EMPOWERMENT OF CASTE

Divide and rule, once followed by the British 200 years ago, is continued to be followed by an entire country till date.

The caste system, one of the oldest forms of social stratification still exists in the country leaving many oppressed.

India, however post-colonial has not been much of an open and safe area for Muslims, Dalits, or the “untouchables” in particular. Racism in the western world exists because of someone’s physical appearance or ethnicity while in India, there is an added manner of racism i.e. based on their caste and religion. Racism and casteism are blood brothers, ironically.

As Alfred Adler, an eminent psychologist postulated, “superiority complexes are essentially inferiority complexes in order to mask feelings of insecurity”.

Manusmriti, which was written almost 1000 years, even before Christ was born, says and justifies the caste system based on order and regularity of society dividing the Hindus into four main categories –

1) Brahmins

2) Kshatriyas

3) Vaishyas

4) Shudras

At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are believed to have come from Brahma’s head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas, or the traders, who were created from his thighs. At the bottom of the heap were the Shudras, who came from Brahma’s feet and did all the menial jobs.

The main castes were further divided into about 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes, each based on their specific occupation.

India is a country known for its diversity and also for its inhumane behaviour towards the lower castes or even for the audacity to name people as ‘untouchables’. Fair or light skin, a common notion which is solely considered to be beautiful.

Talking about positive and progressive acts since 1947 is appreciable but nearly 73 years later, this is no excuse to be a racist on any level. Kids or even adults are given no stimulus to change the way they think, and this has led it to be a grey area and people have been living with the same mindsets since generations.

While we saw a white knee crushing a black neck in the Western world, the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad was just considered to be another news column to shake one’s head. Racism is explicit while casteism is that huge blanket that has spread across India which has never been considered as a big deal although it clearly shows the number of lives it has destroyed across the country. The framework of the Hindu sacred texts helped one build the discrimination among the Hindus in itself, as opposed to how it may be viewed by an outsider, But, only if it can be viewed by an outsider at all. Current India is an example that the people living there can go to any extent to protect their caste or “pride” regarding the same.

Since a young age, kids are taught how grateful they must be to even take birth in certain castes along with very few words of tolerance. As they grow up in such an environment, they end up discriminating without even having any slightest thought it.

Forget inter-racial marriages, even an inter-caste marriage is a big NO. They are either shot dead or “murdered” in the name of “honour killing” if they end up going against the ‘society’ and its orders. Zero clues how a third party, almost 3000 years ago has decided whom you will marry while you were clueless until a few years ago. In short, inter-caste marriage was forbidden. Perversely, and hypocritically, untouchability does not seem to apply to prostitution and customers are mainly men from the upper castes.

A sick practice which is being followed by Brahmins or the ‘upper caste’ is that they do not accept food or water from the Shudras. Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places. More than 160 million people in India are considered achuta or untouchable.

The chastity of women is strongly related to caste status. Generally, the higher ranking the caste, the more sexual control its women are expected to exhibit. Brahman brides should be virginal, faithful to one husband and celibate in widowhood. By contrast, a sweeper bride may or may not be a virgin, an extramarital affair may be tolerated, and, if widowed or divorced, the woman is encouraged to remarry. For the higher castes, such control of female sexuality helps ensure the purity of lineage–of crucial importance to the maintenance of high status. Among Muslims, too, high status is strongly correlated with female chastity.

Although we have several people telling this to be unjust or regressive setup, the present or past governments haven’t really changed anything much which has bestowed a lot of privileges on the upper castes while sanctioning repression of the lower castes by the privileged groups. Article 15 of the Indian constitution bans discrimination of people based on their caste o religion or sex.

Politics has been playing its part in upholding the caste system for years. Religion or caste or even both has been the biggest trump card to grab vote during the election period. I assume, the caste system would have disappeared by now if the fires were not regularly fanned by the politicians.

Vedas were the foundation of our culture; it is unfortunate to see how one entire generation was trapped in a variety of misconceptions regarding birth-based caste system based on the same and similar books. Often, we need to be reminded that blood is red in colour only.

Fear of public humiliation, beatings, and rape keep India’s untouchables in their place. Statistics from India’s National Crime Records Bureau indicate that in 2000 25,455 crimes were committed against Dalits. Every hour two Dalits were assaulted; every day three Dalit women raped, two Dalits murdered, and two Dalit homes torched. Majority of crimes go unregistered, because the police, village councils, and government officials often support the caste system, which is based on the teachings of Hinduism or simply because people know that the police will do nothing. Amnesty estimated that only about 5 per cent of attacks are registered.

Racism has been evident enough to be seen by the world, while India alone is struggling to overcome a monster called ‘Casteism’ which has managed to hide behind a veil of religion. We saw how half the world protested when a black man was ill-treated by a white. I, for one, have not seen one ‘upper caste’ protesting or speaking for the ‘lower castes’ or to abolish the system in itself. We have always taught to be selfish and mind your own, probably it is high time that we should try being selfless for once and check if its works and the message should be loud and clear.

Although the influence of the caste system has declined in recent years, it still remains the same in certain villages across the country. Changing the percentage of quota allotted to each caste now or years later will not improve the country as a whole, rather scraping the entire caste system policy would be a game-changer.

We are 3000 years ahead of caste in counting, five-decade ahead of reservation, yet Ambedkar’s words remain etched in the darkest ink on every mind that has realised the dangers of caste in India— “Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path