Caste in Kerala a Preface to the Elections

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY November 21, 1964 Caste in Kerala A Preface to the Elections Robert L Hardgrave Jr The elaboration of caste ranking and the generally common economic position shared by members of a caste, together with the high correlation between caste rank and economic position, have given rise to a political situation in Kerala in which the most significant actors are castes and communities. These communities are by no means completely united; but there is, nevertheless, a tendency towards an align' ment of major communities with different parties. These socio-political constellations, reflecting a super-imposition of ritual rank, social status and economic position, represent essentially a class orientation, There are, of course, various cross-pressures which cut across caste/class lines, but the high correlation between ritual rank and economic position has given caste a significance in its political role which is unparalleled in the rest of India, THE ubiquity of caste in the politics ed mainly from low caste communities ranking of castes, their inter of modern India has increasingly by the Portuguese, are far less prosper actions as individuals must not de become a byword of political analysis ous, although numerically they domin viate widely from the stratified in the subcontinent. "Caste is so tacitly ate the Christian community. The Pro order of interaction among their and so completely accepted by all, in testants, as the Catholics, are recent respective castes taken as wholes. cluding those most vocal in condemning converts and share a similarly depress (4) Finally, the totality of such a it," writes M N Srinivas, "that it is ed economic position. The Christians, community structure must be se everywhere the unit of social action."1 as a whole, are concentrated in Travan- parated from any possible confu Caste, as a fundamental aspect of the core-Cochin and are dominant in Kot- sion which it may suffer by con social and economic structure of India, tayam District. nection with inconsistent struc is undoubtedly a major parametric vari tures outside.2 able of the Indian political system. It The Hindus is, however, only one of several such Among the Hindus, there are appro Caste Ran king variables, and its significance demands ximately 420 castes (jati) in Kerala, Caste ranking places the Nambudiri systematic analysis. This paper seeks to and the average village contains 17 at the peak of the ritual hierarchy. The analyze the emergence of caste as a caste groups. Despite the dispersed significant variable in contemporary Nambudiri Brahmins, numbering 8 per spatial pattern of settlement, there is cent of the Hindu population, command Kerala through an exploration of the a definite social nucleus and the castes breakdown of traditional society. ritual status, but are not a major force are elaborately ranked in the ritual in politics. Of the lower castes, there The complexity of religious, regional, hierarchy, each separated not only by are a few Kshatriya descendants of the and caste differentiation in Kerala led endogamy, commensality, dialectual old Malabar kingdoms, and there are Vivekananda to call Kerala a "mad variation, and ritual pollution, but by no indigenous Vaisyas. The most im house" of communalism. Of Kerala's spatial distance as well. A Nayar, for portant caste ranking below the Nambu population, 16 per cent is Muslim, 23 example, traditionally may approach a diri is the Nayar, the traditional war per cent Christian, and 61 per cent Nambudiri but must not touch him. rior. The Nayars or Nairs are a pros Hindu. The Muslim community, called An Ezhava must keep a distance of 36 perous landowning community and Mappillas, date from the ninth century steps from a Brahmin, and a Pulayan number 25.3 per cent of the Hindus in in Kerala. Traditional traders of the must not approach him within 96 Kerala. Below the Nayar are ranked the Malabar coast, they are today an ex steps. There are even castes so defiling traditional service castes, such as the tremely heterogeneous community in that their mere sight alone is polluting. barber and washerman, which are nu wealth and occupation, and among their The elaboration of caste ranking among merically insignificant. The highest of numbers can be found landlords, mer Hindus of Kerala forms an almost per the polluting castes is the traditional chants, traders, and agricultural labour fect unilinear ladder and fulfills in ex toddy-tapper, the Ezhava, or Tiyyar as ers. They are primarily concentrated treme degree McKim Marriott's four he is called in Malabar. Numbering 44.4 geographically in the area of southern structural conditions for maximal ela per cent of the Hindu population, the Malabar, corresponding to the former boration of caste ranking. economically depressed Ezhavas are do Zamorin Kingdom of Calicut, minant in Palghat District, where they ... (1) the concrete structural units The Christians cultivate the lands of the wealthy Tamil of a community—in this case its Brahmin landowning minority. Below The Christian community is divided hereditary, generally endogamous the Ezhavas are the Scheduled Castes, among the Syrian Christians (of which groups—must themselves be num 20.4 per cent of the Hindu population. there are two major sects), the Roman erous. (2) Secondly, their members The most important caste in this group Catholics, and the Protestants. Econo as corporate groups must interact is the Pulaya (Cheruman), which until mically powerful as traders, landown with members of other groups in a 1850 was the caste of agricultural serfs ers, and administrators, the Syrian clearly stratified order. (3) Further of the Nayars, temple servants, and Christians have been an important com more, so that members of such Brahmins. Each of these castes in the munity in Travancore since the sixth castes in a community may agree ritual hierarchy is in turn sub-divided cantury, The Roman Catholics, convert with each other on an elaborate into a number of smaller endogamous 1841 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY November 21, 1964 subcastes. There are, for example, more verumpattam tenure to the sub-tenant The vertical system of rights and than 100 Nayar subcastes. Each sub- Ezhava households. These lands were, obligations, however, was not wholly caste is, within the position of the larg in turn, cultivated by serfs. Of the net confined to the village. Such overlap er caste unit, ranked hierarchically. produce, one third was retained by the ping, as hypergamy among the supper sub-tenant, and the remaining portion castes, contributed to the unity of the Systems of Tenure was divided as it ascended the ladder nad. Communications, nevertheless, The ritual hierarchy of caste reflects of subinfeudation. This elaborate were truncated. Despite the inland the traditional relationship of each caste system of subinfeudation often involved waterways of central Kerala, heavy to the land, which was a fundamental as many as four or five levels of non- rainfall, seasonal floods, and the determinant of wealth, power, and social cultivating tenants, each extracting a mountainous terrain severely limited status in traditional Kerala. The systems portion of the produce from the same contacts beyond the local level. The of land tenure in Kerala are extremely tract of land. horizontal extension of caste geographi complex. The Malabar Land Law, for The Pulaya serfs were attached to cally was thus limited, and communica example, recognized 28 different kinds the plots upon which they lived and tions were largely a function of caste of tenure, ranging from perpetual, ir were held as ancestral property. They position. The internal organization of redeemable leases to tenancy-at-will. received at fixed periods during the a caste was localized. Among the For purposes of analysis, however, a year a traditional payment in kind. Ezhava and Pulaya, for example, the land system of ideal type may be con The service castes of the village, the caste group was usually coterminous structed. washermen, barbers, and artisans, like with the village. The smaller castes of wise received a traditional payment in village servants had assemblies which The kingdoms of Kerala before the kind. The lineages of the servant castes, included usually no more than four or coming of the British were divided into whether matrilineal or patrilineal, held five adjacent villages. The assembly a system of districts (nads), headed by both the duty and the right (desam of the retainer Nayar caste was often feudatory chieftains under the Raja, avakasam) to perform these services in limited to a single village and at most and which were in turn divided into the village of their birth. These service extended over two to four adjacent villages (desams). Political authority in rights, however, often cut across village small villages. Within this area (called the villages rested with the elder of the boundaries, and obligation involved tara Calicut and kata in Cochin) the wealthiest Nayar household. The village service to the appropriate upper-caste Nayars exercized judicial authority. lands were owned by the royal lineage household when required. Customary The area of social interaction for the itself, by the chieftains of the nads, by payment was in kind, and each servant Nayars, apart from their participation temples under Brahmin management, family held a house site and garden in war, was the nad. Among the chiefs or by a Nambudiri family, the latter from the landlord by hereditary right and royal lineages, such interaction was being most prevalent. The landlord and was provided with the materials limited to the kingdom. Only the Nam (jentni) could sell land only with the of his craft. budiri transcended the political unit to consent of the chieftain or Raja and a realm of horizontal interaction which then only to families of the appropriate Relationships of Servitude included the whole of Kerala, Thus, caste.

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