(The following is the Chapter – IV of the First Part of the Mandal Commission Report, submitted to the Union Government in 1980. The Report was tabled in Parliament and accepted unanimously. The reservation for OBCs was brought first in Central Services employment in 1990 and in admission at Central Educational Institutions in 2006. Both the beneficiaries of such measures at present and prospective must be aware of the history of social backwardness of the subjects of this land – Editor)
Castes are the building bricks of Hindu social structure. All sorts of virtues and evils have been attributed to caste system by the social historians. But this controversy is not germane for our purpose. Here we are mainly concerned with the manner in which caste has fragmented the social consciousness of Hindu society by dividing it into numerous groups arranged in a hierarchical order. In his Contemporary Indian Philosophy, Prof. A.R. Wadia has observed, “The high metaphysics of Upanishads and ethics of the Gita have been reduced to mere words by the tyranny of the caste. Emphasising the unity of the whole world, animate and inanimate, India has yet fostered a social system which has divided her children into water-tight compartments, divided them from one another, generation to generation, for endless centuries.” It may be further remarked that in this process of division, groups called castes have been permanently assigned high or low ranks simply on the basis of birth.
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One important outcome of this ritual ranking of castes has been to create deep-rooted vested interests in this system and to enable the higher castes to exploit the lower ones through the institutional framework of social organisation.
In fact there is nothing unusual about this phenomenon. Ruling classes everywhere have tried to perpetuate their privileges through all sorts of devices and aristocracy has generally joined hands with the clergy in this process. Giving an example of English popular preaching in the medieval ages, G.R. Owst writes, “………..each man’s first duty, be he knight or priest, workman or merchant – is to learn and labour in the things of his particular calling, resting content therewith and not aspiring to meddle with the tasks and mysteries of others. The social ranks and their respective duties, ordained by God for humanity, were intended to remain fixed and immutable. Like the limbs of the body, they cannot properly exchange either their place or function.”
This is as close an approximation to the brahmanical view of caste as one can expect! The Rigvedic hymn of Purushasukta, which contains the earliest reference to Chaturvarna, also states that after the primeval sacrifice, “his mouth became the Brahmin; his two arms were made into the Rajanya (Kshatriya); his thighs in to the Vaishyas; from his two feet the Shudra was born.” (Rigveda : 10.90). Whereas the English Priest and the Vedic hymn are saying more or less the same thing, and this view of the divine sanction of privileges of the ruling classes was preached in most other countries; it is only in India that this concept got formalised into a cast-iron mould.
The real triumph of the caste system lies not in upholding the supremacy of the Brahmin, but in conditioning the consciousness of the lower castes in accepting their inferior status in the ritual hierarchy as a part of the natural order of things. In India, caste system has endured for over 3,000 years and even today there appear no symptoms of its early demise. No social institution containing so large an element of inequality and discrimination towards majority of the people can survive that long in a purely social context. It was through an elaborate, complex and subtle scheme of scripture, mythology and ritual that Brahmanism succeeded in investing the caste system with a moral authority that has been seldom effectively challenged even by the most ardent social reformers. How religion and mythology were used to weave this magic web, we shall try to show with the help of some well-known examples.
The concept of divine origin of the caste system has the authority of the holiest Hindu scriptures. As mentioned earlier, Rigveda describes the creation of four Varnas from the limbs of Purshasukta. The Taittiraya Samhita not only ascribes the origin of Chaturvarna from the limbs of the Creator, but also interprets this origin theologically and gives divine justification of their functions and status. In Gita, Lord Krishna says, “The four-fold Order was created by Me, on the basis of quality and action.”
“All Hindu Dharma Shastras take caste for granted. All Puranas assume the existence of caste and look upon it as a permanent order of society.”
“The Dharma Shastras mention that if a man does good deeds he will be born in a high caste and be well-endowed, while if he does evil acts, he will be born in a low caste, or even as an animal, a pig or a donkey.”
Ranking of the Hindu society into four Varnas furnished Brahmanical orthodoxy with the bed-rock on which it erected its elaborate caste structure. One essential feature of this institution is the concept of ‘purity and pollution’. “In Hindustan proper, castes can be divided into five groups; first, the twice-born castes; second, those castes at whose hands the twice-born can take “Pakka” food; third, those castes at whose hands the twice-born cannot accept any kind of food but may take water; fourth, castes that are not untouchable yet are such that water from them cannot be used by the twice-born; last come all those castes whose touch defiles not only the twice-born but any orthodox Hindu.”
“………..the Shanar, toddy-tapper of Madras, contaminates a Brahmin if he approaches the latter within twenty-four paces………… A Nayar may approach a Nambudiri Brahmin but must not touch him, while a Tiyan must keep himself at the distance of thirty-six steps from the Brahmin, and a Pulayan may not approach him within ninety-six places. A Tiyan must keep away from a Nayar at twelve paces, while some castes may approach the Tiyan, though they must not touch him.”
“………In the Maratha country a Mahar—one of the untouchables—might not spit on the road lest a pure-caste Hindu should be polluted by touching it with his foot, but has to carry an earthen pot, hung from his neck, in which to spit. Further he had to drag a thorny branch with him to wipe out his foot prints and to lie at a distance prostrate on the ground if a Brahmin passed by, so that his foul shadow might not defile the holy Brahmin”.
Another sociologist quotes the following passage from the ‘Hindu’ of 24.12.1932 as an example of visual pollution:
“In this (Tinnevelly) district there is a class of unseeables called purada vannans. They are not allowed to come out during day time because there sight is considered to be pollution. Some of these people who wash the clothes of other exterior castes working between midnight and day-break, were with difficulty persuaded to leave their houses to interview”.
The award of punishments and levy of taxes were also closely related to an individual’s caste. “A Brahmin was exempt from the usual taxes……. both the person and property of Brahmin were absolutely inviolate…. Kautilaya prescribes differential rates of interests for debts according to different castes, a Brahmin being charged per cent, kshatriya 3; a vaishaya 4; and a shudra 5 per cent ……….A brahmin is entitled to whatever exists in the world. In fact the whole world is his property and others live on his charity.” The Mahabharata says, “the Shudra can have no absolute property, because his wealth can be appropriated by his master at will”.
Regarding litigation: “In a local dispute between a Brahmin and a non-Brahmin the arbitrator or a witness must speak in favour of the former.” According to ‘Sarapatha Brahmana’, “a murder of a Brahmin alone is the real murder, while the Yajurveda declares it to be a more heinous crime than that of killing any other man.” On the other hand, Manu says that the “slaying of Shudra by a Brahmin equivalent merely to the killing of a cat, a mongoose, a blue jay, a frog, a lizard, an owl or a crow.”
“……A king shall never sentence a Brahmin though convicted of all possible crimes but may banish him with all his property secure and his body unhurt. No greater crime is known on the earth than the slaying of a Brahmin and the king, therefore, must not even form in his mind an idea of killing a priest.”
“If a shudra mentions the name and class of the twice-born with contumely, an iron nail, ten figures long shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth.”
The thoroughness with which caste-based discrimination was propagated and practised may be judged from the fact that even in matters of dress the lower castes were forbidden to emulate their superiors. The wearing of ‘Janeu’ (sacred thread) marked the dividing line between caste-Hindus and the Shudras and even in recent times the attempts by some lower castes to wear ‘Janeu’ were violently resented by the twice-born. “The toddy-tappers of Malabar and the east coast, Izhavas and Shanaras, were not allowed to carry umbrellas, to wear shoes or golden ornaments, to milk cows or even to use the ordinary language of the country.”
In Mysore State, the women of certain lower castes were not permitted to cover their bosoms. There arose a sharp controversy over this issue resulting in civil disturbances and ultimately the Maharaja of Mysore had to issue a Royal Proclamation permitting the aggrieved castes to wear jackets or cover their bosoms, in any manner they desire, but that they were not permitted to imitate the dress and hair styles of higher castes.
(To be continued)
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Lead 1: The real triumph of the caste system lies not in upholding the supremacy of the Brahmin, but in conditioning the consciousness of the lower castes in accepting their inferior status in the ritual hierarchy as a part of the natural order of things.
Lead 2: “In this (Tinnevelly) district there is a class of unseeables called purada vannans. They are not allowed to come out during day time because there sight is considered to be pollution. Some of these people who wash the clothes of other exterior castes working between midnight and day-break, were with difficulty persuaded to leave their houses to interview”.
