Caste in India

Topics Covered:
 Brief History
 Hinduism and its sub-castes
 Caste Based Reservations
 Mahatma Gandhi and Caste
 Differentiation between Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Brief History
“India's caste system is among the world's oldest forms of surviving social stratification.”
says BBC News in one of its articles. The castes are been divided not just on religious bases but even on
the basis of the kind of work they do from generations. The Hindu caste in itself is divided into different
sub castes. It is been said that these caste system exists even more than 3000 years from now. The two
specific words mainly used or rather say focused upon for differentiating caste as given above are
termed as dharma(religion) and karma(work/designation) of the person surviving. As per the research
and studies Manusmriti is one of the books that is regarded to be much more authoritative books of
particularly Hindu laws which is said to be written approximately a thousand years before the birth of
Christ that according to BBC news article’s report "acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the
basis of order and regularity of society". As per an article on Jstor, “The Caste System” it is said that
caste-system was molded by two factors which were race hyper gamy (marrying women into higher
groups) on the other hand it was considered on the basis of occupation as per Nesfield and Dahlmann
and for Senart it was due to “family worship of gens”.

Hinduism and its sub-castes

Talking about the caste system in Hinduism itself is divided into four parts based on one’s
designation I.e. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras and are noticeably considered to be
originated from the Hindu god Brahma as per the references. And the one who were not considered or
involved in these given categories were said to be Acchotes which are considered to be untouchables
(Dalits) that is the lowest category. It is a noticeable point here that our Father of Nation, Mahatma
Gandhi considered them as Harijan which means children of god according to an article named Caste in
Britannica. Going in as per the hierarchical measures Shudras came at the last position which means that
they used to do the least prestigious work in other manner menial jobs, above them came the Vaishyas,
who were considered to do the business work (traders), then furthermore came the Kshatriyas at the
2nd position who were the warriors and the kings, the one belonging to the royal family and having
royal blood. And the 1st position that is the upper most position came the Brahmins who were
considered to be the Gurus (teachers/preachers). And per mentioned before they are considered to
come from different parts of Brahma's body that are feet, thighs, arms and head respectively.
 Years have been passed within this caste based system of Hindus. According to a research
around 3000 castes were divided out of the four main castes and around 25,000 subcastes were also
made. The concluded in Upper castes and Lower castes in which certain privileges that Upper
Castes(Brahmins, Kshatriyas) can have were not allowable for Vaishyas and one which were available for
Vaishyas were not for Shudras which simply ended to discrimination on the basis of castes.

Caste Based Reservations

The centuries of discrimination has been faced by our country, though it is not at all
ignorable some major authorities ruling from lower castes for an instance B.R.Ambedkar as one of the
constitution former and India's first dalit President K.R.Narayanan. After the independence in the year
1950 India started making reservations for the unprivileged lower castes so that they could come up and
grab upon the every opportunities provided without any caste based discrimination. It began with the
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and then went on to OBC (Other Backward Castes) in 1989.And as
every decision has both good and bad consequences it also went in other way. There were two very
remarkable violent protests in India. For recognizing them as OBC's Jat Community from Haryana and
Patel Community from Gujarat did a violent protest in years 2016 and 2015 respectively.

Differentiation between Scheduled Castes

and Scheduled Tribes
 Talking about caste-based reservations it becomes much more important to differentiate
between Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes. They both are diverse from each other in a much
ethical way. Scheduled castes include the lower castes people or the minorities as mentioned above
such as Dalits, but Scheduled Tribes comprise in a vastly distinct aspect. They are been differentiated as
per the belongings of their tribes which are mainly residents of not much developed areas such as
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and other Union Territories including
Lakshadweep and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. They have been resided there for like more than centauries
and are also known as ‘Adivasis’. Due to the lack of opportunities they aren’t able to come up, so a
different section mainly focusing on them had made the reservations for these Scheduled Tribes.

Mahatma Gandhi and Caste

Caste is a very generalized term, it can’t be left uncommented by probably any person.
Many people have opinionated on this topic including our great national leaders and when we talk
about national leaders M.K.Gandhi that is the Father Of our Nation comes very first. So, he has also said
some things on caste system and his death story as per the reports is also been considered as the
consequences of this caste based systems. According to an article in epw it is said that the reason
behind Gandhi’s assassination/murder was on the basis of certain religion based aspects. Somehow he
ended up becoming the reason of partition and the Hindu Muslim riots. “Religion was central to
Gandhi’s life" says M.N.Srinivas, and adds that “Regarding politics as ‘applied religion’, Gandhi’s viewing
of religion was not as unilateral as one would think- neither was it static.” Though in 2019 many things
took place keeping Gandhi as a key aspect, such as restaging Gandhi’s assassination day as Shaurya
divas, and invoking Gandhi’s name in CAA(Citizenship Amendment Act) for the justification by tweeting
“The world bows to you, beloved Bapu!” as tweeted by PM Narendra Modi on Twitter. As the
consequences there is a serious to know about Gandhi’s actual views on religion. Gandhi started to
speak up against Varna system clearly in late 1947. “Gandhi for all his claims of rejecting the caste
system was in fact a denouncer of it, as one would think.” argues Arundhati Roy ignoring every other
supports.

References:

1. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616
2. https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Caste
3. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/m-k-gandhi-religion-and-caste-reading-list
4. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2085128?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
5. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43052102?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents