By OP Sudrania
Caste or Class Systems versus India in Global Perspective – CHAPTER TWO
In a blazing and scathing opinion article, Soroor Ahmed chronicles his hate filled appetite in a highly casteist article – Fast and Furious; wherein he has grotesquely exercised his wit in selective sectarian bash following recent results of some Indian educational institutions. He hails from a caste ridden state of Indiawhere the first thing they want to know is your Caste – biraadari. His portrayal of the social bias could have been better projected constructively to emulate by his own Caste people than casting aspersions on others who are using their wits to rise above the normal social mores of an uneducated background and that too without any outside state support like grants, subsidies, reservations, quotas, preferences etc. I wish he could have exhorted his caste boys and girls to follow the suit of these brilliant youngsters. But Ahmed failed bitterly on this count, instead indulged in jealous venomous remarks which were unnecessary, grotesquely undesirable and superfluous in this shrinking but sensitive global scenario.
I am not quite sure, nor am I interested to know, but his writing indicates that he may belong to one of the subsects of Shia Muslim groups. Bihar is one of the eastern states inIndiawhich is typically beseeched with this caste monster. No doubt that Soroor Ahmed coming from such casteist milieu has used his literary intelligence in down grading his pious profession of responsible journalism derogatorily. This is highly unfortunate and unbecoming. Such literary work is neither paying for the individual nor does it help the society. It may project a profanely negative image. With such divisive and vested interests within the meritocratic elites, it is difficult to get rid of the caste stigma from Indian social life, be it Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or any other subsects, as a matter of fact. Ahmed could have utilised this opportunity to emulate by his own caste for better to rid them of intolerance, hate, jihad, kafirism, and the infamy it has attracted globally. Perhaps Macaulayism is working at his best.
The educational backwardness is an issue that state should have cared for those societies who are backward on that count. Muslims are given too much assistance despite their failure to use the resources constructively. Globally Muslims own the World’s majority riches, if they could use it constructively instead of promoting jihadi ideas, intolerance and extremist groups world over. These meritorious students, whom Ahmed is envious about, are the beacons for others to walk their trail. To join ‘trade’ is certainly far better than joining a ‘dirty trade’ in Muridke orBahawalpur.
Quoting him, “But what is more important than Haryana is that these girls and boys come from different trading communities of the country. Surnames like Agrawal, Gupta, Jain, Mittal, Jindal and the like are often found to adorn the merit lists of various exams. These students are posing a big challenge to those from castes like the Brahmin or the Kayastha, who were, till recently, considered more educated than the others. If the Brahmins, Reddys and students from the other backward classes of south Indian states, especially Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, continue to perform well in various exams, uppercaste students, especially of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar andWest Bengal, are losing the race somewhat. And they are yielding ground to candidates coming from business communities, especially of Haryana,Chandigarh, Punjab andDelhi. However, inBiharand east UP, Bhumihars have, of late, been doing relatively better.
Unlike several other upper and backward castes, Marwaris, Jains and other trading communities have an all-India presence. In states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra,Delhi, evenChandigarh, they constitute a considerable part of the population. However, the trend of trading communities going for higher education is not confined to just one or two pockets in the country. It is almost an all-India phenomenon now.”
He continues further unabashedly posing his apology in favour of his perhaps own caste/religion, “Simplicity is not the hallmark of the trading communities of Hindus or Jains. But Bohra and Khoja (both are Muslim Shia castes – Author) traders and industrialists are known for such qualities. Azim Hashim Premji is an example.”
But simplicity is like beauty which lies in the eyes of the beholder. It does not have a set definition. Ahmed should have recapped himself that the Muslims have a global presence as well as a cause for global worry. He has trampled on a subject that is ab initio non causa pro causa. It would at best promote more hatred than fellowship. Even the word ‘Brotherhood’ has been tarnished in the global perspective due to its (mis)use by some groups who are known to have links to extremists.
How many Azim Hashim Premji has been produced to toe their exemplary line? Even he cannot escape the influence of proximity of the peace loving trading communities in Hindus. In contrast, the 57 nations in OIC have shown it by paradigm in utter lack of such luminaries like Azimji. Everything in the society is a trade when there is a transaction of money. Ahmed needs to update himself with the very basics of economics before misusing the words like ‘trading’. Take the money out of trade, politics, worship, administration, education and journalism, “What will be left”? It is this corrupted mindset that is more to blame than the malice of caste itself in the Indian communities or globally de facto. I am sure he could better utilise his wit in promoting the caste and communal harmony, instead otherwise.
His full opinionated article for its worth, can be read here.
In fact in the name of reservations for various castes, it has created a backward affluent class who in themselves are the perpetrators of the same ailment of caste in the society for their vested interest. They know that as long as this witch hunt can be kept vibrant and alive, this is a milking cow for them in all aspects; votes, money and its all other antecedent benefits in kind e.g. lucrative jobs, perks and political lubrications etc. This amounts to a polluted and convoluted narrow social engineering by targeting a peace loving innocent and unaware class.
“Pictorial presentation of Gandhi visiting Chennai”
Gandhi visiting Chennai (erstwhileMadras) in 1933 on an India-wide tour for Harijan causes. His speeches during such tours discussed the discriminated castes ofIndiaand appealed for the eradication of untouchability. Peruse here.
Harijan was a term used by Gandhi for Dalits. Gandhi said it was wrong to call people ‘untouchable’, and called them Harijans, which means children of God. It is still in wide use especially in Gandhi’s home state ofGujarat.
The term can also be attributed to Dalits of Pakistan called the haris, who are a group of mud-hut builders.Pakistan is an “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” riddled with all its ills of variety of violent dogmatic societal feudal castes and sub-castes. Irony is that they feel no compunction or contrition about it.
Gandhi’s publications:
Harijans were also several weekly newspapers published by MahatmaGandhi. He created three publications, Harijan in English (from 1933 to 1948), Harijan Bandu in Gujarati, and Harijan Sevak in Hindi. These newspapers found the Mahatma concentrating on social and economic problems.
One has to appreciate that Vedic tradition aka Hinduism being the oldest known system of civilisation on the earth in human society, some instant noble wo/men must have thought of creating a system to bind the emerging human race together. This benevolent cause must have led them to penance to study to evolve the divine subtle knowledge to domesticate the then initial wild tribes with no civilisation to follow or adhere to. Thus the evolution of Vedic knowledge via Smrtis took place. There couldn’t have been any caste based discrimination in such a nascent society.
A Wikipedia source describes, “The Caste System in India is a system of social stratification, social restriction and a basis for affirmative action inIndia. Historically, the caste system inIndia defined communities into thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called J?tis.
The J?tis were grouped by the Braahminical texts under the four well known social categories, (the varnas): viz Braahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. Certain people were excluded altogether, ostracized by all other castes and treated as untouchables also called “Dalits” today.”
Caste is commonly thought of as an ancient fact of Hindu life, caste systems have been also observed among other religions in the Indian subcontinent as well as in other parts of the world. Various contemporary scholars have argued that the caste system was constructed by the British colonial regime. Caste is neither unique to Hindu religion nor to India; caste systems have been observed in other parts of the world, for example, in Muslim community of Yemen, Buddhist community of Japan and Christian colonies of Spain. The latter is similar to the caste system reported in the Igbo-Osu Christian community inAfrica.
“Since 1950, Indiahas enacted and implemented many laws and social initiatives to protect and improve the socio-economic conditions of its Dalit population. By 1995, of all jobs in India, 17.2 percent of the jobs were held by Dalits, greater than their proportion in Indian population. Of the highest paying, senior most jobs in government agencies and government controlled enterprises, over 10 percent of all highest paying jobs were held by members of the Dalit community, a tenfold increase in 40 years. In 1997, Indiademocratically elected K.R. Narayanan, a Dalit, as the nation’s President. In last 15 years, Indians born in historically discriminated minority castes have been elected to its highest judicial and political offices. The quality of life of Dalit population in India, in 2001, in terms of metrics such as access to health care, life expectancy, education attainability, access to drinking water, housing, etc. was statistically similar to overall population of modern India.” More here.
It must be appreciated that the word “Caste” has no semblance with the Indian society as understood today and it is not a correct translation for the prevailing social divisions in the Indian society. There is nothing equivalent to it in the contemporary Indian scriptures. J G Arora expresses it, “There is a misconception in some minds that Hindu scriptures sanction the caste system. But being based on Vedas, Hinduism does not permit any caste system, whatsoever.”
As Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has aptly suggested that this word caste may have been originally used by the Portuguese invaders as “Castas” in their tongue to denote the various classes in the instant indigenous culture, but it does not reflect the costumes of the Indian Hindu society and its civilisation. The reasons are obvious due to the very differing core values in the respective societies. HAF’s document on “Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste – Seeking an End to Caste-based Discrimination”; is worth perusing. Perhaps the word ‘Castas’ was later on Anglicised during the British occupation period into ‘Caste’! HAF has raised the pitch of its concern on Caste which the others in global societies have been misusing by creating social divisions to give the dog a bad name and then after kill it. More here.
Votebank Politics and Politicisation of Castes:
Indian politicians have tried to misuse the caste as trump card for their narrow sectarian votebank gimmicks right from the Nehruvian era. Some glaring examples of such a myopic short term political manoeuvrings are given hereby.
The Mandal Commission protests of 1990 were against giving government jobs to certain castes on basis of birth rather than merit of the candidate. These protests closed roads, highways, transportation services, government services, schools, and businesses ofIndia. Anti-reservationists protested. Student protests were planned publicly, and in advance. Protest events were photographed for many published articles of newspapers locally and nationally. Protests began during the year when the eleven-year-old Mandal Commission was opened to bring into effect new government employment opportunities, reservation for backwards classes.
Between the failure to effectively control the political cost of the protests escalating enough to close parts of the nation, and an eleven-year-old human rights improvement project, were causes that ultimately led to accepting the resignation of the Janata Dal party’s Prime Minister of India, V. P. Singh. Most likely, the protests were comparable to globally largest, unified national demonstrations of a labour union strike combined with a version of a race riot.
These protests were widespread and enjoyed support of common people. “There is reason to believe that the students’ protests in 1990 would not have been so ferocious if it were not for the covert support extended to them by certain political parties, such as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.” More can be read here.
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