Note 30 — Chapter IV

Distinctions of the occupational type. 14. To return to the occupational type of caste, there is here, as Mr Ibbetson30 has already pointed out, a further distinction. There is the true occupational caste like the Nâi, Chamâr, or Bhangi, and there is the trade-guild association, which is much more flexible than the former, and is generally found in towns, and bears a Muhammadan name, like the Darzi, Âtishbâz, or Nâlband. This form is most unstable at the present day, and one of the main difficulties of the classification of caste statistics lies in the fact that from one decennial period to another new groups are constantly organizing themselves by a process of fission from other groups. Thus the Bâghbân, or gardener, is an offshoot of the Kâchhi, the Sangtarâsh or stone-cutter, from the Gonr, or others who engage in similar industries, the Mewafarosh, or fruit-seller, and the Sabzifarosh, or seller of herbs, from the Kunjra or greengrocer. Here, in fact, we can stand and watch the creation of new so-called castes before our eyes. And the process is facilitated by the creation of new religious groups, which base their association on the common belief in the teaching of some saint or reformer. Most of these sects are connected with the Vaishnava side of Hinduism, and are devoted to the solution of much the same religious questions which beset the searcher after truth in western lands. All naturally aim at the abolition of the privileges and pretensions of the dominant Brâhman Levite, and the establishment of a purer and more intellectual form of public worship.