CASTE
SYSTEM – POLITY
News: PM Modi urges people to throw out
forces using casteism, regionalism to divide country
What's
in the news?
●
At a Dasara event in Delhi, Modi issues
call for the burning of ideologies that detract from India’s development in
order to ensure patriotism triumphs over every evil.
Caste
System:
●
The origins of the caste system in India
can be traced back 3,000 years as a social hierarchy
based on one’s occupation and birth.
●
It is a system that has evolved over the
centuries under Muslim and British rule.
●
The suffering of those who are at the
bottom of the caste pyramid - known as Dalits has continued.
●
Caste discrimination has been prohibited
in India since 1948, a year after the nation’s independence from British rule.
Features
of Caste System:
1.
Segmental Division of Society:
●
The society is divided into various small
social groups called castes. Each of these castes is a well developed social
group, the membership of which is determined by the consideration of birth.
2.
Hierarchy:
●
According to Louis Dumont, castes teach us
a fundamental social principle of hierarchy.
●
At the top of this hierarchy is the
Brahmin caste and at the bottom is the untouchable caste. In between are the
intermediate castes, the relative positions of which are not always clear.
3.
Endogamy:
●
Endogamy is the chief characteristic of
caste, i.e. the members of a caste or
sub-caste should marry within their own caste or sub-caste.
●
The violation of the rule of endogamy
would mean ostracism and loss of caste.
●
However, hypergamy (the practice of women marrying someone who is wealthier
or of higher caste or social status) and hypogamy (marriage with a person of
lower social status) were also prevalent.
●
Gotra
exogamy is also maintained in each caste. Every caste is
subdivided into different small units on the basis of gotra. The members of one
gotra are believed to be successors of a common ancestor-hence prohibition of
marriage within the same gotra.
4.
Hereditary status and occupation:
●
Megasthenes, the Greek traveler to India
in 300 B.C., mentions hereditary occupation as one of the two features of the
caste system, the other being endogamy.
5.
Restriction on Food and Drink:
●
Usually a caste would not accept cooked
food from any other caste that stands lower than itself in the social scale,
due to the notion of getting polluted.
●
There were also variously associated taboos related to food. The
cooking taboo, which defines the persons who may cook the food.
6.
A Particular Name:
●
Every caste has a particular name through
which we can identify it. Sometimes, an occupation is also associated with a
particular caste.
7.
Concept of Purity and Pollution:
●
The higher castes claimed to have ritual,
spiritual and racial purity which they maintained by keeping the lower castes away through the notion of pollution.
●
The idea of pollution means a touch of
lower caste man would pollute or defile a man of higher caste. Even his shadow
is considered enough to pollute a higher caste man.
8.
Jati Panchayat:
●
The status of each caste is carefully
protected, not only by caste laws
but also by the conventions. These
are openly enforced by the community through a governing body or board called
Jati Panchayat.
Impacts
of Caste System:
1.
Economic Impacts:
●
Caste through its rigid social control and networks facilitates economic mobility for
some and erects barriers for others by mounting disadvantages on them.
●
The caste acts as a barrier to overall
economic growth and development.
|
Caste
impedes economic development of Individuals |
Caste
impedes economic development of the Society |
|
Deprive
land ownerships for low caste individuals. |
Lack
of success in land reform because caste based networks
impedes the agricultural productivity of the nation. |
|
Caste
based occupation imposed on individuals irrespective of
his/her education for example, manual scavenging, hair dressing. |
Monopoly
of particular caste networks in business impedes
the competition and efficiency in National economic development. Castes that
were already in control of trading and industrial spaces resisted the entry
of others. |
|
Aversion
towards business of low caste people. For example, in rural India the tea
shops run by Scheduled Caste won’t be visited by other castes. |
Caste
based violence in society acts as a threat to future
investments in our country. |
|
Elite
bias in higher education and historical neglect of mass
education
|
Caste
based exclusions will impact the talent pool of our
nation and economic development. |
|
Caste-based
entry barriers and exclusive networks in the modern
sector. |
|
2.
Untouchability:
●
Many villages are separated by caste and
they may not cross the line dividing them from the higher castes. They also may
not use the same wells or drink in the same tea stalls as higher castes.
3.
Discrimination:
●
They often do not have the facility to
electricity, sanitation facilities or water pumps in lower caste neighbourhoods.
Access to better education, housing and medical facilities than that of the
higher castes is denied.
4.
Slavery:
●
They are subjected to exploitation in the
name of debt, tradition, etc., to work as labourers or perform menial tasks for
generations together.
5.
Vote bank Politics:
●
Usually caste is proving a heavy weight on
the political system and people under the influence of caste do not even vote
for the most suitable person not belonging to their caste.
●
There are many instances both at local and
national, where caste has influenced the
course of elections and also in the selection of candidates.
6.
Inferior status of women:
●
The worst effects of the caste system were
bome by women members of the group.
●
They were supposed to adhere to all the social and cultural norms that
discriminated against them.
●
On one hand, the upper caste women faced
child marriage and widowhood at a younger age, the caste women faced physical
and sexual harassment by the upper caste men.