Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

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REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA. I0 7
CHAPTER VIII.
Caste, Tribe and Race.
155. In paragraph 8 of Home Department Resolution No. 30-32, dated the
2nd April 1900, which deals generally with several im-
Caste in Burma. portant questions connected with the Census, the
following passage occurs :
" In order to simplify the final tables and expedite the publication of the results, Mr.
Baines has proposed that the heading for caste should be omitted (from the 1901 schedule)
and the returns of 1891 made use of ' as a standard until 1911.' The balance of opinion,
however, is strongly in favour of retaining that heading, and the Governor-General in
Council accepts that view both on the general ground taken by Sir K. Seshadri Iyer that
'
the .whole social fabric of India rests upon caste,' and for the special reason that flie
caste statistics afford the best clue to the progress of the movement which Sir Alfred Lyall
describes as ' the gradual Brahmanizing of the aboriginal, non-Aryan or casteless tribes '
and to the changes in respect of widow and infant marriage, which are known to be
going on."
Infant marriage, the re-marriage of widows and the Brahmanizing of aboriginals
are not matters with which the rulers of Burma have any direct official concern,
and Mr. Baines's proposal would no doubt have been welcomed in this province, for,
as in 1890 so in 1900, it was represented unofficially that, so far as caste was
concerned, the returns for Burma would be of very little value. Uniformity had,
however, to be preserved ; and as, for the reasons indicated above, the caste column
was prescribed for the rest of India, it was necessary for Burma to follow suit,
doing the best with the material available that circumstances allowed of.
156. In paragraph 225 of his 1891 Report Mr. Eales thought it more than probable
that the recording of caste would not be again attempted at another Census,
and was, for that reason, of opinion that it was just as well that the experiment of
returning it had been made then. In his opinion the result of the attempt made in
1 89
1 was not altogether discouraging, for the enumeration books showed that the
fulness and accuracy of the returns had exceeded every expectation. As regards
fulness, the same might be said of the data furnished at the present Census, for
in practically every case column 8 has been filled up in some fashion or the other
for Hindus. Whether the entries are really an approximation to accuraoy is,
however, another matter. Having regard to the intellectual equipment of the
average Burman enumerator, the point seems open to the very gravest doubt. It
must be borne in mind first and foremost that the Burman has, save with very rare
exceptions, no idea whatever of the precise meaning
thence ' " S CaSte '"
of the word " caste." He has no corresponding expression
in his own vernacular. Indeed, being, as
the author of The Soul of a People tells us, "so absolutely enamoured of freedom
that he cannot abide the bonds that caste demands," the need for an indigenous
word has never been felt by him. " Zat " is the term he has learnt to use when
occasion arises, though what exactly he means by " Zat " he would, in nineteen
cases out of twenty, be at a loss to say. Of religions he has no doubt Some idea.
There is the Buddhist religion, he will tell you ; the religion of the Nat worshippers,
as well as those of the Christians and of the " kalas " (his name for the Native of
India). This would, as a rule, complete his list, though, if further questioned, he
might even go to the length of specifying two " kala " religions, the Hindu and
the Musalman, to which, on reflection, he might conceivably add a third, the
Muhammadan. Of the meaning of sect he has a glimmering, and, if pressed for
a definition, might throw out a suggestion that "Zat" and sect were synonyms,
but the probability is that he would eventually be found to describe " caste " by
." Amyo " 33