Identifier: nativesofnorther00croo (find matches)
Title: Natives of northern India
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Ethnology -- India India -- Social conditions India -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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sent day.Another body, destined to exercise a more command-ing influence on Indian politics, turned westward, andsought the arid land now called Rajputana, wherethey founded independent States, each the rallyingpoint of a single sept. In this country the Rajputs have maintained theirtribal system and freedom unimpaired. They resistedthe Moghul emperors, who had gained the lordship ofall the remaining part of Northern India. Later onthey endured grievous stress from the Mahrattas, fromwhich they were saved by British intervention. In a Rajput State the chief is the head of the clanby whom the country was settled. He is not adespot, but exercises a jurisdiction more or lesslimited over an aristocracy, the members of whichare his kinsmen and connections. It is only outsidetheir fiefs and in the capital that his authority isabsolute. The land pays a rent to the ruling chief,who must of necessity be a Rajput, or to the holder ofa fief under him ; and in the western States, which are No. 10
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Bh OTIYAS OF KlMAVN, NoRTHERN HlLLS (p. 49) THE CASTES OF THE PLAINS 91 the most conservative of ancient tradition, practicallyall the soil is in Rajput hands. The chief is veneratedas representing the bluest blood of the dominant clan.Succession to office goes by primogeniture, and cannotpass through females. In most cases the right ofadoption has been recognised by the Imperial Govern-ment ; but sometimes, when direct heirs fail, the newchief is selected by the barons from the leaders of theclan. In the final resort the British Government ad-judicates on the rights of the candidates. This is not exactly feudalism, but something resem-bling it. It is the only really free constitution withinthe Empire. While their brethren, who clung to theirhomes in the Ganges valley, have become heads ormembers of a village community, the braver spiritstransplanted to the western desert a compact tribalorganisation, which has displayed wonderful vitality,and bears as much promise of permanence as an

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