Priests and Cobblers

This book is a study of the changing relations between members of the priestly caste (Brahmins) and a group of untouchables (Cobblers). The study covers a period of several decades up to the time of fieldwork at the end of the 1960s in a Hindu village in Western Nepal. From a position of almost total economic dependence on the priestly caste, the untouchables had become increasingly independent because of the new opportunities available in the expanding economy of the area. As a result of this they had begun to oppose the Brahmins politically. At the time of the original publication of this book (1972), there was very little published material written by anthropologists on Hindu village society in Nepal, and very little that dealt with relations between high castes and untouchables anywhere else in South Asia. The author does however seek to put her study into wider perspective by comparing it with other literature on change in South Asia. Foreword to the New Edition This book focuses on a mixed-caste community in the Far Western Hills, here called' Duari', where the upper castes had successfully consolidated themselves at the expense of the lower castes (untouchables, now termed Dalits) not only in terms of land-holding but also educational opportunities, trade and government posts. Nonetheless, at the time of fieldwork, the lower castes had begun to achieve a modicum of economic independence because of new opportunities, and as a result, had dared for the first time to challenge the upper castes politically. I spent nine months carrying out research in Duari, and also visiting neighbouring communities, as well as the local bazaar town and district capital.