Changes during British rule/Colonial period

♤ The colonialists conducted methodical and, intensive surveys and reports on the ‘customs and manners’ of various tribes and castes all over the country so as to govern them effectively. The 1901 Census sought to collect information on the social hierarchy of caste this kind of direct attempt to count caste and to officially record caste status changed the institution itself. Before this, caste identities had been much more fluid and less rigid

♤ The land revenue settlements and related arrangements and laws served to give legal recognition to the customary (caste-based) rights of the upper castes.

♤ At the other end of the scale, towards the end of the colonial period, the administration also took an interest in the welfare of downtrodden castes, referred to as the ‘depressed classes’ at that time. For e.g. the Government of India Act of 1935 gave legal recognition to the lists or ‘schedules’ of castes and tribes marked out for special treatment by the state.

Caste considerations had inevitably played a role in the mass mobilizations of the nationalist movement. The dominant view in the nationalist movement was to treat caste as a social evil and as a colonial ploy to divide Indians.