CASTE IN THE PAST:
uniquely associated with the Indian sub-continent
Prevalent among Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs
Varna, literally ‘colour’, is the name given to a four-fold division of society into brahmana,
kshatriya, vaishya and shudra and other which are outcastes, Panchamas (fifth category)
Jati refers to caste.
Varna vs jati:
varna as a broad all-India aggregative classification, while jati is taken to be a regional or local
sub-classification involving a much more complex system consisting of hundreds or even
thousands of castes and sub-castes.
Four varna classification is common to all of India, the jati hierarchy has more local classifications
that vary from region to region.
Varna classification is at least three thousand years old. (the Hymn of primieval man in Rigveda)
Caste or Jati arose later.
In its earliest phase, in the late Vedic period roughly between 900 — 500 BC, the caste system was
really a varna system and consisted of only four major divisions.
These divisions were not very elaborate or very rigid, and they were not determined by birth.
It is only in the post-Vedic period that caste became the rigid institution.
Features of caste: (as per dharmashastras)
determined by birth – a child is “born into” the caste of its parents.
Membership in a caste involves strict rules about marriage. Caste groups are “endogamous”,
i.e. marriage is restricted to members of the group.
Caste membership also involves rules about food and food-sharing. (Commensal relation)
Caste involves a system consisting of many castes arranged in a hierarchy of rank and status.
In theory, every person has a caste, and every caste has a specified place in the hierarchy of all
castes
Castes also involve sub-divisions within themselves, i.e., castes almost always have sub-castes
and sometimes sub-castes may also have sub-sub-castes. This is referred to as a segmental
organisation. [fractal structure!]
Castes were traditionally linked to occupations. A person born into a caste could only practice
the occupation associated with that caste, so that occupations were hereditary.
NOTE: these rules were not strictly adhered to. They were challenged from since ancient
times, Buddhism, Jainism etc.
very unequal institution – some castes benefitted greatly from the system, while others were
COLONIALISM AND CASTE
condemned to a life of endless labour and subordination.
Lack of social mobility.
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories
of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative
to one's current social location within a given society.
hierarchical rather than egalitarian system.
individual caste occupies not just a distinct place, but also an ordered rank.
hierarchical ordering of castes is based on the distinction between ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’.
Castes that are considered ritually pure have high status, while those considered less pure or
impure have low status
castes are not only unequal to each other in ritual terms, they are also supposed to be
complementary and non-competing groups. (Each caste does it pre-determined tasks.)
Institution of caste underwent fundamental changes during the colonial period(elucidate.).
The present form of caste as a social institution has been shaped very strongly by both the colonial
period as well as the rapid changes that have come about in independent India.
British administrators began by trying to understand the complexities of caste in an effort to learn
how to govern the country efficiently.
gathered methodical and intensive surveys and reports on the ‘customs and manners’ of various
tribes and castes all over the country. This colonial understanding of India shaped policies in
dealing with natives.
Information on caste was through the census since 1860s.
The 1901 Census under the direction of Herbert Risley was particularly important as it sought to
collect information on the social hierarchy of caste. It was state giving legitimacy to unjust
social order.
This effort had a huge impact on social perceptions of caste and hundreds of petitions were
addressed to the Census Commissioner by representatives of different castes claiming a higher
position in the social scale and offering historical and scriptural evidence for their claims.
direct attempt to count caste and to officially record caste status changed the institution (of
caste) itself.
Before this kind of intervention, caste identities had been much more fluid and less rigid; once they
began to be counted and recorded, caste began to take on a new life.
The land revenue settlements and related arrangements and laws served to give legal recognition
to the customary (caste-based) rights of the upper castes.
towards the end of the colonial period, the administration also took an interest in the welfare of
downtrodden castes, referred to as the ‘depressed classes’ at that time.
Caste reforms:
Caste in Present:
Government of India Act of 1935 was passed which gave legal recognition to the lists or
‘schedules’ of castes and tribes marked out for special treatment by the state. This is how the
terms ‘Scheduled Tribes’ and the ‘Scheduled Castes’ came into being.
So, caste, which was earlier part of social identity now became part of political identity
as well. This was furthered by caste based political mobilization in post-independence India
and intensified by caste based reservations.
Efforts to organise the “depressed classes” and particularly the untouchable castes predated the
nationalist movement, having begun in the second half of the nineteenth century.
by upper caste progressive reformers such as Raja Rammohun Roy, Dayananda Saraswati et al. as
well as by members of the lower castes such as Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar
in western India, Ayyankali, Sri Narayana Guru, Iyotheedass and Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naickar)
in the South.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar began organising protests against untouchability
from the 1920s onwards.
The dominant view in the nationalist movement was to treat caste as a social evil and as a colonial
ploy to divide Indians.
But contradictions were apparent: Land owning upper caste vs largely landless lower caste.
INC protected upper caste even as they championed the cause of lower castes.
upper castes and the lower castes are far from equal in economic and educational terms.
Modern industry created all kinds of new jobs for which there were no caste rules.
Urbanisation and the conditions of collective living in the cities made it difficult for the caste-
segregated patterns of social interaction to survive.
Liberal ideas of individualism and meritocracy, began to abandon the more extreme caste
practice.
it was in the cultural and domestic spheres that caste has proved strongest.
Endogamy, or the practice of marrying within the caste, remained largely unaffected by
modernisation and change.
Even today, most marriages take place within caste boundaries, although there are more
intercaste marriages.
Inter-caste marriages within the upper castes (eg., brahmin, bania, rajput) may be more likely
now than before; but marriages between an upper caste and backward or scheduled caste
person remain rare even today
caste remains central to electoral politics.
Since the 1980s we have also seen the emergence of explicitly caste-based political parties.
