There is a lot of stigmas associated with India and Hinduism due to cast system and Even in India majority of people do not understand cast system accurately. Today we will try to understand cast systems origin, progression and the current state of the caste system in India and it will be fun.
“Caste” is not an Indian word, It came from the Portuguese word “casta” meaning “race, lineage, breed”. The Caste which we talk right now was known as “Varna” meaning color, It does not mean black or white, however, It is mostly a framework of dividing people into classes by their work. For example, Kshatriyas was warrior, noble and ruling class. Brahmins were priests, scientists, philosopher, writers, teachers, doctors, they were basically intellectual of that period. Vaishyas were artisans, merchants, tradesmen, and farmers basically the whole economy was own and run by them. Shudras who were the labor class which was the backbone of the economy, they are basically salaryman in that era. In an early Upanishad, Shudra is referred to as Pūşan or nourisher. And at last untouchables, while their role in Vedic society was none because they would not fit any of these classes by profession and were mostly were tribesmen living outside cities and villages, They were basically what Greece called barbarian. One thing to remember that at this time people were not born into caste but it was flexible and anyone with enough determination can climb the steps of the socio-economical ladder be what they want. It is normal for society to dived itself in classes based on what work people do and even unknowing today we do that like we divide society by farmers, builders, engineers, politicians, businessmen, politicians etc. Yet our today’s class system allows us to fully transition between them upon our choice and hard work and It was no different that time. Just like our profession is part of our identity just like that Varna was the part of identity back then.
Now we move on to late Mahajanapadas Period as this is where I think Varna started to change into Jati literally meaning birth. At this time caste system was still flexible but started down into the hereditary path. Just like you may know someone whose parents, grandparents, great-grandparents were politicians, doctors, lawyers, businessmen just that thing was starting to occur in ancient society as people moved away from the small village where most of the people worked in farms to massive cities where most of the work was administration, religion, trading which required more advanced set of skills than brute strength that was required from farmer. And who is better to teach these skills than the dad who already doing that job. That is why I think it should have become virtually impossible to change your profession due to lack of willing teachers who thought it., hence Varna which was free and flexible became unknowing Jati which was based on birth. Today we fight this problem by using institutions but at that time only institutions were people who were actually doing their jobs like Carpenter, potters, administrators, teachers, and apprenticeship was the only option that existed if someone wanted to be any of skilled laborer. You can learn in Gurukul about mathematics, physics, philosophy, economics, politics, military strategy but those were already booked by economically wealthy class. I cannot deny that there still was some flexibility left in cast system but it had started its transition into a rigid based on birth system and hence got its name jati and it was rigid, around the time Gupta Empire rolled around system was basically rigid and embedded into society and peoples mind, but there was no conflict in Jatis like it exists today.
Around the Muslim invasions, tensions were rising between upper classes and lower classes due to mass conversions of lower class into Islam but there is much other evidence to suggest that lower caste Hindus never converted to Islam in mass. However, there is no doubt that invaders caused much damage to the relations between castes due to their divide and conquer policy. This was also a time when Hindu kings like Chhatrapati Shivaji, Krishnadevaraya and many other rulers and they did try to reform cast system and they founded the dream of Unified India against Muslim Invaders, hence being the founders of Indian nationalism(though we can argue that it was in times of Maurya Empire). Shri Shivaji, in particular, founded the thought of Swarajya meaning self-rule and we can definitely be sure that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the founder of the modern independence movement and he knew the importance of unifying Hindus and destroying the caste system which he did try throughout his rule. This era was the most important in the history of Hinduism and caste system. Now let’s explore this renaissance of India. This period of Indian history saw Sant(Saint) Movement. This movement was huge and had a long lasting impact on Hinduism. They unified Hinduism by simplifying the complex traditions of it for normal people and lower class people. Without this movement, India might be today an Islamic state. You can research this movement yourself because if I had to, I would need to explain the whole philosophy behind Hinduism and that would take the whole Book which I would gladly write but not right now. Just remember that this bought Hindus together as a religious group and allowed lower castes to worship God.
Now came the British and British did what they did best which was divide and conquer. Up to this point, there was discrimination against lower castes and yet castes were still was not welded into a law but it was about to get worse, very very worse. British with their race science divided India and legally bounded the Caste with birth. It allowed for the upper class to climb even more up and lower class to spiral down the gutter. This allowed upper class to exclusively get government jobs and increased the discrimination against the lower classes because we all know how a person acts when he is all special. There were many things British did to rule which would put Indian societies at each other’s throat. However these upper classes formed a new class, a middle class and they did go to other nations to learn about ideas and values nationalism, liberty and rediscovering India’s identity. These were people of the upper class would go on to spread the idea of independent India and free society to Indian people. This brought India and lower castes their freedom. However game of caste system was not over yet because rather than completely destroying this system from its root they instead kept it on a factual level to gain from the conflict between them for politics, using these people who were oppressed for years as vote banks. To this day your Caste is printed upon your birth certificate and it is used for the reservation.
In modern India, at least where I live Caste is no big deal if you are not trying to complete education or trying to get any government job. We, young people, don’t ask for each other castes, yet it still persists and that is due to many things which I will explain in next post and we will try to uncover how to end it.
You might be surprised that 90% of Indians may not know the stuff that I said in this post due to heavy propaganda by political parties to make castes sound like more than a gradual and natural change in society met with unfortunate circumstances, simply because they do not want to lose their vote banks. They don’t know about it even if it is as simple as going Wikipedia which I used with my general knowledge of India and its history. There are many aspects I left out because it would have been very long post and the purpose of this post is just to open the eyes of people who are still living in belief that caste system was created by people of upper castes rather that human nature and people who are ignorant towards Hinduism saying that it is all about caste system and how inseparable both are. Another purpose was to encourage everyone to research before making an opinion and be ready to change that opinion if better profs present itself.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed it and like this post and follow me if you did, let me know your thoughts and if you found any flaws in this post let me know in comments below. Thanks for reading.
Animeindianphilosopher 