Adjudicating Social Death: Caste Exclusion, Civil Rights and the Colonial High Courts

Abstract

This contribution is part of a larger investigation into the phenomena of out-casting among Hindus in South India. Here, I seek to unravel the legal trajectory of caste exclusion in the colonial court by examining the occurrence, extent and content (legal and social) of these litigations. I begin by examining the legal status of caste, as a body, under British rule. Caste exclusion being one kind of punitive sanction, among a range of other sanctions applied in situations of a severe breach in kin-caste rules, it is necessary to examine what understanding was arrived at regarding these rules and which legal treatments were applied. I then explore the occurrence of suits involving caste excommunication and present the main features of some twelve cases to get an overall sense of the nature of the litigations involving excommunication, the outcomes, the social profiles of those involved. Finally, I look more deeply into a handful of cases to assess the grievances of the (excommunicated) complainants and the strategies of the defendants. The aim is to identify the legal provisions invoked both by complainants and defendants and to unravel the reasoning of the judges caught between considerations of promoting individual civil rights, while not infringing on caste social rights.