Caste away - some thoughts

Why are many people in India asking for an end to 'reservation' when they should be asking for an end to 'caste'? Solving the wrong problem is the seed for a future problem.

Reservations and other affirmative actions are variables to be directed to whom and where it is needed. It is something you can do about when there is a problem. Caste like race is a non-variable. It is something that you cannot do anything about.

'Discrimination' can be on the basis of variables (marks, grades, performance, etc).
'Discrimination' cannot be on the basis of non-variables (caste, race, etc).

When a non-variable suffers disadvantage it is important to look at whether the non-variable can be removed or the disadvantage can be removed. For instance a person's height is a non-variable so that means we cannot do anything about the height so any disadvantage that relates to the height ought to be removed. So is race.

Caste however though a non-variable is one we could do without. So caste can be removed/eliminated from the equation. Indian caste based reservation system is based on a utility free non-variable, so remove the caste (non-variable) and redirect the reservation to variables that can actually be improved over a period of time.

I am not against reservations but I am against caste. That is more or less like, I am not against intensive care but I am against poor healthcare. If you reduce poor healthcare, then intensive care begins to be used appropriately. Otherwise intensive care becomes the only right place for everyone - that would not make sense, would it?

An ancient oral tradition story of the origin of caste (no religion, scripture, or god invoked and from a perspective not normally known to us - caste as a betrayal) from An Ancient Śūdra Account of the Origin of Castes Hyla S. Converse and Arvind Sharma Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 114, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1994), pp. 642-644 http://www.jstor.org/stable/606171

There was once a great and powerful man who ruled over all the land. He had four sons, all of whom were intelligent and gifted. When the man died he left his undivided property to all four sons. For a time they lived contentedly together, sharing the work and the wealth.

Then the second son went off, with other warriors, to seek adventure and further riches. He asked his youngest brother to take care of his share of responsibilities for the property while he was gone and to see to what- ever his family needed done, promising to re-assume these burdens when he returned. The youngest brother generously agreed. After a time the oldest brother decided to go to a hermitage and seek spiritual fulfillment. He, too, asked his youngest brother to take over his chores and family cares. The third brother was very clever in business and became so preoccupied in trading ventures that he also left to his younger brother the everyday burdens of property and family. So the youngest brother rendered service to the older three for some years. 

At last the older three brothers returned, each successful in his own endeavors. And they no longer wished to re-assume the burdens which their youngest brother had carried for them in their absence. They preferred to continue to pursue their own interests unhampered. And so, instead of showing their youngest brother gratitude and honor for all he had done for them, the older three banded together and burdened him permanently with all those tasks that were distasteful to them, requiring him to be their servant. 

From then on, all the descendants of the youngest brother were named Sudras and were required to be the servants of the descendants of the three older brothers.
(http://www.jstor.org/stable/606171)

Understanding social classifications ( the Indian caste system)

Varna is often thought of as caste, it is also thought to refer to colour. The original meaning of Varna seems to refer 'to choose'; the word and its meaning is therefore very empowering. It indicates free will combined with responsibility. 

Here is when we need to refer to Atreya Smriti. Atri is a Brahmarishi and one of the saptarishis directly from the Rg Veda. (in the grand scheme Atri is more ancient, authentic than Manu of manusmriti).

Atreya Smriti states:

"janmana jayate shudrah
samskarad dvija ucyate
vedapathi bhaved viprah
brahma janati brahmanah

Everyone is born a Shudra
By following disciplines (samskaras), he becomes a dwija (twice born).
By study (of Vedas/scriptures), he becomes a vipra (Learned/wise/scholar)
By knowing/realising the supreme spirit (brahman), he becomes a brahmin."

Hence Varna is a choice that is guided by aspiration, ability and achievement. Nothing to do with birth. Varna is found within families, among tribes/communities. Varna is not transferred or transmitted by birth.

The desire to pass on our credentials to our future generations is of course incredibly attractive (for instance monarchy and hereditary peerage etc). It is the Indian races' extraordinary and ultimate selfishness that created the heredity based caste system. It is one of the greatest example of anti rtu (the natural way of things) and hence in my view anti-vedic.

Genealogy, tribes and communities are extremely important to our identities - no one can deny that. The caste system as practiced currently in India, is the grotesque permanent disfigurement of Indian society by turning an achievement based recognition as heredity, that is the bane of the land now called India.

May the future heal these thousands of years of injuries in a principled manner.

Wrong Influences that persist till today

Manu and Manusmriti is a source of many of the current problems in India's social systems. There is not much doubt that Manu and Manusmriti are great works. How did a great work of the past became a problem of the current times?

This is when it is important to recognise the criticality of language, culture and heritage - when they are interfered with, problems happen. Dharma does not translate to or mean religion; Sanatana Dharma does not translate to or mean Hinduism. Sanskrit words often have no real English equivalents and when translation into English is attempted it often becomes meaningless (yet due due to the dominance of the English language, the distortion becomes the norm).

Similarly, Manusmriti was never 'hindu law' it was observations, aide-memoire, a reference book for the powers of the society to reflect on before acting. The East India Company and the British crown due to the lens of their own culture and background of the Abrahamic (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) nature wanted a Hindu law and the most recent, accessible and detailed text was the Manusmriti which was one of the first texts they translated (so that a equivalent of Koranic law was available for the majority of their subjects); they even coined the term Hindu(ism) in the 18th/19th century thus creating the current 'religion' of 'Hinduism'. The word Hindu never referred to a religion, it originally refers to a region and its people.

While Manusmriti remains a significant source of reflection, it bears the curse of the East India Company. Time to shake it off. The British did not create caste in India, social problems indeed existed for ages. What the British did was to lock out many angles of Bharath's own reflection and replaced it with a dominant stream of thinking that was not Indian. Translate that which is not translatable, codify that which should not be codified. In the case of Manusmriti they treated a thesaurus as the book of law.

This is an example of what happens when language, culture and history gets distorted and replaced - the soul of entire populations are left in disarray for many generations. It is important to mix freely and add richness to each others cultures but foolish to abandon your own in the process.

My conclusion is that the people of the country now called India need to reclaim a range of aspects/lenses/angles/views then apply those to abolish the current abhorrent social injustice called the caste system. Calling for new/additional reservations is very divisive for the Indian society, calling for abolition of caste based reservation when caste persists is mind numbingly illogical due to thousands of years prejudice that is built into Indian genes in the matter of caste. My prediction and hope is when the caste system is abolished it will herald a new dawn not just for the land of Bharath but for the whole world by unleashing an unstoppable energy that comes from one of the oldest well developed civilisations on earth. Time to unshackle.

©M HEMADRI

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