On The Question Of Caste

The burning of Manusmriti

“sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah

para-dharmat sv-anusthitat
sva-dharme nidhanam sreyah
para-dharmo bhayavahah”

The above extract from Chapter 3, Verse 35 of the Bhagavad Gita, the allegedly holy text of the Brahminical sect of the Hindu religion may have been justified by Hindu apologists and fundamentalists, as a mean of separating karma, but when looked at from a dialectical perspective, it has been used as an instrument of class division and class oppression.

An instrument of oppresion which has existed since 1500 B.C., the caste system is still very much in practice today, existing throughout the seiges led by Islamic and Christian invaders, who adjusted to the system as they seemed fit. Inspite of it’s existence in the superstructure and being a purely cultural construct, it has evolved, retaining its use as a tool of social oppression throughout - the development of class society, emergence of state, the development of slavery and feudalism, the forceful assimilation of tribes into the exploitative agrarian economy.

THE VARNASHRAMA/ CHATURASHRAMA SYSTEM - The Varnashrama system of the yajna-based Brahminical states divided the tribes into 4 groups – the Brahmins, who acted as the ideological repressive instrument, the Kshatriyas, who acted as the military repressive instrument, the Vaishyas, the free peasantry - “a tributary to the slaves to be oppressed at will”, and the Shudras, the slave-peasants, “the servant of another, to be removed at will.” With the class and caste differences rising, the Brahmins legitimized specific marriage norms – supporting hypergamy among themselves and the Kshatriyas, so that political alliances could be maintained with the chieftains and the kings. However, this further distanced the lower two Varnas, for whom marriage was not restricted, leading to a huge rise in the number of labourers.

This system underwent a transformation, facing a challenge from the atheist materialist school of Lokayata, and the liberal Hindu variants of Jainism and Buddhism. The Varnashrama system, now incorporated the jati system, taking into its fold – all the local tribesmen and clansmen. The tribal elites became the jatis of the Brahmins, whereas most of the labourers were assimilated into the Shudra fold. The mlechhyo or anarya emerged out of the jatis of the Shudras, who later came to be known as the Dalits or ati-shudras. The Vedic codifications were glorious justifications of war and pastoral life, which gave in to the cults of gods like Krishna, Shiva and later Vishnu. It is interesting to note that the cult of Krishna existed centuries earlier than the cult of Vishnu, inspite of Krishna being only a mortal incarnation of Vishnu, the supreme god of the Hindu pantheon. Another major change was, keeping aside the Varnashram system, which restricted the Brahmins to priestly occupations, they had taken up jobs primarily belonging to the Kshatriyas like acting as an advisor to the chieftains and kings; and also transgressing into the trade system, which was mainly the Vaishya domain, previously.

The Smritis and the Shrutis, the codified texts of the Brahmins, depict an inhumane political, social and economical guideline, enforced upon the lower two Varnas, especially the Shudras. Manusmriti or the Laws of Manu, regarded as one of the most important texts of Smritishashtra, was the epitome of hegemony and cruelty upon the Shudras, for which Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti on December 25, 1927. This later came to be known as Manusmriti Dahan Din. These texts also monopolized education in the hands of the Brahmin-Kshatriya majority, as evidenced from the Shambuka-bada Kahini of Ramayana, where “Lord” Rama decapitates Shambuka, a Shudra for trying to study the Vedas in the depths of a jungle. The text justifies the act, by saying that a Shudra, having understood the Vedas would have brought chaos to the world.

THE TURKEY INAVSION - The Turkish invasion of the 13^th century marked a major phase in the feudal mode of production. The urban-based Islamic rulers gave a boost to trade, art, war – which gave rise to an instability in the Brahminical feudatories, and set up new tribal kingdoms to replace them. The chieftains and the elite of these kingdoms had their genealogies prepared from the Brahmins to claim Kshatriya status. However, these new feudatories served as intermediary kingdoms for centralized power like the Mughals or the Marathas.

COLONIZATION - The colonization of India didn’t affect the Varnashrama system much. On the contrary, the East India Company legalized it by incorporating it into the penal law. The Censuses, since 1901, aided Sanskritization by recording religion and caste. It also solidified the status of Brahminism as the dominant variation of Hinduism, leading to the colonial construct of communalism. The introduction of Western education also helped solidify the monopoly of education in the hands of the few. They soon came to occupy the most important positions in the society with their social, economic background, armed with Western education.

RESISTANCE AND REVOLUTION - The tribe-caste continuum model depicts the tribes and the caste system at opposite ends of a segment. Whereas marriage in the tribes was to maintain the identity of the tribe, the marriage in the caste system would be to maintain the purity or pollution status. The struggle of the ancient Nagas, Bhils and other tribes against Aryanization, their resistance against the Brahminical feudatories have been codified in the ancient Vedas, the Smritis and the Shashtras of the Brahmans. A primary example would be the Khandava Dahan incident of Mahabharata during the very end of the Adi-Pawrbo, where Arjuna and Krishna commit arson and genocide against the serpent-worshipping Nagas tribe, and later set up Indraprastha – the capital city of the Pandava brethren.

The radical sections of the anti-caste Non-Brahmin movement, which gained traction during the earlier years of the nineteenth century, denounced Brahminism, hierarchy and caste oppression. The movement was stronger in Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra – with leaders like Jyotiba Phule and Periyar founding the Satyashodhak Samaj and the Self-Respect Movement respectively.

Picking up the movement where the upper-caste reform movements and the Non-Brahmin movements failed, Dr. Ambedkar perceived the necessity of political power for the Dalits, and thus raised the demand for separate electorates for the Non-Brahmins in the Second Round Table Conference. Gandhi, a Hindu reformer, and the Congress opposed this, perceiving a sectarian conflict in the religion. The Poona Pact was a compromise between Ambedkar and Gandhi, banning separate electorates, and putting into play joint electorates with reserved seats. 

Caste oppression, alongside with the Brahminical culture’s domination and lack of opportunities among the Dalit youth led them to revolt under the banner of the Dalit Panthers in 1973, emulating the Black Panthers Movement and the Naxalbari revolution. The revolutionary struggle of these youths led the country to accept the word “Dalit” instead of the derogatory term “Harijan” (suggested by Mahatma Gandhi) with its Hindu connotations. 

     Dalit Panthers

CASTE SYSTEM IN MODERN INDIA - In the post-colonial era of India, the caste system has undergone several changes – partly due to the Zamindary Abolitions Act, the Reservation system and the people’s struggles in the urban areas. The class difference is no longer segregated along caste in the cities, where feudal aristocracy has been weakened. However, today the exploiting class in the rural countryside consist of the upper castes and the upper middle castes – the Brahmins, the Rajputs, the Patidars, the Jats etc. The poor and the landless, who consist of almost 60 percent of the rural households, have the greatest number of caste divisions, in­cluding a large number of small artisan and service jatis, and even Muslims. Hence, caste divi­sions among the exploited are the greatest.

  

The Reservation policy or the Mandal commission implemented by the Janata Dal, as an attempt to check the BJP’s power to dislodge it, was widely protested against by agitators of the upper-caste ABVP and NSUI, whereas their mother-parties BJP and Congress remained silent. The anti-reservation protests are but reactionary attempts to restore their autocracy and perpetuate the caste system.

It must be acknowledged that in a semi-feudal semi-colonial country like India, any such policy by parliamentary democracy, only few shall benefit. Most of the landless peasants remain unaffected by the Reservation policy. This policy is, at best, a means of relief, instead of liberation. The agrarian exploitative economy must be overturned to liberate the masses.

Social-democrats like the Communist Party Of India had taken up the problem of caste as a mere superstructural problem, which wouldn’t exist after the very economic basis was smashed. We have a social, moral and political obligation to resist the oppression laid out by caste hierarchy even before the New Democratic Revolution. The problems of the superstructure cannot be postponed until the seizure of power. The gap between mental and manual labour, urban and rural divide, sexual and caste discrimination must be continuously fought against.

Emulating China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, Naxalbari seemed a daydream of the youths to the upper-caste oppressors. It still remains a nightmare to them.

The movement lives on.