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Indian caste system

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Varna the word itself means colour. Varna system is a color based classification. But it is also a fact that that system was not originally based on color based divisions. Lord Krishna was a dark skinned person but he was a upper caste member.

Classification was based on the occupations. Working conditions brings skin color changes and later color was sybolically used to refer to this classification. But that classification had no similarity to the color aparthied in the modern world. People of one color never looked down or up to the people of another color. In India also, people who have moved to more indoor occupations have a much lighter skin as compared to their immediate parents.

The Indian caste system is a social system in which people are divided into separate endogamous groups, known in English as castes, and in Hindi as Varnas.

The origin of the caste system is in Hinduism but it has affected the whole of Indian society, and it was later transmitted to Nepal. In religious terms the caste system was a basically simple division of society into four castes (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra) arranged in a hierarchy, with the "Pariah" (Dalit) outcasts below this structure. This system is pan-Indian. But regionally the caste system is more complex, with many more sub-castes (occupational groups practicing endogamy in a particular region) and other divisions within each of the four pan-Indian castes or Varna.

Indian caste system - Varna system

Indian caste system - Four Varnas

Traditional Last Names by Varna

• Brahmin --- Sarma; Deva
• Kshatriya --- Varma; Trata
• Vaisya --- Gupta; Bhuti
• Sudra --- Datta; Dasa

The caste system, although not currently officially sanctioned by their governments, is used by Hindus, particularly in India and Nepal for reasons of determining lineage and is passed down through patrilineal descent. It is based on four varnas:

• Brahmins (white-symbolizing Sattva), priests, teachers
• Kshatriyas (red-symbolizing Rajas), kings, princes, warriors
• Vaishyas (yellow-symbolizing Rajas/Tamas), merchants/craftsmen
• Shudras (blue or black-symbolizing Tamas), workers, farmers

The first three castes are seen as 'twice born'. They are allowed to study vedas. In India and Nepal the sub-castes within a Varna are called Jat or Jati (The caste is also used instead of Jat). Each Jati members are allowed to marry only with their Jati members. People are born into their Jati and it cannot be changed. Once someone is born to certain sub-caste or Jati he or she cannot be changed to another Jati. Caste is a permanent attribute among the Hindus.

The occupations of the Vaishya are those connected with trade, the cultivation of the land and the breeding of cattle; while those of a Kshatriya consist in ruling and defending the people, administering justice, and the duties, of the military profession generally and ruling by Dharma. Both share with the Brahman the privilege of reading the Vedas. To the Brahman belongs the right of teaching and expounding the sacred texts vedas. Shudras were the serfs, and performed agricultural labour.

Intermarriage between castes was not encouraged.

Indian texts speak of jati, which are sub-caste within a Varna. Thus each varna is subdivided into many jatis which are endogamous groups with a particular occupational specilization all having same or similar social ranking which is determined by its Varna. Each jati has its appropriate rules of conduct and duties or "dharma", including rules regarding marriage, eating, and ritual purity.

Religiously anyone who does not belong to the four Varnas is an outcast. Muluki Ain has incorporated the entire ethnic group of Nepal into Caste hierarchy.

Indian caste system - Division of labor

The varna system is based on division of labor. The Purusha-sukta is a Hindu creation story. It's about the four Varnas, or castes. It tells how Brahma (Ultimate Reality) created a giant called 'Primal Man' from clay and how the giant was sacrificed. Out of the body of the Primal Man came four groups of people. Each group had a different role to play in life, and society. They all had very different tasks. The first group was the Brahmins (priests). They came from the mouth. They were to provide the intellectual and spiritual needs of the community. The second group was called Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers). They were created from the arms, and they were needed to rule and to protect the others. Vaishyas (landowners and merchants) sprang from the thighs. This group was needed to trade and to care for agriculture. Shudras (artisans and servants) were from the feet. They had to do all the manual work.

Indian caste system - Untouchables Dalit

The "untouchable" (or Dalit) in the Hindu societies used to work in ignominious, polluting jobs dealing with the dead, and unclean occupations were seen as polluting peoples and were therefore considered as untouchables. The untouchables used to live separately with their own life-style, outside the village with complete freedom. No other castes could interfere with their social life since they fall outside caste system. They were treated as untouchable only inside certain specific areas designated for religious worship. For example, inside a temple complex even a Brahmin may not touch the person who is doing priestly duty inside the temple.

Thus, the untouchables were seen as polluting for religious reasons and not because of their birth but because of their work involved polluting substances daily. Hence, their dwellings were at a distance from the settlements of religious shrines. The untouchables were allowed to enter the temples only after purification because they handle polluting substances. For this reason they were not allowed to use the same wells used by the higher caste people due to fear of pollution. It is obvious that most of the trades pursued by impure castes are some way associated with impurity. (Andras Hoffer 2004: 74)

If, because of any reason, there was a contact between an untouchable and a member of the high caste, the higher caste member became defiled and had to immerse or wash himself with water to be purified. In such cases, especially among the 'Twice Born' (the three top Varnas) the touched 'Twice Born' also had to pass through some religious ceremonies to purify him from the pollution.

Indian caste system - Jati

Mixed in with the Varna caste system was the Jati sub-caste system. The Jati was effectively a system similar to guilds, and was associated with occupation. If the Varnas gave structure to society, the Jati gave structure to each Varna.

Unlike the Varna system which required spiritual purity in order to ascend, Jati could be changed with occupation within a Varna. Marriages would be arranged usually within one's varna, but sometimes between Jati sub-castes. Due to its inheritability, there is a lot of 'caste prejudice' between castes, usually taking the form of disassociation with lower castes, though sometimes it would degenerate into petty 'gang wars,' usually among the lowest caste(s) and the Pariahs.

Indian caste system - Caste in Hindu texts

The notion of Varna as an endogamous human types system for social harmoney rather than economic class system was first attested in the Rig-Veda. It generally refers to the four principal castes described in Manu's code, viz. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. Caste dharma need to be very strictly followed as you go up in the caste hierarchy. Thus, higher castes like Brahmins were under very high social restrictions and taboos in their conduct and life style, where as lower castes people it was lenient. It does not prevent lower caste people acquiring wealth, enjoyment or lead their own life style except prescribing religious restrictions and some social restrictions near religious areas due to purity and pollution. It is believed that one is born into a caste depending on one's karmic influences—actions in the past life and current life. See P.V. Kane's "History of Dharmashastra" for references to the caste system in the Dharmashastra literature.

Indian caste system - Rig Veda - Purusha Sukta hymn

The Purusha Sukta hymn (Rig Veda 10:90) mentions the castes and compares them to the body of a man: "The Brâhmana was his mouth, of both his arms was the Râjanya made. His thighs became the Vaishya, from his feet the Sûdra was produced." (RV 10:90:12) In the Purusha Sukta hymn the word Varna is not used, and it is the only hymn of the Rig Veda where the words Vaishya and Sudra are used. The Purusha Sukta hymn is considered to be one of the youngest parts of the Rig Veda.

Indian caste system - Origins of the system

Indian caste system - Aryan invasion

According to this theory, the caste system began with the arrival of the Aryans in India. The Aryans are said to have arrived in India around 1500 BC. The light skinned Indo-Aryans, according to this theory, arrived in India from Central Asia. Before the Aryans there were other communities in India of other origins (see Indus Valley Civilization). Some of the most important of these are the Dravidian, the Mongol, the Austroloid and Tibeto-Burmese tribals. The Dravidians were the largest community in India, and are by some scholars identified as the bearers of the Indus Valley Civilization.

The Aryans organized among themselves in three groups. The others were designated as Dravidians. In this theory, the different Jats (sub-castes) who professed different occupations were integrated in different Varnas according to their occupation. Most of the communities that were in India before the arrival of the Aryans were integrated in the Sudra Varna or were made outcast depending on the professions of these communities. Communities who professed non-polluting jobs were integrated in Sudras Varna. And communities who professed polluting professions were made outcasts. The Brahmans are very strict about purity. In the past people believed that diseases could also spread also through air and not only through physical touch. Perhaps because of this reason the untouchables were not only disallowed to touch the high caste people but they also had to stand at a certain distance from the high castes.

Indian caste system - Transition in Caste

There is the Upanishadic story of a boy who went to a guru to learn the Hindu scriptures. His guru asked him what his caste was. Consulting his mother, who was actually a prostitute and didn't really know what her caste by birth was, the boy returned to the guru and responded that he was all castes. He worshipped the Gods, thus fulfilling the duties that are ordinarily a Brahmin's, he earned his keep like a Vaishya, took care of cleaning the house, like a Shudra, and protected his family's interest like a Kshatriya. The guru was pleased and told the boy he was fit to be taught and initiated into the Brahmin's life. However the very fact that the boy had to refer to his birth to determine his caste as a first step indicates that the default caste of a person was always determined by birth.

The Dharmashastras (which are collections of Hindu codes and laws) say that caste is not determined by birth but also by the action in life according to the dharma of varna-ashram.

Brahmin (priest), Kshatriya (warrior, nobility), Vaishya (large group of craftsmen), and Shudras (agriculture workers), were the four varnas. Each varna was said to possess certain characteristics: i.e. the shudra was often tamasic nature; the Vaishya was tamasic/rajasic. The Kshatriyas are noble, learned and selfless, his or her duty being the administration of the people and fighting of battles against intruders; often very spiritually inclined. The Brahmin was religious, pure was the society's storehouse of knowledge and wisdom due to memorization of ancient religious scriptures, the performer of rituals, and the most spiritually advanced caste of Hindu society.

Thus, one sees that the original conception of caste was that people who acted a certain way, fell into a certain category. If one were born into a Brahmin family, but drank and had no respect for one's fellow living beings and God, one was simply not of Brahmin character. This view is supported by a reading of the Bhagavad Gita that held that caste is required for practice of Dharma in society. However, whatever Varna one is born all human beings can attain salvation by practicing ones dharma. It is worthy to note that all three acharayas, Sankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva all subscribed to this view. The lives of great Vaishnavite saints such as Kanaka Dasa and Tukaram demonstrated that single-minded devotion to God is enough for attaining Moksha.

One sees in scriptural descriptions of caste another motivation: Thus, the varnas were a good way of helping people who had no chance of being warriors or priests, due to their upbringing or native intelligence/ability, to live happily within their life and feel good about attaining God through proper adherence to their own dharma (duties). Even today, sanyasis (renunciates of the world) are given the utmost respect.

The Hindu tantrics are a part of Hinduism whose scriptural texts, the Agamic strand known collectively as the Tantras, assert their descent from the Vedas, especially the Atharva-Veda. Claiming that the Vedic rituals no longer necessary in Kali Yuga, the fourth and final epoch of humanity in Hinduism that sees morality ebb to complete dissolution until the end of the earth, the Tantrics see themselves as natural continuations of the Vedas through Hindu yogic practices.

Many Hindu yogis and sages have, over the centuries, constantly commented about caste. The great non-dualist, Vedantic jnana-yogin (Yogi of discrimination) Shri Adi Shankaracharya (8th century), denounced caste as but one more indication of one's weak, ego-driven self and the flouting of Brahman (the impersonal, ultimate monist basis of Hindu belief). Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (15th century), the powerful bhakti (loving devotee) of Krishna also denounced caste. He famously distributed the Hare Krishna mantra to non-brahmins all around India.

Indian caste system - Modern perceptions of caste

The caste system was first exposed to the modern Western world during the Portuguese occupation and rule of India. Later other European nations including the British occupied parts of the subcontinent and were interested in this phenomenon. Herbert Risley's The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, published in 1892, was one of the first works on caste in India by a Western scholar.

Some scholars suggest that the resulting depiction of the caste system was as much a product of European racist theories, and the interests of colonial rule, rather than Indian cultural realities. Certainly the color hierarchy from "white" to "black" was typically interpreted at this time in racial terms. Modern scholars further suggest that prior to the colonial era, castes were much more open and flexible. There are several passages in the Vedas that indicate that the four varnas were initially based on Dharmas. It was during a later period that the current Jati (sub-caste) system came into place.

In any case, the Vedas are said to talk about only four castes. Contemporary India however, has numerous sub-castes, many of which are officially documented (primarily to determine those deserving reservation, an affirmative action process similar to and predating the US system) through the census, and these divisions have arguably fragmented Indian society. Many Indian states are dominated by caste-based politics. Sometimes, converts to other religions like Christianity, or Islam, retain their caste identity, often due to the economic benefits it carries, and also to retain their ties with the community for social reasons.

The inclusion of lower castes into the mainstream was argued for by Mahatma Gandhi who called them "Harijans" (people of God). The term Dalit is used now as the term harijans is felt to be patronising.

Indian caste system - Quotes about Caste

The late Swami Krishnananda, the successor to Swami Sivananda and former head of Divine Life Society, noted the following about caste in his autobiography:

Even as early as the Mahabharata period, those same feelings were evoked. Yudhisthira, when questioned by Yama in the form of a Yaksha, about what makes one a Brahmin. Yudhisthira, without hesitation, said that it is conduct alone that makes one a Brahmin.

See also

• Caste system
• Dharmashastra
• Scheduled Castes and Tribes
• List of Indian castes
• Ethnic conflict in India

Indian caste system - Notable people

• Ambedkar
• Savitri Devi saw Brahmins as the bearers of Aryan culture to India, and admired the separation they kept between themselves and the Dravidians.
• Mahatma Gandhi coined Harijan, a euphemistic word for untouchable
• Thanthai Periyar, famous Tamil rationalist fought against the caste practice of Brahmins and Hinduism
• K. R. Narayanan, India's first and only Dalit President (1997 - 2002)

Indian caste system - Literature

• Bodhisattva Ambedkar’s 1948 work The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables? as reprinted in Volume 7 of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, published by Government of Maharashtra 1990
• Ambedkar, B.R. Who were the Shudras and other writings. 1946.
• Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age, Paperback Edition, Cambridge University Press 2001
• Dumont, Louis Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. Complete English edition, revised. 540 p. 1970, 1980 Series: (NHS) Nature of Human Society
• Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes, C. Hurst & Co 2003
• Kane, Pandurang Vaman (1880 - 1972): History of Dharmasastra : (ancient and mediaeval, religious and civil law). -- Poona : Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 1962 - 1975.
• Murray Milner, Jr., Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994
• Ranganayakamma, For the solution of the "Caste" question, Buddha is not enough, Ambedkar is not enough either, Marx is a must, Hyderabad : Sweet Home Publications, 2001
• Alain Danielou, Les Quatre Sens de la Vie, Paris 1976
• New Internationalist, July 2005, "Combatting Caste"

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