The Caste System of Northern India (With Special Reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh)

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Preface When I was superintendent of the census operations of 1911 in the United Provinces, one of my duties was to make investigation into certain specific aspects of the caste system. I accordingly collected books that dealt with this subject, but quickly discovered that though these was a considerable quantity of literature available, its nature was such as to make study of that subject difficult. There were firstly numerous books in several languages which related to the origins of caste, and were mostly designed either to prove or to disprove some theory of that origin. Secondly, there were numerous discussions on particular caste problems scattered through the various census reports or in such books as Risley's People of India, or in the introduction to such works as Crooke's Tribes and Castes of the North Western Provinces and Oudh. Thirdly, there were brief accounts of the caste system in various encyclopaedias, or in such general works on India as Fuller's Empire of India, or Crooke's Natives of Northern India. Fourthly, there was much relevant material in ethnographical books such as Wester marck's History of Human Marriage, Fraser's Totemism and Exogamy, and Hartland's Primitive Paternity.

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