DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0466
456 Caste in relation to Trades and Industries.
Let us endeavour to draw a picture of one of these Indian
communities. In the first place we must bear in mind that
it consists mainly of tillers of the soil. At least three-fourths
of the whole body are common field-labourers. Each man
tills a small plot of ground of his own, which may vary in
extent according to his position and capabilities. In some
parts of India the cultivators form a separate caste, but as
a rule almost any low-caste man may become a tiller of the
ground. The implements are of the rudest kind. An Indian
plough is exactly what it was two or three thousand years
ago, not unlike a thin anchor, one claw of which pierces the
ground while the other is held by the ploughman. It may
be carried on a man's back, and scarcely does more than
scratch the soil.
How, then, does this body of agriculturists provide for the
management of its own affairs and the maintenance of order
and organization ? Each community forms itself into a little
republic; bound, however, to the central Government by the
regular payment of an assessment or tax on the produce.
The first step is to elect their Headman or President, who
is paid by a fixed proportion of the land, and is a kind of
mayor or civic magistrate. He is the chairman of the village
or town council—called a panchayat—a kind of local board,
which often holds its sittings under a large tree. He decides
disputes, apportions the labour and the amount of produce
each labourer is to receive as remuneration, and is responsible
for the annual proportion due to the Government. It will
astonish an English workman to learn that the amount of
grain required for the support of an adult man in Bengal
is only valued at three shillings a month, and for a woman
at eighteen pence. A whole family may be supported for
fourteen shillings a month.
The next important personage in the community is the
accountant or notary, a kind of local attorney, who transacts
the village business and keeps an account of the land, the
Let us endeavour to draw a picture of one of these Indian
communities. In the first place we must bear in mind that
it consists mainly of tillers of the soil. At least three-fourths
of the whole body are common field-labourers. Each man
tills a small plot of ground of his own, which may vary in
extent according to his position and capabilities. In some
parts of India the cultivators form a separate caste, but as
a rule almost any low-caste man may become a tiller of the
ground. The implements are of the rudest kind. An Indian
plough is exactly what it was two or three thousand years
ago, not unlike a thin anchor, one claw of which pierces the
ground while the other is held by the ploughman. It may
be carried on a man's back, and scarcely does more than
scratch the soil.
How, then, does this body of agriculturists provide for the
management of its own affairs and the maintenance of order
and organization ? Each community forms itself into a little
republic; bound, however, to the central Government by the
regular payment of an assessment or tax on the produce.
The first step is to elect their Headman or President, who
is paid by a fixed proportion of the land, and is a kind of
mayor or civic magistrate. He is the chairman of the village
or town council—called a panchayat—a kind of local board,
which often holds its sittings under a large tree. He decides
disputes, apportions the labour and the amount of produce
each labourer is to receive as remuneration, and is responsible
for the annual proportion due to the Government. It will
astonish an English workman to learn that the amount of
grain required for the support of an adult man in Bengal
is only valued at three shillings a month, and for a woman
at eighteen pence. A whole family may be supported for
fourteen shillings a month.
The next important personage in the community is the
accountant or notary, a kind of local attorney, who transacts
the village business and keeps an account of the land, the