Caste, Social Change, and The Social Scientist - A Note On The Ahistorical Approach To Indian Social History

Caste, Social Change, and the Social Scientist: A Note on the Ahistorical Approach to
Indian Social History

Author(s): Lucy Carroll
Source: The Journal of Asian Studies , Nov., 1975, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Nov., 1975), pp. 63-84
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2054040
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Journal of Asian Studies
This content downloaded from

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
VOL. XXXV, No. I JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES NOVEMBER I975
Caste, Social Change, and the Social

Scientist: A Note on the Ahistorical
Approach to Indian Social History
LUCY CARROLL
THE disciplinary dissection of Indian studies has divided Indologists into diverse
academic unions, each with its own in-group jargon, research interests, and intel-
lectual traditions. It has also created discontinuities in the units of analysis selected by
scholars of different disciplines, which create in turn discontinuities between contem-
porary and historical studies of Indian society. Thus historians have generally not focused
on caste or caste associations,1 while a central referent of anthropologists has been
precisely the caste (jati) unit. Partly this reflects a difference in levels of analysis, the
historian taking a more encompassing perspective while the anthropologist in the course
of his fieldwork concentrates on the grass-roots social world of village India. Partly it
reflects the bias of the historical discipline in general toward formal institutions and
toward political, as opposed to social, change.
The void created by the historian's apparent lack of concern. with concepts and
categories familiar to anthropologists has been filled by anthropological trespass on ter-
rain traditionally the domainA of the historical discipline. However valuable may be the
contribution made to our understanding of contemporary Indian rural society by more
than two decades of anthropological monographs, the casual and uncritical extrapolation
of theories, concepts, and categories from the village context and the empirical present
into the historical past has been a retrograde step. The mechanical imposition of
anthropological notions on historical materials has resulted in the creation not of an in-
terdisciplinary framework but of a distinctly ahistorical approach to the study of Indian
social history, as may be illustrated by the work of M. N. Srinivas and William L.
Rowe.2
The relationship of the ahistorical approach to the historical context of the social
changes it purports to analyze is one serious fault of the method. It may, on the one hand,
Lucy Carroll is a Ph.D. candidate in the Depart- 2 M. N. Srinivas, Caste in Modern India (Bom-
ment of History, University of California, Berkeley. bay: Asia Publishing House, i962). Social Change
This essay is based on research conducted in India, in Modern India (Berkeley: University of Cali-
I97I-72, under a grant from the American Institute fornia Press, I968).
of Indian Studies, whose support is gratefully William L. Rowe, "The New Cauhans: A Caste
acknowledged. I also wish to thank Professor Ken-Mobility Movement in North India" (hereafter ab-
neth Ballhatchet, John Harrison, and Barbara breviated "TNC"), in J. Silverberg, ed., Social
Flynn, who read and commented helpfully on an Mobility in the Caste System in India (The Hague:
earlier draft of this essay. Needless to say, I alone Mouton, I968), pp. 66-77. "Mobility in the
am responsible for the deficiencies of style and argu- Nineteenth Century Caste System" (hereafter ab-
ment that remain, and also for the views expressed. breviated "MNCCS"), in M. Singer and B. Cohn,
'The work of Karen Leonard and Ronald Inden eds., Structure and Change in Indian Society
represent refreshing exceptions to this general state- (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, I968), pp.
ment. 20I-207.
63

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
64 LUCY CARROLL
periodize Indian social history in terms that have little relevance to the subject under
analysis: "The meaning and function of these social movements in Hindu society changes
radically as we trace them from the Victorian era through the first World War and into
the independence struggle."3 Or it may, on the other hand, explicitly deny the relevance
of the historical context altogether: "Paradoxically, a closer examination of written
history serves not to enshrine historical causation but rather to pinpoint processes to be
examin-ed in the contemporary struggle for mobility."4
It is an approach that permits to be casually dropped-and then entirely ignored-
the comment that the Noniya leaders of Jaunpur district donned the sacred thread in
I924 at a site "chosen because it had been the scene of a historic fight between the British
and a group of Noniyas during the I857 movement," while at the same time the spread of
the Noniya movement is deemed a factor merely of "economic advancement" -an argu-
ment supported by a single reference to another caste movement in the Bengal Census of
I90I.5 The "process" is assumed to be constant, regardless of provincial and caste
differences. The synchronic framework completely dismisses the fact that, between I90I
and I924, several important political and social changes had taken place in India in
general and in North India in particular: (i) the reforms of I909 and I919 had completely
restructured the distribution of, and the scope of competition for, political power; (2) the
emergence of Gandhi as the leader of the major national movement had drastically
altered the style and recruitment of the National Congress; (3) the creation of the
Muslim League, the collapse of the Khilafat movement, the rise of the Hindu
Mahasabha, and the increased aggressiveness of the Arya Samaj had produced a com-
munalization of politics; (4) an era of profound social, economic, and political change
had intensified the search for communal definition and identity-all these elements of
the historical environment are totally disregarded.
The tendency to isolate events from their historical context is again evident in the
statement that the Senapur Noniyas assumed the sacred thread in I936, at a meeting
called by a "prosperous contractor" and addressed by "Arya Samaj leaders from Jaunpur
City." A footnote relates that the " 'prosperous contractor' . . . was himself an active
member of the Arya Samaj," and expresses surprise at the "paradox (perhaps explained
by selective perception) that the New Cauhans were helped and assisted to Sanskritize
themselves by an organization noted for its opposition to these same 'reactionary'
forms.'"6 Perhaps the "paradox" is not that the Arya Samajists were active in the caste
movement but rather that the imposed analytical categories and concepts-in spite of
having proved inadequate to encompass what is really a very important point are not
modified. Instead, what doesn't "fit" is merely labelled a "paradox" and relegated to an
innocuous footnote.7
3 TNC," p. 67- and Social History Review. See also, Robert L.

-MNCCS," p. 202 (italics altered). Hardgrave, Jr., The Nadars of Tamilnad (Berkeley:
-TNC," p. 7I. University of California Press, I969), pp. 43-94, for
6-TNC," pp. 7I-72. a discussion of the importance of Christian Nadars
7Arya Samajists and members of other heterodox in the 'sanskritization" of the Tinnevelly Nadars.
sects were extremely important in the Kayastha Much of Rowe's "paradox" follows from cate-
movement from the I870s on. For a discussion of gorizing the Arya Samaj (in "TNC") as a "western"
religious heterodoxy and the Kayastha movement as opposed to a "sanskritic" agency, posing these as
and many other points touched upon in this essay-mutually exclusive in his approach to social change:
see my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation, and my The Noniyas of the present young generation "now
forthcoming essay "Swami Shivagun Chand: look more frequently to a model of Western or
Kayastha Conference Organizer," Indian Economic 'modern' values. Members of the Jaunpur City

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
INDIAN SOCIAL HISTORY 65
One set of categories worthy of reconsideration is "sanskritization" and

"westernization," usually juxtaposed as alternative models of social change. The
importance of a critical re-evaluation of the use of these concepts is apparent from
the comments of Milton Singer in his introduction to the volume containing Rowe's
article "Mobility in the Nineteenth Century Caste System": "The only generic process of
social change that received wide recognition at the Conference were Srinivas'
complementary processes of 'Sanskritization' and 'Westernization.' His paper and
Rowe's offer some new historical materials on the operation of these processes during the
pre-British and British periods.'8
Another such concept is "caste." "Caste" may be a useful analytical category when
dealing with a contemporary localized context (the village) where "caste" means lati
group. But it is a category open to serious objection when superficially applied to a
provincial or inter-provincial context within which "caste" undoubtedly encompasses
urban and rural groups; extreme differences in economic and educational levels, profes-
sions, and interests; and probably several formal (as in the case of the Kayasthas) or in-
formal (as appears to be the case with the Noniyas9) endogamous groupings. The as-
sumption that "caste" is the only significant variable may lead to the further assumptions
that: (I) an individual's behavior can be explained merely by reference to his "caste,"
(2) caste associations or institutions are coincident with the "caste," and (3) such
associations or institutions possess such a high degree of unanimity and cohesion that
any individual in any way connected with a communal institution or association may
be assumed ipso facto to represent the "caste" or the caste association.
The research technique derived from the ahistorical approach, rather than being
designed to test hypotheses, appears to involve little more than searching for random ex-
amples which-wrenched from their historical context may be cited to illustrate the as-
sumptions of the ahistorical perspective. An unproductive, self-perpetuating cycle is thus
allowed to continue, to the detriment of our understanding of Indian social history. The
Cauhan Sabha, for example, are also active in the manifest in Rowe's work: although obviously
Arya Samaj, a socioreligious organization which categorizing the Arya Samaj as "western' in
opposes the ritual and caste orthodoxy which is so -TNC," he describes it in another article as a move-
basic to the Cauhan movement" ("TNC," p. 75). ment which "stressed a return to the principles of
(Whether or not this is, in fact, a new development the Vedic age [and] rejected all Western ideas"
would appear from Rowe's own data to be an open ("The Marriage Network and Structural Change
question: the Jaunpur Noniya activists seem to have in a North Indian Community," Southwestern
been involved with the Arya Samaj since at least Journal of Anthropology, XVI, I960, p. 308 fn.).
I936.) 8 M. Singer, "Preface," Structure and Change
The difficulty in categorizing the Arya Samaj- ., p. x.
distinguished for its advocacy of Sanskrit learning, My assumption here was based on Rowe's arti-
purification of Hindu observances by rejection of cles on the Noniya/Chauhans: "TNC" and "The
Muslim-derived social and religious practices, and Marriage Network," pp. 299-3II. Rowe does not
militant Hindu fundamentalism based on the mention sub-castes, and the implication that emerges
Vedas, but also for its advocacy of education, is that they do not exist among the Noniyas. It is
(including for females), widow marriage, and clear, however, that the Noniya "community" is far
modification of the caste system to allow recognitionfrom integrated: "In both urban and rural settings,
of conversion and individual merit)-as "sanskritic" a wide range of rank may be observed. Some rural
or "western" in a simplistic either/or approach to Noniya communities are almost entirely landless.
complex social reality raises serious questions con- . . . In both the rural and urban setting interaction
cerning the validity of the categories and of the between the relatively small group who have
dichotomy they forcibly impose upon the material. 'passed' as Cauhans and the mass of those who
This difficulty and the resultant ambiguity is have been largely unsuccessful in establishing that

59.1fff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
66 LUCY CARROLL
"looking-for-examples" research technique discounts historical analysis: it is simplistical-

ly descriptive ("There was a change." Full stop.) and does not proceed to consider
seriously the relevant historical question " Why was there change?"
Some Assumptions of the Ahistorical Approach
The results of research based upon the ahistorical approach, with its multitude of un-
questioned but highly questionable assumptions, are open to challenge on both factual
and analytical grounds. As an illustrative example I shall consider William L. Rowe's
work on the Kayasthas as contained in his essay "Mobility in the Nineteenth Century
Caste System." In a paragraph of particular interest to an analysis of the ahistorical
perspective, it is stated:
A detailed record of the development cycle of a caste association is available in the

volumes of the Kayastha Samachar of Allahabad, which began as an Urdu language
monthly in I873, converted to an English monthly in I899 (under the editorial guidance
of a "modern" barrister), and became The Hindustan Review and Kayastha Samachar
in I905. In the I899-I904 period the journal is entirely taken up with caste agitation, the
question of Risley's ranking of castes, monthly installments of the "Kayastha
Ethnology," and reports of district level caste meetings. By I905, the specifically "caste"
matters have been relegated to the rear section of the journal, with an increasing number
of articles on national or political questions. Parsi, Muslim, and foreign writers also ap-
pear in the journal for the first time. By I9I5 the Kayastha section has been reduced to a
few pages.'0
One characteristic of the ahistorical approach demonstrated by the essay under con-
sideration is the absence of historically relevant explanation. Satisfied with having said,
"There was a change in the tone of the Kayastha Samachar over time," the author does
not offer any interpretation or explanation of the "development cycle'"'" he purports to
status, is very infrequent, uncomfortable and diffi-Were they supportive? Indifferent? Or were they
cult" ("TNC," p. 68). 'A tendency toward hyper- angered to see their prestigious name and the
gamy is noticeable but is limited to a consideration symbol of their superior status among Noniyas
of economic and social factors" ("The Marriage usurped by pretenders? If, indeed, the endogamous
Network," p. 300). sub-caste system among the Noniyas had broken
Rev. M. A. Sherring, in a work published in I872, down (which would appear unlikely) by the time
found at least five endogamous sub-castes among the of Rowe's study, this in itself would have been
Noniyas of the United Provinces. It is particularly of a change of considerable importance to the kind of
interest, in the context of Rowe's work, to remark analysis he has attempted. Indiscriminate use of the
that two of these Noniya sub-castes bear the name inclusive "caste" category has obscured both im-
"Bach Gotra Chauhan," and that these two iden- portant groups that should have been studied, and
tically named divisions are distinguished one from important questions that should have been asked.
the other by the fact that one wears the sacred Secondly, given the fact that there was among the
thread (apparently not a recent innovation even Noniyas a prestigious group calling itself "Bach
then!), while the other does not (Tribes and Castes,
Gotra Chauhan" and wearing the sacred thread, is
Vol. I [London: Trubner and Co., I872], pp. it necessary to look further for the "model" the
347-50). status-aspiring group(s) emulated?
Sherring's comments raise some very important 10 "MNCCS," p. 204.
questions concerning Rowe's work on the "The term is Rowe's. Because I dissent both
Noniya/Chauhans: Firstly, precisely whom did from the terminology itself and from his interpreta-
Rowe study? How are his Noniyas related to the tion of the history of the Kayastha institutions in
other Noniya sub-divisions, and particularly to the reference to which he employs the term, I have
Bach Gotra Chauhans? How did the thread-wear- throughout this essay placed the phrase in quotation
ing Bach Gotra Chauhans react to the assumption marks.
of the sacred thread by another Noniya group?

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
chronicle in the paragraph quoted. Instead of historical analysis, the article is permeated
with vague, inexplicit assumptions: clearly, "development cycles" proceed from a
"sanskritic" phase to a "western" phase (whatever these terms mean), passing through a
transitional stage characterized by the presence of elements of both "westernization" and
"sanskritization." Apparently they manage this transformation (isolated from the
historical environment) by some sort of inexplicable "process," almost as though ac-
cording to some natural law. "This is not a process limited to the Kayasthas or to a
specific period."'2
A second characteristic is the assumption that "caste" is the only significant factor,
with the corollary that meaningful generalizations can be made concerning the
"caste" (or the caste association) on the basis of the action of a single individual-the
"'modern' barrister" who edited the journal. So completely is the personality of the
'modern' barrister" subsumed in his "caste" identification that the author does not
consider it relevant to name the anonymous avatar of the Kayastha Conference.
Nor does the author regard it as important to demonstrate that either the Kayastha
Samachar (hereafter abbreviated KS) or its editor had any connection with the Kayastha
Conference-the caste association with whose "development cycle" he is concerned. Not
only is the ahistorical perspective in this case content to disregard the historical context of
the institutions under consideration; it is also equally willing to disregard the histories of
these very institutions themselves (i.e., the KS and the Kayastha Conference).
I will suggest that, if the KS is to be regarded as evidence of a "development cycle"
of the Kayastha Conference, the relationship if any of the KS and its " 'modern' bar-
rister" editor to the Kayastha Conference should be investigated; and that the historical
context cannot be ignored in considering the "development" or otherwise of the
Kayastha Sabha. I hope to demonstrate (i) that the histories of the relevant Kayastha
institutions the KS, the Kayastha Conference, and the Kayastha Pathshala can be
documented; and (2) that it is neither necessary nor conducive to an understanding of
Indian social history in general, or of the Kayastha movement in particular, to rely in-
stead upon unsubstantiated assumptions and suppositions.
The History of the Kayastha Samachar
In I873 the benefactor of the Hindustani Kayasthas Munshi Kali Prasad, "the lion
of the Oudh Bar"-established in Lucknow a Kayastha Dharm Sabha and a bimonthly
journal, the Kayastha Samachar. 3 It would seem that the main object of both the jour-
nal and the Dharm Sabha was to engender support for the embryonic educational institu-
tion Kali Prasad was involved in organizing at the time the Kayastha Pathshala
(hereafter abbreviated KP). The founding of the KP is usually dated from I873, but it
appears likely that it had been started sometime earlier in Lucknow, perhaps in the
maktab tradition at Kali Prasad's residence.'4 The date I873 appears to mark the shift of
the KP to Allahabad, and Kali Prasad's commitment to see the school placed on a firm
12-MNCCS,- p. 205.
Kayastha Samachar: From a Caste to a National
13 Koh-i-Nur (Lahore), 25 Oct, I Nov, I873; in
Newspaper," Indian Economic and Social History
Selections 'from the Vernacular Newspapers
Review, X, [Sept I973], p. 28I).
Published in the Punjab, North- Western Provinces,
14 The Lucknow correspondent of the Lahore
Oudh and Central Provinces (Hereafter abbreviated
Tribune (I2 Jan I887), in noticing Kali Prasad's
Selections NWP or, from I902, Selections UP),
death, referred to the KP "which had its first locale,
I873, p. 652. In a previous article I incorrectly
in Lucknow and which some years ago was removed
dated the founding of the KS as I872 ("The to and is now flourishing in Allahabad."

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
68 LUCY CARROLL
institutional footing. The Dharm Sabha and the KS were instruments toward this goal.
According to the "Prospectus" of the KP, issued by Kali Prasad in I877, "This national
institution was started in pursuance of the resolution dated the I3th August, published in
the Kayastha Samachar, Vol. I, No. i, dated 23rd October i873.""' The resolution
referred to was probably passed by the newly created Dharm Sabha; it was obviously
publicized in the very first issue of the KS. A "national institution" demanded broad-
based support; and Kali Prasad had in mind an undertaking of major proportions, as is
evident from the reasons given in the "Prospectus" for the location of the KP in Al-
lahabad.
ist.-It is a famous holy place.
2nd.-It is in the centre of such provinces as the North-Western Provinces, the Central
Provinces and Behar where the Chitragupta-vanshi Kayasthas are to be still found in
their original state.
3rd.-Because a large portion of our community resides in its neighbourhood.
4th.-It is the capital of the North-Western Provinces.
5th.-A Grand College has been established in this city which is likely to afford many
educational facilities.
6th.-It is connected with the neighbouring cities by rail, telegraph, road and rivers.'6
In I874 Kali Prasad created an endowment of Rs. iO,OOO for charitable purposes con-
nected with the KP, and invited other Kayasthas to assist in the fund.'7 Until I877 the
KP functioned as a primary school, with the emphasis on providing education for poor
and orphan Kayastha boys. In I877-78 it was raised to an Anglo-Vernacular middle
school, endowed by Kali Prasad to the amount of Rs. 50,000, and placed under the
presidency of Hanuman Prasad (Allahabadi vakil) 8 with Hargovind Dayal then a stu-
dent at Muir Central College-as headmaster. At this time, Kali Prasad published the
"Prospectus," which delineated the objects of the institution as follows:
ist.-That a large educational institution be established which may remain under the
sole control of the Chitragupta-vanshi Kayastha community, and in which they may be
at liberty to give such education to their members as they may think the best suited and
useful to themselves.
15 Kayastha (Agra) (hereafter abbreviated K(A)), Allahabadi faction) in the internecine struggles
II, Jan-Feb I897, p. 33. Murli Dhar, The Kayastha among the KP Trustees. The non-Allahabadis-
Pathshala, Allahabad. Its Origin, Objects and largely residents outside Allahabad-differed with
Progress. Revised by Dr. Anant Prasad (Al- the Allahabadis in regard to such questions as the
lahabad: Kayastha Pathsahala, I9q2), p. I4.priority that should be given to development of the
16 K(A), II, Jan-Feb I897, p. 34. Murli Dhar, KP into a college, and expansion of boarding facili-
The Kayastha Pathshala, p. i5. ties as opposed to expansion of school facilities. The
17 Hindu Prakash (Amritsar), I4 Aug I874; in non-Allahabadis tended to be geographically mobile
Selections NWP, I874, p. 338. men, and to be connected with broad social and
political movements (e.g., the Indian National Con-
18 Vakil-an India-trained legal practitioner en-
gress).
titled to plead before the High Court. By contrast, a Although some prominent non-Allahabadis
barrister had been called to the bar in England. resided in Allahabad, they were interlopers who had
Allahabadi-an individual whose major connec- come to Allahabad for educational, professional, etc.
tions and interests were concentrated in the Al- reasons (and often left again for the same reasons);
lahabad district, who was involved in the personaland they remained largely outside the localized, per-
network of Chaudhari Mahadev Prasad Singh, and sonalized style of patronage and control within the
who supported the Chaudhari and his faction (the Allahabad Kayastha biradari.

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
2nd.-That having in view that reading and writing are the special and hereditary oc-
cupation of our caste, a model system of education be devised which may be suited to the
present age, and which may be improved in future by the light of subsequent experience.
This system should be so adjusted as to enable students to complete their studies during a
reasonable period and under approved methods of instruction, and such that even if stu-
dents do not carry on their studies to the final course, they may be given such
education as may enable them to earn their livelihood.
3rd.-That religious education be combined with the secular.
4th.-That a nucleus be formed for a general library in which books relating to our
ethnology and religion, as well as other literary books be collected, and which may be
specially available for use by the members of our community, whenever necessary.
5th.-That a home be provided for the support and education of some boys of our com-
munity.
6th.-That a centre be established to which remittances may be made by benevolent

persons willing to contribute money for the benefit of the Kayastha community, and
where the donors may be sure of their contributions being deposited safely and spent
properly.
7th.-That a place be fixed from which the national organ of the Chitragupta-vanshi
community named the Kayastha Samachar be permanently issued.
8th.-That the institution may further be utilised in other ways to give relief to our
community. 19
The childless founder died in i886, bequeathing his fortune to the KP, which by this
time had been raised to a high school, teaching up to the entrance standard of Calcutta
University. Nine years later the KP was elevated to an intermediate college; in I900 it
had nearly 450 students on its rolls.20 Completely staffed and administered by Indians
and financed independently of government aid, the KP was controlled by a Board of
Trustees and administered by an Executive Committee selected from amongst their
number. The President of the Kayastha Pathshala Trust was elected by the Trustees; the
other members of the Executive Committee were the nominees of the President.
The KS appeared regularly as an Urdu fortnightly until December I876, when it was
converted into a monthly. In an era of short-lived vernacular publications, the KS es-
tablished an enviable record: with the exception of the period between June I895 and
August I896, when it ceased to exist as a separate periodical and was apparently
published in combination with the Kayastha Conference Gazette,2" the KS maintained
an uninterrupted sequence of regular issues with circulation averaging three hundred
copies.22 Its stability was undoubtedly due to the fact that it was the publication of a well-
endowed institution, not a commercial venture.
Since I have outlined the history of the KS in the post-June I899 period in a previous
23
article, my treatment of the subject here will be brief, and will summarize and com-
19 K(A), II, Jan-Feb I897, pp. 33-34; Murlithe publication of the KS from Selections NWP and
Dhar, The Kayastha Pathshala, pp. 2, I4-I5. UP, I873-I903. This information should be regarded
20 KS, III, Jan-Feb I90I, p. 65. as correcting my previous statement that the Urdu
21 Hindustan Review and Kayastha Samachar periodical appeared "somewhat irregularly" ("The
(hereafter abbreviated HRKS), VIII, July-Aug Kayastha Samacbar," p. 28I). Unfortunately, less
I903, p. i58. than half a dozen issues of the KS of the pre-I899
22 I have compiled a month-by-month record of period are extant.
23" The Kayastha Samachar," pp. 280-92.

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
70 LUCY CARROLL
plement rather than r

I wish to emphasize are: (I) that the history of the journal during this period can be
readily documented, largely by reference to the journal itself; and (2) that the docu-
mentation so readily available does not support either the assumptions underlying, or the
factual statements contained within, the chronicle of the "development cycle" of the
Kayastha -Conference presented in "Mobility in the Nineteenth Century Caste System."
In June I899, by a decision of the Executive Committee of the Kayastha Pathshala
Trust, the Kayastha Samachar was converted into an English-language periodical and
placed under the editorial control of Ramananda Chatterjee, the Principal of the KP
(and, incidentally, a Bengali Brahman). Chatterjee's previous journalistic experience in-
cluded serving as joint-editor of the Indian Messenger, "the organ of the Sadharan
Brahmo Samaj";24 he was later distinguished as the editor of the Modern Review.
Under his editorship, the KS was conducted exclusively as an educational journal for
about a year; Chatterjee resigned the editorship in the spring of I900, due to the
pressure of his other responsibilities.25
Chatterjee's resignation came shortly before the death of Munshi Ram Prasad, Presi-
dent of the KP Trust from I888 until his death injune I900. The new President, Munshi
Govind Prasad-a High Court vakil from Shahjahanpur-reorganized the KS and
placed its editorial charge in the hands of Sachchidananda Sinha, a Bihari barrister prac-
ticing in the Allahabad High Court (and, incidentally, a Kayastha). The "Prospectus"
issued inJuly I900 declared an intention to conduct the reorganized journal in such a way
as to "suppLy that great need of Upper India-a really good and up-to-date Monthly
English Journal . . . for the discussion of all questions of current and general interest to
the Educated Community of Upper India."26 Although the "Prospectus" was issued over
the signature of Govind Prasad as President of the KP Trust, Sachchidananda Sinha was
obviously the personality behind the reorganization. He had agreed to accept the
editorship of the KS only if he were "given a free hand to conduct it not as an
educational magazine, but as a general record-and review of Indian progress in all
24Abkari' July I898, p. 97. Kali Prasad in the I870s; it should not be surprising
25 Rowe states that, in the I899 issues of the KS, that the English journal subsidized and published by
'the elements of (i) Sanskritization, (2) Western- the trust established by Kali Prasad should publish
ization, and (3) national political integration are (in "The Kayastha World" section) the English
present as styles for emulation" ("MNCCS," p. translation of this pamphlet when a revised English
204). I am unable to accept this statement; indeed, itedition became available-and, incidentally, at a
would seem quite unlikely that such "elements" time when the classification scheme of the I90I
would find a place in an educational journal edited Census gave the caste-varna question an immediate
by a Brahmo Samaji Brahman who had specifically relevance. The serialization, however, was never
excluded political, religious, and "socio-religious" completed; only six short installments appeared (KS,
topics from the publication (KS, I, July I899, pp. II, Dec I900, pp. 30-3I. III, March I90I, pp.
I4-15). Part of the confusion may stem from the ap- I66-69; April I901, pp. 255-58; June I90I, pp.
parent non-availability in London of any issues of 498-503. IV, July I90I, pp. 94-97; Sept-Oct I90I,
the KS prior to March I90I. pp. 326-28). It seems a bit extreme to characterize
I am equally unable to accept Rowe's comment the journal over a five-year period on the basis of six
concerning "articles expressing pious hopes of at- very short items, which appeared in only six of the
taining Kshatriya status for Kayasthas" appearing fifty issues of the journal published in the I899-I904
"[in] almost every issue" ("MNCCS," p. 205). period, and which cannot possibly be taken as
Perhaps the reference is to the serialization of the representative of the contents of the journal during
Kayastha Ethnology, which appeared in I900-I90I. this period.
The Kayastha Ethnology was a pamphlet written by 26KS, II, Sept I900, inside front cover.

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
spheres of activities."27 As th
to eschew controversial subjects as it had during its first year of existence as an English
language periodical;28 as Sinha's political interests and ideology decreed, "discussion of
current political problems" viewed from the Congress perspective would be an "impor-
tant . . . feature of this Journal."29
An indication of the tone and importance of the reorganized journal under Sinha's
editorship may be gathered from the extent to which it was noted by the Government
Reporter on the Native Press. Thus, for example, the Selections from the Native News-
papers Published in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh for the week ending 4
January I902 contained thirty extracts from the Indian press, seven of which were taken
from the December I90I issue of the KS: Tej Bahadur Sapru's article, "Our Present
Political Outlook"; editorial comments on the Congress; S. C. Mukerjee's article, "Sir
Charles Elliott and his Administration of Bengal"; C. Y. Chintamani's article, "The
Economic Aspect of British Rule in India"; editorial comments concerning the Daily
Telegraph's remarks on the Indian character; editorial comments on Dr. Wellon's
resignation; and Manohar Lal Zutshi's article, "A National Literature for Hindustan: A
Rejoinder." From the February I902 issue of the KS, the Government Reporter extracted
editorial comments on the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta; Sir James LaTouche and the
Nagri-Persian script controversy; the Universities Commission; the Government resolu-
tion on land assessment; and the Lyall case-as well as from M. V. Kibe's article,
27 Hindustan Review (hereafter abbreviated HR),

sies, and will attempt to supply information on all
LIII, July I929, p. i. In a personal statement in the questions printed in the previous number. Attempt
first issue of the reorganized journal, Sinha ar- will be made to meet the growing demand amongst
ticulated his proposed editorial policy and jour- the reading public, by reproducing choice extracts
nalistic format as follows: "Besides all news of in- and selections from English Periodical Literature. A
terest to the Kayastha Community which will be column of gossip of men, measures and books, under
published in each number under the heading of 'The
the heading of 'The Editor's Armchair,' will com-
Kayastha World, . . . I propose publishing in each plete each number. . . I hope I shall receive in the
issue various articles on all current topics of the day, discharge of my onerous duties such assistance and
from the pen of competent and distinguished writers sympathy from members of the Kayastha Com-
from all parts of the country. I further propose munity, in particular, and the entire Educated Com-
publishing exhaustive reviews of all important munity in general, as will strengthen my hands to
English publications of the day, including new legal realize my idea of publishing a first class English
text books. These reviews will, it is hoped, be found Monthly Magazine and Review in Upper India"
a new and interesting feature of the present publica- (KS, II, July-Aug I900, pp. 3-4).
tion. They will be written by critics, especially 28 "It would be observed that the greatest latitude
is to be allowed in the range of subjects to be chosen.
qualified to deal with the topics, forming the subject
matter of the books under review; and a glance at From discussions on current social, political and
the names of our reviewers in the present issue will legal topics to abstract discussions on principles and
satisfy our readers on that point. For the benefit of theories, from studies on poets and prose-writers to
students, an article on some purely literary topic will dissertations on the latest developments of Art and
be included in each issue, for instance, that on Ten- Science, all contributions would be welcome, so long
nyson in the present number, from the pen of my as they are couched in sober and temperate
able and esteemed friend, Babu Satish Chandra language" ("Prospectus," KS, II, Sept I900, inside
Banerji, M.A., LL.B. (Prem Chand Roy Chand front cover). In contrast, Chatterjee, upon assuming
Scholar) and who I am glad to announce has editorship of the English KS in I899, had an-
promised to give me material assistance in con- nounced: "We solicit contributions in English on all
ducting this Journal. Besides these articles and subjects except current politics, religion, theology
and such as are of a socio-religious character" (KS,
reviews, there will be in each issue short paragraphs
on Literary, Scientific, Educational and Legal I, July I899, p. I5).
Topics. A column headed 'Correspondence, Notes 29KS, VI, Aug I902, p. 2I3.
and Queries,' will deal with all current controver-

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
72 LUCY CARROLL
"Education of the Indian Aristocracy"; Lala Lajpat Rai's article on famine orphans; and
G. S. Iyer's article, "Lord Curzon's Resolutions on Land Revenue and Famine."30
The journal was obviously far from being "entirely taken up with caste agitation. '31
Indeed, in December I900, a Bhagalpur correspondent wrote to the KS complaining that
"comparatively a few pages only are devoted to the Kayastha World." Sinha simply
referred the writer to the "Prospectus," in which "it is distinctly laid down that only
'some' pages will be devoted to 'The Kayastha World,' and that much the greater part of
the Journal will deal with matters of other than 'caste' interest.' 32
The reorganization of the KS was a success-journalistically and financially. In
January I902, reviewing his past eighteen months in the editorial chair, Sinha wrote:
The success of the Samachar which was reorganized on its present lines inJuly I900, has
been unique and phenomenal. In spite of the fact that theJournal labours under the dis-
advantage of a not very pre-possessing name-implying in fact, that it is a Journal of a
particular caste, and as such likely to be sectarian and narrow-minded in its scope and
character-its intrinsic merits led to the very first number being accorded a most
favourable and enthusiastic reception, from the leading exponents of public opinion-
both Indian and Anglo-Indian-in the country.33
Along with other leading organs of the Indian press, the KS was invited to the Corona-
tion Darbar in Delhi in I903.34 As a direct result of this invitation, in January I903 the
KP Executive Committee changed the name of the journal to the Hindustan Review
and Kayastha Samachar.35 The following year Sinha's journal was one of the publica-
tions eulogized by William Digby in his article "The Three Indian Monthly Re-
views -the other two being the Indian Review, edited by G. A. Natesan, Madras; and
the East and West, edited by B. M. Malabari, Bombay. Although considering all three
to be excellent periodicals, Digby reserved the highest accolade for the publication edited
by Sinha: "in the timeliness of its contents, as well as the vigour with which each writer
deals with his subject, I cannot but give the palm to the latest number of the Hindustan
Review. Freshness and force are to be found in every article which it contains-a fresh-
ness and force which are at once entertaining and stimulating."36
Subsidized and published by the KP Trust as required under the terms of Kali
Prasad's endowment, the KS had never been a commercial proposition. Significantly,
under Sinha's editorship the journal met its own expenses the first year; by I904 it ap-
peared that the journal might actually become a source of income for the KP-but
3 Selections UP, I902, pp. 5-6, II-I8, I76-78,Victoria Paper, Sialkot (Advocate, 28 Aug I902, in
I8o-8i, I83-85, I94-96, 202-5, 220-22. The extrac- Selections UP, I902, p. 532).
tion from the KS decreased in I903, when the In- 35"In appreciation of this acknowledgment by
dian People-an English weekly-was started in the Government, the Trustees ... agreed to my
Allahabad by Sinha and Nagendra Nath Gupta. proposal to confer upon it the appropriate and com-
The Indian People was similar in tone and content prehensive designation of the Hindustan Review"
to the (post-June I900) KS/HR and was heavily (S. Sinha, HR, LIII, July I929, p. 2; LXXXII,
extracted by the Government Reporter. March I948, p. 239). At the same time the KP
31 MNCCS," p. 204. authorities undertook to publish an Urdu periodical
32 KS, II, Dec I900, pp. 29-30. under the old name, Kayastha Samachar. This jour-
33 KS, V, Jan I902, pp. III ff. nal, the first issue of which appeared in March I903,
34 The other North Indian organs invited were: was a monthly edited by the Persian professor at the
Behar Times, Bankipur; Advocate, Lucknow; Agra KP, Munshi Sital Sahay (HRKS, VII, Jan I903,
Akhbar, Agra; Bharat Jiwan, Benares; Oudh pp. 98-99; May I903, p. 499).
Akhbar, Lucknow; Tribune, Lahore; Observer, 36 Quoted in HRKS, IX, Feb I904, p. 202.
Lahore; Civil and Military News, Ludhiana; and

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
only because Sinha and the managers (M. C. Sinha and Maheshwar Prasad) received
no remuneration for their labors.37
The Kayasthas and the Kayastha Samachar
The journal, however, did not receive the enthusiastic support of the Kayasthas. In
announcing the change in the name of the periodical in January I903, the Executive
Committee commented that "it did not appear from a perusal of the list of subscribers
that it received any adequate support from the Kayastha community in spite of its being
identified with that community."38 The journal's constant advocacy of the Congress posi-
tion is an important factor in assessing this phenomenon. Traditionally a clerical class,
many educated Kayasthas were in government service-or aspired to such occupation;
those so employed, or so aspiring, were inclined to regard Congress politics with
timidity.39 After the name of Sinha's journal had been changed to the Hindustan Review
and Kayastha Samachar in I903, the editor of the Kayastha Hitkari (Agra) came
forward with the suggestion that-since the KP Trust had commenced publication of an
Urdu journal under the name Kayastha Samachar at the same time that the English
publication had been renamed-the words "Kayastha Samachar" should be dropped
from the title of Sinha's journal. The Hitkari argued that "as the Kayasthas avoid taking
part in political discussion, therefore it is undesirable and inadvisable that there should
be numerous political contributions, frequently published, in a periodical which is named
after the Kayasthas."40 Sinha responded by asserting that if it were true that Kayasthas
"avoid political discussion," it was consequently even more imperative that they should
be "drilled into political activity -and he intended to continue in his role as drill-
master.
The issue came to a head inJune 1904, when Govind Prasad's term of office expired;
the District Collector of Allahabad chose not to remain neutral in the controversy. In a
speech at the KP prize distribution, before an audience that included the Trustees as-
sembled for the annual meeting at which a presidential election would take place,
District Collector Harrison raised the issue of the tone of the journal. "I may perhaps be
permitted to express an opinion," he ventured, "upon a matter which I understand to be
a point of contention among the thinking members of your community-and that is the
Kayastha Samachar." The political articles appearing in the journal, the Collector sug-
gested, did not "faithfully represent the views or suit the tastes of the Kayastha com-
munity as a whole."42
The ensuing election of Gokul Prasad as President of the KP Trust was regarded as a
victory for the conservatives.43 The Trustees also commenced a re-examination of the
relationship between the Trust and Sinha's journal-a re-examination which led to the
sale of the journal to Sinha in May I905.4
As of July i, I905, the journal was no longer "the subsidized organ of a
4' Ibid.
3 KS, III, June I90I, p. 5oI; HRKS, X, July
I904, pp. ioo-i; Aug I904, pp. 2I4-I5. 42HRKS, X, July I904, p. iio.
38 HRKS, VII, Jan I903, pp. 98-99. 43 "Conservative" in regard to: (i) the question of
39 See, for instance, the letter from Munshi Chhail
the identification of Kayastha institutions (i.e., the
Behari Lal, headmaster of the district school in KP and the KS) with Congress politics, and (2)
Fatehpur (KS, II, Nov I900, p. 25, and quoted in the expansion and development of the KP and the
my earlier essay, "The Kayastha Samachar," pp. administration of the KP Trust.
287-88). 44 HRKS, XI, April-June I905, p. 408. Owner-
40 Quoted in HRKS, VIII, Sept I903, p. 275. ship-transfer took effect i July I905.

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
74 LUCY CARROLL
heterogeneous lot of men of divergent opinions on most matters,"45 (the Kayastha

Pathshala Trustees), but the independent journal of its maker, Sachchidananda Sinha.
Under Sinha's independent management, the journal-now called simply the Hindustan
Review-continued for at least a decade and a half to be the influential literary review
and vehicle for the (Moderate) Congress viewpoint that he had made it.
With the exception of the Kayastha Conference sessions of I894 and I90I, which he
attended, Sinha's connnection with the Kayastha Conference (hereafter abbreviated KC)
was 'limited to involvement with the Education Committee of the Kayastha Sadar Sabha,
Hind (the executive body of the KC). Theoretically a sub-committee under the Sadar
Sabha, but in practice virtually an autonomous body, the Education Committee was
centered in Aligarh and spearheaded by its two energetic secretaries, Sanval Sahay Varma
and Sohan Lal, vakils of the High Court. An "Educationist" at the time when the
Kayastha Activists were debating whether priority should be given to education or social
reform (in the first decade of the century), Sinha agreed with those who argued that the
KC should "subserve the interests of the Pathshala," that all effort should be devoted in
the first instance to "the cause of education, which is the only lever with which to raise a
fallen community."46 When his friend, fellow-Bihari, and colleague from the Education
Committee-Kedar Nath-was elected President of the approaching I90I session of the
KC, Sinha took occasion to urge upon the KC authorities "what we think to be the press-
ing needs of the society." "We have always been of the opiniont," Sinha wrote, "that the
first and the foremost need of the society is the provision of suitable means for the proper
education of the young members of the community, education to our mind being the
panacea of all evils." Drawing' upon the favorite analogies of the Educationists, Sinha
continued:
The example of the late Sir Syed Ahmed, or of the Arya Samaj leaders, in moving
heaven and earth and trying all possible means to improve the condition and raise the
status of the M.A.O. College at Aligarh and the D.A.V. College at Lahore, should not
have been lost sight of by our educated and enlightened leaders, in trying to improve the
condition and raise the status of their national institution, the Kayastha Pathshala, Al-
lahabad.47
The I90I Conference was a fiasco; the Educationists were particularly disappointed. "It
did not take up and solve the real and most important question in the community,"
wrote Sinha,"-that of collecting funds for raising the status of the Kayastha Pathshala
to that of a first grade college."48
Sinha did not attend another KC session for twenty-eight years. When he was in-
HR, XII, July I905, p. 96. educational progress of the Kayasthas and it
46 KS, II, Oct 1900, p. 27. Commenting on the bespeaks, to my mind, an amount of backwardness
state of education among the Kayasthas in his in- and degradation which is wholly inconsistent with
troduction to the Triennial Report of the Education the plea so persistently put forward on behalf of the
Committee, Kayastha Sadar Sabha, Hind, Kayasthas being an educated community....
I900-I903, Sinha wrote: "As a matter of fact, the Viewed in this light, the prospect before the com-
present low level of intellectual progress in the munity is dark and gloomy, unrelieved by any
Kayastha community in Upper India [,] the fact of streaks of silver lining-unless it be the one solitary
its not having hitherto produced a single first-rate ray represented by the Kayastha Pathshala"
man in any walk of life, a man of towering per- (Quoted in HR, XII, Oct-Nov 1905, p. 390).
sonality who could be said to have influenced for the "KS, III, April I90I, p. 251.
better, by his conduct and activities, the men of his48KS, May 1901, p. 389.
generation, is a sad commentary on the boasted

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
vited to preside at the I929 session of the KC held in Delhi, his presidential speech was
based upon "my long experience of having watched the practical working of your move-
ment in Bihar and the United Provinces."'
Particularly after the partition of Bengal in I905, Sinha's main concern was the cre-
ation of a separate province for Bihar, and his own political fortunes as a Bihar public
figure. He moved to Patna in I906 and figured prominently there in Congress politics and
the Bihari movement.50
As I have previously suggested, rather than a "detailed record of the development cy-
cle of a caste association," the Kayastha Samachar (post June I900), the Hindustan
Review and Kayastha Samachar, and the Hindustan Review present more accurately a
record of how an enterprising and talented individual was able to utilize the resources of
a caste institution to build, in a very short period of time, a public reputation and a
political role for himself that were non-caste based in itself an interesting and signifi-
cant achievement.
During the I89os and the first decade of the twentieth century, there were several
Kayastha journals published.51 Some of these, in comparison with the KS/HR, could
with equal justification-in that they had no connection with the KC, e.g., the Kayastha
Mitra (Lahore)-be taken to represent the "development cycle" of the KC. Some-
because they were officially subsidized by the Kayastha Sadar Sabha, Hind, e.g., the
Kayastha (Agra)-had a much greater claim than the KS/HR to such a representative
function. These periodicals, however, wodld have revealed quite a different "develop-
ment cycle": each survived but a few years and then collapsed. It is precisely because of
the particular merit of Sinha's journal, precisely because it was what he made it with his
talent and his money-"a first class monthly magazine and review''-that it enjoyed a
respectable life span and is today available for scholars to peruse.52 But the very
" "Presidential Address," in HR, LII, April upon the patriotism of the community. There are
1929, p. 6o (italics added). "Except on two occa- already so many Kayastha journals in the field, that
sions, it has not been my privilege to be associated
there may be one too many." (KS, II, Dec I900, p.
with the work of this Conference and it, therefore,29).
came upon me as rather an agreeable surprise when Many of the Kayastha journals appear to have
I was informed by the Secretary of your Reception been spokesmen for specific factions within the
Committee that almost all the local committees ... Kayastha movement. The Kayastha Mitra
had recorded their votes for me [as President of the(Lahore), for example, was the journal of the fac-
session]" (Ibid., p. 53). tion opposed to Swami Shivagun Chand, Lakshmi
5 For biographical. data on Sinha, see his Narayan, and their supporters. In referring to the
serialized memoirs published in the HR, July 1946 Kayastha Hitkari and the Kayastha Pratap, the
to Sept 1948; and Bagishwar Prasad Sinha, Kayastha (Agra) observed in I896: "It is a matter of
Sachchidananda Sinha (New Delhi: Publications regret that an unwholesome spirit of partisanship
Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and rivalry has overtaken our Urdu national papers,
I969). For Sinha and the Bihar movement, see V. C. and surely it cannot be a happy sign of the times if
P. Chaudhary, The Creation of Modern Bihar three or four editors cannot pull on amicably, and
(Patna: Yatin Press, I964). I have given a brief cannot distinguish clearly between what is national
summary of Sinha's activities in "The Kayastha and what is personal" (K(A), II, Aug I896, p. 7).
Samachar," pp. 290-92. 52 Despite its journalistic and literary merits, the
51 In noticing the draft prospectus of yet anotherjournal was never commercially viable. After it lost
Kayastha journal in December I900, Sinha the subsidy of the KP Trust, it was supported by
cautioned the would-be editor that "he should firstown money. It survived as an independent
Sinha's
feel his ground quite secure, and be prepared to journal because Sinha was independently wealthy
carry on the journal-if not for ever, at least for a (his wife was sole heir to her grandfather's modest
very long time-with his own unaided pecuniary fortune). In I906 Sinha wrote that "the loss on
resources, before starting the journal, and countingkeeping up the review during the last twelve months

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
76 LUCY CARROLL
uniqueness which makes it so readily available makes it also neither typical nor
representative of the Kayastha movement.
The Kayastha Conference
The Rudolphs, who utilize Rowe's work in illustrating their own theory of the
developmental stages of caste associations, credit him gratuitously with "reviewing the
doctrinal orientations between I873 and I9I5 of the Kayastha Samachar, later the Hin-
dustan Review, the journal of the All-India Kayastha Association."53 I shall leave aside
for the moment the fact that the KS/HR was most emphatically not "the journal of the
All-India Kayastha Association" (which was in any case not formed until I9I2), or of the
Kayastha Conference (which originated in I887). Regardless of the adequacy of the
"review" of the later issues, it is clear from both the text and the bibliography of
"Mobility in the Nineteenth Century Caste System" that the Urdu volumes of the
I873-I899 period were not "reviewed.'"' Neither, apparently, were alternative means of
gaining insights into the style and tone of either the journal or the Kayastha Conference
explored. Yet the Rudolphs' statement is not wholly unsolicited, for the proposed
"development cycle" rests upon crucial assumptions concerning the KC of the nineteenth
century and thus upon assumptions concerning the KS of the I873-I899 period, which
is assumed to be the journal of the KC. The most important assumption concerning the
nineteenth-century KC is that it was "sanskritic" in emphasis and aims.55
The KC was born out of concern, not for "sanskritic" goals or ritual status, but for
western education out of a desire to further the development of the Kayastha Pathshala
in accordance with the wishes of the founder, who had died in the prime of his life (in
i886, at age 46) with his objective unfulfilled. Kali Prasad left his estate, with the excep-
has been rather heavy" (HR, XIV, July I906, p. "reviewed" nor claimed to have seen. This is an ex-
95). Journalism was Sinha's "first love." "[H]e had ample of what I have above referred to as an un-
spent very large sums in conducting and maintainingproductive, self-perpetuating cycle that has
several journals at his own cost. Journalism had been legitimated and reinforced the assumptions of the
his hobby; it had not been a trade with him, ahistorical perspective.
yielding the producer's surplus. On the contrary, he 5 This view regarding nineteenth-century caste
spent from his own pocket on practising journalism associations is extremely popular. Especially as
very much more than any professional journalist there has been virtually no historical work done on
could ever expect to earn in his lifetime" (Amrita caste associations, it poses an interesting his-
Bazar Patrika, quoted in Bagishwar Prasad Sinha, toriographical question as to why this belief has
Sachchidananda Sinha, p. 52.) Among the journal- attained such a wide currency. I would suggest that
istic enterprises in which Sinha was involved, the answer is to be found in ahistorical works
besides the KS/HR, were the Indian People and (i) which project views and explanations of contem-
the Leader (Allahabad); the Behar Times, the porary Indian social change back into the historical
Beharee, the Indian Nation, and the Searchlight past, in an attempt to substantiate by pseudo-history
(Patna). the author's interpretation of these contemporary
5 Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph, The Modernity social events, and (2) which consider the census con-
of- Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
troversies of I90I to be a sufficient indication as to
I967), p. I25. what caste associations were about in the nineteenth
5 Rowe did not claim to have reviewed these century. It is not insignificant that considerable space
volumes, and I am not criticizing him for failing to
in Rowe's "MNCCS" is devoted to the census of
peruse them (very few of the Urdu issues are extant
I90I, and that this subject forms not the conclusion
anyway). He did make certain assumptions concern- of the essay but the taking-off point.
ing the KC of the nineteenth century without any The reforms advocated by caste associations,
evidence; the Rudolphs adopt the assumptions Srinivas
and states, "were generally aimed at Sanskritiz-
inadvertently create the "'evidence" by crediting ing the style of life and ritual, and occasionally at
Rowe with "reviewing" things he neither reducing the expenditure on weddings and funerals"

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
tion of a small maintenance allow

The endowment totalled nearly Rs. 500,000. A few months after Kali Prasad's death,
Hargovind Dayal (vakil, Lucknow) and Sri Ram (vakil, Sitapur) both of whom had
been associated with Kali Prasad in the work of the KP issued an "Appeal" to the
Kayasthas of North India, proposing that a Kayastha Conference be held. Reproductions
of Kali Prasad's will and of the rules the founder had drawn up for the KP formed an in-
tegral part of this "Appeal.""7 Sachchidananda Sinha said of the "Appeal" that it was
"issued to the educated members of the community ... and evoked a sympathetic
response-particularly from the English-knowing section of the community in Upper
India. 58
During the I89os, Kayastha publicists listed the goals and achievements of the KC as
follows:
(I) Resolutions to improve the educational and moral status of the community.
(2) Resolutions to organize local bodies and to secure greater efficiency and co-
operation.
(3) Resolutions to encourage the community to undertake commercial and other respec-
table pursuits; and to secure its material welfare.
(4) Resolutions to check extravagant expenses and eradicate evil customs.
(5) Resolutions to promote the cause of temperance.
Discussion of work carried out under the first head referred to schools, boarding houses,
scholarships, teaching clubs, literary and debating clubs, the National Fund (for educa-
tion, particularly education abroad), and female education. Under the fourth head were
discussed resolutions and activities against extravagance in marriage and other
ceremonial observances, stipulated dowry, and child marriage.59 The temperance cam-
(Social Change . . ., p. 92). At least as far as North reduction of marriage expenditure and the resources
Indian nineteenth-century caste organizations are wherewith to finance the education of their sons.
concerned, the generalization would be more ac- Significantly, in the nineteenth-century North In-
curate were the priorities reversed: they were dian caste associations, emphasis on reduction of
basically concerned with reduction of the expenses marriage and other ceremonial expenditure was
incurred on marriage and other ceremonial occa- paralleled by an emphasis on education. I would
sions. Professor Lala Ruchiram, for example, contend that these two issues-marriage expenditure
reporting to the National Social Conference in I899and education-constitute the basic and central
on social reform in the Punjab, commented: "The themes of these organizations.
programme of reform work followed by the various 56 An English translation of Kali Prasad's will
Biradari associations in the Punjab is very nearly the may be found in the K(A), II, Jan-Feb I897, pp.
same. . Curtailing expenditure on festive and 38-40; and Murli Dhar, The Kayastha Pathshala,
other ceremonial occasions.-This has been the pp. i6-i8.
main item of reform taken up by the Biradari as- K(A), II, Jan-Feb I897, p. 45.
sociations" (Report of the Thirteenth National 58 HR, LII, April I929, p. 54.
Social Conference, I899 [Poona: I900], Appendix C, 59 K(A), I, April I896, pp. 7-8. The Kayastha
p. 36). was recognized as an official organ by the Kayastha
During the second half of the nineteenth century,
Sadar Sabha, Hind, (the executive body of the KC),
the provincial governments of North India-also of and subsidized by it to the amount of approximately
Bombay and Bengal-were actively encouraging Rs. ioo a year. See also: Lahore Tribune, 24 Dec
voluntary action by caste groups to deal with the I890; and A Short Account of the Aims, Objects,
problem of marriage extravagance. The government Achievements and Proceedings of the Kayastha
saw a direct relationship between extravagant expen-Conference (Allahabad: Reception Committee,
diture on marriages and female infanticide; middle- Muttra Conference, I893), pp. 3-I6.
class Indians saw a direct relationship between

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
78 LUCY CARROLL
paign was largely the

who were involved in
scarcely distinguished a "sanskritic" faction from a "western" faction by defining an
alternative "style for emulation.'61
In spite of the definitional problems associated with the use of the term
"sanskritization," it might be suggested that the reforms and objectives listed above
hardly approximate what is usually intended by the term. As Narayan Prasad Asthana
observed in I896, in speaking of the detractors of the Kayastha Conference movement:
There are certain persons who admit the progress we have made, but attribute it to some
other cause, for example, the effect of education, the contact with the western world,
and other forces acting for our good. But I ask them if the Kayastha Conference is not
60 See my forthcoming essays: "Origins of the derived more from "western" sources than from
Kayastha Temperance Movement," Indian Eco- traditionally Hindu ones. The reference was often
nomic and Social History Review; and ''The Tem- explicitly made, especially in the earlier period when
perance Movement in India: Politics and Social reformers were less shy about praising the West and
Reform," Modern Asian Studies. condemning the moral degradation of Indians. For
example: "The Aftab-i-Panjab (Lahore) of the I4th
61 Nor do these terms meaningfully define lines of
faction within other North Indian caste movements. May [I884] says that a statement is going the round
Manoharlal Zutshi, in reporting to the National of the Indian newspapers to the effect that an
Social Conference in I900 on the history and English woman at home has been lately sentenced to
progress of reform among the Kashmiri Pandits, three months' imprisonment for composing an inde-
wrote: "Among the Lucknow Pandits, the name cent song which she intended to sing at a theatre. In
most revered was that of Mr. Shiva Narayan who this country there is a general custom among native
published a monthly Magazine in Urdu, 'Muraslai' women of indulging in the most obscene songs at
[sic.] in I872. In this journal social questions were their houses and also in the public streets and
discussed, and it became the organ of the advanced thoroughfares on marriage occasions. But it is to be
party. Through its efforts, reforms in curtailing mar-regretted that neither their husbands and parents
riage expenses were carried out and child marriage protest against this shameful practice, nor do the
was stopped among the Pandits. . . . In i88i, a Government officers take any notice of the matter.
Kashmiri club was started at Lucknow by Pt. Prana
Some native associations have made it a point to
Nath who is now Principal of the College at endeavour to check the evil, and their efforts have
Gwalior. The members of this club took pledges notto been altogether in vain; but the evil is so univer-
abstain from gambling, intemperance, Nautch par- sal that nothing short of the interference of the
ties, smoking and Holi obscenities. Of course these magistrates under the Penal Code will put a stop to
young reformers had their orthodox opponents who it. Surely the use of indecent language in public is an
regarded the reforms with dislike and raised the cry offence under the Code" (Selections, NWP, I884, p.
of 'religion' in danger. The Mursalai party of 520).
reform who joined this club . .. maintained the fight See also the memorial submitted to the Viceroy as
and the opposition was exasperated greatly when the late as I900, by the Hindu Social Reform Associa-
reformers succeeded in encouraging Pt. Bhisan tion of Madras: "The humble memorial of the
Narayan Dar to visit England for the purpose of Hindu Social Reform Association of Madras most
study" (Report of the Fourteenth National Social Respectfully Sheweth:-(i) That there exists in the
Conference, I900 [Poona, I903], Appendix A, pp. Indian community a class of women commonly
64-65). Which side shall be deemed "sanskritic": known as nautch-girls. . . . (5) That a strong feeling
the anti-drink, -smoking, -nautch, and -obscenity, is springing up among the more thoughtful of the
pro-sea voyage party? Or the anti-puritan, anti-sea educated classes of this country against the
voyage party? prevalence of this practice of employing nautch-girls,
Srinivas appears to equate "a puritanical style of as tending to lower the moral tone of society and as
life'' with "'sanskritization" (Social Change . - . , pp.
inconsistent with social propriety and those ideas of
25-26). I think a very strong case can be made for self-respect which are coming to be adopted under
the argument that much of the puritanism of the influence of modern education" (quoted in the
nineteenth-century caste and religious movements Pioneer, 7 Jan I90I).

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
the natural result of these very

persons who have imbibed the
Although the KC was started, in the words of Hargovind Dayal, out of "solicitude
for the improvement of the Kayastha Pathshala,"63 the relations between the KC and the
KP were strained from the beginning and deteriorated. The two institutions were in
the hands of different groups. Those in control of the KP (Allahabadi Kayasthas)
resented outside interference in the affairs of the KP that might threaten that control,64
while the non-Allahabadi Trustees of the KP (e.g., Hargovind Dayal and Sri Ram,
founders of the KC) were annoyed at the lack of enthusiasm displayed by the KP
authorities in regard to the development of the KP into a college; and their suspicions
were only increased when the KP authorities pleaded lack of financial resources as their
excuse.65 When the non-Allahabadi Govind Prasad-Sachchidananda Sinha regime
came into control of the KP in I900, there was a brief flurry of optimism and talk of
amalgamation of the two Kayastha institutions.66 The movement, however, fell through,
due largely to Allahabadi opposition67 (represented on Govind Prasad's Executive Com-
mittee by the eighteen or so members of his predecessor's Committee whom he had
reappointed)68 and disagreements over the relationship that should exist between the KP
and the KC and the allocation of communal resources. It is worth reiterating that the in-
clusion of the word "Kayastha" in its title does not make the KS/HR representative of
the KC; to the extent that it was a journal connected with the Kayastha movement and
representative (in the July I900 to June I905 period) of anything beyond the interests and
talents of its editor, it was the journal of the KP-and specifically of the particular
regime in power between I900 and I904.
While the early phase of the "development cycle" rests upon unsubstantiated as-
sumptions concerning the KC of the nineteenth century, the I900-I905 phase rests upon
very poor use of a very useful source. Besides the deficiencies that may already be ap-
parent, in his argument Rowe quotes from two articles that appeared in Sinha's journal.
One of these articles is said to have been "unsigned," thus implying that it was written by
the " 'modern' barrister" editor; in reproducing the quotations, the Rudolphs accept the
inference on faith and credit them to an "unsigned editorial."69 Actually, the article,
"Caste Conferences and National Progress" (Vol. III, June I90I, pp. 430-37), was writ-
ten and signed by Pandit Manohar Lal Zutshi- a Kashmiri Brahman Congressman.
The second article, "Caste as a Factor in Indian Politics" (Vol. V, March I902, pp.
25I-56), was written by Alfred Nundy-a Christian-Theosophist-Free Mason Bengali
Kayastha, an England-returned barrister who had relinquished his legal practice to serve
as secretary to the Indian National Congress in I900, and who was sometime editor of the
Lahore Tribune. Neither of these gentlemen had any connection whatsoever with the
KC; they are even less entitled than Sachchidananda Sinha himself to be put forward as
representing a particular stage in its "development cycle." What both these authors
shared in common with the editor of the KS is to be found neither in "caste" nor in caste
62 K(A), I, April i896, p. 7. reported in the KS, I, Jan I900, pp. I7-I8.
63 K(A), II, Jan-Feb I897, p. 45. 66 KS, II, Sept I900, p. 36; Oct I900, pp. 4, 7, 40.
6 K(A), Sept-Oct i896, p. I4. " KS, II, Nov I900, p. 22.
6 See, for example, the remarks of Hargovind 68 KS, II, July-Aug I900, p. 2; HRKS, VII,June
Dayal, K(A), Jan-Feb I897, p. 45; and the speeches I903, p. 6I5.
of Iswari Dayal (brother of Hargovind Dayal) and " MNCCS," p. 205. Rudolph and Rudolph,
Sri Ram at a Lucknow meeting, Dec I899, as The Modernity of Tradition, p. I25.

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
80 LUCY CARROLL
associational ties: the three Sachchidananda Sinha, Manohar Lal Zutshi, and Alfred
Nundy were all outspoken nationalists, members of that small band that tried to infuse
political life into the political backwaters of Upper India. Sinha and Nundy were promi-
nent Congress publicists; Manohar Lal Zutshi because of his position in the
educational service was precluded from engaging in active political propaganda, but
distinguished himself by his advocacy of an Indian nationality in place of "that feeling of
caste exclusiveness and separatist tendency which have been the bane of Hindu India in
the past and threaten to be its ruin in the future,"70 and of the creation of "political con-
sciousness and democratic spirit" moral values to be inculcated by educators and
realized through "political agitation and struggle."-71
The I905-I9I5 phase of the "development cycle" rests upon assertions that (i) arti-
cles by "Parsi, Muslim, and foreign writers" appear for the first time during this period,
(2) along with "an increasing number of articles on national and political questions," (3)
while by I905 "the specifically 'caste' matters have been relegated to the rear section of
the journal," and (") by 1915 the Kayastha section has been reduced to a few pages.' 72
A glance at the tables of contents for the first issues under Sinha's editorship severely
compromises the first two assertions.73 In regard to the third, it is necessary only to
observe that while "The Kayastha World" appeared as the first item in Sinha's first issue
(July-August I900), it occupied a position in the back half of the journal thereafter (i.e.,
from September I900). The fourth assertion, in so far as it is true i.e., "The Kayastha
World" comprised but four of the twenty-six pages of the very first issue of the KS under
Sinha's editorship (uly-August I900), while in his second issue (September I900) it ac-
counted for only four of the journal's forty-two pages is a function of factors that had
nothing to do with the fate of the KC: the sale of the journal to Sinha, the severance of
its connection with the KP, etc.74
"Sanskritization" and "Westernization" among the Kayasthas
In spite of the proposed "development cycle," the KC continued to function withi

its historical context, to be influenced by and to reflect the social and political environ-
ment from which it cannot be isolated. Far from being a thoroughly "westernized" force
in the post-ig91 period, as implied by the "development cycle," the I920S and I930S
70 "Caste Conferences and National Progress," the past connection of the Review and the Kayastha
KS, III, June I90I, p. 434. Pathshala and the fact that the Review was first the
71 "Moral Education of Indians," HR, XII, Kayastha Samachar and then the Hindustan
Oct-Nov I905, pp. 365-66. Review, the step you have taken, of allowing a few
72 "MNCCS," p. 204. pages of it to go for the Kayastha World, is very ad-
73 I have cited some examples in "The Kayastha
visable, and I beg to congratulate you for the same"
Samachar," pp. 283-84. Articles by Salahuddin (HR, XII, Sept I905, p. 292). In Sinha's indepen-
Khuda Buksh and Shah Din, appearing in the KS in dent (post-June I905) journal, however, "The
early I902, were, for instance, widely reproduced by Kayastha World" section was filled largely with his
other organs of the Indian press at the time (KS, V, press notices and the texts of his speeches, as well as
May-June I902, p. 56o). with reproductions of appreciative comments on the
74A correspondent wrote to Sinha in September HR and reviews of its articles appearing in various
I905, expressing his appreciation of Sinha's retention organs of the Indian press. Sinha's speeches, it may
of "The Kayastha World" section. "It has been be noted, dealt with Bihar politics, Indian national
very kind of you to retain a few pages of the Review politics, etc., without a single mention of the
for news, notes and comments relating to the Kayasthas. The only reason for their inclusion in
Kayastha community. Without a doubt the Review "The Kayastha World" was that their author was
has got nothing to do, now with the Kayastha com- both a Kayastha and the editor of the journal.
munity as a body, or its institutions, but considering

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
represent the period of greatest

time the KC seriously undertook to define and enforce-an "orthodox" system of ritual
observances.75 But in noting the orthodox character of the ritual patterns enjoined, it is
important not to lose sight of the emphasis on uniformity. It was during this period that
the KC took cognizance of the cultural diversity within the Kayastha "community" and
appointed a commission to investigate the observance of sanskaras by Kayasthas of
different geographical areas and sub-castes and make recommendations to ensure unifor-
mity.
This "sanskritic" concern was partly an outgrowth of an increasing awareness of the
cultural plurality of the heterogeneous population collected under the appellation
"Kayastha" and under the KC pandal, especially noticeable as for various historical
reasons-the KC recruitment expanded. It was partly a result of determined effort to
create a "community" with a common history and culture; partly a reflection of the era
of Hinduized and Muslimized politics. These factors can be explained not by reference to
a "process" examined in synchronic isolation but only by reference to the historical
situation-by reference to the changing and expanding.basis of recruitment to the KC,
and the fact that many of these recruits had been politicized by the Hindu movements of
the period; by reference to a polarized political environment in which the Conference
Kayasthas resolved their earlier ambivalence toward their Persianized cultural heritage
by an aggressive assertion of Hindu-ness; by reference to the economic and political fac-
tors that made Conference Kayasthas feel threatened and insecure, and led to an attempt
to find security in the concept of "community."
Perhaps the most "sanskritic" Kayastha Conference was that held in Patna in I93I.
Of the twenty resolutions passed at this session, eight were concerned with formal or ad-
ministrative matters (congratulations, condolences, election of officers, appeals for the
usual funds, etc.). Six dealt with economic and social issues: intermarriage of sub-castes;
improvement in the condition of women (female education, abolition of purdah, and sup-
port for widow remarriage); reduction of dowry; physical fitness; encouragement of
trade and commerce; recognition of the Social Reform League. The remaining six resolu-
tions were:
III.-The Conference strongly enjoins upon every Kayastha to be duly initiated into the
Gayatri and invested with the sacred thread and to conform to the rites of the Dwijas.
75 It as not unusual for earlier Conferences to pass The same Conference passed two resolutions on
innocuous resolutions, such as that of the I906 sea voyage: one congratulating Panna Lal and
Dumraon session: "That this Conference urges upon Mahesh Charan Sinha on their academic achieve-
the community the necessity of observing Dwij- ments abroad and thanking "those gentlemen of the
dharmi rites" (HR, XV, Jan I907, p. I02). C. H. community who, by sending their relatives to
England, have given effect to the wishes of the
Heimsath cites this resolution to document his state-
ment that "A major purpose of the Kayastha Kayastha Conference"; and the other establishing a
Conference and the various sabhas associated withfund it for sending one student a year to Japan for
was to gain public acceptance of-all Kayasthas astechnical education (HR, XV, Jan I907, pp. I02,
twice-born" (Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social I03). Accepting Heimsath's line of argument, edu-
Reform [Princeton: Princeton University Press, cation abroad was obviously twice as important in
I9641, p. 28I). No attempt was made by the I906
the Kayastha movement as dwijdharmi rites. Both
Conference to define dwiidharmi rites; and Fateh the dwijdharmi resolution and the first of the sea
Bahadur Nigam-Secretary of the Kayastha Sadar voyage resolutions were moved from the Chair; the
Sabha, Hind, and author of the report of the Con- President of the session was Baldeo Prasad, an
ference appearing in the HR-dismissed the resolu- active Arya Samajist from Bareilly and President
tion, in the report itself, with the remark that it of no less than three KC sessions (I890, I906, and
"is as meaningless as it is superfluous," I9I3).

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
82 LUCY CARROLL
XIII.-That all Kayasthas be requested to assist in the formation of the Kayastha

Chhatra Nivas at Benares by suitable donations.
XVI.-That in all social functions Kayastha Pandits should be invited and honoured in
the same way as Brahman Pandits.
XVII.-That the Government of Bengal be approached with the request to extend

Sanskrit scholarships and stipends to Kayastha students.
XVIII.-That the Viceroy be moved with the request that the title of
Mahamahopadhyaya be conferred on duly qualified Kayastha Pandits as on Pandits of
Brahman and other castes.
XIX. -In view of the fact that the observation of the period of purification after death
(Ashaucha), the Upanayana ceremony and other rites and customs observed by
Kayasthas, differs in different sections of the caste and in different localities, that a sub-
committee consisting of the following gentlemen be formed to investigate and report for
ensuring uniformity of these practices and customs. ...76
As the resolutions above hint, and as the Conference report which lists movers,
seconders, and supporters of the resolutions-makes explicit, specific group pressures
within the KC movement also contributed toward the "sanskritic" emphasis of the
period. A group of Kayastha Shastris had emerged from the Sanskrit departments of the
universities, and functioned within the Kayastha movement as a pressure group on. behalf
of a more "sanskritized" ritual pattern; it was in their interest for the Kayasthas to
become more ritually orthodox, and for the Conference to recognize the efficacy of rites
performed by Kayastha pandits. Also conspicuous at this Conference were the Bengali
Kayasthas, one of whom Kira Chandra De-presided over the session. The Banga-
deshiya Kayastha Sabha had been formed in I90I, as a direct result of the census con-
troversy between the Baidyas and the Kayasthas over social precedence;77 local concerns
gave questions of ritual status a prominence among the Bengali Kayasthas that was not
characteristic of the Hindustani Kayastha movement.78
The fact that the Conference I have deemed perhaps the most "sanskritic" in the
Kayastha movement nonetheless passed resolutions in favor of such "anti-sanskritic"
measures as female education, widow remarriage, and abolition of purdah, should at
least raise questions concerning the usefulness of the "sanskritic" category and the pur-
pose of what are generally termed "sanskritic" reforms.
"Sanskritic" reforms are usually regarded as representing an attempt at "social
mobility" by the "caste"; they are thus basically designed to impress outsiders. I would
suggest instead that what are termed "sanskritic" reforms-particularly when under-
taken by an association such as the KC, which represented a most heterogeneous
constituency-were integral parts of an attempt to create and define a "community."
The avowal of Hindu observances and Sanskrit-Hindi at once defined the "community"
vis-a-vis the British (Christian, English) and the Muslims (Islam, Persian-Urdu), and-
to some extent-within the Hindu hierarchy. Such an emphasis particularly when
76 KS, June I932, pp. I3-I8. (This KS is a publi-

ments were completely separate until I9I2, when
cation of the KP Trust, the lineal descendant of the (Hindustani) KC formally recognized the
the previous publications of this name maintained Bangadeshiya Sabha. In acknowledgement of the
by the Trust since its establishment in I874.) enlarged scope of the Conference, due to the inclu-
"An Account of the Bangadeshiya Kayastha sion of the Bengalis, the name was changed at that
Sabha," KS, Nov I932, pp. 7-9. time to the All-India Kayastha Conference.
78 The Bengali and Hindustani Kayastha move-

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
coupled with an element of controversy (real or imagined, past or present) concerning

ritual status also represented the lowest common denominator, the widest appeal that
could be made to caste-fellows to support the caste association; it simultaneously created
one of the prerequisites of a "community" a shared cultural identity.79
This is not to deny that in some local situations ritual status may have been a matter
of concern (as indeed it was, in the Bengali Kayastha organization) or that it could as-
sume importance when officialdom decided to relate the then-existing castes to the
traditional varna hierarchy (as happened throughout India in regard to the I9oi and
later censuses). It is to deny that questions of ritual ranking per se were the only, or even
the major, motivation for "sanskritic" reforms in all caste movements and at all times.
And it is to suggest that the existence of a "community" represented by a caste associa-
tion must be demonstrated and its limits defined; it cannot be assumed. I seriously doubt
if other caste movements were less decentralized, less riddled by factionalism, conflicting
interests, and personal jealousies less an uneasy coalition of groups and individuals each
seeking to advance its/his own particular interests and causes than was the KC. In a
situation where generalization about a single caste movement is difficult, to generalize
about all caste movements by citing random, isolated examples and referring to a
mysterious "process" seems somewhat lacking in scholarly rigor. Perhaps the only broad
generalization that can be made about caste associations in general is that the creation of
a "community," or of the illusion of a "community," was for diverse reasons deriving
from the specific political, economic, and social circumstances within which each
originated, from the interests and objectives of their respective founders,80 and from the
historical context within which each functioned their raison d'etre.
7 Caste histories should also be viewed in terms man shows. Note Hardgrave's comments on the
of their function in identifying, defining, and founding of the Nadar Mahajana Sangam in I910 by
creating a community." While cultural reforms Rao Bahadur T. Rattinasami Nadar: ''Rattinasami
produced a common cultural present, the caste was motivated in part by his own political ambition.
histories added a further dimension to the "com- He had requested the government to nominate him
munity" by evoking a common historical past. The to the Legislative Council as a representative of the
tendency to regard caste histories as obviously Nadar community, just as a Nattukottai Chetti had
spurious and generally comical bespeaks not only beenanominated as a representative of his caste. Rat-
disregard of the role of history in defining com- tinasami was reportedly informed by the govern-
munities in the West-e.g., the role of Black His- ment that the Chetti councilman was a represen-
tory and Women's History in contemporary social tative of a Chetti association and that there was no
movements in the United States but also of the comparable organization among Nadars." The mes-
sage was clear: Rattinasami set about at once to
very important facts that the Indians who wrote caste
histories and submitted memorials to census organize himself a constituency of the type specified
superintendents were responding to attempts by by the government. He called together ''a number
non-
Indian bureaucrats, ethnographers, and missionaries
of leaders within the Nadar community'' and met
to define the Indian community to which these the expenses of their board and lodging from his
respective authors and petitioners belonged. Census own pocket. An association was expediently formed,
petitions and caste histories referred to these under the presidency of Rattinasami's uncle; not
" western'' authorities almost as often as they cited
surprisingly, one of the first resolutions called upon
more traditional sources, and either attempted to the government to appoint ''a representative of the
refute their arguments or cited them in support of Nadar community'' to the Legislative Council. With
their own. Since there was not always a unanimity of Rattinasami's death a year later, the Sangam col-
opinion among Western commentators as to the lapsed, not to be revived until I9I7 at a time when
historical and racial origins of a given caste group, important changes in the distribution of political
the question was not as simply self-evident as it is power were being negotiated (Hardgrave, The
sometimes assumed. Nadars of Tamilnad, pp. I30-3I).
80 Many caste organizations were essentially one-

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC
84 LUCY CARROLL
If it is deemed usefu
the KC movement demonstrates that, at least in this case, the "development" from
"westernization" in the nineteenth century to "sanskritization" in the I920S and I930S is
much more readily documented than the converse.8' Such indeed is the case with the In-
dian National Congress, whose "development" in many ways remarkably parallels that
of the KC: they were contemporaneous movements and subject to many of the same pres-
sures; both commenced as gatherings of a more-or-less educated elite drawing heavily
upon "western" ideas for inspiration; both were forced by circumstance and political
reality to expand their respective constituencies and to project a less elitist, more populist
image and appeal.
Whether labelling a stage of the KC, or of the Indian National Congress, as
"sanskritic" or "western" contributes to our understanding of either movement is,
however, an entirely different question.
There is a great deal of challenging and exciting Indian social history yet to be
written-especially if historians will look to such subjects as caste organizations, caste in-
stitutions, and kinship groups as relevant subjects for study. Anthropological concepts and
techniques, unaided by the tools and perspectives of the historical tradition, have not only
proved inadequate for this purpose, but the popularity of the simple categories and
simplistic explanations they provide has deterred historical scholars from investigating
topics and problems that might be fruitfully researched. I hope to have provided in this
essay not only a polemic in favor of a more rigorous historical perspective being brought
to bear upon the treatment of caste and caste institutions in Indian social history, but also
a glimpse of the vast field awaiting historical scholars.
Perhaps even more disconcerting than the fact that the popularity of anthropological-
ly derived assumptions has deterred historians from pursuing potentially exciting lines of
inquiry, is the fact that the ahistorical perspective has penetrated the historical discipline
itself. A recent Ph.D. dissertation82 in the field of Indian history eloquently illustrates
both the limitations of the ahistorical approach, and the intrusion of the ahistorical as-
sumptions into the historical discipline. This pseudo-historical work on the Kayasthas
draws heavily upon the treatment of the Kayasthas in "Mobility in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury Caste System," the author basing his theoretical framework squarely upon Rowe's
unquestioned assumptions.
As an historian, my concern is basically with the effect of the ahistorical approach
upon the historical discipline, whose traditions are compromised by the casual, uncritical
acceptance and pseudo-legitimation of its assumptions. Perhaps it may be suggested that,
equally with the anthropologist's casual attitude toward history and historical evidence,
the historian's lack of familiarity with current trends within the anthropological disci-
pline is also at fault, that historians are accepting popular anthropologically derived terms
and concepts at the very time that these same concepts are being discarded by scholars
of the discipline within which they originated. In either case, an argument for greater
interdisciplinary communication, consultation, and cooperation is equally valid-and
equally urgent.
81 There is obviously nothing "cyclic" about such the Making of Modern Bihar," Ph.D. dissertation,
a "development'; but neither does there appear to Department of History, University of Virginia,
be anything "cyclic" about Rowe's proposed August I972 (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms,
"development cycle." January I973, number 72-33, 223).
82 Cletus J. Bishop, "Sachchidananda Sinha and

59.160.153.178 on Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:18:13 UTC

Caste, Social Change, and The Social Scientist - A Note On The Ahistorical Approach To Indian Social History

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Caste, Social Change, and The Social Scientist - A Note On The Ahistorical Approach To Indian Social History

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Caste, Social Change, and The Social Scientist - A Note On The Ahistorical Approach To Indian Social History

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Caste, Social Change, and the Social Scientist: A Note on the Ahistorical Approach to

Indian Social History

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2054040

This content downloaded from