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| Adaptive significance of the Indian caste system: An ecological perspective from western Maharastra, India |
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Reference |
| Gadgil,M; Malhotra,K C: 1983 " Adaptive significance of the Indian caste system:An ecological perspective" Annals of Human Biology 10(5) 465-478 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| The case study reported here pertains to the Western half of the Maharashtra state.The society in this tract has low but stable agricultural productivity and is made up.of cultivators,pastoralists and hunter gatherers.The agriculture is productive only in the river valleys ,whereas the large tracts of uncultivated lands away from the valley is favourable for pastoralism and hunter gathering.During the four months of the monsoon,few nomadic castes namely Hatkars,Tirumal Nandiwallas,Fulmali Nandiwallas,Vaidus and Phasepardhis have their base villages in this semi-arid region.But otherwise the society is largely made up of Kunbis and Gavlis |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spatial:The western half of the state of Maharashtra has an undulating coastal strip varying from 50 to 80 Km wide,flanked by the hill chain of Western Ghats which rises abruptly to an altitude between 1000 and 1500 m.The Western Ghats merge through a series of broken hills with the Deccan Plateau at an elevation of 500 m.The annual rainfall here decreases from 3000 mm at the crestline to 1500-1000 mm at the edge of the plateau
Social:The Kunbis live in the lower valleys,while the Gavlis lived on (still do) the upper hill terraces.
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Gavlis:Their major occupation was keeping large herds of buffaloes and cattle.They did some shifting cultivation on the upper hill terraces, but they did not do hunting. The protein requirements are fulfilled by consuming buttermilk at home and bartering the butter for cereal grains produced by Kumbis
Kumbis:They practise paddy cultivation in the river valley and shifting cultivation on the lower hill slopes.They kept a few cattle for drought purposes which produced very little milk. To meet the protein requirement they hunted a great deal. Non-pastoral nomadic caste:used to do hunting in most of the uncultivated tracts away from the village in the semi-arid region.The phasepardhis were hunter gatherers,bartering some of the game for other goods.The Tirumal Nandiwallas and Vaidas had primary occupation of bull play,dispensing herbal medicines,selling trinkets etc for their own consumption
The three groups differed markedly in the hunting tecniques used.The Tirumal andiwallas specialized in hunting with dogs,the average number of dogs per household being five even today. The Vaidus kept a smaller number of dogs, an average of 1.5 per household today, in contrast they specialized in catching smaller carnivores like mongoose,cat etc.and also freshwater animals. The Phasepardhis never used dogs,instead they used a trained cow to enter a herd of blackbuck or deer. |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| The deforestation and consequent soil erosion in recent years have destroyed the fodder base of Gavli animals who have been forced to reduce their animal holdings and concentrate more to cultivation of hill slopes.Many Kunbis too have lost their fertile paddy fields to river valley projects and have been pushed up the hills.At the same time, urban milk schemes have created a market for milk, as a result of which the Kunbis have also taken to keeping milch animals, and are no longer willing to let Gavli animals graze in their fields after harvest. All of this has led to serious conflicts between Gavlis and Kunbis, forcing the Gavlis to abandon their traditional occupation and locality and migrate to city slums; some 10,000 Gavlis have migrated to Bombay and are working as unskilled workers, and some 8000 have moved to cities like Kolhapur,Satara and Pune |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Although the hunting technique differed in significant fashion,none of them are so sophisticated as to preclude their adoption by another caste.or instance, the phasepardhis could have added the Vaidus' baited traps to their own snares, the fact they did not do so shows a genuine cultural adjustment to reduce competition with other castes hunting in the same region
This region had an ecological guild of four caste concerned with displaying some domesticated animals to the villagers for entertainment and religious purposes, and an overlapping guild of two castes weaving and selling baskets. |
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Purpose |
| Natural Resource Management and its implication under caste system |
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Country |
| India |
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Region |
| Maharashtra (Western part) |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-29/03/96 |
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