Discussing the origin, mechanism, and

development of Caste in India

In the Indian context, foreign scholars have defined castes as a close community
or corporation associated with a specific occupation, claiming common descent
while prohibiting the notion of Intermarriage on the grounds of maintaining
ceremonial purity within one’s community. One thing that can be noted is that
these scholars have failed to explain in their definitions how caste functions or
operates in a system. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his research work, “Castes in
India”, defines Caste as an artificial chopping off of the population into fixed
and definite units, each one prevented from fusing into another through the
custom of endogamy. He concludes that endogamy being the only peculiar
characteristic of caste can be used to understand both its origin and mechanism.
Origin of Caste
One cannot deny that society is made up of people who are further comprised
into classes, which may be economic, social, or intellectual. As Dr. Bhim Rao
Ambedkar writes, a caste is an enclosed class and the way to understand the
origin of caste is by determining which class it was that first transformed itself
into a caste. There is no doubt in the fact that Brahman caste is the father of the
institution of caste, hence they were the inventors of this institution and
maintained its legitimacy. This can be proved by the fact that Kshatriya and
Brahmans were called the twice-born castes, as it was believed that one’s first
birth is physical, while the second birth is a ‘spiritual’ one, the second birth
occurs when one takes up their respective fulfilling role in the society, i,e,
brahmans are to perform rituals and study Vedas and Kshatriyas are to protect.
People in the modern world brush off the burden of introducing and spreading
the caste system into Indian society by imposing it on the Manusmriti, as no one
wants to be associated with it but ironically everyone follows it diligently. But
Ambedkar claims that Manu didn’t give the law of caste as the caste system
existed long before him and he was a mere upholder of it. Ambedkar further
explains how the Hindu Society is an organization consciously created by the
Shastras and the society was molded or shaped into the framework of the caste
system. The people followed the Shastras because they lived with the belief that
Shastras cannot be wrong. It can be assumed from the evidence that the priestly
class (Brahmans) in the Hindu society detached themselves from the rest of the
people through what Ambedkar refers to as a “close-door policy” and were the
first to organize themselves into a caste. Similarly, the Kshatriya class also
followed the Brahmans and distinguished themselves strictly into the soldier or
warrior class, denying entry to anyone from other castes. As Brahman and
Kshatriya classes underwent these changes, Shudras and Vaishyas were
eventually compelled to change their social order as well.
Here comes a question as to why and how the non-brahman class adapted
themselves to the caste system. The answer to this lies in two interpretations;
psychological and mechanistic. Psychological interpretation deals with the
concept of “the infection of imitation”. As the Brahman class being the most
respectable in the society rigorously followed the caste system, the rest of the
non-brahmans imitated them. Scientifically explaining this phenomenon French
Sociologist, Gabriel Tarde lays down three laws of imitation : (1) more the
contact more the imitation done, (2)imitation flows from the higher to the lower,
and (3) superimposition of new behaviors over old ones. Brahmans hold a
prestigious position in society, henceforth caste nearest to them imitated all the
customs rigorously. Therefore, the whole process of caste formation in India is
that of the process of imitation.
Now comes the mechanistic interpretation. Ambedkar says that there is no such
thing as “a” caste, which makes sense because we collectively refer to the caste
as “system” because a system only exists in the plural sense. As Brahmans
enclosed themselves through endogamy with respect to the non-Brahmans, all
the other three classes had to enclose themselves too by the sheer force of
circumstances. This explains how Vaishyas and Shudras also ended up
following the customs introduced by the caste system; viz, Sati, child marriage,
and endogamy.

Mechanism of Caste
Indian society has been observed to have followed the custom of exogamy from
primitive times. However, with the growth of history, it has lost its value.
Exogamy became uncommon as Indian society started considering marrying in
the nearest blood-kins (Sapindas) and the same lineage (Sagotras) as a violation
of sacredness. In villages, it can be seen how families tend to marry their
children outside their village, i.e., following exogamy because people living
within the same village are considered a family even if they belong to different
gotras. Therefore, exogamy is a practice that used to be widely followed in
India, until endogamy replaced it due to the creation of caste. From a practical
approach, one can understand that for endogamy to work conjugal rights from
within have to be provided for, for which numerical equality between the
marriageable units of the two genders within the community desirous of making
itself into a caste, will have to be maintained.
Ultimately, we are left with dealing with a single problem, i.e., resolving the
disparity or disproportion between the marriageable units of the two genders.
Common sensically, numerical disparity occurs only when one of the partners
dies first, which happens all the time. Using this as the context, Ambedkar
explains the concept of Surplus men and women. When the husband dies first,
he creates a surplus woman, who needs to be disposed of, or else she will pose a
threat to the endogamy of the caste, and similar is the case of a surplus man.
Thus, both the surplus man and the surplus woman act as a threat against the
caste system as they might be outside the community which is what the caste
system opposes.
To deal with the surplus woman, she has to be disposed of which can be done in
either of the two ways. First, burn her on the funeral pyre of her deceased
husband, this is however a difficult way of disposing because you cannot ask
every other widow to burn with her deceased husband. This leaves us with the
second option which is to let her live within the group with the condition that
she would not be allowed to marry someone again or else she would use up the
chances of marriage reserved for other potential brides of the caste. Enforcing
widowhood for the rest of their life is a better and more humane approach to
deal with the surplus woman but through this practice, the woman is being
denied the right to life as the choices of her life are being made by the
patriarchal community.
The solution that the propagators of the caste system came up with to deal with
the problem of surplus man is much more complex. Similar to the practice of
Sati, burning men on the funeral pyre of their wives was impossible as the
society was patriarchal and considered man as an asset to the community.
Hence, the only solution that remains is to enjoy self-imposed celibacy or take
sanyaas (renouncing the world). But if caste starts imposing celibacy on each of
the surplus men then it won’t be able to maintain its communal life as its
numerical strength will keep on decreasing. Therefore society wants surplus
men to raise a family for which it will have to provide them with wives. For this
society will have to tie the surplus men down with those brides who are yet to
achieve the marriageable age. Consequently, both endogamy and numerical
depletion are kept in check. Hence, four practices are maintained to keep the
caste system in working mode, i.e., Sati practice, compulsory widowhood,
imposing celibacy on the widower (surplus man), and wedding him to a girl not
yet of marriageable age. As all these practices are maintained endogamy is
preached and perpetuated. Ambedkar did raise a question as to why would rest
of the masses would follow the unnatural concept of Sati and child marriage. He
answered it himself by explaining how these institutions were honored because
they were practiced and later philosophies grew around them to provide them
with moral justification.
Development of caste
With the growing importance of the caste system and identity, Brahmans
acquired a high social and economic status which gave rise to the process of
Sanskritization. The caste system being lenient in early times gave a way to
climb up the ladder of the social strata to the middle and lower castes. All of this
led to the adoption of Brahman customs, practices, beliefs, and way of life by
the low caste to rise to a higher social position, which M.N.Srinivas called the
process of Sanskritization. Srinivas also pointed out how the higher castes
tended to be more Sanskritized, therefore the lower castes tended to take over or
adopt the customs and way of life of the higher castes. He also explained the
factors that led to the spread of Sanskritization among the low castes. It was
lifting the ban of chanting mantras from the non-Brahmans which facilitated the
spread of Brahmanical rituals among all the Hindu castes. The introduction of
parliamentary democracy in the political institution of India also played a major
role in increasing Sanskritization.
Taking an example from my caste, I belong to the “Sahu” community which
technically comes under the Vaishya clan. On having a conversation with my
father regarding the history of Sahu ‘samaj’, I got to know a lot of facts that
prove that the lower caste did Sanskritize to achieve higher social status. Sahu
as per Manusmriti is a caste that deals with the production and extraction of
kitchen oil (Teli samaj), but Manu in his book wrote how Sahu belongs to the
lower caste as we squeeze oil from the seeds and as these seeds are living
organisms, we Sahus are associated with an impure work of killing. Because of
this theory, Sahus from different parts of India changed their surname to curb
getting discriminated against because of their last name. Sahu in the southern
parts of Uttar Pradesh have started using Anand as their last name, while in
western Madhya Pradesh (near Indore) people use the surname Jaiswal. In
Bihar, Sahu use the last same as Mahajan and in areas near Lucknow, they are
also known as Guptas.
Similarly in the 1930s Nigams, Khare, Saxena, and Shrivastavas, who belonged
to the merchant-vaishya caste used the surname Verma and were associated with
the work of accountancy of Kings, Landlords. However, after independence, the
Kori samaj who were Shudras or lower caste (dealt with spinning, and weaving
of clothes) started using the last name, Verma. As Verma became a prevalent last
name in the Koris, the merchant Vermas (nigams and Saxenas) stopped using
the surname altogether, as they didn’t want to be associated with the low-caste
Vermas.
Using examples of the lower castes of Mysore, Srinivas talked about how low
castes were liberal in the spheres of marriage, chastity of women, and other
spheres. They permitted widow remarriage and insisted on post-puberty
marriage. On the other hand, Brahmans preferred virgin women and imposed
self-restraint on widows. But as a lower caste rose in the hierarchy by adopting
the Brahman code of life and marriage, it became way more Sanskritized which
resulted in a decline in the social position of women in general. Srinivas also
gives us a close comparison of Westernization and Sanskritization and how they
shaped Indian Society in the coming times. With the increasing dominance of
the British in India, British practices and their ways of living became set a
standard of elitism. Consequently, as lower castes acquired practices of the
higher castes through imitation, so did the Brahmans with the Britishers. They
started following the British way of living which soon created a conflict
between Sanskritic and Western values. Consuming pork, meat, alcohol, and
liquor was considered a violation of sacrilege by the twice-born castes,
however, to westernize themselves they were supposed to adopt these practices
of Britishers which created an internal conflict in the traditional customs of the
Brahmans.
For example; leather was considered defiling and polluted, so it was first
covered with pure and sacred deerskin before use, but later the deerskin was
discarded and the naked leather seat was used. It was observed how traditional
Brahminical practices modified with time as we went from Sanskritization to
Westernization. While the Brahmins were busy becoming more and more
Westernized, the non-Brahmans were becoming more and more Sanskritized,
which summed the whole Indian society in a loop of changing and adopting
new ways.
To conclude we could say that increasing Westernization meant an increase in
the secular outlook of the people which would lead to a “casteless and classless
society” and in the present world, we can notice people denouncing the caste
and focusing on more concrete grounds like political, social and economic
standings. However, one must not overlook the fact that we have been following
the caste system for decades therefore it has transformed itself with us through
time. It is a system that is deep-rooted in our daily social life and entrenched in
our culture, tradition, and practices. Hence, denouncing the caste system by the
whole Indian society would take decades to come by, as it is not the system in
society anymore but has become the society itself.