A Caste in a Changing World (The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans, 1700- 1935)

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This narrative history of a single caste of western India from the eighteenth to the twentieth century examines the background of the caste's separate identity and the evolution of social and economic patterns and institutions which contributed to its maintenance.

Drawing on government documents, temple and monastery records, newspapers, family histories, caste publications and personal interviews the author traces the growth of the Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans from a small, relatively insignificant rural group to a thriving, significantly urbanized community by the 1930s.

Commencing with a discussion of the Gaud Saraswat Brahman caste cluster of Goa from which the Saraswats emerged, the study then describes their creation of a separate caste possessing a distinctive religious affiliation with a new spiritual lineage of swamis (preceptors). There follows an analysis of the impact of colonial rule on the Saraswats. New opportunities of education, employment and urban migration coincided with innovations of orthodoxy creating significant challenges between forces of reform and reaction within the community. The twentieth century saw a reconciliation and renewal of community with rapprochement between laity and their swami laying a foundation for reintegration of the caste.

Described as a 'basic study for anyone interested in the impact of modernization on the resiliency of caste groups in India', the work explores those elements in the Saraswat's history in which ties of caste were significant. This lively account further illuminates the complexities of change in 'traditional' India under the impact of a colonial regime and modernizing society and culture.

Frank F. Conlon is Professor emeritus of History at the University of Washington.

THIS BOOK is an attempt to understand the historical development of an Indian caste from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries and thereby to illuminate both the workings of that institution and the effects upon it of British colonial rule. Originally the book was to have been entitled : "Amchi Gele"-a Konkani expression meaning roughly "this of our own"-used by the Saraswat Brahmans when referring to themselves, their caste and that which belongs to their caste. Unfortunately the phrase, which symbolized very well the subject of the study, could not convey the book's content to a wider public, and thus the present title was chosen. Initial field work was undertaken in 1965-1967 under an N.D.E.A.-related Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship which permitted me a stay in India of eighteen months, and in England of seven. I was enabled to do further research in England in 1970 and India in 1971 by support from the Far Eastern and Russian Institute and Graduate School of the University of Washington and the American Institute of Indian Studies. Just as none of these organizations attempted to control or direct my research, so too they bear no responsibility for the content of the work.

Commencing in the Ames Library of South Asia at the University of Minnesota, I had the benefit of the services of many librarians and their staffs. I must particularly mention the great assistance I received at the India Office Library; the British Museum; the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, in Great Britain. In India, the Librarian and Deputy Librarian of the University of Bombay Library; the Librarians of the Asiatic Society of Bombay and the Mumbai Marathi Grafitha Sangrahalaya; the Directors of Archives, Maharashtra State; and the Secretariat Record Office and the Madras Record Office, all placed me greatly in their debt.