Caste System

Caste System

It is a very famous and old saying “Garib Ko paise de do par Buddhi mat do” (Give poor money but never wisdom). The question is why? What will happen if poor gets the wisdom? The answer is: If they have the wisdom, they will become rational, will develop the sense of just and unjust, understand their rights, duties and a strong sense to protest wrongs and finally a sudden decrease in their tolerance level and they will no more serve you.

Followers, may be of any kind or nature like Social, political or religious in nature but they all share the same psychological state of mind.

Simple Psychological theory works here is “The Domination of superior”.

  

We only respect and or obey people who are superior to us may be in terms of wealth, knowledge, experience, expertise or potential. We generally don’t follow people who are equivalent or below our level. For instance : If we attain some superior or equivalent position to any of our school time senior in the same organization, we would abstain from showing some seniority regard to them but try to treat them more as  friend and a companion.

Logic behind all this is, anything flows from higher potential to the lower potential and when the potential difference is matched there is no absolutely flow.

This strategy was followed by the architects of our society. A huge potential difference was artificially created and maintained through rigor structure of the caste system.

Formal education (the kind of education we get today) was denied to the masses, they were only entitled for the vocational education and work training relative to their respective case cadres and formal education with wide range of subjects were made available only to the ruling class for bringing superiority in them.

The design!!

Imagine yourself studying only History from the class 1st to PhD level and no other subject, having all historians and archeologist as family member, friends and relatives. Will there be any match for your expertise (and expertise of other people similar to you) in the subject of history anywhere in the world? The simple answer is no! But on the other hand you would be a dumb in all other subjects and aspects. You wouldn’t have any idea about Maths, science, commerce, and arts subjects other than history. 

Imagine similar condition for all other people like scientists, mathematicians, geologist, metallurgist, ceramist, Economist etc. What we will get is a section of world class experts in each and every field. This was something how our society was designed. Cast system acted as a very tough and rigid system to set the boundary between the different professions almost free from mutual interactions and interference. There were several advantages and disadvantages at the same time. People were 100% professional and expert in their area but a blunt fool in all other respects. A very skillful person had no idea about the politics, administration and all other things; he was just a follower and an order receiver. People seldom protested against the exploitation by the Elite and their Kings, because they were not aware of anything, living under umbrella of exploitation was just a way of life and considered choice of god, they named it fate.

There was a very small section of generalist, people having a formal education of almost all important subjects; they were great scholars and experts. All kinds of educational and teaching activities were confined to them and they were having the respect and prestige above everything else. Religion was intermixed with education to make a distinction and create a separate class. Educational texts were coded in religious thoughts and very few having the access to it. Mostly the Brahmins and Kshatriya were eligible to receive a formal education. In other words, we can assume a 100% reservation for upper caste in whole education and administration system in our historic past. They were either the ruling Kings/princes and other officers in King’s office or Ministers and advisers of the King.

So there were two main distinctions:

1) The Elite

 2) The commons

The Elite or the ruling class has the power of Education, Knowledge, Wisdom and Wealth while the Commons were happily living with their small set of skills in their respective profession or work.

There was no conflict in society as the range of roles, responsibilities and the wealth proportions were predefined. Religious teachings asked for satisfaction and sacrifice to yield a better life after death i.e., concept of heaven and hell. Rulers and the Holy men taught people to yield a life of peace and simplicity while they themselves enjoying the comfort and luxury of Palaces. Kings were having hundreds of wives, thousands of slaves and enormous wealth with all other kinds of facilities and the Holy men having thousands of followers, he was a trusty of property of temples, advisor of the king and agent of the God. Meanwhile the common man was being taught “Hari Ka Nam Lo, Hari Ka Nam Lo” when they use to complain for no follow up from their 'Hari’ the were further educated concepts of Karma, the Bhagwat Geeta lessons,  the concept of life and death, the heaven hypothesis and ultimately concepts of Moksha.

So, we already discussed how our society was designed and developed based on the caste system hypothesis and now we will now discuss why it was evolved and what benefits and drawback were there and finally how things are working out today and what are future prospects.

Why caste system evolved?

The caste system served a number of social and economical functions and once was most important reason behind the huge success of our country before 17the Century. Once we were economic super power, a status what even the United States do not enjoys today. We had 31.5% share of Global Domestic Production, the balance of payment completely in our favor with very high exports and marginal imports, 100% employment and very high social index. While this system gave us an extra edge over the world for centuries, the arrival of British in India and the new concept of industrialized world changed each and every equation of our society completely.

We will try to understand the evolution of caste system in our society, the need and purpose in past and prospects for present and future.

Past

Economic Reasons

Caste system evolved to divide the society into different segments based on the economic and production function. If people were given choices to opt for their favorite profession there would have been a huge chaos as most opting for professions associated either with high social status or economic values. To mitigate these problem founding fathers of our society discovered caste system. Religious function and customs were associated to act as a strong bound between sections of society and professions. For example : Different castes like Luhars, Kumhars, Chamars, Baniyas, Yadavs, Brahamins etc. represents different works and professions.

Biological Reasons

The genes codes billions of genetic information and transfers it from one generation to another.  We can easily feel this thing in our day to day life, a child resembling the facial look of his/her parents, dependency of high built and personality over family heredity. Scientific researches has proved that our activities, intellect level, particular skills, accuracy, and all other individual traits also gets coded in our genes and this information is passed on to our coming generations. For instance, a tunnel vision in men due to hunting and peripheral vision among females due to domestic works which has evolved over hundreds of years of heredity and continuous evolution. Therefore a customized system of same caste marriage evolved in our society may be intentionally or unintentionally, to protect a particular set of skills within a limited section of society and or within a community and a complete avoidance of alien skills or traits which may have diluting effects. For example if a Kumhar marries within a Kumhar community, he is more likely to have offspring having better abilities and better prospects in his career as a Kumhar, than if he marries within a  Luhar community.

Social Reasons

The social, cultural, economic and occupational patterns in a particular caste community are very similar. There is very less to be done to accommodate with one another and interlinking of families through institution such as marriage. The community can take care of its social, economic and occupational interests as a whole (for example: the role played by factory workers union in present industrialized society). As, initially these communities were very small and most likely were decedents of same people or closely linked people, most families were distant relatives of one another in some way or the other. Such system prevents the property transfer outside the family through marriages and kinship and property remains within the family system.

Educational Reasons

Yet education is also a social function and doesn’t need a separate classification under a new head, but the need of the discussion ask for classification under a separate head. In our Past there was almost no choice to opt for a profession other than what ancestors have been doing. Home was the first and in most cases last institution where one has to graduate, from primary level to the PhD. Education was more related to Skill and Application rather than the theoretical knowledge we impart today. There were almost no theory classes; one has to learn things by doing itself. The techniques of hit and trial under close supervision of seniors and experts, the practices of apprentice, job training etc. were prevalent. There was enough room for innovation and newness and was much recognized and much appreciated. Additionally a child was considered a helping hand of his father from very childhood and another earning member for the family.

Things changed!

During late 18^th century we started following western educational, social and economic system. After independence we had no alternative but to adopt the prevalent system of the present world. All the constraints over education and choice of economic activities were removed. Jobs involving theoretical, scientific and industrial knowledge were more suitable for rapidly industrializing society. Accordingly the education system evolved and begun training individuals through institutions like Schools, Colleges, and Universities etc. with more inclination towards imparting theoretical and scientific knowledge. Earlier, maximum people were entrepreneurs and self employed, today we have large factories and industries with some capitalists at top and rest as skilled and unskilled workforce. Job market do not makes distinction between people, based on caste and religion but on the basis of knowledge, skill and suitability of person for the particular function. So, presently there is absolutely no requirement of caste system to exist and is going to extinct in coming decades.

Present:

The things have changed drastically, today we don’t need a caste system, same factors are responsible for the new circumstances as were earlier i.e., Economic, biological, social, and educational reasons.

Economic, Biological, social and educational needs of present day:

The present era is called economic era, today the main division between the people and society is not on the basis of caste but economic condition or wealth. We have upper class, middle class and lower or poor class. The income of people determines which class it belongs. The division between the classes is not very restrictive type, like earlier under caste system, one’s class or level in an economic society can easily be interchanged by increasing or decreasing one’s state of income. Education is most important instrument for mitigating this division, as income in some aspect or another is proportional to education level. The caste system has lost its grounds under urban environment. Earlier same or similar castes accommodated in closely held colonies and settlements, today colonies are based on economic state, like we see city’s flat nomenclature like Luxury, ‘HIG (high income group)’, ‘MIG(mid income group)’, Economic Apartments  etc.

Modern world do not demands particular genes and skills to be preserved or secured but some more generalization of qualities. Today people go for better looks, better education background, family’s economic strength etc. A beautiful and more educated and successful person today is perceived to have better genes to produce better offspring’s and provide the family a happy, prosperous and stable environment. Equal educational and employment opportunities have took women out from their domestic environments into an open atmosphere full with opportunities for them. This lead to more interaction between both sexes and substantially increased the chances of close, intimate and love relations. The kinship equation is getting favorable for love marriages which generally do not look for caste match. Matching of genes of different caste segments produces better and diversified traits in the offspring. Continuous process of this inter-caste mating over generations will result in a more evolved, generalized and optimized version of traits among children which will be most suited for the prevalent environment.

As there is no relevance of Caste System in our present day, and is losing its relevance day by day, this continuous decay of this system will make it extinct very soon.