Indian Caste System – Some real truths…

Just narrating my experience in my village that make re-think on many of the established dogmas of indian caste system…

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Recently in my village, kumbabishekam was done in a newly built temple by one of the community classified as SC.  When i went to my home, there was full of temple activities, with many local political persons sponsoring for the temple.  Spiritual songs were played in the loudspeaker and when the actual kumbabisham began, the brahmins continuously chanted mantras for long time. (Again, it was a thing to ponder, on how the brahmins, accused for all evils, can do kumbabishekam in the temple of a dalit community)

I enquired at some of the old people there, about the temple, and who conducts the event.  I was told, that this temple was built by that particular community people for over a year, by collecting funds from all those who are working in far-off places.

I asked them, if its for all the dalit people.  He told, that its only for that particular community, and other communities (classified as SC) are not allowed. 

Then I asked the reason, why all dalit people could not have a common temple.

He told, that every community has their own laws, and normally, one community people do not even drink water from another community people’s house.

Again I asked, why?

He told, if they did so, they would be isolated from their own community (i mean caste).

I was surprised.. 

I again asked..  This type of practices occur only among higher castes, and how could the dalit communities practice this among themselves?

“This type of practice exists in almost all communities (castes).  And infact, the Dalit communities have more stricter rules than the other BC communities.

I left the topic, and went to my home..  Later, i had the chance to interact with my neighbour, who belongs to a different dalit community.  I asked her, why dont she attend the kumbabishekam.  She told, its only for the particular community, and their people wont go there. And many of the above said things, she confirmed.

This is more of a new revelation to me, after i started observing various aspects of our society. 

The first question that came to my mind was, why does only a particular community (Mostly the brahmins) were victimised, while actually, the same practice exists in almost all of the communities (ie castes).

And i felt there should be some reason (whether good or bad) on why all the communities chose to remain isoloated, without freely mixing with others.

If possible, I will do another post after some analysis on this.

Typically, when i remember my earlier days, i never came across any of the words like upper caste, lower caste, SC or dalit, till i first encountered these in the text books (i think from 4th or 5th std).

One thing is clear to me..  There was no factual & accurate analysis of our society right from the independance by any of the authors.  Otherwise, there could not be so much contradictions i could see from what i read from the text books, and what i am observe from the current society, that has almost chaged a lot.

Its true, that there were lot of drawbacks in our society.  At the same time there is most probablity that many of the ills of our society that we read from text books, and other published books,  are extrapolated, and quoted out of context.

It became more clear to me, that all the controversaries so far  is aimed at dividing the indian society based on caste lines, and push it in to permanent turmoil. First started by the britishers, unfortunately continued by the politicians even after independance. (I dont want to elaborate more on this now.. leaving it to the readers to search for more details themselves.)

When we take periyar’s concepts, its true that he fought against the social evils.  But, how far did he try to eliminate the more serious impact of untouchability practiced by his own community people?

Before concluding, i would like to quote the following article on Dharampal by Gurumurthy.

http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IE620061115230938&P=old

“What is it that keeps the country down”, asked the speaker. A young man in the audience replied unhesitatingly: “Undoubtedly the institution of caste that kept the majority low castes and the society backward” and added “it continues”.

The speaker replied, “May be”. But, pausing for a moment, he added, “May not be”. Shocked, the young man angrily asked him to explain his “may-not-be” theory.

The speaker calmly mentioned just one fact that clinched the debate. He said, “Before the British rule in India, over two-thirds – yes, two-thirds – of the Indian kings belonged to what is today known as the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).

“It is the British,” he said, “who robbed the OBCs – the ruling class running all socio-economic institutions – of their power, wealth and status.” So it was not the upper caste which usurped the OBCs of their due position in the society?

The speaker’s assertion that it was not so was founded on his study – unbelievably painstaking study for years and decades in the archives in India, England and Germany. He could not be maligned as a ‘saffron’ ideologue and what he said could not be dismissed thus. He was Dharampal, a Gandhian in ceaseless search of truth like his preceptor Gandhi himself was, but a Gandhian with a difference. He ran no ashram on state aid to do ‘Gandhigiri’.

Admitting that “he and those like him do not know much about our own society”, the young man who questioned Dharampal – Banwari is his name – became his student. By meticulous research of the British sources over decades, Dharampal demolished the myth that India was backward educationally or economically when the British entered.

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(More about dharampal on www.dharampal.net)