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ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. As previously announced, The Indian Antiquary, which was taken over by the Royal Anthropological Institute from the Indian Antiquary Co., Ltd., in January last, is now published under the authority of the Council of that Institute, as the official organ of its Indian Research Committee which meets at regular intervals for the discussion of matters connected with research in the ethnology, archeology and history of India. Meetings of the Committee, open to all Fellows of the Institute and others who are interested in Indian Research, are held from time to time. Reports of the proceedings of such open meetings will henceforth be published in these columns. The report of the proceedings of the first session is given below.
Royal Anthropological Institute-Indian Section. The first open meeting of the Indian Section of the Institute was held on May 14th, 1925, when the Rev. Sydney Nicholson read a paper on "The Malas, an out-caste people of 8. India" :
Of the Malas, a community of Telugu "untouchables " numbering over one-and-a-half million, little detailed information is recorded; in fact most of the information furnished about them in Mr. Thurston's Caste and Tribes of Southern India was supplied by Mr. Nicholson himself. In his paper Mr. Nicholson added substantially to his previous record and most of the facts set forth by him are new. Of special interest is his account of (1) the mêti or share system, the basis of the social economy of the Malas, an interesting parallel to the pangu system of the Tamil Paraiyans; (2) the duplicate system of exogamy, a sub-stratum of totemistic olans overlaid by a more minute system of "house-names "; (3) Mala polity, the council of village elders with their messenger (salvddhi), with an appeal to a Lingayat Chetti, no doubt in origin a state-appointed officer, whose authority is reinforced and controlled by at three-fold hierarchy of Gurus ; (4) the Dasarís or Mala priests, with their curious rites and sects, and the potency of their curse by virtue of self-inflicted injuries analogous to the traga curse of the Charans of Rajputana ; and (5) the Binuku Section, offspring of irregular unions in contravention of social custom, a class without rights or privileges.
Mr. Nicholson dealt mainly with the Malas of Cuddapah, Kurnool and Anantapur, who are divided into three endogamous groups (a) Pokanati, (b) Muriki Nati, and (c) Reddi-bhumi. The first two of these are presumably indigenous, as they monopolise the customary perquisites and privileges of a serf-caste. The Reddi-bhûmi are later comers and in such privileges they have no share. Malas are accepting in large numbers conversion to Christianity.
On June 17th, 1925, Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson read a paper on "The Dheds of Gujarat" :
Mrs. Stevenson, whose Rites of the Twice-Born and the Heart of Jainism are models of sound ethnography, portrayed the almost incredible humiliations imposed by custom on the "untouchables" of Gujarat, among whom the Dheds rank highest in the social scale. Even to-day in Kathiawar they cannot travel by rail with other passengers, but are segregated in special compartments marked "Dhed." As agricultural serfs they have to discharge customary services for their masters, but their masters, in turn, must feed them well at festivals and weddings, give them a decent funeral, and look after their orphans. The Dheds
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