THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 9, 1952 VILLAGE STRUCTURE IN NORTH KERALA Eric J. Miller

(The material on which this article is based, was collected during fieldwork in Malabar District and Cochin State from October 1947 to July 1949),

ROFESSOR M. N. SRINIVAS the villages more scattered and iso­ lineal group of castes" which form, P prefaced his excellent article on lated, in contrast to the thicker set­ so to speak, the middle-class back­ ' The Social Structure of a Mysore tlement of the rice-growing areas in bone of the society. Traditionally Village," published in The Econo­ the south. The southern village is soldiers, and today often in govern­ mic Weekly of October 30, 1951, often an island " of houses and ment service, the Nayars are prima­ with an account of the chief types trees surrounded by a ''sea " of rily farmers. Ranking slightly above of village organization in India. paddy. In the north the paddy- Nayars are some small castes of Although the presence of caste prob­ fields more frequently resemble lakes temple servants. The lowest Nayar ably reduces the possible types to a or rivers—indeed they often tend sub-castes are washermen and bar­ finite number, local variations in the to be long narrow strips, irrigated bers for all higher groups. caste system, in the proportion of the from a central stream-, with the non-Hindu population, in economy. houses hidden among the trees on All these are caste-Hindus, and in topography, and in other factors, the surrounding slopes. from the chieftain castes down all have all contributed to produce are Sudras. This latter group shares Instead of living huddled in a considerable differences in different what is in many respects a common street, as so many other Indians do. regions. Prominent among the fac­ culture, made the more uniform by the Malayali prefers the privacy of tors that have distinguished the the system of hypergamy, by which his own fenced compound, at a dis­ Malabar Coast from the rest of men of the higher castes and sub- tance from his neighbours. The India in this respect are its relative castes took wives from groups below density of palm trees, plantains, and isolation between the Western Ghats them a practice' now being super­ other vegetation often renders one and the sea, its unique and former­ seded by a greater degree of endo- house invisible from the next. In ly very strong gradation of castes, gamous marriage. The marriage localities where paddy-fields are lew, and its division into powerful, if links of the chieftain castes (and settlement of this kind may be con­ fluid, chiefdoms, some of which sometimes of the superior Nayars) tinuous for miles in -one direction survive vestigially today. with the- Nambudiris forged some or another, with no obvious terri­ kind of unity among all caste- Even within the area, the man­ torial boundaries to individual vil­ Hindus. ner in which village communities lages. Even the- poorest household­ are organized varies considerably er of the lowest caste lives a little Nayars comprise about one quar­ between one locality and the next. apart from his neighbours and kin, ter of the Hindu population, and No attention is paid in this article though often on a perimeter of the the other caste-Hindus less than ten to the many predominantly Muslim village or close to the fields. With per cent: the remaining two-thirds (Mappila) communities in the this exception, settlement is usually are polluting castes. 'These fall into southern taluks of Malabar district, haphazard, with no special tenden­ two broad groups. The upper group nor to the villages in Travancore cy for houses of a particular caste" includes a populous caste of labour­ arid Cochin where Syrian Christians to cluster together. ers and small tenants, known, in dif­ are in a majority. These require ferent regions, as Tiyyas or Iravas, It is necessary here to give some together with lesser castes of car­ separate treatment. Despite the account of the more important uniform administration through vil­ penters, smiths, physicians, washer­ caste divisions of North Kerala. Of men, etc. Below these are many lage officials which has been super­ the- four varnas there are practi­ imposed over the whole of Malabar inferior polluting castes of basket- cally no Kshatriyas and few, if any. makers, cobblers, and other artisans, district and Cochin State, with but indigenous Vaisya castes: the bulk minor discrepancies, there neverthe­ musicians, devil-dancers, beggars, of the population comprises Sudras and, most numerous, landless labour­ less remain appreciable variations in and untouchables. ers who were formerly agrestic structure even among overwhelm­ serfs. ingly Hindu villages. An attempt is Nambudiri Brahmans are a small made here to provide a general but important patrilineal (makka- Within the village, caste rank was picture of village structure in North thayam) caste at the top of the and still is -closely correlated Kerala, rather than to concentrate Hindu scale. Titularly the priests of with relationship to the land, espe­ on the detailed organization of a the community, many of them are- cially paddy-land. In North Mala­ single village. also wealthy landlords. Ranking bar the headman family of the vil­ ritually below them, but economical­ A broad distinction may be drawn lage sometimes still remains the chief ly as powerful or more so, are vari­ land-owner, while in the south the between the northern part of Mala­ ous chieftain castes who are maru- landlord may more often be- a bar district (briefly referred to as makkathayam, reckoning descent Nambudiri or a temple devaswam, North Malabar) on the one hand, through the female line. One or two in which case the headman family and Cochin State together with the of them claim Kshatriya rank and will have some freehold fields and southern taluks of Malabar district precedence among them is constantly hold the rest as a tenant. Although (South Malabar) on the other. This in dispute. All of them, separately the headman family may till more is partly connected with the former­ and together, are normally exogam- than enough land for its own needs, ly greater autonomy of local chief­ ous, giving their.women in marriage the bulk of it is parcelled out among tains and headmen in the north, to Nambudiris while their men take tenants, who may cultivate it them­ where the terrain is more hilly and wives from Nayars -the large patri- selves or sub-lease it yet again. Nam- 159 February 9, 1952 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY budiris and chieftain, castes tend to to most important rulers, such as the maintaining law and order among be land-owners; the higher Nayar Maharaja of Cochin and the Zamo- the lower castes and a right to in­ sub-castes are either land-owners or rin of Calicut, The size and im­ tercede in their disputes. The Tiyya non-cultivating tenants ( " customary portance of any territorial unit, elder of the village had to be pre­ kanamdars ") ; the inferior Nayars from village upwards, was reckoned sent at weddings in the artisan and some Tiyyas are cultivating sub­ in terms of,the number of able-bodi­ castes and he or his representative tenants, either on permanent leases ed Nayar warriors it could supply. had to accompany the marriage pro­ ("cultivating kanamdars"') or on The ritual authority of Nambudiri cession if it went to another village. annual leases (verrumpattamdars) ; Brahmans (who were partly superior Individual Nayars (perhaps a land­ the majority of upper polluting to terrestrial divisions) and the poli­ lord of one of the disputants) and castes are landless labourers; while tical authority of kings and chief­ the desavari, if necessary, arbitrated the lower polluting castes were until tains acted as a check on each other in cases that Tiyyas failed to settle. recently serfs, tied to a particular The Nayars, by the possibility of Serious punishments such as ex­ block of land, and, if the land was transferring allegiance to another communication required the appro­ transferred, themselves automatical­ ruler, could prevent chieftains from val of the desavari (or, where higher ly transferred to the new owner. becoming too autocratic; but it was castes were involved, of a superior very seldom that the Nayar assem­ ruler), who was also responsible for Since, in a village there were: blies even threatened to apply this seeing that the punishment was pro­ scarcely any families which, at some sanction. perly carried out. time of the year, did not have a connection with the land even it The consistency between this de­ The main structural cleavages only to supply supplementary labour legation of authority and distance were between territorial units vil­ for the harvest , this relationship to pollution scarcely needs emphasis: lages, chiefdoms, kingdoms- not be­ the land of the various social group­ whereas Nayars could not inconveni­ tween castes. Inter-caste relations ings was an important expression of ently settle Tiyya disputes at the were, on the contrary, of a com­ their differential rank. The society statutory distance of 24. feet, the dis­ plementary nature, involving tradi­ also provided more detailed criteria pensation of justice to the lower tionally ordained and clear-cut rights of a ritual and occupational nature, serf castes at 64 feet would have and obligations, authority and sub­ which clarified the rank of each been a less tractable problem. Ap­ ordination, juridical authority neat­ caste in relation to all others of the proach of the lower castes closer than ly coincided with political authority locality. Disputes over precedence these distances was, of course, pol­ and economic power, and the politi­ between castes within a village are luting to the Nayars. cal and juridical authority of head­ a novelty: formerly there existed no men and chieftains was also but­ Obviously then was scope in such opportunity for social relations (ex­ tressed ritually by trusteeship of the a system for individual acts of op­ cept warlike relations) between in­ chief temples in their area, and in pression: the universal value of the dividuals of castes whose mutual certain other ways. society, that status was to be res­ rank and corresponding behaviour pected and defended, made them were not accurately predetermined. possible. Any sense of injustice, The village was the desam; the The village, containing a cross- however, was felt only towards the headman was the desavari. In the individual who had exceeded his section of interdependent castes south the authority of the desavari (usually between 15 and 25)), was rights and was not extended to a was somewhat curtailed by the cleavage between castes or between more or less self-subsistent. The strength of the Nayar assemblies, local members of each caste were ruler and subject. As in all hierar­ since he could take no action of chical systems of this kind, what united by kinship bonds. In spite of which they disapproved without los­ the hypergamy already mentioned, was suffered from a superior could ing the allegiance of arms on which be inflicted on an inferior. An op­ they were mainly endogamous. Each his position so greatly depended. had its own internal administration pressor also had supernatural retri­ He was to some extent primus inter bution to fear. Furthermore, the under its more prominent elders, pans. Though he was in charge of and in extent this organization was society was united by the common administering the village temple, it philosophy of dharma, that the usually co-terminous with the vil­ was only as chairman of a commit­ lage, unless local membership of greatest good is to behave according tee of hereditary trustees, also gen­ to one'S station in life. If a man the caste was very small or very erally Nayars. Administration of large. There was often a Nambudiri committed adultery with a woman justice consisted mainly in ratifying of higher caste, for example, it was family which provided priests for the decisions of Nayar elders. local temple, but it was the Nayar a threat to the status quo of the caste which held the political autho­ whole society. His own caste-fellows rity and economic control, The Every caste in the village, as we disapproved of his (rime- indeed, hereditary village headship normal­ have seen, bad some sort of internal sin as strongly as the caste of the ly belonged to the wealthiest Nayar organization through which internal degraded woman. Excommunica­ family (which was often of a slight­ disputes could he settled. In the tion was automatic for both. A ly higher sub-caste than the others), lowest castes of serfs this was often family failing to disown such a de­ and while all castes had some, kind inadequate, since then- were and linquent member was itself liable to (A authority over those below them there remain cleavages between local excommunication, but it would it was the Nayar caste which was factions owing allegiance to differ­ seldom refrain from holding the ap­ most concerned in maintaining local ent landholders. Within the village propriate, death ceremonies to cut law and order. there was a constant tendency for off the sinner. In this way, the con­ disputes unsettled inside the caste servation of the way of life of each Villages were grouped into petty to be referred upwards to a caste caste and of the whole village was states under higher chieftains, and higher in the scale. The large Tiyya a responsibility shared by every indi­ these in turn often owed allegiance caste had some responsibility for vidual. THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 9, 1952

161 February 9, 1952 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY Since the British took over the a recognizable community life of its the old system were the obvious administration of Malabar at the own, is; I believe, .mainly the result candidates for the new posts. In end of the eighteenth century, of the tremendous population in­ most villages they were given these changes (foreshadowed during the creases during the last 150 years. positions, on the implicit under­ Mysorean invasions of the preceding Sectors of former desams are now standing that, subject to good be­ forty years) have been numerous desams in their own right, with their haviour, the headship would remain and far-reaching. The large chief­ own separate temples, accepted vested in the family. Naturally tain families were given political leaders, and, in many cases, inter­ there has been wastage, but in many pensions in exchange for their former nally operative caste committees. villages the traditional desavari fa­ sovereignty, and the boundaries of In Cochin State, where officially the mily still supplies the adhigari the new administrative divisions only unit is unrecognized, and where an vaguely coincided with the old chief- ancient desam may now have been Important difference's have arisen doms. Such authority as the chiefs carved into two or three separate between such villages and those retained was a by-product of their villages, this process of fission is where the adhigdri is simply a low- economic ascendancy as great land­ often clearer. One desam in central. ranking government employee with lords and of their caste rank. The Cochin, for example, had consisted the appropriate, residential and edu­ existence of a gradation of caste of four hamlets, spread out on the cational qualifications. In this lat­ rank continues to be acknowledged, four sides of an important Bhadra- ter type of village, if the headman even though the correlated ele­ kali temple. The whole locality was family of the old system survives at ments of differential political, juri­ previously administered by the eccle­ all it has lost most of the economic dical, and economic rank have in siastical commissioners of a larger and other sanctions behind its form­ many cases been greatly blurred; temple devasvam, and for -internal er authority and it has gained none and although caste is no longer the administrative purposes a joint com­ of the new ones. Such a village is only factor determining social rela­ mittee of Nayars from the desam less of an entity and much more tions of superordination and sub­ replaced a desavari Growth of closely caught up in the groupings ordination, it is still the most impor­ population, especially in the hamlet and cleavages of modern society. tant one. Wealth and positions in nearest to an expanding town, led In villages where the modern government service provide new de­ to fission of the desam into four headship remains vested in the terminants of status, but they re­ smaller desams. Each now has its family that held it traditionally, main the preserves of the higher own Nayar committee, and the an­ there is a very different picture, castes sufficiently to hinder the de­ nual festival at the Bhadrakali tern- more particularly in North Malabar. cline of caste rank as a determinant pie is organized by each desam in Certain powerful Nayar joint-fami­ in itself. turn, instead of being collectively lies still hold sway over the several organized by the- four hamlets. modern desams that make up their These changes have affected vil­ Neither the incorporation of the former single desams. The senior lages as well as chiefdoms (nads). four desams as parts of three sepa­ member of such a family is some­ For administrative purposes, Mala­ rate administrative Villages, nor times called yajamanan, or lord. bar district has been divided into their former unity, affects the fact Some of his ritual sanctions have taluks, firkas (areas used only in that each is now a separate village lost their force. Under modern con­ connection with collecting land re­ community. ditions there is less meaning, for ex­ venue) , amsams, and desams. The ample, or to deprive a woman of so-called village headman [adhi- In some areas, however. more matin (a purificatory cloth with gdri) and accountant menon) are particularly in North Malabar, which higher caste women are sup­ in charge- of an am mm. The am- either a smaller increase in popula­ plied, after menstrual periods, by a satn sometimes roughly coincides tion, or else surviving power of a low-caste washerwoman). The eco­ with a former desam (i.e., the realm hereditary desavari, has hindered nomic sanctions for his political and of a desavari) but it is often the development of modern desams juridical authority nevertheless re­ larger; and the modern desam as relatively separate communities. main, and to these are added the which is merely the smallest unit for Then- the amsam, coinciding with a sanctions issuing from his position revenue- and survey purposes, has former desam, remains the social in the modern administration. He no official attached to it and is fre­ unit, held together by allegiance to thus derives from two sources quently only a small sector of a the former desavari family in spite downwards from the state and up­ former desam. In Cochin State of the- fissiparous tendencies of the wards from the village community. administrative changes have been more recently created desams into It is his position as landlord, simihir. The village (a word now- which it is nowadays divided. however, which seems to be the most used in the vernacular and equi­ One factor that has operated in compelling factor in his authority. valent to the Malabar amsam) is. many places to keep internal village In such a village the traditional sets however, the smallest unit, under structure relatively intact, despite of rights and obligations between the headship of a parvadyam, and sweeping changes in the broader castes and values of superiority and the desam, though it exists as a sub­ political structure, has been the me­ inferiority based on rank remain division of the village, is not recog­ thod of selecting candidates to be­ strong. The territorial loyalty which nized for official purposes. In Co­ come adhigaris. From the begin­ unifies the village community there is chin also, groups of villages are as­ ning, in addition to their primary much more potent than the conflict­ sembled into panchayats. duty of collecting revenue, they ing modern loyalty to one's own It is important to recognize this were empowered to try minor civil caste over a wider area. The recent distinction between the twentieth and criminal cases. Except where tendency elsewhere for lower castes century desam. and the pre-British they had been obstructive, or had to settle internal disputes internally, desam. That the present-day de­ vanished in the turmoil of the and thus to shake off dependence sam can generally be called, for Mysorcan invasions and their after­ on higher castes, is much less notice­ sociological purposes, a village, with math, the hereditary desavaris of able in such villages: upward refer- THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 9, 1952 for disputes for settlement is inccssarv. Even today pitched bat­ Many families are still bound toge­ apparently as prevalent as ever and tles are occasionally fought between ther in their ancient master-servant serves to bolster the ascendancy of retainers of two yajamanans who relationship. In villages near the Nayars in general and of the both claim suzerainty over a mar­ towns, increasing numbers of people yajamanan in particular. And in ginal area. have abandoned traditional occu­ spite of the strong Hindu-Muslim Power of the northern yajam- pations for labour in industry; but cleavage in India as a whole, quar­ nan's family is implemented not only there are few instances of Hindus rels within a local Muslim minority by its managing trusteeship of the entering occupations proper to are not infrequently referred to the village temple but by its ownership castes other than their own. yajamanan for mediation. of a collection of shrines to local Despite population growth and There is a special interest in this deities, whose propitiation often re­ movement every village retains a aspect of the yajamanan's functions. mains the most important local fes­ nucleus of families from all castes Disputes among Nayars and all low­ tival of the year. Like temple festi­ who have lived then- from time- er castes tend to be referred either to vals, these exciting and colourful immemorial. Immigrant families, leading Nayars or to the headman propitiation ceremonies require even down to the fifth generation, himself, in his capacity either as active co-operation of a wide range are remembered as foreigners ", yajamanan or as adhigari. Owing of castes- perhaps twenty from though they may have intermarried to the increasingly circumscribed the area of the yajamanan's autho­ extensively with native families of official authority of the adhigari, rity. Certain families have the their own sub-caste. Partly because and proliferation of his relatively hereditary duty of supplying parti­ of population movements, however, menial duties, the post is now not cipants. Such a yajamanan also re­ and more especially because of its one that the senior member of a tains feudal rights and obligations lack of compactness, the Kerala wealthy family is usually willing to at minor ceremonies, weddings, and village is probably a less self-con­ hold himself; it might indeed de­ so on. tained entity than its counterparts elsewhere in India. tract from his hereditary prestige. All over North Kerala, the extent More often, therefore, it is given to to which the various castes still As Professor Srinivas points out, a younger member of the family. play their traditional roles at the we must distinguish between the This man's status, however, is de­ village temple festival indicates the " vertical unity of many castes ", fined by the villagers in terms rather extent to which the complementary which is the village, and the hori­ of his family membership than of interdependence of castes survives zontal unity of individual tastes, his official position, with the anomal­ in the village. Temple- entry (dat­ with affiliations over a wide area. ous result that, if two disputants ing from 1947 in Malabar district One can picture a vast expanse of bring a case before him and one of and from 1948 in Cochin State) Neapolitan ice cream, with its them is dissatisfied with the verdict, contradicts the principles of the layers of pink, green, white, and an appeal is often made not to the temple festival, which was ritually yellow! cut into individual por­ next higher civil court but to the an epitome of caste interdepend­ tions-- the villages , which contain yajamanan himself, as senior mem­ ence: temple entry gives all castes a fair share of each colour. ber of the adhigari's family. an equal right to visit all parts of In Kerala, at least, however, the I have heard such a yajamanan the temple, whereas one of the structure is not quite so simple as speak as if he felt a moral obliga­ cardinal functions of the temple that. In a Cochin village, for tion not to let disputes go outside festival is to express the differential example, the low caste of Velans the village to the courts for settle­ rank of castes in terms of spatial may provide washerwomen to ment. His method, he said, in distance the lowest castes being launder regularly for Iravas and to stubborn cases, was '' to induce a those furthest removed from the supply purificatory cloths ( mattu) spirit of compromise by repeated sanctum sanctorum. Even before on special occasions for Nayars. In adjournments ". Settlements achiev­ universal temple- entry, however, such a case half-a-dozen Velan ed within his domain are, of course, participation of lower castes in families may do the Irava work a constant implementation of his temple festivals had begun to fall while two more' restrict themselves authority and prestige, and also an off, especially in village's where the to serving Nayars. (It is this sort addition to his income, since un­ upper castes--primarily Nayars of distinction that could lead to the official litigants coming to him had lost, through excessive parti­ formation of separate sub-castes.) always bring gifts in kind. (This tion of joint-family property, their Alternatively, the family of such a tribute is often given too when economic ascendancy and corres­ caste may serve only a certain sec­ cases go before the adhigari.) Apart ponding control. tor of the village. On the other from disputes over property, which It would nevertheless be difficult hand. a family of the Kanisan form the majority of those which to find a village where very many (astrologer) caste might have less the yajamanan is called upon to examples of the interdependence of than enough work in its own vil­ settle, cases of assault, malicious castes do not survive, not only in lage. A, and be the official astro­ damage to crops, trespass, etc., come its economic but in its more ritual loger family serving the adjoining before him and the fines he exacts aspects. In spite of district and village B as well. Basket-making often go into his own purse.. Kerala-wide organizations of indivi­ families in B might serve villages The yajamanan still usually has dual castes that have sprung up in A and C in addition to their own. the authority to see that his deci­ recent years to reform internal The family of a small sub-caste sions are carried out and to prevent customs along the lines of all- that cuts hair and assists at funerals cases from going to court. Since Indian Hinduism, and, perhaps, to of the blacksmith and carpenter most disputants are tenants of his obtain political representation, these castes may well have a clientele in own family he can hold the threat practices continue. Convention is a dozen other villages. of eviction over their heads, while too strong to allow them to fall Again, in Cochin, if two Nayars his retainers can resort to force if .into disuse for many years to come. meet as strangers, the regular ques- 163 February 9, 1952 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY tion asked is not " What village do but for the overwhelming majority may retain its former political and you come from? ", but " Whose of castes, the nad was the outside juridical cohesion. In such cases Nayar are you? " This refers to a limit of any internal administration, the blossoming of its modern con­ special link existing between every which seldom extended so far. As stituent desams into independent Nayar family (at least of the Sudra already mentioned, internal organi­ village communities has been inhi­ Nayar sub-caste) and a particular zation of castes over wider regions bited; but more frequently the Nambudiri family, to which it owes is a modern phenomenon, and so modern desam has acquired a com­ special services of a semi-ritual also is conflict between castes munity life of its own, perhaps nature. Although Nambudiri fami­ within the village. focussed on a " great family" and temple which were formerly subor­ lies often take village names, a We see therefore that village Sudra Nayar family may owe obli­ unity in North Kerala is a some­ dinate to an external desavari. gations to Nambudiris in quite a what nebulous conception. A phy­ The same considerations apply to different village. sical, territorial unity may exist, but the ritual unity of a village: the chief temple festival of the year The " vertical" system of rights it is often not obvious, because of may be at the desam temple, or it and obligations between castes is scattered settlement. Close neigh­ may occur at a temple shared by therefore not confined to the vil­ bours may belong to different neighbouring desams. lage. Indeed, this overlapping is desams, and the modern often arbitrary administrative divisions probably one of the factors for­ Thus, although any sociological may mean that a cluster of families merly contributing to the unity of investigator in Kerala may provi­ the nad (chiefdom). on the perimeter of one desam have more social relations in the next sionally take the modern desam as The horizontal layers of our desam than in their own. Econo­ a suitable unit for study, he must Neapolitan ice the castes extend mic unity may be modified by the examine the scale of social relations over wide areas, sharing a common extension of caste obligations to of all kinds over a broader area. culture; but previously only Nam­ several villages or their restriction Whatever internal self-subsistence budiris and Nayars had any form to a segment of a single village. there may have been in the desams of organization deployed beyond The amsam, the modern adminis­ of the. eighteenth century and ear­ the nad. Occasionally there was a trative unit, is sometimes co-exten­ lier, it is very difficult nowadays in conference of Nayars of a wider sive with a former desam, and if Kerala to point to any unit as a area (perhaps at a trial of strength the desavari or yajamanan family clearly demarcated, coherent, inde- between Nayars of two chiefdoms). remains powerful enough the unit pendent village community.