PRINCIPLES OF CASTE

24 minutes Colour 1982
Film-maker: Tom Selwyn

Principles of Caste gives a clear explanation of the fundamentals of the caste system including the relations between castes. It was made for the Open University and is geared towards classroom use. Its mix of clarity and insight make it a useful film for both school and introductory university courses.

The film is based on the field research of anthropologist Tom Selwyn and set in the village of Singhara, Madhya Pradesh, central India. The village is agricultural and a market centre. The twenty-five jatis of the village are placed on a religious hierarchy which Selwyn divides into the four varnas plus the `untouchables', based largely on occupation and differences of `polluting' influences. Lower caste people partake of or otherwise come into contact with substances which are considered polluting. They usually eat meat, will handle flesh, and cleanse the blood of birth or menstruation. The higher castes are vegetarian and do not work in occupations that bring them into contact with polluting substances. Selwyn further suggests that occupations which require contact with the earth have a similar polluting influence and are also relegated to a lower caste.

The highest group are the Brahmans. Brahmans perform a variety of ritual functions. They are masters of the auspicious, choosing dates for weddings and other important occasions. They also read horoscopes. Brahmans, or pandits, cure illness, drive away evil spirits, and control rites of passage. They are founts of purity, dealing with the spiritual and the divine. The second category are the Kshatryas, but as none of this group live in Singhara, they are not considered in the film. The castes of the third group, the Vaishyas, include people who work as goldsmiths, carpenters, blacksmiths, vegetable growers, and barbers. Occupations of the fourth group, Sudras, are cow-herds, tailors, and washermen. The `untouchables' form the fifth group, working as potters, drummers, basketmakers, and leatherworkers.

A central event of the film, a marriage ceremony, illustrates how these theoretically exclusive castes interact. The Brahmans play a major role in the wedding as astrologers and priests. The pandit leads the transition of the groom's entrance over the threshold. Brahmans create a ritual order, and through this order channel the sexuality of the marriage for reproduction. Members of the barber caste help with the wedding. A barber's wife assists the bride, helping her as she is rubbed with turmeric, her clothes are knotted with those of the groom, and a line of vermillion drawn in a circle around her foot. This line symbolises her giving of her virginity, and as the narrative states, she is, in a sense, not only giving her virginity to her husband, but she is also giving her sexuality to the caste of which both she and her husband are members.

Selwyn argues that marriage ritual metaphorically links the supposed qualities of, and relations between, firstly men and women, and secondly wife-takers and wife-givers, with the supposed qualities of, and relations between, high and low castes (Selwyn, 1979). Catalogue (16mm): 3RA129 £15.

E.A.H. Blunt, 1964. The Caste System of Northern India. S. Chand, Delhi.

C. Bouglé, 1971. Essays on the Caste System. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

G.M. Carstairs, 1961. The Twice-Born: A Study of a Community of High-Caste Hindus. Hogarth Press, London.

L. Dumont, 1972 (1970). Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. Paladin, London.

G.S. Ghurye, 1961. Caste, Class and Occupation. Popular Book Depot, Bombay.

T. Selwyn, 1979. `Images of Reproduction: An Analysis of a Hindu Marriage Ceremony'. Man N.S., Vol. 14, pp. 684-98.

T. Selwyn, 1980. `The Order of Men and the Order of Things: An Examination of Food Transactions in an Indian Village. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 297-317.