Kadir caste is surname of many people in southern India. Kadir caste meaning is The Kadirs or Kadans inhabit the Anaimalai or elephant hills, and the great mountain range which extends thence southward into Travancore. A night journey by rail to Coimbatore, and forty miles by [7]road at the mercy of a typically obstinate jutka pony, which landed me in a dense patch of prickly-pear (Opuntia Dillenii), brought me to the foot of the hills at Sethumadai, where I came under the kindly hospitality of Mr. H. A. Gass, Conservator of Forests, to whom I am indebted for much information on forest and tribal matters gathered during our camp life at Mount Stuart, situated 2,350 feet above sea-level, in the midst of a dense bamboo jungle, and playfully named after Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, who visited the spot during his quinquennium as Governor of Madras.
At Sethumadai I made the acquaintance of my first Kadir, not dressed, as I hoped, in a primitive garb of leaves, but wearing a coloured turban and the cast-off red coat of a British soldier, who had come down the hill to carry up my camp bath, which acted as an excellent umbrella, to protect him from the driving monsoon showers. Very glad was I of his services in helping to convey my clothed, and consequently helpless self, across the mountain torrents, swollen by a recent burst of monsoon rain.
The Kadir forest guards, of whom there are several in Government service, looked, except for their noses, very unjungle-like by contrast with their fellow-tribesmen, being smartly dressed in regulation Norfolk jacket, knickerbockers, pattis (leggings), buttons, and accoutrements.
On arrival at the forest depôt, with its comfortable bungalows and Kadir settlement, I was told by a native servant that his master was away, as an elephant done tumble in a fit. My memory went back to the occasion many years ago, when, as a medical student, I took part in the autopsy of an elephant, which died in convulsions at the London Zoological Gardens. It transpired later [8]in the day that a young and grown-up cow elephant had tumbled, not in a fit, but into a pit made with hands for the express purpose of catching elephants. The story has a philological significance, and illustrates the difficulty which the Tamulian experiences in dealing with the letter F. An incident is still cherished at Mount Stuart in connection with a sporting globe-trotter, who was accredited to the Conservator of Forests for the purpose of putting him on to bison (the gaur, Bos gaurus), and other big game. On arrival at the depôt, he was informed that his host had gone to see the ellipence. Incapable of translating the pigeon-English of the native butler, and, concluding that a financial reckoning was being suggested, he ordered the servant to pay the baggage coolies their elli-pence, and send them away. To a crusted Anglo-Indian it is clear that ellipence could only mean elephants. Sir M. E. Grant Duff tells7 the following story of a man, who was shooting on the Anaimalais. In his camp was an elephant, who, in the middle of the night, began to eat the thatch of the hut, in which he was sleeping. His servant in alarm rushed in and awoke him, saying Elephant, Sahib, must, must (mad). The sleeper, half-waking and rolling over, replied Oh, bother the elephant. Tell him he mustnt.
The salient characteristics of the Kadirs may be briefly summed up as follows- short stature, dark skin, platyrhine. Men and women have the teeth chipped. Women wear a bamboo comb in the back-hair. Those whom I met spoke a Tamil patois, running up the scale in talking, and finishing, like a Suffolker, on a higher note than they commenced on. But I am told that some [9]of them speak a mixture of debased Tamil and Malayalam. I am informed by Mr. Vincent that the Kadirs have a peculiar word Ali, denoting apparently a fellow or thing, which they apply as a suffix to names, e.g, Karaman Ali, black fellow; Mudi Ali, hairy fellow; Kutti Ali, man with a knife; Puv Ali, man with a flower. Among nicknames, the following occur- white mother, white flower, beauty, tiger, milk, virgin, love, breasts. The Kadirs are excellent mimics, and give a clever imitation of the mode of speech of the Muduvans, Malasars, and other hill tribes.
Kadir Huts.
Kadir Huts.
The Kadirs afford a typical example of happiness without culture. Unspoiled by education, the advancing wave of which has not yet engulfed them, they still retain many of their simple manners and customs. Quite refreshing was it to hear the hearty shrieks of laughter of the nude curly-haired children, wholly illiterate, and happy in their ignorance, as they played at funerals, or indulged in the amusement of making mud pies, and scampered off to their huts on my appearance. The uncultured Kadir, living a hardy out-door life, and capable of appreciating to the full the enjoyment of an apathetic rest as perfect bliss, has, I am convinced, in many ways, the advantage over the poor under-fed student with a small-paid appointment under Government as the narrow goal to which the laborious passing of examination tests leads.
Living an isolated existence, confined within the thinly-populated jungle, where Nature furnishes the means of obtaining all the necessaries of life, the Kadir possesses little, if any, knowledge of cultivation, and objects to doing work with a mamuti, the instrument which serves the gardener in the triple capacity of spade, rake, and hoe. But armed with a keen-edged bill-hook [10]he is immense. As Mr. O. H. Bensley says-8 The axiom that the less civilised men are, the more they are able to do every thing for themselves, is well illustrated by the hill-man, who is full of resource. Give him a simple bill-hook, and what wonders he will perform. He will build houses out of etâh, so neat and comfortable as to be positively luxurious. He will bridge a stream with canes and branches. He will make a raft out of bamboo, a carving knife out of etâh, a comb out of bamboo, a fishing-line out of fibre, and fire from dry wood. He will find food for you where you think you must starve, and show you the branch which, if cut, will give you drink. He will set traps for beasts and birds, which are more effective than some of the most elaborate products of machinery. A European, overtaken by night in the jungle, unable to light fire by friction or to climb trees to gather fruits, ignorant of the edible roots and berries, and afraid of wild beasts, would, in the absence of comforts, be quite as unhappy and ill-at-ease as a Kadir surrounded by plenty at an official dinner party.
At the forest depôt the Kadir settlement consists of neatly constructed huts, made of bamboo deftly split with a bill-hook in their long axis, thatched with leaves of the teak tree (Tectona grandis) and bamboo (Ochlandra travancorica), and divided off into verandah and compartments by means of bamboo partitions. But the Kadirs are essentially nomad in habit, living in small communities, and shifting from place to place in the jungle, whence they suddenly re-appear as casually as if they had only returned from a morning stroll instead of a long camping expedition. When wandering in the jungle, the Kadirs [11]make a rough lean-to shed covered over with leaves, and keep a small fire burning through the night, to keep off bears, elephants, tigers, and leopards. They are, I am told, fond of dogs, which they keep chiefly as a protection against wild beasts at night. The camp fire is lighted by means of a flint and the floss of the silk-cotton tree (Bombax malabaricum), over which powdered charcoal has been rubbed. Like the Kurumbas, the Kadirs are not, in a general way, afraid of elephants, but are careful to get out of the way of a cow with young, or a solitary rover, which may mean mischief. On the day following my descent from Mount Stuart, an Odde cooly woman was killed on the ghat road by a solitary tusker. Familiarity with wild beasts, and comparative immunity from accident, have bred contempt for them, and the Kadirs will go where the European, fresh to elephant land, fears to tread, or conjures every creak of a bamboo into the approach of a charging tusker. As an example of pluck worthy of a place in KiplingsJungle-book, I may cite the case of a hill-man and his wife, who, overtaken by night in the jungle, decided to pass it on a rock. As they slept, a tiger carried off the woman. Hearing her shrieks, the sleeping man awoke, and followed in pursuit in the vain hope of saving his wife. Coming on the beast in possession of the mangled corpse, he killed it at close quarters with a spear. Yet he was wholly unconscious that he had performed an act of heroism worthy of the bronze crossfor valour.
Kadir.
Kadir.
The Kadirs carry loads strapped on the back over the shoulders by means of fibre, instead of on the head in the manner customary among coolies in the plains; and women on the march may be seen carrying the cooking utensils on their backs, and often have a child strapped on the top of their household goods. The dorsal position [12]of the babies, huddled up in a dirty cloth, with the ends slung over the shoulders and held in the hands over the chest, at once caught my eye, as it is contrary to the usual native habit of straddling the infants across the loins as a saddle.
Mr. Vincent informs me that when the planters first came to the hills, the Kadirs were found practically without clothes of any description, with very few ornaments, and looking very lean and emaciated. All this, however, changed with the advent of the European, as the Kadirs then got advances in hard cash, clothes, and grain, to induce them to work. For a few years they tried to work hard, but were failures, and now I do not suppose that a dozen men are employed on the estates on the hills. They would not touch manure owing to caste scruples; they could not learn to prune; and with a mamoti (spade) they always promptly proceeded to chop their feet about in their efforts to dig pits. The Kadirs have never claimed, like the Todas, and do not possess any land on the hills. But the Government has declared the absolute right of the hill tribes to collect all the minor forest produce, and to sell it to the Government through the medium of a contractor, whose tender has been previously accepted. The contractor pays for the produce in coin at a fair market rate, and the Kadirs barter the money so obtained for articles of food with contractors appointed by Government to supply them with their requirements at a fixed rate, which will leave a fair, but not exorbitant margin of profit to the vendor. The principal articles of minor forest produce of the Anaimalai hills are wax, honey, cardamoms, myrabolams, ginger, dammer, turmeric, deer horns, elephant tusks, and rattans. And of these, cardamoms, wax, honey, and rattans are the most important. Honey and wax are [13]collected at all seasons, and cardamoms from September to November. The total value of the minor produce collected, in 1897& Kadir caste is one of the many castes subcastes of India.
India has thousands of castes and subcastes, they are in existence and practice since the Vedic times. They were created to solve the problem of division of labor. Kadir caste name could indicate the type of work people belonging to the Kadir caste do or did in earlier times. Many last names in India indicate the place the person originally belongs to. All castes sub castes are primarily divided into 4 categories:
1.Brahmins – The learned or priestly class
2.Khastriyas – The warrior class or those with governing functions
3.Vaishyas – The trader, agriculturalists or cattle rearers class
4.Shudra – The class that serves other three categories
Kadir caste belongs to one of the above 4 categories. Indian caste system is the best system to solve the problem of division of labor. In earlier times there was no rigidity in caste system. Indian caste system is still the best solution for the problem of division of labor, the only change that is needed as per changed times is that rather than having a vertical hierarchical system with Brahmins on top and Shudras at bottom, it would be good to have a horizontal socialist system with Brahmins, Khastriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras all at same level.
The caste system of India is in ruins at present. It is also cause of bloody quarrels in certain parts of the rural India. People of backward castes have reservations in government jobs, this facility is widely misused in India. Many of the backward caste people have become rich and still use the facility for their benefit. Many in India believe reservation in jobs should be given on the basis of poverty rather than caste because there are many poors in upper castes as well.
Many criticize the Indian caste system because of bad material condition of lower castes but if they observe in an unbiased way they would find that there are many in upper castes with bad material conditions. The problem lies in power not in castes, power can corrupt anyone be it from upper caste or lower caste.
All cultures, all countries, all religions have caste system in one form or the other. Christians have different churches depending on the region or language or skin color of people. Muslims have a priestly class that tries to control everything. Arab Muslims before the oil boom were so much divided among tribes that if you drank water from a well of a different tribe you could be shot dead. Tribal divisions still exists among Muslims. You can also see the caste system in a different form in your corporate companies. I had seen different food and drinking facilities for people at different levels.
Kadir caste is also known as Kadir Gotra.
Caste situation is quiet different in urban India, people in urban areas especially youngsters don?t bother about castes. Inter caste, inter religious, inter lingual marriages are quiet common in urban India. Inter caste, inter religious and inter lingual marriages in rural areas attract severe criticism and many times people are expelled from community for not marrying as per religious and caste rules.