This seems to be the reason why they rank somewhat higher than the impure castes, even though they may utterly defile themselves according to Hindu ideas by eating cow's flesh.

Some tribes, such as the Gonds, Binjhwars and Kawars, counted amongst them the owners of large estates or even kingdoms, and consequently had many Hindu cultivators for their subjects.

And, as the Hindus themselves say, they could not regard the Gonds as impure when they had a Gond king.

Nevertheless, the Gond labourers in Hindu villages in the plains are more despised than the Gonds who live in their own villages in the hill country.

And the conversion of the tribes as a whole to Hinduism goes steadily forward.