MYTHS AND REALITIES OF CASTE SYSTEM

April 28, 2016RAMAKANT TIWARI 115 Comments

Varna  system of Brahamana, Ksatriya, Vaisya  and Sudra  was introduced through Manusmriti  so as to administratively organise the society for better co-ordination and governance. The system was perfect, functioned very well for hundreds of years without allowing any social evil so much so that it allowed even a Sudra  to opt for Vedic  studies and be declared Brahmana  by the Guru  of his / her hermitage. Marriages were advised to be solemnised on the basis of qualities and attributes rather than Varna. Inter-Varna  hostility of any order did not exist at all. Dr. BR Ambedker elaborately established in his scholarly work “Who were the Shudras” that ancient Bharata  had widely respected Sudra  rulers and oppressive verses in scriptures justifying discrimination and birth based caste system, were interpolated into texts much later. In Srimadbhagvadgita  too, Sri Krsna  enunciated that four Varna-s were created based on Guna-s and Karma  while birth never mentioned at all. Maharsi-s Valmiki, Veda Vyasa, Satyakam Jabali  being authors of Ramayana, Mahabharata  and Jabali Upanisad  respectively, were born to Sudra  mothers. However with advancing years, it somehow decayed owing to mutual bickerings, jealousies, ego-clashes, discrimination and other evils. As every system, every entity has a life-span and life-cycle, Varna  system too, degraded into anarchic Jati  system i.e. casteism which weakened entire society as an aftermath. The word ‘caste’ itself is a Portuguese creation, derived from Spanish word ‘Casta’, meaning breed or race. In spite of so many social reformers viz. Basavanna  in Karnataka, Narayana Guru  in Kerala, Swami Dayananda Saraswati  of Arya Samaj belonging to all social strata exercising their wit and might to eradicate inhuman casteist practices, the vice still exists, yet to be given a final burial. Vested interests represented by people like Kancha Ilaiah have damaged all such positive efforts to eradicate the social evil. Atrocity stories pedalled by them hold no ground if compared with sufferings of the most oppressed societies in the world like African-Americans or European Romas. When consciousness is stressed, violence / discrimination may erupt under any pretext. Decadence of society also caused several questions and riddles to rankle in so many minds as to whether it enjoyed any logical basis or official

mandate at all.    

One of the newer genetic studies and DNA profiling establish, caste system among Hindu-s began some 2,000 years ago while inter-mixing had started much earlier i.e. some 4,300 years and ceased when casteism entered into practice. It is interesting to observe that during the time-span falling between 4,300 and 2,000 years ago, caste system did not exist at all !!! The study was conducted in 2009 with more than 100 population groups by CSIR’s Centre For Cellular & Molecular Biology at Bhagyanagar in collaboration with Harvard Medical School. Findings have been published in the August, 2009 issue of The American Journal Of Human Genetics, quite a venerated journal of

international repute.  

The study suggests that every population group in the continent evolved from randomly mixed populations leading to the conclusion that caste system may not have existed as Varna  system did prior to that. Inter-mixing / inter-marrying stopped almost the same time Manusmriti  was authored sometime around 100 BC which discouraged inter-marrying at random. So the phenomenon of strict observance of endogamy had never been integral to Hindu-s. Dr. Kumaraswamy Thangaraj of CCMB, Hyderabad declared categorically, “There is no scientific or technological basis for the classification of the nation’s population as Brahmana-s, Ksatriya-s, Vaisya-s, Sudra-s or Dalita-s. We found that the entire population of the country, ranging from north to south and west to east, has the same genetic composition. There is nothing in the human genome or the genes (life building blocks) which prove that there are differences among above mentioned groups.” “Endogamy, the practice of marrying within the local community and a key attribute to the caste system, became a norm later.” Said Dr. Thangaraj.    

So the widely held notion that caste has always been integral to Hindu  society is a plain myth propagated by nefarious / vested interests. According to Dr. Thangaraj, caste system was a ploy deployed by groups settled in rural areas to protect their vested interest. “It is similar to the scions of Nehru-Gandhi family controlling Congress and members of Karunanidhi clan in Tamil Nadu calling shots in DMK. Only members of these families can lead their respective parties. Caste system is an extension of this unwritten rule.” Said another senior member of the research team. Dr. G. Choubey, a well-known geneticist from Tartu University in Estonia, had established that never was there a Brahmana in his UP village as recently as 700 years ago. “It is nothing but politics and commercial interest.” says the scientist. 

Colonial British captors of the country aggravated caste divisions so as to rigorously pursue their sinister policy of Divide, Rule & Plunder. Those already engaged in promoting and nurturing the social evil discovered excellent camaraderie with Britishers / Americans and complicated the entire issue profoundly. Likes of Kancha Iliah must imbibe a few lessons of nationalism and self-pride from Americans. Almost 1% of American population belongs to the ‘caste’ of homeless beggars though American media do not allow any coverage or discussion / debate on them. Blacks or minorities of any country have never asked another country to interfere in their internal matters.

 It is no more possible as well as no more desirable too, to continue with the social menace even surreptitiously. With equal opportunities for all assured under the Constitution, everyone is at liberty to pursue education / vocation of his / her inclination to enable the society to evolve into a well-integrated, homogeneous one. Present generation of Savarna-s cannot be held responsible for all evil practices nurtured by past generations which would otherwise aggravate recriminations further. Revolt is certainly not the answer, reform is. All those who carry weight in any form in society, must be perpetually active to dissolve casteism from Hindu-s forever. 

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