CASTE AND WOMEN's SAFETY

The Institution of  CASTE prevailing in the 19^th   century, guaranteed  that even women from the lower

Robert  H Elliot 

castes were safe from exploitation by men of the upper castes. The detailed account of Caste and customs and interactions of caste members prevailing at that point in time  provided by a planter in Mysore , Mr.Robert H.Elliot and first published in 1898 in his book , excerpts of which are given below, portrays a vivid picture of the BENEFITS of Caste.

Quote“The information most needed, and which has not yet, or only in the most imperfect sense, been acquired, is as to what CASTE  has done for good or evil. It shall be my endeavor to solve that question; and I imagine the solution would be in a great measure effected if I could, in the first instance, answer the following questions:

(1). How far has caste acted as a moral restraint amongst the Indians themselves?  (the second question is omitted here but will be taken up later). Now, as regards one department of morals, at least, I unhesitatingly affirm that it did, and that, as regards the connection of the sexes, it would be difficult to find in any part of the world a more moral people than the two higher castes of Manjarabad, (this is a taluk on the South-West Frontier of Mysore) who form about one-half of the population, and who may be termed the farming proprietors of the country. Amongst themselves, indeed, it was not to be wondered at that their morality was extremely good, as, from the fact of nearly everyone being married

at the age of puberty, and partly, perhaps, from the fact of their houses being more or less isolated, instead of being grouped in villages, the temptations to immorality were necessarily slight. Their temptations, though, as regards the Pariahs, who were, when I entered Manjarabad, merely hereditary serfs, were considerable; and there it was that the value of caste law came in. Caste said, "You shall not touch these women;" and so strong was this law, that I never knew of but one instance of one of the better classes offending with a Pariah woman.[And that, I may observe, was a case in which a toddy-drawer, the third caste in Manjarabad, was concerned] .Some aversion of race there might, no doubt, have been, but the police of caste and its penalties were so strong that he would be a bold man indeed who would venture to run any risk of detection.

To give an idea of how the punishment for an offence of this kind would operate, it may be added that, if one of the farming classes in this country,(ie in England) on a case of seducing one of the lower, was fined by his neighbours £500,(then a substantial amount) and cut by society till he paid the money, he would be in exactly the same position as a Manjarabad farmer would be who had violated the important caste law under consideration. Here, therefore, we have a moral police of tremendous power, and the very best proof we have of the regularity with which it has been enforced lies in the fact that the Pariahs and the farmers are distinguished by a form and physiognomy almost as distinct as those existing between an Englishman and a negro. Caste, then, as we have seen, protects the poor from the passions of the rich, and it equally protects the upper classes themselves, and enforcedly makes them more moral than, judging from our experience in other quarters of the globe, they would otherwise be.” ( note. This book/resource is freely available on the net.)

Read  the following to know more about the positive contribution of CASTE  institution, to Indian Society :-

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/08/caste-contributed-positively-to-indian.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/08/caste-system-vis-vis-alcoholism-indian.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/08/india-vis-vis-great-britain-state-of.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/08/caste-widow-re-marriage.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/08/caste-social-segregation-self-respect.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2013/09/caste-its-redundancy-in-urban-areas.html

EXCERPT FROM

Robert H. Elliot. “Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore.” iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright. (From Chapter VIII.  CASTE)