The Muslim as well Christian societies still bears their birth marks being predominantly of the lower-caste converts, which is why the Sangh Parivar hates them. Thus we need to see communalism in India as basically a derivative of casteism.
Looking superficially at such instances of caste-like stratifications and discriminatory practices, some people who want to be in denial mode, liken these societies to that of India. They forget the fact that what they see is just the residue of the old structure and practices in those societies. They may look like India’s caste system, but they are essentially different. Except for visible aspects of untouchability—discrimination and exclusion—these societies do not reflect the deep-entrenched and pervasive hierarchy, prejudice, and most interestingly, upheld by its social, political, cultural and theological structures. Moreover, they feature in a small section of the society and apply to a miniscule minority as in the case of the Barakumins in Japan, who come probably the closest to India’s Dalits. The Indian caste system is not just based on stratification, but is a continuum of infinite castes strung loosely within the four-fold varna hierarchy which is vested with divine sanction. Although classically not a part of the varna framework, it includes as its distinguishing aspect, the people who are completely segregated as untouchables, and who are themselves divided into numerous castes mirroring the hierarchy of the classical structure. Therefore, the Indian caste system becomes a gigantic, complex, and intricately evolved continuum of simultaneously loose and rigid hierarchy—rigid in the macro framework of varna and loose within it—pervasively practised over a vast geographical area as the life-world of its people. Thus, it differs from others both in qualitative as well quantitative terms.
Notwithstanding many scholarly theories on the origin of castes, the most plausible materialist explanation of their origin could be given in terms of the uniquely rich endowment of the Indian subcontinent which did not require nomadic tribes to undergo structural change while settling for agriculture unlike other parts of the world. In India, with plenty of flat and fertile land, plentiful sunshine and rains, nomadic family units could easily settle without losing their tribal character as against, for instance, England, where because of a narrow window of sunshine and rains, and undulating lands, it required a huge army of labourers to cultivate large tracts of land, giving rise to structures with master and serfs. The Indian castes were to start with these tribal identities which evolved with magico-religious developments associated with agricultural societies into a very complex structure. Somewhere down the line, the outside Aryans vanquished the lands and superimposed their class system, varna system over the castes that already existed. This structure generally comprised the caste system, which went on evolving throughout history without affecting its essential integrity. This perhaps explains why such an intricate system of tribal identities (jati) embedded within the varna class system, together defining the caste system, the hierarchical interrelationship between these individual jatis fortified duly by the complex theological-social structure constructed by the dominating classes, evolved and still survived only in India and not elsewhere.
Traits which really distinguish the Hindu caste, the jati, from the caste-like groups in the rest of the world are: (1) the specific kinship nature of its internal organization, which is very reminiscent of that of a primitive tribe, and (2) its relation to the structure of Indian class society as a whole. Interdining, endogamy, the social norms and customs; ostracization or outcasting as punishment for violation of these norms, the caste councils for their governance, etc. are typical characteristics of tribal kinship groups anywhere. The Indian castes, (actually the subcastes, which are truly endogamous units) display all these tribal traits. Even the exogamous groups within each caste and subcaste are very similar to the gens or clans of primitive tribal society in that all the members of each exogamous group consider themselves descendants of a common ancestor. Such groups have disappeared long ago in most class societies, although we still have remains of them in China, Scotland, and Ireland. Nowhere else have they remained such a fundamental part of the social structure as in India, where they show the close tie-up of the caste with primitive tribal society. Every Hindu belongs, thus, to three social groups: the property-holding family, the exogamous gotra, and the endogamous caste or subcaste, corresponding respectively to the family, the gens, and the tribe in primitive society.
The caste system, a system of social hierarchy, depicts the relationship of these castes to one another. Groups of castes by themselves, just as groups of tribes by themselves, do not necessarily constitute a hierarchy, and what characterizes the castes of India is that they are thoroughly organized in such a hierarchy, even though it may appear somewhat amorphous. This is the superimposition of the varna system over the castes. One of the earliest researcher of castes, Emile Senart had rightly pointed out as early as 1894 that the four varnas are not castes but classes, and that each of these classes today embraces a large number of individual castes whose position in the hierarchy depends upon social function, tradition, occupation, and so on. Thus the Brahmans are not one caste but a class, or rather an estate, comprising hundreds of castes, and this is likewise true for the Kshatryas, Vaisyas, Sudras and also Dalits. The social - theological hierarchy of caste masks the fact that behind this hierarchy and holding it together is this very class nature of Indian society which further is held together by the State. In turn the class nature of society expresses itself in the form of the caste system which has grown out of the interpénétration of caste and class. Thus caste appears as class and class appears as caste. We may even go further and point out that the caste is a caste only insofar as it is part of Hindu class society. If it is outside the pale of such a class society, it constitutes a tribe, as in the case of the aboriginal tribes still existing in India.
Castes are generally spoken about in static term as though they were in a deep freezer, fossilized, sans change, and not a living category. The confusion between varna and caste or caste and untouchability or Shudra and Dalit is commonplace. The caste system had evolved into a formidable system of stratification acquiring self-organizing, self-regulating characteristics. For instance, the structure of the caste system assumed the celestial system, which has million explosions within but still maintains its overall form. The caste system also had numerous low-key inter-caste contentions within the belly of a varna, but at the same time all castes abided by their varna hierarchy. This dynamics lent the system its resilience without ever challenging the macro structure. Another operative feature of the caste system was that all castes were held together in an interdependent relationship that ensured subsistence of all their members albeit corresponding to their caste status. The system provided them with a sense of security; the only condition being that the people ought to follow their caste dharma. Every caste had its psychological comfort or discomfort and differential benefits or losses. The exploitation and oppression was ingrained in the system but was so diffused that it was impossible to discern who precisely was the exploiter and who the exploited. Even the Brahman varna, which was ensconced at the top of the varna hierarchy, had various Brahman sub-castes which contended for higher status among themselves. And the situation was no different with the untouchables, who even being avarnas mirrored the same contention. The division between the Dwija castes, who did not live by the sweat of their brows and the Shudras and the untouchables who were to slog in service to them, which could only be noted in modern times, was not viable as it still is not. The structure did not permit the emergence of any such broad division anywhere that would threaten the system. This explains why castes are the longest living man-made system in the world and are still kicking.
Castes were the life-world of people living in the subcontinent and they were resilient to adapt to the political-economic changes that befell the subcontinent. Moreover, while they were a subcontinental phenomenon, their operation was very much local as there were no means of easy transportation or communication. For the most part of history, whatever changes that took place due to changes in political economy, were confined to the Dwija castes; they did not affect the life-world of the lower, labouring castes, viz., Shudra and the untouchables as they did not have any interface with those changes. The first time they were affected was by the Muslim rule when it stabilized. That was the first time they saw that there could be an alternative god and an alternative religion, which speaks of equality among human beings. They were introduced to Islam mainly through Sufi saints, who mixed with them and spoke about human brotherhood. The Muslim rule also gave them an opportunity to leave their villages to work in guilds in cities, which came up with the advanced feudalism that the Muslim rulers brought. There was a huge exodus of the lower castes to Islam. But later when the upper caste elites also began converting to Islam for the lure of pelf and power, the castes entered the Islamic society. The phenomenon was more pronounced in the case of conversion to Christianity later in the colonial period. The Muslim as well Christian societies still bears their birth marks being predominantly of the lower-caste converts, which is why the Sangh Parivar hates them. Thus we need to see communalism in India as basically a derivative of casteism.
....CONTD>>>>>
Understanding Castes for their Annihilation part-1
O- Anand Teltumbde
Anand Teltumbde is a writer and civil rights activist with the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Mumbai.
