উপমহাদেশে ব্রিটিশ শাসন জাতিবাদী উচ্চবর্ণের হাতিয়ার হয়ে উঠল

মন্দিরের প্রশাসনে, আদালতে বিচার ব্যবস্থায় উচ্চবর্ণের রমরমা প্রবেশ ঘটল। গ্রামের উচ্চবর্ণরা ব্রিটিশদের সামাজিক অজ্ঞতা নিজেদের স্বার্থপূরণে ব্যবহার করল।মন্দির, মন্দিরের ট্রাস্ট, রাজ দরবার স্ক্যান্ডেলের মূর্ত স্থান হয়ে উঠল।

The management of Hindu temples in the south became notably more bureaucratic and rule-ridden. Hindu and Muslim law as operated in British courts became more rigid, reflecting the norms of the high castes and the most orthodox interpretations rather than the pragmatic and fluid ajudications of the pandits and jurists of the past. Secondly, while the British viewed their intervention as an attempt to order and control society, well-placed Indians were still able to manipulate British officers for their own purposes, as witness the periodic explosion of 'scandals' in princely courts, temples and trusts. At a humbler level village leaderships were sometimes able to exploit British misunderstandings or distortions of indigenous legal and social forms to entrench themselves in power. The mirasidar proprietors of Tanjore and Tinnevelly in the far south, for instance, put up a clever and well-orchestrated opposition to Sir Thomas Munro's ryotwari regulations in the areas which they controlled during the 1820s and 30s. The result was that they became recognised as 'ancient lords of the land' in those districts.