V

THE HINDU CASTE SYSTEM (_continued_)

IV

The agency through which, and the occasion upon which, caste penalizes
its members are manifold.

Formerly, Hindu kings, under instruction from their pandit ministers,
would enforce caste observances. But under the present non-Hindu State
no such action could be expected. In many instances pandits have to be
consulted both as to whether a member has really violated _shastraic_
injunctions and as to the penalty which should be inflicted in that
special case. In doubtful cases, pandits of various trainings and
leanings are called who present conflicting opinions which end in
confusion.

In Southern India important cases of caste violation among
non-Vishnuvite Hindus are under the jurisdiction of the Superiors of
Sankarite monasteries. Some of these assume and exercise Papal
authority in such matters among their people. Usually, however, each
local caste organization deals directly with infractions of its own
rules, and is competent to deal drastically, and as a court of final
resort, with all cases of caste infringement within its own
membership. It may be done in public assembly, when all male members
are present and have a voice; or the caste _panchayat_, or council of
five, may sit in judgment upon the case and have right of final
action. This latter tribunal is the more common in South India, and is
more in harmony with the spirit and methods of the land.

There are a number of courses of action which are adequate as causes
of removal from caste.

One of these is a change of faith. The abandonment of the ancestral
religion, which is the mother of caste spirit and organization,
especially when the newly accepted faith repudiates openly caste and
all that belongs to it, inevitably leads to expulsion from caste. In
most cases this has resulted upon conversion to either Christianity or
Mohammedanism. But this is not as universal as we could wish or as
many suppose, as we shall see later on. It may be seen how, in a mass
movement of a large body of men toward Christianity, for instance, the
people may easily, and would naturally, carry with them into the new
faith many of their old customs and habits, including much that
pertains to, and is of the essence of, caste.

Roman Catholicism has interpreted caste chiefly from a social
standpoint, and has therefore regarded it as a social institution
which can be adapted to, and adopted into, the Christian religion.
Protes