In this series, Kanchan Banerjee attempts to find the origin of casteism in India along with Hinduism’s concept of varna classification and ostracism. He explores how the original varna system had an evolutionary plan embedded in it as expressed by various Indian thinkers and in what ways many modern thinkers’ works, especially in the fields of developmental psychology, are following a similar pattern to classify socio-psycho evolution of people and societies. Read the first part: Of society, caste, human evolution & Indian thinkers.
Understanding the origin of caste system
To understand how the Indian varna system originally was and how it has been diluted over the years is complex. We know that the violent incursions of both the EasternTurks and the Europeans into India had led to the systematic decimation of age-old indigenous systems including economic, educational and social justice.. The institutions that were the centers for guiding the societies were destroyed. Consequently, constant social reforms, the hallmark of Indian civilization, ceased.
It had started with the Islamic powers, and later the British invented systems to their benefits at the cost of losing many effective ancient institutions that were there for millennia. Despite these pernicious influences and distortion, the ancient system provided excellent protection to the society at large against the inimical forces.
The 19th century racial theory of a pure Aryan race gave rise to the concept of an invading Aryans to India, driving the indigenous people (Dravidians) to the southern part of the country and created a mixed race. Eventually, that racist theory had to find a place in the social classification. Hence, the colonial notions and racism were foisted on the Indian system. Somehow the fair-skinned became synonymous with the upper castes and the dark-skinned with their lower counterparts. This fitted well with the stereotype. It is amazing that Indian scholars, bereft of original research, imitated this colonists’ template. . Ironically, the Indians were branded as ‘niggers’ by the British, and if there were any apartheid, it applied to my erstwhile compatriots, irrespective of their complexion.
Indians fell for the caste theory hook, line and sinker, thanks largely to the colonial and Marxist historians. This was the predominant understanding for long, till many loopholes emerged of late,
In past few centuries, majority of the seminal works and subsequent narratives on Indian society and culture were of non-indigenous origin. So the misunderstanding of Indian social order is exceptional because the Indians themselves have accepted these fabricated and partial views as the gospel truth.. A frustrated Sri Aurobindo observed – ” But our educated class has become so unfamiliar with the deeper knowledge of their forefathers that it has to be translated into modern European terms before they can understand it. For it is the European ideas alone that are real to them and the great truths of Indian thought seem to them mere metaphors, allegories and mystic parables. So well has British education done its fatal denationalising work in India.’
Ironically, the Indians were branded as `niggers’ by the British, and if there were any apartheid, it applied to my erstwhile compatriots, irrespective of their complexion.
Palestinian-American literary theorist Edward Said in his book Orientalism has effectively explained false assumptions underlying Western attitudes towards other cultures that had served as an implicit justification for European and American colonial and imperial ambitions. Said concluded that the knowledge and data about the native cultures and practices was misused by the colonists to advance and empower their ambitions to rule. This body of knowledge helped them to govern, control and manage various societies and people they colonised.
