How do we learn our History? – part – 2

In my Last post i had given a overview of the discussions that led me to write this rejoinder series. In continuation with that i plan to deal with each and every topic separately henceforth.

And in this post, i am focusing on caste system, which was often a hot discussion in various blogs.

The indian Caste System:

Sukumar had written a valuable post on Caste system in his blog, giving various citations and references. That was an enlightening one for me, as only through this, i came across historians like Nicholas Dirks, Chenbakavalli.  In his post, sukumar had concluded the following points.

• There was no discrimination in education based on caste as evident from dharampal’s book
• The present day caste system was british creation as found through Dirks’ writings.
• The britishers handed over monopoly of administration to Brahmins.
• The present day caste system is mostly a british creation, and the caste system before that is more of religious nature.

Also, the following references add wieightage to the above arguments. I am compiling these links from sukumar’s post and the discussions there and in other places.

• An article by Infinity Foundation on how caste system became rigid
• The Original Caste – by Nicholas Dirks
• The Invention of Caste – by Nicholas Dirks
• Chenbagalakshmi’s review of the book Castes of Mind
• The beautiful Tree – by Dharampal on Indian Education

What do we infer from the above?

• The age old myth that caste system denied education to lower castes was brokern now.  Yet, we did not question, why such false history is still being taught both in indian school and abroad?  Who was responsible for propogating this false hood?  In chenbagalakshmi book review it was clearly mention, as i have stated here in this comment. , that “early colonial historiography (19th Century) the most influential views on caste were those of the Missionary, who denounced caste as the most serious impediment to the spread of the Gospel”
• The Caste system was more of religious in nature, and there was both upward and downward mobility of the castes, till it was freezed by britishers who classified and categorized as per their administrative convenience.
  
• There was no clear definition of higher caste and lower caste in india, and these phrases are taken for granted.  In indian terms higher caste and lower caste is identified by personal discipline and societal culture..  While in the west, the higher caste and lower caste are defined by power and authority.   But, whenever any one quotes caste system, he imposes a power structure on indian caste system, which is not a correct way..  To cite a good example the brahmins were highere caste, but they could not even sell a grain of paddy, which is a sin..
  
• Caste system is deeply religious in nature, even in present days. For every persons, caste is primarily related to his gula deivam, profession and the culture that is associated with it.
  
• The most important point is that there is “NO Authenticated Documents” on caste system before britishers.. so its not right to say caste system discriminated for thousands of years..
  

Yet, the Caste system is deliberately wrongly interpreted and perceived..

Let’s see even after the above facts how the caste system was seen..

Sukumar acknowledges here that its britishers who gave monopoly of administration to brahmins.  But again he ends up in allegation that pre-british caste system was evil in his comments here in

Vamsi’s comment in the same post that even pre-British caste system was  discriminatory..

And subba in his comment in the same post, went on to defend further that since today’s politicians are also exploiting caste system, there is no wonder britishers did the same to us..

but the truth is that it was britishers who first created present day caste system for exploitation, and since the independance we got in 1947 was mere transfer of power, the present day politicians inherited the same legacy..

vamsi  had dragged this caste-evil concept again in the latest post.. and he mentioned that thousands of years of systematic social placement of certain sections of society below dignity by caste system..

and next sukumar comments there..  he mentions that venkat’s opinion that caste system is the strength of hinduism is unadulterated bullshit, and he asked substantiations for this..

but he hasnt specified yet on what basis he mentioned caste system as bullshit, and what are the substantiations he have?   Is substantiations and proofs expected only for the defendants of hinduism, and NOT for any one throwing allegations?

Is Caste system Most Evil thing in this world?

Next, let’s come to the argument of caste sytem as Most and worst kind of evil ever in the world history..  this allegation was repeatedly made in various forums,

Lets consider some events from the pages of History:

• The communism had so far killed more than 100 million people. (40 million in russia, 70 million in china).

• The inquisition as carried out by Christian missionaries for over 1000 eyars.. (Not to mention about Goa Inquisition)
  

• Genocide of Australian Aborigines by christians

• Nanking massacre by Japanese (Light hearted persons, kindly desist from reading this)

Some questions:

• Almost entire section of europe believed in racism till 19th century..  is it not worst discrimination?

• The Slave trade, that was once a thriving business was done by White people..  and when Lincoln took steps to abolish slavery, almost half of america opposed it..  wasnt that worst form of discrimination?

• The Australians, after exhausting the native aborigines to small regions, refused to recognize them till as late as 1990’s..  ie, they were as discriminatory and worst suppressors as late as 1990’s..  ie, till twenty years back..  and arent they worst discriminators in the world?

• Even today, saudi arabia never allows even a private photo of deities of other religions in its country, even though, a large number of such migrant workers contribute to their nation..  and this worst form of discrimination still happens, without any opposition..

• And not to mention the suppression & elimination of hindus in pakistan and bangladesh..  they are not even a news..

• And finally, the greatest genocide of our own Bengal People done for around 18 decades of Britisher subjugation..  Almost 30 million bengalis men, women and children died starving at the feets of bengal streets, because of the famine, artificially created by britishers..

And the list goes on..

Now I am asking, in what way the caste system is worst than these barbaric genocides and discriminations..

How many times, had those people declared communism as worst evil or have accused the britishers for their various atrocities, or declared catholic institutions as most discriminating one?

But when one points out these statistics, a defending reply comes as “The prime minister of australia have apologised”

even though the apology is without any compensation , and any corrective measures..   why is that our people are ignoring barbaric history of the world, and only self-denigrating our own institutions, which when compared to the above historic incidents is thousands of times better.

Is caste system, worst than the discrimination of the australians or the britishers or the communism?

How do I perceive the Caste system”

What are the positive observations of the caste system?  How do i perceive a caste system?  I am explaining below.

• There are thousands of caste system in India, which co-existed with each other peacefully..  barring the minor clashes..
  
• The entire caste system of india has so evolved they are in mutual dependance with one another.  The brahminic preists depended on farmers, who in turn depended on the labour force, etc.. this kind of mutual dependance is another reason for our tolerance.
  
• Each caste is concerned with more of its culture, god, and its social structure and customs..  ie, the caste is internalised within itself, and every caste is mostly identified with its profession, which was a dharma to them..  ie, a farmer was as religious as his profession, as a brahmin would be to his profession..  similarly many other castes like vysyas, mudaliars etc..
  
• The religious tolerance and inclusiveness of Hinduism is largely because of the caste system..  since thousands of castes co-existed for thousands of years, there was an inherent evolution of mutual acceptance..
  
• The social cohesiveness, that was present within each community, provided moral and physical support for the people to survive through difficult times of islamic invasion and also british looting.  If we read the history of many of the migrants to countries like south africa, trinidad, malaysia, they all worked under difficult terrains and they survived only because of the community support they belong to.
  
• The caste system played a major role in prosperity of India..  if we see the trends, many of the prospering castes progressed through community support, rathen than individual effort.  We have many industrial clusters in india, which thrived based on community support.  Eg:  Nadars of sivakasi, annachis of tamilnadu, gounders of tirupur & namakkal,  the patels, the ramgadias of ludhiana, rajasthan who pioneered in engineering skills.  It was these numerous castes that provided the social capital of india.
  http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/apr/08inter.htm
• If we look at the past 50 years of indian history, the role of government is largely negative.  The government functioned only in metros, while the entire rural india was neglected.  Its the caste setup, and the associated social structure, that enabled them look after themselves.  Imagine, if all the castes started depending on the government similar to the metros, india would have collapsed much before..  but that’s happening now, with gross neglect and negative reaction  of our inbuilt social systems.

Important Points:

The most important points i would make is to observe the inherent character of each caste.  None of the caste or community in india has the religious command to destroy other religions, like what christianity have in form of believers and infidels, and islam having muslims and kafirs.  There is no concept of conversion, and hence there is no invasion of other cultures.

A brahmin is more focussed on his priestly duties and related community profession.  A farmer is more focussed on doing agriculture.  so as the vysya communities.  Most of the castes have their own temples for each sub-sect.  Most of the amman temples are non-brahminic.  Most of the ayyanar temples are non-brahminic. And the primary god of most of the non-brahminic castes are these amman temples and ayyanar temples.  And these non-brahminic temples are managed by their own community.

The caste system is so blended with even religions, that one particular caste can be a vaishnavit or shaivite, without compromising its core culture.  For example, my father’s family is a vaishnavite, and adore festivals at purattasi month..  while my mother’s family is shaivite adoring festivals at the tamil month of “Thai”.

The caste system is so diverse, and complex that any particular theory cannot fit for the whole system.  Particularly, the theory of Upper Caste and Lower Caste is highly ridiculous.  The most dominating castes who clash with dalits in tamilnadu are OBC and MBCs.  For example, devars, nayaks, vanniars are all MBC’s.

Secondly, the theory that brahmins suppressing all other castes has no rational reasoning.  The very inherent culture of brahmins is non-violent, and they do not have the capability to exert any physical violence to others..  Even today, a typical brahmin will approach a court of police when facing problems, whereas a typical OBC will retaliate with fervour.

Also, most of the caste clashes happen between MBC’s and SC’s.  But the resulting blame falls on brahmins. And because the entire intellectuals space had been occupied with anti-brahminism, it is the brahmins who faced the worst discrimination after independance.  But because of their intellectual capability, many of the brahmins migrated abroad, and prospered in life.

No caste is alone in any area:

When we take any particular village in india.  There would be atleast a dozen castes living in peace with each other.  If we look at the historical distribution of castes, we could see, that brahmins almost existed in most of the villages in india..  that means, the brahmins co-existed with common people, providing the intellectual service to the people.  The distribution of brahmin community among the general mass has one other purpose.  They were looking after temples in each area, and they were providing education to all sections of the people. (this is evident Dharampal’s book beautiful tree ) .  Their valuable contribution to the education of india for thousands of years, is completely forgotten.  And their valuable service to this humanity by preserving vedas orally for more than 5000 years has been never acknowledged.

But the general tendency among our intellectuals ar that “These are not important to me.  I would only accuse them even though there is no proof” ..

It is also to be noted, that because of anti-brahminism, the once co-existing brahmins, now are settling in towns, and existing as exclusive community.. its not only with them.. same for others too..

And what is the status of the majority of the brahmins today.. Please see the video below.

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The next part of this series is regarding the topic of karaneeyam vs revenue department.