Caste, religion and the issue of race

Much has been written about the caste-system in India. Still I want to share some of my ideas regarding this very sensitive topic.

According to the perspective of history that I believe in, it has its origins in the influx of the Aryan race into the subcontinent. Clearly alternative perspectives of history exist, but I would not want to go into them. Ancient texts of that period (such as the Rg Veda) mention about four types of people – Arya (pastoral conquerors) , Dasyu (brown skinned city dwellers) , Nishada (black skinned forest dwellers) and Kirata (the yellow skinned hill dwellers) These tribes initially lived in seperate village states, but inevitably they had to mix with each other. This brought in the fears of damage to racial purity. So a system of broad guidelines and rules has been developed to prevent inter-racial marriage. Inter-racial marriages (known as Varna Sankara) were frowned upon and the offspring resulting from such a marriage were treated with disdain. The prominent political system of that time was the oligarchical republic (called Gana Rajya) which allowed for democratic representation of the members of the tribe.Members of other tribes, if they lived in the Gana Rajya, enjoyed negligible powers and mostly worked as servants. These Gana Rajyas flourished in the entire Indo Gangetic plain.

But soon, economical changes necessitated a more powerful form of organization. This gave birth to the kingdoms. The republics were not as successful in the accumulation of capital as were the monarchies. A necessary change for the kingdoms is a more intense stratification of the societal structure. Broadly four levels of hierarchy were established – Brahmanas (priests and scholars) Kshatriyas (soldiers and commanders) Vysyas (merchants) and Shudras (skilled and unskilled labour) These were called the four Varnas (Varna, in sanskrit, stands for color. This idea was probably borrowed from the earlier ideas of racial purity. Further, it is plausible that the dominant varnas of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas were mostly from Aryan racial heritage.)

The interesting thing to note is that the occupations of these four varnas became heriditary. This was probably a direct consequence of the fact that inter-varna marriages were avoided. However, it is not uncommon in other cultures that skilled occupations usually become heriditary. (Even in the modern age, it is quite common for a musician’s son to be a musician) The unusual thing with these Varnas was that they did not inter-marry with each other.

Soon as the empires began to grow, it became difficult to accommodate new people into the 4 varnas and several sub-sects needed to be introduced. When foreign lands got merged into the empire, the Varna status was assigned to people based on their social status. At this point, a very curious thing has happened. Inter-marriages between the sub-sects of a Varna were also ruled out. These sub-sects proliferated into thousands; each one of them maintaining separate identity and preventing inter-marriage. The sanskrit word for these sub-sects is Jaathi (which is derived from the root word Ja – which means birth) The english equivalent is the word caste. But I would like to use the word race instead. Because, the Jaathi system was more of a method of preservation of racial purity than that of social exploitation. The later was just a consequence of the former. When the word caste is used, it is associated with a hierarchy of social occupations and the consequent exploitation of some people. This is why I would like to avoid this word and instead use the word race, which brings the attention back to the root problem.

In this blog, whenever I use the word race, I do not refer to the usual classification into Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid races. Instead, by the word race, I am referring to a small genetic pool which is closely guarded through prevention of inter-marriage. I may choose to use the word breed, but that will be too animal-like.

(Interestingly, when a new student enters an engineering college in India, the first question that he would be asked is “What is your breed ?” which refers to what his caste is. Yes, this ridiculous situation still prevails , but not in reputed colleges such as the IITs etc)

Now, I would like to make a very bold statement. It is this issue of race (as referring to Jaathi) that is behind most kinds of sectarian violence that we observe today. It is not religion, it is not caste and it is not language. These are all minor frivolities on the surface. Underneath, at the root, the problem manifests itself in the form of race and the fear of damage to racial purity. This concept of damage to racial purity does not make any sense considering the digital format of encoding for genetic information. This is what I was refuting in my earlier post when I said that race cannot survive in digital format.

Now if we consider Jaathi, this is not unique to the Indian sub-continent. This issue is present throughout the world. This is present in South Africa in the form of the aparthied. This is present in the USA in the form of white supremacy (okay, not everywhere, but in some places). This is present in Sudan in the form of strife between the Arabs and the sub-saharan Blacks. This is present in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. This is present in the middle east between the Israelis and the Palastenians. This is what is present when the Islamic nations complain about the domineering nature of the West.

An interesting note to mention here is the strategy of Pakistan in trying to move away from its shared history and heritage with India. The idea of religion does not hold enough water to justify a complete separation. So, pakistan is trying to discover more links in the ancient past with the Persian Archaenemid dynasty and downplay the influence of the Gana rajyas of the Indo Gangetic plain. It is a strategy of differentiation of the racial gene pool. Please refer to the wikipedia article. Incidentally, it is again the issue of Jaathi which prompted the separation of Bangladesh from the erstwhile Pakistan – both the countries share the same religion.

Modern religions such as Islam and Christianity proclaim the equality of all men. But the practitioners of these religions in India adopt equally strong, if not stricter measures, in guarding the gene pool. Advertisements in the matrimonial sections of the newspapers report that a Christian/Muslim from a particular sub-sect seeks a bride from the very same sub-sect. The accusation against Hinduism that it is the lone supporter of a barbaric caste system is clearly misdirected.

Racial arrogance is a trait typically associated with Nazis and the like. But this is practiced everywhere – in the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, in the Marwaris of Rajasthan, in the Thakurs of Uttar Pradesh, in the Brahmins everywhere, and in the myriad castes of South and North India – any sect which becomes economically rich automatically becomes seclusive and tries guarding its gene pool. When they speak of superior culture, what they actually mean is superior genetics. Can anything be dumber ??

But this is what guides the entire political system of India. People elect representatives based not on their political agendas, but on how close their gene pools are related. (that is, whether the person is from the same caste/ city/ religion or not) I can think of nothing to redeem this situation except wholesome literacy and education. But with a country as big and diverse as India, there are always bound to be racial insecurities. Still I hope for that day when democracy in India becomes truly functional.