Volume 3 / Part 3 — KASAI
Reading edition
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice of the caste. 346
2. The cattle-slaughtering industry. 347
3. Muhammadan rite of zibah or halāl. 348
4. Animism. 349
5. Animal-gods. The domestic animals. 349
6. Other animals. 352
7. Animals worshipped in India. 354
8. The sacrificial meal. 354
9. Primitive basis of kinship. 356
10. The bond of food. 357
11. The blood-feud. 357
12. Taking food together and hospitality. 358
13. The Roman sacra. 358
14. The Hindu caste-feasts. 359
15. Sacrifice of the camel. 360
16. The joint sacrifice. 361
17. Animal sacrifices in Greece. 361
18. The Passover. 363
19. Sanctity of domestic animals. 364
20. Sacrificial slaughter for food. 365
21. Animal fights. 366
22. The sacrificial method of killing. 366
23. Animal sacrifices in Indian ritual. 368
1. General notice of the caste.
Kasai, Kassāb.—The caste of Muhammadan butchers, of whom about 4000 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911. During the last decade the numbers of the caste have very greatly increased owing to the rise of the cattle-slaughtering industry. Two kinds of Kasais may be distinguished, the Gai Kasai or cow-killers and the Bakar Kasai or mutton butchers. The latter, however, are usually Hindus and have been formed into a separate caste, being known as Khatīk. Like other Muhammadans who have adopted professions of a not too reputable nature, the Kasais have become a caste, partly because the ordinary Muhammadan declines to intermarry with them, and partly no doubt in imitation of the Hindu social system. The Kasais are one of the lowest of the Muhammadan castes, and will admit into their community even low-caste Hindu converts. They celebrate their weddings by the nikāh form, but until recently many Hindu rites were added to it. The Kāzi is employed to conduct the marriage, but if his services are not available a member of the caste may officiate instead. Polygamy is permitted to the number of four wives. A man may divorce his wife simply for disobedience, but if a woman wishes to divorce her husband she must forego the Meher or dowry promised at the time of the wedding. The Kasai women, perhaps owing to their meat diet, are noticeably strong and well nourished, and there is a saying to the effect that, ‘The butcher’s daughter will bear children when she is ten years old.’ The deities of the Kasais are a number of Muhammadan saints, who are known as Aulia or Favourites of God. The caste bury the dead, and on the third day they read the Kalma over some parched grain and distribute this to the caste-fellows, who eat it in the name of the deceased man, invoking a blessing upon him. On the ninth day after the death they distribute food to Muhammadan Fakīrs or beggars, and on the twentieth and fortieth days two more feasts are given to the caste and a third on the anniversary of the death. Owing to what is considered the degrading nature of his occupation, the social position of the Kasai is very low, and there is a saying—
Na dekha ho bāgh, to dekh belai;
Na dekha ho Thag, to dekh Kasai,
or, ‘If you have not seen a tiger, look at a cat; and if you have not seen a Thug, look at a butcher.’ Many Hindus have a superstition that leprosy is developed by the continual eating of beef.
2. The cattle-slaughtering industry.
In recent years an extensive industry in the slaughter of cattle has sprung up all over the Province. Worn-out animals are now eagerly bought up and killed; their hides are dried and exported, and the meat is cured and sent to Madras and Burma, a substantial profit being obtained from its sale. The blood, horns and hoofs are other products which yield a return. The religious scruples of the Hindus have given way to the temptation of obtaining what is to them a substantial sum for a valueless animal, and, with the exception perhaps of Brāhmans and Banias, all castes now dispose of their useless cattle to the butchers. At first this was done by stealth, and efforts were made to impose severe penalties on anybody guilty of the crime of being accessory to the death of the sacred kine, while it is said that the emissaries of the butchers were sent to the markets disguised as Brāhmans or religious mendicants, and pretended that they wished to buy cattle in order to preserve their lives as a meritorious act. But such attempts at restriction have generally proved fruitless, and the trade is now openly practised and acquiesced in by public opinion. In spite of many complaints of the shortage of plough cattle caused by the large numbers of animals slaughtered, the results of this traffic are probably almost wholly advantageous; for the villages no longer contain a horde of worn-out and decrepit animals to deprive the valuable plough and milch cattle of a share of the too scanty pasturage. Kasais themselves are generally prosperous.
3. Muhammadan rite of zibah or halāl.
When killing an animal the butcher lays it on the ground with its feet to the west and head stretched towards the north and then cuts its throat saying:
In the name of God;
God is great.
4. Animism.
5. Animal-gods. The domestic animals.
6. Other animals.
7. Animals worshipped in India.
8. The sacrificial meal.
9. Primitive basis of kinship.
10. The bond of food.
11. The blood-feud.
It thus appears that the sacrifice of the divine animal which was the god of the tribe or clan, and the eating of its flesh and drinking of its blood together, was the only tangible bond or obligation on which such law and morality as existed in primitive society was based. Those who participated in this sacrifice were brothers and forbidden to shed each other’s blood, because in so doing they would have spilt the blood of the god impiously and unlawfully; the only lawful occasion on which it could be shed being by participation of all the clan or kinsmen in the sacrificial meal. All other persons outside the clan were strangers or enemies, and no rights or obligations existed in connection with them; the only restraint on killing them being the fear that their kinsmen would take blood-revenge, not solely on the murderer, but on any member of his clan. A man’s life was protected only by this readiness of his clansmen to avenge him; if he slew a fellow-kinsman, thus shedding the blood of the god which flowed in the veins of every member, or committed any other great impiety against the god, he was outlawed, and henceforth there was no protection for his life except such as he could afford himself by his own strength. This reflection puts the importance of the blood-feud in primitive society in a clear light. It was at that time really a beneficent institution, being the only protection for human life; and its survival among such backward races as the Pathāns and Corsicans, long after the State has undertaken the protection and avenging of life and the blood-feud has become almost wholly useless and evil, is more easily understood.