Caste in India - Part II

Who are the overwhelming casualties of the country’s economic miracle? No surprises here: the Dalits and Adivasis  make up the majority of the millions who have been displaced by mines, dams and major infrastructure projects.

by Michael Cooke-12 Jun 2022

The lineaments of modern caste 

Times change, the modes and relations of production change, chieftains become kings, kings become emperors, empires come and go. The vast wooded Indo-Gangetic plain is colonised for agriculture and the original inhabitants of these regions are banished and are either demonised or brushed out of history. The surpluses accruing from this vast colonisation supported great civilisations, like the Maurya and Gupta empires. The Mauryas and Guptas presided over unprecedented artistic, religious and cultural innovation.  By 100 BCE caste still existed but it had different configurations. People and cultures intermingled: varna became less important and jati (birth) and endogamy (i.e., marrying within a person’s clan/caste/group) became central in the rituals and daily practices of society.

In the Manusmriti, also known as the Manava-Dharamasastra (Laws of Manu), we find set out the rules and caste hierarchy of what the elite of the day saw as the basis of the society they ruled. It is believed to be the first ancient legal text and constitution among the many Dharmasastras of Hinduism. It was written in Sanskrit and can be dated to around 200 BCE to 300 BCE. It is written as a discourse delivered by Manu on dharma. It deals with duties, rights, laws, conduct and virtues, amongst other topics. The fame and influence of the text spread outside India, long before the arrival of Islam and western imperialists. The text influenced Buddhist kingdoms in Burma and Thailand and Hindu kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia. Its influence was also felt in Lanka.

According to the text, caste was central from the very beginnings of life on earth.  The universe was in a deep sleep and the One ‘who is beyond the range of senses’ brought forth the waters; he was reborn himself as ‘Brahma the Grandfather of all worlds’. To fill the land, he created the Brahmin, the highest caste from his mouth, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaishya from his thighs and from his feet the Shudra, the lowest of the four varnas. The ‘invisible ones’ were deemed so low that they were beneath the feet even of the Shudras.  

 Wilkerson, in her study of racial prejudice in the United States, uses the Hindu concept of caste to explain the persistence of racism in the United States. Wilkerson argues that caste is more than rank, it is a state of mind that holds everyone captive; the dominant imprisoned in the illusion of their own entitlement; the subordinate trapped in the purgatory of someone else’s definition of who they are, and what they should be.  A crippling psychosis which is as much ideological, as economic.

Many practicing liberal and urbane Hindus, like Dr Sashi Tharoor, largely ignore this issue The only mention of caste in his book on Hinduism is to illuminate its gradual eradication. To drive home his point, Tharoor refers to a medieval era reformer of caste, Basavanna (1131-1167 BCE), a Brahmin who rejected caste; he also mentions the rejection of caste (in theory) by the Sikh religion.  What Tharoor fails to mention is that the later devotees of Basavanna readopted caste positions, with their attendant privileges and inequities. Caste has had its critics over the centuries. Professor Basham points out that religious thinkers and leaders of the late middle-ages such as Basava, Ramanand and Kabir tried to abolish caste practices amongst their devotees. But over time the pull of caste was too strong and the sects they founded took on the characteristics of new castes and in some cases divided into castes themselves. This phenomenon can be observed also amongst the Christians and Muslims in the subcontinent, where unlike their counterparts around the globe developed strong caste biases. Even the devotees of Buddha, who was a strong critic of caste, succumbed.

Caste in Modern India

Why caste persists is complicated, but a couple of things stand out: economic disparity and religious ideology and cultural practices tied to dharma in Hinduism. Even before the era of British imperialism the subcontinent had been a land of economic extremes. Income and social disparities were huge even under the rule of the Guptas, as visitors remarked. When the Mughal Empire had the largest Gross Domestic Product on the earth, opulence and squalor co-existed. In modern India, which is now an economic colossus, economic inequality is stark. Capitalism and caste intertwine in interesting ways and have accentuated the caste divide, as India transforms itself into an economic powerhouse. 

Many of India’s socio-economic indicators are on par with some of the poorest African countries. Welfare provision by the state is virtually non-existent, and when it is provided is inadequate. Here caste plays a vital role. It is a social security net. It can be a form of welfare, to help less well-off members of one’s clan, family and caste. Notwithstanding this, Basham, trusting in a secular, educated, modern India, was confident that it would in time die out.   This did not happen. This is because the ideological and cultural construct of caste intertwined with the economic.

The Manusmriti makes clear that dharma is a central ideological and religious construct in the concept of caste. Dharma is the eternal and inherent nature of reality and is regarded in Hinduism as a key construct. As Professor Basham points out, dharma is a general norm of conduct which all must follow equally. There is a dharma that is appropriate to each stage in the life of an individual. The dharma of men of high birth is not the same as that of people lower down the scale. Basham argues that a ‘thoroughgoing recognition that men are not all the same, and there is a hierarchy of classes, each with its separate duties and distinctive way of life, is one of the most striking features of ancient Indian sociology’. 

Complicating this is metempsychosis - the transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species, depending on how well or badly an individual has lived his or her life -karma. Fused with this is the idea of status, of being pure or polluted. All this is dependent on a past life and the laws of Manu.  This is a powerful hegemonic construct that has rarely been questioned or debated within Hinduism, except by a few reformers from higher castes and much more insistently in the modern era by those who bear the brunt of its material consequences – the Dalits and tribal people. 

For all India’s enviable growth rates, 65 per cent of the population live in the countryside, in millions of villages. These villages, regardless of their religious persuasion, are strictly demarcated by caste and complex rules of deference. Each caste has its special role and place to live. Dalits are usually not allowed to live in the village environs. In Indian villages and towns everybody knows or thinks they know the family and caste lineages of others. This is coupled with an economic inequality based on caste and manifested in casual violence, exploitation and assault, especially on women. It is governed by the village elders and the local Panchayats (local governing councils), comprised of men from higher castes who adjudicate rules of behaviour regarding the sharing of food, access to water, rules of social distancing, where people can live, the type of work they can do and who can marry who. It is enforced by the local police, who share the caste positions and assumptions of the governing councils. 

Sometimes caste issues bubble out of the villages and the suburbs and slum of urban areas and come to the nation’s attention. In the late 1970s, water rights between castes flared up in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (United Provinces) and Bihar. Caste becomes glaring apparent during elections as many people do not cast their individual vote but their caste vote; this is euphemistically known as ‘vote banks’. This has been evident since mass elections have been the norm and accelerated during the 1950s in Nehru’s India. 

At the height of the country’s neo-liberal experiment there was a corresponding rise in the self- consciousness of Dalits, accompanied by an escalation of caste conflict. Dalits began to see themselves as exploited wage workers rather than servants to the landlord. The root of the conflict was in the relations of production, but was expressed in caste terms.  The Dalits bore the brunt of the violence from higher castes who were outraged that they were demanding equal rights in terms of wages, working conditions, access to water, and education.  

The province of Tamil Nadu serves as a bellwether on the issue of inter-caste conflict, as reflected in the conflict between the middle-level landowning caste the Thevars and the Dalits during the 1990s. The Thevars were aggrieved that the Dalits (who had been reduced to scavenging) had taken advantage of the quota system to join the coveted Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Further inflaming the situation, the Dalits had refused to be served tea in a separate area. They also asked for a living wage. These clashes were bloody and at least a 100 people lost their lives. 

At the same time there was conflict in the North between Dalits and the Sikh jats. The latter resented the assertiveness of the labouring and artisanal classes, who were asking for better conditions and to be treated as human beings. In poorer states like Bihar, where one found the grossest forms of feudalism and very extensive poverty, caste violence erupted and mutated into a protracted guerrilla war, with the Dalits and scheduled tribes on one side and their caste overlords on the other, helped by their allies in parliament, business and the armed forces. This intermittent and deadly warfare has been going on since the late 1960s (even earlier in certain areas). The exploitation of the lower castes has intensified during the turbo-charged capitalism of the new India. 

The Mandal Commission on affirmative action for lower castes recommended an increase in quotas which favoured the lower castes. This resulted in a storm of anger and violence from the middle and upper castes, who felt they were being unfairly denied jobs and university places. The protest flew in the face of the evidence.  A subsequent court case upheld the findings of the Commission. The saga also illuminated the way caste infects even the universities. 

Dalits, even if they win a university scholarship, find that their rights to accommodation, books, bursaries, stationery and lectures are blocked by academics and the bureaucracy, who are from the higher castes. Harassment and in some cases violence ensues. A number of Dalit students have committed suicide as a result. The figures speak for themselves: the judiciary, academia and media are overwhelmingly run by the higher castes, with a leavening of the middle castes. The owners of capital are largely Vaisyas. It is virtually impossible for a lower caste person to breach the wall of privilege even with a degree and the requisite skills.  

Whilst there have been notable Dalits who have risen to top jobs in business, politics and finance, as exemplified by the President of the Republic, the vast majority have not broken through. The link between employment and caste status holds firm. 

Evidence of Caste discrimination

Over 1700 years after the laws of Manu were written it is disheartening to see the relationship between caste and profession. Dalit presence in the top echelons of the government bureaucracy is almost non-existent. In 2015 there were none at the cabinet secretary level.  Seven of the top 10 billionaires are from the Vaishyas; other billionaires include Brahmins, Parsis, Bohras and Khattris (a mercantile caste). The Dalits are absent. 

What about the intellectual class? 47 per cent of all Supreme Court judges between 1950 and 2000 were Brahmin. In Tamil Nadu four of the 38 High Court judges are Dalits. In Marxist-run Kerala only one of the 25 High Court judges is a Dalit. Even in progressive universities the figures are depressing. The current figures are 3.29 per cent Dalits and 1.44 per cent Adivasi, though the quota calls for 15 per cent.  Given their small numbers compared to the lower castes (4.3 per cent of the population are Brahmins and 25 per cent are Dalit), Brahmins make up a whopping 37.17 per cent of the Indian bureaucracy. They also dominate the media. A recent survey found around 90 percent of the decision makers in the English language print media and 79 per cent in the electronic media belonged to the upper castes, with 49 per cent of these being Brahmin. None were Dalits. The owners of these conglomerations are mainly Vaishyas: three of the most influential English-language dailies are owned by Vaishyas and one is a Brahmin.

Who are the overwhelming casualties of the country’s economic miracle? No surprises here: the Dalits and Adivasis  make up the majority of the millions who have been displaced by mines, dams and major infrastructure projects. They also make up the vast majority of the low-paid farm workers and the contract labourers who work in the urban construction industry. 70 per cent of Dalits are landless. In states like Punjab, Bihar, Haryana and Kerala the figure is 90 per cent.

There is one occupation the Dalits are overrepresented. Almost 90 per cent of those designated as sweepers are Dalits – the ones who clean the streets, who go down manholes and the service the overfilled and aging sewerage system, clean toilets and do other menial jobs in the public sector. In contrast, the Dalits are underrepresented when it comes to cleaning modern toilets in the gleaming shopping malls and the pristine toilets in the corporate sector. 

The caste system is at its most stark when it comes to cleaning traditional toilets. There are officially 1.3 million people, Dalits, mostly women, who earn their living by carrying baskets of human offal from traditional toilets that use no water. The Indian Railways is one of the biggest employers of human scavengers. Every day they pick up the offal of the 25 million passengers who use 172,000 open discharge toilets on the trains. Modernity and democracy have not eradicated caste. They have entrenched and modernised it.’ 

Caste prejudice is exported overseas, even amongst the elite graduates who have gained prestigious jobs in Silicon Valley. It seems that high-caste Hindus can now cross the dark water with ease without pollution, while retaining their privileges and prejudices.  

Conclusion

Caste and its social and religious structures are omnipresent. Those who hide their low origins are conflicted and fearful.  As Sujatha Gidla poignantly puts it: 

If you are educated like me, if you don’t seem like a typical untouchable, then you have a choice. You can tell the truth and be ostracized, ridiculed and harassed – even driven to suicide, as happens regularly in universities.

Or like many light-skinned African Americans  one can lie; and one survives the endless probing of family connections, then:

If they believe your lie, then of course you cannot tell them your stories, your family stories. You cannot tell them about your life. It would reveal your caste, your caste is your life. 

The benign and righteous version of caste presented to us as early as the Mahabharata must be confronted and examined, freed from a privileged caste lens. Hindus must learn to be critical of the ideology of dharma, rebirth, endogamy and jati. This requires Hindus of goodwill to empathise with and ally themselves with their fellow brothers and sisters from castes lower than theirs. It also needs an analysis of an economic system currently unquestioned by the two leading parties and a willingness to envisage a fairer system which has social inclusion and equity at its core. 

Such is life

Concluded

References;

 

1.   Wilkerson, Isabel. (2020) Caste – The Lies That Bind Us. Allen Lane, pp. 101 – 110.
2.   Op cite: Wilkerson describes the unconscious imperious behavior of upper-caste Hindu academics when it came to their treatment of their Dalit colleagues at an academic seminar in the United States: pp. 273-276.
3.   Tharoor, Sashi (2018). Why I am a Hindu. Scribe, pp. 101-103.
4.    Basham, op. cit., pp. 151-152.
5.   Basham, ibid., p. 138.
6.   Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 4: Brain to Casting (1961), pp. 974 – 975.  
7.   The above examples are found through Guha’s impressive text on modern India. The main flaw is that these issues are treated as asides, further making the lower castes invisible to many of their compatriots and to the world. See Guha, Ramachandra (2007), India After Gandhi, Pan, pp. 205, 531 – 619.
8.   The above paragraph’s contentions are contained in Yasicha Dutt’s memoir. She interweaves her family history with the prejudices, violence and social barriers that accompany the life of a Dalit, even one from a lower middle class background. She describes the continual fear of being found out and the need to suppressing one’s culture. She, like many others, has proudly come out as a Dalit. See Dutt. Yashica (2019). Coming Out as Dalit. Aleph.
9.   Op. cit., p. 2.
10.   A term used to describe the original inhabitants of the subcontinent who preceded the Arya. 
11.   Roy, Arundhati (2017)/ Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste. The Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi. Haymarket Press, pp. 14 to 20.
12.   Gilbert, David (2020). ‘Silicon Valley Has a Caste Discrimination Problem.’ Vice News, June 8 2020. Retrieved: http://www.vice.com/en/article/3zip5/silicon-valley-has-a-caste-discrimination-problem
13.   The most famous of these is The Imitation of Life. It was filmed twice, once in 1934 and again in 1959. 
14.   Gidla, Sujatha (2018) Ant Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India. Daunt Books, p. 2