Historiography of Modern West

Submitted to: Professor Sonu Yadav

Name - Abhay Kumar Sharma

Roll No. - 475
Postgraduate student M.A Honours History
Hansraj College, University of Delhi, New Delhi

Discuss the caste hierarchies in colonial Punjab based on the

colonial archive texts.
Abstract
When we examine India's past today, one word appears ubiquitous and all-encompassing in Indian
historical consciousness, academics, books, culture, society, thought systems, and belief systems.
This word spans various time frames, from Vedic times to the present, and sometimes even includes
the Harappan's. That omnipresent word is "caste." It is a fascinating and intriguing aspect to
explore—how this word has survived what civilisations, empires, and even the environment could
not, or whether it is merely a construct of our times, imposed everywhere. Few words can match the
aura and charisma it holds, to the extent that not only every Indian—perhaps even the animals—but
also many parts of the world associate India with this word. In this paper, we will attempt to
understand the genesis and broader frameworks that give caste its form, power, connotations, and
perceptions. The most logical starting point for this exploration is the colonial period. By
examining colonial archives, census data, ethnographic research, and gazetteers—which were
instrumental in elevating this word to prominence—this paper seeks to understand caste identities,
primarily referencing the Punjab region while also considering broader concepts and phenomena.

Introduction
"JAISI DRISHTI VAISI SRISHTI"

This Indian proverb that translates to "As is your vision, so is your world" or "The world appears as
you perceive it”.When the British gazed upon India, they saw not the intricate tapestry of jati—a
fluid, localised web of kinship and occupation—but a chaotic sprawl demanding order. It’s not as if
India didn’t have hierarchies, social divisions, or rigid, heinous customs before this. No society,
civilisation, or time period has ever existed without them. Even today, in the so-called age of
modernity and artificial intelligence—where a single click can launch rockets—we face all sorts of
inequalities and hierarchies, perhaps more than ever. Otherwise, there would be no movements for
gender parity, LGBTQIA+ rights, workers' rights, or, most ironically, caste identities. Scholars
describe these caste identities as inherited from the ancient Indian system, yet they persist in
modern life, with our constitution protecting them as a rigid institution.

The point here is that caste system in India, as we know it today, is often viewed as an ancient relic,
but its modern form owes much to British colonial intervention and their vision, steeped in
European hierarchies of race and class, birthed a world where caste became the omnipresent lens
through which India was understood, governed, and divided. This was no mere observation; it was a
deliberate act of creation, administration, systematization, trauma, and enforcement—CASTE in its
fullest colonial expression.
 Historiography of Modern West
Submitted to: Professor Sonu Yadav

Created: The Invention of a Rigid Caste Narrative

The British did not stumble upon a ready-made caste system; they crafted it. Pre-colonial India
thrived on Jati, a decentralised network of thousands of endogamous groups, each shaped by region,
occupation, and negotiation. As Susan Bayly notes, Jati was "a flexible, localised system of kinship
and occupational identity1" , far removed from the rigid hierarchy the British imposed. Yet,
confronting a civilisation of unparalleled diversity, colonial administrators leaned on a handful of
selective so called Brahmin-centric texts like the Manusmriti, mistaking priestly ideals for lived
reality. Bernard Cohn captures this misstep: "The British saw India through a textual filter,
mistaking priestly ideals for lived practice2" . This skewed vision birthed a caste system that fused
*varna*’s theoretical fourfold division with Jati’s multiplicity, creating a hybrid monster neither
wholly indigenous nor entirely alien.

In Punjab, this creation took a distinct form. Denzil Ibbetson, in Panjab Castes , observed that "the
caste system in the Punjab has never been as rigid as shown in other parts of India3". Here, Jats—
traditionally Shudras—rose to dominance through land ownership, outstripping Brahmins in
influence, a fluidity the British struggled to reconcile with their textual biases. Yet, rather than
embrace this dynamism, they imposed a static framework, labeling Jats as "the backbone of the
Punjab peasantry4" for their agrarian and martial utility, thus freezing their identity into a colonial
caste mold.

Administered: Census and the Bureaucratic

Backbone

If creation was the spark, administration was the forge. The British introduced decennial censuses
from 1871-72, a tool not of mere enumeration but of social engineering. By requiring individuals to
declare a single jati, slotted into a varna category and ranked hierarchically, the census ossified fluid
identities into permanent labels. Nicholas Dirks asserts, "The British turned a mosaic of Jatis into a
ladder of castes5", a process vividly illustrated in Punjab. The Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of
the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province meticulously cataloged groups like Jats, Rajputs, and
Chamars, reducing their regional nuances to fixed entries . This bureaucratic exercise, as Cohn
notes, "froze fluid identities6", turning negotiation into classification.

The Ambala District Gazetteer, 1923-24 exemplifies this in microcosm. Detailing a population of
786,000, it categorised inhabitants by caste—Jats, Rajputs, Brahmins—alongside tribes like
Gujjars, each pegged to occupations and social roles . Such records served not just to count but to
control, enabling taxation, surveillance, and recruitment. The colonial gaze, fixated on order, saw in
caste a ready-made grid for governance, amplifying divisions where interdependence once
prevailed.

1 Bayly, S. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, P.25
2 Cohn, B. S. (1987). An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.p.36
3 Ibbetson, D. C. J. (1916). Panjab Castes. Lahore: Government Printing Press.p.2
4 Ibbetson, D. C. J. (1916). Panjab Castes. Lahore: Government Printing Press.p.97
5 Dirks, N. B. (2001). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.p.149
6 Cohn, B. S. (1987). An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.p.230
 Historiography of Modern West
Submitted to: Professor Sonu Yadav

Systematised: Ethnography and the Scholarly

Scaffold

The British didn’t stop at counting; they systematised caste through ethnographic scholarship,
lending it an aura of scientific legitimacy. Works like Jervoise Baines’ Ethnography (Castes and
Tribes) (1912) and Herbert Risley’s The People of India (1908) framed caste as a natural,
immutable order. Baines divided India’s 283 million into categories—village communities, urban
castes, nomadic tribes—each with a prescribed place . Risley went further, biologising caste with
nasal indices and racial theories, arguing it reflected "innate differences" . This pseudoscience, as
Dirks critiques, "legitimized inequality" , turning Jati’s adaptability into a rigid hierarchy.

In Punjab, George Weston Briggs’ The Chamars (1920) offers a poignant case. Briggs details the
Chamars’ leather working role, noting their "untouchable" status as a function of ritual impurity:
"Handling dead animals violated Hindu purity laws" . Yet, he also hints at fluidity—some Chamars
in Punjab became petty merchants, a shift the colonial system struggled to accommodate . British
ethnography, however, preferred static portraits, reinforcing the Chamars’ low rank rather than their
resilience, thus systematising exclusion under a scholarly veneer.

Traumatic: The Human Cost of Imposed Hierarchies

This reshaping was not benign; it was traumatic, a selective reinterpretation that scarred India’s
social fabric. The Criminal Tribes Act (1871) branded nomadic Jati’s as "hereditarily criminal," a
stigma that lingered7. In Punjab, groups like the Sansis faced this fate, their mobility recast as
menace8. For Dalits like the Chamars and Chuhras, colonial codification deepened ostracism.
Briggs recounts their segregation: "They were barred from temples, wells, and rituals" , a trauma
compounded by economic dependence on higher castes who wielded newfound power under British
land reforms.

The trauma extended beyond the marginalised. Census rankings sparked rivalries among Jati’s, as
Bayly observes: "Publicising caste hierarchies amplified social tension9" . In Punjab, where Jats
eclipsed Rajputs in practical influence, colonial records still romanticised Rajputs as martial
aristocrats10, sowing discord. This divide-and-rule strategy, formalised in policies like the 1909
Morley-Minto Reforms, entrenched caste as a fault line, its wounds enduring into modernity.

Enforcement: Legal and Economic Entrenchment

Finally, enforcement cemented this edifice. Colonial courts recognised Jati’s-specific customs in
civil law, binding caste identities to marriage and inheritance11. Land reforms, like the Permanent
Settlement, favoured upper-caste zamindars, dispossessing Shudras and Dalits12. In Punjab, the
Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900) privileged "agricultural tribes" like Jats and Arains, locking
7Dirks, N. B. (2001). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.p.181
8 Punjab Government. (1925). Punjab District Gazetteers, Volume VII, Part A: Ambala District, 1923-24.
Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab.p. 40
9Bayly, S. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.p.128
10 Ibbetson, D. C. J. (1916). Panjab Castes. Lahore: Government Printing Press. P. 115-118
11 Metcalf, B. D., & Metcalf, T. R. (2006). A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.p.103
12 Bayly, S. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.p.145
 Historiography of Modern West
Submitted to: Professor Sonu Yadav

others into subservience . The Glossary notes Khatris and Aroras thriving in trade, yet their caste
status remained fixed. Enforcement erased Jati’s pre-colonial fluidity, as Dirks concludes: "The
British made caste what it is today—a system defined by rigidity, hierarchy, and colonial logic" .

Punjab as Prism: A Regional Reflection

Punjab illuminates this transformation with striking clarity. Its religious pluralism—Hindus, Sikhs,
Muslims—defied so called varna’s rigidity, yet the British imposed it nonetheless. Ibbetson’s Jats,
"dominant in numbers and economy" , exemplify how land trumped ritual status, a reality colonial
records grudgingly acknowledged but sought to contain. The Chamars, meanwhile, faced harsher
exclusion in eastern regions like Bihar than in Punjab, where Sikh egalitarianism offered slight
reprieve . The Ambala District Gazetteer underscores this diversity, noting Jats and Rajputs as
agrarian elites while Gujjars roamed the margins13. Punjab’s caste story is thus both unique and
emblematic, a microcosm of colonial reengineering.

Conclusion
"It is often said that the hunter always praises himself until the lion learns to write. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that the lion is the victor or that the hunter is never able to hunt him down. Rather,
it suggests that the lion’s perspective must be heard to understand how the hunter struggled—how
some even died—and to appreciate the lion’s bravery. In short, we need to explore as many
dimensions as possible because, as Giambattista Vico says in his Verum Factum principle, truth is
what is made. Similarly, Fernand Braudel’s concept of the longue durée reminds us that we only
see the tip of the iceberg. This is an attempt to uncover the whole iceberg and reveal the truths
constructed within the narrative of caste, which continues to shake the foundations of society.

It is necessary, then, to listen between the shouts—as E.P. Thompson described it—of these
colonial records and the big academic circles that enforce this narrative, which may no longer be
necessary, if it ever truly was. That’s why we must become like the new Annales historians,
meticulously scrutinizing every corner of the archives to see what lies behind them. This is about
discovering:

The real Bharat hidden in the shadow of caste!

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Bibliography
13 Punjab Government. (1925). Punjab District Gazetteers, Volume VII, Part A: Ambala District, 1923-24.
Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab.pp.35-40
 Historiography of Modern West
Submitted to: Professor Sonu Yadav

- Baines, J. A. (1912). Ethnography (Castes and Tribes). Strasbourg: K.J. Trübner.

- Bayly, S. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

- Cohn, B. S. (1987). An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

- Dirks, N. B. (2001). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.

- Ibbetson, D. C. J. (1916). Panjab Castes. Lahore: Government Printing Press.

- Ibbetson, D., Maclagan, E., & Rose, H. A. (1911). Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of
the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, Vol. 1. Lahore: Government Printing.

- Metcalf, B. D., & Metcalf, T. R. (2006). A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

- Punjab Government. (1925). Punjab District Gazetteers, Volume VII, Part A: Ambala
District, 1923-24. Lahore: Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab.

- Risley, H. H. (1908). The People of India. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.