It is a pity that Caste system even today has its defenders. The primary argument against the caste system is that it is not mere ‘division of labour’. It is also “division of labourers”. In modern day society, we might need division of labour, but no civilized society need division of labourers in water-tights compartments. But Caste system is not merely that, it is an hierarchy in which division of labourers is graded one above the other. No where else in the world, we see such kind of division. In India, this division is not based on personal attributes of a person, but on natural aptitudes. There is a strange thing in the country where there is an attempt to allocate tasks to individual as soon as they born, selected not on the basis of ‘trained original capacities’, but on that of the social status of the parents. Example: A son of a priest becomes a priest, although there are exceptions but they are very rare.
In villages in India, it could be observed that if a Hindu is seen to starve rather than take to new occupations not assigned to his Caste. A brahmin will starve and might get placed under economically-backward category, but he will refuse to do the work which is ‘allocated’ to a ‘shudra’, this is the kind of ‘dogma of predestination’ that is poisoning the society. As an economic organisation Caste is therefore a harmful institution, inasmuch as, it involves the subordination of man’s natural powers and inclinations to the exigences of social rules. For example, you will never see any brahmin or Kshatriya doing manual scavenging – because they think (or made to think) that scavenging is way below their social status.
Further, there is no biological trench in the Caste system. There is no caste in India which does not have a foreign strain in it. “There is an admixture of alien blood not only among the warrior classes- the Rajputs and the Marathas- but also among the Brahmins who are under the happy delusion that they are free from all foreign elements”. It is sham to say that caste was to preserve purity of race and purity of blood because it is not true. The Brahmin of the Punjab is racially of the same stock as the Chamar of the Punjab and the brahmin of Madras is of the same race as the Pariah of Madras. Caste system is a social division of people of the same race. Therefore, it could be said that it is nothing, but a social system which embodies the arrogance and selfishness of a perverse section of the Hindus who were superior enough in social status to set it in fashion and who had authority to force it on their inferiors. And still, even in 2020, we see that those so-called superior are trying to demoralize the Bahujans (many instances would be stated – from not allowing a Dalit boy to enter into the temple to ‘casteist slurs’ in institutions like AIIMS)
Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that it is affiliated to other castes except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other occasions each caste endeavors to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other castes. Ravi Ratan is in tweet rightly describes the situation of the country and of Indian media:
If we look at the structure and the so-called principles of Hindu religion then we can notice that the ideal Hindu must be like a rat living in his own hole refusing to have any contact with others. The literature of the Hindus is full of caste genealogies in which an attempt is made to give a noble origin to one caste and an ignoble origin to other castes. This is anti-social spirit which is based upon selfish desires and reasons. Hindus are nothing, but warring groups each living for itself and for its selfish ideal, just to protect their own interest against the other.
Unfortunately, today also it could be seen, the higher-caste Hindus have deliberately prevented the lower castes who are within the pale of Hinduism from rising to the cultural level of the higher castes. Many instances could be quoted, one of the recent event being from India’s top notch medical institution AIIMS where casteist slurs were used against SC category doctor and I quote
“Tu SC hai, apne level mein reh, kaali billi ki tarah mera rasta mat kaat“.
As reported by Indian Express on April 26, 2020.
A right-wing Hindu could be seen blaming the Muslims for various reasons, but if the ‘Mohammedan’ has been cruel, then the Hindu has been mean and meanness is worse than cruelty. It is the caste which has prevented Hindus from expanding the territories in the medieval era. Even in modern day society, caste has destroyed the sense of public charity and it has made public opinion impossible. Hindu’s responsibility is only his caste and it is restricted to that only. There is no charity to the needy, suffering as such calls for no response. Charity is there but it begins with caste and ends with caste. There is sympathy but not for men of other caste.
A way ahead?
Every Hindu must be taught the sense of duty to fallen humanity and not the duty to preserve his caste. The books must be revamped. The modern day society must teach their kids to preserve humanity and to live on the principles enshrined in the Constitution of India – JUSTICE, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY and UNITY. If every Indian sees other Indian as his brother, as a human first, then only can the society develop or else, we will be savages who will remain savage for rest of ours lives.
India is a democracy but we forgot that democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellowmen.
Editors Note – This article was Appeared first on Dalit Lives Matter Blog