The social status of the Telis is low, in the group of castes
from which Brahmans will not take water, and below such menials as
the blacksmith and carpenter. Manu classes them with butchers and
liquor-vendors: "From a king not born in the military class let a
Brahman accept no gift nor from such as keep a slaughter-house,
or an oil-press, or put out a vintner's flag or subsist by the
gains of prostitutes." This is much about the position which the
Telis have occupied till recently. Brahmans will not usually enter
their houses, though they have begun to do so in the case of the
landholding subcastes. It is noticeable that the Teli has a much better
position in Bengal than elsewhere. Sir H. Risley says: "Their original
profession was probably oil-pressing, and the caste may be regarded
as a functional group recruited from the respectable middle class of
Hindu society. Oil is used by all Hindus for domestic and ceremonial
purposes, and its manufacture could only be carried on by men whose
social purity was beyond dispute." This is, however, quite exceptional,
and Mr. Crooke, Mr. Nesfield and Sir D. Ibbetson are agreed as to his
inferior, if not partly impure, status. This is only one of several
instances, such as those of the barber, the potter and the weaver,
of menial castes which in Bengal have now obtained a position above
the agricultural castes. It may be suggested in explanation that the
old fabric of Hindu society, that is the village community, has long
decayed in Bengal owing to Muhammadan dominance, the concentration
of estates in the hands of large proprietors and the weakening or
lapse of the customary rights of tenants. Coupled with this has been
the growth of an important urban population, in which the castes
mentioned have raised themselves from their menial position in the
villages and attained wealth and influence, just as the Gujarati Telis
are now doing in Burhanpur, while the agricultural castes of Bengal
have been comparatively depressed. Hence the urban industrial castes
have obtained a great rise in status. Sir H. Risley's emphasis of the
importance of oil in Hindu domestic ceremonial is no doubt quite true,
though it is perhaps little used in sacrifices, butter being generally
preferred as a product of the sacred cow. But the inference does not
seem necessarily to follow that the producer of any article shares
exactly in the estimation attaching to the thing itself. Turmeric,
for instance, is a sacred plant and indispensable at every wedding;
but those who grow turmeric always incur a certain stigma and loss in
social position. The reason for the impurity of the Teli's calling
seems somewhat doubtful. That generally given is his sinful conduct
in harnessing the sacred ox and blindfolding the animal's eyes to
make it work continuously on the tread-mill. The labour is said to be
very severe, and the bullocks often die after two or three years. As
already seen, the Teli fears that after death his soul may pass into
one of his own bullocks in retribution for his treatment of them during
life. Another reason which may be suggested is that the crushing of
oil-seeds must involve a large destruction of insect life, many of
the seeds being at times infested with insects. The Teli's occupation
would naturally rank with the other village industries, that is below
agriculture; and prior to the introduction of cash coinage he must have
received contributions of grain from the tenants for supplying them
with oil like the other village menials. He still takes his oil to the
fields at harvest-time and gets his sheaf of grain from each holding.