ABSTRACT ON CASTE SYSTEM

ABSTRACT ON CASTE SYSTEM

ð Acording to Galanteer, the Word cast comes from the portuguese “casta”.

ð Is a social stratification based on birth due to hindu belief that the birth – Janma – puts you to live in a class according to the way you lived your last life, as a matter or recognization.

o Accordingly, this cycle would just finish when one reaches the nirvana – mokshe – and starts being born again to live in the eternal peace.

ð Galanteer points that marriage is also an instrument to delimit limits among those social stratifications.

ð He also points that in the beginning the cast was an outcome of the social role played by the actor, but in the curse of time, the social role started to be determined a continuation of the family traditional allotment.

ð Marc Galanteer and Hardgrave & Kotchanek points that this influence has widespread in the society in an amount that every religion has its own casts, not really justifiable by religion but for the incorporation of a social and labor historical position of one such group.

ð The cast belief segregates lower casts from some common goods, some jobs, lands, access to ownerships, prohibition of marriages and so on.

ð It makes the Indian society as characterized by Galanteer: “A compartimental society, within a vast number of groups maintaining distinct and diverse style of life”.

ð Breaches against this system began to appear from the middle 19^th century on

ð Trade, civil rules and other measures created possibility of lower casts to acquire some social improvement

ð There was also a wave of movements for social reform regarding cast, such as:

o Mr. Jotiba Phule in Maharastra.

o Mr. Shri Narayana guru in Kerala.

ð According to E. Zelliot; “from the 1920’s on Gandhi integrated the issue into nationalist movement, guiding some major campaigns for equal treatment, such as:

o Vaikom (1924-1925)

o Guruvayur Satyagrahas (1931-1932)

ð In the late 1920’s Dr. B. R. Ambedkar emerged as a lower cast representative in movements at Maharastra.

o He burned Manu-smriti

ð After Gandhi’s 1932 fast one approved the Puna Pact, which reserved seats for lower casts.

ð In Bihar, Jagjivan Ram contemporary of independence was a Harijam (Dalet) Congress leader which organized the lower casts underemployed to demand some rights they still didn’t got

o Was famous for entering a Brahmin temple which, after, was washed with milk.

ð The constitution extended political rights to all citizens irrespectively of religion, caste, sex, language, race and scheduled casts.

ð HINDU VARNAS:

o Brahmins

o Kshatriyas

o Vaishyas

o Shudras

è Dalets (Harijam)

ð Each varna is divided in many casts

ð The cast system is based in the Manu-smrti, the Hindi moral code manual wrote 200 BCE by some conservative Brahmin.

o Also prescribe that women belong to their fathers and after to their husbands, a very patriarchal approach.

ð Cast leaders get political power by cultivating cast hates. Transforming it into a political weapon, mainly in cases of lower casts which are economically powerful but socially dominated, besides numerically larger.

ð There is a movement of sanscritization, guided by M. N. Srinivas which points to live like Brahmins (actually more like Kshatriyas) as a way to establish equality – secularization through sancritization.

o One points that it is not really good because one give up its right to live according to s/hes own pattern without being disrespected.

ð Cast politics has always been there Galanteer and Kathari.

o Galanteer points that in the independence struggle period and during Congress hegemony there was a composition of cast leaderships to dominate the scene.

ð Access to education also fostered backwards casts engagement

o First Backward Commission (1955)

ð With the advent of green revolution some peasant developed an important role in politics

o Congress accepted the alliances after some reluctance.

è Some examples:

· DMK

· Akali Dal

· TDP

ð In order to keep their vote, the Janata Party – socialist -, appointed, in 1979, the Mandal Commission, which come out in 1880 with a cast inclusion measures to be taken:

o 27% in jobs and educational institutions

o Land reform

è From 239 recognized casts by the 1^st backward commission it raised the amount to 3744

· Galanter recommends thorough going land reforms which had not been done.

ð Theorizing about cast and politics, Rajni Kathari in his book “Cast in Indian Politics” (1970), characterized it as being a political behavior with a secular aspect, an integrating aspect and an aspect of consciousness.

o Secular aspect: Highlighted by the pattern of alignment and realignment among different classes as an outcome for social ascendance rather than any other aspect.

o Integrating aspect: If we take the Varna frame we see that casts can be managed to integrate different groups and communities.

o Consciousness aspect: Otherwise the very notion of cast wouldn’t exist, since it’s not based on any physical aspect.

ð According to Kathari, this particularities of the cast system would fit in politics scope if we take it as being the competition for acquisition of power by the identification and mobilization of existing and emerging social organizations.

o For this he holds the opinion that cast and politics influence each other, instead of seeing a polarization among them.

o He also points that the legitimacy of Indian politics is based on mass politics and, for this, the influence among cast and politics open the path for what he called a “politicization of caste”.

è One consequence of the politicization of cast is the disintegration of the caste as a social entity while it’s getting stronger as a political force, through a process he calls “secularization of caste”.

è Secularization of caste would be complementary to the process of sanscritization and westernization.

· Westernization is the abiding of traditional values for welcoming a western cultural pattern which doesn’t impose them the caste barriers.

ð Taking some backward classes emerging leaders, such as Poyased Yodav, Mayanali, Mulayam and other, Kathari states that the significance of cast has just increased, and not diminished.

ð In a slightly different perception, C. Meillassoux says that “Caste in India works as ideology”, meaning that despite of class and goals differences among them, members of one same cast tend to stick together.

o For this he quotes the lack of positive common goals among representatives such as Yadav, Ialoo, Yodav and Mulayam Singh, but, still, we see that they support each other, as was the case in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

REFERENCES:

· MARC GALANTEER. “Competing Equalities”.

· C. MEILLASSOUX. “The Indian stratification debate: A discursive exposition of problems and issues in the analysis of class, caste and gender”.

· RAJNI KATHARI. “Cast in Indian Politics”.

· M. N. SRINIVAS. “Caste in Modern India: And other essays Asia”

· HARDGRAVE & KOTCHANEK. “India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation”