The Caste System of Northern India (With Special Reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh)

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The twin provinces of Agra and Oudh form a tract, which from the dawn of Hindu civilization has been the home of Hinduism. Its social system is the Hindu social system of northern India. Hindu groups are divided into various castes. This caste system has grown slowly. Discussed in the book is the nature of the caste system in India, its evolution into various subcastes, sectarian castes, new castes, etc. Also described are the various primitive customs which were once prevalent among the various castes. Their significance is purely ethnographical. The appendices contain a list of caste names.

Edward Arthur Henry Blunt ICS (1877-1941) was a British Civil Servant and writer. He served at Lucknow, Rai Bareli and Benaras.

When I was superintendent of the census operations of 1911 in the United Provinces, one of my duties was to make investigation into certain specific aspects of the caste system. I accordingly collected books that dealt with this subject, but quickly discovered that though there was a considerable quantity of literature available, its nature was such as to make study of that subject difficult. There were firstly numerous books in several languages which related to the origins of caste, and were mostly designed either to prove or to disprove some theory of that origin. Secondly, there were numerous discussions on particular caste problems scattered through the various census reports or in such books as Risley's People of India, or in the introduction to such works as Crooke's Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Thirdly, there were brief accounts of the caste system in various encyclopaedias, or in such general works on India as Fuller's Empire of India, or Crooke's Natives of Northern India. Fourthly, there was much relevant material in ethnographical books such as Wester-marck's History of Human Marriage, Fraser's Totemism and Exogamy, and Hartland's Primitive Paternity. Finally, there were caste dictionaries, of which Crooke's Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, already mentioned, is a typical example ; for every important caste it gives the fullest possible information regarding its history, divisions, manners, customs, ceremonies, and occupations. But there was not then and, so far as I am aware; is not yet, any book which gives a full and connected account of caste as a system, which describes the factors which brought caste into existence, the evolution of the present system, the nature of the customs common to all castes, the ,principles which underlie those customs, and the reasons for similarity or difference between caste and caste. And my object in writing this book is, to the best of my ability, to supply that want.

**Contents and Sample Pages**