Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/224

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146

It would be hardly possible legally to uphold this ancient custom, because the reciprocal right of the labourer to be maintained by the farmer, in case his share of the crop be insufficient, would have also to be provided for.

The name is derived, it is said,* from Srdwak, Sanskrit for a pupil, and is the same ordinary Jain word for a layman. This may be ; the word may have been transmitted in passing through the Buddhist transition period ; but the change is a radical one, for the Sanskrit word which means a pupil, and which can only refer to one of the twice-born to whom the hearing of the sacred books is confined, has now been applied exclusively to the lowest class, that which is forbidden even to hear read, much less to read, the Vedas. The fact that Sawaks are confined to the four castes Chamars, Koris, Lodhs, and Kurmis ^is very curious. Are they the descendants of the original Sudras a, name which is now rarely heard in Oudh, except from some Kayath, who wishes notice to be taken of the fact that he does not admit his own Sudraship ? According to Manu's system the duty of the Sudras was to serve the other three castes these four castes now perform that duty and are to a certain extent in the position of slave ploughmen, yet it would be a great mistake to call them slaves.

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They have

and some of the household work execute; and they have fixed wages, from which, if Oudh seasons and soil were more favourable, they might save money. Siwak is attached to every plough. Only one plough is allowed on the average for about seven acres and a half, and supplementary spade husbandry is largely used so as fully to employ the Sawak's time. their wives

definite duties to perform,

may or may not

A

An

average crop ftom this Avill be about 7,000 lbs. ; at 900 lbs. to the the Sawak's share, including his wife's, will be 1,400 Sbs., half of it superior grain which he can exchange for 1,000 lbs. of inferior but wholesome grain. His whole earnings will then be 1,700 lbs. of grain, from which a man with a wife and two children cannot properly be sustained. acre,

It would not appear, therefore, that a status which must be generally one of annually increasing indebtedness can ever have been the fixed and authentic condition of a large class. Further, we have here the distinct element of contract supervening. Are we to suppose that when the class of Sudras emerged partially from servitude, this contract system was devised to perpetuate the old theoretical status, when the actual situation of the It is more likely that the system arose parties accorded with the latter ? in time of famine when the richer class maintained their poorer neighbours and their families, and the head of the family in return bound himself to

serve for

mere

subsistence.

In many individual instances the plan was adopted in order to secure harvest labour at a time when it was scarce it was regarded as a means of compelling men to labour hard and regularly in a time of rude plenty and thin population, when a half savage people, as now in Jamaica, satisfied its hunger without difficulty, and refused to work till again pressed by want. .



At

present the only motive for entering into the contract

Gonda

article.

is

want of

food,