question_answer

In the British period, what new opportunities opened up for people who came from castes that were regarded as low?            

Answer:

(i) During the course of the 19th century, Christian missionaries began setting up schools for tribal groups and lower-caste children. These children were equipped with some resources to make their way into a changing world.

(ii) At the same time, the poor began leaving their villages to look for jobs that were opening up in the cities. There was work in the factories that were coming up and jobs in municipalities.

(iii) There were new demands of labour as drains had to be dug, roads had to be laid, buildings were to be constructed, and cities needed to be cleaned.

(iv) This required coolies, diggers, carriers, bricklayers, sewage cleaners, sweepers, palanquin bearers and rickshaws pullers. The poor from the villages and small towns, among which many were from low castes, began moving to the cities where there was new demand for labour. Some of them also went to work in plantations in Assam, Mauritius, Trinidad and Indonesia.

(v) The army, too, offered opportunities. A number of Mahar people, who were regarded as untouchable, found jobs in the Mahar Regiment.