Caste: Some Questions and Concerns

The Caste Assumptions 

Everything from temple building to beef ban is attributed to caste politics in India. Caste in a society like India is as varied as the accusations of caste are in the modern India. Caste resides and survives on the privileges it offers it members. People that talk about caste system in India miss the basic points of social system in India. I request them to read Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present, which would help them understand the caste system in India, but also help clear some misunderstandings prevalent among the intelligentsia in India. 

Origins of Caste: Misguided Constructions from Purushasukta

One of the most common misconceptions is equating caste with class. Vedas describe four social classes among the people of the Vedic society. They frequently quote the Rigvedic verse, the Purushasukta, to substantiate their claim that caste has Vedic origins. This is a completely misguided reading out of context and wrought with problems. It is a symbolic verse, discussing cosmic being and his sacrifice noting the sacred origins of society. It is a theological verse. It is mistakenly interpreted to represent caste. Some historians are selective classicists, they embrace textual verses when it suits them and at other times they interpret Vedas as not representing truth. 

Remember caste and class is not the same. In fact, Rigvedic society has only three classes. Four classes were a feature of later Vedic society. There are thousands of castes and only four classes in classical India, and a fifth class was added even later. Indian society has thousands of castes and only five classes. Caste is hereditary based on jati (birth), but class is not hereditary. History has evidence of groups changing professions and changing classes. I urge the historians to study south Indian History. 

Manudharma sastra and various other later dharma texts may have sections on jati, and jati dharma (rules of caste), but there is no evidence that it was uniform in India or that a uniform civil code suppressing the great masses of India. Numerous texts existed, but not many studied Sanskrit or followed the interpretations of Brahmins. In fact, it was British who tried to translate Manudharma sastra to use it in jurisprudence. 

Not all Professional Castes are Poor or Untouchable

In India professional castes were wealthier and has more upward mobility than landed farmers until eighteenth century. Leather workers as well as cotton weavers became poor and disenfranchised from their professions as machine production and machine made goods became available for sale in India since the eighteen hundreds, but not before it. I urge any one interested to consult Vijayanagara inscriptions and other inscriptions of southern Indian dynasties such as the Chalukyas and Cholas to gain a better understanding of the caste system in India. Caste is not frozen in time, and was not always similar. Many professional castes castes are mentioned in south Indian Inscriptions that paid substantial taxes to the emperors and owned villages. They also supported construction of temples. Caste operated in different ways during different times and different geographical regions. 

Varna is not Just Color, and It Is Definitely not Caste

Equating varna with caste is one of the colonial vestiges of British education system in India. Class system in India is referred to as Varna, which is interpreted by colonial historians as color, which is only partially applicable  to class. One of the meanings of Varna is color, but it also has other meanings. Varna is a style of dance, and music. Varna is also alphabet. In fact, alphabet is referred to as 'varnamala,' in south India. Historians steeped in colonial historical learning still interpret it as color, which does not make sense, since the dark and light colored skin dichotomy of colonial class system was not part of Vedic understanding of society. Varna simply was a division of society as the alphabet divides the sounds for convenience, as a, b, c, d...

Caste Needs Hinduism, but Hinduism Does not Need Caste

Hinduism is practiced without caste outside its borders, and with varied or lighter versions of caste system in its frontiers such as Kashmir, southern borders of India as well as eastern India. Caste system is not endemic to Hinduism, but India. All religions that are practiced in India, including western religions such as Islam and Christianity also embrace caste system in India. This in itself is evidence that caste is a social practice common to all religions in India. Hinduism in Guyana, Surinam, Fiji, Cambodia and also Hinduism in Thailand, Indonesia does not have a strong caste system associated with it. 

To Banish Caste, Stop Asking for It

Poor people in India are asked for caste to receive their social welfare schemes. Educational and employment opportunities are based on quotas assigned to poor and backward castes. But caste based reservations are only perpetrating the caste system further rather than getting rid of it. A lower caste person has no chance of escaping his caste for the danger of loosing his reservations. Numerous countries in the world had social discrimination in one form or other based on classe. But they all moved forward by abolishing their use in official records and official settings. Japan moved away from social discrimination of the group 'burakumin' by adopting name changes and banishing any identification that would identify a person as burakumin. Burakumin lived under similar circumstances as the untouchables of India. But within fifty years Japan has successfully eradicated the discrimination. India should adopt similar methods and progress beyond caste based society to embrace modernity. Caste is an outdated parameter to decide the availability of social welfare programs.