Caste views

Markets and caste - 2

2011-10-03T15:55:00.001-07:00

he universal franchise was also mooted at that time. These two things were in direct contrast to thousands of years of tradition and culture of Hindu society. The third such thing was the free distribution of land to Shudra tillers due to land reforms. These three reforms can be said to be three great achievements of India after independence. However the landless Shudras were left out of this process. These three reforms encroached upon the traditional rights and privileges of upper castes Hindus. There must have been some reasons for being so generous, which runs mighty contrary to their history of not sharing even the village water well! One of the reasons was that the threat of untouchables leaving the Hindu society was looming large, which could have affected the larger interests of Hindus. The perspective of 20 percent of Hindus joining either Islam or Christianity was not very enticing. A straight forward reduction of 20 percent Hindus might have affected their political representation and hence the chances of power. They were not willing give up the power they got after nearly 800 years courtesy British. This might have also paved the way to third partition. In this regard it may also be seen that the untouchable converts to other religions stood to forfeit their right to reservation. Thus this might also be seen as a plug to stop the outward flow of Hindus. This prevented the conversion. However the actual threat did not materialize. The reason for the land reforms which distributed land to tillers for free, might be that those people who stood to lose their land (after due compensation) had actually sided with the British thus losing the sympathy of freedom fighters. Again it was a safety valve to give vent to aspirations of tillers whose dissatisfaction with the rulers might have created a lot of problems. Why these safety valves were necessary? For this we have to see the world after French revolution, Russian revolution and Chinese revolution where the elites were wiped out. The ferocity and terror engulfing these events terrorized the would be rulers of India. This pushed up the possible cost of survival for the elites, which forced them to cede some place to lower strata. They could maximize their superiority only at a certain and proven cost. These people being in minority had got modern education and had a very high level of intelligence. They remembered the modern history and knew the rule that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. It was a real politic. However some people consider it as a matter of charity and compassion of unknown proportions towards the very weak. But their history until now shows that they never possessed all these attributes. They needed to find some ways to pacify the radicals and would be radicals in lower two permanently exploited strata forming the majority. They needed to find a way to contain the sleeping anger of sleeping majority. This they did.

Markets and caste - 1

2011-09-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the civil society maintains caste. The mainstream maintains caste. The communists maintain caste. All of them are very vocal about equality; a farce it is. Their voices keep on echoing and echoing but equality actually never reach to untouchables. The discrimination plays a paramount role in their lives despite all the sophisticated charade put on by others. Is it going to be different in case of markets? The free market system on which the capitalism the dominant economic system of the world rests. Is it going to be fare to the fifth stratum? Before we seek the answer to this trivial question let us see how the limited affirmative action has worked in India. This is an interference of the state in its own sector on behalf of the fifth stratum. This intervention underlines the point that the state has been the biggest ally of untouchables despite all its limitations. The implication of state policies in favor of untouchables has been somewhat defective but it has provided relief even if to a limited number of people.

The Constitution of India provides for 15 percent reservations of seats in Parliament and state legislative assemblies for people belonging to scheduled caste category or the fifth stratum for a period of 10 years, which is eventually extended at the end of every tenth year. These reservations have been extended in education and government jobs also which are also renewed every tenth year. These reservations are a matter of rightfully growing resentments in a righteous way among the righteous upper castes. They act nothing but in righteous way always. We know that such resentments are always justified in a dharmic way with a little bit of arguments thrown about meritocracy. The main aim is to maintain dharma. The traditional monopolists who talk about open competition and try to maintain their hegemony; suddenly they remember the virtue of open competition. These reservations were given for the wrongs done in the past. These facilities were actually provided as a compensation for the thousands of years of social, economic and educational deprivation of these people. These deprivations actually crippled these people social, politically, religiously, economically and mentally. The society actually goes on to deprive these people actively. These reservations were, initially, provided for ten years in the hope that within this time span the untouchables would catch up with the mainstream and become independent. However such grossly unrealistic hopes were belied because even one man cannot come up in ten years and it was a question of millions of people. Thus there was need to extend them ever since. This may not last forever but political compulsions and a need to show liberal face of India to international community contribute in their continuation. One additional factor for their continuation is that they provide a kind of safety valve to satisfy the aspirations of educated untouchables, which avoids a possible social tension and a resultant violence. This threat to peace has been perceived in the scriptures also. The development of a community having millions of members is a long drawn out affair and cannot be done in a small time frame of ten years.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 8

2011-08-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

According to many the present caste system is distorted version of the original scientific system of division of labor where everybody could chose his occupation and lived his life; exploitation and untouchability is not a part of original Hindu religion and blah, blah, blah. All the distortions were said to be introduced by the unknown vested interests and everything would be fine when these distortions are removed. The sufferings of people find no place in their thinking and neither the responsibility for the exploitation under such a great system; it is the system which finds no problem in trampling over the lives of millions of muted and helpless people. As far as these people are concerned the caste did nothing and does nothing, and at most there were unidentifiable vested interests over which nobody had any control. All the upper castes are unanimous in voicing these kinds of esteemed, exalted and scientific opinions. And in the process, absolve them of everything. How such pious pure spiritual and egalitarian people could be accused of developing the heinous practice of untouchability? Fat chance! Only heinous cruel sinful inhuman lowly exploitative unidentifiable vested interests could do it. And only their unidentifiable coming generations could maintain it and extract the last drop of blood from it, the alternatives given to untouchables were splattered brains, dead bodies and thick red dirty water flowing on the earth. And only such lowly vested interests could eternally benefit from such a practice. And these vested interests had no control over them since the top was not under control of lower impure strata.

This kind of non-importance of caste is a straight inheritance from Varna dharma. Whatever benefits higher Varnas is normal or depends upon their merit or their supposed superiority. The communist party being a supporter of deprived section of the society should have developed a strong support among the lowest stratum of Hindus but it did not. These 20 percent people could have made them major players in Indian politics but they are still minor players. The lowest caste cadres in communist set up are seen as the last men in the hierarchy; again they are first from the bottom; nothing changes for them; it is a kind of Varna system without any overt display of untouchability. The sole use of untouchables there is to carry the red flag and take part in protests rallies. That is where their role ends.

The idea of communists is to unite everybody in the name of class struggle. The workers in India come from different castes and thus have different social status and separate bloodlines. How they are going to identify with each other is anybody’s guess. Nobody is going to give up the chance to assert the social superiority over others. Maximization of status superiority is a normal thing. The social difference creates the difference between workers. This is a clear-cut case of superstructure (or society) creating fissures in the economic base. After a long spell of being treated unequally the untouchables leave them. By no stretch of imagination the Materialistic interpretation of history can explain the notion of purity and impurity and practice of untouchability in a precise manner. Marx also did not bring the mode of production in India within his theory. He classified it as Asiatic mode of production frozen in time and Indian Marxists have not gone beyond that. It was a caste mode of production where unpropertied Shudras and untouchables worked on the lands of higher three Varnas and Brahmans; and temples that had gotten land grants from kings, did not provide them with any army to fight in case of need. The Varna dharma clearly separates the exploiter from the exploited and the haves from haves not.
However the Communitst should have read Engles and Gramsci also. The caste is a part of super structure as well as part of false conscious. According to Engles it is the false conscious that prevents unity among working class.

The caste's presence as a big part of "false conscious" that creates fissures in the base, is due to cultural hegemony of Brahmans. This cultural hagemony is responsible for a divide between poor and poor. This cultural hegemony needed to be attacked by Communists. But that did not happen.

Had the communists gone according to Gramsci they would definitely tackled the caste actively instead of passively waiting for it to fall down. The communists of India totally ignore Gramsci whose emphasis on cultural hegemony would point towards cultural hegemony of Brahmans. And provide the communists a better target and idea to launch a direct attack on caste. Then who wants to harm himself? Nobody. Or is the ignoring of Engles and Gramsci is deliberate? They treat caste as a social phenomenon to be solved through a change in economic base. Caste is much more then that, it decides who shall wear sleepers and who shall not. It also decides who shall own property and who shall live by his labor alone. A better exposition of permanent division of economic means on the basis of heredity is not possible. The lower two groups, Shudras and untouchables, have no right to property, they have to live by labor alone. This condition should make the lower two strata as exploited and the rest as exploiters. The Indian communist do not think so. They never got the caste system right; doing so would have made holes in their fragile, soft and compassionate consciousness. After all their hearts collectively beat for the haves not. What they produce is actually Varna dharma in a communist bottle. Both are group oriented. Both are power structure. Both are economic system. And above all, both of them have the upper castes at the top and the untouchables at the bottom. A smooth transition it is. No guilt, no responsibility, it is all the fault of economic base. The use of Marxist theory is the same as that of Karma theory. Both of them are used to absolve the higher castes of their acts.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 7

2011-01-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

The Indian communists have constantly denied the relevance of caste in India. In their scheme of things the caste does not appear as a crucial thing. The Communists have always considered the caste to be a part of super structure different from the materialistic economic base. The super structure has no separate existence of itself. For its survival it depends on economic base. The economic base or distribution of land, labor and capital among different people is the real thing not the caste or estates as such. Thus if any given economic base collapses then its related superstructure must also collapse.

There was belief of Marx that caste being a part of superstructure will automatically fall down when mode of productions changes from Asiatic to industrial but that did not happen. The Indian Communists deliberately believed all this. Or may be they were happy as such a thought absolves them of their guilt feelings. All the front line Communists in India belonged to upper castes and hence not very keen on discussing shameful caste system of their forefathers and declared themselves as declassed. These declassed people were those from the privileged caste who had given up all material things and totally identified with the proletariat.

These declassed Communists completely ignored the caste and left the historical forces to eliminate it and in the process lost the reality of Indian society. They waited and waited for the Caste system to fall on its own as predicted by Mrax.They waited and waited....and waited...

The caste system did not fall in response to a change in economic base. A growing industry and development of urban areas should have seen the destruction of caste but it did not happen. The ignorance of caste resulted in a situation where the landless were not ready to support the party of proletariat. So in a land of poverty the supposed party of poor (Communist) was without the support of poor.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 6

2010-12-12T11:40:00.001-08:00

The views of communists in ignoring caste are entirely in league with civil society. The civil society cannot see beyond a universal abstract citizen and the communists cannot see beyond their proletariat for whose welfare they wage this gigantic struggle; the end result of which is the dictatorship of politburo or in reality a kind of oligarchy or dictatorship of a man. Rest of the minnows stand in a line and nod their heads in agreement to their leaders’ opinions, statements and actions. If they do not nod it then state coercive power comes into play and makes them to change their minds and fall in line. The opposition from superior power creates great flexibility and tolerance as evident in the case of Hindus when they faced the Muslim rulers’ might. The actual ownership of the means of productions does not lie with the people collectively but with the politburo. Only the politburo has the right to take any decisions about means of production and distribution, which makes them de facto owners. The collective ownership is a fable, which is passed around to keep the cadres in a state of tranquil mental disposition. Earlier people were using their labor for the benefit of ruling classes and still they do it. Only the ruling classes have changed along with the philosophy.

The communists in Indian do not find it necessary to attack the caste separately which is the basic exploitative structure of the Hindu society.It decides the distribution of power and means of production and also the structure of power hierarchy within communist party. The solution to the problem of caste is supposed to be found within the framework of Marxist theory. The caste belongs to the superstructure (or society) and not to the economic base. The deciding factor is the structure of economic base which decides the structure of society. The people owning land and capital belong to ruling class and people owning labor belong to exploited class. However in Hindu society the caste structure is an encompassing concept, which unleashes powerful economic, political and social forces to decide the distribution of means of production. It is not a passive structure. Both the society structure and economic base (property ownership) reinforce each other. However according to communist thinking an equal redistribution of land would eliminate the caste and its problems. The ensuing economic equalization would lead to social equalization. However the caste has maintained itself strongly in the areas where the supposed caste eliminating land reforms have taken place. The supposed economic equalization has not led to intermixing of bloodlines and neither has it prevented the preferential treatment extended automatically to upper castes. The economic equality has not led to social equality, and by extension in power. One main reason for the non-importance of caste is the absence of lower caste people in the communist ideologues. The top echelon of communist power structure is firmly occupied by upper castes on an enduring basis like the helms of power in Varna dharma. They are also not interested in finding caste as culprit because they also do not like to find faults with their forefathers and present kith and kin. All these faults are covered behind the veil of economic base. They are not bothered about who made this base and who still maintains it. In defenders of Varna dharma, mainstream, civil society and communist there is the mention of vested interest in maintaining the caste system. But there is no attempt to identify these vested interests and the beneficiaries of the acts of such vested interests and the duration of maintenance of this system and the extent of exploitation. All the fingers would point to them, their forefathers and their kith and kin.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 5

2010-12-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

As long as the upper castes benefit from caste system, the caste system does not exist. But the moment it starts affecting them adversely the presence of harmful, poisonous and divisive caste system is swiftly recognized. Nobody can accuse them to be short on self-interest. Then they change the tune like deft music wizards. They voice their well-orchestrated intelligent opinions regarding ugly casteism rearing its divisive head to the detriment of whole the society. What is meant by whole of the society is not made clear. Are the untouchables and other lower castes are included in it? Anyway, the casteism, which is nonexistent, becomes ugly harmful casteism, mercilessly tearing the social fabric of the society, which is required to be stopped at any cost. It is also branded as a dividing instrument of the society, which they want to bring to a grinding halt as a matter of great urgency and importance and for the welfare of the society. However, by society they mean their minority selves forming twenty percent of Hindu population. The measures of reservations are seen and analyzed in this light to enlighten the whole of society of the ills of casteism. Their analysis takes the form of dissection with clinical precision. The reservations are supposed to tear the social fabric and create social tensions. However, the tension overhanging the heads of untouchables, in the form of cultural and extorting sword of violence, is none of their concern. Further, an alliance between two lower castes for the purpose for fighting elections is considered as casteist in nature with all its ills.

Any rare discussion about caste includes people like them; it hardly includes any representative from fourth or fifth stratum. The untouchables are excluded because they are not supposed to possess any scientific perspective and temperament which are supposedly inheritedly acquired characeters according to traditions. They are also supposed to lack required intelligence and talent required to discuss such issues. Thus they are unfit to take part in discussions on the issues concerning them. Only the upper castes are supposed to possess the intelligence, talent, scientific temperament and perspective to pursue seriously anything of academic concern – superiority by birth. The lower category people are deemed to be fit only for cutting grass in the village fields; or for working as casual and unskilled labor on the construction sites; or working as doorkeepers for their exalted institutes; or for doing their traditional jobs. The higher-level things should be left to higher-level people. It is another thing that they have learned all the higher level things in modern world from the Westerners; and especially, courtesy British, with a special mention of Lord Macaulay. However, their scientific perspective and temperament has not been able to pinpoint the precise reasons for the persistence of untouchability in India. Their performance is miserable in this regard; may be they will have to take the help of Westerners. Or may be it is a useless issue for them, not a matter of prime concern. They are not going to fix the thing, which they are not going suffer from, the fixing of which gices them trouble. Any objection to their analysis of caste from fifth stratum is swiftly classified as useless and worthless. The people from the lowest stratum are supposed to produce lowest level things. The understanding of twice-born is always better without citing any reasons thereof. If they allow any place for untouchables’ point of view in the areas of crucial importance controlled by them then they run the risk of losing their traditional control over the society. All the matters relating to explaining the things are reserved for them. They cannot bear others interference except that of Westerners. Any objection by the fifth stratum is taken as a serious threat to stability to system and explained in terms of tearing the social fabric creating social unrest in a harmonic plural society. But they leave all the issues concerning the Shudras and untouchables unresolved. The sufferings of Shudras and untouchables are not their sufferings; may be it is pleasure for high castes. Any an objection to upper caste views threatens the stability of just society, on the top of which, they are nicely, dharmically, traditionally and righteously sitting. Have you not heard about divinely ordained order? Nobody has or will ever have the right to move them from there; especially not the impure people with low level of intelligence. They got to know their level. From the top, the twice-born look down smugly upon the lower strata of the Hindus and deny the existence of caste. It is a matter of grey matter. Only people with highly evolved grey matter can handle the positions they are holding. So all the Shudras and untouchables should keep quiet in the name of stability of the system and take all the crap and injustice heaped on them for the fault of having impure origin. The system is more important than the Shudras and untouchables and especially the system which maintains the dominance of twice-born. The mainstream denies any existence of caste but the dominance of upper castes and unofficial boycott of untouchables runs clearly in the clear and transparent stream of mainstream.

Apart from mainstream and civil society in India the communists have their own way of thinking but the end results have been almost the same; the active ignorance of caste. They ignore the caste on the basis of Marxian theory of class struggle where as this theory has been proven to be untenable in real world. The Russian failure and Chinese capitalism are two stark examples. But the Indian communists are in a constant state of denial over these failures. Their world is limited to economic base and social super structure and dependence of social structure or super structure on economic base and independence of economic base. In their world everything is decided by the structure of economic base or the ownership of means of production land, labor and capital. The individual in their scheme of things has no place. All the space is occupied by the two groups or classes, the exploited and exploiters. Any individual emerges as a member of any of above two classes. The Marxian analysis is group oriented analysis. Any individual has to belong to either of two classes. These groups are haves and haves not, the exploiters and the exploited, the capitalists and labor. An individual cannot stand separately as an independent entity. He has to think, act and behave like his class. It is somewhat similar to group oriented nature of Hindu Varna system, which also ignores individual as a separate entity.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 4

2010-11-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 4

2010-11-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 3

2010-11-15T04:54:00.000-08:00

The history is largely made up of national freedom movement, British period, Muslim period, middle age, and ancient period with barely any mention of caste and its impact on society. It is left to be discussed in Sociology where it is not avoidable. If it was possible it would have been eliminated from there also.

There are some people, who like to consider the caste system as a gift from British and Muslim periods. Or in other words it was the result of foreign rule. The caste system before them was not supposed to be birth based in character. It seems that the foreigners came and provided endogamous basis of Hindu social structure with retrospective effect; not even the Absolute has this power in Hindu religious thought; the foreigners should be actually worshipped for possessing such a power. Blaming them is a fanciful thinking. Such an understanding of history and Hindu social structure is overwhelming. It overwhelms the logic. May be one would have to take the result to be axiomatic and presuppose the existence of proof. And then do not try to find it without any success. The higher level people are not supposed to be questioned. Their words are proof. The caste system has always unleashed powerful and controlling social, economical, political and religious forces to safeguard the heredity privileges of privileged people since ancient times.

The intelligentsia’s prominent silence is due to its predominantly upper caste character where intellectual honesty is a worthless attribute. It is inherent in its structure. The structure is not supposed to oppose itself. The caste is not important to them due to many reasons. One reason is their belief that they achieved their historical and current position due to their own past and current merit. In today’s context they have competed in an open system on the basis of their own undiluted merit. It is reflective of a civil society where anybody can achieve anything as an individual irrespective of his origin. Therefore they are not the product of their caste system. Secondly, the existence of caste does not affect them adversely. It is an unending source of never ending goodies. They reap it like forever green fields. These fields are full of impure manual workers who are to be kept at a safe distance but there is no problem with the yield. The yield of impure people is pure. Thirdly, any recognition of caste system and its importance means acknowledgement of injustice heaped on the society by their forefathers and their present kith and kin for which they refuse to take the responsibility. They cannot blame themselves and people like them for the ills of the society. It has to be the fault of victims. They discount the caste by disowning it and relegating it to a distant past but this past exists currently. It is a grandiose step which falters at the steps of history and intellectual honesty. They are moderns and separate from pre-modern things like caste and therefore it is none of their concern though they walk, talk and eat in environment, which is fully embedded with inherited casteism, however direct or indirect it may be. As a matter of their commitment to make caste irrelevant, the esteemed members of such a casteless civil society do not marry outside their castes and consider themselves innately superior to low castes. In addition, they do not like to hire the people of unlikable castes. And they create subtle and indirect vocal and behavioral ways to insult the people from lower strata. All of them are men of principles, of course. All their views run concurrently to the events of suppression and oppression in India. These are the people with unimpeachable credentials in their own circle. One such member with unimpeachable credentials forwards his objective and logical opposition to discuss any issue on caste, the second member forwards it, the third member writes an article on it and the fourth one publishes it; hardly any member form fifth stratum takes part in such an objective and impartial process. They cannot take part in it because their presence has been unofficially outlawed in their exalted circles. And of course I forgot about purity of this circle made up mainly of twice-born.

Then there is view that a secular and civil society will solve the problems of caste if any or will make it irrelevant. The civil society is thought to be non-discriminating in nature but it is not known that to what an extent the Hindu civil society has acquired this character.

As long as the upper castes benefit from caste system, the caste system does not exist. But the moment it starts affecting them adversely the presence of harmful, poisonous and divisive caste system is swiftly recognized. Nobody can accuse them to be short on self-interest. Then they change the tune like deft music wizards. They voice their well-orchestrated intelligent opinions regarding ugly casteism rearing its divisive head to the detriment of whole the society. What is meant by whole of the society is not made clear. Are the untouchables and other lower castes are included in it? Anyway, the casteism, which is nonexistent, becomes ugly harmful casteism, mercilessly tearing the social fabric of the society, which is required to be stopped at any cost. It is also branded as a dividing instrument of the society, which they want to bring to a grinding halt as a matter of great urgency and importance and for the welfare of the society. However, by society they mean their minority selves forming twenty percent of Hindu population. The measures of reservations are seen and analyzed in this light to enlighten the whole of society of the ills of casteism. Their analysis takes the form of dissection with clinical precision. The reservations are supposed to tear the social fabric and create social tensions. However, the tension overhanging the heads of untouchables, in the form of cultural and extorting sword of violence, is none of their concern. Further, an alliance between two lower castes for the purpose for fighting elections is considered as casteist in nature with all its ills.

Any rare discussion about caste includes people like them; it hardly includes any representative from fourth or fifth stratum. The untouchables are excluded because they are not supposed to possess any scientific perspective and temperament which are supposedly inheritedly acquired characeters according to traditions. They are also supposed to lack required intelligence and talent required to discuss such issues. Thus they are unfit to take part in discussions on the issues concerning them. Only the upper castes are supposed to possess the intelligence, talent, scientific temperament and perspective to pursue seriously anything of academic concern – superiority by birth. The lower category people are deemed to be fit only for cutting grass in the village fields; or for working as casual and unskilled labor on the construction sites; or working as doorkeepers for their exalted institutes; or for doing their traditional jobs. The higher-level things should be left to higher-level people. It is another thing that they have learned all the higher level things in modern world from the Westerners; and especially, courtesy British, with a special mention of Lord Macaulay. However, their scientific perspective and temperament has not been able to pinpoint the precise reasons for the persistence of untouchability in India. Their performance is miserable in this regard; may be they will have to take the help of Westerners. Or may be it is a useless issue for them, not a matter of prime concern. They are not going to fix the thing, which they are not going suffer from, the fixing of which gices them trouble. Any objection to their analysis of caste from fifth stratum is swiftly classified as useless and worthless. The people from the lowest stratum are supposed to produce lowest level things. The understanding of twice-born is always better without citing any reasons thereof. If they allow any place for untouchables’ point of view in the areas of crucial importance controlled by them then they run the risk of losing their traditional control over the society. All the matters relating to explaining the things are reserved for them. They cannot bear others interference except that of Westerners. Any objection by the fifth stratum is taken as a serious threat to stability to system and explained in terms of tearing the social fabric creating social unrest in a harmonic plural society. But they leave all the issues concerning the Shudras and untouchables unresolved. The sufferings of Shudras and untouchables are not their sufferings; may be it is pleasure for high castes. Any an objection to upper caste views threatens the stability of just society, on the top of which, they are nicely, dharmically, traditionally and righteously sitting. Have you not heard about divinely ordained order? Nobody has or will ever have the right to move them from there; especially not the impure people with low level of intelligence. They got to know their level. From the top, the twice-born look down smugly upon the lower strata of the Hindus and deny the existence of caste. It is a matter of grey matter. Only people with highly evolved grey matter can handle the positions they are holding. So all the Shudras and untouchables should keep quiet in the name of stability of the system and take all the crap and injustice heaped on them for the fault of having impure origin. The system is more important than the Shudras and untouchables and especially the system which maintains the dominance of twice-born. The mainstream denies any existence of caste but the dominance of upper castes and unofficial boycott of untouchables runs clearly in the clear and transparent stream of mainstream.

Apart from mainstream and civil society in India the communists have their own way of thinking but the end results have been almost the same; the active ignorance of caste. They ignore the caste on the basis of Marxian theory of class struggle where as this theory has been proven to be untenable in real world. The Russian failure and Chinese capitalism are two stark examples. But the Indian communists are in a constant state of denial over these failures. Their world is limited to economic base and social super structure and dependence of social structure or super structure on economic base and independence of economic base. In their world everything is decided by the structure of economic base or the ownership of means of production land, labor and capital. The individual in their scheme of things has no place. All the space is occupied by the two groups or classes, the exploited and exploiters. Any individual emerges as a member of any of above two classes. The Marxian analysis is group oriented analysis. Any individual has to belong to either of two classes. These groups are haves and haves not, the exploiters and the exploited, the capitalists and labor. An individual cannot stand separately as an independent entity. He has to think, act and behave like his class. It is somewhat similar to group oriented nature of Hindu Varna system, which also ignores individual as a separate entity.

The views of communists in ignoring caste are entirely in league with civil society. The civil society cannot see beyond a universal abstract citizen and the communists cannot see beyond their proletariat for whose welfare they wage this gigantic struggle; the end result of which is the dictatorship of politburo or in reality a kind of oligarchy or dictatorship of a man. Rest of the minnows stand in a line and nod their heads in agreement to their leaders’ opinions, statements and actions. If they do not nod it then state coercive power comes into play and makes them to change their minds and fall in line. The opposition from superior power creates great flexibility and tolerance as evident in the case of Hindus when they faced the Muslim rulers’ might. The actual ownership of the means of productions does not lie with the people collectively but with the politburo. Only the politburo has the right to take any decisions about means of production and distribution, which makes them de facto owners. The collective ownership is a fable, which is passed around to keep the cadres in a state of tranquil mental disposition. Earlier people were using their labor for the benefit of ruling classes and still they do it. Only the ruling classes have changed along with the philosophy.

The communists in Indian do not find it necessary to attack the caste separately which is the basic exploitative structure of the Hindu society.It decides the distribution of power and means of production and also the structure of power hierarchy within communist party. The solution to the problem of caste is supposed to be found within the framework of Marxist theory. The caste belongs to the superstructure (or society) and not to the economic base. The deciding factor is the structure of economic base which decides the structure of society. The people owning land and capital belong to ruling class and people owning labor belong to exploited class. However in Hindu society the caste structure is an encompassing concept, which unleashes powerful economic, political and social forces to decide the distribution of means of production. It is not a passive structure. Both the society structure and economic base (property ownership) reinforce each other. However according to communist thinking an equal redistribution of land would eliminate the caste and its problems. The ensuing economic equalization would lead to social equalization. However the caste has maintained itself strongly in the areas where the supposed caste eliminating land reforms have taken place. The supposed economic equalization has not led to intermixing of bloodlines and neither has it prevented the preferential treatment extended automatically to upper castes. The economic equality has not led to social equality, and by extension in power. One main reason for the non-importance of caste is the absence of lower caste people in the communist ideologues. The top echelon of communist power structure is firmly occupied by upper castes on an enduring basis like the helms of power in Varna dharma. They are also not interested in finding caste as culprit because they also do not like to find faults with their forefathers and present kith and kin. All these faults are covered behind the veil of economic base. They are not bothered about who made this base and who still maintains it. In defenders of Varna dharma, mainstream, civil society and communist there is the mention of vested interest in maintaining the caste system. But there is no attempt to identify these vested interests and the beneficiaries of the acts of such vested interests and the duration of maintenance of this system and the extent of exploitation. All the fingers would point to them, their forefathers and their kith and kin.

The Indian communists have constantly denied the relevance of caste in India. In their scheme of things the caste does not appear as a crucial thing. The Communists have always considered the caste to be a part of super structure different from the materialistic economic base. The super structure has no separate existence of itself. For its survival it depends on economic base. The economic base or distribution of land, labor and capital among different people is the real thing not the caste or estates as such. Thus if any given economic base collapses then its related superstructure must also collapse.

There was belief of Marx that caste being a part of superstructure will automatically fall down when mode of productions changes from Asiatic to industrial but that did not happen. The Indian Communists deliberately believed all this. Or may be they were happy as such a thought absolves them of their guilt feelings. All the front line Communists in India belonged to upper castes and hence not very keen on discussing shameful caste system of their forefathers and declared themselves as declassed. These declassed people were those from the privileged caste who had given up all material things and totally identified with the proletariat.

These declassed Communists completely ignored the caste and left the historical forces to eliminate it and in the process lost the reality of Indian society. They waited and waited for the Caste system to fall on its own as predicted by Mrax.They waited and waited....and waited...

The caste system did not fall in response to a change in economic base. A growing industry and development of urban areas should have seen the destruction of caste but it did not happen. The ignorance of caste resulted in a situation where the landless were not ready to support the party of proletariat. So in a land of poverty the supposed party of poor (Communist) was without the support of poor.

According to many the present caste system is distorted version of the original scientific system of division of labor where everybody could chose his occupation and lived his life; exploitation and untouchability is not a part of original Hindu religion and blah, blah, blah. All the distortions were said to be introduced by the unknown vested interests and everything would be fine when these distortions are removed. The sufferings of people find no place in their thinking and neither the responsibility for the exploitation under such a great system; it is the system which finds no problem in trampling over the lives of millions of muted and helpless people. As far as these people are concerned the caste did nothing and does nothing, and at most there were unidentifiable vested interests over which nobody had any control. All the upper castes are unanimous in voicing these kinds of esteemed, exalted and scientific opinions. And in the process, absolve them of everything. How such pious pure spiritual and egalitarian people could be accused of developing the heinous practice of untouchability? Fat chance! Only heinous cruel sinful inhuman lowly exploitative unidentifiable vested interests could do it. And only their unidentifiable coming generations could maintain it and extract the last drop of blood from it, the alternatives given to untouchables were splattered brains, dead bodies and thick red dirty water flowing on the earth. And only such lowly vested interests could eternally benefit from such a practice. And these vested interests had no control over them since the top was not under control of lower impure strata.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 2

2010-11-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

Most of them are seriously concerned with the matters of prime importance like Imperialism, Nationalism, Globalization, Communalism, Colonization, Environment, Secularism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism etc. The discourses should always be along these lines where the caste is an outsider. Their deep thinking and insight about the problems of Indian society reserves no place for casteism; as far as they are concerned the matter is simply irrelevant. The caste and casteism do not find any place in their scheme of things. The caste is supposed to be an institute of the past and has no use in the modern society. They are emphatic opponents of caste, linking them with caste is actually amounts to defaming them. Any discussion on caste is an indication of social backwardness. As far as untouchables and their problems are concerned, one is met with stony silence from these exalted sensitive corners. Their deafening insensitive silence contains an enormous amount of unofficial boycott of untouchables and Shudras. They live in a modern world of their own where the presence of lower strata is not registered. For them the caste does not exist and if it exists it is a matter of no significance. So anybody who is trying to engage them in a discussion about caste and its problems is simply wasting their time and energy on a useless issue. The issue, which adversely affects 180 million of people, is of no concern. It is a very insignificant worthless number - thrice the population of United Kingdom. These millions of worthless people do not need any attention when the mainstream can talk about the exploitative modern cultural and business imperialism; and the hegemony of Western World. They achieved their high position due to their merit.Birth acquired merit? What is that? They competed in an open system where caste is immaterial. And they got these crucial and important positions of social dominance without the help from their respective castes. That is another thing that the distribution of resources keeps other castes out of the fray; and the selectors are also from upper castes acting to keep other castes out of their hallowed circle. The contamination should not reach their hallowed circles in the form of presence of untouchables. However, according to them in their open system, the caste plays no important part. But they would also be hard pressed to deny the role of their well connected families, which gets translated into caste support through social networking. The well connected families live in the social cocoon provided by the privileging caste system. Their caste, their economic and social resources provided by their caste and the availability of excellent educational opportunities had no role to play in it. They are the product of their own sole merit in a vacuum. So goes out there the caste, it is another thing that they would never come across the people from fifth stratum in their lives until forced by the system of reservation. Secondly, the existence of caste has never affected them adversely, so they cannot feel the pinch. If caste has done anything to them then it is divinely beneficial.

Caste - Mainstream and Communists - 1

2010-10-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Caste? What caste? There is no caste! This is the usual refrain from the mainstream. The academics, newspapers, television and other printed media deny the existence of caste. They do not believe in caste. Caste is a thing of ancient past. It was abolished with a stroke of a pen with the enactment of anti-untouchability law at the time of independence. It disappeared into thin oblivion as soon as the law against came in force. Now everybody is equal before law. The discrimination on the basis of caste is also prohibited by law. There should be equal opportunities. They work strictly on the basis of merit and efficiency. There is no place for caste in their views. The caste as a matter of consideration does not exist. It is a wholly backward concept and they do not believe in it. And neither does anybody else. So people should stop making caste an issue. Since caste is non-existent the issues related to should also be non-existent. These lower caste people do not know this simple logic. Stop all that crap and no news about untouchability.

For the mainstream and civil society the casteism ended with the enactment of anti-untouchability law. As far as this exalted and well considered segment of the population is concerned the caste system ceased to exist with the enactment of this law and provision of fundamental equality under the law. However, these people who represent mainstream and civil society belong to upper castes mainly. They are in the state of constant denial over the existence of casteism. Their astounding stupor in this case is remarkable. And they occupy the dominating positions in the crucial areas of education, administration and business.

Untouchables in cities - 8

2010-09-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

However, there is sprinkling of some moderns and liberals in Hindus society here and there. But their encouraging and brave presence is not enough to make a serious dent in the caste orientation of Hindu society. There are some foolhardy individuals who go on trumpeting the absence of faith in caste and go and practice their views in ditto. One would be hard pressed to find a difference in what they say and what they do. Generally these people are idealists who have their childhood friends among untouchables. Some are appalled by casteism since their childhood. And thus they do not find any difference between two human beings through their own experience. They remain unconvinced of the arguments of casteist forces and casteist structure of Hindu society. And then there are others who naturally develop sympathy for these people, Karma or no Karma.

Generally, the caste orientation of Hindu society makes untouchables to feel inferior. It regularly ignores their opinions. In the upper circle of upper caste these intruders are judged according to the rules made by upper castes. So they constantly have to strive to come up to standards set by the others. In other words, they simply have to keep on jumping while the upper caste people watch from the sidelines. It is a tedious job but practice makes a man perfect. The one, who jumps correctly for longer period, stands a better chance of gaining acceptance. Their mode of living must be similar to others, on a continuous basis, until others accept them. Simply a good education, obedience to law and a simple hygiene are not sufficient to gain acceptance. It is not good living or hygienic living but living according to them which matters. To be accepted by others it is necessary that they are able to identify with the newcomer. And that can only be done when mode of living and cultural behavior are very similar, the nuances of way of living of upper castes are acquired by the low caste aspirants. Thus, the intruder untouchables have to live and behave in a manner similar to upper castes. They have to copy their culture and imbibe their cultural values which may take an extremely long time. It is a fact that the educated untouchables are not in a position of gate crashing into upper echelons of the society. After a due process the intruder may be accepted as somewhat being equal just below them but never equal. He does not have the purity of origin to be granted such an exalted status of being equal to them. This process may stretch itself into time span of many generations. It is heartening to watch many white collared untouchables performing social calisthenics for gaining acceptance. These social calisthenics may involve berating their own caste men, criticizing the government policies for the welfare of untouchables, ignoring the injustice done to their people and many others. They may sometimes end up harming the interests of their fellow untouchables. So much of their energies are used in this process that they end up working much below their own true capacities. Another major part of their energies is spent in finding the cause for being untouchables. Due to this extra use of energy it is very difficult to find an untouchable who is working at his true efficiency.

Untouchables in cities - 7

2010-08-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

A special mention has to be made of the manual scavengers in the Hindu society without which any discussion on untouchability would not be complete. They are the people of last of the fifth stratum. They are the real rotten bottom of the stinking heap. They are the lowest of lowly. They are dirt of the dirt. They are marvelous examples of this scientific heredity division of labor based on purity. It is a showcase of how to make people’s life worse than hell and be proud of it. Every Hindu takes advantage of their dirty services and then disowns them in dharmic manner. They are the recipients of contempt, disdain and hate from all the dharmic sections of Hindu society. Often I wonder whether it is the lowest end of Hindu society or it has to go further down. If one end claims to be most spiritual, renunciating and pure then the other end is condemned as the dirtiest, dealing in human excreta. They find no place in any kind of social discussion. They are the proud medals of dharmic and caring society. They are simply invisible to exalted and pure defenders of Varna dharma who are extremely disinterested in looking at the dirty and unclean people with born impurities. They work in a stinking environment. The presence of untouchables and especially that of manual excreta scavengers makes the Hindu society a stinking society. Wonder of wonders, this stinking society is one of the most enduing one. Karma theory gets hold of everybody except that of pure lawmakers because they know it is the false one. And it rains with all its dirt on manual excreta scavengers when combined with purity based scientific heredity division of labor and the art of crippling the lowest stratum of the society. The impurities after impurities are permanently heaped upon them with all the righteousness existing in the world. These people are involved in cleaning and carrying human excreta in a basket or pale on their head. The rotten people are doing rotten jobs while the pure spiritual and merciless people turn their heads away with utmost disdain. They cannot bear the sight of these social lepers. Their purity forbids it. The disdain, here, reaches its height in Hindu society. This is the permanent ruthlessness of the spiritual and pure Hindu society. These scavengers do their work with bare hands only with a broom. They collect the human excreta from houses in baskets or pales and carry it on their heads or in their hands, and throw it in a far away place. This stinking greatness of Hindu society is a permanent part of their daily life. There is no way in which one can feel the worthlessness, indignity, rottenness and stinkiness of their lives. We simply lack the required sensitivity for the purpose; never been in their shoes. They are the ultimate untouchables next only to actual untreated lepers. They do it in a place where the open or covered sewer system is not in place. In such places they and their generations are involved in cleaning the toilets full of human excreta. In other places where such sewer system is in place, they have to dip their bodies in the blocked sewer system to clear the blockage there. This blockage of sewer system does not happen infrequently. Their lives are actually guttered. They do this without raising their voice in protest as if they are predestined to do this work submissively. Their attitude seems like that they have been born for this purpose. You see everybody has got a purpose in his life. They also have one. Rather they were born with one, quite naturally. They may feel like raising their voice against it. However, the voices they raise are never heard. Their feeble voices ultimately turn into ineffective murmurs and into silence at last. They are very poor and do not have means to sustain their fight and we know that Hindu society provides for crippling a full group of people not only individuals. The finest examples of crippling are the disabling the right to property of Shudras and demilitarization the society. Their murmurs are ignored jointly by the upper castes and others. For a civil society, which consists mainly of upper castes, such a thing does not exist. All the higher castes, relative to scavengers, are in total agreement in disagreeing to their objections. Why they? Why not others? It is all in the Karmas, my dear. They pay for their unseen, unconfirmed and unverifiable Karmas. Besides society groups get exclusive specialized cheap heredity labor to get the unclean stinking jobs done. Such an arrangement also means that others do not get the chance to do such a job in their lifetime. And everybody washes his hands off them and moves forward. They are without any real friends in the society even among rest of the untouchables who have different heredity occupations. They fight a losing battle every day. Their plight is not shared by anybody else and it is not possible. Only those who experience it can feel it. They live in a highly pressurized, insulted, and hungry bottom of the society, which is closed horizontally as well as vertically. They have neither horizontal escape nor vertical escape. All such adharmic things are not provided in spiritual pure pious and eternal Hindu dharma. And as the society doubles as market also, a manual excreta cleaner does not find a place there. For example he cannot put up a tea stall in the areas where his caste is known. There are simply no customers for his tea which is considered as polluted. So he is back to work as manual excreta cleaner. Here, the Hindu social system shines in all its glory. He is the veritable prisoner of the veritable excreta house of the society of highly cultured and spiritualized people with a great traditional cultural heritage. Everybody is busy asserting his status superiority over this most polluted human being. He is absent from all the social cultural and economic discussions. It is a stark example of permanent intelligent cruelty.

In this caste bound society an educated untouchable with a white-collar job is never treated as equal. He is always treated as an intruder in the sacred and hallowed sections of the upper castes. His presence has to be endured and tolerated and any contacts have to be avoided. They are even supposed to contaminate their hallowed environment. Any Chamar or Bhangi having an officer level job remains what he was, a Chamar or a Bhangi. He is really never accepted in the circle of upper castes. They are made to feel inferior through various means devised for such purpose. The crass untouchability is out; the subtlety is in. These new subtle means are devised to circumvent the anti-untouchability law. New indirect taunting remarks are created. New actions, which indicate his inferior status, are also created. Sometimes the force is also used. The civil society maintains its civil face while maintaining its casteist character.

Untouchables in cities - 6

2010-08-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

There are two groups of people in untouchables. There are those who have benefited from the policy of reservations and those who have not. Those who have not benefited from reservations are doing small and lowly paid jobs and are living in slums. The other group is that which has taken the benefits of reservations and enjoy relatively well paid government jobs. These people are the elites of untouchables. Generally, these elites live in middle class areas. Many of them are highly educated and hold high government posts.

The reservations in government jobs and education in government educational institutes is strongly resented at ever hierarchy in the system. The unofficial effective system is biased against them. Hence there are no chances of anybody getting any promotions without reservations in the promotion scheme. The elites of the untouchable society have not been able to do much for their more unfortunate brethren. It looks like that they tend to shrink away from their responsibilities or have taken to individualism whole heartedly in a group oriented society much to the detriment of their own castes. All the gains of reservations seem to have been frittered away on their own families only. The resources that they have gained from reservation system have not been ploughed back into society and neither have they provided an effective leadership to their people. This may be due to absence of any will on their part. Or it may be due to the fact that government servants are not allowed to take part in political or commercial activities. Their steadfast refusal to combine and do really something effective is stunning. Their mind numbing isolation from their suffering brethren is a matter of grave concern. Then the people who have not benefited from reservations have not shown any initiatives to take the guidance or help from their elites and back it with sincerity and hard work. Both the groups seems to have gone into a kind of inaction or rather in sleeping mode and once a while they would make some murmuring voices against the injustice done to them and then again go to sleep. The injustice done to them seems to be none of their real concern. The frozen minds are accompanied by frozen actions and frozen initiatives. They appear to believe in Hindu Karma theory. The destiny is set for them. They have to go beyond simply formation of associations and the resultant meetings.

Untouchable in Cities - 5

2010-08-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

The distribution of benefits of quota system has been uneven within the untouchable community. The untouchables themselves consist of many jatis and sub-jatis. Some have benefited more than others have. This is an issue of concern within the untouchables and especially among those who have been left behind. By and large the main beneficiaries of reservation system are those people who got the education earlier than others. There were also the people who moved earlier to cities. The higher education was generally available in the cities only. These people reside normally in lower middle class and middle middle class areas. However, many of them try to hide their caste and take up the surnames of upper castes very well knowing that their tormenting presence there is resented by the upper caste people. In beginning this creates some confusion but sooner or later the social networking reveals their true castes and everything is back to normal. This social networking spreads from village to cities and then backward and from cities to cities and even to outside the country. This social networking includes offices and educational institutes etc. Indeed there is no escape from this social network; it automatically extracts caste of everybody. It feeds on information and curiosity. Especially the curiosity whether somebody has arrived to contaminate their neighborhood or not. The moment an upper caste man comes to know that his neighbor is an untouchable he curses all his past lives, his fate and all his accumulated Karmas. After that he keeps a safe distance from him. After that he avoids any exchange of any eatables on any occasions. If it is not avoidable then he takes them and silently dumps them in dustbin afterward. In big cities generally nobody asks other’s caste directly. Here people depend on social networking and discreet inquiries. If it is asked then it is asked in an indirect manner. Normally people ask other’s caste in case of marriage. When asked about his caste an untouchable would not reveal his true caste if pushed further then he would feign to belong to a higher caste. Here the person from upper caste would nod his head in agreement very well knowing the true caste of the man in question and return the feigning.

Cities - 4

2010-07-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

Only scheduled castes can compete for the jobs reserved for them. They have reservations because of being socially, educationally and economically backward. However, the real reason would their historical deprivation in all the three spheres not the backwardness. It is actually compensation to them for being paralyzed by the dharmic society. Their paralyzed state made it easy for the atrocities to be committed upon them by dharmic people. They were excluded from the main functioning of the society for thousands of years. The educated untouchables got the education with the help of the state but without the help of society. Their presence in education, government jobs and middle class is resented by the society. In short in every area which is dominated by the upper castes. It tends to compromise the relative superiority of everybody else, which is in fact a matter of utmost concern to all. The social structure feels threatened by it. However, when the untouchables enter into any educational institute or any non-slum area then they tend to hide their caste. The reason is that they are in minority and can be easily isolated and made to feel inferior and even ignored with smugness and a grand element of non-cooperation. There they are the easy targets of sophisticated taunting by the upper castes which is designed to remind them of their low origin. However, the rouse of hiding caste does not work. If the caste of one man is known then the caste of all his relatives is known. The social networking reveals their true caste sooner or later. It may work occasionally in the areas where the people of his village have not reached and neither their relatives. In case of government employees it never works since it is given in their office records. And of course no one is going to marry anybody without knowing his or her caste.

Cities - 3

2010-07-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

The untouchables who got some education were drafted into government jobs through a system of reservations. Under this system a certain percentage is reserved for them where only they can apply. This is a provision made for them in the Indian Constitution for the welfare of historically deprived people. The jatis of such people are included in 25th schedule of the Constitution so they are also known as Scheduled Castes. Or bloody scheddus, as they are known in premier knowledge and academic institutes dominated by the upper castes. The honorable members of these institutes who take pride in calling themselves members of modern civil society do not call them untouchable and thus do them a great favor. The derogatory bloody scheddus seems to be a very civil way to address these people. It must be civil because it is coming from civil and intelligent people. These people are highly responsible people of the society. The untouchable students dare not raise their voice because the faculty belongs to upper castes and they dare not displease them. In internal examinations these honorable members of faculty have the power to make their education duration an unduly long one. And they are supposed to favor their high caste students. If not then what is the use of kinship? Though untouchability is long prohibited by the law but it is still unofficial system of India. The upper castes find a lot of ways to humiliate the lower castes and show their real feelings. There have been many instances where the room has been cleaned and purified because earlier an untouchable officer occupied it. However this anti-untouchability law is not enforceable beyond two kilometers of any city limits in India. It is buried in the dust there.

Cities - 2

2010-07-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Another movement of the untouchables to cities was those who acquired education against all odds, got government jobs, and moved to cities as these became their workplace.

The unskilled and uneducated untouchables moved to cities and started living in slums. It started with one man moving to city to escape from innocent village. There he settled in a slum and got the job of casual laborer on the construction sites. The cities were developing and construction of building and small factories needed unskilled labor. It was a lowly paid job and that was all they could do. There this man occupied a piece of land and made a small temporary room to dwell. Or otherwise he took a single small room on rent. After he got settled in the city his brother followed and joined him. After sometime the brother also got the lowly paid job and rented another small room or constructed one for him. These dwellings were very small so a newcomer had to move out invariably. Then other relatives followed, the chain was repeated and the slums grew larger and larger; the one who came to city brought many more migrants. This increase in slums is highly objected to by the middle class society which comprises mostly of the high castes. They abhor them due to their unhygienic conditions and unacceptable social behavior according to their high standard. The slums do not have any civic amenities. There is no water, no electricity and no sewer system. The sewer system is open.

No water lines force people to get water from a common tap. The absence of proper sewer system forces people to defecate in the open. Thus the situation is very common where one is defecating in the open and the other person is going to fetch the water from common tap. They cross each other’s path invariably. The roads are narrow. The unending dingy lanes and by lanes which move on their own have their own way of turning around the corners and sometimes stopping suddenly. The slum people are normally despised by the middle class people for their uncleanliness, rude behavior and all the other similar things. Nobody can get admission in English medium schools if he happens to be the one from the slums or their equivalent areas.

Cities 1

2010-05-09T14:34:00.001-07:00

The modern cities of India have been developed on the basis of industrial and commercial activities. The untouchables moved to cities to escape the social indignity, oppression at the hands of landed castes and the innocence of villages overflowing with hatred. The failure of rural system to provide them with enough means of sustenance also lent a causative hand. The insulted, tormented, hand to mouth living untouchables moved to cities in much more number than other castes. After land reforms the upper castes also moved to cities and got entrenched in all the important activities where the social value added and economic value added was the highest. Others also moved out of villages out of necessities but most of them stayed back. They stayed back due to attachment with their piece of village land and their relatives who lived there. One more reason to stay back in the villages was that the people did not have any linkage with the cities in the sense they did not have any relative living in the cities who could offer them a place to live and offer guidance.

For the untouchables one added advantage was the anonymity provided by the city. They could move in the city crowd without any chance of being insulted. They did not have to feel tormented while moving on the streets. They could become simply another face in the crowd. There was nobody to call them by their derogatory caste names thus reminding them of their insulted selves.

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 4

2010-04-06T08:17:00.001-07:00

Before independence the Shudras were the tillers of land for the upper castes. They were under the obligation to landlords for their survival since they had no right on the land. The land owners could ask them not to come on other day if displeased. It was as simple as that. This was sufficient to make the tiller shudder with cold in winter as well as in the scorching summer. How he was going to feed his family? The tillers could be changed according to wish of land owners. So these Shudras kept them attached to their land owners as firmly as possible; using all the humility they could muster. To please them they also doubled up as musclemen of the upper castes to fix the recalcitrant untouchables if any. This obviated any need of the high caste people to move out of their houses to fix the untouchables. They had their tillers to do that. They could always enjoy the serenity of their large houses. They could get the heads of the untouchables broken with heavy bamboo sticks without moving a finger. The Shudras could not use the arms. They were utilized to quell any voice of dissent from untouchable cluster. With the piercing of dharmic innocence of village with entry of railway steam engines such voices had started to emerge out of untouchable mud hut clusters. Actually it was the innocence of untouchables which was destroyed not the thick impenetrable, exploitative deep psyche of higher Varnas. They disliked it since it interfered with their permanent exploitation of the village people of lower strata. It pierced the ears and psyche of upper caste to listen to voices of assertion from the fifth stratum. To protect their interests and to make their lives beautiful it was necessary to suppress these voices of untouchable dissent on an enduring basis. So the means used for this purpose had to be such that they had an enduring effect. The acts of merely scolding and rebuking were not enough. The atrocities, torture, murder, death, rapes etc. were more enduring in their effects. Thus they were used for the holy purpose of maintaing Varna dharma.

The Shudra tillers had the highest status among the Shudras because they were connected with land and enjoyed the proximity with the ruling class. However, they still got pittance though they committed atrocities on behalf of upper castes. Any Shudra with a fully filled belly was considered as a danger to upper castes or dharma. Thus the question of leaving enough food with them did not arise.

However, the result of the policy of land to the tiller was that the Shudra tillers were given the land free and the landless untouchables were left standing. May be it had to do something with the mentality of policy makers or there was not enough land to go round. The untouchables were compensated in the form of reservations in government jobs and education. The twice-born people whose land had been taken after giving them due compensation moved to cities and the landed Shudras became the land owning castes; the dominant castes. Each different caste was dominant in each different area. These different land owning castes did not become a class after their rise in status. They maintained their caste identities and maintained their endogamous nature and continue to keep their dining separate from others. But now they were the new overlords in rural areas though not as big as the earlier ones. The non-land owning Shudras continued to be in their same wretched position without the benefit of free land or job reservations. However, the new land owning Shudras behaved in exemplary a way as to justify their newly acquired status. Their past of utter poverty and servility was soon forgotten. The human memory is very short but the history cannot be wiped out. They continued with the atrocities on untouchables; this time on their own behalf. The oppressors changed but not the oppression and neither did the dharmic philosophy behind the oppression of pathetic untouchables.

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 3

2010-03-08T10:22:00.001-08:00

Now let us consider why should the land owning Shudras practice untouchability? The category of land owning Shudras emerged strongly after independence in India. Before independence when the British ruled India, the land was mostly owned by the twice-born people. The people who worked on the land were Shudras and untouchables. The Shudras were mainly tillers and untouchables were mainly casual laborers. The Shudra tillers got a share of crop at the time of reaping of crop. The landless casual laborers who were mainly untouchables got payment in kind on daily basis. The untouchables worked from field to field on irregular basis while the tillers worked on the given piece of land on more or less permanent basis. The untouchables were rarely tillers since tilling was a high level job and could not be given to them since it would have meant that the fifth stratum was better off than the fourth strata. It would have been adharmic This went against the Varna dharma. The divinely ordained order could not be contravened. Thus, the Shudras having a relatively higher status got the higher level tilling job which assured them a regular income. Their income was pittance but more than what the untouchable casual workers got. One can see the fine mechanism of caste system here.

However, this system which was entirely in tune with dharma was considered as unequal and exploitative by the people not attached to land for their sustenance. Thus the land reforms took place after independence. The aim of land reform was to redistribute the agricultural land to remove the associated inequalities with such an exploitative dharmic system. A land ceiling was mooted for agricultural land and surplus land was redistributed freely among Shudra tillers after paying compensation to upper caste landlords. The guiding principle of the land reforms was the land to the tiller. This looks quiet egalitarian in nature but this overlooked the existence of landless untouchables who worked as casual laborers on the fields for their sustenance. This meant that the beneficiaries of the land reforms did not come from the bottom of the heap. The untouchables did not enjoy the status of tillers because being the most poor they were not in a position to supply the agriculture equipments like plough and animals like bullocks to work as tiller on the fields. It was the result of Varna dharma forces which aimed at keeping the untouchables in most pathetic situation bereft of any resources. Thus the untouchables were in a position to offer their labor only. Only relatively well off Shudras could afford to own the majestic plough and a smart pair of bullocks which enabled them to get the job of a tiller without any right to land. However, the grain produce by the labor of untouchables never became polluted because the grain is classified as unpollutable in dharma Shastras by the lawmakers; a stroke of genius. Nobody can accuse the lawmakers of foolishness. Also they can not be accused of not having the sense of discriminating between pollutable standing water and unpollutable dry grains. Both of them are necessities of life. One of them, the grain, is the reason for living of high castes touching it by an untouchable causes no pollution; no question of adharma arises. The other one, the standing water, if touched by an untouchable may cause mayhem; merely a common occurrence designed to save the dharma; anybody can take up violence to save the dharma. Indeed it is a holy violence which targets the people who are not in a position to cause any retaliatory harm.

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 2

2010-02-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

...these sub-castes or sub-jatis also do not inter dine or intermarry because they are divided fundamentally along bloodlines which prohibited any kind of interaction. And nobody among non-twice born remembers these bloodlines. The Shudras and untouchables can hardly remember the names up to their three generations.

Now, why do all these Shudras who themselves are considered as impure, practice untouchability against the people ranked below them? These people do so even after being very poor and landless themselves. So it is basically poor against poor. It is antagonism between the poor; not among the poor; the poor are of different kind to each other; long live the dasterdly caste. One of the reasons for such a situation to exist is the traditional belief in Varna or jati system. The most impure are ranged against the polluted people. The second reason is that they themselves are very poor and depend upon the high castes for their livelihood. The land owning castes are in a position to adversely affect their means to livelihood. If higher castes are displeased then the sources for sustenance for these people may dry up. Thus if a Shudra intermixes with the untouchables and it comes to the knowledge of upper castes, then the concerned Shudra receives a polite indirect warning to desist from such practice or face action. Normally this is sufficient to restore the traditional dharmic practice. Even otherwise the concerned Shudra has to agree to their dharmic advice because his economic sustenance is endangered. The dependent people cannot be independent. Thus for his economic sustenance he has to behave like high castes towards untouchables. Another reason is the fear of losing his social status when mixing with the still lower category people. Also a Shudra considers him superior to untouchables and does not intermix with them on his own. Then there is always a threat hanging over his head of excommunication from his own caste men who also fear the loss of status through such adharmic acts. There would be no agreement to intermixing with the untouchables within his jati. As it happens the acceptance among higher castes is a very valuable factor because it sustains their superiority over still lower jatis. The people have been dancing one leg to gain the acceptance from Brahmans. The acceptance is not to be treated as equal but as near equal. Nobody can be equal to higher castes. It is the acceptance to be treated as fit enough to enter into social discourse with the Brahmanas without being made to feel inferior. If Brahmans talk to somebody without any element of disrespect then it is sufficient. Even if there is an element of disrespect it remains sufficiently hidden, not really observable to an inattentive observer...

Why do Shudras practice untouchability? - 1

2009-12-03T04:50:00.000-08:00

As we know the Hindu society is composed of five categories of people who are further divided into watertight compartments. These five categories in descending order of social status are Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and Antyajas. And same is the order of purity. The Brahmans are the purest and Antyajas the polluted. The Antyajas are outside Varna system also. And same is the order of authority of social control that is limited to twice born. The Hindu society is not a simple matrix of five hierarchical and heredity Varnas. All these Varnas are divided and sub-sub-divided into sub-sub-castes and sub-sub-jatis. This division takes place until an endogamous group is reached which is not further divisible and is independent. This last endogamous group is composed of many exogamous gotras which are paternal lineages. All the jatis are finely divided along the bloodlines. There are thousands of jatis in India. Each jati follows a particular heredity occupation which is passed down from father to son. Each sub-sub-jati is supposed to follow the occupation of its main jati. The Shudras being the larges group have the largest number of jatis. Further these sub-jatis are limited to a given region and people generally do not marry outside their geographical area. Two endogamous groups following same occupation represent two sub-jatis of the main jati or sub-castes of main caste. Any given main jati may or may not be prevalent all over India. All the Varnas also may or may not be prevalent all over India. The Shudras have largest number of jatis so it is difficult to give the names of their jatis but some of them are carpenter, barber, potter, gardener, vegetable seller, milkman, washer man, oil presser, ironsmith, goldsmith etc. These various endogamous groups cannot be identified on the basis of Varna only. The professions with in Shudra Varna may different from each other as chalk from cheese. The jati indicates an endogamous group within a Varna, which has its specific heredity occupation. These jatis are identifiable on the basis of their heredity occupation only. The regular tillers of land occupied a higher position compared to other Shudras. The Antyajas or untouchables are also divided further into different jatis which are further arranged on a hierarchical scale. These jatis are further sub-divided mainly on the basis of region. Each sub-caste or sub-jati has the social status of the main caste or jati only. The jati is placed on a social scale on the basis of its relative purity and the relative purity also defines its particular power in the society. It also defines the occupation and thus the economic condition of any given jati. The people belonging to a higher heredity occupation have higher social status and a relatively higher level of earning.

Status and Behaviour - 3

2009-11-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Finally with increase in population the demand for agriculture and thus for land increased. This gave rise to many conflicts and many wars over the land.

The history is full of hierarchical societies. This is the main trend of history. However, the French revolution and American rights declaration made people equal at least in the case of political power. This equality is provided on individual basis that may easily be transformed in tyranny of majority if different groups are present in the society. The equal distribution of political power requires a group of homogeneous individuals. The Russian and Chinese revolutions tried to make people economically equal on collective basis but failed in implementing properly. Economic equality does not seem to go hand in hand with political equality. But economic inequality can easily go hand in hand with political inequality.

However, we define all societies as hierarchical societies. An equal society has hierarchy of degree one. A society has as many degrees of hierarchy as many as strata it has. In such a society a man has a given status. Here we take the status to be axiomatic in its existence because the status may change with the cultural values of the society. In a changing society the status may be changing but we deemed it to exist. In a composite society again we take the status to exist even if it is difficult to define.

Status and Behaviour -2

2009-10-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

The general tendency in the history has been towards formation of hierarchies with an equally natural tendency to oppose it. The two opposing forces are working at the same time. This also explains the need for great movements against hierarchy which often led to bloodbath.

With the discovery of agriculture, which was a stupendous change in the history of mankind, the institution of private property came into existence. The stage of hunter, food gatherer required that the small tribes moved in search of food from here to there. This movement of people from one place to another place obviated any need or desire of a man to claim a piece of land as his own. It was not certain that the tribe was going to be back to that place in near future. And there was no use of land as private property. It yielded nothing that he could use directly and which was under his control. All the food he gathered was from the trees or shrubs that he did not know how to plant. The nature planted them for him from place to place in a natural way. He could claim any particular tree as his own. However, one trait was possibly there which prepared the ground for future private property institution. The finder was the keeper. Anybody who found a particular food could consume it himself. And keep the rest for others in tribe. Later it translated into private property where first user of the land was the owner. With the discovery of agriculture the human society was able to produce regularly more then its immediate needs. It was no longer necessary to go everyday for hunting or for food gathering to forests. The grains being dry in nature were not immediately perishable like fruits and meat. Thus, food could be stored for a longer period. The development of agriculture technology was in fact an important step of man towards the control of nature. Now the man was no longer chasing the nature in the form of hunter and food gatherer, he could now control it. His food supply was no longer controlled by the whimsical acts of nature. The man now could clear the forest, prepare the field, sow the seed; when the crop maturee he could reap and store it. And clear as much as forest as he needed it. This led to a settled life. There was no longer any need to move from place to place in search of food. Now he could live near the land giving him the food. Also being settled meant that he could no longer act or move in a random manner. Some kind of order was needed. To prevent two men fighting to cultivate the same piece of land; it was necessary to allot them the land. It was absolutely necessary to avoid the violence. The random desire to cultivate any piece of land meant invitation to violence. Or stronger men pushed the weaker men out of the prime land. However, it was necessary to identify a man with a given piece of land to maintain peace. Randomness was not going to work; some kind of order was needed; the agriculture itself required an organized way of operating. The durable identification of man with a specific piece of land led to the notion of belongingness that developed in the notion of private property. Some authority was needed to implement the order and thus a king like authority emerged which was strong enough to safeguard people’s claim to land. For this the authority extracted some part of food surplus. This authority also needed warrior men who could fight with the marauding tribes who still had not learnt the technology of agriculture. Or the society had to agree to give the plunderers a share of the crops whenever they came. The defenders of society obviously needed a part of surplus produced by the society. It was possible since the cultivators were producing more than they needed. Obviously those who controlled the people and defended the land were more powerful than the owner cultivators. Or the one who had more land came to be more powerful. In a sense the hierarchy was developed. At the top was the man who controlled the men not the land. With the warriors or soldiers under his control he could change the ownership of the land. Then there were his courtiers and the owners of the land and then came the actual cultivators. These owners and cultivators could have been the same if the piece of land in question was small. But if the land was large enough then the owners and cultivators could be different. The cultivators were having lower rankings. Naturally, those who were low in ranking had low powers and those high in ranking had high powers.

Another group of people, which came into important existence, was the group of shamans or later day priests. A man is not only a social being but he is also a curious and thinking animal along with being physically weak and nurtures a fear of unknown powerful things. He needs reasons and explanations for the events in the nature. The shamans and later religious people were able to convince the people of the supposedly higher live powers behind the natural events and also the existence of life after death. The natural powers like lightening, rain and other had a terrifying effect on people’s life. So the people supposedly in contact with the God and spirits came to be powerful and thus authoritative. Super natural things had a very important place in the life. The people supposedly connected with super natural powers came to acquire the supposed super natural powers. It was another group of influential people which extracted the surplus from the cultivators. Societies having faith in super natural powers paid their shamans and priests handsomely in kind. These shamans and priests traded in people’s natural fears.

Thus the people connected with temporal power and others connected with super natural powers extracted their share and had the highest status in the society. However further labor specialization took place with advancement in technology. Many more occupations came into existence. These were carpenter, forger, weaver and potter etc. These people got their share of produce in exchange of their services or goods. These were the lower ranking people similar to cultivators.