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HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
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APPENDIX IV CASTE IN INDIA The system of caste, as it has become developed in it obtained in Egypt and in Persia, as it was
India, as
exemplified in an ancient 'Gens' with its separate religious rites and hereditary usages, as it partially obtained in Europe during the Middle Ages, and as it exists even now, is worthy of an essay distinguished by the ripest scholarship, and by the widest experience of life and knowledge of the human mind. In India it has evidently been an institution of gradual progress up to the pernicious perfection of later days, and in early times the bounds were less markedly defined, or less carefully observed, than during the last few hundred years. The instance of Viswamitra's acquisition of Brahmanhood is well known, as is Vikramajit's almost successful desire of attaining to the same eminence. Vyasa likewise raised a Sudra to an equality with the priestly class, and his descendants are still looked upon as Brahmans, although inferior in degree. (Ward, The Hindus, i. 85; and see Manu, Institutes, chap. X, 42-72, &c., for admissions that merit could open the ranks of caste.) Even in the present generation some members of the Jat Sikh family of Sindhianwala, related to that of Ranjit Singh, made an attempt to be admitted to a participation in the social rites of Kshattriyas; and it may be assumed as certain that had the conquering Mughals and Pathans been without a vivid belief and an organized priesthood, they would have adopted Vedism and have become enrolled among the Kshattriyas or ruling races. Perhaps the reformer Ramanand expressed the original principle of Indian sacerdotal caste when he said that Kabir the weaver had become a Brahman by knowing Brahm or God. (The Dahistan, ii. 188.) The Muhammadans of India fancifully divide themselves into four classes, after the manner of the Hindus, viz. Saiyids, Shaikhs, Mughals, and Pathans. All are noble, indeed, but the former two, as representing the tribe of Muhammad and the direct progeny of Ali his son-in-law, are pre-eminent. It is likewise a fact, at least in the north-west, that a Kshattriya convert from Hinduism, or any convert from Sikhism., is styled a Shaikh, and that converts of inferior races are classed as Mughals and Pathans. Doubtless a Brahman who should become a Muhammadan would at once be classed among the Saiyids.
304
^pp jy
APPENDIX IV CASTE IN INDIA The system of caste, as it has become developed in it obtained in Egypt and in Persia, as it was
India, as
exemplified in an ancient 'Gens' with its separate religious rites and hereditary usages, as it partially obtained in Europe during the Middle Ages, and as it exists even now, is worthy of an essay distinguished by the ripest scholarship, and by the widest experience of life and knowledge of the human mind. In India it has evidently been an institution of gradual progress up to the pernicious perfection of later days, and in early times the bounds were less markedly defined, or less carefully observed, than during the last few hundred years. The instance of Viswamitra's acquisition of Brahmanhood is well known, as is Vikramajit's almost successful desire of attaining to the same eminence. Vyasa likewise raised a Sudra to an equality with the priestly class, and his descendants are still looked upon as Brahmans, although inferior in degree. (Ward, The Hindus, i. 85; and see Manu, Institutes, chap. X, 42-72, &c., for admissions that merit could open the ranks of caste.) Even in the present generation some members of the Jat Sikh family of Sindhianwala, related to that of Ranjit Singh, made an attempt to be admitted to a participation in the social rites of Kshattriyas; and it may be assumed as certain that had the conquering Mughals and Pathans been without a vivid belief and an organized priesthood, they would have adopted Vedism and have become enrolled among the Kshattriyas or ruling races. Perhaps the reformer Ramanand expressed the original principle of Indian sacerdotal caste when he said that Kabir the weaver had become a Brahman by knowing Brahm or God. (The Dahistan, ii. 188.) The Muhammadans of India fancifully divide themselves into four classes, after the manner of the Hindus, viz. Saiyids, Shaikhs, Mughals, and Pathans. All are noble, indeed, but the former two, as representing the tribe of Muhammad and the direct progeny of Ali his son-in-law, are pre-eminent. It is likewise a fact, at least in the north-west, that a Kshattriya convert from Hinduism, or any convert from Sikhism., is styled a Shaikh, and that converts of inferior races are classed as Mughals and Pathans. Doubtless a Brahman who should become a Muhammadan would at once be classed among the Saiyids.
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