CONCLUSION
During many centuries the Dravidian village community of Southern India has remained practically unchanged in its organization. The simple wants of the villagers were met on the principle of mutual service. Content with their condition, there was a tendency to industrial and social stagnation, while the stimulating influence of competition was little known among them. Of late years disintegrating forces have been at work, and ancient Dravidian institutions are giving way to communal life on a new basis.
In the old days there were common holdings of land. Groups of craftsmen served the village, and in turn received their share of the harvest, or other payment in kind. The village as a whole was responsible for the revenue to be paid to the ruling Rajah. The English Government, at the present time, deals with the individual cultivator for the payment of revenue. Taxes are paid in coin; the system of mutual service, therefore, becomes unpopular, since each one learns to reckon the money value of his services. Instead of joint holdings of land, the evolution of individual property is in progress. Formerly lawlessness and petty warfare necessitated a state of cohesion in the village community. The peace and prosperity of the present time permits of internal rivalries; there are competition and the desire to excel. The joint interests of the old system are giving way to individual interests. There is disintegration on every hand.
The Madigas, too, are affected by these changes. They, too, are individually responsible to Government for the payment of taxes, and they therefore seek employment which yields payment in coin. There is a slow but steady breaking away from their former dependence upon the Sudras. Their serfdom as a tribe is slowly being transformed into individual service at stated wages. The Yettis, as the unpaid servants of the Karnam, are no longer looked upon as necessary adjuncts of the village administration. Their number is gradually being reduced, and their small holdings of land revert to Government, because it prefers to pay its servants in coin.
The lot of the Madigas has greatly improved. No petty Rajah can oppress them and force them into servitude. They are still the burden-bearers of the country; but not as in former times, when roads for traffic were few and railways unknown. They have a right to say how heavy a load they can carry. Nor is the Karnam the recipient of their pay. When English gentlemen first began to travel over the district, they asked the Karnam, when they heard the clamorous entreaties of the coolies for their pay, how much he was giving to them. Gradually the rates of payment were adjusted, much to the advantage of the cooley.
The Madiga is now a free British subject, though he has only a very dim realization of the fact. So far as the law can do this, the English Government has set the prædial slaves of India free. Practically the Madiga may be the serf of the Sudra, who has secured the right to his perpetual servitude in ways that are lawful according to ancient custom, and sanctioned by the laws of Manu. But in the sight of the English Government such contracts are divested of their strong element of slavery.
While formerly law courts did not exist for the Pariah, the equity of English law to-day, in principle at least, knows no distinction between man and man. With a true sense of what it owes to the despised class among its subjects, the Government of India has recently decided upon the name Panchama, “fifth caste,” as a just and honourable designation for the tribes which have never found a place in the Hindu caste-system. Religious liberty has been ensured to all subjects of the Indian empire, and much is being done to place education within the reach of all—even of the most lowly.
Outward conditions have been created that make it possible for the Pariahs to become educated and prosperous, even though Sudra and Brahmin still regard them as outcasts. But who shall plant in their hearts the desire for advancement? Much lies in the power of environment; yet a motive within to impel forward makes environment more effective. The moral and social reformation of India depends to a large extent upon the action of internal forces.
From what source are these internal forces to be expected? Education cannot, single-handed, produce them. A desire for education must be created before its beneficent task can be said to have begun. Can religion form the motive power? When Christianity comes to the Pariahs of India, it comes not merely as a religion. If it is true to the teachings of its Founder, it comes to create a new environment, as well as to save the soul from death. Has Christianity in the case of the Madigas shown itself equal to this emergency?
The Madigas in several districts of the Telugu country have become Christians in sufficient numbers to make it possible to say that their communities have been Christianized, so far as that is possible, in the short period of thirty years. We cannot, as we regard the Christian Madiga communities, draw sharp lines of demarcation, and say: This has been achieved by the Mission, and that by the Government. The action of internal and external forces has been blended. The Mission has had a powerful ally in the Government, and, in turn, the Mission has deserved the recognition of Government as one of the most beneficent forces within its borders.
In the districts where the movement among the Madigas toward Christianity was strongest, a social revolution on a small scale has taken place. The turning to Christianity meant a breaking away from ancient customs and associations. It meant a change in the relation of the Madiga to the village in general, but also a change in the Madiga hamlet itself. On the old tribal lines the Christian community is being built up. Vestiges of tribal characteristics are being assimilated by the new communal life on a Christian basis. The Madiga headman, and the heads of households to assist him, are now the “Peddalu,” the elders, of the Christian village. But their simple village jurisdiction has undergone a complete transformation.
An ethical standard has been given to the Madigas by Christianity that is antagonistic to the old. Formerly they regarded as sin the neglect of the household and village gods, the theft that was detected, the social transgression so flagrant that it called for reproof from the Madiga headman. Now they understand that sin taints the motives of man, and renders him prone to choose that which is evil. Formerly, when a man went out to steal, he first bowed before the swami, requesting help, and promising a share in the spoil if carried away undetected. Now “Thou shalt not steal!” rings out with the unmistakable clearness of the Christian ethical code.
The hierarchy of self-appointed Gurus is supplanted by an organized band of Christian preachers. They do not expect devout reverence for their persons, nor do they sit down and say, “Boil rice! Cut a fowl! Bring sarai!” Perhaps the self-support of native churches would be further advanced if the preachers had more of the belligerent spirit of the ordinary Guru. Their connection with the Mission has given the preachers an air of self-respect which stoops neither to begging nor demanding. They do not mystify their followers with mantras and mystic formulæ. Their teaching is pure monotheism; and the ethical ideal which they place before the people is embodied in the God-man, Jesus Christ.
If the Madigas could become landholders and independent cultivators, they would soon be able to educate their children and support their preachers. The last resource left to the Sudras, as they try to keep their former serfs in their servile condition, is the attempt to frustrate any move on their part to own land and cultivate it. Even though a Madiga may come into possession of land, the Sudras have means of putting obstacles in his way, so that only with great difficulty can he raise his crops.
The Mission, aided liberally by Government, has provided general education for the Madigas. At Ongole there is even opportunity for the Madiga lad to obtain a college education. But the important moral factor of self-help is lacking. Many families are so poor that they regard it as a sacrifice, however gladly offered, when they send their sons and daughters to school, instead of keeping them at home to help earn cooley for the family. Not until they are able to carry the financial burdens of the new communal life, that has been grafted upon the old, will they gain the full benefit of Christian civilization.
Industrial education could do much toward further emancipating the Madiga. The only industry now known to him is leather work, done with crude tools, according to ancient usage. This need also the Mission is beginning to meet.
Has Christianity been equal to the task of furnishing the motive for the social as well as religious regeneration of the Madigas? Emphatically it has. The Madigas say: “Our ancestress, Arunzodi, cursed us, saying, ‘Though you work and toil, it shall not raise your condition. Unclothed and untaught you shall be, ignorant and despised, the slaves of all.’ During many centuries the curse rested heavily upon us. Christianity has removed it. It is no more.”