122 
ON THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
have been ascertained. New researches have shown that the 
Aryan population in India is very limited in munbers, and 
that even admitting all Brahmans to be of pure Aryan origin, 
this highest caste counts according to the last census only 
13,693,43y members against a grand total of 252,541,210.^^ 
On the Pallis. 
A feeling of superiority has of late re-asserted itself 
among the Pallis. The Madras Census Report of 1871 states : 
" The Vunnias or Pidlies are the great agricultural laboring 
" class of the southern districts. Before the British occu- 
" pation of the country, they were slaves to the Vellalar 
" and Brahman cultivators ; but a large number of them 
" are now cultivators on their oavb account, or else work the 
" lands of the higher castes, on a system of shariag half 
" the net produce with the proprietor." ®^ With the return 
8° See Madras Census Report of 1881, vol. I, pp. 103-105. " It -nill also be 
" unnecessary here to go over the old discussion as to how far the caste system 
of Southern India is of Aryan origin. It may be safely accepted that the 
" mass of the people are not Ar}'an ; that indeed none of them are Aryan, 
" except the Brahmans, probably not all of these, for there are several classes 
" or sub-divisions of Brahmans of more or less hazy origin. All the rest of 
" the so-called Hindus may, if they please, call themselves Shtidras, but they 
"are in fact a Dra vidian or Turanian or Scj'thian people, who have adopted 
" in a very highly-developed form, the Aryan caste sj'stem, whose germs are 
" found in the four caste system of Menu ... Of late years, castes have been 
" 80 infinitely multiplied that, even if there were any recognised principle of 
" precedence, the nuances of rank would be so slight, that the places of the 
" several castes could not be distinguished. But there is no such principle. 
" E.xcept the members of the admittedly degraded and depressed castes, each 
" Shudra thinks, or professes to think, his caste better than his neighbours. 
' ' The Shanar claims to be Kajput. The Kammala and Pattnul growl that, if 
" they had their rights, they would be recognised as Brahmans. But in this 
" matter, as in the matter of occupation, modern innovation has had its effect. 
" Wealth means social pre-eminence in the India of 1 SSI, nearly as much as 
" it does in England. A Shudra millionaire cannot be made a Bi-ahman, but 
" ho can purchase the services of Brahmans. A Brahman cannot eat with 
" him ; but this is the Brahman's loss, for the millionaire's rice is fair and 
" his ghee unexceptionable." 
" The Madras Ociisits Report, vol. I, p, 157, continues: "Others are 
simply labourers, and many of them, by taking advances from their 
employci-s, are still practically serfs of the soil, and unable to extricate 
