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.