Myths, meaning and purpose of the Caste system
The Caste System or varna-ashrama has been one of the most
misrepresented, misinformed, misunderstood, misused and the most maligned
aspects of Hinduism. If one wants to understand the truth, the original purpose
behind the caste system, one must go to antiquity to study the evolution of the caste system.
Caste system has been
exploited against the Hindus, for the last two centuries by the British, Christian
Missionaries, Secular historians, Communists, Muslims, Pre and
Post-Independence Indian politicians and Journalists for their own ends. One way to discredit any system is to highlight its excesses, and this
only adds to the sense of inferiority that many Indians feel about their own
culture. Caste system is often portrayed as the ultimate horror, in
the media, yet social inequities continue to persist in theoretically
Egalitarian Western Societies. The Caste system is judged offensive by the
Western norms, yet racial groups have been isolated, crowded into reserves like
the American Indians or Australian Aborigines, where they can only atrophy and
disappear.
I am not going to give
any justification of the abuse of caste system, rather provide a collection of
interesting information.
“The seers of the early
Vedic period know nothing of caste. Delve as much as one may into the
literature of the period, one discovers only classes not castes” (Garrot, 2005). Caste
is a word which in most minds is most strongly connected with Hindu social
order but this practice did not exist in the ancient India (Nadkarni, 2003; Basham,
2008).
Alain Danielou, French historian
and Indologist, says: "Caste system has enabled Hindu civilization to
survive all invasions and to develop without revolutions or important changes,
throughout more than four millennia, with a continuity that is unique in
history. Caste system may appear rigid to our eyes because for more than a
thousand years Hindu society withdrew itself from successive domination by
Muslims and Europeans.”
How is Varna
(social order) determined?
Lord Krishna says, “The four fold division of castes’
“was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and
duties.” “Not birth, not sacrament, not learning, make one dvija (twice-born),
but righteous conduct alone causes it.”
“Be he a Sudra or a member of any other class, says the Lord in the same epic,
“he that serves as a raft on a raftless current , or helps to ford the
unfordable, deserves respect in everyway” (Bhagawad Gita, the sacred Hindu text, sloka 29, Chapter 9).
The modern Indian
philosopher Sri Aurobindo says in his book India’s rebirth "Caste was originally an
arrangement for the distribution of functions of society, just as much as class
in Europe, but the principle on which the distribution was based in India was
peculiar to this country.”
What is the necessary to
make such divisions?
India’s first spiritual
and cultural ambassador to the west, Swami Vivekanantha explains the reasons…
"Caste is a plan
we want to follow- - .There is no country in the world without caste. The plan
in India is to make everybody a Brahmin, the Brahmin being the ideal of
humanity. Indian caste is better than the caste that prevails which prevails in
Europe or America."
"Caste is a very
good thing. Caste is the plan we want to follow. What caste really is, not one
in a million understands. There is no country in the world without caste. The
plan in India is to make everybody Brahmana, the Brahmana being the ideal of
humanity. If you read the history of India you will find that attempts have
always been made to raise the lower classes. Many are the classes that have
been raised. Many more will follow till the whole will become Brahmana. That is
the plan.
According to modern
sciences, the Universe is made up of basic physical particles that include
electrons, protons, neutrons, mesons and quarks. At a spiritual level, however, the Universe is made up of
something even more basic. These basic particles are known as the three subtle
basic components (trigunas) namely Sattva, Raja and Tama. These gunas
are not inherited. They are based on one’s inherent nature and one’s karma.
Therefore one’s “varna” was also not supposed to be based on heredity, and in
the past it was not. It is only in relatively modern times that the strict,
rigid, heredity-based “caste” system has come into existence (Jones, 2012).
As there are three basic
components sattva (Spiritual quality), rajas (active quality) and tamas
(material/inert quality) - one or other of these gunas more or less present in every
man, so the qualities which make a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or a Shudra are
inherent in every man, more or less. But
at time one or other of these qualities predominates in him in varying degrees
and is manifested accordingly (Swami Vivekananda, 1985; Jones, 2012). It
follows, therefore, that for his own salvation as well as for social efficiency
an individual should be
allowed to develop along the lines best suited to his natural endowments and
that he on his part should perform the duties assigned to him in accordance
with the predominant quality of the strand in his nature (Haldane, 1958).
The well-known episode of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita is a typical illustration
of this philosophy of life. Dismayed, he refuses to fight; but Lord Krishna,
the preacher, prevails upon him to discharge the duty proper to his Kshatriya
caste" (Garrot, 2005).
In simple terms, the
Mahabharata defines the varna qualities thus: "He in whom you find
truthfulness, generosity, absence of hatred, modesty, goodness and
self-restraint, is a brahmana. He
who fulfills the duties of a knight, studies the scriptures, concentrates on
acquisition and distribution of riches, is a kshatriya. He who loves cattle-breeding, agriculture and money, is
honest and well-versed in scripture, is a vaishya.
He who eats anything, practises any profession, ignores purity rules, and takes
no interest in scriptures and rules of life, is a shudra." The higher the varna, the more rules of self-discipline
are to be observed. Hence, a jati could collectively improve its status by
adopting more demanding rules of conduct, e.g. vegetarianism (Elst, 1994).
The
ancient Indians who planned society on the basis of varna understood human
nature better and planned a pattern of society in which there would be less
chaos, less struggle and less dissatisfaction. They found out that all people
fall naturally, into four types. No other civilization saw,
appreciated, and classified so precisely the full spectrum of human personality
types and once again honored them all (Smith, 2009).
The Varna- class system
illustrates the spirit of comprehensive synthesis, characteristic of the
ancient Indian mind with its faith in the collaboration of races and the
cooperation of cultures. Paradoxical as it may seem, the system of varna was
the outcome of tolerance and trust (Jain, 2011). The division of caste into
different varnas is the stepping-stone to civilization, making one rise higher
and higher in proportion to one's learning and culture. In Europe, it is
everywhere victory to the strong and death to the weak. In the land of Bharata
(India), every social rule is for the protection of the weak. Such is our ideal
of caste, as meant for raising all humanity slowly and gently towards the
realization of the great ideal of spiritual man, who is non-resisting, calm,
steady, worshipful, pure and meditative. In that ideal there is God. "
The Indian caste system is not a hierarchy with some who
are privileged and others who are despised; it
is a natural ordering of diversity, an organizing principle, of a society
wherein differences are embraced rather than ignored
(Danielou, 2013). Each class was regarded as an integral part of the fabric of
society. Each submitted cheerfully to the special functions and duties assigned
to it (Haldane, 1991; Garrat, 2005). It
is in the nature of society to form itself into groups; and what will go will
be these privileges! Caste is a natural
order. I can perform one duty in
social life, and you another; but that is no reason why you are greater than I,
for can you mend my shoes? Can I govern the country? I am clever in mending
shoes, you are clever in reading Vedas, as simple as that (Swami Vivekananda,
1985). In the caste system it is up to the individual to achieve perfection in
the state to which he or she is born, since to a certain extent that state also
forms part of a person's nature. All people must accomplish their individual spiritual destinies while,
as members of a social group, ensuring the continuity of the group and
collaborating in creating a favorable framework for all human life--thereby
fulfilling the collective destiny of the group (Haldane, 1958, 1991; Danielou,
2013). Caste system provided for positive Social Networking and support the
rule of the people who have organized themselves in a living and not a
mechanical relationship; compared to the total alienation of Young people in
the West (Heard, 1942; Danielou, 2013).
Caste is
only natural way of solving life. There appeared to have been a tacit
understanding that different classes of individuals stood at different stages
of evolution and that, therefore, the duties, modes of life, and rules of
conduct applicable and helpful to each must necessarily differ. The differentiation was,
however, regarded only as a means to an end, not an end in itself. It
assigned to each individual his due position in the social order; it regulated
his relation with other members of the community, and provided means for his
orderly development, eliminating possibilities of a clash of interests between
master and servant, landlord and tenant, capital and labor, state and subject (Haldane,
1958, 1991; Garrot, 2005). And that is what we want, no privilege for anyone,
equal chances for all; let everyone be taught that the Divine is within, and
everyone will work out his own salvation (Swami Vivekananda, 1985). The whole body of Sanskrit literature shows that the caste system was
deliberately devised as a means to attain the coveted end of realizing the
divine within man (Garrot, 2005).
It is the caste system
which holds Indians together and has allowed eternal India to endure. "So
long as the Hindus hold on to the caste system, India will be India; but from
the day they break from it, there will be no more India” (Robinson, 1980;
Sorman, 2001; Basham, 2008).
"Caste is not
intrinsic to Hindusim (Nadkarni, 2003), jaati, kula and varna are not only
intrinsic to Hinduism, they are in fact the cornerstones of our society” (Radha
Rajan, editor of vigilonline). Without them, we would be just another
intolerant monotheist culture. Hindu society remains largely autonomous, power
is broad-based and culture is diverse only because of jati, kula and varna. To
melt them all down to Portuguese ‘caste’ and then destroy it is Abrahamic evil
intent (Jones, 2012).
Sir Sidney Low
(1857-1932) in his book, A Vision of India: with a frontispiece says that Caste,
in a fundamental way, has been a reason for the longevity of Indian civilization
from the shocks of politics and the cataclysms of Nature for centuries (Sorman,
2001). It is a system
theory axiom that a centralised, monolithic system is vulnerable to a
single-point failure. But a distributed system, which has many smaller,
independent, nodes, is far more difficult to destroy. Castes have functioned as
these distributed nodes, and thus no attacker could overthrow the system
(Robinson, 1980; Srinivasan, 2007). The caste system is undeniably a valuable
social capital, which provides a cushion for individuals and families to deal
with society and the state. But the Western model of atomising every individual to a single element in a
right-based system and forcing the individual to have a direct link with the
state has destroyed families and erased communities. Every person stands
alone, stark naked, with only rights as his imaginary clothes to deal directly
with the state. 'Caste' is now a Dangerous Geopolitical Game. Caste is a stick
to beat India with and for the West to interfere in her internal affairs (Elst,
1994).
Caste is perceived as an "exclusion-from," but
first of all it is a form of "belonging-to," a natural structure of
solidarity. For this reason, Christian and Muslim missionaries
found it very difficult to lure Hindus away from their communities. Sometimes
castes were collectively converted to Islam, and Pope Gregory XV (1621-23)
decreed that the missionaries could tolerate caste distinction among Christian
converts; but by and large, caste remained an effective hurdle to the
destruction of Hinduism through conversion. That is why the missionaries
started attacking the institution of caste and in particular the brahmin caste.
This propaganda has bloomed into a full-fledged anti-brahminism, the Indian
equivalent of anti-Semitism.
Every caste had a large
measure of autonomy, with its own judiciary, duties and privileges, and often
its own temples. Inter-caste affairs were settled at the village council by
consensus; even the lowest caste had veto power. This autonomy of intermediate levels of society is the
antithesis of the totalitarian society in which the individual stands helpless
before the all-powerful state. This decentralized structure of civil society and of the
Hindu religious commonwealth has been crucial to the survival of Hinduism under
Muslim rule. Whereas Buddhism was swept away as soon as its monasteries
were destroyed, Hinduism retreated into its caste structure and weathered the
storm. Nineteenth-century Westerners projected the colonial situation and the
newest race theories on the caste system: the upper castes were white invaders
lording it over the black natives. This outdated view is still repeated by anti-Hindu authors: now that
"idolatry" has lost its force as a term of abuse, "racism"
is a welcome innovation to demonize Hinduism (Elst, 1994). Since
the 19th century both Indian and European reformers have not stopped harping on
the social ills of the caste system. But nothing, neither socialism nor
nationalism nor republican egalitarianism nor any other doctrine of Western
origin, has managed to replace it (Sorman, 2001). Caste has given Indian society stability and protection from Foreign
Invaders and today's corrupt Government. Caste is our social capital. We don't
have to become apologists.
Peter D. Ouspensky a
Russian esotericist, said that "Whether people wish it or
not, whether they recognize it or not, they are divided into four castes”.
There are Brahmans, there are Kshatriyas, there are Vaishyas, and there are
Shudras. No human
legislation, no philosophical intricacies, no pseudo-sciences and no form of terror
can abolish this fact. "The caste system (varna vyavastha) is a natural
division of society and the normal functioning and development of human
societies are possible only if this fact is recognized and acted on"
(Basham, 2008)
References:
Danielou, Alain 2013 - India:
A Civillization of Difference
Basham, 2008 - The
Wonder That Was India: A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent
Before the Coming of the Muslims
Elst Koenraad, 1994 Why
the Christian missionaries attack the institution of caste and in particular
the brahmin caste? - September 1994 - Hinduism Today Magazine
G T Garratt, 2005 - Legacy
of India, Oxford At the Clarendon Press, p. 132 – 140
Haldane JBS 1958 - A
passage to India
Haldane JBS 1991 - Science
and Indian Culture, p.19 & p.24
Heard, Gerald 1942 - Man, the Master, p. 129
Jain, Pankaj 2011 - The
Caste system of the Hindu Society - huffingtonpost.com
Jones, William 2012 - Understanding
Caste System: Anatomy and Anomaly
Londhe, 2009 - A
Tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and Wisdom spanning continents and time about
India and her Culture
Nadkarni M V, 2003 - Is
Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism? Demolishing a Myth - Economic and Political
Weekly - November 8' 2003
Robinson, William 1980 -
By Temple Shrine and Lotus Pool, wrote
on p. 66
Smith Hudson, 2009 - The
World's Religions
Srinivasan Rajeev, 2007
- Nothing wrong with caste: Birth and berth - http://rajeev2007.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/in-defense-of-caste/#more-33
Sorman, Guy 2001 - The Genius of India ('Le Genie de l'Inde')
Macmillan India Ltd, p. xiii - 56-58
Swami Vivekananda,1985
- On India and Her Problems and The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Kolkata,
Vol V, pp 215
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