ABSTRACT
The difference in the attitude of Muslim rulers and European colonialists reflected that, whereas the former saw themselves as full-scale kingly rulers, the latter were primarily traders, determined to become as little involved as possible in the antagonisms of South Indian society. It is not surpising that the dynamic interpretation of South Indian society has questioned the conventional concept of the caste system – the ‘traditional’ Indian institution par exellence – as a rigid, hierarchical structure embracing all social relations. The distinction between right and left hand castes is peculiar to the Tamil-, Telugu- and Kannada-speaking areas of South India. The right and left hand caste divisions represented an organization of caste, which in many respects was different from later conventional understandings of the ‘caste system’. During the seventeenth century the European presence on the fringes of South Indian society became increasingly significant as the trading companies of northwestern Europe ousted the Portuguese.
