Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 93

PARIAHS AS DOMESTIC SERVANTS
:>:>>
they live. Foreigners are therefore obliged to have recourse
to Pariahs to perform this important domestic service. If
the kind of food which they do not scruple to eat lowers
Europeans in the eyes of the superstitious native, much
more are they lowered by the social status of the people
by whom they are served. For it is a fact recognized by
all Hindus that none but a Pariah would dare to eat food
prepared by Pariahs.
It is undeniable that this want of consideration on the
part of Europeans or rather the necessity to which they
are reduced of employing Pariahs as servants renders
them most obnoxious to other classes of natives, and
greatly diminishes the general respect for the white man.
It being impossible to procure servants of a better caste,
foreigners have of necessity to put up with members of
this inferior class, who are dishonest, incapable of any
—
—
attachment to their masters, and unworthy of confidence.
Sudras who become servants of Europeans are almost in-
variably vicious and unprincipled, as devoid of all feeling
of honour as they are wanting in resource
in fact, they
;
are the scum of their class and of society at large.
No
respectable or self-respecting Sudra would ever consent to
enter a service where he would be in danger of being mis-
taken for a Pariah, or would have to consort with Pariahs.
Amongst other reasons which contribute largely to the
dislike that natives of a better class entertain for domestic
service under Europeans, is the feeling that their masters
keep them at such a great distance, and are generally
haughty and even cruel in their demeanour towards them.
But above all things they dread being kicked by a Euro-
pean, not because this particular form of ill-treatment is
physically more painful than any other, but because they
have a horror of being defiled by contact with anything so
unclean as a leather boot or shoe. Pariahs, accustomed
from their childhood to slavery, put up patiently with
affronts of this kind which other natives, who have more
pride and self-respect, are unable to endure.
Under other circumstances, it should be remarked,
domestic service in India is by no means regarded as
degrading. The servant has his meals with his master,
the maid with her mistress, and both go through life on