CASTEISM IN INDIA

Krishigna Kancharla
Student, Department of public policy and administration
University of petroleum and energy studies, Dehradun, India
kinnuk2001@gmail.com

Origin of caste based system

The caste system in India has existed for ages and has formed the basis for Socio-political
stratification of Indian society. While racism is discrimination on the basis of color, in caste
system people are differentiated on the basis of tribe, region, religion, etc.

It is believed that the caste system began in India with the arrival of Aryans around 1500 BCE
who possessed fair skin and were originally from Northern Asia and Southern Europe. This skin
color was in contrast with the indigenous people of India and as they conquered, they followed a
specific social ordering called Varna Vyavastha to ensure their privilege which later got
transformed into hierarchical division. The early Vedic texts assume that the caste system
originated from body parts of Brahma or creator of the world and citizens were classified
according to their Varna or castes. 'Varna' defines the hereditary roots of a newborn, the four
principal categories are defined as Brahman which formed the head (The one who preaches
and teaches.), Kshatriya formed the hands (The ruler and the Administrator.), Vyshya formed
thighs (agriculturalists, and tradesmen), and Shudra formed the feet (Working groups). Dalits or
outcasts who were involved in menial works were considered too impure to form a part of the
body of Brahma. Over time the major Varnas were again stratified in thousands of sub-castes
called ‘Jatis’ which had similar social restrictions.

Caste consolidated during the ancient and medieval rulers in India

The caste system in ancient India was developed by a combination of politics and religion. It
was considered the 'dharma' or duty of the King to endorse caste system and punish any
deviant group. Religious leaders by often misinterpreting examples from holy texts created
certain rules and restrictions to prevent vertical mobility in the caste system. Inter-dining, inter-
marriage, entry of lower caste in houses and temples of upper caste was considered a crime
and was punished by social boycott. To counter such caste based rigidness in society, new
religions like Buddhism and Jainism evolved and even received royal patronage from many
rulers however by then caste system was deeply embedded in society and such deliberate
exclusion resulted in evident Socio-Economic differences between upper and lower castes
which sustained such institutions over ages.

Even during a long medieval period, spanning from the 6th century i.e. after the fall of the Gupta
Empire to the 18th century, i.e. the beginning of colonial domination. This period in Northern
India was mainly ruled by Muslim rulers, first the Sultanate rulers and then the Mughals. Even
the Muslim society had numerous castes like groups and had various elements of the caste
system such as endogamy, hereditary occupations, and social hierarchy. In Southern India
which was still ruled by Hindu kings, caste based discrimination reached its zenith. The outcasts
had to live outside the towns, they could not touch wells or drink water from them, whenever
they came to town they had to ring bells to make people aware of them and even their shadow
could not fall on high caste individuals as it would make them impure. The Bhakti and Sufi
movement tried to liberate society from crunches of regressive mentality but could not bring
change on a significant level.

Impact of British rule

Europeans came to India in order to maximize their trade and profit. They fought among
themselves to create their monopoly over the trade in India and realization of a weak political
kingdom in India; they fought and defeated major Indian powers in the battle of Plassey in 1757
and Battle of Buxar in 1764. By the 1840s they consolidated almost the whole Indian
subcontinent under their rule. Their primary interest was limited to financial gains; however, the
spillover of the changing Socio-political situation brought radical changes.
British rule gradually created a class of intellectuals who were impressed by western philosophy
like equality, freedom and democracy. Many scholars like Raja Rammohan Roy, Iswar Chandra
Vidyasagar, Jyotibha Phule called for an introspection vehemently opposing casteism, idol
worship, oppression of the weaker section and women. This brought an era of renaissance as
many liberal laws like banning practices of SATI, widow remarriage etc were passed. Trade and
liberalization, exchange of culture dented the tiny bit of belief left in continuing the Varna
system. The establishment of a new system of a law and communication network contributed to
the exuberance of the empire. However, such progressive awakening was confined to the upper
and upper middle class in the society. Often staunch believers saw such changes as deviance
and infringement on their religion and made even stronger efforts to maintain the status quo.
National freedom struggle gave new impetus to fight against all types of oppression- external
oppression by British rulers and internal oppression by upper caste people. The reservation that
exists today was introduced in 1933 when Communal awards which made provision for a
separate electorate for Muslims, Sikhs, Europeans and Dalits were made. After the Poona Pact
it was decided that there would be one Hindu electorate but seats would be reserved for Dalits.

The aforementioned impacts were gradual, and the expeditious withdrawal from Varna
rules/duties were made possible by the large-scale influence of western notions of liberty,
equality, and freedom. These changes can be looked at around 1500 CE right through the
present. The western culture was so attractive that it really left footprints and eventually the
sense of approval outdated the Varna system.

Provision in constitution
A result of synthesis of growing consciousness of Indian society and progressive political
framework led to election of B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit leader as the head of drafting committee to
frame the Constitution. A constitution whose preamble promised
“ Justice - social economical and political along with dignity and equality of status ”
Discrimination on the basis of caste has been declared illegal and the authorities introduced
reservations or quotas in educational institutions and government jobs for the lower castes
referred to as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes.
Article 14 of the constitution guarantees equality before law, Article 15 (1) of the constitution
enjoins the State not to make any discrimination on the grounds of caste against any citizen
while Article 15 (2) of the constitution mandates that no citizen shall be subjected to any
disability and restriction on grounds of race or caste.
Article 17 abolishes the practice of untouchability in any form.
Article 15 (4) and (5) empowers the state to make provisions for reservation in educational
institutions. Article 16 (4), 16 (4A), 16 (4B) and Article 335 empowers to State to make
reservations in appointments for posts in favor of Schedule Castes.
Article 330 provides for reservation of seats in Lok Sabha for Scheduled Castes. The same is
applied under Article 332 in state assemblies and Article 243D and Article 340T in the local self-
government bodies.

The idea behind these reservations was to improve the situation of the underprivileged classes
by providing a temporary affirmative, but over time, it has become a vote-grabbing exercise for
politicians who please caste groups for their electoral gains in the name of reservation.

Strengthening of caste based politics

Congress for the first 20 years ruled all states and centers without any effective opposition due
to its broad base across all religion, region and caste divisions. However soon, regional parties
began to emerge. Regional parties are thought to exist because certain regions within a state
have unique interests and concerns that cannot, or are not, addressed adequately by existing
parties. They had a limited base and in order to consolidate their vote banks, they favored
certain castes and sub castes in the form of affirmative action. One such action was the
formation of the Mandal Commission in 1978 in the Janta Dal government, which defined 52%
of the Indian population as Other Backward Class (OBCs) and recommended 27% reservation
in government jobs. It was a populist measure as it listed 3,700 castes as OBCs, and the
majority of the population would receive reservation. It opened the Pandora box for reservation,
and deepened caste consciousness in the society. People began to associate themselves on
the basis of caste, formed consolidated and isolated groups based on caste and sub caste to
gain maximum reservation for their people and political parties targeted such groups,
considering them as a vote bank. For instance, the Kammas opted for the Communist Party of
India while the Reddys favoured the Congress, so much so that the CPI became the brand
name. After some time, a few of these dominant castes decided to form their own party. To
continue with the example, the Telugu Desam Party was founded in the early 1980s, the very
reference to the state language reflecting the claim of the party to represent Andhra Pradesh at
large. The party chief, N.T. Rama Rao, a popular film actor, won the elections for the first time in
1983. Parties like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Janta Dal were formed
in late 1970s to address issues of their people I.e. their caste and sub castes. People
throughout the world seek upward mobility, in India even historical ruling classes like Jaats and
Marathas seek recognition in backward and lower classes to avail benefit of reservation.

With the rising wave of Hindutva after the 1992 Babri Mosque demolition on one hand and
implementation of the Mandal Commission on other, the traditionally upper caste and privileged
society found itself losing its ground and found its demands were underrepresented by existing
political parties. Exploiting this vacuum, the Bhartiya Janta Party gained eminence as a strong
national opposition party. It grew much larger than other parties because since majorities make
up a Government in democracies, many small groups must join to form a majority. Certain caste
groups make a sizable proportion of voters, so they need lesser groups to form a majority.
Furthermore, the sub-castes or endogamous Jaat groups are too small to form an effective
majority, whereas the Varna groups of caste are large enough. This might explain the apparent
paradox in weakening the sub-caste while strengthening Varna or major castes. The creation of
such polarization has made umbrella parties like Congress loose significance while caste based
parties which polarize votes based on broader religious and narrower caste based ground
assume significance. Communal and caste based violence work in favor to further isolate
groups which find the existence of other group conflicting and threatening and thus submit to
political parties as mere vote banks.

This explains why the country's political tensions have been simmering since the 1980s, the
Hindu right’s landslide electoral victories in 2014 and 2019 brought polarization to a boil. In the
current context of toxic partisanship, attacks on independent institutions have increased,
violence against minority communities has raised, and the electoral success of Hindu nationalist
parties has rendered the opposition to defend pluralism and minority rights.

Conclusion

India as a country has undergone a lot of change with respect to technology, social outlook,
education, urbanization, and modernization. With the spread of urbanization and secular
education, there is no doubt that the influence of caste has decreased.
However, despite the growing changes, the caste identity still holds a lot of importance in Indian
society. The last name of an individual still dictates the treatment a person might receive. Caste-
related violence has also been witnessed by the country after independence.

Political parties cannot be solely blamed for this, the prejudice lies in the minds of the citizens of
the country. The country is not able to free itself from the caste system. A lot of effort needs to
be made in order to uproot the evils of the caste system from the country. As BR Ambedkar
rightly highlighted, in order to abolish untouchability the caste system needs to be brought down
and the caste system being a social structure, social integration by intermarriage and inter
dining can be the first step followed by economic and political integration. The laws and acts can
only provide protection, but the change in perception and attitude has to be brought by the
society.
References

http://www.universityofcalicut.info/SDE/BA_his_medieval_india_society.pdf

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1152/caste-system-in-ancient-india/

https://www.magadhuniversity.ac.in/download/econtent/pdf/Satish%20Chandra%20-%20History
%20of%20Medieval%20India%20(2018,%20Orient%20Blackswan)%20-%20libgen.lc.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
321868951_Dr_B_R_Ambedkar_A_Social_Reconstuctionist

https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01024572/file/the-caste-based-mosaic-of-indian-
politics.pdf

http://www.isec.ac.in/WP%20397%20-%20Anil%20Kumar%20V%20-%20final.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
231965411_The_Origins_and_Strength_of_Regional_Parties

https://ncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/hess203.pdf

https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Political_Polarization_RPT_FINAL1.pdf

http://www.isec.ac.in/WP%20242%20-%20Shyam%20Singh.pdf

https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/2692.pdf