Is Caste still a factor in Indian Society?

Is caste still playing a crucial part of Indian society? To put it the other way, has caste system as practiced for millennia in India, really disappeared from India? I am afraid not. This is evident from the latest episode in Indian scenario, where a Dalit (Harijan or a person belonging to Scheduled caste [SC]), 26 year old Rohit Vemula, committed suicide on 17^th January 2016, frustrated by the discriminatory policies of the university he was attending.

Rohit was a research scholar, who had obtained admission to the University of Hyderabad, on merit and not under quota of reservation meant for SC. He was a bright and promising scholar. Based on the alleged complaint in August, by the leader of ABVP, a youth wing of Bharatya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in the centre, and pursued by a central minister, Dattatreya, who insisted action be taken against him and his friends, five students, including Rohit, were kept under suspension and expelled from hostel, with their scholarships discontinued.

On January 3^rd, the suspended students moved out of the hostel, set up a tent outside the campus and began a relay hunger strike. On 17^th a distraught and discouraged Rohit after leaving a philosophical note, committed suicide by hanging in one of his friend’s rooms. This has flared up country wide agitations by University students in support of the Dalit student, who in his own words ‘was desperate to start a life,’ but frustrated enough to end his life even before it started.

Caste is ingrained deeply in the psyche of Indians, especially the Hindus. It is an ancient prejudice, which started with the Aryans pouring into Northern India around 1500 BC and subjugating the indigenous tribes and communities living there. This story is laid out in vivid narrative in the great epics of India, Mahabharata and Ramayana. It is another factor that BJP is trying now to rewrite history to say that Aryans are the original inhabitants of ancient India.

Dronacharya, whose story is given in Mahabharata, was a Brahmin teacher of advanced military arts, and the guru (teacher) of Arjuna, his favorite student, one of the five Pandava princes. Drona refused to teach Eklavya, a Dalit, who by his own efforts, keeping in front the idol of Drona, learnt the art of archery, good enough to become a rival to Arjuna.

Drona had no qualms in demanding the right thumb of Eklavya, as a ‘guru-dakshina’ (offering to the Guru or teacher), to eliminate a serious competition to Arjuna. Eklavya obeys, loses his thumb and with it his ability to operate the bow. This was taught as an example of how one should not aspire for more than what one’s caste had meted out to a person. 

This is the background of discrimination faced by the Dalits even today, after almost 3500 years, a few millennia. Rig Vedas written during the initial phases of this conquest, around 1500 BC invoke the assistance of Aryan gods to win victory over the indigenous rulers and tribal leaders. Around 800 AD, ‘Brahmanas’ were written which classify the castes, bringing in the indigenous population as the lower most caste subjugated by the Aryan invaders. The Epics act out the permutations and combination of all these forces to show vividly the caste hierarchy formed.

‘Upanishads’ written around 7^th century BC to 5^th and even 3^rd century BC, by renowned sages, lay down the most important precepts of Hindu philosophy. It is here an explanation for the caste system and its justification are given. People with greater sinful deeds, accumulated over many previous births, are born in the lower most castes of the hierarchy and are destined to suffer due to their own past actions.

Manusmriti, prescribing the social code of the Hindu society, gives the four classes/castes of Hindu society and details the duties of each caste. The lowermost caste, Sudra’s only work assigned is to serve all the three upper castes, of Brahmins (priests), Kshatryas (Warriors) and Vaishya (Farmers and traders). These can be read in detail in my book “Values and Influence of Religion in Public Administration,” brought out by Sage publications, 2011, under the chapter ‘Hindu Ethics.’

The Dalits are not even inside the caste system, but are outside the caste, as ‘outcastes’ and are treated as such, as polluting castes, made to eke out their living by removal of the pollutants of the villages, like dead animal and even the excreta of human beings belonging to the upper castes.

This is not an ancient story, but still existing one. Carrying night soil on head load by the Outcastes is still prevalent in many parts of the country. People belonging to the Dalit castes are the ones who still enter manholes to clean it up of the sewage blocks in almost all the municipalities of the country. The girls sold into prostitution, under the guise of being called by the divine, and married to the goddess under the Devadasi system, belong mainly to the lowermost castes and the outcastes. The system continues in many ways, open and subtly in the educational institutions and administrative corridors of power. 

It was the British rule that brought in equality before law for all the castes in India and education and employment opportunities to the lower castes and the outcastes and the tribes. That the British Raj fleeced India and turned it into an impoverished Third world country is another story. Details of this can be read in my book, under ‘Colonial Ethics.’

Equality before law as a Western moral code emerged, interestingly, from the Judeo-Christian ethical system, brought in to India by the British. This was not in existence before that in India under Hinduism, the majority religion of country. Some people, who eulogize Indian civilization as the greatest on earth, do not like such statements as above. For them Indian philosophy and religion are above any other belief system. This is being naive to say the least. Every country and every civilization has its dark patches as well as good patches. None is perfect in this fallen world.

To escape the rigors of the dehumanizing caste system and the karma theory, the depressed classes and the oppressed people took different routes. Dr. Ambedkar, who drafted the Indian Constitution, a Dalit himself and suffered at the hands of his Brahmin colleagues and society, became a Buddhist in 1956, along with 365,000 of his followers.

Many became converted to Christianity in an attempt to regain their lost human dignity. Others chose to remain in the same religion and tried to educate them to come up in life and to escape the indignities of caste system. Rohit, the research scholar was one such person. His dreams tragically ended in death. Yes, he chose to kill himself rather than suffer the system.

Will this curse ever leave India? May be, it will be wiped off only when the general curse on this fallen world is lifted, at the Second Coming of Christ.

We need to wait for that day.