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.