Caste in India:
An Introduction
Caste in traditional sense is no more relevant in India because of mutations caused by effects of laws, reforms, social and economic development. It no more can decide ones occupation but it still decides the interactions among social units (individuals) and plays an important role in creation of identity of the self.
From an institution which needed religious sanction to establish itself as a separate social organism which is a self-sustaining entity. It creates caste based communities, I’ll be mentioning them as “caste-communities”. Not everyone wants to be a part of such caste-community yet they ends up behaving in the bounds of their caste because of fear of getting outcasted, getting outcasted won’t mean to just one person but to his family, his relatives. This arrangement causes huge pressure one each member of caste and this is the method caste used to ensure its survival.
When whole of your social existence is dependent on your community, there is no way you can leave it.
Evolution of caste:
Origins of caste can be traced back to varna system in Hindu society, caste is the product of diminished varna system of the period because of its inherent flaws resulting into multiple social issues.
As per varna system, nature of a person decides his occupation which sounds quite simple and meritocratic but it isn’t practicle in real life and doomed to turn into a social evil. lets cosider two instances
Instance I: A man who is a brahmin have a son who is showing the nature of Shudra — will that Brahmin allow his son to turn to a low class Job than his?
Instance II: A shudra whose son clearly shows the characterstics of Brhamin — will that son ever have that capacity to reach the level of brahmin?
Clearly a shudra who is born in a brahmina family have upperhand over a brahmina born in a shudra family in economic, educational and social terms which shows, even theoretically, if you use a little of your common sense this system is full of contradictions, not maintainable for the purpose it was designed for.
Caste system stems out of this to balance out the social instabilities caused by contradictions of Varna system. It blocked the mobility channel among different Varnas. I’ll be defining this as the first stage of Caste system.
Changes in society during first stage
- No more the verticle movement among varnas.
- Creating a solidified space around individuals which limited his movements only in pre-determined directions.
- Education reserved to particular castes which killed the very possibility of any social awakening among masses.
By the second stage caste with its charcters of classification, it addsup the fuction of a symbol. It started symbolising the history of families, their social and economic ranks, place of origin and their occupations. This stage can be characterised by:
- Strict endogamy
- Centralisation of power and wealth
- Peak of discriminatory practices
- End of horizontal social mobility
The third stage or modern caste period is what We are living in. Castes no more posses the ability to bound anyone is any particular socio-economic condition. We can say- “it exists in residue form” but this residue is adjusting to this new system. It has become free of religion and established itself as separate organism. There are two main reasons behind its survival after caste-loyalty:
- It’s now a channel for the constant supply of false pride among communities which they borrow from their claimed glorius past.
- Reverse discrimination done inorder to makeup for “Historical injustice” is having the opposite effects than intended. It has reduced the caste to identity politics. In the long run this will not solve the issue but interchange the situation between caste classes.
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