DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0239
CASTE AND MARRIAGE
205
not have been aware that the very problem which they were
engaged in discussing had been successfully approached in
Rajputana nearly twenty years ago. In the face of that
illustration of what people can do for themselves we may be
absolved from discussing in detail the scheme for permissive
legislation propounded by Sardar Arjun Singh. Few persons
will share its author's belief, so characteristic of the modern
Indian, in the efficacy of a public meeting as an instrument
of social reform ; while no one can fail to be struck by the
Pathetic admission of one of his critics that
.... , _ ,. . , . . Prospects of
young men brought up on English history reform.
and literature, and more or less imbued with
European ideas of domestic morality, find their worst foes in
the ladi es of their own households. The fact, of course, is
that in matters of this kind the Anglicised middle classes are
hardly in a position to give a decisive lead. Their social
standing is not such as to command universal respect, and
their orthodoxy is often open to suspicion. The people who
can exercise a real influence and set an example that will be
followed are, in the first place, the ancient aristocracy of
India, the men who in Rajputana have created and carried
°n the Walterkrit Sabha. Below them, as the working agents
who will transmit to the masses the impulsive proceeding
from their natural leaders, come the panchayats or caste
councils, the caste and clan Brahmans, the genealogists and
astrologers, the village barbers, and the professional match
takers, male and female, who conduct the elaborate process
of haggling by which Hindu marriages are put on the market.
The influence of the ghataks or marriage brokers is very great.
Five hundred years ago a famous ghatak remodelled for
■Patrimonial purposes the highest sub-caste of Bengal Brahmans,
ar>d his classification holds good to the present day. The
caste councils, which bear a sort of resemblance to a club
committee, are equally powerful, and perhaps more accessible
than the ghataks to liberal ideas. Both have the utmost
respect for the Hindu scriptures coupled with the scantiest
knowledge of their contents, and reforms on the Rajputana
hnes might with equal regard for truth and expediency be
Presented to their minds as a revival of pristine usage making
fc^r ceremonial righteousness.* _
[* "A society, called the Hindu Marriage Reform League, lias been started by Hindu gentle-
en in Calcutta with the object of raising the age, at which girls can be given in marriage,
to iG years. fill recently such attempts have been made only by the higher castes, but the
205
not have been aware that the very problem which they were
engaged in discussing had been successfully approached in
Rajputana nearly twenty years ago. In the face of that
illustration of what people can do for themselves we may be
absolved from discussing in detail the scheme for permissive
legislation propounded by Sardar Arjun Singh. Few persons
will share its author's belief, so characteristic of the modern
Indian, in the efficacy of a public meeting as an instrument
of social reform ; while no one can fail to be struck by the
Pathetic admission of one of his critics that
.... , _ ,. . , . . Prospects of
young men brought up on English history reform.
and literature, and more or less imbued with
European ideas of domestic morality, find their worst foes in
the ladi es of their own households. The fact, of course, is
that in matters of this kind the Anglicised middle classes are
hardly in a position to give a decisive lead. Their social
standing is not such as to command universal respect, and
their orthodoxy is often open to suspicion. The people who
can exercise a real influence and set an example that will be
followed are, in the first place, the ancient aristocracy of
India, the men who in Rajputana have created and carried
°n the Walterkrit Sabha. Below them, as the working agents
who will transmit to the masses the impulsive proceeding
from their natural leaders, come the panchayats or caste
councils, the caste and clan Brahmans, the genealogists and
astrologers, the village barbers, and the professional match
takers, male and female, who conduct the elaborate process
of haggling by which Hindu marriages are put on the market.
The influence of the ghataks or marriage brokers is very great.
Five hundred years ago a famous ghatak remodelled for
■Patrimonial purposes the highest sub-caste of Bengal Brahmans,
ar>d his classification holds good to the present day. The
caste councils, which bear a sort of resemblance to a club
committee, are equally powerful, and perhaps more accessible
than the ghataks to liberal ideas. Both have the utmost
respect for the Hindu scriptures coupled with the scantiest
knowledge of their contents, and reforms on the Rajputana
hnes might with equal regard for truth and expediency be
Presented to their minds as a revival of pristine usage making
fc^r ceremonial righteousness.* _
[* "A society, called the Hindu Marriage Reform League, lias been started by Hindu gentle-
en in Calcutta with the object of raising the age, at which girls can be given in marriage,
to iG years. fill recently such attempts have been made only by the higher castes, but the