T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y

VILLAGE STRUCTURE IN NORTH KERALA Eric J. Miller

(The material on which this article is based, was collected during fieldwork in Malabar District and Cochin State from October 1947 to July 1949),

PR O F E S S O R M . N . S R I N I V A S prefaced his excellent ar t icle on

' T h e Social St ructure of a Mysore V i l l a g e , " published in The Econo­mic Weekly of October 30, 1951, w i t h an account of the chief types o f vi l lage organiza t ion in I n d i a . A l t h o u g h the presence of caste prob­ably reduces the possible types to a f ini te number , local variat ions in the caste system, in the p r o p o r t i o n of the n o n - H i n d u popu la t ion , i n economy. in topography, and in other factors, have all con t r ibu ted to produce considerable differences in different regions. Prominent among the fac­tors tha t have dist inguished the M a l a b a r Coast f rom the rest of I n d i a in this respect are its relat ive isolat ion between the Western Ghats and the sea, its un ique and former­ly very strong grada t ion of castes, and its d iv is ion in to power fu l , i f f l u i d , chiefdoms, some of w h i c h survive vestigially today.

Even w i t h i n the area, the m a n ­ner in w h i c h vi l lage communi t ies are organized varies considerably between one local i ty and the next. No a t ten t ion i s pa id in this ar t ic le to the many p redominan t ly M u s l i m ( M a p p i l a ) communi t ies in the southern taluks of M a l a b a r d is t r ic t , nor to the villages in T ravancore arid C o c h i n where Syrian Christ ians are in a ma jor i ty . These require separate t reatment . Despite the u n i f o r m admin i s t r a t ion t h r o u g h v i l ­lage officials w h i c h has been super­imposed over the whole of M a l a b a r d is t r ic t and C o c h i n State, w i t h b u t m i n o r discrepancies, there neverthe­less r ema in appreciable variat ions in s t ructure even a m o n g ove rwhe lm­ing ly H i n d u villages. An a t t empt i s made here to p rov ide a general p ic ture of vi l lage s t ructure in N o r t h K e r a l a , ra ther than to concentrate on the detai led organiza t ion of a single vi l lage.

A broad d i s t inc t ion may be d r a w n between the n o r t h e r n par t o f M a l a ­bar d is t r ic t (br ief ly referred to as N o r t h M a l a b a r ) on the one h a n d , and C o c h i n State together w i t h the southern taluks of M a l a b a r d i s t r ic t ( S o u t h M a l a b a r ) on the other. T h i s is p a r t l y connected w i t h the former­ly greater au tonomy of local chief­tains a n d headmen in the n o r t h , where the t e r ra in is more h i l l y and

the villages more scattered and iso­lated, in contrast to the th icker set­t lement of the r i ce -growing areas in the south. The southern vi l lage is often an island " of houses and trees surrounded by a ''sea " of paddy. In the no r th the paddy-fields more frequently resemble lakes or r ivers—indeed they often tend to be long na r row strips, i r r iga ted f rom a central s t r e a m - , w i t h the houses h idden among the trees on the su r round ing slopes.

Instead of l i v i n g hudd led in a street, as so many other Ind ians do . the M a l a y a l i prefers the pr ivacy of his o w n fenced compound , at a dis­tance f rom his neighbours. T h e density of p a l m trees, plantains, and other vegetation often renders one house invisible f rom the next. In localities where paddy-fields are lew, settlement of this k i n d may be con­t inuous for miles in -one d i rec t ion or another, w i t h no obvious t e r r i ­tor ia l boundaries to i n d i v i d u a l v i l ­lages. Even the- poorest household­er of the lowest caste lives a little apar t f rom his neighbours and k i n , though often on a perimeter of the vi l lage or close to the fields. W i t h this except ion, settlement is usually haphazard, w i t h no special tenden­cy for houses of a pa r t i cu la r caste" to cluster together.

It is necessary here to give some account of the more i m p o r t a n t caste divisions of N o r t h Kera la . Of the- four varnas there are p rac t i ­cal ly no Kshatr iyas and few, i f any. indigenous Vaisya castes: the bu lk of the popu la t ion comprises Sudras and untouchables.

N a m b u d i r i Brahmans are a small but i m p o r t a n t pa t r i l inea l (makka-thayam) caste at the top of the H i n d u scale. T i t u l a r l y the priests of the c o m m u n i t y , many of them are-also weal thy landlords. R a n k i n g r i t u a l l y below them, but economical­ly as power fu l or more so, are va r i ­ous chief ta in castes w h o are maru-makkathayam, reckoning descent t h r o u g h the female line. One or two of t h e m c l a im Kshat r iya rank and precedence a m o n g them is constantly in dispute. A l l o f them, separately and together, are normal ly exogam-ous, g i v i n g t h e i r . w o m e n in marr iage to N a m b u d i r i s wh i l e the i r men take wives f r o m Nayars -the large p a t r i -

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l ineal group of castes" wh ich f o r m , so to speak, the middle-class back­bone of the society. T r a d i t i o n a l l y soldiers, and today often in govern­ment service, the Nayars are p r i m a ­r i ly farmers. R a n k i n g sl ight ly above Nayars are some small castes of temple servants. T h e lowest Nayar sub-castes are washermen and bar­bers for all higher groups.

A l l these are caste-Hindus, and f rom the chief ta in castes d o w n a l l are Sudras. T h i s latter g roup shares wha t is in many respects a c o m m o n cul ture , made the more u n i f o r m by the system of hypergamy, by w h i c h men of the higher castes and sub-castes took wives f r o m groups below them a practice' now being super­seded by a greater degree of endo-gamous marr iage. The marr iage links of the chief ta in castes ( and sometimes of the superior Nayars) w i t h the- N a m b u d i r i s forged some k i n d of un i ty among all caste-H indus .

Nayars comprise about one quar­ter of the H i n d u popu la t ion , and the other caste-Hindus less than ten per cent: the r ema in ing two- th i rds are p o l l u t i n g castes. 'These fall i n to two broad groups. The upper g roup includes a populous caste of labour­ers and small tenants, k n o w n , in d i f ­ferent regions, as Tiyyas or Iravas, together w i t h lesser castes of car­penters, smiths, physicians, washer­men, etc. Below these are many infer ior p o l l u t i n g castes of basket-makers, cobblers, and other artisans, musicians, devil-dancers, beggars, and, most numerous, landless labour­ers w h o were fo rmer ly agrestic serfs.

W i t h i n the vi l lage, caste rank was and st i l l is -closely correlated

w i t h relat ionship to the l and , espe­cial ly paddy- land . I n N o r t h M a l a ­bar the headman fami ly o f the v i l ­lage sometimes s t i l l remains the chief land-owner, wh i l e in the south the l and lo rd may more often be- a N a m b u d i r i or a temple devaswam, in w h i c h case the headman fami ly w i l l have some freehold fields and h o l d the rest as a tenant. A l t h o u g h the headman fami ly may t i l l more than enough land for its o w n needs, the bu lk of i t is parcelled out among tenants, w h o may cul t iva te i t t hem­selves or sub-lease it yet again. N a m -

February 9, 1952

maintaining l a w and order a m o n g the lower castes a n d a r i g h t to i n ­tercede in the i r disputes. T h e T i y y a elder of the vi l lage had to be pre­sent at weddings in the ar t isan castes and he or his representative had to accompany the marr iage p r o ­cession i f i t wen t to another v i l lage . I n d i v i d u a l Nayars (perhaps a l a n d ­lo rd of one of the disputants) and the desavari, if necessary, a rb i t r a ted in cases that T iyyas fai led to settle. Serious punishments such as ex­c o m m u n i c a t i o n required the appro­val of the desavari (or , where h igher castes were invo lved , of a superior r u l e r ) , w h o was also responsible fo r seeing tha t the punishment was p r o ­perly carr ied out .

T h e consistency between this de­legation of au tho r i t y and distance po l l u t i on scarcely needs emphasis: whereas Nayars could not inconven i ­ently settle T i y y a disputes at the s tatutory distance of 24. feet, the dis­pensation of justice to the lower serf castes at 64 feet w o u l d have been a less tractable p rob lem. A p ­proach of the lower castes closer t han these distances was, of course, p o l ­l u t i n g to the Nayars.

Obvious ly then was scope in such a system for i n d i v i d u a l acts of op­pression: the universal value of the society, that status was to be res­pected and defended, made t h e m possible. A n y sense of injust ice , however, was felt on ly towards the i n d i v i d u a l w h o h a d exceeded his r ights a n d was no t extended to a cleavage between castes or between ru le r and subject. As in a l l h ierar ­chica l systems of this k i n d , w h a t was suffered f r o m a superior cou ld be in f l ic ted on an in fe r io r . An op­pressor also h a d supernatura l r e t r i ­bu t ion to fear. Fu r the rmore , the society was u n i t e d by the c o m m o n phi losophy of dharma, that the greatest good is to behave accord ing to one 'S stat ion in l i fe . I f a m a n c o m m i t t e d adu l te ry w i t h a w o m a n of h igher caste, for example , i t was a threat to the status quo of the whole society. His o w n caste-fellows disapproved of his ( r i m e - indeed, sin as s trongly as the caste of the degraded w o m a n . E x c o m m u n i c a ­t i o n was au toma t i c fo r b o t h . A f ami ly f a i l i n g to d i sown such a de­l inquen t member was itself l iable to excommunica t ion , b u t i t w o u l d seldom ref ra in f r o m h o l d i n g the ap­propriate, dea th ceremonies to cut off the sinner. In this way, the con­servation of the way of l i fe of each caste and of the whole vi l lage was a responsibi l i ty shared by every i n d i ­v i d u a l .

Every caste in the vi l lage, as we have seen, bad some sort of in te rna l organizat ion t h rough w h i c h in te rna l disputes cou ld he settled. In the lowest castes of serfs this was often inadequate, since then- were and there r ema in cleavages between local factions o w i n g allegiance to differ­ent landholders . W i t h i n the vi l lage there was a constant tendency for disputes unsett led inside the caste to be referred upwards to a caste higher in the scale. T h e large T i y y a caste h a d some responsibil i ty for

to most i m p o r t a n t rulers, such as the M a h a r a j a o f C o c h i n and the Zamo-r i n o f Ca l icu t , T h e size and i m ­portance of any t e r r i t o r i a l u n i t , f r o m vil lage upwards , was reckoned in terms of , the number of able-bodi­ed Nayar warr iors i t cou ld supply. The r i tua l au thor i ty of N a m b u d i r i Brahmans ( w h o were pa r t ly superior to terrestrial divisions) and the p o l i ­t ical au thor i ty of kings and chief­tains acted as a check on each other T h e Nayars, by the possibili ty of t ransferr ing allegiance to another ruler, cou ld prevent chieftains f r o m becoming too autocra t ic ; bu t i t was very seldom that the Nayar assem­blies even threatened to apply this sanction.

The m a i n s t ruc tura l cleavages were between t e r r i to r i a l uni ts v i l ­lages, chiefdoms, k ingdoms- not be­tween castes. Inter-caste relations were, on the cont rary , of a com­plementary nature, i n v o l v i n g t r a d i ­t ional ly ordained and clear-cut r ights and obligations, au tho r i t y and sub­o r d i n a t i o n , j u r i d i c a l a u t h o r i t y neat­l y coincided w i t h p o l i t i c a l au tho r i t y and economic power, and the p o l i t i ­cal and j u r i d i c a l au tho r i t y of head­men and chieftains was also but­tressed r i tua l ly by trusteeship of the chief temples in their area, and in cer ta in other ways.

T h e village was the desam; the headman was the desavari. In the south the au thor i ty of the desavari was somewhat cu r t a i l ed by the strength of the Nayar assemblies, since he could take no act ion of w h i c h they disapproved w i t h o u t los­ing the allegiance of arms on w h i c h his posi t ion so great ly depended. He was to some extent primus inter pans. T h o u g h he was in charge of adminis te r ing the vil lage temple, i t was only as cha i rman of a c o m m i t ­tee of heredi tary trustees, also gen­era l ly Nayars. A d m i n i s t r a t i o n of justice consisted m a i n l y in r a t i fy ing decisions of Nayar elders.

budir is and chieftain, castes tend to be land-owners ; the higher Naya r sub-castes are either land-owners or non -cu l t i va t i ng tenants ( " customary kanamdars ") ; the infer ior Nayars and some Tiyyas are c u l t i v a t i n g sub­tenants, either on permanent leases ( " c u l t i v a t i n g kanamdars"') or on annua l leases (verrumpattamdars) ; the ma jo r i ty of upper p o l l u t i n g castes are landless labourers; w h i l e the lower p o l l u t i n g castes were u n t i l recently serfs, tied to a pa r t i cu la r block of l and , and , i f the land was transferred, themselves au tomat ica l ­ly transferred to the new owner.

Since, in a vi l lage there were: scarcely any families w h i c h , at some t ime of the year, d i d not have a connect ion w i t h the land even i t o n l y to supply supplementary labour for the harvest , this relat ionship to the l and of the various social g roup­ings was an impor t an t expression of the i r d i f ferent ia l rank. The society also provided more detailed c r i te r ia of a r i t u a l and occupational nature , w h i c h clarif ied the rank of each caste in re lat ion to all others of the local i ty . Disputes over precedence between castes w i t h i n a vi l lage are a nove l ty : formerly there existed no o p p o r t u n i t y for social relations (ex­cept wa r l i ke relations) between i n ­d iv idua l s of castes whose m u t u a l rank and corresponding behaviour were not accurately predetermined.

T h e vi l lage, con ta in ing a cross-section of interdependent castes (usually between 15 and 2 5 ) ) , was more or less self-subsistent. The local members of each caste were un i t ed by kinship bonds. In spite of the hypergamy already ment ioned , they were ma in ly endogamous. Each had its o w n in te rna l admin i s t r a t ion under its more p rominen t elders, a n d in extent this organiza t ion was usually co-terminous w i t h the v i l ­lage, unless local membership of the caste was very small or very large. The re was often a N a m b u d i r i family wh ich provided priests for the local temple, but it was the Nayar caste w h i c h held the po l i t i ca l autho­r i t y and economic cont ro l , The heredi tary vil lage headship no rma l ­ly belonged to the wealthiest Naya r f ami ly ( w h i c h was often of a sl ight­ly higher sub-caste than the o thers ) , and wh i l e a l l castes had some, k i n d (A a u t h o r i t y over those below them it was the N a y a r caste w h i c h was most concerned in m a i n t a i n i n g local l aw a n d order.

Vi l lages were g rouped i n t o petty states under h igher chieftains, and these in t u r n of ten o w e d allegiance

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Since the Br i t i sh took over the admin i s t r a t ion of M a l a b a r at the end of the eighteenth century, changes (foreshadowed d u r i n g the Mysorean invasions of the preceding for ty years) have been numerous and far-reaching. T h e large chief­ta in families were given p o l i t i c a l pensions in exchange for the i r fo rmer sovereignty, and the boundaries of the new adminis t ra t ive divisions on ly vaguely coincided w i t h the o l d chief-doms. Such au tho r i t y as the chiefs retained was a by-product of the i r economic ascendancy as great l and ­lords and of their caste r ank . T h e existence of a g rada t ion of caste rank continues to be acknowledged, even though the correlated ele­ments o f d i f ferent ia l po l i t i c a l , j u r i ­d ica l , and economic rank have in many cases been greatly b l u r r e d ; and a l though caste is no longer the only factor d e t e r m i n i n g social rela­tions of superord ina t ion and sub­o r d i n a t i o n , it is s t i l l the most i m p o r ­tant one. W e a l t h and positions in government service provide new de­terminants of status, b u t they re­m a i n the preserves of the h igher castes sufficiently to h inder the de­cl ine of caste rank as a de te rminan t in itself.

These changes have affected v i l ­lages as we l l as chiefdoms (nads). For adminis t ra t ive purposes, M a l a ­bar d is t r ic t has been d i v i d e d in to taluks, firkas (areas used only in connect ion w i t h co l lec t ing land re­venue) , amsams, and desams. T h e so-called vi l lage headman [adhi-gdri) and accountant menon) are in charge- of an am mm. The am-satn sometimes roughly coincides w i t h a former desam (i .e. , the realm of a desavari) bu t it is often larger; and the modern desam w h i c h is merely the smallest un i t for revenue- and survey purposes, has no official a t tached to it and is fre­quent ly on ly a small sector of a former desam. In C o c h i n State adminis t ra t ive changes have been s imihir . T h e village (a w o r d now-used in the vernacular and equi ­valent to the M a l a b a r amsam) is. however , the smallest u n i t , unde r the headship of a parvadyam, and the desam, though it exists as a sub­d iv is ion of the village, is not recog­nized for official purposes. In Co­ch in also, groups of v i l lages are as­sembled in to panchayats.

It is i m p o r t a n t to recognize this d i s t inc t ion between the twen t i e th century desam. and the pre-Br i t i sh desam. That the present-day de­sam can generally be cal led, for sociological purposes, a vi l lage, w i t h

T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y

the o l d system were the obvious candidates for the new posts. In most villages they were g iven these positions, on the i m p l i c i t under­s tanding that , subject to good be­haviour , the headship w o u l d r e m a i n vested in the fami ly . N a t u r a l l y there has been wastage, b u t in m a n y villages the t r ad i t i ona l desavari f a ­m i l y s t i l l supplies the a d h i g a r i

I m p o r t a n t difference's have arisen between such villages and those where the adhigdri is s imply a l o w -r a n k i n g government employee w i t h the appropriate, residential and edu­cat ional qual if icat ions. In this la t ­ter type of vi l lage, i f the headman f a m i l y of the o l d system survives at a l l i t has lost most of the economic and other sanctions beh ind its f o r m ­er au thor i ty and it has gained none of the new ones. Such a vi l lage is less of an ent i ty and m u c h more closely caught up in the groupings and cleavages of m o d e r n society.

In villages where the m o d e r n headship remains vested in the f ami ly tha t he ld i t t r a d i t i o n a l l y , there is a very di f ferent p ic ture , more pa r t i cu la r ly i n N o r t h M a l a b a r . Ce r t a in power fu l Nayar j o i n t - f a m i ­lies s t i l l ho ld sway over the several modern desams that make up the i r former single desams. T h e senior member of such a f a m i l y is some­times called yajamanan, or l o r d . Some of his r i t u a l sanctions have lost the i r force. U n d e r m o d e r n con­di t ions there is less meaning , fo r ex­ample , or to deprive a w o m a n of matin (a pur i f i ca to ry c lo th w i t h w h i c h higher caste w o m e n are sup­p l ied , after menstrual periods, by a low-caste w a s h e r w o m a n ) . The eco­nomic sanctions for his po l i t i c a l a n d j u r i d i c a l a u t h o r i t y nevertheless re­m a i n , and to these are added the sanctions issuing f r o m his posi t ion in the modern admin i s t r a t i on . He thus derives f rom t w o sources downwards f rom the state and u p ­wards f r o m the vi l lage c o m m u n i t y .

It is his posi t ion as l a n d l o r d , however, w h i c h seems to be the most compe l l i ng factor in his au thor i ty . In such a vi l lage the t r a d i t i o n a l sets of r ights and obligat ions between castes and values of superior i ty and in fe r io r i ty based on rank r ema in strong. T h e t e r r i t o r i a l loyal ty w h i c h unifies the village c o m m u n i t y there is m u c h more po ten t t h a n the conf l ic t ­i n g m o d e r n loya l ty to one's o w n caste over a w i d e r area. T h e recent tendency elsewhere for lower castes to settle in te rna l disputes in te rna l ly , and thus to shake off dependence on h igher castes, is m u c h less notice­able in such vi l lages: u p w a r d refer-

a recognizable c o m m u n i t y l i fe of its o w n , is; I believe, .mainly the result o f the tremendous popu la t i on i n ­creases d u r i n g the last 150 years. Sectors of former desams are now desams i n thei r o w n r i g h t , w i t h the i r o w n separate temples, accepted leaders, and , in many cases, in ter ­nal ly operat ive caste committees. In C o c h i n State, where officially the u n i t is unrecognized, and where an ancient desam may now have been carved i n t o two or three separate villages, this process of fission is often clearer. O n e desam in central. C o c h i n , for example, had consisted of four hamlets, spread out on the four sides of an impor t an t Bhadra-kal i temple. T h e whole loca l i ty was previously adminis tered by the eccle­siastical commissioners of a larger temple devasvam, and for - in ternal administrat ive purposes a j o i n t com­mittee of Nayars f rom the desam replaced a desavari G r o w t h of popu la t ion , especially in the hamlet nearest to an expand ing t o w n , led to fission of the desam i n t o four smaller desams. Each n o w has its o w n Nayar commi t tee , and the an­nual festival at the Bhadraka l i tern-pie is organized by each desam in t u r n , instead of be ing collect ively organized by the- four hamlets. Ne i ther the i nco rpo ra t i on of the four desams as parts of three sepa­rate adminis t ra t ive V i l lages , nor the i r fo rmer un i ty , affects the fact tha t each is now a separate vi l lage c o m m u n i t y .

In some areas, however . more pa r t i cu la r ly i n N o r t h M a l a b a r , either a smaller increase in popula ­t ion , or else su rv iv ing power of a heredi tary desavari, has h indered the development of mode rn desams as relat ively separate communi t ies . Then- the amsam, co inc id ing w i t h a former desam, remains the social un i t , he ld together by allegiance to the former desavari f ami ly in spite of the- fissiparous tendencies of the more recently created desams i n to w h i c h i t is nowadays d iv ided .

One factor that has operated in many places to keep in t e rna l vil lage structure re la t ively in tact , despite sweeping changes in the broader po l i t i ca l s tructure, has been the me­thod of selecting candidates to be­come adhigaris. F r o m the beg in­n ing , in a d d i t i o n to the i r p r i m a r y du ty of co l lec t ing revenue, they were empowered to t ry m i n o r c i v i l and c r i m i n a l cases. Except where they h a d been obstruct ive, or h a d vanished in the t u r m o i l of the Mysorcan invasions a n d the i r after­m a t h , the heredi ta ry desavaris of

for disputes for settlement is apparen t ly as prevalent as ever and serves to bolster the ascendancy of the Nayars in general and of the yajamanan i n par t i cu la r . A n d in spite of the s trong H i n d u - M u s l i m cleavage in I n d i a as a who le , quar­rels w i t h i n a local M u s l i m m i n o r i t y are not inf requent ly referred to the yajamanan for med ia t ion .

There is a special interest in this aspect of the yajamanan's functions. Disputes among Nayars and a l l low­er castes tend to be referred ei ther to leading Nayars or to the headman himself, in his capacity either as yajamanan or as adhigari. O w i n g to the increasingly c i rcumscr ibed official au thor i ty of the adhigari, and p ro l i f e r a t i on of his re la t ively menia l duties, the post is now not one that the senior member of a weal thy fami ly is usually w i l l i n g to ho ld himself ; i t m i g h t indeed de­tract f r o m his heredi tary prestige. M o r e of ten , therefore, i t is g iven to a younger member of the fami ly . This man's status, however , is de­fined by the vil lagers in terms ra ther of his f a m i l y membership t h a n of his official pos i t ion , w i t h the anomal ­ous result tha t , i f two disputants b r i n g a case before h i m and one of t h e m is dissatisfied w i t h the verd ic t , an appeal is often made not to the next h igher c i v i l cour t bu t to the yajamanan himself, as senior m e m ­ber of the adhigari's f ami ly .

I have heard such a yajamanan speak as if he felt a m o r a l obl iga­t ion not to let disputes go outside the vi l lage to the courts for settle­ment . H i s me thod , he said, in s tubborn cases, was ' ' to induce a sp i r i t of compromise by repeated adjournments ". Settlements achiev­ed w i t h i n his d o m a i n are, of course, a constant imp lemen ta t i on of his a u t h o r i t y and prestige, and also an a d d i t i o n to his income, since u n ­off ic ial l i t igants c o m i n g t o h i m always b r i n g gifts i n k i n d . ( T h i s t r i bu t e is of ten g iven too w h e n cases go before the adhigari.) A p a r t f r o m disputes over p roper ty , w h i c h f o r m the m a j o r i t y o f those w h i c h the yajamanan is cal led u p o n to settle, cases of assault, mal ic ious damage to crops, trespass, etc., come before h i m and the fines he exacts of ten go i n t o his o w n purse..

T h e yajamanan s t i l l usually has the a u t h o r i t y to see tha t his deci­sions are car r ied ou t and to prevent cases f r o m go ing to cour t . Since most disputants are tenants of his o w n f a m i l y he can h o l d the threat o f ev ic t ion over the i r heads, w h i l e his retainers can resort to force i f

inccssarv. Even today p i t ched bat­tles are occasionally fought between retainers of two yajamanans w h o bo th c l a im suzerainty over a mar­g ina l area.

Power of the nor the rn yajam-nan's f a m i l y is implemen ted not on ly by its manag ing trusteeship of the vi l lage temple but by its ownership of a col lect ion of shrines to local deities, whose p r o p i t i a t i o n often re­mains the most i m p o r t a n t local fes­t i va l of the year. L i k e temple festi­vals, these exc i t ing and co lou r fu l p r o p i t i a t i o n ceremonies require active co-operat ion of a wide range of castes- perhaps twenty f r o m the area of the yajamanan's au tho­r i t y . C e r t a i n families have the heredi tary du ty o f supply ing p a r t i ­cipants. Such a yajamanan also re­tains feudal r ights and obligat ions at m i n o r ceremonies, weddings, and so on .

A l l over N o r t h K e r a l a , the extent to w h i c h the var ious castes s t i l l play their t r a d i t i o n a l roles at the vil lage temple festival indicates the extent to w h i c h the complementa ry interdependence of castes survives in the vi l lage. Temple- en t ry (dat ­i n g f rom 1947 in M a l a b a r d is t r ic t and f rom 1948 in C o c h i n State) contradicts the principles of the temple festival, w h i c h was r i t ua l l y an epi tome of caste in terdepend­ence: temple entry gives a l l castes an equal r igh t to visi t a l l parts of the temple, whereas one of the ca rd ina l funct ions of the temple festival is to express the d i f fe ren t ia l rank of castes in terms of spatial distance the lowest castes be ing those furthest removed f rom the sanctum sanctorum. Even before universal temple- entry , however, p a r t i c i p a t i o n of lower castes in temple festivals had begun to fa l l off, especially in village's where the upper cas tes - -pr imar i ly Nayars h a d lost, t h r o u g h excessive p a r t i ­t i o n of j o i n t - f a m i l y proper ty , the i r economic ascendancy and corres­p o n d i n g con t ro l .

I t w o u l d nevertheless be d i f f icul t to f ind a vi l lage where very many examples of the interdependence of castes do not survive, not only in its economic but in its more r i t u a l aspects. In spite o f d i s t r i c t and K e r a l a - w i d e organizations of i n d i v i ­d u a l castes t ha t have sprung up in recent years to re form in te rna l customs a long the lines of a l l -I n d i a n H i n d u i s m , and , perhaps, t o ob ta in po l i t i c a l representat ion, these practices cont inue . C o n v e n t i o n is too strong to a l l ow t h e m to f a l l

. i n t o disuse f o r many years to come.

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M a n y families are s t i l l b o u n d toge­ther in the i r ancient master-servant relat ionship. In villages near towns, increasing numbers of people have abandoned t r ad i t i ona l occu­pations for labour in indus t ry ; bu t there are few instances of H i n d u s en te r ing occupations proper to castes other than their o w n .

Despite p o p u l a t i o n g r o w t h and movemen t every vil lage retains a nucleus of families f rom al l castes who have l ived then- f rom time-i m m e m o r i a l . I m m i g r a n t families, even d o w n to the f i f th generat ion, are remembered as foreigners ", though they may have in t e rmar r i ed extensively w i t h native families of their o w n sub-caste. Part ly because of popu la t ion movements, however, and more especially because of its lack of compactness, the Kera l a village is probably a less self-con­tained ent i ty t han its counterparts elsewhere in I n d i a .

As Professor Srinivas points out , we must dis t inguish between the " ver t ica l u n i t y of many castes ", w h i c h is the vi l lage, and the h o r i ­zontal un i ty of i n d i v i d u a l tastes, w i t h affiliations over a wide area. O n e can p ic ture a vast expanse of Neapo l i t an ice cream, w i t h its layers of p i n k , green, wh i t e , and yel low! cut in to i n d i v i d u a l por­tions-- the villages , w h i c h con ta in a fa i r share of each colour.

In K e r a l a , at least, however, the structure is not qui te so simple as that . In a C o c h i n vi l lage, for example , the low caste of Velans may prov ide washerwomen to launder regular ly for Iravas and to supply pur i f ica tory cloths ( mattu) on special occasions for Nayars. In such a case half-a-dozen V e l a n families may do the I r a v a w o r k w h i l e t w o more' restrict themselves to serving Nayars. ( I t is this sort of d i s t inc t ion that could lead to the f o r m a t i o n of separate sub-castes.) Al t e rna t ive ly , the f ami ly of such a caste may serve on ly a cer ta in sec­tor of the vi l lage . On the other hand . a f a m i l y of the Kan i san (astrologer) caste m i g h t have less than enough w o r k in its o w n v i l ­lage. A, and be the official astro­loger f a m i l y serving the ad jo in ing vi l lage B as we l l . Basket-making families in B migh t serve villages A and C in a d d i t i o n to their o w n . T h e fami ly of a small sub-caste that cuts ha i r and assists at funerals of the b lacksmi th and carpenter castes may we l l have a clientele in a dozen other villages.

A g a i n , in Coch in , i f two Nayars meet as strangers, the regular ques-

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February 9, 1952 T H E E C O N O M I C W E E K L Y

t ion asked is no t " W h a t vi l lage do you come f rom? ", b u t " Whose Nayar are you? " T h i s refers to a special l i n k exist ing between every Nayar f a m i l y (a t least of the Sudra Nayar sub-caste) and a pa r t i cu la r N a m b u d i r i f ami ly , to w h i c h i t owes special services of a semi-r i tua l nature . A l t h o u g h N a m b u d i r i f a m i ­lies of ten take vi l lage names, a Sudra Naya r f a m i l y may owe o b l i ­gations to N a m b u d i r i s in qui te a different vi l lage.

T h e " v e r t i c a l " system of r ights and obligations between castes is therefore not confined to the v i l ­lage. Indeed , this over lapping is probably one of the factors for­mer ly c o n t r i b u t i n g to the u n i t y of the nad (chiefdom).

The hor izonta l layers of ou r Neapo l i t an ice the castes ex tend over wide areas, sharing a c o m m o n c u l t u r e ; bu t previously only N a m ­budir is and Nayars h a d any f o r m of organizat ion deployed beyond the nad. Occasional ly there was a conference of Nayars of a wide r area (perhaps at a t r i a l of strength between Nayars of t w o ch ie fdoms) .

bu t for the ove rwhe lming ma jo r i t y of castes, the nad was the outside l i m i t o f any in t e rna l admin i s t ra t ion , w h i c h seldom extended so far . As already ment ioned , in t e rna l organi ­zat ion of castes over w ide r regions is a modern phenomenon, and so also is confl ict between castes w i t h i n the vi l lage.

We see therefore tha t vi l lage u n i t y in N o r t h K e r a l a is a some­w h a t nebulous conception. A phy­sical, t e r r i t o r i a l u n i t y may exist, bu t it is often not obvious, because of scattered settlement. Close neigh­bours may belong to different desams, and the m o d e r n of ten a rb i t ra ry adminis t ra t ive divisions may mean tha t a cluster of families on the per imeter of one desam have more social relations in the next desam t h a n in the i r o w n . Econo­mic u n i t y may be modi f ied by the extension of caste obligations to several villages or the i r restr ict ion to a segment of a single village. T h e amsam, the m o d e r n adminis­t ra t ive u n i t , is sometimes co-exten­sive w i t h a former desam, and if the desavari or yajamanan f ami ly remains power fu l enough the u n i t

may re ta in its fo rmer po l i t i ca l a n d j u r i d i c a l cohesion. In such cases the blossoming of its m o d e r n con­st i tuent desams i n t o independent vi l lage communi t ies has been i n h i ­b i t e d ; bu t more frequently the m o d e r n desam has acquired a com­m u n i t y l i fe of its o w n , perhaps focussed on a " great f a m i l y " a n d temple w h i c h were fo rmer ly subor­dinate to an external desavari. The same considerations apply to

the ritual u n i t y of a v i l l age : the chief t emple festival of the year may be at the desam temple, or it may occur at a temple shared by ne ighbour ing desams.

T h u s , a l though any sociological investigator i n K e r a l a may p r o v i ­sionally take the m o d e r n desam as a suitable u n i t f o r study, he must examine the scale of social relations of a l l kinds over a broader area. Wha teve r in te rna l self-subsistence there may have been in the desams of the. e ighteenth century and ear­l ier , i t i s very d i f f icu l t nowadays in K e r a l a to p o i n t to any u n i t as a clearly demarcated, coherent, i n d e -pendent v i l lage c o m m u n i t y .