DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31218#0280
THE CASTE SYSTEM OF NORTHERN INDIA
of meanness and industrious beyond comparison. If his
crops fail, it is sheer hard luck. . . . His fault is quarrel-
someness; and in litigation he never knows when he is
beaten.’1 As in litigation, so in agriculture—he never
knows when he is beaten. He spends his life in quarrel-
ling with nature. The Jat never says die : according to
the proverb, ‘Jat viara tab janiye jab terahwin gusar jae’
(Never be sure that a Jat is dead till the days of mourning
for him are over).
As for the Kurmi, he is even more canny in money
matters than the Jat, though less quarrelsome. Most
moneylenders amongst the tenantry are Kurmis. It is
reported from one registration office in the Basti district
where the Kurmis are particularly strong in number,
that of the total sum which passes from lender to borrower
in a certain tahsil, the Kurmi contributes a full half.
Generally, his own indebtedness is small, and he has
money to put by at the end of the year. His ambition
is ahvays the acquisition of additional land. For the
rest, there is nothing to choose between the Jat and the
Kurmi. ‘The Ivurmi is always planting whether his crop
lives or dies.’
The main reason for the growing poverty of the Mus-
lims in this province is their high cost of
14. Musiim in- living as compared with that of other
debtedness communities. The Muslim has not ad-
justed himself to changed circumstances,
and still adheres to the habits and ways which charac-
terized him during the decadence of Muslim rule
in India. His standard of living is infinitely more
expensive than that of the Hindu, and always up to, if
not beyond, his income. Hospitality, moreover, is to
him almost a religious duty. ‘God’s angels do not visit
a house where there are no guests.’ The charge of
thriftlessness can be more justifiably laid at the door of
the Muslim than of the Hindu peasant. His economic
position is also seriously affected by the Muslim law of
1 Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh, Vol. III,
p. 40.
266
of meanness and industrious beyond comparison. If his
crops fail, it is sheer hard luck. . . . His fault is quarrel-
someness; and in litigation he never knows when he is
beaten.’1 As in litigation, so in agriculture—he never
knows when he is beaten. He spends his life in quarrel-
ling with nature. The Jat never says die : according to
the proverb, ‘Jat viara tab janiye jab terahwin gusar jae’
(Never be sure that a Jat is dead till the days of mourning
for him are over).
As for the Kurmi, he is even more canny in money
matters than the Jat, though less quarrelsome. Most
moneylenders amongst the tenantry are Kurmis. It is
reported from one registration office in the Basti district
where the Kurmis are particularly strong in number,
that of the total sum which passes from lender to borrower
in a certain tahsil, the Kurmi contributes a full half.
Generally, his own indebtedness is small, and he has
money to put by at the end of the year. His ambition
is ahvays the acquisition of additional land. For the
rest, there is nothing to choose between the Jat and the
Kurmi. ‘The Ivurmi is always planting whether his crop
lives or dies.’
The main reason for the growing poverty of the Mus-
lims in this province is their high cost of
14. Musiim in- living as compared with that of other
debtedness communities. The Muslim has not ad-
justed himself to changed circumstances,
and still adheres to the habits and ways which charac-
terized him during the decadence of Muslim rule
in India. His standard of living is infinitely more
expensive than that of the Hindu, and always up to, if
not beyond, his income. Hospitality, moreover, is to
him almost a religious duty. ‘God’s angels do not visit
a house where there are no guests.’ The charge of
thriftlessness can be more justifiably laid at the door of
the Muslim than of the Hindu peasant. His economic
position is also seriously affected by the Muslim law of
1 Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh, Vol. III,
p. 40.
266