DOCSLIB.ORG

Temple-Entry Movement in Travancore, 1860-1940 Author(S): Robin Jeffrey Source: Social Scientist, Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Temple-Entry Movement in Travancore, 1860-1940 Author(S): Robin Jeffrey Source: Social Scientist, Vol Social Scientist Temple-Entry Movement in Travancore, 1860-1940 Author(s): Robin Jeffrey Source: Social Scientist, Vol. 4, No. 8 (Mar., 1976), pp. 3-27 Published by: Social Scientist Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516377 Accessed: 05-04-2020 11:23 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Social Scientist is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Scientist This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 05 Apr 2020 11:23:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ROBIN JEFFRET Temple-entry Movement in Travancore, i860-1940 AN EXTREME, yet popular view of the princely states suggests that they were sloughs of decadence and inertia, their people enduring unrelieved miseries, their rulers pursuing unspeakable pleasures. Only in the 1930s, if indeed then (so the argument runs), did Congress victories in the provinces, and the rising tide of nationalism, begin to ripple the stagnant waters of politics and society in the princely bog. For some states, such an appreciation may even be correct. However, in others there were vigorous political movements, involving large numbers of men, their course influenced far more by the peculiar nature of the princely-state arena than by developments in British India. Such a state was Travancore, which roughly corresponded to the southern half of today's Kerala. This article is a study of the movement among prospering low-caste Hindus for the right to enter schools, government service and ultimately government-controlled temples in a staunchly theocratic Hindu state. The right of temple-entry was within the gift of a strict, high-caste Maharaja (as it could never be within that of a British government) and was the ultimate "symbolic conversion of wealth into honour" for which educated men among the low castes strove from the 1890s. Initially a new, wider concept of caste developed, as college-educated men sought to involve their less wealthy and less educated castemen in a political community of This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 05 Apr 2020 11:23:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST such numbers and solidarity that the princely government would have to reckon with it. Issues of temples and religion were capable of arousing the interest of people from diverse educational and economic backgrounds, and in Travancore, moreover, even the poor tended to be literate. There were large numbers capable of being rallied. The princely government, caught between its trusteeship of Hindu orthodoxy and its desire to consolidate all its Hindus against the threat of Christian proselytizing, sharpened the issues first, by resisting low-caste pressures and then seeking to defuse them. By the time the definitive accommodation, the Temple Entry Proclamation of November 1936, had come about, thousands of literate, low-caste peasants and workers had acquired a keen political consciousness. This in turn was increasingly responsive to the rhetoric not merely of caste, but of class. State and Society at a Glance In discussing society in Travancore in the twentieth century, one encounters a problem of categories. Literacy in Travancore was higher than in any other state or province in India. Male literacy in 1931 was 41 per cent and in 1941, 68 per cent. In 1931, more than 70,000 Travan- coreans were literate in English out of a population of five million. Most of these 70,000 could probably be categorized as "middle class" in that at least part of their livelihood came from government service, teaching, law or clerical work. However, there were cash-crop farmers, merchants and small bankers who were not literate in English but who would fall into a "middle class" category. Moreover, of the more than two million Travan. coreans who were literate in 1931, large numbers were small landholders, tenants, landless labourers or factory workers. To be literate did not mean to be "middle class." Among Ezhavas, male literacy was 43 per cent in 1931, though Ezhavas were low caste and mainly poor labourers and tenants. I have tried to deal with this problem of useful categories by generally referring in the pre-1920 period to an "educated elite" which can be measured through the English-literacy statistics in the censuses. I begin to use the expression "middle class" only from the 1920s when the admittedly unsatisfactory economic data permit some tentative statements about class formation, and when Travancore politicians and labour leaders begin to use the rhetoric of class consciousness. Travancore covered an area of 7600 square miles, and among the princely states was exceeded in population only by Hyderabad and Mysore. It was the most literate state or province in India; by 1941 its male literacy rate had reached 68 per cent. It was also one of the most densely populated areas. Its population grew from 2,952,000 in 1901 to 6,070,000 in 1941, an increase of 106 per cent. The all-India population increased by 32 per cent in the same period.2 Much of the cultivable land in the state was, by the 1920s, given over to cash crops-coconut, pepper, cashew, cardamom, rubber, sugar This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 05 Apr 2020 11:23:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms TEMPLE-ENTRY MOVEMENT IN TRAVANCORE 5 cane and tea. European planters had opened estates in the Western Ghats, the border between Travancore and the Madras Presidency to the east in the 1860s, and from the 1880s the products of the coconut palm- copra, coconut oil, coir and coir matting-were increasingly commercial- ized and exported. By 1920 large numbers of Travancore landholders and labourers were involved with these crops and had come to depend on the cash economy created thereby.8 Two features of traditional society had struck European visitors since the sixteenth century. The first was the matrilineal system of family and inheritance followed by most caste-Hindus, particularly the Nairs, who formed the warrior-gentry. "These kings do not marry," the traveller Duarte Barbosa wrote in 1516, "only each has a mistress, a lady of great lineage and family, which is called Nayre." The second feature was the rigidity, refinement and ruthlessness of the system of caste. Men polluted their caste superiors not merely on touch but on sight. In the extreme case, a Pulaya was said to pollute a Nambudiri Brahmin from 95 paces. "When [the Nairs] walk along a street or road," wrote Barbosa, they shout to the low caste folk to get out of their way; this they do, and if one will not, the Nayre may kill him without punishment; even if he is a youth of good [high-caste] family but poor and worth- less, and he finds in his way a manl of low caste who is rich and respected and in favour with the King, yet he makes him clear the way for him as if he were a King.4 This was largely the system that the British found when they imposed a political Resident on Travancore in 1800. In the next 60 years, little attempt was made to tamper with the state's society or local politics. From the 1860s, however, powerful forces came increasingly to bear on the lives of Travancoreans. There were a number of reasons. Travan- core had fallen into grave disfavour with British governments in the 1850s for its careless, corrupt and cruel administration. In 1860 a young and well-educated Maharaja came to the throne. His Minister was his former tutor, a brilliant product of the formal English education offered in the Madras High School from the 1840s. British pressure to reform the administration complemented the enthusiasm of the Maharaja and his Minister to be seen as innovators and modernizers. The administration was increasingly centralized, examinations were introduced for govern- ment servants, commercial monopolies abolished, sweeping land reforms promulgated conferring ownership rights on thousands of government tenants, and a wide network of schools established. By the mid-1870s there were a thousand miles of roads where in the 1850s there had been no roads at all. European missionaries, more numerous in Travancore than in any comparable area of India, intensified their educational and proselytizing work among avarna (low-caste) Hindus. In the hills, European planters opened estates; in the port towns of Quilon and This content downloaded from 202.41.10.5 on Sun, 05 Apr 2020 11:23:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 6 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Alleppey, merchants, both European and Indian, began to export Travan- core crops. Travancore, according to the Secretary of State for India in 1867, had become a "model state."5 The Travancore government emphasized its modernity and efficiency in 1875 when it carried out the state's first "scientific" census on the lines of the British Indian census of 1871. The census put the population at 2,311,000-74 per cent Hindu, 20 per cent Christian and 6 per cent Muslim. Of the total population, about 40 per cent were avarna Hindus, and about a quarter savarna (high caste). This in itself was a surprise to those who had studied the earlier attempts at censuses in 1816, 1836 and 1854, all of which had put the savarna population well in excess of the avarna.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chapter Preview
    2 C. Rajagopalachari 1 An Illustrious Life Great statesman and thinker, Rajagopalachari was born in Thorapalli in the then Salem district and was educated in Central College, Bangalore and Presidency College, Madras. Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 - 25 December 1972), informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an eminent lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer, statesman and leader of the Indian National Congress who served as the last Governor General of India. He served as the Chief Minister or Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. He was the founder of the Swatantra Party and the first recipient of India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. Rajaji vehemently opposed the usage of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. He was also nicknamed the Mango of Salem. In 1900 he started a prosperous legal practise. He entered politics and was a member and later President of Salem municipality. He joined the Indian National Congress and participated in the agitations against the Rowlatt Act, the Non-cooperation Movement, the Vaikom Satyagraha and the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1930, he led the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in response to the Dandi March and courted imprisonment. In 1937, Rajaji was elected Chief Minister or Premier An Illustrious Life 3 of Madras Presidency and served till 1940, when he resigned due to Britain’s declaration of war against Germany. He advocated cooperation over Britain’s war effort and opposed the Quit India Movement. He favoured talks with Jinnah and the Muslim League and proposed what later came to be known as the “C.
    [Show full text]
  • The Socio-Economic Underpinnings of Vaikam Sathyagraha in Travancore
    © 2019 JETIR June 2019, Volume 6, Issue 6 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) Colonialism, Social Reform and Social Change : The Socio-Economic underpinnings of Vaikam Sathyagraha in Travancore Dr. Subhash. S Asst. Professor Department of History Government College , Nedumangadu Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala. Abstract Vaikam Sathyagraha was a notable historical event in the history of Travancore. It was a part of antiuntouchability agitation initiated by Indian National Congress in 1924. In Travancore the Sathyagraha was led by T.K.Madhavan. Various historical factors influenced the Sathyagraha. The social structure of Travancore was organised on the basis of cast prejudices and obnoxious caste practices. The feudal economic system emerged in the medieval period was the base of such a society. The colonial penetration and the expansion of capitalism destroyed feudalism in Travancore. The change in the structure of economy naturally changed the social structure. It was in this context so many social and political movements emerged in Travancore. One of the most important social movements was Vaikam Sathyagraha. The British introduced free trade and plantations in Travancore by the second half of nineteenth century. Though it helped the British Government to exploit the economy of Travancore, it gave employment opportunity to so many people who belonged to Avarna caste. More over lower castes like the Ezhavas,Shannars etc. economically empowered through trade and commerce during this period. These economically empowered people were denied of basic rights like education, mobility, employment in public service etc. So they started social movements. A number of social movements emerged in Travancore in the nineteenth century and the first half of twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • GALA Karuna Mantena
    General Aspects of Law GALA DEAN’S SEMINAR ROOM (215 BOALT HALL) THURSDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2012 4:10 – 6:00 PM “ANOTHER REALISM: THE POLITICS OF GHANDIAN NONVIOLENCE” By Karuna Mantena ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE YALE UNIVERSITY NOTE The GALA speaker will offer some brief introductory background remarks about the paper and the remainder of the time will be devoted to discussion. Participants are expected to read the paper in advance. Papers are distributed to those on our mailing list or electronically when available at the GALA website: < http://www.law.berkeley.edu/9264.htm>. Others may obtain copies from Ms. Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie at 510.642.3627 or [email protected]. Copies can be made available in an alternate format upon request. GALA events are wheelchair accessible. For any disability-related accommodations advance notice is requested. Another Realism: The Politics of Gandhian Nonviolence Karuna Mantena I. Introduction Political realism typically includes two interconnected claims: a view of politics in which power and conflict are taken to be constitutive and a suspicion of doctrines and theories that elide this fact as carelessly idealist or utopian. Realism is often equated with a kind of Machiavellianism, a hard-nosed insistence that norms of ordinary, individual, and/or legal morality have to be relaxed or superceded in the face of the contingency of political conflict or the intractability of ideological struggle.1 Here, realism reaches its denouement in the defense of power politics, reason of state, or
    [Show full text]
  • Caste, Materiality and Embodiment: Questioning the Idealism/ Materialism Debate
    Article CASTE: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 200–216 February 2020 brandeis.edu/j-caste ISSN 2639-4928 DOI: 10.26812/caste.v1i1.123 Caste, Materiality and Embodiment: Questioning the Idealism/ Materialism Debate Subro Saha1 (Bluestone Rising Scholar Honorable Mention 2019) Abstract Exploring the contingencies and paradoxes shaping the idealism/materialism separation in absolutist terms, this paper attempts to analyze the problems of such separatist tendencies in terms of dealing with the question of caste. Engaging with the problems of separating ‘idea’ and ‘matter’ in relation to the three dominant aspects that shape the conceptualisation of caste—origin(s), body, and society—the paper presents caste as an enmeshed idea-matter embrace that gains its circulation in practice through embodiment. Aiming to counter caste with its own logic and internal contradictions, the paper further proceeds to show that these three aspects that had otherwise been seen for a long time as shaping caste also contradict their own efficacy and logic. With such an approach the paper presents caste as a ghost that feeds on our embodied ideas. Further, bringing in the trope of (mis)reading, the paper tries to examine the intricacies haunting any attempt to deal with the ghost. The paper therefore, can be seen as a humble effort at reminding the necessity of reading the idea of caste in its spectralities and continuous figurations. Keywords Caste, idealism, materiality, touch, embodiment Introduction Despite all diverse attempts to get rid of caste, its persistence reminds us continuously of its haunting spectrality that even after so much beating refuses to die.1 It haunts us like a ghost whose origin and functional modalities continue to baffle us with its shifting trajectories and (trans)formative capacities, and thus continuously challenges our approaches to exorcise it.
    [Show full text]
  • CASTE SYSTEM in INDIA Iwaiter of Hibrarp & Information ^Titntt
    CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA A SELECT ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of iWaiter of Hibrarp & information ^titntt 1994-95 BY AMEENA KHATOON Roll No. 94 LSM • 09 Enroiament No. V • 6409 UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF Mr. Shabahat Husaln (Chairman) DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 1995 T: 2 8 K:'^ 1996 DS2675 d^ r1^ . 0-^' =^ Uo ulna J/ f —> ^^^^^^^^K CONTENTS^, • • • Acknowledgement 1 -11 • • • • Scope and Methodology III - VI Introduction 1-ls List of Subject Heading . 7i- B$' Annotated Bibliography 87 -^^^ Author Index .zm - 243 Title Index X4^-Z^t L —i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere and earnest thanks to my teacher and supervisor Mr. Shabahat Husain (Chairman), who inspite of his many pre Qoccupat ions spared his precious time to guide and inspire me at each and every step, during the course of this investigation. His deep critical understanding of the problem helped me in compiling this bibliography. I am highly indebted to eminent teacher Mr. Hasan Zamarrud, Reader, Department of Library & Information Science, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh for the encourage Cment that I have always received from hijft* during the period I have ben associated with the department of Library Science. I am also highly grateful to the respect teachers of my department professor, Mohammadd Sabir Husain, Ex-Chairman, S. Mustafa Zaidi, Reader, Mr. M.A.K. Khan, Ex-Reader, Department of Library & Information Science, A.M.U., Aligarh. I also want to acknowledge Messrs. Mohd Aslam, Asif Farid, Jamal Ahmad Siddiqui, who extended their 11 full Co-operation, whenever I needed.
    [Show full text]
  • Fuzzy and Neutrosophic Analysis of Periyar's Views
    FUZZY AND NEUTROSOPHIC ANALYSIS OF PERIYAR’S VIEWS ON UNTOUCHABILITY W. B. Vasantha Kandasamy Florentin Smarandache K. Kandasamy Translation of the speeches and writings of Periyar from Tamil by Meena Kandasamy November 2005 FUZZY AND NEUTROSOPHIC ANALYSIS OF PERIYAR’S VIEWS ON UNTOUCHABILITY W. B. Vasantha Kandasamy e-mail: [email protected] web: http://mat.iitm.ac.in/~wbv Florentin Smarandache e-mail: [email protected] K. Kandasamy e-mail: [email protected] Translation of the speeches and writings of Periyar from Tamil by Meena Kandasamy November 2005 2 Dedicated to Periyar CONTENTS Preface 5 Chapter One BASIC NOTION OF FCMs, FRMs, NCMs AND NRMS 1.1 Definition of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps 9 1.2 Fuzzy Cognitive Maps – Properties and Models 13 1.3 Fuzzy Relational Maps 18 1.4 An Introduction to Neutrosophy and some Neutrosophic algebraic structures 22 1.5 Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps 27 1.6 Neutrosophic Relational Maps — Definition with Examples 31 Chapter Two UNTOUCHABILITY: PERIYAR’S VIEW AND PRESENT DAY SITUATION A FUZZY AND NEUTROSOPHIC ANALYSIS 2.1 Analysis of untouchability due to Hindu religion using FCMs and NCMs 43 2.2 Analysis of discrimination faced by Dalits/ Sudras in the field of education as untouchables using FCMs and NCMs 58 2.3 Social inequality faced by Dalits and some of the most backward classes - an analysis using FCM and NCM 66 4 2.4 Problems faced by Dalits in the political arena due to discrimination – a FCM and NCM analysis 75 2.5 Study of Economic Status of Dalits due to untouchability using fuzzy and neutrosophic
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Pages.Qxd
    State Formation and Radical Democracy in India State Formation and Radical Democracy in India analyses one of the most important cases of developmental change in the twentieth century, namely, Kerala in southern India, and asks whether insurgency among the marginalized poor can use formal representative democracy to create better life chances. Going back to pre-independence, colonial India, Manali Desai takes a long historical view of Kerala and compares it with the state of West Bengal, which like Kerala has been ruled by leftists but has not experienced the same degree of success in raising equal access to welfare, literacy and basic subsistence. This comparison brings historical state legacies, as well as the role of left party formation and its mode of insertion in civil society to the fore, raising the question of what kinds of parties can effect the most substantive anti-poverty reforms within a vibrant democracy. This book offers a new, historically based explanation for Kerala’s post- independence political and economic direction, drawing on several comparative cases to formulate a substantive theory as to why Kerala has succeeded in spite of the widespread assumption that the Indian state has largely failed. Drawing conclusions that offer a divergence from the prevalent wisdoms in the field, this book will appeal to a wide audience of historians and political scientists, as well as non-governmental activists, policy-makers, and those interested in Asian politics and history. Manali Desai is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Kent, UK. Asia’s Transformations Edited by Mark Selden Binghamton and Cornell Universities, USA The books in this series explore the political, social, economic and cultural consequences of Asia’s transformations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • Paninian Studies
    The University of Michigan Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies MICHIGAN PAPERS ON SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA Ann Arbor, Michigan STUDIES Professor S. D. Joshi Felicitation Volume edited by Madhav M. Deshpande Saroja Bhate CENTER FOR SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Number 37 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Library of Congress catalog card number: 90-86276 ISBN: 0-89148-064-1 (cloth) ISBN: 0-89148-065-X (paper) Copyright © 1991 Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies The University of Michigan Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-89148-064-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-89148-065-5 (paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12773-3 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-472-90169-2 (open access) The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ CONTENTS Preface vii Madhav M. Deshpande Interpreting Vakyapadiya 2.486 Historically (Part 3) 1 Ashok Aklujkar Vimsati Padani . Trimsat . Catvarimsat 49 Pandit V. B. Bhagwat Vyanjana as Reflected in the Formal Structure 55 of Language Saroja Bhate On Pasya Mrgo Dhavati 65 Gopikamohan Bhattacharya Panini and the Veda Reconsidered 75 Johannes Bronkhorst On Panini, Sakalya, Vedic Dialects and Vedic 123 Exegetical Traditions George Cardona The Syntactic Role of Adhi- in the Paninian 135 Karaka-System Achyutananda Dash Panini 7.2.15 (Yasya Vibhasa): A Reconsideration 161 Madhav M. Deshpande On Identifying the Conceptual Restructuring of 177 Passive as Ergative in Indo-Aryan Peter Edwin Hook A Note on Panini 3.1.26, Varttika 8 201 Daniel H.
    [Show full text]
  • Why I Became a Hindu
    Why I became a Hindu Parama Karuna Devi published by Jagannatha Vallabha Vedic Research Center Copyright © 2018 Parama Karuna Devi All rights reserved Title ID: 8916295 ISBN-13: 978-1724611147 ISBN-10: 1724611143 published by: Jagannatha Vallabha Vedic Research Center Website: www.jagannathavallabha.com Anyone wishing to submit questions, observations, objections or further information, useful in improving the contents of this book, is welcome to contact the author: E-mail: [email protected] phone: +91 (India) 94373 00906 Please note: direct contact data such as email and phone numbers may change due to events of force majeure, so please keep an eye on the updated information on the website. Table of contents Preface 7 My work 9 My experience 12 Why Hinduism is better 18 Fundamental teachings of Hinduism 21 A definition of Hinduism 29 The problem of castes 31 The importance of Bhakti 34 The need for a Guru 39 Can someone become a Hindu? 43 Historical examples 45 Hinduism in the world 52 Conversions in modern times 56 Individuals who embraced Hindu beliefs 61 Hindu revival 68 Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj 73 Shraddhananda Swami 75 Sarla Bedi 75 Pandurang Shastri Athavale 75 Chattampi Swamikal 76 Narayana Guru 77 Navajyothi Sree Karunakara Guru 78 Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha 79 Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 79 Sarada Devi 80 Golap Ma 81 Rama Tirtha Swami 81 Niranjanananda Swami 81 Vireshwarananda Swami 82 Rudrananda Swami 82 Swahananda Swami 82 Narayanananda Swami 83 Vivekananda Swami and Ramakrishna Math 83 Sister Nivedita
    [Show full text]
  • 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(4), 755-759
    ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 7(4), 755-759 Journal Homepage: -www.journalijar.com Article DOI:10.21474/IJAR01/8882 DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/8882 RESEARCH ARTICLE THE FESTIVALS AND ADMINISTRATION OF VAIKOM TEMPLE – A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. Dr.P.Thangamuthu. Ph.D,Assistant Professor of History,PTMTM.College Kamuthi,Ramanathapuram District ,(Affiliated to Alagappa University). …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Manuscript Info Abstract ……………………. ……………………………………………………………… Manuscript History Received: 11 February 2019 Final Accepted: 13 March 2019 Published: April 2019 Copy Right, IJAR, 2019,. All rights reserved. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:- The southernmost part of the west of Malabar coast of the peninsular India is known as Kerala. It has been known by different names at different time such as Parasurama Kshetram, Malabar and Keralam. Traditionally Kerala extended from Kokarnum in the north to Capecomerin in the South. But now it stretches from Kasarcode in the north to Parasala in the south. It is bounded on the north by the State of Karnataka, on the south and east by the State of Tamil Nadu on the west by the Arabian sea. Annnamore, Wyndad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palghat, Trichur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alleppy, Quilon and Trivandrum are the district in this state. Kerala is not only a thickly populated state in the India subcontinent but also known for its forests, hills, forest and valleys. It is known for teak wood and rubber plantations. As elephants are available in plenty it is popular for ivory works. The Hindus, Christians and Muslims are the three major religious groups and among them the Hindus from a definite majority of about 60%.
    [Show full text]
  • Faculty of Juridical Sciences
    FACULTY OF JURIDICAL SCIENCES COURSE:BALLB Semester –IV SUBJECT: SOCIOLOGY-III SUBJECT CODE:BAL-401 NAME OF FACULTY: DR.SHIV KUMAR TRIPATHI Lecture-21 Varna (Hinduism) Varṇa (Sanskrit: व셍ण, romanized: varṇa), a Sanskrit word with several meanings including type, order, colour or class,[1][2] was used to refer to social classes in Hindu texts like the Manusmriti.[1][3][4] These and other Hindu texts classified the society in principle into four varnas:[1][5] Brahmins: priests, scholars and teachers. Kshatriyas: rulers, warriors and administrators. [6] Vaishyas: agriculturalists and merchants. Shudras: laborers and service providers. Communities which belong to one of the four varnas or classes are called savarna or "caste Hindus". The Dalits and tribes who do not belong to any varna were called avarna.[7][8] This quadruple division is a form of social stratification, quite different from the more nuanced system Jātis which correspond to the European term "caste".[9] The varna system is discussed in Hindu texts, and understood as idealised human callings.[10][11] The concept is generally traced to the Purusha Sukta verse of the Rig Veda. The commentary on the Varna system in the Manusmriti is oft-cited.[12] Counter to these textual classifications, many Hindu texts and doctrines question and disagree with the Varna system of social classification.[13] Etymology and origins The Sanskrit term varna is derived from the root vṛ, meaning "to cover, to envelop, count, classify consider, describe or choose" (compare vṛtra).[14] The word appears
    [Show full text]
  • Caste & Untouchability
    Paggi fr. Luigi s.x. * * * * * * * * Caste & untouchability Pro Manuscripto Title: Caste & untouchability. A study-research paper in the Indian Subcontinent Authored by: Paggi fr. Luigi sx Edited by: Jo Ellen Fuller- 2002 Photographs by: Angelo fr. Costalonga sx Printed by: “Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico di Parma” - 2005 © 2005 Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico © Paggi fr. Luigi sx A few years ago, my confreres (Xaverian Missionaries working in Bangladesh) requested that I conduct a four-day course on caste and untouchability. Probably, I benefited as much from teaching the course as my student-confreres did since the process helped me crystallize my ideas about Hinduism and the ramifications of certain aspects of this religion upon the cultures of the subcontinent. From time to time, I am invited to different places to deliver lectures on these two topics. I usually accept these invitations because I am convinced that those who would like to do something to change the miserable lot of so many poor people living in the Indian Subcontinent must be knowledgeable about the caste system and untouchability. People need to be aware of the negative effect and the impact of these two social evils regarding the abject misery and poverty of those who are at the bot- tom of the greater society. It seems that people living in the Indian Subcontinent , no matter which reli- gion they belong to, are still affected (consciously or unconsciously) by these as- pects of Hinduism that have seeped into other religions as well. In order to prepare myself for the task of lecturing (on caste and untoucha- bility), I read and studied many books, magazines and articles on these two evil institutions of Hinduism, which have affected the social life of most of the people living in the Indian Subcontinent.
    [Show full text]