Ram Swarup- Perversion of caste
Logic behind perversion of caste
Ram Sawrup
(From the Indian Express, 13th September, 1996)
In the old days, the Hindu caste system was integrating principle. It
provided economic security.
The system combined security with freedom; it provided
social space as well as closer identity; here the individual was not
atomised and did not become rootless. There was also no dearth
of social mobility; whole groups of people rose and fell in the social
scale. Rigidity about the old Indian castes is a myth.
They also saw no sanskritisation. One caste was not trying to be another; it
was satisfied with being itself.
With the advent of Islam the Hindu society came under great pressure; it
faced the problem of survival. When the political
power failed, castes took over; they became defence shields and provided
resistance passive and active. But in the process, the
system also acquired undesirable traits like untouchability.
Another acquired another trait; they became rigid and lost their mobility.
Then came the British who treated all Hindus equally – all as an inferior
race – and fuelled their internal differences.
They attacked Hinduism but cultivated the caste principle, two sides of the
same coin. Hinduism had to be attacked. It gave India the
principles of unity and continuity; it was also India's definition at its
deepest. It held together castes as well as the country. Take
away Hinduism and the country was easily subdued.
