Caste
has been the most intriguing aspect of Indian Civilization. In a society where every living being is
perceived as some kind of manifestation of God, how come a person belonging to
a low caste would get branded as untouchable? We worship cows, we worship
monkeys, we worship birds, we worship trees and yet we condemn a man just
because he belongs to a caste which is perceived to be unclean.
Through
my observations at various sites across various forms of social media, I have realized that despite so much scientific and economic progress there are people
who have a high degree of caste consciousness. People from the higher castes
enjoy a sense of superiority whereas those from the lower castes blame their
caste status for all the problems being faced by them. Further, the print media
and audio-visual media is also filled with stories of caste based prejudices.
In politics also caste has become a very significant factor.
My Personal Experience
From
my personal association with a village in UP, I have a firsthand experience of
the caste based society. I must admit that the caste divisions do exist. But
the whole picture is a great deal different from what is painted by the media.
Though my experience is dated as I did not have many opportunities to observe
the village life after nineteen-eighties, yet I believe the situation is
unlikely to be much different even now. From whatever I have observed, I can
say that inter-caste relations in villages are much more harmonious than what
we get to read in newspapers. There are not many incidents relating to caste
based conflicts. Mostly conflicts occur due to the disputes relating to
property. Castes in villages are interdependent. As the village economy is
largely dependent on the goods and services produced locally, every caste has
some vital role in the whole scheme. Though there are no inter-caste marriages,
yet people of various castes are tied in informal relationships. From my
childhood I can recall that every child had to address the elders with a specific
respectable relationship oriented word like Chacha, Tau, Dada, Mama etc.,
irrespective of the caste to which he belonged. These relationships were
carried forward from one generation to the next.
Thus
the situation as presented in various types of media is much different than
what I have experienced in my childhood. May be the situation has changed for
the worse or may be with so much politicization, the institution of caste has
become much more prone to exploitation. I get concerned with stories of caste
based violence and discrimination and often wonder what we can do to alleviate
such tensions. To comprehend the whole picture, it is necessary to analyse the
theory and practice of the caste system. To enlighten myself in this regard, I
have tried to study the institution of caste from various web based resources.
The Findings
The findings are as under:
- Caste is neither unique to Hindu religion nor to
India; caste systems have been observed in other parts of the
world, for example, in the Muslim community of Yemen, Christian colonies of
Spain, and Japan.
- Many scholars believe that the modern Jatis
represent ancient tribal and occupational affiliations that have evolved and
specialised over time.
- The most ancient scriptures—the Shruti
texts, or Vedas, place very little importance on the caste system, mentioning
caste only sparingly and descriptively (i.e., not prescriptive).
- The only verse in the Rigveda which
mentions all four varnas is 10.90, the Purushasūkta.
- A hymn from the Rig Veda
seems to indicate that one's caste is not necessarily determined by that of
one's family.
- In the Vedic
period, there also seems to have been no discrimination against the Shudras on the
issue of hearing the sacred words of the Vedas and fully participating in all
religious rituals, something which became progressively restricted in the later
times.
- The Gita says that one's varna is to be
understood from one's personal qualities and one's karma (work), not
one's birth.
- The Indian society honoured people for their
achievements irrespective of their caste. For instance, Valmiki, once a
low-caste robber, became a great sage and author of the epic Ramayana. Veda Vyasa,
another respected sage and author of the monumental epic, the Mahabharata,
was the son of a fisher-woman.
- The Manu Smriti, which codified the caste
system, belongs to a class of books that are geared towards ethics, morals, and
social conduct - not spirituality or religion.
- The view of the caste system as "static
and unchanging" has been disputed by many scholars.
- Some scholars believe that the relative
ranking of other castes was fluid or differed from one place to another prior
to the arrival of the British.
- The distinctions, particularly between the
Brahmans and the other castes, were in theory sharper, but in practice it now
appears that social restrictions were not so rigid.
- Movement has always been possible, and
especially in the middle regions of the hierarchy. It was always possible for groups
born into a lower caste to "rise to a higher position by adopting
vegetarianism and teetotalism" i.e. adopt the customs of the higher
castes.
- There is also precedent of certain Shudra
families within the temples of the Shrivaishava sect in South India elevating
their caste.·There have been cases of upper caste Hindus
warming to the Dalits and Hindu priests, demoted to outcaste ranks.
- Many movements in Hinduism have welcomed
Dalits into their fold, the foremost being the Bhakti
movements of the medieval period.
- The first mention of the formal varna Indian caste system is in the famous Purush
Sukta of the Rigveda,
although it is the only mention in the entire body of the Vedas and has been
decried as a much later, non-Vedic insertion by numerous Indologists like Max Muller
and also by Ambedkar.
- In the Mahabharata,
Bhrigu tells Bharadvaja that caste divisions relate to differences in physical
attributes of different human beings, reflected in skin colour. Bharadvaja
responds not only by pointing to the considerable variations in skin colour
within every caste (if different colours indicate different castes, then all
castes are mixed castes), but also by the more profound question: ‘We all seem
to be affected by desire, anger, fear, sorrow, worry, hunger, and labour; how
do we have caste differences then.
- The Bhavishya
Purana, (dated to be between 1500 to 2500 years old), decries the caste
system- Since members of all the four castes are children of God, they all
belong to the same caste. All human beings have the same father, and children
of the same father cannot have different castes.
- Megasthenes,
the Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya's court in India classified people
of India into seven classes: philosophers, peasants, herdsmen, craftsmen and
traders, soldiers, government officials and councilors.
- Fa Xian, a Buddhist pilgrim from China, visited India around
400 AD. Only the lot of the Chandals he found unenviable as outcastes by reason of their
degrading work as disposers of dead. But no other section of the population
were notably disadvantaged, no other caste distinctions attracted comment from
the Chinese pilgrim, and no oppressive caste system drew forth his censure. In
this period kings of Shudra and Brahmin origin were as common as those of Kshatriya
varna and caste system was not wholly rigid.
- Caste, claimed Gandhi, had nothing to do with
religion. The discrimination and trauma of castes, argued Gandhi, was the
result of custom, the origin of which is unknown.
- Some sources suggest that the caste system
became formally rigid during the British Raj,
when the British started to enumerate castes during the ten-year census and
meticulously codified the system under their rule.
- The rapid growth of train travel, with
coaches packed with passengers from all caste segments of Indian society,
suggests that the nature of British stereotypes about caste system in India,
prior to 1860s and thereafter through the 1940s, were flawed.
- According to the 1901 Census Report on India,
only 8 to 17 percent of Brahmins were involved in a religious occupation, only
8 percent of one Shudra sub-caste commonly assumed to be dedicated to leather
work was actually involved in leather work, and less than 50 percent of several
sub-castes were involved in their traditional occupations. Rest were involved
in occupations such as farming or labour.
- Several reports published between 1995 and
2005 propose that Indian tribal and caste population samples they studied, have
similar genetic origins and have received limited gene input from outside
India. These studies imply that racial differences may not have influenced
caste system in India.
- Numerous other countries have minorities
which have been ostracized, discriminated again, denied civil rights,
considered impure or shunned due to low social standing in recent human
history. Examples include Burakumin in Japan, Jews in certain parts
of Europe, Afro-Americans in the United States, Oriental
Jews in Israel, Al-Akhdam of Yemen, Baekjeong of Korea, Midgan of Somalia and Osu in Nigeria.
To
sum up, caste is a social institution and not a religious one. It has been
found to exist also in countries other than India, societies other than the
Hindu society. It has roots in unknown social traditions and has evolved over
time. Various castes do not have significant racial/genetic differences. In the
beginning, caste was flexible and a basis for division of labour. Over the
period, the divisions became rigid, may be, owing to the tendency to preserve
knowledge and skills by passing these to the next generation in the family and
the practice of endogamy. The caste system was not so static and rigid as many
think it to be. People have been adopting occupations which may not have been
traditionally meant for their caste. Many persons of lower castes were given
due recognition and respect for their spiritual and literary achievements. Men
and women of different castes travelled together in packed coaches of trains
during the British period, implying thereby that the caste system did not
prohibit intermingling of castes at the social level. From time to time various
social reformers endeavoured to eliminate caste based discrimination.
Chanakya explains the Varna Vyavastha from the Great Vedas
The Positive Contribution
Is it that the caste system has only
negatives associated with it? Or, did it have some positive side also? Indian
civilization is the oldest civilization on earth. How did this civilization
survive so long? Possibly, because its social structure was much robust than
any other civilization. Also, may be
because it could preserve and expand its knowledge-base in a manner, no other
civilization could. Thus a stable caste structure helped in passing on the
knowledge and skills from one generation to the next. The knowledge was
preserved by tradition of ‘Shruti’ (receiving the oral knowledge from the Guru)
and ‘Smriti’ (storing the knowledge in memory), which became possible because
of the caste structure. The skills
required for making various kinds of handicrafts and other products could be
preserved and refined due to the caste based skill specialization and skill inheritance.
No wonder, Indian handicrafts and textiles were exported across the seven seas
and the Indian economy was the world’s most prosperous economy throughout a
major period in the recorded history.
The Tripod Framework and the Caste System
In
my earlier post (The Tripod Framework: A Compass We Need While Sailing On High Seas), I had proposed a ‘Tripod Framework’ for prioritizing
life goals. The quality of life is dependent on our achievements in three distinct
spheres. The economic sphere deals with production of goods and services which
are required for a comfortable physical existence. The spiritual sphere deals
with life enriching activities like literature, arts, music, religion etc. The
third sphere, namely the socio-political sphere, is about all social and
political structures and institutions which are necessary to maintain a
peaceful and harmonious environment to facilitate unhindered pursuit of
activities in the first two spheres. It is necessary that the society excels in
all three spheres for being a vibrant and sustainable civilization.
The caste system addressed the needs
of all the three spheres for the society. Thus, Brahmins were required to deal
with issues in the spiritual sphere by nurturing a religious, spiritual and
philosophical environment to facilitate enrichment of lives through spiritual
endeavours. The Kshatriyas were required to focus on the socio-political sphere
to devise ways and means for providing internal and external security so that
law and order could be maintained. The
other two varnas, namely Vaishyas and Shudras, were required to look after the
economic sphere. Shudras were the producers (artisans, farmers etc.) and the
service providers (barbers, washer-men, masons and labourers etc). Vaishyas were
the financiers and marketers of the goods so produced. Thus the caste system
provided a very stable framework for addressing every need of the society.
The Caste based Discrimination as Sunk Costs
In management and economics there is
a concept of ‘Sunk Costs’. Sunk costs
are those costs which were incurred in the past and which cannot be recovered
in the present. Thus these costs are irrecoverable and hence sunk. The theory
says that the sunk costs, being irrelevant for the present, should not
influence the decision making. Though, psychologically it is difficult to
ignore the sunk costs. Similarly, conflicts, discrimination or humiliation the
Indian society had to undergo due to rigid caste system, is a sunk cost to the
society. This sunk cost should not influence our decisions about the kind of
future we want to build for ourselves.
The Way Forward
It is clear that with development of
modern means for preservation of knowledge and skills, the caste system has
lost its relevance. The caste based divisions are prone to exploitation by
forces inimical to the welfare of the society. The opportunistic elements like
the politicians have been exploiting the caste divisions for their vested
interests. Caste has become an easy tool for segmentation and positioning by
the political marketers but with dangerous consequences. However, caste identities
are so well entrenched in the society that they cannot be obliterated overnight. In a society where arranged marriage is the
norm, the practice of endogamy cannot be changed so easily. But as society
opens up due to migration and education, the caste-boundaries will surely
diminish if not vanish altogether.
It
is imperative that we have to transcend the caste boundaries to become one
people and one nation. We cannot let the future be the captive of the past. We
must forget whatever happened in the past and focus on what we can do now for
making our future bright. At various forums on social media, I find people
bragging about their caste identities. There is no problem about being proud of
what you are as long as it is not intended to denigrate others. When we think
of India, it is sum total of all caste/religious groups. When we feel proud of
what India has achieved in the past, we must remember that it is a collective
achievement of all the castes and groups. Every caste had some special quality
and played a special role in enriching this civilization. Some cultivated
knowledge, some excelled in bravery and martial arts, some produced world class
goods and many others enriched the society by their endeavour to serve quietly.
Every caste contributed its bit in helping the civilization survive and
flourish. Let’s be proud of each other.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Indian_caste_system
