caste system--Kevin Hobson

The Indian caste system, British ethnographic mapping, and the construction of the British census in India – Kevin Hobson

“What the British failed to realize was that Hindus existed in a different cosmological frame than did the British. The concern of the true Hindu was not his ranking economically within society but rather his ability to regenerate on a higher plane of existence during each successive life. Perhaps the plainest verbalization of this attitude was stated by a 20th century Hindu of one of the lower castes who stated: “Everything lies in the hands of God. We hope to go to the top, but our Karma (Action) binds us to this level.” If not for the concept of reincarnation, this would be a totally fatalistic attitude but if one takes into account the notion that one’s present life is simply one of many, then this fatalistic component is limited if not eliminated. Therefore, for the Hindu, acceptance of present status and the taking of ritual actions to improve status in the next life is not terribly different in theory to the attitudes of the poor in western society. The aim of the poor in the west is to improve their lot in the space of a single life time. The aim of the lower castes in India is to improve their position over the space of many lifetimes. It should also be borne in mind that an entire caste could rise through the use of conquest or through service to rulers.Thus, it may be seen that within traditional Indian society the caste system was not static either within the material or metaphysical plane of existence. With the introduction of European and particularly British systems to India, the caste system began to modify.”

 

Those Sudras who were carrying human excreta is considered untouchable because they were doing  the most dirtiest job in the  world. It is  Muslims and British  who are responsible for the plight of the scavengers and other menials.  The British constructed  service toilets in their colonies and used Indians to carry human excreta.  Despite the fact that Septic  tank was invented in  France in 1860, the British made no effort to   convert  the service toilets  to septic tank.  This conversion  work started  only after Independence(Transfer of Power) in 1947.  Full details  can be obtained  from  the book “Present Dalit (Scavengers) Situation in India” by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak*(sent as attachment).

There are no significant cases of  human genocide or atrocities committed by  the so-called upper class Hindus against  the so-called lower castes.  Some stray incidences of sexual harassment  and exploitations against Dalit families are reported in some villages over  the last 60  years. This number is very  negligible  as compared to the genocide committed  by Christians, Muslims and Marxists  in the 20^th  century .

Sri. Kalavai Venkat  has presented certain conclusions  which are startlingly different from what the HAF arrived at even after allowing for variances between the reporting years.

The following table summarizes data from NHRC:[37]

	2004-2005	2006-2007
Total # of cases reported	74401	82233
Total # of cases disposed	24936	17341
# of cases disposed relating to atrocities committed against SC/ST	593	330
% of crimes committed against SC/ST (based on disposed cases)	2.01	1.90
% of crimes committed against other castes (based on disposed cases)	97.99	98.10
% of SC/ST population out of total population	22.50	22.50
Per capita crime rate against SC/ST	0.09	0.08
Per capita crime rate against other castes	1.26	1.27

In other words, based on data available from NHRC, in 2004-2005, 14 times more crimes were committed against  non-SC/ST individuals than was committed against  SC/ST individuals. In 2006-2007, 16 times more crimes were committed against  non-SC/ST individuals than against  SC/ST people.

The following table summarizes data from NCRB:[38]

	2008
Total # of crimes committed	5,938,104
# of crimes committed against SC/ST (according to the HAF report)	33,615
% of crimes committed against SC/ST	0.57
% of crimes committed against other	99.43
% of SC/ST population out of total population	22.50
Per capita crime rate against SC/ST	0.025
Per capita crime rate against other castes	1.28

Lot of social changes had taken place during Gandhi ji’s period and after Independence. Unlike Christians, Muslims and Communists, we Hindus never use force to establish our superiority in the world. About 98 % of the Hindus have no idea about Varnas, as explained in the Vedas. The remaining 2% does not know t how to explain the real purpose of Varnas to the present younger generation. So we made an attempt to compare Varnas to the present day division of labour. Today we have two types of labour in industries. One is called organized sector and other is unorganized sector. Since there were no major industries in olden days everybody worked like unorganized sector. During British rule organized sector of labour was found in Railways, cotton mills, jute mills, power generating stations, and was established for their convenience of the British for their policy implementation. Ordinary Indians were not allowed to travel in the 1^st class compartments in those days. Separate Colonies were constructed in all the Industrial units for the British officers, supervisors, clerical staffs and workers with club facilities for recreation to maintain separate identities according to the type of work to avoid labour problem. Thus in every Railway, one can find ‘Babu Block’, ‘Foremen Colony’ and ‘Officers’ Colony’. Was it not a kind of discrimination? When the master is showing discrimination, automatically it will spread to the rank and file.  It is an undisputed fact that no country or industry can survive without the division of labour. During the British rule, a fitter or Khalasi(sweeper) had to work in the same post  till his  retirement,  because there was no channel/avenue of promotion. Even after retirement, the person used to be identified as fitter or Khalasi. Similarly a soldier/jawan /fauji in the Army is known as such in his native village. The same thing happened in Indian caste system.  There was no channel / avenue to change their trade or profession till Independence.  In order to safe guard the livelihood, they started to form separate societies and marriages were conducted within the members of the particular society to avoid infiltrations from other castes. For example, in Kerala there is a society of people called Ambalavasis.(laborers of the temple).  Among   the Ambalavasis, there is division of labor such as Warrier, Nambiar and Marar depending upon the type of work they perform. They have to do all types of jobs including sweeping, washing, cleaning of utensils and making flower garlands for the Deities and decoration of the temples.  The Nambiars were temple artistes. The Marars play the musical instruments.  As remuneration they get free food, dress and accommodation near the temple because they have to be in the temple very early in the morning.  Since they were connected with temple up- keep their status was  just below the Brahmins. Every temple had lots of lands, donated by the Royals.  Gradually, many social changes took place in majority of the Hindu communities in Independent India. Thus all these communities have diversified into various fields.   Our late President  K.R. Narayanan was a harijan, whose  family’s  profession was  plucking  coconuts  from the  tree. The present Chief Minister of Kerala, V.S .Achuthanandan belongs  to  Ezhava caste  and his  family profession was  meshing coir to make ropes . He studied only up to Class VIII. Similarly  many Dalits were able  to  occupy  very  high posts/positions in life. Chief Minister of UP  Mayavati ,the  late  Jagjivan Ram,  his daughter  Meira Kumar, ex- C J  of SC, K.G. Balakrishnan  are some of the persons of Dalit origin to ascend  high positions.  We   should  tell  the world  of our achievements   A Doctor who is running  a hospital would want  his children  also to become  doctors, so as to continue the establishment.   A chartered accountant running a successful firm would encourage his children to follow in his footsteps.  This trend has caught on with the politicians and film stars as well, due to the attraction of money-power. In the public life of the politicians, it has paved the way for nepotism.  This is an inherent lacuna in the system, for which religion is not responsible.  

Take the case of the British King/ Monarch. None from outside the Royal family can become King/Queen, and hierarchy is also followed.   This is also a kind of caste system, but it is continuing in the British Royal Family.  The political Nehru family is also trying to do the same thing, making a mockery of democracy.  Brahmins also followed the same system, but now there is a total change in their outlook after Independence.  I do not find anybody raising these points to counter the malicious propaganda by the British/evangelists against Sanatana Dharma.

Similarly, the propagandists   talk about Sati which was practiced only sporadically in some parts of north India about two centuries back. What was the origin of Sati? During the war with Muslim invaders, thousands of women became widows and some Hindus might have introduced this practice to save the chastity of Hindu widows from the Muslim marauders.. We should question them as to what they would have done in that condition to save the dignity of thousands of women? In this case also nobody is giving the number of cases The no. of Sati cases were few.  Compare this with the atrocities by Christian missionaries against girls/women  in the name of witch- hunt.  The problem with majority of Hindus is that they just believe whatever the foreigners. Say without countering them. Of course there was no internet at that time to collect datas. Now things are different- we can counter them. With datas. I will be attaching a data sheet showing the number of people who suffered at the hands of the Christians, Marxists, Muslims and Americans in the 20^th century.  India does not figure on that list.