The Social Structure of a Mysore Village

M. N. Srinivas

There are about 560 thousand villages in what is now the Indian Union and the bulk of the
population of 357 millions live in these villages where the traditional mode of life still persists.
But the villages have begun to change rapidly and the pace of the change is likely to increase rather
than decrease in the near future. This makes the field study of typical villages in the different
linguistic areas of our country an urgent necessity. Either we collect the facts now, or they are lost
for ever.

The Indian village community has figured rather prominently in early sociological literature. Sir
Henry Maine brought the Indian village community into prominence by making it the basis of his
theory of primitive communism of property. Basing his theories on a certain type of village
community existing in parts of north India, he argued that originally land, that is property, was
owned jointly by kin-groups, and that individual ownership of land was a later phenomenon in the
history of human societies. Attempts to reconstruct the history of social institutions were
fashionable in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Social anthropology, or comparative
sociology, is a more mature subject today, and consequently, social anthropologists are more
modest than their Victorian predecessors. They either attempt to describe the structural features of
a small society which they have studied intensively for two or three years, or compare similar
institutions in a few neighbouring societies.

We may note briefly one or two general points about village communities all over India, before
proceeding to describe Rampura, a village community in Mysore. Earlier writers like Maine
distinguished between two types of villages in India the “joint” and the “severalty”. The first type
prevails in the North-West Frontier Province, the Punjab, and the United Provinces, and the second
in Peninsular and Central India. The latter type also existed in Bengal and Bihar before the
introduction of Permanent Settlement in 1793. The “joint” type may be further sub-divided into
the pattidari and zamindari sub-types, in both of which the village lands constitute the joint
property of an organized proprietary body. But while in the pattidari system the joint families
constituting the proprietary body own separate shares in the cultivable land and hold the waste and
pasture land in common, in the zamindari system, all land is held and managed in common, and
not divided. In the latter sub-type, the tenants, if any, are tenants of the whole body of proprietors,
their rents and other receipts are paid into a common fund from which the common expenses are
met; and the annual profits are divided among the co- sharers according to their respective shares.
In a “joint” village, there are two classes of men, one with proprietary rights, the other without
them, power resting exclusively with the former.

In the “severalty” or ryotwari village, a type which prevails over the greater part of India, the unit
for land revenue is not the village, but the holding of each land-holder, which is separately
assessed, and each land-holder is individually responsible for its payment. There is no waste land
held in common which can be divided if required for cultivation, though there may be common
rights of use in the waste, e.g., for grazing, and for collecting fuel.

A feature of the village community all over India is the panchayat or council of elders which
decides disputes between villagers, and discusses matters of common interest such as holding a
festival and building a temple or road.

The nature of the village community is much better realised if we disregard for a moment the
development of communications and the increase in administrative centralisation of the last 150
years or more. Before this happened village communities were far more isolated than they are
today. A man's effective contacts and relations, one imagines, normally stopped a few miles from
his natal village. A distant pilgrimage or a journey to a cattle fair, were probably the only occasions
when an individual ventured beyond the range of his normal contacts. And even then, he was often
accompanied by his friends and relatives. Groups of relatives and friends moved a considerable
distance only when there were compelling reasons such as a famine, war, or religious persecution
by a prince professing a different faith.

The overall political authority does not seem to have been much more than a tax-collecting body
in its relations with these villages. As long as a village paid its taxes and no great crime was
committed in it, it was allowed to go its way. If we exclude for a moment the hereditary headman
of the village and the hereditary accountant who are primarily members of the village community
discharging certain duties for the government, officials of the government rarely visited the village.
The elders in Rampura told me that even as recently as fifty years ago a policeman was a rare sight
in their village, only 22 miles from the capital of the State of Mysore and on a bus road. Formerly
every village had its own watch and ward, and this continues in certain villages even today.

Nobody can fail to be impressed by the isolation and stability of these village communities. Some
of the early British administrators have left us their impressions of the village community. Sir
Charles Metcalfe wrote in 1832: “The village communities are little republics, having nearly
everything they want within themselves, and almost independent of any foreign relations. They
seem to last where nothing else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumble down; revolution succeeds
revolution…, but the village community remains the same....This union of village communities,
each one forming a separate little state in itself, has, I conceive, contributed more than any other
cause to the preservation of the people of India, through all the revolutions and changes which they
have suffered, and is in a high degree conducive to their happiness, and to the enjoyment of a great
portion of freedom and independence.”

All over India, excluding Bengal, Assam, and parts of Gujarat, and the west coast of southern
India, the village is a cluster of houses and huts with the fields lying all round. Narrow uneven
winding streets run between rows of houses, thatched or roofed with tiles made presumably by the
local potter. The village occupies a very restricted area-Rampura is a somewhat large village,
containing 1,523 inhabitants and yet one can go round it in about half an hour.

Every villager knows most of the other members of the village. Every one belongs to a caste, is a
member of a joint family, and of the agnatic-kin-group which is made up of a few joint families.
A man's idiosyncracies are common property. Adults are aware of the “history” of almost every
joint family in the village. A relation between two persons seems to be a continuity from a
relationship between their parents, and leads to a relationship between their children. One
occasionally comes across instances where the past animosity between two joint families acts as a
bond between their present representatives.

The headman of the village, commonly called the Patel, and the accountant, Shanbhog, are key
figures in the community. They both belong to the village and their offices are hereditary. The
headman is usually a non-Brahmin, whereas the accountant is invariably a Brahmin. The headman
represents the village to the government and vice versa. His dual position of agent of the
government and representative of his village gives him the respect of all. He is an indispensable
go-between. While the government regards him as one who can be held responsible for the village,
the villagers regard him as their spokesman. Till recently, the government seems to have been
regarded with awe by the villagers. Only the boldest seem to have remained in the village when a
high government official visited it---perhaps such a visit was undertaken only when something
was seriously wrong in the village. The need of a spokesman is better appreciated when we
remember these facts.

The accountant keeps a register of how much land each head of a family or joint family has, and
the amount of tax on the land. Just before harvest the accountant reports to the government the
state of the crops. He usually sends his report in the form, “the harvest will be 8 annas in the rupee
this year”. The government’s assessment will be adjusted to this estimate, after the accountant’s
estimate has been checked by a higher official.

The village is a unity in several senses of the term. It is firstly, a physical unity. If the monsoon
fails, it fails for every one. Formerly, when there was an attack of cholera or plague or small-pox,
the entire village acted as one, and moved away to a different place. The present site of Rampura
is only about seventy-five years old, the old site having been abandoned during an epidemic of
malaria. They all joined together to propitiate the deities presiding over these diseases. The disease
was ritually driven out of the village--- the village boundary has a certain ritual significance.

This ritual unity of the village is important. During the early part of the summer of 1948 there was
a long drought and this adversely affected the summer crops, horse gram, black gram, green gram,
etc. The villagers felt that they were being punished by God. Some attributed the drought to the
fact that the priest of the temple, an old widower, was living with two women to whom he was not
married. The rains are liable to fail for other reasons too: burial of a leper’s corpse leads to
defilement of Mother Earth (Bhumitai), and this results in a drought. A leper’s corpse has to be
cremated, or floated down a river.

There was a striking demonstration of village unity during my stay. The government suddenly
passed an order to the effect that henceforward fishing rights in tanks all over the State would be
sold by auction. When Rampura people learnt of it, their spontaneous reaction was “What right
has the government to auction fishing rights in our tank?” The government was, according to them,
encroaching on something that belonged to them. It must be mentioned here that in Rampura, once
every year, during the height of summer, when water is at the lowest, the headman and elders
organize a fishing expedition. At night, by moonlight, most of the adults go with fishing baskets
the tank and catch fish. Next day there is a feast in every house. On the day fixed for auction, the
villagers saw to it that nobody in the village or from any of the neighbouring villages was there to
bid. The visiting government official had to return without an auction.

This sense of unity is also usually seen when the village, contrast themselves with other. Rampura
people consider themselves refined compared to Bihalli people. They concede that Kere people
are more educated than themselves, but they say that they are quarrelsome, and do not co-operate
with others for constructive tasks. On the other hand, Kere people regard themselves as advanced,
and consider Rampura backward. Pride in one's village is common, though this does not
completely shut out objectivity.

Occasionally we find two villages fighting each other. There is a Madeshwara (a form of Shiva)
temple two furlongs from Rampure, and every year, in the month of Kartik (October- November),
there is a festival in honour of this deity. People from within a radius of about twenty miles come
to this festival. Parties of devotees from surrounding villages come and carry an image of the deity
round the temple. It is customary to allow each party to carry the image three times round the
temple. In 1947, a party from Kere was intercepted by a party from Bihalli soon after the former
had completed the second round. Kere people said they wanted to complete the three rounds.
Bihalli people replied that a great many people were waiting, and there was no time for the
customery three rounds. A fight ensued, in which a Kere youth was injured. Soon Kere people
massed up for a fight, and started moving towards Rampura. The police then intervened, fired a
few rounds in the air, and were able to prevent the fight from assuming serious proportions.

Bihalli people felt uncomfortable after the festival was over. They knew that Kere people would
try to avenge themselves. So they wanted to come to a settlement. They reported their desire for
settlement to the headmen of Rampura and Hogur--- in the latter is an important panchayat for the
settlement of disputes. Kere people were asked to be present in Hogur on a certain day for the
settlement of the dispute. They refused to comply with the request. Kere has a panchayat of the
same standing as Hogur, and people thought that it was a slight for them to be summoned to Hogur.
Finally it was agreed that the parties concerned should meet in the Madeshwara temple itself. They
met at last, and the battle took a legal turn. It was finally decided that Bihalli people had committed
a wrong, and they reluctantly paid the fine imposed on them. They then went back to their village
and fined heavily all the youths who had taken part in the fight. At both Kere and Bihalli, people
were informed of the end of the dispute by beat of drum, with a stern warning that any one who
did not heed the decision would be summarily dealt with by the village panchayat.

I have said enough to show that unity of the village has several aspects. Most members of the
village, whatever their caste, consider themselves to be villagers in certain contexts. There are
seventeen sub-castes in Rampura. Each of these sub-castes has a distinctive tradition with strong
ties with the same sub-caste in villages nearby. That is, the village is a vertical unity of many castes
whereas caste horizontal unity, its alliances going beyond the village.

There is one aspect of the caste system which does not receive sufficient emphasis. All the various
castes in a village are interdependent. This is seen in day-to-day matters, and is prominent, on
ritual and other important occasions. Any villager will tell, for instance, that at the wedding of a
peasant, all the castes have to co-operate. The Brahmin is priest, the Carpenter puts up the pandal,
the Goldsmith makes the ornaments, the Potter makes the pots, the Washerman supplies clean
cloths for the bridal pair to walk on, the Barber shaves the groom, the Oilman supplies the oil for
the lamps and cooking, the Shepherd provides wool for the sacred thread which is tied round the
wrists of the bridal pair, Banajigas (traders) supply the provisions, the Medas (basket-makers) the
baskets, and the Holeya (Untouchable) performs menial tasks and makes a pair of sandals for the
groom.

The Carpenter (he belongs to the caste of carpenters and blacksmiths, it is important to remember)
makes the peasant's plough, and it is his duty to see that the peasant's agricultural implements are
all in good repair. Each family he serves pays him annually a fixed amount of paddy and straw at
the rice harvest. He also gets a share, a very small one though, in the grains that are grown during
summer. The Washerman similarly washes the clothes of every family in the village, except of
families belonging to very low castes. The men of the Washerman's family wash the men's clothes,
while the women members wash the women's clothes. A man considers it beneath him to wash a
woman's clothes. The Washerman also has special duties and privileges on ritual occasions. He is
paid annually in paddy and straw by every family he serves. The same holds good for the Potter
and Barber.

The Oilman is not included in such traditional arrangements The Brahmin and Lingayat (non-
Brahmin, Shaivite sect of south India) priests of three important temples in Rampura are also paid
a small quantity of paddy and straw annually. But then each of these temples has been endowed
with lands which the priestly families enjoy. The paddy and straw which they are paid in addition
is said to be a contribution towards the daily rice-offerings which are made to the deities.

Formerly, in Rampura, it was customary for two families, one belonging to the upper caste and the
other to the Untouchable caste, to be linked in a master-servant relationship. The servant was called
the halemaga (old son) of the master. The servant family had certain duties on ritual and social
occasions, e.g., at a wedding in the master's family, the servant had to present a pair of sandals to
the bridegroom. The servant family was paid a quantity of paddy and straw at the harvest. In
addition, it had the right to the carcass of any cow or bullock which died in the master’s house.

Now-a-days, Untouchables are beginning to refuse to perform these and other tasks as they are
considered to be degrading. But the upper castes want them to continue performing them, and there
is friction.

Formerly, it seems that entire sub-castes occupying a very low position in the hierarchy were
attached as halemagas to certain sub-castes occupying a high position relatively. Thus we find a
man of a high caste saying that “formerly such-and such sub-castes were halemagas to us. They
are no longer so”. Sometimes this relationship seems to have been purely nominal---as when a
wandering sub-caste like the Garudigas (caste of acrobats and magicians) are halemagas to a sub-
caste in any village. The Garudigas might visit this particular village once a year only. Sometimes
a man might claim a sub-caste higher than his own as halemaga in order to boost his own sub-
caste.

Servants cultivating their masters’ lands are paid in paddy or paddy-cum-money, and tenants pay
their landlords a fixed amount of grain or share of the crop. Paddy occupies to a large extent the
place of money in the economy, and barter occurs even today in individual transactions. But money
is being used more and more.

The village is even today largely self-sufficient. But now-a-days there is a need for goods made,
or grown outside the village: cloths, salt, sugar, matches, kerosene, soap, tea, coffee, beedis,
lanterns, cycles and safes are some of the goods that come from outside. A self-sufficient economy
is possible only if each sub-caste adheres to its traditional occupations. The occupations are
complementary. This is true to a great exter in Rampura even today, though every caste has
agriculture either as its main occupation, or practises agriculture along with its main occupation.
The members of the Peasant caste practise agriculture, the Barber shaves, the Washerman washes
clothes, the Potter makes pots, the Banajigas are traders, the Ganiga works the oil-press and sells
oil, the Besthas are fisher men, the Idigas sell toddy, though they no longer tap it, the Medas make
baskets, and the Koramas are swine-herds. The Untouchables are labourers and servants.

But most of the Kurubas are agriculturists though their traditional occupation is keeping sheep and
making woollen blankets. There are a few Muslims in Rampura who are recent immigrants, and
they are traders and contractors.

A few Peasants and a Lingayat have opened grocery shops, and a Potter and a Fisherman sew
clothes on a sewing machine. The priestly castes also cultivate land. But even today it is considered
proper to follow one’s traditional occupation. (This view, however, does not obtain among many
of the younger people who have been to school and who are urban in their outlook.)

A caste has a ritual attitude towards the tools, implements or objects associated with its occupation.
Annually, at the festival of Gouri (Parvati, wife of Shiva) each caste worships its tools. Books are
identified with Saraswathi, the goddess of learning, and every one has ritual respect for them. The
Brahmins worship books during the Dasara. It is customary to perform Saraswathi Puja in the
village school during Dasara.

The entire community, composed of all the Hindu castes, regard the earth, as Mother Earth, a deity,
and the crops and manure are regarded as Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The domestic lamp,
granary, a heap of grain, grain-measure, etc., are all objects of ritual respect.

The various sub-castes in a village are interdependent economically and otherwise, and they see
themselves as villagers in certain contexts, but these do not prevent inter-caste rivalry and even
hostility. This is the natural corollary of caste solidarity. Inter-caste rivalry expresses itself in
joking about the custom and habits of the castes of which one is not a member. Along with pride
in one’s own caste, there goes an ignorance of, and often contempt for, the ways and custom of
other castes. The upper castes tend to be specially contemptuous of the ways of the lower castes.

Occasionally there are fights between sub-castes. Recently Fishermen and Lingayats fought each
other in a village near Rampura. Both Fishermen, and Lingayats are credited with a great deal of
caste-solidarity.
It is reported that there are villages in which stones have been planted to mark the boundary of a
caste. A man who finds himself on the wrong side of the boundary might be beaten. It is necessary
to mention here, even though it means digressing, that there is another type of solidarity besides
those of kinship, caste and village. The various sub-castes in a village are grouped into two
divisions, viz., Nadu and Desha. It is not very easy to discover which sub-castes belong to the
Nadu division and which to the Desha. One version is that Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Okkaligas
belong to the Nadu, whereas all the castes which usually have the suffix Shetti (from Sanskrit
“Sreshti”, “elect”) belong to the Desha division.

Thus, the Banajiga (Trader), Washerman, Potter, Oilman, Barber, Fisherman, Weaving castes,
Basket-makers and Swine herds belong to the Desha. It is thus seen that all the trading and artisan
castes belong to the Desha division. The Okkaligas or Peasants certainly belong to the Nadu, but
one is not so certain about the Brahmin and Kshatriya. Perhaps the Brahmin was extraneous to the
village in this matter, as he certainly is in some others.

It is relevant to introduce another matter here. The Smith group of castes are said to have “one
colour less” than the others. Formerly this group suffered from certain civic disabilities. Their
weddings were not permitted to be performed inside the village. They were excluded from village
assemblies, prayer parties and marriage houses. They were not allowed to wear red slippers. No
other caste, not even the Holeyas, the right-hand division of Untouchables, dined at the house of a
Smith. It is usual to say that the Holeya is the lowest caste. But there are castes to which the Holeya
does point and say that he does not eat food cooked by them, or drink water given by them or even
borrow chunam (lime paste for betel leaves).

An attempt by the Smiths to assert their equality with the others usually led to a fight between
them and others. Fifty years ago, the Cheluvadi (Untouchable, hereditary servant of the village,
belonging to the right-hand division) of Kere beat a wealthy Smith from Mysore who walked into
the village wearing red clippers. The Smith was rich and had lent money to the extent of Rs. 50,000
to the villagers.

Perhaps the grouping of castes into those “with one colour less” coincides with the grouping of
castes into right-hand and left-hand divisions. The Smiths certainly belong to the latter. Of the
Untouchables, the Holeyas belong to the right-hand, while the Madigas belong to the left-hand
division; formerly, a fight usually arose when a left-hand caste tried to assert a privilege which
was denied to it by the right-hand division.

The village has a solidarity even though composed of several different castes. Each caste again has
a solidarity cutting across the village. Thirdly, the various castes living in a village can be grouped
into Nadu and Desha divisions. This distinction, like the “full-colours” and “one-colour-less”
division, and the right-hand and left-hand division, is a general distinction among castes in this
area, and not confined to the castes of one village.

We must now mention the existence of caste-courts, which punish people guilty of caste offences.
They are even today powerful organisations though the legal system introduced by the British has
adversely affected them. For instance, a person who has been excommunicated by a caste-court
can sue it in a court of law for defamation. But in spite of the inroads made into the authority of
caste-courts, the latter continue to function. Even as recently as 1945, there was an instance of a
woman of the Washerman caste who was very nearly thrown out of caste because of alleged inter-
dining with a sister who had been thrown out of caste some time previously for living with an
Untouchable. Excommunication from caste is the most powerful weapon in the hands of caste-
courts. It can be final and irrevocable, or temporary. The former is for very grave offences like
living with a very low caste man, or repeatedly eating with him. The milder punishment is for
smaller offences: the offender expresses regret for his action, pays a fine, undergoes purificatory
ritual after which he gives a feast to the members of his caste. When one is excommunicated for
good, he is as good as dead to his caste which stops all social intercourse with him. A notice is
often circulated which makes it impossible for the wretched man to settle elsewhere. If the offender
is the head of a family, the entire family comes under the ban, unless they disown him.

At a wedding, betel leaves and nuts are distributed to all the assembled guests. This distribution
has to take place in a certain order. It has to take into account the qualifications of each guest. The
wedding guests are very touchy on the question of precedence, and if a guest feels that he has been
dishonoured, he creates a scene. The formal distribution of betel leaves is such a hazardous affair,
that several years ago the elders of Rampura decided that anybody could drop it if he paid Rs. 8-4
into the village fund. Now-a-days most take advantage of this means of escape.

There are caste-courts for the Potters at Keragodu and Ashtagrama. These courts are called gadi
which literally means frontier or boundary. Each caste has several caste courts and they are said to
constitute a hierarchy. But the hierarchy does not seem to be clear. For instance, there is a keen
rivalry between Keragodu gadi and Mysore gadi. The Mysore people claim precedence over
Keragodu on the ground that they represent the gadi of the capital of Mysore State. To this the
people reply that this gadi came into existence during the time of Hyder Ali, father Tipu Sultan,
and even then Keragodu had precedence over Ashtagrama, the then capital of Mysore State---that
is to say, Keragodu has always enjoyed precedence over the capital.

Two years ago, representatives of the Potter caste in Mysore started claiming precedence over
Keragodu representatives in villages such as Kere, Pura and Kadlagala. In none of the places did
they have any success. But in Tagadur gadi they were successful in pressing their claim.

Again, Kere gadi claims to include under it Keragodu gadi, but the latter considers itself to be a
separate gadi and not merely part of Kere. It is said that formerly Potters had 48 gadis, and at a
wedding in a Potter's house, 48 betels had to be kept aside, irrespective of the fact that only few of
the 48 representatives were present. In Kere village this custom was stopped only a few years ago,
now-a-days only those actually present receive leaves.

The ritual of betel distribution at wedding reflects the village organisation, and also reveals
existence hierarchy of caste-courts. Sometimes, the hierarchy is not clear, and one of the reasons
for this may be the fact that a caste court which is supreme in one area tries assert its authority in
a different area.

Certain matters fall clearly within the jurisdiction of caste court, e.g., dining or living with member
of low caste. Matters like lopping the branches of some one eles’s tree, diverting water belonging
to another’s field, stealing grass from a field, setting fire to hay-ricks, etc., fall within the
jurisdiction of village authorities who are armed with powerful sanctions, ranging from fines to
boycott of the offender. The offender who has been boycotted (and his family) lose access to the
village tank or canal. His cattle will not be allowed to graze on the village pasture. The barber,
washerman, etc., will not serve him. No neighbour will offer the offender “fire and hot water”.
Even today in the village it is common to light a stove from the embers taken from a neighbour’s
stove. Similarly, hot water for bathing or washing is borrowed from a neighbour if the neighbour
has a cauldron of hot water.
Village and caste authorities normally work together. Sometimes the former may tell the
disputants, “You take the matter up to your caste authorities”. Again, the caste-authorities consult
the village authorities when a question of fact is involved--- the latter are the men on the spot and
know the parties to, and sometimes the facts as well, of the dispute.

In Rampura, as far as the Okkaligas (peasants, there are 735 of them) are concerned, there is a
caste headman (Nadu Gauda) in the village to whom they can take their disputes. The village
headman (Patel) is also an Okkaliga, and he and the caste headman are great friends. Each supports
the other in almost all matters. The result is that disputes from Rampura Okkaligas rarely go out
of the village. In fact, Rampura people are well-known for their love of peace.

Both the village headman and the headman of the Okkaliga caste are well-to-do, and have a
reputation for being fair minded. This normally ensures the settling of disputes within the village.
Also, the two headmen refrain from trying to exercise their authority in disputes in which certain
people well-known for their quarrelsomeness are involved. The latter take their disputes to the law
courts.

The headman of the Okkaliga caste in Rampura is also frequently called in to settle disputes of
non-Okkaligas, disputes which clearly lie within the jurisdiction of the respective caste authorities.
For instance, the case of a Kuruba (Shepherd) girl of Rampura, who did not want to join her
husband, was taken before the Okkaliga caste-headman. The reputation of a leader for fairness
often might induce people of other castes to take their disputes to him.

Every political leader and every official who comes into direct contact with villagers, complain
about “party politics” in the village. Every village is divided into factions; and each faction is
headed by a leader. These factions prevent the working of the village as a unit.

The village an interdependent unit, largely self-sufficient, having its own village assembly, watch
and ward, officials and servants. Inside each village each caste lives its own life, though it is
dependent on other castes within and without the village. There is also a division along caste lines.
The Untouchables are never wealthy, and they are usually servants and labourers at the houses of
the upper castes. But there are also poor members of the upper castes who acts as servants to rich
members of their own caste. Thus poor Okkaliga often becomes the servant of a rich Okkaliga.
Usually, an upper-caste never becomes a servant at the house of a man who belongs to much lower
caste.

Enough evidence has been produced to indicate the kind of ties that bind together the members of
the village community. These ties are strong and traditional. But the forces set in motion in the last
hundred and fifty years have been such as to weaken them, the arrival of Independence has marked
a concentrated effort to snap these ties. What kind of village community will come to exist in the
future, can only be a matter for speculation.