For starters please watch the video below. It is well made and interesting and keeps you engrossed for all of its 5 and a half minutes.
The video concludes by saying that discrimination on the basis of caste is wrong and as long as there discrimination exists reservations on the basis of caste should continue
The founding fathers of India were liberal and modern in their approach and did what they could to correct the injustice and atrocities of the caste system. Mahatma Gandhi, in particular, was adamant in his opposition to the caste system and his thinking must have motivated the founding fathers to have reservations in educational institutions and jobs in the government.
Reservations, which the above video talks about, were meant only as a temporary measure initially. But with democracy and vote bank politics there seems to be no way to end reservations and have jobs and entrance criteria based on merit.
I will have something to say about the advantages and disadvantages of reservation in future articles. Right now I would like to make a couple of points that indicate that – with all its injustices – the caste system was indispensable in preserving civilization in the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years.
J.H Hutton, a respected British census commissioner, offers a plausible account of the origins of the Indian caste system. According to him the Indian subcontinent functioned in a way comparable to a net into which various races and people of Asia wandered into over the years. This net was separated from the rest of the world by the Himalayas in the north and the oceans in the east, west and south. The caste system made civilization and a single social system possible for thousands of years. Every time a new intruder arrived it was absorbed by begetting a new jati, ‘sub-caste.’
The caste system or the system of Manu, has survived and kept anarchy at bay for many thousands of years in the Indian subcontinent. Bertrand Russell – in commenting on the Chinese social system – said that “A system which has had this extraordinary power of survival must have great merits and certainly deserves our respect and consideration.
I think that these conclusions apply to the Indian caste system as well.
As to what these merits consist of – offhand I can think of two.
The first merit is the fact that mankind has the impulses that are natural to living in tribes. The current civilization has emerged in the last few thousands of years as far as the historical records go. Prior to that mankind lived in tribes for many millions of years and that being the case we all have – as individual human beings – the impulses and instincts natural to living in tribes.
The caste system, gives all people, a sense of belonging (similar to that of belonging to a tribe). It goes further and gives them a prescribed way to earning a living as well. This has survived and worked well enough for thousands of years, similar to the Chinese social system. It has kept anarchy at bay. I am going further and will assume that the caste system satisfies the deeply felt impulses and instincts of individual human beings.
I am speaking from experience since I have been brought up and have lived all my life in a semi modern and semi traditional community which has a strong sense of caste. And I am alive today because of this community. They have cared for me when I was unable to care for myself many times in my life, especially my family.
The second of the two merits of the caste system is that it at least attempts to have as heads of society the learned and the deserving. Plato in his book, The Republic, discusses and praises the concept of the philosopher king. I have not read the Republic but I have every sympathy with the view that the heads of society should be people who have been tested for both their competence and integrity. Just as the caste system does, Plato prescribes occupations for members of society based on their merit. The caste system attempts in its own way to do the same.
I have a few more points relating to the caste system and will write another article on it sometime this week.
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