INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

MITIGATIVE MEASURES. 199
the same cause. Brahmins who may work on
their own account in whatever manner they
please, dare not - so they say - work for
wages. This caste barrier, which rests all
no solid basis of Hindoo scriptural authority,
is being very slowly undermined; and
the sooner it falls the better it will be for
everyone. As bearing on this point, I will
refer to a circumstance connected with the
Orissa famine. On that occasion vast numbers
of people had subsisted on cooked food obtained
at the poorhouses, and it became a matter of
great anxiety to know what would become of
these; to know what the result of receiving
cooked food would be; whether the recipients
would again be admitted into their castes, or
whether society would be disorganised. Happily
the matter was settled in a. clear and decisive
manner by the high priests of the community.
I think it desirable that the opinions elicited
shoul~ be published widely in India, much more
so than they have been. Anyone wishing to
study the subject in detail should refer to Mr
Kirkwood's Report, Cuttack, 1867, or to }.Ir
Geddes's official report, entitled" Experience ill