Everybody is casteist in Hindu Society

Caste is what decides the fate of a hindu . Caste decides what should be his social circle

What should he eat. With whom he should eat. With whom he should marry. To whom he should respect. And whom he should treat with contempt. And of course this system is heaven for some and hell for some. The hindu society is divided into five broad social groups. Graded in descending order they are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas , Shudras and Antyajas. The last group is also known as untouchable group. The untouchable now call them selves Dalit ( Crushed people ) . The untouchability has been abolished in law but it still persist beyond cities’ limits. The law is helpless, in this it has the help of disinterested law-upholders.

The caste discrimination is rampant in villages but in cities it takes sophisticated ways.

This so called timeless wretched system has made the lives of millions of dalits hell. They are the ultimate victims. Though there is government support to them in form of reservation in educational and government institutions.

We will examine the extent of prevailing of casteism in Hindu society. Is it limited to only upper strata or the others are also its practitioners? The upper strata consist of three higher varnas also called twice-born for they are eligible for thread ceremony. The lower two strata are not eligible for thread ceremony indicating their lower status as compared to twice-born. The fourth stratum of Shudras is superior to Dalits. The dalits are condemned to live a wretched life. Nobody bothers because it suits everybody’s ends.

As it happened after India received independence , most of the upper caste people moved to cities. It was mainly due to land reforms under which the land was given to tillers. These tillers were the Shudras or what is now called landed backward castes. Now these castes are evidently oppressing the Dalits.

Now the question is that why should the Shudra who were earlier poor should commit atrocities on landless Dalits. In this regard it may be seen that poor upper caste people are never at the receiving end of this kind of exploitation. It is reserved only for the Dalits.

Now what ails the society? How come the victims of the system ( Shudras – the fourth Varna) are not ready to fight it out and demolish it? In the line of their earlier exploiters (upper castes) the new landed Shudra castes are behaving in a similar manner. These newly landed Shudras were tillers not long ago and thus a victim of the system and were living at the mercy of upper castes.

The reason for this is very simple. It is not very perplexing. The idea about elimination of caste is the same for all the castes and individuals. This common idea can be described as follows. But before that let us see what the caste structure is. The caste system in India is a hierarchal system of different castes which are endogamous in nature. Each caste has a given heredity occupation and a heredity based purity and social standing. The purity decreases downward the caste scale and increases upward the caste scale.

The common idea of abolishing the caste of each caste is that the each caste wants to be equal to castes higher than it and maintain its superiority in comparison to still lower castes. Like a Jat wants to be equal to twice-born but at the same time maintain his superiority over lower castes to him. And same likewise Yadavs or a Reddys or even Chamars. Ironically the Chamars are untouchable themselves. So everybody wants to solve the caste system for himself only. Everybody wants a change where he is not badly affected but gains out of it. Everybody demands equality for himself but denies it to those below him.

This same common idea full of self-interest prevents the people of castes on higher scale to unite with the people with castes on lower scale. Since everybody is doing it, no unity against caste system is achieved. And in the absence of such united opposition the caste system thrives on.

Such a common idea actually means down ward discrimination by all the castes including Chamars. The Chamar discriminates against Bhangi but wants equality and respect from castes higher to him. There is inherent inner contradiction in such a selfish solution to abolish the caste. The lowest caste in the system ( Bhangi) can not do it because it does not get a chance. Therefore it is futile to say that only upper caste practice caste discrimination while others are not the culprit.

This kind of behavior is the reason for which the landed Shudras discriminate against still lower caste and so on downward. The discrimination is pushed down and down till it engulfs whole of the society and all the castes.

Thus it can be said that all the people in Hindu society are casteists whether they belong to the higher most caste or the lower most caste. And with such a situation and thinking there is little hope for equality in the society.

Ram Sethu - man made or natural ?

The politics of India sometime moves along with religious lines.

Seemingly a bridge (or a chain of islands) between India and Ceylone ( Sri Lanka) which joins these two countries under the sea is a bone of contention between political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and DMK. Between religious forces and secular forces.

BJP is know for Hindutva ideology which says India is for Hindus only and others are second class. Congress takes pride in its secular credentials and DMK and it leader M. Karunanidhi are very well known for theirs anti-hindu-scripture stance. BJP and Congress are national level political parties and DMK is a regional level party; its influence is limited to the state of Tamilnadu.

The bridge, at the southern tip of India, is known as Ram Sethu or Adam’s bridge.

The sea along the bridge is shallow and it makes it difficult for ships to cross this bridge. Only small boats can cross this structure. There is project known as Sethusamandrum which is for dredging the sea and make it deeper by breaking this bridge. This is supposed to make short the travel time of ships when going from east to west or vice versa. Otherwise the ships have to take a longer route going via the southern end of Sri Lanka. This deepening of sea will result in saving of fuel and man days.

However , Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy approached Supreme Court Of India urging it to stop the destruction of bridge or shoals . The reason for this was that this tombolo or bridge (or a chain of islands ) according to popular religious belief was made by armies of Lord Ram of Ayodhya to attack Lanka to get back his wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana. Ravana was a demon king who had kidnapped Sita to avenge the insult done to his sister Superanakha at the hands of Lakshman. Lakshmana was the younger brother of Lord Ram who cut off the nose of Superanakha when the latter expressed her love for Lakshmana. This story is given in Ramayana which is a Hindu religious epic. The mainstream historians consider this epic to be a part of Hindu mythology since so far no evidence of such a ruler or event had been discovered. However the fringe historians with a religious faith considers it to be a true story and a part of Hindu history. They consider Lord Ram to be historical figure where no evidence exists in favor of such a view.

Now this bridge built according to religious belief of Hindus by Lord Ram , the sixth Avtar of Lord Vishnu has caused turbulence in India and it has become national and political issue.

But whether this bridge is really man made. This bridge seems to be a hydromechanical structure of Coral and sand. Carbonated mounds are found along with marine sand. Sand is supposed to be on the top most layer then there are corals then again sand and below them are the hard rocks. Now this sand in between corals and hard rock seems to have created some confusion. According Dr. Badrinaryan , the noted geologist, the former director of Geological Survey of India and former coordinator of the survey division of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Ministry of Earth Science, in Chennai (NIOT), this type of formation is possible only when the boulders have been brought from some where else and planted on the sand because corals grow only on hard rocks. Thus according to him the structure is man made. Please see his interview here .

Further it coincides with the time when the war of Lord Ram with Lanka king Ravana is supposed to have taken place.

Regarding the layered structure of this tombolo ( a strip joining two land mass divided by sea) it may be stated that it is not necessary to have a thick impenetrable core for a reef or corals. The corals do have some porosity. Where the porous part is filled up by the carbonated materials then we have a compact structure. Otherwise we have a porous core though a little bit. When this porous core is eroded due to waves and accumulation of marine sand then a more porous structure is born. As a result caves in coral reefs are not unknown. Further variation of these porous cores are the development of large voids in them due to hydromechanical forces . The carbonated debris erode and give way to voids. Sometime a structure is created which is known as pillar and roof structure of reef or corals.

So first there is hard rock and then corals grew over it. These rocks and coral growth is near to a land mass. The corals die and a thick carbonated structure is created over the rocks. Then hydromechanical forces erode the lower part of the carbonate stones and wash away the carbonated debris. This creates voids large enough to make a pillar and roof structure. Then strong sea waves bring the sand and deposit it in the void and fill it up completely. Then under hydromechnical pressure the carbonated pillars break down and mix with the sand. It happens slowly and the top most carbonate stones do not have time to come down. It rests on the pillars till the sand fully takes the place of pillars after they turn into debris. After sometime the sand is deposited on the top of carbonated stones or boulders. Then a team under our Dr. Badrinarayan goes to drill the structure and finds the layered structure with marine sand in between hard rock and corals and proclaims, unscientifically, that the bridge is a man made structure. Whereas it is totally due to natural forces and a structure of sand, shoals, carbonated boulders and hard rock. It is completely nature made with no artificial hand in it.

Then one more thing is that the corals are found on the side of Gulf of Mannar to the west side of Sethu and not on the side of Palk strait to the east of Sethu. It is so because the waves in Gulf of Mannar are calm and quiet and corals grow only in peaceful sea. The sea in Palk Strait is rough and tough so the corals do not grow there because they can not survive there.

The above is also in line with the natural forces and not the artificial forces. If the bridge or tombolo was man made then the coral or carbonate boulders should have been on both the side not only one natural side. They lie on natural side which is proof of their natural build up.

But Dr. Badrinarayan ignores all this and claims it to be a man made structure. This blows up the religious feeling of the people. Or the elites of Hindus and their followers want to claim it as an astonishing engineering feat of their forefathers where there is none.

Then it was all started by photograph taken by NASA which clearly show a tombolo between India and Sri Lanka. NASA has already said that it is not possible to say whether this was man made or natural. However it prefers to call it a tombolo which is joining strip between two land masses divided by sea.

Thus it can safely be concluded that Adam’s bridge is natural structure and not man made.

But this rational reasoning is not enough to calm the religious voices of unreason and a resultant chaos in India both in political and religious terms. Truly the Indians do not have the scientific temper.

Gita teaches casteism - Dear Judge !

Gita is supposed to be the epitome of spirituality by Hindus. It is much appreciated in India and abroad. It is the most quoted Sanskrit scripture of eternal Sanatana Dharma. It ranks next only to sacred four Vedas. It is supposed to be an authority on karma and dharma which are the pivots of discriminating Hindu caste society based on Chaturvarna (the varna system) . The notion of equality is simply missing in the caste system. It is devoid of human dignity. It is highly irrational and superstitious society where the logic stands on its head. For example the touch of a shadow of fifth stratum human being (?) is supposed to pollute high caste people. This supposed pollution is so far without any explanation. All the superior high caste people with superior brains are unable to come up with any explanation which looks logical.


It was supposed to be a scripture of Hindus but now one esteemed and honorable judge of Allahabad High Court, Uttar Pradesh, India has recommended that Gita be treated as national dharma shastra and all people from any religion or caste or creed should follow it in India here and here .

The Gita was supposedly preached by Lord Shri Krishna to Arjun ( one of the Pandavas who were to fight against their brothers Kauravas) at the beginning of epic war of Mahabharata ( Mahabharata the epic , the longest epic in the world , is also known as Pancham Veda or the fifth Veda). Arjun the great Kshatriya warrior was unwilling to fight the war against his own brothers. Lord Krishna dispels his hesitation by stating that by fighting he is only doing his karma which is decideed by swadharma. Swadharma means one's own duty. This by definition is to be decided by individual. But Arjuna did not decide his own dharma ( swadharma) . Fighting was his dharma ( duty) because he was a Kshatriya. He had no part to play in his own dharm (swadharma).

Each varna ( Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra in descending social order) is supposed possess his swadharma.
And this SWADHARMA can not be changed by anybody not even by almighty God . Thus following swadharma results in following the casteism. All this means that the Gita actually teaches casteism. And everybody should follow the dehumanizing caste system !!! Thus spake our honorable judge of Allahabad High Court!!!

The so called judges should indulge in activities which result in dehumanizing practices. Gita in no way qualifies to be a national dharma. He should correct himself. Let low caste people have their dignity and human rights.


Publish Post

Indian Communists and Caste

The Indian communists have constantly denied the relevance of caste in India. In their scheme of things the caste does not appear as a crucial thing. Here we will confine ourselves to Marxist framework. The Communists have always considered the caste to be a part of super structure different from the materialistic economic base . The super structure has no separate existence of itself. For its survival it depends on economic base. The economic base or distribution of land, labor and capital among different people is the real thing not the caste or estates as such. Thus if any given economic base collapses then its related superstructure must also collapse.

There was belief of Marx that caste being a part of superstructure will automatically fall down when mode of productions changes from Asiatic (? - what it means I do not know , perhaps even Marx was not clear about this) to industrial. but that did not happen. The Indian Communists innocently believed all this. Or may be they were happy such a though absolves them of their guilt feelings. All the front line Communists in India belonged to upper castes and hence not very keen on discussing shameful caste system of their forefathers and declared themselves as declassed. These declassed people were those from the privileged caste who had given up all material things and totally identified with the proletariat .

These declassed Communists completely ignored the caste and left the historical forces to eliminate it and in the process lost the reality of Indian society. They waited and waited for the Caste system to fall on its own as predicted by Mrax. They waited and waited ..... and waited...

The caste system did not fall in response to a change in economic base. A growing industry and development of urban areas should have seen the destruction of caste but it did not happen. The ignorance of caste resulted in a situation where the landless were not ready to support the party of proletariat. So in a land of poverty the supposed party of poor (Communist) was without the support of poor.

However the Communitst should have read Engles and Gramsci also. The caste is a part of super structure as well as part of false conscious. According to Engles it the false conscious that prevents unity among working class.

The caste's presence as a big part of "false conscious" that creates fissures in the base, is due to ( however hard some people try to deny it) cultural hegemony of Brahmins. this cultural hagemony is responsible for a divide between por and poor. This cultural hegemony needed to be attacked by Communists. Buut that did not happen.

Had the communists gone according to Gramsci they would definitely tackled the caste actively instead of passively waiting for it to fall down.

Te communists waited for caste to fall, meanwhile it was and is creating fissures in the newly formed base. thus the base was never strong enough to support communists. the caste identity kept on strenghthening itself and the result was rapid growth of the parties which had their support among a particular caste. And the Comminusts paid for it.