Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

the nature of these so-called Egyptian ‘castes’, there is nothing to
show that there was any caste system which really resembled that of
India…’ 9 Hutton writes that the given African instances, “thought
analogous to caste in some directions do not constitute a caste
system,” 9a and that the origin of caste ‘has in Burma become stabilized
in an undeveloped form or even degenerated so as to affect only a
limited part of society, and leaving the main body of the people
untouched. For the Burmese as a whole are as free from the working
of the caste system as the other peoples among whom analogous
institutions have been pointed out.” 10 In the Western Roman Empire,
the Theodosian Code attempted to make all public appointments
hereditary and to control matrimonial arrangements. 11 But, these
restrictions were resisted; and in the long struggle between the
patricians and the plebians all these distinctions disappeared. By 287
B.C., the two groups acquired equal political and social rights. 12 Nearest
to the Indo-Aryans are the Aryans who migrated to Iran. There, the
work of the priest was regarded as of the highest merit and that of the
artisan as of the lowest. Change of profession from one class to
another was allowed only to those who possessed exceptional talent.
The priest could marry girls from the lower classes, but did not permit
his daughter to marry a man from the lower class.’ 12a But, all the same,
the existence of caste is nowhere attested in the history of Persia. 13
China, another neighbour of India with a civilization considered older
than ours, also had traces of caste-like social exclusiveness. The
barbers and their sons were regarded among the pariah classes. They
were not allowed to compete for the civil service. Singing girls, playactors,
policemen and boat-men were considered low and had to marry
within their own class. No slave could marry a free woman. 14 But,
seen in the overall context, the ‘Chinese society had been characterized
by a remarkable minimum of hard and fast class divisions.’ 15 ‘By the
time of the fourth and third B.C., the idea that social status should be
determined mainly by individual merit had become deep rooted.’ 16
The second significant point is that, whereas in the other
countries the general tendency was for caste-like exclusiveness to
melt away into fluid class distinctions, in India alone the social
differentiations went on becoming harder and harder till the Indian
7