadic groups
  -> Anti vagrancy -> better to
  tax them

Question 7

Caste and Identification

Answer 7

• Caste associations became
  bigger, as they categorized
  ppl all over india into that
  central system
  ○ Also connecting ppl all
  over the continent, that
  haven’t been connected
  before
  ○ Identity created