Indian Society and Indians

Abstract

This chapter will deal with British representations of various facets of Indian society, including its structure (the caste system), its people, learning and treatment of weaker sections (lower castes and women). When approaching these related subjects British commentators once again found themselves faced with something that was at once comprehensible, possessing features similar to those found in Europe, and at the same time incomprehensible because their basis and functioning was completely different. The problem arose from a situation of simultaneous similarity/difference — for example, India had a social hierarchy based on occupation (‘caste’) but, unlike the European equivalent, it was entirely hereditary. The commentators therefore decided that the two societies were cast in the same mould but that the materials were different — those that subscribed to the ‘primitive’ point of view saw it as inferior material and those who subscribed to the ‘degenerate’ saw it as material that had lost its resilience or peaked early. The common refrain was — ‘Since it is, without doubt, alien, it must be inferior.’