Caste views

Untouchability and Hindu scriptures

2013-08-06T16:37:00.001-07:00

Here we work on the premise that there is Dharma, and the
opposite of Dharma is aDharma, and the opposite of aDharma is
Dharma. And, we are, also, of the view that if some activity is
punishable then it is adharmic and the opposite of it is a dharmic
activity. Here we take the activity including its doer - there is no
activity in isolation. This means that any activity is not independent
of its doer. And lying to save this elites' Dharma is also not
punishable. It may become one's utmost duty to lie if it saves the
Varna Dharma. For an example lying is punishable but lying by a
Brahman is not. Therefore, it is necessary to look what is beyond the
Dharma given in the scriptures. Dharma can be found in the
activities which are opposed to aDharma. For example the entry of
Untouchable in temples is barred because it corrupts Dharma
therefore it is adharmic; then to prevent the entry of any
Untouchable in temples becomes the Dharma of any touchable
Hindu; so it is Dharma. Again the touch of an Untouchable corrupts
the Dharma of high caste Hindus therefore it is aDharma, and
opposite of it (not touching the Untouchable) is Dharma and thus
enforcing the untouchability is also Dharma. In short, the opposition
to aDharma is Dharma and enforcing such Dharma is also Dharma.
Therefore, though the untouchability is not mentioned in the Vedas,
it is still dharmic.

Caste by birth or Varna by birth : No No - Geeta says so !

2013-07-09T06:21:00.001-07:00

The Varna system is highly exploitative, discriminatory,
derogatory and crippling but according to some people, it is a simple
division of labor. It never runs short of defenders. Everyone is doing
the job he is most suitable. However, it can be a division of function
between rulers, traders and servants etc. It cannot be division of
labor in industrial sense. It is so because the Varna system was born
in primitive agrarian conditions where no particular specialization of
labor was needed. Anybody could do any job with little learning. The
ancient technology did not require an advanced degree in rocket
engineering to perform any job. The job of potter or forger could be
performed by anybody. In case it was a simple labor division then the
labor or function should have determined the Varna but it does not.
Remember, according to the scriptures the Varnas were born neither
developed nor evolved out of any historical process.
Then there are some defenders of Varna Dharma who claim
that Varna of a man is not based on birth. Here, the first issue is that
the Varna is a group and defining any individual separately makes
little sense. We will examine it but before that, it is necessary to show
how the Varna is actually determined.
There are some people who argue that the real Sanatana
Dharma or Hindu Dharma is as given in the Rig Veda little forgetting
that religion of Rig Vedic people was called Rta which died along
with the Rig Vedic mode of life with the import of agriculture into
the Aryan society from the then natives of India. We know that the
Rig Vedic religion Rta is not the same as the Sanatana Hindu
Dharma.
There are people who don't even talk about the Varna
Dharma or Jati Dharma. They simply stick to their own definition of
Dharma which excludes any notion of Varna or caste. Their Dharma
is made up of normal Dharma that means only normal duties and
other normal bad activities or vices like cheating, stealing, being
virtuous etc. But all these normal duties (Dharma?) are given
elsewhere also like cheating is bad, stealing is bad, killing is bad,
conspiracy is bad etc. And for this, they try to take all the credit of
teaching all the good things to all the civilizations in the world. They
are very fond of quoting and discussing the epic Mahabharata and
define their Dharma on its basis and define all the duties based on it -
son's Dharma, wife's Dharma, father's Dharma, brother's Dharma,
king's Dharma etc. They define the justice based on the events given
in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. For them the eighty percent
of Hindus are non-existent, and you do not write anything about
non-existent people. Do you? This may also be a ploy to hide the true
nature of Dharma which includes the Varna Dharma. The lower
strata do not exist for them and they try to hide them from the
students of Hindu religion. They try to pass Dharma as applicable to
individuals as the real Dharma. Normally they are successful also but
any discussion about Dharma is not complete without the inclusion
of Varna Dharma. These epics and these commentators do not
discuss the dos and don'ts of Varna system as applicable to different
Varnas and castes. It is very odd since the greatest Dharma is said to
be the Jati Dharma (caste-Dharma).
Now we may turn to determination or predetermination of
Varna. Were the Varnas birth based or not? When the Varna of an
individual is determined is very simple. It is defined at birth time. A
toddler has a Varna of his parents and caste of his parents. Both the
parents should be from the same Varna. Two Varnas cannot
combine and form a Varna because there are only four Varnas and
fifth Varna does not exist. Such a combination is called Varna-Sankar
or a hybrid which is a lowly term in the Hindu scriptures. The Varnas
are defined as groups and not as individuals. You cannot choose your
parents and thus you cannot choose your Varna or caste; you are
born with it. There is no process given in the scriptures of changing
someone's caste and/or Varna. Whatever is given is applicable to
kings who were in a position to give the land grants.
The Manu Dharma (the way of life permitted in Manusmriti)
is also defended as the Manav Dharma which is by its inherent purity
and goodness is supposed to be applicable to all men, in all the times
and in all the places - what grandiose ambitions! A crippling system
and so ambitious! It is beyond understanding. A general way of living
without any justice causing insults to certain groups for no cause!
Remaining within the limits of eternity is not its goal. It goes beyond.
It is limitless, but within the limits of understanding of the logicless
proponents of Varna Dharma! However, one should expect that such
a Manav Dharma treatise should include a definition of Manav or
man or at least man in the form of an individual should be at its
center. But it is not so. In the Manusmriti, it is nowhere described
that who is Manav (human) and what are his rights and duties. The
rights and duties are combined in one term which is "function”. The
definition is simply missing from it. It is not indicated that who is this
Manav among all the four Varnas. If all of them are human beings,
then why should they not have the same human Dharma and follow
the same commandments? Why should they follow unequal
commandments?
If they have to follow the different Dharmas then that does
not really make them the same? In that case, the defenders of
Manusmriti cannot make a claim that it is a general code of conduct,
for all the men all the times. Or they may have bypassed few pages of
dictionary when finding the meaning of “general”.
The Hindu society is a caste-based society where the control
of everything is acquired by the upper castes through the natural act
of taking birth. This society is very effective in crippling the lower
castes. A newborn upper caste child is predestined to be a controller
and a newborn Shudra child a controlled servant. And nobody can
change that. The indirect control over the lower castes is passed
down on heredity basis. It cuts across the generations. The upper
castes get this control through inheritance. The cosmic forces are put
forwarded as the deciding and unquestionable reasons behind this.
Now we will see how the Varna of a man is to be
determined? Well, the question how and when? Is it determined or
predetermined? The Varna system regulations are described in the
Baudhayan sutra and the Apstambha sutra. The tradition of these is
carried on in the Manusmriti. The later Dharma Shastras carried on
the cruel and derogatory traditions with an unparalleled vengeance.
The Manusmriti, the most authentic of Dharma Shastras can help us
in understanding the determination of Varna. Apart from the
endogamous nature of different Varnas, there is loathing abhorrence
for the Varna-Sankars (people having mixed Varnas or parents from
different Varnas) in the Manusmriti. This abhorrence also exists in
the great spiritual epitome of Sanatana Dharma, the inestimable Gita.
A Varna-Sankar is an offspring of parents belonging to different
Varnas. According to both the scriptures, the emergence of Varna-
Sankar should be prevented as it causes corruption, contamination or
destruction of Dharma. The presence of Varna-Sankars makes the
world unsafe for Dharma. It offends Dharma. Dharma can be
destroyed or corrupted by the emergence of Varna-Sankar people.
The concept and the presence of Varna-Sankar are antagonists to
Dharma. Therefore, any Varna-Sankar is anti-Dharma in nature.
Dharma would like to see the extinction of the Varna-Sankars and
prevent them from emerging altogether. Therefore, Dharma aims to
prevent marriages between two different Varnas, sometimes directly
and sometimes indirectly by calling them aDharmic. A Varna-Sankar
person is without Varna and not entitled to one. Also, he is not
entitled to any Vedic rites. The Varna-Sankars are unwanted. A
dharmic and obsessive abhorrence to Varna-Sankar implies that only
the people belonging to same Varna can marry; else Dharma would
be destroyed. Dharma as given in the Mahabharata, simply, does not
talk about this - but by closing the eyes, the Varna Dharma does not
disappear. The subjugation does not disappear in the unofficial India.
The Manusmriti is very clear that only those offspring who
have the father and the mother from the same Varna can inherit their
Varna and not the others. A person has true Varna only if he has the
parents from the same Varna. Otherwise, he is a Varna-Sankar.
Dharma Shastras are very clear that there are only four Varnas and
there exists no fifth Varna. Therefore, no additional Varna can be
created through inter-Varna marriages. A Varna-Sankar is without
any Varna and is deprived of any Vedic rites and ceremonies. It also
deprives them of any status in society. It means that the Varna is
decided by the pure parentage, or, in other words purely by birth.
The parentage of a pure Varna cannot come from any other Varna;
note.
As a derivation of Varna, the caste (sub-varna) can only be
determined by birth. The Manusmriti allows the higher Varna men to
marry lower Varna women, as a matter of subordination of lower
Varnas. It is a clear indication of who rules over whom! It is called
Anuloma marriage. The children born out of such marriages are not
allowed to have their father's Varna. They are Varna-Sankar and they
are called base-born. They are assigned the jobs which are not done
by the twice born, which makes them effectively Shudras since the
only jobs then left to them are that of the Shudras'. The children
from such marriages have no place in society, as no family from pure
Varna would be willing to marry them. So their lineage stops or to
find life partners they are forced to go to the Shudra level and then
remain there. This veritable threat of degrading to Shudra level
prevents effectively the Anuloma marriages though it is kept as a
symbol of demeaning and disparaging subordination of lower Varnas
to higher Varnas. The respect of lower Varnas bites the dust.
The marriage in opposite direction, where man is from
lower Varna and woman is from higher Varna is called the Pratiloma
marriage. The Anuloma marriage implies the subordination of lower
Varnas to higher Varnas and Pratiloma marriage implies an
insubordination to higher Varnas. The Pratiloma marriages are
straight forwardly outlawed by the Manusmriti. The children born
out of such marriages are classified as outcastes and such a
classification ultimately makes them to degrade to the fifth stratum of
the Untouchables. Anybody involved in such an act of
insubordination is consigned to the level of Untouchables, a
punishment for life until death, which is carried forward to the next
generations through inheritance. They are condemned forever. The
eternity in this eternal religion has some meaning!
Thus, we find that the Varna is determined by birth because
true Varna comes only from the same Varna. Anybody violating the
endogamy of Varna was punished by outcasting, pauperizing and
excommunicating for whole life including his progenies and their
progenies and so on; whole coming lineage was affected. The people
with the equal level of relative purity were supposed to marry each
other; otherwise the impurities would prevail which would corrupt
the Dharma and the Varna. Otherwise cosmic order would become
under a threat and may ultimately collapse. Do I see the tears in pure
and pious eyes whose ethical owners do not mind crippling the lower
castes?
Some people claim that the Varna system is simply a division
of labor. Actually, it is enforced labor division; any diversion from
the division is directly or indirectly punishable. It was an occupational
and social encagement caused by the non-transferability of
occupation or Varna. The non-transferability of occupations across
the castes presents itself as labor specialization – the illusion; the real
thing is non-transferability. If it is simple division of labor then why
there are limitations on Varnas about education and studying sacred
scriptures? Anybody crossing these limitations was punishable. The
crippling limitations tell that it was not a natural and free division of
labor with a choice; there was no choice; the blood of butchered
choice is spread all over Hindu streets. The movement of labor was
caged by the isolating caste system. No lower castes were allowed to
transcend their social space and economic space. This is a scientific
(?) and forced, if any, division of labor, without any logical movement
labor!
In the natural division of labor, there are no artificial
crippling limitations to make easy the life of certain people – these
people got everything without efforts. Further, it was not essential to
be a specialist to perform any production activity in an agrarian
economy. The upper castes that controlled the land and the capital in
society did not provide any labor. Therefore, any division of labor if
it was; it was within the last two groups. If it was a simple division of
labor then the Shudras could have simply changed their Varna at will
by changing their occupation, which did not happen. And that was
not allowed. Even the Buddha could not bring it about in society.
Any such move would have required a reallocation of land, capital
and authority which no higher Varna was willing to do. This division
of labor was eternally binding. Anyway, the worth of a child is
defined at the time of birth without having any idea about the
abilities of the child. I told you earlier that the Hindu Society is very
altruistic. It gives away the insulted status at the time of birth without
asking and the cow dung grain is nothing to talk about! Here some
are born insulted and some are born respected. The question of
earned merit within closed doors never arose, and it was always
bestowed irrevocably by birth. Now you know the importance of
birth in Hindu society. It is not only a biological process; it predefines
the life from cradle to death depending on your caste. And there is
no such thing as earned-merit in the unofficial and traditional India.
There is only caste merit. The caste merit meant easy money for high
castes.
The division of labor is need based, not birth based. In the
division of labor, any worker can change his occupation if he does
not get enough to eat. Such a change or luxury is not permitted under
the Varna system - it was binding - no choice. Any dumb Brahman
was a genius because he had no choice! Any genius Untouchable was
dumb because he had no choice! The real abilities of people were
hidden under a veil called born-abilities. The job does not determine
the Varna but the Varna determines the job. The determination is in
sequence of birth, Varna, Caste and then occupation. How the
number of Shudra children required to serve the higher Varna was
going to be known? Was there any excess or not? If ironsmiths were
more required then they were to be born in higher number and only
gods could guarantee it - no doubt it was called divinely ordained
system. If the barbers were needed in fewer number than required
then what was the alternative? The heredity occupations caused such
anomalies and created economic inefficiencies. It was actually
unmatched division of labor with actual demands for it. This created
inefficiencies in society and economy. And the lower strata paid for it
while upper strata earned the rent. It was also a birth-based socially
captive and caged labor system. A static system requires a static state
or the anomalies would be created. Yes, that is called a state of
harmony and social stability. It was enforced division of labor and
thus a criminally enforced division of labor. Or the encagement, it
was.
Now we will take into account is the non-transferability of
occupations among different castes. This may throw some light on
non-duality of caste and Varna. Each Varna has its related function in
the Hindu society. Similarly, each caste has its function in society.
The functions of castes and Varna are the same. Varna decides which
caste is higher and which is lower, and then within the Varna the
caste decides which occupation decides which caste is higher and
which is lower. In Hindu society the scriptures (the traditional laws)
define the Varna first and then their functions; it shows that the
Varna is not function dependent but the functions are Varna
dependent and Varnas were born. The functions are heredity
specified for each inherited Varna; the actual occupation within a
given Varna is dependent on the inherited caste. The nontransferability
of jobs means that it was a forced and fake labor
specialization. The Hindu religion has always been the religion of
elites by birth.
If the functions of castes and Varnas are the same and they
are non-transferable then they have to be the same. The caste, being
its derivative, resides within the Varna system. Nowhere in Hindu
scriptures, it is said, that the functions are transferable among the
different Varnas or castes. This non-transferability of functions
implies that Varna and caste are the same; the caste or Jati is a further
division of Varna as occupations are further division of functions.
Similarly, the heredity nature of occupations implies that Varna and
caste are not only the same; they are based on birth also. The
endogamous nature of Varna and caste coincide with each other
which reduces any further difference between them. There are four
main Varnas but they are also divided into further castes, sub-caste
and sub-sub-castes which belong to their respective Varna. There are
many occupations related to any given function of society. The caste
should be called sub-Varna. The stipulation that the molten lead
should be poured into ears of a Shudra who has heard a single word
of the sacred Vedas, points toward this non-transferability of
function or occupations. In the absence of transferability of
functions, it is impossible to port a man from lower Varna into any
of the higher Varnas. His Varna remains what he was born with it.
The further segmentation of society under the dominant Varna
doctrine led to development of endogamous caste where the jobs
became non-transferable.
The highest Varna was, in fact, blessed with the power with
extreme strands of highest purity. The paranormal power and purity
had to be acquired by taking birth in a particular Varna.
These people are decrying our time tested caste system. We,
the upper castes with high ethics and high morals, and who are
paragons of virtue, know that what these heathen people can do.
The dismal depths to which these lower caste people can
descend under the influence of the slimy, sly and insidious creature
called modernism is despicable. Under its influence, they turn
aDharmic or heretics. It is a matter of grave concern to the pure and
sacred Dharma. We, the pure people, are purely unselfish and do not
care about ourselves. Our one and only one and unselfish concern is
Dharma. We have such a pure and sacred objective. We do not want
anything for ourselves. It is only Dharma we want to save. We have
nothing against the low castes. We only want that they follow the
sacred and the divine Dharma. And nothing more we want. Is it
wrong to ask people to follow the sacred Dharma? This birthattached
ascendancy and descendancy is a piece of pure fiction. We
have the immutable law of Karma according to which everyone gets
what he deserves depending upon his cumulative karmas of past
lives. We are not to be blamed. What? You want this to be
established? You profane people! Do not you trust us? Do not you
trust the integrity of our ancient Rishis and sages? Do not you trust
the divinity? So what! If we created the specific divinity that favors
us! How aDharmic can you get! We, the high caste people with
unimpeachable integrity, ethics and morals, pass the judgment for the
good of everyone in society. And don't look back into eyes - behave
yourself. No doubt, you are suffering because of your past Karmas!
In our pure and sacred system, the results decide the logic. The
present defines the unseen, unconformable and unknown past. What
you want exact linkage? You are getting too far! The divine
retribution will get you in the direct form or indirect form. You get
your just desert then why complain? It is the gruel waiting for you!
We do not cause any atrocity; it is the divinity which punishes you for
the aDharmic and bad deeds of your past lives; we the pure people
are simply means to attain the divine objectives. It is gods’ will. You
do not know! Why are you not as foolish as your ancestors? Those
virtuous, nice, servile and condemned fellows never asked for any
explanation! Anyway, we are not answerable to lowly scum.
The ostracization that makes a person an outcaste is
equivalent to a prison system in society where the presence of a king
is not needed to carry out the sentence. The society could collectively
impose the punishment of ostracization which also deprived a man
of any inheritance of any kind. The cruel and ghastly Panchayats were
the handy tools to do this. The ostracized man was deprived of any
social interaction and any economic means. He had no property and
no employment. Nobody was supposed to interact with him, not
even the Shudras. Thus, he had the Untouchables for the company
and had to take up their jobs to survive. As the ostracized person
lived among the Untouchables, and out of the village; he was
effectively boycotted, he was no threat to Dharma and hence
everybody was happy. Good riddance, it was.
There are some defenders of the Varna Dharma who claim
that Varna of a man is not birth based but depends on Karmas and
Gunas (deeds and traits). Here, the first problem is that the Varna is a
group entity and defining an individual separately makes little sense.
Anyway, the strongest evidence against, dependence of Varna on
karmas and Guna, is the endogamous nature of caste. If you
completely break the endogamy, you break the caste. People
belonging to a particular Jati refuse to marry outsiders and outsiders
refuse to marry them. This makes Jati an enforced birth based
system. However, we may see the arguments in favor of Guna
(nature) based Varna. These people seem to imply that the Varna is
different from the Jati. They put the Jati first and then try to allocate
a Varna to it. Most probably, the Jatis have come out of Varnas. They
consider the Varna a passive and theoretical structure only. But, they
forget that any inter-mixing of Varnas is not allowed so an intermixing
of castes is also not allowed. The Varna and caste
superimpose upon each other nicely, as if though they are one and
the same thing; the caste just has more details. They share more
attributes in common with Varna then the differences.
Sanatana Dharma is full of hate. Its dirty proof is that certain
people are kept outside the villages as they are considered as
possessing polluting properties. Another proof is that the
Untouchables cannot fetch water from the village well. And another
proof is the anti-untouchability law of the Indian Constitution which
represents the official India.
The silent lamenting of higher caste minds, can only be
heard, by a truly empathic mind, when their right to look down on
the low castes, is snatched. Their birth-attached right of demeaning
the people is not a trivial one; it is the foundation of Sanatana
Dharma. It is the spine of the caste and Varna system. They can go to
any length to impose this demeaning traditional right. How can you
take away the right which God has given to them? Certainly you
cannot be so aDharmic or unrighteous? Can you be? No, no - it is a
big and divine no. Did not somebody tell you that looking down on
people is perfectly righteous and virtuous? It is. You should be aware
of the sacred and pious ways of Hindu society. Only people with
crass and insensitivity mentality would not be sympathetic to the
pathetic conditions of upper caste minds when they have to take a
retort from the low caste people. Any talk of equality brings grimaces
and frowns across the scowling caste proud faces of pure people; any
talk of equality should be shunned. Their minds groan and growl.
Their soft hearts are cruelly crushed. These people! These heathen
people would talk back now! The world is going to collapse. And
many ways are created to explain their pious and sacred society which
is supremely expert in throwing people out and disparaging them. It
is a hallmark of a society where divisive forces operate along with the
forces of hate.
The wheels of dirty minds of impure people turn and churn
out the thoughts which demand the dirty and filthy equality, and
squalid freedom from wearing tattered clothes, and want assured
food supply - sheer dirty thoughts. The dirty people can have only
filthy thoughts; their viciousness is beyond bounds. Must be some
dirty aspects of modernism! The baseness of impure minds is
limitless. Believe it!
The Guna defenders of Varna Dharma do not explain how a
man born in lower caste can be allowed to have the privileges
available to higher Varnas? The Varnas and privileges go hand in
hand - separating them would be a mockery of the thousands of years
old divine system and culture. The defenders do not consider it as
mockery but treat it as a stout defense which cannot withstand the
harmony of Varnas with the functions. Considering any Untouchable
as Brahman is useless until Brahmanical functions, privileges and
comforts are allowed to him. Do you want to mock a divine system?
You would not if you were having pure, pious intentions and totally
unselfish intentions at heart. And how a low born is to be included in
the Brahman group? The Varna-Sankar progenies are abhorred in all
the scriptures; the stress on purity of bloodlines is almost obsessive;
inter-mixing of blood can destroy Dharma by pushing out the pure
Varnas. It is simple, the more are the Varna-shankars meaning the
less of the pure Varnas, and hence fewer people are eligible for
performing of Vedic rituals. It should be remembered that there is no
fifth Varna. However, Varna is a socially ranked group of similarly
ranked endogamous Jatis as given in the scriptures with unchanging
occupations. If nature (Guna) of man is going to decide his Varna
then endogamous nature of Jatis has to break down. Anyway, the
defenders of Varna Dharma may play this argument as joke on
unsuspecting people - and there are many such people. When people
are listening with the empty bellies, they cannot understand the joke.
These people want to rise up in society? In the Hindu
society??? These filthy louts and fiends think that they can be equal to
us, the pure people. What a miserable misunderstanding they are
living in! They are just dreaming - pigs cannot fly. For your
information, we, the pure people, are pleased to inform that you are
just day dreaming on empty bellies. One day you will wake up. By
that time, you must have banged your heads against invisible caste
walls for a very long time, and realized that you do not have the
purity to gain the entry, by that time you would be in the last stage of
your life with little chance to do anything. Your dreams would be
torn asunder. And your next generations will also undergo the same
process. Period.
What a marvelous and delightful world! Is it not? Well, it is
for pure people! Repeat - this world is for the pure people - the
Sanatani world.
As far as the Gunas are concerned, there are three Gunas -
Satvik, Rajsik and Tamsik. The Satvik Guna denotes purity, calmness,
intelligence and renunciation. These qualities are supposed to be
possessed by the Brahmans. The Rajsik Guna denotes power, vitality
and dynamism. These qualities are supposed to be possessed by the
Kshatriyas. The Tamsik Guna denotes darkness, ignorance and
inertness. These qualities are supposed to be possessed by the
Shudras. The third Varna of Vaisyas possesses a combination of
Rajsik and Tamsik Gunas. It is like a combination of pure and
impure. Different Varnas possess different Gunas. But it is not the
same as saying that Gunas determine the Varna or the nature of a
man decides his Varna and allow him an entry into higher Varna and
provide him with all the functions of higher Varnas. Again, the
causation as usual is wrong! Any Varna is a group entity. How to get
included in that? Since the Varnas were born, the qualities were also
born with them. Do the Gunas decide the Varna of a man and
related privileges, discounting the group-based nature of
castes/Varnas? Can the Gunas discount the group-based nature,
which is blood related, of the castes and Varnas and make a hole in it
for the entry of others? Can the individual Gunas override the caste
and varna Gunas? The answer is a resounding series of “no”. Can a
man from any of the Shudra Jatis possessing the Satvik Gunas belong
to endogamous Brahman Varna? Answer is “no”. Does he have the
right to study and teach Vedas? Does he have the right to guide a
king in running his kingdom? Does he have the right to be revered by
the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas? - No. Does he have the right to
become priest of temples? – No. And biggest of them all - does he
have the right to marry a Brahman girl? – No. This is the right that
even the kings did not have. The Varna system does not operate in
isolation. It comes with a complete baggage of privileges and
crippling disabilities. All the Varnas are attached with respective
privileges and disabilities. Defining the Varnas without privileges and
disabilities is snobbish mockery. The conmen playing the tricks. It
would be interesting to guess the number of Brahmans, Kshatriyas
and Vaisyas willing to extend him all these rights or privileges; it is a
man against the higher level groups. The number of such people
would be zero. In other words, the function of a Satvik Shudra
remains to serve the higher Varnas with servility. And no Guna-based
hypothesis can change that. The doors are closed. Period.
As long as such a man exists in the arguments of defenders
of Varna system there is no problem. However, the moment such a
Shudra possessing Satvik Gunas presents himself in the physical
form, the problems start. The first problem, he would have to go
through thread ceremony to become a Brahman that no Brahman
would perform. The second problem, all the Brahman families would
refuse to give him a girl in marriage. They would even refuse to dine
with him. The Kshatriyas would refuse to honor him and refuse to
touch his feet. The Vaisyas would also refuse to honor him and
refuse to touch his feet. The Kshatriyas and Vaisyas would refuse to
dine with him, walk with him and sit with him. Offering a girl in
marriage cannot even be thought of. What a despicable thought!
None of the higher three Varnas would be willing to cross the first
stage of walking and talking with him. And marrying him in their
Varna is a farfetched idea. The doors are closed. And the Gunas …
… …
He is rejected by higher Varnas on all counts. The closed
gates policy is clearly at work; so is the caste effect. These walls of
rejection are non-negotiable. Therefore, after facing the rejection
from all the sides he is back to being a Shudra; from where he has
never actually moved! Entry of a single man in a higher level group is
not possible. Therefore, the claim that a man born in a Shudra Jati
possessing Satvik Gunas belongs to Brahman Varna, is grand fable,
which falls flat on its face when applied against the facts. Hindu
society is full of such concepts which cannot be established. Such a
man exists in the foxy arguments of the defenders of the Varna
Dharma not in their hearts and hardly any of them is related to such a
Shudra. There he is - simply non-existent. Even the Gita does not
provide a way of handling the baggage associated with God-created-
Varnas or a way of entering into the higher Varna group by a
competent individual. Please, remember the unseen crippling walls of
the caste system. And people with an enforced penury are unable to
penetrate these walls. They are kept where they should be. A Shudra
having Satvik qualities can be a Brahman; but to whom nobody gives
respect, with whom nobody intermingles, has no rights to property,
has no right to education, not eligible for marriage into the Brahmans
and the one whom everybody insults without a fault - strange kind of
Brahman while only four Varnas are there.
There is also another misconception, which is advanced as a
defense of Varna Dharma by its defenders, that the deeds of a man
determine his Varna. Again, these people are confusing between
group and individual. They try to apply the individualistic analysis to
groups. There is no possibility of such a process by which, a person
performing related group activities, becomes a part of another group,
without taking birth in it. A Shudra will never be allowed to perform
the functions of Brahmans. To begin with, the Brahman (group)
would not be willing to teach him the Vedas and other ritualistic rites.
If a Shudra is brave enough, he should be included in the Kshatriyas
(group) and have the privileges available to that group. The deeds
speak for themselves but unfortunately not in the Hindu society.
Again, there would be problems because no Kshatriya would be
willing to give him a girl in the marriage. No Kshatriya would be
willing to sit and dine with him. So he is back to being a Shudra. The
Varna system comes with attached baggage - not alone. At the most,
a brave Shudra would be called a goon, a rogue or a robber but
nothing more than that. On the other hand, a Kshatriya is called the
brave and the warrior since his birth. A brave Shudra lives among
Shudras, and marries among them. But can he be called Kshatriya
Shudra? No, he cannot be called Kshatriya-Shudra because there are
only four Varnas and Kshatriya-Shudra is not one of them.
The Gunas and deed hypothesis comes a cropper when
matched against the facts. They end up being mockeries.
Another misconception which comes out of forts of
defenders of Varna system is that everybody is a Shudra when born,
and the Sanskars (rituals) make him a twice born. So when born a
Brahman boy is Shudra. The thread ceremony makes him pure and a
Brahman. Any Shudra caste touch is not allowed to him when he is
Shudra! If it is that simple then all the Shudras can be converted into
Brahmans by investing them with thread ceremony. But the Shudras,
with their impure origin, are not eligible for thread ceremony - the
inherent impurities cannot be removed by thread ceremony. A
Brahman boy and a Shudra boy are two different entities since birth
and because of birth. A Shudra Brahman is a contradiction of terms.
And, again only four Varnas are allowed. There can be no Shudra-
Brahman Varna. Another defense which comes a cropper!
What is on offer from the defenders of Varna Dharma, is a
series of hypotheses, which are never established. In fact, these views
cannot be established.
There are some people who disown the Manusmriti
completely. They say that the real Hindu Dharma is not given in
Manusmriti but in the Rig Veda. These people wear Rig Vedic
blinkers. However, we know that Hindu Dharma known as Sanatana
Dharma did not exist in the Rig Vedic times. The Rig Vedic religion
was called the Rta, not the Sanatana Dharma. It was a cosmic order
like Sanatana Dharma but it was different. The Rig Vedic people did
have the activities of butchering and skinning but these were not
called polluting or Untouchable activities. The Rig Vedic society was
characterized by the absence of Varnas or any such group claiming
privileges by inheritance. It was an egalitarian society without
agriculture. The inequalities of groups had no role to play there since
groups themselves were not there. Each tribe was made of people
who were kith and kin of each other. It was a commune system of
living where everything was shared equally on community basis.
It should be remembered that the Purusha Sukta does not
really belong to Rig Vedic times. The Rig Veda can be regarded as
rigged. The sanctity of the Rig Veda had been defiled!!! Though
Purush Sukta belongs to the Rig Veda, it was a later addition during
later Vedic times when the different Varnas had come into existence.
Do not know what punishments the defilers met with and what
punishments the followers of defilers are going to meet with? May be
they were reborn as worms. Anybody believing such a rigged
scripture is sure to got to hell or reborn as a vermin. Anyway,
anybody believing in the Rig Veda should be willing to inter-marry
with the scavengers and if all the Hindus are to be treated as a part of
single Rig Vedic community. If they are not willing to do it and show
it by trend setting examples then they do not believe in the Rig Veda
but in Chaturvarna system of Sanatana Dharma with its notions of
inherent purity and pollution and privileges and disabilities. The Rig
Vedic system and the Chaturvarna system are two completely
different systems - note.
If Rig Vedic religion is true Hindu religion then accordingly
the Varna Dharma was a simple division of labor where each one did
the job he was most suitable for. In this system any occupation could
not be imposed on any individual. It is interesting to note that we
have labor specialization in a community of cattle rearing people
where the only job was to graze the cattle!!! Labor specialization
means a technology of a very high level where as the Rig Vedic
people could not even master agriculture. However, according to
such a point of view all the malpractices crept in later due to vested
interests. If that is the case then they are discounting and disowning
what happened during last three thousand years, which is a very long
period of time, indeed. During this time, the real things have
happened to real people while the elites have enjoyed the Maya. They
should not have enjoyed the Maya while people (?) were suffering.
However, the argument goes further that we should go back to Rig
Vedic Dharma by discounting or removing the malpractices or
distortions which crept in later without talking about justice to
sufferers. However, in doing so they are making a jump from Rig
Vedic times to modern times - a jump of 3000 years!!! That also
amounts to saying that nothing has happened during last 3000 years
and everything should be forgotten. Willing to wipe out 3000 years!
Their ultra rationality is astounding; it leaves me bewildering! What
are called anomalies or rigidities are nothing but the natural results of
the crystallization of the Varna Dharma. For all the alleged
anomalies, they blame the vested interests; they do not blame the
original formulators of the Varna Dharma, its cruel perpetrators, the
lawmakers and the masters of statecraft. The original formulators of
Varna Dharma, the lawmakers, the Brahmans, lived not during the
Rig Vedic times but afterward. Then they went and rigged the Rig
Veda by inserting the Purusha Sukta to justify the newly formulated
discriminatory Varna Dharma and to claim divine superiority. It was
done after appearance of Shudra Varna on the horizon. This froze
the number of Varnas to four.
However, such people who advocate the purity of Rig Vedic
times do not make any attempt to identify the vested interests that
introduced malpractices in such a pure and simple system of division
of labor, in a cattle rearing economy, which was independent of any
inheritance factor. These vested interests developed it into an
inheritable set of privileges and crippling disabilities. But agreeing to
the existence of vested interests amounts to saying that their
ancestors who benefitted from such malpractices lived a life full of
lies, cheating and deceits for a period of about 2500 years because
they acted against the guidance of the Rig Veda or rigged it for their
personal and group interests. The punishment for defiling the
sanctity of the most sacred of the Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda,
should be considerable irrespective of any Varna involved in rigging
it. It would be interesting to note that how such a punishment is
meted out to such aDharmic people! However, coming back to the
malpractices, these were introduced to perpetuate their group
privileges and impose crippling disabilities on others. These provided
for committing the atrocities on the Shudras and the Untouchables,
in the name of Dharma, but actually, in their own interests – the
interests of Dharma means their own interests. Brahmans’ interests
and Dharma’s interests are the same. Try separating them. Anyway, it
is strange that people forget their Rig Vedic roots of equality and live
a life full of deceit and lies for the generations altogether without
feeling a little bit guilty. On the contrary, such people are proud of it.
These people cannot be said to be unwilling partners of the so-called
vested interests because they proudly and happily benefitted from the
alleged malpractices without raising any objections.
It also means that the later Hindu scriptures other than the
Rig Veda are big bundles of lies though they governed the lives of
Hindus for 3000 years. Managing the lives of people through lies!
Thus, it means that somebody is lying, either the defenders of the Rig
Veda or the people who created later scriptures. Clearly, it is not God
who is lying because God, if any, cannot lie and cannot discriminate.
It has to be people who created the Vedas and other Dharma
Shashtras. Thus, the present generations of these so-called vested
interests have inherited a culture which is full of deceptive, brutal,
cruel, sly, cunning, vile, crooked, devious, exploitative and insulting
ways. If they lived a life as enumerated in Manusmriti then still they
lived a life full of deceits, lies and cruelties. Such a culture gallantly
grew out of their malafide, perverted and cruel intentions.
These lower caste people insist on set-up that is contrary to
Dharma and utterly nonsensical rubbish. These people are doubting
Dharma which their condemned and ignorant ancestor never did.
Can their forefathers be wrong? No! Not at all! Their forefathers
might have taken the birth of worms, insect etc. But these people are
certainly going to hell, straight.
The grading of function/occupations also had effect on
people's marriages in general along with the developing of endogamy
and gotra (paternal lineage) exogamy. The endogamy and hypogamy
were developed, through emergence of higher Varnas, as the standing
symbol of subordination of lower Varna. Then it spread to other
occupations resulting in development of Jatis - the occupational
endogamous groups. Here the occupation/function also became
inheritable. The general rule is that the marriage should be among
equals and familiar though there may be exceptions to the rule. The
unequal or unfamiliar people generally do not marry each other.
When the occupations are not equal, the people engaged in them are
also not supposedly equal. The people belonging to different
occupations could not marry each other. It happened under the
dominant Varna doctrine which held that no man could hold two
occupations at the same time. Therefore, any man from any group
could not hold two jobs at the same time. This may be called the
inductive effect of the dominant doctrine.
Actually, the people were refused marriage by the people
occupationally superior to them. They themselves refused to marry
people occupationally inferior to them. Therefore, the only course
available to them was to marry the people from within their own
occupational categories. Thus, endogamous Jatis emerged through
mimicking the dominant Varna doctrine. The powers that be treated
others on the basis of occupations and thus graded the occupations
as they themselves were divided by the occupations. Let us recall that
according to grading three Varnas are on top as the Brahmans, the
Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas. The grading in the artisans had to be on
the need basis and skill basis. The goldsmith and the ironsmith
required higher skills and knowledge so they were higher level
Shudras and basket weavers were the lower level Shudras. The skills
of Chamars and scavengers were not needed by the Brahmans
directly (the Brahman refused to touch the leather and of course the
excreta) and hence these became the lower level jobs and ultimately
the Untouchable jobs. The refusal of the Brahmans to touch many
objects made them the lower level objects, and, their makers as lower
level people. The refusal of the Brahmans to touch people from
certain caste made these castes Untouchables. The Brahmans guided
society and the kings, and in addition the caste councils in the
insulated villages. The inequality of hereditary occupations was
automatically passed on to the gradation of people. An inherently
inferior occupation makes one inherently impure and inherently
inferior. These occupations or functions are not changeable. In the
Gita, these functions are called swa-Dharma. Each Varna has its swa-
Dharma which is unchangeable. Nobody ever thought whether this
swa-dharma served their interests!
The endogamy most probably started with Brahmans and
not with the Shudra artisans. The endogamy started most probably as
a matter of honor - to keep them away and above the heathen
people. The highest Varna was desirous of saving its women away
from the heathen people but kept an eye on others' women – highly
strange! It run contrary to their innate high-level ethics and morals.
Over a long period of time, the ratio of men to women is one to one.
All the Brahman girls were supposed to be married to Brahmans.
Thus, all the Brahmans got married and there was no need for them
to marry outside; they had sufficient girls in their group to marry.
Thus, a full-scale endogamy came into existence. The full-scale
endogamy was a forced feature of earlier Rig Vedic tribal society
because communicating with other tribes was impossible. At that
time, each person married within his/her tribe. From the Brahmans
the endogamy percolated down again as a matter of honor among the
lower Jatis. Each professional group had its relative honor to
maintain depending upon its social rank. Each professional group
refused to marry into professional groups below them and in turn
faced refusal to marry from higher professional groups – thus the
professional groups emerged Jatis or caste which was a
transformation from professional groups to social groups. Therefore,
endogamy became a basic feature without which the Varna system
could not survive. The guidance of Brahmans lent a helping hand as
they were the de facto lawmakers.
There are some people, who like to consider the immobile
caste system as a gift from the British and Muslim periods. In other
sagacious words, it was the result of foreign rule that corrupted the
virtuous Varna system. The caste system before them was not
supposed to be birth based in character. Wow! Never knew about it!
Needs deep meditation! The knee deep! But they never tell about the
fundamental structural changes brought about by these foreign
forces. Again, it is one of those sagacious suggestions they cannot be
established like the Karma Hypothesis. However, it seems that the
foreigners came and provided the endogamous basis of Hindu social
structure with retrospective effect; wow, not even the Absolute has
this power in the Hindu religious thought; the foreigners should be
actually worshiped for possessing such a power. Blaming them is a
fanciful and self-satisfying thinking; it shifts the blame away from
them also. Such an understanding of history and of Hindu social
structure is so overwhelming that even stones shed some tears. It
overwhelms the logic; here the convoluted logic comes into play. May
be one would have to take the result to be axiomatic and presuppose
the absolute existence of unimpeachable proof. And then do not try
to find it because it is not there. The higher level people are not
supposed to be questioned. Their words are the 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. Just to make their
lives easy - easy money, easy respect, easy domination, easy sexual
preys. Oh, I forgot about the high-level ethics and high-level morals
of high castes.
Now let us see that how it is possible to arrive at caste
through Varna system. The Varna doctrine had become the
dominant one due to the paranormal power of Brahmans. Under this
system, it is not possible for one individual to hold more than one
occupation. Each Varna is endogamous. All the Varnas can take part
in agriculture in various capacities. The Brahmans and the Kshatriyas
are the land owners/holders, the Shudras are tillers, cultivators and
the Untouchable are casual laborers. Apart from agriculture any
Varna can do one and only one job.
These Varnas were graded. If there were many groups in a
Varna then these had to be graded as well like in the case of Shudras
where many occupations exist. One more factor is that the marriages
take place generally among equals. We can take our starting position
that before the crystallization of the Varna system there were no
occupational endogamous groups and people generally married
irrespective of their occupations. Now after crystallization of Varna
system four major groups emerged which were endogamous and
grade on basis of the purity paradigm and their occupation. Once the
Varna became the dominant framework then the further
segmentation could take place under its wings. Thus further
segmentation led to emergence of groups where each individual
could do only one job under the dominant grouping system of Varna.
This individual could marry only among people who were following
the same occupation because of equality. The inequality in marriage
necessarily meant lowering the honor of one group; so it was to be
avoided. The people generally marry among their equals, and the
principle of one group one job, made people unequal; the people
were drawn toward marrying people one of their own kinds that is
marrying the person from the same professional group. Further
grading took place on the basis of relative purity of caste occupation
within the assigned Varna. He could not marry into other
occupational groups as they were unequal and different on the basis
of occupation. It was probably a long drawn out process. The same
occupation led to fraternity and which led to marriages and ultimately
sufficient marriages took place and there was no need to marry
outside. This was the caste where anybody could not hold two
occupations on the lines of Varna system; and it was endogamous.
This is actually indirect labor specialization through marriages among
similar people. The caste can be derived from the Varna and it is just
a detailed dissection of the Varna system where the main structure is
kept intact. They nicely superimpose on each other. There are more
similarities then there are differences. The banning of sagotra
marriage prevented the people from marrying the people from their
own tribe thus breaking down the tribal culture. The people now had
to marry in others gotras. The tribal bonds were no longer
dependable. The only dependable bonds were in the occupational
fraternity which led to development of caste system within Varnas.

Markets and caste - 11

2013-06-19T10:33:00.000-07:00

After all, twenty percent of Hindu population belongs to untouchables. So how much demand can be generated for their unclean products? The answer is - not enough. Not enough to remove the poverty of 20 percent of population. So within the caste monopoly over such dirty jobs, there is a huge supply of labor, which outstrips the demand by a great extent. The resultant oversupply leads to hugely depressed wages or payments for such jobs. This leaves all of them in poverty and hungry, barely able to sustain themselves. This pushes the untouchables toward other jobs. The most the job they get in rural areas is one of casual labors in the village fields. A highly pedigreed job, only very talented and skilled people knowing rocket science can cut the grass, dig and plough the field! For this the labor specialization is needed! In other words they get the lowest paid jobs. They are also found in the hard and difficult jobs which others are normally unwilling to do so. Their traditional jobs are not sufficient to fill their hungry bellies in their skeleton system, which is very evident. The economics of their jobs does not allow them to live a life without starving. Therefore finding the solution of their problems within the Varna dharma is impracticable contrary to the advices of defenders of Hindu society and Varna dharma. Even their survival is not possible; dignity or no dignity - is another matter. One person from cleaning community can provide his or her cleaning services to 40 families (they are not allowed to enter the houses) whereas availability is around 5 persons per 40 families. Thus 4 out of every 5 persons from scavenging community are redundant. Similarly in the case of leather workers, a person on average can make 200 pairs of shoes per month. Definitely this is much more than requirement of two pairs of shoes per year per person. One percent of people can make shoes for whole of the community in one month only. Thus the availability of labor requires that the use of shoes should be more than 100 pairs per person. It presents a hardly realistic picture. How the rest of Chamars are going to make a living?

Markets and caste - 10

2013-05-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

In academics all the untouchable related studies are done by the upper caste people. All the reporting on atrocities on untouchables, are done by the upper caste reporters or journalists; and from their point of view. The untouchable manager in corporate sector is nowhere to be seen. And any covert entry by an untouchable there is bound to rebound on him only. In most cases it may result in immediate revocation. In other cases the carrier stops then and there, no further promotion. Similarly are the missing untouchable engineers from private sector. It is in spite of existence of a large pool of educated MBAs and Engineers among untouchables due to reservation policy in education.

Normally, the untouchables get lowly paid and irregular jobs. One reason is that they do not have required skills and education for better-paid jobs. Secondly they got the lowly paid jobs because there is no competition from upper castes. For them it is easier to get the jobs in the traditional occupations of their jatis. In other word it is easier for them to get the unclean jobs, which nobody else is willing to do. The polluted jobs for polluted people, a perfect fit for market as well as society. Both the purposes are served at the same time. This points out the value of society doubling as market. These jobs are unclean and they have heredity birth right over such jobs. This encloses them in a space where they actually do not want to stay. This is called job security by the esteemed defenders of Varna dharma or caste system. However, this security of job does not get translated into the ability to make both the ends meet. These jobs cannot remove the poverty of untouchables. An untouchable is normally unwilling to do such jobs but he has to because other jobs are not available to him. The society follows him into market also. Even with this job monopoly over the unclean jobs they cannot make a respectable living. If they are able to ward off the hunger then it is sufficient. The reason is that the demand for goods and services in the unclean sector is not sufficient to provide full time employment to one fifth of the labor force. This is not feasible in any kind of society or economy. Actually it is a grand mockery of market system and the so called division of labor.

Markets and caste - 9

2013-03-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

The market forces clearly reveal the belief of mainstream in non-existence of caste or the caste being irrelevant, only the merit matters! In the areas, which are ruled by market and not affected by the policy of reservations, the presence of untouchables is almost zero. The untouchable there are as existent as non-existent caste. Only upper castes and upper castes prevail there; the preferred castes in preferred segments. And nobody believes in caste! Just a coincidence!!! The non-believers in caste from mainstream are found concentrated in the crucial areas. No entry for the lower castes. The unofficial boycott of lower castes prevails. As a matter of decency and fear of law nobody from upper castes makes a voice about it. Further if they do so then the myth of efficient and merit oriented market system would be broken. The merit to enter in their hallowed circles has to be acquired by birth. The absence of untouchables from such spheres is supposed to be a natural state. Their birth disqualifies them from entry in such places; the places supposed to be open. The presence of untouchables in academic sphere, mass media, business and corporate sector is almost nil. There are standing and unofficial instructions in corporate sector that no Engineer or MBA from the fifth stratum is to be employed. The mercantile castes also contribute all their might to maintain the dharma. Earlier their contributions to defend the dharma were mainly limited to practice of untouchability and donations to temples. With the development of industries and expansion of markets, the major contributions to upholding of Varna dharma are made by the mercantile communities. The deprivation of untouchables in the open market system should convince anybody of the hold that Varna dharma is having over the people where nobody misses a chance to defend it. It is a holy work. And it is holy to deprive the untouchables of their share in the market. The lowly do not deserve to have chance to accumulate anything in their lifetime. They should limit themselves to lowly paid manual jobs.

Markets and caste - 8

2013-01-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

However, we were talking about the market and the untouchables. The open market is the place where the merit, efficiency and hard work are rewarded. And upper castes insist on this. There must be some catch because these people have denied others the benefit of any such open system for thousands of years; they have always closed the doors of their system to others. There must be some catch. There is. The society doubles as market. The discriminating society doubles as discriminating market. The depriving society doubles as depriving market. The deprived sections of society remain deprived sections in market. Remember a manual excreta scavenger cannot run a teashop where his caste is known, the market forces will soon force him to close it, and the dharma will be served.

Markets and caste - 7

2012-12-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

The God, the markets, the innately superior upper castes the dogs, the Shudras and the untouchables. How much God benefits out of it, is still to be calculated. Somebody has to do this tedious and adharmic job. The God must have gotten awfully rich but He has no need for any kind of riches. So where have such riches gone? Nobody knows. Nobody dares to know. Here the cowardice emerges as a pious attribute, people take pride in possessing such cowardice and it is also gospelled as one of the elements of great Indian cultural heritage. See nobody asks a question. The infamous hell is waiting for people who dare to ask the ultimate use of their hard earned money given for religious purpose. They will be born as leeches and worms in their next lives. Most of the time their money and labor go to fill the coffers of permanent exploiters. The soul never dies. This unpunishable soul must be punished for such questions. The religious cowardice and religious unanswerability are all pervading in their respective segments; the cowardice in lower and unaswerability in upper.

Markets and caste - 6

2012-11-06T10:59:00.003-08:00

The upper caste people do not understand the concept of deprivation because they have never experienced it as a community. They are living in a society which actively, vehementically and as a mater of principle, deprives untouchables of social, economical and political opportunities and leaves them surplus barely for their sustenance that is very near to starving level. The starving and weak people are good for the welfare of the divine dharma. The source of this is the divinely ordained Varna dharma devised by pious and pure lawmakers. It neatly fits in the preference for the open market system based on efficiency and merit. The same society goes on deliberately providing opportunities for the high caste privileged people on a lavish and permanent scale. Any the insulted majority is born to serve them. The privilege of walking freely on the streets of villages is not available to every fifth Hindu. It requires them to be born in a different caste. Taking birth in any caste should have been a voluntary process; but the God, out of his absent mindedness, forgot to make it so. Instead the God created lawmakers who created Karma theory and condemned majority of people to sub standard life. These people are preferred in market place does not mean that others are also allowed the same extraordinary privilege. Certainly, the market is much more important than the village streets. The rules, which are applicable to village streets, must strictly be applicable to market also.

Markets and caste - 5

2012-09-27T00:41:00.005-07:00

Then again the question is that why should the present generations of lower strata should suffer for the misdeeds of the ancestors of present upper castes. Why, indeed why? The present generations of lower castes have to suffer because the damage done to their community by the glorified ancestors of present upper castes was permanent in nature. One man in the past simply did not kill the other in a one sided manner. But the whole community was deliberately paralyzed. The damage did not end with the demise of two persons concerned, in the past. It enclosed the untouchables in state of permanent degradation and the Shudras in a little less level of degradation. It was proudly and gloriously carried forward. No guilt, no responsibility, and the clear conscious shines brightly with an impeachable conscience. The merit reigns supreme as it reigned supreme in the times when untouchables were not allowed to read, not allowed to carry arms, not allowed to own property. The merit reigned supreme in the closed gates of Varna dharma. All the entire positions of crucial importance were occupied by the upper caste from where they guided the wretched destinies of others, in a downward direction. The reasons for unimpeachable merit residing within the fort of Varna dharma are not known. Usually merit does not need protection. But then the ancestors of upper castes were very intelligent. They knew what was to be done. Paralyzing whole communities was not below their ethics or morality; very ethical and moral. They always had high level of ethics and morality. There should be no doubt about it and they will surely do it in the future. The account should be made clear.

Markets and caste - 4

2012-08-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

A further important point is raised by the upper caste candidates. Why should they suffer for the wrongs committed by their forefathers? A point indeed - nobody should suffer for the crimes not committed by him. The justice demands it. Additionally it is perfectly logical. If it is not logic on their side then it is great cultural heritage. They always find something to fall back upon, very resourceful people. However the point raised by them, is very reasonable. The present generation of upper castes should not be punished for the ghastly crimes committed by their dastardly ancestors. Oh sorry – they should not be punished for the small trivial acts of their esteemed, intelligent, moral, spiritual, ethical, honest, pious and pure ancestors who have left a great cultural heritage for their future generations.

However through this argument they disown their own forefathers. They are disassociating themselves from their ancestors. This kind of disassociation is not allowed by Hindu society. A Chamar is always a Chamar since his forefathers were Chamars. A Bhangi is always a Bhangi since his forefathers were Bhangis. It is ordained by the Hindu society. The Indian Constitutions forbids it but that hardly matters. If a Chamars wants to disown his forefathers then he is not allowed, barring few exceptions. If a Bhangi wants to disown his forefather then he is not allowed so. His identity will always be that of his forefathers. Now the pillars of the society want the privilege of disowning the forefathers for themselves. Sure they will have to suffer for thousands of years in hell for disowning their forefathers but that is none of our concern. They want to cut themselves off from their ancestors’ atrocities but still enjoy the facilities provided by the foundation created and resources accumulated by their ancestors because of their privileged caste positions. Actually it is part of great civilization with its great cultural heritage. This great cultural heritage always seems to have benefited the castes at the top. It dislikes lower two strata. And even goes hating and making some people untouchables. The present generations of upper castes do not want to be known as the inheritors of oppressors, tormentors, killers and permanent exploiters.

Markets and caste - 3

2012-07-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

However, there are some objections to the policy of reservations. These objections have mainly come from the anguished portion of resourceful community of upper castes. These affected resourceful people who have everything in the society and economy find that they have been discriminated against by the policy of reservations. Their rightful jobs and education seats are being taken away by the undeserving candidates from lower strata who do not want to work hard and earn their seats through merit. This is a democratic system and such a system of reservations is against the fundamental equality provided by the Constitution. Any thing, which happened in the past, is none of their concern. The past is past and let us look at the future and move forward. They are supposedly interested in making a meritorious and efficient India. Social justice and atrocities are none of their concerns. Paralyzing 20 percent of Hindus is none of their concern. The unofficial caste system, which favors them, is supposedly non-existent. That they have all their own selectors in all the fields is none of their concerns. These selectors who select the people from upper castes do not enter into their calculations. Their future is at stake and only that matters. Of course it is all in the name of making a meritorious India. The reservations promote the inefficiency in the system and frustration in upper caste candidates. It promotes laziness and laggardness in the candidates from reserved category. The commitments and sincerity of bright and brilliant upper caste candidates are punished. It creates brain drain out of country. The open market system is the best, which does not take into consideration the caste of a participant. All participants are equal, some are more equal than others; see the caste tells. The reservations promote the conflict, alienation and uneasiness among the different categories of people in any institute or office. Reverse discrimination is not the way to help these people. These people should be helped through scholarship etc.; in other words these dastardly people should stay where they were until historically honest moral and ethical upper caste selectors select them out of charity and compassion for the lower most jobs. You must see how many untouchables are there where the jobs are not reserved for them; it would assure you of honesty, sincerity and unbiasedness of upper caste selectors who are free from any kind of low level prejudice. If untouchables are not found there then it means that these people are not fit for such kinds of jobs. The lower level people cannot be free of any kind of prejudice; only high level people can do it because of their cultured upbringing.

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.